Andrew Sullivan The Daily Dish: The Sanity in the Bush Administration
Habeas Schmabeas. The more we know, the more we find out that this administration is deeply dysfunctional, its members at war with each other, and headed by a weak, brittle, overwhelmed president unable to rally them to a common cause. In normal times, this would be distressing. In today's world, it's alarming.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
AMERICAblog: A blog for a great nation that deserves the truth
AMERICAblog: A blog for a great nation that deserves the truth
Hastert tried to pin the blame on Reynolds, and Reynolds is now snitching on Hastert. The Republican House leadership, so freaked out by the mess, has now apparently called for a criminal investigation of Foley. It's a total mess.From Sunday's Washington Post, front page:
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was notified early this year of inappropriate e-mails from former representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.) to a 16-year-old page, a top GOP House member said yesterday -- contradicting the speaker's assertions that he learned of concerns about Foley only last week....
Yesterday's developments revealed a rift at the highest echelons of House Republican ranks a month before the Nov. 7 elections, and they threatened to expand the scandal to a full-blown party dilemma.Only after Reynolds's definitive statement did Hastert concede yesterday that he may have been notified of some of the questionable activities of Foley....
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, questioned yesterday why Alexander had gone to the House Republicans' chief political operative, rather than to other party leaders. "That's to protect a member, not to protect a child," Emanuel said.
With his statement, Reynolds, who is locked in a difficult reelection campaign, signaled he was unwilling to take the fall alone amid partisan attacks that were becoming increasingly vituperative....
Republican insiders said Reynolds spoke out because he was angry that Hastert appeared willing to let him take the blame for the party leadership's silence.
A House GOP leadership aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, said that Reynolds realizes he has taken a shot at his leader but that it is understandable.
"This is what happens when one member tries to throw another member under a bus," he aide said.
Last night, Hastert, Boehner and Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said in a statement that Foley's communications with former pages are "unacceptable and abhorrent," and that his resignation "must now be followed by the full weight of the criminal justice system."
The House clerk's office "has taken possession of Congressman Foley's office, and Capitol police officers have been posted in front of his office around-the-clock" to preserve Foley's records and correspondence, said Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean.
Hastert tried to pin the blame on Reynolds, and Reynolds is now snitching on Hastert. The Republican House leadership, so freaked out by the mess, has now apparently called for a criminal investigation of Foley. It's a total mess.From Sunday's Washington Post, front page:
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was notified early this year of inappropriate e-mails from former representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.) to a 16-year-old page, a top GOP House member said yesterday -- contradicting the speaker's assertions that he learned of concerns about Foley only last week....
Yesterday's developments revealed a rift at the highest echelons of House Republican ranks a month before the Nov. 7 elections, and they threatened to expand the scandal to a full-blown party dilemma.Only after Reynolds's definitive statement did Hastert concede yesterday that he may have been notified of some of the questionable activities of Foley....
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, questioned yesterday why Alexander had gone to the House Republicans' chief political operative, rather than to other party leaders. "That's to protect a member, not to protect a child," Emanuel said.
With his statement, Reynolds, who is locked in a difficult reelection campaign, signaled he was unwilling to take the fall alone amid partisan attacks that were becoming increasingly vituperative....
Republican insiders said Reynolds spoke out because he was angry that Hastert appeared willing to let him take the blame for the party leadership's silence.
A House GOP leadership aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, said that Reynolds realizes he has taken a shot at his leader but that it is understandable.
"This is what happens when one member tries to throw another member under a bus," he aide said.
Last night, Hastert, Boehner and Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said in a statement that Foley's communications with former pages are "unacceptable and abhorrent," and that his resignation "must now be followed by the full weight of the criminal justice system."
The House clerk's office "has taken possession of Congressman Foley's office, and Capitol police officers have been posted in front of his office around-the-clock" to preserve Foley's records and correspondence, said Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean.
AMERICAblog: A blog for a great nation that deserves the truth
AMERICAblog: A blog for a great nation that deserves the truth
Hastert tried to pin the blame on Reynolds, and Reynolds is now snitching on Hastert. The Republican House leadership, so freaked out by the mess, has now apparently called for a criminal investigation of Foley. It's a total mess.From Sunday's Washington Post, front page:
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was notified early this year of inappropriate e-mails from former representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.) to a 16-year-old page, a top GOP House member said yesterday -- contradicting the speaker's assertions that he learned of concerns about Foley only last week....
Yesterday's developments revealed a rift at the highest echelons of House Republican ranks a month before the Nov. 7 elections, and they threatened to expand the scandal to a full-blown party dilemma.Only after Reynolds's definitive statement did Hastert concede yesterday that he may have been notified of some of the questionable activities of Foley....
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, questioned yesterday why Alexander had gone to the House Republicans' chief political operative, rather than to other party leaders. "That's to protect a member, not to protect a child," Emanuel said.
With his statement, Reynolds, who is locked in a difficult reelection campaign, signaled he was unwilling to take the fall alone amid partisan attacks that were becoming increasingly vituperative....
Republican insiders said Reynolds spoke out because he was angry that Hastert appeared willing to let him take the blame for the party leadership's silence.
A House GOP leadership aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, said that Reynolds realizes he has taken a shot at his leader but that it is understandable.
"This is what happens when one member tries to throw another member under a bus," he aide said.
Last night, Hastert, Boehner and Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said in a statement that Foley's communications with former pages are "unacceptable and abhorrent," and that his resignation "must now be followed by the full weight of the criminal justice system."
The House clerk's office "has taken possession of Congressman Foley's office, and Capitol police officers have been posted in front of his office around-the-clock" to preserve Foley's records and correspondence, said Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean.
Hastert tried to pin the blame on Reynolds, and Reynolds is now snitching on Hastert. The Republican House leadership, so freaked out by the mess, has now apparently called for a criminal investigation of Foley. It's a total mess.From Sunday's Washington Post, front page:
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was notified early this year of inappropriate e-mails from former representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.) to a 16-year-old page, a top GOP House member said yesterday -- contradicting the speaker's assertions that he learned of concerns about Foley only last week....
Yesterday's developments revealed a rift at the highest echelons of House Republican ranks a month before the Nov. 7 elections, and they threatened to expand the scandal to a full-blown party dilemma.Only after Reynolds's definitive statement did Hastert concede yesterday that he may have been notified of some of the questionable activities of Foley....
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, questioned yesterday why Alexander had gone to the House Republicans' chief political operative, rather than to other party leaders. "That's to protect a member, not to protect a child," Emanuel said.
With his statement, Reynolds, who is locked in a difficult reelection campaign, signaled he was unwilling to take the fall alone amid partisan attacks that were becoming increasingly vituperative....
Republican insiders said Reynolds spoke out because he was angry that Hastert appeared willing to let him take the blame for the party leadership's silence.
A House GOP leadership aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, said that Reynolds realizes he has taken a shot at his leader but that it is understandable.
"This is what happens when one member tries to throw another member under a bus," he aide said.
Last night, Hastert, Boehner and Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said in a statement that Foley's communications with former pages are "unacceptable and abhorrent," and that his resignation "must now be followed by the full weight of the criminal justice system."
The House clerk's office "has taken possession of Congressman Foley's office, and Capitol police officers have been posted in front of his office around-the-clock" to preserve Foley's records and correspondence, said Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Wikiworld - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikiworld - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikiworld, refers to a new and emerging concept of community built on the Holigent socioeconomic principle. Anyone can participate in the designing, building, and ultimately living and working of such a self-directed community.
WikiWorld is a collaborative effort to solve the problems of humanity finding intelligent solutions for each problem.
In WikiWorld everyone is able to edit the page, as it uses the same software Wikipedia does. An intelligent conclusion brought up by a group of humans should be better than an individual solution, and that is the pattern WikiWorld follows. Conclusions are attempted to be reached concerning any subject in which a question is asked. It doesn't matter the topic you are talking about; be it philosophy, politics or other.
WikiWorld uses its own terminology, such as: CollectiveIntelligence, the idea of GoodAndEvil, CollectiveStupidity and so on.
WikiWorld defines itself as being "motivated to turning the CollectiveStupidity of the WE into a truly intelligent CollectiveIntelligence, and thereby uplift humanity."
The We is defined as follows: The WE is made of everyone, every single human, that has, is, and will be communicating with their fellow humans. However, *we* at WikiWorld believe that it is possible to uplift the WE, through our and others actions, so that all living humans may live TheGoodLife. As such, *we* seek knowledge, dialog, and ideas to help enable this dream to come true.
Wikiworld, refers to a new and emerging concept of community built on the Holigent socioeconomic principle. Anyone can participate in the designing, building, and ultimately living and working of such a self-directed community.
WikiWorld is a collaborative effort to solve the problems of humanity finding intelligent solutions for each problem.
In WikiWorld everyone is able to edit the page, as it uses the same software Wikipedia does. An intelligent conclusion brought up by a group of humans should be better than an individual solution, and that is the pattern WikiWorld follows. Conclusions are attempted to be reached concerning any subject in which a question is asked. It doesn't matter the topic you are talking about; be it philosophy, politics or other.
WikiWorld uses its own terminology, such as: CollectiveIntelligence, the idea of GoodAndEvil, CollectiveStupidity and so on.
WikiWorld defines itself as being "motivated to turning the CollectiveStupidity of the WE into a truly intelligent CollectiveIntelligence, and thereby uplift humanity."
The We is defined as follows: The WE is made of everyone, every single human, that has, is, and will be communicating with their fellow humans. However, *we* at WikiWorld believe that it is possible to uplift the WE, through our and others actions, so that all living humans may live TheGoodLife. As such, *we* seek knowledge, dialog, and ideas to help enable this dream to come true.
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Sunday, September 24, 2006
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Friday, September 22, 2006
Indiadaily.com - Is it enough to just explain how Amarnath hedge fund lost $6 Billion in natural gas bet? Where did hedging go?
Indiadaily.com - Is it enough to just explain how Amarnath hedge fund lost $6 Billion in natural gas bet? Where did hedging go?
Nassim Taleb spoke of this particular sort of doofus-boy.
this other article has this [fooled by randonmness] quote:
"We have every intention of continuing in business and generating for our investors the same consistently high-risk adjusted returns which have been our hallmark, and we are fully committed to doing so," Maounis said. "As a first step in the recovery process, we are eliminating energy trading from our strategy mix."
Amaranth said Thursday that its portfolio, worth $9.2 billion on Aug. 31, had lost 65 per cent in value after bad bets on natural gas prices and the subsequent sale of its energy portfolio.
Nassim Taleb spoke of this particular sort of doofus-boy.
this other article has this [fooled by randonmness] quote:
"We have every intention of continuing in business and generating for our investors the same consistently high-risk adjusted returns which have been our hallmark, and we are fully committed to doing so," Maounis said. "As a first step in the recovery process, we are eliminating energy trading from our strategy mix."
Amaranth said Thursday that its portfolio, worth $9.2 billion on Aug. 31, had lost 65 per cent in value after bad bets on natural gas prices and the subsequent sale of its energy portfolio.
Monday, September 18, 2006
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Friday, September 15, 2006
Jonah Goldberg on Republican Majority on National Review Online
Jonah Goldberg on Republican Majority on National Review Online:
"But as ugly as some of this might be, the silver lining would be fairly thick. First, as a matter of simple gitchy-goo good government, one has to admit that the executive branch could use an independent audit. Amid the orgy of spending and deal cutting, the GOP-controlled House has largely abdicated its oversight responsibilities. Someone’s got to check the receipts. "
"But as ugly as some of this might be, the silver lining would be fairly thick. First, as a matter of simple gitchy-goo good government, one has to admit that the executive branch could use an independent audit. Amid the orgy of spending and deal cutting, the GOP-controlled House has largely abdicated its oversight responsibilities. Someone’s got to check the receipts. "
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Wireless Mesh Equipment Market to Reach $1 Billion by 2008
PR Newswire
NEW YORK, Sept. 13, 2006
Worldwide sales of wireless mesh equipment are on pace to grow by more than 100% in 2006, and cumulative revenues for the sector will approach the $1 billion mark by the end of2008, according to the inaugural edition of Wireless Mesh Equipment MarketTracker, a brand-new research service published by Heavy Reading, the paid research division of Light Reading Inc.
NEW YORK, Sept. 13, 2006
Worldwide sales of wireless mesh equipment are on pace to grow by more than 100% in 2006, and cumulative revenues for the sector will approach the $1 billion mark by the end of2008, according to the inaugural edition of Wireless Mesh Equipment MarketTracker, a brand-new research service published by Heavy Reading, the paid research division of Light Reading Inc.
Quotes - Wiki
Quotes - Wiki:
"As I reflect on the scientific careers of the people I have known these last thirty years, it seems to me more and more that these career decisions hinge on character. Some people will happily jump on the next big thing, give it all they've got, and in this way make important contributions to fast-moving fields. Others just don't have the temperament to do this. Some people need to think through everything very carefully, and this takes time, as they get easily confused. It's not hard to feel superior to such people, until you remember that Einstein was one of them. In my experience, the truly shocking new ideas and innovations tend to come from such people.
-Lee Smolin (The Trouble with Physics) "
"As I reflect on the scientific careers of the people I have known these last thirty years, it seems to me more and more that these career decisions hinge on character. Some people will happily jump on the next big thing, give it all they've got, and in this way make important contributions to fast-moving fields. Others just don't have the temperament to do this. Some people need to think through everything very carefully, and this takes time, as they get easily confused. It's not hard to feel superior to such people, until you remember that Einstein was one of them. In my experience, the truly shocking new ideas and innovations tend to come from such people.
-Lee Smolin (The Trouble with Physics) "
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
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Friday, September 08, 2006
The Real Reasons You're Working So Hard...
Read this short article...it seems spot on point with our conversation yesterday
The Real Reasons You're Working So Hard...
The Real Reasons You're Working So Hard...
Monday, September 04, 2006
Smart Mobs: Research on Wikipedia authorship
Aaron Swartz heard Jimmy Wales speak at our Stanford class on Literacy of Cooperation (here's the video) and wondered about his claims that more than half the edits were done by fewer than one percent of the contributors. Swartz rented some computer cluster time, downloaded a sample of the 60 billion Wikipedia edits, and analyzed the results:
When you put it all together, the story become clear: an outsider makes one edit to add a chunk of information, then insiders make several edits tweaking and reformatting it. In addition, insiders rack up thousands of edits doing things like changing the name of a category across the entire site -- the kind of thing only insiders deeply care about. As a result, insiders account for the vast majority of the edits. But it's the outsiders who provide nearly all of the content.And when you think about it, this makes perfect sense. Writing an encyclopedia is hard. To do anywhere near a decent job, you have to know a great deal of information about an incredibly wide variety of subjects. Writing so much text is difficult, but doing all the background research seems impossible.
On the other hand, everyone has a bunch of obscure things that, for one reason or another, they've come to know well. So they share them, clicking the edit link and adding a paragraph or two to Wikipedia. At the same time, a small number of people have become particularly involved in Wikipedia itself, learning its policies and special syntax, and spending their time tweaking the contributions of everybody else.
Tower of Babel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tower of Babel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The story is found in Genesis 11:1-9 as follows:
1 Now the entire earth was of one language and uniform words. 2 And it came to pass when they traveled from the east, that they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly"; so the bricks were to them for stones, and the clay was to them for mortar. 4 And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered upon the face of the entire earth". 5 And the Lord descended to see the city and the tower that the sons of man had built. 6 And The LORD said, "Lo! [they are] one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they have commenced to do. Now, will it not be withheld from them, all that they have planned to do? 7 Come, let us descend and confuse their language, so that one will not understand the language of his companion". 8 And the Lord scattered them from there upon the face of the entire earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore, He named it Babel, for there the Lord confused the language of the entire earth, and from there the Lord scattered them upon the face of the entire earth.
Midrash
Rabbinic literature offers many different accounts of other causes for building the Tower of Babel, and of the intentions of its builders. It was regarded in the Mishnah as a rebellion against God.
The story is found in Genesis 11:1-9 as follows:
1 Now the entire earth was of one language and uniform words. 2 And it came to pass when they traveled from the east, that they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly"; so the bricks were to them for stones, and the clay was to them for mortar. 4 And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered upon the face of the entire earth". 5 And the Lord descended to see the city and the tower that the sons of man had built. 6 And The LORD said, "Lo! [they are] one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they have commenced to do. Now, will it not be withheld from them, all that they have planned to do? 7 Come, let us descend and confuse their language, so that one will not understand the language of his companion". 8 And the Lord scattered them from there upon the face of the entire earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore, He named it Babel, for there the Lord confused the language of the entire earth, and from there the Lord scattered them upon the face of the entire earth.
Midrash
Rabbinic literature offers many different accounts of other causes for building the Tower of Babel, and of the intentions of its builders. It was regarded in the Mishnah as a rebellion against God.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
NPR : Physicists Debate the Merits of String Theory
NPR : Physicists Debate the Merits of String Theory
Lee Smolin, author of The Trouble with Physics; faculty member, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos; professor of mathematics and physics, Columbia University
Lee Smolin, author of The Trouble with Physics; faculty member, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos; professor of mathematics and physics, Columbia University
the geebus s & h
I think I got the template cleaned up on tgs&h, but I couldn't figure out the sitemeter icon link (I think it would be neat to have that). I may have messed up that part of the code a little and I wasn't sure if (or how) I need to register the website with sitemeter. Could your part of the collective do this?
Knee of the Curve: An Introduction to Site Syndication
Knee of the Curve: An Introduction to Site Syndication
In case you were looking to explain RSS or site syndication to someone and wanted a link to do the job for you.
In case you were looking to explain RSS or site syndication to someone and wanted a link to do the job for you.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Friday, September 01, 2006
Levy: Poking a Stick Into the 'Hive Mind' - Newsweek Steven Levy - MSNBC.com
[Mirrored on the geebus]
Jaron Lanier is a man of many talents--virtual-reality pioneer, New Age composer, visual artist and artificial-intelligence scientist. Now Lanier has taken on another role: dyspeptic critic of the surging trend of digital collectivism, an ethic that celebrates and exploits the ability of the Web to aggregate the preferences and behaviors of millions of people. In a recent essay posted on the Web site Edge.org (and on the geebus), Lanier disparages the recent spate of efforts that rely on conscious collaboration (like the anyone-can-participate online reference work Wikipedia) or passive polling (the so-called meta sites like Digg, which draw on user response to rank news articles and blog postings). To Lanier, these represent an alarming decision-rejecting individual expression and creativity to become part of a faceless mob.
....
Lanier's widely circulated online rant was the equivalent of poking a stick into a beehive—or, more specifically, the much-celebrated "hive mind" of the modern Internet. Books like James Surowiecki's "The Wisdom of Crowds" and Kevin Kelly's "Out of Control" have provided a philosophical underpinning for the idea that the world benefits when people participate in unpredictable, emergent enterprises. Google's search engine uses the linking behavior of the entire Web to determine the relevance of search queries. The open-source movement believes that the bottom-up method of software development is more effective than when elite designers dictate what code should be written.
But the output of such efforts, says Lanier, is often a mundane reflection of the lowest common denominator, an inevitable consequence, he writes, of the "stupid and boring" hive mind. Not surprisingly, the targets of his criticism are crying foul.
"Lanier is objecting to the writing style of the Wikipedia being neutral rather than biased," says Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's cofounder. Wales admits that sometimes the lack of an all-controlling editor leads Wikipedia to sometimes indefensible imbalances (for instance, the entry on "Star Trek"'s Mr. Spock is more than twice as long as the item about Flaubert). But he contends that's just a temporary effect of the geeky flavor of the burgeoning Wikipedia community in this early stage. Author Kevin Kelly also thinks that Lanier's criticism is off base. "The hive mind can't do everything, but it's not stupid and boring," he says. "There's no evidence that it subsumes individual expression."
Jaron Lanier is a man of many talents--virtual-reality pioneer, New Age composer, visual artist and artificial-intelligence scientist. Now Lanier has taken on another role: dyspeptic critic of the surging trend of digital collectivism, an ethic that celebrates and exploits the ability of the Web to aggregate the preferences and behaviors of millions of people. In a recent essay posted on the Web site Edge.org (and on the geebus), Lanier disparages the recent spate of efforts that rely on conscious collaboration (like the anyone-can-participate online reference work Wikipedia) or passive polling (the so-called meta sites like Digg, which draw on user response to rank news articles and blog postings). To Lanier, these represent an alarming decision-rejecting individual expression and creativity to become part of a faceless mob.
....
Lanier's widely circulated online rant was the equivalent of poking a stick into a beehive—or, more specifically, the much-celebrated "hive mind" of the modern Internet. Books like James Surowiecki's "The Wisdom of Crowds" and Kevin Kelly's "Out of Control" have provided a philosophical underpinning for the idea that the world benefits when people participate in unpredictable, emergent enterprises. Google's search engine uses the linking behavior of the entire Web to determine the relevance of search queries. The open-source movement believes that the bottom-up method of software development is more effective than when elite designers dictate what code should be written.
But the output of such efforts, says Lanier, is often a mundane reflection of the lowest common denominator, an inevitable consequence, he writes, of the "stupid and boring" hive mind. Not surprisingly, the targets of his criticism are crying foul.
"Lanier is objecting to the writing style of the Wikipedia being neutral rather than biased," says Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's cofounder. Wales admits that sometimes the lack of an all-controlling editor leads Wikipedia to sometimes indefensible imbalances (for instance, the entry on "Star Trek"'s Mr. Spock is more than twice as long as the item about Flaubert). But he contends that's just a temporary effect of the geeky flavor of the burgeoning Wikipedia community in this early stage. Author Kevin Kelly also thinks that Lanier's criticism is off base. "The hive mind can't do everything, but it's not stupid and boring," he says. "There's no evidence that it subsumes individual expression."
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