Where the beejesus

I was sipping my coffee in the break room this morning, trying to have a sensible conversation with Abigail Greene, this hippy type who listens to Charlie Parker and writes poetry when she’s supposed to be debugging software. She always has earphone wires dangling from her head, and when you want to ask her a question you’re better off emailing her than trying to get her attention in real time. She’s annoying, I’ll tell you. Anyway, this morning she did me the favor of removing the earphones so she could listen to what I was saying over coffee. But when I think about what she said to me I’m a little offended because, well, I don’t think I’m “controlling”. Yes, that’s what she told me. I mean right out of the blue she interrupted me and said: “You know, Armond, you’re very controlling.” Just like that. I can tell you it knocked me back a couple of steps. I mean maybe I did go on longer than I should have about pet ownership saving the world, but I don‘t think I was being controlling, for God’s sake. Maybe I talked over her once or twice when she tried to butt in, but I certainly wasn’t dictatorial or anything.

Although now that I’ve has a chance to sit back and think about it, maybe I do tend to be slightly overbearing—no, that’s too strong—maybe I tend to be a little overly enthusiastic sometimes when I’m trying to make a point.  I mean when I think I’m right about something, really right, right in a moral or ethical sense (or both), where there really should be no question, no argument to the contrary, well then sometimes I may be a little more forceful—well, not forceful—that’s a slight overstatement. What I mean to say is that you have to have an opinion, right? And you have to support your opinion, right? And sometimes you have to defend your opinion, especially when someone challenges it or makes light of it or implies that you’re wrong. That’s what Abigail was doing, now that I think about it. Of course she really didn’t say much, maybe four or five words the whole time we were talking, but I definitely got the vibe that she disagreed with me. You can feel it when someone disagrees with you; you can read it in their body language and their facial distortions, the way their eyes shift and their upper lip quivers and that tell-tale twitch of the nostril. I sensed all that going on with Abigail while I was holding forth—no not “holding forth”—that’s too strong; I was simply making my point to her in no uncertain terms—no, that’s not true either; it sounds like I was refusing to consider both sides of the argument (not that we were arguing), which I was perfectly willing to do and am always perfectly willing to do—except of course when I know for sure that there’s no possibility that my viewpoint is wrong. Well, then I’ll go to the wall to defend myself—no, “go to the wall” is too extreme for what I’m trying to say. You see, I’m very committed to my ideas, which doesn’t mean I wouldn’t change my mind if someone came up with a good argument against them. It doesn’t mean I wouldn’t reevaluate and reconsider and even go the extra mile to see the other person’s point of view. It’s true. I’m a fair and objective person.

So, now, thinking about myself in that light—as someone willing to compromise when presented with incontrovertible proof that his ideas are wrong--I have to wonder where the beejesus Abigail was coming from this morning when she said I was “controlling”.

The one who woke up

 

It was quite something. I am reluctant to describe it as life-changing, as out of body experiences real and imagined tend to lend themselves to hyperbole, wishful thinking and exaggerated memories, especially in the near term. Best to wait till the luster wears off. In any case I can tell you it was an amazing journey, from beginning to end, each experiential component building on the realizations and self-knowledge gained from preceding components, until the lines between episodes blurred and became one (yeah, very Buddhist). Up there it is huge, just huge, and you couldn't help but see the absolute insignificance of your self and your overblown self-perception. Unlike down here where we've built vast systems of interference between who we are and the real, up there there's nothing to block it out. It's right there in front of you all the time you're passing through it, and, at least in my case, it became fully manifest that the world I perceive is not the world that is, and neither am I the person I take myself to be.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/opinion/sunday/the-self-destruction-of-the-1-percent.html?smid=pl-share

Crotchwood

Cyberattacks on Banks Threaten 1st World Security :-)

By NICOLE PERLROTH, 
 New York Times 9/30/12

Six major American banks were hit in a wave of computer attacks last week, by a group claiming Middle Eastern ties, that caused Internet blackouts and delays in online banking.
The group said it had attacked the banks in retaliation for an anti-Islam video that mocks the Prophet Muhammad. It also pledged to continue to attack American credit and financial institutions daily, and possibly institutions in France, Israel and Britain, until the video is taken offline. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq were also targeted.

Security researchers said the attack methods were too basic to have taken so many American bank sites offline. The hackers appeared to be enlisting volunteers for the attacks with messages on various sites. On one blog, they called on people to visit two Web addresses that would cause their computers to flood banks with hundreds of data requests a second. They asked volunteers to attack banks according to a timetable: Wells Fargo on Tuesday, U.S. Bancorp on Wednesday and PNC on Thursday.

But experts said it seemed implausible that this method would create an attack of this scale. “The number of users you need to break those targets is very high,” said Jaime Blasco, a security researcher at AlienVault who has been investigating the attacks. “They must have had help from other sources.”

Those sources, Mr. Blasco said, would have to be a group with money, like a nation, or botnets — networks of infected computers that do the bidding of criminals. Botnets can be rented through black market schemes that are common in the Internet underground, or lent out by criminals or governments.

Information is power

Tillich’s War

Pine Cone

Ich war on the mountain top waitin fer nirvanha

Along appear a girl all dress in whyte

To me she says whats you worry bout dady

I says nothing cep my bodys outta sight

wat? yer bodys turning loose yer me-my funkie

It wanna wrestle down you donkey kong

But tommy u as dervish as a monkey

Everthing u thought was right was wrong 

I aint nuts so dryup greasy momma

Aint no more nuts than all that perple blood

If some of us is nuts its cuz all greasy sluts
an wristy cutdogs bunck n chewin mud

Yep an den did I ponder areolas

Areolas dicks n ladies eggs

An the karkers march and rose all agin me

An drug me down with all the written regs

So what the gist o this ol fubble funsong

Where the meat in everthing we say

In trufe there be no uberfatal meaning

but ta blow the myth of meanin allaway

The Irrelevance of Fidel Castro

By Rob Sequin | Havana Journal

Heard from Fidel Castro lately?
Read any news articles about him lately?
Do you care?
If you answered no, you are not alone. 
Seems that no one cares about Fidel Castro anymore.

ingredients

Rains Flood Manila, Thousands Fleeing

MANILA —At least a third of this overpopulated capital and its suburbs were submerged on Tuesday as torrential rains battered the city and floodwaters poured in from almost all sides.

670 million people affected by the largest electrical blackout in history

As nighttime arrived, Kirti Shrivastava, 49, a housewife in the eastern city of Patna, said power had not been restored in her neighborhood. “There is no water, no idea when electricity will return,” she said. “We are really tense. Even the shops have now closed. Now we hope it is not an invitation to the criminals!”

 Ramachandra Guha, an Indian historian, said that the blackout was only the latest evidence of government dysfunction in India. “India needs to stop strutting on the world stage like it’s a great power,” Mr. Guha said, “and focus on its deep problems within.” 

http://nyti.ms/Pn3gNb

300 Million Without Power in North India, Water May Be Next

Tens of millions of people in North India were without power and early morning commutes in Delhi were thrown into chaos Monday after a massive electrical grid failure. Water supplies may be seriously disrupted this evening, because of the power problems, officials said.

The Gun Rights Tilt---NYT

The Gun Rights Tilt

The same trends that have buoyed public support for gay marriage and marijuana legalization have also encouraged a more expansive reading of the Second Amendment.

The Harmonica Lewinskies, released their first album today. Listen to it here for free, or buy it if you've a mind to. Here's a coupla cuts:

Olympic Fists of Freedom: 1968

"As the stars and stripes ran up the flagpole and the national anthem played, Smith and Carlos bowed their heads and raised their fists in what was described across the globe as a "Black Power salute," creating a moment that would define the rest of their lives. But there was far more to their actions on the medal stand than just the gloves. The two men wore no shoes to protest black poverty, as well as beads and scarves to protest lynching."

Zuhori

Spain 1967 (On the road agin)

it’s still crystal clear

España that year

I was out and as free

as I’d ever be

no family no things
the wind in my wings

untethered untied

alone on a ride

that took me inside

for the very first time

a pilgrim a rambler

a dreamer a gambler

a drunkard a liar

a lover of fire

free of god free of sin

without and within
oh jesus my friend
put me on the road again

Note to Charlie Rose (re tonight's JPMorgan show)

So, Charlie Rose,

When you purport to examine a real “problem” by putting “unbiased” “friends” of your own and the “accused” on your show, how the heck do you sleep at night? 

Maybe you don't.

More importantly, how can you expect us proles to believe what you beautiful people say?

Oh, and can’t you please get away from Harvard Business School? Is there not a better, more ethical oracle?

Thanks.

Word order: The internet as the toy with a tin ear By Lewis Lapham

I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse - Emperor Charles V

But in which language does one speak to a machine, and what can be expected by way of response? The questions arise from the accelerating data-streams out of which we've learned to draw the breath of life, posed in consultation with the equipment that scans the flesh and tracks the spirit, cues the ATM, the GPS, and the EKG, arranges the assignations on Match.com and the high-frequency trades at Goldman Sachs, catalogues the pornography and drives the car, tells us how and when and where to connect the dots and thus recognise ourselves as human beings.
Why then does it come to pass that the more data we collect - from Google, YouTube, and Facebook - the less likely we are to know what it means?