Sunday, January 30, 2005
A.L.I.C.E.
I have often toyed with the idea of training an AliceBot to fence with a creationist or the like. I’m getting a bit more serious about it, provided there are a few folks that would like to pitch in.
These bots are programmed by way of a stimulus/response database written in a simple markup language named AIML. It’s more tedious than hard to do this. Its also possible to run multiple personalities off a single database, so one could train an ultra-fundie and an attack dog and have them slug it out between themselves.
By the way, it’s fun to loop back the bot’s responses to itself - it tends to get bizarre and then downhill from there.
There should also be a way to train the bot using natural language commands. I’ll have to double-check if my favorite bot implementation, Program E, supports this.
swearing, sex and religion
So, I’m trying to send elwed a pm about Catholic views on human sexuality, and the filters on this site terminate my request due to suspicious input.
My next pm, expressing my frustration with losing what I wrote, where I made use of a mild expletive, made it through with no problems.
So, now I’m wondering if it’s the references to ‘sex’ or the references to ‘Catholics’ that kept the message from making it through the censoring filters on the site. :p
Saturday, January 29, 2005
tag, you’re it
I stumbled upon this headline: US to slap tourists with RFID. If I were a tourist, the fingerprinting would be enough of a turnoff to seek travel destinations other than the US - unless US tourists are fingerprinted upon entry into the EU, turnabout is fair play. I don’t know how tourists feel about RFID tagging, but it would permanently remove the US from my list of vacation spots.
RFID tags are easily muted by proper use of shielding (or so I understand), but there’s an even more interesting tool, RFDUMP, courtesy of some German hackers. Interesting.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Republican voters
A post that fits the current theme - Brainhell: Isolate and stupify.
A very interesting read. For what it’s worth, I also recognize German conservative voters, but to a much lesser degree.
On American world leadership
First, there’s DailyKos: Failed Bush world leadership, quoting extensively from a Financial Times article.
In a second inaugural address tinged with evangelical zeal, George W. Bush declared: “Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world.” The peoples of the world, however, do not seem to be listening. A new world order is indeed emerging - but its architecture is being drafted in Asia and Europe, at meetings to which Americans have not been invited.
...
It is true that the US remains the only country capable of projecting military power throughout the world. But unipolarity in the military sphere, narrowly defined, is not preventing the rapid development of multipolarity in the geopolitical and economic arenas—far from it. And the other great powers are content to let the US waste blood and treasure on its doomed attempt to recreate the post-first world war British imperium in the Middle East.
That the rest of the world is building institutions and alliances that shut out the US should come as no surprise. The view that American leaders can be trusted to use a monopoly of military and economic power for the good of humanity has never been widely shared outside of the US. The trend toward multipolarity has probably been accelerated by the truculent unilateralism of the Bush administration, whose motto seems to be that of the Hollywood mogul: “Include me out.”
The above posts refers to two posts on MyDD:
A Multi-Polar World - The Financial Times Weighs In
I must say, I got this feeling when I was in the UK for several weeks over the Christmas holidays. Now, I grew up in the UK and used to go back a lot. However, for various reasons, I hadn’t left the US in five years. What struck me on my return was not “anti-Americanism” but the relative invisibility of America and things American. For instance, the only major new American presence I could detect was a proliferation of Starbucks in London. The only other American brands that are in Britain are brands that were there when I was a kid: McDonalds, Coke, and maybe a couple of others.
Whats more, what surprised me was just how invisible the Iraq War was in the media. Simply, I think the Iraq War is not really something the British public feels it “owns” in the way I think it is something that the US public “owns.” Basically, the Iraq War is regarded as an AMERICAN adventure in which the Brits are unfortunately involved. But it is not a BRITISH project. And this gets to the crux of what is happening in world geopolitics: American interests and its almost singular focus on the War on Terrorism and the Middle East are not, in a subtle but very fundamental way, considered even British interests. To say nothing of continental Europe, East Asia, Africa, Latin America, and so on. Now some American commentators may regard this as foolhardy, but I don’t think this is necessarily so: nor, for that matter, do I think the US’s singular focus is necessarily misguided. But what it suggests is that the “West” is no longer an operable concept, and I don’t think its coming back. Now, this doesn’t mean the US and the EU are bound to be enemies, because I don’t think this is the case at all (despite the ravings of some of the more fanatical neo-cons), because the two entities economic interests are to intertwined (hence, the value of trade as an antidote for global conflict).
The End of the American World-System
The American World-System, inaugarated in the aftermath of World War II, is on its last legs. America remains a superpower - the biggest superpower - and will continue to do so, at least into the near-term future. However, the system of Pax Americana, or American hegemony, or the American World System is close to finished. Why, and why should we care? I’ll explain below.
Firstly, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and America’s ensuing War on Terror mark a significant break with America’s traditional strategic partners. This break has been ratified by Bush’s recent reelection. Simply put, very few people outside this country’s borders view the post-9/11 world through lenses similar to even the Democratic Party’s or garden variety liberals, to say nothing of the American right. No longer do European or East Asian nations - to say nothing of the “global south” - view America’s primary global concerns as their own. And this is highly unlikely to change. But why should this matter, many in this country ask?
Finally, there’s The Times Online:
Ignore the vanity of the Bushites, America’s might is draining away
WHAT TIME is it for America? If the Boston Tea Party was first light and the Gettysburg Address dawn, where between the sunrise and sunset of empire is the United States now? To judge from his inauguration speech on Thursday, President Bush thinks it is about time for morning coffee: much to be proud of but big tasks maybe the proudest of all ח still ahead. To end tyranny on Earth is no small ambition.
Gerard Baker, the US editor of The Times, (DonӒt believe the doubters: Americas decline and fall is a long way off yet
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Idle thought for the day.
When choosing baby oil, you really, REALLY don’t want what’s in the first pressing.
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
philosophical humor
From: Werner
Triple filter test
Keep this philosophy in mind the next time you either hear or are about to repeat a rumour.
In ancient Greece (469 - 399 BC), Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom. One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who ran up to him excitedly and said, “Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?”
“Wait a moment,” Socrates replied. “Before you tell me I’d like you to pass a little test. It’s called the Triple Filter Test.”
“Triple filter?”
“That’ s right,” Socrates continued. “Before you talk to me about my student, let’s take a moment to filter what you’re going to say. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?”
“No,” the man said, “actually I just heard about it and..”
“All right,” said Socrates. “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?”
“No, on the contrary…”
“So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about him, even though you’re not certain it’s true?”
The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.
Socrates continued. “You may still pass the test though, because there is a third filter - the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?”
“No, not really…”
“Well,” concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is neither true nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all?”
The man was defeated and ashamed.
This is the reason Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem. It also explains why he never found out that Plato was banging his wife.
Make sure you read to the end…
Werner
:
IT’S TIME TO RE-EVALUATE OUR INVOLVEMENT
Every day there are news reports about more deaths.
Every night on TV there are photos of death and destruction.
Why are we still there?
We occupied this land, which we had to take by force, but it causes us nothing but trouble.
Why are we still there?
Many of our children go there and never come back.
Why are we still there?
Their government is unstable, and they have sporadic leadership.
Why are we still there?
Many of their people are uncivilized.
Why are we still there?
The place is subject to natural disasters, from which we are supposed to bail them out.
Why are we still there?
There are more than 1,000 religious sects, which we do not understand.
Why are we still there?
Their folkways, foods, and fads are unfathomable to ordinary Americans.
Why are we still there?
We can’t even secure the borders.
Why are we still there?
They are billions of dollars in debt, and it will cost billions more to rebuild, which we can’t afford.
Why are we still there?
It is becoming clear…
WE MUST PULL OUT OF CALIFORNIA.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
TurboTax at five miles an hour.
Here’s an unusual situation: I’d really like to finish up our income tax return for this past year, but I haven’t gotten all the forms yet in the mail (1099s and whatnot).
Ever since I discovered ItsDeductible (http://www.itsdeductible.com), I’ve relied heavily on it to track deductible items. It has a very handy database of thrift shop values for noncash charitable contributions, and online worksheets you can fill out. Between that and our digital camera (which I used to take pictures of everything we donated), I’ve been able to keep properly detailed records, which would have been extremely unlikely had I tried it on my own. This last year we also incurred a lot of deductible medical expenses, and the software let me track those too. And of course, I tracked our cash charity donations.
All in all, we donated the equivalent of 17% of our income last year.
Some of our favorite charities are:
Goodwill (they got all our tangibles)
The James Randi Educational Foundation
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Southern Poverty Law Center
SafePlace
I also gave to the American Stroke Association this last year, as a friend of mine was running in a marathon to raise money for it, and of course I gave to the Red Cross a few times.
I used to give to Planned Parenthood, but they pissed me off when they started calling me at home trying to raise more funds. I don’t give money to ANYONE soliciting by phone or at our door, and I especially hate it coming from an organization that is supposed to be fighting for a woman’s privacy.
And I don’t track the money I’ve sent to friends to help them out. Even though in most cases it’s been throwing good money after bad; they’re usually in the kind of situation where a temporary infusion of cash isn’t going to solve their problems. It just defuses the most current crisis. I’ll pitch in a couple of times, but only if it looks like they’re really trying to help themselves.
I bought and held a lot longer than I probably should have this last year; I was a wee bit distracted and didn’t have the time or brain cells to go over our investments. So there are no capital gains to worry about.
Oh, and we have a new tax deduction in the house. A cute little dependent who is, as Heinlein used to describe it, “a wet diaper at one end and a heavenly smile at the other.”
So I think I’m just about done, and it’ll be a big load off my mind as soon as I can finish the online TurboTax forms and hit Send.
But I just found out that ItsDeductible took out the tracking for medical expenses in the 2005 version, and I’m REALLY cheesed off about that. I am SO not wanting to go back to an Excel spreadsheet to make sense of our tangled and confusing medical bills, multiple EOB bounces, and ignored claims.
If I can just get through this filing ... if I can just sort out our files before they overwhelm me ... if I can just get a couple more hours of sleep ... if I can just keep from strangling Pookie when she morphs into Attitude Girl ...
Stars & Stripes: Families of servicemembers killed in Iraq turned away at Pentagon
From the Stars & Stripes, European Edition
The Stars & Stripes is the newspaper of the US military. I don’t know if this article ran in the European edition only.
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Friday, January 21, 2005
WASHINGTON Pentagon police on Wednesday turned away family members of troops killed in Iraq who wanted to confront Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the reasons for the war in Iraq.
The group of about 20 was stopped before entering Pentagon property by about a dozen officers, who told the protesters they did not have the proper permission to enter the building.
Organizers said they have been petitioning for the meeting for weeks, but department officials are ignoring their requests.
דThe man who was too busy to personally sign the Killed in Action letters these families received is apparently too busy to acknowledge the request of the Gold Star families for this meeting,
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