The Crandall Surf Report 2.0
commentary on almost anything that seems interesting





Subscribe to "The Crandall Surf Report 2.0" in Radio UserLand.

Click to see the XML version of this web page.

Click here to send an email to the editor of this weblog.




 

 

Tuesday, February 25, 2003
 

An interesting question - do you trust your cable company?

I'm on my township's cable board and would find it difficult to categorzie the company we have to deal with as honest.
6:58:57 AM    


One of the defining features of many areas of the Western US is the night sky. As a kid I remember finding it difficult to find the constellations on clear nights as the number of stars made finding the patterns difficult - on a summer night the Milky Way was an overpowering backdrop.

Moonless lights were particularly amazing - nearby mountains were rendered as a jagged black edge to the sky. If you were close to the mountains you had a real sense of the Earth's rotation as stars appeared or disappeared at the boundary.

Of course a cloud free night was a must and few weather predications pay attention to the sky's transparency (if an Eskimo has ten words for snow, an amateur astonomer is aware as many types of haze and light cloud cover).

I was delighted to find a site that predicts local transparencies. A clear sky prediction clock.
6:08:01 AM    


What happens if America becomes Israel?

It would be nice if foreign policy was a first line of defense, but the far right (and that now includes the President and policy) have seem to have other ideas. Is the new world order they see unstable, metastable or stable? Are the fundamental components of our democracy unstable, metastable or stable? I would guess metastable for both with some unfortunate transitions as empire fades.

And then there is the issue with the perception of security. It is remarkable how slowly people are moving on things like making ports more secure. I guess diverting the public's attention to something only the far right sees as a remedy is sexier - for the time being.

By the way - are you comfortable with the current staffing levels in your local police, fire and first aid organizations? Many communities around here are now seriously understaffed with important members on duty somewhere else courtesy of the National Guard. One township saw three of its six police leave. If we have this huge threat it may make sense to revisit a draft or universal service.
6:07:40 AM    


The office of the Vice President has threatened legal action against the satire site Whitehouse.org as they find it offensive to Cheney's wife.

One of the features on the site are some counter demonstrations for the administration's war against Iraq. They didn't have to waste time to create satire as the pro-war demonstrations of two week's ago were laughable on their own right. My favorite was a catered demonstration in the Lincoln Center area (sponsored by Republican groups in CT, NJ and NY) that drew nearly fifty people.
6:07:18 AM    


Tomorrow will be another big day for the heterarchy that has emerged against the upcoming war. The interesting thing is that there is no real center to the movement - which really isn't a movement. A few websites offer information and points of reference, but nearly all of the organization seems to be taking place by peer to peer emails rather than from some hierarchical organization ... a heterarchy has emerged.

The interesting thing about this sort of social construct is that it is very difficult to disable. Groups can form independent of geography and time and communication links can be very difficult for governments to deal with (cellphones are difficult to tap if you have a million people working on an issue).

The current movement the administration has chosen to ignore isn't a group of crazed ultra-left wingers dictating orders to its ignorant soldiers, but rather something where people don't see a center or leader. Somehow a mesh of people has quickly come together and I don't think people appreciate the political implications of this sort of structure. It took real hubris and arrogance to fuel the creation of this heterarchy and the social structure may take out a prime minister...

These are very interesting times.
6:06:52 AM    



Click here to visit the Radio UserLand website.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

© Copyright 2003 Steve Crandall.
Last update: 6/9/03; 1:38:35 PM.
This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.
February 2003
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28  
Jan   Mar