| Sunday, December 15, 2002 |  |
| Vicious to Virtuous Circles |
 From Tom Munnecke Vicious Circles/Networks to Virtuous Circles/Networks:"One of Senge's patterns is the general problem addiction loop. Quick fixes seem to solve a problem, but often feed back to create other problems. Fundamental solutions which take longer to understand and implement are ignored in the flurry of quick fixes, creating a vicious circle. The flurry of quick fixes then feeds some kind of assessment system which makes it appear that we are being productive, with all that activity going on. This is like trying to get out of a hole by digging it deeper, and measuring your productivity by how many shovelfuls you scoop each day.And let me add this quote which says the same kind of thing: "It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. [ Patterns | 2002-12-15 23:58 | 1 comment | PermaLink ] More > |
| Peace Sunday |
 I spent part of the day at Peace Sunday. It was a big all-day thing in the L.A. Convention Center. Might have been a thousand people or so. Spearheaded by Leland Stewart of the Unity-and-Diversity Council, with a lot of help. I didn't have time to stay very long, but Dennis Kucinich' speech was great, and I met a lot of people I know.[ Diary | 2002-12-15 23:59 | 2 comments | PermaLink ] More > |
| Weblog Programming |
| I follow a bunch of weblogs where techies are talking about technology related to weblogs. The kind of people I mostly pay attention to in that regard are those who speak in a language I understand, like Dave Winer or Jon Udell or many more. I'm an experienced programmer, but there are many discussions that are way over my head and that I couldn't catch up with without weeks of study, and they're often about standards that take years to evolve. But a guy like Dave Winer will come up with an idea, and a couple of days later it is written up as a standard, and a few days later several people have created implementations of it. RSS and XML-RPC are examples of that. That's a rhytm I like better. Really good ideas should be simple to explain and you should be able to see benefits from them really quickly. I'd like to play more in that field in the future. But for now there are still some more basic things I need to finish in this NewsLog program, and there's a major reorganization of the NCN site that I've left half done. But then I want to play more with inter-operability with other brands of weblog software, and cool features that are worth sharing. [ Programming | 2002-12-15 23:59 | 4 comments | PermaLink ] More > |
| Should Exist |
 ShouldExist is site about stuff that stuff that really should exist. It is an Idea Exchange. Like Global Ideas Bank, but more focused on technical things.[ Inspiration | 2002-12-15 23:59 | 0 comments | PermaLink ] |
| Becoming a sexually healthy culture |
 The article Cannibal Culture at Kuro5hin, provides an excellent and detailed overview of the world of sexual fetishes, and what the causes might or might not be for perversions and sexual violence in our culture. What is consensual and what is not? What is healthy and what is not? He reaches conclusions I agree with. This is hardcore stuff, not for the faint of heart, but important. See, the inevitable conclusions are the opposite of what the most moralizing anti-pornography advocates would have us believe. In short, the real perverts are those who are trying to suppress and control sexual expression, and particularly those who administer institutionalized violence and mental torture against little children. I.e. strict, moralizing, usually religious, parents who beat their children and try to hammer into them that sex is evil. And the perverted preachers who reinforce such behavior, having the audacity to invoke God in condemning joyful sexuality. Notice that here in the U.S. more than 60% of newborn boy babies have their sex organs violently mutilated right after they're born, just because some puritan doctors in the 1850s thought it would be a great way of stopping them from masturbating. No great wonder that this is such a violent and sexually repressed country.[ Nature | 2002-12-15 23:59 | 1 comment | PermaLink ] More > |