Beerrow Tabblo

I figured it was about time that I wrapped up the 2006 series of "beerrow" art, added some explanatory text, and made it look nice. Here's the result:

I had gotten into the habit of collecting bottle caps because we were doing some "interior decorating" with them at the Fraternity House.  When I went to my internship in Redmond in the Summer of 6, I found that I had a hard time just tossing the caps away and started setting them on the post next to the door.  What resulted, the "beerow" was a unique work of art that I was a little proud of, so I decided to take a couple of photos before I tossed the caps at the end of my internship.  After that I decided that I wanted to keep collecting these unique touchstones in my life as both art and memory.
... See my Tabblo>

Louisville Directions: Hubward/Rimward and Sunward/Widdershins

There probably won't be a huge following for this, and it'll probably signal me out as being truly nerdy, but I find east/west and north/south distinctions in Louisville confusing and sometimes completely useless. Therefore, I've decided that I'm going to start using the terms hubward (inward/downtown), rimward (outward/uptown), sunward (clockwise/generally marked as west-bound on Louisville streets), and widdershins (anti-clockwise/counter-clockwise/generally marked as east-bound on Louisville streets) when describing directions in this city. For instance: The University is just a few miles rimward on 65. My parents' house is few miles further rimward and several miles widdershins of the University. Shelbyville Road generally runs Hubward/Rimward whereas Hurstbourne Parkway generally runs Sunward/Widdershins. The interstates are hubward/rimward and the bypasses are sunward/widdershins. To get to my parents' house from the University I generally travel via either 65 rimward to 264 widdershins to 64 widdershins to Hurstbourne widdershins or 65 hubward to 64 rimward to Hustbourne widdershins if I'm in the mood to bypass the Watterson or to peruse more of 64's prettier scenery...

Feel free to join my quest to use radial directions in Louisville, because I think they make a good amount more sense in a city that has a radial layout and roads rarely are directly north/south/east/west.

Network Neutrality: Are you prepared for Humanity's Lobotomy?

Here's an attempt to nail down in audio-visual glory the debate of network neutrality. If anyone is left without an opinion on it, I beg you to watch the film.

Save the Internet | Rock the Vote

But the true spirit of the video is more than it's glimpse into quite probably the huge issue of our times... it is the fact that the video itself is built upon many of the fundamental principles that the debate brings into question. The film's authors are on on their second edit; each iteration taking in new inspirations and new ideas from "the Internet", polling sites like YouTube for further content to embed. They post everything under a Creative Commons license and encourage further others to remix their own works...

I think that if he were still with us, Carl Sagan would need at least a cameo in the video... I'm actually somewhat curious if someone somewhere has a few choice Cosmos clips to throw in that would be appropriate. The opening to the current edit in particular seems to fit very well with some of Sagan's themes in The Dragons of Eden...

Surprising Beer from a Surprising Source...

I must have missed this beer in season, or the places (supermarkets) that I frequent haven't gotten any in until late post-sales, but Anheuser-Busch's Winter Seasonal is surprisingly good. It's an interesting bourbon-aged ale (which I like), with the twist of vanilla beans added to the cask. So the oak/bourbon flavor is followed by a strong vanilla aftertaste and I'm fairly impressed. I'm actually curious what they do with the beans after aging, because I'm thinking shavings of the ale/oak/bourbon-infused vanilla might be excellent on a good cake...

Poem: Spring Weather Forecast?

I don't write poems that often. I love writing, particularly fiction, but poems so often seem forced and unnatural. When I do write poetry it is often rather formless. I can't keep metrics straight, I rarely rhyme, and I just generally prefer the sounds of alliteration to those of meter or rhyme.

I don't know how to describe this poem and I'm not sure if I want to say too much or too little. I don't know where I am at the moment on anything. Things are crazy right now. Don't read it, because it probably isn't very good. I post it here so that I won't forget it.

Web 2.0 Hype Video of the Moment

Exhibit A: The Web 2.0 Video Meme

Exhibit A is an Anthropologist's attempt (using some good video editing and music choice) to nail down what all the Web 2.0 Hype is about (and that we computer dorks all realize is merely a mainstream manifestation of good parts of ole Web "1.0" thinking). It's cropped up on a number of the RSS feeds that I scroll and some interesting reactions have started to precipitate.

One of the things that stands out to me is the Anthropologist's seeming reach out of descriptivism and into prescriptivism with the "Rethink" sequence. I haven't heard many remarks on that sequence, perhaps because it seem more hype(rbole) than substance to most, or because people subconsciously dismiss it as outside of the range of a mostly descriptive work.

I am not a sociologist, but I know people fascinated by them and the analysis of their number magics. One of the interesting things, to me, is that studies (and I'm going to hand-wave here around the fact right now that I don't have any links off the top of my head) are starting to show a growing generation gap in thinking upon many of the things mentioned in the "Rethink" sequence. For instance, the beliefs in Privacy between my generation and my parents' generation have become almost drastically different.

Where Privacy was often considered an almost tangible Right, my generation doesn't see it that way. Privacy is more a matter of Respect and Trust; it isn't a Right to be defended but a Gift, a Kindness, a Boon to be granted and extended and offensively cordoned off with the weapons of Open-Mindedness and Toleration (and Otherness).

Two of the books I usually reference have been provided ...

On The War on Science

I've stayed (generally) away from political topics for the past while. I still have a lot to say (remind me to describe the "Electrical Model of Economics" sometime), but most of my vitriol has vanished. It'll probably be back soon enough next year, but let's not dwell on that just yet...

Per David Brin on The War on Science and it's referenced LA Times editorial on The War on Science there are some things on the War on Science that keep flickering through my mind. The pernicious Right have come to using very modernist ideas and vocabulary to undermine some of the normal operations of these systems that seems like it could only be malicious in intent. "The science is out", "we need more research", "there are disputes to that claim". Criticism and skepticism are indeed a part of the scientific process, but radicals are using these tools of the inquiring mind as bludgeons to bully the scientific process as they might a parliamentary process.

As just a single example, the science is not "out" on widespread humanity-influenced climate change ("global warming") for anyone but sheeple and people using skepticism to avoid answering the really tough questions. The scientific research has been coming in since the '70s and there is a large amount of data, study, analysis out there for anything of a mind to seek it. The amount of skeptical research (by reputable scientists, mind you) is much scarcer to find and does little to invalidate the scientific models that show a large human influence in global warming. Here's the amazing thing: scientists proved this in '70s enough to effectively ban the use of CFCs in the '70s! "Global Warming" isn't some fancy new term from freak scientists with an anti-Republican bias; it ...

Restaurant of the Moment: Zen Garden

I come from the school of reviewing that says that I should give a bit of where I come from so that you can better understand what I mean and how you might apply it to your own opinions. I'm a bit of a foodie so I'm guessing it was only a matter of time before I decided to go ahead and increase my * of the Moment series to include semi-frequent Restaurant reviews. Because this is the "first" forgive me if I over divulge...

I was having a bit of a disagreement on what constitutes a great meal or a "gourmet" meal with a friend of mine. I was troubled that there seemed to be such a wide gulf in our opinions when both of us had somewhat similar amounts of knowledge of food and food preparation. The closest I have come to explanation is that ultimately I'm something of a student of the East and he's something of a student of the West. Forgive any generalizations in my analogies, but basically he's a by-product of French Culinary Snobbery. Don't get me wrong, the French did a lot for standardized restaurants and the business of food preparation, but I think there are a few ideas they promulgated alongside their business acumen (and power of conquest) that I disagree with. First is the attitude that vegetables and fruits are mere accessories to a meal. Most gourmet Western food uses vegetables sparingly and generally only in side dishes, salads, and sauces; very rarely do you see a vegetable-centric entree. Western dishes so often focus on meats and cheeses to the detriment of balance and variety.

The second idea, and I find this seems to come directly from the business side of the expansion, is what might ...