Tag: neu

ramblings

An Industrial Age From Stratch, Again?

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Today, among pondering fine questions such as “Is it legal for me to park in this space at this time?” (not an easy question in the five boroughs), I found time to ponder the question “could we start industrial society from scratch today?” and of course the answer simply is “no.”
To provide a more detailed answer, Author Kurt Cobb explains that the main reason it would be so difficult is because

most of the natural resources associated with advanced societies have been drawn down to a point where it would be difficult to extract what’s left without an up-and-running industrial system.

In the past, all of the vital base resources any society needed were near the surface and more than plentiful. Now, these same resources are infinitesimally more scarce. The search to procure these vital resources needed by a perceptually advancing technological society now goes farther and deeper than ever before, again without replenishment. This far-reaching endeavor requires an enormous amount of technological prowess which can only be provided by an increasingly complex industrial society. Thus, we hit the starting point of this circle – the snake is swallowing its tail. What are we to do?
Read the rest of the article. It’s interesting and of course this doomsayer loves its undercurrent of pessimism. Can we change our economic and technological patterns? Unless you believe in determinalism, we do have the power to affect change and to revert to at a minimum a neutral position. Will we? That is a question I would rather not ponder (this evening at least).
Via Neu

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NeuCom: The Not-So-Daily Show

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From Neu:

Crossfire had Jon Stewart on last week while his TDS was running re-runs for the week. They expected him to come on the show and add some comic relief while plugging “America (The Book). Boy did they get more than they bargained for.

Of course, as a result, the blogs of the world are on fire criticizing him as a hidden leftist (insert “commie pinko” if you so desire) who disguises himself as a centrist / apolitical comedian. This is because it was Tucker Carlson (from the right) that took most of his flak. However, if you really watch it, Stewart is indicting neither the left not right, but (rightfully so) the media for just being so damn stupid.

It kept coming back to “do shows like crossfire asks the tough questions,” but I think the point Stewart was trying to make was that, regardless of the questions asked, no one presses on the answers anymore. The hard question can be asked but when it is skirted or responded to with campaign talking point fluff no one ever presses the guest / spinner (see also Chris Matthew’s grilling of Republican S. Carolin Senate candidate Jim DeMint this Sunday – here is someone who actually WON’T let the squirmer off the hook. Too bad it’s just the S.C. Senate race and a rare moment). In all honesty, Sterwart looked a bit haggard, which is probably why he was off his game, but also why he was so brutally pissed and honest to begin with that we get this golden TV moment.

Highlights include when Jon Stewart tells Tucker Carlson that he won’t “be his monkey” and when he calls Carlson a dick on live TV.

Thanks to Stewart for another shining moment of public service, and I am sorry he is getting skewered for taking off the satire suit for a moment and making a real point on the state of affairs in the modern American political machine. I am also sorry that the most lucid popular voice in American politics has a lead-in show where puppets make prank phone calls.

The link

I was also lucky enough to see Jon Stewart’s follow-up on TDS last night (now that they are back), although I did not at the time have any idea what he was referring to. He was pretty brutal there as well, and I am trying to find a link.

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NeuCom: Magic Keyboard

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From Neu:

I have been having some bad problems with my neck and shoulders as of late. After seeing numerous professionals it seems the root cause is my failed attempt at ergonomics.

You see, in order to fend off carpel-tunnel (sp?) I have always sat with my chair raised very high, my knees at right angles and my feet firmly on the ground, my posture straight and my arms and hands angled comfortably to my desk / keyboard. This means that I sit, all in all, very high up in relation to my desk. Unfortunately, since I work 100% on a laptop, it means that I have had my head pitched down at a 20 degree angle to see my screen for the past four years. My attempts to save my wrist have fucked my neck.

The solution, which I talked my bosses into, is to put my laptop on top of 3 ream of paper to eye level. This also makes it very hard to type. While it would be preferable just to use this as an excuse to never do work again, I had to wind up stealing USB keyboards from whatever location I was sitting at. As a portable consultant, however, I needed a portable solution.

Here is where Think Outside’s portable bluetooth wireless keyboard comes in.

The company covered my bluetooth transmitter, the keyboard, and (soon, just to free up one USB port) a wireless mouse. I freaked out a coworker by walking with my keyboard into his office and IMing him while standing right next to him. I am using it right now. So cool!

politics

NeuCom.ie

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From Neu:

In a three-way victory for bitter irony, John Edwards won not a single state on Super Tuesday, while John Kerry was robbed of his sweep by… Howard Dean?!?! I wonder which one is the most pissed? Actually, come to think of it, that probably goes in the decreasing order: Edwards, Kerry, Dean.

ramblings

NeuCom.ie

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So I started thinking about the next big upcoming chapter… about how this brooding hero-character, whom some (mistakenly) see as the chosen one final turns truly dark.

He has shown, up till now, strong signs of willfulness, arrogance, stubbornness, selfishness, impulsiveness, refusal to admit when he is wrong… all shadowy aspects of his person. However, in the next chapter, which, if we are to believe the powers-that-be, would have to be the hero-character’s final chapter, he finally snaps, destroying everything in his path to now openly serve his truly dark and twisted master. By that point the ones he serves have solidified their powers through plying on security fears and amassing an enormous military-industrial complex, but in this last chapter they will toss away all vestiges of serving the state in favor of their own diabolical plans, but by then it will be too late to stop them and only a small minority will be left to fight… to eventually undo what they have done some 20 years later.

And there’s only one thing anyone can do to prevent it.

Vote Kerry.

politics

Karl Rove Shits Brick

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I don’t have much time to blog right now but I must say…

Go Kerry! It’s your birthday! You gonna party like it’s your birthday!

I like Kerry, Clark, and Edwards, and I couldn’t ask for a better outcome out of Iowa. I’ve seen Kerry speak (college in Boston) and he is always thorough and intelligent in his answers; he has strong policy beliefs in line with my own, and articulates them in a thorough and not-just-promises way – this is a problem because he cannot speak in sound bytes, and it has always handicapped him. Maybe he won because he lost his voice on Sunday and so couldn’t really speak towards the end (he did).

I’d love to be home right now to see how the “liberal” media is covering this. News items like “How can such a loser as Kerry win Iowa? Democrats must really be screwed” on MSNBC and “A fair and balanced view on why we shouldn’t even bother to have the Democratic primaries” on Fox News. In Europe the coverage of the US primaries it’s so even-handed and thorough it’s almost sickening, because I wonder why can’t we be that way?

I think the way it may pan out is that Dean energizes the “war-Bush-lier-hate-Bush-kill-Bush” crowd enough to get out and vote for someone who in the end isn’t him. If he can get in the administration’s face loud enough and hard enough and then get out of the way for someone who wouldn’t be as easy as target for Karl Rove as himself, that would be perfect. Almost like a decoy. Let’s just hope that if he continues to show weakly once it comes to the voting booth that Dean has the good sense to pony up his money and support for Kerry, Edwards, or Clark, whomever the case is.