My poor neglected livejournal!

[tcpip]

Been over a week since I posted an entry...

I have almost, almost, almost finished section 3-4 (Data Security) for my thesis. It should be on the web in draft form by this time tomorrow. I'm pretty happy with it as a summary of the history of Internet fraud, anonymity and encryption, intellectual property and computer hacking. I'm also thinking of combining the following two subchapters ('The Public Sphere' and 'Technical Standards') into one - this chapter is already close to 50,000 words and I don't think it needs to be much longer!

Aside from writing myself into the ground, I've tinkered a bit with the Australia Pacific Journalism Centre website (no, that work is not mine), something that I should also have finished by tomorrow as well. Regrettably my amusing attempt to have a new employer per week hasn't come to fruition as January 21st came and went without offers :/

Next Sunday I'm speaking at the Melbourne Unitarian Church on (quelle suprise) "A Man of Great Spirit: The Life and Philosophy of Dr. Jim Cairns", so if anyone's in town it starts at 11am. Speaking of that half-way house to infidelity, I spent my birthday (Jan 20) on a road trip with said people to Daylesford, spending some time among natural springs and parklands, a very fine second-hand books, records and video store and dropping into a art gallery built out of a former convent. Hahaha. We love our irony. Had a great theological conversation with one of the members aptly helped by a three volume Systematic Theology written by a lecturer in such material from Princeton University in the 1880s.

I've also started rereading Roger Peyrefitte's 'The Keys of St.Peter', a little something I picked up which I though severina_242 would be interested in being a fellow apostate and all. However, she's currently engrossed in the land of hobbits and elves, so such realistic reading may be an uncomfortable diversion. Personally, I think Peyrefitte is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, and certainly one of the best French authors. To be sure, I think Alain Robbe-Grillet is a clear winner on matters of style (the new french novel), but Peyrefitte wins on his scandalous realism and impeccable research.

Spent most of Invasion Day at the Melbourne Museum in Calton gardens which, in the decade I'd lived in Melbourne, had never been through even though I'd walk through the Carlton gardens on almost a daily basis. A pleasant experience, quite enjoyed the exhibits, especially the mind/body section.

Oh, and for Jan 26.. Happy birthday Slammer Worm!. Speaking of which, heads up for a new little virus,

In the "Democracy, but only if it gets the results that we want" department, some expected news. The AFA acts on the
gay marriage poll.

The world's most dangerous
geek has new plans. Heh.

I recently had a debate with angel80 on the proposed banning of religous symbols in state institutions by the French government. Whilst that was over the hajib it seems that Sikh's are now also are target:
Paris Sikhs alarmed at proposed turban ban.

How to keep an eye on the Queensland election. My good friend Billy Bowe, always with a very sharp sense of political nous, has created this beauty. Speaking of which, bloody Mark Latham has a livejournal.

Finally, just to keep us all happy and to sleep well at night, can anyone please find fault in the following article which suggests we'll have to pack up from the planet by 2050?

Comments

[claudine-c.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, bloody Mark Latham has a livejournal.


Marginally more funny than john_howard's journal. Why isn't he in fakejournals though?

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.. Maybe I'll recommend fake_journals to said person. Whoever he is. ;-)

[rustythoughts.livejournal.com]

Fellow apostate: I refer to myself as apostate, (with occasional gratuitous references to the Byzantine emperor, Julian the Apostate), it upsets some of my Christian workmates, seems to slip away through inattention is more bearable to them than the idea of a conscious considered rejection of once professed faith. The Keys Of St. Peter goes onto the reading list.

As to the article, those kinds of numbers have been pushed for a while, new data consistantly seems to reinforce.

I've come across a few countrary arguments, mostly coming down to it's a problem but it's not my problem, including:

• New technology and untapped resources will compensate, (faith in technology and the cult of the white coat).
  
• When the problem becomes more confronting change will happen, (as if it's okay to allow abrupt disruptive change because of a reluctance to apply a little foresight).
  
• That will be their problem then, I wouldn't suffer for a stranger now so why should suffer for strangers in the future?
  
• Sure some resources degrade, but they often become useful in different ways, lost forests becoming agricultural land, and that leaves open the opportunity for sustainable aggriculture. There may be no wild land, but managed land may still be rich and fertile.
  
• Demonstrate that biological diversity is important and make all wilderness a human managed resource, stopping treating wilderness as valueless resource and liquidation will stop being an economically sensible option.
  
• Coping with one resource collapse may drive practices that simply prevent collapse in other resourcs. If the use of one resource drives the use of another, then the collapse of one may serve to prevent the collapse the others.
  
• Resource collapse problems are not likely to hit in a coordinated single event. Societies are likely to have opportunity to apply the lessons of coping with changes in resource usage learned from one resource to the next, perhaps learning from earlier experiences ways to minimise the impact of further change.
  

Interestingly, the article is more bold than some older ones I've read in that it highlights that living resources don't just streadily run out, they collapse abruptly, they require a critical complexity and volume to maintain their integrity. Add exponential curves to the costs of extracting non-living finite resources.

It ain't easy being green.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I refer to myself as apostate

Ahh, but there's also a thing called an 'official apostate' where you get your baptism and confirmation officially annulled.

The Keys Of St. Peter goes onto the reading list.

You'll like this one. It's full of unbelievable relics (a sneeze of the Holy spirit, the prepuce of Jesus etc) which have been part of the faith, causes and means of collecting indulgences and so forth. It is sublime in its ridiculousness.

mostly coming down to it's a problem but it's not my problem

Hmmm.. I suspect that sort of reasoning has contributed substantial to the problem in the first place.

[rustythoughts.livejournal.com]

'official apostate'

Sounds like the wonderfully accomodating Catholic Church.

Protestants like to keep score by counting numbers of converts, so having an official system for getting yourself off of the score-card is not really sporting.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the wonderfully accomodating Catholic Church.

Got that in one ;-)

Protestants like to keep score by counting numbers of converts, so having an official system for getting yourself off of the score-card is not really sporting.

??? Don't Protestants count those they've baptised?

[rustythoughts.livejournal.com]

They count the baptisms, yes indeed, (although not all protestant denominations baptise).

I was suggesting they don't like to uncount those who have subsequently gotten away.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

And here I was thinking the Protestants would have been more careful with numbers than those slacker Catholics... Shows you how much I know..

nota bene to other readers: Unitarians (the Melbourne ones anyway) don't baptise. They don't confirm. They haven't even had a priest of any description for over thirty years.

oops...

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

A missing line...

Speaking of which, heads up for a new little virus,

http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.novarg.a@mm.html

Has popped up. Thanks to greylock for pointing it out. Thanks to William Bowe for sending it to me ;-)

Re: oops...

[greylock.livejournal.com]

It's spoofing from lines, so it's possible Bowe didn't send it to you.

(Just deleted 195 e-mails).

Re: oops...

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Possible, but given that he doesn't use the email address to post publically and he uses MS for email....

And the received header says it's from his ISP..

Anyway, I guess I'll find out.

Agree

[erudito.livejournal.com]

You are on the side of the angels in your argument with angel80.

But you knew I'd say that :)

As I say, I live in Footscray. The French are mad. The Sikh example just shows how mad.

More to the point, I have taught in an Islamic school. The French are really mad. Young Muslim women raised in the West are scary, but not in a submissive way ...

And let's maximise Muslim alienation from their host country, shall we ...

(If the next jihadi attack on the West is now directed against those evil infidel hajib banners, there will be a certain tragic irony.)

Complete non sequitur: Have you been following the argument over armed sky marshals? The Euros seem to having cultural qualms over guns (now, let's get this straight, Europeans are squeamish about guns ... ? I can think of lots of people who might manage hollow laughs over that). The Americans have cultural qualms about people flying planes into their buildings. I guess the ultimate answer will be 'landing rights'.

Re: Agree

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

The French are mad. The Sikh example just shows how mad.

More to the point it is not secular, despite their claims. Secular means not being bound by a religious tradition, not specific to a religion, to treat things as worldly facts rather than as matters of metaphysical interpretation.

What the French are imposing here is fundamentalist atheism - in other words, a metaphysical doctrine that prohibits all other religious expressions.

Compulsion not to wear religious apparal is as bad as compulsion to wear it. And that's the real body politics of the matter.

Have you been following the argument over armed sky marshals?

No, but the entire idea puts me off a bit. An armed marshall to me seems to be another terrorist opportunity.

Re: Agree

[erudito.livejournal.com]

On sky marshals, you can certainly argue about their effectiveness (though the El Al experience suggests that they can work fine) and there are suggestions about using non-lethal weaponry (though the deterrent effect is then lessened, perhaps less a consideration against those with martyr-complexes). But that is a different sort of discussion than the Euro-sniffiness being displayed, which seems to be not much more than yet another smug, superior Euro-putdown of Yanks.

Like your formulation of secularism versus fundamentalist atheism. But, then, I tend to be sensitive to attempts using one notion (secularism) to purvey another (public atheism).

A comforting thought

[erudito.livejournal.com]

Resource prices. Follow resources prices. Are they continuing to trend down? Then we're not running out of those resources.

I have sympathy for ecological pressure arguments because the ecology ain't getting any bigger and the pressure on it is clearly increasing [on the other hand, extra CO2 emissions do encourage plant growth :)]. Though, short of movement of population or industry, not sure how other planets can help there.

I have no sympathy for the 'running out of resources' arguments, because clearly we're not, nor is there any evidence that stacks up that we are. Technologically stagnant non-trading economies can (and have) run out of resources (Easter Island is the usually cited example, possibly also the classical Maya civilisation). We're not and we don't.

A little thought experiement. Consider the energy use pattern of 1900. Consider the energy use pattern of 1950. Consider the energy use pattern of 2000. Would anyone in 1900 had any chance of predicting the 1950 pattern, let alone the 2000 pattern?

Consider the materials use pattern of 1900. Of 1950. Of 2000. Would anyone in 1900 have been able to predict that of 1950 or of 2000?

The running-out-of-resources argument requires predicting the future of technology (amongst other things).

A little tale. One of the reasons why BHP has had a bumpy time of it is that it decided to become the world's largest private sector copper producer. Because, after all, this is the electronic age and we need copper wiring for all that electronic stuff.

Does terrible things to your share price when you have all this copper and suddenly you're competing with sand. Optical fibres anyone?

predicting technological change...

[angel80.livejournal.com]

I recall reading an article, back in the days of the Club of Rome, which said that if Londoners had continued to use the same means of transport in the 20th century that they used in the 19th, the entire city would now be buried in a pile of horse manure.

Re: predicting technological change...

[erudito.livejournal.com]

Yep, a classic example We forget what a problem horse manure was in London in 1900. I forget the statistics, apart from an overwhelming sense of ewwww, stinky!

Some examples of clever people making bad predictions:

Tim Flannery, in his excellent The Future Eaters inferring from (technolgically stagnant, isolated) indigenous cultures to contemporary Australia.

Jean Gimpel, in his brilliant The Medieval Machine predicting, in the mid-1970s, that the current wave of technological innovation had run out of puff. (IT revolution anyone?)

Pau Kennedy, in his fine The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers suggesting, in the mid-80s, that the US was suffering worse imperial overstretch than the USSR.

As for the Club of Rome, a group discussing resource use and prospects without a single economist present? He or she could have told them about price effects and how resources are a moveable feast. (Maine use to export ice as a valuable resource. Then refridgeration was invented. Bauxite used to be valuable only as road filler, then we learnt how to smelt aluminium, etc.)

Fraser, Anthony et al used Club of Rome thinking (in a context of Oil Shocks) to say Resources Booms were going to save the Australian economy. Yeah, sure folks.

Come to think of it, getting Fraser out and Hawke in was probably the one good effect the Club of Rome had any hand in :)

Re: A comforting thought

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Whilst resource prices are a good rule of thumb for many commodities, the main body of the article was more concerned with those items (forests, fresh water etc) which are used in the production of commodites...

I've since discovered this little mine of information which I'll view over the next couple of days...

(note I've used the text only link - bandwidth is a scarce resource!)

http://earthtrends.wri.org/text/

Re: A comforting thought

[erudito.livejournal.com]

The ecosystems arguments (which the sorts of resources you are talking about are either part of or interact with) are far too complex to summarise fairly one way or another in a mere reply post. Basically, it is a real issue, but not automatic disaster.

bandwidth is a scarce resource
But, one notices, increasingly less scarce :)
(But thanks)

Interesting link. No German organisations, which is a good prima facie sign. (As a Jewish-American intellectual friend says, Germans like environmentalism because it allows them to indulge their cultural obsessions about purity. And they came up with the bloody silly precautionary principle.)

[caseopaya.livejournal.com]

I've also started rereading Roger Peyrefitte's 'The Keys of St.Peter'

Is that the one you said I should read???

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I don't know whether it would really be your sort of thing actually... You haven't had the joys of a religious upbringing, let alone a Catholic one..

[caseopaya.livejournal.com]

I may not have had an overly strict Catholic upbringing but have one I did

[angel80.livejournal.com]

Mark Latham: quite witty, but I would tire of reading the word knucklehead. P. Keating had a wider vocabulary!

On the Sikhs, what a load of nonsense. If the turban is not religious, then they can wear a pony tail or a bun! Or go to a Sikh school. How about protecting my rights to be free of claptrap!

I wish you guys would learn how to spell hijab, which, by the way is pre-Islamic and related to the tradition in many uncivilised societies that makes women the property of men. According to an Islamic scholar I heard on the Beeb the other night, the Koran makes two just mentions of clothing for women - one gives them the option of wearing hijab as a sign of Muslim identity and in the other it only says women should cover their breasts for modesty. According to said scholar, hijab has been taken up as a fairly recent thing by young women who want to challenge anti-Muslim prejudice in the West. However, she also went on to say that a lot of young women are still forced to wear it by family and community pressure.

Since compulsion remains a strong element, even in the so-called 'free' societies, I still favour the school ban. After all, they are only asking girls to take it off within the school gates.

Otherwise, the Koran is full of anti-women shit (such as encouraging men to beat wives who fail to obey them and twaddle about men being served by houris in heaven). If young women want to be identified as Muslims, they are identifying themselves with all that crap as well. You cannot take the hijab out of context, as if it is some sort of choice like a bikini versus a one-piece swimsuit.

Women in the west have had to fight for decades for their right of self-expression. Just give us the right to be free of the symbols of men's guardianship over us when we're in school at least!

[angel80.livejournal.com]

Goths and crucifixes is a red herring. I would take equal objection if people took up putting themselves in chains or wearing a chook on their head in order to identify themselves with a book that teaches the oppression of women.

Sorry to seem pedantic about spelling. Of course there are a number of ways to transliterate Parsi or Arabic words, but the difference between hajib and hijab is one of pronunciation, unlike the difference between Koran and Qu'ran.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I would take equal objection if people took up putting themselves in chains or wearing a chook on their head in order to identify themselves with a book that teaches the oppression of women.

Whereas I will prefer to concentrate my energies on the actual oppression of women per se rather than the expression or symbolic affinity thereof.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

And furthermore...

This is the correct analysis and strategy, in my considered opinion:

http://www.secularislam.org/women/liberation.htm

[angel80.livejournal.com]

We've been through this symbol stuff before.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

If the turban is not religious, then they can wear a pony tail or a bun! Or go to a Sikh school. How about protecting my rights to be free of claptrap!

No, there is no instrinsic right for a person to be free from others espousing claptrap. Lest of all that your own words are determined to be that.

I wish you guys would learn how to spell hijab

A spelling flame?!? On livejournal?

Wow. I thought spelling flames on usenet were funny.

Better get The Guardian to tighten up their spelling as well then.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,11882,1109248,00.html

Hajib, Hejab, Hijab, Qu'aran, Koran...


You cannot take the hijab out of context, as if it is some sort of choice like a bikini versus a one-piece swimsuit.


You can actually. Plenty of people have appropriated religious symbols to their own use and to incorporate subcultural meanings. Goths and crucifixes is an obvious example.

And besides, the context is actually quite mixed in any case...

http://www.isop.ucla.edu/cnes/outreach/media/veiling/docs/sondra_hale.htm

Journal Alone-Time

[ex-nulloneha471.livejournal.com]

Neglectful journals. No. It seems perverse, when one is truly busy, to set aside the tasks at hand so as to spend time talking about the tasks at hand. So. It happens.

Incidentally, I apologize for being so unfaithful in leaving notes.

Incidentally, I was very much flattered and honored at your late note. I don't know what else to say.

So. Ah. That sounds like quite an interesting thesis, indeed. What degree are you writing it for again?

Oh. And. As per the article, I don't trust much that the World Wildlife Federation says, for the reason that they have somewhat of a repute for poor experimental designs. Also. I fail to see how decreases in elephant and songbird populations represent a reduced capacity in the Earth for sustaining humans. That is not to say that these are not bad things or do not represent irresponsible behaviors by humans. Just that. Well. Ecology is a very inexact science. And many people say things with great authority but little support.

And nowhere in the article did I see a description of the methodology used to arrive at these bold conclusions.

Not that I am one of those slash-and-burn conservative types who brush off every warning about the environment with "well, who really knows." Just. You asked me to find fault.

Okay. That's all.

Re: Journal Alone-Time

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I was very much flattered and honored at your late note. I don't know what else to say.

Well, I didn't know what to say either, so I wrote what I did. Your journal writing is extraordinarily evocative.

That sounds like quite an interesting thesis, indeed. What degree are you writing it for again?

PhD, Department of History and Philosophy of Science.

And nowhere in the article did I see a description of the methodology used to arrive at these bold conclusions.

The only line that referred to methodology was (paraphrased) "if resources are consumed at the same rate as the last three decades..."