Media Workshops, Networking and Programmin', Gaming, Clothes, The Odyssey and ... SEX!

[tcpip]

Prosper Australia were very happy with my first workshop on media and marketing, albeit it was more on organisational structure. More next Tuesday, this time on market segments for people who may think that resource rents are better than taxes on productive capital or labour. One point I emphasized with them is that as a political organisation a narrow focus is not helpful to building a large membership.

Tuesday was the begining of CCNA semester 2. Router configuration. Not nearly as exciting as it sounds ;-) Finished a review of "The Real World Network Troubleshooting Manual" for SAGE-AU, which has some good material, but could have done with an editor. For a bit of fun, and I'm sure it has some practical use, I'm working my way through some Java programming, which I think is slowly converting me from C++, even if the latter is better for most computer games.

Speaking of which met up with three lecturers on multimedia and computer games at Swinburne University on Thursday; Dr. Andrew Stapleton, Dr. Mark Finn and a physicist named... ahh... what was it now? Anyway, they're all mainstays in their Bachelor of Multimedia (Games and Interactivity). It sounds like the start of a beautiful friendship. They've invited me to come and give some guest lectures early next year. Have posted an update to the Immersion mailing list and timetable.

Later that evening had a dinner with severina_242 and her mother who has just returned from Europe. She handed me a big bag of clothes from her boss who throws out his clothes (name brand and higher thank you very much) every six months and who is exactly my size. This grab lot included three Hugo Boss suits, two of which seem to have never been worn at all.

Tonight off to see the Odyssey with lokicarbis and caseopaya. Appropriately, apparently Ulysses tomb has been found. The Odyssey is one of my favourite stories; not just because of the epic wandering adventure and the mythic creatures, but because when confronted with the supernatural, Ulysses uses his reasoning ability to defeat them (see Adorno and Horkheimer's great essay, "Odyssey or Myth and Enlightenment" in The Dialectic of Enlightenment).

Is George Bush the antichrist (from kraant)? If so it would explain the messages he has received from his master. On the opposite side of the theological spectrum Dr. Fernandes has had this little biographical review of Noam Chomsky published in Overland Express. Well worth a read.

I promised sex. Well, how about an "unauthorised reproduction" bill, courtesy of the land of the free? How about a mainstream church promoting panty parties to get more people involved? Or a website that wants sex toy testers? Tasmania's government was going to legalise brothels. Now it's changed it's mind.

Comments

[greylock.livejournal.com]

this time on market segments for people who may think that resource rents are better than taxes on productive capital or labour

Can you elaborate?

[greylock.livejournal.com]

The "unauthorised reproduction" bill has nothing to do with sex. It says so in the article. It's for artificial insemination only.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Smart arse ;-)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Follow the Prosper Australia link for more information.

Basically, it's a point of view that Land Value Taxation is a better means to generate public revenue than taxes on income or profit.

There is logical collorary that a Citizen's Dividend would be a better means to provide income support than the interventionist welfare state.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

If you add up the name 'George Bush' in Hebrew letters it comes out:
[geomatria snipped]
I would challenge anyone to find another powerful world leader, either now or in the past, whose name adds up to 666 in Hebrew.

How about another world leader in the past named "George Bush"? That probably covers the level of reasoning there.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Its odd that you say you are being converted to Java from C++. Because I know both, but I can think of very few situations in which I would even consider both of them for the same project.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

When turkey basters are made illegal, only criminals will have turkey basters.

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

Besides, the original version was 616, and in Greek.

You've gotta love the Law Of Fives.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

You're right of course (and you know a lot more about this than I do). It has more to do with the fact that I'm leaning more towards webapp programming at the moment.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Ha! Easy! George W. Bush, Snr!

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

And worse, he's got the Hebrew gematria wrong.

Aleph, Yod and Vau are used to represent vowels, but only long [a], long [i] and long [o] respectively, as part of the pointing.

To spell 'George Bush', you'd have "GVRG BVSh", or maybe "GYVRG BVSh"
The former comes out as 3,6,200,3 2,6,300 => 212+326 = 538,
The latter as 222+326 = 538.

What he had, "GH3RGH BVShCh", can only be pronounced "geh'ergeh booshech", or even "geh'ergeh beveshech" which isn't exactly close to a precise transcription.

But maybe he meant the Yiddish spelling? But even then he's got the transcription values all fscked up, and displays a stunning ignorance of how the Hebrew alphabet works.



Or maybe it's a joke?

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Or maybe it's a joke?

Cut it out! This is an important theological discussion about the the return of God on earth! ;-)

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

Or in Latin 'Georgius Ambulator Arbus', aka 'Georgius Arbus secundus', and pater 'Georgius Herberetus Ambulator Arbus', aka 'Georgius Arbus senior'.

If you transcribe that to Greek, and use the greek numerical system (which, by the way, is still used ... α = 1, β = 2, γ = 3, &c), and, and...

Like I said, Law of Fives.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

He was George Herbert Walker Bush, not just George Walker Bush.

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

Ah, but the Hebrew bit was explicitely for 'George Bush' unadorned.

[mystic-one.livejournal.com]

there's always one ;)

[mystic-one.livejournal.com]

ok, i'll be the deviant respondant - sex toy testing sound like my kind of weekend job :P lol

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Indeed, it has escaped the notice of many that the number of the beast has recently been revised.

Not sure if the original geomatria was based on greek or hebrew, I would suspect hebrew even though the original biblical reference wasn't, kabbalistic numerologists are obsessed with hebrew even when they don't speak it.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Of course I'm right, in every way except politically :-)

Yeah, java would probably be my language of choice for webapp programming, well, that or python and the choice would come down to app framework rather than language for most things.

If you are drifting towards the world of j2ee and web app servers (Tomcat, etc) I have been looking around there myself quite a bit in the last year. I am looking very carefully at Tapestry, Cayenne (though most people seem to be pointing at Hibernate instead), and am generally fairly pleased with Eclipse as a Java IDE. There are a lot of very interesting developments in the XML space too, XSLT is nifty.

Though a lot of people also keep pointing me at Zope 3 and python as powerful alternative to the whole thing.

I did a lot of Java webapp stuff in the last year, but it was mostly in WebObjects, which is all very well if you have an XServe but problematic for a lot of other projects. Familiarity with WebObjects somewhat informs my choices above, just to let you know.

[elzia.livejournal.com]

Did you see that bouncing ball with the dildo on it on the site linked from your article? I am rarely taken aback by sex toys but that one certainly gave me pause...

re panty parties article

[elzia.livejournal.com]

Quote from article:
"But I have held chocolate parties, at which a group of us might watch a film on the theme of chocolate, or make chocolate sweets or play chocolate-inspired games.


Good thing she didn't have them watch "Chocolat"...

Re: re panty parties article

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but these are Anglicans doing this.

The people who get taught tolerance and stuff in Chocolat aren't Christians ... they're... they're Papists! and French!!

Does Anglicanism even do the Lenten Fast?

Re: re panty parties article

[elzia.livejournal.com]

I doubt it. But I don't know that new recruits would have a critique of the particular traditions depicted. Which would mean score one for athiests.

Re: re panty parties article

[elzia.livejournal.com]

or, rather, agnostics. That film really isn't too atheistic with all of the ghosts and the "indigenous spirituality."

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

Interesting. ... But totally incomprehensible how they could come to their conclusions. In one part, they say that wages will go up so much that multi-nationals will have to go elsewhere, but in another part they say that products will become cheaper!

More importantly, their comments about the aged are simply ludicrous.
"Pensioners would be markedly better off ... example ... income is say $15,000 per annum ... value of the house and land is say $140,000 ... the unimproved site value might be say $80,000. .... initial rate of 10% would be $8000 nominal site rent in the first year ... would then be left with $7000 out of their pension."

Now, let's look at realistic figures. Melbourne median house price is around $350k. So the pensioner who's worked all their life and totally paid off their mortgage and happily earning $15k per annum now would have house and land worth, say, $350,000 ... unimproved site value might be, say, $200,000. ... initial rate of 10% would be $20,000 rent in the first year. ... So, with expenses and income roughly equal, they are losing $20k/year. If they aren't dead within 15 years, they are certainly bankrupt, leaving behind a debt to their heirs. A fair way to treat people who've worked their whole lives to pay off their home? Yeah, right.

It's in interesting idea, but the only way it would be fair would be to provide compensation to those who'd already contributed massively to the current system. The Prosper Australia method is about the most unfair system I've ever seen proposed by anyone.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fustian/]

YES!! Which is why its vitally importent that evryone nows PRINCE WILLIAM IS THE ANITCHRIST!. (Bush is merely the pawn of a vast right-wing conspiracy to immanentize the eschaton.)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

William Arthur Phillip Louis = A load of waphl

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

In one part, they say that wages will go up so much that multi-nationals will have to go elsewhere, but in another part they say that products will become cheaper!

Yes, both things can be true. Real wages can increase as taxes are removed from capital and labour and products can be cheaper simultaneously.

Basically, if you tax a good (or labour to produce it) the price goes up.

now would have house and land worth, say, $350,000 ... unimproved site value might be, say, $200,000.

"Unimproved" is land-site value only. If a pensioner (your example) has a house and land worth $350 000 and the land itself is worth $200 000 then the solution is obvious; sell.

It's in interesting idea, but the only way it would be fair would be to provide compensation to those who'd already contributed massively to the current system.

Sensible people advocate a gradual introduction.

The Prosper Australia method is about the most unfair system I've ever seen proposed by anyone.

What it means is you get paid for your work and capital investments and you pay for the resources you use.

All this said, I made a point about exactness in their figures and the need to represent themselves as a gradual process rather than an absolute one.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the pointers. I too have heard very good things about Eclipse, and that's not just in reference to it's very cheeky name.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think there should be at least TAFE level certification course available.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fustian/]

I actually like the Arthurian connection (not least because I thought of it before I came across the "Antichrist Revealed" website in about 2001). And the Bloodline Conspiracy sort of exists (although they seem to be Mostly Harmless right-wing nutters like the Priory of Sion hoaxers, centred on a Jacobite pretender and an organisation calling itself The European Council of Princes — you can tell they're imaginary by the fact that they don't have a wikipedia entry :). Anyway, it's all pure gold fiction-fodder for my Alchemy Cycle.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

You realise that you're just feeding scenarios for my Outbreak of Heresy rpg story..

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fustian/]

We should collaborate!

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

the solution is obvious; sell.

Someone who's spent their life paying, say, 40% tax, in order to have a comfortable retirement (something which this whole idea says is an unfairly high amount of tax anyhow) is going to be told to sell their home and move somewhere cheaper? That's the most unfair tax concept I have ever seen someone pretend was a real possibility.

The only way you could make it gradual enough to be fair would be to introduce it progressively over a whole lifetime (ie. about 80 years) or to compensate those who would be shafted by it.

The aged middle class are simply commonly at the far end of the property ownership spectrum ... often, their assets are entirely, or nearly entirely, in property. This scheme would provide massive advantage and disadvantage for, effectively, random sections of the population. Those who, like me, have never bought property at all, would be greatly advantaged. Those who've poured all their savings into a home would be massively disadvantaged.

Let's say the scheme came in. Pensioners move out of average Melbourne homes and flee to the sticks. People like me with investments can now simply liquidate some and buy a home for $150,000 that was $350,000 a few weeks ago. I'm pretty opportunistic at times, but that would revolt me, despite the massive gain I'd make out of it.

Investment decisions are made over the course of many decades, and to simply punish all the landowners and reward everyone else could never work. You'd have armed rebellion before you'd ever implement it.

What it means is you get paid for your work and capital investments and you pay for the resources you use.

That's an interesting philosophical idea, but we've all been paying on a different basis all our lives. The only way it could work fairly is by paying all landowners compensation for all the devalued land that they own. As that would probably come to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per person, you're talking about the type of change that is simply that: A philosophical idea. Nothing more. Ever.

Re: re panty parties article

[kraant.livejournal.com]

It seems the papists agree on Bush being the antichrist :)

[mystic-one.livejournal.com]

sounds good to me !

Re: re panty parties article

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... That was the last Pope... I wonder what this one thinks.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

The only way you could make it gradual enough to be fair would be to introduce it progressively over a whole lifetime (ie. about 80 years) or to compensate those who would be shafted by it.

That is actually what most people recommend.

Those who've poured all their savings into a home would be massively disadvantaged.

No, those who have poured their savings into land would be massively disadvantaged. There is a subtle but fundamental difference. Pensioners, who are currently hit hard on property rates would pay less, not more.

The bottom line in the system is that if you receive income from labour or capital investment you will be better off. If you receive land-rent from others you will be worse off. The fact of the matter is that the distribution of ownership of natural resources (using the Gini co-efficient) is worse than it is for assets or income.

As that would probably come to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per person, you're talking about the type of change that is simply that: A philosophical idea. Nothing more. Ever.

An interested claim considering that you live in a state that already uses the system in part. ;-)

Actually the system is trivially easy to implement. Gradually increase land-taxes and gradually broaden the base, whilst gradually reducing taxes on property and raise the tax-free threshold.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Damn fine idea... Email me off-list and we'll talk some more (heh, some of my players read this journal and I wouldn't want to giving anything away)

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

That is actually what most people recommend.

No sign of it in Prosper Australia's FAQs. They make it appear as if they want an instantaneous cut-over.

The 80-year schedule would simply never work anyhow. That's at least 40 different governments (state + federal) dicking around with it. Look at the mess superannuation has been, as each year the government plays with it, makes it more complex, changes the rules. ... And that's something which really could have been done simply.

There is a subtle but fundamental difference. Pensioners, who are currently hit hard on property rates would pay less, not more.

I don't see where you get that conclusion from. It may be true for rural folks, but land is a massive proportion of the cost of homes in suburbia. For those who've owned a home for many years, it's worse. The house itself deteriorates (at least, it often does, as old people lose the ability and/or desire to fix and renovate), while the land value increases.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

No sign of it in Prosper Australia's FAQs. They make it appear as if they want an instantaneous cut-over.

I know. I've pointed this out to them. They actually have written up a 20 year gradual implementation plan in the past, which is quite workable.

The house itself deteriorates (at least, it often does, as old people lose the ability and/or desire to fix and renovate), while the land value increases.

Fred Nile raised this argument about a pensioner who lived in a shabby house on a 1/4 acre block in Vauclause in Sydney. "But I've been here all me life", she whimpered. Frankly, I don't have too much sympathy for this position. Their assets raise in value whilst their contribution to productivity is nil. Sell, and buy an apartment for goodness sakes and invest the proceeds in something that gives a kid a job.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Any reason why you posted this three times? ;-)

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

I screwed formatting one up; LJ screwed the second one up and put it on the end as a new post instead of a reply.

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I don't have too much sympathy for this position.

How can you possibly make any claim to fairness and say that?

Say new scheme were implemented as described. Person X, born now, works hard and pays 30% tax over their working life, amounting to, say, $450,000 in today's money. They are left with easily the resources to own their home and to maintain it in their retirement.

Pensioner Y was born 70 years ago, worked hard and paid 50% tax (including sales taxes, etc) over their working life, amounting to, say, $750,000 in today's money. They are left with nothing but a house they own.

Explain how it is that, after the community has already received $300k more from Y than X, it's fair to then take their house away too.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

How can you possibly make any claim to fairness and say that?

Ultimately because I do not think it is right for people to own what they did not produce, or to purchase what has been achieved by invasion and violence. Which all ownership of natural resources ultimately comes down to.

Pensioner Y was born 70 years ago, worked hard and paid 50% tax (including sales taxes, etc) over their working life, amounting to, say, $750,000 in today's money. They are left with nothing but a house they own.

Apart from the fact they are equally entitled to a citizen's dividend (see above), they also can sell the land that they are not using.

[melamoo.livejournal.com]

Panty parties....oooh I must go back to church! Suddenly 'Sunday best' has a whole new meaning :)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Heheh... I always thought the fact that the world doesn't have a temple to Aphrodite (and other sundry Greco-Roman pagan gods) is a step backwards...