Vale Alan Ratcliffe, More Unitarians, Completing Works, Gaming and the Usual Madness.

[tcpip]

Last Friday attended the funeral of Alan Ratcliffe, 101, at the Melbourne Unitarian Church. Just to give a sense of perspective Alan's school-teacher was the man who stopped the trains after the Kelly gang ripped up the lines. He bought his first Harley Davidson and Cheverolet in the mid-1920s and was still driving at the age of 91. An uncompromising socialist and atheist, he found no problem with being an active member of the Church for over fifty years. Nor did he ever waver in his support for voluntary euthanasia. The service, conducted by Peter Abrehart, was dignified and insightful. Some 150 people were in attendance.

Was expecting Andrew Chalmers at the Unitarians on Sunday on the topic of public versus proprietary science; for the second time he didn't show. Felt quite silly for having organised him as a speaker and once again, for having to conduct the service and give a presentation off-the-cuff. Managed to provide, on-the-fly, a presentation on the scientific method from inductivism, deductivism, and falsification, to research structures, scientific paradigms and 'anarchist science'. This Sunday coming I am on again as the presenter with the topic "Prospects for Liberal and Rationalist Islam".

Have completed, a website for motor vehicle apprenticeships, the T3 Program. Still has a couple of rough spots to iron out. On Tuesday completed CCNA 2 Prac Exam; engaging in a major catch-up for semester 3 in the following fortnight. Putting my foot down at Borderlands and have submitted network and web policies. They will comply to my benevolent network dictatorship ;-). Still going through the mountain of procedures that is my work at Naturelinks. Also, just have received confirmation that damien_wise and I are embarking on an IT publication.

Gaming over the last week has been HeroQuest and GURPS Australian Noir, both extremely enjoyable as was the films (Soylent Green and Westworld at the Astor afterwards). Mongoose Publishing almost overlooked my name as a playtester for the new upcoming edition of RuneQuest; a couple of terse emails has fixed that up. This weeked is Retrocon; come along and play. Still developing my Cyberpunk/Paranoia crossover; the systems seem to integrate very nicely. On topic, Valhalla Games is pushing the envelope when it comes to pricing.

Somalia the Libertarian bastion, falls. Livejournal bans displays of nipples (seriously, this place has gone to the dogs since Six Apart took over). The amazing survival story of Mike the Hamster

Comments

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Who knew Valhalla had re-opened?
In the hell-hole that is Balcatta even.

I must say, he seems remarkably bitter.
Moreso.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Well, he did have a bad couple of years following the enforced closure of the Perth store. Running for parliament was pretty nuts as well.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

I believe its just a warehouse, that he is attempting to slowly empty via ebay.

Doug has been going through a pretty bad patch, I'd say. He had a lot of trouble in the few years before the closure of the store, as well - court cases alleging insurance fraud (I think not by Doug, but by a family member and store employee) for example. And I seriously doubt the store ever made much money, or ever made much headway against Tactics/GHD. No doubt its been a struggle for him the last few years.

I have heard vague rumours of Doug peddling some sort of herbal remedy as well. I hadn't heard about him running for parliament, though - details?

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Doug ran as a candidate for the south metropolitan region and received 0.01 of a quota

http://www.electionswa.com.au/_lc_regions.htm

I agree he's been through a very bad couple of years and I am very sympathetic to his plight. I am not sure that charging excessive prices on ebay is the way out however.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Tell me more of this "anarchist science".

I think Doug (of Valhalla) might be losing it in a big way. I'll certainly be surprised if the store reopens. Still, if he sells a couple of those things he can repay the money he owes Swancon...

Even the recent auctions of rarities from Greg Staffords personal collection, sold and optionally signed by him, only sometimes got close to those levels.

I'd be quite interested to hear you opinions on Liberal Islam, if you actually right them down.

I am quite amused by the prospect of Somalia as libertarian ideal. Good phone and internet service, you just have to put up with being killed or extorted by warlords and gangs every now and then! Very cyberpunk, the funny part is that some people actually think thats a good trade off, or at least are prepared to argue that with a straight face.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Anarchist science is shorthand for Paul Feyerabend's "against method" proposals.

I pointed out Greg's recent auction to Doug as examples of the maximum prices he could possibly expect (I managed to pick up Hero Wars on that!).

Liberal Islam will include elements of the Sufi tradition, the syncretic flavour of the Malay archipelago, some of the nicer times in history (such as the Spanish caliphate), and the Mutazilites.

Somalia as cyberpunk-Libertarian. Yep, that sounds about right. Some people seem to forget that cyberpunk was supposed to represent a dystopia.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Ok, Feyerabend. Been there, read that. Works only as a critique, in my view, but an interesting one. Its a pity he never got to do the dialogue volume with/against Imre Lakatos, that would have been terrific. I really like Lakatos' work.

OK, historical Islam. I think its well established that there is a well established liberal tradition within Islam - and a pretty strong argument that its only the rise of Wahabbist influence since the 19th century that has made modern Islamic notably intolerant since (though the line is a little less clear when you consider the craziness certainly extends to Shi'ites too, as in Iran). The much more difficult question is about Liberal Islam in the modern day, what are its prospects for success against the back-to-the-middle-ages Islamist trend, backed up by oil state money and emowered by deluded US policy.

I've recommended the book 'Desperately Seeking Paradise' a few times, BTW - a great personal account of the intellectual battle against Islamism from the point of view of a Liberal Muslim (who also happens to be a notable Western intellectual, Ziauddin Sardar). If you haven't read it I'd recommend it.

Some people seem to forget that cyberpunk was supposed to represent a dystopia.

Which is why its so bleakly funny.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

You are quite right about Feyerabend; it has been commented that because he didn't offer an alternative the claim of "anything goes" became "everything stays".

Personally I'm much more of a fan of Lakatos myself also.

My pitch will not only be historical Islam, but the handful of moderates that seem to make some headway (such as Indonesia's neo-Mutazilites) and Irshad Manji. I'll also take into account Sardar's comments (thanks for the heads-up)

[cptjohnc.livejournal.com]

Ah, nipplegate. LJ Abuse defitely screwed this one, but most of the arguments against the LJ position, honestly, lack legal merit, I think. The biggest problem is that the legislation which protects breastfeeding (and defines it as 'not indecent exposure') protects just that -- breastfeeding. Not pictures of breastfeeding, not talking about breastfeeding, not talking about pictures of breastfeeding.

The limitation applies only to 'default icons' as I understand it, not all icons. this would equate it to a 'reasonable time, place or manner' restriction if this were government action. Of course, LJ is private (though clearly holding itself out as a public forum...) so strictly the constitutional standard (of the US - where LJ is based) wouldn't really apply. OTOH, LJ permits all sorts of sexually suggestive pictures (but not exposing nipples) as default icons.

I think the moms are morally and ethically right. I think LJ has the law in its corner, even if it is stupid. I think both need to grow up and deal with it all. LJ needs to admit they were wrong and stupid rather than trying to justify the flawed position. the moms need to realize this is not an affront to their motherhood or their ability to breastfeed. If this were the 'top-freedom' crowd, it might be different, but as a pure breastfeeding issue... there is no issue.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Re; breastfeeding - so let me get this right... Legally one is allowed to do it, but not discuss it? Or show how it is done.

Hmmm.. sometimes indeed the law is an ass.

Something I've noticed in this day and age is that institutions seem to tie themselves into all sorts of knots rather than admit error.

[cptjohnc.livejournal.com]

Legally one is allowed to do it, but not discuss it? Or show how it is done.


Time, place and manner -- sure you can -- just not in your default icon (or in the common spaces in the mall, or at the public playground, or in a restaurant, or...)

But yeah, I think that one bit of fallout of having had 6 years of Bush administration in the US (as a model for the world, dontchaknow) is that we never admit our mistakes -- we take convoluted ways to justify the action. just 2 more years... until we get out of this frying pan... but how about that fire?

[mareth-redorb.livejournal.com]

Hey, Mik here, I realised where I recognised you from about five minutes after leaving the pub on Monday night :)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Aha! Brilliant!

Consider yourself tagged sir!

[mareth-redorb.livejournal.com]

Thank you sir :)