Programming, NaNoWriMo, Gaming and Social News, the Socialist Tide

[tcpip]

Not surprisingly both prior employers have contacted me asking for advice. One requested that I come back in the future saying "that your finger is really on the pulse" on what needs to be done. Er, thanks but no thanks. I still have one hefty web contract outstanding and as such I've spent quite a lot of time reviewing and rebuilding my Apache, PHP and MySQL knowledge along with installing OpenSuSE in preference to Ubuntu on my desktop - and just in time for major changes between Novell and Microsoft. Further, because it rocks, I've started programming in Free Pascal, something I haven't done for a good fifteen years.

Also simpy because I can I've joined NaNoWriMo yesterday. My novel is entitled "The Outcast Girl" and is loosely based on the Ten Thousand Islands PBeM roleplaying game I ran many months ago. In a nutshell, it's a historical and anthropological study of Malay society in the early sixteenth century, with a monomythic narrative. Two thousand words done, fourty-eight thousand to go!

Gaming this week consisted of further development in our DragonQuest world (I'm really enjoying the additional grounding in the earth sciences this is giving me), a new initiative system for AD&D that actually makes sense, Urban Arcana last Sunday where the noble PCs saved St Kilda's prostitutes from a "Jack The Ripper" demon, and Diplomacy and Carcassonne (courtesy of anthanum on Tuesday. Came second in Diplomacy, but was thoroughly thrashed in Carcassonne, which I played for the first time. The latter is really quite a brilliant production. The rules are very simple but the strategic depth is excellent. Social life included a wonderful fourtieth birthday party for splodgenoodles with culinary delights provided by tenbears and halloween drinks and zombie movies with severina_242 and _zombiemonkey

In world politics over recent months I've noticed a run of victories for various left-wing and socialist parties, including the re-election of Lula in Brazil, the re-election of the socialist president in Bulgaria, a surprise win by the Social Democrats in Austria, and even little Montenegro. The only exception is Congo where the politics are personality-based rather than ideological. Alongside all of this, the world's biggest union has just been formed. Is the world going a slight shade of red without the mass media noticing? And what will this mean for that Stern Report? It takes New Zealand newspaper to accurately display Australia's view.

Comments

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

The name "Friends of Science", smacks of pseudo-science or complete bullshit. Science doesn't need friends. It's science, bitch. I went to google and typed ' "friends of science" front ' and the first link to come up told me the apparent truth.

I will send him there, though I'm sure it'll start an argument. He's one of these guys that, when presented with a large body of evidence and conclusions drawn from same, will fall back on "Yeah but that's just opinion". He seems unable to comprehend the idea of a consensus 'truth', or the fact that opinions (such as his on global warming) can be WRONG.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

"Yeah but that's just opinion".

Peer review in science is anything that "just opinion". The process of hypothesis making and hypothesis breaking is utterly savage in its rigour. When it comes to these field of inquiry, scientists are not nice people, and nor should they be. They are utterly amoral in the pursuit of truth.

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

But that's just your opinion man ;)

It's a fairly effective argument - if you wish to remain an ignorant fool your whole life.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

But that's just your opinion man ;)

Hmmm.. Maybe they need to actually spend some months doing research science.

[goatunit.livejournal.com]

That's the most damaging effect of Fox News, if you ask me. They've successfully blurred the line between news and commentary, making everything seem like it's an opinion. And they've used that like a cudgel to ward off accusations of dishonesty. That's definitely seeped into the culture as a whole.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

There was a good issue of New Left Review many years ago that attacked postmodernism on a similar basis. The argument basically was that if matters of truth are considered relativistic it effectively removes the only weapon the disenfranchised have.

[goatunit.livejournal.com]

I think the response would be that however uncomfortable or impractical an idea is, that has no bearing on its legitimacy.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I have recently thought about composing in a single volume a list of "Unpopular Truths"