Today I updated some stuff on the blog. I enabled on-the-fly compression, so if you're using a modern browser it should download faster. And also I've made it so permalinks point to one page per post, rather than the page for all the posts that day.#

In an email, Richard pointed me at The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Chrisis by Lynn White, Jr.#

In the days of the scratch-plow, fields were distributed generally in units capable of supporting a single family. Subsistence farming was the presupposition. But no peasant owned eight oxen: to use the new and more efficient plow, peasants pooled their oxen to form large plow-teams, originally receiving (it would appear) plowed strips in proportion to their contribution. Thus, distribution of land was based no longer on the needs of a family but, rather, on the capacity of a power machine to till the earth. Man's relation to the soil was profoundly changed. Formerly man had been part of nature; now he was the exploiter of nature. Nowhere else in the world did farmers develop any analogous agricultural implement. Is it coincidence that modern technology, with its ruthlessness toward nature, has so largely been produced by descendants of these peasants of northern Europe?

This is the sort of thing that Jared Diamond writes about a lot. How and why different cultures were able to turn their geographic location and technology and exploit that to "get ahead."

Lynn White writes about how Christianity influenced and legitimized the Western world's desire and ability to destroy the environment.

What did Christianity tell people about their relations with the environment? While many of the world's mythologies provide stories of creation, Greco-Roman mythology was singularly incoherent in this respect. Like Aristotle, the intellectuals of the ancient West denied that the visible world had a beginning. Indeed, the idea of a beginning was impossible in the framework of their cyclical notion of time. In sharp contrast, Christianity inherited from Judaism not only a concept of time as nonrepetitive and linear but also a striking story of creation. By gradual stages a loving and all- powerful God had created light and darkness, the heavenly bodies, the earth and all its plants, animals, birds, and fishes. Finally, God had created Adam and, as an afterthought, Eve to keep man from being lonely. Man named all the animals, thus establishing his dominance over them. God planned all of this explicitly for man's benefit and rule: no item in the physical creation had any purpose save to serve man's purposes. And, although man's body is made of clay, he is not simply part of nature: he is made in God's image.

Daniel Quinn writes about this in his book Ishmael: why man believes that the world belongs to him, and the problems that this creates. It's interesting how just a small difference in state of mind can have such last effect.

In Antiquity every tree, every spring, every stream, every hill had its own genius loci, its guardian spirit. These spirits were accessible to men, but were very unlike men; centaurs, fauns, and mermaids show their ambivalence. Before one cut a tree, mined a mountain, or dammed a brook, it was important to placate the spirit in charge of that particular situation, and to keep it placated. By destroying pagan animism, Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the feelings of natural objects.

[...]

Our science and technology have grown out of Christian attitudes toward man's relation to nature which are almost universally held not only by Christians and neo-Christians but also by those who fondly regard themselves as post-Christians. Despite Copernicus, all the cosmos rotates around our little globe. Despite Darwin, we are not, in our hearts, part of the natural process. We are superior to nature, contemptuous of it, willing to use it for our slightest whim. The newly elected Governor of California, like myself a churchman but less troubled than I, spoke for the Christian tradition when he said (as is alleged), "when you've seen one redwood tree, you've seen them all." To a Christian a tree can be no more than a physical fact.

This makes me think about why I am vegan. I attempt to honour nature and other life forms, but I wonder if it is enough. I would be disappointed in myself if I stopped at animals and in turn did not respect plants or the environment at large. And I am disappointed in myself sometimes: I drive a car more than I want to and I probably buy clothes and products that abuse the land. I'm still as stupid as anyone, but hopefully I know my mistakes.

Jakob Nielsen has a new "Alertbox" up today.#

I typically focus my top-ten lists on issues that I think are the most important and most in need of attention. This time, I've used a different criterion: I've focused on the known usability principles that designers most frequently violate. Whether big or small, the very prevalence of these usability problems makes them worthy of attention.

The frequency statistics are based on the numerous homepage reviews that my company has performed since I published my book on homepage usability. This data source introduces a bias, because only big companies or government agencies with a substantial usability commitment will invest $10,000 to have an independent expert assess its homepage design. However, we can turn that bug into a feature: if companies with a demonstrated commitment to usability make certain mistakes, they must be particularly slippery pitfalls.

Thanks for the Blogroll link Dave. I'm glad that I know you, you're an inspiration to me.#

Richard linked to Why Personal Weblogs Suck last month and I just got a chance to read it.#

If weblogs weren't so fucking pathetic, "blog" wouldn't probably sound as idiotic to me as it does I guess. I just hear it and I think about someone standing in a Starbucks ordering a "Half-caf Venti Latte with soy milk and no foam." To me, the word 'blog' represents the type of mentality that goes into a weblog; a need to be trendy about something completely unnecessary and over-hyped.

[...skip to the conclusion...]

As we can see, clearly weblogs are fucking retarded as a general rule. Most weblog authors either think they have something important to say (self-centered and egotistical authors), or believe that they have an audience that cares what they think (delusional and irrational authors.) What can be plainly seen is that most weblog authors need something to push them back into the real world from the self-centered and delusional world they have created for themselves.

I'm reading some of the older writing of Striling Newberry. Very awesome. His legendary Open Letter to the Clark Movement:#

By the time you read these words, the bell will be tolling for Wesley Clark's candidacy. It will be clear across the country that the campaign of Wesley Clark is nothing more than the Gore campaign with a better candidate - this will mean that activists, the people who can create a field organization that can win Iowa and New Hampshire, will know that this campaign is nothing more than a media creation.

This is the defining moment for the Clark Campaign. Either he will show he can take charge, or he will be forever branded a tool of insiders, unable to understand the enormity of the task. A man who cannot fill a campaign, cannot fill a cabinet. A man who cannot run a campaign, cannot run the government. A man who cannot obey the law, cannot uphold the law.

Matt Stoller has something great going with the Clark Tribune. Definitely read it if you're interested in Wesley Clark new.#

A very funny video ad for Clark.

The quote of the day comes from Teri Velazquez from Eugene, Oregon:

"'We meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political and material ruin...Corruption dominates the ballot box, the [state] legislatures and the Congress and touches even the bench...The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced...The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few.'"

Richard links to an article in the New Yorker about Tina Fey, a head writer at SNL.#

Gender has been Fey's ace since she arrived at "S.N.L."—one recent sketch dramatized the barbarism of bikini waxing, and another cast Barbie as a fading beauty living with a gay man in Southern California—and she has spoofed stereotypes of women while taking on formerly neglected subjects, such as infertility, sexual abuse, and plastic surgery. When a male staff member asked Fey, who had just written a sketch that imagined a world in which old black ladies were Hollywood trophy wives, if her sketches were "anti-woman," she told him that the show's business was to make fun of people, and if it didn't make fun of women the female performers would have no parts to play. Now she has found a way of playing sexism for laughs, of telling audiences, "I can say this, but you can't."

I'm listening to The Blue Album. So good.#

Carly had a great day of reading the other day. She comments on the Iraqi Allocation Bill.#

It looks like the Iraqi allocation bill is going to pass unanimously in the Senate. The parts that disturb me the most from this article are:

(1) Senate leaders said their chamber would approve the bill on a unanimous voice vote on Monday, indicating that despite lingering concerns Democrats no longer feel there is any point in casting a symbolic vote against it.

Um, wha? I think there's always a point in casting a symbolic vote against it. Maybe they should listen to Nancy Pelosi about having tin ears to what your constituents are saying. If you're against it, say so with your vote. Voting in favor just because it would pass no matter what is silly and defeats the purpose. It's not like this is the product of a grand attempt at conciliatory compromises. This bill has been railroaded through with a "support your commander in chief" sort of sentiment. I hope it doesn't pass unanimously. I hope someone has guts enough to say that they disapprove of the bill in its final form.

and (2), this quote: "Delivering the president's request sends a strong signal to those who want to harm Americans," said Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the Republican whip. "The U.S. is committed to finishing the ongoing war against terror that began on Sept. 11th, 2001."

Could someone remind me what giving $80+ billion to Iraq has to do with combating terrorism? I think it sends the message that you should piss us off if you need vast internal upgrades. We'll come in and fuck you up and then build new schools, government buildings, and hospitals at no extra charge. Maybe my hometown should secede or something, 'cause we could definitely use some of that stuff.

Doug Miller describes his remembrance system, the Commonplace Book.#

The excerpts and links in this entire post were culled either from my Commonplace Book document or from the Tinderbox document I use for writing this blog, and it was completely written while offline. To a large extent, Doing Something Different is the public face of Commonplace Book, where I publish selected material that I want to share with a wider audience. Conversely, material I write about in the blog will often end up in Commonplace Book, accompanied by a cluster of related entries providing deeper reference and context.

Granted, this system isn't a true Remembrance Agent in that it doesn't sense the content of what I'm writing about and automatically provide associative information. It's pretty close, though, and amazingly useful. [...] this system serves as a highly personal reference library, clipping service, and search engine to mylife - something I see as the ultimate direction in personal computing.

Tim Bray linked to a rant from Ole Eichorn about Longhorn.#

I attended the Microsoft Professional Developer's Conference in Los Angeles last week. Microsoft formally unveiled "Longhorn", the next version of Windows, along with a bunch of new underlying technology. The target of the conference was most emphatically developers, and the focus was "how to build stuff with these new tools". [...] But my takeaway is... there's a lot less here than it would at first appear.

If you're still reading and haven't clicked your back button in disgust, let me explain. The most important thing is not how easy it is to build code, the most important thing is how well the code runs once it is built. This concept seems to have escaped the Longhorn developers, and from this viewpoint Longhorn and its underlying technologies are pretty unexciting.

I disagree fundamentally with this point, but Ole says some very interesting things later.

Ryan McGee tells a great story.#

[Ryan's friend Kirsten invites him to play a part in her play.]

"What's the part?" I ask.

"The villain's wife."

OK. This is the part where, if a movie, the camera does that "zoom in while dollying forward" trick on my head, which now bears a panicked face. I wasn't sure what about me possibly screamed "able to play female well". Harvard scientists had seen me in a swimming pool and ran tests to see if I was the Missing Link. I mean, "Ryan" and "feminine" had never been uttered in the same sentence without "is in no way at all even close to" bewtixt them.

Carly wrote some great stuff about the Rock the Vote debate.#

Rock the Vote is like...my dream job. I would love to work for them, to inspire young people to vote, to come up with these sometimes brilliant ad campaigns that they have, to be able to get access to the people with power on behalf of my generation...lord. I can't even express to you how much I would love it. I admire that organization so much. If you watched the thing tonight, the commercials they aired? With the various people doing improv songs on voting? Amazing stuff. I hope they air them more. Because they were cool.

[...List of Candidates their chance at success...]

The sad part is that the people that I put in my "snowball's chance" category are mostly people that I like quite a bit...if I voted/volunteered purely on an issues basis, I'd probably be a Kucinich supporter. I don't know if you've ever met any Kucinich people? But I have. And they're friggin' crazy. He's too left wing to be electable. Plus he looks like an elf? And let's talk about TV age candidates. I'm sorry, but it's true.

[...Get ready for Carly to do the Carly Comedie Blitz...]

I hated the girl at the beginning who asked Mac or PC in an obvious attempt to be That Girl Who Asked Clinton Boxers or Briefs. Please. Obviously, the girl at the end who asked about partying was far, far cooler, and I loved Sharpton and Kerry's responses. I wish they'd let everyone answer that one.

Hip Hip. Hip Hip.#

I know a girl who would look amazing in the Legend dress but 500 bucks is money.#

Richard links to Christopher Hitchens, who writes about the Iraq war.#

I have noticed lately a distressing tendency on the part of those who support the intervention in Iraq to rest their case largely on underreported good news. Now, it is certainly true, as I have said myself, that there is much to celebrate in the new Iraq. The restoration of the ecology of the southern marshes, the freedom to follow the majority Shiite religion, the explosion of new print and electronic media, the emancipation of the schools and universities, and the consolidation of Kurdish autonomy are all magnificent things. But those who want to take credit for them must also axiomatically accept the blame for the failure to anticipate huge lacunae in the provision of power, water, and security.

More to the point, one has to be prepared to support a campaign—or a cause—that is going badly. The president has been widely lampooned by many a glib columnist for saying that increased violence is not necessarily a cause for despair and may even be evidence of traction. He is, in fact, quite right to take this view, which was first expressed, to my knowledge, by Gen. John Abizaid. Those who murder the officials of the United Nations and the Red Cross, set fire to oil pipelines and blow up water mains, and shoot down respected clerics outside places of worship are indeed making our point for us. There is no justifiable way that a country as populous and important as Iraq can be left at the mercy of such people. And—here is my crux—there never was.

We're so right and so much better than those stupid Islamic children, they're so lucky we're going to protect them from themselves.

Christopher Lydon posts a new interview with Cameron Barrett about the Clark Community Network and blogs in politics.#

We do seem to be approaching a new definition of a political campaign. The Clark Community Network, Cameron Barrett says, is "a collection of knowledge." He presents the CCN as friendlier, more inclusive everyman's place than the Howard Dean site. In conversation he expands on this provocative note: "We're not just reaching out to embrace the online world. Our strategy allows for the participation of every American -- not just those who have wealth and influence. Dean started early and has the buzz but we're doing it properly. Politics will never be the same." I don't think he's hit the literary style or musical rhythm of the Dean blog yet, but he's assembled all the instruments and he's serious about making them swing.

I like that none of the candidate bloggers look at other candidate's blogs. If by "like it" I mean "don't like it."

Dave Winer links to a Gary Rivlin story at Wired about Linus Torvalds.#

Linus Torvalds wants me to believe he's too boring for this story. The creator of the Linux operating system portrays himself as a mild-mannered soul leading a humdrum life, just another guy lucky enough to own a McMansion in the hills above San Jose courtesy of the money-mad late '90s. Before agreeing to meet me, Torvalds sent an email imagining that I'd be overwhelmed by the tedium of hanging around with the likes of him.

"Six shots of coffee and I was expecting Linus to really spring into action," he wrote, pretending to be me. "Where would he go next? Fighting evil software hoarders? But no. He got into his car (dammit, if I had a car like that I wouldn't act so sluglike) and drove sedately back home I closed my eyes and dreamt of more exciting assignments."

Faré writes about good intentions.#

First Axiom of Human Behaviour: Every human seeks what he thinks is good. No, not "good", as in any formal theory published by any doctor in morality or theology, or as in your opinion or the opinion of anyone else but himself at that very moment. Just good according to his current feeling. It's a tautology, it's the very definition of good. Only deranged psychopaths or repressed schizoids do what they think is evil.

[...]

To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good. -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Britt Blaser wonders if we shall "shape" or "endure" political power?#

We're at democracy's inflection point. Democracy is where the web was in 1993 and we can shape it any way we like. Broadcast politics seems vulnerable and the key to political power is to let go of the illusion that politicians, governments, campaigns and political parties are in charge of the voice (power) of the people (polis).

It's the governance, stupid! But the means to effect better governance will arise only from politicians and stakeholders dissatisfied with governance as usual.

[...] I had not realized until recently that the voices outside an Internet-powered campaign must drown out the voices within. The Internet clue is that any campaign is assured of victory if it can inspire a smart mob to use the right tools to organize itself into a viral, loose hierarchy. Until the constituents build their own bridges and form their own hierarchies of influence, every campaign's echo chamber is sound and fury signifying not quite enough.

Ryan Overbey writes about Friendster.#

In any case, I signed up with the people on Friendster whom I do consider to be close friends, and my current network stands at 60,000+ people. Wow. Now I see why their servers are slow. But cruising the photo gallery has been entertaining. Thanks to Janet for a pointer to this amazing guide to Friendster photos. This will help all you guys out there weed out the fat chicks, which as everyone knows is the most important skill required in the hazardous minefield of online dating. So arm yourselves with this guide, get out there, and hit on all those hotties!

Deane at Gadgetopia writes about Napster and the Italian Job.#

Seth Green plays a computer geek who claims he was Shawn Fanning's roommate in college, and that Fanning stole the idea for Napster from him. Fanning has always claimed that his nickname in college was "Napster" because of his nappy hair. Green's character, however, says that Fanning called it Napster because he stole if from this guy while he was taking a nap.

And then, in a flashback, Fanning himself makes a cameo, stealthily removing a floppy from this guy's computer while he sleeps. Throughout the rest of film, the other characters are required to call him "Napster."

My wife and kid couldn't understand why I [thought] this was so funny. "What's Napster?" "Uh, it's kind of like Kazaa..."

Via Dean is an Ananova story about Women Shopping.#

German scientists say a woman's rational thought disappears when she goes shopping.

Researchers at the University of Munster in Germany said female shoppers simply lose the ability to think straight.

They measured the electrical activity in the part of the brain which deals with common sense and rational thought in female shoppers.

Jeremy Hedley says something very interesting about the Matrix.#

Last night I watched the second film in The Matrix trilogy, Matrix Reloaded. To be honest, the machines couldn't take over fast enough for me. It was utter gibberish from start to finish. Talk about a squandered opportunity. Even the freeway sequence — I was getting my kicks where I could at this point and if they had to come in the tired old form of a hopped-up car chase then so be it — was over-long and repetitive to the point where I stopped it for a moment and went and made some toast.

The worst part was that it made me realise what a fluke the original had been. The Wachowskis are obviously not in control of their material, or they are but they've made some terrible mistakes about what that material really is.

John links to Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age.#

Jeff Jarvis writes about the Holocaust.#

It may be true that the majority of contemporary Germans are legally innocent of crimes committed under the Third Reich, which is why there is such collective frustration about not being able to shake the stigma of genocide. But regardless of redemptive impulses and achievements, everyone in Germany remains morally responsible. This was a crime that took place on German land. The soil and soul of Germany are fated to have long memories, and Degussa, despite its commendable recent deeds, should not be profiting from its newfound virtue.

It is not German guilt that must be eternal, but the acceptance of moral responsibility — no matter how many years have passed since Zyklon B was last used to claim lives, and no matter how many other life-protecting chemicals have replaced it.

Richard links to Max Frankel writing about television in the New York Times.#

Television thrives by presenting an alternating stream of fact and fiction and therefore bears a special responsibility to distinguish between the two. Yet it seems determined to do just the opposite, to blend fact and fiction into an indistinguishable froth. For a season or two, reality entertainment recruited real people to suffer trials and tribulations; now real people are being hurled into comic stunts to achieve the pitch of sitcoms, like those misshapen guys on "Average Joe" who have been given a TV season to defy the laws of assortative mating and woo a comely maiden.

AJ on the Matrix.#

Watching The Matrix trilogy is like seeing a great magic trick and then being told how it's done immediately after. As groundbreaking as the first film was, the illusion was completely dispelled by the inept storytelling and reused ideas in the two sequels. It's not that there are a lot of plot holes, but it felt like new ideas kept being introduced for the sake of having a new idea. Like a little kid who's caught in a lie, the rambling continues on incoherently in hopes that eventually what's being said will come together.

[...]

Frankly, when it was all over, I really didn't care. In fact, I found myself scratching my head wondering what really was so horrible about the Matrix? If it was a choice of living under the illusion of a world where I had a 9-5 job, friends, beer & regular nookie, why in sam hell would I want to know it was all a lie? Thanks for yanking my ass out so I can spend the rest of my adult life underground without online porn. It's no wonder Cypher ended up a traitor, I know I'd kill for a good steak after a hard day's work.

Joi Ito writes about becoming a cranky old man and how blogs may be able to make it better.#

Many of the old men I know are cranky. They are often cranky because they've been fighting long battles. Battles about technology, battles about politics, battles about education, all kind of battles. Most old men have their hot buttons that trigger a rush of memories of these battles. When most old men talk to each other, they sense these hot buttons and generally avoid each other's hot buttons. The rule about avoiding religion and politics as dinner topics comes from the fact that there are many hot buttons in these areas.

Doug Miller on becoming a sales guy.#

For those not initiated into the mysteries of real estate agents, we're compensated on straight commission. There's no money until you sell something. Further, there are some not insignificant expenses to get started. This is a big deal, then - I've proven I can prospect for leads, land a lead, take that lead through the search process and facilitate a deal to acceptance. Even on this deal we're not all the way there yet - we still have to get through inspections and get to the closing table, something that's about a month off yet.

Nonetheless, it's great to have my optimism of the past couple of months confirmed. I feel very good about what I'm doing. It's a lot of hard work, but I enjoy it immensely. I seem to have a talent for it. I spend the bulk of my time doing things I like to do, and a minimum amount of time doing things I don't like.

Jay Rosen writes about politics in a different key.#

Miles Rapaport--former Secretary of State of Connecticut, now the head of Demos--used to tell me the story of a woman who decided, apparently out of the blue, that she wanted to volunteer for the Democratic Party in her state. "Only she couldn't find it," Miles would say. People who knew Connecticut politics directed her to candidates looking for volunteers. But she did not want to work for a candidate; she wanted to do something for the state party.

Ah, said the people who know politics, then you can send money, here's the address. No, the woman replied, I don't want to send money, I want to send myself. Can you tell me where to go? Of course, no one could. She wanted to join the party and do something, (and she assumed the state party did things that involved people like her) but she couldn't find it. No one could tell her where it was. Which raised the question: did it really exist for citizens, or was it just a drop box for checks? Of course there's a state party in Connecticut, insiders would say, but point of entry is not their problem and it is not their point of view.

Here we come to the dark side of the game, Get Elected-- and the thing that should have discredited it many years ago. Points of entry. The fewer people in the game--and that includes voters--the better it is for the career players. That's how Get Elected works. As a model, it predicts best when participation is low and public attention slight. It's simple: low involvement means fewer variables, which means the wizards have a chance of looking like wizards.

Kaye Trammell wonders why she reads blogs and plans to experiment with it.#

Thanks to blogs, we come across people from around the globe that are just like us. They have similar jobs, similar goals, listen to the same music & the list goes on & on. My husband & I were just talking about this the other day.

But, in the past I talked about how great blogs are because they expose you to new ideas & types of people.

So which is it? Do we read blogs maintained by people like us, people we want to be like or people completely different? I think that the jury is still out on that one.