Christopher Lydon posts an interview with George Lakoff. More on this later.#

Note: If you're a blogger in the Boston area and wouldn't mind being recorded while talking for a minute or so about your blog, get in contact with me - my email is to the right.

Allen Brill at Open Source Politics asks, "Just How Biblical Do You Want to Be?"#

He tells the Biblical story of Er, Judah, and Tamar.

The need to procreate to enlarge the clan and the nation was paramount in the Ancient Near East. The clan that was most prolific was usually the most powerful. The nation with the largest population and army could dominate its smaller neighbors. (For a more nuanced modern-day version of this argument, see Samuel Huntingon's The Clash of Civilizations.) This story seems to teach that making babies is more important than laws against adultery, prostitution and incest.

Even within the biblical period, this attitude toward the relative importance of procreation undergoes change. In the early Christian tradition, celibacy and childlessness become acceptable, even praiseworthy in some circumstances. Scholars disagree about whether there is a tendency in rabbinic law to limit the application of levirate marriage.

Most in modern Western culture might find Tamar a clever and courageous woman dealing with difficult circumstances, but would be unlikely to embrace the practice of brother-in-laws or father-in-laws becoming responsible for fathering children for a widow. Before anyone tries to take a biblical argument for a connection between marriage and procreation too far, it would be best to consider just how "biblical" we want our marital practices to become.

Chrystal wonders what the deal is with Vegetarians anyways.#

Vegetarians choose a meatless lifestyle for a number of reasons which I will cause ponder and question to in yet another debautchery of the english language.

It is healthier. Noooot really. Vegetarians have to work harder to find and obtain all their daily vitamins and other stuff you need. That must be a lot of stress in the grocery store. Enough stress to cause a heart attack, perhaps? Think of all that time you waste looking for the proper soy milk or boca burgers. Weak. And all the while you could just be picking up something twice as tasty with half as much effort. Psh.. where's the logic in that? Let's say relying on the green stuff for all your nutritional needs is not a big deal to you. You don't mind putting forth the effort. Well, that's cool. If you want your tomb stone to say, "Died because of predjudices against deliciousness," be my guest..

Brittney writes about when comments are good, and when they're bad.#

Speaking of assholes. Certain people are using the comments atattched to each post to harrass and belittle me, offering up advice on how to better my writing when I don't remember having asked what they thought. I think some posts on this weblog generate intelligent, funny and often engaging discussion, and for those posts comments will remain open. However on other shorter posts, or the ficiton posts, or on more personal essay-type stuff I think it's wise to leave the comments closed. I welcome openly valid critcisms and ideas and the like, but perhaps if your criticism is solely negative then that (unsolicited) critique might be better suited for email. Or not at all. Posts like this one though where I'm basically letter writing to the reader will definitely have comments open and I encourage them wholeheartedly. Just tightening things up before they get out of hand and I have to start issuing some fucking beatings. The VCB saw my fists of fury this morning (see below) and he can attest they are quick, precise and mighty.

Richard will tell you that advice is bullcrap. Don't try to manipulate me.

Griff Wigley writes about civic journalism and blogging when thinking about a Jay Rosen comment.#

I'm paying close attention to the role of weblogs and "conversational journalism/citizen-driven journalism" -- citizens being more than passive consumers of media.

[...]

Key phrase: "It's the dialogue among separate sources of information that's radically new."

[...]

It would be interesting to add "creating a civic blogosphere" to a local unit of government's bag of strategic tools -- a city or a county especially. The idea would be to get key players, relevant institutions, and interested citizens to crank up their own civic-oriented weblogs and then agree to read each other's blogs and link to posts as they see fit.

The goal would be to raise the level of civic discourse. The more people who engage in civic conversations, the more engaged they'll be in the civic life of the area, the better for everyone who lives nearby.

Mark Bernstein writes about staging and different containers in Weblogs.#

Best Tinderbox point at EdBlogger: it's very important, when writing a weblog, to have several different containers of unpublished material. I have one for half-formed ideas, another for posts in composition. A third bin holds posts I think are ready to publish, but that I'm saving for the ideal moment. Another bin holds writing that I now think is too inflammatory to post, but nonetheless too good to discard.

Jerome Doolittle writes that "No Mr. President, The Real Problem is That You Suck At Fighting Terrorism."#

The principal answer to charges that regular Americans are attacking W because he is fighting terrorism should be to explain in a courteous way that W is not good at fighting terrorism. Thus, a better response would run something like this:

1) We're not attacking the president for fighting terrorism -- we're trying to get him to fight terrorism. Some of the Democrats' ideas have been adopted, such as the Department of Homeland Security, but W has blocked the most important real anti-terror measures backed by Democrats, such as seaport security plans to make sure that terrorist can't smuggle bombs right into our harbors in L.A., Baltimore, or Galveston, Texas.

[...]

4) Don't question our patriotism. We're not attacking the president because he's against terrorism -- we're attacking him because he has failed to fight terrorism the right way. We're no safer at home today than we were on 9/11. Why? Because W has gotten us bogged down in Iraq, and has refused to adopt the effective anti-terror policies that the Democrats have proposed. Remember what a good job the Democrats did on the military and national security the last time we were in, and give credit where credit is due -- the magnificent military that prevailed in Iraq was built by Bill Clinton. And do you know why we haven't found WMD in Iraq? It's because Bill Clinton's program of disarming and containing Iraq worked.

Metafilter links to The SLR Project.#

Franklin Mint points to a quote from Thant Tessman on comp.lang.lisp about anonymous functions and readability.#

Before the invention of higher-level languages like Fortran, the programmer was burdened with the task of naming every intermediate value in the calculation of an expression. A programmer accustomed to the functional style finds the need in non-FP languages to name every function analogously awkward.

-Thant Tessman

Lulu at Bitter Greens writes about giving up veganism.#

I've been a vegan for almost two years. Before that, I was ovo-lacto vegetarian for 4 or 5. I've been flirting with the idea of going back to ovo-lacto for quite a while, but it's a really hard decision.

[...]

The big issue around the decision is of course that it's hard to allow myself to choose the less-ethical thing. I always hear of these backsliding ex-vegetarians who insist that "my body just wanted meat," and while of course I support the idea of listening to your body, I can't help but think they should've found another way to satisfy that need or desire. I'm trying to have some compassion for myself (this is a resounding theme in my psychotherapy) and forgive my imperfection of not being completely fulfilled and enriched in the spiritual, not nutritional sense, by a vegan diet. It's a big fucking challenge though, and it will be moreso when I have to admit my failure to my vegan friends. It's not a failure but a decision, I should think; I can't take responsibility for the entire weight of the fucked-up way animals are treated by our society. Eehhh. I'll try to think that, try to relax and enjoy, but maybe I'll change my mind and retreat from this emotional challenge by just stringently taking the high road.

I respect other vegans even if they were only vegan for a few months. To me, the most important thing about being vegetarian or vegan is being mindful of how your actions can affect the rest of the world. There's no need to blame all the problems of the world on yourself, but it's important to remember that those problems exist because of people acting together.

My motto is: "I'm still as stupid as anyone, but at least I know my mistakes." I stole it from Propagandhi.

Brian Weatherson writes about cloning on Crooked Timber.#

One of the neat things about the cloning debate is that it's one of very few places where you'll hear Christian conservatives saying that sex is good. Normally one hears that sex is at best a mortal sin and at worst the cause of all that's wrong with modern society. But give us a chance to make babies any other way, and all of a sudden it's sweetness and light. I mean, which of the following two kinds of activities looks to you like a 'repugnant' way to originate life?

The kind of activity that goes on in nightclub bathrooms and on the sets of porn movies and between teenagers in the backseats of their parents' cars.

The kind of activity that goes on when people who have dedicated their lives to understanding a particular natural mystery try to carefully apply their knowledge in order to improve the lot of their fellow humans.

He provides some very interesting arguments.

Jane at Game Girl Advance writes about sex geeks.#

A major problem with the [Gamer.tv Sexiest Gamer] contest is that the gamers pictured are not in the least sexy to me! Okay, we all have different taste and all that, sure. And I *guess* I appreciate a nice washboard stomach as much as the next girl. But that's not what sexy is built on, for me. And for many geek girls. The most important thing for us, what turns us on, is Brain Power. We may indulge in a little kissing action with pretty boys, but they'll never go the distance. Instead we look for the tell-tale quirks of personality, the indie t-shirt, the limited-edition accessory that says, "I am a collector of the strange, an eccentric, I am a prize in a world of muddled Muggles." And of course a nice smile never hurts.

But the true test of a sexy geek's worthiness is in Making Stuff. Robots, art, decompilers, what have you - we go for guys who can design and build some cool and unexpected thing. That is HOT! Watching someone do what he's good at is a turn on that beats a Calvin Klein underwear model body.

[...]

If I were to ever have a sexiest something contest on GGA, applicants would have to submit questionnaires, projects, and an essay in their own words in addition to a photo. Not a bad idea! It could be fun. What say you, readers?

I would compete. But if nominated, I would not run.

Don Park writes about being religiously challenged.#

Beside my little weekend coding project, I am looking within myself to find out why I am religiously-challenged. I can see both the benefits and the cost of having a religion and, overall, having a religion is a good deal although mileage differs depending on the religion. My problem is that I can't get it even if I wanted it, a disability of the religious-kind.

I do think there might be one or more divine beings, things, or forces. I know that science can't explain everything and, so called hard science, is just a house of cards built on guesses guided by theories and observations. So far the theory of gravity holds although it's not the theory that keeps my feet on the ground.

My attitude is that if there is a divine being and I have no way of confirming the being's existance except by a leap of faith, the being's existance doesn't matter to me. Also I don't like the idea of a divine being affecting my life with invisible hands whether it's for my benefit or not. What is the point of crying about privacy if there are divine beings hanging around watching you all the time?

Richard links to the last statements of defendants executed for capital crimes in Texas. So creepy.#

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has available the last statements of defendants executed for capital crimes in the state, as well as information on the offenders and their crimes. I've taken a look at quite a few, and many of them plead innocence, many ask for forgiveness, and most seem to be simple messages of love to their family members and that God is ready to take them. One, however, ends thus: "To all of the racist white folks in America that hate black folks and to all of the black folks in America that hate themselves: the infamous words of my famous legendary brother, Matt Turner, "Y'all kiss my black ass." Let's do it." It's not to make light of the situation, but it's interesting to see how defiant a death row inmate can be right up until the end.

Richard also links to a top secret job posting from Microsoft.#

Here's a fun job posting from Microsoft: "Why settle for working on an established product that everyone knows about when you can work on a top secret project that has not yet been announced. You can enjoy saying phrases like "I could tell you, but I would have to kill you" and "Hey, you can't tell anyone what I do". The project for which this job relates is one of them." There's no chance in hell I have the requirements, but I definitely have the desire to work on a top-secret project, and that has to count for something, right?

Doug Miller discusses James Varnov on progress in weblog technologies.#

James Vornov asks Is There Progress in Weblogs?

On the other hand, I've been thinking about the new organizational threads for weblogs that break out of the linear, chronological mold of weblogs. I've always been frustrated with how dispersed information is on a weblog. There are idea threads on this site that stretch over years. I'd like to edit them into larger pieces. I even started a project at one point to collate things, but it wasn't the kind of writing I wanted to do at the time. The short links and brief thoughts of weblogging is an attractive writing style for occasional writing.

Yet another example of a weblog author seeking to break out of the reverse chronological format, and push the boundaries of what a weblog is.

Doug Miller writes about management trends and what it's like working in real estate.#

The key phrase is "The downside is finding people that can work independently." The overwhelming trend in management today, at least from where I sit, is for companies to stop managing people. Outsourcing, the rise of the temp worker, repeated and constant layoffs, telecommuting, and to a lesser extent, hoteling as described in this article all are leading to one inexorable conclusion: companies of the future will be smaller and smaller, and increasingly composed of a core group of managers/investors/owners, with the bulk of the implementation work being done by people who don't work directly for the company.

There are a lot of reasons for this trend. The cost of actually having an employee on the payroll is constantly increasing, and I'm not just talking about salary. Benefit costs, particularly health care, are going through the ceiling. The layoff/rehire cycle means increased recruitment and training costs, which eat into overhead. As the article discusses, office space, particularly in prime locations, is expensive.

A great read.

Joi Ito posts part of an iChat with his sister.#

Mimi: It's so funny... watching Luna and Eamon. they are sure that they are going to get married. They were both so crushed when we broke it to them that it is not the way it works, though now Luna's latest is that she is going to marry her best friend haley

Joi: hehe

Mimi: kids are so great because they don't buy the societal expectations yet

Too cute.

Joi Ito posts his notes from the Izu Conference on the Chanpon blog.#

Japan is all about personal relationship whereas the US is about performance. It's no wonder the US is more productive. However, the question is, does that make them more happy? Are American's more happy than Europeans and Japanese? Some people thought maybe not. I would personally argue that suicide statistics and mental health statics probably lean towards showing Japan as having more problems, but I'm not sure about these statistics. I wonder what metric would determine if Europeans were happier than Americans...

The Japanese have no goals, vision and very little identity. This was not always the case. I the past, people have risked their lives to try to pursue reform and change.

I like the idea of looking more closely at what really makes people happy. I'm not so sure it's money and getting whatever you want - which seems to be the assumption in America. To be trite and cliche - "Happiness is not getting what you want; it's wanting what you've got."

Joi Ito clarifies his position on the US.#

What disturbs me the most about this administration is the drift towards secrecy, the Patriot Act and profiling with the assistance of advanced technology. I think that is REALLY BAD and I am not convinced that profiling really works.

Regarding my quote of Pastor Martin Niemöller... I'm not comparing the US to Nazi Germany. It's an eloquent statement about the necessity to look out for human rights, even those of people who are not in your tribe. I think human rights are at risk globally. It's easy to see abuses and say things about human rights abuses in other countries, but I'm just urging American to watch out for the stuff happening right under your noses.

Lauren wonders what would happen if she told the truth to interviewers.#

all of a sudden, i felt as though a dictionary had been jammed into my brain. i began rattling off such phrases as, "i am eager to participate in youth excel because i want to learn important leadership values that will aid me in my future." my mouth was moving, but i wasn't really sure what i was saying. where did these phrases come from? i believe i was inhabited by the ghost of Mirriam and Webster.

the B.S. continued for fifteen more minutes, and i found myself wondering what they would say if i told them the truth.

"what is one of the major problems that you face today?"

"WELL, one of my *biggest* problems is finding time for all my boyfriends! i mean.. i have to hang out with seth on saturday afternoon, and i somehow make time for john on saturday nights. and then i have to tell bobby i was with my mom on saturday, and also make up excuses to tell fred and sam! another HUGE problem is finding the appropriate shade of lipstick. is it mocha pink or sparkling raspberry? WHO KNOWS? this is a big problem because if you don't select the appropriate shade, your whole day could decline in disaster."