the struggle for lucidity

Now I'm just adding links.

2008-01-07T00:32:34Z

http://librivox.org free podcasts of books in public domain.
http://www.halfbakery.com
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/27565 Joke's on us greenies.

karoro @ 2006-11-19T00:09:00

2006-11-18T12:09:29Z

Hey! I still remember my password!

Turns out Google has been around longer than we think. Recently, archivists have discovered an early Google prototype from 1960

Makes me realise how much library work has changed too.

strangely enough.....

2006-08-11T04:39:44Z

Looks like I'm violent and lustful. (as well as kinda treacherous)

And I thought I wouldn't hurt a fly
Actually when I was ten I used to pull one wing, and all the legs off flies, watch them spin around on the lino like wayward propellors. The test knew!

And even though I'm a "buddhist", I scored very low on heresy. In fact I only just missed out on purgatory. Interesting. Maybe I'm just hedging my bets, like Pascal.

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Seventh Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno

oh the horror

2006-06-12T06:33:53Z

Library assistants get a raw deal. A patron wants an article from a journal. Publishers like to give journals catchy one-word titles like "discourse" however, is this Discourse, the journal of educational theory, or marxist feminism? No, it is "Discourse: journal for theoretical studies in media and culture" published by Wayne State University.

http://www.ulrichsweb.com/ulrichsweb/Search/fullCitation.asp?navPage=1&tab=1&serial_uid=185539&issn=07301081

The horror.

Note to publishers. Don't waste our time. Check that you''re giving your journals a unique name, you unoriginal morons!

The joy of windows

2006-06-01T21:39:52Z

Ahem......

"Installing Replacement Windows: No Pane, No Gain

No matter the season, a window allows you to experience all the wonders of the outside from the inside behind panes of glass to be opened at your whim."

from

http://www.sleekhome.com/articles/v/1212/

found while researching for a short story. I hope you can experience all the wonders of the outside from the inside

karoro @ 2006-05-17T15:34:00

2006-05-17T03:39:57Z

What have I been thinking about

In the old days of the music industry, singles were the buisiness - Elvis singles, Bill Hayley singles.
Then, round about Sergeant Pepper's and Pet Sounds and widespread stereo recording ( I think) albums became the main method that pop music was distributed by. Now, it's all mp3 playlists. At the desk I ask patrons (customers) what they are listening to, if they are wearing headphones. "A whole bunch of stuff" So it's the return of the single song as the main mode of pop music, the atom.

Note newly reduced work hours allow time for thought, reflection and posting - Hooray!

hah!

2006-03-06T09:03:03Z

Ever wondered....

What those crystal rock deodorants are made from? ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alum
Domestic uses for lightsabers?.... http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/lightsaber5.htm

still on earth

2006-02-05T12:03:05Z

Just letting y'all know I'm still alive! Don't know why I don't post anymore. Try me again in a month?

on the unknown books.

2005-11-22T04:55:15Z

Staring at a library book that had lain by my bed, unread, for weeks - now in the sorting circle among hundreds of books I barely know (if at all). I was struck by the strangeness of the situation. I KNEW this book somehow, even if I hadn't read more than a couple of pages. How can one know a book without reading it?

Perhaps by knowing those moments when one almost reads it. One begins to open the cover, and is distracted by a forgotten task or a phone call. Nonetheless, I know the feeling of INTENDING to read it, in a way one cannot intend to read any of these other books, that I hardly touched.

Of course, one also can roughly guage its nature by the specific ways an moments I intended NOT to read it. The depth of my antipathy is telling.

karoro @ 2005-10-08T19:30:00

2005-10-08T06:36:45Z

Ever wanted to click and drag old George W through a cruel and unusual landscape? here's your chance! (stolen from signature103)

karoro @ 2005-10-08T18:58:00

2005-10-08T05:58:34Z

And finally...

Your Soulmate is Lisa Simpson

Am I the only one who just wants to play
hopscotch and bake cookies and watch the
McLaughlin Group?

Which Citizen of Springfield Is Your Soulmate?
brought to you by Quizilla

karoro @ 2005-10-08T18:34:00

2005-10-08T05:34:48Z

Well..... sort of.

Try the test, it's easy.

Your Daddy Is George Clinton

What You Call Him: Pa

Why You Love Him: He's the Mack Daddy

Who's Your Daddy?

weird?

2005-10-08T05:26:32Z

Yeah, it's true.

You Are 40% Weird

Normal enough to know that you're weird...

But too damn weird to do anything about it!

How Weird Are You?

civilisation

2005-10-06T09:46:17Z

I'm excited about reading Jared Diamond's new book. Until then. I will content myself with recounting the following conversation occurred in a library foyer. A friend said he 'wondered how long we have got". I had to ask "until what?"

It seems that many of my friends are entranced with the idea of a sudden crash. Do civilisations crash? maybe? but do species crash? They crash because of predation, definitely, and because of habitat destruction - We have few predators, who will probably exit the stage much before us. And habitat destruction? I have faith in our ability to adapt to changing conditions - this is how our species spread from the artic circle to tierra del fuego. All we need is for several of the macroscopic species including some producers (r-selected, like rats) to remain with us, and we will have an ecosystem. Not a terribly interesting one, but hey, it's better than annhiliation.

karoro @ 2005-10-01T02:33:00

2005-09-30T14:52:22Z

Being an employee around half my waking hours has seemed to affected me. I realised today that at work, one has two choices: one is to constantly reasses why one is typing strange symbols into a computer for a lot of the day, at regular intervals. The other is to accept this as just the way the world is. Surrender to a sort of work-logic. Of course I will email these people I don't know and, inform them about the status of their information.

Such a surrender undoubtedly has an interesting affect on the psyche outside of work. Surrendering to work-logic leaves one flighty and somewhat nochalant on one's time off. I don't give a fuck about much, in a way. Small things, the way my vogels toast with margarine tastes. That is important. The murambatvista? Only somewhat important.

I'm not complaining just noticing.

I have also just had a couple of thoughts about philosophy. Naess thinks that

'Descartes reduced the world to machines, but left a tiny retreat for God and Free will"

I'm not sure if modern physics does any less. Reduce the world to a field of complex systems, or vibrating super-strings, and you still have to carve a retreat in it for GOd and Free will. They don't come with the meal.

It's like a version of Hume's Fork - either the world is highly determined, and we can't change shit, or the world is higly indetermined - and we still are ruled by indeterminsim as much as we would be ruled if the world was totally mechanistic.

I wonder how much of this, these words, are themselves determined by my early teachers of philosophy, Cheyne, Musgrave, Mulgan, Dyke, Pigden???

Whatever the case... one of the interesting things about philosophy is that we don't have anywhere to rest, because we ask the sort of questions that tend turn debates into a sot of silence match. So I'm talking about my interests, or something, and someone says, well, where do you end and the world begins, anyway? There's no way I can, from my frame of reference, somehow reach out and console that mind with any kind of information.

And if we can turn to no corpus of knowledge, or accepted method when these questions come up, the only thing we can do is test them internally, to approach our ideas from as many angles of attack as we can. It is only with this rigour that we, as philosphers should be trusted with any sort of credibility about such important issues as the basis of morality (if there is one) The essence of the self, or the nature of reason. If we slacken off and succumb to a too easy conclusion, without considering counter-arguments carefully, we have comitted as great an intellectual sin as a scientist who fudges his data or a theorist who passes off another's idea as her own.

"If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research" - Einstein

and he kicked the moneylenders out of the temple.

2005-09-19T01:05:26Z

I've been thinking about market value and market failure and market market market market.
It lead me to the question: 'what goods are capable of having market value?' I reckon there are several qualities. For a good to have market value it must be:

a) either quantifiable or transferable from individual to individual. internal states - contentment, happiness, joy, hope, cannot be either, and so cannot be directly exchanged on the market.

b) actually able to be property. The fact that many goods cannot be subject to private property leads to the 'tragedies of the commons' so familiar to modern environmentalists - The ozone never had, and will probably never have, market value. The reason it is no longer being depleted is, basically authoritarian intervention. I doubt anyone would deny this is a bad thing.

Can anyone add to this list? leave a comment.

(Real estate on the moon is apparently being sold, this may never have real value however: the claims probably will never be realised. When people buy it, they are either gambling on the fact that the moon wil become property (and those selling will somehow have a legitimate stake in it) or taking part in a joke or symbolic transaction - it is the transaction that has value, in this case, not the "goods" involved.

Afterthought: And what about services? Is the goods/services distinction even worthwile?

election day musings

2005-09-16T23:43:21Z

When we work, we enter into a contract to be sane. (well, relatively sane, I do work at a library) Paying attention to the slippery shadows of shame, guilt, elation, creativity and mysticism during work time can be problematic. Do you want a random thought with that? Most people don't. They want harmless people issuing their books. And our life would be strange if every service employee wanted to talk about life's intrinsic value (or the lack of it while issuing books).

There's another type of insanity. Once on desk the other day I was just, you know, processing issues as fast as I could. I handed the books to the patron, all done, and looked at him and said "hi". I didn't mean to, and it's when I ussually say "thanks" (subtext, get out of here) but it was sort of apt, because it was the first time I actually engaged with him as a person, not as a carrier of items to be checked out. If I was speaking Hindu or Hebrew I would have got away with it too. Shalom. Namaste.

I will vote today. Our little silent conspiracy...

karoro @ 2005-09-09T18:08:00

2005-09-09T06:11:59Z

So this is the life of a 9 to fiver... It's not bad this time round... one just has to prioritise, and this journal is low on the list at the moment. What's above it?

A new draft of 'gathering clouds'
Research into the nature of poverty and growth and the environment (as usual)
Spending time with old friends. aaahh... like an armchair worn to the body

Savouring spring! with magnolia blossoms and the celebration of birds.

my people

2005-08-24T09:54:20Z

I am an information bloodhound. I am highly sensitive to dodgy citations, mis-spelt or abbreviated journal titles or spurious accounts of incapacitated patrons that cannot come to closed reserve. There are rules to the flow of information.

I am working at a library now, enjoying it. today I had disscussions with someone on desk about the nature of economic growth, someone else about Elizabethan Tragedy (apparently the Alchemist, or the duchess of Malfi are great) and yet another on fractional reserve of banks. I think I'm in the right place.

I've been drinking (river water)

2005-08-04T07:41:43Z

A thought. Herman Daly suggests the way a steady state (non-growing) economy can aid Niger and Bolivia is through income redistribution and population control. A few social factors come into play here as well. Steady state will probably entail work-time reduction. With a better work/life balance, more time can be spent on charitable work, and democratic participation. If I'm working 50 hrs a week it is hard to contribute to Amnesty International in any other way then financially, and this is not as rewarding as the actual volunteer work. I heard also that the sectors that give most to charity are paid the least.

Reducing work time also makes people more self-sufficient. With a lower income and more time, people might return to cooking for themselves and have the personal energy to do with less. This means work-time-reduction makes people more willing to try volunteering for organisations such as VSA , focusing on skills transfer to less developed countries. Why? more self-sufficiency leads to an adaptable response in novel societies. To top it all off, reducing our living standards lowers the bar that countries such as China are perhaps misguidedly aiming for.

In other news... I am Edward Scissorhands, apparently. Let's hope I don't get driven out of town by an angry mob

You Are Edward From "Edward Scissorhands."

You are very shy and often misunderstood. Innocent, sweet, and artistic, you like to pass your days by daydreaming and expressing yourself through the arts. You are a truly unique individual. Unfortunately, you are quite lonely, and few people truly understand you.

Take The Johnny Depp Quiz!

clamps

2005-07-30T02:15:28Z

While asking wikipedia about the scientific evidence for the moon affecting everday stuff on earth (plant growth, human behaviour...)with an eye toward planting ginger and betroots in my little garden I found this guy's site. It is quite amusing and inspiring. I like the fact that he is not afraid to get excited about doing small things quite differently from other people. e.g I love clamps because they make it so easy to stick things together temporarily, and they don't leave behind an annoying residue like duct tape does what got me there was his idea about depicting the true scale of the earth and the moon. nifty.

geekery

2005-07-28T07:40:39Z

yes it's the battery university. In another oooh... several hours of trawling it you could call me a graduate. hmmmmm.... I'm really quite excited about batteries. Lithium ion, deep cycling, overcharging trickle charging. Love it. I want to buy an expensive battery charger.

"In this paper we address the charger as the quintessential provider and guardian of the battery."

also learnt some more Whitman today

"I am satisfied, I see dance, laugh and sing...
and God comes a loving bedfellow and sleeps by my side all night
and close on the peep of the day
And leaves baskets for me covered with white towels bulging thehouse with their plenty"

shall i postpone my acceptation and realisation and scream at my eyes
that they turn from gazing after and down the road and cipher and show me to a cent?

Exactly the contents of one and exactly the contents of two, and which is ahead?"

You can see his manuscripts online

Also, an amusing reference to older technology I stole from mangee

It's raining and I'm kinda bored.

procrastination.... what's that?

2005-07-27T06:23:17Z

Rhiannon sent me probably the strangest link I've seen in a while has got personality or what?

karoro @ 2005-07-27T13:28:00

2005-07-27T01:32:06Z

Here's an interesting academic: Richard Layard. He bucks the trend of assuming that maximising the satisfaction of desire should be sound macroeconomic theory and public policy and, like Aristotle, looks to happiness as the primary end. Couple this with an interest in empirical psychological research and I think I want to have his babies. Hmmm maybe not, but at least get his book. What do you reckon?

african films forever.

2005-07-27T00:35:25Z

I have been heartened to see about 5 films set in Africa in the huge International Film Festival which comes here every year (about 120 films) I saw two of the African films, both documentaries, which I heartily reccommend (although they probably won't make it) One was called Darwin's Nightmare. The title refers, in part to the eutrophication and species loss in lake victoria due to the introduction of the exotic Nile Perch for commercial reasons. It focused on Mwanza, a city on the shores of lake Victoria; and the surrounding fishing camps. It presented the devastation - kids sniffing glue, ubiquitous references to "the virus" and the way death was so close, so present. The filmaker also spent time with the Russian aircraft crew who apparently are paid to unload arms before they load up with Nile Perch. They seemed cognizant of the suffering in Africa but powerless, much as most of us feel. Cogs in the machine? You could always argue that they should quit their jobs, but then some even more heartless bastard would be hired. It's the top that is really pathological. One day I want to meet an arms dealer.

The other one was called "Shake hands with the Devil" based on the book of the same title. General Dalllaire from Canada, you might remember, (I don't, that was when I only listened to the news to hear the cricket score), was the leader of the UN troops in Rwanda in the first half of 1994. He was put in a horrific position (an horrific... grammar anyone?), with his hands tied by what the blurb calls "the west's moral cowardice". It scarred him deeply, he felt somehow personally responsible for the 800 000 murders. The film followed him as he returned to Rwanda. The film is full of pathos and is heart-wrenching at places. It left my friends somewhat depressed, but somehow I felt energised. I don't know, I think it helps me see clear when I see someone irrationally bearing the burden that belongs to faulty systems, not the individual. I identify with him. What we do have a responsibility to, however, is to see how we play parts of the system, and find alternatives that are both sustainable and inspiring.

Not to be confused with 'Hotel Rwanda' which I haven't seen, but is fictional and probably very good