Sunday, December 26, 2004

Wednesday, December 08, 2004


evacuate into the morning mist thou dread wraith fog Posted by Hello

My sweet Phoebe Posted by Hello

MIT OpenCourseWare | Literature

MIT OpenCourseWare | Literature

If you haven't seen MIT's open courseware site, get here quickly and see what an independent learner can do right now for absolutely no sheckels whatsoever.

Monday, December 06, 2004

helen


helen
Originally uploaded by jperkinson.
Possibly the funniest picture I have ever seen.

Thursday, May 20, 2004

CTHEORY.NET > Why the Web Will Win the Culture Wars for the Left by Peter Lurie

CTHEORY.NET > Why the Web Will Win the Culture Wars for the Left by Peter Lurie: "The Web is a postmodernist tool that inevitably produces a postmodernist perspective"

Amen.brother. But is it really a tool? A tool implies specific use and a deconstructionist reading makes it rather toolish to be that tool.

How communities work?

: "Additionally, in many case studies, networks and swarms co-exist. The 'Battle for Seattle' is one case in point. On one level, there were the self-organized affinity groups of the protesters coordinated by Direct Action Network. This level involved a swarming of bodies at particular physical locations (intersections, roads, buildings). Yet, as numerous commentators have noted, this swarming would not have been as successful without the layer of networks that, in part, enabled protesters to coordinate their local movements. This layer was composed of mobile and wireless gadgets, police scanners, and even streaming video. Therefore, in this case there is a combination of swarming bodies with a network of data transmissions. Similar instances of the co-existence between swarms and networks can be seen in the biological domain. In ethology, the study of ant foraging involves not just the corporeal swarming of individual ants, but what enables the swarm to achieve its goal of finding a food source is the informational content of the pheromone trails. The laying of pheromone trails constitutes a network of data exchanges, which both communicates a message ('go this way') as well as enabling the swarm to achieve its overall goal. At an even smaller level, the study of antibody production in the immune system shows that, in addition to a swarming of antibodies and other enzyme co-factors, there is an informational network that exists through the signaling of molecules in relation to each other."

What is the common element behind all this activity? Trust. So the question begs itself: "What is trust? Is it related to belief? Are believers and unbelievers and non-believers all needed in this trust system?"

Monday, May 17, 2004

Water Cooler Games - Education Arcade, day 1

Water Cooler Games - Education Arcade, day 1

Laurel pointed out that schools are incredibly immune to change. Gaming can't change schools. The kind of learning kids need is not going to come up in schools. When used in classrooms, games become an accessory to the same hierarchy; they don't puncture the spectacle of culture of politics.

Amen to this. Now what do we do? Fucked if I know. Keep on or get out.

Read Darwin -Are You Ready for Social Software? - WHAT'S NEW - Magazine - Darwin Magazine

'equaintance'

A brand new word on the horizon. I love neologisms like this. When I hear them I feel the satisfying click of brass-on-brass in my mind and know they are 'true'.

Our farm at dusk. Glorious. Posted by Hello

Monday, February 02, 2004

O'Reilly Network: Some Nice Editorials on Dean and Blogs [Feb. 01, 2004]

O'Reilly Network: Some Nice Editorials on Dean and Blogs [Feb. 01, 2004]

expertise trumps enthusias,? I think that is pretty limited view of how one becomes an expert--by becoming enthusiastic about a useful tool whether that tool is an idea or a new technology or a skill.

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

The Atlantic | January/February 2003 | The New Continental Divide | Lind

The Atlantic | January/February 2003 | The New Continental Divide | Lind: "The nightmarish result might be an America in which the same wealthy elite lords it over both a largely nonwhite proletariat of maids, nannies, gardeners, and janitors in the coastal cities and over a mostly white working class of janitors, dude-ranch employees, and tourist-trap workers in the interior. This, in turn, might produce a hardening economic and racial hierarchy or even a class war. Whatever the outcome, the American dream of a middle-class society might be threatened."

Thursday, January 01, 2004

Gropinator

Gropinator: "Of course, Walmart cares not about a level playing field. To quote the president of thread maker Carolina Mills: 'We want clean air, clear water, good living conditions, the best health care in the world--yet we aren't willing to pay for anything manufactured under those restrictions.'"