Prometheus 6

It seems to me the problem with humans is that they don't understand the difference between their idea of themselves and themselves. I think the powers that are intended to support our existence have been turned to support our idea of ourselves first. I think humans gather what they need from the what they know as their environment, which includes the aspects of self that they do not claim, material for the processes that support their idea of themselves. And in supporting that idea of themselves, they consume themselves.

...is after the jump

Defined as the ability to realize what one is doing, to whom one is doing it, and what the consequences of doing it or not doing it may be, awareness is considered to be a major factor in a number of modern human endeavors, among them: decision-making, prioritizing, and just basically walking around without always bumping into things.

December Named National Awareness Month
November 17, 2009 | Issue 45•47

WASHINGTON—In an effort to combat what organizers are calling "our current epidemic of complete and utter obliviousness," the American Foundation for Paying Attention to Things has declared December "National Awareness Month."

"All across the country, millions of men and women are dangerously unaware," AFPAT spokesperson Karen Teeling said during a press conference Monday. "What's worse, the vast majority of those suffering from this debilitating state of mind don't even know it."

"That's why this December we're asking that all Americans stop whatever it is they're doing, and take a moment to open their eyes for once—just once—in their lives," Teeling added. "It'll make all the difference in the world."

According to AFPAT, planned events for National Awareness Month include a 10K charity walk, during which participants will be forced to actually interact and engage with the outside world for a change, as well as several advertising campaigns, which will help get the word out about things other than what currently happens to be playing on television.

Every time I've seen those commercials for Rachel Maddow's show I've been tempted  to write this.

Rachel, re-shoot the commercial and tell the makeup folk to lighten it up a bit. I see rouge or blush, whatever it's called. I mean, I really see it.

Seriously. Get the person who does your makeup on the show and re-shoot the commercial.

And Chuck Todd reminds of a valuable lesson I learned on my second clerical job on Wall Street. It was in the Reorganization department, the back office guys that collected announcement of mergers, hostile takeovers, and executed the client instructions. I used to watch officers of the department bullshitting about how this hostile takeover will turn out, what the final exchange rate on that leveraged buyout will be, until I realized that all of them were just guessing about everything but the direct stuff. So one time when they were by my desk and all of them were like, "Damn, this is deep...what's going to happen next?"...I guessed. Out loud. And I was not only right, I was smart enough not to remind them when the looks at me funny a couple od days later.

It may well be true, as some have claimed, that the timing of Polanski's arrest is peculiar. It also may be true, as an HBO documentary posited last year, that the now-deceased judge in Polanski's case was guilty of misconduct in threatening to renege on a plea deal. These issues can be ironed out in a court of law. But neither the judge's actions nor Polanski's status as cultural icon alters the more compelling truth: that he is a fugitive in a rape case and has an outstanding debt to society.

Posted at 8:47 AM on September 30, 2009 by Kristen J. Mathews
Since when does a legal entity have "privacy" rights?

Since the Third Circuit said so, in its September 22, 2009 decision in AT&T v. Federal Communications Commission (No. 084024).

Most privacy practitioners would not consider a legal entity to have privacy rights. Rather, a legal entity may have trade secrets or contractual confidentiality protections. However, in its novel holding, the Third Circuit found that a corporation (AT&T) was protected by an exemption in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that applies to “unwarranted invasions of personal privacy.” Specifically, FOIA exempts “records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the production of such law enforcement records or information … could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy…”(emphasis added). This exemption, combined with FOIA’s definition of “person” to include legal entities, enabled AT&T to successfully argue that a corporation has a right to privacy. (After all, the court said, “it would be very odd indeed for an adjectival form of a defined term not to refer back to that defined term.”) As a result, AT&T’s competitors have not been able to obtain information about an FCC investigation of AT&T regarding AT&T’s alleged overcharging of some of its customers.

Whether this ruling will be followed in other FOIA cases, or used to expand the concept of privacy rights under other statutes, remains to be seen. For now, when submitting information to regulators in connection with investigations, companies should consider submitting such information as confidential, since doing so could help the company to later challenge attempts by competitors or other third parties to obtain such information from the regulator under FOIA.

...they should be able to adopt children and raise them as they like. Right?

I got a day trip to the Boston environs tomorrow. If I post anything at all, it will be a total surprise to me.

I need to think anyway. I mean, I just saw this Google query come in:

thing to say to a nigger when they make a racial comment to you

What does the world look like to a person who can ask that?

I know what a person who can ask that looks like to the world...

When that tape was released, ACORN should have said something like, "Thank you. We have hired thousands of people who, like most Americans, are willing and competent workers. God made us no more (and no less) perfect than the rest of you. We've seen criminals frogmarched out of corporate boardrooms and torturers arrested for sexual perversion done in our nation's name. The percentage of our hires that have been a problem is a fraction that begins with '.00' but we do appreciate your assistance."

And should Democrats try to block this bill to bar ACORN from receiving any federal grants? Of course not. They should submit an amendment. They should say, "Hey this is a good idea...too good to limit to ACORN. Let's bar any organization from receiving federal grants when an employee is caught breaking the rules."

ACORN to Review Incidents
White House Joins Criticism Over Hidden-Camera Videos
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 17, 2009

Amid a firestorm of criticism from both sides of the political divide, the community organizing group known as ACORN announced Wednesday that it would launch an independent review into "the indefensible action of a handful of our employees" who were secretly videotaped while giving advice to actors posing as a pimp and prostitute on how to buy a home and start a brothel.

The announcement by Bertha Lewis, ACORN's chief executive, came on a day when her organization's actions were strongly condemned by White House spokesman Robert Gibbs and days after conservative members of Congress called for a complete cutoff of federal funding for the group.

Let's go back...way back...back into time.

If you see a troglodyte, you've gone back too far. We want humans before nation-states developed. Before nations developed, in fact. We want to be real basic, pare it back to tribes.

So we're looking a five or ten families that have figured out how to share tasks and live together. And along comes this really big guy, bigger by far than anyone in the tribe. And he walks around your place taking food, grabbing ass and being a general threat to everyone.  So what do you do?

You get three or four of your biggest guys beat him with big sticks until he leaves. Right?

Now, suppose it was two big guys...what would you do then? You'd get more of your guys to chase them out.

And if it were, like, 20 really bug guys, you might have to work with two or three more tribes. The bigger the threat, the bigger the response has to be. And I don't know the exact moment, but at some point this aggregation of tribes becomes a nation and their collective activity becomes codified and called a government.

And whatever strategy this government applies, its task is still the same: to respond to problems too big for a single citizen to respond to. And the bigger those problems are, the bigger the government has to be.

...um, I mean Whitlock.

This right here is the proper way to write about the Williams Sisters.

The story of the Williamses, if Serena chose to write it for the big screen, could include a flashback to tennis’s original sister act. In the late 1940s, Roumania and Margaret Peters rose to prominence in the American Tennis Association, which has been likened to baseball’s Negro Leagues.

From 1938 to 1953, the Peters sisters won 14 A.T.A. doubles titles, including 10 in a row. Roumania won the singles titles in 1944 and again in 1946, when she defeated Althea Gibson, who went on to win Wimbledon and the United States National Championships (the precursor to the Open) in 1957 and ’58.

The Peters sisters lived long enough to witness Venus’s and Serena’s ascension and ponder what might have been. Roumania died in 2003 at age 85, and Margaret the next year, at 89.

In a telephone interview, Roumania’s daughter, Frances Walker Weekes, said, “I know they loved watching Venus and Serena play, although I can tell you that when Serena was wearing all those colorful outfits, my mother didn’t approve of that.”

The woman was asked what her husband's opinion was. That wasn't the intent, but how could she have she known that?

If it WERE the intent, you'd be patting her on the back for that response.

A Sense of Scale
by Alim Ra [P6: That's an old sock puppet]
Copyright © 2096

Can you remember the first time you met a Griot? Probably not. . . we are not obviously different from humans, and come in the full range of physical, mental and emotional types that humans do. Nothing outward would give any indication that we are different in any way from the humans you encounter every day.

You probably do remember the first time you realized someone you knew was a Griot, though. Most likely it was during some crisis; it may have been physical, it may have been spiritual, but either way it was overwhelming. And some one person stepped up. He created what needed creating, she destroyed what needed destruction, they dispatched with calm demeanor the needs of the moment. . . then moved on to the next thing.

At times like that, it seems the Griot has vast, surprising knowledge. Yet knowledge isn't what distinguishes the Griot from humans. Even the Great Old Ones were born with no knowledge. All of us had to learn. Yet even though the young Griot lacks knowledge, still he focuses his force into startling clarity and power. . . clarity through which, and power with which, he acquires the knowledge that made you aware of his status.

Knowledge is the inevitable benefit of being a Griot, but it is not what shapes one. No, the true difference between the Quantum Griot and the humans around her is her approach to knowledge. In short, she has a sense of proportion.

Jason Whitlock has decided Serena Williams is a slacker because her ass is too big.

With a reduction in glut, a little less butt and a smidgen more guts, Serena Williams would easily be as big as Michael Jackson, dwarf Tiger Woods and take a run at Rosa Parks.

You can call me unfair. You can even scream that I'm sexist.

But there's an inescapable truth about Serena Williams: She's an underachiever.

This is the guy who says her ass is too big.

Physician heal thyself.

Sanford rejected federal stimulus funds for the sake of his political career. As Governor, he thought it was within his power to just DO that.

His state legislature disabused him of that notion. Now instead of being the Conservative Hero he expected to be, he's taken political hits...locally, because it has been proven he's out of touch with the needs of his state, and nationally because he couldn't make his will stick. I wasn't watching because the results were inevitable...the surest way to get trampled to death is to get between a state and free money.

I think he went off trying to wrap his mind around the repercussions to his political career, and hence his world view and personal future, of this error. Maybe he's decided that Argentina's political environment is more to his liking.

Maybe I'll watch his news conference today for shits and giggles. But I don't think he's a factor in national politics anymore.

Overtime! I'm already exhausted.

This is the best NBA playoffs I've seen in a loooong time.

If you register here with an address that links to things like Search Engine Optimization firms, payday loan stores or other bullshit like that, I will block the account, delete your comments, and otherwise insure your presence is obliterated.

You don't think I could get PAID ads if I wanted them? Stay the fuck off my site.

South Beach banking on crowds at annual Urban Beach Weekend
BY REBECCA DELLAGLORIA

Miami Beach is once again gearing up for a throng of hip-hop aficionados this Memorial Day weekend -- despite a weak economy and waning popularity -- for the largest urban festival in the country.

In years past, upward of 250,000 hip-hop lovers have flocked to South Beach for Memorial Day -- dubbed Urban Beach Weekend -- renting out hotels, packing nightclubs and taking the party out into the street.

In a sluggish economy, clubs, restaurants and hotels are banking more than ever on the booty-shaking crowds to bring in dollars.

Annotated Rant is responsible for:

Fuck the South
Fuck Christmas
Fuck The New York Times
Fuck the State of the Union
Fuck South Dakota
Fuck Tax Day
President Bush is a Fucking Moron

And of course, Fuck John McCain

Jesus, they're giving away my secrets!

Grim though the economic spur may be, some scientists see a slim silver lining in the sudden newsiness of laughably large numbers. As long as the public is chatting openly about quantities normally expressed in scientific notation, they say, why not talk about what those numbers really mean? In fact, they shamelessly promote the benefits of quantitative and scientific reasoning generally. As they see it, anyone, no matter how post-scholastic or math allergic, can learn basic quantitative reasoning skills, and everyone would benefit from the effort — be less likely to fall for vitamin hucksters, for example, or panic when their plane hits a bumpy patch.

One excellent way to start honing such skills is with a few so-called Fermi problems, named for Enrico Fermi, the physicist who delighted in tossing out the little mental teasers to his colleagues whenever they needed a break from building the atomic bomb.

Teenage Girls Stand by Their Man
By JAN HOFFMAN

IN the hallway of Hostos-Lincoln Academy in the Bronx this week, two ninth-grade girls discussed the pop singer Chris Brown, 19, who faces two felony charges for allegedly beating his girlfriend, the pop singer Rihanna, 21. At first, neither girl had believed Mr. Brown, an endearing crooner, could have done such a thing.

“I thought she was lying, or that the tabloids were making it up,” one girl said.

Even after they saw a photo of Rihanna’s bloodied, bruised face, which had raced across the Internet, they still defended Mr. Brown. “She probably made him mad for him to react like that,” the other ninth grader said. “You know, like, bring it on?”

Sometimes when I go to hang up my cell phone I find I have interrupted a game of solitaire my ear was playing.

Standing on the bus stop on my way to work, I over heard a conversation between three elementary school kids, two girls and a boy, no more than third grade. Onegirl was explaining to the other how, and I quote, "damn" is a sexy word. She had noticed how guys look at girld and say, "daaaamn..." The other girl was not impressed. She kind of looked like, why are you telling me this?

Later, I found myself on an R160 subway car. Who knew you could be impressed with a subway car? Okay, it's the subway map replacement I'm impressed with.

But they all are...plus she gases my head, which is always cool and useful.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Names4things was born many decades ago, on October 16th. Mr Names4things and Mr and Ms Names4things Jr (I really love my son-in-law), are all together in the very strange state of Florida. The strangeness? Aside from the peoples’ felonious sense of personal style, and the startling flatness of the Fort Lauderdale, it’s pretty much like Manhattan. The same franchises. The same paucity of independent commerce. But you can turn right on a red light, which you can’t beat with a whip, right?...

Lotsa McCain/Palin bumper stickers here, usually on gas guzzlers, and there’s a lot of that New South disrespect from the white Floridians– don’t look at you when they’re speaking to you, don’t quite care for your business… kinda like McCain debating with Obama, or a Sarah Palin Klan rally. By the way, there are not a few Palin stickers. Without McCain’s name. They’re like, fuck Mccain– we wants the Kluxer. Sad and stupid. Nice combo, eh?

But it’s not all of them, or even most, because we just flew down yesterday. I’ve engaged with some mighty nice white folk here. And you can’t possibly guage your opinion of everyone, on a few of their batshit members, right? Far be it from N4t to engage in that kind of bullshit, at this late date. Nonetheless, the majority of the people are extra friendly, and the heat is really hot. Those who know N4t, know that heat to her, is like kryptonite. Naturally, my super-powers are really fucking secret. Even to me. Now that is some bullshit right there.

Wanted: Intelligent Aliens, for a Research Project

If there is anything living on Mars, it’s going to be weird bacteria or the like, not little green men. Which is a pity. Because what we humans really need is a group of friendly, intelligent aliens to study us, and give us a report on what they find.

The problem is, in many respects it’s difficult for us to study ourselves.

First, there are practical problems. It’s easier, for example, to study organisms with much shorter lives than our own: when organisms have short lives, we can accumulate lots of knowledge about them in a single human lifetime. Hence, we know far more about bacteria, fruit flies and mice than we do about elephants, giant tortoises or sequoia trees.

Another difficulty: it’s hard to do certain sorts of experiments. Many of the experiments we can do on fruit flies would be impractical or unethical to do on people.