Small Streams

I Have Seen the Future of the Web . . .

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Turn Your Radio On

I'm finding lots of good stuff on the Scitoys site that I ran into yesterday, including this page on how to make an AM transmitter. Was just reading in Wired about an art project using FM transmitters. I also need to get around to reading this article on podcasting.

Control Option Shift

I always wonder what it means to be in control of one's world. Much of the technology we use is beyond what we can understand, let alone what we can construct ourselves. So it was with pleasure that I saw on Boing Boing that someone has constructed a Victrola from a kit.

Now this isn't the same as constructing a Victrola from scratch. But the kit itself provides a template for replication. This low-tech, low price (less than $60) kit can — fairly imperfectly — reproduce sound using plastic discs (CDs can be used.). The company that makes the kits, also sells an Edison recording device that records on plastic cups. Plastic disks and cups, while not easily reproducible, or produceable at home — I think you'd have to be able to create and mold plastic pellets to make such things — are household items.

So bear with me . . . I'm trying to work through the connection to some of the thoughts of Jerry Mander and how we can't make things by ourselves. Mander and others describe how we're dependent on a highly integrated economy complete with lawyers and a military industrial complex that although not intent on killing our young might be fairly neutral about the subject.

I wonder if we can we have computers that don't involve producing toxic waste and that don't consume thousands of gallons of water in the process.

In the "Edith Keeler Must Die" episode of Star Trek, Spock and Kirk time travel to Depression-era America, and Spock has to build a computer with materials on hand during the '30s. Would any of us be able to accomplish such a feat? Is there some easily handcraftable way of creating a semiconductor? And if there is how about an open-source productivity suite to go with it?

Would like to think that there isn't any malevolent intent in the makers of our computers, but I do believe that they benefit from our dependence. Acquired helplessness on the part of the consumers has always benefitted producers, the age-of-the-disposable-razor-blade came quickly on the heels of the end of the age-of-people-being-able-to-sharpen-their-own-blades.

All this aside, even more than GE and ADM, we rely on Providence, and should always spend some time remembering this.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Google Scholar

This is so good, I almost can't believe it. Just this morning I was wondering why you couldn't google for refereed stuff. And now here it is. I also hope they come up with something to handle more current information, sort of like Google and Snopes and Fact Check combined.

Getting Riled up Again

Saw a couple of things in the newspaper that had me thinking. One was an article in the New York Times about Supreme Court appointments. The author, Jeffrey Rosen, tries to determine what conservatives mean by the term "strict constructionist".

The phrase is surprisingly malleable. "I've never believed in the term strict constructionist," said Charles Fried, who was solicitor general under President Ronald Reagan. "I've thought it was a code word for I'm not sure exactly what."

The other thing was a letter to the editor by Ray Reaves in the Post-
Gazette. After two letters on the Humane Society's pinch test, and tucked in between two letters on values, Reaves makes the point that elections to come will be won by thoughtful people only if we can make more of them, and the only way to make more of them is to teach them how to think.

Learning to assess the source and credibility of data and to subject it to honest analysis is a critical skill for objective decision-making without which many citizens are subject to the type of manipulation we witnessed in this election.

To wit, let's look at the above letter from Enzo Grilli:

"Doing whatever you can to prevent people from dying in a war" is an oxymoron -- people die in war by definition.

But it's not an oxymoron if you don't have the war in the first place, and the war we're fighting in Iraq is based on, what I think, are three faulty assumptions: 1) We had credible evidence of Iraq's possession of mass destruction; 2) Iraq had strong ties with al Qaeda; and 3) Starting a war with Iraq would reduce the power of terrorists.

I believe we wouldn't be fighting in Iraq if the powers-that-be, and the public-at-large, were better at checking and assessing the information they had. So even if our faith did not lead us to believe that peace was the answer in this case, our heads should have told us better.

Reaves is right. No matter how much we fight the media, or take our battle to the polls, the real victories will be won in our schools and in our families. Or as the Jesuits say, "Give me the child until he is seven, and I will show you the man."

I Got It the Old Fashioned Way . . .

I asked for it.

Some lawyers like to have the "esq." after their names. Physicians and professors identify themselves as doctors. Some accountants are distinguished as CPAs. Realtors need a sponsor and must pass a test before they are known as such. Ham radio operators need to do something before they go on the air, pledge to obey some code of conduct, perhaps. I'm not sure I've met a ham radio operator. I assume they are a shy and retiring bunch.

I, however, have earned my status as a Pittsburgh Blogger by asking to be one. You can, too, by going to Pittsburgh Bloggers. Then you can wear the badge with honor.

What Fun!

As you can see from the photo, Handmade Arcade was a big success. We got there just in time for piñata to be be broken. A lot of stuff to buy, even more to think about. The crowd and the vibe there just seemed to be one enormous "Amen" to everything. As I mentioned to crafter Al Hoff it reminded me of being in the Strip District at the nadir of the Reagan recession. "Ain't we got fun!"

I Am Junkman!

We're on our way to Construction Junction to see HandmadeArcade and our friend Jennifer's work. Lots of funky crafters there, but what I'm really interested in is finding some good junk. In honor of that, I will recycle this link from Rebecca Blood.

Anticipation

Have been waiting for weeks for my stories to appear in Pittsburgh's City Paper. I wrote two articles for their "Best of" edition. One was regarding the best local sign, the Heinz Ketchup sign at the old Heinz plant, which wouldn't have been my choice, but a good one nonetheless. The other was a story on fish sandwiches, which allowed me to mention Will Simmons' signs. I'd link to the stories, but they're acting kind of buggy. Just follow the links for Best Local Sign and Best Fish Sandwich.

I also received a mention in yesterday's Post-Gazette regarding my upcoming performance at the Starlite Lounge.

David Bradley at Homewood Library

I didn't see a lot of the "there's-nothing-to-do-in-Pittsburgh" crowd last night to hear David Bradley speak at the Homewood Library. A decent enough crowd came, though, to hear Bradley read from the The Chaneysville Incident and take a few questions.

In the few pages the audience heard, we were introduced to Bradley's affections for the language, his fondness for Western Pennsylvania geography and kinship, history, and habits, and the difficulty of bearing them in the modern world. One of my favorite parts . . .

. . . takes place after the young historian and protagonist John Washington humiliates his mentor, Jack Crawley. Crawley had been teasing the college-bound Washington for acting white.

Why you know the mayor hisself set up here an' tole me you was a credit to your race. Yes indeedy, that's jest 'xactly what he said. Course I didn't correct him, an' tell him that you wasn't colored no more,on accounta your read enough a them damn books to turn your head clear white. . . ." And then he stopped. Because I had climbed up on the stand and sat on the bench and put my feet up on the supports.

He sat there on his stool looking up at me, his eyes soft and pained-looking. I nodded at my feet. He kept on looking at me. I nodded again, a short, quick nod, as cold and imperious as I could make it. He reached for the polish , taking up the can slowly, slowly dippping his hands into it, slowly bringing them out. He hesitated then, holding his polish-laden hands over my shoes, and he looked up at me. I nodded again. And then he shined my shoes.

When he was finished I got down and paid him, giving him a dollar and turning away before he could offer change. I went back to the car and sat there in silence.

...

Bill looked at me and said, "I pity them."

"Pity who?" I said.

"Those people where you're going. I bet they took one look at that application and saw all those nice tame things you did, and they looked at your picture, and saw a neat, clean-cut colored boy, and that's what they think they're getting, a nice, gentle, shy Negro, won't be a bit of trouble. Only one day these people are going to find out how dangerous it is to fool with somebody who doesn't know how to do anything but go for the throat."

A masterful passage that goes from tension to relief and throws in some foreshadowing to boot. Bradley may or may not have intended for those literary effects to be so apparent. As masterful as he is, he knows the importance of telling a good story, and Bradley is full of them.

One question Bradley took was from a person who wondered if he found such stories and language on the West Coast, where he currently resides and teaches. His answer went something along the lines of, "I'm out there now, but I'll always be back here." I do think, however, that his response reflects as much of a function of time as of place, and wonder if another Chaneysville Incident will ever be written.

How strange to come back home and watch some of the Frontline show on "The Persuaders," about marketing and advertising people trying to build a cult-like devotion to brands. All that talent and imagination going to selling stuff by appealing to our most inmost fascinations. Doubtless David Bradley would have been good at that. I'm thankful that he took another course.

Where Is George Jetson?

I saw this picture of George Jetson when I was cutting coupons on Sunday. For just a short instant I was wondering, "Whatever became of George Jetson? Has he died yet?"

Can someone tell me why such a thought should pop into my head?

Let's Start a Conspiracy for Truth

I don't believe some of the stories, even if John Diebold was "committed to helping delivering Ohio's electoral votes."

But I do believe the whole process of voting and tracking and auditing voting can become more efficient and transparent. The New York Times editorial board does too.

I'm not sure if I believe we need to have a holiday to vote, especially if there is the opportunity for early voting as one of the twelve points posits, but most all of the NY Times arguments make sense to me.

In a closely divided political world, we cannot depend on a margin for error when it comes to counting votes. We have four years now to make things right.

I think one of the first jobs of progressive — even of regressive — activists, would be to make sure our votes count.

Sure 120 million is a lot of votes, but when you break it down to 500 person precincts it doesn't look so hard. My four-year old can't count to 500 yet, but I'm sure she'll be able to in four years. Maybe she can help.

A Joke

Listening to Prairie Home Companion, the special joke edition. One of the guests, Roy Blount Jr., had a great line:

Some people don’t want gay marriage, because they don’t want to imagine those two people in bed together. In that case, none of would have wanted our parents to get married.

Smells Like French Fries

Have spent the last eighteen hours thinking about biodiesel. Just drove by Baum Boulevard Automotive yesterday, and they had a sign that said, "Biodiesel Sold Here." I stopped and talked to the owner, Chuck, and he said they've sold a couple dozen five gallon containers. Apparently Export Fuels in Export, PA, distributes the stuff.

About 300 millions of gallons are produced each year — double the amount from two years ago. I'm guessing that less than five percent of all passenger cars are diesel, and from what I've gathered biodiesel serves about two percent of the diesel market. So it will take a while for biodiesel to have a significant impact.

But other factors make the production and use of biodiesel an interesting story, including some interesting home brew solutions. The production and use of biodiesel could mean reducing emissions, particularly of sulfur, diversifying sources, increasing energy independence, and as the President mentioned in the last debate, creating jobs.

Oh, yeah, the exhaust smells like french fries, but I trust American ingenuity to either remove the scent or convince us that it's success that we're smelling.