Cobb

Sir Nose

Sir Nose

False Dichotomy

If, when you think of genes, you think of molecular martinets who bark orders but take none, you have the wrong idea. Genes do turn on and off in response to experience. Ridley also works hard to dispel the myth that environmental effects are reversible while genetic ones are not. In many cases the opposite is true.

A new book out stands a chance of revolutionizing our ideas about nature vs nurture. Unfortunately, a lot of good jokes will be rendered meaningless, but we will be able to poke fun at those mired in the old memes.

Like the author of the review, I am sick to death about those flamewars that pass for ethical arguments about genetics and IQ. I am furhter releived that the waters have been officially muddied by progress in genetic research. Many of my anti-racist adversaries doubtlessly will find themselves disappointingly short of the ammunition they believed was coming from the Human Genome Project's conclusions.

From my perspective, I have always elided the argument because of those declarations of equality stated as principles of the Constitution, but it will be interesting to see how I and others modify our arguments given this new knowledge that genes respond to the environment.

False Dichotomy

If, when you think of genes, you think of molecular martinets who bark orders but take none, you have the wrong idea. Genes do turn on and off in response to experience. Ridley also works hard to dispel the myth that environmental effects are reversible while genetic ones are not. In many cases the opposite is true.

A new book out stands a chance of revolutionizing our ideas about nature vs nurture. Unfortunately, a lot of good jokes will be rendered meaningless, but we will be able to poke fun at those mired in the old memes.

Like the author of the review, I am sick to death about those flamewars that pass for ethical arguments about genetics and IQ. I am furhter releived that the waters have been officially muddied by progress in genetic research. Many of my anti-racist adversaries doubtlessly will find themselves disappointingly short of the ammunition they believed was coming from the Human Genome Project's conclusions.

From my perspective, I have always elided the argument because of those declarations of equality stated as principles of the Constitution, but it will be interesting to see how I and others modify our arguments given this new knowledge that genes respond to the environment.

Gnostic Gospels & The Sexuality of Christ

A long time ago, I read a nobel by John Updike entitled 'Roger's Version' about a divinity student who believes he can prove the existence of god. He is enveloped in virtual worlds whose rules he becomes aware of only through study. In his computer and in his spiritual life complexity is made manifest in strange and mysterious ways that study clarifies. Of course he is branded a heretic.

The boundaries between orthodoxy and heresy are very thin indeed, but they become ossified over time in static systems of thought. This is a fascinating subject for me, as black Republican and as a computer programmer who prefers writing business applications. 'Rogers Version' was a treat for me, treading as I do on these seamingly divergent paths.

Another of my lovely cousins has introduced me, damn her, to the first chapter of the 'Da Vinci Code'. This is so me. The last thick one that I was into was Eco's 'Baudolino', so I know I am going to be thrilled by this book if it is what it promises to be. Unfortunately, I am dead broke and it will be at least 3 weeks before I'll be able to indulge.

In the meantime, in these days of change and challenge to orthodoxy, I shall meditate on the meaning of Christ's asexuality as handed down through the current canon of non-heretical writings.

Disunity

Disunity

Digital Fakery

Just keeping this link for the archives. Keyword photoshopping.

Digital Fakery

Just keeping this link for the archives. Keyword photoshopping.

Fmaily Reunion

This weekend is my family reunion. I'm having a ball. I haven't been bodysurfing in what seems like years. I know it's been a year since I've had a good volleyball game, not that ours was very good, but it did the the juices flowing. I still hate to lose.

This evening I'm the DJ for the banquet. Should be a blast. Mo' later.

Fmaily Reunion

This weekend is my family reunion. I'm having a ball. I haven't been bodysurfing in what seems like years. I know it's been a year since I've had a good volleyball game, not that ours was very good, but it did the the juices flowing. I still hate to lose.

This evening I'm the DJ for the banquet. Should be a blast. Mo' later.

A Matter of Trust

A Matter of Trust

End of an Era at King/Drew

I note what looks to be the passing into the great beyond of the medical training at King/Drew Medical Center in the Compton - Lynwood area. Pops used to work for the County's Health Department and as a Special Assistant to the Director, he helped many many blackfolks get work in the system back in the days when civil service jobs were just opening up to non-whites.

One of the things he played a role in that I was most proud of as a youngster was the opening of the Martin Luther King Jr, Hospital and the King/Drew Medical School. I can remember when there was little out there but the trailers that he worked in. My signature is in the cornerstone of the building.

More recently I learned that an old highschool chum was part of the black thorasic surgery club of Southern California. It's not a club per se, but one of the nation's top throat surgeons is a black man who has mentored a number of younger blacks here. I had the opportunity to meet some members of his 'club' back when I was dating a woman who made medical videos for a living, somewhere around 1988. Anyway, when I asked this chum about issues at MLK (also known in the 'hood as 'Killer King'), he was fairly close-mouthed about it. This was at my 20 year reunion, five years ago.

Since then, I'd bet he was among those who have fled the institution leaving it in the poor state it finds itself in today. Life is hard.

End of an Era at King/Drew

I note what looks to be the passing into the great beyond of the medical training at King/Drew Medical Center in the Compton - Lynwood area. Pops used to work for the County's Health Department and as a Special Assistant to the Director, he helped many many blackfolks get work in the system back in the days when civil service jobs were just opening up to non-whites.

One of the things he played a role in that I was most proud of as a youngster was the opening of the Martin Luther King Jr, Hospital and the King/Drew Medical School. I can remember when there was little out there but the trailers that he worked in. My signature is in the cornerstone of the building.

More recently I learned that an old highschool chum was part of the black thorasic surgery club of Southern California. It's not a club per se, but one of the nation's top throat surgeons is a black man who has mentored a number of younger blacks here. I had the opportunity to meet some members of his 'club' back when I was dating a woman who made medical videos for a living, somewhere around 1988. Anyway, when I asked this chum about issues at MLK (also known in the 'hood as 'Killer King'), he was fairly close-mouthed about it. This was at my 20 year reunion, five years ago.

Since then, I'd bet he was among those who have fled the institution leaving it in the poor state it finds itself in today. Life is hard.

SCO Smokes Crack

According to Linus Torvalds, SCO has problems with telling the truth. Not only that, they're boasting about code they don't even own.

Major vendors are kicking SCO to the curb. The publisher of the Linux Journal, Phil Hughes is daring SCO to sue them. The bell is tolling.

SCO Smokes Crack

According to Linus Torvalds, SCO has problems with telling the truth. Not only that, they're boasting about code they don't even own.

Major vendors are kicking SCO to the curb. The publisher of the Linux Journal, Phil Hughes is daring SCO to sue them. The bell is tolling.

Vat I Meant To Szay

Arnold's people are not working the cue cards properly and his bloopers are getting caught on film. Except there is no friendly editor. There's trouble in Schwartzeneggerville as we witness the birth of the Schwartzenegger Shuffle.

Tsk. What a pity.

Vat I Meant To Szay

Arnold's people are not working the cue cards properly and his bloopers are getting caught on film. Except there is no friendly editor. There's trouble in Schwartzeneggerville as we witness the birth of the Schwartzenegger Shuffle.

Tsk. What a pity.

Birds of a Feather, Not

Birds of a Feather, Not

Wal-Mart Imperialism

I cite Matt Welch's post as more evidence that things are going as I planned. Bwah hahahahah!

Now if we can only get them over to West Africa.

This Means War

Earthstation Five in Jenin!

These guy have gnarls, n'est-ce pas? I don't trust that their software doesn't have backdoors to hack my system and I don't know enough to figure out if they do. Either way, movies on my laptop is not my idea of a good time. I'm not sure that eventually a soft library won't make sense for most people, but I'm not in a hurry.

Still, it's nice to know that there are still some revolutionaries who know how to pick a fight.

This Means War

Earthstation Five in Jenin!

These guy have gnarls, n'est-ce pas? I don't trust that their software doesn't have backdoors to hack my system and I don't know enough to figure out if they do. Either way, movies on my laptop is not my idea of a good time. I'm not sure that eventually a soft library won't make sense for most people, but I'm not in a hurry.

Still, it's nice to know that there are still some revolutionaries who know how to pick a fight.

Black Eye for the White Guy

OK. I'm not the only one with imagination. Help write the treatment.

Black Eye for the White Guy

OK. I'm not the only one with imagination. Help write the treatment.

But For Murphy

But For Murphy

A Great Parent's Resource

If you're like me, you cannot stand the idea that your kids might be innumerate. So, like me, you may have supplemented their normal education with Sylvan or Kumon or some such program. Like me you will have been pleasantly surprised with the simplicity and rigor of these programs, and like me you would have seen your children progress admirably.

If like me you have also lost your job and spent weeks on the internet finding a new one, and like me you have about 200 dollars left in the bank and are on the verge of panic, you probably will have despaired of re-entering your kids in those programs for the fall semester. And like me you would be searching for alternatives.

So here's the payoff. A math facts generator online. Because like me you will be sick of doing this stuff by hand.

A Great Parent's Resource

If you're like me, you cannot stand the idea that your kids might be innumerate. So, like me, you may have supplemented their normal education with Sylvan or Kumon or some such program. Like me you will have been pleasantly surprised with the simplicity and rigor of these programs, and like me you would have seen your children progress admirably.

If like me you have also lost your job and spent weeks on the internet finding a new one, and like me you have about 200 dollars left in the bank and are on the verge of panic, you probably will have despaired of re-entering your kids in those programs for the fall semester. And like me you would be searching for alternatives.

So here's the payoff. A math facts generator online. Because like me you will be sick of doing this stuff by hand.

Treason and Taxation

Kudlow gets all mushy for Arthur Laffer's influence on the Schwartzenegger camp.

I wonder if anyone is at all concerned about the skills of Arnold himself. A man with his celebrity speaks a few phrases and gathers several eminences grey out of the national woodwork, and that makes him an appropriate leader?

It seems to me, beginning with George Schultz himself, that the Republican party has purchased fully into the idea of a shadow executive branch. Americans elect personalities and we wind up with a cadre of back-office manipulators who head in their own directions without coherent leadership. It's all up to spinners to make administrative policy appear consistent, and screwups can be shuffled off with plausible deniability.

This is the result of a party of strong ideologues and weak leaders. A party of the people cannot be lead by ideologues, and I believe they have sabotaged electoral politics.

If I were to observe this country from any reasonable distance, it would not surprise me to find the academy running witlessly left. Clearly the brains have left the public sphere and the Machiavellians are running the right.

I hope that some people come to realize that greatest problems that face our nation have little to do with taxation, and if Arnold comes to represent nothing more that the candidate for unending tax abatement, that California sends him back to his compound. There comes a point at which defunding government as a first priority is treasonous. Republicans on this track will be the first to trip that wire.

Treason and Taxation

Kudlow gets all mushy for Arthur Laffer's influence on the Schwartzenegger camp.

I wonder if anyone is at all concerned about the skills of Arnold himself. A man with his celebrity speaks a few phrases and gathers several eminences grey out of the national woodwork, and that makes him an appropriate leader?

It seems to me, beginning with George Schultz himself, that the Republican party has purchased fully into the idea of a shadow executive branch. Americans elect personalities and we wind up with a cadre of back-office manipulators who head in their own directions without coherent leadership. It's all up to spinners to make administrative policy appear consistent, and screwups can be shuffled off with plausible deniability.

This is the result of a party of strong ideologues and weak leaders. A party of the people cannot be lead by ideologues, and I believe they have sabotaged electoral politics.

If I were to observe this country from any reasonable distance, it would not surprise me to find the academy running witlessly left. Clearly the brains have left the public sphere and the Machiavellians are running the right.

I hope that some people come to realize that greatest problems that face our nation have little to do with taxation, and if Arnold comes to represent nothing more that the candidate for unending tax abatement, that California sends him back to his compound. There comes a point at which defunding government as a first priority is treasonous. Republicans on this track will be the first to trip that wire.

Nigerian Scam

for the archives.
this is the hilarious response to the Nigerian Email bank bunco.

http://spl.haxial.com/nigerian-fraud/

Nigerian Scam

for the archives.
this is the hilarious response to the Nigerian Email bank bunco.

http://spl.haxial.com/nigerian-fraud/

Second Chance

Second Chance

Clark on Radar

Way back in the beginning of my blogdays, SPK dropped some info bombs about the Pentagon's disgust with the arrogance of Donald Rumsfeld and his misplaced priorities on Iraq. The short end of the story was that Rumsfeld didn't really care and enjoyed making enemies. If what goes around comes around, we can expect a firestorm brewing in the candidacy of Wesley Clark.

Today I've learned the Donna Brazile is somewhere near the center of that maelstrom and has now dropped hints that the grassroots drafting of Clark is more than just a simple notion. Reciprocity may be forthcoming. It's about time I started looking at Clark more seriously, especially since the Poor Man likes him and I like the Poor Man.

Chances are that there will be no better chance of electing a general to the office of President than 2004, especially if we get hit again. But listen to the way people are talking about him:

He gets his hair cut every two weeks. He swims every day he can, even when he's on the road, and when he can't he runs. Indeed, from the general's head to the general's toes, there's no part of him absent the imprint of his overarching will: He's taut and springy, with wide and slightly hunched shoulders that flare from the constriction of his narrow waist. He is in the habit of sticking his hands in his pockets, especially when he's making a speech, but even his nonchalance is purposeful. People at his speeches can be heard to remark, "He's small" when he glides to the stump, but he's not really; he's around five ten and not so much diminutive as compressed, like a man who never exhales. His stride is at once jaunty and athletic and somewhat artificial, like the stride of a man who has devoted time to teaching himself how to walk . . . as, in fact, he has, after getting shot four times in Vietnam. Taught himself to walk again, without a limp, despite the fact that a quarter of his calf muscle was gone; taught himself to shake hands manfully, despite the loss of the muscle around his right thumb. He had to learn those things because, as his wife says, he was desperately afraid of being profiled out of the Army. Can't be a general if you're a gimp. The only thing he couldn't do was teach himself how to play basketball again, because no matter how many hours he spent alone in the gym practicing his foul shots, he couldn't stabilize the ball. . . .

It sounds like the voiceover on a trailer to a Mel Gibson movie. Be that as it may. From all I can see at DraftClark.com, Cadidate Clark simply looks like a Democrat who is not an obvious idiot.

Clark on Radar

Way back in the beginning of my blogdays, SPK dropped some info bombs about the Pentagon's disgust with the arrogance of Donald Rumsfeld and his misplaced priorities on Iraq. The short end of the story was that Rumsfeld didn't really care and enjoyed making enemies. If what goes around comes around, we can expect a firestorm brewing in the candidacy of Wesley Clark.

Today I've learned the Donna Brazile is somewhere near the center of that maelstrom and has now dropped hints that the grassroots drafting of Clark is more than just a simple notion. Reciprocity may be forthcoming. It's about time I started looking at Clark more seriously, especially since the Poor Man likes him and I like the Poor Man.

Chances are that there will be no better chance of electing a general to the office of President than 2004, especially if we get hit again. But listen to the way people are talking about him:

He gets his hair cut every two weeks. He swims every day he can, even when he's on the road, and when he can't he runs. Indeed, from the general's head to the general's toes, there's no part of him absent the imprint of his overarching will: He's taut and springy, with wide and slightly hunched shoulders that flare from the constriction of his narrow waist. He is in the habit of sticking his hands in his pockets, especially when he's making a speech, but even his nonchalance is purposeful. People at his speeches can be heard to remark, "He's small" when he glides to the stump, but he's not really; he's around five ten and not so much diminutive as compressed, like a man who never exhales. His stride is at once jaunty and athletic and somewhat artificial, like the stride of a man who has devoted time to teaching himself how to walk . . . as, in fact, he has, after getting shot four times in Vietnam. Taught himself to walk again, without a limp, despite the fact that a quarter of his calf muscle was gone; taught himself to shake hands manfully, despite the loss of the muscle around his right thumb. He had to learn those things because, as his wife says, he was desperately afraid of being profiled out of the Army. Can't be a general if you're a gimp. The only thing he couldn't do was teach himself how to play basketball again, because no matter how many hours he spent alone in the gym practicing his foul shots, he couldn't stabilize the ball. . . .

It sounds like the voiceover on a trailer to a Mel Gibson movie. Be that as it may. From all I can see at DraftClark.com, Cadidate Clark simply looks like a Democrat who is not an obvious idiot.

Betrayed

Betrayed

Bustamante Sets the Pace

"I know this is a tough proposal," Bustamante said during a press conference outside his suburban Sacramento home. "But we've tried all the easy ways. There aren't any left and we can't borrow any more money."

So who's going to step up next with a budget?

Bustamante Sets the Pace

"I know this is a tough proposal," Bustamante said during a press conference outside his suburban Sacramento home. "But we've tried all the easy ways. There aren't any left and we can't borrow any more money."

So who's going to step up next with a budget?

On The Rocks

On The Rocks

Everybody's a Critic

John McWhorter fights language with language and places himself squarely in the camp of postmodern deconstructionist mumbo jumbo. I have one word for McWhorter, and it is Economics.

Many writers and thinkers see a kind of informed political engagement, even a revolutionary potential, in rap and hip-hop. They couldn’t be more wrong. By reinforcing the stereotypes that long hindered blacks, and by teaching young blacks that a thuggish adversarial stance is the properly “authentic” response to a presumptively racist society, rap retards black success.

McWhorter wastes bits and breath in his diatribe against the most impoverished imaginations of rap, identifying them disgusting phrase by idiotic phrase. It's almost as if he gets a vicarious thrill in quoting the doggerel, like the stereotypical spinster that Airplane movie who says 'I speak jive'.

In this exercise McWhorter doesn't even bother to give the capitalist system a half-hearted kick in the shins. It's not airheaded rap stars who extended this gangsta madness to an embarrassment of international proportions, it's the businesses who bankrolled the production. If McWhorter would spend some of his considerable intellect doing a bit of research behind the cults of personality he demonizes, he'll find quite a few more people making quite a bit more money than Rush and Michael Dyson. Poor John has really swallowed more than he can chew, in his rather pathetic attempt to dismiss the entire hiphop nation in under 3500 words. That might have worked in the days of Schooly D, but why on earth would BMW use hiphop music to sell their automobiles? It is a mystery unfit for consideration in his black playa hatin' essay.

I find much to admire in McWhorter, although it's mostly his upitty attitude. I've more than five minutes of funk in my collection so I know how to separate the good stuff from the junk. McWhorter tries to slam multiple genres of rap into one hiphop whole and toss the whole schmere. Anyone who would lump Busta Rhymes and Lil Kim into the same bucket.. Well that's like putting Stanley Jordan into the same bucket as Stanley Clarke and saying all Jazz is worthless. Perhaps McWhorter wants to be in the same bucket as Stanley Crouch.

Ahh. He's just a fad.

Everybody's a Critic

John McWhorter fights language with language and places himself squarely in the camp of postmodern deconstructionist mumbo jumbo. I have one word for McWhorter, and it is Economics.

Many writers and thinkers see a kind of informed political engagement, even a revolutionary potential, in rap and hip-hop. They couldn’t be more wrong. By reinforcing the stereotypes that long hindered blacks, and by teaching young blacks that a thuggish adversarial stance is the properly “authentic” response to a presumptively racist society, rap retards black success.

McWhorter wastes bits and breath in his diatribe against the most impoverished imaginations of rap, identifying them disgusting phrase by idiotic phrase. It's almost as if he gets a vicarious thrill in quoting the doggerel, like the stereotypical spinster that Airplane movie who says 'I speak jive'.

In this exercise McWhorter doesn't even bother to give the capitalist system a half-hearted kick in the shins. It's not airheaded rap stars who extended this gangsta madness to an embarrassment of international proportions, it's the businesses who bankrolled the production. If McWhorter would spend some of his considerable intellect doing a bit of research behind the cults of personality he demonizes, he'll find quite a few more people making quite a bit more money than Rush and Michael Dyson. Poor John has really swallowed more than he can chew, in his rather pathetic attempt to dismiss the entire hiphop nation in under 3500 words. That might have worked in the days of Schooly D, but why on earth would BMW use hiphop music to sell their automobiles? It is a mystery unfit for consideration in his black playa hatin' essay.

I find much to admire in McWhorter, although it's mostly his upitty attitude. I've more than five minutes of funk in my collection so I know how to separate the good stuff from the junk. McWhorter tries to slam multiple genres of rap into one hiphop whole and toss the whole schmere. Anyone who would lump Busta Rhymes and Lil Kim into the same bucket.. Well that's like putting Stanley Jordan into the same bucket as Stanley Clarke and saying all Jazz is worthless. Perhaps McWhorter wants to be in the same bucket as Stanley Crouch.

Ahh. He's just a fad.

Canada: Land of the Free

I've been listening to Lessig's MP3 in which he chides his listeners to contribute to the EFF instead of watching pay per view or buying CDs. He is convinced that the proper political action can free up the commons which is being taken over by overreaching copyright activism.

He sounds as if he is tilting at windmills. That is until you see how Canada has done things.

"On March 19, 1998, Part VIII of the (Canadian) Copyright Act dealing with private copying came into force. Until that time, copying any sound recording for almost any purpose infringed copyright, although, in practice, the prohibition was largely unenforceable. The amendment to the Act legalized copying of sound recordings of musical works onto audio recording media for the private use of the person who makes the copy (referred to as "private copying"). In addition, the amendment made provision for the imposition of a levy on blank audio recording media to compensate authors, performers and makers who own copyright in eligible sound recordings being copied for private use."
-- Copyright Board of Canada: Fact Sheet: Private Copying 1999-2000 Decision

Canada: Land of the Free

I've been listening to Lessig's MP3 in which he chides his listeners to contribute to the EFF instead of watching pay per view or buying CDs. He is convinced that the proper political action can free up the commons which is being taken over by overreaching copyright activism.

He sounds as if he is tilting at windmills. That is until you see how Canada has done things.

"On March 19, 1998, Part VIII of the (Canadian) Copyright Act dealing with private copying came into force. Until that time, copying any sound recording for almost any purpose infringed copyright, although, in practice, the prohibition was largely unenforceable. The amendment to the Act legalized copying of sound recordings of musical works onto audio recording media for the private use of the person who makes the copy (referred to as "private copying"). In addition, the amendment made provision for the imposition of a levy on blank audio recording media to compensate authors, performers and makers who own copyright in eligible sound recordings being copied for private use."
-- Copyright Board of Canada: Fact Sheet: Private Copying 1999-2000 Decision

Only So Much

Only So Much