Ah! modern internet humor is wasted on me. I prefer faulty towers
style humor.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4138503225675059137
This flickr data is valuable though? not just eye candy, especially
if shared and open. Feeding it into something like the new wolfram
engine along with say coordinates of power stations, you could
compute VERY rough temporal energy consumption maps pretty quickly I
guess amongst a multitude of other much better probable uses. (don't
shoot me down, probably the worst example I could have thought of).
Interesting ? :-) Accidental mapping could reveal a lot about 'us'
when coupled with other bits of pretty mundane static data.
If you missed it and have half an hour, here is an interesting
Wolfram interview; he mentions geodata in some of the spoken demo's
http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/rudy-rucker-talks-to-stephen-wolfram/
16378510
Paul
On 27 Apr 2009, at 23:02, SteveC wrote:
On 27 Apr 2009, at 14:53, Paul Harwood wrote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snob
Perhaps I should have put a :-) on my last email, because I did in
fact find it interesting? If so, please accept them on this
one :-) :-) :-)
http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Age-Illustrated-Primer-Spectra/dp/
0553380966/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240869657&sr=8-2
“Mr. Hackworth,” Finkle-McGraw said after the pleasantries had
petered out, speaking in a new tone of voice, a the-meeting-will-
come-to-order sort of voice, “please favour me with your opinion of
hypocrisy."
“Excuse me. Hypocrisy, Your Grace?”
“Yes. You know.”
“It’s a vice, I suppose.”
“A little one or a big one? Think carefully-much hinges upon the
answer.”
“I suppose that depends upon the particular circumstances.”
“That will never fail to be a safe answer, Mr. Hackworth,” the
Equity Lord said reproachfully. Major Napier laughed, somewhat
artificially, not knowing what to make of this line of inquiry.
“Recent events in my life have renewed my appreciation for the
virtues of doing things safely,” Hackworth said. Both of the others
chuckled knowingly.
“You know, when I was a young man, hypocrisy was deemed the worst of
vices,” Finkle-McGraw said. “It was all because of moral
relativism. You see, in that sort of a climate, you are not allowed
to criticise others-after all, if there is no absolute right and
wrong, then what grounds is there for criticism?”
Finkle-McGraw paused, knowing that he had the full attention of his
audience, and began to withdraw a calabash pipe and various related
supplies and implements from his pockets. As he continued, he
charged the calabash with a blend of leather-brown tobacco so
redolent that it made Hackworth’s mouth water. He was tempted to
spoon some of it into his mouth.
“Now, this led to a good deal of general frustration, for people
are naturally censorious and love nothing better than to criticise
others’ shortcomings. And so it was that they seized on hypocrisy
and elevated it from a ubiquitous peccadillo into the monarch of
all vices. For, you see, even if there is no right and wrong, you
can find grounds to criticise another person by contrasting what he
has espoused with what he has actually done. In this case, you are
not making any judgment whatsoever as to the correctness of his
views or the morality of his behaviour-you are merely pointing out
that he has said one thing and done another. Virtually all
political discourse in the days of my youth
was devoted to the ferreting out of hypocrisy.
“You wouldn’t believe the things they said about the original
Victorians. Calling someone a Victorian in those days was almost
like calling them a fascist or a Nazi.”
Both Hackworth and Major Napier were dumbfounded. “Your Grace!”
Napier exdaimed. “I was naturally aware that their moral stance was
radically different from ours- but I am astonished to be informed
that they actually condemned the first Victorians.”
“Of course they did,” Finkle-McGraw said.
“Because the first Victorians were hypocrites,” Hackworth said,
getting it.
Finkle-McGraw beamed upon Hackworth like a master upon his favored
pupil. “As you can see, Major Napier, my estimate of Mr.
Hackworth’s mental acuity was not ill-founded.”
“While I would never have supposed otherwise, Your Grace,” Major
Napier said, “it is nonetheless gratifying to have seen a
demonstration.” Napier raised his glass in Hackworth’s direction.
“Because they were hypocrites,” Finkle-McGraw said, after igniting
his calabash and shooting a few tremendous fountains of smoke into
the air, “the Victorians were despised in the late twentieth
century. Many of the persons who held such opinions were, of
course, guilty of the most nefandous conduct themselves, and yet
saw no paradox in holding such views because they were not
hypocrites themselves-they took no moral stances and lived by none.”
“So they were morally superior to the Victorians-” Major Napier said,
still a bit snowed under.
“-even though-in fact, because-they had no morals at all.” There
was a moment of silent, bewildered head-shaking around the copper
table.
“We take a somewhat different view of hypocrisy,” Finkle-McGraw
continued. “In the late-twentieth-century Weltanschauung, a
hypocrite was someone who espoused high moral views as part of a
planned campaign of deception-he never held these beliefs sincerely
and routinely violated them in privacy. Of course, most hypocrites
are not like that. Most of the time it’s a spirit-is-willing, flesh-
is-weak sort of thing.”
“That we occasionally violate our own stated moral code,” Major
Napier said, working it through, “does not imply that we are
insincere in espousing that code.”
“Of course not,” Finkle-McGraw said. “It’s perfectly obvious,
really. No one ever said that it was easy to hew to a strict code
of conduct. Really, the difficulties involved-the missteps we make
along the way-are
what make it interesting. The internal, and eternal , struggle,
between our base impulses and the rigorous demands of our own moral
system is quintessentially human. It is how we conduct ourselves in
that struggle that determines how we may in time be judged by a
higher power.” All three men were quiet for a few moments, chewing
mouthfuls of beer or smoke, pondering the matter.
“I cannot help but infer,” Hackworth finally said, “that the
present lesson in comparative ethics-which I thought was nicely
articulated and for which I am grateful-must be thought to pertain,
in some way, to my
situation.”
Best
Steve
Best
Paul
On 27 Apr 2009, at 17:50, SteveC wrote:
On 27 Apr 2009, at 02:39, Paul Harwood wrote:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17017-gallery-flickr-user-
traces-make-accidental-maps.html
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/11/28/interesting-2/
Best
Steve
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