Re: [silk] On countries not being nation states

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 7/30/21 2:35 AM, Ameya Nagarajan wrote:


Could you expand a bit more on the un-nationality of India? Are we
not, rather, a multinational state and the trouble we run into is
that we're trying to forge a unified identity and unlike the US we
don't have strong citizen rights etc?


I think the US could also be defined as a multinational state. Strong 
citizen rights? Not so much, and they are presently under attack from a 
substantial minority who want to impose authoritarian rule.


Fortunately, this minority is incompetent, and doesn't include our 
military, which is all that kept us from becoming a military 
dictatorship last January.


But it is hard to try and form a nation from a state that was created by 
a combination of occupation, mass kidnapping, loose borders, and a 
history of internal strife. The very fact that we still have fifty 
nearly autonomous States speaks loudly to the level of tribalism still 
prevalent here, and even those are multinational.


I can thus sympathize with Indians over the challenges. Yes, both 
countries are worse due to the pressure of the pandemic, but if there 
weren't cracks in the foundation to begin with, the pressure wouldn't 
have spawned such evil changes.


So far, the only proposal I've heard that has even a chance of success 
is to hand everybody guns and let them shoot it out. Sadly, that's the 
process the US is going through, though not deliberately, and it's not 
going well.


I wish I had answers to go with my sympathy, as we two aren't the only 
countries facing this problem.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Starting a Second Career

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Alok Prasanna Kumar wrote:

> Read this fascinating piece on the Guardian
> 
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jul/14/leaving-burnout-behind-the-pain-and-pleasure-of-starting-a-new-career-in-my-50s

> ?
>
> ...and wondered if any of you have switched careers later in life 
(say 20+

> years after one) and what was the experience like.

I can't say that I switched careers after 20 years; either I never 
lasted that long or the career didn't.


Electronic technician, Technical writer and editor, Research library 
director, Railroad conductor, Hotel desk clerk, and now Research library 
director again plus non-profit management. Longest tenure? About 8 years.


The reasons for leaving varied: Electronic tech (things no longer need 
repair, they need replacement -- with a better part); first research 
library, killed by politics and the books given away (but they had to 
fire me first); railroad conductor was ended by an idiot boss; Hotel 
clerk I actually burned out on (but it was entertaining to see all the 
different ways people could be stupid).


There wasn't a lot of pain to most of these changes. Tech to writer to 
editor to librarian were each upgrades. Railroad and hotel were the same 
company, so an easy transfer. The current library and non-profit pay the 
least, but I'm basically in charge of everything (save fund raising and 
marketing, which the Board doesn't know how to do).


The first library job obliged me to get a second degree. They seemed to 
think a degree in electronic engineering wasn't very helpful in a 
railroad history library. What a great experience that was, going back 
to school in my 30s! All the discipline and good habits I lacked the 
first time were now at my disposal, and I used them to my advantage.


I know too many people who stayed too long. My father taught 5th and 6th 
grade for 31 years, then one day at 10:15 he decided he had had all he 
could take, but he chose to stay in the classroom another 15 minutes and 
submitted his resignation during recess. It was economically challenging 
-- one doesn't tend to build up a big nest egg from a teacher's salary 
-- but it took such a load off his shoulders that he was nearly a new 
man. (He became a Kelly Girl, for those for whom that means anything. )


So many of us have tied our ego and our sense of self to our employment 
that change is a lot more frightening than it should be. Most people 
need some shock, like the death of a family member, to push them off 
dead center.


What's interesting today, at least here in the US, is that people are 
quitting their jobs in droves. It's being called the Great Resignation 
by some journalists. Between the opportunity to work from home provided 
by Covid, and the realization that their workplace or supervisors really 
are quite nasty -- coupled with the realization that nearly everyone is 
hiring right now -- it seems to be the right time.


It also shows the working of Karma in real time. Restaurants run by the 
dictatorial are finding their entire staff walking out all at once. 
Questions in public fora about what it's like to work somewhere are 
getting such a response that absolutely no one is applying there. 
Conversely, the best companies are able to hire the best of the crop in 
short order. Statistically, it's the greatest non-war reallocation of 
labor since slavery was abolished. I am watching how this progresses 
with great interest.


I only wish I could get a sense of how those who are making such changes 
are doing, both now and in coming years. Sadly, only anecdotal data is 
available, but perhaps there will be some studies to look at this.


Getting back to the original question, my career changes have all been 
for the better, notwithstanding that some work gaps got a bit sticky at 
times. I may have done better than most at landing on my feet, but 
learning to read the handwriting on the wall and jumping first has 
helped a lot. (One firm I left was closed and torn down seven months 
after I decided I should leave. I don't take credit for that.)


If you are thinking of making a change, give it a good hard look. See 
what skills and temperament the new role might need, look at the numbers 
(but not too hard), and jump if it looks right, or if you just *have* to 
jump, as did my father. If you're miserable now, it's unlikely to get 
much worse.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Good puns

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Here's one straight from Florida:

What's the best way to cook alligator?

In a Croc Pot.

Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] An anniversary

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Venkatesh H R wrote:


I've been around on this list for about five years. First heard about
it on this piece

by Shrabonti Bagchi.


I took the opportunity to read this article, and ... oh my, I'm 
mentioned therein! In most complimentary terms, no less. Thank you, 
Kiran, for your kind words.


One small point of clarification should probably be made: I should not 
describe myself as a "professional (railroad) engineer".


My career began as an electronic engineer and technician (spanning the 
era from vacuum tubes to integrated circuits). I then moved into 
technical writing and editing, and eventually into librarianship. All 
the while, keeping up a second job as a part-time Adjunct Instructor at 
community colleges. While I did volunteer at several railroad museums 
during this time, rising to the rank of passenger conductor and dining 
car steward at one, it wasn't a paying job.


Only after I retired at 46 and realized I wasn't ready for the rocking 
chair did I hire out as a railroad conductor -- at Walt Disney World. 
Six years on the trains were followed by stints with Imagineering and a 
decade as a lobby concierge and front desk trainer at a hotel.


Now retired from that as well, I am currently the (unpaid) executive 
director of a non-profit, membership-based society of scholars in the 
fields of chivalry, genealogy, heraldry, ancient & medieval history, and 
royalty & nobility, with international scope. I am also the director of 
the library, which keeps me busy trying to catalog the 30,000-odd books 
in our collection.


As for Kiran's charge that I'm a philosopher, I'll plead guilty as charged.

As a US citizen in 2020, I am also perforce a political critic and 
semi-pro public health advocate. I'm working (though not very hard) on 
writing a script for "Trump: The Musical". When it was just a story 
about stupidity and corruption, it was easy. Now that it's also about 
mass deaths from same, I'm losing faith that musical comedy is the right 
genre. Then again, "Sweeney Todd".


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Coronavirus and behaviour change

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 3/9/20 1:30 AM, Peter Griffin wrote:


  What behaviours (if any) have you changed because you're worried about the
coronavirus?


I may have an unusual perspective on this question, as I'm presently 
aboard a cruise ship on a 'round-the-world cruise. (But not one that's 
been stuck offshore -- yet.)


So far, the ship has taken care of most things for me. The segment 
between Sydney and Singapore was changed to end in Perth instead. 
Because of national bans, we'll be skipping stops in Colombo and all of 
our planned ports in Italy. It's not yet clear if I'll be able to get 
into India as I promised some of you. (More when I'm sure.)


So far, our ship has been clear of the virus, and hasn't stopped in any 
(known) infected ports. We also declined to board a few passengers who 
had just come from China. In fact, so many have canceled because of the 
lost destination ports that the ship's now only about half full.


Yes, washing hands, fist-bumping instead of handshakes, and enough hand 
sanitizer to dry up a good sized tropical rainforest, but nothing out of 
the ordinary.


This will certainly change once someone on the ship develops symptoms. 
I've been aboard cruise ships that had norovirus, and there's a whole 
suite of added precautions required by the US' Centers for Disease 
Control. Mostly shrink-wrapping the buffet.




Stuff that you would recommend others do too. For instance, washing hands
more, using hand sanitizers, avoiding crowds, not going to events,
canceling travel.


My next cruise is due to include land travel in Spain, France, and 
England. The cruise line has offered a full credit toward a new cruise 
if I cancel as little as 30 days from sailing. Should one of those 
countries go the way of Italy, or if my wife or I come down with a case, 
we'll be invoking this.


Yes, washing hands helps. Yes, shaking hands is counter-indicated. 
Avoiding crowds is always a good plan to my mind. And as we've seen by 
the recent cancellation of SXSW, fans at soccer games, and even movie 
premiers, a lot of that work will be done for us.


Situational awareness is, I think, the key most of the time. Just as you 
wouldn't visit an area with a hot shooting war, you'd avoid areas with 
widespread diseases for which no vaccine is available, especially if 
very young, old, or have compromised immune function.


I don't think it's time to panic. Careful, yes. But I wouldn't suggest a 
blanket ban on travel or events. Others may be more nervous, and should 
stay home if that's what's needed to remain calm.


Good luck to you all.

Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Questions, or answers?

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 2/18/20 5:57 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:


Via a friend on another invite-only list, this lovely, though-provoking
cartoon:

http://kiriakakis.net/comics/mused/a-day-at-the-park (I won't spoil it, go
read through the whole thing)

So: what do YOU collect: questions, or answers? And why?


I am by trade and habit a collector of answers. I think this typical of 
those of us who work as reference librarians. Sadly, our answers 
generally greatly outnumber the questions at hand.


One result is that we search out those questions by gathering up 
collections of answers into articles and books, and sending them out 
into the world in hopes of finding compatible questions. Sometimes you 
find out that it has worked, more often you never know.


But that applies primarily to things outside myself. Inside I'm nothing 
but questions and damn few answers (at least answers that stand up to 
close scrutiny or the passage of time).


On a personal level, I think questions are far preferable to answers. 
Largely because the people I meet that believe they have the answers are 
generally insufferable (though not always boorish), and it's not 
possible to discuss their answers, only to receive them without comment.


Unexamined answers, like the unexamined life, are not of much value. But 
so too unexamined questions!


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

[silk] A Brief Visit to India

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Greetings,

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm about to embark on a 
'round-the-world cruise. En route, my wife and I will be making four 
stops in India, marking our first visit to the country.


Our scheduled stops are:

Sun. 29 March - Cochin
Mon. 30 March - Mangalore (New Man. Port)
Tue. 31 March - Mormugao
1 & 2 April - Mumbai

If anyone has suggestions about activities near these ports, I'm all ears.

I would also be delighted to meet Silklisters at any of these ports for 
a brief visit, a beverage, or a meal.


I realize this isn't a particularly flexible schedule, nor is it at all 
close to Bangalore, but I'd feel foolish if I didn't extend an invitation.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Suleimani

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 1/4/20 5:48 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:

On Jan 4, 2020 Peter Griffin  wrote:

What do you folks think will result from the Qassem Suleimani 
assassination?


How will this play out for the rest of the world, in terms of not 
just stability, but also wars, economies and so on?


War has always been a reliable distraction. From impeachable offenses
by the bushel (or rather, barrel)

That said, follow the money.


All good and valid points, particularly when a rational (and amoral) 
agent is in charge.


We don't have one right now.

Yes, Trump probably got the idea from Faux News and the warmongers 
around him. As some have written he was presented with a wide assortment 
of bad ideas and chose them all.


In understanding the Trump administration, one must keep in mind that 
the President has a bad case of narcissistic personality disorder, an 
8th grade education (and emotional development), and recent analysis 
suggests he may also suffer from pre-frontal dementia. Thus rational 
decisions and remarks are not to be expected.


Of course, this is exactly the situation the US Constitution was 
designed to address with the separation of powers. What it wasn't 
designed to address is the current situation where one party has lined 
up behind a madman and refuses logical argument.


Yes, of course I'm concerned about the potential for massive war and 
general disruption in the region and the world. I'm also concerned that 
the US will lose a lot of troops in a fight our allies probably won't 
deign to participate in because we didn't bother to involve them before 
the war began.


But my greatest concern is that the US may become a failed democracy if 
the stupid manage to grab the reigns of power and effectively 
disenfranchise the opposition (as they've been working so hard to do). 
The one reason I haven't already packed and left for some civilized 
country is that I don't believe that the military will go along with 
this program, as is common in so many dictatorships. I pray I'm not 
mistaken.


And on top of all this, I leave Monday on a 'round-the-world cruise that 
is presently scheduled to pass through the Straight of Hormuz three 
times in April. I think I'll pack my Capetown guidebook and try not to 
think about the Achille Lauro.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] New member Intro: Jitendra (Jiten) Vaidya

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 02/25/2019 09:39 PM, Shenoy N wrote:


Thanks so much for this. Could you share some recipes (or recommend some
place where these might be found, especially recipes for vegetables)


Frankly, I haven't worked with veggies enough to have a recipe to 
suggest. Yes, carrots and ghee at 85C for 3 hours were okay, but I'd try 
4 hours next time.


As for my sources, I just google "sous vide whatever-I-want-to-cook" and 
look for commonalities in the suggestions. I don't have a one-stop shop 
to suggest.


Short form: the temperature determines the doneness (rare, medium), and 
the duration determines the tenderness. Start at 60C for medium rare, 
don't go below 55C for meats. One hour per cm of thickness minimum for 
pasteurization, add another hour from frozen.


I can get good results from chicken parts or think pork cuts in six 
hours, but eight is better. Anything that tends to be tough, don't 
hesitate to try 24 hours, and bump that up 12 hours at a time until you 
like the results. Mutton might take 72 hours.


Douglas Baldwin has a nice, if technical, page on food safety at 
. Skip directly to the 
tables if you don't care why. Note his remarks about measurement; on a 
short cook you'll need to measure the internal temperature. Long cooks 
it won't matter; after 12 hours everything will be the same temp as the 
water.



Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] New member Intro: Jitendra (Jiten) Vaidya

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 02/24/2019 01:31 PM, Jitendra Vaidya wrote:


Speaking of cooking techniques, has anybody tried Sous Vide? I would love
to try it but the thought of cooking food in a polyethylene bag for long
periods of time puts me off.


I have been heavily into sous vide cooking for several years now. It's a 
wonderful technique that offers the cook new options.


The concern about plastic is not unfounded. However, there are safe 
plastics offered for use with heat-sealing appliances. These often cost 
more than the sous vide device and fail more often; I don't recommend them.


I use "zip-lock" freezer bags. Note the term "freezer", as they are made 
with different materials than the storage bags. Glad is one brand that 
actually recommends their freezer bags for sous vide, which means the 
lawyers have approved of the science.  Because sous vide (by 
definition) never exceeds 100C, breakdown of the plastic isn't an issue.


Obviously, it's hard to pull a vacuum on a zip-lock bag, but it's not 
necessary. Put a small amount of a braising liquid in the bag with the 
meat or vegetables, then dunk the bag in water to force out the air, and 
zip. Small amounts of air aren't a problem, especially on long cooks.


"Braising liquid" could just be water. I've also used ghee, tomato 
juice, various stocks, and more than a few weird combinations. It works 
somewhere between a braise and a marinade, as the temperature is also 
intermediate.


Do drain the braising liquid when done, especially if you won't be 
eating it all promptly. Any acid in the liquid will continue to "cook", 
leaving a gooey and unpleasant texture.


Today's example is a pork shoulder roast I put in on Saturday evening at 
58C. I used spicy, low-sodium V-8 juice with a big dash of liquid smoke 
for the braise. It should come out medium rare and quite tender. I 
expect to slice off a few "steaks" and finish them on the grill for 
perhaps a minute per side. The rest I'll probably shred for Other Projects.


There are two types of sous vide equipment. The most common is the 
immersion heater: These include a small pump for circulation, but you 
must provide a container and deal with the inevitable evaporation, a 
non-trivial issue for multi-day cooks. Many buy plastic coolers and cut 
a hole in the top for the heater.


The other type goes by various names, I prefer "water oven". This is an 
insulated box with built-in heater, but no circulator pump. Convection 
appears to be fully sufficient. Best, with an aluminum cover, evaporated 
water condenses on the cover and drips back in, permitting up to 4-day 
cooks without adding water.


The water oven has a fixed capacity, obviously. The immersion heater can 
be put in anything from a liter jug to a bathtub. Note that uninsulated 
bathtubs will require more than one heater to keep temperature. Water 
ovens can cost more, but consider the money saved by not buying a fancy 
bag sealer!


One nice thing about the insulated water oven is that it puts off less 
heat while working than my coffee pot; something much appreciated here 
in Florida where the A/C runs year-round.


The technique also works well for vegetables as well as meats, but not 
at the same time as veggies need higher temperatures. Meats 55-65C, 
veggies 75-85C.


Lots of recipes and opinions available on request.

Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] From 35 years ago, Asimov's predictions for 2019 (and anxperiment for this list)

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 01/21/2019 07:10 PM, Thaths wrote:

On Tue, Jan 22, 2019 at 3:49 AM Bruce A. Metcalf wrote:


1. Malthusian forces will bring famine to much of the third world,
unless some new disease gets there first. Growing resistance to
acceptance of vaccination will aid the latter.


I am in the middle of reading Hans Rosling's _Factfulness_. He says that
current estimates are that global population is expected to plateau at
10-11 Billion by 2100. I.e, not an exponential Malthusian growth. Are you
saying that population is going to go much higher than that, or that Earth
doesn't have the carrying capacity for 10-11 Billion?


I'm saying that given the transportation and economic systems, we can't 
feed the people living today. I expect the contrast between haves and 
have nots to exacerbate. I also think that this sort of mass starvation 
will be (most of) what prevents exponential growth and eventually 
plateau the planet's population.




4. Tribalization will continue to worsen cooperation, from the
international level down to communities. Such conflicts will in some
cases result in political separations, which will serve to ossify such
attitudes.


I agree. I think significant parts of the world are heading to a Civil War
of some sort. Perhaps a Civil World War. But I feel this is likely to
happen in the near future, and not 20+ years from now.


The longer we put it off, the worse it will be when it does come. 
Perhaps central Africa and the middle east have it right, get it done 
now and avoid the rush.


"Civil World War", I like that term, unfortunately.

Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] From 35 years ago, Asimov's predictions for 2019 (and anxperiment for this list)

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 01/01/2019 04:21 PM, Peter Griffin wrote:


What are your predictions for 2048?


A most interesting challenge, thank you. I'm afraid I'm more pessimistic 
for 2048 than I am for later dates. I think many issues will get worse 
before they get better.


1. Malthusian forces will bring famine to much of the third world, 
unless some new disease gets there first. Growing resistance to 
acceptance of vaccination will aid the latter.


2. The first world will fortify to keep others out. This will reach a 
peak when military force is used to kill immigrants/invaders.


3. Global temperature rise will result in significant sea level rise, 
which will threaten major cities and inundate low-lying countries. The 
first world will throw inordinate amounts of money at hardening coastal 
cities in what will prove a futile attempt to deny change.


4. Tribalization will continue to worsen cooperation, from the 
international level down to communities. Such conflicts will in some 
cases result in political separations, which will serve to ossify such 
attitudes.


5. Each generation will have less patience for bigotry and prejudice, 
and the conflict with their elders will continue as it has for several 
millenia. "Change occurs at the rate of attrition."


6. Technology will surge in governmental applications (especially 
oppressive ones), continue to advance slowly in consumer applications, 
and stagnate for science and technology. Space will either become 
crowded or empty.


7. All of the above is subject to change if a charismatic leader 
appears, promoting a more civilized approach. Of course, this would also 
lead to religious wars, but perhaps not immediately.


8. Email will still be here, but with any luck it will have evolved, 
perhaps following the EMAIL2 proposal.


I would be 94 in 2048, so perhaps I'll get to see how well I guessed.

Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Legal adulthood

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 12/14/2018 05:11 AM, Deepa Mohan wrote:


Also would like to know the "original crew members" who are "still around".


I'm pretty sure I'm not original, and not even in the first batch of 
non-Indian members, but my first posts are likely two dead hard drives ago.


Is there any way for us to check our seniority through the list server?

As for a "distributed dinner", would this perhaps include an exchange of 
recipes followed by online discussion? (But not Skype; I have my own 
views of what each of you look like that I would prefer not to have 
disturbed by the intrusion of reality. )


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Tech & Social Good: Please Help Me Collect Readings & Syllabi

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 11/01/2018 12:54 AM, Yosem Companys wrote:


Does anyone know whether there's a collection of all syllabi and readings
on technology and social good (or public good or social change)? If such a
collection doesn't exist, could you help me create one?


I respectfully suggest you include in your effort someone knowledgeable 
about the literature of science fiction. A significant fraction of 
stories in this genre touch quite directly on the social impacts of 
technology, and they often do so long before the issues are taken up by 
academia or public debate. Often written by scientists or technical 
experts in the specific fields, such stories are something of an early 
warning system for the threats and potentials of new technologies.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] My thoughts on old age

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 10/24/2018 09:45 PM, Deepa Mohan wrote:


I wonder how many people on this list are in their sixties?


Well, me for one, and I've been considering the thoughts posted to this 
thread with some care.


I don't yet consider myself old. I'm reasonably fit, able to take care 
of myself, drive (though my nighttime depth perception has become 
suspect), and don't have any chronic maladies other than the allergies 
I've had since near birth.


However, my wife, though less than a year older, is becoming elderly. 
One hip replaced, the other on its way, arthritis in her spine, and most 
recently a torn rotator cuff that's playing hell with her curveball. She 
needs a wheelchair to travel any great distance, often a cane, and I've 
had to take over everything from grocery shopping to folding laundry. 
Add in her osteoporosis, and she's now afraid to be left alone for more 
than a few hours for fear of falling.


This isn't to say she's slowing down much. She's plans for us to dine 
out more than half the evenings, and she's decided she wants to cruise 
and see as much of the world as she can while she can. Being from the 
US, where wheelchair ramps and special lifts are not just normal, but 
required by law, she hasn't been as able as she had hoped at seeing some 
of that world. When she is, she obliges me to follow along and push.


The result is that while still fit (wheelchair pushing is apparently 
good exercise), my activities are being constrained to those she is able 
to enjoy. The resulting limits on my activity are thus equal to hers, 
and I find myself being quite frustrated by limits not my own. Sure, I 
signed up 44 years back "for better or worse", so I'm not complaining 
(out loud), but it is frustrating to be denied activities due to age and 
infirmity other than my own.


I'm under no apprehension that I'll fail to follow her down this road. 
Indeed I may be placed on it suddenly. But it has given me a view of how 
those both disabled and shut-in may feel that their world is shrinking, 
even without the passing of old(er) friends. Perhaps this would be 
easier to take if I sensed that my mind or body were beginning to shut down.


My family seems to have had good genes for longevity, with several in 
recent generations reaching 100 and the majority reaching 90, so I plan 
as if I've another 30 years to go. I'll have to wait and see how many 
more good years I have, as well as how many my wife can enjoy before 
infirmity puts her permanently in a bed (and care facility).


There was an age when I attended lots of weddings. Being childless, we 
skipped the baby parties and all that. Today we're attending ever more 
funerals. A natural progression, but one that has the salutary effect of 
imposing thoughts of our own mortality, and what sufferings may come 
before death.


No answers here, just some ponderings of a man not yet ready to call 
himself old.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Hi there!

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

José María Mateos wrote:


Deepa Mohan wrote:

Welcome, Jose! That was an interesting comment of yours about mailing
lists... would like to hear a little more.


Just something I've experienced first hand. Mailing list discussions
tend to be more nuanced and carried in more good faith that a lot of
social network dumpster fires out there, where it seems like disruption
is the way to go. I think there are several causes for that, but the
facts that mailing lists have typically small memberships and, for a lot
of people, are cumbersome to manage and require some effort to join, I
think that nudges the subscribers to take more care of them.


I have to concur, and I think there are design issues that lead to this.

Social networking sites, from the notorious Facebook (which I've almost 
given up on) to smaller, more specialized sites, tend to provide only a 
small box in which to respond. While most can be made to carry long 
messages, the format of both the input and the display (where even 
modest messages are truncated) argue that the best approach is the 
finely crafted bon mot -- more easily done as satire or insult -- than 
the thoughtful essay of arbitrary length.


This isn't limited to conventional, online, social media sites. The 
mainstream news, from cable TV to newspapers, has drifted to shorter and 
shorter items, repeating them over and over, as a means of cutting 
through the noise in the system. (And perhaps inspiring the current 
idiot President of the US.)


But for those of us who actually *like* thinking, there is no noise, as 
we work hard to find ways to isolate ourselves so as to better focus. 
For folks like us (and yes, I'm sure I'm oversimplifying here) clarity 
of thought, both our own and the expressions of others, far outweighs 
the sheer volume of mass media, which begs us to turn off our brains and 
simply marinate in the opinions of others.


Could one design a social media site that counters this trend? Yes, but 
with email list still a very serviceable tool, one fails to see much need.


Could one produce news for a mass market with longer, more thoughtful 
pieces? Perhaps, but the question is if one could do so profitably. Even 
such venerable institutions as 60 Minutes, with it's 20-minute pieces, 
tends more toward "look at this" than "what should we think of this". 
One is not optimistic.


I just finished a second viewing of the film "RBG" about Ruth Bader 
Ginsberg (an upgrade of an earlier version titled "The Notorious RBG", 
which I think was better, if less polished). I recommend seeing this 
biofilm rather than the Hollywood production that comes out later this 
year. The latter appears to be reasonably accurate, but glamorized 
account of her life, that could not be improved by such.


Speaking of "coming out", when I heard the Indian Supreme Court had 
revoked an ancient law against homosexual behavior, it was this 
Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court that came immediately to mind, 
and her lifelong defense of "equality under the law". Something this 
country still needs to work on.


And thus I demonstrate your point with a post that easily exceeds in 
length the four or five longest posts I ever made to Facebook.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

[silk] Chickpea Recipes, was: How much time do you spend cooking?

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Heather Madrone wrote:


I figure that, if I cook chickpeas one day a week, the supply will
last close to 15 years.

I have quite a few chickpea recipes and can alter other recipes to
include chickpeas, but I'd welcome a few more to round out my
repertoire.


Rehydrate, toss in a hot wok with a bit of flavored oil and cook until 
nearly dry. Makes a nice quick hot snack. Not sure if it makes a good 
cold snack -- never made a batch that lasted that long.


I normally use the oil left over from cooking Firecracker Shrimp: Clean 
large shrimp, remove shell and tail, and skewer from the tail end to 
hold straight. Dip in Sriracha, dust with corn starch, and dip into a 
hot oil bath for 30 to 40 seconds. Works even better with tempura 
batter, but I've not been able to figure that out yet. Big hit with my 
hot-palated wife, but it leaves behind a lot of Sriracha-flavored oil.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] How much time do you spend cooking?

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 09/03/2018 11:05 PM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:


Something I am curious about.

How much time here do people spend actually cooking the food they eat?


It varies greatly, largely because my wife and I don't have a consistent 
schedule.


Breakfast ranges from 0 to 30 minutes, with most events at one of the 
extremes.


Lunch I tend to slap together in about 5 minutes.

Dinners well, it depends on how you calculate time. Last night I 
made soup in about half an hour. Last week I made short ribs that took 
72 hours to cook, though obviously most of that I was sleeping or 
elsewhere (don't ask me about sous vide unless you have time). Some 
nights it can take up to 90 minutes.


Other things need to be counted too. I make my own mustard at 1/2 hour 
per batch; marinara sauce, which takes about two hours per batch; and my 
own stock, which takes 8 hours for vegetable stock and overnight for 
bone stock.


As for averages, I won't even try. We dine out too often and too 
irregularly for any average to be a useful figure.


All of these times are up from four years ago when I retired from my 
part-time job and took up cooking with some enthusiasm.


Don't know if this helps much.

Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] How many phone numbers do you remember?

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

I now remember only five numbers; three of the four at home, one at the 
office where I volunteer, and my childhood number.


On 08/20/2018 12:09 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:


... Along with IP addresses of a couple of handy DNS servers


I remember almost all of the IP addresses for my home network; about a 
dozen and a half.


The common theme for all but my childhood number is frequent use.

The combination for my bike and school lockers is lost to the mists of time.

Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Capitalism and Climate Change

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 06/17/2018 07:06 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:


I recently became aware of Kim Stanley Robinson's latest book, New York
2140, via silklister Naresh Narasimhan. Anybody read it and want to add to
the nice review below? My gold standard for KSR reviews is our own Bruce
Metcalf, right here on silklist, 14 years ago [1].


You are entirely too kind. Sadly, the requests made at the end of that 
review generated zero response, so I have not yet been moved to a second 
read.


Andrew Liptak's review is a fair analysis of "2140" (the title it 
carried in the US), but the book failed to move me sufficiently to write 
a review. I'm not even sure I kept my copy.


My lack of enthusiasm for this volume was due to the single layer of 
story -- New York's resilience to the expected changes of the next 
century. Yes, the stories of various individuals were decent, but it 
felt more like an anthology of independent stories written in the same, 
constrained world.


I am disappointed that the innovations the author proposed to deal with 
high water were so obvious and mundane. One might hope that a century of 
innovation might bring new technologies to bear on the challenge. I also 
know too much about the infrastructure of New York, and its high 
susceptibility to water intrusion, especially salt water. Certainly none 
of today's power, telephone, or data networks would survive such 
inundation, costing the book plausibility.


I do have Robinson's "Aurora" and "2312" on my nightstand (and on top of 
the stack, at that), so perhaps I'll feel motivated to write again. I 
hope so.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

[1] https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/silk-list/conversations/topics/11146

Re: [silk] ‘Kind’ technology?

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 02/04/2018 11:54 AM, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote:


Not my phrase, but I like it, "We are human beings, not human doings".


You remind me of a wise woman I once knew. When asked what she did, her 
answer was, "I don't /do/. I *be*. I *be* MaryLou."


Miss her.

Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Filter bubbles as weapons

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On Tue, Jan 9, 2018 at 1:44 PM Udhay Shankar N  wrote 
about filter bubbles and such:


I am aware, sometimes sharply aware, that I occupy just such a 
filterbubble. I'm not happy about it, and it worries me. OTOH, the 
stupid hurts so much!


Much as I dislike Facebook, it brings me into contact with a broader 
range of opinions than other fora. There's a lot of content there that 
comes from outside my personal bubble. The challenge is that once I ban 
those who make ad hominum attacks on others, there's not a lot left. 
Perhaps I need to "friend" more people I fundamentally disagree with.


This has been a particularly challenging year for an American who 
thinks. I see many in our government making a bad decision when they 
have to choose between Truth and Loyalty. And this includes some on "my" 
side of the debates. It all has a very Orwellian stink to it.


For that matter, it smells much like Nixon, who I remember clearly, even 
without the upcoming feature film.


The antidote to bubbles, according to many, is to engage constructively 
with the opposition. I have found this difficult, as few of them are 
willing to have a discussion, much less a debate. I also find that once 
they claim unquestioning adherence to something that science or simple 
observation shows is simply untrue, my enthusiasm drains from me like 
snow from a hot tin roof.


"Get involved" is another cry I hear, and while tempting, I'm turning 64 
tomorrow, my wife is needing steadily increasing amounts of care, and in 
many way's I'm burned out. Not sure how much credit goes to my 
intermittent depression and how much the depression is caused by all 
else. I aspire to help make phone calls on election day to encourage 
participation, but I notice I have yet to do so.


So yes, it's mostly comfortable here in my bubble (and thank you all for 
being inside it), but one can see what's going on outside without 
understanding it (except as deviant psychology). No, I'm not saying that 
those who disagree with me are crazy, though some are. It's that so many 
simply do not respect reality, and I don't know how to handle people 
like that, much less a society composed of them.


But I'll keep reading here, as the foundational level of sanity and 
abundant love are things I feel a deep need of at present. But if you 
know someone on the outside who can endure a conversation, please give 
them my email.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] What's your primary computing device?

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On Sun, Sep 24, 2017 at 10:37 AM Deepak Misra
 wrote:


I observe that there is a statistically significant proportion of
silklisters  using Mac machines. Anything to read into ? As in do
 smarter people use Macs ? Is it a style statement? Or do Macs
provide additional features which justify the premium.


Well, if cost were no object but then it almost always is, isn't it?

I once had a Board member ask that we move from Linux to Windows. When I 
tallied up the cost to replace old hardware that wouldn't support the 
current version, and the cost of multiple copies of OS, Office, and 
various other software, he was quite surprised at what the price totaled 
-- about 40% of the organization's annual budget.


It was the last I heard of that request.

And given that I have finite mental space, it's really far more 
practical for me to use the same OS at home as at the office.


It will be interesting to see what I do once I am shed of the 
non-profit. I'm sure I'll be back here asking advice on *that* year's 
products.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] What's your primary computing device?

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 09/12/2017 07:23 PM, John Sundman wrote:


Hope thing worked out OK.  According to what I’ve read and seen, it
was a monster hurricane in the Caribbean, unimaginably ferocious, but
somewhat more merciful to Florida than it might have been. But still
a cruel storm whose effects will be felt for years.


House and cats came through the storm just fine. Orlando is 25m above 
sea level, 90km from the east coast, and 170km from the west coast of 
the peninsula, so the winds are greatly reduced by the time they get here.


When I first moved to Florida, friends suggested I get a place at the 
beach, as it's cooler (plus it would be closer to the beach). But I kept 
seeing these signs that said "Hurricane Evacuation Route" pointing to 
Orlando. I took the hint, and haven't been sorry.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] What's your primary computing device?

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 09/12/2017 04:32 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:


As in, what do you spend the most time doing serious work/play on? For any
definition of 'work' or 'play' that appeals to you?


At home/work, I have a small network. My desktop runs Linux, as does my 
file server, but I have an old machine running Windows XP for a print 
server and interface to a windows-only scanner. I host three websites 
and a mail forwarder on a virtual machine half a continent away. I 
backup locally to a Linux laptop, which is my travel machine.


I'm traveling now, but depending on how my house fared in the Hurricane 
(I live in Orlando, Florida), I may be on just the laptop for a while 
longer.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Electric cars

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 01/27/2017 04:23 PM, Alaric Snell-Pym wrote:


I've just become the proud owner of an all-electric car, a Renault Zoe.


Seems to be the season for it. Last week I went out to find a 
replacement for my 2010 Prius.


The 2010 was still giving good service (and 48mpg / 4.9L/100km), but 
it's a small car, and we wanted to upgrade to a larger model with space 
for SWMBO's wheelchair in the back.


The Prius Prime was our original target. Electric, with a 400-mile / 
640-km range and a gas engine for when there's no outlet. Lots of notice 
on the Toyota website, but their dealers say, "They just aren't 
available. Maybe next year."


It also appears to be built on the same small chassis, so no room for 
the wheelchair. So we drove home a 2017 Prius V, which looks like a 
station wagon compared to the old model.


Because of the size, we're down to about 41mpg / 5.7L/100km, but so it is.

I confess that I don't know how to calculate the impact of this type of 
vehicle (compared to conventional), nor even just how much oil it saves. 
It is, however, my best effort to tread lightly upon the earth, given 
that I live in a country without decent public transit.


Yeah, I feel good about it because I am deliberately not looking very 
closely. I might be justified, but lack the energy to confirm it. Not 
entirely sure how I feel about that.


Fortunately, SWMBO said, "Buy the car!" which relieved me of all further 
responsibility.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] In praise of slowness

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 01/22/2017 04:18 AM, Venkatesh Hariharan wrote:


I am going through a transition into a slower pace of life. Knowing the
eclectic nature of this list, I wanted to hear from others who have "been
there, done that." ...

I am now thinking of cutting down my consulting assignments and decisively
slowing down my life, to stop hopping from one task to the other like a
maniac, and to relish reading books and watching plays, and the company of
friends. To those who are ahead of me in this ambitious path, my question
is, "What do you.love the most about living a slower life?"


Well, it's complicated.

I tried going cold-turkey on full-time work, and lasted ten months, 
picking up a part-time job just for fun. I wasn't ready for that much 
downtime all at once, and fortunately I found something useful to do, 
rather than taking up golf or an affair.


Over fifteen years, the part-time job ramped down from four shifts/week 
to one shift/month, providing a nice glide down from full-time to 
nothing. I've now been at "nothing" for two years, and retirement seems 
to be sticking this time.


As for what I love about slowing down (gradually), I'd have to say it's 
a sense of time to do new things. In my case that was cooking and 
getting back into model railroading, but those are specific to me. It's 
not that I didn't have time for these before -- for one can always make 
time -- but now I have utterly no excuse for not living the life I 
imagine (save SWMBO's ideas for my time).


SWMBO has filled some of my time with travel. Living in Florida, quick 
cruises to the Caribbean are a commonplace, but in the next year we'll 
be sailing to Australia/New Zealand/lotsa islands; the Northwest Passage 
(Vancouver to New York the hard way); and a loop around South American 
and back through the canal (not sure if new, old, or Chinese).


But to your question, "What do I love most?" I think my answer has to be 
that it is an opportunity (more honestly, an excuse) to give myself 
permission to live more of the life that I imagine I desire. I may find 
that my imagination is false, and that this life does not satisfy, but 
that is already expected, and I look forward to what I will learn of 
myself as a result.


I hope you also find the search of value.

Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Nineteen!

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 12/12/2016 08:18 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:

On Mon, Dec 12, 2016 at 6:34 PM, Deepa Mohan  wrote:


You mean Udhay added you on without ever meeting you, Preetha?


​I have added various people without meeting them, on the recommendation of
an existing member (as I did Preetha)​


He also added some of us without a recommendation or even a memory of 
why he had done so.


Not that I'm at all unhappy about that!

Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Nineteen!

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 12/12/2016 08:18 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:

On Mon, Dec 12, 2016 at 6:34 PM, Deepa Mohan  wrote:


You mean Udhay added you on without ever meeting you, Preetha?


​I have added various people without meeting them, on the recommendation of
an existing member (as I did Preetha)​


He also added some of us without a recommendation or even a memory of 
why he had done so.


Not that I'm at all unhappy about that!

Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Bump in the road, or end of the road?

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

"Charles Haynes"  wrote:


It's certainly possible that we will automate ourselves out of the
need for "jobs" but that's only a problem if you believe that
existing structures of wealth accumulation and distribution are
appropriate for such a world. It seems obvious that they are not. It
could be unrest, or it could be an unparalleled opportunity to
provide basic needs universally and allow for unprecedented
creativity.


I think the expectation of "unprecedented creativity" is not merely 
unfounded, but dangerous.


Yes, the sort of folk on this list would certainly become more creative 
and constructive if let free of economic concerns. And the voluntary 
"work" of such creatives may well be of immense benefit to our species 
and planet.


But recall please that fully half the population has below average IQ 
(by definition). There is also a half of humanity with below average 
understanding, aspiration, and ability to do creative work.


The challenge to an economic utopia isn't building it or even 
maintaining it. The challenge is to provide something for the 
lumpenproletariat to do with their free time that is not more 
destructive than what the creatives produce.


Even the ambitious who fight to obtain control of this utopia can be 
handled (at least I hope so, the upcoming US election will be a test 
case). But occupying the time of the vast hordes of bored and restive 
non-creatives will be a challenge, and it's a challenge I have not yet 
seen addressed anywhere this side of Orwell.


But perhaps that unprecedented creativity will include a solution; we 
must hope it will provide one in time.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] On Silk, by Silk

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Dear All,

Udhay has responded to my foolish remark by calling my bluff:


I also worked at the front desk of a hotel (part-time) for ten
years. Got some stories from that!


​Please share (you too, Udupa!)​


​*cough*​


Okay fine, here's one.

In the hotel business, there is an unfortunately common process 
euphemistically referred to as an "involuntary checkout". This is where 
the hotel obliges the guest to check out early, and against his wishes. 
It's usually the result of the guest doing something stupid. One example:


I was standing at the front desk, minding my own business, when a woman 
approached the desk, the smoke already coming out of her ears. Wishing 
to avoid having one of my twenty-something colleagues muff the job, I 
waved her over and said, "Tell me what's wrong."


She opened her hand and displayed a tissue containing a cigar butt. "The 
asshole upstairs from me is smoking, which he shouldn't be doing in a 
non-smoking building, and dropping his ashes and butts on my balcony ... 
where my toddlers were playing!"


(If the geometry of this sounds off, know that the building is built on 
a slant such that it's hard to drop something off one balcony without it 
landing on the next.)


Seeing immediately that this was a matter well above my pay scale, I 
promised to bring prompt attention to the right parties and nipped into 
the office to inform my supervisor that the duty manager was needed.


At that point, I was taken out of the loop, but what followed was 
amusing and instructive.


The duty manager went to the smoker's room, knocked on the door, and 
explained that he was in a non-smoking building, and that other guests 
had complained about his use of their balcony as his ashtray. Before he 
got to the point of deciding if they could stay, the smoker says 
something disparaging and obscene, and slams the door in his face. This 
made his decision about whether to eject the smoker simple.


Fifteen minutes later, he knocks on the door again, this time in the 
company of a maintenance man with bolt cutters, a security guard with 
discrete recording equipment, and a county deputy sheriff (local police) 
with all the tools that come with.


He shouts more dismissive obscenities through the door, upon which the 
duty manager uses his pass key to unlock the door, and pushes it open 
against the security chain. The maintenance worker cuts said chain with 
his bolt cutters, and the deputy steps in and resumes the conversation.


After much high-volume debate, the smoker was given the options of 
leaving in his own car or the back of the deputy's. Foolishly he chose 
the latter, and was promptly cuffed and dragged off to face charges of 
commercial trespass, defrauding an innkeeper, and resisting arrest.


The manager then turned to his wife, and informed her that the rest of 
the family was also being evicted. She voiced the same opinion as her 
husband, and challenged him to get another deputy to arrest her.


However, after hearing that her arrest would place her children into the 
custody of the state child welfare agency, where she wouldn't see them 
again for at least six months, and possibly never (since they lose kids 
all the time), she elected to depart in her own vehicle.


The family forfeited the rest of their week's rent (paid in advance), a 
$500 cleaning fee for both their room and the one below, a free night 
for the family below, the cost of replacing a security chain, the 
remaining value of their theme park tickets, and of course the cost of 
bail, lawyers, and all that goes with.


Morals abound here, of course, from "complain politely but immediately" 
to "don't piss off a deputy sheriff". Sadly, this little scene was 
repeated on average of once per month in our 1000-room hotel. Sadly, 
there is much stupid in the world, and it's not *just* in politics.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Podcast recommendations?

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Greets,

I should think that silklisters, especially the quizzers here, might 
enjoy the podcast of Futility Closet .


I don't do podcasts for a variety of reasons, but I devour the FC blog, 
which has much the same spirit.


Hope you enjoy.

Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Maacher Jhol

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Sidin Vadukut wrote:


I'm curious to know how potatoes became part of Indian cuisine. Is this
Peruvian tuber replacing something else native to the subcontinent, or is a
an addition not previously seen?


​Many years ago I wrote something on the history of the potato and India:
http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/ZJtblt1EYSmyFXkftKoHdJ/The-travelling-tuber.html
Kindly peruse​


Ah... now this is why I love Silk. One can ask the silliest, most 
obscure question, and one of us will be an expert on it!


Thank you Sidin, that article was all I had hoped for.

Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Maacher Jhol

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 08/04/2016 12:50 AM, Deepa Mohan wrote:


http://www.sawandutta.com/#!macherjhol/kf04t


I'm curious to know how potatoes became part of Indian cuisine. Is this 
Peruvian tuber replacing something else native to the subcontinent, or 
is a an addition not previously seen?


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] On Silk, by Silk

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Thejaswi Udupa wrote:


Bruce A. Metcalf wrote:


 mostly I've worked as a reference librarian and technical writer


Not to paint you as a father-figure, but that's exactly what my dad did for
over three decades! Substitute railroad conductor with running the cash
register at Hotel Pai Vihar near Bangalore's Corporation building, that's
all.


It's worse than you think. I also worked at the front desk of a hotel 
(part-time) for ten years. Got some stories from that!


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Cars are getting weird

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Udhay Shankar N wrote:


1. I once said, a couple of decades ago, that "the net is about
sociology, not technology" (which got me quoted, among other places,
in _The Cluetrain Manifesto_). Picking up from there, it seems that
today's devices are more about biology and psychology than technology.


Well, psychology has always had a big role to play in good design. My 
specialty, back when I did electronic design, was creating (hardware) 
human interfaces that were logical, effective, and attractive. 
Psychology -- particularly a deep understanding of the typical user -- 
was key to this.


What struck me most about the piece was Volvo's consideration for 
weaning users off the old interface gently as they introduced a new 
control paradigm. This is why old farts like me are having as much 
trouble as we do adapting to smart phones -- there's a break from both 
the telephone and the computer interfaces we were accustomed to, and the 
smartphone obliged us to learn both at once. Bad design by this standard.


It's easy to say that there will always be a market for "old-fashioned 
phones that just make phone calls"; it's much harder to say, "We muffed 
the transition, now we have to go back and redo it for those we left 
behind."


With Moore's Law seemingly still in command of the rate of progress, 
designers run the risk of leaving great numbers of people behind when 
change is imposed, and a great opportunity to engineer not only the new 
device, but the transition, so that we can bring nearly everyone along 
with us.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Cable Cars - A viable urban rapid transport system?

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Udhay Shankar N wrote:


Looks like an interesting engineering (and social) challenge, even with
the various components being generally available. Let me know if you need a
referral to someone with experience in this field.


​Did the Almighty Rodent do something in this space, Bruce?​


Certainly. Disney built the first monorail in daily service in the US 
(still runs the largest system by daily boardings), was one of the first 
Von Roll aerial tramway installations (later two), created the 
"PeopleMover" concept with moving platform boarding, traveling theater 
seating, OmniMovers(tm), and a dozen others.


But more importantly, I know a couple of former Imagineers who did some 
of this work who are now independent and available as consultants or 
designers.


I've done a bit of work and more than a bit of research in this field 
myself, though it was focused on moving crowd management.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Cable Cars - A viable urban rapid transport system?

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 05/08/2016 04:02 AM, Shenoy N wrote:


Does Mumbai have the hills for a cable car system?


Aerial Tramways.



The aerial cable car system seems perfect for this city. But there ARE some
obvious problems.
1. The capacity of a cable car is about 12 people.


I've been on aerial tramways with a US rating of 35 people. Given that 
Americans are normally oversize, you might well stuff two to three times 
that many in a culture with small personal space. That said, for speed 
of loading and advantages of smaller support structures, a 12-person car 
is probably about as large as is smart.


For a commuter system, it sounds like you'll want a system that can put 
multiple cars on the wire. The trick to this is putting the cars on and 
off. The Von Roll system did this very neatly (though with much smaller 
cars), but that removable clamp was a single failure point and a source 
of much wear on the cable, resulting in the need for frequent 
replacement, not to mention needing space at one or more stations to 
store all of the cars. High winds are also a source of reliability 
problems, and a source of wrecks if rules aren't followed strictly.


Hmmm... Maybe if boarding was done with moving sidewalks, it would be 
possible to load the cars while still attached to the cable without 
slowing the transit speed excessively. This would simplify mounting, 
permit a permanent link to the cable, but would make it impossible to 
take the cars off the wire in high winds.


Looks like an interesting engineering (and social) challenge, even with 
the various components being generally available. Let me know if you 
need a referral to someone with experience in this field.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Cable Cars - A viable urban rapid transport system?

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 05/07/2016 04:38 PM, Thaths wrote:

On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 1:24 AM Shenoy N  wrote:


The other day I was in a meeting with some automotive type people to help a
friend find products to sell to car companies and a German gent, who was
there to sell technologies, sprang a cable car rapid transport system on us



Does Mumbai have the hills for a cable car system?


I can't speak for others, but I can't tell what sort of "cable car" 
system is being discussed. I know of three distinctly different 
technologies that go by that name:


1. Streetcars powered by a moving cable under the roadway; San 
Francisco's are the most famous example.


2. Funicular railways, which generally balance two cars on a hill with a 
cable wrapping around a powered pully at the top.


3. Aerial tramways, where cabins are elevated above the ground. These 
can be a single car, two cars, or multiple cars in a loop.


Much easier to discuss if we know what we're talking about.

Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] silklist Digest, Vol 77, Issue 6

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 04/18/2016 09:30 PM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:

On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 10:36 PM, Dave Long  wrote:

There is no Hari to achieve things


Is Deepatience dee mother of virtue?


​De Pontification is the outcome of virtue, usually.​


If we digitized the Pope, would that result in virtual virtue?

Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] The Need for Guaranteed Basic Income or why Kiran is worried sick

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Kiran K Karthikeyan wrote:


Posting this [1] on the only place I know where there are better minds than
mine who can tell me not to worry so I can sleep better at night.



https://medium.com/basic-income/deep-learning-is-going-to-teach-us-all-the-lesson-of-our-lives-jobs-are-for-machines-7c6442e37a49#.4mn452rn9


It's easy to disregard such fearmongering, which has been going on since 
the horse was replaced by steam power, and which received a boost when 
computers proved practical. But such fundamental changes do have a 
remarkable impact on the nature of work, and we do need to work hard to 
guide those changes into the most desirable option possible.


We just have to decide which that is.

The author's call for Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a wise one, and 
that would be my judgment even if we had no fear of encroaching 
automation. Separating work from subsistence would permit a new 
perspective to develop in society, and one I think would ultimately be 
of great benefit (after the pain of transition wore off).


But this would require we develop some means of taxing the use of such 
automation so that governments have the wherewithal to pay for UBI. If 
it instead is made to ride on the shoulders of those few with 
high-paying jobs, the structure becomes unsound rather quickly.


This suggests that UBI will fare far better in countries like Finland 
where Big Industry and Big Government aren't sleeping with one another. 
In the US, which is sliding rapidly into an oligarchy, it's quite 
possible that the self-serving elite will exempt themselves from 
taxation, eviscerate the movement toward UBI, and utterly impoverish the 
bulk of society.


So, we have several options here:

1. Make UBI work. The burden of ensuring that corporations pay 
sufficient tax to keep their nations populace alive will be great, but 
it's preferable to option 2. If done carefully, this will cushion the 
blow by increasing the cost of automation while lowering the salary 
demands of workers. It may well be that automation (and its associated 
taxation) will prove to have a higher cost than simply hiring humans.


This is also important because even a fully automated business needs 
customers, especially in a consumer-driven economy like most of us 
occupy. Henry Ford was cited for paying his workers more than the 
prevailing wage so that they could afford to buy his products. Had he 
not lead the way to higher industrial wages, his enterprise would have 
foundered for lack of sales. Automated industry must similarly be 
concerned that even with their economies they do not price themselves 
above a falling market.


2. Don't make UBI work. The result will be vast discrepancies of wealth, 
with the same social upheaval that's followed every prior instance of 
such an arrangement. Yes, you could automate a police force and just 
keep shooting, but would the surviving elite be able to keep the 
automated systems working with such a small base?


This structure could also fail of the elite don't build those 
"robo-cops". In this scenario, the mobs with pitchforks and torches 
breach the Bastille, destroy the automation (and those who could fix 
it), and throw society as a whole into another dark age. Widespread 
death and a greatly reduced population would result.


3. Don't make UBI work, but make it not work slowly, and effect a 
significant reduction in population. China was on the smart road here 
for some time, but cultural backlash and the growth of their middle 
class have obliged them to surrender this battle. It is one worth 
resuming on all fronts, as nearly every woe this world is prey to can be 
pinned, at some level, on overpopulation. (See Stanley Schmidt on this 
topic.)


So either we engineer a new social balance that maintains most of our 
population, or we suffer from either a deliberate or consequent 
decimation ... perhaps to a level that cannot sustain what we now 
consider civilization.


Like any other tool, automation of jobs can be used for good or bad 
purposes. Because it is so far-reaching, the care with which it needs to 
be implemented, and the complexity of the compensating factors is so 
great, that many will despair of this civilization working through to 
the end of it all.


Me, I'm thinking it's time to start stockpiling pitchforks and torches; 
you never know when they're going to come in handy!


Cheers,
Bruce

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Namitha Jagadeesh wrote:


From another lurker, so sorry to hear about your cat, and other cats,
Bruce. What a despicable thing to do! Also, I did enjoy your 007 snark.


Doofus came home today, but will have to use a feeding tube for another 
week. The puss is a real trooper with a great attitude, and the ladies 
at the vets had contests to see who got to feed him.


Still, if I can avoid such stress at the cost of quality snark, I'll 
take it!


Cheers,
Bruce

Re: [silk] On the Road

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Udhay Shankar N wrote:


Bruce Metcalf wrote:


I'm curious to know how the list feels about the junction of fiction and
history. Your thoughts?


​There are two kinds of fiction (I know of) that play with this junction,
from opposite ends: The Roman à clef​ [1] and the secret history [1]. While
the former is a fictionalised account of actual events, the latter is more
interesting to me, being a fiction presented as reality which was until now
hidden from the public.


Not that I disagree with this, but...

I wanted to see how people here felt about the thought that history -- 
the stuff presented as facts -- is more often a fiction assembled from 
the scraps of evidence left by the past, with the gaps and motivations 
filled in by the historian.


Is this the general opinion of what history is and what historians do, 
or were you thinking of something different?


Just curious

Cheers,
Bruce

Re: [silk] On the Road

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Sharat Satyanarayana wrote:


Loved visualising that road trip story. Photos along side would've been
awesome.


Yes, but I find I can write better and clearer images than I can shoot.

I can't find who said it, but I believe the saying, "Radio is just like 
television, only with better pictures."




Hope the next unplanned road trip brings out more amazing stories. :)


I'm a historian by training and occupation, so I'm basically a 
storyteller at heart. As such, I don't always need facts to get me 
started ... or to bring a story to a satisfactory conclusion. Nice if 
they fit in though.


I've shocked more than a few historians with this attitude, but it comes 
down to whether I want to write "truth" or "Truth". Small t truth is a 
recitation of what's been proven. Valuable, but not always inspiring. 
Large T Truth, on the other hand, looks beyond the facts into the realty 
behind them, which I often find more compelling.


Besides, fiction has to make sense, so for that reason alone it makes 
for a better read.


I'm curious to know how the list feels about the junction of fiction and 
history. Your thoughts?


Cheers,
Bruce

PS: I'm also working on a long story about cats and psychopathy, but 
must withhold the details until the perpetrators are in custody.

[silk] On the Road

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Suresh wrote:



Bruce wrote:


>> Now I need to go find something constructive to post. I don't
>> suppose anyone cares for a trip report of ... 8500 miles across
>> America by car?


The road trip, sure!


I live in Orlando, Florida, in the southeast corner of the US. I wanted 
to attend a convention in Portland, Oregon, in the northeast corner.


Fortunately, my car is a Prius that gets 47 MPG (20 km/l). Add to that 
the lowest petrol prices in half a decade and it's not all bad.


Then SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) redefines the trip. She added a week 
at Yellowstone National Park, three nights at Disneyland, and two more 
in New Orleans. So my 6000 trip is now 7000 miles (9700 to 11,000 km). 
Add six days of driving all over Yellowstone and the total comes to 8500 
miles (14,000 km), and takes us through 20 of the 48 contiguous states.


To put this in perspective, that's five days hard driving to 
Yellowstone, two more to Portland, three to Disneyland, four more to New 
Orleans, and one big 12-hour day home. Yes, fifteen of the thirty-one 
days were spent on the road.  It's a big country.


Summer is "Orange Barrel Season" on US highways. Because of cold 
winters, most construction has to be done in the warm weather. We also 
neglect our bridges, and one 100-mile detour was needed to get around 
one that fell down.


Add the use of 53-foot trailers and triples (20 to 25m long when the 
tractor is added), and you get "Orange Barrel Slalom" where you try to 
dodge the potholes, the barrels, the trucks, uneven pavements, and the 
usual assortment of bad drivers without a collision. Sure, it's fun at 
first, but after ten hours on the road it becomes rather less so.


Yellowstone is pretty damn magnificent. Primarily the cauldron of one 
monster volcano, it has 3/4 of all geothermal features on the earth. 
Geysers, bubbling mud pots, thermal pools with rainbow edges from 
extremophyle bacteria, and thousands of steaming fumaroles. Add the 
faint whiff of excitement from the potential for another explosion that 
could blanket all of North America in ash and introduce a decade-long 
winter, and you don't even need the Grizzly Bears for excitement.


In addition to all the road hazards listed above, Yellowstone also has 
bison (aka buffalo). BIG bison. 2000 pound (900 kg) bison. Bison with 
attitude. Bison who migrate from one end of the park to the other each 
year. Using the roads. At about 2mph (3 kph). Bison who couldn't care 
less if 50 cars are backed up behind them.


When a short delay, this can be fun. When it lasts half an hour, less 
so. When one day is declared "Bison on the Road" day and one gets 
delayed five times, there's hardly any fun left at all.


And the attitude I mentioned? The week before we arrived, some moron put 
her cell phone on a selfie stick and leaned up against a bison for a 
photo. She does not have a photo. She does not have an unbroken cell 
phone. She does not have all her blood on the inside any more.


Two weeks before that, a man with years of experience in the park went 
off alone to look for bears. Not smart. He got between a cow and two 
cubs and was turned into bear food.


I mean, what part of "wild animal" do these people not understand?

Same with the thermal features. In many areas, the park has built 
boardwalks to keep tourists from burning their feet or damaging the 
fragile scenery. The pools are often at the boiling point, and sometimes 
the ground is too. On one tour, our ranger guide asked what we should do 
if we see someone tossing something into a thermal pool. She didn't much 
like my answer, "Make them go get it!" but I think she wanted to.


Portland is an interesting city. It's the center of the craft beer 
movement in the US, and that has some interesting effects. For one, I'm 
used to a multi-page wine list at restaurants with perhaps half a dozen 
beers. In Portland it's just the opposite. Not bad, but takes some 
getting used to, and I often needed help from whatever the beer 
equivalent of a sommelier is.


California's I-5 is a freeway built between the Bay Area and L.A. that 
passes through nothing. Okay, there's a gas station every 20 miles, but 
that's about it. I drove it on the first day the US enacted a 55 mph (88 
kph) speed limit. It was a bit surreal to go that slow. This trip it was 
posted for 75 mph (120 kph), which was better, but still not fast enough 
considering how little there is to look at.


Speaking of nothing to look at, we traversed 850 miles (1400 km) of 
Texas. 'Nuff said.


New Orleans is an amazing city, particularly around the French Quarter. 
It has some of the most amazing food in the country surrounded by 
sidewalks that smell worse than your average sewage treatment plant.


It also has restaurant servers who take their jobs seriously. Where 
that's a rarity elsewhere, here it's the norm. If restaurant managers 
only knew how much that enhanced a meal experience (and ultimately their 
income and retention 

Re: [silk] Does Your Language Shape How You Think?

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Thaths wrote:


"Some 50 years ago, the renowned linguist Roman Jakobson pointed out a
crucial fact about differences between languages in a pithy maxim:
“Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they
may convey.” ... if different languages influence our minds in different
ways, this is not because of what our language allows us to think but
rather because of what it habitually obliges us to think about."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29language-t.html?_r=2=1=Guy%20Deutscher=cse



RELATED



- Letters: You Are What You SpeakSEPT. 10, 2010




Interesting concepts, but the article leaves me with one large question:

"Was George Orwell right or not?"

The article seems to have it both ways.

Cheers,
Bruce

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Deepa Mohan wrote:


Venkat Mangudi wrote:



But,  OTOH, I like... no,  love... Bruce's writing. I don't mind reading
more of it. Keep at it,  Bruce. :)


If at first we like your words, Alfred the Bruce...write, write, write again!


I'm glad some found entertainment in my remarks, snarky thought they 
were, but I must apologize to the list for having made them here. I do 
know better than to poke trolls, and should have refrained.


I will offer as faint excuse that I've been under a bit of stress and 
needing someone to lash out at -- Thursday morning someone shot my cat. 
It looks like he'll recover, but I've since learned that two other cats 
in the neighborhood were shot, killed, and draped over car hoods.


Clearly, our troll is not (yet) at that level of perversity, nor is he 
wanted for felony animal abuse (or so I assume), but he presented a 
broad target at a sensitive time, and I reacted with more wit than 
wisdom. I regret the disruption.


Now I need to go find something constructive to post. I don't suppose 
anyone cares for a trip report of five weeks on a cruise ship or 8500 
miles across America by car? Perhaps an essay on how my wife has become 
collateral damage in the War on Drugs?


Cheers,
Bruce

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Dear James,


P.P.S. I have answers for everything.


If this is so, then why do you trouble yourself in discussion with others,
who could, by definition, add nothing to your understanding?


Did you not see my earlier email that people tend to underestimate
Hispanics?


If you believe you have answers for everything, anyone who considers you 
less than Godlike in your wisdom would be underestimating you.


As for your ethnicity, I would have had no idea about what it was had 
you not started this thread with a public notice -- something not 
commonly done here, and thus curious.


This and your claim of high intelligence informed me that a chip was 
indeed upon your shoulder, and you really should have expected this 
group to try to knock it off. After all, you did review the message list 
before posting, and given your omniscience, should have seen that coming 
(without any regard whatsoever to you ethnicity).




This was supposed to be a joke. I am sorry that you did not read
it that way.


So were some -- but not all -- of my comments. I'm sorry you don't seem 
to be able to tell the difference.




At the same time, I don't appreciate being told that I am not
following the rules.


Rule, singular. "Assume goodwill" is that rule, and when your first post 
establishes you on the defensive, it makes this lister suspect that you 
don't understand what we're about here.




I truly believe that you are violating the spirit of discussion on this
forum.


How? By trying to poke gentle fun at you? By suggesting your claims are 
comical? By failing to presume sufficient goodwill to believe all that 
you say? Just which crime are you accusing me of?




Please do not use bad language or I will simply have to block you.


That wasn't "bad language" in my book. "Stirring the shit" was selected 
very carefully from my vocabulary of words and phrases as being the most 
evocative of how I viewed your postings here.


If one "shit", used in context, puts me on your blocked list, then it 
suggests that you are only willing to use a sub-set of English (large 
though that set may be), and I suspect your intellectual world will be 
slightly impoverished thereby. Block me if you fear such words, as I may 
well "shit" again!




I would really recommend the Buddha Dharma Facebook Group where clear

> rules are laid out. This way, we can see who is violating the rules.

That would be useful if I were concerned about finding someone to blame 
for this discussion. I'm not. Maybe that's your hobby.


I am concerned about having an intelligent conversation with other 
silklisters -- a group I'm not yet sure you fit into very well, except 
perhaps as the token troll as others have suggested.


If you are interested in becoming one of us, let me offer the suggestion 
that you limit yourself to one post per day. In this manner, you give us 
all time to consider and respond to your first post, and you give 
yourself time to contemplate your reply.


Then again, if self-doubt isn't part of your makeup, or you don't care 
what we might have to say, or you intend to rely on the answers you 
already have, then perhaps fewer than one post per day might be even better.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 09/09/2015 11:07 PM, James Bonilla wrote:


P.P.S. I have answers for everything.


If this is so, then why do you trouble yourself in discussion with 
others, who could, by definition, add nothing to your understanding?


I would think that if I had answers for everything, I should say very 
little except to quote prices for my answers and wait for the world to 
come sit at my feet and toss coins in rapturous admiration.


Alas, I have had my IQ rated at only 172, so perhaps this burden of 
additional brainpower has obliged me to question even my own answers.


But then, you didn't say that your answers were correct, and that would 
certainly make such a task far easier.


/ Bruce /

P.S. Thanks for coming here and stirring the shit so effectively; it 
should provide impetus for many interesting discussions. Only, did you 
have to use such a very large paddle?

Re: [silk] To retire or not - that is the Q.

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 07/11/2015 07:02 AM, Rajesh Mehar wrote:

Hey again Bruce!

Thanks for reviving this thread. I've had a similarly non-linear career
path up until now.



Nowadays, I'm more hesitant to make creative leaps across competencies
because there's a pervasive idea that people who are new to a particular
industry should earn less than people who've held similar jobs all their
lives.

Did you ever face that? Or did you manage to somehow earn more and more
money even though you were doing newer things?


Oh yeah. I enjoyed a steady reduction in inflation-adjusted pay from the 
technical editors position to today, when I'm essentially a volunteer.


But I've also seen the other side of this coin -- where people from 
outside the company, outside the field, are brought in at wages above 
those of incumbent co-workers when they haven't a clue about how the 
business works. True, most have shiny new MBAs, but that doesn't qualify 
them to manage front-line employees or understand why the company does 
business the way it does. Slather that with a corporate philosophy that 
encourages experimentation (even if prior tries of the same ideas have 
failed miserably), and you have a formula for massive discontent in the 
front (customer-facing) ranks, and a high turnover.


New voices and fresh ideas are always needed, but there seems to be a 
complete disconnect between benefit to the company and salary offered, 
and the higher in rank one goes, the worse this disconnect becomes. His 
last company paid him $2.5million, he must be able to do well here!


I see this as the willful abdication of decision-making. It's easy to 
give a numerical ranking to applicants based on former salary; it's hard 
to rank them according to what value they might offer to *your* company. 
Numeric rankings are easy to defend, avoid legal liabilities (of great 
value in this litigious society), and require no application of brains, 
which may not be available in any event due to prior application of this 
approach.


Thinking is hard. Making good choices is hard. Making good choices 
without thinking is impossible.


Cheers,
Bruce

Re: [silk] To retire or not - that is the Q.

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 06/01/2015 10:27 PM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:


​On a related note: Tell us about the most interesting jobs/assignments
you've worked on?


Sorry for the delay, I was at sea for five weeks with a laptop that died 
en route.


I'd have to say I've had a lot of interesting jobs; hard to say which 
was the most interesting. They've included:


* Building high-power laser systems for the Star Wars Laser Defense 
Program (but before the movie came out, so we didn't have cool name for it.


* Building a documentation standards program and technical documentation 
system for a firm that manufactured computerized machine tools.


* Serving as the founding director of a special library on railroad 
history and model railroading.


* Work as a Show Quality Monitor at Walt Disney World, which gave me 
access to the design documentation and maintenance proceedures of the Parks.


* And now in my second retirement, I'm the director and editor for a 
non-profit historical society on the topics of chivalry, genealogy, 
heraldry, nobility, and history before about 1700 AD.


So yeah, no clear career path here, just as I would have preferred!

Cheers,
Bruce

Re: [silk] Assimilating huge information

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 03/22/2015 09:56 PM, Bharat Shetty wrote:


I'm curious, how do you guys process non-technical
information or information not related to your work, research outside
of your work hours ?


Pretty much the way I process data for work.

As others have suggested, I cull my sources fiercely, disdaining to 
consult those with a history of giving bad information.


I also cull sources that cannot justify their data, either by citation 
or explanation. This varies greatly by topic, of course, but consider it 
a credibility filter.


There's also a bias filter. Skipping sources who are likely to have a 
vested interest, particularly when it's a financial interest. For 
instance, my power company is the last place I'd go for data on home 
solar power.


Then I apply the stink test. If the data just doesn't sound 
reasonable, I drop it, unless I see that same data too many places to 
ignore. Then I still try to ignore it, as the Internet is a wonderful 
tool for duplicating bad data.


Normally, I have a few go-to sources on each topic or sub-topic. Sources 
that have served me well in the past and which serve up their data in 
digestible form. It's not enough to be right, one must be both right and 
understandable.


And that all done, I usually google the subject again to see what 
opinions are popular. This rarely brings me anything new, but once in a 
great while something interesting pops up.


Of course, all this takes way too much time, so more often than perhaps 
I should, I resort to the usual suspects and take that as good enough. 
It isn't always, but not every question deserves a week's hard effort. 
What stand to take on a complex political/technical issue both takes and 
deserves more time and effort than finding a usable corned beef recipe!


Cheers,
Bruce

Re: [silk] What book changed your mind?

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Thaths wrote:


This post
http://chronicle.com/article/What-Book-Changed-Your-Mind-/149839/ of
people talking about the books that changed their minds made me wonder

Which book made *you*, dear Silk lister, change your mind? How?


That post further restricted matters by limiting acceptable answers to 
non-fiction books published in the last 30 years.


This would put a considerable constraint on how I answer. I'm still 
condensing my list, but may be contrarian and violate those two rules -- 
that or just give two different answers.


Hmm, now to think

Bruce

Re: [silk] The Real Existential Threat

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 10/14/2014 12:08 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:

As far as it goes, absolutely true (IMO). I'm interested in
conflicting opinions, however.



http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2014/10/the-real-existential-threat.html

Monday, 13 October 2014

The Real Existential Threat

What is the biggest threat to the world as we know it?

Answers range from climate change to peak energy to a pandemic...

None of those matter.  They are all exogenous events.  Challenges to
be overcome.

The only real threat is a corrupt decision making system.

Simply, if our human built systems can't make good decisions, our
system will collapse.

It's that simple.


You want simple? I'll give you simple!

Human society has been making bad decisions for a very long time. The 
species has survived despite them, and occasionally because of them. 
True, it's not always easy on the rest of the ecosystem, but that wasn't 
the question.


What makes today's bad decisions worse than those of prior years is just 
this: overpopulation.


I don't mean urban crowding or the conversion of wildlands to crops (or 
suburbs), I mean that the number of humans on the planet is enough that 
we are now the primary biological activity (at least as far as our 
impact upon the rest), and we are apparently unable to limit our numbers 
to what the planet can sustain without substantial change (read damage).


True, the four horsemen still ride, and all our efforts to stay Plague, 
Pestilance, and Famine are holding them back, but it's no more than a 
delaying tactic, and War continues to ride amok.


As others have pointed out, we -- like many other species -- are prone 
to boom/bust cycles. And like such other species, any given bust may 
well drop our numbers to zero.


But even if we manage to avoid extinction, we have nearly as much to 
fear from a bust that drops our population too low to sustain our 
culture. Post-apocalyptic fiction is enjoying a burst of popularity 
right now, and few I've seen are credible, but that doesn't mean that 
such a serious collapse isn't possible.


For a time, I thought the Chinese had the will to stick by their 
one-child policy. It would have taken nearly a century to take full 
effect, and the policy itself would impose serious changes on the 
culture, but it could work, especially if copied elsewhere.


Alas, they seem not to have the discipline to hold to it, no one else is 
even considering it, and as Chinese enforcement relaxes, our potential 
for collapse improves.


We are left to contemplate not *if* we will suffer a population 
collapse, but *which* sort of collapse or cause we prefer. The question 
of whether we have both the skills and the will to influence that choice 
is doubtful.


The challenge is that nobody is willing to publicly advocate an 
across-the-board reduction in population (save those who want to make 
the *other* bastards die). Thus there can be no discussion, and there 
can be no implementation, even if a majority should agree.


Large systems like a planetary ecosystem move slowly, and once started 
into motion, are hard to reverse. Thus it may already be too late.


I just hope the Internet and the rest of what I depend upon stays alive 
as long as I do.


/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] The Real Existential Threat

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 10/14/2014 05:32 PM, Thaths wrote:

On Wed Oct 15 2014 at 8:05:28 AM Bruce A. Metcalf bruce.metc...@figzu.com
wrote:


What makes today's bad decisions worse than those of prior years is just
this: overpopulation.


Was Malthus wrong? How?


No, I believe he was correct, but he was thinking of gradual or local 
corrections. I think even the most basic observation of population 
trends will show that there's a whole lot of noise in the data, meaning 
peaks and abrupt drop-offs.


My concern is that where such severe drop-offs were once local 
phenomena, they have the potential today to be global.


Yes, it would be sad if a whole nation died (especially if it's the one 
I'm in at the time), but the species and probably most of the culture 
would endure. Similarly, if the species were to be decimated (random 
death of 1 in 10), we would survive.


But what if the population swing goes too far negative, and we lose 
either the ability to sustain our culture, or even the species?


It is true that we could consider efforts at population control to be a 
fifth horseman. But to do so, we have to become willing to get up on 
that horse and ride him. With even the Chinese flinching, I have about 
lost hope that anyone will.


It's like Betty Davis said, We're in for a bumpy ride! I just don't 
want us to fall off.


/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] To retire or not - that is the Q.

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Rajesh Mehar wrote:


Fifteen more years has also given me some perspective on the importance of
doing *work you believe has enduring value*, and of the need for down time
to keep work from being the force driving you.

@Bruce: This is really interesting stuff for me. Could you write a little
bit about how you decided what work would have enduring value? Do you also
think about the magnitude of impact your work has/will have? How do you
measure value and impact?


I would like to claim that I studied my values and principles and then 
went out to find something that matched. That's elegant, but pretty 
improbable in this random world.


What happened is that in 1974 I joined a historical society with the 
peculiarly broad stance of studying heraldry, genealogy, chivlary, 
nobility, and ancient and medieval history (up to about 1700). The 
Augustan Society, http://augustansociety.org, in case anyone cares, 
was run by an autodidact with holographic memory and an insatiable 
appetite for work and study.


Long story short, he died in 2006 from an entirely curable condition, 
leaving the organization without it's primary engine. It took over a 
year, but they realized that between my wife and I, we had all the 
skills needed to run the place. I'm an expert in heraldry, have a degree 
in history, and a background in non-profit management and magazine 
publishing. My wife is a bookkeeper and genealogist. They asked us to 
take over, A couple of days a week, and we foolishly agreed.


It's been tough to follow a legend. As Gracian wrote, To equal a 
predecessor, one must have twice their worth. That I ain't got, but I 
do have a much better grasp of technology. My predecessor thought high 
tech meant electric typewriters. I'm running a network of six Linux 
boxes and a couple of Windoze machines, plus a bank of laser printers 
that let us publish our magazines in-house and do all but the binding on 
our books.


Over the past seven years, these couple of days a week have grown to 
the point where I'm now deliberately limiting my time and telling the 
Board that they have to pick which programs get left behind.


The problems notwithstanding, the job is a terrific challenge to me in a 
number of facets, and I like to think it's keeping my brain active and 
growing in new directions.


No, it's not a social services agency, but then I never did fancy 
addressing symptoms while the disease is ignored. Feed the poor? There 
will always be poor. Better to work on the system that permits such 
large income discrepancies, to pick just one example.


As for the magnitude and impact of this work, well, it's primary 
magnitude and impact are upon me. I'm not saying I have selfish motives 
(though I'm sure that plays a part), I'm saying that some of the work 
being done by the organization is important, if only in an academic 
sense, and the magnitude is dependent not on the nature of the work or 
my efforts, but the number of people I can convince to help.


As a result, I'm not terribly interested in measuring such things. What 
I am interested in is the impact the work has on me, on my own growth 
and development, and on leaving a lasting record of scholarship for 
others to build upon, just as the giants whose shoulders I muddy with my 
boots did for me.


I am not saying that the part-time job I just left was without value. 
Any time you can work for a Fortune 50 company who lets you see how the 
system works, you can't help but learn things. When that company is 
Disney, those are some pretty fun and interesting things, too. My 
observations of the operations at a single-site employer with 68,000 
workers and exceedingly high customer expectations have been 
fascinating, especially when you consider that the company considers its 
primary purpose (after keeping stockholders happy) is to manufacture 
happiness. Leads to some very interesting customer service techniques!


But I've about sucked that teat dry, and my role as a hotel lobby clerk 
has evolved over the past decade from helping my guests have the most 
fun they can during their vacation to serving as an IT tech support 
agent with no training and intermittant second-line backup on a very 
flaky and rapidly evolving system. It's not Dilbert, it's more User 
Friendly http://ars.userfriendly.org.


Add to the mix a diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome that cropped up 
early this year, and standing up at a keyboard for eight hours at a time 
no longer seemed wise.


Finally, the company itself urged me to retire. After 15 years of 
service and age 55, you can retire with full benefits. These benefits 
don't include a pension or health coverage (they were available to 
part-timers, but weren't good enough to bother). They do include free 
admission to the theme parks, discounts from 20% to 75% on food, 
merchandise, hotels, cruises, and access to a number of fun activities. 
You need to live near Walt Disney World and love the product for these 
to have any 

Re: [silk] To retire or not - that is the Q.

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Sandhya aka Sandy wrote:


At the brink of yet another huge restructure in my company, I'm beginning
to tire of it. Just a wee bit. Quite a lot, actually. While I no longer
look for logic in the actions of a big company, these restructures and
their ensuing impact are really getting old. And perhaps, so am I. :)

So I had a long hard look at my financials and by overhauling my world,
retiring from corporate life is in the realm of possibility. Not retiring
from productive life - there are a million, zillion things I'd like to do
and I can probably consult as well.

What do you think? Those who've been there, done that. Those who're
considering it and haven't yet taken the plunge. Those with feet planted
firmly on the ground. And any others in between. Thoughts, advice, comments?


It is interesting timing -- I am reading this less than three hours 
after the end of last shift -- I retired today after fifteen years with 
the same company, the longest I have lasted anywhere by a factor of two.


Money hasn't been an issue for me. I retired in 1998 with a modest 
income and almost no debt. Today, improvements in my investments leave 
me very comfortable indeed. But financial considerations were not a part 
of my decision to retire, just as they had not been reasons to keep working.


When I first retired, I wasn't ready for the additional time, nor were 
my spouse and I ready to spend quite so much time in close proximity to 
one another. I held out for ten months, then took a part-time job at 
Walt Disney World operating their steam trains. After a time I moved to 
a hotel where I've spent the last decade, two days per week.


During this time, which I now see as a transition period, I've come up 
with a lot more to do with my time. I'm now the head of a non-profit 
historical society, am launching a supper club, and I still have the 
dreams I retired with (if only I can get rid of enough Stuff to make 
room for it).


Fifteen more years has also given me some perspective on the importance 
of doing work you believe has enduring value, and of the need for down 
time to keep work from being the force driving you. I'm not sure how 
reasonable it is to claim I have matured somewhat between 45 and 60, but 
I find that my priorities are markedly different today.


It takes great courage to leap into the unknown without a fat bankroll, 
and this is perhaps a choice best left to those entrepreneurs who need 
that adrenaline kick of having to perform or starve. I ain't one of them.


My part-time era turns out to have been a good way for me to 
transition to retirement, as I have expanded my weekends from two to 
five days, I have found ways to structure them to my taste (including 
just a bit of chaos). That done, converting those last two days should 
be easy. I don't know if this is a path you would find attractive, but 
it's not too difficult to give it a try; perhaps even without leaving 
your current employer.


I think a key point is to consider retirement in place at first, as 
opposed to retirement to some sangria-la or worse, an old-folks home. 
Build a post-employment life first, because until you know what shape 
and size that life will take, you won't be able to choose the right size 
or location for a different abode.


Remember that it's not a one-way lane, and particularly in the early 
years, you should be alert to signs you've chosen sub-optimally, and 
make adjustments.


You have my best wishes for finding a choice that works for you. I sure 
hope I have.


Regards,
Bruce

Re: [silk] Anthropology and Sociology

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 09/10/2014 01:15 AM, SS wrote:

On Wed, 2014-09-10 at 10:14 +0530, Udhay Shankar N wrote:


Again, not really. It turns out that the pace of change is such that
such studies are not the most useful way to deal with the future.


Udhay the pace of change is exactly what I am talking about. Who does
the studies that tell us how humans adapt and use game-changing
technology when the pace of change is slow (many generations), or medium
fast (one generation)  or super-fast (every few years). Usefulness or
lack thereof of data cannot be pre-determined in the absence of that
data.


I think that history can be a very useful guide to slow change, and 
perhaps helpful with moderate change. I also think it will fail utterly 
to provide examples of super-fast change, as mankind hasn't had to 
deal with that before in the manner we do today.


Without such historical precedent, science -- especially social science 
-- well, it doesn't so much fail as it completely misses the point.


Hence the resort to thoughtful authors writing fiction as our best 
alternative.


Note please the plural authors in the above. None of us will guess 
right, but with enough of us writing, presumably different scenarios, 
there may be meta data worth gathering, and some may come sufficiently 
close to offer some guidance.




Ignoring pace of change and its effect on humanity as a subject of study
would be a mistake.


This is obvious, yet many will continue to insist that history can offer 
relevant answers. I do not believe that it can.




... I am looking for ostensibly neutral and academic and broad-based
studies.


But they aren't available because we don't have any other example of a 
culture enduring such a high rate of technological change for such an 
extended period. Academia, by its nature, cannot address novel phenomenon.


If you want broad-based, read *lots* of science fiction.

Regards,
Bruce

Re: [silk] Anthropology and Sociology

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 09/08/2014 10:32 PM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:

On 08-Sep-14 10:27 PM, SS wrote:




But surely it would have to be sociologists, more than any other people
who would be able to comment with authority and knowledge on all
societies and express some opinion on features of societies that may be
negative or positive. If they don't know who would?


I'm not really sure what you're saying here - but one comment is that
that being a sociologist doesn't really bar you from being a SF
writer, for one thing.


I rather think it helps.

Indeed, much good science fiction is just that; sociological treatises 
on the human condition, viewed through a literary if filter.


These traditional if filters for SF being, What if, If Only, and 
If this goes on. The latter in particular is an effective tool for 
extrapolating present trends to see if they're leading in a direction 
the reader wants to go.


Cheers,
Bruce

Re: [silk] Anthropology and Sociology

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 09/07/2014 10:24 AM, SS wrote:

I have had an amateur interest in the subjects that (I thought) were
studied under the headings anthropology and sociology.

After a couple of decades of imbibing information by osmosis and random
diffusion, it seems to me that these fields deal primarily with people
and societies as they exist.

There is no field that I know of that tells us what societies should be
like. I would have thought that if people study a thousand societies
over several thousand man years and document them classify them and
catalogue  them, surely at least one person should have developed some
ideas about what a society should be like. Has there been an ideal
society? Is there, for example - a society in the past that lasted for
500 years or more without changing much? Does that mean it was better
than others that did not last so long? Or is the fact that it is gone
now an indicator that if it's dead it can't be good?

For example - if guidelines for a good society could be formulated,
would it not be feasible to teach it as a subject rather than simply
study existing societies and people? It could be debated and refined or
trashed. Who does that?


Science fiction writers, mostly. Also the odd futurist (which is to say, 
a science fiction writer who can't build a story). The occasional dictator.


But there's a missing piece in your evaluation: how to determine what 
features of society are desirable, and how to balance the trade-offs? 
Strict dictatorships bring civil order, but at the cost of free speech 
and toleration for deviance. Most will agree that a balance must be 
struck, few can agree on where that should be.


Hence the resort to fiction.

Cheers,
Bruce