<![CDATA[Think of where we are, just now. The journal Nature reports on research that provides a testable model for analyzing and, ultimately, visualizing remote worlds for the potential habitability of Earth-like destinations for exploration. Basically, using multiple observations of a planet as large as the planet Uranus in our solar system in transit of its star, the team has built a model that, if confirmed by the James Webb Space Telescope when it is deployed in 2018, confirms the model accurately allows us to predict — and refine our analysis of — the planet’s ability to host life, assuming there is not something on a habitable planet more dominant than ourselves that will annihilate us on arrival, and support colonization by humans or their machines.
Think about that. Like the Dutch company that this week announced it has about one thousand candidates it will send to Mars on a one-way trip, humans can start to make long-term bets on distant colonies by banking the claim represented by a ship or fleet headed off in some direction once it leaves. Even if that ship is not the first to arrive from Earth, it would still represent the initial claim to the planet. So, if space travel could be speeded to or past the speed of light and a later flight arrived first, the initial pioneers’ ancestors would retain their share of the planet, which could even be adjusted for future value as the first travelers’ confidence is reinforced by later followers, even if the followers got their first.
For most of my life, punctuated by my childhood fascination with space travel and the Moon, as well as in the 40- to 90-minute portions of my attention devoted in their hundreds and thousands to Star Trek throughout the past 50 years, I have not believed that man could leave the immediate neighborhood of this planet and its Moon. Maybe it is passing 50 years of age with some advanced aircraft-grade titanium cervical disc replacements. But I’ve come to see that the pioneering of space is the next shitty, but necessary, stretch of road humanity needs to walk in order to take any larger place in the Cosmos than it already has had the audacity to imagine.
Or, perhaps, this exercise in futurism will merely make it clear that mining my neck for its titanium is less profitable, but also much less risky than traveling to a planet orbiting a distant star, and I’ve sealed my own fate by enabling the short-sighted to consume the hearty and spirited men of their times for scrap metal. For anyone missing that this is meant satirically, titanium is not a particularly valuable metal. Really.
Happy New Year, one and all.]]>
Category: Brilliant Human Achievement
<![CDATA[I'm watching Game Three of the 2001 ALDS between the A's and the Yankees, which tells a lot about how teams win the World Championship (Hooray for the MBL Games on iTunes). The A's are a superior team in retrospect. So many enduring (not necessarily great) players are on the Athletics squad, including Johnny Damon, Miguel Tejada, Eric Chavez (I feel for his back injuries) and Jason Giambi, the future Yankee, as well as Barry Zito, the notoriously overpaid Giant. My Mariners got beat this same night to lead to the showdown with the Indians, after winning 116 games (oh, what a season to see!).
This is the game that made Derek Jeter a Yankee Great — the flip to home plate to get a key out Jason Giambi at home (see this incredible, ever-thrilling clip). This is the game that set the stage for the Yankees v. Indians, which led to the classic Arizona World Series.
Oh, I love this game.]]>
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That darned Vincent. A third of his paintings from his early period cover other paintings he did. Dutch scientists developed an X-Ray technique that discloses the color and contours of underlying layers of paint. In his “Patch of Grass” they found a portrait of a woman’s face.
Technorati Tags: art, Van Gogh
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<![CDATA[
BBC SPORT | Boonen banned from Tour de France:
Former world champion Tom Boonen will not be allowed to compete at next month’s Tour de France after testing positive for cocaine.
With last year’s Tour winner, Alberto Contador, out of this year’s Tour because he rides for Team Astana, which was banned for doping after last year’s race, this year’s Tour de France is looking pretty frayed even before it begins. Contador won a classic Giro d’Italia last week and looks like the odd’s-on favorite to win in Paris in July, if only he were riding.]]>
<![CDATA[There's really no good news in this report about 2004 U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, but the Bush agenda is spun in nonetheless, trying to make a stink into perfume…..
DECEMBER 16, 2005
U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Grow but Intensity Falls in 2004
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased by 2.0 percent in 2004,
from 6,983.2 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e)
in 2003 to 7,122.1 MMTCO2e in 2004, according to “Emissions of
Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2004″, a report released today
by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). U.S. greenhouse gas
emissions per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell from 677
metric tons per million 2000 constant dollars of GDP (MTCO2e/$Million
GDP) in 2003 to 662 MTCO2e /$Million GDP in 2004, a decline of 2.1
percent.
But, wait, if you read all the way down the report summary, you’ll find that the annual increase in greenhouse gas emissions during the 1990s was just north of half the 2004 increase, and yet the economy was growing faster for most of the 1990s. Likewise, you’ll find that the Bush approach to the environment has reduced the amount of carbon dioxide “sequestered” in forests for the first time in a decade (that is, there were not enough trees to process that carbon dioxide into oxygen compared to during the 1990s).
The 2004 increase is well below the rate of economic growth of 4.2
percent but above the average annual growth rate of 1.1 percent in
greenhouse gas emissions since 1990. Emissions of carbon dioxide
and methane increased by 1.7 and 0.9 percent respectively, while
emissions of nitrous oxide and engineered gases rose by 5.5 and 9.6
percent respectively.+ Emissions of carbon dioxide from energy consumption and industrial
processes grew by 1.7 percent from 5,871.8 million metric tons in
2003 to 5,973.0 million metric tons in 2004. Since 1990, carbon
dioxide emissions have risen by about 19 percent.
More than a 10th of the increase over 15 years happened last year.
+ Methane emissions rose by 0.9 percent from 633.9 MMTCO2e to 639.5
MMTCO2e. The increase is attributable mainly to greater methane
emissions from landfills, while smaller increases from animal
waste, rice cultivation, and coal mining also contributed to the
total growth. Since 1990, methane emissions have declined by more
than 11 percent.
After falling over a decade, methane emissions are increasing.
+ Nitrous oxide emissions increased from 335.2 MMTCO2e in 2003 to
353.7 MMTCO2e in 2004 (5.5 percent) mainly because of increases
in emissions from agricultural sources, which rose by 17.4 MMTCO2e,
comprising 94 percent of the total increase. Nitrous oxide
emissions are above 1990 levels for the first time since 2001.+ Emissions from three classes of engineered gases –
hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur
hexafluoride (SF6) – increased by 9.6 percent from 142.4 MMTCO2e
in 2003 to 155.9 MMTCO2e in 2004. As a group, these gases have
grown by 77 percent since 1990, but from very small initial levels.
Again, more than 10 percent of the increase since 1990 happened last year.
+ In 1990, land use change and forestry practices sequestered enough
carbon dioxide to offset 16.9 percent of U.S. anthropogenic
greenhouse gas emissions. In 2003 (the last year of available data)
that offset declined to 11.9 percent.
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Under President Bush, there aren’t as many forests to consume the C-O2 we produce. When you hear about drilling for oil in ANWAR, think about the fact that the forest is one of our last remaining natural C-O2 sinks.
Technorati Tags: environment, Bush
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<![CDATA[Productivity and Costs, Third Quarter 2005, Revised :
The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor today reported revised productivity data–as measured by output per hour of all persons–for the third quarter of 2005. The seasonally adjusted annual rates of productivity growth in the third quarter were:
5.4 percent in the business sector and
4.7 percent in the nonfarm business sector.
The record profits at many companies are coming not only from investment and managers, but the people doing the work. Yet the average family’s earnings are falling behind inflation for the fifth year in a row. Meanwhile, President Bush has cut (later restored by Congress) minimum wage laws in disaster areas to make it easier for companies to exploit the situation along the Gulf Coast. The Republican-managed economy is one where the rich only get richer while the rest of us hope for scraps from the table.
There’s something divisive astride the United States and it’s going to contribute to increased anger among Americans, which is not what we need at a time when pulling together is the most important thing we can do.]]>
<![CDATA[Process matters:
In fact, meticulously defined and managed processes continue to be a powerful source of competitive advantage for many companies. Look at Toyota, for instance. Its highly engineered manufacturing processes not only give it superior productivity but also provide a platform for constant learning and improvement. The formal structure, which is anything but democratic, spurs both efficiency and innovation – productive innovation – simultaneously. Structured, well-thought-out processes are also essential to most knowledge work, from product development to financial analysis to software engineering to sales and marketing. And the more complex the effort, the greater the need for clear processes. Far from making business less effective and agile, the increasing attention to process has increased effectiveness and agility.
If Mayfield had narrowed his argument, focusing on the way knowledge workers collaborate in certain situations, rather than on business processes in general, he would have been much more compelling. The simple group-forming and information-sharing software tools now being introduced and refined will often provide greater flexibility and effectiveness than more complex “knowledge management” systems. But even in these cases, processes aren’t going away; they’re just changing. There can’t be organization without process.
I’m with Nicholas Carr on this one, despite my close friendship with Ross Mayfield and being on the Socialtext board of advisors. I’d been thinking a lot about Ross’ posting on The End of Process, and Carr summarizes my concerns about the idea that business organizations are entering a “post-process” era.
Looking back at my comments about the value of process in newsgathering, where I made the point that we have to have processes that account for the weaknesses of participants (in the case of journalism, it’s the tendency to be subjective and biased that is checked by an effective editorial process) I find it hard to imagine what an “organization” without process could look like. After all, we enter into relationships based on a set of expectations—a process for fulfilling those expectations—not simply on trust. Carr’s assertion that if Ross had narrowed his argument he would have made a more effective point is correct. I can imagine organizations that define themselves through emergent processes, but not an organization without processes.
In talking about applications of technology to democratic goals, too, there has been a persistent subtext in technical discussions that suggests process is irrelevant (which could just be reflective of a techno-anarchism, but I am not an anarchist). However, it’s impossible to engineer process out of democratic deliberation, because there must be an agreed upon set of rules—in the United States, it’s the Constitution—for coming to a collective decision (whether simple or super majority) about policy. Tools need to be flexible in order to accommodate new processes if we’re going to achieve “emergent” systems for social action; tools engineered to defeat process undermine the participants’ agreements.
Wiki is an excellent foundation for exploring new relationships through the information we seek to share. Likewise, it is a great foundation for working out what processes a group might apply to achieving its goals. But there is always process, we simply don’t accept process for process’ sake anymore, which is a Very Good Thing.
Technorati Tags: Carr, collaboration, Socialtext, wiki
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<![CDATA[TPM Media LLC | Announcement:
TPM Media LLC, publisher of Talkingpointsmemo.com and TPMCafe.com) is looking for two enterprising and energetic journalists to staff a new blog focused on wall-to-wall coverage of corruption, self-dealing and betrayals of the public trust in today’s Washington.
With a format and style similar to Talkingpointsmemo.com, the two reporter-bloggers will break stories with original reporting, in addition to digging into public records and published reports to bring together the context, impact and significance of evolving stories covered only episodically in the daily press.
Both jobs offer the opportunity to be involved at the forefront of a new kind of journalism, combining original reporting with the free-wheeling tone, style and accessibility of blogs.
Applicants must be able to write well and write fast, as well as have a knack for distilling complex stories into clear and meticulously factual prose. Journalism experience is a big plus. A deep familiarity with the world of blogging and national politics are both a necessity.
This is the kind of dream posting I’d have been looking for as a young writer, so don’t pass it by. At my “advanced” age, I don’t want to move to Washington or New York, but if there is a cooler job listing on the Internet today, I’d be surprised.
Technorati Tags: journalism, press
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<![CDATA[The Washington Monthly:
Today, two of the Denver Three, with assistance from the ACLU, are taking the next logical step. They’re taking the matter to court.White House event staffers unlawfully removed two Denver residents from a town hall discussion with President Bush because of an anti-war bumper sticker on their car, charged the American Civil Liberties Union in a federal lawsuit filed today.
“The government should not be in the business of silencing Americans who are perceived to be critical of certain policy decisions,” said ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Chris Hansen, who is the lead counsel in this case. “The president should be willing to be in the same room with people who might disagree with him, especially at a public, taxpayer-funded town hall.”
It’s a lawsuit that could raise a variety of interesting, and potentially damaging, questions for the Bush White House.
For example, does the White House have a formal policy for evicting law-abiding ticket-holders from public events? Who gives directions to event staffers about their responsibilities? How are people working at these events recruited and trained? Are they specifically told to engage in viewpoint discrimination? Does the White House encourage this approach?
I’ll be sending my $100 donation to the ACLU. You can, too. Remember, America and liberty are for everyone, not just those pre-screened by the Bush Administration.
Technorati Tags: Bush, democracy
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<![CDATA[Bush vows to ‘stay in the fight’ in Iraq – Yahoo! News:
U.S. President George W. Bush vowed on Saturday “we will stay in the fight” until victory in Iraq, rejected critics’ calls for a troop pullout timetable and insisted progress is being made in Baghdad.
If the President would commit to re-enlist in the Air Force after his term in office expires (better yet, just step down now and do it), this might be morally convincing and in some way a response to critics of his policy that demonstrates he really believes in his policy. But just saying “I’m going to commit to sending men and women to die as long as it takes” is hardly a viable response to criticism of the war.
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