It is also an election of ageism. Everybody seems to have fun making fun of McCain's age. How come native Indians chose their "Elders" as leaders and why are older people in China the most respected as they are looked upon as wiser than younger ones? Only in our rotten civilization, we are required to "shut up" once we are past the average "dinks" age of 40. Nobody asked Hilary for a medical exam although she could have aids or STD with all the women who s...her husbands d.....
I had not thought about this before, but I should have. A friend brought my attention to younger than McCain. The point of this to mock age. I know that Obama's campaign is all about change. His message is that McCain is part of the Old Guard and that will be business as usual.
I can tell Munichmaedchen why age and wisdom is not valued in our culture. It is bcause we are always looking for something New. America was made on the next idea America was made by people trying to get away from their past. That is way experence is a dirty word in politics.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the ageism going forward. I think it will become an issue when McCain picks his running mate.
Thomas Hawk is making a big deal about Flickr deleting a photo and the corresponding comments from one of their users. He says that Flickr deleting the photo and the comments is censorship. I will step outside my usual idea that only the government can truly censor someone. Flickr/Yahoo cannot keep Rebekka from posting the photo someplace else. They cannot keep the users from commenting someplace else about this photo.
I will say that if any internet user expects to own the comments, they need to own where the comments are being placed. My blog does not have an end user license agreement. I am the person who backs up my pages and my comments. That is the only way I can really control it. Flickr is not a co-op. I do not have an equal say on what happens and I do not have a say if they think I broke the rules. Flickr is a business and I am their customers. Like business and customer relationships, there is asymmetrical power.
I will not make fun of Thomas Hawk for his protest. He is trying to change the way Flickr does business by applying pressure. This often can change how a business works. I as a customer thinks the best thing I can do it take my business elsewhere if I have a problem.
In the end this is not a rights issue. Flickr is well within its rights to do what it did. Since they are not a monopoly we can all take our business elsewhere if we choose.
Today in the New York Times I see an article that asks, Is it too late to bring civility to the Web? All I can say is that some people need to get over themselves. It is sad that this question even needs to be asked. I would hope there is not a need for a code of conduct. I would hope that bloggers can conduct themselves, but if they cannot we might just need a code of conduct.
I want to say that if you comment on a blog, the person who owns that blog has the right to delete your comment, no matter what. The owner of the blog can delete your comment if they do not like the comment, think you use too many comma, or just don't like your last name. The blog owner is not stepping on your right to free speech. Your right to free speech is your right to link to that entry and make your blog post. that is where your right to free speech is.
I use a system where the comments only last three months anyway. I have always thought that comments are extra. They are an add on to the blog. If a comment is really good I will add it to my blog. I know that lots of people disagree with me.
Today I went to the section of the Berlin Wall that is in a parking lot in Mountain View California. I have know about this for years not, but this is the first time actually visited. There are sections of the Berlin Wall in a couple of places in America. There is plaque for the display, but it does not say why it is there.
It is in the back of a business park in the edge of Mountain View. When I talk to people about this they all want to know why it is there. I never have a good answer for them. It makes sense that pieces of the wall are in places like the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum, and Westminster College. People have no clue why this is here.
When I saw the piece of the way, I wondered why these are not all over the place. I wondered why every state in America does not have a piece of the Berlin Wall on displace. You would think that Americans would want to show off more. You would think we would have imported 100s of sections of the wall.
This is a cool piece of history to have close to me. I am glad that I went to see it. This vacation is becoming about doing things I have put off for a while.
I wanted to keep Eric Laine's comments so I put them in an entry.
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"24" will not change because its creator, Joel Surnow, is a radical right-wing torture enthisiast. He is capitalizing on Americans' fear of terrorism to make money AND advance a militaristic political agenda. Anyone who is "entertained" by watching a man torture his own brother to the sound of agonizing screams should seek counselling. "24" was good for about 6 hours in 2001; in 2007 its tired, predictable rhythms combined with its reactionary message make it suitable only for those who would slow down to ponder roadkill.
From the New Yorker:
"The series, Surnow told me, is “ripped out of the Zeitgeist of what people’s fears are—their paranoia that we’re going to be attacked,” and it “makes people look at what we’re dealing with” in terms of threats to national security. “There are not a lot of measures short of extreme measures that will get it done,” he said, adding, “America wants the war on terror fought by Jack Bauer. He’s a patriot.”
For all its fictional liberties, “24” depicts the fight against Islamist extremism much as the Bush Administration has defined it: as an all-consuming struggle for America’s survival that demands the toughest of tactics. Not long after September 11th, Vice-President Dick Cheney alluded vaguely to the fact that America must begin working through the “dark side” in countering terrorism. On “24,” the dark side is on full view. Surnow, who has jokingly called himself a “right-wing nut job,” shares his show’s hard-line perspective. Speaking of torture, he said, “Isn’t it obvious that if there was a nuke in New York City that was about to blow—or any other city in this country—that, even if you were going to go to jail, it would be the right thing to do?”
I often wonder if it's not just a skill that we need to teach people - data mining, or searching. I can often find stuff very quickly when my wife has been looking for a half hour because I can think of ways to quantify the search better to find information that's useful. With more and more information that is available and the amount growing, searching is rapidly becoming less useful than it was even a year or two ago. If I find that I need real information about a single thing, I'm more likely to search Wikipedia than Google now.
I do use Wikipedia a lot lately. I use it as much as I use Google. I think I am starting to use them for two different kinds of information. It I am looking for a Fact, concept, or statistic I start with Wikipedia. If I am looking for a web site, data that is specific to a web site, or questions about a product I use Google.
Often I come upon a question I know that I will not find an answer using Google. I find that I want to be able to ask a question and get an answer. Now I have to ask the question of myself, analysis what kind of website would have the answer to that questions, and figure out the right combination of keywords that will bring me to that data.
I think that this means that Google can be beat by another company. Google was much better than the search engines that came before it. That does not mean another search engine could not be better than them.
I often wonder if it's not just a skill that we need to teach people - data mining, or searching. I can often find stuff very quickly when my wife has been looking for a half hour because I can think of ways to quantify the search better to find information that's useful. With more and more information that is available and the amount growing, searching is rapidly becoming less useful than it was even a year or two ago. If I find that I need real information about a single thing, I'm more likely to search Wikipedia than Google now.
