Urban Efficiency

As Atlantans take the North Druid Hills exit off 85, many shake their heads at roadwork that seems to be the result of apathy and laziness. I disagree, however, firmly believing this project was carefully reasoned and thoroughly analyzed, and that the Homer Simpson Ideology is not as prevalent in America as one might expect. Rather, the logic is flawless – genius in fact – as mud will inevitably cover the road since there is a large useless pile of dirt right next to the road. By simply painting over the dirt that falls off the dirt pile the line will be visible for at least a week longer.

Similarly, the Department of Transportation has recently determined that stop signs are unnecessary for vehicular safety. They have already begun to faze them out at random intersections.

A Highly Recommended Goods

I went to see my cousin this weekend and he showed me a "land surfer" he just got. It has a suspension system that simulates being on snowboard. It's pretty cool, check out this instruction manual translated into very well English.




The Technical Information:

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So that's the engine.. At first glance it looks like some sort of glass steel board counterweight.


General Information: (My favorites are 2 and 9)

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In case you go out and buy this, I just want to emphasize that you should never perform shunts with it, including bypasses or any other medical procedures.


Operating:

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I'm not sure enough about what that means to say anything about it.


Troubleshooting:

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Start up is hard? Is that normal? Is that a warning or does that mean something is wrong?

On the Road

I'm going to be out of town for a few days... maybe I'll have some questions to answer when I get back...

Fair Use or IP Abuse?

Recently, an artist named DJ Dangermouse integrated the riffs and vocals from The Beatles' White Album with the lyrics and beats of Jay-Z’s Black Album. The finished product - The Grey Album - consists of Jay-Z rapping to Beatles guitar and backup vocals.

To many, the controversial album seems to blatantly exploit fair use laws, but Dangermouse did an extensive amount of work on the album, including mixing in some of his own beats, and The Grey Album will not adversly effect the market for any Beatles or Jay-Z albums. DJ Dangermouse did not sell the album, but distributed it over the internet through peer-to-peer networks. While he did not receive any revenue directly from the album, its popularity has made him an internationally renowned DJ and has increased the demand for his other works.

Roc-A-Fella, Jay-Z’s label, commented that while DJ Dangermouse should have obtained permission to use Jay-Z’s recordings, the record is otherwise "hot."




Anyway, I'm doing a paper on Intellectual Property Law and this post came to mind. Let me know what you think.

Illusion and Intent

There is, of course, no reason why the new totalitarianisms should resemble the old. Government by clubs and firing squads, by artificial famine, mass imprisonment and mass deportation, is not merely inhumane, it is demonstrably inefficient.… A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and schoolteachers.… The greatest triumphs of propaganda have been accomplished, not by doing something, but by refraining from doing. Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects… totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have done by the most eloquent denunciations, the most compelling of logical rebuttals. But silence is not enough.… Without economic security, the love of servitude cannot possible come into existence… but security tends to be taken for granted. Its achievement is merely a superficial, external revolution. The love of servitude cannot be established except as the result of a deep, personal revolution in human minds and bodies.
-Aldous Huxley


The rational human being maximizes utility. Throughout this pursuit, personal tastes play among the most important roles in determining the marginal benefit from engaging in an activity or consuming a good. Interestingly enough, these preferences are the very things individuals accept as practically indisputable, and, as part of our nature, (temporarily) unchangeable. This usually leads to impulse “submission without inquisition.”

The impact of biological chemistry on the decision process, however, is likely over speculated. Certainly genetic composition is a factor in determining one’s actions, but perpetual exposure to conditioning is likely to be included in the function. Since the adolescence of America, an infatuation with everything material has matured proportionately to a budding economy. The media has raised us to save our money for the things we need, and for everything else there’s MasterCard. As the hierarchy of deeper needs pursued by our predecessors seems to fade, marketing schemes push aspirations of each individual toward a tangible conglomerate. With exceeding irony, we forfeit the pursuit of self-actualization in order to extract the earth’s heart and mold it to take the shape of our pockets, all the while making nature a convenient scapegoat. But in chasing an unsatisfiable desire for more, the nature of personal preference is never questioned. Adherence to illusion persists.

The thought-to-action transition is the result of an assumption that consciousness is a neutral collection of thoughts which inevitably lead to logical conclusions. However, consciousness is problematic; it contains bias, error due to lack of information, misconception due to extraneous (or fictitious) information, and irrationality derived from external sources. More often than not, the reality we see only consists of the shadows projected by our teachers, textbooks, news papers, and television programs. Such projections shape our “instinctual” ideals that ultimately compose the aggregate from which we draw our judgments and sentiments, even those regarding of our perception of good and evil.

Streamlined illusion suggests intent, and intent must have an origin. If intent exists, free will is compromised by false consciousness. In this manner concordance has been equated to truth. While “peace is made in such ways… slaves are made in such ways.”

We're Number One!

• In 2000, the average American had 5 credit cards and $7564 in credit card debt.
• Every year more than a million people file for bankruptcy.
• More people file for bankruptcy than graduate from college.
• Americans spend nearly seven times as much time shopping as they do playing with their kids.
• Shopping is the favorite activity of 93% of teenage girls.
• The national savings rate is often below zero.
• Most American children see over a million commercials before the age of twenty.

(Source: Affluenza, De Graaf)

“As volume of consumption goods increases, requirements for the care and maintenance of these goods also tends to increase; we get bigger houses to clean, a car to wash, a boat to put up for the winter, a television set to repair, and have to make more decisions on spending.”
-Swedish economist Staffan Linder, 1970