IMproPRieTies

Happy Graduation Day Sawyer

2021-06-08T15:44:00.002-04:00

Don't Neuter Net Neutrality --

2017-11-28T11:24:00.000-05:00

The Net is a necessary utility for all. It's not a corporate shill game or marketplace puppet

Week 1

2017-01-28T13:19:00.001-05:00

via Frank Paynter:

"Give him a chance," you said.
To recap:

* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the DOJ’s Violence Against Women programs.
* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the Minority Business Development Agency.
* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the Economic Development Administration.
* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the International Trade Administration.
* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation.
* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.
* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the DOJ.
* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability.
* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
* On January 19th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump said that he would cut funding for the Office of Fossil Energy.
* On January 20th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump ordered all regulatory powers of all federal agencies frozen.
* On January 20th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump ordered the National Parks Service to stop using social media after RTing factual, side by side photos of the crowds for the 2009 and 2017 inaugurations.
* On January 20th, 2017, roughly 230 protestors were arrested in DC and face unprecedented felony riot charges. Among them were legal observers, journalists, and medics.
* On January 20th, 2017, a member of the International Workers of the World was shot in the stomach at an anti-fascist protest in Seattle. He remains in critical condition.
* On January 21st, 2017, the coward Donald Trump brought a group of 40 cheerleaders to a meeting with the CIA to cheer for him during a speech that consisted almost entirely of framing himself as the victim of dishonest press.
* On January 21st, 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a press conference largely to attack the press for accurately reporting the size of attendance at the inaugural festivities, saying that the inauguration had the largest audience of any in history, “period.”
* On January 22nd, 2017, White House advisor Kellyann Conway defended Spicer’s lies as “alternative facts” on national television news.
* On January 22nd, 2017, the coward Donald Trump appeared to blow a kiss to director James Comey during a meeting with the FBI, and then opened his arms in a gesture of strange, paternal affection, before hugging him with a pat on the back.
* On January 23rd, 2017, the coward Donald Trump reinstated the global gag order, which defunds international organizations that even mention abortion as a medical option.
* On January 23rd, 2017, Spicer said that the US will not tolerate China’s expansion onto islands in the South China Sea, essentially threatening war with China.
* On January 23rd, 2017, the coward Donald Trump repeated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing him the popular vote.
* On January 23rd, 2017, it was announced that the man who shot the anti-fascist protester in Seattle was released without charges, despite turning himself in.
* On January 24th, 2017, Spicer reiterated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing the coward Donald Trump the popular vote.
* On January 24th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump tweeted a picture from his personal Twitter account of a photo he says depicts the crowd at his inauguration and will hang in the White House press room. The photo is curiously dated January 21st, 2017, the day AFTER the inauguration and the day of the Women’s March, the largest inauguration related protest in history.
* On January 24th, 2017, the EPA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to freeze all grants and contracts.
* On January 24th, 2017, the USDA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to stop publishing any papers or research. All communication with the press would also have to be authorized and vetted by the White House.
* On January 24th, 2017, HR7, a bill that would prohibit federal funding not only to abortion service providers, but to any insurance coverage, including Medicaid, that provides abortion coverage, went to the floor of the House for a vote.
* On January 24th, 2017, Director of the Department of Health and Human Service nominee Tom Price characterized federal guidelines on transgender equality as “absurd.”
* On January 24th, 2017, the coward Donald Trump ordered the resumption of construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, while the North Dakota state congress considers a bill that would legalize hitting and killing protestors with cars if they are on roadways.
* On January 24th, 2017, it was discovered that police officers had used confiscated cell phones to search the emails and messages of the 230 demonstrators now facing felony riot charges for protesting on January 20th, including lawyers and journalists whose email accounts contain privileged information of clients and sources.
And today: the wall and a Muslim ban.

Two by G.G. Belli

2013-08-18T12:15:00.002-04:00

Two sonnets by the 19th century Italian poet, G.G. Belli (also see here and here) - translations from Anthony Burgess's magical book, ABBA ABBA:

Revenge 1

Of all the Bible stories that they tell,
This one to come is quite the most fantastic.
A sonnet being so damned inelastic,
I'll require two to tell it really well.
Well, now – the exodists from Egypt's hell
Met the mad Malechites who, dreadful, drastic.
Ferocious, tastelessly enthusiastic,
Fell on the Hebrews, and the Hebrews fell.

God made a memorandum. After all,
The Jews pursued the then correct religion.
After four hundred years he called on Saul.
"The Malechites," he said, "deserve the axe.
Spit the whole nation; roast it like a pigeon.
Don't leave a feather on their fucking backs."

Revenge 2

So in God's name Saul went and waded in,
Trouncing them in one horrible stampede,
Goats, calves and all. Mercy maybe or greed
Or something made him save Prince Agag's skin.
Samuel now prophesied about Saul's sin!
"Idolater, betrayer of our creed,
A holier Israelite will supersede
Your reign and make a holier reign begin.

Bring me the prince you blasphemously spared."
Tremulous as a fatted pig, that prince
Stuttered – agag agag aghast, shit-scared.
The holy Samuel did not blink or wince
But raised the butcher's blade that he had bared
And made a mound of Malechitish mince.

All the sonnetti romaneschi

JJ Cale

2013-07-28T09:13:00.000-04:00

Eric Clapton posted this photo of Cale.

A sidelong appreesh of Cale of a while back.

Channel 84

2013-02-15T22:06:00.001-05:00

So here's the result of my recent customer discussions with Verizon. As this is of interest to few, cut to the chase if you wish - it's at the bottom.

Some background: I watch almost no TV, and am old enough to remember when it was free. Thus the idea of paying for it has always seemed foreign. For a time when I worked for a cable co. (as Internet editor), I got full cable for free. I watched The Sopranos, loved it, and basically nothing else. When I left that company, I figured someone would step up and offer the choice of just getting HBO, and nothing else. Or just one show from HBO. Sort of like the Internet. Until that time came, I'd never actually pay for TV.

I now pay for Verizon FIOS. Why? I had a two-year contract with them for FIOS internet, and when it was up, I was told my monthly price would increase by some not insignificant amount. BUT, if I took the "Triple Play" option - adding TV to the existing bundle of Net and home phone - with current promos I'd actually pay less than if I were to just renew Net and home phone.

An offer I could not refuse. I accepted the TV, and -- apart from a few biggies, like the World Series and the presidential debates, SOTU, etc. -- used it barely at all. My kid briefly got into some of the "rustic" entertainment including "Call of the Wildman," but we soon tired of the passive tedium of the medium.

Anyway, I have this excellent friend Dan who keeps talking about FIFA and Manchester United and Rooney and Rinaldo of Madrid and Balotelli and frankly he managed to make it sound interesting enough that I began to think it would be nice to have channel 84. In my market, that's Fox Soccer. Not Soccer Plus, just Soccer. My humble Verizon service - the low end, of course - blocks the channel, but offered me the option to subscribe, though it didn't say what it costs. I figured I'd call to find out, and from that call came this conversation.

That conversation, blogged, turned into a Tweetfest with Verizon, further morphing into 1.5 hours of phone time with two very pleasant Verizon support people, Michael and Bernardine.

Michael tried very hard, once he understood my request, to find a way to help. The problem as I saw it was, all I want is this one channel, why can't they add it, and it alone, and bill me a buck a month and bob's yr uncle?

The problem apparently is that in the corporate universe, no customer shall be so gratified. I could only choose to move up to the next package, called "Extreme" - in which case my TV would not only receive Channel 84 but also a buttload more channels I had no interest in, for a mere $15 (before tax) upgrade to my monthly bill.

I explained to Michael how it is. How I do not use TV, but might enjoy some Soccer if it didn't cost me over $100 a year for the privilege of watching. He proceeded in the most engaging manner to attempt a series of elaborate maneuvers worthy of Olympic diving competition -- Backflips, Inward Dive 3.5 somersault in the Tuck position, Armstand Back 2 Somersaults, 1.5 twists in the Free Position, and more. At one point, he thought he had it. He thought he'd managed to give me Extreme with no change to my contractual obligation -- there was nearly a whoop of joy from this enthusiastic and friendly young man, until, at the very last moment, the agony of defeat emanating from the massive corporate computational network told him in no uncertain terms that the customer was going to have to pay $15 more a month or nada.

I felt sorrier for Michael than one might imagine. I tried to comfort him, to assure him that I really don't watch TV, have no use for TV, am probably better off without access to Channel 84, as it would just consume more of the short life left to me (I'm no spring chicken) than I can afford. But Michael was not down for the count. He thought there still could be a way to do this, but it would take a higher power. I said fine, and was soon speaking with Bernardine in California. Bernardine sounded completely pleasant, nothing like any formidable Higher Power.

I explained to her how it came about that I simply wanted to know what it cost to sub to Channel 84, but after an hour was still discovering that her giant corporation could not, in fact, either give me an answer, nor satisfy the request, but was -- at least Michael was -- heartbroken at its lack of success.

Bernardine asked if she could look at the matter, and in short order she returned to say she could offer me Extreme, the package, for $6.72 a month. This was managed under some complex 12-month discount by which my bill is actually $15 + tax but I get some sort of $10 off deal that ends next March.

At this point I told her that I might consider it, even though I only wanted the one channel, but I'd only do so if she annotated the account to indicate that in 12 months I can go back to my non-Extreme status and to my current monthly bill, minus the $6.72, no questions asked. She agreed, and I agreed. I am now Extreme. Talk about Power. The new package was available on my TV nearly immediately. Bernardine offered to call me in a week, and I said that would be fine. We wished each other a Happy Valentine's Day. For one with such Power, she seemed quite sweet.

Yet I wonder: if Verizon can implement entire packages in the blink of a remote eye, why not one single channel? I still do not have an answer. The system is telling me I can subscribe to a channel, but when I ask how much, I get baited and switched. "Nooooooooooooo," it tells me, "you can't have one little teensie-weensie channel, but you can have a whole bunch of them!"

Why?

If it's a technical issue, then put it in layman's terms. End users will get it. Something too small for the giant to handle? That would be of interest. If none of the above, then it might, just might, be a greed issue. If so, well, buy some gumption and own up to that. Consumers are bent to consume the redirection of their substance at the expense of their wiser discretion.

Can Marketing ever get real? If a customer wants to buy something, and you won't sell it to them, why not tell them why not? Why do you always need to convince them they want something much bigger, far in excess of what they in fact want? Is it Un-USian to ask for something small? Is it demeaning to gratify small wishes? Must American Consumers always be presumed to live in hells of infinite desire?

Eventually the Corporates will discover that the fulcrum has shifted. What we desire, no matter how humble, can be within our grasp, without their help.

So I'm grateful to Bernardine, and to Michael and the Verizon Tweeters, and to Agent Marilyn whose robotics kicked this into high gear. Grateful less for Channel 84 than for the glimpse into the wide world of scripts, pitches, elaborate gestures and figurative maneuvers of corporate theater. It's a jungle in there. I'm in it up to my $6.72, and I mean to get out. But Bernardine told me to check: a better promo might await in March 2014.

My chat with Verizon

2013-02-12T18:06:00.003-05:00

Chat Subject:FiOS TV Product Availability

Your Question:I do not receive Fox Soccer (channel 84) in my plan. Is there any way that I can receive it without changing my plan? What is the cost to subscribe to that channel?

A Verizon eCenter Representative will be with you shortly. Thank you.

12:39:59 We apologize for the delay.You are next in the queue. A representative will be with you shortly.

Agent Marilyn has joined.

Marilyn : Chat ID for this session is 02121382008.

Marilyn: Hello. Thank you for choosing Verizon and visiting our chat service. I will be happy to help you today.

For quality & security purposes, your session is recorded and may be monitored or reviewed. Please do not provide sensitive information such as social security, bank account or credit card numbers. May we view your account information, including the services you subscribe to, so that we may assist you during this chat with respect to available Verizon products and services? You may deny us permission, which will have no effect on your current services. Under federal law, it is your right and our duty to protect your account information.

May I have permission to review your account?

tom: yes

Marilyn: Can you verify your account number?

tom: I don't have a bill handy. My home phone is 9xx-xxx-xxxx

Marilyn: Can you verify your can be reached number or the amount of your last payment?

tom: I can be reached at 9xx xxx-xxxx - I can look up my last payment

Marilyn: What is the your other contact number please?

tom: My last payment to Verizon was 95.11

Marilyn: That is associated with your account.

tom: other contact # 9-- xxx-xxxx

Marilyn: This is correct.

tom: My question is what is the cost of Fox Soccer - not Fox Soccer Plus, but channel 84, which used to be part of the basic package of FIOS tv channels.

Marilyn: One moment while I check for you.

Marilyn: Thank you for continuing to hold. I am still working on your request and I will be back with you in a few moments.

tom: ok, i'm still here

Marilyn(12:40:14): Thank you for your patience. I am still working on your request and will be back with you shortly.

tom(12:40:36): yes

Marilyn(12:42:06): I am sorry to keep you waiting. I am still working on your request and will be back with you shortly.

Marilyn(12:43:11): I show that you would have to upgrade your TV package.

Marilyn(12:43:37): You now have Prime TV, you can upgrade to Extreme TV.

tom(12:44:10): Yes,but I don't wish to do that. I simply wish to subscribe to that channel.

tom(12:44:47): When I go to that channel, it offers me the opportunity to subscribe, but doesn't say what it will cost.

Marilyn(12:45:17): I apologize for any inconvenience.

Marilyn(12:45:47): You can also add the Sports package for $11.99 per month.

tom(12:46:53): In other words, you are saying that I can't subscribe to this one channel, although it seems to offer me that option. I must upgrade to something else, which I don't want, which will cost me another > $100 a year. This is what you are saying?

Marilyn(12:47:38): I can understand your frustration.

Marilyn(12:47:38): Thank you for your patience. I am checking on your question for you.

Marilyn(12:49:18): Thank you for continuing to hold. I am still working on your request and I will be back with you in a few moments.

Marilyn(12:51:04): I apologize again for any inconvenience.

Marilyn(12:51:29): You can also upgrade your bundle package.

Marilyn(12:52:24): By paying $15.00 more per month.

tom(12:53:20): You are saying I only have options of paying a lot of money, instead of what I want, which is to pay a small amount of money for one station. I do not watch any of your channels. I basically don't watch TV at all, except for very focused, limited items. You are telling me that my only option is to pay you in excess of $100 per year to see the one little thing I wish to see. Yes or no?

Marilyn(12:56:10): This is correct.

Marilyn(12:56:36): Unfortunately, you will have to pay to upgrade your service or add the sports channel.

tom(12:58:00): Agent Marilyn, it's not your fault. Please do not apologize or tell me that you understand. This is about a giant corporation dealing out packages to suit itself, not its customers. This is the way big business works. I am very sorry that I ever added FIOS to my services.

Marilyn(12:59:51): Do you have any further questions I can assist you with today?

tom(13:01:45): Not for you. Please feel free to share my view of your services with your marketing people. Verizon is as bad as Comcast. I won't be a customer for very long.

Marilyn(13:03:26): Thank you for choosing Verizon, we appreciate your business. If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Your session is now closed.

Thank you, have a nice day.

Live Chat Transcript
It was a pleasure to assist you. Your chat session has ended. Thank You.

Your chat ID number is 02121382008.

A thoughtful graf about Aaron Swartz

2013-02-11T08:40:00.002-05:00

François de La Rochefoucauld once observed that it’s not enough to have great virtues; one must use them with economy. As I listened to the tributes to Aaron Swartz in Highland Park and New York and online, this aphorism came to mind. Swartz had skipped out on the lessons taught by the American high school—the lessons in cynical acquiescence, conformity, and obedience to the powers that be. He was right to think these lessons injure people’s innate sense of curiosity and morality and inure them to mediocrity. He was right to credit his “arrogance” for the excellence of the life he lived. But if nothing else, these lessons prepare people for a world that can often be met in no other way; a world whose irrational power must sometimes simply be endured. This was a lesson that he contrived never to learn, which was part of what made him so extraordinary. It was Swartz’s misfortune, and ours, that he learned it too late, from too unyielding a teacher. It cannot serve society’s purpose to make a felon and an inmate out of so gifted and well-meaning a person as Aaron Swartz, and thus he was a victim of a grave injustice. But it bears remembering that the greater injustice was done to Aaron Swartz by the man who killed him. Yang

Swartz on Slate

2013-02-08T11:00:00.000-05:00

A few bits from a new piece about Aaron Swartz on Slate -

“Suits,” he wrote on his blog, “are the physical evidence of power distance, the entrenchment of a particular form of inequality.”

On Kafka's Trial: “This isn’t fiction, but documentary.”

College was not an intellectual dream world—it was just another place that needed fixing. “If I wanted to start a more effective university, it would be pretty simple,” he wrote on his third day at Stanford. “Hire the smartest people and accept the smartest students, get them to work on projects that interest them ... organize a bunch of show-and-tells and mixers, and for the most part let them figure stuff out on their own.”

Swartz later acquired his FBI file, which indicated that agents had surveilled his parents’ Highland Park home. That FBI file, Swartz said, was “truly delightful.” At the time, it all seemed funny—the feds getting so upset over something so minor. But Malamud now believes the PACER downloads contributed to the government’s subsequent fervor in prosecuting the JSTOR case. In their eyes, Swartz was a repeat offender, a data vigilante. This was no small thing.

Swartz’s JSTOR scheme was different from his PACER escapade in several crucial ways. First, JSTOR is not a repository of non-copyrightable government documents. Though users with subscription access to JSTOR can grab its contents for free, it is a paid service—major research institutions pony up as much as $50,000 annually for access—that houses journal articles that are mostly under copyright. Second, Swartz wasn’t spurred by an easily identifiable, information-liberating call to action along the lines of Carl Malamud’s PACER push. There was one potential precedent: A couple of years prior, Swartz had collaborated with a Stanford law student named Shireen Barday on a project that involved downloading almost 450,000 articles from the Westlaw database and analyzing them to see who, exactly, was funding legal research. While it’s possible that Swartz was going to post his JSTOR cache on the Web, it’s also plausible that he simply planned to use the articles for research along the lines of the Shireen Barday project. We can’t be sure.

In 2008, Swartz wrote something he called the Guerilla Open Access Manifesto:

Forcing academics to pay money to read the work of their colleagues? Scanning entire libraries but only allowing the folks at Google to read them? Providing scientific articles to those at elite universities in the First World, but not to children in the Global South? It's outrageous and unacceptable.

"I agree," many say, "but what can we do? The companies hold the copyrights, they make enormous amounts of money by charging for access, and it's perfectly legal—there's nothing we can do to stop them." But there is something we can, something that's already being done: we can fight back.

Those with access to these resources—students, librarians, scientists—you have been given a privilege. You get to feed at this banquet of knowledge while the rest of the world is locked out. But you need not—indeed, morally, you cannot—keep this privilege for yourselves. You have a duty to share it with the world.

Doctorow on Swartz

2013-01-12T09:00:00.001-05:00

Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing on Aaron Swartz.

For a blogger in the wild

2013-01-04T19:51:00.000-05:00

For Mike:

Canada PM meets chiefs amid Teresa Spence hunger strike

Ms Spence has stayed inside this teepee despite freezing temperatures

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has agreed to meet a delegation of First Nation leaders, following a 25-day hunger strike by one chief.

Attawapiskat chief Teresa Spence says she will join the 11 January meeting, but continue her fast until then.

She began her protest against a budget bill critics say weakens native land rights and environmental safeguards.

Three other chiefs have joined Ms Spence in her hunger strike.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20913720

Michael O'Connor Clarke

2012-10-15T01:02:00.002-04:00

One of the funniest things I've ever seen was a representation of a laugh. It appeared in a blog post by Michael O'Connor Clarke. It was a work of art -- a long, evolving, rhythmic yeowl of, shall we say, critical delight at something -- it was many years ago, and even if I could recall the "giggle-worthiness" of the provocation, it wouldn't matter. What mattered was the amazing artistry of the depicted laugh -- a kind of verbal equivalent of a hamster dance that just kept going and going for nearly ever.

I thought I'd saved that laugh, but having looked in all the places it should be, I can't find it. While there are many, many amazing things people have said about Michael, I would say, even if I didn't know anything about him, if I only had that one string of unearthly leprechaunish giddiness turned to glory (I wish I could find it -- it didn't simply emulate a laugh, but escalated, then somehow seemed to become conscious, and find itself funny, sending it to a higher order magnitude of comicality), it that's all I had, I would know he was, and is, and always will be a marvel.

As he indeed turned out to be a few years later when we met in Toronto, where I was visiting. He and his whole family met us, took us around, and we enjoyed a meal in a tavern before saying goodbye.

Ruairi and Michael

There was a warmth, an intelligence, a wit, a care. It was his idea to start a little blog about the birth of his son, Ruairi, as well as my son, Sawyer, and Gary Turner's daughter Cameron. Three blogging dads talking about their kids. There was a care. When Ruairi was taken ill and back in hospital, the care came through with the same unfathomable intensity* that propelled that astonishing image of a laugh.

A few years later, when his son had injured his head, he wrote of it again with as great a depth of concern. You knew, felt, wobbled with the care inside him. A care now reflected in the thoughts, feelings, memories of many. A hug to him, and his lovely family. They might be needing some help. We'll surely be needing his.

*That intensity manifested itself as well in attention to detail, as in the final entry on his blog, a recipe for Orzo salad.

Twitter

2012-10-09T13:27:00.001-04:00

Orbe locus medio est inter terrasque fretumque
caelestesque plagas, triplicis confinia mundi; 40
unde quod est usquam, quamvis regionibus absit,
inspicitur, penetratque cavas vox omnis ad aures:
Fama tenet summaque domum sibi legit in arce,
innumerosque aditus ac mille foramina tectis
addidit et nullis inclusit limina portis; 45
nocte dieque patet: tota est ex aere sonanti,
tota fremit vocesque refert iteratque quod audit;
nulla quies intus nullaque silentia parte,
nec tamen est clamor, sed parvae murmura vocis,
qualia de pelagi, siquis procul audiat, undis 50
esse solent, qualemve sonum, cum Iuppiter atras
increpuit nubes, extrema tonitrua reddunt.
atria turba tenet: veniunt, leve vulgus, euntque
mixtaque cum veris passim commenta vagantur
milia rumorum confusaque verba volutant; 55
e quibus hi vacuas inplent sermonibus aures,
hi narrata ferunt alio, mensuraque ficti
crescit, et auditis aliquid novus adicit auctor.
illic Credulitas, illic temerarius Error
vanaque Laetitia est consternatique Timores 60
Seditioque repens dubioque auctore Susurri;
ipsa, quid in caelo rerum pelagoque geratur
et tellure, videt totumque inquirit in orbem.

Metamorphoses 12:39-63
Literal English trans.

They Don't Mitt

2012-09-30T12:55:00.000-04:00


YouTube Doubler

Background of Troy

2012-09-11T13:20:00.003-04:00

I posted this accidentally here. It was intended for, and now is posted to, the blog about Ovid. But given the date and theme of the fallen city, I'll leave it here as well.

With the story of Laomedon's scam of the gods, Ovid touches on the tale of Troy:

Sigeum, Rhoeteum, Troy

Latona’s son left Mount Tmolus and, flying through the clear air, he came to earth in the country of Laomedon, this side of the narrows of the Hellespont, named from Helle, daughter of Nephele. To the right of the deeps of Sigeum, and to the left of those of Rhoeteum, there was an ancient altar of Jupiter the Thunderer, ‘source of all oracles’. There, Apollo saw Laomedon building the foundations of the new city of Troy. The great undertaking prospering with difficulty, and demanding no little resources, he, and Neptune, trident-bearing father of the swelling sea, put on mortal form, and built the walls of the city for the Phrygian king for an agreed amount in gold. The edifice stood there.

A few helpful links for the location and genealogy of the city's rulers:

Troy - Parada has fine maps and a fairly detailed genealogy from Dardanus down through the Roman kings.

Hesione - adds some details to the Troy story.

Peleus - for the background of Aeacus's sons.

Genealogical Tree of the House of Troy

Dardanus - sire of Erichthonius, who was father of Tros.

The Dardanians split into two ruling houses of Troy:

Ilus - Ilus founded the city of Ilium (Troy) that he called after himself. Ilus went to Phrygia, and taking part in games that at the time were held by the king, he won victory in wrestling. As a prize he received fifty youths and as many maidens; and the king, obeying an oracle, gave him also a cow and asked him to found a city wherever the cow should lie down. This took place when the cow came to the hill of Ate, and in that spot Ilus built the city which he called Ilium. Then he prayed to Zeus that a sign might be shown to him and he saw the Palladium, fallen from heaven and lying before his tent. Ilus was blinded, since the Palladium was not to be looked upon by any man. But later, when he had made offerings to the goddess, he recovered his sight

Assaracus - brother of Ilus and Ganymede, father of Capys, grandfather of Anchises.

Parada situates the Trojans within the descendants of Atlas (father of Electra and the other Pleiades). Parada's charts arguing that nearly everyone (except Athenians) can be traced back to one of three ancestors -- Atlas, Deucalion, or Io -- can be found here.

Model of Troy layer 1000 years before its destruction

Art of error

2012-09-10T13:09:00.002-04:00

If a theory justifies the false position in which a certain part of society is living, then, however unfounded or even obviously false the theory may be, it is accepted, and becomes and article of faith to that section of society. Tolstoy - What is art?

Test

2012-08-31T07:29:00.002-04:00

This is a test - keep getting a Service Error 503 message from Google Blogger.

British Government suddenly recovers sanity

2012-07-16T14:41:00.002-04:00

The government is to unveil controversial plans to make publicly funded scientific research immediately available for anyone to read for free by 2014, in the most radical shakeup of academic publishing since the invention of the internet.

Under the scheme, research papers that describe work paid for by the British taxpayer will be free online for universities, companies and individuals to use for any purpose, wherever they are in the world.

In an interview with the Guardian before Monday’s announcement David Willetts , the universities and science minister, said he expected a full transformation to the open approach over the next two years.

The move reflects a groundswell of support for “open access” publishing among academics who have long protested that journal publishers make large profits by locking research behind online paywalls. “If the taxpayer has paid for this research to happen, that work shouldn’t be put behind a paywall before a British citizen can read it,” Willetts said.

“This will take time to build up, but within a couple of years we should see this fully feeding through.”

Harvard bit by JSnake

2012-04-24T08:00:00.002-04:00

We write to communicate an untenable situation facing the Harvard Library. Many large journal publishers have made the scholarly communication environment fiscally unsustainable and academically restrictive. This situation is exacerbated by efforts of certain publishers (called “providers”) to acquire, bundle, and increase the pricing on journals. Harvard Faculty Advisory Council

We've grown accustomed to the insane

2012-04-21T08:44:00.000-04:00

Gifthub points to a tale of infelicitous economics - French, of course - told by the Times:

“The United States is getting accustomed to a completely crazy level of inequality,” Mr. Piketty said, with a degree of wonder.

One might wonder (the Times, vastly culpable on this score, does not), how did this come about?

One thing to understand is that in the US, wealth long ago learned to be self-concealing. Instead of flaunting in the mode of nouveaux riches, the old money followed the Cosimo de Medici/Superman model: Appear normal and be the power.

This can easily be parsed via real estate patterns. The wealthy find islands, like Longboat Key, Casey Key, or Boca Grande in Florida, which are a bit off the beaten path. They are zoned to be almost entirely private - the one "public" beach on Longboat is a strip of lovely sand with three parking spaces. They offer no Wal-Marts, no reason, really, for the hoi to show up. If you kayak around in Florida, the money - hidden behind walls or hedge from the street -- stares at you on the water from palatial terraces, balconies, lawns, tennis courts, and often, a princely yacht.

In near "completely crazy" conditions, philanthropy is tasked with a not entirely consonant set of objectives: it has to pre-emptively fend off the usual ressentiment of the less fortunate; in a sense, it's a form of protection policy, buying the goodwill of the many via the machinations of experts; it might apply a bit of salve to the soul of the Giver, who is disproportionately a Taker. In the case of a Madoff, it's a fungible triple bottom line accounting scheme with heavenly overtones, inaudible to human ears. In the case of the Koch Bros., it's an entree to social cachet, to establishing a strategic position amid a network of potentially like-minded Takers. Philanthropy so guided can do small good, but is powerless to alter the power structure that makes itself possible. Its use value, in fact, lies in reinforcing that system.

How much longer will USians indulge the polite fiction that the wealthy -- who seize the best assets of nature, of art, of time -- make it all good by sending accountants, lawyers and pony boys to tend the altars of philanthropy. A nettled Business Week will piss about salient moments of poor monarchic judgment. Face the music, USians, and it's not Lawrence Welk, or The Band, or Ol' Blue Eyes: Like the Franco-appointed King of Spain, the rich are always gleefully trumping Big Game somewhere -- rarely they're caught in the act.

Trump boys

Seeing OWS from afar

2012-04-08T20:53:00.001-04:00

This is essentially a People's contest. On the side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men -- to lift artificial weights from all shoulders -- to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all -- to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life. ~ Abraham Lincoln

~ Lincoln is explaining in a written speech to Congress why he needs to order up an army a couple of months after taking office. Note he's linking the viability of the Union with the project of Democracy in toto. In the same missive he also wrote:

.... this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It represents to the whole family of man, the question, whether a constitutional republic, or a democracy -- a government of the people, by the same people -- can, or cannot, maintain its territorial integrity, against its own domestic foes. . .

Particularly nice: "by the same people."

From: Team of Rivals

Guanajuato

2012-03-26T23:42:00.001-04:00

The Pope's recent visit to Guanajuato, Mexico, made me think of something I'd written over a decade ago, after visiting that lovely and peculiar city. Here it is -

Guanajuato – excerpt from a Mexican travelogue

In Guanajuato, a wealthy and sophisticated mining town north of Mexico City, things fall prey to a macabre whimsy.

To enter the town, whose name means “place of the frogs,” you navigate tunnels buried in mountains that used to be full of silver. The streets mislead, surprise, wind and turn into hidden plazas where lovers love and children play.

The spirit of Cervantes presides over Guanajuato’s cafes and little theatricals under perfect skies. The trees are carved into geometric forms that sing with hidden birds. Private homes are warrens full of bright furniture and brighter tile.

Guanajuato is also home to Museo de las Momias - the Mummy Museum, which originated by a chance discovery early in the last century.

It seems the town requires its citizens to pay a certain fee for perpetual cemetery maintenance. Families are supposed to cover for those who die without having paid their dues. If the merry town doesn’t receive payment within five years of your burial, it evicts you from your grave.

Soon after this policy was implemented, it became apparent that the unearthed residents of Guanajuato’s cemetery were failing to cooperatively decompose. Something in the soil, they saw, was turning them into calcified mummies.

If death can have its little joke, the town seems to have reasoned, so can Guanajuato. The remains of those in default are put on display in the museum. Well over a hundred momias are housed in glass cases there, where, for a few pesos, the public can examine their rotting boots, their death wounds, their gaping mouths.

On the day we paid our visit – the National Independence Day of Nov. 20th – it seemed as if the whole town had turned out for a viewing – after the morning’s civic pride parade, kids in tow . . .

2001

Snap judgment

2012-03-19T13:35:00.002-04:00

"Something snapped in him," is the mantra that USian media are using as the all-purpose explanation for Robert Bales' act of extinguishing 16 Afghan civilians.

This sort of empty linguistic nonsense passes for interpretive thinking at The New York Times, at the Diane Rehm Show, at NPR.

It assumes there is a place in a human's head where something can happen. It has nothing to do with military operations or ideology, it's a psyche thing.

What if human psychology were merely a negotiated protocol? A way to not understand anything?

What if there is no inside in Mr. Bales's head or in anyone else's? Where then might "something" snap?

What is a snap? What is "something?" We really do not want to understand, we just want to make verbal noises? The Times utters a meaningless noise and our cognitive intelligences all sit, like dogs?

What if the something that snapped was not in him? What if it had something rather than nothing to do with ideology, with a history of violence, with a hatred that began 4 million years ago. The heart of war lies in ideology, in stiffness, in the cohesion of wills crushed into refined cocaine, fusing blood and lies, and explanations a la The New York Times.

Hunched backs

2012-02-27T08:38:00.001-05:00

Almost always the books of scholars are somehow oppressive, oppressed: the "specialist" emerges somewhere—his zeal, his seriousness, his fury, his overestimation of the nook in which he sits and spins, his hunched back; every specialist has his hunched back. Every scholarly book also mirrors a soul that has become crooked; every craft makes crooked.…Nothing can be done about that. Let nobody suppose that one could possibly avoid such crippling by some artifice of education. On this earth one pays dearly for every kind of mastery.…For having a specialty one pays by also being the victim of this specialty. But you would have it otherwise—cheaper and fairer and above all more comfortable—isn't that right, my dear contemporaries. Well then, but in that case you also immediately get something else: instead of the craftsman and master, the "man of letters," the dexterous, "polydexterous" man of letters who, to be sure, lacks the hunched back—not counting the posture he assumes before you, being the salesman of the spirit and the "carrier" of culture—the man of letters who really is nothing but "represents" almost everything, playing and "substituting" for the expert, and taking it upon himself in all modesty to get himself paid, honored, and celebrated in place of the expert.

No, my scholarly friends, I bless you even for your hunched back. And for despising, as I do, the "men of letters" and culture parasites. And for not knowing how to make a business of the spirit. And for having opinions that cannot be translated into financial values. And for not representing anything that you are not. And because your sole aim is to become masters of your craft, with reverence for every kind of mastery and competence, and with uncompromising opposition to everything that is semblance, half-genuine, dressed up, virtuosolike, demagogical, or histrionic in litteris et artibus—to everything that cannot prove to you its unconditional probity in discipline and prior training, [The Gay Science, sec. 366] Cited here.

Human research in the JSTOR dungeon

2012-01-29T22:49:00.002-05:00

Step back and think about this picture. Universities that created this academic content for free must pay to read it. Step back even further. The public -- which has indirectly funded this research with federal and state taxes that support our higher education system -- has virtually no access to this material, since neighborhood libraries cannot afford to pay those subscription costs. Newspapers and think tanks, which could help extend research into the public sphere, are denied free access to the material. Faculty members are rightly bitter that their years of work reaches an audience of a handful, while every year, 150 million attempts to read JSTOR content are denied every year.

Laura McKenna on:

Locked in the Ivory Tower: Why JSTOR Imprisons Academic Research

IMproPRieTies

Happy Graduation Day Sawyer

Don't Neuter Net Neutrality --

Week 1

Two by G.G. Belli

JJ Cale

Channel 84

My chat with Verizon

Chat Subject:FiOS TV Product Availability

Your Question:I do not receive Fox Soccer (channel 84) in my plan. Is there any way that I can receive it without changing my plan? What is the cost to subscribe to that channel?

A Verizon eCenter Representative will be with you shortly. Thank you.

Agent Marilyn has joined.

Marilyn : Chat ID for this session is 02121382008.

Marilyn: Hello. Thank you for choosing Verizon and visiting our chat service. I will be happy to help you today.

May I have permission to review your account?

tom: yes

Marilyn: Can you verify your account number?

tom: I don't have a bill handy. My home phone is 9xx-xxx-xxxx

Marilyn: Can you verify your can be reached number or the amount of your last payment?

tom: I can be reached at 9xx xxx-xxxx - I can look up my last payment

Marilyn: What is the your other contact number please?

tom: My last payment to Verizon was 95.11

Marilyn: That is associated with your account.

tom: other contact # 9-- xxx-xxxx

Marilyn: This is correct.

tom: My question is what is the cost of Fox Soccer - not Fox Soccer Plus, but channel 84, which used to be part of the basic package of FIOS tv channels.

Marilyn: One moment while I check for you.

Marilyn: Thank you for continuing to hold. I am still working on your request and I will be back with you in a few moments.

tom: ok, i'm still here

Marilyn(12:40:14): Thank you for your patience. I am still working on your request and will be back with you shortly.

tom(12:40:36): yes

Marilyn(12:42:06): I am sorry to keep you waiting. I am still working on your request and will be back with you shortly.

Marilyn(12:43:11): I show that you would have to upgrade your TV package.

Marilyn(12:43:37): You now have Prime TV, you can upgrade to Extreme TV.

tom(12:44:10): Yes,but I don't wish to do that. I simply wish to subscribe to that channel.

tom(12:44:47): When I go to that channel, it offers me the opportunity to subscribe, but doesn't say what it will cost.

Marilyn(12:45:17): I apologize for any inconvenience.

Marilyn(12:45:47): You can also add the Sports package for $11.99 per month.

tom(12:46:53): In other words, you are saying that I can't subscribe to this one channel, although it seems to offer me that option. I must upgrade to something else, which I don't want, which will cost me another > $100 a year. This is what you are saying?

Marilyn(12:47:38): I can understand your frustration.

Marilyn(12:47:38): Thank you for your patience. I am checking on your question for you.

Marilyn(12:49:18): Thank you for continuing to hold. I am still working on your request and I will be back with you in a few moments.

Marilyn(12:51:04): I apologize again for any inconvenience.

Marilyn(12:51:29): You can also upgrade your bundle package.

Marilyn(12:52:24): By paying $15.00 more per month.

Marilyn(12:56:10): This is correct.

Marilyn(12:56:36): Unfortunately, you will have to pay to upgrade your service or add the sports channel.

tom(12:58:00): Agent Marilyn, it's not your fault. Please do not apologize or tell me that you understand. This is about a giant corporation dealing out packages to suit itself, not its customers. This is the way big business works. I am very sorry that I ever added FIOS to my services.

Marilyn(12:59:51): Do you have any further questions I can assist you with today?

tom(13:01:45): Not for you. Please feel free to share my view of your services with your marketing people. Verizon is as bad as Comcast. I won't be a customer for very long.

Marilyn(13:03:26): Thank you for choosing Verizon, we appreciate your business. If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Your session is now closed.

Thank you, have a nice day.