IdeaMine

Tapestry.net?

rising_moon — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:24:03 GMT

There's a SMOP here somewhere.

I've been thinking for a while about the challenges -- and potentials -- of multithreaded conversation.

Recent LJ upheaval, at least in the SCA communities, has illustrated that several nodes of conversation can be active and engaged, but over time tend to favor (with people-energy and bandwidth) the incendiary over the moderate, whether the hot topics are productive or not.

LJ encourages multithreaded conversation -- however, the conversations are complicated by friends-locks and -lists. I don't read SCA_east, but I hear about it. In all likelihood, there are several recursive conversations about topics introduced there, all over LJ.

Bear with me... we're talking about threading per se, not a particular topic in SCA_east.

LJ is also notable in that it encourages Memes. I mean "meme" in the historical sense: a practice repeated within a culture. alexx_kay summarized a while back that any particular "lj meme" like a poll or list of favorites is not a meme; rather, the practice of introducing a poll or list is a meme. My buddy did it, now I repeat it. Meme.

I've also noted (led by experts in the field) that the foundation of Collective Intelligence being laid on the internets in the form of Wikipedia, Craigslist, Y! Forum, and basically any open-source content aggregation system, is doing quite well providing first-level information on a wide range of topics.

These systems encourage online community-building and information-sharing. They permit more-or-less single-threaded commentary on limited topics to varying depths: deep for Wikipedia (check the History tab on the Davis Square article) and shallow for Craigslist, for example.

Layer on top of these notions (recursive multithreading, memes, obsessive engagement, community-building) and Filter in the question raised in a bunch of articles I've read recently which, sifted, seem to call for a global/international idea collection, aggregation, ranking, and reporting system to help Solve the World's Problems(TM). See:

"Toward Ecosophy" http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2009/02/toward-ecosophy.html

Seed Magazine, Feb 2009, page 72, "Scientific Multilateralism"

"Can We Exploit Collective Intelligence for Collaborative Deliberation? The Case of the Climate Change Collaboratorium" http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1084069

So I've been wondering. If a global database of ideas, and the threaded commentary that builds and stretches the ideas, will help save the world, then:

The system would need thread-node analytics and realtime alerts to point commenters to an existing topic and summarize the node state. The system would need disk space, translators, and a whole lot of other things to work right, but what's really missing, the SMOP (thank you again, justjanus) is the analytics: how to make sense of the inpouring ocean of data.

What else? What are the challenges?

Is this kind of thing even possible? I've seen the fury and fire generated by a dumbass LJ post.

Can we harness it and use the fire for good?

Systems of Magic, and a request

rising_moon — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:14:19 GMT

Recently I've read a few excellent fantasy novels which were written around believable, consistent, and reasonable systems of magic. Believable magic is one of the elements that will sell me on a writer. I've enjoyed The Abhorsen Trilogy, by Garth Nix, and, most recently, The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss.

I've learned that Brandon Sanderson, who wrote this essay on systems of magic, is going to finish Robert Jordan's 12th and final novel of the Wheel of Time series. Depending on my Lady's response to his work, I might take up the first one. :)

Unrelatedly (maybe): can any of you recommend a good history (articles, blogs, anything) of technical approaches to affixing Identity? That is, assuring that individuals are who they say they are? I'm making a study of transaction psychology -- financial services inclined but not fixed -- and would love some background data on approaches to identity assurance. Thanks!

2 and 48

rising_moon — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:15:12 GMT

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/15/same.sex.marriage/index.html

The California Supreme Court struck down the ban on same-sex marriage.

Is it mean of me to hope, just a little bit, that Scalia gets photographed soon in a passionate and unmistakeably romantic clinch with a male clerk?

from ravenlyn1

rising_moon — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:49:54 GMT

My day's been a morningsworth of upbeat energy swirling in a steadily-narrowing snowstorm of corporate jargon and project performance analyses. New team leader = new assessment metrics = piles of spreadsheets.

This video makes it all better.

PSA

rising_moon — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:56:20 GMT

In case you haven't seen it yet, I urge you to visit my Lady's journal to read the featured chalkboard for our new (fictional) bistro, Nom!

snrk

rising_moon — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:14:08 GMT

Heh.

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/customtime/index.html

"This morning I put instant coffee in the microwave and I almost went back in time." - Steven Wright

go to

rising_moon — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:21:29 GMT

I'm on a ten-minute break in a week of all-day meetings. I've got another one coming up at 3pm or so.

What's on your mind?

rising_moon — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:43:04 GMT

Hey, I'm a beer!

Lucien's Library meme

rising_moon — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:15:23 GMT

[EDIT: and by "Lucien", I mean the bespectacled librarian of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, not the SCA persona of the same name. Answer as many or as few of these as you'd like.]

I'm curious, friends. :)

What 4 books (if you only got four) would you bring with you to a desert island?

What would be the title of your (as yet fictional) autobiography?

Quote a memorable passage (a few lines) of a book you're reading these days.

If you could own any book, written by anyone at any time, even if it hasn't been written yet or was never written, what would it be?

What was your favorite book when you were 10?

Home

rising_moon — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:33:58 GMT

For my friends, a taste of hot sweets for a cold day: http://youtube.com/watch?v=pV_eeDKzqlM.

Happy new year, all.

-rm

straw poll

rising_moon — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 16:48:56 GMT

If friends of yours issue an open invitation to some event or activity that they think is fun, and you choose not to participate because you're not interested, do you feel left out anyway?

If so: Is it worse, the feeling of being left out, if you can still see them, right over there, having fun doing something that you don't enjoy?

EDIT (for slyppi, who asked, but also for anyone who's curious): I'm unscientifically gathering some data to help me solidify an opinion about a recent discussion. One corner of the discussion dealt with inclusion. It's really, really helpful to see what folks are writing about feelings of inclusion. Thank you for answering!

shiny objects

rising_moon — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 13:02:03 GMT

* The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova, passed down to me from my lovely Lady's travel reading. What a gift! I'm usually pretty self-contained when reading in public, though grinning like a fool through the pretty parts, but yesterday I reached a well-prepared situation that made me bark out a laugh on the red line. People looked at me. Also? It makes me want to go to Romania.
* Amazon.com's "read inside" feature, not for its functionality, although that is fun and interesting, but for its heavily-annotated code source. The 'head' block reads like an HTML/JS primer.
* Circle-walking Ba Gua Tai Chi, as a meditative exercise. We learned the slim basics in a lightning-quick tutorial last night. Now if I can just concentrate for long enough to make good use of the "meditative" part of the exercise...
* Maybe little pinch?

shiny objects

rising_moon — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 22:02:51 GMT

* According to our friends at the USN Observatory, there will be a total Lunar Eclipse on the evening of March 3, at what looks to be a 88.9 azimuth. crosses fingers for clear skies
* Watching Gosford Park with the closed-captioning on is like watching a whole new film. There are layers and layers of stories going on at the same time, and they're all fascinating!
* My new harp teacher is fabulous. She's a virtuoso with infectious enthusiasm and boy can she wail on those strings. Woo!

shiny object

rising_moon — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 21:14:20 GMT

Turnip Greens

rising_moon — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 15:32:04 GMT

Tuesday night I removed the unhelpful components (cabbage, onion) from the turnip greens and spent half an hour mixing tiny amounts of greens with other ingredients looking for the best fit. My Lady, bless her, bowed out only after sampling quite a few bite-sized concoctions. I persevered.

We have a winner. :) Many thanks to all who contributed foils, additives, sparks, and jibes to the Turnip Green Project.

STRONG GREENS
sautee onion (strip cut) in olive oil and garlic (sliced) until translucent
add greens (stripped), reduce
salt and pepper per "normal" greens
add a bit more salt
add several splashes of lemon juice to taste

Et voila: tasty green stuff. The lemon juice did the trick! Many thanks to yagagriswold for that crazy notion. Acidey lemon juice stands up to the heady yelping bitterness of turnip greens and mellows it out to a comfortable purr.

Both of them run right over the mustard greens, however. We'll experiment with those... next year.

shiny objects

rising_moon — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 18:51:29 GMT

* Zazarac: Fill a martini glass with shaved ice. Stir brown sugar syrup laced with bitters into cognac until the sugar has dissipated. Dump the ice. Rinse the martini glass with Absinthe. Strain cognac into rinsed glass. Serve.

* Peter Callesen's A4 cutout paper sculpture (by way of Andii) features several crawly beasties, which are on my mind today, and a host of evocative and allegorical shadow-figures made of... paper and glue.

* Is synesthesia dead?

shiny objects

rising_moon — Tue, 09 May 2006 17:44:46 GMT

* The Berkshires are still there. Our hosts at the 1886 House impressed with cozy lodging and tasty breakfasts. Over the weekend we stumbled on (and right through) Northampton Pride, plenished our kitchen with widgets at Thornes, hot-tubbed at East Heaven, sushi'd at Teapot, and refilled our lungs with their proper supply of greenery and pine on the mountain. All good.

* MI-3 is missing a theme song. Watching Philip Seymour Hoffman sneer and growl (eevil Lester Bangs) didn't quite do it. Playing hooky on a Monday made it worthwhile. :)

* Benjamin-Moore has an online color-viewer. My workday is over.

* LJ thoughts are turning to the Camping Season, so I begin to wonder... Apart from essentials that appear on all the packing lists (extra tent stakes, first-aid kit, copies of your prescriptions, etc.) what much-appreciated but rarely-mentioned items come to Pennsic with you?

Bittersweet Ganache Frosting

rising_moon — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 16:17:47 GMT

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
16 oz. bittersweet chocolate
1/3 cup light karo syrup
1 tsp vanilla

Heat cream to a boil. Shave/chop the chocolate blocks into tiny shards and put them in a mixing-bowl.
Pour cream into mixing bowl, stirring the chocolate as it melts. Stir until the chocolate is smooth and shiny. [NB: At this point you have a ganache.]
Mix in the karo syrup. Let stand for 3 minutes.
Mix in the vanilla. Chill, stirring occasionally, for about an hour, until thick but still spreadable.

Voilá.

Imagine This

rising_moon — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 20:38:06 GMT

War is Over (If You Want It)

There's nothing you can do that can't be done

Imagine all the people....

"So we're just saying ... anybody interested in peace just stick it in the window, it's simple but it lets somebody else know that you want peace too, because you feel alone if you’re the only one thinking ‘wouldn’t it be nice if there was peace and nobody was getting killed', so advertise yourself that you’re for peace if you believe in it." -- John Lennon, David Frost Show, 6/14/69

If you miss him. If you think the world is a lesser place. If you think the world can be a better place. If you like just one song. If you think that peace is better than war ....

.... post this message in its entirety in your LJ. Put Peace in the window, so we know we're not alone.

Wired for Sound

rising_moon — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 15:26:29 GMT

...In which a deaf man fitted with a cochlear implant badgers researchers until he finds implant software that will allow him to hear -- and enjoy -- his beloved Bolero. And then?

Chorost, Michael. "My Bionic Quest for Bolero." Wired November. 2005: 144-158.

"And some music just leaves me cold: I can't even get through Kraftwerk's Tour de France. (Later, a friend tells me it's not the software -- Kraftwerk is just dull.)"

Fighting Words

rising_moon — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 21:30:49 GMT

Rape
-from Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
1 : an act or instance of robbing or despoiling or carrying away a person by force
2 : unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent -- compare SEXUAL ASSAULT, STATUTORY RAPE
3 : an outrageous violation

dreda posted the rest of the memo. I'll quote her here:

"The vast majority of people who are raped and sexually assaulted are woman-born women. But not all of them. The vast, vast majority of people who perpetrate these crimes are man-born men. But not all of them. Gender is no protection; gender is no excuse.

"You are not powerless in the face of assault. If assaulted, you will have to make split-second decisions about when fighting becomes a losing proposition. But - the person who assaults you has given up the right to be treated fairly. They have given up the right to be unharmed. In a very real sense, the survival of your self and your body may be dependent on your willingness to kill someone who couldn't give a good goddamn about you as a whole, living human being. So fuck them. They deserve no quarter.

"I am sad that I know these things. I am sad that the people from whom I have learned them understand them in a very real and personal sense. I am not big or strong enough to protect the world, to save everyone from damage, to repair all the harm done to those I love. But I can make sure the things they tell me do not disappear."

If she doesn't say Yes, the answer is No.

By extension, if she is not old enough or capable enough or physically able to say Yes, the answer is also No.

If the answer is No, it's rape.

shiny objects

rising_moon — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 21:54:44 GMT

* Once more with feeling: ginger-infused vodka with plum wine, the veggie kebab, babaganough dip plate, and olives. Mmmm!

* Fallow time projects:
... measure/cut/sew napkins and tablecloth
... finish the Lake Dance
... polish an eating-knife and an athame
... work out a reasonable paper-flow-system for the house
... enter "Hale and Merry-Met" and the CD stuff into MelodyAssistant
... learn/teach/work up three duets
... hollandaise
... bead a pentacle
... help find and cut quilt pattern
... row, elliptically
... Harry Potter, Serenity, Walk the Line, and The Aristocrats, at least

* The British Library is closed from the 23rd to the 27th, but the bookbinding exhibit is still up. :) Everything else looks to be business as usual after Boxing Day.

* This house really makes me laugh.

* On Thursday my Lady's parents will meet mine for the first time. I'm nervous as hell. But each pair knows that they are meeting their daughter's girlfriend's parents, and wary or not they are still up for the event. I know enough to be deeply grateful that the meeting is even a possibility.

RIP

rising_moon — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 18:07:36 GMT

Rosa Parks will be the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.

shiny objects

rising_moon — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 15:53:20 GMT

Some so nice they had to be mentioned twice...

* Seven Times Salt last night performed their set called Sufficient Grounds which, it turns out, really is. The concert featured examples of "...the Renaissance art of "divisions on a ground"--the playing of elaborate instrumental lines, either composed or improvised, over a repeating melodic or harmonic pattern." Hmmm. This style of arrangement resonates with a set-selection structure that I find attractive. I must think upon that and, I think, set a contrefact to Stingo.

The woodwind player is beautiful, and a faun, and for a countertenor employs a surprisingly rich basso.

* Aikido is always about deep energy exercise applied to physical exercise, but sometimes it's just about rolling around on the floor and getting up again, over and over. That part's fun, too!

* Barry returns calls at 9pm.

* Mortal Love was chewy and fascinating as always but disappointed somewhat in the flow. Overall it made me wish Ms. Hand relied on more assertive editors. "Extrapolation", by Theodore Sturgeon, excelled. I'm still pinging from that one.

[EDIT: * The Enormous Room wasn't enormous nor did it offer the Enormous Platter any more, but it did successfully supply my Lady and me with enough dim lighting, plushy seating, and finger-food to get us from Aikido to early music without falling down. Mine was the Ginger Martini (ginger-infused vodka with plum wine) and it thrilled.]

shiny objects

rising_moon — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 18:41:25 GMT

* Crypto Security Boxes found while googling "Vitruvian". Neat! It's not very secure; you have to tell the artist what the password is at commission, and then you can't change it. It's awfully pretty, though. What could you keep in there? Sterling D&D dice? (Oh, wait... kids these days just use a d20. Better make that 24k.)
*	This is Industrial. Ahh, relaxation. Really heavy, driving beats (or spacey electronica trance music) help me concentrate. See me concentrating? feather_brain70's amazing da Techno Mix used to help, but now I know all the words. :)
* The normative power of the actual.
* Mirrormask is rated PG 'for some mild thematic elements and scary images'. Careful, folks... don't want your kids to get any ideas. At All. Some other movie opens tonight, too. "Parity"? Something.

IdeaMine

Tapestry.net?

Systems of Magic, and a request

2 and 48

from ravenlyn1

PSA

*snrk*

go to

Lucien's Library meme

Home

straw poll

shiny objects

shiny objects

shiny object

Turnip Greens

shiny objects

shiny objects

Bittersweet Ganache Frosting

Imagine This

Wired for Sound

Fighting Words

shiny objects

RIP

shiny objects

shiny objects

snrk