Lips on a Pig

Really intelligent commentary on why business types should never be involved with tech by MurryC.

"Checked into Amazon to buy a couple of new books for my eReader. Lo and behold, here's what I find for my book of choice: mass market paperback (the physical object that costs money to make, stock and ship) @ $10.17

the Kindle version (that has no production costs at all and almost none for distribution) @ $9.99

A differential cost of $0.18??!! Wait, it gets better. I can buy a new version (hardback) for $6.71! (granted, not from Amazon, but still...)

I thought the record companies were the stupidest folks I'd seen, but at least they had the excuse of going first.

Don't know if the blame ought to land on Amazon or the publisher, but regardless this is not a rational business model. Rather, the triumph of quarterly earnings quotas that comes with subservience to the toxic combination of large media companies and 28-year old Wall Street MBAs telling you what revenue you ought to make...then slagging you if you don't. A great way to destroy any planning horizon longer than 90 days.

Short answer, if this continues I stop buying, even if the product is attractive. Too bad Amazon doesn't have the balls of Apple to break the busted business models of dinosaur conglomerates. (Can you tell I'm pissed off? Oh, as a counter-example the NYTimes has the good sense to charge less for a Reader subscription than the cost of buying the physical object--at least for now. Let's hope some other 28-year old MBA at a consulting company doesn't get the ear of the C-suite and screws that pooch.)"

The disconnect of tech to business never ends, (this also applies to politics and finance as well) a subject to be discussed in depth by yours truly and the esteemed MurryC in Everything's Alive, Part II.

28th Amendment

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States ".

In fact, this amendment should not be required because its dictate should automatically apply as members of Congress are US Citizens, thus they must, in fact, obey the laws they pass. Simply unreal but then again, nothing surprises me when it comes to politics and the exclusionary practices conducted by these so called representatives of the American People.

End of rant, must control myself from really venting. I feel like Dr. Strangelove and the uncooperative hand that rises up whenever the good doctor wishes to make a point. :)

Dr. Strangelove: Sir! I have a plan!
[standing up from his wheelchair]
Dr. Strangelove: Mein Führer! I can walk!

Stupidity Bomb

"Myth: The No-Fly list includes an 8-year-old boy.

Buster: No 8-year-old is on a T.S.A. watch list.

“Meet Mikey Hicks,” said Najlah Feanny Hicks, introducing her 8-year-old son, a New Jersey Cub Scout and frequent traveler who has seldom boarded a plane without a hassle because he shares the name of a suspicious person. “It’s not a myth.”

Michael Winston Hicks’s mother initially sensed trouble when he was a baby and she could not get a seat for him on their flight to Florida at an airport kiosk; airline officials explained that his name “was on the list,” she recalled.

The first time he was patted down, at Newark Liberty International Airport, Mikey was 2. He cried."

Paying stupid people minimum wage to do security at an airport is akin to giving a suicide bomber first class seats on Flight 44 to NYC, don't you think? Question 2, why isn't the idiot who frisked Mikey not fired?

Things to ponder in the land of the uniformed and slothful, where tech becomes a weapon wielded by the incompetent against the innocent.

Doing the Right Thing

"He who controls the present, controls the past, he who controls the past, controls the future." - George Orwell

Google's decision to remove censorship on search engine results in China coupled with it's threat to abandon a huge market there takes guts and integrity, something not often seen in big business. Also, it's a huge wake up call in terms of why no government should EVER be allowed to control the web in any fashion as the net is the last bastion of freedom man has.

"First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses--including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors--have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.

Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users' computers."

After reading this, I am struck by the fact most politicians have little idea of just how smart the people who run the net are. The other interesting fact is: complex systems are fragile and easily broken especially when you have intelligent people doing the breaking. China could learn about this inconvenient truth in the near future if it continues to do the kind of crap they are doing because if their web environment is rendered isolated from the rest of the world, business will plummet there, a reality which could spark a revolution, something the leaders of China dread above all else in trying to move their country into super power status while maintaining dictatorial control over its citizens.

"Most of the bright people don't work for you -- no matter who you are." - Bill Joy

Addendum:

"Peoples Daily, citing a Cabinet official's comments in November, said companies must help the government keep the Internet safe and fight online pornography and cyberattacks.

Web companies must abide by "propaganda discipline," the official, Wang Chen, was quoted as saying. "Companies have to concretely increase the ability of Internet media to guide public opinion in order to uphold Internet safety."

Also Thursday, a law professor and human rights lawyer, Teng Biao, wrote on his blog that someone broke into his Gmail account and forwarded e-mail to another account. Teng said he did not know whether he was one of two Chinese activists mentioned by Google as hacking targets.

"Google leaving China makes people sad, but accepting censorship to stay in China and abandoning its `Don't Be Evil' principles is more than just sad," Teng wrote.

Another Beijing human rights lawyer, Jiang Tianyong, says his Gmail account was hacked in November and important materials taken, the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group announced. Jiang has represented Tibetan activists and advised people with AIDS who are seeking government help.

Outside the Google offices, some visitors poured small glasses of liquor, a Chinese funeral ritual.

One man left a copy of Peoples Daily, which he said represented the tightly controlled state media that China's public would be left with if Google pulls out and censorship continues.

"Google is the true hero in this silent city," said a note left outside the building in the capital's Haidian technology district. Referring to the government Web filter, popularly known as the "Great Firewall," another note said, "The tallest walls cannot divide people's sentiments. Google: Bye, let's meet on the other side of the wall."

Let the battle begin.

Fragility Explained

In indirect fashion, Bucky Katt shows the inherent fragility of complex systems, something man needs to understand before developing seemingly simple tech (bioengineered/processed food, salmon farming, dams, etc., etc., etc) able to impact the environment in unforeseen ways.

Blowback is the operative term here.

Any questions? :)

Emergent Properties

Back in 2007, BRT discussed the fantastic theoretical properties of E8, a mathematical object possessing 248 dimensions, the most complex entity ever conceived by man, a construct never thought to exist in nature, but in actuality, it does...

Strange things occurred when the experimenters applied a powerful 5.5-Tesla magnetic field perpendicular to the direction of these electron "magnets". Patterns appeared spontaneously in the electron spins in the chains – in a simplified example with three electrons, the spins could read up-up-down or down-up-down, among other possibilities. Each distinct pattern has a different energy associated with it.

The ratio of these different energy levels showed that the electron spins were ordering themselves according to mathematical relationships in E8 symmetry.

Complex symmetry

Alexander Zamolodchikov, currently at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, pointed out in 1989 that the theoretically predicted energies of such systems match expectations from E8 symmetry.

But the underlying reason why is still mysterious. Robert Konik of Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, who was not involved in the experiment, says the fact that such a simple system – essentially consisting of one-dimensional chains of magnets – should display such complex symmetry is surprising.

"Just sort of looking at the system, you wouldn't necessarily expect it to occur," he told New Scientist. It is "remarkable" to see this rather exotic piece of mathematics appear in the real world, he adds.

When looking at this emergence of something totally unexpected, one is struck by how common this actually is in nature, particularly when examining chaos and how complexity comes forth from simple actions like the moon orbiting the earth (Strange Attractors/Henon Curve)

or the impact of initial conditions on events like financial markets or changes in the weather. (butterfly effect).

Because of this, it's obvious Black Swans or unexpected events of great impact occur without question, a concept that should be taught to students of all ages to better prepare them to deal with the vagaries of the real world. For proper edification of same, here are a few examples of why black swans rule:

• 2008 financial crash
• The Great Depression of 1929
• 9/11
• Pearl Harbor
• Theory of Relativity
• Penicillin
• Tsunami of 2004
• Katrina
• Bach
• Alexander the Great
• Avatar
• "W"
• Obama
• Shakespeare
  
• Etc., etc., etc.

"And the beat goes on." - The Whispers

A Call to Action

My good friend Marty's an artful instigator as he often tells me, "Being an observer is not acceptable, being present is", a state of mind I find difficult to achieve but then again, I am not nearly as proficient, as Marty is, in the art of Zen and how best to use it to achieve harmony with one's reality but I'll give it a shot in being present while discussing how we can impact society in beneficial ways.

In the two years writing BRT, I've learned a great deal about reality, perception, art and creativity. At the same time, I've learned that morality is something personal and essential if we are to survive as a viable species on, in Carl Sagan's words, "this Pale Blue Dot, the only home we have ever known. "

Taking action to change the world centers on, IMHO, these common sense actions we all can do with just a little bit of effort.

• Demand Excellence - To become good at anything requires sacrifice
• Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish - Stewart Brand's motto
  
• Have Passion - Without it, nothing of consequence ever gets done
• Exercise Mental Discipline - Rigorous thinking at high level requires effort
• Take Risks - Creativity requires it
  
• Have Courage - Stating what you believe in takes guts
• Be Curious - It's the only way to grow
• Be Non Judgemental - Close mindedness simply doesn't work in today's connected world
• Be Relational - Nothing works in isolation
• Network With Others - We are social animals, be one
  
• Question Everything - Einstein's mantra to becoming informed
  
• Learn Economics - Especially on how money is created. The facts will blow you away
• Admit Ignorance - The smartest people have no problem saying "I don't know."
• Share - That how the Net works
  
• Be Flexible - Chaos rules, black swans are everywhere. To think otherwise is folly
  
• Be Lucky - Attitude plays a very big part on this number
• Be Positive - No one wants to be around a downer
• Don't Quit - It's easy to punt and let others manage your life
  
• Read - Absolute necessity to becoming educated
• Learn About Tech - It's pervasive 24/7. Ignore it at your peril
• Be Connected - It starts with people and extends to the Net
• Learn About Science - Science & research drives tech, period
• Be Ethical - Without it, civilizations break down
• Learn to Say No - This give one power when properly applied
• Learn to Say Yes - This give one power when properly applied
• Improvise - Jazz, science and art are founded on it, so is play
• Write - It's hard at first but, as Picasso said, practice makes better
• Steal (in a good way) - Picasso's motto: "good artists create, great artist steal"
• Adapt - Change rules, work with it, not against it
  
• Laugh - It's good for the soul
• Cry - That works too
• Be Amazed - Reality is all that and more
• Take Responsibility - Something not done enough in today's troubled world
• Become Educated - Admitting ignorance is ok, doing nothing about it, isn't
• Don't be Afraid of Making Mistakes - It's how one learns
• Beginner's Mind - Keeps one young
• Letting Go - Zen is the best way to describe it
• Contribute - It's how things get done
• Vote - it's a start
• Demand Data Transparency in Governance & Finance - It's the only way democracy can work
• Organize - There's power in numbers
• Help Each Other - One cannot do it alone
• Play - Kids do it all the time, why not adults
• Day Dream - Imagination depends on it & the brain requires it
• Don't Try, Do - Marty's & Yoda's mantra
• Get Going - Enough talk, do

The Golden Mean

The Golden Mean - in which the ratio of the longer side to the shorter is the golden ratio... not only is perceived as a standard bearer of beauty for over 2400 years but also, through the use of Fibnacci Numbers, has enabled man to learn how nature works in elegant ways. (arrangement of leaves on trees, shell spirals, rabbit propagation :) & sunflower whorls as well as studies into chaos and the dimensions of the monolith in 2001 etc., etc.)

If that was not enough, it appears 1.618 lives in the quantum world as well.

"On the atomic scale particles do not behave as we know it in the macro-atomic world. New properties emerge which are the result of an effect known as the Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. In order to study these nanoscale quantum effects the researchers have focused on the magnetic material cobalt niobate. It consists of linked magnetic atoms, which form chains just like a very thin bar magnet, but only one atom wide and are a useful model for describing ferromagnetism on the nanoscale in solid state matter.

When applying a magnetic field at right angles to an aligned spin the magnetic chain will transform into a new state called quantum critical, which can be thought of as a quantum version of a fractal pattern. Prof. Alan Tennant, the leader of the Berlin group, explains "The system reaches a quantum uncertain - or a Schrödinger cat state. This is what we did in our experiments with cobalt niobate. We have tuned the system exactly in order to turn it quantum critical."

By tuning the system and artificially introducing more quantum uncertainty the researchers observed that the chain of atoms acts like a nanoscale guitar string. Dr. Radu Coldea from Oxford University, who is the principal author of the paper and drove the international project from its inception a decade ago until the present, explains: "Here the tension comes from the interaction between spins causing them to magnetically resonate. For these interactions we found a series (scale) of resonant notes: The first two notes show a perfect relationship with each other. Their frequencies (pitch) are in the ratio of 1.618…, which is the golden ratio famous from art and architecture." Radu Coldea is convinced that this is no coincidence. "It reflects a beautiful property of the quantum system - a hidden symmetry. Actually quite a special one called E8 by mathematicians, and this is its first observation in a material", he explains."

"Beauty is not caused. It is." - Emily Dickinson

Pretzel Logic

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Trinity: I know why you're here, Neo. I know what you've been doing... why you hardly sleep, why you live alone, and why night after night, you sit by your computer. You're looking for him. I know because I was once looking for the same thing. And when he found me, he told me I wasn't really looking for him. I was looking for an answer. It's the question that drives us, Neo. It's the question that brought you here. You know the question, just as I did.
Neo: What is the Matrix?
Trinity: The answer is out there, Neo, and it's looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to.

I quote this after chancing upon the Shadow Elite, a book that describes those who "really" run the world and the impact they are having on civilization. Chilling, non-conspiratorial and succinct, Janine R. Wedel's writing reminds me of The Matrix, something evanescent, mysterious and subtlety powerful.

"In today's messy world, trust is elusive. People we once held up as experts for their credentials can no longer be trusted to be impartial. Many public figures and "experts" of all stripes -- left, right, or center -- perform overlapping roles without fully disclosing them. While they purport to operate in the public interest, these "flexians" structure their roles and involvements to serve their own agendas. Their true loyalties and agendas are not fully revealed or easily detected. Practicing what has been called an "evolving door," they move beyond the revolving door of the past.

These players are a logical product of the way that governing and society have been reconstituted in recent decades (eased by such trends as the explosion of consulting and other private entities performing government functions, the boom of government advisory boards, the global fragmentation of authority wrought by the end of the Cold War, and the embrace of what Stephen Colbert has dubbed "truthiness"). Meanwhile, other parts of society and culture, like our monitoring and accountability systems, have not kept up. Thus, while ostensibly serving the public interest, these players can also serve their own. And how would we even know?"

In many ways, this disconnect between "governance" and power reminds me of the lack of understanding most people have about tech and the net, two constructs changing society in ways which extend beyond our ability to fully comprehend, much less manage at a meaningful level. While reading this important book, I realize just how vitally important freedom of information truly is and how the lack of same is allowing the "select few" to "manage" the world without our consent, something very disturbing to say the least. To remain uninformed and passive no longer works as we move beyond the world of the 'aughts.

"Civilization in its present form hasn't got long." - James Lovelock