Ken's Weblog

People should not fear their governments; governments should fear their people.

Month: July 2008

  • Society is all about blind obedience

    Stockholm Syndrome Society.

    A splendid breakdown of how the Stockholm syndrome model may be applied to various aspects of human society from Strange Blue Planet, reacting to a blog entry by Mattias Jenny preparatory to his essay “Diffusion of reaction and obedience to authority” that I reacted to here:

    Experts may argue over if the Stockholm syndrome really exists. One needn’t go to the experts to ascertain a plainly visible phenomena. Human beings tend not only to accept life within oppressive social structures, but to love and cherish it. They invent fanciful reasons justifying their subordinate position and go to the extent of punishing those who refuse to accept their assigned position. Such a person is generally considered “well adjusted” in human society. Human society as we know it is Stockholm syndrome at a gigantic scale.

    Well worth a read, and even more so for the Cthulhu bonus.

    Read: Stockholm Syndrome Society

    [nostate.com]

    Several good posts on the way nearly everyone is willing to blindly obey those who present themselves as “authorities.”

  • del.icio.us figures out that “clever” is not good in domain names

    del.icio.us goes through overhaul, domain change. Social bookmarking site Delicious on Thursday announced it has refined its services greatly, while also adding a new domain name through which the site can be reached, Delicious.com. According to a post on Delicious’ blog, the various refinements have allowed the company to enhance speed, search capability, and overall layout of the site. The domai… [The Macintosh News Network]

    The domain name change reportedly stems from confusion among users in the spelling of del.icio.us, but the site can still be accessed through its former moniker.

    Good choice on their part. My first thought when I heard of that service (right before “what’s the point?”) was that the name was impossible to remember.

  • Python’s “lambda” really needs…

    Python’s “lambda” really needs better documentation.

  • Life in a civilized area

    “I’ve Been to Chuck E. Cheese with a Gun”.

    what's a gun like you doing in a place like this?What happens when a Middle Eastern-looking man and a young black man walk into a LongHorn with loaded pistols on their belts?

    "Welcome to LongHorn, will it just be the two of you?"

    The hostess told us there would be a 20-minute wait. We stood at the doorway and talked. Nobody said a word or even looked at us funny. A few people glanced down at my belt as they walked up, but honestly, a new iPhone would have caused a bigger fuss than our guns.

    At Creative Loafing Atlanta, vaguely liberalish sensitive guy Andisheh Nouraee traipses around Atlanta and its environs with a gun and waits for reactions. Takeaway: No one even says "boo."

    In April, Georgia passed a law that expanded the list of places that it’s A-OK to carry a gun to include restaurants, including those that serve booze, and those that don’t, like Chuck E. Cheese, plus public transit:

    "So I just want to be clear," I asked [Atlanta public transit system] MARTA police Chief Wanda Dunham. "If I had a turkey sandwich in one hand and a gun in the other hand, MARTA police would ticket me for the turkey sandwich?"

    "If you’re eating it," she replied. "Only if you’re eating it."

    An interesting study in the robust minding-one’s-own-business ethos that makes America great. Read the whole thing.

    [Hit and Run]

  • Why do I need to know the channel?

    The cable box plugged into my television is more than twice the size of my MacBook Pro. It came with a remote control that’s perhaps four times the size of a Blackberry. So why should I need to know what “channel” something is on? There should be a miniature keyboard on the remote. If I want to watch HBO, I should be able to do so by typing HBO. If I want to watch a particular TV show or movie, I should be able to type the name and have the cable box automatically show me the channel (or channels) currently showing things that match what I’ve typed.

  • @hotdogsladies Perhaps which i…

    @hotdogsladies Perhaps which it is will depend on the size of the tip…

  • Earthquake in LA

    M 5.8, Greater Los Angeles area, California. July 29, 2008 18:42:15 GMT [USGS M>2.5 Earthquakes]

    Just the right size for an earthquake–small enough that nothing fell over, but big enough to be fun.

    Update: the LA Times has more information.

  • “Mechanical” watch for the iPhone

    There’s an iPhone app called Emerald Chronometer which mimics a fancy mechanical watch on your iPhone (or iPod Touch). It’s a pretty clever idea–especially since real mechanical watches with all those features are very, very expensive.

  • We just had an earthquake here…

    We just had an earthquake here. They’re always more fun above the ground floor…

  • The PRAM battery on my Photosh…

    The PRAM battery on my Photoshop Mac appears to have died. I guess that’s Apple’s little way of saying “buy a new computer already!”