Regressing

The Band That Never Plays Out is playing out

2012-02-19T11:10:00.000-08:00

The band that never plays out is playing out next week, which will by its very nature ruin one of my stories. We're not getting paid, and we're certainly not playing for beer. We can't even say the word "beer." Quothe Frank Zappa from Joe's Garage:

Hey!
Down in Joe's Garage
We didn't have no dope or LSD
But a coupla quartsa beer
Would fix it so the intonation
Would not offend yer ear
And the same old chords goin' over 'n' over
Became a symphony
We would play it again 'n' again 'n' again
'Cause it sounded good to me
ONE MORE TIME!

click for larger image

The Fourth of July

2012-02-18T13:53:00.000-08:00

I have a novel coming out. It's being published by Roundabout Press—an experiment/start-up staffed by real humans (not a vanity press). The book will come out at the end of May, hopefully. There's a fair amount of production work to happen yet. I've finished all the writing and gone through two editorial cycles. There's two more to come, methinks.

I just put together a beta web site for the book. Have a look.

Part of the experiment is to try and fund the book production through kickstarter.com. Kickstarter funding involves putting together a pitch, and providing something in exchange for business-building funds. To that end, the Roundabout folks will be creating a video with me talking about the book, inspirations, nuances. I'm not sure what we'll give in exchange, but if you want a character named after you...

This is fun.

Mob Rule

2012-02-11T08:08:00.000-08:00

Politics or beliefs aside, the campaigns to stop SOPA and the congress' response, the outrage against the Susan G. Komen foundation and their reversal on funding for Planned Parenthood, and the latest word mincing by the Obama administration over Catholic institutions and birth control are three late examples of organizations abandoning their positions in the face of an angry electronically-connected mob.

The biggest tragedy I see is the abandonment of positions. Any idea sponsor that caves into popular outrage either lacks conviction for their beliefs or does so out of convenience or fear. Leadership and representative government demand foresight and a backbone.

The mob represents popular will. Sometimes it be right. Sometimes it won't. Sometimes it will be untenable. California is one of a number of states that provides for binding ballot propositions--popular votes on issues that state legislatures either can't tackle or refuse to. California has demonstrated that when it comes to budget issues, the voters will tend toward more service and less taxes. Which is it? The mob won't choose.

Popular movements on social media are fun to watch, but I would not want to be governed by Facebook and Twitter. They are a mob. Which is okay for you as long as they're your mob.

Absolute Beauty

2012-01-02T17:28:00.000-08:00

One of my friends in college had a tarantula. He stole it from the local mall and brought it back to the dorm. He kept the spider in a fish tank. It was a hairy creature in a darkened room. That spring, I caught the most beautiful butterfly I'd ever seen. Testing my ability to be impartial, I dropped the butterfly in with the tarantula. I waited a few minutes, watching the tarantula for interest in the luxury meal. I was suddenly taken with the feeling that this was just wrong; injustices in beauty aren't subject to being righted. Beautiful things are just beautiful. One can't punish beautiful for the sake of ugly. I rescued the butterfly from the tank and let it go.

Why did I think that the butterfly was more attractive than the tarantula? Are some notions of beauty absolute? I think so. I can make at least one empirical argument for it: ask yourself, do you think that flowers are pretty? Why are they pretty? Who made them so? It wasn't people— Flowers are pretty because birds, bees and other insects made them so. In statistically important decisions, birds and bees chose some varieties, colors and shapes of flowers over others. By their choices, they decided which would types would flourish and which would languish. Consider that bees could have bred wrinkled brown flowers. Instead, they opted for beauty of sorts that we agree with. You might not feel that you have much in common with birds and insects, but at some level, we all agree on what is beautiful.

People and animals have bred one another for beauty too. Women are beautiful because men chose them to be, statistically, over time. And men are handsome (sometimes) because women chose a look for them, statistically, over time. You might say that men were built by women for women, or vice versa.

So, if people can find beauty in flowers and bees can find beauty in flowers, can other animals find beauty in flowers? Does a dog appreciate a meadow of flowers, for instance. If you think that the answer is yes, then it suggests that dogs are tuned into absolute beauty too. Accordingly, they must be able to distinguish beautiful people from less beautiful, the way that humans can distinguish beautiful dogs from ugly dogs—assuming beauty is absolute.

Garage Bands

2011-12-28T19:41:00.000-08:00

I play with two bands. One plays out but never practices. The other practices but never plays out. The former situation is more fun than the latter; there's lots of adrenaline in having no idea what's coming next. We performed this past Thanksgiving in a bar in Berlin, Connecticut. I got paid for playing for the first time since high school. I feel so dirty.

I was always a guitarist, but there are so many guitarists out there that I claimed I was a keyboard player so someone would let me join in. I have been running with it since. Not that I didn't know the piano; I had lessons with Miss Suskiss every week as a child. I took lessons at Hartt too, but was too interested in other stuff to practice. I have a big organ too. You should see it.

Here's some demo material from the band that only practices. We are available for hire in the Hartford, Connecticut area, or anywhere reasonably close. By "for hire," I think I mean that we'll play for free as long you don't hurt us.

I want Ron Paul

2011-12-27T11:46:00.000-08:00

Wouldn't it be so nice to take a completely (old) new course: responsibility, liberty and minding your own business? I've been reading Thomas Jefferson's letters in the bathroom. He said that no generation should have the right to saddle the next with its creeds or debts, and he expected that the new republic's democracy would change. We could change for the better, no? Jefferson also worried about an intelligent, informed electorate. I worry about that too. It's amusing and tragic that Ron Paul's prophesies are quickening around us just before the primaries. I would like to think that American leadership could be revolutionary and that the electorate could be informed and engaged enough to act insightfully and, at the same time, in their own interests. It doesn't have to be like this and more of the same won't help.

Food, wonderful food!

2011-11-24T10:13:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving. The world population is at 7 billion. Oddly, you don't hear as much talk about overpopulation as we did in the 1970s when we were approaching 4 billion. We have passed a number of doomsday deadlines since. Seven billion and more is a drain on resources and probably the biggest problem facing the world, but why aren't we in more trouble already?

An increase in the population of, say, squirrels increases the survival prospects of the whole species. Beyond a certain point, too many squirrels means too much competition for resources, followed by a demographic correction. The sustainable number of squirrels is dictated by predators too.

But humans are already well beyond a sustainable number of berry pickers and stick fisherman. Medicine, agricultural and industrial advances have made impossible numbers of humans possible. Humans have also managed their predators. So here's an interesting notion:

The probability of the birth of a person who will develop a technology that makes a larger population possible is made greater by a larger population.

This is different than squirrels, for whom breeding is the sole mechanism for maintaining the species. Humans are increasing the odds of finding the next survival-enabling genius by creating a huge pool of (mostly) consumers.

Brainhat does love the speaker

2011-11-14T07:59:00.001-08:00

I once happened upon a steganography program that hid real messages in SPAM. The only issue in using it would be that the carrier (the SPAM) would be deleted and the message would be lost traversing most email gateways. To protect myself, I keep several accounts with absolutely no message filtering. On occasion, I receive bona fide communications from the outside world. Today, a declaration of romantic intent from a translation program. One might say "Brainhat does love the speaker." The love note:

Greetings the stranger, are Written by me to you from the big country of Russia, I have read your profile, and you are interesting for me, I see you as a pleasant interlocutor, I wish to get acquainted with you better and to exchange photos and not only.I will be very glad if our relations do not stop on that that we will communicate only on correspondence, I'll be glad to meet you one day.

I will tell a little bit about myself:
I'm very nice, sociable and cheerful girl.
I'm 27 years old, growth 169, my eyes are brown, hair dark, weight of48 kg, a sports constitution. I regularly visit fitness the centre to support the figure both to be in shape and to like men.

If you are self-assured and trust that can deserve my attention that write we will look that will turn out.

Jennifer? Is that you?

Tin Whiskers

2011-11-11T06:38:00.001-08:00

I think it's cool when a little bit of novel science or technology presents itself unpredictedly. The Mandelbrot set was like that. Tin whiskers are like that. In response to environmental and health guidelines under the RoHS (restriction of hazardous substances) initiatives, the mix of metals in electronic solder has been changed to eliminate lead. Electronic solder has had tin it for as long as I can remember. However, the amount of tin has been increased and the mix has changed, and this has highlighted a behavior of tin alloys.

Tin spontaneously grows whiskers over time. These can be 10 mm long. In electronic equipment, a whisker can reach out and cause an electrical short. The short can be permanent, transient (as the whisker melts), or destructive (as the whisker vaporizes and takes some of the surroundings with it). Other metals, including zinc, can also grow whiskers. See Nasa Goddard site.

This is a picture of my block of tin. I bought is along with some zinc and bismuth (to make crystals). No whiskers yet... The metal came in the US Mail. It was a heavy box. For this purchase, they changed the advertising slogan from "If it fits, it ships", to "What the hell you got in here!?"

I think the conspiracy thoerists might be planning something

2011-11-09T07:46:00.000-08:00

Today, FEMA will test the current instantiation of the emergency broadcast system across all channels at once. It will prove to be a great success. Then, there will be creep: some reason to use the system will present itself--perhaps another someone will have been purportedly groped by Herman Cain. Then, a lesser reason will follow--perhaps a weather event. Ultimately, the emergency broadcast system will take over for Groupon. It will become impossible once special interests realize the power of advertising on all stations all at once for the common good.

In Connecticut, we have a state-wide reverse 911. You have to voluntarily add your contact info. The system is hawked by Lieutenant Paul Vance, who by all outward measures is a very good man. However, whenever he says (something like) "We can't inform if we don't know how to reach you," I hear "We won't be able to find you when we come looking for you." (To quote Homer Simpson: "Oh! Why'd I sign for insta-trace?")

Election day and power outages

2011-11-08T06:16:00.000-08:00

Today is election day in West Hartford. The power is still out in significant portions of the town following the freak pre-Halloween snow storm that visited the northeast a week and a half ago.

It was really quite a storm. The trees still had leaves on them. The snow gathered on the leaves and brought down many of the healthiest branches--this in contrast to hurricane Irene, which took down dead wood. I stood on the front step in the early morning hours, listening and watching. The snow fell. There was a very light breeze. All about, from near and far, came the sound of cracking limbs, like the sound of firecrackers.

Anyway, all anyone seems to have been able to talk about for a week is electrical power, and how uncomfortable they are. After 10 days, I am avoiding all conversations about power; unshowered people just want to unload on someone. My phone rings. It's a pre-recorded message from West Hartford's mayor. The calls come daily. Yesterday there was a pre-recorded call from the superintendent of schools too. They were crying about the power.

These are not calls from Winston Churchill. Rather, they're becoming a daily rant about being out of power, and how disgusted the town officials are with the power company. It's very un-chief executive, in my opinion. What makes it all the more interesting is that today is election day in town. The storm has given the mayor a platform on which to reach out to townspeople and do his Rudy Giuliani impersonation. Will it help him at the polls? I don't even know who he's running against, but whoever it is, he's never chewed my ear about the power being out.

The reason for this post

2011-11-07T17:16:00.000-08:00

I write a lot. The reason for a blog (hate the term) is that my business isn't hip enough and I want to learn the tools. Really, I don't care to be found. However, some people appear to associate web literacy with intelligence. I've got plenty of the latter and eschew the former. Last week I went to a social media event put on by The Hartford Business Journal. The experts spoke like valley girls, and had that annoying drop in cadence and affected gravely voice that goes with ...it.

I had a Facebook account once. I signed up so that I could have better access to peoples' personal business while conducting network penetration assessments. I stated that my name was Kelvin Dowel and that I worked at the Dairy Queen on the Berlin Turnpike. Within about a week, I'd been befriended by a bunch of female Dairy Queen coworkers and their friends in the Philippines who thought I was cute. The last thing I wrote on my wall was that the Frialator had blown up, and deleted the account.

But, I'll try to write for an unwanted audience. I expect to say a few things about how I've rediscovered playing live music or how my aunt just turned 100.