Grey Matter

Just sing!

Thoreau thought it patently wrong,
Most men's days are distressingly long,
Filled with dull desperation;
They face expiration
Without giving breath to their song.

The Management Committee

Its members all have their own specialized roles;
They report and direct their divisions
While checking for external threats to their goals
And making reactive decisions.

Some archive significant outcomes and actions
(And trivia, flukes, noise and guesses)
To look for the patterns in business transactions
In hope of repeating successes.

They argue and quarrel; they bicker and fight,
But unite for their public display.
They rest all together for six hours a night
And then meet eighteen hours each day.

Me

parts of me
take not me
make more me
parts of me
take excess me
make less me
parts of me
control me
sense me
invent a Me
beyond me
only it's me
it's only me
it's all me...
or was that meat?

Sonnet off the cuff

If I composed a sonnet off the cuff
I'd struggle for a subject at the start,
And by default I'd use reflexive stuff;
It fills the lines, y'know, but it ain't art.
I'd dedicate it to the one who asked
Me for this damned impromptu rhyming verse
And hidden in the subtext there'd be masked
An awkward mix of gratitude and curse.
This third quatrain is where the well would dry;
The blarney gone, the gift of gab deserted.
(Self-referential style would pall and die
In parenthetic comments I'd inserted.)
Don't be surprised if most of this sounds dumb
When pulling fourteen lines out of my bum.

The things they don't teach you

 Here's the outline of an odious seven point plan written by a famous person. I was surprised at the hate and inhumanity that came bundled with this pivotal historic character. Try to guess who it was.

First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them.

This is to be done in honor of our Lord and Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such public lying, cursing, blaspheming of his son and of his Christians....

Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed...

Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them.

Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb...

Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews.

Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasures of silver and gold be taken from them for safekeeping...

Seventh, I recommend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow, as was imposed on the children of Adam (Gen. 3 [:19])

 You'll find the answer if you read this essay by Hector Avalos.

Tomorrow I Fly

Tomorrow WifeOfVirge and I fly to London to start a two month holiday exploring the British Isles, northern France and Iceland.

Note to airport security: the bald guy with the slight midriff bulge is not a terrorist with explosives strapped to his waist.

i'm in ur literature

This thread on Making Light was too much fun for me to remain in lurk mode.

oh noes! u ses cat splode wit fries!
u tells: eat mice!
cat knows a flavor of desirez
and hungry cat so fond of fries...
but if mousburger has a spice
or fries all eated, bucket lost,
ur feebl offring may suffice--
is can be tossed?
k thx byes.

Don't cross the memes

Inspired by Spike in a lunchtime conversation:

im in ur futures stealin ur swords

is it can be laters now?

Oo baby!

Oo baby, here I am

I do recommend XKCD.

Boing Boing Blindness

I'm finding Cory Doctorow's rants on "owning" numbers are becoming irritating. I despise the DMCA and the organizations like the AACS that exploit it, but Cory is propagating lies whenever he talks about them copyrighting numbers or owning numbers. He's misrepresenting the legal claims made by the AACS. He's doing the very thing that we all hate when it seeps out of the think tanks, PR machines, political spin doctors and astroturf campaigns.

The piece of information that is illegal to publish is more that just a number; it is the fact that a particular number unlocks a particular protection system. If you publish the number without relating it to the protection system, then nobody can make a case against you. The number is just a number. If you do decide to publish the circumvention information, you are not breaking a copyright law that would control reproduction of that number, you are breaking a law that prohibits dissemination of that number + usage context.

Now Cory's a smart guy, so I'll assume that he's just a bit too carried away with the issue to be able to see how dishonest the "owning" numbers spin is. It's sitting right in his blind spot. I really hope that's it.

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