Thursday, May 06, 2004 Thursday, May 06, 2004For a long time, I felt that I was surrounded by idiots, that I was a Superior Intellect. It's only recently, comparatively speaking, that I decided to change my assumptions, and assume that people are not completely stupid. I did not find humility so much as I found respect.
But I've read a number of things over the past few days that are encouraging me to revise my opinion. Not that my fellow observers are stupid, but that the authors are.
Is there guile behind that apparent idiocy, the search for gullible believers with spare change in their pockets? Are these snake oil salesmen, carnival barkers, hucksters looking for an easy mark? Have they deceived themselves as well as the audience?
10:07:24 AM # Google It!
Wednesday, May 05, 2004The Journal News reports that the Patterson Chamber of Commerce is starting a petition drive to support Paul Camarda's proposal to build Patterson Crossing shopping center at the intersection of I-84 and NY Route 311 [Topix.net].
The $100 million Patterson Crossing would include a Costco warehouse store, a Lowe's home center and several other stores, according to Carmel developer Paul Camarda. The proposed 410,000-square-foot facility would sit on 90 acres on the Kent-Patterson border near Interstate 84. Most of the site is in Patterson.
The Putnam County Courier's coverage has a slightly different slant.
The entrance to Patterson Crossing will be located in Kent with the center itself in Patterson. Camarda has been individually meeting with property owners in both towns whose lands abut the proposed shopping center and in a number of cases has offered to give the landowner anywhere from 20-feet to 50-feet of his property as a gesture of good faith.
Citizens of the Town of Kent link to PlanPutnam's pictures of Mr. Camarda's presentation, but it is difficult to determine the scope of the proposal from them. I expect it won't be much different from the Home Depot-plus-Kohl's development mentioned previously, which would be a shame. The intersections of major roads are good places for commerce. What you want to avoid is making it hostile to pedestrians — because pedestrians are shoppers. Cars do not shop; people do.
(Maps at National Geographic and TopoZone.)
10:00:25 AM # Google It!
categories: Place
Tuesday, May 04, 2004I'm watching Bewitched — not because Elizabeth Montgomery is a hottie, but because I want to see their house and neighborhood. The interior is nicely open, with good flow between the kitchen and other rooms of the house, and extended views out to the back yard and down the hallway. Though I doubt there's a master suite, it looks like a nice place to live.
10:38:41 PM # Google It!
categories: Place
We are a democratic republic, not a democracy. There's a difference.
If you don't like the Electoral College, or the winner-take-all system, talk to your State legislatures. It's their fault.
If you don't like gerrymandered districts and Representatives-for-Life, stop voting for the incumbent.
We're a sovereign nation, yet sovereignty rests with the People.
The United Nations is less united than confederal. Neither the President, nor the Congress, can transfer Our sovereignty to an unelected confederacy of nation-states. This is a limit on the ability of the President to make, and the Senate to ratify, treaties.
The nation-state is a temporary expression of the will of the people. Perhaps it is not the best model for all situations, or all peoples.
9:51:11 PM # Google It!
categories: Law, Politics
Wes Felter notes that
IBM announced some POWER5 servers, but iSeries is inscrutable to me and the Redbooks aren't out yet. [Hack the Planet]
If rumor is to be believed, this is the part of the game where iSeries and pSeries hardware merges. If you read carefully, you'll see that this hardware runs, natively, not just OS/400 i5/0S, but AIX and Linux. (It runs Windows, too, in some sort of execution environment under i5/0S. But I'm not familiar with that.) IBM is reducing their costs, and making their hardware more appealing to thoughtful purchasers, by eliminating the physical distinctions between the lines. As your needs increase, add more Legos to your pile.
3:47:13 PM # Google It!
categories: Industry
This map of recent conflicts from the Nobel Institute reminded me of Statistics of Deadly Quarrels, by Brian Hayes (American Scientist, January-February 2002), reviewing the theories and numbers of Lewis Fry Richardson [a9]. I read this in hard copy, but forget whether I ran across it on the newstand, or was led to it by John Leinhard's piece on WSHU.
2:45:57 PM # Google It!
Mark Frauenfelder at BoingBoing, who seconds my motion regarding the Department of Homeland Security, points to ITConversations' excellent interview with Bruce Schneier. He almost sounds like an economist in evaluating risks: Are we getting good value for our investment?
When the U.S. Government says that security against terrorism is worth curtailing individual civil liberties, it's because the cost of that decision is not borne by those making it.
10:43:19 AM # Google It!
categories: Security