Pirate Utopias = many mirrors
on
Pirate Hunter
·
· Score: 1
Dang, didn't know that site was still active; should be defunct, and now it's going to get a small/.ing... oh well.
According to this Google search, Pirate Utopias is mirrored at many sites.
Hakim Bey: TAZ
on
Pirate Hunter
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Hakim Bey has written some interesting things about pirates, and Temporary Autonomous Zones.
Excerpt:
Pirate Utopias
"THE SEA-ROVERS AND CORSAIRS of the 18th century created an "information network" that spanned the globe: primitive and devoted primarily to grim business, the net nevertheless functioned admirably. Scattered throughout the net were islands, remote hideouts where ships could be watered and provisioned, booty traded for luxuries and necessities. Some of these islands supported "intentional communities," whole mini-societies living consciously outside the law and determined to keep it up, even if only for a short but merry life."
Justified anger, righteous anger (like Jesus in the temple), is anger WITH consciousness. You're conscious you're angry, and you're not so easily swept away on emotions making you uncontrollable.
Thanks for the followup, you've confirmed my earlier notion (based on your first post) about the similarity of our worldviews.
Re: conscious anger -- simulated anger as a tool:
A scene comes to mind, from Michael Crichton's "Rising Sun", where the Wise Old Cop (normally a calm Zen guy) is talking with a low-level sarmiman from some Japanse corporation, explaining some news that the Japanese bosses will not like... the Wise Old Cop abruptly explodes with anger, red-faced, shouts at the Japanese guy, makes a big scene in public, only verbal no hitting but really losing it verbally. Afterward, Wise Old Cop returns to his usual calm. The Young Cop is totally baffled -- what the hell happened here, why'd you do that, I thought that losing your temper means losing face, to the Japanese? And the Wise Old Cop explains, Yes, losing temper does mean losing face... which allows the Japanese guy to go back to his bosses with news they do not wish to hear -- by losing my face, I help him save his, which furthers everyone's interests.
I remember using CDC's PLATO system in the mid-seventies. It didn't succeed in the marketplace, but in it's day Plato blazed trails: global networking, real-time multiplayer games, email... and instant messaging where both parties see both lines of text in real time.
I was thinking of more organic behaviours. "Wetware", the scifi book, came to mind.
Hmmm... you mean like a blog, but organic?... perhaps a disembodied brain, modified to serve as a storage medium.
Also, perhaps "blob" could serve as an amusing acronym for "bring lots of beer"... after all, if I bring (and consume) lots of beer, I become very blob-like....
that movie studios are quite purposefully putting 'large reddish brown spots that flash in the middle of the picture, usually placed in a light area' in order to ruin computer-compressed pirated copies of films
Next step: replace the 'large reddish brown spots' with large reddish brown ads for Coca-Cola....
Although in theory I like the idea of starting a blob, I'm not quite sure what is involved in doing so or what the eventual outcome would be, so I can't really enjoin you to start one.
In database terminology, "blob" stands for "Binary Large Object" -- a datatype representing an image, program, or other binary file.
Alternately, "The Blob" is an amorphous monster... destroyed by Steve McQueen, as I recall.
I'm about as anti-bush as one can be. I can't wait until he's voted out and replaced by a Democrat.
How can you be a Democrat...
He didn't actually say he's a Democrat. That's an inference -- maybe a good guess, but not a fact.
What he said was, he can't wait until Bush is replaced by a Democrat. Maybe he's a third-party voter (or even a non-voter) who believes that only a Democrat can defeat Bush.
Anger is always produced out of fear and separation.
Agreed, fear and separation often lead to anger; and these are bad motives for anger.
There is a righteous motive for anger: in response to violation of your space.
If someone gets in your face, anger is justified: I figured this out the first time I got mugged.
By extension, it's natural to get angry if someone breaks into your house: English common law is largely based on the principle that "a man's home is his castle".
Abstracted further: if someone invades my bank account, you wouldn't be surprised if I get angry.
But the further we abstract, the less righteous the anger. Anger is righteous indeed as a life-saving measure: might save you from a mugger, or worse.
But in bank account invasion, anger doesn't save me from a life-threatening emergency. Oh, abstracted anger is motivational, I'll place calls, register complaints... but abstracted situations call for reason, not emotion.
Take away the emergency, and the only practical application for anger is vendetta: keeping alive hate out of desire for revenge. Granted that's an old familiar story... but man, we should grow up before we hurt ourselves.
Because we've abstracted ourselves outside our bodies, outside our homes, outside our tribes, villages, cities, states, nations... we all belong to the world now; anyway that's my view. At that scale of abstraction, anger is utterly irrational.
If I hate another man... do I not hate all life?
And, damn! -- who wants to live in a world like that?
Thank you for the measured, intelligent, philosophical reply. Genuinely insightful and moving. (Unlike another responder who simply called me a "fucking leech".)
"The working principle of simulated annealing is borrowed from metallurgy: a piece of metal is heated (= the atoms are given thermal agitation), then left to cool slowly.
The slow and regular cooling of the metal allows the atoms to slide progressively in their most stable ("minimal energy") positions. (Rapid cooling would have "frozen" them in whatever position they happened to be at that time.) The resulting structure of the metal is stronger and stabler. Here we do not minimize the energy of a block of metal, but some cost function relevant to the problem at hand."
Guilty as charged, but not so nerdy as I'd like -- I vaguely recall that the period of digestion was "a thousand years"... but hell, that would mean that the almighty sarlaac somehow sustains the victim's life far beyond the normal lifespan. True fiction, or a figment of my imagination?
Ah, but you must be unaware of the weaponry he used to escape, at great personal injury, and the scrap scrounging bounty hunter Dengar who collected him half-dead from the deserts of Tatooine to eventually resuccitate him.
Umm, yeah... I was unaware of that stuff. But now I'm up to speed, and feeling truly nerdy again.
Slashdot Mirror
Dang, didn't know that site was still active; should be defunct, and now it's going to get a small /.ing... oh well.
According to this Google search, Pirate Utopias is mirrored at many sites.
Hakim Bey has written some interesting things about pirates, and Temporary Autonomous Zones. Excerpt:
Pirate Utopias
"THE SEA-ROVERS AND CORSAIRS of the 18th century created an "information network" that spanned the globe: primitive and devoted primarily to grim business, the net nevertheless functioned admirably. Scattered throughout the net were islands, remote hideouts where ships could be watered and provisioned, booty traded for luxuries and necessities. Some of these islands supported "intentional communities," whole mini-societies living consciously outside the law and determined to keep it up, even if only for a short but merry life."
http://www.gulfislands.com/momo/TAZ.html
attractive things actually work better
Beautiful women are sometimes good in bed, but not always. I wouldn't say there's a correlation.
Plain women sometimes totally rock a man's world -- a remarkable wake-up call for one's understanding of women.
Justified anger, righteous anger (like Jesus in the temple), is anger WITH consciousness. You're conscious you're angry, and you're not so easily swept away on emotions making you uncontrollable.
... the Wise Old Cop abruptly explodes with anger, red-faced, shouts at the Japanese guy, makes a big scene in public, only verbal no hitting but really losing it verbally. Afterward, Wise Old Cop returns to his usual calm. The Young Cop is totally baffled -- what the hell happened here, why'd you do that, I thought that losing your temper means losing face, to the Japanese? And the Wise Old Cop explains, Yes, losing temper does mean losing face ... which allows the Japanese guy to go back to his bosses with news they do not wish to hear -- by losing my face, I help him save his, which furthers everyone's interests.
Thanks for the followup, you've confirmed my earlier notion (based on your first post) about the similarity of our worldviews.
Re: conscious anger -- simulated anger as a tool:
A scene comes to mind, from Michael Crichton's "Rising Sun", where the Wise Old Cop (normally a calm Zen guy) is talking with a low-level sarmiman from some Japanse corporation, explaining some news that the Japanese bosses will not like
-KGJ
I remember using CDC's PLATO system in the mid-seventies. It didn't succeed in the marketplace, but in it's day Plato blazed trails: global networking, real-time multiplayer games, email ... and instant messaging where both parties see both lines of text in real time.
TV ... how quaint.
Organic blogs... I'm getting images that somehow combine Futurama's Nixon's head with stone age grunters worshipping a big rock.
... Richard Nixon's head -- shudder!
....
Dear sweet everylovin' Jesus
I think that big rock should look like an Easter Island statue. And the worshippers should all have red, white and blue CREEP buttons
Yes. 'clob' and 'texta' are other fun variants.
... you mean like a blog, but organic? ... perhaps a disembodied brain, modified to serve as a storage medium.
... after all, if I bring (and consume) lots of beer, I become very blob-like ....
I wasn't familiar with those.
I was thinking of more organic behaviours. "Wetware", the scifi book, came to mind.
Hmmm
Also, perhaps "blob" could serve as an amusing acronym for "bring lots of beer"
that movie studios are quite purposefully putting 'large reddish brown spots that flash in the middle of the picture, usually placed in a light area' in order to ruin computer-compressed pirated copies of films
....
Next step: replace the 'large reddish brown spots' with large reddish brown ads for Coca-Cola
Not everyone can benefit, because of side effects of it's parasitic nature
"If I come back as an animal in my next lifetime, I hope it's some type of parasite, because this is the part where I take it EASY!"
- Jack Handey
Although in theory I like the idea of starting a blob, I'm not quite sure what is involved in doing so or what the eventual outcome would be, so I can't really enjoin you to start one.
... destroyed by Steve McQueen, as I recall.
In database terminology, "blob" stands for "Binary Large Object" -- a datatype representing an image, program, or other binary file.
Alternately, "The Blob" is an amorphous monster
+2 karma points, not to mention you should start a blob, if you have the intestinal fortitiude.
... did you mean blog? and if not, what is a blob? If you meant blog, check out my blog-like web site @ karljones.com.
Just doing my part for reason and clear thinking. A well-ordered commonwealth begins with well-orered debate.
Re: starting a blob
I'm about as anti-bush as one can be. I can't wait until he's voted out and replaced by a Democrat.
How can you be a Democrat...
He didn't actually say he's a Democrat. That's an inference -- maybe a good guess, but not a fact.
What he said was, he can't wait until Bush is replaced by a Democrat. Maybe he's a third-party voter (or even a non-voter) who believes that only a Democrat can defeat Bush.
Anger is always produced out of fear and separation.
... but abstracted situations call for reason, not emotion.
... but man, we should grow up before we hurt ourselves.
... we all belong to the world now; anyway that's my view. At that scale of abstraction, anger is utterly irrational.
... do I not hate all life?
And, damn! -- who wants to live in a world like that?
Agreed, fear and separation often lead to anger; and these are bad motives for anger.
There is a righteous motive for anger: in response to violation of your space.
If someone gets in your face, anger is justified: I figured this out the first time I got mugged.
By extension, it's natural to get angry if someone breaks into your house: English common law is largely based on the principle that "a man's home is his castle".
Abstracted further: if someone invades my bank account, you wouldn't be surprised if I get angry.
But the further we abstract, the less righteous the anger. Anger is righteous indeed as a life-saving measure: might save you from a mugger, or worse.
But in bank account invasion, anger doesn't save me from a life-threatening emergency. Oh, abstracted anger is motivational, I'll place calls, register complaints
Take away the emergency, and the only practical application for anger is vendetta: keeping alive hate out of desire for revenge. Granted that's an old familiar story
Because we've abstracted ourselves outside our bodies, outside our homes, outside our tribes, villages, cities, states, nations
If I hate another man
Alas, it's no longer politically correct to use the phrase "faggity-ass politically correct movement".
Now you're supposed to use the phrase "differently intolerant".
Thank you for the measured, intelligent, philosophical reply. Genuinely insightful and moving. (Unlike another responder who simply called me a "fucking leech".)
Say I download a song or five, once or twice a week, using Kazaa Lite.
Say I don't post files to share -- I just grab a few files now and then.
What's the risk? Will RIAA really find out?
Optimisation: Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing
"The working principle of simulated annealing is borrowed from metallurgy: a piece of metal is heated (= the atoms are given thermal agitation), then left to cool slowly. The slow and regular cooling of the metal allows the atoms to slide progressively in their most stable ("minimal energy") positions. (Rapid cooling would have "frozen" them in whatever position they happened to be at that time.) The resulting structure of the metal is stronger and stabler. Here we do not minimize the energy of a block of metal, but some cost function relevant to the problem at hand."
Logic is an art -- as much an art as a science. The internal structure of logic is the science. Knowing where and how to apply logic, that's art.
Good interface design requires both: the rigors of logic combined with the humanity of art.
Nerd alert!
... but hell, that would mean that the almighty sarlaac somehow sustains the victim's life far beyond the normal lifespan. True fiction, or a figment of my imagination?
... I was unaware of that stuff. But now I'm up to speed, and feeling truly nerdy again.
Guilty as charged, but not so nerdy as I'd like -- I vaguely recall that the period of digestion was "a thousand years"
Ah, but you must be unaware of the weaponry he used to escape, at great personal injury, and the scrap scrounging bounty hunter Dengar who collected him half-dead from the deserts of Tatooine to eventually resuccitate him.
Umm, yeah
Of course, [Boba Fett] died in the belly of the almighty sarlaac.
....
Are you sure? As I recall, the fate of those trapped inside the almighty sarlaac was to be slowly digested over many years
Avoid London.
Hopefully they track you fast before you throw-away (or recycle) your winning can...."
....
People won't throw away the cans: they will hoard them, "just in case".
Hell, some folks will carry their cans in a belt pouch, as next uber-cool-post-cellphone status symbol.
I suppose the cans could be (gently) crushed, for easier storage "until I win that contest"
This is a brilliant marketing gimmick: sell sugar water at fantastically inflated prices, while persuading consumers to idolize and hoard the package.
Right on, mate. Thanks for the sensible, inspirational words. Made my day.
Try to microwave your couch.
Bad idea: the metal springs overheat, and scorch the stuffing. Always use a conventional oven when cooking your couch!