Failure And Success

I found this article on delicious popular. It hits a core idea that I would put at the top of the list of my life experience. Most peoples sense of what is possible and what is important is often wrong. Often it takes a traumatic event to pop the illusion and force someone to look at what is really there, what is really important. What emerges from that experience is a life that is a little wiser and in line with reality. The trick is to never pass by an opportunity to question what is real, what is important, or what is possible.

Cradle to Cradle

A good idea, instead of wasting resources recycling what we have, why not make things that recycle well.

Inovative Ways of Building a House

The other day I was thinking about cool ways to build a house. These are the ideas I came up with.

A shell house is a house where the outside is a dome or normal walls that keep out the weather. The interior walls and infrastructure has no structural function only what is needed for the people living in the house. The interior could be made of something as simple as paper or fabric.

A lego blocks house is build of mass produced slabs between 4 and 10 feet square. There are floor modules, wall modules roof modules, etc. with electrical and plumbing connections embedded in them. The modules would not be permanently joined and could be remodeled or moved with half a days work. The foundation could be something like the raised floor seen in computer rooms where floor slabs are placed into a frame on pillars.

A Local brick house is a house made of bricks that are fired either locally or at the build site. Dirt is dug up and melted into a glass or baked like brick either by a normal kiln or perhaps a large portable solar reflector.

The hot glue house is a variant of the local brick house except that instead of making discrete bricks the process produces a stream of molten glass. The stream is then laid down row after row like hot glue or toothpaste until a foundation, walls, or a dome is formed.

Newspapers and Government

"If I had to choose between a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I would choose newspapers without a government." - Thomas Jefferson

( Quote taken from THE MAKING OF A NATION #31 )

Why We Fight

For anyone who studies history and politics and is looking for insightful questions about the future of the US, its politics and the world, the documentary "Why We Fight" is required viewing. Watching it a second time with the background commentary from the director Eugene Jarecki Lawrence Wilkerson is also insightful. The wikipedia page for the film is filled with additional details.

Politics Internet Style

The mission statment of Wikia, the political portion of Wikipedia, rather exelently captures how I view politics.

Updated Programs

I have update my programs includeing screen images, descriptions, binaries, and source code. There are eleven programs in total. The updated page is here.

Hex Grid

What are all of the combinations of a certain number of connected hexagons ? I wrote this java app to find out.

Pure Imagination

Willy Wonka:

Come with me
And you'll be
In a world of
Pure imagination
Take a look
And you'll see
Into your imagination

We'll begin
With a spin
Traveling in
The world of my creation
What we'll see
Will defy
Explanation

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanta change the world?
There's nothing
To it

There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly wish to be

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanta change the world?
There's nothing
To it

There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly
Wish to be

Tank Man

I had to share this frame from Frontline: Tank Man of three workers from a factory that makes linen sheets in China giving an interview in their twelve to a room dormatory with goverment minders just off camera. The woman in the middle stopped me in my tracks and her expression speaks volumes of the life they lead.

More Leaves

Scared Enough To be Happy

Growing up I was in Boy Scouts. I never made Eagle. When I think back on it now I find it very easy to see the whole rank advancement thing as unimportant. I tell myself, it was the experience, and the people that mattered most. But in reality rank and badges were important. I am convinced one of the biggest skews of reality happen when people choose a reality based on how it affects their view of self. In arguments people struggle to win and lose sight of what they are talking about and why it matters. People do the same pointless job every day because they couldn’t possibly have worked this hard to end up nowhere. They avoid the regret, the hard introspection, the painful change, that comes from seeing the hard cold world. If God had your resume with all your strengths and weaknesses, would you want to see it? The hard road, the road of deep clarity that eventually leads to a purposeful life, is scary.

Note: I lifted the phrase “Scared Enough To be Happy” from an interview with “Crash” director Paul Haggis’ interview on Charlie Rose where he described how people aren’t happy unless they are challenged and a little scared that they might not succeed.