Garden Of Blog

This is a perfect post for “Dear Diarrhea.” As I said once before: sometimes it just pours out of me.

When I was in high school, I started getting what I call “ape flashes.” What is an “ape flash?” you are asking. An ape flash is a moment of realization when one is struck by the uncanny ressemblence of human beings to apes, either physiologically or in behaviour.

As I recall, this started happening to me while I was reading Desmond Morris’ wonderful book Manwatching. I knew that Morris had also written Naked Ape, which is probably the closest literary embodiment of an ape flash around.

My first ape flash happened when a friend of my father’s was visiting. He had what is termed “mid-digital hair,” something a lot of people have, which is hair on the tops of their fingers. It had taken some 16 years for this to come together in my simian-similar brain, but the evidence seemed clear: the apes are our relatives. It took an obvious shared trait, a book, and some help from my teachers at school to realize it.

Then it started happening all the time. I started seeing it in the way we act. In male territorial behaviours. In maternal instincts. Heck, both of those can be seen all over the animal kingdom. Our relatives are many.

What makes me flashback to my early ape flashes? Nothing much really, just another quick ape flash this morning inspired by a disembodied hand: a man talking to a co-worker in the next cubicle, holding a post attached to the cubicle wall, so that the hand was all I could see. No mid-digital hair on this guy. Just the usual set of grasping fingers, perfectly formed to grab, say, a branch in the jungle.

Does this ever happen to creationists? Or is the “ape flash” reserved only for the sons and daughters of Darwin? Was God using apes as sketch material as He “perfected” (hardy-har) us humans? Is that the explanation for these cousins of ours that can be taught sign language among other things?

Not to make a monkey out of God, but, if He created us in His image, then God must be a bit of knuckle dragger, too. Look around: prepare to worship.

The recent Supreme Court decision regarding eminent domain says, in essence, that a local government may transfer private land from one owner to another if that transfer would result in greater tax revenues.

For the public good. Yeah, sure, okay.

Let’s see how the Justices themselves like it. Freestar Media, LLC, is applying to the Town of Weare, New Hampshire to build a hotel on the land of Justice David H. Souter.

The Town of Weare must be made to understand in no uncertain terms what a wealth of tax revenues would be coming their way if this hotel is built. Fax them at 603-529-4554 and let them know how excited you are by the rumour of the new “Lost Liberty Hotel”, and that you will be making your reservations as soon as its doors open. Be sure to mention your curiosity about Weare at large, and ask where else in town (restaurants? shops?) you can look forward to spending your vacation dollars.

Open source nymphos: If this doesn’t get you hard for Norway, nothing will.

The Norwegian Minister of Modernization has announced that Norway is all done with proprietary formats. Essentielly a thumbs-down for Microsoft and other money-centric producers of software.

Fjord: built tough!

Read all about it.

As a podcast consumer, I can’t help kicking around the idea of becoming a podcast producer. Why not?

My latest brainstorm is a show called “Mind Mined’s People Behind.” Our intro would go something like this:

“Welcome to Mind Mined’s People Behind, where if you want the people behind you, you can’t go kicking the peoples’ behinds. The people behind this program… (yadda yadda yadda)”

…which would quickly break out of the rap and into an interview with one of the many artists who have contributed to mindmined.com or who have been seen performing at our Mindfest music festival.

I’d hate to see podcasting take off in the next couple of years only to miss the boat entirely. I have always felt I was about 3 years too late for the web, to have ridden any of the earliest waves.

Of course, all this in my *free* time. Heh.

Still, this would be a low overhead, low post-production project, with no real pressure to make regular broadcasts if time doesn’t allow. That’s what great about RSS, podcasts and all syndicated content: it comes when it comes.

Well, I looked into the webhosts powered on clean energy. All noble, but all too expensive relative to services offered.

I may entertain higher thoughts, but when it comes to actually making a monetary sacrifice in favour of a better Earth, I put in a weak showing. This didn’t go nearly as well as my foray into energy saving light bulbs, which I remain convinced will save me both time and money in the long run.

Still to look into: apparently my town has some sort of property tax break for homes using solar energy. Need to find out the specifics of that.

Here’s a shout-back to author/podcaster Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff, who kindly mentioned myself and Garden of Blog on his weekdaily Pacific Coast Hellway podcast show.

Podcasts can be Reality Radio in its purest form, and Nemcoff does it as good as anyone. Recorded in the car during his daily commute, Pacific Coast Hellway features Nemcoff talking about whatever he feels like… and if another driver cuts him off to his profanity-laced chagrin, you’ll hear that, too.

I am completely entertained by Pacific Coast Hellway and other such independent radio shows (another fav: Fetish Flame, featuring a kinky couple calmly discussing their sexual escapades in the Bay Area). Completely off the FCC’s radar, these revolutionary syndicated programs are the undeniable future of audio in the Free World.

Want to tune in? I’d recommend iPodder, a user friendly podcast aggregator that should get you started fast. (And no, you do NOT need an iPod to enjoy podcast, just an internet connected computer and, preferably, a speedy wire).

Wired just published an article on niche webhosting companies whose servers run on purely clean energy.

Worth looking into, especially for a site called Garden of Blog. I’ll post a follow-up on what I learn. This is a great idea.

Following up on the last post: looks like the most abused IT workers will (naturally) step up and organize first. Coming soon: game developer unions.

I work at a place that seems rather employee-friendly (hurrah!), so I am not preoccupied with thoughts of organized labor in the IT workplace as I once was. However I have not forgotten my suffering peers in the corporate world.

What’s taking geeks so long to unionize? I honestly have no idea. Especially considering we are the most internet-literate people around, with myriad advanced communication tools at our disposal.

My innate fear kept me from stepping up as a leader before (family to feed), and my innate selfishness (I am not personally being treated unfairly at the moment) makes me lazy now. But this article refreshed a longtime fantasy of mine: what would happen if all the IT workers at a company went on strike?

Everybody knows what would happen: business would immediately come to a halt. Friends, that’s power. Let’s use the power we have to get what we want. Lord knows your employer does.