Economics

Why is it that Wal-Mart has figured out how to make things cheaper by low-cost high-volume sales, but software is still routinely more expensive than the computers on which they run?

For God's sake, of course people are going to pirate things if it costs 50-100 for mundane software! I have spent money on software a few times, when the price is good and the software does what I want, but then that's what free software is for.

It is economically useless for us to try and ignore geography by moving actual object all over the world at whim, but to sit on top of content, like software and media, as though they were rare earth metals.

It's getting better all the time

I have been thinking a lot about conservatism and progressivism, and what they mean in the big picture of where the race is. It occurs to me, from my point of view, that conservatism is inherently pessimistic, because of it's emphasis on what is wrong with the human condition, and why things were better in a past simpler time. I am not saying that pessimism is not a valuable tool for seeing the world, but there are a few things about this that bother me in our current world. One of my problems with this is that it takes all of the best that we have done in the past and makes it unimportant, a given rather than the collective effort of countless people. Not remembering what we have done that is good is just as bad as forgetting what we have done that is evil.

I am also concerned that this regressive tendency extends to our increasingly rich and complex interactions, and especially to our relationships to one another through government. A culture based on fear and distaste of government and addicted to it's conveniences is scary. A government run by people who stand at the pulpit talking about the inability of government to solve problems is scary. We need to talk about the good that we can do by involving ourselves and tolerating others, not relinquish our involvement to an ever expanding government publicly aimed at dismantling it's services to the it's constituents.

To me, conservatism is dangerous, in that it ignores most of what is best about humanity- our ability to change. We can be who we decide to be, each and each other. I can't conceive of a paper God which is not dynamic, but I can definitely conceive of one who is embodied in our free will, and our ability to take responsibility for ourselves.

Wackyness *IS* the motivation...

Spaceshuttle launches.

Premium Ice cream.

Fender-bender.

Politics.

Sex.

I.

PHOTODEATHDUELS always have two sides. I apologize for my earlier bias. 

Lauri and I and a PHOTODEATHDUEL!! 

Coop Labor Holiday Iwo Jima Moment 

Cognition (or me think ok, how you think you think?)

I keep seeing articles like this about multitasking. They make me wonder.

I know that the thing that IQ tests are unquestionably the best at measuring is how good you are at taking IQ tests. Is this an accurate assesment of how these people's minds are functioning? The conditions and methods of thought that an IQ test is focusing on are very different from remembering several project in short bursts of attention.

Not that one cant get overloaded, but i always feel at my best when i am working on several things at once. And I did just dandy on every standarized test they threw at me. I think we just have to think more about how to assess what people are processing, and what else isgoing on in there that we aren't accounting for as intelligance yet.

Lauri's monster friend

Sometimes all you need is a change.

Caption contest! 

My lizard has escaped. I didn't name her after 2 1/2 years, because I have always felt that names are a very mammalian trait. Now she is gone from her terrarium, with no sign of struggle. I miss the smart-alec looks she gave me, and the ruthlessness with which she devoured anything smaller than her. I hope that bearded dragons can live happily in the Texan summer of death, and that she has found a nice niche near bugs on our acre of land.  

This is Sasona Coopertive, where I live. My room at the moment is the one at he top middle, which has the number 49.0 written in it upside down. For the last few weeks, we have been renovating the space labeled "wood porch," so soon I will have a lovely garden on one sideof my room, and trees on the other. Then I will train the squirrels to do my bidding.

www.sasona.org

Getting rich through simian technology 

Inviting directed gibberish

Deliberately abusing context is the wave of the future. If we manifest our whims as truth, and therefore reality, we can expect to see the adjoining truths and realities adapt themselves to the new truth, as the recent rise of the Republican right has shown us, or the boot-strapped maturation of youth culture did a generation ago.

Now we are beginning to realize that reality can be manifested by will and made solid. What's more, as soon as that assertion has been recognized by people who once didn't share your point of view, your idea has begun to spread under it's own power. Take that, dogma!

In keeping with this idea, let us consider our own impact, willing or not, on the commercial transactions around us. Be careful where you spend your dollars, and be even more so with where you make them.

Remember: they *are* watching, and they hear us. Let's toss them a softball: do anyone have opinions on Viagra or Home Mortgage Refinancing?

Plan for action.  

This is how many tennis balls I can fit into my mouth. One. 

VROOOOM!

This is my moped. I would recommend a Tomos to anyone who asked, but not to anyone who didn't. It is just low enough to the ground for me to rest my feet on the ground on both sides when I stop in traffic. Look out squirrels!

Prelude to mediocrity

12:16 catch-all.