... it was to win freedom from the tyranny of political autocracy that the American Revolution was fought ...
... Since that struggle, however, man's inventive genius released new forces in our land which reordered the lives of our people. The age of machinery, of railroads; of steam and electricity; the telegraph and the radio; mass production, mass distribution - all of these combined to bring forward a new civilization and with it a new problem for those who sought to remain free.

For out of this modern civilization economic royalists carved new dynasties. New kingdoms were built upon concentration of control over material things. Through new uses of corporations, banks and securities, new machinery of industry and agriculture, of labor and capital - all undreamed of by the Fathers - the whole structure of modern life was impressed into this royal service.

There was no place among this royalty for our many thousands of small-businessmen and merchants who sought to make a worthy use of the American system of initiative and profit. They were no more free than the worker or the farmer ...

It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property. And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man.

The hours men and women worked, the wages they received, the conditions of their labor - these had passed beyond the control of the people, and were imposed by this new industrial dictatorship. The savings of the average family, the capital of the small-businessmen, the investments set aside for old age - other people's money - these were tools which the new economic royalty used to dig itself in.

Those who tilled the soil no longer reaped the rewards which were their right. The small measure of their gains was decreed by men in distant cities.

Throughout the nation, opportunity was limited by monopoly. Individual initiative was crushed in the cogs of a great machine. The field open for free business was more and more restricted. Private enterprise, indeed, became too private. It became privileged enterprise, not free enterprise.

An old English judge once said: "Necessitous men are not free men." Liberty requires opportunity to make a living - a living decent according to the standard of the time, a living which gives man not only enough to live by, but something to live for.

For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people's property, other people's money, other people's labor - other people's lives ...

Against economic tyranny such as this, the American citizen could appeal only to the organized power of government ...

... The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody's business. They granted that the government could protect the citizen in his right to vote, but they denied that the government could do anything to protect the citizen in his right to work and his right to live.

Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.

These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike ...

... We do not see faith, hope, and charity as unattainable ideals, but we use them as stout supports of a nation fighting the fight for freedom in a modern civilization.
Faith - in the soundness of democracy in the midst of dictatorships.
Hope - renewed because we know so well the progress we have made.
Charity - in the true spirit of that grand old word. For charity literally translated from the original means love, the love that understands, that does not merely share the wealth of the giver, but in true sympathy and wisdom helps men to help themselves ...

... There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny ...

... In this world of ours in other lands, there are some people, who, in times past, have lived and fought for freedom, and seem to have grown too weary to carry on the fight. They have sold their heritage of freedom for the illusion of a living. They have yielded their democracy.

I believe in my heart that only our success can stir their ancient hope. They begin to know that here in America we are waging a great and successful war. It is not alone a war against want and destitution and economic demoralization. It is more than that; it is a war for the survival of democracy. We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world.

 
www.kurzweilcyberart.com/
Raymond Kurzweil ( http://www.kurzweiltech.com/aboutray.html ), a name synonymous with the potential of machine intelligence, brings you the latest in CyberArt advancements with AARON, the Cybernetic Artist.
AARON is not your ordinary screensaver. Developed by Harold Cohen ( http://www.kurzweilcyberart.com/aaron/hi_cohenbio.html ) over a period of nearly thirty years, and productized [!!!] by Kurzweil CyberArt Technologies, Inc., AARON is the first fine art screensaver to utilize artificial intelligence to continuously create original paintings on your PC.
With his continued commitment to human assistive technology, Raymond Kurzweil is proud to introduce this breakthrough screensaver. AARON is offered as shareware! Download a free trial copy of AARON ( www.kurzweilcyberart.com/KCATaaron/DOWNLOADbasic ) and try it for yourself. If you decide to keep the AARON software, we ask you to register it. However, the product will not time out, and the payment requirement is based on trust.
AARON is offered as Shareware. You can download the product at no charge. After using the fully functional product for 3 days, if you wish to continue to use AARON, we ask you to purchase a registration key for $19.95. However, the product will not time out, and the payment requirement is based on trust. Included in the product is a Register function that enables you to make the payment.
To start enjoying AARON right now, just complete the form below (required items are marked with an asterisk) and click "Download."
www.kurzweilcyberart.com/poetry/rkcp_overview.php3

Ray Kurzweil's Cybernetic Poet
A screen saver that writes poetry, a Poet's Assistant that helps you write poetry (and song lyrics!), and 50 professionally - designed "poet personalities."
Upgrade to get the Poet Analyzer, the Poet Creator, and 50 additional poet personalities.
Find out how the RKCP can help you find rhymes, alliterations, ideas for the next word of your poem (or song), ideas for turns of phrase, and more.
The first version of Ray Kurzweil's Cybernetic Poet was written by Ray Kurzweil in the mid-1980s
NOTE: The free version of the software requires a PC running Windows95 or Windows98. WindowsNT and Macintosh are not supported at this time. The software has not been tested on Windows2000.

A Sampler of Poems by Ray Kurzweil’s Cybernetic Poet
www.kurzweilcyberart.com/poetry/rkcp_poetry_samples.php3
(The download page for the 'poet': www.kurzweilcyberart.com/poetry/rkcp_freedownload_request.php3 )

Portrait of an Artist as a Programmer
Review by Al Stevens
Copyright (C) Dr. Dobb's Journal, January, 1993
www.ddj.com/articles/1993/9301/
(needs registration to get to free parts or subscription to get to other parts)
Extracts from a review by a programmer of a book about this program, its author & its products: - at www.eha.boj.org/repositorio/sz/msg00023.html

"Aaron is not a typical image generator of what has come to be known as "computer art." Aaron does not generate geometric forms, certainly interesting, but infinitely repeatable. Aaron does not produce fractals, beautiful and random, but not representative of the items that comprise the world. Aaron is not a tool for painters, designers, draftsmen, or animators to be used as a medium to express the creative ideas of the human user. Instead, Aaron is a computer program with a software interface to a hardware drawing device that creates original pictures, each picture different from the others" ...
"The programming reader will find much with which to relate in Aaron's Code. We will ask questions, too, about issues that McCorduck does not address--or, at least, not adequately for us. Cohen wrote the first version of Aaron in Fortran on the CDC 3200. It is amusing to read of his discovery that batch debugging by passing card decks through the window to an unseen computer was less than productive. He solved the problem by getting hands-on access to a Data General Nova. Subsequent machines included the PDP-11 and VAX, with the current implementation a Micro-VAX. Sometime during those ports he switched from Fortran to the C language, which McCorduck calls a "trifle obsolescent." Today, all new development is proceeding in LISP on a donated LISP machine, reflecting the program's roots in artificial intelligence. All these ports suggest a revealing but unrevealed study in portability" ...
"It is not clear how extensively Cohen studied programming as a discipline beyond what he needed to learn to develop Aaron. He seems to have independently discovered certain established tenets of artificial intelligence, learning later that disciplines already exist that have covered those bases comprehensively" ...
"The first device was a mechanical turtle that wheeled around the floor on a mural-sized sheet of paper, raising and lowering a pen. The book suggests that Cohen built the turtle himself. He abandoned it for what appears to be a flat-bed plotter because the turtle, being cute, drew attention during exhibitions from the artwork it was drawing. Some pictures are said to be produced on a laser printer. The book says that the plotter, which it does not identify as such, is a "homebrew" device, suggesting that Cohen built it specifically for Aaron," ...
"[the] program that has the potential to be in many places simultaneously generating unique works of art. Does its ability to mass produce lessen the value of its creations? What is the test of quality? Aaron cannot critique or reject its own output. The program has no archival storage of past works. Its performance does not change due to experience, criticism, or acceptance. It does not repeat qualities that sell well and reject those that do not ... What are the consequences of works of art that the artist -- Aaron -- creates after the meta-artist -- Cohen -- dies? Who owns the creative rights to the work? If a pirated copy of Aaron creates a picture, is the picture a part of the pirate's contraband?"

"Aaron's Code: Meta-Art, Artificial Intelligence, and the Work of Harold Cohen Pamela McCorduck W. H. Freeman and Company, 1991 225 pages, $25.95 ISBN 0-7167-2173-2 "
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 1/07/2004 07:32:18 PM

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

 
Hordes of Hoarders
Just a quick comment on the remark below about the story of the fellow in the New York apartment who was avalanched upon by the contents of his magazine collection or "hoard" (see Thu Jan 01, 01:50:04 PM ). In one of the stories it was described as a 10 foot by 10 foot apartment he paid $250 per month for. I must compare that to current Sydney rents. Does sound a touch expensive, since it didn't sound like a very flash place. Like, was this entire place a single 10-foot-square room? With toilet & bathroom facilities down the hall? Or was that size just the 'bed-sitting room', and he had his own amenities which didn't count in the description?

These are just a grabbed handful of the links from a search engine.
www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-junk31.html

There is a wonderful difference in tone between these next two reports of the incident. Interesting that, except for the ones which are pretty much just a copy of one of the others (e.g. from a wire service/news agency/whatever they're called these days), that different little bits of facts (?) come out in different stories.
www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/14782.htm
BOOK WORM SQUISHED
By MARK BULLIET and TATIANA DELIGIANNAKIS

www.iht.com/articles/123315.html
Recluse buried by paper avalanche
Robert D. McFadden NYT
Neighbors save New Yorker who never threw anything out

www.orlandosentinel.com/features/lifestyle/ orl-livhoard04010404jan04,0,5635066.story?coll=orl-living-headlines
Chairmen of the hoards
The case of a Bronx man trapped for two days under a huge pile of magazines and catalogs is the latest example of a most curious behavior.
By Nina Bernstein | New York Times
Posted January 4, 2004
"I had to squeeze inside my apartment," Patrice Moore, 43, said of his 10-by-10-foot room, which rents for $250 a month.

Let me just drop the name Sir Thomas Phillipps — yes, that's the spelling — here. Many of the New York and US comments mentioned the Collyer (Collier?) brothers, a famous hoarding story from the area.

Paul,
... your collective refrigerator door, your collective bathroom mirror ...
When the fridge died at midsummer just before Christmas, I did contemplate getting one of the groovy new ones they were advertising that had a mirror-finish door, since we don't have anywhere else to put a large mirror ...

... but I didn't think it worth the extra $1000, and it was too big for the space anyway. But it would have been both together. And if it was one of those internet-connected models (another $3000) that's the whole catastrophe!
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 1/06/2004 08:13:00 PM

Friday, January 02, 2004

 
www.perkins-observatory.org/2000.columns/1-30-2000

The Star of Stars
People often ask me why I love the stars so much, and I must confess the answer does not come easily. There is of course the pleasure of science, the technical knowledge of knowing how the sky works, where to look, and when to do it. However, the main joy of stargazing for me has always been aesthetic. The starry sky is beautiful beyond measure if you have eyes to see and a mind bent
on appreciating the splendor of the night.

No single star illustrates the simple but profound pleasure of astronomy than Sirius, the "Searing One,"...

groups.msn.com/MyBibleFacts
"A site to visit if
You love Bible Statistics
You enjoy Bible Lists or Bible Facts
You crave Bible Trivia
You relish Bible Oddities"
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 1/02/2004 12:42:59 AM

Thursday, January 01, 2004

 
Happy New Year
The template, much as I like it, is still causing these strange faults where the entries get turned into completely garbled codespeak of some kind (something to do with Unicode mixups ???).
I saw a nice one recently with a good layout (similar to the existing one) which (that?) I might be able to copy & convert to my preferred fonts, colours, etc. If I can just spot it again ...

Meanwhile I spotted a story about someone in a rather messy place who got in trouble. References in it also led me to a classic story about a pair of hoarder brothers - the Collyers - and their fate. When I have a bit more leisure time that I shouldn't be using cleaning up my place, I might put in the links here.
This is a quick one, with a good summary: www.roundabouttheatre.org/fc/winter02/dazzle1.htm
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 1/01/2004 01:50:04 PM

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This is my blogchalk:
Australia, New South Wales, Sydney, English, photography, reading, natural history, land use, town planning, sustainability.