echovar - Latest Comments

Re: Pina Bausch: Poet of Performance (1940 – 2009)

Victoria — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:08:35 -0000

Thank you Cliff for writing about Pina (especially since the SF Chronicle totally ignored her death and life! ) - and for collecting together the videos. We are all the poorer by loosing her.

Re: Buddhist Economics, Cool Enough To Touch

SLCarner — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:23:30 -0000

The Buddhist economic theory of a man's character being formed by a man's work is organic in nature and unfortunately in this age it is a very simplified notion. In my opinion, the Average Joe working for a living is not thinking about the larger system and the contributions his labor extends outside himself. It is rather a means to an end. There are no real guidelines or values placed on human resource in the purest sense of the term, hence many are quite disgruntled that their is no dignity to be found in their toils. In fact, in today's economy there are more people working to cheat the system than to make 'an honest dollar.' Thus the cultivation of the human spirit is marred by the unfit soil in which he must plant which lessens the chances of bearing any fruit of his labours. Ideally speaking what value and worth can be placed on a man's work when there are so many injustices and discrepancies? Is it for the love of money and what money can buy or the intrinsic values attained by hard work? And more importantly how do we cultivate the intrinsic values into one's everyday work? I suppose volunteering represents a higher order, but who can afford to volunteer, unless their needs have been adequately met, in a system that rapidly ups the ante on what is fair and unfair game?

Re: Buddhist Economics, Cool Enough To Touch

Lance Strate — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:37:59 -0000

What a great blog post, McLuhan, Schumacher, not to mention Heraclitus and Eliot. Perhaps we could talk about this some time? My email is strate@fordham.edu.

Re: Buddhist Economics, Cool Enough To Touch

hardaway — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:59:47 -0000

They've converted an idea for purification of character (limits to growth) into a way to make money, zero sum game that doesn't look like one.

Re: Buddhist Economics, Cool Enough To Touch

cgerrish — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:43:04 -0000

A 'cap' is a method of moderating growth. Value accumulates under the ceiling of limitation. Optimizations of carbon emission are an expression of values through an industrial market. But as you note, the game hasn't changed-- they've just slightly changed the dimensions of the playing field.

Re: Buddhist Economics, Cool Enough To Touch

hardaway — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:28:55 -0000

I was just thinking while walking the dog that I have probably, because of the unique time in which I was born, witnessed both the rise and fall of the United States. I read Small is Beautiful when it first came out, and had forgotten the part about Buddhist economics. However, for a variety of reasons I have been living that way for the past decade.

But I am under no illusion that these lessons of high intensity have cooled enough in the past 5000 years to make people hold them. Touch them, maybe, but still draw back from their heat. In the long view, Buddhist economics should rule the world but doesn't. Example: cap-and-trade legislation and the quick formation of carbon markets. Need I say more?

Re: Ink, Trust and the Electronic Vote

cgerrish — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:03:01 -0000

A screenshot with a time stamp? A photo of you voting while holding up today's edition of the NY Times? Or is it really just a copy of your vote sent to an archive under your control?

Re: Ink, Trust and the Electronic Vote

Karoli — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:56:05 -0000

some sort of real-time record of what I did at that moment that can be matched against the archive later...at least, that's my gut response. I can produce a hard copy receipt now that can be matched to my ballot put in the ballot box. That creates an audit trail that cements and links my vote to me. An electronic version of that would be 'digital cement'.

Re: Ink, Trust and the Electronic Vote

cgerrish — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:48:43 -0000

The word "cemented" seems to be key. What does digital cement look like?

Re: Ink, Trust and the Electronic Vote

Karoli — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:16:47 -0000

What it lacks right now is a clear tie to an unique voter identity. Note that I am not saying the identity has to identify the person. But there isn't a way right now (or at least, a way that is immediately apparent) for my vote cast on an electronic voting machine to be recorded as MY VOTE and cemented.

We've seen hacks to websites and other electronic media change the character, intent and nature of the site. Intentionally. That is my primary concern with electronic voting -- that my stated vote will be changed by someone and there will be no clear audit trail back to my original intent.

Re: echovar » Blog Archive

landscapersutah — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:29:46 -0000

these language think is understood by the citizens who live in that country also. even they are drawings, they understand it and it has meanings.

Re: The Crowd Settles and Focuses on the Performance

Aron — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:57:09 -0000

Crowds are funny things. With the right direction they can become a single agreeable organism. Without it they can be a chaotic risk. Over management and complete freedom can have the same effect. They take on a life of their own depending on the stimulus. They bring a lot to the party themselves sometimes. This weekend we saw how history and the alignment of details became a virtual mob scene. I tend to believe that what you put into a crowd can certainly have a lot to do with the result.

Re: Twilight of the Brontoscopist

Aron — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:41:19 -0000

Stunning. The metaphorical weight of Thunder bows to the power of the sound, the indication of a great force whether a slamming clap or an endless bass roll. It finds its way into my poetry and so many conversations because once you do identify it, it is unquestionably the voice from above, a reminder to keep right sized and know that your fragile existence can be metered by a single sound...

Re: !Kung: Banking Social Relationships

SimonEdhouse — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:11:12 -0000

...not wanting to anthropomorphize the inanimate.. but perhaps: 'a meme with a mission'?

Re: !Kung: Banking Social Relationships

cgerrish — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:35:20 -0000

McLuhan's idea of probes is very interesting, they aren't personal. A couple of quotes: 'I have no devotion to any of my probes as if they were sacred opinions. I have no proprietary interest in my ideas and no pride of authorship as such. You have to push ideas to an extreme, you have to probe.' 'A good probe is hard to exhaust. It does not surrender everything at first encounter...'

Re: !Kung: Banking Social Relationships

SimonEdhouse — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:05:37 -0000

Cliff, would you class yourself as a kind of "probe" too? (using McLuhan's definition) - If you are, you are perhaps 'probe +' or 'an insightful probe'...

Re: Distributed Lending

jazs27 — Tue, 26 May 2009 07:01:48 -0000

many loan companies offered micro-lending to the poor, which took to a big hit that's why competitors are thinking of new ways to get clients which i believed is social lending.

Re: The Edifice of the Bank: Connecting Streams of Capital

cgerrish — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:50:57 -0000

Yes, the thickness of the bank vault is replaced with the character of network availability and inputs/outputs. The networked bank that *is* a networked bank will change everything. The current crop may not be able to make that leap.

Re: The Edifice of the Bank: Connecting Streams of Capital

Karoli — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:43:38 -0000

True story: I was recently in the position of having the 'network' help themselves to $400 or so, setting the account negative. I received a check drawn on Citibank Smith Barney. BofA wanted to put a 7-day hold on it, guaranteeing the overdraft would increase by $100 or so in the interim. Went to Citibank, they would not cash the check unless I opened an account with them.

In the land of bank networks, all bandwidth is carefully controlled, and access is never guaranteed.

There is something wrong with a network where the outputs are arbitrary and capricious while they expect ubitiquitous inputs.

Re: The Edifice of the Bank: Connecting Streams of Capital

cgerrish — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:38:24 -0000

Banks are already virtual. The branch as it exists today is only an interface to the Network. Challenge a local branch employee, and they will turn to the Network as the source of authority. Their physical and virtual presence are roughly equal at this point.

Re: The Edifice of the Bank: Connecting Streams of Capital

Karoli — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:32:10 -0000

This frightens me. I do not trust banks enough for them to be virtual.

Re: Why Marketing is Broken

Ecurrency Trading — Thu, 14 May 2009 06:13:21 -0000

Yeah. Well said in the article that RSS was never designed to rat out it’s subscribers to marketers. Business has only two functions - marketing and innovation, but I don’t believe that today’s marketing is not pointing the right way.

Re: Why Marketing is Broken

Jogos de Carros — Tue, 12 May 2009 02:15:51 -0000

Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically, but it is important to subscribe RSS from related sites and more important to unsubscribe if not required. My simple question is, are we really that busy to unsubscribe.

Re: Marshall McLuhan: RSS is No Longer King

tresha — Tue, 12 May 2009 01:29:44 -0000

you ask some good questions and create a unique parallel. thanks for this post. will be reading a couple more times. please do write a follow up with your answers.

Re: Why Marketing is Broken

azshop — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:41:31 -0000

RSS is very useful on this electronic world now, it provide great things from your site to anywhere.