Categories
quotes ranting

I think I’m going to need a bigger box…

Auntie Shrew: “What did I tell you? Moving day.”

Mrs. Brisby: “It can’t be.”

Auntie Shrew: “It certainly can. I don’t supposed you’ve packed.”

The Secret of Nimh

Yea, it’s moving day… 2:30 AM and I am still packing. :) Movers should be here at 8:30… So, back to packing.

Categories
quotes

My god… it’s full of stars…

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke [wikipedia.org] died today at 90. A long and productive career, as a Sci-Fi author and contributions to science and science literacy, come to an end.

Categories
photography travel

Siena, Italy, November 2007

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The hilltop city of Siena [wikipedia.org] is a few hours by train from Florence. I suspect the bus trip would have been better but we had more days than we could use on our rail pass so we took the train. From the train station we walked the 2 kilometers or so to the top of the hill and into the center of the medieval and renaissance town.

The center of Siena, Il Campo [wikipedia.org] sight of the famous Palio di Siena [wikipedia.org] a twice yearly crazy horse race between representatives of the various wards of the city for bragging rights. By the time we got to Il Campo it was time for lunch so we pulled out our friendly Lonely Planet Italy guide [lonelyplanet.com] and looked for a good place to eat.

The first place we tried was only open for dinner in the off season. The second place was closed completely for the off season. The third was an empty shop. The fourth we never found. So after an hour of back and forth around the city center and it’s steep hills and steps we decided to just go back to Il Campo and eat at one of the many places there. The food was not bad but it was a bit frustrating after looking forward to the highly recommended menus of the places in the guide

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An unfortunate side effect of our hour looking for food was that we could not enter one of the major sites I wanted to see in Siena; the Palazzo Pubblico [wikipedia.org] or town hall and it’s museum and the Torre del Mangia [wikipedia.org] the 102 meter high bell tower dominating the Campo. Problem was these sights close an hour before sunset in the off season, sunset was around 4:30 when we were there and it’s was just after 3:30 when we got there. The only thing we could do was go the the Siena Cathedral [wikipedia.org].

The cathedral is one of the most beautiful in Italy. The exterior is similar to the cathedrals in both Florence [confusion.cc] and Pisa [confusion.cc]. The inside is much more amazing; whereas the inside of the cathedral in Florence is, aside from the painted dome, sparse, Siena’s Duomo is beautiful. Filled with mosaic floors and fresco-ed alters.

By the time we finished touring around the cathedral it was dark outside and we did not do much more in Siena. A cup of coffee in a small cafe and one more stop at il Campo before taking a bus back to the train station and heading back to Florence for the night. I hope we can go back and visit the sights we missed some day, Siena was one of the most beautiful places we visited in Italy.

You can see the a few more photos in the Siena, Italy, November 2007 photoset on Flickr [flickr.com].

Categories
quotes ranting

Killing for Economic Beliefs

Having killed for religious beliefs and then political beliefs, I believe we are now on the threshold of killing for economic beliefs.

Dr. J.W. Spellman, quoted from 1971 Winter Soldier Hearings: “What are we Doing to Vietnam?” [alternet.org]

That’s a fairly prophetic statement… in fact you should read the rest (the quote is on page two of the cited article) which follows that morsel:

It takes no prophet to predict that there will be destruction and riots and killings in the name of economic creeds in the future. And that these will seem just as valid as religion and politics have seemed to our predecessors historically.

It’s interesting that this was said by a college professor ten years before Reagan [wikipedia.org] and Thatcher [wikipedia.org] politicized the IMF and World Bank and used them to push the Washington Consensus [wikipedia.org]. The tactics, if not the basic ideas, that the IMF and World Bank pushed onto developing countries are a source of anger for many people in developing countries. Many people have linked these policies and their implementation to the Anti-American and Anti-western attitudes that have increased since the 1980s. It’s not a stretch to suggest that the current situation in Iraq is seen by many — even the majority of — people in the world as ‘killing for economic benefits.’ The Neo-con [newamericancentury.org] agenda and the many links between high level members of the Bush administration and American big-business (especially the Chaney-Halliburton situation) lend credence to this belief. True or not, it looks like we are killing for economic beliefs.

Categories
quotes ranting

Supply and demand

“The 20th century was about sorting out supply… [t]he 21st is going to be about sorting out demand.”

Gavin Potter, quoted in This Psychologist Might Outsmart the Math Brains Competing for the Netflix Prize [wired.com]

Won’t it be great when the computers are figuring out both the supply and the demand? The computer in my TV can decide I want to watch Gilligan’s Island reruns 24 hours a day and the networks computer can decide that Gilligan’s Island is the only TV show worth showing. Everyone will be happy!