March 31, 2009

Robots, March!

In our latest installment of our ongoing "The Future Is Going To Be Totally Awesome" series, I present video of Honda researchers controlling an ASIMO robot using a brain interface that resembles Darth Vader's helmet.

Excellent. Soon my private robot army will be ready for deployment and the revolution can begin. But we're going to have to do something about that headgear shown in the video. I'm not going to launch my bid to take over the world looking like a complete dork. My thirst for power is rivaled only by my fashion sensibility.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:39 PM | Comments (1)

March 30, 2009

Working Weekend

I spent the weekend attending a conference and, at least for a couple hours, playing tourist. Here I am at one landmark:



The dashing figure next to me is Franklin Roosevelt at the FDR Memorial near the Mall in Washington D.C. It's a serene little area with a waterfall and several FDR quotes carved into the store walls. I found this one particularly resonant:

In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice, the path of faith, the path of hope and the path of love toward our fellow men.

Since the weather on my previous trips to Washington never allowed for much lingering on the Mall, I also paid a visit to the Lincoln Memorial, which offers a spectacular view of the Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument.



Here I am at the top of the Lincoln Memorial, with the Reflecting Pool behind me. DC is always an attractive city, but I was fortunate enough to be there when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. Canopies of delicate pinks and whites line the area around the Washington Monument, where locals and tourists alike lounge in the grass and fly kites.

I'm home now and getting my information fix after a couple days of being off-line. So, back to your regularly scheduled blogging.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:37 PM | Comments (2)

March 27, 2009

Blog, Interrupted

Blogging is going to be on hiatus over the weekend, but will probably resume Monday. You now have a whole extra ten minutes of free time over the next couple days. Your fingernails could probably use a trim. And the kitchen counter could probably use a good wipedown. Or you could write me that fan e-mail you've been composing in your head.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:27 PM | Comments (2)

March 26, 2009

The Continental Way

Conservatives live in constant fear that the United States is becoming more like that haven for socialists and layabouts known as Europe. But a quick glance at the news reveals that Europeans have a more sanguine reaction to the recession compared to the fear and panic keeping many Americans awake at night. As Ezra Klein points out, the social safety nets found in most developed European nations are softening the recession's blow for their citizens. A job loss doesn't deprive them of basic health care, education, and food. Americans, lacking such guarantees, tend to keep a wary eye on neighbors and colleagues during tight economic times and sharply pull back their spending when they see that the family down the street lost their home or several close friends lost their jobs. And this kind of massive spending curb only makes recessions worse.

We Americans may have arrived at one of those critical decision points that comes along once in a generation. Do we sacrifice a little economic growth for quite a bit of peace of mind? Or do we countenance the shantytowns springing up in American cities as the price to pay for the next boom?

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:59 PM | Comments (1)

March 25, 2009

Cut Me In Quarters

A couple months ago, Kay of The Gimp Parade blogged about the new Antony and the Johnsons single "Epilepsy Is Dancing", but I finally got around to watching the song's video and thought some of you might find it interesting. Antony and the Johnsons are a chamber pop outfit whose lead singer has an arresting androgynous tenor. The video begins with a young woman taking a stroll when she collapses to the sidewalk in the grips of a seizure. What follows is a kind of dream sequence in which the woman is transported into a forest whose inhabitants are really into body painting.

The video does feature semi-naked bodies, so you probably shouldn't play this in your work cubicle unless everyone else is out sick and your boss is at lunch.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:38 PM | Comments (0)

March 24, 2009

Not A Cure, But An Improvement

Genetic researchers in Japan have developed an innovative method for treating Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy in dogs. The treatment involves a genetic "patch" that inhibits a portion of the DMD gene, causing the remainder of the gene to express itself as the milder Becker muscular dystrophy. Video of treated and untreated dogs shows noticeable improvements in the treated dogs, but it will be some time before this method can be tested on humans.

It will probably take decades before congenital disabilities can be completely erased from an individual's DNA, but treatments like this--that trade a severe condition for a milder form--might be much closer to being realized.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 10:21 PM | Comments (1)

March 23, 2009

Making The Switch

A late post tonight because of a surprisingly packed social calendar for a Monday evening. But I wanted to share something amusing (or, at least, amusing to me). About once a year, I go through my should-I-get-a-Mac phase, in which I debate whether to dump my PC for one of Steve Jobs' confections. And every year, I talk myself out of it, mostly because I'm trying to resist pigeonholing myself into the stereotypical mid-thirties urban hipster poseur marketing demographic.

Well, my sixty-something father is loving his new iMac. I'm expecting him to soon start wearing black turtlenecks and purchase the Radiohead reissues.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 11:20 PM | Comments (3)

March 22, 2009

Critic At Large: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Some families have bad luck. And some families fall victim to such horrendous, cruel, cosmically unjust twists of fate that they believe they're cursed. In the opening pages of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the reader is introduced to the concept of fuku: the family curse that casts its shadow across generations and brings woe and misfortune to everyone it touches. The book bears witness to the capricious whims of fuku that befall Oscar de Leon ("Wao" turns out to be a nickname) and his forebears.

Oscar is, according to his best friend and the book's chief narrator, an overweight Dominican ghetto nerd living in Jersey who is absolutely hopeless around girls. The book abounds with references to Lord of the Rings, Watchmen, Planet of the Apes, Dune, and other major and minor works in the geek canon. Oscar fancies himself a writer and spends countless lonely hours in front of his computer, cranking out page after page of what he hopes will be the next space opera masterpiece. More than anything, Oscar wants a girlfriend, but his all-consuming crushes (on women with significant flaws of their own) usually end in disappointment and heartbreak.

The novel isn't just about Oscar, though. We are transported back in time to the Dominican Republic of Oscar's parents and grandparents, a place where beauty and terror exist in close proximity. Trujillo, the country's psychotic fascist dictator for much of the twentieth century, looms over events like a modern-day Sauron. Trujillo's murderous rule leads to the downfall of Oscar's grandfather, a familial calamity that sets a tragic chain of events in motion that have implications even for Oscar.

This is an enthralling book narrated in several distinctive voices. The prose is beautiful, funny, and generally a pleasure to hear in my own head. Oscar's sad sack state of being is treated with empathy without elevating him to geek sainthood. Oscar is no hero, but he does the best he can.

While reading Oscar's story, I had a nagging feeling of familiarity. Oscar reminds me of someone. I'll figure it out who it is eventually.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 03:31 PM | Comments (2)

March 21, 2009

Fair Use

I've started ripping some of my DVD collection onto my computer for those rainy days or late nights when I feel like an episode of MST3K or Doctor Who but I don't want bother with asking someone to pop in a DVD for me. The DVDs are encrypted to prevent such copying, but anyone with rudimentary geek skills can get past the encryption and compress the video into computer files. I already purchased the discs legally, so the guilt factor is nonexistent for me. It does give my processor a workout and the hard drive is starting to fill up. Good thing 1TB hard drives can be had for under $100.

This archiving effort may become moot once every bit of content ever made can be pulled down from the cloud, but I think my computer appreciates the chance to do something else besides search the web for the latest pictures of women in fishnets.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 04:02 PM | Comments (1)

March 20, 2009

Gaffe

Wow, so Obama is capable of saying stupid stuff. I thought we would get through at least the first six months of his administration before he made some wince-inducing remark. But unlike Sarah Palin, I'm going to keep the president's faux pas in perspective. If the disability community wants something to get upset about, there's the group home in Texas where the staff organized their own little fight club using the residents as gladiators.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:15 PM | Comments (3)

March 19, 2009

Body Moving

When is it appropriate for a buff able-bodied guy to toss around a guy with cerebral palsy like he's a department-store mannequin? When they're both part of Gimp, a dance company that features performers with and without disabilities. The linked video shows the dancer with CP repeating some of reactions he gets from audience members. My favorite: "I thought this would be weird. I thought you would be weird."

You know, I weigh a lot less than that guy in the video. I'm imagining an avant-garde piece where a few dancers toss my crippled ass around in a game of human hot potato. The big finale would be me thrown into the audience for some crowd-surfing to a soundtrack of old-school kraut rock. This has "NEA grant" written all over it.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:36 PM | Comments (3)

March 18, 2009

Past My Prime

I know I'm not a young man anymore, but I thought I had a few more years of peak brain power before my synapses get all short-circuity and I can't remember my Facebook password without writing it down somewhere. But according to scientists, my cognitive faculties peaked at age 27. So much for my plans to develop that unifying theory of time and space. Little did I know I was already in decline when I started this blog and it's been downhill ever since. My apologies to my readers. Now, where's the button that delivers these words to my...oh, what do you call it...computer diary thing? Ah, here it is.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:47 PM | Comments (3)

March 17, 2009

Rebranding

If a version of newspeak ever does emerge to wipe out the English language, we'll have corporate media to blame. The Sci Fi channel is changing its name to--just typing it makes me cringe--Syfy. Even worse is the channel's new tagline: "Imagine greater", providing yet more proof that marketing execs hate adverbs (remember Apple's "Think Different" campaign?).

Network chiefs explain that "Syfy" is a more trademark-friendly name, but it's also a shorthand way of communicating that most of the dreck they broadcast has absolutely nothing to do with science fiction. Pro wrestling, Z-grade movies about giant snakes, lame reality series about haunted houses: none of these are true science fiction. But I'm not going to fret about this too much. With the Web steadily replacing traditional television, I'll soon be able to queue up a Twilight Zone or Firefly marathon whenever my geeky heart pleases.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:40 PM | Comments (1)

March 16, 2009

America: The Classless Society

First, the standard disclaimer: the following is not written in my capacity as a Department of Human Services staffer.

States have a lot of freedom to administer public benefits programs like Medicaid and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). This extends to the application and eligibility determination process. Some states make applying for benefits a bureaucratic hassle, but other states, like Georgia, serve up a heaping pile of humiliation to anyone seeking assistance. Applicants are forced to answer questions about their personal lives, falsely informed that they don't qualify for benefits, and generally made to feel like they're committing a crime just by showing up at the door.

Not that we're any more inclined to be any more enlightened up here in Yankee territory. One bill making the rounds at the state legislature would prevent anyone who had ever been convicted of a violent crime from receiving certain types of state-funded assistance, including health care. So if you have a mental illness and ended up with a battery conviction, you might not be able get the meds that might help you stay out of jail in the future.

It's funny. One can be considered middle-class for making $30,000 or $300,000. The gap between $30,000 and nothing is much less substantial in terms of math, but it's a yawning chasm in terms of our own prejudices.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:56 PM | Comments (0)

March 15, 2009

Defender Of The Common Man

I didn't get a chance to watch the Jon Stewart-Jim Cramer faceoff until today. And the consensus blogosphere appraisal of the event is spot-on: Stewart reduces Cramer to a simpering husk of a TV personality whose time has come and gone. The whole interview is compelling, but a particularly telling moment comes when Cramer defends himself by saying--and I'm paraphrasing here-- that he's just trying to do an entertainment show on business. The fact that business reporting can even be considered entertainment is symptomatic of the larger problem. When credit was flowing through the streets like wine and McMansions were springing up in every corner of suburbia, we let ourselves think that economic cycles were a thing of the past, like black-and-white TV and polio. And the business networks, just like everyone else, cashed in. They fed us rah-rah pabulum about the unstoppable upward trajectories of stock and housing prices without bothering to critically assess the assumptions underpinning all this optimism.

You know, all this business about the press abandoning its responsibilities and leaving its critical faculties at the door has an awfully familiar ring to it. Like we've seen this before. Hmm, it will come to me eventually.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:50 PM | Comments (0)

March 14, 2009

3.14 And So On And So Forth

Happy Pi Day to everyone. Pi Day is the holiday on which you bake a pie for your favorite geek/nerd.

Don't tell me you forgot. I totally left a reminder on your Facebook wall.

It doesn't have to be made from scratch. I'm cool with the store-bought variety. I'll just watch the new Star Trek trailer a few dozen more times until you can get here. Don't forget the whipped cream.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 04:54 PM | Comments (0)

March 13, 2009

They Say The Darndest Things

I rode down the elevator this morning with an elderly woman who was chatting amiably with my nurse about how she tutors grade-school kids in basic arithmetic. "It's so important to know your numbers," she said. As I'm backing out of the elevator, she looked at me, smiled, and said, "Do you know your numbers?"

Le sigh. Put me in an elevator with some random old lady and there's a better-than-even chance I'll emerge a couple minutes later with blog material. Kind of like how the odds for rain improve after you wash your car. I think I replied with something along the lines of "I sure hope so." I'm not terribly clever early in the morning. I should have said, "Lady, I went to law school so I wouldn't have to know my numbers."

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:43 PM | Comments (3)

March 12, 2009

Subtle Gestures

I still get a lot of use out of my aging iPod, but it's always bothered me that I can't control it without someone else's assistance. That may change if a new type of interface that measures facial movements gains widespread acceptance. According to the designers, the device--which looks like a pair of earbuds--can translate a raised eyebrow or a nose into specific commands for the attached device. For example, a smile could turn up the volume; a frown would lower the volume.

This would work great for me, as I can contort my face like a champ. But I imagine it could lead to some awkward moments:

"Uh, no, ma'am, I was not winking at you. I was just trying to find that great M.I.A. remix I downloaded to my iPod last night."

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)

March 11, 2009

In This Together

Okay, this will be my last link to a NY Times story for the week. It's a short essay by a husband describing how he and his wife found ways to cope after she became a paraplegic in a car accident. He writes frankly about the challenges they both faced in the ensuing years, but his tone isn't one of self-pity. Instead, he's confident and defiant. He writes:

We’ve rolled up and down the hills of Tuscany, squeezed into pubs in Ireland, explored narrow streets in Paris and Rome, gone to Red Sox games, had coffee in the sunshine in San Francisco, Portland, Chicago and Miami. And we’ve learned that alongside great loss we can still have a great life. We want it so badly, and we love it so much.

I'm not in a relationship at the moment, but if I should ever be so lucky, I hope my partner and I are as adventurous and unyielding as this couple.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:19 PM | Comments (1)

March 10, 2009

Strong Medicine

You might recall that I recently praised the NY Times for its great blogs. I need to qualify that praise after reading an entry in today's Freakonomics blog taking issue with the "unintended consequences" of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Stephen Dubner writes about a verdict in a recent ADA lawsuit where a physician had to pay damages to a deaf patient for failing to provide a sign language interpreter. Dubner quotes details of the case from an obviously biased website that advocates for physicians. Dubner's source bemoans the fact that interpreters are expensive and defends the physician for communicating with the patient via written notes. Fortunately, a little Googling unearths a more impartial recounting of the facts behind the case.

Dubner goes on to say that physicians will be less likely to serve patients with disabilities because of trial verdicts like this one, "[i]n which case a law designed to prevent discrimination will, yes, encourage discrimination." It's an argument I've heard before and it's a cop-out; a weak excuse for softening laws like the ADA. The ADA is unique among federal civil rights laws in that it places affirmative duties on businesses both large and small. It's not enough to simply be well-meaning; the business owner sometimes has to make reasonable accommodations for a customer or client. But this obligation is not without limit. Businesses don't have to provide accommodations that would place an undue hardship on the business. What constitutes an undue hardship? That's why we have juries.

Dubner wants to frame big jury verdicts as exacting an unintended "price of disability law". But in the cases he cites, the law worked as it was supposed to. Civil rights laws without enforcement mechanisms are only so much happy talk. Physicians who refuse to see patients with disabilities are only creating more business for other physicians who rightly see accommodations as just another cost of doing business.

The only thing more troubling than Dubner's post were the reader comments, which are illustrative of why we need laws like the ADA.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:21 PM | Comments (1)

March 09, 2009

This Modern Love

David Gibbs III, a lawyer who fervently opposes gay marriage, puts a decidedly futuristic spin on the tired slippery slope argument. Money quote:

(Gibbs) told rally participants gay marriage would "open the door to unusual marriage in North Carolina.

"Why not polygamy, or three or four spouses?" Gibbs asked. "Maybe people will want to marry their pets or robots."

Two thoughts. First, never be impressed when someone tells you he or she is an attorney. As the above amply demonstrates, anyone can get into law school.

Second, why is this man trying to stand between me and my dreams? As long as me and my future robot girlfriend (who will bear a striking resemblance to Summer Glau) are committed to each other--and she doesn't go on homicidal rampage as a result of a faulty microprocessor--who is this guy to pass judgment on our happiness?

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:30 PM | Comments (1)

March 08, 2009

Signs of Respectability

If you're looking for more evidence that the geeks are taking over the national discourse, the Times is now running a weekly bestseller list for graphic novels and manga in its ArtBeats blog. I give it another 9-12 months before we start seeing lists in the Times for the most watched streaming videos and bestselling e-books. And now I have another resource to fuel my only slightly out-of-control comic book purchasing habit.

Incidentally, the Times' blogs are becoming must-reads for me. Blogs like The Caucus (politics), Bits (technology), and Economix (economics with a practical twist) provide great supplements to the regular articles and links to other points of interest on the Web; exactly what good blogs should do. Plenty of newspapers, including the Times, are struggling to survive, but the Times seems to have a better grasp on how to use the medium of the Web to develop content (like this photo profile of Obama's staff) that would be much more static and uninteresting in a traditional newspaper.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 03:05 PM | Comments (1)

March 07, 2009

Critic At Large: Watchmen

Set in an alternate 1985 where Richard Nixon is still president, the United States emerged victorious in Vietnam, and "costumed adventurers" are part of the fabric of everyday society, Watchmen examines the lives of several deeply flawed characters who have hung up their Spandex after a federal law banning masked vigilantes forced them to retire. The movie is largely faithful to the comic book, with the exception of a significantly altered ending.

The movie gets a lot of things right. The ambiance of a slightly warped 80s America, Jackie Earle Haley as the sociopath Rorschach, the omnipotent Dr. Manhattan's skewed sense of time. But some of a acting felt stilted, although that might be a function of the source material. Comic book dialogue can have a certain exaggerated style that can sound a little silly when spoken aloud. And I'm still waiting for the day when we get a comic book movie with a strong female lead, a female lead who can do more than kick a little ass and give one of the male leads a good lay.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 01:26 PM | Comments (0)

March 06, 2009

Nite-Owl And Friends

My friend Allie didn't care for Watchmen. I'll try to post some thoughts on it this weekend. In the meantime, this re-imagining of the seminal comic as a Saturday morning cartoon--complete with a goofy Rorschach--is clever and amusing. 

In other news from the Department of Things that Make Me Proclaim "Dude!", here's the latest trailer from the forthcoming Terminator movie. Three words. Killer. Robot. Motorcycles.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:09 PM | Comments (0)

March 05, 2009

X-Ray Vision Can't Be Far Behind

A British man has had some semblance of his vision restored after having a bionic eye surgically implanted. He can see the white lines on a road and sort his socks. This particular type of bionic eye only works on people with certain degenerative retinal diseases, but early results are promising.

Once I get my brain implant, I'm going to find other people with implants and bionic parts and we'll form a team of crime-fighting superheroes. I'll call myself Gray Matter: mild-mannered bureaucrat by day, masked avenging nerd by night.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:43 PM | Comments (2)

March 04, 2009

Dear Leader

The Republican Party has opted to skip the civil war so many observers have been predicting and instead has chosen a suicide pact. And they're not even going out in a blaze of glory. Instead, they're shuffling to form a line in front of a snarling, odious little man who is more than happy to put a bullet into the head of every groveling one of them. During the election, they tried so hard to portray Democrats as a hapless bunch of ideologues in thrall to a leader with no experience. And now, they're scratching their heads and trying to figure out how they let themselves be turned into human sacrifices for Limbaugh's ambition and narcissism.

They should have realized the wheels were coming off when their newly elected chairman said that the party needs to "uptick [its] image with everyone, including one-armed midgets."

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:13 PM | Comments (2)

March 03, 2009

That's A Wrap, Lads

It says something about how my musical tastes have shifted over the years when I'm looking forward to the new Royksopp album more than the newly released U2 album. I found U2's last effort to be underwhelming and the tracks I've heard on their latest aren't doing much for me, either. I want another Zooropa, but I think the band's more experimental days are long gone.

I am, however, totally down with Royksopp's brand of airy Scandinavian electronica. The video for their new single "Happy Up Here" contains a clever and charming riff on a certain Eighties pop culture artifact.

And just so you don't think I've always been an insufferable music snob, here's a little-known fact: I once owned both a Mariah Carey album and a :shudder: Color Me Badd album. Feel free to snicker in the comments section.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:23 PM | Comments (2)

March 02, 2009

Life's Green Film

I wish I had heard of Christopher Nolan, the Irish writer and poet, before reading about his recent death today. Nolan was born with severe cerebral palsy; he could not speak and he had full control only over his head and eyes. He learned to type using a stick attached to his head. In 1987, at the age of 22, he won the Whitbread Award for his autobiography Under the Eye of the Clock. "The Economist's obituary for Nolan provides a few short excerpts of his work (although the article's subtitle referring to him as the "voice of the crippled" made me grit my teeth a little").

He died at age 43 after choking on some food. A tragic death, but it was preceded by a life rich with accomplishment.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:14 PM | Comments (1)

March 01, 2009

Game Changer?

You're probably not in the mood for another wonkish post, but I'm still a little taken aback by the scope and ambition of Obama's recently proposed budget. It sets forth a genuinely progressive agenda the likes of which we haven't seen in over three decades. it puts real dollars behind policies that, up until now, have only existed as white papers stuffed away in the file cabinets of think tanks. It's kind of surreal. We as a citizenry have grown so accustomed to a political culture that reward the perpetuation of the status quo, which makes Obama's aggressive focus on priorities like health care, education, and energy so bracing. I remember the early days of the Clinton administration, when lots of people were just stoked to have a Democrat back in the White House, but Clinton would never have dared to propose anything so daring as this budget. As George Packer notes, Obama is looking to make history in redefining our priorities.

The knives are already being sharpened in preparation for the fight ahead to enact this budget. The status quo has worked very well for the wealthy and corporations; they aren't about to meekly accept a future where they pay more taxes and have less influence. Obama seems to recognize that he's going to need a longer knife than everyone else's and he's already talking tough. And after years in the political wilderness, the left has a whole ecosystem of advocacy organizations to do the heavy lifting of mobilizing support for these initiatives.

The Republicans have taught us well.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 02:52 PM | Comments (1)