daBlog by goddess101

Natural Farming

Here’s a link to a great story about natural farming as taught by Masanobu Fukuoka. Enlightening and inspirational.

The site itself is also a great source of information about Fukuoka’s genius invention: the seed ball.

UPDATE: The links above unfortunately do not work any more. For more information, start with the Wikipedia entry for Masanobu Fukuoka.

Ready, Set, Code!!!

If I had to take a guess, cilibrar and I altogether have logged at least 120 hours of coding in the last 5 days. We start our day around 7:30am and code straight through until we hit the hay at 12:30pm. He takes an occasional break, of 10 – 15 minutes, playing Oblivion. I spend about an hour or so cooking; the rest of the time is spent punching out code and debugging. We effortlessly hop from one language to another: from C++ to Java to Ruby to HTML… The only time we’ve spent outside in this beautiful weather is to grab groceries for our long periods indoors. It’s a coding frenzy here in Amsterdam!

So what are we spending so much coding time on? Well, perhaps it’s not so good to announce yet, as we are still in the testing stages, but it’s been a fun project so far, particularly working in Java, which is actually a pretty decent language. It’s the first coding I’ve ever really done in Java, and it was easy to pick up. C++ is another story. That stuff is painful and I would not wish it on anyone!

Colbert Roasting Bush

There’s a great video on the internet, which cilibrar and I just viewed, featuring Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert totally laying into President Bush at the recent White House Correspondents Association dinner. Definitely worth taking a look. Here’s a good place to start for more info and links to view the video.

There are a couple of interesting things worth noting about this event. First of all, the audience’s reaction. The crowd consisted mostly of White House reporters and celebrities, who, although the speech was filled with rather scathing jokes about the guest of honor, laughed uncomfortably the entire time. Reminds me of the very last line of the book I finished a few days ago, Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death:

For in the end, he was trying to tell us that what afflicted people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking.

Secondly, media coverage of Colbert’s speech was barely touched on. Most news reports talked about Bush’s lampooning of himself with a Bush impersonator (I need to check out the video myself!), and only mentioned Colbert in passing or described him as “not funny” or that he “bombed badly.”

I could go on about their (non)reaction to the speech, but I think Salon’s Joan Walsh put it more eloquently:

Intimidated, coddled, fearful of violating propriety, the press corps that for years dutifully repeated Bush talking points was stunned and horrified when someone dared to reveal that the media emperor had no clothes.

The Story of English

I just finished reading The Story of English by Robert McCrum, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil. Since I started it about a month ago, it’s been an absolutely fun and informative read, full of interesting tidbits about the English language without the pretentiousness one would expect from a book about the one of the most popular languages in the world and arguably the most important.

Who knew that our current use of the word cool (Fonzie cool, not refrigerator cool) actually came about by those who thought the word hot, when used to describe jazz music, was overused? We also owe thanks to the drunkards of the Wild West who gave us discombobulate and lallapalooza, the gamblers on Mississippi riverboats who invented a full-deck of phrases such as square deal, new deal, fair deal, raw deal, and big deal, and even the Valley girls and surfers of California who have made totally, outstanding, and awesome household words.

Ever think you were too cool for Shakespeare? The book prints a great quote about the bard from English journalist Bernard Levin:

If you cannot understand my argument, and declare “It’s Greek to me’’, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger; if your wish is farther to the thought; if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool’s paradise -why, be that as it may, the more fool you , for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then – to give the devil his due – if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then – by Jove! O Lord! Tut tut! For goodness’ sake! What the dickens! But me no buts! – it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.

Finally, one of the most interesting chapters in the book is “Black on White,” an exploration of the beginnings and evolution of Black English, also known today as African American Vernacular English (AAVE) or more commonly Ebonics. Tho many view AAVE as a joke (who did not absolutely love when Mrs. Cleaver claimed she could speak “jive” in Airplane?) and think that acknowledging it is only promoting badly spoken English, one can’t deny that it is a language with its own grammar rules and rhythms, having started in the South when displaced African slaves needed a way to communicate with each other (since they were often from different areas of Africa with different dialects) as well as to their masters. It is also important to realize that American English, itself, is just another flavor of English, just as British English is quite distinct, Australian English, Irish English, and the various other types of English/pidgins in the world. Seems not recognizing Ebonics as its own language is almost like denying the slave trade ever happened.

Til Death Do Us Part?

I just finished this awesome book, Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. An exploration of how electronic media, particularly television, has shaped our culture, it was written 20 years ago, but is as relevent today as we are slowly replacing the boob tube with other electronic entertainment devices, including iPods, cell phones, game consoles, and computers. Let’s face it, most of us spend hours upon hours, watching, chatting about, and surfing for things that are amusing to us but hardly ever amount to anything real. Even the evening news, tho informative, Postman argues is one of television’s greatest evils:

What steps do you plan to take to reduce the conflict in the Middle East? Or the rates of inflation, crime and unemployment? What are your plans for preserving the environment or reducing the risk of nuclear war?... The news elicits from you a variety of opinions about which you can do nothing except to offer them as more news, about which you can do nothing.

Postman also attacks the much-loved children’s program “Sesame Street.” While the show is both educational and entertaining, Postman is right when he says it “does not encourage children to love school or anything about school. It encourages them to love television.”

The main point the book makes is that Aldous Huxley’s prophetic Brave New World has eclipsed Orwell’s vision in 1984. That is, the government controls us not through oppression, but by giving us what we want.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions”. In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

I would have to argue, however, with the passing of the Patriot Act, Bush’s admission to approving warrentless wiretapping, AOL’s recent announcement that they filter subscribers’ emails, etc, Orwell and Huxley are on equal footing. Amusing Ourselves to Death is nonetheless an excellent read.