Category: obscure pursuits

creative re-use

Subject: [freecycleseattle] WANTED: PrimeStar (or similar) dish
I just need the dish, but will take any parts you want to get rid of.

This is for a wireless Internet project to cover the Magnuson Park area.

This is interesting: that’s a big park with lots of areas that could be used as impromptu gathering/work places.

Now playing:Symphony No.5 in C minor, op.67, Allegro by Ludwig van Beethoven from the album “Symphony No.5, Op.67 & “Egmont” Op.84″ | Buy it

No body politic is healthy until it begins to itch.

I am frightened by the imbalance, the constant striving to reach the largest possible audience for everything; by the absence of a sustained study of the state of the nation. Heywood Broun once said, “No body politic is healthy until it begins to itch.” I would like television to produce some itching pills rather than this endless outpouring of tranquilizers. It can be done. Maybe it won’t be, but it could.

Bob Edwards, long-time host of NPR’s Morning Edition program, has a new book out on the life of Edward R. Murrow and his role in the creation of news broadcasting. It’s quite short — 192 pages — but chock full of amazing tales: Murrow packed a couple lifetimes’ accomplishments into one all-too-short one.

Edwards quotes a speech he gave to the Radio-Television News Directors Association and Foundation on October 15, 1958. He was distressed at the increasing commercialization of what he saw as an educational and informational medium. He wasn’t opposed to entertainment, but in the 20 years since he had been working in the medium, the culture was moving away from what had made the medium indispensable. News reporters were becoming secondary to producers and the exposition of facts in the service of truth was considered too hot to handle.

I am frightened by the imbalance, the constant striving to reach the largest possible audience for everything; by the absence of a sustained study of the state of the nation. Heywood Broun once said, “No body politic is healthy until it begins to itch.” I would like television to produce some itching pills rather than this endless outpouring of tranquilizers. It can be done. Maybe it won’t be, but it could.
[ . . . ]
[T]his nation is now in competition with malignant forces of evil who are using every instrument at their command to empty the minds of their subjects and fill those minds with slogans, determination and faith in the future. If we go on as we are, we are protecting the mind of the American public from any real contact with the menacing world that squeezes in upon us. We are engaged in a great experiment to discover whether a free public opinion can devise and direct methods of managing the affairs of the nation. We may fail. But we are handicapping ourselves needlessly.
[ . . . ]
Just once in a while let us exalt the importance of ideas and information. Let us dream to the extent of saying that on a given Sunday night the time normally occupied by Ed Sullivan is given over to a clinical survey of the state of American education, and a week or two later the time normally used by Steve Allen is devoted to a thoroughgoing study of American policy in the Middle East. Would the corporate image of their respective sponsors be damaged? Would the stockholders rise up in their wrath and complain? Would anything happen other than that a few million people would have received a little illumination on subjects that may well determine the future of this country, and therefore the future of the corporations? This method would also provide real competition between the networks as to which could outdo the others in the palatable presentation of information. It would provide an outlet for the young men of skill, and there are some even of dedication, who would like to do something other than devise methods of insulating while selling.

He started out as an educator but in the broadest sense, that of a learner who wants to share what he has learned. It shows in his remarks above. And he didn’t share the view that the American people couldn’t handle the truth. He knew better.

freecycling

No, nothing about bikes or anything strenuous. I discovered the joy of freecycling, giving away stuff to anyone who can use it, with no expenses and no hassle. I read about it in Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools newsletter last week and someone mentioned while we were watching our kids at swimming lessons: I looked into it, dug into the Tomb of Obsolete Electronics and put an old but still good 35mm Point and Shoot camera up for grabs. Not 10 minutes later, it was gone.

No, nothing about bikes or anything strenuous. I discovered the joy of freecycling, giving away stuff to anyone who can use it, with no expenses and no hassle.

I read about it in Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools newsletter last week and someone mentioned it while we were watching our kids at swimming lessons. When I got home, I looked into it, dug into the Tomb of Obsolete Electronics and put an old but still good 35mm Point and Shoot camera up for grabs. Not 10 minutes later, it was gone.

What’s cool about this is the buzz you get, not unlike making a purchasing score . . . . you’re hooking someone up with something they want and you don’t. In the case of the camera, the lucky winner told me she had never had a camera before: it’s so much better to let her have it than to try and make a couple of bucks on eBay.

I’ve got more stuff to clean out (an old camcorder and an old digital camera, some old laptop accessories, maybe an outgrown kids bike), and I’ll look for stuff I might want as well (I just missed a couple of strawberry pots yesterday).

It’s fun to just read through the listings and see what people are interested in putting up: someone mentioned today he had gotten a 74 VW bus from FreeCycle, and I saw an old International TravelAll provoke a flurry of email this week. Interestingly, you can’t bid. You get there first or if the donor wants, you make your case.

If you want to play, the understood rule is to put something up as OFFERED before posting a WANTED losting, kind of a karmic thing.

Good luck.

cell phone hell

So this cellphone number portability is supposed to be a good thing, and having tired of my service provider, I decided to see what kind of deal I could find. Seems I can get two phones from T-Mobile [no, the lack of a link is not an accident], sign up for similar service to what I have *and* get $250 back in rebates.

So this cellphone number portability is supposed to be a good thing, and having tired of my service provider, I decided to see what kind of deal I could find. Seems I can get two phones from T-Mobile [no, the lack of a link is not an accident], sign up for similar service to what I have, new handsets, *and* get $250 back in rebates.

Twist my arm, but not too hard: I’ll take it.

Continue reading “cell phone hell”

228 years young

The Declaration of Independence of The United States of America When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation…. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness…. * He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within…. * He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended legislation: ** For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: ** For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: ** For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: ** For imposing taxes on us without our Consent: ** For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: ** For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: ** For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: ** For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: ** For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever…. We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.

Time to re-read this. I heard it read aloud on NPR Friday morning and, bless them, they left the very last paragraph for Bob Edwards. It’s a striking document to listen to: so reasonable and clear, but at the same time unyielding and certain (when as the last time you used or heard the phrase ‘with manly firmness?’).

The Declaration of Independence of The United States of America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

* He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

* He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, He has utterly neglected to attend to them.

* He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

* He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

* He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

* He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

* He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws of Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

* He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

* He has made judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

* He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance.

* He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

* He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

* He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended legislation:

** For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

** For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

** For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

** For imposing taxes on us without our Consent:

** For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

** For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

** For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

** For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

** For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

* He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

* He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

* He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the Head of a civilized nation.

* He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

* He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People.

Nor have We been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.