Ph34r th3 Riot and Women

"Pussy Riot aren't just on tour. They're on the run. When we meet in a secret location in central London, they make it clear that this interview is on condition of anonymity." Pussy Riot: "People fear us because we're feminists"

This is not a joke, not a game, it is deadly serious, and in many ways a "crime".

We should be 7 billion (and counting) working together to make a world for all, and lay the foundations for expanding off it.

Not be spending our time trying to put half or more on the bench.

Too young, too old, female, gay, colored, atheist, anarchist, 99%, lowlife, wasted youth or unemployed.
What ever the label, it serves to divide us, keep our minds in the mud of the past.

Just to put it into context, another piece by Penny red at the New Statesman; Emily Wilding Davison made the only choice she could bear

In old footage of the suffragettes, they look like a gang of angry bantams, flapping about in their outsized hats and ridiculous full skirts. The very word “suffragettes” sounds like the kind of fusty, village-hall girl band your auntie might sing in at weekends, rather than a revolutionary organisation whose members were prepared to die so that others might live free

This is the world we live in. Where everyday millions have to fight for what we took for granted. What should have been won generations ago, paid in blood and suffering, is still contested. Be it in the squares and mosques of Cairo, or on the sporting stage in Russia.

So why SHOULD you vote?

Story sketch - the forking election

Saw this tweet way way back, and RT'ed with the comment; there is a short story in that. 

@mwiik Thinking: In the future, candidates for president will advertise "fork me on github" #hacksociety

Not going to write out a full story, most likely, but wanted to get some ideas and hooks down here in case it feels right or triggers something else. Maybe something to pick up in time for NaNoWriMo, or just a fun fragment to look back at a while down the line.

title ideas

the forking election

one man, one fork

don't just vote, push

chars

bob - candidate 1, running for the incumbent party, wants to change it up, but unsure of how far his mandate will hold. Wants to use politico.code [PC] to explore the fringes.

harper - the upstart in the challenger party, pushing for a broader agenda. has a long stint as founder and tech lead behind him, before converting to politics. still dabbles in open source, to keep connected and credible. One of the first ten politicians to structure his platform on politico.code [PC] , and a strong supporter of the vote-platform auto integration

emma - current tech lead for voter engagement at the incumbents, has been an intern in one of harpers start ups, and also at [PC] before getting the current posting. Loves the tech chances the job offers, but unsure about the nuances in the politics of the party.

NN - political hacktivist, loves to challenge politicians on their lack of track record for voting along their stated platform.

scenes

bob office, emma and bob discuss areas suitable for wider testing on [PC] 

coffee shop - harper surfing blogs for ideas, new ad campaign, finds discussion with prominent political thinker X and NN, decides to "challenge" NN and his ilk in the campaign - "keep me honest"

(soundtrack; Count Basie, the kid from red bank, opening track on Complete Atomic Basie)

bob launches his [PC] effort just hours before harpers campaign kicks off, making it a feeding frenzy for talkshows, blogs and corridors

(soundtrack; Christina Aguillera, Fighter)

talk show - bob and harper face off, hangout style on boingboing - [PC] goes mainstream, signups skyrockets

challenger party first tier nominee hopefulls finds themselves sidelined, all the debates are about bob vs harper - with [PC]  taking center stage

the election sees record particiaption - both of "old school" voters who want their voice heard directly, and by the "new gen" of the [PC] involved activist coder voters

closing scenes, bob and harper watching the buzz as voting closes, blogs, feeds, dashboard from last minute [PC] suggestions

THE END 

Democracy, because you're worth it

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want 

and deserve to get it good and hard."

via Quotes of the Day, one of many attributed to H. L. Mencken - listed as US editor (1880 - 1956) and it is the second to last of the draft backlog here. Fitting in a way.

It certainly reflects on thoughts going back to Plato and others, that the masses are more or less stupid, and giving them the full power will give them what they "deserve" rather than what they "need". Guidance rather than understanding being the defining bias. Some know better, and they should not only be elected, but preferred.

Democracy is not a single thing, and every nation that has at least one version running, does it differently. It is the ultimate open source forking model. Some states run things differently for different levels. Local, regional and national each having their rules and measures.

So it is a "broken" concept, yet it is vastly better than the alternatives seen so far. We can live with the small "injustices" of uneven representation or extended campaigning over political labour. And come fall here in Norway, the whole spectacle will get into gear. Because we deserve it. Because it is worth it.

Think bad thoughts, it is worth it

Ending the weekend with a "live" post - more stream of consciousness than overly planned. The quotes were trimmed down a few days ago, so we'll see if it still makes sense now. More scheduled stuff coming in the next days, counting down towards zero in the backlog of drafts!

Started reading "Random Acts of Violence", about 1/3 of the way in, and it still is a bit unclear how to describe the book... it is sort of a typical "YA" diary, growing up story. But every few pages there are drops of something darker, more sinister in the background than just plain vanilla NYC.

But it none the less ties nicely into the post by C.S.Penn that initailly sparked the title;

An odd metaphysical thought (re)occurred to me last night while reading some of the day’s news stories. Maybe a contributing reason to why it feels like we’re experiencing more trouble in the world is because we’re actively wishing for it. [src]

Do we make the world we want? Or are we just flowing along in a comfort zone until it all breaks apart?

News and images coming in from Turkey over the last few weeks seem to enhance the "shit hits the fan" theory. Been there for vacation, and got more or less the same vibe as the majority of Mediterranean spots - secular, modern, a bit pushy and "fast and loose" with the stories.

Today the "official" protest is reported at a million in attendance... austerity in Greece, minor collaps in Cyprus and all out war in Syria. Now try sitting in the middle.

Our politics are more about putting the other guy/gal/party/ideology down than they are promoting what we believe in, so much so that we define candidates by what they oppose instead of what they support. [ibid]

Typically US? Or spreading a little bit every day? We are heading into election season in Norway, a slow simmer during the summer then some crazy weeks in early autumn. So far it looks like a lot of "name calling" dressed up as "taking a stand". On both sides. Both the incumbent coalition, and the opposition trying to figure out what kind of constellation they might win with and live with.

How will the overall tone be?

Last election was local, and came not to long after 227. So it was strange and respectful at the same time. This time it is national, and the stakes are higher than in a long time.

8 years of rule that has in most ways kept us out of the Housing/Euro/austerity crisis rolling across Southern Europe and the US.

But how much would really change? In the largest city in southern Norway, the two main opposing parties ruled together last term - because they both had issues with their respective coalition partners. And the direct changes in the budget (ie above and beyond the running costs and long term agreements) is tiny.

If a company or organization does something good, does something constructive, then reward them with your business. Be especially vigilant about rewarding people of opposing viewpoints when they do something that’s good – recognize that even in your differences, we all share the same common hopes and dreams. [ibid]

So play nice, reward nice - and think about the choices you do make - be it of action or omission


The post How to starve trouble appeared first on Christopher S. Penn : Awaken Your Superhero - read it in full there!

Some lines are there to cross, others to sharpen the image

The power of zero spend [src];

Rigidity is rarely your friend, but well understood boundaries make decision making a lot easier.

Two Seth quotes almost back to back, but they are from months apart initially. This also marks a push of the draft box into single digits. And that is a nice simile here - having pushed a lot of links partially out by lack of proper draft API, it was time to clean up the blog. Doing that by focusing on getting out at least 5 posts each week, and mainly by eliminating the backlog has made for a bit of extra structure and push.

Same goes for getting a project off the ground - set some (arbitrary) ground rules;

• we'll be testing 3 ideas at a time, but revise that to 2 if the differences are large enough during first runs
• each period will be more or less a week, so we have time to get data, make new ideas and run the numbers
• keep the numbers simple, and consistent - do initial comparison within each test, then combine and compare after 3-4 runs

SImple steps, but makes the difference between going all ad hoc, and being to rigid to flex out the time. 

Had a similar experience in terms of design constraints - a subcontractor just blew past the boxes that had been set up. But the end result was so much better, and inline with the actual goals (rather than the guides), that is will serve as a new template - at least for now.

Some boxes you play nice with, others you just rip apart, and use the shreds to pave a path forward.

But how do you figure out ahead of time which kind of box you are in?

You should handle the truth

So that went well. Or not. I'm still having a hard time with blogger not having a draft option in the API. Makes it close to useless in 2013 with apps and push and IFTTT ruling the flow of ideas and content.

Ranting done, the post I was planning on writing is a short spin of this note:

"Open DataExecutive Order signed by President Obama. Along with the order is an accompanying Open Data Policy released by the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Science and Technology Policy"

[via Pocket, U.S. Government Data To Be Made Freely Available]

Working with data both for analysis and viz, must say that this is great news. Others have gone into the details, and compared it to the British version.

My main "yay" is the focus on tools, including simple wrappers for making just about any database into a functional (REST based) data source and API. Oh. And did I mention they are open source?

Pushing the legacy forward, I think (and hope) this will be remembered as one of the great Obama moments. Understanding promotes stability and peace, and understanding starts with access.

So, here's to hoping for a good summer for open data, followed by inspired announcements in more countries as fall sets in.

Zen and the estrangements of mankind

Part 1 (on work v passion) and then part 2 (on mental models), makes this the third part in the flow of the book, but the fourth written and posted.

Unusual behavior tends to produce estrangement in others which tends to further the unusual behavior and thus the estrangement in self-stoking cycles until some sort of climax is reached. @1253

Part 2 ended with an idea left unsaid. And it was too soon. It is easier now, another year on from that day, our 9/11 - 227, or 7/22. 

July 22nd 2011 will probably live on for quite some time as a reminder. But even the most horrible dates fade over time, "never again April 9th" - reflecting on the way Norway was invaded by Germany and caught unprepared in 1940.

Yet it is a saying almost gone from our mind. And 70 years later we were in fact more or less taken unprepared.

By a single man. 

And his vision of the present, the future and the defining moments.


Not crazy, at least not crazy in a judicial definition - so he is serving his time. But somehow he entered into his own "world", and step by step built up a "vision" that lead him to, step by step, assemble a plan - and then a rationalization in the form of a mash up manifesto. I read parts and skimmed parts in the hours and days after 227, but have been unable, unwilling, to open it afterwards. It is best left for history, as it gives little else than a varnish atop a narrative oh so bewildered.


Which, in a strange way brings us back to ZEN - and the journey back into a life gone for our guide

He was insane. And when you look directly at an insane man all you see is a reflection of your own knowledge that he’s insane, which is not to see him at all. To see him you must see what he saw and when you are trying to see the vision of an insane man, an oblique route is the only way to come at it. [ibid, 1406]

It certainly seems like a good definition of insanity; when it is something we can't grasp, when we need to shift our mental models "one step left" in order to even grasp the outlines of the story.

Yet only a few pages previous, there is this passage;

We could not possibly be conscious of these things and remember all of them because our mind would be so full of useless details we would be unable to think ... We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful of sand the world [ibid, 1370]

Is the world even real, beyond our sampling insights or fragments of reality? Like the Matrix, it could all be a simulation. Or at the very least suffer from a solid selection bias?

We see and react to what we all can live with around us, as opposed to the jarring discomfort of unwanted elements. Like beggars, how much simpler to ignore them actively or passively, letting their strange haven under the bridge be a hidden sight, their needs and encroachment on our daily bustle.

Like science and philosophy. Most people go on their merry way rather uncaring and untouched by the big questions. Does that make them more or less real, pressing, true?

One man - no vote?

In the latest Wired to make its physically way all over here, the first article is a real mind bender;

"How Selecting Voters Randomly Can Lead to Better Elections" talks about the ancient Greek model (or Athenian to be poignant) and how it is influencing experiments and discussions today in order to improve the electoral process. 

For a backgrounder or refresher - start with Wikipedia.

And then dive into other materials, like the History Channel.

Why do we vote? Or have the right to do so?

Because or voice should be heard, and because the whole population together should feel 'responsible' for the politicians and their actions. As they take actions on our behalf. 

And as the actions or inaction impacts more and more of our lives, so should the involvement and the shared understanding grow?

Is the US vastly different? Well, in terms of political ads and spending it certainly stands out. Here in Norway the political ads are strictly legislated, in terms of when, how and who. But social media and tools like Google Adsense is blurring the lines between information and campaigning. 

So, should we "outsource" the care for politics - to a random sample, or to those who really really care? 

Or, should perhaps the media and the politicians work together to expand the insight and transparency, and radically change how politics is discussed? Or should we as citizens ourselves take control of the agenda?

Holder de ord is one such initiative - an open source collaboration (github!) to present voting data from the Norwegian parliament. It translates as "do they keep their word" - and is similar to sites like They Work For You in the UK

Is 60% or 50% enough? Or would it be better to have a representative selection of a few hundred? Would it make a difference? For the politicians, for us, for the future?

Who loves you, and who do you love?

Starting off this back-post with a little bit of mood music, setting the mood and the stage. Bringing us back to England in the late nineties. With the rave track The messiah, featuring the quotes borrowed as a title; Who loves you, and who do you love? [Running Man]

This is part of my history, but also of a lot of myths. The summer of love. The happy generation. Bringing youths together in new ways, before Internet and mobiles dominated.

"Tribalism’s hothouse atmosphere has turned history into myth. ..., we use myth not to inform, but to bond"

- Intelligent Life

Stories for children? Lies for adults... as they said in the Science of Discworld books. History is a selection, a bias, strengthens over time to support an image, an ideal, a group. But do we need it anymore at the national level? 


Does it make sense to talk about the nation state in a grand perspective, when it is 14 billion years and change... And then at least ten thousand years of intelligent life (pun intended re source)?

Norway as a modern state dates back to 1905 or 1814, first parted from Denmark into a union with Sweden and then Independence. So why trace routes past four hundred years of assorted constellations jut to find a "true" past?


I for one am more influenced by ancient Greece, assorted enlightenment ideals, some English poets, thinkers and tinkerers. Not to mention the global, but US centric, online digital mash up of it all. Sure I enjoy the sagas and tales of old Norse gods and exploits. But they no more impact my daily life than does the Odyssey.

"We can found our identity on personal taste, not national myth. The future, in this reading, belongs to supranational groupings—football fans, jazz lovers, “Twilight” addicts—whose bonds soar over state boundaries like cut-price airlines"

Not one identity, but a mix suited to you, based on when and how you grew up, went to university and worked. Geography meet ideas. Limits, meet boundless. 


So, I might be a Norwegian by birth, but I am a geek, a ManU man, 'enga in my heart and so on. 
Not quite a brown coat, but certainly a wheedon'esqu gibson'reading free tweeting digitized mind. 


Also an ex-consultant and an ENTJ, which pegs me more than any national boundary could ever possibly do. Personality goes a long way...

"Any worthwhile identity must grow from self-awareness as well as self-esteem, and the sceptical temperature of contemporary life is conducive to a journey of self-knowledge"

And with tools like blogs to reflect and for some also debate, the options are endless. To bad the time isn't. But keep on telling the stories, shaping the myths and maybe, just maybe you'll figure out; Who loves you, and who do you love? 






...if not: it's time to start RUNNING

Gutenberg of Arabia - #18days

"Today, it occurs to me that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube may be the Gutenberg press of the Middle East, tools like his that enable people to speak, share, and gather"

Buzzmachine, Jeff Jarvis [Gutenberg of Arabia]

Interesting post, and the story plugs that it makes for are quite profound;

could the use of social media not only usher in a new wave of democracy to rival the "fall of the wall" in the late 80-ies, but also spark of a "reformation" type event for Islam as well? Bringing the religion and the region into the new millenium on our calendar and re-igniting the old scholarly culture of co-existence?

Together alone - westpoint commencement speech

This little musing was triggered by reading the piece called Solitude and Leadership, which according to the page from American Scholar was initially given as a commencement speech at the army academy, Westpoint

By giving my brain a chance to make associations, draw connections, take me by surprise. And often even that idea doesn’t turn out to be very good. I need time to think about it, too, to make mistakes and recognize them, to make false starts and correct them, to outlast my impulses, to defeat my desire to declare the job done and move on to the next thing.

(full)

The quotes are out of order, but it semmed fitting to start of with the idea that fits a sort of theme here lately, how do we match inspiration, exploration and development? What is it that triggers those great ideas at times, but leaves us staring blankly into space at others?

Sometimes the very act of getting started triggers more ideas, in a stream of consciousness kind of way, rambling along on slight tangents in the vicinity of the issue or the solution. This is actually one of the main points in Art of War (yes, finished it, will re-read in a month or so, it was that good, quick and inspirational) - the muse comes when you actually do work, not when you sit around thinking about it or complaining about all that has to be done.

We have a crisis of leadership in America because our overwhelming power and wealth, earned under earlier generations of leaders, made us complacent, and for too long we have been training leaders who only know how to keep the routine going. Who can answer questions, but don’t know how to ask them. Who can fulfill goals, but don’t know how to set them

(full)


And the second points brings us right into the world and ideas of Linchpin - and also one of my personal regular quotes; "life is to good in Norway, we don'thave to make tough choices". The main point being that it is adversity that shows us our true limits, that expands the horizons and makes us thinking the really new thoughts. And most of all, it is the same list for something more that makes a few of us go the extra mile, put in the effort and push forwards.

One of the most rewarding learning experiences from basic officers training was (in hindsight, then and there it really sucked) the all night patrol, in the winter, with set snow, snowshoes, a heavy Pulk to be pulled up and over a ridge. Going in there was no way I would have belived we could get it done.half way up there was no way I could see that we would make it to the top, never mind carrying on along and back down. But we did it, because when you really have to, there is so much more energy and determination driving you onwards than when you are sitting quite comfortably on the couch considering headong out for a walk. Yes we can, as someone said a short while ago.

If you never face true challenges, you go a bit soft, and if you are constantly rewarded for staying within the lines you forget how to explore. Does it mean the end of the world? Probably not, but it might mean the end of the improvements we are acustomed to, and most certainly it will mean a shift in where ideas come to life (which might over time also change the economic powerbase)

- ...and the sun wants to come out after a rainy night...

Memix - remix

YouTube: "Memix" a fun remix/mashup of the interview between Colbert and Lessig, "set to a dance beat" [first vid via gisleh on twitter]

Love the focus and twist to "memix" - how I add value by doing something more. Really in character while at the same time making a great point. It's not about distribution, but about creativity and the chance to express something based on the things around you.

Strangely now meme or wikipedia article on the term yet.

...and the sun ran away from the rain of winter today ...

Poynter column on the news as a part of a process rather than as a goal in and of itself;
"News doesn't always have to be a finished story. In some cases, a launching point might be even more intriguing and engaging."

Isn't that the "holy grail" or great promise of online journalism? Giving the reader everything they need in order to go as deep or far as they need, want and have the time for?
By tying in information both from internal and external sources, you can provide a much bigger picture - just like Silobreaker - thereby broadening the options for the reades.
Previous articles about the mayor and his campaing finance? Check. Previous tv-segments from the debate last fall? Check. Google or Archive versions of his blog posts? Check.
No, it doesn't make sense for a lot of stories - but the more automated the core is, the easier it becomes to add some insight quickly by highlighting one of five possible stories - or by removing one that is out of date. When there is between a hundred and three hundred articles on the taliban in silobreaker, it is a pure necessity to be able to filter further, zoom in on a timespan (use the chart) And the same policy should be core for any news organization.

Bring the reader everything they might need or want - and then make it easy for them to do their filtering.

"But then, "most people" don't care about any particular story you can find in a mainstream news venue. The "general audience" is a myth. When you get down to the story level, news has always been about niches. Every piece of news has its own community of relevance -- and every news topic offers myriad potential stories." - check for further comments

Scale, test and improve

The EU is building a digital library - "direct access to some 2 million digital objects, including film material, photos, paintings, sounds, maps, manuscripts, books, newspapers and archival papers"

The prototype was launched November 20th, but quickly take down - due to excessive traffic reported as "more than 10m hits per hour". Comparing that to the official stats here in Norway with VG.no clocking in some 350m PI last week - should equate to 2m per hour over the whole week, and a bit more during peaks.

So the conclusion? Great idea - to bad about the miscalculation on the interest. looking forward to the re-launch!

Might have been a better idea to get things going with just some of the content types - those not needing a lot of server prowess for pushing out. Seems like the partner list is a bit thin in terms of high tech and hosting - no Akamai or Cisco here.

Can't imagine YouTube and Google seeing anything less with their expanded HD offering over the last few days...

Be all you can

so true, and so simple - don't work against your audience, work for it and with it!

"The NRKbeta doctrine":

The only way to control your content is to be the best provider of it.

[NRK beta is the play/think site for the national broadcaster here in Norway]

Contrasting authors and life

Two non-related authors popped up in my assorted reading over the weekend;

first off Upton Sinclair, and his work The Jungle [Wikip 1 and 2, including a link to the free e-verison] - presenting a grim view of what lie hidden behind the doors that society would rather not peek at. And certainly would rather not have burst open. But they did, and in time it became better.
Now, a hundred years later? Well, as the world turns, so does the sins of the fathers. Still there are sweatshops, child labour and limited options for some, while others have too much of everything but time and happiness.

Then there is the author known as Yukio Mishima and mainly the book Spring Snow, part of the Sea of Fertility quartet [Wikip 1, 2 and 3]. Here it was certainly the man and not the books who had the most apparent impact, in terms of his rather public ritualized suicide and apparent attempted coup.
But it is the writings that live on, telling of a time gone by but bringing up issues and problems that are as eternal as the duality of man (good and evil, love and hate). So, another book to read and another perspective to consider or just enjoy.


One a sidenote, I just got around to finishing Slaughterhouse-Five( from 1969, the year after Spring Snow) during the week. So it goes. Somewhere in time they are all alive, and Dresden is beautiful. So it goes.

Hidden in plain sight

A pretty good article in Wired this issue on "ARG" or alternate reality games, focusing mainly on the NIN and Trent Reznor game around Year Zero. The article itself included several pretty obvious clues and mini-games, but it is the online edition that really shines - including links to special video and a bit more background. Among them a clip that ends with a link to the Open Source Resistance.

One minor gripe, having the same question online makes sense - but that makes the magazine redundant, so perhaps there should have been a more direct pointer to the 'hidden' link and the content (or perhaps there was? In a hex transformation of the text, or as the first letter of each word of the hidden message? The possibilities are almost endless, considering the complexity of some of the the other "hints")

...and the sun shone brightly on the new snow...

What's in a name - a number?

Once upon a time (in early June actually) I read a rather special piece written by "863", or Gudmund Hernes [Wp] a former minister currently working at FAFO ("critical and action-oriented research on working life and social policy") and at the time contributing to Morgenbladet (the piece is only available in Norwegian, and for subscribers to the paper)

Two trains of thought related to this - first off the power of the net for finding all kinds of information. The excellent site of SSB (Norwegian bureau of statistics) has the search form, and it tells me that I'm one of 4417 - and the chart indicates that something like 1/3 are younger (sorry, no direct link - staying in online nick mode - have a look at 863 instead) making me perhaps 2996.

Looking back through the ages - it is quite clear that tradition has ruled, with Arne from 1911 to 1935 and Jan from 1940 until 1973 - so even at 4417 I still feel almost unique. Which brings us around to the actual topic of the piece; "why am I on first name terms with you?"

863 lists several possible reasons, from the US ways, passing by teens, celebrities and Alzheimer then coming to the tail and intimacy. Have we lost the necessary authority and respect to actually think in terms of private and public, near and far?

Are we all so close and open with the net and 24 hour news, that erecting barriers and formalities is outmoded? Or is it a way to escape the burdens of moving forward, just tackling the close and imminent agenda - rather than having a vision and a grand goal?

Or is it 863 that is turning into an old man, unable to adapt and therefore setting my ideas off on a path not suitable for progress? Perhaps both - it is the rumblings of the times, but at the same time we all seem lost for traction - the faith of decades past of a golden future coming closer seems to be almost forgotten. As we bicker about who is to blame for raising interest rates and lack of interest in science in the next generation, the future is moving away, leaving us behind in a polluted, segregated and divided world. Democracy doesn't mean happiness, nor does capitalism mean riches for all.

...time to snap out of it? Or to do something about it?


...and the sun is heating up even more, making the cold morning and nights of fall seem far far away, almost surreal...
//listening to Live - The Distance to here

Really big picture

Jostein Gaarder – wrote previously regarding his essay and the wikipedia debate, had a great quote; “Perhaps humans are the only living beings in the entire Universe with a universal consciousness. Then it’s not just a global responsibility to preserve life-environments on this planet. It is a cosmic responsibility”

Wow. That hit me right in the mental stomach – knocked my thoughts all over the place. What a way to make everyday issues like spring cleaning and washing the windows seem miniscule and insignificant. Perhaps we are not just here to take care of our neighborhood and the globe… but to care for the Universe in all its expanding, mystical glory.

And a short nod to EscapePod – their issue number 100 with the almost always brilliant Isaac Asimov, and the story Nightfall seemed almost pre-cognitient when looking back –as I had just heard it before the news of the “other planet” (see previous post) arrived all over the web.

Who are we to preach – about the sins of the fathers and grandfathers before them?

Just under 90 years ago – as my grandmother started school, women started getting the right to vote in our wonderful democracies. In the span of the last century we – the western world, Europe, the white man, has started off two major conflicts – so large they were labeled World Wars – killing millions, and maiming and scarring countless more.

Even today it is not a simple matter of one man one vote. Here in Norway a vote cast up north counts many times over more than a vote here in the capital Oslo. And in the USA “undesirables” such as past prisoners are past 5 million, with another 2 or more currently in prison – all of them stripped of having their say.

What would “we” say today if China said it was becoming a true democracy – just having the selected few men considered citizens vote? Yet that was the tradition in Greece and Athens – the cradle of democracy, and like the “Founding Fathers” they kept their slaves close and the women off to the side. And France, liberty and all that? They waited until their liberation from the Germans was at hand - 1944, so when they elect a president today it will be with 63 years of votes for all.

How long does something have to last before it becomes the only option? How fast can we condemn our own past mistakes by calling on others to follow directly in our steps- no matter how many generations they might need to take the steps we have already forgotten in the mist of time?

...and the sun is clouded over...