posted
  • place: Colorado

Case Study: detrital zircon

[ED: I decided—in terms of public service and of documenting the occasional editorial work I did—to re-work and re-publish some of the public domain blog postings I authored when at the Colorado Geological Survey. This one addresses an important analytical tool used to date and characterize geologic formations that may be several billion years old.]

Detrital zircon (DZ), a tiny but invaluable occurrence of the mineral zircon, zirconium orthosilicate, plays a pivotal role in unraveling the geological history of many complex regions around the world. These minuscule crystals, often no larger than a grain of sand, hold within them a treasure trove of information about the Earth’s past. Detrital zircons are primarily found in sedimentary rocks, and their age can be determined through radiometric dating techniques, an analytic method barely a century old that arose out of the discovery of radioactivity. This laboratory process is called detrital zircon geochronology. In the case of the Front Range of Colorado, these DZs provide crucial insight into the formation and evolution of the Rocky Mountains and the geological events that have shaped the state over billions of years.

Detrital zircon grains of an igneous rock as seen through an incident light microscope. Photo credit: Martin Lindner. From: Költringer, Chiara. “Detrital Zircons: How the Age of a Resistant Mineral Can Help to Reconstruct the Climate of the Past.” Science. EGU Blogs: Climate: Past, Present & Future (blog), May 20, 2021.
Detrital zircon grains of an igneous rock as seen through an incident light microscope. Photo credit: Martin Lindner. (Költringer, 2021).
more “Case Study: detrital zircon”
posted
  • place: Cedaredge, Colorado

The Revolution of Everyday Life

Following is an excerpt, Chapter One, from an old favorite, The Revolution of Everyday Life by Raoul Vaneigem—written back in the 60s under the umbrella of the Situationists. Be forewarned, it is not a particularly easy text. Arising out of the wide-spread social unrest fomented by the post-WWII generation of European intellectuals, it contains hundreds of gems reflecting on both the roots and current realities of life. You may find it stylistically dated, lacking intersectionality, and overly idealistic, even romantic, however, there are plenty of core messages and observations that are spot on. In the current cavalcade of faux information saturation it’s well worth studying!
more “The Revolution of Everyday Life”

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The Cold War Legacy Lurking in U.S. Groundwater

[Ed: I’ve made many transits of the lands referred to in this informative if not disturbing read. One crucial issue not mentioned in this article are the rapid developments in the science behind groundwater modeling in relation to biotic vectors and what exactly is happening to uranium compounds that are available and mobile underground. The redox (and subsequent immobilization) of uranium through biotic/microbial vectors has recently been demonstrated to have major effects on reductive sedimentary environments, though gauging the precise impacts on particular situations remain difficult. See, for example, Biotic-Abiotic Pathways: A New Paradigm for Uranium Reduction in Sediments]

The town of Uravan, Colorado (named so, combining the words URAnium and VANadium) with the Manhattan Project era uranium mill operational, ca. 1950. Photo credit: Colorado Historical Society.
The town of Uravan, Colorado (named so, combining the words URAnium and VANadium) with the Manhattan Project era uranium mill operational, ca. 1950. Photo credit: Colorado Historical Society.

This story was originally published by ProPublica and was written by Mark Olalde, Mollie Simon and Alex Mierjeski, video by Gerardo del Valle, Liz Moughon and Mauricio Rodríguez Pons.

In America’s rush to build the nuclear arsenal that won the Cold War, safety was sacrificed for speed. Uranium mills that helped fuel the weapons also dumped radioactive and toxic waste into rivers like the Cheyenne in South Dakota and the Animas in Colorado. Thousands of sheep turned blue and died after foraging on land tainted by processing sites in North Dakota. And cancer wards across the West swelled with sick uranium workers. The U.S. government bankrolled the industry, and mining companies rushed to profit, building more than 50 mills and processing sites to refine uranium ore. more “The Cold War Legacy Lurking in U.S. Groundwater”

posted
  • place: Cedaredge, Colorado

Peter Lamborn Wilson 1945 – 2022

Dammit. Another passing. Peter Lamborn Wilson, aka Hakim Bey. Got this news and the following remembrance today from friend Konrad Becker, founder of Public NetBase in Vienna.

death

Peter Lamborn Wilson died in his apartment in Saugerties in upstate New York last night, reportedly from a heart attack.

A “Cyberguru” in the nineties he had no email address and wrote his pieces by hand, or on an old typewriter. With 70+ books and titles like Pirate Utopia, he inspired several generations. However, his visceral abhorrence of digital media was softened by his clever use of resources in a digitally savvy environment. As the author of Temporary Autonomous Zone he was guest at the inauguration of Public Netbase and a regular visitor here in Vienna.

Sadly, despite his personal integrity, his fame and colorful queer identity also triggered offending smears and innuendo hard to oppose. In his last months he spoke self-deprecatingly of himself as an old hippy, maybe he was, I just wish there were more of this kind. While many drift into senility in their early forties, he was bright as a button until his last day and had more clever things to say about the electronic media realm than most of the new media experts I ever met.

Following up on his contribution to the book “Digital Unconscious – Nervous Systems and Uncanny Predictions!” and with the support of Autonomedia, Felix Stalder and I ventured into a series of deeper inquiries into the fabric of media un/consciousness.

There is a general narrowing and flattening of the imagination due to the global spread of consumerism and the increasing abstraction and quantification through which the social world is constructed. PLWs work can be understood as an exploration of alternative ways of being in the world that could offer escape routes.

We, by way of Jim Flemming and Fred Barney Taylor, conducted the last interview just a few days ago. In his last interviews he liked to talk of the end of the world which he defined as an ongoing process. His lucid analysis of what went wrong in the last few thousand years was never defeatist rather it was a call to arms.

As he liked to say: Even if you are going to die tomorrow, plant a tree today. The rebellious spirit of PLW and his alter ego Hakim Bey will be immensely missed.

His essay T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism condensed and articulated some core essences of my learning facilitation and media arts praxis while simultaneously atomizing it into a negentropic flow. I ran across it as I began to engage in the European context of media criticism and activism in the early 90s. The Anarchist Library has a wide selection of his other writings well worth perusing. A second fave selection is Overcoming Tourism which strips away the hollow shell of elite migrations of consumption, leaving the displacement of the soul as the core value of movement. Its modest goal … is to address the individual traveler who has decided to resist tourism. Thank god!

Knowing there were thinkers and writers, articulators like Wilson out there formed a supportive web of like-minds when the difficult situations arose in the facilitation of open systems, autonomous zones, wherein spontaneous creative action was not simply welcome, it was the essence of be-ing in such a zone. A few of my own reflections on the TAZ along the way.

posted
  • place: Washington, D.C.

Appendix 8: The Systems Process

[Ed: this document was written by Cleveland Hopkins as an addenda to an unidentified white paper produced in the early 1970s at the Office of Telecommunications Policy (OTP) — a White House office dedicated to policy-making in a rapidly shifting telecom environment. It is meant as an introduction to the concept of the systems process for those unfamiliar with the approach. Cleveland Hopkins was involved as a Systems Analyst looking at USPS electronic mail-handling; international and domestic telecom policy; digital medical record-keeping in the context of universal health care, among many other projects. His early career included twenty years in weapons system development (radar and ICBM) with DOD and MITs Lincoln Laboratory and Radiation Lab (Rad Lab) among other organizations. See his obit for further information.]

APPENDIX 8: The Systems Process

It is the objective of this short paper to invite attention to the Systems Process, its concepts, its essential nature, limitations and capabilities, and its output.

Introduction

“The systems approach basically applies scientific methods to the solution of practical problems,” [1], Concepts of the systems process vary from regarding it as the most powerful intellectual tool ever devised to “…the vacuous systems approach…” Historically, some of these ideas were applied to the activity used during World War II by small groups of people in trying to solve problems that were beyond the capacity of one person in the available time; these initial applications were to radar matters involved in the defense of Britain. Larger business firms have used such a process for many years to pool the efforts of management to subsequently maintain or improve their profit margins. The process began to get widespread public recognition shortly after Robert S. McNamara became Secretary of Defense; he brought in a group of technical people, later called the “Whiz Kids“ by the military, who, after some effort were able to break up the massive military problems into pieces that could be profitably worked on by individuals of different professional backgrounds. Their results were then combined and modified by operational people so that the solutions were relevant to the real world. Some duplication was taken out of the military services, and great efforts were made to obtain maximum results for the money spent, giving rise to cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness schemes.

more “Appendix 8: The Systems Process”

posted
  • place: Golden, Colorado

fish-like, lizard-like, guru-like realization

Scheduled to do a swimming challenge, as clued-in by Dr. Miller: 3K per day @ 0530 AM for 12 days at the Golden Community Center. I got on the mailing list and began mulling the concept. The first day was a Monday morning. The week before, I started to crank up workouts from 2K up to 3K. 2K workouts consisted of 500 freestyle w/ pull-buoys followed by 1K of the same gradually increasing speed until the last 5 laps are strenuous, followed by 500 kick with perhaps 100 fly w/ workout fins. I used to keep a pace of 14-15 min/1K. These days, it’s more like 18 min/1k what with the post-torn-rotator cuff handicap. The prior Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: 3K/50 min. First time I’ve swam that distance since 2014 and the shoulder injury. I dropped Sarah, the organizer, a note, just to see if my times and such would generally fit in with the group. No problem.

Sarah sent out a schedule for each day’s workout on Sunday. As I scanned it, I started to mull how it would work, or how I would integrate into the organized scenario. And why swimming ‘workouts’ take certain forms. The obvious answer relates to the goal of a workout. The traditional goal, for example, in Masters Swimming, is the maintenance of ‘swim team’-type fitness, refining and optimizing strokes, swimming for times, prepping for meets (for the really hard-core), and generally a continuance of a somewhat team-style social situation.

This got me thinking about what role swimming played for me. Since I wasn’t really a team swimmer to begin with — not really into team sports at all — there was/is clearly a different motivation to be in the water. Typically, when possible, I schedule my workouts when a pool is least busy, hoping always for a solo lane. Sharing a lane, depending on who it is shared with, may be tolerable, provided the other swimmer understands the protocols, where they are in the lane, and how to stay within their half. A collision — most often of wrists/hands — can be both painful and shocking when passing at relatively high speed. One also has to be vigilant on flip-turns. And of course in all those different countries, lap swimming has absolutely different protocols, or none whatsoever. Annoying!
more “fish-like, lizard-like, guru-like realization”

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the human use of human beings …

Wiener, N. 1954. The human use of human beings: cybernetics and society. Garden City, New York: Doubleday.

Memory says I could not understand the meaning of this book in the first times I picked it up, browsing through my father’s library, looking for something to take back to the cool basement rec room to read on a sticky-hot rural Maryland summer day. I was maybe ten years old. It was the cover, in part — quite different than the drab math, engineering, and analysis tomes — that made it at least seem readable.

We are swimming upstream against a great torrent of disorganization, which tends to reduce everything to the heat death of equilibrium and sameness described in the second law of thermodynamics. What Maxwell, Bolzmann and Gibbs meant by this heat death in physics has a counterpart in the ethic of Kierkegaard, who pointed out that we live in a chaotic moral universe. In this, our main obligation is to establish arbitrary enclaves of order and system. These enclaves will not remain there indefinitely by any momentum of their own after we have once established them … We are not fighting for a definitive victory in the indefinite future. It is the greatest possible victory to be, to continue to be, and to have been … This is no defeatism, it is rather a sense of tragedy in a world in which necessity is represented by an inevitable disappearance of differentiation. The declaration of our own nature and the attempt to build an enclave of organization in the face of nature’s overwhelming tendency to disorder is an insolence against the gods and the iron necessity that they impose. Here lies tragedy, but here lies glory too.

Wiener, N. 1954. The human use of human beings: cybernetics and society. Garden City, New York: Doubleday.

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The Music of This Sphere (excerpt)

It is one of our problems that as we become crowded together, the sounds we make to each other, in our increasingly complex communication systems, become more random-sounding, accidental or incidental, and we have trouble selecting meaningful signals out of the noise. One reason is, of course, that we do not seem able to restrict our communication to information-bearing, relevant signals. Given any new technology for transmitting information, we seem bound to use it for great quantities of small talk. We are only saved by music from being overwhelmed by nonsense.

It is a marginal comfort to know that the relatively new science of bioacoustics must deal with similar problems in the sounds made by other animals to each other. No matter what sound-making device is placed at their disposal, creatures in general do a great deal of gabbling, and it requires long patience and observation to edit out the parts lacking syntax and sense. Light social conversation, designed to keep the party going, prevails. Nature abhors a long silence.

Somewhere, underlying all the other signals, is a continual music. Termites make percussive sounds to each other by beating their heads against the floor in the dark, resonating corridors of their nests. The sound has been described as resembling, to the human ear, sand falling on paper, but spectregraphic analysis of sound records has recently revealed a high degree of organization in the drumming; the beats occur in regular, rhythmic phrases, differing in duration, like notes for a tympani section.

From time to time, certain termites make a convulsive movement of their mandibles to produce a loud, high-pitched clicking sound, audible ten meters off. So much effort goes into this one note that it must have urgent meaning, at least to the sender. He cannot make it without such a wrench that he is flung one or two centimeters into the air by the recoil.

Thomas, L., 1978. The lives of a cell: notes of a biology watcher, New York, NY: Penguin Books.

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guilded cage mundane glass shell

Nothing is more depressing

than to imagine the Text as an intellectual object

( for reflection, analysis, comparison, mirroring, etc. ).

The text is an object of pleasure.

Roland Barthes —

Sade, Fourier, Loyola ….

^^^^

Reflection Analysis Comparison Mirror as Bank-King Insurance Armour

Taxation-Telefission / Distribution-Dissolution

Cap-It-All / The Alibi

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from the spamological cosmos

[interview][green][value][south][boyfriend][while][repeat][guidance][earth][debate][copy][secretary][alert][student][career][contribution][supermarket][goal][bird][general][match][room][purpose][presence][individual][pipe][September][funeral][relation][ordinary][background][gather][homework][mouth][bank][final][can][sent][passage][adult][mountain][economics][nu][freedom][message][recommendation][illegal][burn][pizza][hunt][weakness][initiative][enthusiasm][mission][mouse][pass][pen][respect][method][change][decision][signature][dump][quality][message][sex][exchange][junior][sense][mixture][chair][wall][vacation][might][forum][show][bottom][scheme][meeting][fish][status][influence][girl][pollution][high][master][schedule][February][script][response][throat][month][top][member][salt][appeal][bicycle][team][crash][distance][advertising][worker][native][light][conclusion][yahoo][game][bridge][store][floor][accident][event][estate][whereas][order][suspect][fishing][cancel][dinner][purchase][rain][radio][proposal][advantage][trick][bill][suck][black][strategy][common][product][few][long][loss][equipment][fight][design][calendar][dependent][picture][host][grab][save][bonus][gas][view][research][diamond][bug][potato][whole][wine][upper][border][swing][length][courage][debt][poet][battle][concert][past][start][pound][cable][chart][error][put][pull][iron][heart][education][combination][manner][company][layer][population][phone][airline][agent][pour][luck][official][chance][work][satisfaction][platform][desire][lack][opposite][finance][return][bone][joke][recommended][classic][employer][establishment][evening][risk][story][help][catch][juice][reply][rub][finding] more “from the spamological cosmos”

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sliding scale versus spectral range

I often use the metaphor of “sliding scale” to indicate a situation that can be described as having two end points and a continuum of blended conditions between those two points. The image came about first when talking about the different social relations indicated by the two end points “network” and “hierarchy” — and how any particular social system can be characterized as sitting somewhere along the line between those two (theoretical!) end points. I’ve always been uncomfortable with the geometric linearity of such a metaphoric illustration, though, as is relies on a limited Cartesian model. And, indeed, in an open system there are no end points to any particular description system. So, does “spectrum” OR “spectral range” perform an adequate substitution?

To speak of or to “re-present” an open system is to close the system. Language and re-presentation is a process of reduction and modeling of reality (where reality is the open system). The question of the adequacy of representation is core in this Age of Data Mining. The challenge of rendering digital data into human-readable analog information that can be effectively interpreted will always be the limiting factor in any data-driven decision-making process.

Back to the spectrum question: it is foundational to identify the (multi)variables that are of interest or crucial to what is being examined. A spectral space allows for this, but also allows for degrees of complexity that are greater than can be sensibly interpreted. This is where intuition, not analysis, comes into play. Forget artificial intelligence (what has intelligence brought us, anyway?); forget fast-Fourier-transformations (except in the case that they are generated through meat-space neural cascades; better to use a manual quasi-Gaussian blur by squinting and whatever analog output you can manage)… argh; the question of interpretation of what the spectral model presents is another challenge altogether.

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what is happening? how is this happening?

• Our analysis finds that at the end of 2010 the Top 50 private banks alone collectively managed more than $12.1 trillion in cross-­‐border invested assets for private clients, including their trusts and foundations. This is up from $5.4 trillion in 2005, representing an average annual growth rate of more than 16%.

• The three private banks handling the most assets offshore on behalf of the global super-­rich are UBS, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs. The top ten banks alone commanded over half the top fifty’s asset total – an increased share since 2005.

• The number of the global super‐rich who have amassed a $21 trillion offshore fortune is fewer than 10 million people. Of these, less than 100,000 people worldwide own $9.8 trillion of wealth held offshore.

• If this unreported $21-32 trillion, conservatively estimated, earned a modest rate of return of just 3%, and that income was taxed at just 30%, this would have generated income tax revenues of between $190-­‐280 bn – roughly twice the amount OECD countries spend on all overseas development assistance around the world. Inheritance, capital gains and other taxes would boost this figure considerably.

• For our focus subgroup of 139 mostly low-middle income countries, traditional data shows aggregate external debts of $4.1 tn at the end of 2010. But take their foreign reserves and unrecorded offshore private wealth into account, and the picture reverses: they had aggregate net debts of minus US$10.1-13.1 tn. In other words, these countries are big net creditors, not debtors. Unfortunately, their assets are held by a few wealthy individuals, while their debts are shouldered by their ordinary people through their governments.

Tax Justice Network

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the social algorithm and social engineering

This, an extract from an introduction to the Facebook-run study appearing in the current edition of the journal Science. It reminds us of the positive answer to the question of whether the communicative protocol that is deployed by a social institution (in this case, Facebook) affects the qualities of the communications itself. YES IT DOES! Hello folks! In this case that effect is to the social (fiscal) benefit of the social institution. more “the social algorithm and social engineering”

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Pervasive Monitoring

Pervasive Monitoring (PM) is widespread (and often covert) surveillance through intrusive gathering of protocol artifacts, including application content, or protocol metadata such as headers. Active or passive wiretaps and traffic analysis, (e.g., correlation, timing or measuring packet sizes), or subverting the cryptographic keys used to secure protocols can also be used as part of pervasive monitoring. PM is distinguished by being indiscriminate and very large scale, rather than by introducing new types of technical compromise.

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Request for Comments: 7258, ISSN: 2070-1721

posted
  • place: Glade Park, Colorado

delving into the archive

Beginning to prepare notes for the Media Arts History Conference paper, “The Energy of Archive” although I will likely not be able to attend the actual conference (the problem of not having institutional backing, as per usual). And preparing an application for a post-doc at Leuphana’s CDC where there seems to be a very interesting collection of folks. And mulling a Fulbright attached to Uni Bremen / Informatiks or so. The Brico Reader hangs over Jerneja’s and my heads as a Damoclean threat to our sense of ‘getting something done’. Something that doesn’t really seem likely with the way the project is going. The texts that I have received are very rough, and in need of profound re-writing (far more than editing), so I struggle with the question why should I spend such quantities of time within a network that is of the state that Bricolabs is. A robust issue to talk about, but, also, strangely the network has been absolutely silent since Pixelache back in May.

Writing anything coherent in this time seems beyond my mental state. And indeed mental states of organizing seem to be in tatters. Names, places, slip away, although spatial memory and the specifics of method, analysis, and creative fusion remain. What is this? Externalizing memory has no good effect. Where hardened, long-term memorization may be brought to the fore on demand. The names of people, books, works, streets, authors, directors, artists, individual phenomena are tattered as flags in a wide landscape that retains an appearance of a landscape in mind, with details mapped into body, but somehow not into mind with rare exceptions:

ROMEO: But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid, since she is envious.
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off.
It is my lady; O, it is my love!
O that she knew she were!
She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?
Her eye discourses; I will answer it.
I am too bold; ’tis not to me she speaks.
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!

Once memorized in 9th grade after a now-forgotten-named English teacher selected me deviously to read the dreaded part of Romeo over several days in class. (I wonder who was Juliet in that long-ago day? We sat, the boys on one side of the room, and the girls on the other, facing each other, with the teacher at her desk facing the gap down the middle of the room. Opposition of the sexes, probably the best policy with a bunch of 9th graders!)

posted
  • place: Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington and South Acton, Massachusetts

Wednesday, 08 May, 1963

Decided to try working up an analysis of the system made up of the telescope – grating – photo material – photo processing – film-reading combination. Apparently the existing combinations have been pushed to the limit, particularly of the photo materials. “… the advance of astronomical photography during the last decade result more from instrumental and technical advances that fundamental changes in the properties of sensitive emulsions.” From p.71 of Astronomical Photography by de Vaucouleurs, Macmillan, 1961 (522.63, V462a). From p.88, “It seems, therefore reasonable to expect that in the not too distant future, considerable advances will be realized in indirect photography which will make possible its practical use in astronomy. Thus after more than a century of continual advance, astronomical photography seems to be once again on the threshold of a brilliant future.”
52° Overcast

While waiting for Harry Sussman I mowed about 1/3 of the front lawn. He wanted to drive around by the Mardan Devel Corp Concord subdivision to see the new homes, on the way to work.

Talked to MR. Hussey re: The Brucewood Streets. His latest is that the trustee concerned is preparing a subdivision plan that would be carried out after removal of the gravel. Lack of such a plan was the reason for rejection of his application for permission to remove the gravel.

Hot & sticky in the PM.

It developed that DCH didn’t hand in a book report that was due Monday, so I made him get busy; by 10 PM he had written 2 drafts, neither fulfilling the assignment. I’ll have him write another tomorrow.

Picked up the Ford; it steers quite nicely. They did not set the steering wheel so the turn signals function properly, nor did they have the body work done. I’ll plan to take it back next Tuesday.

JCH has a fever.

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essay-grading software

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/science/new-test-for-computers-grading-essays-at-college-level.html

Brian Holmes, who runs “Continental Drift” responded to that article on AI grading of college essays as follows:

> The software uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays and short
> written answers, freeing professors for other tasks.

Such as:
a. raw domination
b. rank servitude
c. outright revolution

[Note: You can only tick one of the boxes…]

LOL Brian! (with significant sighing on the side) — just finished a class this morning talking with my students about this very issue … (c) will occur at the interstice of the human encounter of Self with Other, so that it is indeed available instantly, all around, in the classroom, in faculty meetings, on the street. Reminding the students of this (and helping them establish a lived praxis based on the vitality of those encounters) is my choice, so that suggests changing (c) to ‘facilitating open encounter and engagement’…

The only future I can see beyond submission to the economic destinies of robotization and outsourcing is some kind of political organization, my friends. To be sure, the 60s, reinterpreted and repurposed by neoliberal ideology, trained us all against any kind of hierarchy whatsoever. We are so “free” that power is walking all over us. The capitalist democracies have gone down the very path predicted by Weberian sociology: complete rationalization for accumulation’s sake. The university is now envisioned as a largely automated service provider for the human-capital needs of corporations. That’s endgame, because without a public institution for critical perception, analysis and deliberation, the only social steering mechanism is the imperative to accumulate, accumulate, accumulate, until the last ton of coal is effectively burnt and we’re all reduced to a cinder. Isn’t that kinda obvious now? What’s the next step?

At this point I am quite pessimistic that the evolutionary drive to guarantee propagation of the species, a drive inseparable from life itself, and which includes the need for consuming any and all energy necessary for survival-to-reproduce, can be short-circuited by any altruistic or even pragmatic socio-political (community, nation-state, supra-national) agendas, ever. The social concept of ‘use less’ (promulgated mostly by the ever-unsatiated über-consumers of the developed world) cannot trump evolutionary hard-wiring. I believe we will do exactly as you say at the end of your paragraph.

That question of what to do next, now, is perhaps moot. The question of what to do, after, will present itself in the immediacy of the moment. The situation we as a species have made is not of such extremity to preclude that life in other forms will not continue, and our species will likely exist in greatly reduced numbers. This may simply provide the planet with other opportunities to re-evolve after (solar-sourced) energy has again been accumulated to a level and form that allows for another burst of life progression.

This will clearly not happen in the short term of (our) human life-times.

posted
  • place: South Acton and Boston, Massachusetts

Sunday, 21 April, 1963

Took family to SS & church. Dave & Paul operated the new gear; their conclusion after considerable knob twisting to distribute the audio, they now want an electronic switch to cut the Sanctuary reinforcement while retaining the audio to the SS room. The Sanctuary was packed. Ken Olsen took the S-C & Knight home for servicing. He ret’d. them in the evening saying the Knight inputs were shorted, and he could find nothing wrong with the S-C. We had a good deal of trouble getting the levels in the SS & under-balcony amplifiers. Bernie S. thot the hearing aids should be on all the time.

Dave N. & Paul B. handed me a quotation on their making the tapes for the use of WHDH. I’ll endorse it to HJO & Ed Poore so an analysis can be prepared for the Trustees to see if it is sufficiently attractive over Jack Wilcox’ present operation.

Met with Woody at the evening service to hear about his proposal to send a group of senior high schoolers to the Wycliff Translators in Mexico in April ’64. The 13 families approved it — costs about $350 each.

posted
  • place: Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington and South Acton, Massachusetts

Friday, 05 April, 1963

Back in office.

The Arcon report on their analysis of the North Atlantic problem arrived. It is very good. Carl Friedman called and wanted to know if I had read it. I was then looking at it. It seems to be a definitive paper, and I hope FAA continues this kind of work. Carl said that part of the MITRE group that works on FAA problems is going to Washington in June. I hope this provides the basis for eventual increases in the levels of safety.

Clear
Windy

LCH mentioned that Woody’s Family Night will probably be in the Sanctuary! The new speakers are not connected! I confirmed this w/ Woody — he wants 2 mikes, the floor and pulpit, Shortly after this conversation, Lake called, and wanted to know if we had connected the 2 HF speakers so they didn’t buck each other We didn’t test for this, so he will send George Costello in to connect his green amplifier onto the new crossover net on the 70 volt line, so I won’t have to do this tonight before Woody’s service. Our new speaker system will get its debut tonight (written at 10:30 AM).

The evening was moderately successful only. Feedback occurred at gain settings that were too low. There were about 300 people present, so there was echo from the empty seats and the balcony front wall. And we couldn’t raise the gain enough to energize the balcony speakers. We will have many problems with thes system. Mr. Costello was on hand — we had connected the speakers correctly.

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systems

The basic idea behind the systems approach is that all relevant interests or values should be served by the kinds of change we can institute in our society and in nature. — Churchman

general systems theory, systems analysis, operations analysis, systems theory: is it possible to take this, maybe re-member Bertalanffy’s holism, and make something useful to creative production … ? Or is humanistic fear of systems thinking justified? Given that many aspects of the techno-social milieu we are embedded within are constructed on, many concepts are predicated on, the super-structure of systems. Doesn’t this justify at least a close look at the role of systems in effecting change in our life-trajectories?

At least it’s one pathway among others. Efficacy to be determined by future outcomes. But then, no-one will remember what the hell the initial conditions were anyway!

posted
  • place: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands

Monday, 25 February, 1963

Went up to Roi-Namur w/ Jim Knight in the 0930 C-47. Spent the day talking to Jim, Aubrey Stinnett, and Peter Pfluke. Got a thoro discussion to Quest AL[?]. If they all take this long to get answers, I’ll be here for 20 days!

Rain in the PM — I’ll have to get a raincoat.

Jim K. showed me his pictures of the output of the isophote plotter. For each frame it will give 12 contour levels of absolute power, with the lowest below the visible. When used with filters to provide wavelength separations, it should be exactly what the problem requires, particularly when wake seeding is carried out. Jim has recommended this device to Dr. Overhage, but he won’t approve it in spite of an independent analysis & favorable recommendation by EG&G.

1/2 overcast
Rain in PM

My right leg is quite sore in spite of Unguentine & Skol applications. On arriving back at my room and removing my socks I found my ankle swollen up. What a business.

Talked to our neighbor Romaine on the way back regarding the streets in our neighborhood.

The Marshall Islanders do the service jobs, and there are many here from Hawaii in various jobs.

Perhaps we are at about the end of the dry season.

posted
  • place: Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington and South Acton, Massachusetts

Friday, 18 January, 1963

Showed the Mt’l on pp. 8 & 9 to ELE who thot Walter Wells should see it. Also showed him my procedures for ATC systems analysis and the ATC parameters, as our conversation turned to such matters after he asked me if I had read the article on ATC in the Saturday Evening Post. He said that the FAA had been gradually reducing its support of the work at MITRE; I must read it and call HJM at MITRE.

Ordered a cy. of the Photo-Lab-Index.

Overcast
25˚F
Freezing rain again

The little hill east of the intersection of Rt. 2A & Virginia Street was iced, and provided little traction. One car going West tried to stop at the intersection and slid 180˚ around; he finally backed down.

Took LCH & girls in to PSC. Attended a CE Board mtg. during prayer mtg. The usual routine discussions were engaged in . I raised the question of specific educational activities for the senior high schoolers. Woody pointed out that he tries to cover ethics, cults, doctrine, etc., in his Sunday AM class, and that we need to examine the whole CE program.

The mtg. called by HJO was to enable him to tell the joint boards of additional pressure put on him to take the presidency of Fuller with its wide-spread activities. His principle question was whether or not we thought he is the man to continue leading us – particularly in view of the heavy expenditures and expansion of the future. He also pointed out that there has been a decline in attendance of Officers at the Friday and Sunday night services. He then called on Dr. Andreason, the Moderator, and retired to wait recall. A number of individuals the spoke to the effect that he should be retained. Two motions were passed: 1) That each individual send HJO a hand-written letter by Monday morning, expressing personal appreciation and esteem; and 2) a re-dedication service in the near future for the Officers’ direct participation, and at the discretion of the Deacons.

HJO was escorted back to the Rose Room and apprised of the unanimous support of the group, for which he was thankful. An unusual depth of emotion was present.

Ed Poor advised me that the M-20 microphone was discontinued by the contractor.

posted
  • place: Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington and South Acton, Massachusetts

Wednesday, 24 October, 1962

Started to look at Schlesinger a little more carefully. There must be some piece of the ECM analysis that DRC has not done.

With WLZ —

1) What Distribution List? (Pen Syst.)
2) IRE mtg 23-25 October
3) Model:
1) Assess pay-off from use of N-Z System from broader point of view of Anti-ICBM Systems Analysis.
2) BOMARC
3) TALOS
4) Side-Winder homing & guidance

Clear
Cool

U Thant, UN Secretary-General has addressed Khrushchev & JFK to do nothing to build up Cuban installations and to stop the quarantine. It was rejected by JFK as it did not have safeguards such as on-site inspections.

News broadcasts claim that several USSR ships have been diverted from continuing to Cuba.

Khrushchev, in replying to a wire from Bertrand Russell, pointed out the desirability of a summit mtg., but rejected the US note as contributing to the possibility of war.

Finished connecting the Pilotuner to the W clock radio it works fine without an FM dipole.

Ordered some more points for both Willys at Lincoln Auto Svc. Drew $450 from Credit Union to pay Sears.

posted
  • place: Orlando AFB, Florida

Wednesday, 03 October, 1962

Attended the first day of the OA 20th Anniversary Conference at Orlando AFB. There were 9 papers given. One was by Col. Leroy Stanton, head of the HqTAC OA Office, who told about the new TAC mission.

Went out to dinner with Bill Blaylock, Geo Tyler, and John Hall at the Duck Inn, then stopped at the Cherry Plaza Hotel in down town Orlando to see some of the others — CMM, HJM, Geo Nicholson, Martha Olsen, etc.

Col. Stanton, Chief of OA/HqTAC gave a good paper on the mission of OA at HQ TAC it consists of:

1) TAC Air Support of Ground Forces
2) Future Weapons Systems
3) Evaluation of Tactical Air Operations
4) Planning Analysis

He has been authorized to double the size of the office, and they are looking for a civilian chief.

Clear
Rain in PM

Schirra got off successfully a little after 7 AM; there was one 15 minute hold. He was picked up successfully 175 miles from Midway; the capsule splashed 10 miles from the carrier Kearsarge!

The OA Tech Conference was fine; the papers quite good.

Renewed my acquaintance with Dick Martin, my VOQ roommate.

posted
  • place: Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington and South Acton, Massachusetts

Tuesday, 25 September, 1962

Told ELE that I thot there should be a Division established to work on ECM.

I discussed with AAG, for about 2 hours, his memos on ECM dated 13 & 10 Sept. 1962. The one of 13 Sept. is incorrect in its statement of using strip chart recorders for the ECM recording; they are magnetic tapes in real time & re: the memo dated 10 Sept., it is misleading to me in that I took the terms “pattern” in its usual connotation to mean an antenna pattern — he seems to mean much more than that although his analysis seems directed toward the production of a “pattern of energy radiated…”. He has a mixture of pattern and plasma attenuation at several altitudes in his Fig. 7. It is not clear in my opinion. I suggested he recall it for the reasons as stated above and its complete lack of security classification — I was astonished at the latter situation.

It is quite evident that there has not been sufficient communication between us in “this miserable ECM business.” (See 23 July 1962)

Sat in mtg. with Lockheed to hear about the SFD tube again! This is their 2nd attempt on this one!

Cool
Overcast

Called Fred Lakewitz, and after some discussion he agreed to put in two column speakers & an amplifier to provide reinforcement in the sanctuary at no rental but we would have to pay the labor charges.

DCH got the cleanup job at the P.O.; it amounts to @22.50 every two weeks for about 8 hrs./week.

JCH ate an apple with lead arsenate on it; he complained of a tummy ache, so we took him to Dr. Weston, who thot he was getting a cold — if he was nauseated the chemical would have been toxic.

Saw Mr. Charbonneaux re: the Explorer’s party & Charles’ problem of getting a date.

Cll from Arch Magoon to see if I would function as Scout Committee Chariman.

posted
  • place: Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington and South Acton, Massachusetts

Wednesday, 22 August, 1962

Wrote to HS, developing the idea of a computer identified protective volumes around aircraft and obstacles — one based on the needed airspace for safety maneuvers, the other dimensioned by the separation standards. The computer would alert the controller if two volumes touched, with perhaps programmed transmissions to the aircraft involved. Sent a cy to VAN.

Abstracted the part on plasmas BTL N.Z SPR 7.1.61/1.1.62

Worked on Schlesinger; I’ll have to look up the sine & cosine integrals, used on pulse spectral analysis.

Cooler – Overcast AM
Rain

The rain cleared in the late afternoon so I put in the stakes for the %th patio strip; I’ll level it tomorrow if possible.

Read more in The Flood; it gives a penetrating analysis of radio-carbon dating, pointing out that its validity is based on the existence of the same delay rate and constant parent-daughter ratio, which may not have existed before the Flood because of the high content of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Received Lake Service quotation on PSC audio system: $4165.

posted

technological mediation

There are different degrees in which our experience of the world is not technologically mediated, at least at the center of our perceptual and bodily experience of that world. For example, even though clothed and inside some “machine for living,” as the functionalists have termed buildings, the normally sighted and hearing person simply hears and sees what is immediate. In contrast, anyone using corrective lenses or a hearing aid clearly has sight and hearing mediated through a technology. At the level of touch, first in a surface dimension, we always can become specifically aware of the bodily surrounding immediacy of what we touch. In short, our sensory life, even if at close range or enclosed, retains that sense of direct perceivability and of bodily motility in the immediate environment. How this bodily actional and perceivable experience differs from more specifically technologically mediated experience will play an essential role in the initial difference I am trying to isolate for this analysis.

Once having located this central core of perceptual, bodily experience of an environment, it is possible to point to both its constancy and its pervasiveness. As long as I experience at all, I do so in bodily perceptual ways, and this is the case inside any technologies I may occupy. In a cold environment, I could tactilely experience the wind and chill; but if I have “chosen” to mediate that cold by wearing down clothing, I now substitute feeling the wind for feeling the warmth of what I am wearing. In this case, the “environment” is simply brought close and itself has the texture of one of the many cocoons humans employ in all non-Garden situations. The technology (clothing), however, transforms this immediately experienced environment; and it is that transformation which must be investigated. Direct bodily-perceptual contact with an environment counts as one side of the non-technologically /technologically mediated human experience that forms the focus of an entry into the analysis of human-technology relations.

Ihde, D., 1990. Technology and the Lifeworld : from garden to earth, Bloomington [etc.]: Indiana University Press.

posted

womb of the military

The computer in its modern form was born from the womb of the military…. It is probably a fair guess, although no one could possibly know, that a very considerable fraction of computers devoted to a single purpose today are still those dedicated to cheaper, more nearly certain ways to kill ever larger numbers of human beings.

What then can we expect from this strange fruit of human genius? We can expect the kind of euphoric forecasting and assessment with which the popular and some of the scientific literature is filled. This has nothing to do with computers per se….

We can also expect that the very intellectuals to whom we might reasonably look for lucid analysis and understanding of the impact of the computer on our world, the computer scientists and other scholars who claim to have made themselves authorities in this area, will, on the whole, see the emperor’s new clothes more vividly than anybody else.

Joseph Weizenbaum, 1980, as quoted in Forester, T (ed.) (1980) The Microelectronic Revolution, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

posted
  • place: Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington and South Acton, Massachusetts

Thursday, 02 August, 1962

The material outlined yesterday should be combined with a reaction time analysis and with the variables as follows:

1) Defense Radars
a. Beamwidth
b. Range Resolution (define minimum of space and separation between WH & decoy)
c. Range as a function of σ for TTR & DR.

2) Lethal Radius of AMM warhead

3) Trajectories Enumeration
a. Profiles ωs β

4) Time of Flight of AMM
a. Range vs Altitude, sec. as a parameter.

Spent the morning at Raytheon with AAG, JR, and AF. Afterwards we met to outline a trip report that will consist of three elements:

1) Data Collection List
2) Structures
3) Electronics (Facts obtained at Raytheon and comments)
4) Systems
5) Test Schedule

Clear – Cool Low Humidity

Spent morning at Raytheon; DCH at the Bedford Library in the PM, picked him up at 4:50 PM>

Cut slits in the form strips for the patio.

Started to read the book “The Genesis Flood”; it is fascinating; the Preface and the Intro take the position that the arguments presented should receive attention and scrutiny as a contribution to science irrespective of one’s emotional attitude.

posted
  • place: Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington and South Acton, Massachusetts

Wednesday, 01 August, 1962

Perhaps an ECM study would be useful. It could be based on some of the ideas in Schlesinger’s book “Principles of ECM,” where he defines “4 Basic Steps.”

1) Evaluate the electronic environment, i.e., the intelligence situation.

2) Select an ECM tactic.

3) Employ the tactic.

4) Evaluate the results.

He also shows a trace-off graph, plotting payoff against the ratio of ECM gear weight to weight of explosives. His payoff function is (Prob. of Survival) x % damage from explosives carried.

It would be relatively easy to apply this analysis to the ICBM situation.

Aubyn Freed in with 4 GE docs. that contain lists of objectives, sensors, sample rates, etc., for the Mark 6 Mod 4 vehicle.

Wrote a status report with a little more in it that usual.

Overcast Medium Humidity

Paid Leo $11.74 and made arrangements to pick up a roll of 6″ x 36″ x 10 g. x 150′ reinforcing mesh which I did after dinner.

Found a place in Belmont where I hope I can get a mallet handle.

posted

valuable information

Information has no intrinsic value; any value comes only through the influence it may have on physical events. Such influence is usually exerted through human decision-makers.

Emery, J.C. “Cost/ Benefit Analysis of Information Systems”, SMIS Workshop Report Number 1, Chicago: The Society for Management Information Systems, 1971.

posted
  • place: Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington and South Acton, Massachusetts

Tuesday, 24 July, 1962

Worked on the R documents. Decided to see if I can get Meixell to tell us about DRC/Cornell’s work on systems analysis.

Rain, HH

Harley Wittredge died of stomach cancer.

Took the forms off part of the retaining wall, there are a few voids.

Last night’s rain apparently did not cause water to back up from the first dry well. There was two or three inches of water in the partially dug dry well at the foot of the ramp.

Picked up 2 – 1/2″ V-belts at Sears & LCH order at noon.

Had a pair of rubber pads or covers put on the nose pads of my glasses.

Went over to the Acton Center Firehouse to a mtg of the Planning Board re: the unpaved streets. 1) An effort is being made to get the new owner of Section III to fix the roads; 2) the Planning Board said they would — if they have legal authority to withhold building permits for Sect III until the roads are fixed in Sect II; 3) Certain residents in Sect II contribute the balance of ($16K – $4K).

posted
  • place: Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington and South Acton, Massachusetts

Monday, 16 July, 1962

Prepared & carried out agenda for mtg with EAE, Joe Resnick, Bob Bergman, and Aubyn Freed, who was added for his structures knowledge. We talked until after 3 PM and finally decided that there was something to be gained by talking to the appropriate parts of Sperry & Raytheon. JR wanted to have systems analysis point the way to hardware development rather than carry out tests of prototypes of doubtful utility; BB agreed. AF pointed out that there is perhaps more than a possibility that the vehicles won’t survive long enough to provide data!

Overcast

Worked with DCH in the PM on the ’51 Willys, removing the front bumper & left fender. I hope this interest will stimulate his scholarship!

posted
  • place: Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington and South Acton, Massachusetts

Thursday, 14 June, 1962

In connection to yesterday’s discussion with CMM, perhaps I should stay in this area as long as necessary for the sake of the elderly MacKenzie’s, so DCH can get out of HS, and until I have been here 5 years to get out of the retirement system a contribution by the Institute to my account.

It seems to me that the ff steps are in order: (for the STV program)

I. Experimental Design

1) Test Background
a) Need for Info

2) Test Objectives
a) To produce information
b) Selection of hypothesis
c) To define natural quant.

3) Test Plan
a) How to get info

4) Errors
a) Precision of info

II. Development of Information FLow

1) Collection of Data

2) Flow of Data

3) Processing of Initial Data

4) Analysis and arrangement of information
a) Are hypotheses supported or not?

Are the measures used proper ones and not merely used because that are quantitative?

Prior to the above, the threat model and requirement for tests must have been agreed upon.

Rec’d a loan copy of a TWX from Aerospace to VAN calling a mtg with L2/BSD/Aerospace on 20-22 June at LA to talk about data reduction. The msg is in 91 lines and is definitive: objective of mtg (and derived action) is to “Define and implement the optimum processes, manpower, and equipment requirements to satisfy the re-entry systems program objectives for data reduction and analysis.” It is totally devoted to reduction, etc, with the exception of 4 presentations on basic requirements. I discussed this with WLZ who said the mtg is an endeavor to see if we can get a part of the data reduction programming to do here. Lou Kraft thinks that most of the first day will be devoted to the specification of data requirements by Loh, Resnick, et al.

Overcast
Clear in PM

Deposited a $100.00 check from the Credit Union so I can pay AMS the $321.00.

Picked up an order from Sears, including the stair tread cement.

The Chairman of the local chapter of the American Field Service called to discuss some more problems re: the placing of a foreign exchange student with us for the coming year. After over an hour he seemed satisfied. Their decision should be made soon.

Did some wiring on the ’51 Willys, putting in 2 wires for the rear turn signals at the edge of the head-liner.

LCH laid nearly half of the blocks on the south side of the Storage Room.

posted
  • place: Glade Park, Colorado

power is energy is power is order

Watching Adam Curtis’ fascinating series Pandora’s Box, subtitled A Fable from the Age of Science. It’s a six part 1992 BBC documentary television series which examines the consequences of political and technocratic rationalism. Felipe on bricolabs pointed it out a few weeks ago. It’s a doco of unique style and content (filled with brilliant fragments of BBC archival material). The general subject is the rise of the technocratic society globally — the systems men of the Cold War, colonial technocracies, and so on. The episodes deal, in order, with communism in the Soviet Union; systems analysis and game theory during the Cold War; economy in the United Kingdom during the 1970s; the insecticide DDT; Kwame Nkrumah’s leadership in Ghana during the 1950s and 1960s; and the history of nuclear power.

Curtis illustrates with great subtlety the connections between politics, economics, technology, and power, not to mention pointing out the obvious causes of much human misery: greed.

Part 5 “Black Power” explores the relationship between development in Ghana, colonial conceits, corporate and general human greed, as it suggests the deep connections between the distortions introduced by large-scale development and the fabric of a human system. Yet another example of the scalar independence of the distortions that organismic life imposes on its surrounds.

The retro feel from Curtis’ exclusive use of archive material always feels relevant rather than stylistic although the opening sequence is a bit annoying. Overall, though, an edifying and profound point of view on the contemporary developed world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlJ6gNMvrfc
posted

Departure (the department of winds)

Talk: *about The Brain:* relieved and quaint:
the *topic* of the brain: psycho-tropics, politics:
psycho-analysis (neurosis) specifies the *nerve:*
the “high”, the tele-phane societies of cred-it:
military-religious, pneumatic-ballistic-fantasmatic:
continue to cling: to suckle (left and right):
the coercion: the windy strife:
of *The Intestine.*
*
*
*
*
* ***/Z*

posted
  • place: Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington and South Acton, Massachusetts

Monday, 09 April, 1962

Tried to get the ff on stages 1 thru 4 of vehicle B:

1. Spec impulse
2. thrust vs time (in vacuo or sea level)
3. m˚
4. Wt
5. Mass retro
6. Propellant Fraction

He didn’t have it for 4th Stage.

He wants (for the 4th Stage) of the Ranger Retro:

1. Thrust vs time – in vacuo or sea level
2. m˚
3. Nozzle area

Phoned a req for the above to Lou Kraff at L2/LA. He will do what he can and will call back today.

Read a copy of Larry Starkey´s OA paper #8 in which he sets forth the heed for knowing the effect of CC in force requirements studies. I´ll send him a copy of my paper for Simplex on combat reaction time analysis, 22G-0076, 11 August 1961.

Clear

Rode with HS; left the drive shaft at AMS. The outer cup on the rear was worn out, so I’ll have to get it replaced.

Finished adjusting the piano key dip — black keys — and jack let-off.

LCH went to a Brownie Women’s Group Meeting to hear a chap from the County Agricultural Extension Office talk about landscaping.

posted
  • place: Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington and South Acton, Massachusetts

Friday, 09 March, 1962

Talked to John Strano for 1-1/2 hours on the Hughes activity.

Made up a chart showing the 3 contracts that I’ve been able to fix on. Hughes, Chrysler Conduction, and Bendix.

Sat in a mtg until 4:30 PM reviewing the STV situation. My chart was discussed at great length and Lou Kraff’s list of items for consideration in making an analysis of the STV Program. In connection with the identification of requirements I’ll have to go to California next Wednesday to be at BSD on 15 & 16 March.

Cool

Went in to the churchat 6:30 PM for a Trustees Mtg., my first, which was quite instructive. I’m to be in charge of the audio/TV system; John Cheever & I share this operation.

LCH took the girls in earlier in the day so they could all get their hair trimmed.

Home at 10 PM.

posted
  • place: South Acton, Massachusetts

Tuesday, 06 March, 1962

Finally had discussion with WLZ re: future work. It appears that VAN wants to start on the Special Test Vehicle (STV) program. I’m to begin collecting the semi-technical & management info & work with Bino Nanni on the trajectory analysis. A DOD order has put this program at WSNMR, and there is a good likelihood that the missiles will impact outside of it.

WLZ scheduled a meeting for tomorrow at 10 AM in Walter Well’s office.

Overcast

A hard storm from the NE is expected this afternoon.

Stopped at AMS in Maynard to see if they could work out a Sears adjustable regulator; since the Willys has a neg. ground, this wasn’t possible. I’ll write to the factory on it.

Deposited the CU check for $240 in the bank & transferred $75 from savings to checking.

Mailed the TIAA application with a check for $237.24. Mailed $8.50 to Mark Cross for LCH handbag repair, and gave Mr. Henshaw a check for $35.44 for the Cornwell tools.

Had a physical exam for TIAA.

posted

yup.

What people are contemplating on their word-processor screens is the operation of their own brains. It is not entrails that we try to interpret these days, nor even hearts or facial expressions; it is, quite simply, the brain. We want to expose to view its billions of connections and watch it operating like a video-game. All this cerebral, electronic snobbery is hugely affected – far from being the sign of a superior knowledge of humanity, it is merely the mark of a simplified theory, since the human being is here reduced to the terminal excrescence of his or her spinal chord. But we should not worry too much about this: it is all much less scientific, less functional than is ordinarily thought. All that fascinates us is the spectacle of the brain and its workings. What we are wanting here is to see our thoughts unfolding before us – and this itself is a superstition.

Hence, the academic grappling with his computer, ceaselessly correcting, reworking, and complexifying, turning the exercise into a kind of interminable psychoanalysis, memorizing everything in an effort to escape the final outcome, to delay the day of reckoning of death, and that other—fatal—moment of reckoning that is writing, by forming an endless feed-back loop with the machine. This is a marvelous instrument of exoteric magic. In fact all these interactions come down in the end to endless exchanges with a machine. Just look at the child sitting in front of his computer at school; do you think he has been made interactive, opened up to the world? Child and machine have merely been joined together in an integrated circuit. As for the intellectual, he has at last found the equivalent of what the teenager gets from his stereo and his walkman: a spectacular desublimation of thought, his concepts as images on a screen. — Jean Baudrillard

Baudrillard, J., 2000. America, London, England: Verso.

posted
  • place: Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington and South Acton, Massachusetts

Thursday, 14 December, 1961

Discussed the problem of corrective surgery on my jaw with Dr. Thoma. He said that Dr. Romanow was not able to see much opportunity of correcting the occlusion, so I either put up with it as is, or undergo corrective surgery. I’m to go in for an appointment on Monday at 1130 AM.

Sat in a meeting from 10 to 12 noon to talk about what to do next. Bob Davis put a diagram on the board to show what they had done on Project Mercury, and then another diagram to show the injection of signals into the -16 sub-system and the TTR. His presentation was devoted to hardware discussion with little attention to the broader aspects of systems analysis & check-out procedure design.

Tried to correlate -16 & TTR data on 3211, but it wasn’t possible as there was no -16 data.

Clear, cold

Rode with HS.

Took LCH & JAH to the annual Yuletide Banquet at the church. It was fine.

DCH’s temperature normal in morning.

The Baldwin Insurance Co. in Wayland has lost a check of ours for $83 that was for auto and house insurance. LCH stopped payment on it at the bank.

Rec’d letter from Howard Schuck. He turned down DR’s offer of a job in the Pentagon; asked if I would be interested in trying to return when he leaves.

posted
  • place: Cape Canaveral, Florida

Tuesday, 05 December, 1961

Met with Mr. Dilliard of RCA, Mr. Kahn, Mr. Brinkwater on Ascension data flow until noon. After lunch, we split up: I met with Brinkwater to get block diagrams of Ascension, this lasted until 4 PM. Larry G. & Bob D. met with Hoffman-Hayden to talk about data analysis.

Went for a walk on the beach just before dark.

posted

Glossary

ALPHANUMERIC
Character set including both letters and numerals and usually other characters. (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)
CONTROL CODE
A fixed length machine encoding of a control code name.
CONTROL CODE NAME
The English alphanumeric expression of security classification and any need-to-know restrictions for an entity of data or program,
CONTROL MODE
Mode in which a processor can execute the full set of operation codes,
DATA BASE
The store of information records being maintained’ for users; includes programs as well. more “Glossary”

posted
  • place: National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Maryland

04 November 1971

1) On the way in RCP said it might be time to put thru a request for my transfer as the small effort on info/computer matters was cited at yesterday’s budget meeting w/ OTP.

2) Worked on the agency peak character flow analysis — it is slowly taking shape.

3) At the budget mtg w/ OTP yesterday, Dean’s assistant, a chap named Colby, said he had worked thru a computer project in 5 years & w/ 30 people! This is why he (RCP) thot it was a good time to request my transfer.

posted
  • place: South Acton and Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, Massachusetts

Monday, 09 October, 1961

Rec’d a Secret document #97 from Picatinny Arsenal on NZ Warhead/Fuzing Studies, TM DW304, September 1960.

Read the WADD report on analysis of Douglas & R-W proposals on MIDAS.

Overcast, cool

Winds of 80 mph will hit Nova Scotia today.

Bled the Jeep brakes with help from JAH; the pedal goes down about 1/3 the total travel before stopping; there must be some air left in the system. It took about 3/4 of a pint of brake fluid.

posted
  • place: South Acton and Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, Massachusetts

Friday, 06 October, 1961

WLZ in from another trip to California; I tried to get in to see him, but he had other things to do. I understand he has recommended against any more systems analysis.

Clear – cool

Using the USGS map — the Maynard quadrangle — I worked out the coordinates of where I think our house is: 42˚ 28′ 5.8″ North Latitude; 71˚ 26′ 23″ West Longitude.

Borrowed a wheel puller at AMS on the way home, and took off the RR wheel of the Jeep to put the hand brake lever in the correct place. Finally had to pull the RR wheel off the tan Jeep to see how it was assembled. Got the wheel on the green Jeep at 1030 PM; decided to keep the tire off the tan Jeep.

posted

analysis

Etymology: < post-classical Latin analysis act of resolving (something) into its elements (13th cent. in British and continental sources) < ancient Greek ἀνάλυσις action of loosing or releasing, fact of dissolving, resolution of a problem, in Hellenistic Greek also solution of a problem < ἀναλύειν to unloose, undo ( < ἀνά– ana- prefix + λύειν to loose: see lysis* n.) + –σις -sis suffix. Compare French analyse critical study of a work (a1630), method of resolution and demonstration in mathematics (1637), method of reflection and exposition in philosophy (1637), method which employs deductive reasoning to establish the nature, structure, and essential features of something, starting from its constituent parts (1690), summary (end of the 17th cent.), chemical analysis (1726), grammatical analysis (1775), Italian analisi (1598 in Florio; subsequently from 1669), Spanish análisis (a1621), German Analysis (probably 15th cent.), Analyse (18th cent.).

* ‘A plinth or step above the cornice of the podium of ancient temples, which surrounded or embraced the stylobate**’ (Gwilt Archit. 1842).

** A continuous basement upon which a row of columns is supported.

hmmm, wow! The “systems analyst” takes on an entirely different appearance and role! To loosen, release the solidity of social construct.

posted
  • place: Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington and South Acton, Massachusetts

Tuesday, 26 September, 1961

Worked on 22G-7017 most of the day, getting the pagination worked out by making a dummy.

Gave some thought to the work to be done on anti-ICBM Systems Analysis.

Clear in AM

LCH had a new chair delivered today from Jordan’s.

I drove today.

The car shows 16-1/2″ Hg vacuum; I checked the timing and breaker point gap but couldn’t raise it.

Stopped at AMS on the way home with the Jeep RR brake cylinder that I honed, but they said it wasn’t smooth enough; they kept it to re-hone it.

Changed another window on the Jeep; this leaves only the left door glass and vent to change.

Put the 463 Jeep ignition coil back in after testing it at AMS; cleaned & re-gapped the plugs. I must have wired the coil incorrectly as it still won’t start.

posted
  • place: Arvada, Colorado

highly recommended!

Systems depend on power, which they use to develop structure and functions that self-organize according to laws of energy transformation and use. As suggested by Alfred Lotka in 1922, maximum power results from self-organization according to the natural selection of systems designs. This chapter explains energy laws, including the maximum power principle and its control of production, growth, competition, succession, energy storage, diversity, and the oscillatory pulsing of all systems. more “highly recommended!”

posted
  • place: Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington and South Acton, Massachusetts

Monday, 07 August, 1961

Bob Weiser, head of Div. 2, had some questions on my paper on Reaction Time Analysis:

1) change “proposal” to “recommendation”;

2) what about the idea of the yield scales on Fig. 5? (I took out this part as it was too long to remove the obscurities;

3) the questions of priorities, this assignment to both staff action and messages is made as the problem is developed.

Finally moved over to J-127, it is cooler.

Picked up a Sears order — the couplings for the 4″ fiber pipe were there as well as the car compass.

Cut the drain tile and put it in as far as the 1/8 bend; this much can be filled.

Put the W radio into the new case; it seems like a good radio. I forgot to put a new bulb in it.