Proposed: A new order of Congress - Four types of Representatives; Two Elected, one Selected and one Random.
The number of Districts in each State shall be halved, each District electing one Representative. If this results in an odd number one District shall be added so as to make even.
Each District shall also select at random a number of potential Representatives from the roll of registered voters. An elected Judge shall examine said pool and eliminate those unable to serve by reason of disability or hardship and from those remaining one Representative shall be randomly selected. Such Representatives that serve shall be duly compensated and serve one Term.
Random Representatives shall vote on issues before the House and may do so from from their residence.
Each State shall elect one Senator by state-wide popular election; each State shall also select one Senator by a vote of their Legislators.
03 May 2012
23 November 2011
What the universe wants.
I've been inspired by reading Kevin Kelly's book, What Technology Wants:
Why is our universe so friendly to life? All physical constants allow it, some are even finely tuned to decimal points away from excluding it.
The Strong Anthropic Principal was advanced to address the problem. According to this hypothesis, the universe is built the way it is because life is somehow necessary.
My favorite twist on the S. A. P. is that one universe can create other universes and the resulting descendants may vary enough in conditions that evolution can operate. Somewhere along the line life either inserted itself virus-like into the process or arose naturally in the more fruitful creations.
Now, in the same way we can speak of an organism wanting something, say food or sex, we can talk about the universe wanting something. We can even venture into what a universe should want.
Clearly, if the S. A. P. is true, our universe was made to want atoms and stars and life. It looks like it also wanted the water molecule, and DNA. I think an argument can be made that it also wants us, sentient life, to have wants and desires.
To paraphrase Steven Weinberg, the universe is perhaps more beautiful than strictly necessary. I think this means two things.
First, the universe is built to be admirable. Second, life is built to admire the universe. Both may be necessary to help the universe reproduce.
Humans obviously have an aesthetic nature. The universe may require this. We love art and regularity. Physicists often say beautiful theories are more likely to be true.
Art appreciation may be a general feature of sentient life. Birds enjoy a good song and a well made nest. Dogs and elephants show taste in music and even paintings.
Without a sense of beauty we may never have contemplated the universe or developed science. Without science we could never develop strong technological skill. Technology may be one essential trait in advanced universe reproduction.
This universe building business would be much easier if we had an operating manual. Perhaps we are meant to write it and encode it into the next iteration. Maybe it's lying around somewhere waiting for us to find it (Carl Sagan suggested we could look far, far to the right of the decimal point of pi).
If the S. A. P. is true, the evolution of universes is a slow affair, billions of years between generations. The process is hindered by it's asexual nature. Each universe is isolated, incommunicado from any neighbor. However, we can look to the future, when our (or some further universe's inhabitant's) science is advanced to the point where we can open a window to another realm, another cosmos.
On that day, the multiverse will discover sex.
Why is our universe so friendly to life? All physical constants allow it, some are even finely tuned to decimal points away from excluding it.
The Strong Anthropic Principal was advanced to address the problem. According to this hypothesis, the universe is built the way it is because life is somehow necessary.
My favorite twist on the S. A. P. is that one universe can create other universes and the resulting descendants may vary enough in conditions that evolution can operate. Somewhere along the line life either inserted itself virus-like into the process or arose naturally in the more fruitful creations.
Now, in the same way we can speak of an organism wanting something, say food or sex, we can talk about the universe wanting something. We can even venture into what a universe should want.
Clearly, if the S. A. P. is true, our universe was made to want atoms and stars and life. It looks like it also wanted the water molecule, and DNA. I think an argument can be made that it also wants us, sentient life, to have wants and desires.
To paraphrase Steven Weinberg, the universe is perhaps more beautiful than strictly necessary. I think this means two things.
First, the universe is built to be admirable. Second, life is built to admire the universe. Both may be necessary to help the universe reproduce.
Humans obviously have an aesthetic nature. The universe may require this. We love art and regularity. Physicists often say beautiful theories are more likely to be true.
Art appreciation may be a general feature of sentient life. Birds enjoy a good song and a well made nest. Dogs and elephants show taste in music and even paintings.
Without a sense of beauty we may never have contemplated the universe or developed science. Without science we could never develop strong technological skill. Technology may be one essential trait in advanced universe reproduction.
This universe building business would be much easier if we had an operating manual. Perhaps we are meant to write it and encode it into the next iteration. Maybe it's lying around somewhere waiting for us to find it (Carl Sagan suggested we could look far, far to the right of the decimal point of pi).
If the S. A. P. is true, the evolution of universes is a slow affair, billions of years between generations. The process is hindered by it's asexual nature. Each universe is isolated, incommunicado from any neighbor. However, we can look to the future, when our (or some further universe's inhabitant's) science is advanced to the point where we can open a window to another realm, another cosmos.
On that day, the multiverse will discover sex.
27 September 2011
Cut it out
Senator Patty Murray, via email, has invited me to submit ideas for deficit reduction. After filling out the form on the web site she had indicated, the page crashed. Three times.
I therefore offer the ideas here, confident she will see and appreciate them:
End agricultural subsidies.
Close the military bases in Europe and Japan and in about 100 other places. They may well be able to defend themselves.
End the expensive and painful war on people taking drugs. If you must, tax me a little when I use them.
Privatize air traffic control and Amtrak. Also, forget about that high speed rail jazz.
End Homeland Security. If you must pat me down, offer a happy ending.
These measures will save money and minimize distortion to the market and as a bonus, we'd all enjoy a little more liberty.
Of course, I have a few more ideas but they may be deemed less practical.
I therefore offer the ideas here, confident she will see and appreciate them:
End agricultural subsidies.
Close the military bases in Europe and Japan and in about 100 other places. They may well be able to defend themselves.
End the expensive and painful war on people taking drugs. If you must, tax me a little when I use them.
Privatize air traffic control and Amtrak. Also, forget about that high speed rail jazz.
End Homeland Security. If you must pat me down, offer a happy ending.
These measures will save money and minimize distortion to the market and as a bonus, we'd all enjoy a little more liberty.
Of course, I have a few more ideas but they may be deemed less practical.
12 August 2011
Better living through explosives
My folks used dynamite to fix a flooded basement.
The downstairs toilet would occasionally disgorge sewage so it was decided to replace the septic tank and drain field.
It was tough going in the front yard, laying the new pipe through unforgiving hard pan soil. It wouldn't drain properly, as we had found, so we started digging a hole at the low end for the water to go.
Thirty miserable feet later we were still in clay, ladder to the bottom, winching the clay up a bucket at a time when my dad had a great idea: dynamite.
That should help punch through past the hard pan…
So he wired up the dynamite on the bottom of the hole and we threw down some branches and stuff to "deflect" the force. We kids were stationed on the road out front to stop any traffic and the switch was closed.
I was about forty feet away. There was a nice, loud bang, a short pause, the road convulsed and knocked me to the ground.
The blast had no appreciable impact on the clay. We called it good and packed the well with loose dirt and gravel.
The basement toilet seemed to work ok for the next twenty years and then the sewer came to the neighborhood.
The downstairs toilet would occasionally disgorge sewage so it was decided to replace the septic tank and drain field.
It was tough going in the front yard, laying the new pipe through unforgiving hard pan soil. It wouldn't drain properly, as we had found, so we started digging a hole at the low end for the water to go.
Thirty miserable feet later we were still in clay, ladder to the bottom, winching the clay up a bucket at a time when my dad had a great idea: dynamite.
That should help punch through past the hard pan…
So he wired up the dynamite on the bottom of the hole and we threw down some branches and stuff to "deflect" the force. We kids were stationed on the road out front to stop any traffic and the switch was closed.
I was about forty feet away. There was a nice, loud bang, a short pause, the road convulsed and knocked me to the ground.
The blast had no appreciable impact on the clay. We called it good and packed the well with loose dirt and gravel.
The basement toilet seemed to work ok for the next twenty years and then the sewer came to the neighborhood.
01 November 2010
Door to Door
The children were much more serious about Halloween than we were.
They'd ring the bell and I'd display the goods and usually someone would ask "How many can we take?" Once I said two, one good piece and one bad, and that set them to work. Little hands hovered over the selections, and came to a group decision: Twizzlers were good and Almond Joys were bad. One defector stage-whispered to a friend as they rushed away "I took two Good ones."
Another time when asked how many I said "One point five," which puzzled them only a moment. A little pirate quickly figured it out. "Oh, that means one candy and one cards" (we also offered small decks of cards which proved unpopular). All of that group followed his example.
We had fifty to sixty kids this year. A neighborhood blog (myballard.com) provided a googlemap for households to display Halloween participation and this may have boosted activity.
They'd ring the bell and I'd display the goods and usually someone would ask "How many can we take?" Once I said two, one good piece and one bad, and that set them to work. Little hands hovered over the selections, and came to a group decision: Twizzlers were good and Almond Joys were bad. One defector stage-whispered to a friend as they rushed away "I took two Good ones."
Another time when asked how many I said "One point five," which puzzled them only a moment. A little pirate quickly figured it out. "Oh, that means one candy and one cards" (we also offered small decks of cards which proved unpopular). All of that group followed his example.
We had fifty to sixty kids this year. A neighborhood blog (myballard.com) provided a googlemap for households to display Halloween participation and this may have boosted activity.
19 October 2010
porch raising
A couple of springs ago we started hearing strange sounds at night. Something like a rusty nail being slowly drawn from an old board, somewhere near our bedroom window. Spooky and unnerving.
As the days passed it got louder; we could feel the vibrations throughout the house. Pretty freaky.
We started staying up to catch the noisemaker.
One night we spied a 'possum squeezing out from under our wooden porch. There was a gap between the concrete and the porch of less than two inches; we watched the whole structure move up and down as she slowly, painfully worked her way out.
Mystery solved but we were still curious so one morning I pried up one of the steps and there was Mama and her babies staring up at us with that frozen death rictus grin they use in extremis.
We burst out laughing and nailed the step back on.
Oh, and Mama had a fresh red scar on her back from wiggling in and out from her den. I had to admire such devotion to her litter, but after she vacated the den we filled in the gap.
As the days passed it got louder; we could feel the vibrations throughout the house. Pretty freaky.
We started staying up to catch the noisemaker.
One night we spied a 'possum squeezing out from under our wooden porch. There was a gap between the concrete and the porch of less than two inches; we watched the whole structure move up and down as she slowly, painfully worked her way out.
Mystery solved but we were still curious so one morning I pried up one of the steps and there was Mama and her babies staring up at us with that frozen death rictus grin they use in extremis.
We burst out laughing and nailed the step back on.
Oh, and Mama had a fresh red scar on her back from wiggling in and out from her den. I had to admire such devotion to her litter, but after she vacated the den we filled in the gap.
03 May 2010
Coat and pants
A dim don did moan in his rue
and cursed the clergy, Earth's haters
"They gave me just one B. S. clu:
when I've passed Ed's asp this game craters."
and cursed the clergy, Earth's haters
"They gave me just one B. S. clu:
when I've passed Ed's asp this game craters."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
