the guy by the door …

The British carbon-cellulose journal of the sciences Nature did a comparison study of the accuracy of the silicon-based Wikipedia vs. the carbon-cellulose Britannica. Fifty pairs of articles from the two paedias were sent to accredited experts. A Hitchhiker’s Guide* of article pairs were found to be suitable for the  sample. In an article posted Wednesday December 14, 2005  Nature noted that both paedias had errors, but Wikipedia only slightly more than Britannica. The Associated Press sent out an article the next morning, picked up by Information Week which was then reported by CNN. As far as I can tell, it was first brought to the Harvardlibrarysphere by j’s scratchpad ahead of IW and CNN. j is active in the Berkman Thursday Blog Group.

*42 in S.I. units.

“>
Are they still using Cliff Notes?

*Did I fail Cambridge political correctness?

“>
Are they still using Cliff Notes?

Dudes! Dudesses! Sometimes you really have to do the whole thing. I understand. Cooperative work is hard. Just ask the Trots. On second thought don’t ask them.

For all you folks that found physics more or less like chewing glass*,
give YOURSELF a treat. On Wednesday  December 14, 2005 at 8:00 PM
in Science Center D, Professor Lisa Randall
will speak on “Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the
Universe’s Hidden Dimensions”. It will, no doubt, be about her new book
by the same title. Go to the talk and decide if you want to give the
book as a gift.  I don’t know if Harper Collins will be at the
SciCenter Wednesday night. They certainly don’t know who’s truly
important at Harvard. I had to BUY my own copy to review. Anyway, you
can buy a copy at the one remaining independent bookstore in Harvard
Square i.e. The Harvard Bookstore. [The Coop is Barnes and Noble now!
They’re outsourcing everything. 🙁 ]  My review to appear.

*I stole this phrase from plama physicist David Montgomery. He was
referring to a standard and abstruse text on Kinetic Theory. I think it
was Cowles, but everything past Bogoliubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood and
Yvonne is a blur. I have no idea where David stole the phrase, but I
bet he did.

If you were at or near Harvard at about 2:00 PM today, you were
undoubtedly aware of heavy snowfall. You may also have seen a bright
flash followed by a loud bang. At 2:10 PM the National Weather Service
advised that thundersnow is possible this afternoon. Nothing quite like post-mortem prognostication.

Thunder and lightning during a snowstorm, while rare, obviously can
occur. The makings of any thunderstorm is cold air at altitude lying
over warm moist air at ground level. While it is easy to see how this
can occur over a lake on a hot summer’s day, extreme cold air at
altitude can provide adequate temperature contrast in winter.
Thundersnow is more likely to be associated with large snowstorms than
small. It is also more likely near water. Very rapid heavy snowfall
usually accompanies thundersnow.

The question of early closing of the libraries may well be moot. This
thing will probably dump a bunch of snow and be over before we can
clear out.

Update [2:49 PM] : In fact, the predicted mixing to rain appears to occurring.

Stay tuned if you’re interested in convection and charge separation.

The count is on. We have occupied the basement seminar room of Robinson Hall. The first boxes are counted.

“>	“>
Bob Rush surveys the manifest.	Bill Jaeger and Martha Fuller count Box #1

Update 10:00 P.M.: Well, it wasn’t all that
photogenic. Counting Boxes 2-15 looked pretty much the same as Box 1.
Preliminary results: No big surprises. Final results will be posted at
the OpenHUCTW website. Oh and Crimsonites, maybe the Establishment Mediards was a little over the top. Sorry.

… or more accurately [and less poetically] the first illuminated
decorations for the winter holiday appeared in the Yard sometime last
week. Hollis North [left]is readily apparent to anyone passing through
the Yard at night. Lionel A [right], however, is cozily nestled behind
Harvard Hall. There are three edits in this picture. Can you find them?
For all that the holiday claims to be, but isn’t, my almost abandoned
inner child still stirs a little.
 

“>

“>

Boston and most likely Harvard will be host to a wealth of Wikipedians* this summer. I found local Wikipedians [& Berkobloggers]  j  and Brett  camped out in the flesh at O’Naturals on Elm Street in Somerville
to participate in an online planning meeting. O’Naturals offers naked
[free 🙂 ] WiFi with coffee, tea, and food. My adherence to the Larry Summers Diet
presented a challenge, but I came prepared and the beautiful young
O’Manager [oh to be young and fit for class warfare 🙁 ] was quite
flexible. You see, I needed to buy tea, labor and some use of land, but
no food. The young lady  laborer added, “And the tip cup is there
if that helps.” Perfectamundo!! So i rendered unto labor what was hers
and gave her my blog address. Brett wondered if I had gotten a date. Alas
no, but they do have my blog address and comments are turned on
[as it were.]

*thanks to English (&drama) major Aaron Kim ’06 of the Littauer Library for coming up with this alliteration.

Maura Hennigan speaking against the BioLab at Harriett Tubman House.

For my friends who live in Boston, please visit the guy who lives by the Strand and Un Hombre de Paz.
Aside from the BioLab, I also like Maura as a labor candidate. From the Office of Campaign Finance database:

May 23, 2005 was during the strike with a rally at the Pru.

For my friends who live in Cambridge, please visit, the folks across from the Y and !!!Holy Blog-O-Blunder!!! Tnx. -r

This post came to me through a fellow Harvard staffer  – David Dance. He works at
Phillips Brooks House
which has a lot of fond memories for me. It is Harvard’s institutional
outreach to the rest of the world. It even has its own entrance to the
Yard which is now chained shut for security reasons most of the time.
David picketed outside during the Mass Hall sit-in in ’72. He was a community activist in Dorchester. Harvard needs him.
—–
March with Congressman John Lewis
Place:   First Chursh in Roxbury, 10 Putnam St., Boston
Time:   Sunday, October 30, 2005 Rain or shine.     Program: 1:00
p.m.         March: 2:00 p.m.

Forty years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led marchers on an
historic march from Selma to Montgomery, show your commitment to the
fight for civil rights and the importance of political engagement by
walking with us from Roxbury to the Boston Common.

Congressman John Lewis of Georgia will lead a commemorative march along
a route similar to that of a march led by Dr. King in 1965 to protest
the segregation of Boston’s public schools. Read about Congressman
Lewis and his role as one of the “Big Six” leaders of the Civil Rights
Movement at www.house.gov/johnlewis/bio.html

More information at: www.mfh.org/retracingthestruggle

[I was too fast and loose with these links. 🙁  Fixed now.]

Prof Jayati Ghosh [I must use full honorifics because she is a visitor]
gave the first of three Massey Lectures on 2005: American Empire. A
year or so from now, Harvard University Press will publish the full
text of the lecture. It cannot possibly be as good as hearing her in
person. Working in the Littauer Building [North Yard] one gets the
impression that some folks think the American Empire is doing just
fine. Prof. Jayati did not describe a unique end state, but she did
point that the Empire is in a whole bunch of trouble.

 I especially
appreciated [in a gawking at an auto wreck sort of way] her description
of how the Military Industrial Complex has been used to stabilize an
economy which has otherwise questionable fundamentals. [Professor N.
Gregory refuses to think about such things.] In response to her remarks
about the relative benefits of being an Empire vs. developing country,
an audiant asked if in fact India had not benefitted handsomely from
the outsourcing of American jobs. She replied that some people had
benefitted handsomely, but that they are quite few in number. It might
be good for us to pursue her views on outsourcing and more generally
unionization.

She made these remarks
in the Barker Center just outside the south east corner of the Yard.
Maybe that explains how she could get away with it. Anyway, y’all will
have another chance to hear her today at 4:00 PM  in the
northeast corner of the Yard – Robinson Hall, Lower Library.

You simply must go by Ghosh!

Professor, I know this little play on your name is not new to you,
but
it’s new to me and I thought probably some others. I hope it doesn’t
offend. I sort of lied to you. I will not, in fact, have to infiltrate
Harvard University Press. My MP3 recorder worked reasonably well. But I
cannot come today, so it will be a new challenge. I will see if I can
come to the reception. I wish I could bring an iris, but that is
another challenge.

Next week, the Harvard’s History of American Civilization program will sponsor a
series of three guest lectures. I’m guessing this will offer a
different perspective than oh … say … Thomas Friedman’s flat earth
theory*  or Larry Summer’s contribution
to Social Analysis 78.

[Can’t find the link? Mouse the title.]

*which amongst other misdeeds, offers a totally revisionist
history of Micro$oft DOS and later Windows [which Steve Jobs basically stole from Xerox PARC] – the greatest trail of asymmetric
information in the history of markets.

The
Institute for Defense & Disarmament Studies is celebrating the 25th
Aniversary of the Nuclear Freeze with a 2.5 day conference. IDDS is [in
their own words]
an independent, non-profit, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt
center dedicated to research, alternative policy studies,
and public education on ways to reduce the risk of war, minimize
military spending, and foster democratic institutions.

The
founding director, Dr. Randall Forsberg, came out early against John
Kerry’s position on the Iraq War. When he refused to change his vote,
she challenged him [unsuccessfully] for his Senate seat. You might ask,
“Is nonproliferation by pre-emptive war a good policy” and get some
answers that might not turn your stomach. I would think that if you
want to argue [as a woman from the ILGWU did at another conference]
that North Korea is entitled to nuclear weapons, you will find it a
tough sell.

You can register online. The food events cost money, but you can register [as I did] for $ 0.00.

The continuing genocide in Iraq. I’ve lost track of Darfur. Jillian
asked us how we could not know about the devastion in New Orleans
before Katrina. I did know. Long ago. The news did nothing to remind
me. It worked hard to keep me from remembering. And then one night a
voice. Oddly, a woman’s voice – Laura Flanders . Some people condemn me
as reactionary for listening to her, but they were not the ones to tell
me what was to come. Nor were they the ones to tell me that the Gretna police had turned back a hundred people trying to escape NOLA on foot.

This administration has boldly said, “We’re an empire now.” That is, I
believe, a first. [Not being an empire, saying it out loud. We’re
supposed to be a democracy or at least a republic remember? Curiously,
even George F. Kennan, author of the famous ‘containment’ policy
argued that there are intrinsic limits to what it is appropriate for our form of government to do in foreign affairs.]

But it’s not enough that You know how bad things are. It matters who else knows. It matters how you tell them.

I owe credit for most of the title to an American refugee in h(er|is) blog called My Katrina.
And now s/he has to leave Houston due to Rita – deja vu all over again.
But s/he is relatively lucky. The 1500 evacuees who were left at the
Reliant Stadium [the new bigger and better stadium next to the
Astrodome] were supposed to be evacuated again. That’s a second stage
of the diaspora.

The Bataan had enough water for the people at Charity, the Superdome and
the Convention Center. None of them had to die of thirst. It was
genocide by inaction. And it was foretold.
I see Captain Nora was relieved of  command. Did they blame her
for waiting for orders? A real man would have waited for orders? What
would the men say about her if she had disobeyed orders? Bleeding
heart? Unmilitary?

My brother lives in Houston. He is evacuating. He planned on leaving at
3:00 AM CDT. He didn’t get on the road  until 3:45 AM. I’m looking
at the Transtar traffic map
and passing the info on via cell phone. The major evacuation routes to
the North and West are jammed. Only  I-10 east going to Louisiana is
clear and even now at 4:33 AM, it is starting to get traffic. Refugee will
have clear sailing to Baton Rouge. But Louisiana is also a disaster zone.
Rita may turn to the east. Cyclone storms often do in the Northern
Temperate Zone.  The authorities may not let him in. Good luck refugee.

Bill decided to stay off the major routes. He confirmed that Westheimer is clear. Transtar said it was.

Bill just called again. He encountered heavy traffic on Westhiemer and
made a turn. He is lost. I have Yahoo maps in another tab. He’s on
Westheimer Parkway in George Bush Park. He is now off the edge of the
Transtar map.  Westheimer Parkway continues west to 99 he will
have to go north or south. North to 1-10 which is probably jammed.
Bill’s friend in Dallas is watching the news on TV I-10 is a
nightmare.  He’s going south to 1093.

Call. 1093 is jammed. I have no traffic information for him anymore
– only geographic data. “If I turn around, how far is it to I-10?
Except I’ll have trouble turning around. Never mind. I guess it’s time
to grin and bear it. I  guess I’m going to San Antonio. Have a
long breakfast, I’m not going anywhere for a while.” The goal is a
friends place in Dallas to the North. Bill’s forced into a detour.
Refugee is going to Baton Rouge because s/he could find no other place
to go.

It took four phone calls to navigate through Eagle Lake and get on 102
to Columbus. Bill says most of the other drivers are on cell phones
there are at least 5 million people on the move. There must be 2
million calls per hour coming from that part of the cellnet.

I remember Amy Sweeney.  She was so afraid. And so brave. The
usual channels were in control of the terrorists. She called
reservations on her cell phone. Amazing common sense in the face of
terrible fear.. She could only believe she was risking her life.
She could not know she was already doomed. Amazingly
uncommon sense. [Betty Ong in another post.]

It was a long night for Bill. I was able to catch naps between
phone
calls. Bill is in Austin to the west of Houston. 9 hours on the road to
go 162 miles.- an average of 18 mph. Normal time is 3.5 hours. Bill’s
friend is in Dallas. Rita has turned
east. Will Dallas be in danger? It looks like a close call. NWS thinks.
they will experience high winds, but only gusts will reach hurricane
speeds. Should Bill stay in Austin and invite his friend to join him?
NWS thinks there is a 5% probability of steady winds reaching hurricane
speeds. Sounds to me like Austin is a little worse than Dallas. Bill
doesn’t understand this based on the the projected track. But the
models undoubtedly include the weakening of the storm as it moves over
land. Dallas is to the north.

But the eastward shift of the track is bad for refugee. Good luck refugee.

I cannot find the NOLA’s from the Reliant/Astrodome. Can you blogbuds help me?

Yesterday in the Science Center there was advising en masse for the
incoming students. Tables were lined up around the atrium personed by
faculty, students, and staff. Mechanistic perhaps. Bureaucratic perhaps.
I certainly believe in ideas, models, and systems as useful tools. But
I am an empiricist, experimentalist – somewhat of a nominalist. I
believe that ideas, models, and systems must always be questioned. Are
they serving us well?

I had to find the physics table. I found what Harvard is really about.
Not physics, or scholarship – scholarly relationships. An old scholar
was talking to a young one. The old man was brimming over with
excitement. The old man would have won the Nobel if protons were not so
stubborn. But the truly remarkable is the Nobel class attention he gave
to this most newly arrived young scholar.

That’s why I’ve kept the books on the shelves for lo these many years.

 I did my best to get Matt to talk to his advisor, Professor
Andy.  Matt went in another direction. It’s not mine to judge. But
am I allowed to have hopes?

-Ellen; calling in to Jerry Springer on Air America Radio

It is genocide and it was foretold.

Most genocides are the result of deliberate barbarous action. This one
is the result of deliberate barbarous inaction. Ned Sublette was right
across the board. Everybody did know about it for years. the Army Corps
of Engineers, the then Senator, the local paper – The Times-Picayune.   
Last year, CNN ran an public service announcement featuring the
playdough figure Mr. Bill. “Gee kids, todays show will be cancelled
becasue the levees are unsafe.”

Overwhelmed rescue workers do not have time to recover the remains of
the dead. One rescue worker was quoted as saying, “We have to push the
bodies aside. We have to focus on the living.”

The human body can survive about a day without drinking water. Many of
the people who lost all safe drinking water during the storm or shortly
after are dead now. Push their bodies aside.  Some have been
drinking the flood water. Contaminated with petrochemicals, sewage, and
vermin, many of the people who drank it are dying of diseases that will
go untreated. Push their bodies aside. Some people in the Superdome
have been evacuated to the Astrodome. But many remain and they are
dying They are coverd and left where they die.

The mayor of  New Orleans says that there are a large number of
drug starved addicts roaming the streets and they are armed. The
hospitals have been repeatedly looted for drugs. Charity hospital moved
it’s patients to the higher floors to protect them from looters. Now
they are moving them to Tulane Hospital across the street. The rich
patients were evacuated days ago.

“The best we can do is set up a perimeter around an area and hope we are not overrun.”
—-
“Let’s have a moratorium on press conferences until the people are here.
Don’t tell me there are 40,000 people coming. They’re not here.”
-Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleasns. The full interview from Air America Radio.

Dick Chenay’s secretary “does not have handy” the date when he will return from vacation.
Condy Rice went to see Spam Alot on Broadway Wednesday night. Shopping
for shoes yesterday, she had the Secret Service remove a woman who
asked her how she dared.

Anderson Cooper saw a woman in the streets being eaten by rats. Telling
Senator Mary Landieau about this, “Do you see the anger here.”

Even Ted Koppel was outraged last night.

And it continues.

The preparation for Hurricane Katrina or lack there of raises questions. The most poignant remarks I’ve seen were posted by Ned Sublette the creator of  cowboy rumba music. Posted [with a little help from Steve Rosenfeld] on the blog of the Laura Flanders Show,
Ned asks not just why so many were left in harm’s way, but who are
they? [The original post is on the second page of comments.]
———

     camp casey is an important story, but not
when new orleans — among other things, still one
of       
     america’s most important port cities — is
about to be very possibly destroyed.  i think it’s so
far   
     beyond people’s imagination what’s about to happen that we can’t process it.  the storm is well
     above the category 5 threshold.

     and here’s the scandal:

     the poorest one-fifth or so of the city is still there in harm’s way!

     guess what color the poorest one-fifth of new orleans is.  it’s as if you had advance notice that
     mohammed atta’s crew was coming to the world trade center and evacuated all but the poor
     from it.

     everyone has known about this.  about 134,000 people in new orleans — a city which is 67%
     black — didn’t have a car.  you’re supposed to have a car.  fox news estimated that there were
     100,000 people remaining in the city, though perhaps they pulled the number out of their butt.

     it seems unlikely that the superdome won’t hold even under hours and hours
     of 175 mph winds.  but if it doesn’t?  chronicle of a genocide foretold.

     oil rig workers are being rescued from the offshore derricks, as they should be.  but why couldn’t
     air force cargo planes have evacuated *every single person*?  oh wait, only countries with very
     powerful militaries can do that. only countries that know how to get things done do things like that.

     i saw this warning on a forum and thought it was a hoax.  then i thought it
    was a hack.  it’s neither.  it’s real.

—-

Ned completes his post with an official NWS prujection of what
categories of buildins will most certainly be destroyed. Quite scary.
Thankfully, the storm has weakend slightly and turned a bit to the
east. The storm has made landfall and is expected to hit New Orleans at
about 11:00 AM.  The first three casualties were elderly people
who died evacuating their nursing home in advance of the storm. So
far the Superdome has held up, but there are holes in the roof and main power is out. Backup generators
provide no air-conditioning – only dim emergency lighting.

Oh, and crude oil hit $70/barrel.