Crystal Clear

I am biased. You are biased. We try to think we aren’t. We try to act like we are objective and unbiased. But we can’t.

Every scientist is also biased by the scientific method. This method excludes by its nature certain ways of thinking. Which makes it biased. My mother (and sometimes me) is a ‘random thinker’. That is a scientific term for a way of coming to conclusions. The very words used to describe it judge it as not a valid way of scientific thought. Biased. But my mom is intelligent and her actions are correct in so many situations.

As scientists delve more and more into the origin of life and the world, perhaps they need to let go of some bias. The artistic community may have some very good input into their ‘research’ and should have a part in forming their ‘conclusions’.

Interestingly, the words ‘research’ and ‘conclusions’ are biased toward the scientific method. Maybe what scientists need is simply more discussion and understanding, and accept they may never get a ‘conclusion’.)

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While in Holland I heard that the Dutch are no longer reclaiming more land. They have enough for now: for their population and for the food they produce. As a country it does not feel squished; they have enough space.

In Canada, the current thinking is that immigration will save us (and our investments and economy) as our birthrate is too low to do so (around 2 which is only replacement rate). We need immigration because our economy depends on growth; if there is no growth, investors and analysts are concerned.

I heard in Holland about a town: ‘There are enough jobs for the people here’. Is the economy there set up differntly than in Canada? What is the difference? Do they have enough critical mass (culture, thought, social systems, goals) to not have/need a growth economy, but an economy of enough? My experience with growth economies is that they destroy the environment and are not sustainable.

I hope to read a book by Jane Jacobs called “The Nature of Economies”. It discusses looking at nature and basing our economy on what we see there. Her theories might help to delve into this issue further.

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I’ve been meaning to write about my DivaCup, but now a good friend has written an excellent post about The Keeper (same type of product), so I’ll just let hers speak strongly.

I love my DivaCup!

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I don’t know where this is from originally, but I found it very funny… The guy who I copied it from does not even really like Linux, which I think is interesting!

There’s an old joke that begins like this: What if operating systems were airlines?

Windows Airlines — The terminal is pretty and colorful, with friendly stewards, easy baggage check and boarding, and a smooth take-off. After about 10 minutes in the air, the plane explodes with no warning whatsoever.

Mac Airlines — All the stewards, stewardesses, captains, baggage handlers and ticket agents look the same, act the same, and talk the same. Every time you ask questions about details, you are told you don’t need to know, don’t want to know, and would you please return to your seat and watch the movie.

Linux Airlines — Disgruntled employees of all the other OS airlines decide to start their own airline. They build the planes, ticket counters, and pave the runways themselves. They charge a small fee to cover the cost of printing the ticket, but you can also download and print the ticket yourself. When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of the seat-HOWTO.html. Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem, the in-flight meal is wonderful. You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is, ‘You had to do what with the seat?’

(From: http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT3304051309.html)

And it is so true about Linux. Those unfamiliar with it often get hung up on one thing they don’t like, without evaluating that against all the benefits.

I’m so proud of one of my friends who decided she liked the benefits enough to get past the things that maybe don’t work as well as she’d like. She went and bought a System 76 laptop, which come pre-installed with Ubuntu Linux. They are sweet machines!

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