Be a good soldier, or upright trustee,
An arbitrator from corruption free;
And if a witness in a doubtful cause,
Where a bribed judge means to elude the laws,
Though Phalaris’ brazen bull were there,
And he would dictate what he’d have you swear,
Be not so profligate, but rather choose
To guard your honour, and your life to lose,
Rather than let your virtue be betray’d;
Virtue, the noblest cause for which you’re made.

Juvenal—Remembering Why We Fight

Gopnik on Nicarla Brunicholas:

Those who loved the dignity and the sporadic secrecy and the sudden intimacies of traditional French civilization are bound to long for the days when President Mitterrand would go on long walks alone to old bookstores, and then make love to his mistress on the way home to his wife, patting his love children on the head while making sonorous pronouncements about life and destiny. The ballad of President Bling-Bling and Carla Bruni is a reminder of a deep and permanent truth, which the French once knew better than anyone: there are worse things in this world than a little organized hypocrisy.

Love And Politics

Frank Rich:

However much the Democrats might finesse differences on Iraq or any other issue in 2008, their best hopes for electoral victory still have less to do with their own ideas than with the sorry state of their opponents. Compared to the increasingly fractious and disheartened conservative coalition, the Democrats could pass for a model of coherence and unity. Compared to the Bush presidency, almost any conceivable Democratic ticket would seem a step up to the vast majority of voters eager to turn the page. The Democrats could yet lose the White House in 2008, especially if the general election becomes a referendum on the Clintons or race, but it would take the party's full powers of self-immolation to do so.

On the Democrats

A letter and a reply about Dyson's most recent review.

When I wrote my review, I knew that my concluding judgment would arouse strong opposition. My purpose in writing was to give readers something to disagree with.

Recall:

According to one who was present, Churchill suddenly blurted out: "Are we animals? Are we taking this too far?"

And:

I was describing this to a friend over lunch in Palo Alto. As I was describing this the waiter came up behind me to take our order. I was in the middle of saying "it's very hard to enter the rectum, but once you do things move much faster", only to hear the waiter gasp. ... Some people are just not interested in natural history, I guess.

Von Braun's Bargain

Imagine a one-eyed animal with depth perception.

We consider the task of 3-d depth estimation from a single still image. Depth estimation is a challenging problem, since local features alone are insufficient to estimate depth at a point, and one needs to consider the global context of the image. Our model uses a hierarchical, multi-scale Markov Random Field (MRF) that incorporates multiscale local- and global-image features, and models the depths and the relation between depths at different points in the image.

We show that, even on unstructured scenes (of indoor and outdoor environments which include forests, trees, buildings, etc.), our algorithm is frequently able to recover fairly accurate depthmaps. We further propose a model that incorporates both monocular cues and stereo (triangulation) cues, to obtain significantly more accurate depth estimates than is possible using either monocular or stereo cues alone.

Learning Depth from Single Monocular Images

On the theme of the acclaimed new book by Alex Ross:

In 1908, after being lambasted in the press and cuckolded by his wife, Arnold Schoenberg reinvented classical music. We're still trying to figure out what comes next.

More cuckoldry, maybe?

The atonal century

Nose, face, spite.

Changes reportedly made last night in the stimulus package would reduce its effectiveness as stimulus. Although the package includes a reasonably designed tax rebate, the two most targeted and economically effective measures under consideration — a temporary extension of unemployment benefits and a temporary boost in food stamp benefits — were zeroed out, apparently at the insistence of House Republican leaders.

The two respected institutions that have rated stimulus options in recent days — the Congressional Budget Office and Moody’s Economy.com — both give their two highest ratings for effectiveness as stimulus to the two measures that were dropped.

Reported Stimulus Package Would Provide Little Immediate Boost Due to Removal of Most Effective Provisions

I believe McLuhan is on a comeback but in a way more sustainable than first time around. Few writers on emerging technologies get far without quoting him or using his percepts and terminology. Communications as an academic discipline is only a generation old and shows no sign of going away. McLuhan was a co-founder of that discipline, if not its godfather. I think this time he is here to stay.

Much has been written about McLuhan, but nothing I know has yet captured the essence of the man. Could it be because he has no essence, no single point of view, but a galaxy of ever-changing perspectives expressed in aphorisms, catchphrases and elliptical prose that stops on a ledge, leaving the reader to leap or not? Although I have followed his writings and reputation ever since that first glimpse of him in the back garden on Wells Hill Avenue, I feel as if I am still only peeking through the hedge at the domain of a man with some far-fetched ideas, yes, but also with a host of insights that are seminal for the times.

In the Garden with the Guru

A new study overturns the common assumption that the ‘Google Generation' – youngsters born or brought up in the Internet age – is the most web-literate. The first ever virtual longitudinal study carried out by the CIBER research team at University College London claims that, although young people demonstrate an apparent ease and familiarity with computers, they rely heavily on search engines, view rather than read and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information that they find on the web.

You hear a lot of griping about the decline of critical thinking, but "view rather than read" is an interesting and apt criticism. As McLuhan might argue, it has more to do with the medium than the individuals in question. Interactivity and deep reflection are inversely correlated.

Pioneering research shows ‘Google Generation’ is a myth

Banda, a blip on India’s vast geographic radar, is one of the country’s poorest and most regressive districts. Located in the heart of the populous northern state of Uttar Pradesh, this 3,061 sq km region infested by dacoits, or bandits, invariably makes headlines for all the wrong reasons – drought, starvation, domestic violence, land-grabbing, killings and a thoroughly corrupt administration.

However, lately, blighted Banda has been attracting attention for an entirely different reason. The area’s Pink Gang, about 200 self-styled female Robin Hoods, is taking on dowry deaths, wife beating and even cases of government apathy and corruption, often fighting violence with violence.

A rambunctious and fearless posse recognizable by their pink-colored saris, the Pink Gang is the nemesis of violent husbands and inept government officials. Having personally suffered abuse, members of the vigilante club thrash abusive men, wife beaters and rapists, confront and shame wrongdoers and storm local police stations to accost lackadaisical cops.

India’s Pink Posse