Niles Eldredge: Bursts of Cornets and Evolution

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In which one particular floodgate
bursts...

In which one particular floodgate
bursts... 12/14/2003 07:27 PM

So I've discovered a few exciting things today. Some of my glaring shameful ignorances have finally been smeared full (to bursting) with that most horrible unctious goo that is 'unpalatable truth'. For example, I discovered today (thanks to a conversation with Matt Haughey) that when the American press refers to the GOP, what they're talking about is the "Grand Old Party". The image of the "Grand Old Party" seems to me beautifully evocative of faded sepia, bruised faces, tight sphincters and mournful piano music - like some kind of apocalyptic and hideously decaying vision of the last half-hour of a Jay Gatsby-style social-gathering that went on just a hundred years too long. So I suppose it's apt then that the phrase refers to the Republican party - since it seems to me that only a group of people so ruined by the hideous spectacle of infinite and never-ending indulgence could possibly need novelty so badly that they'd be prepared to allow an experimental monkey to lead them.

Another thing I've learned today is how to refresh the Grand Old Party in style and keep it going for another hundred years. I mean we all know how unsexy liberal policies are and how compellingly raunchy uniforms, guns, muscles and the enforcement of good down-home fist-action can be, right? I was reminded of this by SWAT which was one of the most gloriously power-fetishising, macho, reactionary, fascistically driven illiberal and hence enormously sexy and titillating films I've seen in months. Such films appeal to something deep and fundamental to all men and women. And by that I don't mean our sense of morality, our aspiration for a better world, our attempts to aspire towards some kind of enlightenment or any woolly concepts of social contracts or democracy. Oh no - it is the wonder of our reptile brain that leads the way. It is that ancient part of our psyches that drags concepts of territory, aggression and violent fucking under its control and which we must surely thank for the glimpse of straining power under the GOP's crumbling, dessicated and insect-ridden dinner jackets.

The other thing I learned today was to fear the French. In SWAT the villain was - to my surprise - not English or Muslim. Oh no, the new evil is far far worse than that. Where once we fought people with conviction and morality, now our enemies appear not to have morals of any kind at all. How could they when they disagree with us so violently? And if you disagree with us in the way we wish to fight terrorism - well that's as bad as being a terrorist itself, right? And it's not like we didn't hate the French anyway. I mean they're just so darn rude. They're like that man at the Grand Old Party who's secretly conspiring with the staff to create dissent! They're traitors to their international class! To their religion! To their race! Well I'm sorry - you do that for long enough and you won't get invited back says our muscle-bound sepia Bizarro Monkey governments. And quite right too! Quite right that their very name should be scratched out so we can put FREEDOM in their place.

Because when you learn these truths they can't be unlearned. The only position worth having is an absolutist one. The only party worth going to is the one that never ends - that has the strength to fight to maintain itself. Because we're all so scared of what happens when that party ends. What will we do instead? Will there ever be a party like it again? After all, it's them and us, whosoever they may be - and however much we've lost touch with what that US is supposed to mean.

Oxygen Bursts in Saturn's Rings

Oxygen Bursts in Saturn's Rings 07/03/2004 05:40 AM
Something's going on in Saturn's outermost rings, where oxygen levels jump explosively then diminish over a month. One theory is crashing moonlets. Amit Asaravala reports from Pasadena, California.

Blanchett Bursts on Screen in 'Aviator'
(AP)

Blanchett Bursts on Screen in 'Aviator'
(AP) 12/25/2004 07:08 PM
AP - Cate Blanchett comes on strong when she first appears as Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's new Howard Hughes biopic, "The Aviator." She's talking a mile-a-minute in that Hepburn accent.

Microsoft Bursts 'True Fantasy' Bubble

Microsoft Bursts 'True Fantasy' Bubble 06/05/2004 11:44 AM
Enterprise Windows I.T. Jun 5 2004 4:17PM GMT

Cometa crash bursts hotspot bubble?

Cometa crash bursts hotspot bubble? 05/21/2004 05:22 AM
Analysis Public WLANs 'overhyped'

Evolution 1.5 (GTK 2)

Evolution 1.5 (GTK 2) 12/09/2003 03:43 PM
GNOME mail client and PIM.

Evolution 1.5.1 (GTK 2)

Evolution 1.5.1 (GTK 2) 01/03/2004 04:33 PM
GNOME mail client and PIM.

Evolution 0.2.3

Evolution 0.2.3 01/03/2005 10:10 PM
Origin of species in a computer simulation.

Evolution 1.2.2

Evolution 1.2.2 03/21/2003 03:27 AM
GNOME mail client and PIM.

Evolution 1.5.2 (GTK 2)

Evolution 1.5.2 (GTK 2) 01/28/2004 06:54 AM
GNOME mail client and PIM.

Microsoft's Evolution

Microsoft's Evolution 05/20/2004 05:42 AM
San Jose Mercury News May 20 2004 10:24AM GMT

The Evolution of Manufacturing

The Evolution of Manufacturing 12/22/2004 01:57 AM
The Evolution of Manufacturing is a collection of New York Times articles, providing a historical perspective on manufacturing operations in the U.S. The collection consists of 12 articles published between 1909 and 2000. It includes an article by Henry Ford himself, and an article by Thomas Edison based on his interview of Henry Ford. Interestingly, the collection is an advertisement for Peoplesoft.

Vodafone to go for 3G evolution

Vodafone to go for 3G evolution 05/11/2004 12:02 PM
Silicon.com May 11 2004 3:43PM GMT

Animated map of the evolution of the US

Animated map of the evolution of the US 10/30/2003 01:40 PM
Boundaries of the Contiguous United States is a fascinating animation sequence that shows US state and national boundaries as the...

Thermodynamics and Evolution

Thermodynamics and Evolution 12/19/2004 03:06 PM

Susan Crawford quotes an essay by John W. Patterson called "Thermodynamics and Evolution", part of a volume of scientific responses to creationism. She ties it neatly to Internet governance at the end.

Susan Crawford

Here is Patterson's conclusion:

"In reality, ... the 'uphill' processes associated with life not only are compatible with entropy and the second law, but actually depend on them for the energy fluxes off of which they feed. Numerous other kinds of backward processes in simpler, nonliving systems also proceed in this way, and do so in complete accord with the second law."

This all ties to internet governance. A sufficiently open net will tend towards order, not chaos -- and will do so on its own, with no external pilot.

Just reading the conclusion, you might think she's making a techno-utopian quantum leap, but the idea of open systems allowing evolution and order and seeming to defy entropy is any interesting one. Order can emerge in a system with increasing chaos around it if the system is open. I don't think being merely open guarantees that it will tend towards order. On the other hand, closed systems will tend to become disordered and the best way to maintain order in such a system is to move very slowly...

Comment - TrackBack

Karma and Evolution

Karma and Evolution 03/08/2004 11:15 PM
Most people in western societies don't understand the concept of karma very well, or at least they don't articulate it...

The Evolution Of The Playlist

The Evolution Of The Playlist 03/17/2005 03:09 AM

A mixed tape can be a personal statement of hipness or a declaration of love. The technology is merely the means. By Beth Macy, Roanoke Times

Phoenix Evolution(CMS)

Phoenix Evolution(CMS) 09/10/2004 06:35 PM
Coming this weekend!

The Evolution Will Be Mechanized

The Evolution Will Be Mechanized 09/07/2004 04:49 AM
Inside the unfathomable superhuman future after the 'singularity.' By Bruce Sterling from Wired magazine.

Evolution 1.5 has Been Released

Evolution 1.5 has Been Released 12/09/2003 10:48 AM
SirPrize writes "As announced here, Evolution 1.5 is now available for download (obligatory screenshots, for those who want to click and see)" Congrats to all ...

Evolution 1.5.8 (Development)

Evolution 1.5.8 (Development) 05/27/2004 10:38 AM
GNOME mail client and PIM.

The evolution of a design

The evolution of a design 09/03/2002 11:37 AM
CNET Sep 1 2002 10:09PM ET

Evolution Biff

Evolution Biff 07/01/2004 10:00 PM
Evolution Biff 0.4.0 released

Tiger And The (R)evolution Of Mac OS X

Tiger And The (R)evolution Of Mac OS X 07/06/2004 11:57 AM
By Ted Landau, MacFixIt (via MyAppleMenu)

Interface Evolution

Interface Evolution 07/10/2004 10:37 AM

As long as we're in M ac Mode, check out this visual history of Apple's desktop interfaces, starting with early Lisa
prototypes created on the Apple ][ in 1979. Along the way, the loaded up the interface with newfangled gizmos like the "mouse", and "scroll-bars".

What's most interesting is that there are a couple of concepts in the early Lisa sketches that didn't see the light of day until OS X.

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Evolution 1.4 Preview 1.

Evolution 1.4 Preview 1. 03/13/2003 10:22 AM
Evolution 1.4 Preview 1.

The Evolution of software

The Evolution of software 06/20/2004 05:17 AM

I've been in the software business for over 24 years and creating music, art and video with technology over 10 years before that.

So I gotta tell yah how much it warms my heart to see images of software packaged like this.

I found these images on Russell Beattie's blog. This is one of those rare moments that I'm not copying and pasting the whole dam post (Russell's posts especially get long.)

I'm just jazzed over the prospect of buying software in cute little SD cartirdges like this!

Evolution: The future is now

Evolution: The future is now 06/14/2004 06:35 AM
Big Blue banks on its "on demand" strategy as the crowning achievement of a historic makeover.

Evesham Evolution RA2

Evesham Evolution RA2 11/03/2003 11:13 AM
vnunet.com Nov 3 2003 10:33AM ET

Evolution 1.3.1 (Development)

Evolution 1.3.1 (Development) 03/21/2003 03:27 AM
GNOME mail client and PIM.

The Evolution Of Web Search

The Evolution Of Web Search 04/06/2005 07:37 PM

Correctional Evolution

Correctional Evolution 09/03/2004 06:17 AM
New Behaviour Correction - The North American penal systems are outdated. If we look to the UK, evidence of specific punishment points to a new method of behavior correction. The current NA system seems incredibly unspecific when we punish a host of crimes by sending people to the same cage.

Sphere Evolution

Sphere Evolution 11/07/2003 02:07 AM
It starts...

Dynamically Typed: PHP and App Evolution

Dynamically Typed: PHP and App Evolution 08/03/2004 09:19 AM
In the latest posting from Dynamically Typed today, Harry gives some opinions on PHP and allication evolution.

Evolution could speed net downloads

Evolution could speed net downloads 07/05/2004 02:41 PM

Is evolution true? There's no 100% proof

Is evolution true? There's no 100% proof 08/27/2004 09:27 PM
Straits Times Aug 28 2004 1:54AM GMT

Cypress Readies for 3G Evolution

Cypress Readies for 3G Evolution 06/09/2004 02:00 PM
3G Jun 9 2004 3:49PM GMT

Evolution 2.0 sale de la fábrica

Evolution 2.0 sale de la fábrica 09/17/2004 04:39 AM

NYTimes on the evolution of craigslist

NYTimes on the evolution of craigslist 09/07/2004 01:30 AM
they're sneaking up on 8-digit revenues
Grok Description matches for Niles Eldredge: Bursts of Cornets and Evolution
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Robodiscounts: sale on Evolution
Robotics' ER1 parts

Robodiscounts: sale on Evolution
Robotics' ER1 parts 05/27/2004 03:34 PM
If you're a garage robot builder, this may be of interest: Evolution Robotics -- the guys who make the beer-totin< /a>' ER1 -- are having a Spring Sale on some ER1 accessories. The gripper and the IR Sensor Pack are half off right now, $125 and $100 respectively.

The gripper enables the ER1 to grab and carry objects, giving any ER1 project greater functionality. The IR Sensor Pack harnesses ER1's powerful obstacle avoidance capabilities, providing heightened navigation and awareness.

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Niles Eldredge: Bursts of Cornets and Evolution

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