One Way Door

I'm utterly without a security badge for the first time in seven years...

-and there it is....

I clear this door, and I'm forever on the outside of CorpWorld.











Feels kinda good.

Forgive us, Rachel Scott

We have failed you.

Again.

It has happened again.

An elementary school, this time.

So far, we have established the 'what.'

The post-massacre pattern is depressingly well-traveled. Photos of stricken family members, eyewitness accounts, and a verified list of the slain.

We demand this, and we get it.

But there is more.

We move on to 'how.'

Timelines are constructed, complete with maps and dotted lines showing the path of the gunmen and icons indicating where the victims were found.

And it is here that we compound our national misery. We love our guns, surely- but far more prevalent than firearms is our pornographic fascination with mass murder.

It is a huge story, surely. Attention must be paid. The public must understand what has happened in order to fashion a response. Yes.

However, I will say something equally obvious: the coverage of these events is part of the problem.

Ask yourself: what do we gain from seeing the picture of the gunman splashed on every newspaper in the country? What insight does a captioned photo of the killer offer a policy maker?

In the case of a live, at-large person - their name is supremely relevant. But do I need to know a dead man's name to damn them for their crimes?

It is beyond fantasy to hope that the gunman's name would never appear in print - but surely there is a point at which we and the media can agree to minimize their celebrity. No photo, no bio, and most definitely no last video message broadcast nationwide. When their death is established, they are the gunman - and nothing else.

We must deny them the infamy they seek.

Nor is there any public value in splashing hi-res images of the weapons used by the gunman. Is our understanding of the crime enhanced by learning a gunman's specific choice of handgun or rifle?

More to the point, if this information is truly essential, how is it we know precisely what weapons were used at Sandy Hook Elementary, yet a professional football player can kill his girlfriend and himself with a pistol that remains nameless?

Is it too much to dream that a question like "What kind of semi-automatic rifle did the gunman use?" would be answered by "Does it really matter?"

Once the deliberate nature of the crime is established (numerous weapons, large reserves of ammunition) anything else is murder-porn.

We should not glorify the tools of mass murder.

Women and children were killed - with guns.

But the most patently offensive and ubiquitous aspect of coverage is the leaderboard.

Any event like this begs for comparison and context. It is the answer to the unspoken "how bad is it?" or "is it the worst ever?"

Our media helpfully supplies this context, so future killers can determine what level of bloodshed will assure them immortality.

I don't pretend that such comparisons will ever stop - but their well-practiced delivery is one of the many things that is wrong with our culture.

These are human beings who have been murdered - they are not points on a scoreboard.

Finally, despite our need to know exactly what happened - the you-are-there narratives supplied by eager journalists serve to supply future gunmen with the training and inspiration they could not otherwise obtain.

A spree killer will almost certainly be a novice. We should not help them prepare by illustrating what security measures they will encounter - or how those measures can be bypassed.

The public will gain from news accounts that detail security gaps and lessons learned - I do not advocate for censorship, only a tactical level of restraint.

As we prepare for the next gunman, we should not ensure that same gunman is forewarned.

There are countless aspects to the larger issue of mass-killings.
We can expect school lockdown drills to become more rigorous. School doors that can be secured against gunfire and forced entry. These things will happen.

And we should re-evaluate the need for private citizens to access high capacity magazines.

But before all this - we should take a good look at how we portray and elevate these events and those who commit them.

Gunmen are nothing - yet we make them famous. The same nation that effortlessly recalls serial and spree killers cannot locate the memory it owes a young woman named Rachel Scott.

We must do better.

Or there will be other schools in other towns that will wish we had.

A Goddamned Shame

If I had a nickel for every time I've heard this phrase:

This interface was designed by my grandmother. She died last week. Do you like it?

I'd have exactly one nickel, courtesy of a former coworker, MP.

MP said this to illustrate the kind of question you should never ask your focus group. It's the kind of joke that gets better the more you think about it.

I worked with MP at CorpWorld before he went on to better things. This was before the purge.

I don't think I've ever met anyone who could have you thinking about their words more than MP. He'd say something and about an hour later, you'd get the joke. Frequently it would be at your expense.

MP's default setting was full-blown contempt for stupid things. CorpWorld was an environment that gave him no reason to change.

But contempt has its price - MP was deskbound because his sense of humor didn't endear him to clients who were neck deep in the kind of behavior he was making fun of.

I always thought that was a great shame - because CorpWorld so desperately needs to laugh at itself. There is so much asinine behavior going on in large organizations, it’s difficult to focus on it. You could argue I avoid doing so, just so I can function. MP was the constant reminder that much of what we did just changed the velocity of our personal hamster wheel.

Observations like that are useful, because they force you to step back and think. MP's wit was not reserved for others - User Experience designers were a favorite target.

Despite being a valid profession, user design is awash with charlatans and quacks. People whose messianic view of themselves blinds them to practical considerations. People like Dustin Curtis. They have the TRUTH, yet the world refuses to see.

I'm talking about people who self style themselves Pimpformation Architects or people like ErikDahl:

"I am equally at home in the worlds of theory and praxis, I often lull myself to sleep at night with thoughts about cultural-semiotics, information bricolage, theories and implications of the social self, as well as concepts of "social-themeparking."

MP's commentary:

I fail to embrace the UX community in part because of the showy, self-important, self-promoting types littered across the Internet with titles like "user experience guru" and "passionate user experience advocate." ...off the top of my head, I don't know any developers who parade around the Internet as "object-oriented guru" and "passionate regex God."

That kind of pushback is useful. Instructive, even.

I used to be (in a very small way) one of those people. I would go into meetings as if I was there to save the world. I can save you, if you will only let me. Several large projects later - I began to understand the total tonnage of what my employers were up against.

If the back end system is a dinosaur - there's precious little that can be done on the front end. Attempts at modern UI will be hamstrung, because they expect modern middleware (that CorpWorld does not possess). MP would point this out at length.

[Central application] doesn't run web services... none of what we'll want is possible until this changes.

I would always argue that we'd do the good we could - but looking back it's hard to find fault with MP's thinking. Deck chairs were rearranged, but the gash in the workflow's hull remained. The good you can do is limited by the extent to which you understand the problem.

Which is why the person who can immediately and unflinchingly identify a problem is so valuable. Unfortunately, they just don't make a lot of friends.

MP and I would email back and forth off and on. I'm terrible and keeping in contact - but MP would send informal surveys. Even sent me a birthday card - though I can't imagine how he would have found that out.

My team leader was better at keeping in touch - made it sound like MP was having trouble getting the job he wanted. That having taken his most recent leap - he felt isolated.

CorpWorld does that to people - you are plug and play components. Most meetings start with introductions "I'm so and so's replacement." Being in a room with people you know - or have known - is a rare thing.

MP had made the full blown jump, everybody was new - and his chosen specialty wasn't hiring him. It was clearly a rough ride.

But obviously I didn't know the half of it.

This morning - one of MP's coworkers emailed us to tell us the other half.

A few weeks ago, MP was up for a big job interview and was preparing like mad. He'd done mock interviews to prepare and (as always) did so without notes. MP is brilliant that way. The stuff he's interested in, he knows inside out and backwards.

MP could be acerbic, but his intelligence and drive are unmistakable. Surely no employer could miss that.

However the interview went - MP clearly was not satisfied. He went home and called family to say it had not gone well.

Then nothing for two days.

I don't have the specifics - but it is abundantly clear that shortly after his interview, MP killed himself.

I started looking for the details before realizing that they would do no good.

The world has one less bright and funny person.

I'd said before that there are things that are immune to all reason.

This is one of them.

No Caption Required

(H/t Imagefave)

Bolsheviks and Baby-Killers, Unite!

Well, I'll be damned - the Dems actually grew a pair and passed a bill.

Golf clap, anyone?

Now how's about passing the reconciliation bill, add a robust public option, and get off my tv for a while, eh?

I'm sick of you people.

A Little Perspective

(Via NPR)

If you haven't seen t his picture before - see that tiny blue speck in the middle of rightmost beam of light?

That's Earth.

From 3.7 billion miles away.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

-Carl Sagan

Bow your head for the Montasaurus

Ms. No-H has lost a buddy.

WaPo to Froomkin: you're fired.

Damn... and damn again.

Think a happy thought

...and watch this little factoid devour it whole.

The projected US deficit for this year is larger than the GDP of almost every other nation on earth. Only nine nation's GDPs exceed our 2009 deficit - and we're one of them.

Owch.

(Via The Big Picture)

Women & children Bankers & Traders first!

What's up with health care?

(Via CJR's Trudy Lieberman)

The most cogent assessment, however, came from Susan Dentzer, former health correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and current editor-in-chief of the policy journal Health Affairs.

So what’s actually being put forward here is a plan to spend some money, starting a couple of years from now, to begin to cover some of the uninsured. And that’s really the reality that has been created by the current fiscal situation we’re in.

In other words, the uninsured may have to wait.

Haec credam a deo pio, a deo justo, a deo scito?

This...is seriously messed up.

A 9/11 Widow, Killed in Crash Near Buffalo

I've said it for my own reasons, but it's doubly true for Ms. Eckert:

Some things are immune to all reason.

Persona non grata

Stunned...

The producers of Tent Show Radio and Wisconsin Public Radio have decided to cut Tent Show's founder, Warren Nelson, from its broadcasts in light of allegations against Nelson of sexual assault and battery.


Mike Crane, WPR's acting director and chief operating officer, said Thursday the show will be re-cut with an alternate host, and an edited version could appear as early as Saturday.

(Via the Ashland Daily Press - login required)

I've listened to him on road trips, seen him live, and basically assumed he was just what he looked like - a local talent doin' good.

What a shame.

Aloha, Siva?

Siva Vaidhyanathan is calling it quits.

Downer.

Joie de vivre

Randy Pausch - of the inspiring Last Lecture has passed away.

• Watch it on YouTube 
• Read a transcript [PDF]

The threat of death can give anyone perspective, but I doubt anyone has ever shared theirs quite so eloquently.

FISA: We lose

(H/t to Glenn)

Hats off to the Democratic controlled Senate. They certainly are consistent.

H.R.6304 FISA bill amendments

• Remove Immunity for Telecoms (Dodd/Feingold) - Rejected
• Subject Immunity to [weak] Court Approval (Specter) - Rejected 
• Delay Immunity until the IG investigates what took place (Bingaman) - Rejected

I know which senator won't get my vote next time.

Final vote on the bill to follow.

Careful what you say now folks, because there's sure to be somebody listening.

Late Edit: (H/t Secrecy News)

Let's hope Sen. Whitehouse is right:

“If I were a litigant, I would challenge the constitutionality of the immunity provisions of this statute, and I would expect a good chance of winning,” Sen. Whitehouse said.

Later Edit:
The ACLU is going to press exactly that legal point.
Glenn has the full rundown of what happened today, why it's so godawful, and who's to blame. Obama is among them.

Had Russert been a soldier...

...news of his passing might have been different.

16-Jun-2008
US Private 1st Class Jason Cox    Al Hillah - Babil    Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

13-Jun-2008
US Sergeant Timothy J. Russert    Washington   Non-hostile

12-Jun-2008
US    Sergeant John D. Aragon    Kadamiyah - Baghdad    Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

11-Jun-2008
US    Private Eugene D. M. Kanakaole    Balad - Salah ad Din    Non-hostile
US    Lance Corporal Kelly E. C. Watters    Al Anbar Province    Hostile - hostile fire
US    Lance Corporal Javier Perales Jr.    Fallujah - Anbar    Non-hostile
US    Sergeant 1st Class Gerard M. Reed    Baghdad    Non-hostile

(H/t iCasualties)

Had any one of these soldiers been a broadcaster, news of their passing might well have been different:


I mean no disrespect to either family - but a press that devotes days of coverage to the death of a newsman can surely afford more than a few seconds for its war dead.

Memorial Day

So, Memorial Day came and went. Good time, good friends, even good weather.

I'd go into it, but most of you were there.

Then there's today. Just another day to drag my kids to the place where I pay others to look after them, so I can try to earn enough to keep paying for child care.

I do the same route, day in, day out. Aside from traffic patterns not much changes.

This morning - something was different.

Rounding a corner I see the same backdrop, with a different foreground. In the grass of a long park that flanks the road is a war memorial.

I've read about them, seen the pictures - first time I actually saw it in the real. Hundreds upon hundreds of small white monuments lined up in the morning sun.

They are arranged like a timeline, and at irregular intervals a larger sign announces Iraq 2003 Iraq 2004, Afghanistan 2003, Afghanistan 2004.

And it just keeps going on. Year after year after year.

I've been to the Wall, to Arlington, Punchbowl - but the feeling was different. Seeing that number the nightly news treats like a sports score turned into a tangible presence is very uncomfortable. These dead would fill a cemetery - and not a small one.

The monument is political - filled with hopeful statements about how 'You can stop this.' No doubt most of those memorialized in it believed fully in what they were doing - but the mistakes of their leaders makes monuments like this one feel like a barely muted accusation.

Somehow the dead of other wars seem validated, the Wall at least symbolizes a lesson we should have learned.

Obviously we haven't.

Late edit:

Media Bloodhound makes a finer, and better point.

E. Gary Gygax has passed away

(h/t to Oz)

According to Troll Lord Games, (and the AP) E. Gary Gygax passed away earlier today:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is almost too much to get my mind about. But I've just had news that our dear Dungeon Master has passed away. Ernie called this morning, he thought we should let the fans know. He's just sent an email out.

Gary was in his home when he gathered himself up to cross the great divide.

He was a very dear friend of mine. And I will miss him so.

God Speed My Friend.

Steve
------------------

I certainly didn't know the man - but he helped create a pastime that (without question) altered the course of my life.

True, a lot of things alter your life: the route you take to work could make you late for a critical meeting, or get you in an accident. But your recurring activity has more opportunity to change and define you.

By that measure, gaming has had an enormous impact on my life. I have spent countless hours letting my imagination create characters, settings, plots and intrigues - or sitting among friends playing them all out. Absent the outlet of gaming – it's unclear what I would have spent that creative energy on. Perhaps something more tangible (or strenuous) – but I don't regret the choice.

Gaming was where I made friends – still is.

I met E through gaming.

Despite this, I don't discuss it with people. The stereotypes make most gamers a little reticent. You let a gaming reference slip in front of the wrong crowd – you spend too much time imagining what kind of assumptions will forever more be running through their mind when they think of you.

I always want to explain it as a hobby – but most people's interest (or what they are willing to retain) does not extend beyond a sentence or two.

"Is that the game where you pretend to be an elf?"

On the innumerable highway trips I've taken – I've tried to come up with an explanation of what gaming is, and why I enjoy it so much. Like many speeches aimed at the universe at large, it will never be done.

But if a person has only room for two sentences – I'd offer these:

Gaming is interactive storytelling. You don't read a story – you and your friends participate in writing one.

Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (and others) started the idea that a game shouldn't be limited to a gameboard or a set of playing pieces. It should have rules that adapt to what the players want to do.

The playing field is in your head – the setting is wherever you want.

This idea has followed a natural evolution and expansion, until we have OGL and GURPs and all the logical variants and derivatives. I'm sure some would argue that Gary's idea was inevitable, that he just happened to be the guy who got it out in front of the masses.

I'm fine with that – but I'm grateful he did it when he did.

It meant that my insane cousin had the opportunity to buy a game he didn't understand (and never took to) and then introduce it to me.

I remember looking at that Erol Otus art and wondering what on earth we had stumbled across.

If I'd only known.

Here's to the passing of E. Gary Gygax. Thank you for all the memories.

The last resort of the incompetent

...is violence.

Benazir Bhutto seconds before her assassination.
Photo: John Moore - Getty Images

I had been wondering how it was that Benazir Bhutto had managed to return to Pakistan. Not only was she not stopped at the airport (like Nawaz Sharif was back in September), but she was able to move about the country.

I figured she had backers in the west that were telling Musharraf to back off.

The kind of backers that control whether or not Pakistan receives military aid.

Whatever the reason, Musharraf's administration allowed Bhutto to loudly call for his resignation, to appear before her followers and demand early elections.

It can't have been fun for Musharraf to just sit on his hands and watch.

And now she is dead.

You have to wonder what her backers are going to do now.

RIP Anastasia

There is the oh-so-faint possibility that we can finally get rid of one of those enduring mysteries.

Amateurs Unravel Russia's Last Royal Mystery

YEKATERINBURG, Russia — On the outskirts of this burly industrial center, off a road like any other, on a nowhere scrap of land — here unfolded the final act of one of the last century’s most momentous events.

The new remains were 70 yards from the first burial site.

...It would be 73 more years, in 1991, before the remains would be reclaimed and the announcement would ring out: the grave of the last Russian czar, Nicholas II, and his family had been found.

But the story does not end there.

Yes, the story doesn't end there - an unabashed charlatan named Anna Anderson and mankind's unquenchable thirst for conspiracy have fueled 90 years of speculation that Anastasia and her brother managed to survive.

At long last - it appears that they have found their bodies, not far from where they found the rest of the Romanovs.

Let us hope that DNA is salvageable.

Perhaps then we can stop hearing fairy tales about how two unarmed and isolated young children managed to escape (or be spared by) the same group of murderous thugs who shot and stabbed nine other adults and children to death, before disfiguring them with acid and throwing them down a mine shaft along with several hand grenades.

It would make a great story for them to have survived, but pitiless men like Lenin insist that their assassins be thorough - or at least too terrified to disappoint.

Brutal as it is, the truth would at last make the Russians provide the very least that is owed to murdered children: a grave that testifies to posterity the manner of their death.