Letter Never Sent

Science — Comments Off
16
Apr 03

Prepare to Meet Thy Doom

Eventually, Carmack says, real-time rendering will be so dynamic that animators will be able to produce films using game engines. Motivated modmakers will have the tools – for free, if Carmack has his way – to bring to life a vision as compelling as the new film Finding Nemo (see Swimming With Sharks). In his book Pattern Recognition, William Gibson writes about a “Garage Kubrick.” Carmack foresees a Basement Disney.

The ideal Carmack has always had in mind is the Holodeck, the immersive simulation device on Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s science fiction, of course, but a major influence on his thinking all the same. “When I create a game, I’m not telling a story,” he says. “I’m creating an environment in which interesting things will happen.” If, as Carmack believes, graphics engines are reaching a plateau, “now is the time to do a generalized environment” that would be the ultimate mod – a programmable virtual reality like the Metaverse described by Neal Stephenson in Snow Crash. …

Even with all that processing power at his disposal, Carmack then squeezes out every ounce of performance he can. For the game’s monsters, he created an algorithm to reduce a 500,000-polygon character to a mere 2,000 when viewed at a distance – just the amount to ensure the game’s speed. Carmack also fixed the tendency for shadows to invert when the viewer’s eye was inside the darkness by calculating the shadows from above instead of from the player’s point of view. The technique inspired several dissertations and a name: Carmack’s reverse.

“It was one of those really elegant solutions,” says Carmack, that could come only after grueling hours of work. “There’s this cultural stereotype of a person staring off into space until a light bulb turns on, but that’s just intellectual laziness. You have to get inside a problem and work it.”

General — Comments Off
16
Apr 03

US bans media from protests

US military bans media from protests:

US forces yesterday tried to stop the media from covering a third day of anti-American protests by Iraqis outside a hotel housing a US operations base, according to a reporter at the scene.

Up to 300 Iraqis gathered outside the Palestine Hotel to express rage at what they said was the US failure to restore order after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

For the first time, visibly angered US military officials sought to distance the media from the protest, moving reporters and cameras about 30 metres from the barbed-wired entrance to the hotel.

“We want you to pull back to the back of the hotel because they (the Iraqis) are only performing because the media are here,” said a marines colonel who would not give his first name or title.

The crowd later moved to the nearby square where a statue of Saddam was toppled last Wednesday, signaling the end of the regime. The Iraqis chanted: “No, no, USA.”

Tension has been rising in front of the hotel, where Iraqis protest against a lack of police protection, water, electricity and other basic services.

As the protest grew more vocal, a marines corporal held an impromptu briefing for a few reporters about progress in bringing Iraq back to normal.

Corporal John Hoellwarth said the US forces planned to boost joint police patrols, bring more hospitals back into service and restore power to parts of Baghdad within 72 hours.

Military and defense — Comments Off
16
Apr 03

Still Another WMD False Alarm: ‘Mobile Bio-Labs’ Test Negative

Still no weapons of mass destruction. They lie, they lie.

Tests rule out suspect bio-labs

The 11 cargo containers were filled with new laboratory equipment apparently intended to make conventional weapons, said team leader Chief Warrant Officer 2 Monte Gonzalez.

“Based on what we’ve seen, the containers are full of millions of dollars worth of high-tech equipment,” he said. “It possibly has a dual use. But it does not appear to be weapons of mass destruction.” …

Military and defense — 3 comments
15
Apr 03

U.S. also denies Iraqi oil

U.S. also denies Iraqi oil to Lebanon: Oil as a tool of policy. It starts.

US starts military-build along Iraq’s border with Syria

U.S. Troops Seize Iraqi Trophies for Fun and Profit

Military and defense — Comments Off
15
Apr 03

Iraq, iraq, iraq

Some interesting things for today, this from Al Jazeera:

Republican Guard commander cut deal with US forces

The mystery of what happened to the Iraqi Republican Guard defending Baghdad appears to have been solved if a report in today’s Le Monde is to be believed.

The French daily reports that Maher Sufyan, Commander of the Republican Guard reached an agreement with American forces in which he ordered his forces to surrender in exchange for his transfer via an American Apache helicopter to an undisclosed safe haven.

Quoting anonymous sources, Le Monde’s correspondent in Baghdad said that Sufyan ordered all Republican Guard forces to lay down their arms and go home. Shortly thereafter an Apache helicopter escorted Sufyan from the Al Rashid camp, east of Baghdad, to an unknown location.

Maher Sufyan is not included on the infamous “deck of cards” created by US defence officials to highlight the most wanted individuals from the Saddam Hussein government. Iraq’s popular Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed Al Sahaf, Naji Sabri, Iraq’s Foreign Minister and Oumid Medhat Mubarak, the minister of health are also not included on the list.

The US is not publicizing this for obvious reasons as it shows the Machiavellian politiking at work.

Religion/philosophy — Comments Off
14
Apr 03

The Ophites

I always knew there was something more going on in the genesis story.

Ophites

A Gnostic sect which evolved during the second century AD. and existed for several centuries afterwards. The name, or word, was derived from the Greek ophis, meaning “serpent, and relates to the great reverence which the Ophites had toward the serpent. The members progressed through full-fledged initiation ceremonies that included symbols for purity, life, spirit and fire. The entire system of the sect appears to be a combination of the mysteries of the Egyptian goddess Isis, concepts of oriental mythology, and early Christian doctrine.

According to the theologians Origen, Irenaeus and others, the essence of the Ophitic Doctrine was that the God of the Old Testament was a misanthropic deity from whose power mankind had to be liberated. From this point of view the serpent in the Garden of Eden was a benefactor to mankind when he urged Adam and Eve to revolt against such a God. Therefore, other enemies of Jehovah in the Old Testament became heroes of the sect.

As a mark of reverence for the serpent, it was reported, the snake took part in the sect’s communion service. The following was reported by Epiphanius (fourth century Church Father) who called the service abominable. The snake was kept in a chest known as the cista mystica. At the beginning of the service the snake is summoned out. He then rolls among the loaves of bread which are on the table after which are broken and eaten. Following this each of those present kiss the snake on the mouth for it has been tamed by a spell. They have then fallen down and worshipped the snake as a part of the Eucharist service. They claimed they have sent forth a hymn to the Father, and thus concluded their mysteries. A.G.H.

Religion/philosophy — 3 comments
14
Apr 03

Church

Today my roommate’s girlfriend, Sarah, called me up and invited me to attend the evening Unitarian service with her. We had been talking about going together since I knew she went every week and I had been missing the weekly ritual of meeting with people and discussing spiritual matters I had experienced growing up. Granted, growing up as a Southern Baptist was far from completely positive, but there was always something I sorta liked about seeing the same people every week and thinking quietly about those feelings inside me and my relationship to the universe and to other people.

The service itself was novel yet familiar. They appear to have some ritual (the voluntary lighting of votive candles to remember a loved one or to commemorate something) but at the same time are very hands off and liberal. Tonight they had some sort of Persian group playing music. It was pretty neat.

The sermon was very intellectual and mentally stimulating, references to Jung and world religious ideas were made to ask certain philosophical questions. The main thing I like about the Unitarians is that they reject the divinity of Jesus and the idea of original sin. At times I was uncomfortable with the openness of it, but that’s mainly my own reticience and self-maintained distance. I recommend checking it out.

Military and defense — 2 comments
13
Apr 03

Understanding the ‘evildoer’

From the Wash. Post via Cryptome, Likely Suicide Bombers Include Profiles You’d Never Suspect by Sharon Begley:

If individuals are capable of terrible things under the right circumstances, that suggests “it is not possible to ‘profile’ suicide terrorists: They are just like us,” says Prof. Atran.

Surely, not entirely. A crucial distinction may be that to a terrorist, his cell is everything: kin, friends, neighbors, teachers. Psychological manipulation causes recruits to view the group as a fictive family for whom they are as willing to die as a mother for her child. Such manipulation, says Prof. Atran, “can trump individual personality and psychology to produce apparently extreme behaviors in ordinary people.”

Terrorists promote small-group cohesion much as the military does. Says Maj. Gen. Stewart, “If you ask a soldier why he is willing to fight and die, he’ll tell you it’s for his buddies.”

So with terrorists. Some may be lured by the promise of riches to their survivors, or by the feeling that life offers them nothing else but, perhaps, a moment of glory. “Terrorists kill for the same reasons that groups have killed for centuries,” says Prof. McCauley: “For cause and for comrades. We all know we are going to die. Every normal person believes in something more important than life.”

Suicide terrorism is as old as the Zealots, who 2,000 years ago mounted suicide attacks in Roman-occupied Judea, and as new as human bombs in the West Bank. It may reflect a deep-rooted survival mechanism that allows us to act “in otherwise paralyzing circumstances,” suggests Prof. Atran in the journal Science. As researchers probe the genesis of suicide terrorists, it’s clear that it will be some time before we disprove Dostoevsky’s sad observation: “While nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer, nothing is more difficult than to understand him.”

Genesis of Suicide Terrorism by Scott Atran

General — Comments Off
13
Apr 03

The World After Iraq

Found over at Cryptome this geopolitical analysis of the post-Iraq world order, The World After Iraq by Robert L. Hutchings:

All this leads me to the conclusion that we are facing a more fluid and complicated set of alignments than anything we have seen since the formation of the Atlantic alliance in 1949. At a practical level, this will mean that the longstanding pattern of regular and close coordination via NATO and especially among the four key western allies – the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany – will give way to an ad hoc “coalition of the willing” on most issues. Of course, NATO had already been receding as an instrument of American diplomacy because of the European Union’s common foreign and security policy and the growing disparity between U.S. global interests and Europe’s continental focus. But the transatlantic conflict over Iraq marks a turning point.

Now, having made a bold case, let me temper these judgments. First, the pattern of Franco-German-Russian collaboration that we saw over Iraq will be episodic, not permanent. France and Germany will continue to align themselves periodically against what they would depict as U.S. unilateralism, but it is doubtful that this united front will extend to other issues such as trade and counterterrorist cooperation.

Second, Russia’s orientation is still in flux. Having made a strategic decision to align Russian foreign policy with the United States, President Putin faces a growing backlash from Russia’s security elites. Putin navigated the diplomatic storm over Iraq rather well, but Russia’s future course is in question.

Third, China’s evenhandedness through all this was notable. From the Chinese perspective, the split among the principal Western allies was a welcome development. Although China will remain wary of U.S. global power, its leaders would prefer to avoid confrontation with the United States while they focus on domestic challenges and regional concerns.

the old stuff