The Postman Cometh Being Followed

On a walk this morning I chanced  upon a postal delivery person who had just stopped his vehicle to take a bag of mail and deliver it on the selected street.

Being a creature of little common sense, I opened my mouth and said, "And what is the mail about on this day?"   Just after the words left my mouth, my eyes noted that the post person was not alone. There was another postal person with a notepad and pen in hand who was in fact following the postal deliverer rather closely.

So now the inspector had something to write on his clipboard. It may have said, "Citizen interferes with postal person by asking inappropriate question. Delivery person gave two word reply "Bed and Bath". Delivery person passes trick question test."

I have noted a postal delivery truck being following by another delivery truck but this was a first personal watcher in my limited experience. Perhaps the intent is to count the aggressive dogs or cats, the broken sidewalks, or other menaces to a government employee.

This was no doubt a serious and necessary strategy. Having just been to see HMS Pinafore at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis it is difficult to avoid thoughts of songs like, "I am the inspector of the Post Office!"  There is a tune for those words which is now engraved indelibly in the mind of us all - even you.

Choose a Character

The assignment:  Choose one of the birds to represent yourself. Decide on a course of action. Now picture the reactions of the other characters to your decision. 

How does it feel to be in charge of a flock?

Photons for Breakfast

So at breakfast this morning the discussion had to do with photons and entropy. Are single photos obedient to time? Is the universe totally chained to entropy with an inevitable final condition of equal distribution of atoms across infinite space?

You might think this was happening at some exotic campus breakfast hangout involving students with nothing better to do than solve the issues of the ultimate universe early in the day. No - these were the subjects of discussion at a chain restaurant in a city of the American prairie a long way from the Ivy League or the Berkley/Palo Alto atmospheric heights.

This was church men having a quiet morning discussion.  Religion is obviously not always an exercise in escape from worldly matters and complex reasoning. Stereotypes of religion are so 20th century.

Photos at breakfast are way outside of the usual menu. Entropy is enough to quell any "have a happy day" outlook. Religious topics? It depends on the customers.


Delton

The Data Divide Challenge

With an increasing number of documents available on the web the fact is that most people do not know how to sift through them and make practical use of the data available. Governmental, economic and business transparency means little when only the technicians can make use of the information.

The data divide is between the technicians and the population in general. Jesse Lichtenstein points out that when in South India the information on 20 million land titles became digitally available it was corporations and the wealthy who hired lawyers and predatory land agents to challenge titles, export gaps in records, identify targets for bribery and snap up land titles. Transparency in itself does not guarantee good results for society.

The same misuse of data is likely happening in the US. However, the divide that is clear and certain here is between the technicians and the vast majority of people who do not have the training or time to both access and understand the implications of the data. This will continue to be a lost opportunity for productivity and decision making on all levels.

Data.gov  is subtitled "Empowering People" and provides Data and Apps, Communities, Open Government, Learn, Semantic Web and Developer's Corner.

Sunlight Foundation is subtitled Making Government Transparent and Accountable.

MAPlight.org is subtitled "Money & Politics: Illuminating the Connection".

The these three sites illustrate some of the data now available. If the data divide is to be managed the citizenry will need to become increasingly educated in the skills of accessing then understanding what the data means.  This starts right here at home.

Writing from a Balcony View of Life

When writing a commentary on life I am obliged to take a balcony view. A certain objectivity happens when one steps back from events and the daily flow in order to reflect enough to put into words the fragments of experience in which one is a participant.

The balcony view also complicates life by looking in on whatever else is going on in the lives of people within view. Here is the problem - is this process an invasion of their privacy? To be honest, the balcony view does tap into a the inner mind of fantasy. The balcony view prompts one to enter mentally into the experience of another person without investing self in that other universe.

An Irish author speaking in an interview on MPR this morning prompted me to consider the various writing formats that I am using as elements of one "book" being written by Delton. Whether it be a journal entry, a statement to a public group, a weblog, a letter to a grand daughter, a list of obligations, or a scrawled note at a Mall - all of this is a book of life. The weblogs are public but not as public as a webpage that has wide distribution.

Attempts to discipline all of this writing lead to paralysis of mind and voice. Better that I write as ideas arise. Better that I be more aggressive about inviting others to read my writing. They can easily avoid my scattered thoughts - but - some one person may find in these words a curious idea that prompts them to reveal themselves in writing. Good enough for me.