Recent events have set many people to wondering if our society is following an Orwellian path. In other words, a hyper-strict society with continual surveilance, extensive government propaganda and mind control. Well such a society may well be happening, but perhaps not in the way you think. Stuart McMillen has taken the thoughts of Neil Postman in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business and created a strikingly effective 12 panel graphic comic strip which makes the case that it is not George Orwells vision we should worry about but Aldous Huxleys. Scary stuff and it’s message really does ring true.

Amusing Ourselves to Death

As I was walking along a footpath near a railway line I noticed a snake lying in the middle of the path sunning itself. It was about 1 foot (20 cm) long and was of a golden yellow colour. It had no markings and its skin seemed exceptionally smooth. How very odd, think I, “it doesn’t look like an adder” (the only poisonous snake around here). “What kind of snake can this be?”

Of course one cannot just walk by such a curiousity – and so it got gently poked with a stick as my monkey hind brain took over while the rest of it (my brain) was trying to figure out something more intelligent to do. Turns out there wasn’t a lot else it could come up with besides resolving to look it up when I next got to an Internet enabled computer. In the end I used the stick to carefully move the snake onto the grass at the side of the path (I was worried that a cyclist would squish it) and went on my way.

I did look it up – turns out it is not a snake but the male of a legless lizard called a Slow Worm aka Anguis fragilis. I never knew such things existed! Apparently it has eyelids (snakes don’t) and also the ability to shed its tail like some lizards.

The above image is from the Wikipedia article. Unfortunately I did not get a good picture of the one I saw but there are some good ones at: http://www.herpconstrust.org.uk/animals/slow_worm.htm and, of course, a search will turn up many more.

According to Einstein you cannot solve a problem by the same sort of thinking that generated the problem in the first place. John Michael Greer takes this theme and, in this thoughtful article, demonstrates that this is exactly what we are doing in regards to the ever declining rate of global crude oil extraction. Our current approach to the problem of peak oil, according to Greer, is simply to find a new sources of energy to preserve the status quo – anything else is unthinkable. Well Greer thinks for himself and the analogies he uses make a pretty lucid and persuasive case. This, to my mind, is some of Greers best work, and the insights it provides are well worth the read and further contemplation.

Faustus and the Monkey Trap

The refit and modernization of this router is now called the Wellity Project. As to why it is called Wellity … well you’ll have to read the web page.

####
the first step is the
hardest part of the journey
I move forward now

This unconventional integration of the WordPress software into a standard web site requires a number of adjustments to get the links between the two parts to work properly. One such adjustment (or hack to be honest) is in the generation of the Older Posts, Newer Posts link at the bottom of the blog pages. During my search to resolve the problem, I discovered several other posters asking for similar solutions with little reported success. I thought I would document my solution here in the thought that it may be findable by an Internet search.

The Problem

In the OfItselfSo.com hybrid site, the link at the bottom of the main blog page to pages displaying the Older Posts, Newer Posts contains (by default) an erroneous reference to the main.php page. For example, a link like http://ofitselfso.com/main.php/blog/?paged=2 would be generated for the older posts page when the actual URL is http://ofitselfso.com/blog/?paged=2

Apparently this is due to the internal WordPress posts_nav_link() function building the links with the page name included. Evidently it expects the blog to be the main page of the website and hence be referenced only by the site URL. The Older Posts, Newer Posts links on the blog page is generated by one line in the home.php file of the current theme. This line looks like

<?php posts_nav_link(' — ', __('« newer posts'), __('older posts »')); ?>

If one trawls through the WordPress code one finds that the link_template.php file in the wp_includes directory contains the definition of the posts_nav_link() function. The code for this function is:

/**
* Display post pages link navigation for previous and next pages.
*
* @since 0.71
*
* @param string $sep Optional. Separator for posts navigation links.
* @param string $prelabel Optional. Label for previous pages.
* @param string $nxtlabel Optional Label for next pages.
*/
function posts_nav_link( $sep = '', $prelabel = '', $nxtlabel = '' ) {
$args = array_filter( compact('sep', 'prelabel', 'nxtlabel') );
echo get_posts_nav_link($args);
}


Clearly editing this function is a very bad idea. For one thing any upgrades to the WordPress software will overwrite the contents of link_template.php and hence necessitate finding and fixing the problem all over again. However notice that posts_nav_link() is mostly just a stub which calls the function get_posts_nav_link() and outputs the returned results. It should be noted that the get_posts_nav_link() function makes further calls to the get_previous_posts_link() and get_next_posts_link() functions. This hierarchy of calls can be put to good use to change the output to a different value.

Some simple modifications to the posts_nav_link() function can filter the output however we wish. My version uses as simple str_replace() call to remove the extra main.php text in the URL. Since it is undesireable to make changes to the link_template.php this function is given a new name (in this case custom_nav_links) and placed inline in the home.php file which is part of the custom OfItselfSo theme. The code for the function is below

<?php
/**
* Display post pages link navigation for previous and next pages.
* We have to implement a custom version of posts_nav_link
* because this hybrid WordPress/HTML site causes WordPress
* to generate URLS with the blog main page included in it. The
* code below is just a copy of posts_nav_link with a simple
* str_replace filter added. Parameters are identical to posts_nav_link
*/
function custom_nav_links( $sep = '', $prelabel = '', $nxtlabel = '' ) {
$args = array_filter( compact('sep', 'prelabel', 'nxtlabel') );
$next_link = get_posts_nav_link($args);
$next_link = str_replace('main.php/','',$next_link);
echo $next_link;
}
?>


The line in the home.php file which generates the links is also changed to call the local custom_nav_links() function instead of the previous posts_nav_link().

<?php custom_nav_links(' — ', __('« newer posts'), __('older posts »')); ?>

Once done, the Older Posts, Newer Posts links all generate as expected.

It is extremely agreeable to walk through the twisted winding streets of the oldest part of town. The streets go where the people wanted to walk and the houses got built and re-built over the centuries in whatever style the inhabitants fancied and could afford. It is pretty obvious the town just grew organically. There was no particular plan and not much organization. Yet such things are universally considered beautiful – which is why people like to visit it.

The factors which provide the beauty are not unknown. The twisting lanes restrict sightlines making the environment seem small and personal. The narrowness of the streets make you feel part of the community. The low houses (none are more than a ground floor and one above) open right onto the road and do not distance themselves from the passers-by or dominate the individual. The diversity and decoration of each building provides a pleasing effect and yet, each looks right for the place it is in. These are not buildings which declare power and status – they are simply homes and shops which have evolved over the years to maximize their utility for the occupants.

The big question, to my mind, is “Why can we not build such towns today“. Surely it is just a matter of will – we have the technical ability. I suspect the modern assumption that each household must have an automobile is one of the main drivers. It seems as soon as society latches on to such an unspoken belief, the juggernaut of modern bureaucracy will soon bring to bear planning and building codes which zealously enforce compliance. I should imagine that people would build communities such as Appledore if they could but the static rules require the generation of the sameness and anomie of current modern architecture. I do not believe for a minute that towns of such an organic design are unsafe or unworkable. People demonstrably live in Appledore now, and one does not hear of disasters because fire trucks and ambulances have a bit more trouble navigating the narrow roads. If the prices of such houses (when they rarely come on the market) are anything to go by, the people who live there love it.

We could do it if we want to, we just have to want to.

#####
the hundred year homes
tell us how it should be done.
I take some pictures.

Winding Streets – click on any image to make it bigger
  

Courtyards
  

A Tiny House
  

One thing though, the DropBox software insists on placing the shared folder under the “My Documents” tree – and, although the folder can be moved, the top level folder must aways be called DropBox. So if you have a folder called Projects (as I do) and you really want it to be C:\Projects (as I do) and you have lots of other PC’s you want to share it with (as I do) then clearly you have a problem. The ideal situation would be to have any number of top level folders shared under the DropBox system and to be able to give give those folders any name you wish. At the moment this is not directly supported – but there is a workaround.

There is a little known concept on Windows O/S called a Junction. This functions in an identical way to a hardlink on a Linux/UNIX system. Implementing a junction on a folder enables the same physical folder can appear in multiple arbitrary places in a directory tree as long as it is on the same disk. Note that the files and subfolders in a junctioned folder are not duplicated. They are the same exact files – it is just that there are now two routes into them. Needless to say, if you junction a folder as a subfolder of itself you can run into race conditions on things like backup and antivirus software that do a lot of directory tree walking.

The Junction command is not part of the standard Windows binarys – although support for it is imbedded in the operating system. Fortunately a helpful programmer called Mark Russinovich has released a Junction.exe file you can download and run as if it were a supplied command. Download the Junction command from Microsoft at

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896768.aspx

To setup a DropBox Junction, lets assume we have a DropBox top level folder called “My Documents\DropBox” and we feel this is an awkward place to put things. Here is how you would configure an existing directory called C:\Projects and share it under the DropBox system.

1. Download the Junction software and put it somewhere. I put it in
   

   
   C:\Dump\Junction.exe

2. Move the “C:\Project” folder into the DropBox folder by dragging and dropping it there.
3. Find the real location of the DropBox folder on the C: drive. You can do this by right clicking on the DropBox icon in the System Tray and choosing the “Open DropBox Folder” option. Show the address bar in the folder that pops up to see the real location. On my system the actual path was
   

   
   “C:\Documents and Settings\Dev2\My Documents\Dropbox”
   

   
   the “Dev2″ in the above address being the login name on that PC

4. Open a command window and issue a command similar to the following
   

   
   c:\Dump\junction “C:\Projects” “C:\Documents and Settings\Dev2\My Documents\Dropbox\Projects”
   

   
   Note the command format is Junction.exe “new location” “existing location” and that you have to put double quotes around the directory paths which contain spaces.

5. And that is pretty much it.

Once you have completed the above steps, you should see the Projects folder reappear as C:\Projects and you can use it as you would any other folder (because it is a folder – not some pseudo link like a shortcut). The contents of C\:Projects will be sync’ed to other associated PC’s by DropBox as it would any other folder – because as far as it is concerned the files are properly located below its DropBox directory. On the other PC’s you can use the Junction command to place the Projects folder whereever you wish.

Note that any number of DropBox sub-folders can be junctioned out of the DropBox folder onto any location on the disk. The Junction command works fine on both Windows XP and Windows 7 (64bit) in my experience.

The concept that it will soon be mathematically impossible for the UK government to be able to meet all of its obligations seems to be inconceivable to 99% of the commenters. They just aren’t having any of it. Given the strength of feeling on the subject, the UK government has no realistic chance of resolving this issue politically. It should be noted that this dire situation is in no way specific to the UK – most western governments are in similar (or worse) positions. For example, Italy and Japan are in even worse shape demographically.

So how is it going to play out? Expect massive cuts to the government services which do not have a major constituency as the govt thrashes about trying to save money where it can. Also expect major amounts of money printing (and hence inflation) as the government attempts to meet its obligations with money it does not have. Do not expect a state pension to make a major contribution to your retirement income. In fact, it would be wise not to expect too much from the state at all.

####
The math doth decree
the devil and the deep blue sea
will meet around me

####
The untruths we tell
explain our realities
better than the facts

First person shooter and light infantry video games are practically ubiquitous amongst the young – particularly young men. Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, a former member of the US Army’s Ranger battalion believes that these games are the equivalent of Shoot-To-Kill training simulators. Grossman makes the case that violent video games effectively incorporate all of the standard techniques used by the military to increase the willingness of their recruits to kill the enemy without inhibition. Desensitization, classical conditioning, operant conditioning – Grossman has extensive knowledge of the psychological tools and illustrates in this well written and widely reprinted article how video games use them all.

Trained to Kill