anthropometaphors

Another bored octopus in captivity wreaked havoc on the aquarium housing her tank:

The guest of honor in the aquarium’s Kids’ Corner octopus tank had swum to the top of the enclosure and disassembled the recycling system’s valve, flooding the place with some 200 gallons of seawater.

“It had grabbed the tube that pulls out the water and caused it to spray outside the tank,” said aquarium education specialist Nick Fash. Judging by the size of the flood, Fash estimated that the water flowed for about 10 hours before the first staff member, Aaron Kind, showed up for work.

I wonder if there are cases of octopuses housed in captivity with adequate exercise, stimulation and enclosure design.

To mark the Convention on Modern Liberty, the children’s author has written the following:

The new laws whisper:

You don’t know who you are

You’re mistaken about yourself

We know better than you do what you consist of, what labels apply to you, which facts about you are important and which are worthless

We do not believe you can be trusted to know these things, so we shall know them for you

And if we take against you, we shall remove from your possession the only proof we shall allow to be recognised

The sleeping nation dreams it has the freedom to speak its mind. It fantasises about making tyrants cringe with the bluff bold vigour of its ancient right to express its opinions in the street. This is what the new laws say about that:

Expressing an opinion is a dangerous activity

Whatever your opinions are, we don’t want to hear them

So if you threaten us or our friends with your opinions we shall treat you like the rabble you are

And we do not want to hear you arguing about it

So hold your tongue and forget about protesting

What we want from you is acquiescence

The nation dreams it is a democratic state where the laws were made by freely elected representatives who were answerable to the people. It used to be such a nation once, it dreams, so it must be that nation still. It is a sweet dream.

You are not to be trusted with laws

So we shall put ourselves out of your reach

We shall put ourselves beyond your amendment or abolition

You do not need to argue about any changes we make, or to debate them, or to send your representatives to vote against them

You do not need to hold us to account

You think you will get what you want from an inquiry?

Who do you think you are?

What sort of fools do you think we are?

The nation’s dreams are troubled, sometimes; dim rumours reach our sleeping ears, rumours that all is not well in the administration of justice; but an ancient spell murmurs through our somnolence, and we remember that the courts are bound to seek the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and we turn over and sleep soundly again.

And the new laws whisper:

We do not want to hear you talking about truth

Truth is a friend of yours, not a friend of ours

We have a better friend called hearsay, who is a witness we can always rely on

We do not want to hear you talking about innocence

Innocent means guilty of things not yet done

We do not want to hear you talking about the right to silence

You need to be told what silence means: it means guilt

We do not want to hear you talking about justice

Justice is whatever we want to do to you

And nothing else

Are we conscious of being watched, as we sleep? Are we aware of an ever-open eye at the corner of every street, of a watching presence in the very keyboards we type our messages on? The new laws don’t mind if we are. They don’t think we care about it.

We want to watch you day and night

We think you are abject enough to feel safe when we watch you

We can see you have lost all sense of what is proper to a free people

We can see you have abandoned modesty

Some of our friends have seen to that

They have arranged for you to find modesty contemptible

In a thousand ways they have led you to think that whoever does not want to be watched must have something shameful to hide

We want you to feel that solitude is frightening and unnatural

We want you to feel that being watched is the natural state of things

One of the pleasant fantasies that consoles us in our sleep is that we are a sovereign nation, and safe within our borders. This is what the new laws say about that:

We know who our friends are

And when our friends want to have words with one of you

We shall make it easy for them to take you away to a country where you will learn that you have more fingernails than you need

It will be no use bleating that you know of no offence you have committed under British law

It is for us to know what your offence is

Angering our friends is an offence

It is inconceivable to me that a waking nation in the full consciousness of its freedom would have allowed its government to pass such laws as the Protection from Harassment Act (1997), the Crime and Disorder Act (1998), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000), the Terrorism Act (2000), the Criminal Justice and Police Act (2001), the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act (2001), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Extension Act (2002), the Criminal Justice Act (2003), the Extradition Act (2003), the Anti-Social Behaviour Act (2003), the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004), the Civil Contingencies Act (2004), the Prevention of Terrorism Act (2005), the Inquiries Act (2005), the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (2005), not to mention a host of pending legislation such as the Identity Cards Bill, the Coroners and Justice Bill, and the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.

Inconceivable.

And those laws say:

Sleep, you stinking cowards

Sweating as you dream of rights and freedoms

Freedom is too hard for you

We shall decide what freedom is

Sleep, you vermin

Sleep, you scum.

It’s official.

Genomic Health Inc. is taking lessons learned in developing a key breast cancer test and applying those to colon cancer.

Looking at a set of 18 genes, the Redwood City company’s test could help doctors predict the recurrence of stage II colon cancer in patients who receive chemotherapy after surgery. That could save thousands of dollars in medical costs by diverting patients from costly chemotherapy.

Another step forward for personalized medicine and cancer diagnostics.

I relocated a worm from the sidewalk to a planter box on my way back from lunch today.

As someone who strives for self-improvement (or is a masochist, take your pick), I often find myself in morally or psychologically challenging situations.

Take my job, for example.  I’m essentially an introvert employed in a “people person” role.  What this means is I leverage my asocial tendencies to ensure any meetings I take part in are extremely efficient — and therefore short.  It works in some ways, and leaves me drained in others.  I imagine everyone experiences something similar when it comes to work.

For many reasons, I’m working toward a certificate in Project Management, offered through UC Berkeley Extension.  This semester I’m taking Human Factors and Team Dynamics for Project Management

Learn the leadership and communication skills needed to promote and support quality management in your organization. You’ll also learn how to master the most difficult aspects of quality management: creating, nurturing, and sustaining an organizational climate based on best principles and practices. Discover how quality management ensures concepts such as teamwork, employee empowerment, and continuous improvement don’t degenerate into buzzwords that increase cynicism and decrease employees’ responsiveness to organizational goals.

While offered online, I’ll be attending the class sessions in person, as I imagine learning people skills through interaction has it’s advantages ;]

On the topic of social skills, sociable robots are learning to get along with humans.  In particular, robots are developing unique personalities when interacting with humans, communicate using basic facial expressions or create intricate hand gestures a la paper/rock/scissors.

Robots are not yet ready to mingle freely with humans, but engineers are bringing that day closer by teaching them social tricks used by humans and even chimps.

It may seem a stretch to some, but I’m reminded so much of myself when I read stuff like this.

I’ve been feeling lethargic and doldrumatic lately. Then there’s the bloat and chub, which comes and goes on cycles I’m unable to comprehend. So as my pants snug up it becomes even more important to find the motivation, energy or substance that will “maximize calorie output”.

While on the topic of fat, I saw this blog today and wanted to retch.

this is why you're fat

Tatiana, the biggest, baddest, most majestic cat in the house, turned and lay her head down. She was dead. The time was 5:27 p.m.

Today’s SF Chronicle has a piece detailing what happened during the December 2007 tiger escape at the SF Zoo, from the perspective of the police officers who shot and killed the tiger.  The interview was done in advance of tonight’s ceremony at City Hall, in which the four officers will receive the San Francisco Police Department’s highest award for bravery – the gold medal of valor – for their actions.

Zoo officials have said the three men targeted by Tatiana must have taunted or somehow bothered the tiger, provoking her to scrabble up and over the concrete retaining wall surrounding her enclosure:

Experts have surmised that the tiger Tatiana’s escape was not a random event, but that she was under great duress, most likely from being harassed. The zoo veterinarian’s necropsy revealed that her rear claws were virtually shredded, with concrete chips embedded in her paw pads presumably from clawing her way up the moat wall. This was no escape to hunt (she had been fed shortly before and the necropsy showed she had a full belly).  This was an animal agitated enough to do whatever she could to get to the source of her agitation. There has never been an occurrence such as this in the recorded history of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, according to the association.

The walk of the Shishi Gami

Who am I to say what the fate of a human should be?  My version of justice is akin to the walk of Shishi Gami; in which grass and flowers sprout and die instantly underneath its hooves.  Of the flowers involved in this story, I found the tiger to be most precious and her loss more devastating, despite it’s inevitability.