First off, the mandatory plug for a new Dungeon Monkey, I have to write a couple more because I shall be out of range of writing this upcoming couple of weeks, with U of M shutting down and the holidays. Have to make sure those (handful) of fans get their shot of Dungeon Monkey while I'm busy.

So last night, while watching Inglorious Bastards, I had an idea for a novel that I might attempt to write a draft of in this impending eight months, give or take. My idea is to do a novel set during World War II which is centered upon a non-pious Jewish-American working in a mid-ranged position in the Department of War, it is early 1943, and he is contacted by a well dressed German gentleman who insists on a lunch. Our protagonist is then informed that his extended family in Europe has been found and is being held by the German authorities, they are safe for now and will remain as such, if our protagonist will begin supplying Germany, through the agent who has just contacted him, with information useful to Germany's war effort our protagonists family will remain safe. If our protagonist does not cooperate though, well, the agent has a short film with him both showing the protagonists family safe and also some footage from the camps. Now our protagonist is not close to this extended family but he knows them, they are kin, so eventually after soul searching he agrees to help, but by providing the least non-vital information he can. (I'm thinking he works in convoy scheduling so I can tie it into the submarine war.) But he is pushed by the German agent to continually provide more information, eventually a sweetener is tossed in, that for particularly useful information our protagonist can also help other Jews get saved, released/allowed to flee Germany and the camps.

However our protagonist is discovered by US military intelligence, secretly caught, and forced to become a double-agent to help the US war cause. The US intelligence agent who has captured him forces him to turn by bluntly informing our protagonist that if he does not turn he will be publicly captured and, as his extended family will be of no more value to Germany, they will be gassed. As well he will face execution as a traitor, however as a sweetener he is also paid by the US for his assistance. Pushing our hero into playing the game of being a double agent and in a position of being caught between two equally powerful and disinterested parties in his own life. Eventually his dilemma is ended in 1944 when, during Operation Overlord, his family is liberated incidentally when the location in which they were being held is captured by the Allies. (I could also do it with it being captured by the USSR in early 1944 and putting a third disinterested party into the mix.)

As an added backdrop plot our protagonist, due to his knowledge of shipping timetables and routes, is approached and aids some Jewish-American businessmen facilitating an illicit trade in Jews being purchased by funds raised in the US, smuggled to South American banks, which in turn leads to captured European Jews being allowed to escape to Palestine. This further is an amoral story in and of itself because, although the Jews being purchased are having their lives saved, the businessmen are involved in this trade primarily to make their cut and are repeated indifferent to who they are working for. Honestly I'll probably have a scene with them meeting happily in New York with Nazi businessmen and both sides are generally affable with the arrangements and each other, business and profit being a universal language.

So I'd love some feedback, first is the "spy story" aspect interesting/believable as a moral entanglement? Second is the story nub for buying and selling Jews potentially good enough to stand as a story on its own, with my protagonist being one of the indifferent and amoral Jewish-American businessmen working to facilitate this trade. (In which case the story would feature probably some Nazi connected figures, some South American figures, and our protagonist and end with his getting into the business of moving Nazi's from Europe to South America.)

"never say never"

ever heard that saying? weeelllll, it is a very simple example of a "strange loop" Or at least I think it is, given my understanding of strange loops, which I admit, isn't perfect.
And what, preytell is a strange loop? why, it is something almost as cool as mobius strips, kline bottles, and fractals.

Here is another example, in classic joke form!

An astronaut lands on a planet and is soon captured by hostile but sentient natives. Because he has a babblefish, he is able to communicate with them however. They inform him that since he is sentient, he may have one last statement, and the nature of the statement will determone the method of his execution. If he tells a lie, the will impale him. If he tell the truth, they will throw him over a cliff. After thinking for a moment, the astronaut says "you will impale me" This so confounds them, they let him go.

A more technical example is : "the subset of all things that do not have themselves as a member"
..in which the above quote would fall... but then, it would have itself as a member, so it wouldn't be in that subset...in which case it should be in that subset in which case...you see.

Hofstadter says in his book "I am a strange loop"

And yet when I say "strange loop", I have something else in mind — a less concrete, more elusive notion. What I mean by "strange loop" is — here goes a first stab, anyway — not a physical circuit but an abstract loop in which, in the series of stages that constitute the cycling-around, there is a shift from one level of abstraction (or structure) to another, which feels like an upwards movement in a hierarchy, and yet somehow the successive "upward" shifts turn out to give rise to a closed cycle. That is, despite one's sense of departing ever further from one's origin, one winds up, to one's shock, exactly where one had started out. In short, a strange loop is a paradoxical level-crossing feedback loop. (pp. 101-102)
(yep - got the quote from the book from wikipedia because I can't properly define the idea

What can I say, strange loops are mental bubblegum!

ps...anyone heard of a catch 22 ;)

Call me old fashioned in some ways but I find our current handling of the growing climate instability sadly very human, a situation in which we as a species are dumping a small amount of resources to correct and, more honestly, simply bracing ourselves for an impending shift in weather patterns and preparing for a subsequent bitching fest. The choice of the European Union to contribute $3.6 billion per year, up till 2012, to a fund to help poorer nations adjust to the shifting climate seems nice on the surface but really, cosmically, it is not. Not only is it a tiny contribution but, more critically, it is also a means of removing guilt from the wealthier nations for what is happening to nations with less infrastructure or natural resources to protect themselves from what is coming. Still at least it is some contribution, I'd be happier if the US coughed up some matching funds as well, considering that as a measure of economic productivity we are nearly on par with the EU we could toss in a matching $3 billion or so per year. Then we can save twice as many poor people! Go team humans!

I swear to the high heavens - I read articles like this and I cannot help but return to the visual by Cecil Adams, falling off a cliff, pumping wildly on the bicycle as we plummet down as a species.

Of course then again there are those who argue that the best solution to our current climate problem is to increase our economic growth and avoid entangling alliances that might crimp our competitive edge against other nations. Indeed, the best future for our species, painfully continuing to plow entire mountains of material into the consumptive maw. Don't get me wrong, I live quite well because of it, but sadly ours might be the last generation to enjoy such easy largesse.

On a side note, I saw this lovely book by Glen Beck in the stores, amazing, nothing like a solid Nazi themed outfit to really sell that book to the masses. I should get a nice shot of myself in a Soviet style military jacket for my first book of mindless ballyhoo when I publish my view on what the United States should do, produced in a handy throw-away manner. I'll give it a title that is catchy too, like "Bring Forth the New Amerika" or something equally amusing. Honestly though I might make that a Winter semester project, do some cursory research in common books on US history, bang out a short 250 page screeching text filled with controversial suggestions for the future based on current US history, slap a pretty cover on it and see if it flies. Anyone out there think I can get my mad dribble printed like the pundits?

Also, an amusing XKCD today, to all my friends out there with multiple children, this cartoon made me grin and wish you the best in this holiday season, I cannot currently imagine dealing with one child, let alone multiples.

So last night I sat down with 2001: A Space Odyssey to watch this great masterpiece of cinema once more, allow me to say for the record that I am simply not a fan of this film. Granted there is a really cool nugget in the middle, the moment with HAL and the confrontation between him and the crew of the Jupiter 1, which is wonderfully shot and powerful, but the rest of the film...not quite my cup of tea. (Before I get posts I am aware of the magical power of the film, Kubrick's amazing powers of genius in film, dah dah dah but I stand by my position.) I even sat through the extended effect fun sequence when Dave comes into contact with the floating monolith, something I normally skip as annoying. I'm glad Kubrick created his vision but I could not help but laugh throughout the film imaging the my reaction had I been a studio head and shown this little surprise, I probably would have said something like "Stanley, this was really....yeah....but could we maybe focus more on the mission to Jupiter, maybe more with HAL and Dave, you know, build up a bit more of that story, you know, the one that audiences...get?"

Once more proving I am a cultural barbarian - roar of cultural barbarian power!

So in the Yahoo news feed today a bit of a puff piece that caught my eye was this tidbit on the power of the new centuries open access to media through forces such as blogging, twitter, online video streaming, and the explosion of information on the web. The article argues that we live in an unprecedented age in which free access to information, and the low cost of broadcasting and communicating, has made it possible for anyone to jump into the art of media work, democratizing the information feeds we can enjoy as a species. Much as I would love to contend that there is a precedent for this in history even I have to confess the relatively low cost of producing things online has allowed more people to produce content for mass consumption then probably previously in our history as a species. Well...except of course for the art of telling tales to crowds, singing music to groups, vaudeville entertainment, and the early rise of movies which had a plethora of film houses pumping out shorts for people to watch. But even those required more investment in capital equipment then much of the digital media age. What really excites me though is the impact all this faster moving information will have on education in under-privileged parts of the world.

(Also I look forward to a future when I get to have computer programs able to help guide me in my tricky inter-personal relationships. I would adore it if I could get a flash warning on Facebook when a friend was feeling low and needed a virtual hug.)

Good to read the government bailout program will continue and the government has a new acronym for getting small banks to lend to consumers and small businesses. Granted I think the program is an excellent concept but I also have to argue, once more, that if banks are unwilling to lend money to consumers because the market is not right then let the Fed directly lend. People have a need and the Fed has the resources, if banks then want in let them buy loans from the Fed as they get their genital fortitude back to lend money and attempt to make some coin. Currently our lending institutions are unstable and concerned about further bad risks, fair enough, but part of being a bank is you lend money on a varied collection of debts, some certain to pay the debt back (and expecting lower interest) and some more risky of default (and paying higher interest.) Bah, I still say one of the major problems with the current housing crisis is that the sub-prime mortgages option put too many people into homes they really could not afford.

My happiness that the federal government continues to grind, ever slowly, towards health care, remains high. How the hell does Liberman keep getting into office as a Democrat? He apparently rides close to the Conservative line and does not provide a reliable vote in the Senate when the party asks him to step to the line. Perhaps though I'm simply misreading his current behaviors.

By the way team, happy news, college degrees at a bachelor level are growing more common, 70% of high school students now attempt one. Good to know that employers are responding by saying "Well it is not worth a higher salary anymore but you still need one, unless you want to be in a low services position for life and who wants that?" It is nice to see the tiny worth of my MA continues to erode as colleges pump out more of them per year but, at the same time, produce more educated individuals chasing fewer jobs. (Work experience, by the way, I had coming out of college before it was trendy, I pulled 30 hours a week while doing full time studies, kids fussing about a 12 hour a week job and 12 credit hours can bite my ass.) I love the comment that undergraduates should focus on jobs that can't be outsourced, that is just adorable. High end service jobs my friends, where you still need the human touch, although honestly how long before those are outsourced? Plane tickets plus an underpaid Indian doctor = health savings!

Oh and I also loved the comment from one "expert" that the highest value thing to have these days was "Right-Brain Skills" - on the grounds that left brain skills are growing more automated but businesses need more creative people, people able to examine patterns, find trends, connect the dots, see the big picture. You know, show an ability to analyze things, possibly understand disconnected phenomena based upon modeling skills. Perhaps even be able to predict trends and ideas by modeling current information for the theory, maybe by creating a series of rules, in a condensed and highly accurate language, to predict behavior. In other words my liberal arts friends - math, logic, and structured reasoning. Areas dominated by - the left brain. So sorry my fellow humanities buddies, no businesses in the next decade shall be beating down your door because you understand how Nietzsche reflects post-modern visions of the self. (Oh and no, that is not being cute, he actually does, fear my liberal arts powers.) No the next few decades and onwards shall remain dominated, culturally and economically, by those forces that took prominence in the 1950s, those who can create new wonders of technology and those who can package and sell them.

On a less bitter note - new Dungeon Monkey is up for this week.