Elsewhere

The Los Angeles Times is running a story about USB flash drives, containing secret U.S. military intelligence information, sold at an Afghanistan bazaar.

As I’m reading Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, I wonder just how accidental this “leak” really is. Strategically placed information–and especially disinformation–is a powerful art. Also see this Los Angeles Times article about the political art of information leaks (free reg. required).

I’d like to think that our proud nation’s intelligence elite are a little more knowledgable about asset management and security than this would lead us to believe…

Trusting                                    Cynical
[------------------------|------------------------]
“Naïve”                                    “Clever”

Where are you on this scale?
How about your friends, family, the blogs you read, or the people you admire?
How would you describe the middle–the balance?

Signs, synchronicities, serendipity, fate, destiny, yada yada. Some people poo-poo these concepts because, they say, it is a selfish and egocentric worldview. “The world doesn’t revolve around you, you know.”

I say, the world revolves around all of us. I believe that the universe is big enough, complex enough, and crazy enough, that every single person, fish, and rock has a destiny, a plan, a story, all of which are interwoven to create this fabric of reality that we experience. And some courses of action are more in harmony with the universe than others; if one is open to and aware of the signs and synchronicities occuring around them, one can sometimes discern, and, with practice, develop an instinctual gut feeling for navigating the forks in the path that every decision in every moment brings.

No, I can’t prove it. But can you disprove it? Enter: faith. It’s a lot more fun than nihilism, I’ll tell you that much.

Everybody is all excited about April 5, 2006, 1:02:03 A.M. because of the consecutive numbers in the date-time string (in the subject of this post). “It will only happen once in our lifetime!” they exclaim.

Bullhonkey, says I. It just depends on the notation you use. Europeans think that we’re talking about May 4, 2006 (rather, 4 May 2006). And as a coder and data manager, I represent that date-time as 20060405010203. Nothing too special about that.

Personally, I’m looking forward to 20060708091011 (August 7, 2006, 9:10:11 A.M.). Or maybe 20060504030201 (May 4, 2006 3:02:01 A.M.). Whatever.

I guess what bugs me is that the American date notation has never made sense to me. Since the month falls between the day and the year, logically, why do we note it first? My theory is that it dates from agriculture and farmer’s almanac times, when the month–and season of the year–was the most important piece of information. But just because it’s a standard doesn’t mean it’s right. So phooey on that, I’m starting a grass roots movement to get American date notation into the 21st century–or, at least, in-line with everyone else in the world. Who’s with me!?