Birthday / Security theater light / Real theater / Coding

Birthday

I like to be celebrated, I am an arm-chair celebrity. So, today was an excellent day again as today is my birthday. I am not going to say how old am I now, since it is classified information. However, yesterday my age was a product of 3 prime numbers, taday it is only product of two prime numbers. The first one to guess right (former classmates, childhood friends, and kin may not participate) will earn a pint of beer in a bar of my choice.
Celebration is not an abstract term, and thus I and S went to Espresso Royal for some coffee, bagels, cakes, and of course New York Times. It is a pity that one cannot smoke cigars in American cafes - a celebration without a cigar is lacking. But it was fun: she also took some great pictures of me. Beware when I publish them. They are R-rated. Later, she left for library, and I continued celebration by doing the second funniest thing I know: riding the T (metro) from one terminal to another. First I took the green line to the Boston College. The terminal was a good place for reading newspapers. Then, I took the blue line to Wonderland. Nothing there, but a nice smell of the ocean. I then took the orange line to Oak Grove. Nothing there either. But it was fun, I saw many strange characters, finished my newspapers, and relaxed. I think riding public transport is one of the best things one can do. In September, I will go to New York for a few day just to ride the metro.
I got a present too: What is the matter with Kansas? by Thomas Frank. I have read some 30 pages of it: it is great, really eye-opening and also a scary story of people voting against their own good. But that is the problem of democracy. A democracy can vote itself into dictatorship. It has happened before.

Security theater light

Impressed by the security theater in New York, the local transportation authority (MBTA) has started its own. Unfortunately, the local police force seems not eager to waste time on checking back-pacs. So, MBTA has copied the most efficient method form the tele-marketers: continuos recorded public announcement. On average once a minute, the loudspeakers in the subway station blast the message: "Now, more than even, it is important to be alert, blaa, blaa, and inform MBTA of all suspicious activities. We rely on your eyes, your ears, [something unclear] to guarantee your [or our, it is unclear] security". I thing the sheer activity of repeating announcement constantly is very suspicious. I think the only real purpose is to create an atmosphere of fear, which will then be exploited by removing basic civil freedoms. And, anyway, repeating too many times is like crying wolf. Furthermore, why they do not blast the announcements inside the trains: it may well be, that the eventual suspicious activity starts only inside the train. And, as the repetition proves, the memory of passengers is taken to be shorter than 2 minutes. So, given suspicious activity in the train, it is likely to go unnoticed.
As the terrorists may well attack some other targets, once the public is well trained and will spot them in subway station, I propose blasting similar repetitive announcements throughout all baseball and football games, and also inside each and every shopping mall. One never knows!
According to recent news the department of homeland stu^H^Hafety will start tagging aliens. They have started an experiment, in which aliens will be given an RFID-tag when entering USA. The aliens must not lose the tag, since they need it to get out of the country. Everyone but Canadians are suspect. If this really becomes reality, I think it will backfire: why would anyone enter this country, if supervision/suspicion/paranoia is much larger and more rampant than it ever was in the former communist block. But, I am sure the madness will not stop in aliens now entering the country. Soon, all aliens must carry RFID-tags all the time, and all public spaces will be equipped with readers. And then, since the government ignores the domestic terrorist at its peril, all citizens will be tagged. And most will happily comply. Next, everyone must wear skin-tight spandex overalls all the time. What a business opportunity. Imagine how must Halliburton and other will profit from manufacturing all the infrastructure. Fortunately, no price is too high when it comes to security (except when it comes to road traffic safety or tightening gun laws - then any price is too high).
As is evident from the fact that a new law prevents suing the gun makers even if the sell guns to terrorists. I would call that suspicious activity, or even a real fire hazard. I am sure the tobacco industry regrets not putting more money in lobbying. Also, the extraordinarily high insurance costs of medical doctors would go down fast, it the lobby of doctors could get a similar special interest law passed. They should try! (Actually, I think that there should be an upper limit for the compensations, and that should apply to all industries and professions.)
Enough ranting. I feel much better now. Soon, they will be knocking on my door... or will they bother to knock at all?

Real theater

Yesterday, I went with S to see short plays in MIT Kresge auditorium. The title of the event was "what can happen in 10 minutes". It was a soiree of 10 10-minute plays. Each of them was very good, the scripts were clever, actors skillful, and everyone was funny. I have seldom laughed so much, and so innocently. Great. It was a pity that we saw the last soiree, I would like to seem them again.

Coding

I have been coding a simple program in Perl. I am really surprised how hard it is for me to code anything after a break of 7 months of so. Well, I think I will get back in speed after a few more hours of agonizing and humiliating mistakes and manual browsing. So humiliating.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs from July to September 2005".