Karlek's Blog

Our team won! See http://balloon.mit.edu
for updates.

The DARPA Network Challenge is a competition that will explore the
roles the Internet and social networking play in the timely
communication, wide-area team building, and urgent mobilization
required to solve broad-scope, time-critical problems. The Network
Challenge winner will be the first individual to submit the locations
of 10 8-foot balloons moored at 10 fixed locations in the continental
United States. The balloons will be in readily accessible locations and
visible from nearby roads. More information available at
http://networkchallenge.darpa.mil/

If you know the location of one of the balloons tell me at:

http://balloon.media.mit.edu/Karlek/

and I'll tell the Balloon project and we'll both get a reward in the hundreds of $

I joined Facebook, but I haven't figured out what to do with it, or how.

Any materials relative to global or US politics and the evolution of human society will be located here

I have compiled a summary of my description of the evolution of human society into a book that includes the effect of the election of Barack Hussein Obama as the President of the United States and de facto leader of Western Civilization.
This can be found here.

That book isn't going to be revised soon, if at all, but it seems that there will be more things to say, such as why the Republican Party doesn't like the Democratic Party's economic revival plan. These notes can be found in the blog here.

Eventually the blog will contain pretty much everything I have written about human society, as well as analysis of new developments.

I've put an essay called: "Barack Hussein Obama and the Evolution of Utopia" on the web at
http://bho.karleklund.net

It is too long to put on a blogsite.

NATIONAL DAY OF RENEWAL AND RECONCILIATION, 2009
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:A PROCLAMATION

As I take the sacred oath of the highest office in the land, I am humbled by the responsibility placed upon my shoulders, renewed by the courage and decency of the American people, and fortified by my faith in an awesome God.

We are in the midst of a season of trial. Our Nation is being tested, and our people know great uncertainty. Yet the story of America is one of renewal in the face of adversity, reconciliation in a time of discord, and we know that there is a purpose for everything under heaven.

On this Inauguration Day, we are reminded that we are heirs to over two centuries of American democracy, and that this legacy is not simply a birthright -- it is a glorious burden. Now it falls to us to come together as a people to carry it forward once more.

So in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, let us remember that: "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 20, 2009, a National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation, and call upon all of our citizens to serve one another and the common purpose of remaking this Nation for our new century.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

I suppose that people thought me crazy for talking about the "Decline and Fall of Western Civilization", but now that we have experienced the first stage it may not seem that ridiculous. We won't see a literal collapse for a while yet, when Obama wins the presidency that will break the "Glass Ceiling" for people of color just as Hillary and Sarah Palin have (in their various ways) broken the Glass Ceiling for women, the pressure from the Internal and external proletariat will be somewhat reduced. But the spiritual basis of Western Civilization is wealth as the primary status symbol, and we can no longer believe in the value of wealth.
Even if the financial system recovers to a certain extent, the middle class will not be able to easily forget how trillions of dollars of wealth simply vanished in the course of an afternoon. And everything about the basis of our civilization is as ephemeral.

Consider a share of General Motors (or Apple, for that matter). It is only worth something if there are people willing to purchase what the company manufactures. There are fixed assets in buildings and machinery, but if they aren't being used they are merely scrap, some of which is recyclable and a lot that isn't. And if the spiritual value of wealth evaporates, and people aren't willing to buy a new car or computer for its prestige value, the wealth represented by shares in the company vanishes.

So we have suffered a fatal blow to the spiritual basis of our civilization, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. The only questions left are when it dies completely and what it is replaced by. There is the possibility that we will evolve into a civilization that is globally egalitarian, ecologically responsible and creative; but that may require a "dark age" to rub in the lesson of using wealth as a spiritual basis.

We got to St Vincent, finally, after taking two days and three airplanes to get from San Juan PR to SVG.

We arrived in San Juan in late morning after leaving the house at 3:30AM. The American Airlines flight from Boston to San Juan was crowded but functional.

We waited around in the San Juan terminal for the 3:30PM "direct" flight (which now includes a stop in St. Lucia) and watched a whole bunch of LIAT employees walk around the plane. Finally the Captain arrived and decided the fuel pump was busted. We were given food and hotel vouchers (in terminal fast food & hotel). Even the McDonalds is clearly in PR.

On friday we went to the terminal again and watched everyone walk around the plane, including an FAA official, for greater assurance. Finally a Captain came in and they boarded the plane that was supposed to leave before ours. Then our captain came and we went on board.

About an hour into the flight the captain spoke saying there was somthing wrong with the ventilation system and we were going to land in Antigua--LIAT headquarters -- so they could fix it. We had to go through the x-ray dance (Sally's cane, two carry-ons, two laptops and my shoes, all in seperate trays) to get into the departure lounge. But we had waited only minutes before they bundled us on a new plane along with the Antigua-SVG passengers. Packed full. We got here after dark, i.e. after 6pm.

Two days, three planes for what should be a 3 hour trip.

Hooray for LIAT