I’m still offline, so I will still be scarce for a little while.  I hope to get back to posting soon.  There is a lot that I want to share with you.

If I ever get that way again, tell me to STFU and take a hike!

I’m still going to be scarce for a while around here, since I am having some trouble with my internet connection at home.  I’m posting this from a public computer.  I’m not sure if it’s the ISP or if there’s something wrong with my over-the-hill machine.  If I am a little slow to respond to emails, that’s why.

Meantime, here’s an interesting video that fits in well with my current studies about organizations and the weakness of government: Michael Rozeff’s speech titled The State as Organization. This speech was given at the Austrian Scholars’ Conference March 16-18, 2006 in Auburn, Alabama. There is a lot of interesting material here, but I warn you, the speech is about 1:15 long. So grab a cup of coffee, sit down and get comfortable, and enjoy. Of course, there are some nits I could pick; for instance I feel that Mr. Rozeff is far too optimistic about the checks and balances in corporations, but I do not think that this seriously damages his central points about the agency costs of government. I’d love to hear your comments on Rozeff’s speech. I will write my thoughts about his talk at a later date.

Direct link to vid at YouTube

Hat tip to Francois Tremblay at Check Your Premises.

Well, folks have come through in a big way. Since the reports on KOMO have aired, over $100,000 has been raised towards his surgery. He is now scheduled to have his surgery in November. More money will undoubtedly be needed, because of the tricky nature of the surgery and the follow-up care that will be required. So there’s still time to donate!

I want to give a salute to Katie Knopf, who has been the force behind this incredible fundraising drive.  Her huge heart and dedication has made this possible.  You are a great example of what caring can accomplish. Thanks also to KOMO News, who coverage of the story was spread around the world and encouraged thousands of people to donate to the cause.

Reminder: This is the first year the purchase, possession, and discharge of fireworks are banned in Newcastle.

So remember folks, when you celebrate your “freedom” on the government-designated day, only government-approved celebrations of freedom are allowed.

Direct link

Hat tip to BoingBoing.

New research that makes creative use of sensitive location-tracking data from 100,000 cellphones in Europe suggests that most people can be found in one of just a few locations at any time, and that they do not generally go far from home.

“Individuals display significant regularity, because they return to a few highly frequented locations, such as home or work,” the researchers found.

That might seem like science and mountains of data being marshaled to prove the obvious. But the researchers say their work, which also shows that people exhibit similar patterns whether they travel long distances or short ones, could open new frontiers in fields like disease tracking and urban planning.

“Slices of our behavior are preserved in these electronic data sets,” said Albert-László Barabási, an author of the project and the director of the Center for Complex Network Research at Northeastern University in Boston. “This is creating huge opportunities for science.”

The researchers said they used the potentially controversial data only after any information that could identify individuals had been scrambled. Even so, they wrote, people’s wanderings are so subject to routine that by using the patterns of movement that emerged from the research, “we can obtain the likelihood of finding a user in any location.”

The researchers were able to obtain the data from a European provider of cellphone service that was obligated to collect the information. By agreement with the company, the researchers did not disclose the country where the provider operates.

The researchers, including Dr. Barabási’s Northeastern colleagues Marta C. González and César A. Hidalgo, tracked 100,000 cellphone users selected at random from a population of six million for six months. The location of the user was revealed whenever he made or received a call or text message; the telephone company would record the nearest cell tower and time. Because calls and messages tended to be sporadic, the researchers used a smaller data set that captured the location of 206 users every two hours. The results of the two data sets were similar, according to the report.

Note that none of these people gave permission to participate in this study. In addition to the methods used in the study which only track phones when calls are made, many cell phones transmit their location at all times that the phone is powered up. The cell phone that I own has such a “feature.” I have set the feature so it will only transmit my location if I dial 911 since you cannot turn it completely off, but I do not trust that it does not happen at other times. I often do not carry the phone at all, and unless I am expecting an important call that I cannot miss I only carry the phone with the power off and the battery removed.

I am considering getting rid of the phone altogether. There are voice mail boxes that you can rent for folks to leave messages for you. For emergency comm, I am thinking of getting a hand-held ham radio. There is also always the option of just having a landline.