I heard this morning that Eric Rohmer died in Paris. He leaves behind a terrific collection of some of the most elegant and enjoyable films I've had the pleasure of watching. I went to see one of his films on a whim when it was showing at the Oak Street Cinema in Minneapolis during a retrospective of his work. I was so enchanted, I went to every film.

I still haven't seen his last film, "The Romance of Astrea and Celadon," but it will be high on my list now. In fact, I may just do my own little retrospective . . . .

In the last couple of months, my company expanded onto the whole floor of our building and I was asked to design the additional space for our IT department. It was a bit daunting, but it was also a chance to try out some ideas I'd been having about software teams. Here were some of the things I've been thinking of doing:

1) Hot seating. Our staff are often working on multiple different projects. This can mean they spend a day - or even part of the day - working on one project and then move to another. It would be good if the staff were able to rearrange themselves based on who they were working with at any given time.

2) Harkness tables. Many private schools have been using these tables to teach for decades. The basic idea is to build a table which enables all the students to see one another - as well as the lecturer - and thus encourage conversation and eliminate the hierarchy that dominates the typical classroom.

3) Wireless network. I hate unnecessary cabling, so I wanted to reduce cabling in the office by moving to an almost exclusively wireless network (we're still working on it).

Anyhow, long story short, I had the contractor tear-out the warren of offices that were left-over from the previous tennant, rip-out the carpet, etc. and then paint the walls with some more lively colors. At that point, the office looked something like this:

I read the Huffington Post pretty regularly. By and large, I think the posts are great - my most recent fav is a post by David Byrne on the relationship between cities and their populations, how we shape the cities we live in and visa versa - BUT my recent experience with their comments moderation and customer service has me on the verge of apoplexy.

Here's what happened:

The Original Post

Let me qualify this by saying, I'm NOT a biologist and I have only a scant understanding of the subject.

That said . . . WOW! This could be bigger than the Internet in terms of sheer impact on society.

I've spent a good chunk of the last week or two going over the explosion of research going on in and around microRNA and the technologies for suppressing (antagomirs) and activating certain forms of gene expression. I'm completely blown away. I think this may be the most important development in applicable biological understanding since penicillin (ok, a bad analogy - nevertheless, it's a major development). The mechanism was first identified in 1993 and has since been found to have a role in embryology, in some forms of cancer, is interfered with by viruses from HIV-1 to nearly all of the Herpes viruses and MAY even play an important role in aging and longevity (jury is still very much out on the aging question). Identifying this mechanism and having the tools to regulate it's function is (from my arm-chair position) an incredible achievement.

So so cool . . . okay, back to the IT stuff . . .

Glenn Greenwald posted the most concise and apt synopsis of what's wrong with the Obama administration (see Update II) on his blog the other day. It's well worth repeating.

In accepting Chris Dodd's endorsement in February 2008, Obama said the following (with comment by Glenn Greenwald):

We know it’s time to restore our Constitution and the rule of law. This is an issue that was at the heart of Senator Dodd’s candidacy, and I share his passion for restoring the balance between the security we demand and the civil liberties that we cherish.

The American people must be able to trust that their president values principle over politics, and justice over unchecked power. I’ve been proud to stand with Senator Dodd in his fight against retroactive immunity for the telecommunications industry [GG: This was just four months before Obama would vote for a bill granting immunity to the telecoms]. Secrecy and special interests must not trump accountability [GG: This was roughly 11 months before the Obama DOJ began embracing the Bush/Cheney "state secrets" privilege to shield lawless programs from judicial review]. We must show our citizens -- and set an example to the world -- that laws cannot be ignored when it is inconvenient. Because in America -- no one is above the law [GG: This was about a year before he announced that no Bush officials should be prosecuted for crimes because we must Look Forward].

It’s time to reject torture without equivocation. It’s time to close Guantanamo and to restore habeas corpus [GG: This was about a year before his administration began insisting that people we abduct and ship to Bagram have no right to habeas review]. It’s time to give our intelligence and law enforcement agencies the tools they need to track down and take out terrorists, while ensuring that their actions are subject to vigorous oversight that protects our freedom [GG: This was just four months before Obama would vote for a bill massively expanding warrantless eavesdropping]. So let me be perfectly clear: I have taught the Constitution, I understand the Constitution, and I will obey the Constitution when I am President of the United States.

Perhaps our President should go back and review some of those lecture notes from the courses he taught. A refresher course in the espoused principles on which he rode into office might be just the thing now.

In 1960s South Africa, the apartheid regime resorted to 90 and 180 day detention schemes under which people were detained without charge. Any person could, at any time, be arrested and held in a prison cell without question. The regime wielded this power with impunity and used it to detain large numbers of people . . . including my uncle, Barry.

Not long ago, well, actually quite awhile ago, I blogged about the perverse incentives the privatization of incarceration creates. This week's news that Judges in Pennsylvania were involved in abusive sentencing for kick-backs from a private juvenile detention center (and here - nytimes) provides the latest and clearest case of such abuse.

So, I've finally started migrating websites and services to a new server. The old-girl is still there, running most of the sites I host and doing a fine job at it, but it's time to upgrade and I thought I'd mark the event with a facelift to the ol' website as well.

The content is the same, but the look'n'feel is new. New Year's resolution is to blog more frequently as well.

So . . . be prepared for more . . . well, stuff.

So, when/if Senator Klobuchar votes "aye" on the latest frontal attack on our civil liberties . . . who can we support as a Democratic challenger? Taking names now . . .

Here are a few things you can do this weekend to help stop the latest poorly crafted FISA bill from slipping through the Senate:

1. Give some cash to the Blue America PAC vs Retroactive Immunity. This is the strategy I prefer, putting money into campaigns against the legislators who've undermined the bedrock principles of our nation. Time to clean (the) House!
2. Sign Senator Dodd's "citizen co-sponsor" petition for his FISA amendment
3. Join the Vote Against FISA group at my.barackobama.com
4. The obvious, and likely futile, call your Senator and let 'em know how you feel.

Did I miss something? let me know and I'll add it to the list.