[雑記] Obama景気

町中を運転すると至る所で工事をしている。経済浮揚策の早期効果に、相違ない。

[Salad日記] 青梗菜と焼生ハム

バルサミコ酢とトマトとコーン

[新聞] Obamania (2) 宗教ことばの革命者

（前回より続く）

Obama's Eloquent Faith
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Washington Post, Friday, June 30, 2006

米国共和党はここ10年以上にわたり、「宗教票」を手中に収めてきた。主に南部などに多い、保守的プロテスタント・キリスト教原理主義者たちだ¹。彼らはおもに白人中産～貧困層であり、排他的（対イスラム的?）jingoismなどで煽動され、これがより裕福なintellectual層（多くは無宗教）に対する不満の捌け口となってきた。

この運動の上層部が矛盾に満ちていることは、最近になって漸く表沙汰になってきた。(A) 彼らによると、同性愛者は地獄の烈火にさらされ、地上でも悪の権化だそうだが、同時に、この運動の上層部が相次いで同性愛関係を暴露されて失脚している。たとえば有名なキリスト教原理主義団体の長をつとめていた牧師は、男娼に告発された。(B) また、ある保守系共和党議員などは少年愛が発覚し、特に波紋が大きかった。(C) あるいは、同性愛ではないが、Clintonの不倫弾劾の旗頭となっていた保守キリスト教系の当時の下院議長は、その弾劾中、自らも不倫を侵していたことがつい最近判明した。(D) また別の話では、有名な保守系評論家が、麻薬使用者を罵倒していたにもかかわらず自らも鎮痛剤中毒であった、というのもある。Hypocricyの例は後を絶えない。

こういう意味で保守・キリスト教原理主義運動が多大な問題を抱えていることが明るみに出たこともあり、去年の総選挙では民主党が大勝を収めた。最近では、保守的キリスト教徒の中でも亜流であった、環境活動家（「神の創りたもうたこの地球...」）や人権活動家などが勢いを増してきて、この運動も若干変わってきているともいう。にもかかわらず、政治に「宗教ことば」が持ち込まれたことだけは、尾を引いている²。

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「宗教ことば」の重要性は高いが、民主党政治家は総じて宗教に疎い。当時大統領候補であったHoward Dean氏が新約聖書の福音書のうちで最も好きなものをあげよと問われ「ヨブ記」と答えたはなしなどは、有名である³。

ところがObama氏は違うらしい。

Obama氏はHarvard Law School卒業後、Chicagoで宗教系の地域社会改善活動に携わっており進歩系のキリスト教徒だが、Washington PostのDionne氏によると、「宗教ことば」の使い方も革新的であるという。(A) たとえば、政治家が「宗教ことば」を語るときにいままでみられなかった、自分の信仰に対する懐疑心についても語っている、という。(B) あるいは、信徒側からみた政教分離の意義について、はっきりと語っている、という。(C) また、進歩的なキリスト教徒の大きな懸念の一つである、社会格差の拡大についても、その問題解決においては、民間の宗教団体なども、政府とは違う役回りではあるが果たすべき役割がある、と明言している。(D) そして、なにより、宗教を政治の駒に使うような政治家を強く弾劾しているという。

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Kennedyは初のカトリック教徒大統領として、政治的判断をローマに仰ぐようなことは断じてない、という点を強調して止まなかった。時代を経た現在、George W. Bushは教皇はおろか⁴ 、神に直談判で政策を決定していると公言してはばからない。Obama氏の提示する宗教性は、こうした時代の流れをふまえた上で、それに抗う戦略性に富んでいるものと思えてならない。

（次回に続く）

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1. ここで注意を要するのは、比較的保守的な教えも包含するカトリック教の信徒は一般的に、民主党支持者が多い。これは、社会平等や貧困者問題に対する考えが一般的に左寄りだからとされる。また、黒人系のプロテスタントも、公民権運動の時代からの流で、民主党支持者がほとんどである。

2. 連邦議会で無宗教を公言している議員は現在、たったひとりだけだという。

3. もっとも、そもそも民主党のHoward Deanが保守キリスト教票を獲得できるわけはないので、この一件の影響はせいぜい、教養のなさと政治家の口先八丁を露見させたという程度にとどまる。

4. もちろんBushはカトリックではなくBorn-Again(再生派)の南部プロテスタントなので、教皇とは関係ないし、神秘体験などを通した神との直接的なつながりを重視する教義に従っている。

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参考リンク
宗教に関するObamaの演説（大統領候補ページ）

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追加キーワード： オバマ バラク バラック ディーン ハワード ブッシュ ケネディー 法皇 ハーバード ロー スクール 法科大学院

[Tech Tips] Fixing an overheating Toshiba Portegé M200 tablet PC (2)

This post has been relocated to http://gawkysblog.blogspot.com.

This is an additional note to a previous post. It is a tip on how to orient the tablet when using it upright (i.e. using it as a tablet on a book stand as depicted below, or held in your lap).

I have found out that the Portegé M200 tablet runs much cooler (and quieter) when the left side (nearest to tab key) or the back side (nearest to function keys) faces up (towards the ceiling) than if the right/bottom sides face up.

GOOD ORIENTATIONS... back side up / left side up


BAD ORIENTATIONS... front side up / right side up


The reason is easy to understand given the design of the cooling system (see pictures). Hot coolant rises up, so coolant circulates much better if the radiator is physically higher than the CPU. If you do the opposite, the heat will tend to rise towards the CPU, away from the radiator, and cooling will be less efficient.

Even if you use the tablet flat on a desk, tilting it slightly in the above orientations, with a book or something, should help to cool it too (I haven't tested this).

[Tech Tips] Fixing an overheating Toshiba Portegé M200 tablet PC

This post has been relocated to http://gawkysblog.blogspot.com.

[rough translation from Japanese]

I've been using my Portegé M200 tablet PC (sold in Japan as dynabook SS M200) for over a year now. It's followed me around the world, and runs through almost all of my waking hours, so it's amazing that it came this far without a hitch.

Just recently, I'd noticed that the fan was running all the time, and the exhaust was pretty hot. Then, all of a sudden, in the middle of a calculation, it just shut down without any warning. No blue screen or anything, the fan just ramped up for a second, and then everything went black, as if I had pulled the cord and removed the battery. I restarted the computer, but it would only run for a few minutes before dying in exactly the same way. I tried running it with low CPU clock, and it ran fine without this problem.

Given this, I diagnosed overheating, and proceeded to clean the cooling system. This computer does not have a fan directly on top of the CPU, but instead, leads the heat to a radiator on the very edge of the computer, and blows air through this radiator. (Photo: The X-shape bracket on the lower left is holding down the CPU. The copper heat conduit tube leads to the radiator on the lower left corner. This radiator is cooled by the main fan.)


I took out the fan and found a huge buildup of dust on the inside edge of the radiator. There was so much stuff there, completely blocking the radiator, that it's a surprise it even ran at all.(Photo: Yellow arrow, area where dust was found. Blue arrow, dust removed with a Q tip.)


After this procedure, the tablet is running just fine.

(to be continued)



+ Opening your notebook will probably void your warranty. Open at your own risk. It should be very easy to fry a chip or two with static.

+ When opening, don't forget the little screw hidden underneath the battery, and the screw in the harddisk case cover. There's another small fan on the lower plate, so carefully remove its lead from the motherboard when taking off the bottom cover.

[Cool toys] Tablet PC (2)-- Manage your reprints electronically

This post has been relocated to http://gawkysblog.blogspot.com.

Most practicing scientists are inundated with countless piles of photocopies and reprints. Since my chosen field is neuroscience, the situation is particularly acute; given that neuroscience is a complex patchwork of many disciplines, the nature of the field defies any simplistic effort towards classification/filing. I also have random reprints that I've accumulated as a medical student; this only complicates the mess. Furthermore, scientific literature is multiplying steadily in accordance with de Solla Price's exponential law; the paper mess can only become worse in the future.

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I have been addressing this problem by turning completely to PDF files on my tablet computer. Even old reprints, not available in electronic format, have been scanned. The tablet allows me to scribble, just as if I had a physical copy in front me.

I calculate that
(A) the time saved (no need to fish through piles, or re-copy lost papers) and
(B) the convenience (I have my whole library with me at all times, and it can be backed up)
more than justify the initial investment.

I use a combination of the following software packages...

• Reference Manager... this package allows me to maintain a sorted database of my references. The user interface is somewhat more to my liking than EndNote, especially because it allows fine-tuning of the display screen. I use a custom user-defined field to categorize my papers into little "piles," and by sorting with this field, I can browse through these piles in the main window.
  
  
• Ideally, I would like to switch to JabRef, which is an open-source Java database program based on BibTeX, but the lack of easy bibliography management in MS Word keeps me from switching. JabRef has a very useful categorization scheme, based on a directory-like tree structure (see upper left panel in screenshot); links from each reference can be dragged to multiple nodes on the tree, which is ideally suited for the multidisciplinary nature of neuroscience.
  
  
• PDF Annotator... Clicking on the Reference Manager entry brings up this software, with the PDF in question. The old version of Adobe Acrobat responded too slowly to pen input for scribbling hand-written notes. I haven't tried Acrobat v.8, but presently, I am quite happy with this shareware package. In combination with the tablet PC, it allows you to scribble and highlight your PDF files, just as if you had a real copy before you. Currently, it does not support text highlighting (i.e. you must carefully trace your pen over the line to highlight) or text copying, and you cannot type in comments.

[Cool toys] Tablet PC (1)-- Dissecting the tablet pen

This post has been relocated to http://gawkysblog.blogspot.com.

I've been a tablet PC user (Toshiba Protege M200) for over a year now. The tablet is an amazing piece of engineering; it allows you to write directly on the laptop screen, as if it were a piece of paper. The digitizer pen writes like a smooth felt-tip. It even senses your writing pressure at 8 bit resolution, so in some graphics programs, if you press harder, you get a thicker line.

How does it work?

The digitizer pen has no power source, and is just an RLC circuit that resonates at a certain frequency-- this resonant frequency is modified by the pen pressure and by button presses.

To read the location of the pen, the tablet first sends out a pulsed radio wave (68 kHz) through an antenna array which is embedded in the screen. This is recieved by the pen's circuitry, which resonates at a given frequency. Next, the tablet switches to antenna mode, and senses where on its antenna array the resonating pen is located. It apparently does this 500 times a second.

One of the few complaints that I have with the Toshiba unit is the ridiculously cheap digitizer pen. It's way too light, and feels like a cheap plastic ballpoint--which is not what you'd expect from an expensive unit.

This cheap digitizer pen broke on me recently, and I guess the least I can do is to post a photo for those who might be interested but don't want to destroy their pen for curiosity's sake. (The photo shows circuitry from the top part of the pen, which acts as an eraser. I imagine that another circuit exactly like it is embedded in the tip as well.)

Links

• How does a Graphics Tablet work?
• Wacom Graphire graphics tablet

[Cool toys] A perfect website for the Japanese art of book-living

Like all great cultural traditions in Japan, being a person of letters is steeped in its own set of highly refined formalisms and rituals. Formalism in Japanese culture allows simple acts to be perfected, with beauty originating not from embellishment, but from subtraction down to the very essence. Thus, the tea ceremony is a reduced version of drinking tea, but simultaneously, it is so much more.

Being a person of letters, or shosei, is no different. "Sho" is the kanji for books (and writing), "sei" is the kanji for life and living. One traditional prototype of a practitioner of "book-living" is that of a young man living in a small room of his patron's house, working as a live-in tutor to the children of the house. The shosei will traditionally own only one suit, which he wears whenever he goes out. At home, he will wear a simplified kimono. He also owns a decent fountain pen and a functioning timepiece. Everything else is non-essential... except for the books.

Prototypes aside, here, I will take some liberties and use the word shosei in a somewhat broader sense; the unifying concept is a lifestyle devoted to learning, while shunning (or having no means to) material wealth other than books.

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Books are the core of shosei-life-- however, life in Japan is antithetical to owning books.

First of all, with so many people living in a small archipelago, spacious rooms devoted to bibliophilia are impractical. The real estate economics of a cultural city like Tokyo or Kyoto can be overwhelming, especially for a poor shosei. The illustration is taken from a Miyazaki animated movie, "Whisper of the Heart." The father of this family is a librarian, the mother goes to graduate school, and the girl is a regular shosei-in-training. Notice the books.

Second, there is the mold. Japan is mostly tropical, with a month-long rainy season in June. Books, especially when kept in tight quarters, tend to get extremely moldy. Winter is quite dry though, and this constant cycle of wet and dry can cause pages to wrinkle like lasagna.

Even given these impediments to owning books, books are an essential part of being a shosei. A partial solution to this conundrum may be upon us in the form of a website, www.librarything.com.

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This website allows you to keep a database of the books you own. You can apply multiple tags to the books to categorize them, write reviews, etc. Most satisfying to the shosei is that it allows you to keep track of the number of books in your growing library. Just as military men like to gather stripes on their lapels, shosei like to sport large libraries (shosei aren't immune from the mine-is-bigger-than-yours impulse).

The most revolutionary function is that it allows you to view the libraries of people who own similar books. You can also solicit recommendations from the database, based on what similarly-minded people own.

Shosei are always faced with the need to get rid of books. Otherwise, there may be no place to put your futon, and being smothered by books during the next earthquake is not appealing either. Perhaps keeping books virtually at this website may be a partial substitute.

Some books, of course, you can never throw away. Furthermore, I have noticed that using this website can stoke bad book-buying binges. However, I hold hope in the possibility that this website will let me get rid of less important books, while still enjoying the age-old art of book-living.



Links
How to live as a poor shosei (in Japanese)

[Cool toys] Synergy-- open source network KM sharing

I have two machines running at work-- a Dell desktop (SUSE Linux 10.1) and my Toshiba Protege tablet PC. The tablet sits on a docking station so that its LCD is right next to the desktop monitor. I've been sharing a single keyboard between them with a cheap PS/2 KVM switch for a year, but recently, the switch seemed to act up from time to time. Besides, I've deleted some important stuff by mistake, mea culpa, by forgetting to switch and typing into the wrong computer.

That's why I was delighted to discover a great open source package: Synergy. With Synergy, you can easily share your keyboard and mouse-- and your clipboard too, over a network connection. They have sharing clients and sharing servers for Win, OSX and X11(UNIX/Linux).

Setup took some time to figure out, especially on the Linux side. The configuration scripts were straightforward but took some reading of the documentation (all very good) on the Sourceforge page, to get it all just right. I also had to figure out how to punch a hole in the SUSE firewall. Setup on the Windows side was very simple b/c of the graphical interface they provide.

Once setup was over, everything worked perfectly. The switching is seamless-- you just move your mouse from one screen to the other as if you had a dual monitor setup. When run across my 10/100 firewall-router, there is absolutely no delay in keystrokes or mouse movements. The clipboard sharing is especially convenient, although it only carries plain text. The setup has performed pretty consistently all this week.

The only worry, I guess, is security. I'm hoping it's fairly safe since I'm local and behind a firewall... Aside from this worry, however, the only complaint I have is that I wish I had found this software earlier!