"Cyberspace - Taming the Wild West"

My last event in Washington DC, Round 1, was a surprisingly serendipitous opportunity to attend a talk inside the State Department. A friend who interns in the State Department had seen the poster advertising the event and noted that it was sponsored by my two current bureaus of interest.

Jefferson Science Fellows Distinguished Lecture Series on Current Issues in Science and Technology presents:

John E. Savage, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Office of Cyber Affairs - U.S. Department of State

"Cyberspace - Taming the Wild West"

Sponsored by OES and STAS

The Jefferson Science Fellowship was created in 2003 out of recognition of the need to bring science, technology, and engineering expertise to for policy-makers seeking to meet the needs of modern society. Specifically, Fellows are tenured academics who take an on-site assignment in Washington, DC for one year. After this year, they return to their position, remaining available to the State for short-term projects over the next five years.

John E. Savage gave a talk on the need for policy to govern network use and security.

The talk was extremely non-technical in that it did not discuss or prove any particular notions of network security from a standpoint of mathematics or computer science. A few different kinds of network protocol were mentioned, common uses discussed, and some security issues articulated. Savage expressed his disappointment at his new belief (based on his recent work) that there will be no 'magic bullet' to network security. Rather, the best that can be done is to keep abreast of new developments.

But, primarily what I remember from the talk is the image he presented as the illustration for his title.

Imagine a 'Wild West' of computing. There are frontier towns - say, unprotected computer networks. And there are bandits and gunslingers - say, hackers. We now need someone to keep law and order.

According to John E. Savage, the usual approach is to win one of the gunslingers over to the good side, pin a badge on him, and call him a Sheriff.

The problem with this, is that conflicts will end in a shoot-out. It is just pitting 'our man' against 'their man'.

What we need, Savage suggests, is some good, sound, policy that a legislative body can use to deliberate and implement network regulation. The internet and computer networking have grown too quickly for the legislature to keep up with. It is already known that there is not enough policy/procedure for internet/network regulation. For example, there's sometimes not enough in the books for judges to know how a case ought to be decided, etc.

I'm a fan of good policy from my reactor days. Well-documented information on procedures is so helpful. When something needed to be done, there was a procedure for it. When something needed to be done, there was policy for making good decisions.

What well-documented policy contributes is a 'paper brain' so that good decisions and implementation no longer depend so much on the exact characteristics of person dealing with a situation.

The Capitol and Library of Congress

After the White House, a friend and I went to the US Capitol Building


Photo from Capitol tour website

My memories of this building include watching some propaganda set to nice music and looking up at tall things, like pillars, statues, and the painting on the top of the Rotunda. There was a room with lots of statues of important people like an imposing collection of chess pieces.

I also remember my friend (who knows these things) pointing out some locations we walked past and having a vague awareness that this is where very important people do things that have important consequences for millions of other people.

The health care reform bill was in its final days of discussion.

( I saw none of it... a friend emailed me excitedly on the day that it passed to ask what was going on in DC. I'd enjoyed having lunch with a friend that day. I recall hearing some sirens, but nothing unusual. That evening I returned to hang out in the dorm. That is where I was when the health care bill passed.)

Most of my memories of the Capitol building feel overwhelmed by the presence of lots of other people doing the same thing I was.

After the Capitol tour, we walked by the Library of Congress, and I realized that it actually is a place where people can actually do research. I'd seen it on TV before, but it mostly seemed like a fantastic book-hoarding repository than a place of active research. Also, the Library of Congress has a Gutenberg Bible that I stared at for a while.


I'm actually writing this about a week after the date listed when I started the draft. By this point, one of my more distinct memories is of eating an awesome experimental-ingredients salad wrap at Chop't. Beets, snap peas, tomatoes (i think), greens, tzatziki/blue cheese dressing ...

The White House

After accidently memorizing the address by over-exposure to Bloom County since childhood, I actually found myself at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.


I lucked out and had an awesome friend who thought to schedule a White House tour for me ahead of time. I guess they have to do background checks, which makes sense.

The lady ahead of me asked the secret service agent, "Is Barack in today?"

"Yes, ma'am, he is," came the polite reply. "Oh, well, tell him I was here!" I think she was trying to be amusing. He chuckled and assented politely and noncommittally. I had also been standing behind this lady at the visitor security check. She had many various metal accessories and bangles that she kept forgetting to remove as she attempted the metal-detector, but each time she tried with bubbly cheerfulness. She, her husband, and I were the last people through, so the security guard rolled his eyes at me behind her back, apparently wanting to know that someone was appreciating the kinds of things he had to put up with. I replied in-kind.


The tour was a guide-yourself tour complete with a brochure-thing and secret service agents in every room to answer questions. A long line of visitors snaked through the Ground Floor and then up to the State Floor. I lost the aforementioned lady and her husband in the crowd, but it was interesting to reflect on the fact that the President, and perhaps the rest of the Obama family, were at home on the second floor. The place seemed big enough from just the first two floors - it was hard to imagine that this tourist-filled building contained yet another floor that was a home.

On the Ground Floor, visitors were not permitted to enter the rooms, but you could look inside. The White House (and many things in DC) serves a secondary function as 'time capsule'.



The line of visitors wandered up the stairs and into the East Room.




This photo is in the public domain, as featured in the Wikipedia East Room article. The piano was not in the East Room while I was visiting. It was in the Entrance Hall.


I asked the agent posted in the East Room if there was anything in particular he thought I ought to know about it. He pointed to a large red object behind me, indicating that it was the red carpet that gets rolled out across the Cross Hall before press conferences. The East Room is a common room for press conferences and for dinners. It usually also contains the Steinway that was sitting in the Entrance Hall. Steinway # 300000 was a gift to President Franklin Roosevelt.



Photo from The White House Museum

Things I learned about the White House:

Every room has a bouquet of fresh flowers, ever since one of the presidential families lost a son before moving to the White House and the President ordered fresh flowers to be placed in each room to help lift the First Lady's depression. This was one of the many barnacles of history I observed on the various ships of state in DC. In DC, history doesn't go away. It gets institutionalized or made into a statue.

There is an interior decorating committee that the First Lady is often a part of, but certainly does not run. Any change to the interior, such as removal or replacement of paintings must be approved by this committee.

The secret service has two major divisions, the Uniformed Division and the Special Agent Division. The agent who explained this to me said that she thought of the difference as being that the uniformed agents ensured the security of a location while the special agents would travel with a dignitary to ensure that he or she was transported safely between locations.

There are many portraits of past presidents hanging on the walls. Apparently, it was the always the president himself who chose his pose for how he wanted to be depicted in his portrait. I asked this question after being fascinated in particular by JFK's choice of portrayal. I am assuming - though I didn't ask - that the president was also free to choose which artist would paint him.

The Pigeon Game

The first event I went to in DC was The Pigeon Game, a Taiwan to the World documentary hosted in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University.

I got excited because I used to race pigeons and I plan to go to Taiwan. I will have to find some of these people.



I was a little disappointed with the documentary mostly because they make it sound like pigeon racing is some kind of strange, exotic, and foreign interest that is strangely particular to Taiwan. I keep perceiving the narration as casting the information with a kind of strange eccentricity that doesn't necessary take the subject seriously. It seems to present the information in a way that makes it seem like a curious sideshow novelty, and that doesn't sit well with me.

But, I did learn a few things about how pigeon racing is expected to go in Taiwan. For example, it seems like Taiwan only has a young bird (entrants are less than 1 year old) racing season. I am assuming this because the narrator says pigeons can only race for one season, and the birds in the documentary seem to be all young birds. The United States and many other countries, on the other hand, have an old bird season for adult pigeons as well.

The documentary described many more precautions against cheating than I'd seen before ... the pigeon racing scene seems like a pretty hazardous place.

Also, because Taiwan is an island, in order to get enough distance, race starting points are typically on the open ocean. The pigeons are 'shipped' to the starting point and released over the water.

Excitingly, the school I will probably study at in Taiwan is in the same city as a port where the pigeon races depart from.


After The Pigeon Game, there was a documentary on the Chestnut Tiger milkweed butterfly, suspected to occasionally and surprisingly migrate between Taiwan and Japan. But I didn't stay for the whole thing.

Lincoln and Washington (DC part 1.1)

My first stop was the Lincoln Memorial and reflecting pool, but all those pictures are mental images. I did go back later to see the tourists and to take this picture which perfectly complimented a recent meme-discussion that my brother and I had been having about the historical awesomeness of Abraham Lincoln.



Abraham Lincoln, the man.
If you aren't familiar with how the internet is remembering Abe as THE MAN, then do your research. If only historical figures could know what they would mean to future generations...


The following pictures were taken after I returned from New York, so this is a little anachronistic, to overuse the word. The first day I wandered around here, it was much much less rainy.





If you want more of the 'classic' pictures of these monuments, there are plenty on the internet. You can check out the following Wikipedia pages on the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. There are also plen-ty of other people who have posted pictures of these exact objects. My interest trends towards the pictures that are meaningful to me, or that I know I won't find (or will have a hard time finding) elsewhere.



I liked the peaceful space behind the Lincoln Memorial:





That's enough. I need some of these for my posts on returning to DC after NYC.

DC (part 1.0)

While in Washington DC, I stayed in the George Washington University dorms. This is the only thing I took a picture of during my first stay (I later went to NYC and CT, then back again). I was trying to do more living than recording (though recording turned out to be difficult anyway).

Mostly, I was shown around their portion of the city by friends I stayed with at George Washington University. The city was described as a 'quiet city', which seems accurate. The streets are named by number or by letter in a well-ordered fashion, and are populated by joggers. You'd think I would have at least taken pictures of one of the many statues of George Washington around me, but nooooo. Actually, I had in mind to use a lot of stock photos for this post. I saw a lot of cool stuff, but nothing that no one's taken pictures of before, and lots that I wasn't sure if I could take pictures of, like the The interiors of the White House, Capitol, and State Department ! ah ha ha ha.



Photo by Ben Schumin


I came to DC from the airport, via metro, past the hospital Cheney frequents, and to the GWU dorm. I spent more time with the friends I was visiting in my first full day than I had ever spent with them in real life before. Accordingly, my first few days were mostly hanging out with college students while trying to do some of my own work, interspersed by the interesting events of wandering the Lincoln Memorial, learning about racing pigeons in Taiwan, going on a White House tour, a tour of the Capitol building, attending some GWU classes, and attending a Jefferson Fellow talk at the State Department, sponsored by STAS and OES.

PDX ( -> DEN -> DCA )

It was a beautiful St. Patty's day morning (in the United States) when I set off. This adventure took 5 years of frequent flying, 2 years of vague considerations, 2 months of magically impulsive decisions, and $10 to get off the ground. I consider myself again fit for travel, and since I hope to be taking much longer journeys in the not-too-distant future, best to test my solo wings again on something unfamiliar, but not foreign. East Coast, here I come. I am test-driving myself. Today, Portland is easy to leave because I am on an exciting adventure into the future, and I know I'll come back.



I'd never been excited about visiting the East Coast before. But, over the years, I have built up some connections there. An old roommate, a random acquaintance-turned-friend, a former teacher, friends-moved-east, ... and if I wait too much longer, I figure they'll start dispersing again, so now was the time to see the world(s) my friends have come to call their own.


I grew up a short drive from the Great Lakes (we could sometimes see Michigan across the water). I'd been out east just twice before - to go to a summer camp in New York. And no, I did not see much of New York besides the summer camp. My Dad spent quite a bit of time commuting to Connecticut while I was growing up. He began when I was part-way through grade school and continued until I was part-way through undergrad. I remember some of our family trips being taken with his frequent flier miles. This is my first trip using my own frequent flier miles. I'd never paid the east coast much mind before. I went west, crossing the Mississippi to set up near the Willamette. After years of mildly shunning the east coast and going farther and farther west - first to college and next, I hope, to study abroad - I'm headed for my father's preferred coast.



It occurred to me (I'm writing this now, though I probably didn't actually think of this until I reached New York City) that although I claim that the stereotypical teenage forms of protest - reacting oppositely to the advice of authority figures - never made much sense to me growing up ( I was lucky in that most of the people offering their wisdom were qualified to give it ), my earlier aversions to the east cost and to large cities may have been some rare vague manifestation of such protest against my father's high opinions of it. I had made it a habit to think uncomfortably of the east coast and to associate it with similarly uncomfortable-feeling large cities.

This time, I have in mind to befriend the cities I meet, and to learn from them.

Well, here we go -




* i am writing after returning to Portland - this entire adventure took place in ~ two weeks of March *

memo from the future

(written 01 Apr 2010, blog-drafted 21 May 2010, posted 25 May 2010)




I've just returned from the future.

I traveled from the past.

And as I made my journey home I thought it seemed easier to move through space than through time. The gates of time are beginnings and endings, and at times, the portals are forceful.

In the future they decide what happens - they decide how things will go and here in the prior hours, the world lurches to catch up. As I made my preparations, talking on the phone, transcending hours between my coast and his, I felt at a loss. Whatever he said, in his three-hours-ahead, seemed possible. I only wondered what my world would have to do in those three hours to catch the place where his had stood.

I followed the eastern horizon around the rotating earth.

In the future there is certainty, and I ask him over the phone to tell me what lies ahead for me and the others in my time. Our voices move simultaneously across the time and space.

I travelled over time zones from my own time to his.
When one day he saw my writing,
when he saw what I'd recorded of my thoughts and of his words, he said he'd better watch it.

Better watch what he said,
and it occurred to me that people who live in the future

do not think about how their lives might be recorded.

Perhaps that is what frees them.

Back in PDX

At the end of one voyage, rejoining another, I'm glad my sails are catching the winds I hoped for.

After a while away, hoping to accomplish the transition, I feel myself catching the momentum of the lifeblood in this city again.
The pulse of this city catches mine for a little longer.



That didn't take long.
A matter of hours to feel again the motion of this river.

Refrigerator wisdom (part 2)

"I suppose that since most of our hurts come through relationships, so will our healing"



I have been meaning to post this quote, found on my friend's refrigerator, for at least since last July. Now is as good a time as any, especially since while in Connecticut, I found the quote within a book. It should be attributed to: William P. Young, The Shack

Oracle at 112 5th Ave

I was walking with a friend in New York City when this vertically-scrolling column caught my eye.

Enjoy yourself because you can't change anything else

The sign was speaking to me. And it was relentless.

Aspiring for love is stupid

Even your family can betray you

Extreme self-consciousness leads to corruption

Fear is the greatest incapacitor

I'm glad that my friend was there too, because he began reading aloud from the display. Otherwise, it would have been easy to think that I was seeing some kind of hallucinatory prophetic vision.

Freedon is a luxury not a necessity

Giving true reign to emotion is an honest way to live

Keep your life in flux

Hiding your motives is despicable

I kept semi-expecting the quotes to begin repeating themselves, but they never did. They only began sounding perhaps more political. I kept reading and hearing the words in the rising voice of my friend.

It is man's fate to outsmart himself

Is Liberation dangerous? Only when overdue!

Let it explode. Run with it. Don't control or manipulate

Grassroots agitation is the only hope

It is sometimes better to die than to continue

I considered that it might be good practice to read these things out loud from time to time.


As with everything of course, add salt to taste.




(* We asked some people emerging from the building what sort of building it was. They replied, Barnes & Noble)

perspective

Everything seems better when you have a good vantage point to look back from.

This is another good reason to seek good vantage points.

mantra

My brother reminded me that this mantra, often delivered by a housemate, really does work. Try it. Play with the enunciation.

" You know, ... I AM pretty awesome..."

East Coast

I am currently adventuring on the East Coast which I like much more than I thought I would. DC has important stuff all over, Connecticut and people in New York are very nice and helpful. This post is just a time-marker. I'll have more to say in the near future, but this is when it's all going down. I'm in Connecticut now, at the midpoint of my DC -> NYC -> CT -> NYC -> DC journey.

New Experiment

1st)

Remember to continue imagining and moving into a world without fear.


2nd)

Imagine a world in which you are very happy with what you are doing and everything is fine. Move in that direction. It doesn't matter where you're starting from.


These exercises are not just for thinking.
Do them

The Importance of Faith in a Sadhana

- totally taken from This Post on An Aspiring Yogi in the West-- because I liked it. --

The Shiva-Samhita (3.16, 18 -19)


Success comes to a person of faith and self-confidence, but there is no success for others. Hence practice hard.

The first sign of success is confidence that [one's efforts] will bear fruit. The second is being firm in that faith; the third is worship of the guru;

The fourth is equanimity (samata-bhava); the fifth control over the senses; the sixth is moderate eating; there is no seventh.

Reminders from The Dog Whisperer

Cesar Millan, appears in a show called The Dog Whisperer

Cesar coaches dog owners in how to manage themselves to the benefit of their dogs' good behavior.
Referring to how to handle dogs with troubled histories, the owners learn,

"What happened [earlier] doesn't matter"

and to proceed by focusing on the question, "What do you want to create?"

To encourage owners to continue with what they've learned, he says, "remind yourself of the things you did well."

I like his attitude towards teaching and learning. When the owners succeed in following his directions with their dogs, he congratulates them, saying "I want to reward you with more challenges".

Some of the advice he has regarding dog ownership is just generally good advice for conducting oneself and being aware of others. Here, he offers some thoughts on Energy as Communication.

From the few cases I saw, it seemed that it wasn't necessarily that extra or special measures had to be taken to counteract the dogs' prior negative experiences, but that the dogs responded very well for having a calm and stable leader that would just handle them and their current situation for what it was, and who let them know clearly and fairly what was expected of them.

All the information of how to proceed, even from a difficult situation, is right there in the present for someone who can interact, listen, and move.

walls make categories

This post will probably only make sense to myself.
I am posting anyway because I need to process it. Perhaps someday I will find more readily human-intelligible words.



I need to remind myself to be entirely myself rather than assembling myself from various chosen categories (although, it is helpful to consult previously-established categories in creating myself).

I don't need to dig up my history in order to determine my present or my future.

I don't need to apologize, but to absorb, grow, and adapt.



Sometimes, I think that the way I try to be reminds people of categories that I didn't intend. And this sometimes concerns me when I realize that the way I choose to conduct myself can affect other peoples' categories as well. Some walls are good to cross, but sometimes walls are there for a reason. Some walls divide, others organize, others are practical. Some are wise, others are temporary.

I know that I sometimes draw lines in sands that didn't need to be divided. And, when waters meet over walls I thought I saw, and two categories seem to contradict, the only thing I know to do is learn.


and yet, this is the year of the Tiger, not the year of the Stingray.




a small basket of what I hope is helpful sanity:

A similar and helpful thought from Sam