It appears that the anti-Obama crowd has morphed the so-called “Birther” movement into the “Healther” movement. The basic premise of this new approach is to deny the Obama administration the political power and influence that it could derive from passing national healthcare reform legislation. The primary strategy of this Healther cult, and this label simply replaces the more accurate label of “anti-Obama” cult, is to disrupt the effort to accurately understand the issues, constraints, and options surrounding healthcare in America.

At first, they attempt to terminate any debate or discussion of the topic; breaking up or disrupting efforts at public debate is a primary strategy. When forced to participate in any discussion, they shy away from reasonable contributions and rely on the wild and the whacky: for many of them, Obama is apparently the latest anti-Christ or a Hitler reborn. For some, the proposal to reform healthcare is the advent of socialism (which is apparently an evil thing even though a significant part of the national economy is dominated by socialistic enterprises like Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid). It appears they are willing to deny the nation any sort of healthcare reform until their fellow travelers win majorities in the national elections and can dictate their own solutions.

It remains to be seen if they fall by the wayside as the Birthers now seem to have done.

Friday night’s game was supposed to be a Red Sox loss: they just finished a three-game sweep of the Yankees at home and were starting a roadtrip without a day off. The Phillies are leading their division, leading in all sorts of statistics, and playing at home against a team designed for designated hitting. The more likely outcome should have been a loss. But no, they went thirteen innings to win, 5-2, even after allowing a momentum-crushing game-tieing home-run in the bottom of the ninth. Sox pitcher John Lester was excellent with a six-straight strike-out run and allowing only two hits in seven innings of work. He didn’t even earn the win, however.

Last night’s game was a strange one. The Sox got 5 runs in the first using three Philly errors (this from a team with only 19 errors in total so far this year). Then it rained for an hour and thirty-five minutes. After the Phils got 4 runs back, the Sox proceeded to dismantle the Philly pitching in several hunks. Sox pitcher Matsuzaka continued his mediocre performance and was lifted after four innings in what I consider a brilliant but unusual move by manager Francona. The final score was 11-6 and they played only the regulation nine innings.

The Red Sox have now played 11 consecutive games against major league baseball division leaders and have won 9 of them (Detroit (3-0), Texas (1-2), Yankees (3-0), Philadelphia (2-0)).

This latest report, Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries, from the NYT, provides an update on the progress of the next world war: a war that will focus on information.

Note that the information targeted includes email communications: the researchers documented systematic searching and pilfering of email contents. Note that the use of the stolen communications are applied to counteract other information or shape decision-making of allies or enemies.

Consider this:

“… after an e-mail invitation was sent by the Dalai Lama’s office to a foreign diplomat, the Chinese government made a call to the diplomat discouraging a visit. And a woman working for a group making Internet contacts between Tibetan exiles and Chinese citizens was stopped by Chinese intelligence officers on her way back to Tibet, shown transcripts of her online conversations and warned to stop her political activities.” [NYT, same article noted above]

It is interesting to see that the reporter and several persons quoted in the article, noting that this particular operation apparently originated in China, “cautioned against concluding that China’s government was involved.”

Who is kidding whom, here?

I perceive a growing resemblance between the Google franchise and that intriguing construct of the Star Trek TV and film archive, the BORG.

You know the Borg, the group of cyborgs (or entities with natural and machine originated features and components) originally introduced in the Star Trek TV series. Now commonly used as a metaphor for any large group or organization that dominates its environment and appears impervious to change, negotiation, or destruction.

A primary process of the Borg is its absorption, or assimilation, of any potentially valuable attribute or feature found in other creatures into its collective assets. The source creatures are also added to the Borg and enhanced with attributes and capabilities acquired from others; thus, the assimilated creatures become part of the collective and are controlled and directed for the good of the whole.

A significant focus of the Borg is the use of information technology to support real-time communications and data processing as it sucks up data from the environments of its millions of drone creatures and sensors and, conversely, communicates instructions and directions back to them; this process of collective intelligence enables the parts to act as a coordinated whole.

John Markoff’s article ( 29-Nov-2008 ) in The New York Times online, “You’re Leaving a Digital Trail. What About Privacy?” has distinct references to the growing use of information technologies that resemble a world of virtual Borgs, of which Google is the industry leader.  He notes that,

… a vast sea of digital information [is] being recorded by an ever thicker web of sensors, from phones to GPS units to the tags in office ID badges, that capture our movements and interactions. Coupled with information already gathered from sources like Web surfing and credit cards … [forms] the basis for an emerging field called collective intelligence. [italics are mine]

Markoff goes on to state:

“GOOGLE and its vast farm of more than a million search engine servers spread around the globe remain the best example of the power and wealth-building potential of collective intelligence.

Google recently developed a process that would identify flu outbreaks based on its data collections. Markoff’s article introduces an activist support organization called MobileActive which plans to utilize collective intelligence to direct individual activists to action in support of their causes. Will Google’s command of their hoard of data allow them to communicate and direct us drones to act as Google wants?  Can we trust Google to always act for the collective good? Is what is good for Google good for us?

It is with some surprise and pleasure to see that the 2008 American League Most Valuable Player award went to Red Sox secondbaseman, Dustin Pedroia.  There is no better tribute to working hard and maintaining discipline and commitment to doing your best than giving this award to him.  The Tampa Bay Rays’ Longoria was the traditional and expected winner; he deserves the award just as much as Pedroia.  The sportswriters and other voters have to be commended for a thoughtful choice.

Sometime after 10pm EDT last Thursday evening, the earth must have drifted into an alternate universe. The switch or flip wasn’t immediately noticed.  In Boston, a tinkling may have been felt sometime in the bottom of the seventh inning when a couple singles produced a run; for citizens of Red Sox Nation, with their team down now only 7-1, it suddenly may have dawned on them that something must have changed when David Ortiz’ quick swipe sent a baseball into the right field stands.  

This is a universe where Red Sox players have a mystical upper hand and opponents turn into Little Leaguers still learning the game. The universe is familiar but comes and goes; sure-handed opponents stop catching difficult grounders; throws go off target; outfield flies become unpredictable and difficult to track; their bats become ineffective or Red Sox players show up everywhere they hit the ball.  

How does one explain the lackluster and inconsistent performance of the Red Sox middle relievers during a long season and the no-hit, no-run string during this past week? How does the well-meaning, hard-working but automatic-out catcher Varitek become the game-winning hit in Game-6 last night? How does one explain sure-handed Tampa fielders Longorian and Bartlett committing crucially damaging errors in the late innings of the past two games?

For this year, one can blame Tampa’s manager for mis-steps, the inexperience of the Rays’ players, or the tough, backs-to-the-wall Red Sox team spirit; I think it’s an alternate universe called Red Sox Universe, where Red Sox Nation expands into a universal phenomena we don’t understand and I hope it stays for one more week.

This is a true story: the Maine lobster industry is reeling from a collapse in demand, and subsequent collapse in the market prices, for the deep-sea crustacean.  While supplies are adequate, Canadian seafood processors, who usually grab a significant portion of each day’s catch, have stopped ordering and buying lobsters because their credit lines with Icelandic banks have been frozen (no North Atlantic pun intended).

The crisis in Maine is tied directly to the collapse of Icelandic banks which were key lenders to processors in Canada, according to Dane Somers, executive director of the Maine Lobster Promotion Council. Without ready credit from those banks, Canadian processors don’t have the cash to purchase lobster from Maine, Somers said. [Bangor Daily News]

Lobsters were at $4.99/lb at Augusta Seafood earlier this week.  Lobsters off the boat are barely fetching $2.0/lb at some ports. For the typical consumer, lobsters at $4.99/lb. is a tremendous difference from the $12-13 per pound rates earlier in the summer and should make lobster lovers rejoice.

However, lobstermen and women can’t make any money at these low prices.  Fewer and fewer boats will be departing for the lobster fisheries in the coming weeks; supplies will constrict quickly and prices will rise. The length of this crisis could determine how many lobster boats stay in the business.

After watching some of the third and fourth games of the 2008 ACLS, it was very painful and sad to sit down for Game 5 last evening and watch a lead-off single and Bam! another BJ Upton home run put the Sox in a 2-0 hole with nobody out.  I stopped watching after the second inning and went back later to find them down 5-0; it was the beginning of the 7th inning and Francona then brought Papelbon in!  Our premiere closer was being brought in to mop up a losing cause in the 7th?  I thought Francona and the Sox had given up.  This was reinforced when Papelbon gave up a 2-run double to the BJ Upton RBI machine. Sox behind, 7-0. Click!

So, when we checked the game a little while later, mostly by accident as one surfs the channels, we were intrigued by the new score of 7-4.  We continued to watch with mouths opened and frequent scratching of the heads as the pitching, hitting, and defense seemed to wake up.  Seven runs down, three innings to go, and the Rays seemed to be facing a mysterious force; ground balls became harder to handle, their pitches resulted in either balls or fouls or run contributing hits.

We watched the rest of this amazing game right to the new morning hour.

The champagne brought into theTampa Bay locker room half way into the game had to be packed up and put on the plane to Tampa. Very sad.

The Red Sox lost game no. 2 of the 2008 ACLS when ace pitcher Josh Beckett attempted his second start in the playoffs after a problematic oblique injury in September.  Francona suggested he was going to be o.k. for last night’s game after his lackluster performance against the Angels last week.  He gave up 8 runs and this included 2 runs in the sixth inning when he should not have been returned to the mound after a lousy 5 innings behind him.

For the Sox as a whole, the 11th inning loss does not change the dynamic: the Rays should win this series based on talent across the board.  This does not mean the Sox are doomed.  If most of the players play to or above their averages, the Sox can win.  It is now a five-game series with three games in Boston.

Last night’s game no. 1 of the American League 2008 Championship Series (ACLS) was another gem provided by the 2008 Soxtober crew.  In typical fashion, Matsuzaka put men on base and then pitched out of the jams; tonight’s quirky and tantalizing entertainment was his walks-only, no hit performance through six innings.  In suspenseful fashion, manager Francona allowed him to return from a tentative seventh inning session to pitch the eighth inning, where he promptly gave up two singles and was dismissed.

In an equally impressive performance, Sox middle relievers Okajima and Masterson then kept the Rays on the bases, sealing the victory rap-up by Papelbon in the ninth.  Read the game recap from the NYTimes sports desk.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/sports/baseball/11alcs.html?