A Stately Parade of Lemmings
One of the curses/blessings of being a physicist is to be continuously observant, searching for patterns in the universe around one. Often this continual observation results in an obliviousness to aspects of the environment one exists in, but somehow that seems both necessary and balancing. But it is rather difficult to explain to most of humanity how observing and characterizing chaotic behavior is constructive, just as a single example.
The flow of human activity is one such. We all like to be informed of the happenings of our fellows although what aspects of their behavior are interesting differ. My observations tend to follow interests that have developed over my life even though some of them are considerably less relevant than they once were. Nonetheless, one unconsciously and consciously tries to find patterns in these activities.
I was thus struck this morning by the bittersweet nature of urbanity. In one article [Link] there is a discussion of whether there needs to be a blogging code of conduct. Interestingly, this seems to be prompted not by the writings of the bloggers themselves, but by sociopathic remarks made by readers who either violently disagree with the blogger or are just plain mentally defective and enjoy threatening bloggers with torture and violence.
The cause celebre of this suggestion is a woman blogger who has had to go into hiding because of threats against her person. It demonstrates how the sterility of the blogging environment amplifies any emotion laden interaction. What would be a trivial bump in a crowd turns into something meriting life changing courage and introspection in the blogging environment.
While it must be admitted that one has few limitations on what one blogs, save those imposed by the hosting organization, if any, most bloggers show considerable urbanity and are only mildly nekulturny. After all, this is an environment of visitation, not broadcast. Hence, discouraging words are intensified.
In this regard, the establishment of a blogging code would have less to do with how bloggers write than how they may react to comments and remarks. Some bloggers consider it a matter of principle to not censor comments. My practice is that the comment has to be (1) understandable to me, and (2) relevant. My rationale for this is that my blog is like a garden and I am the gardener. If something sprouts that I don’t like, I can pluck it out and toss it on the compost heap. If you like that kind of plant, raise your own garden.
But speaking of gardens, I also note an article this morning on climate zone changes being caused by global warming.[Link] The research was done at U Wisconsin by geographers who have estimated that something like 0.4 of the planet’s land area will have changed climate zone by 2100 CE. They predict new, even more inhospitable zones near the equator and the disappearance of the colder zone near the poles.
What isn’t reported is how the ecologies will be disrupted in this process, nor how humans will be distressed, in many case killed.
