Went to Egypt museum.
Went inside Mosque of Sayyidna al-Hussein. At the time thought it was just a random Mosque but went in to see people actually praying (guy at door waved me in and of corse asked for money as I left by pointing at a drawer with money in it). In addition to praying some people were taking pictures of some box looking thing surrounded by a silver cage. This was the most out of place I have ever felt. Later at the hotel found it on the map in tour book. Turns out it is supposedly the burial place of the prophet's grandson's head and as one of the most sacred Islamic sites in Egypt non-Muslims are not allowed inside. It is amazing how many rules can be broken for a one dollar tip!
Will write about other events of the day when I get back.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Egypt
Not only have I seen the only remaining wonder of the ancient world, I've been inside it!
Angie arrived last night so we are now the full traveling crew.
Angie arrived last night so we are now the full traveling crew.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Egypt
Posting from phone so won't type much.
Traveled for 48 hours straight (add Dublin to the last post) but got to Cairo only one hour late.
Slept for 15 hours.
Went to khan al-khalili, very cool (sorry, no links when posting from phone).
Had tea at place mahfouz (author of book I am reading) liked to go and where his novels are set.
Ate shwarma and Turkish food.
Sidewalks are questionable so lots of walking in street and assuming cars will stop when crossing in front of them.
Traveled for 48 hours straight (add Dublin to the last post) but got to Cairo only one hour late.
Slept for 15 hours.
Went to khan al-khalili, very cool (sorry, no links when posting from phone).
Had tea at place mahfouz (author of book I am reading) liked to go and where his novels are set.
Ate shwarma and Turkish food.
Sidewalks are questionable so lots of walking in street and assuming cars will stop when crossing in front of them.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Snap
I don't care how out of fashion it is now or how silly it was for me to use it to begin with, I'm bringing the word snap back. I'm not exactly a social trend setter and I mostly only use the word when watching Law & Order SVU by myself so I'm going to need some help getting this going, but I'm sure we can do it! I think the first time around the correct expression was "oh snap", but I'm pushing the shorter snappier (ba-bom-ching) version of just saying snap by itself. Oh, and feel free to actually snap while saying it, but it is not required.
I've actually been up to more than yelling snap at Law & Order.
Eric and Jess hosted a great Thanksgiving! I hope that one day when I'm older I'll be able to host people and put on events like that.
Thanks to Julie and Saeed for having an x-box and spending the $20 on Briad, which is the coolest game I've seen in a while.
Actually most of my social life lately has been going to other people's places and being fed. Maybe one day I'll clean my place and feed others, maybe (don't worry I won't cook).
I'm a little over a week away from seeing the last remaining ancient wonder of the world!
I've actually been up to more than yelling snap at Law & Order.
Eric and Jess hosted a great Thanksgiving! I hope that one day when I'm older I'll be able to host people and put on events like that.
Thanks to Julie and Saeed for having an x-box and spending the $20 on Briad, which is the coolest game I've seen in a while.
Actually most of my social life lately has been going to other people's places and being fed. Maybe one day I'll clean my place and feed others, maybe (don't worry I won't cook).
I'm a little over a week away from seeing the last remaining ancient wonder of the world!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Questions
Which is more painful my sore shoulder or the embarrassment of a ping-pong injury? I would say my shoulder because it is really sore, but the more it hurts the more embarrassing it is.
When is the security line for all gates not for your gate? When your flight to the east coast is in the international terminal.
When is the security line for all gates not for your gate? When your flight to the east coast is in the international terminal.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
The Egyptians
Well, the title sounded appropriate and there are lots of pictures so I picked up The Egyptians at the used book store. It covers ancient egypt from about 5000 BC to 600 BC in 200 pages which is a bit ambitious. Also when I was reading it, I kept getting the feeling that the author expected me to know a lot of stuff I don't know. Unfortunately I was also reminded that I find straight history a bit boring.
But there were a few things I got out of the book. The main thing was some info about the great pyramid and it also helped me realize just how old it is. So around the 27th century the first step pyramid was built in Egypt. After that step pyramids were built for a while. Then the Pharaoh Snoferu added to a step pyramid to give it straight sides. Then he had a pyramid with straight sides built, but it was a bit off so the angle had to change near the top, it is called The Bent Pyramid. Well that was no good so he had another one built, and this time they got the straight sides right, it is called The Red Pyramid. Then his son Kheops came along and built The Great Pyramid in 2560 BC which remained the tallest man made structure in the world for 3,800 years. After that Pharoahs backed off on the size of the pyramids and eventually switched to rectangular buildings for their burial locations.
So let's put 2560 BC in perspective. When the Western Wall (as part of the second temple) was built, the Great Pyramid was older than the Western Wall is now. When the first segment of the Great Wall of China was built, the Great Pyramid was 2000 years old. Stonehenge, which is cool and mysterious, but is really just some big rocks in a circle was built within about +/- 100 years of the Great Pyramid.
Way back around 5000 to 3500 BC before farming along the Nile had really been figured out, people lived out in the desert and looked to rainmakers to get it to rain. As farming was figured out people moved close to the Nile and the Nile delta area. There they depended more on how much water the Nile brought each year rather than how much it rained. The position of Pharaoh had its origins in being the guy who could control the flow of the Nile. Pharaohs who ruled during droughts didn't stick around for long. Early on the Pharaoh was considered a God himself. As time went on the position transitioned into someone who had more direct contact with the Gods and eventually became more of a warrior king kind of position. Measurements of time, including both lunar and solar calendars, were figured out to know when the Nile floods would come, when to plant food, and when to harvest. Figuring out writing and mathematics did a lot to allow the centralization of power. One major task was figuring out property rights each year after the Nile flooded and knocked down walls and other indicators. There is a significant division between North and South (or Upper and Lower Egypt) and the Pharaoh had two crowns to represent ruling the two areas. Nubians are the people who live on the southern end of Egypt. They live in the area around what is now called Aswan which has Elephantine Island. The borders of Egypt moved around some over several thousands years, but the southern border was generally around Elephantine Island which had a fort.
I'm getting some mixed messages from the book and what I've seen online. Because there definitely were slaves in Egypt, but at the same time it sounds like it wasn't slaves who built the pyramids, but rather paid workers. And it sounds like those workers had lives that were just as good if not better than those of farmers.
But there were a few things I got out of the book. The main thing was some info about the great pyramid and it also helped me realize just how old it is. So around the 27th century the first step pyramid was built in Egypt. After that step pyramids were built for a while. Then the Pharaoh Snoferu added to a step pyramid to give it straight sides. Then he had a pyramid with straight sides built, but it was a bit off so the angle had to change near the top, it is called The Bent Pyramid. Well that was no good so he had another one built, and this time they got the straight sides right, it is called The Red Pyramid. Then his son Kheops came along and built The Great Pyramid in 2560 BC which remained the tallest man made structure in the world for 3,800 years. After that Pharoahs backed off on the size of the pyramids and eventually switched to rectangular buildings for their burial locations.
So let's put 2560 BC in perspective. When the Western Wall (as part of the second temple) was built, the Great Pyramid was older than the Western Wall is now. When the first segment of the Great Wall of China was built, the Great Pyramid was 2000 years old. Stonehenge, which is cool and mysterious, but is really just some big rocks in a circle was built within about +/- 100 years of the Great Pyramid.
Way back around 5000 to 3500 BC before farming along the Nile had really been figured out, people lived out in the desert and looked to rainmakers to get it to rain. As farming was figured out people moved close to the Nile and the Nile delta area. There they depended more on how much water the Nile brought each year rather than how much it rained. The position of Pharaoh had its origins in being the guy who could control the flow of the Nile. Pharaohs who ruled during droughts didn't stick around for long. Early on the Pharaoh was considered a God himself. As time went on the position transitioned into someone who had more direct contact with the Gods and eventually became more of a warrior king kind of position. Measurements of time, including both lunar and solar calendars, were figured out to know when the Nile floods would come, when to plant food, and when to harvest. Figuring out writing and mathematics did a lot to allow the centralization of power. One major task was figuring out property rights each year after the Nile flooded and knocked down walls and other indicators. There is a significant division between North and South (or Upper and Lower Egypt) and the Pharaoh had two crowns to represent ruling the two areas. Nubians are the people who live on the southern end of Egypt. They live in the area around what is now called Aswan which has Elephantine Island. The borders of Egypt moved around some over several thousands years, but the southern border was generally around Elephantine Island which had a fort.
I'm getting some mixed messages from the book and what I've seen online. Because there definitely were slaves in Egypt, but at the same time it sounds like it wasn't slaves who built the pyramids, but rather paid workers. And it sounds like those workers had lives that were just as good if not better than those of farmers.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Someone who gets other people killed. You can look it up later.
If they kill Mohinder does the absurd narration go away? Cause I'm totally willing to make that trade. Especially if the pseudo-science explanations stop too.
Isn't it weird that Marlo Stanfield shows less fear and is more of a bad ass than Knox?
And why is Cameron so much more attractive than River Tam? And why is the robot more interested in guys than the troubled teen?
Isn't it weird that Marlo Stanfield shows less fear and is more of a bad ass than Knox?
And why is Cameron so much more attractive than River Tam? And why is the robot more interested in guys than the troubled teen?
Sunday, November 16, 2008
No God but God
No, this post isn't about the book No god but God, I already covered that. It is about the book No God but God - notice the difference?
I picked this up somewhat by chance at the library, but it turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. It discusses the rise of Islam in Egypt from about 1970 to the late 1990s. It was released in 2000 so it doesn't cover the last eight years. But I tend not to trust anything written about Islam that came out from 2002 to around 2005 (I figure anything in that time period is going to be too reactionary) so it is hard to do better than a release date of 2000.
If you're not going to be in Egypt in a couple months not sure how interesting it would be, but I found it interesting so this post will probably end up way too long. The one downside of the book is it seems like the chapters were written separately so there is a bit of repetition of facts.
The main thing I learned is that the relationship between religion and the state in Egypt is in many ways inverted from other countries in the Middle East. The government is secular and has been fighting against the rising power of Islamist, such as banning niqabs and hijabs for students at various times as opposed to forcing women to wear them.
The other big message I took away is that there's not a clear good guy or bad guy (well, the militants are bad guys). The government is secular, "democratic", made peace with Israel and generally tries for good relations with the West. However, there is some serious corruption and obvious vote rigging. Since 1956 when Nasser took over the presidency (partially by putting the previous president under house arrest), there have been three presidents. Sadat took over when Nasser died of a heart attack and Mubarak took over after Sadat was killed by Islamic militants (notice how no one was ever voted out). The government also occasionally rounds up suspected Islamic militants, jails them, and often tortures them. It also some times passes laws to prevent Islamist from getting elected to lead unions and student groups. While the Islamic movement pushes for censorship that doesn't fit its morals, the secular government also uses censorship to protect itself. The government also works hard to look good in the West partially because America provides 10% of the Egyptian GDP in aid money. This can lead to over reactions and getting the wrong people to confess to crimes in order to maintain that image. And passing laws against female circumcision, but not enforcing them. It also helps to explain why the government is so protective of tourists (other than tourism being a major industry).
There is a militant portion of the Islamic movement. Although the majority of the movement has been peaceful for several decades. There is a push for women wearing a veil and for female circumcision. Although many women, even rich and well educated women, volunteer to wear the veil, even against the wishes of their husbands. The female circumcision is a bit odd because it is actually an African tradition, not Islamic, but has been incorporated into Islam in Egypt - well female circumcision is horrible, not odd, but its introduction to Islam is one of the odd things about it. Along the same lines, the requirement of women wearing a veil is also questionable. In the Koran it was only the Prophet's wives who had to have a sheet separating them from men, but since then has been interpreted as a requirement for all women to wear a veil. But on the other side, members of the Islamic movement who have been elected in unions and student groups have broad support, even among secularists and Coptic Christians, because they work hard to look after their member's economic and social situations, which the government has largely failed to do. Unlike in the US, the unions are also for middle class professions like engineers, doctors and lawyers. Many people in these middle class professions are displeased with the government because Nasser pushed to educate the country to fuel its economic growth (seems like a good idea), but when people came out of school with advanced degrees there were no jobs and they were making less money than taxi drivers.
The other pattern that was interesting is that when the government tried to suppress the Islamic movement, the movement got stronger and when Sadat supported the movement for a while it got stronger and eventually assassinated him. Although through all of this the militant side slowly lost support. And the militant side's last major act, the Luxor attack in 1997, caused it to lose almost all of its popular support.
The book also confirmed a lot of The Yacoubian Building and the Golden Chariot as realistic stories.
I guess the biggest message for me is in addition to avoiding taking a Menorah, I should also avoid taking a Qur'an on the trip (not that I was planning to take either, but you get the idea).
My last comment is - if a young man supports a movement, especially one that is uptight about sex, torturing him in jail and humiliating him sexually - probably is not the best policy for steering him away from violence. Just a guess.
I picked this up somewhat by chance at the library, but it turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. It discusses the rise of Islam in Egypt from about 1970 to the late 1990s. It was released in 2000 so it doesn't cover the last eight years. But I tend not to trust anything written about Islam that came out from 2002 to around 2005 (I figure anything in that time period is going to be too reactionary) so it is hard to do better than a release date of 2000.
If you're not going to be in Egypt in a couple months not sure how interesting it would be, but I found it interesting so this post will probably end up way too long. The one downside of the book is it seems like the chapters were written separately so there is a bit of repetition of facts.
The main thing I learned is that the relationship between religion and the state in Egypt is in many ways inverted from other countries in the Middle East. The government is secular and has been fighting against the rising power of Islamist, such as banning niqabs and hijabs for students at various times as opposed to forcing women to wear them.
The other big message I took away is that there's not a clear good guy or bad guy (well, the militants are bad guys). The government is secular, "democratic", made peace with Israel and generally tries for good relations with the West. However, there is some serious corruption and obvious vote rigging. Since 1956 when Nasser took over the presidency (partially by putting the previous president under house arrest), there have been three presidents. Sadat took over when Nasser died of a heart attack and Mubarak took over after Sadat was killed by Islamic militants (notice how no one was ever voted out). The government also occasionally rounds up suspected Islamic militants, jails them, and often tortures them. It also some times passes laws to prevent Islamist from getting elected to lead unions and student groups. While the Islamic movement pushes for censorship that doesn't fit its morals, the secular government also uses censorship to protect itself. The government also works hard to look good in the West partially because America provides 10% of the Egyptian GDP in aid money. This can lead to over reactions and getting the wrong people to confess to crimes in order to maintain that image. And passing laws against female circumcision, but not enforcing them. It also helps to explain why the government is so protective of tourists (other than tourism being a major industry).
There is a militant portion of the Islamic movement. Although the majority of the movement has been peaceful for several decades. There is a push for women wearing a veil and for female circumcision. Although many women, even rich and well educated women, volunteer to wear the veil, even against the wishes of their husbands. The female circumcision is a bit odd because it is actually an African tradition, not Islamic, but has been incorporated into Islam in Egypt - well female circumcision is horrible, not odd, but its introduction to Islam is one of the odd things about it. Along the same lines, the requirement of women wearing a veil is also questionable. In the Koran it was only the Prophet's wives who had to have a sheet separating them from men, but since then has been interpreted as a requirement for all women to wear a veil. But on the other side, members of the Islamic movement who have been elected in unions and student groups have broad support, even among secularists and Coptic Christians, because they work hard to look after their member's economic and social situations, which the government has largely failed to do. Unlike in the US, the unions are also for middle class professions like engineers, doctors and lawyers. Many people in these middle class professions are displeased with the government because Nasser pushed to educate the country to fuel its economic growth (seems like a good idea), but when people came out of school with advanced degrees there were no jobs and they were making less money than taxi drivers.
The other pattern that was interesting is that when the government tried to suppress the Islamic movement, the movement got stronger and when Sadat supported the movement for a while it got stronger and eventually assassinated him. Although through all of this the militant side slowly lost support. And the militant side's last major act, the Luxor attack in 1997, caused it to lose almost all of its popular support.
The book also confirmed a lot of The Yacoubian Building and the Golden Chariot as realistic stories.
I guess the biggest message for me is in addition to avoiding taking a Menorah, I should also avoid taking a Qur'an on the trip (not that I was planning to take either, but you get the idea).
My last comment is - if a young man supports a movement, especially one that is uptight about sex, torturing him in jail and humiliating him sexually - probably is not the best policy for steering him away from violence. Just a guess.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Loop Gain
A lot of people are 5 to 10 pounds above their goal weight.
A feedback system measures the difference between the output of the system and the goal and amplifies the difference (well, in the most simple of feedback systems). After the system stabilizes the output is approximately equal to the input, but there is an error equal to the output divided by the gain of the system.
It is reasonable to figure that the further people get from their goal the harder they try. So they are always doomed to be a bit above their goal. Perhaps lots of people have a loop gain that pushes them just enough to maintain their weight when they are 5 to 10 pounds over.
I guess all this leads to the Dr. Cox view of weight loss - once you are happy with your body you lose.
I've heard that expression about a person with a hammer seeing everything as a nail, but it doesn't apply to me because I have feedback analysis, not a hammer.
A feedback system measures the difference between the output of the system and the goal and amplifies the difference (well, in the most simple of feedback systems). After the system stabilizes the output is approximately equal to the input, but there is an error equal to the output divided by the gain of the system.
It is reasonable to figure that the further people get from their goal the harder they try. So they are always doomed to be a bit above their goal. Perhaps lots of people have a loop gain that pushes them just enough to maintain their weight when they are 5 to 10 pounds over.
I guess all this leads to the Dr. Cox view of weight loss - once you are happy with your body you lose.
I've heard that expression about a person with a hammer seeing everything as a nail, but it doesn't apply to me because I have feedback analysis, not a hammer.
Friday, November 14, 2008
So close
From this NYT article:
Chief Justice Roberts took issue with both restrictions. The Navy had agreed to shut down its sonar if marine mammals were sighted within 200 yards. The appeals court’s requirement that it increase the zone to 2,200 yards, Chief Justice Roberts said, would “expand the surface area of the shutdown zone by a factor of over 100,” given “the exponential relationship between radius length and surface area.”
So close to sounding smart and yet so far. Well, at least he got the numbers right.
(x^2 is a polynomial, 2^x is an exponential function, the area of a circle would get really big really fast if it was an exponential function of the radius)
Am I being really petty? Yes.
Chief Justice Roberts took issue with both restrictions. The Navy had agreed to shut down its sonar if marine mammals were sighted within 200 yards. The appeals court’s requirement that it increase the zone to 2,200 yards, Chief Justice Roberts said, would “expand the surface area of the shutdown zone by a factor of over 100,” given “the exponential relationship between radius length and surface area.”
So close to sounding smart and yet so far. Well, at least he got the numbers right.
(x^2 is a polynomial, 2^x is an exponential function, the area of a circle would get really big really fast if it was an exponential function of the radius)
Am I being really petty? Yes.
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Dear 2008 (a response to Dear 1970s)
Dear 2008,
Let us say this in a way you will understand - chillax.
So what do you consider a good sci fi movie? The Matirx? A movie that combines the fight against AI and philosophy/mysticism. Sounds familiar, oh, but we see, you've replaced classical music and inspirational visuals with rock music and fighting. Way to go - that's some progress you've got there.
And what do you consider good sci fi tv? Battlestar Galactica - gee we wonder where you came up with that idea. Only we see you've replaced goofy fun with a bleak vision of the future and more realistic violence. Sure our version had some silly looking robots and a really lame explanation for where they came from. But you just made the robots human - that's not even trying! And your explanation for how they came into their current form is - no one, including the robots, knows? How long did it take to come up with that idea? At least we can all agree on laughing at the 80s version!
Ok, Firefly and Serenity are cool ideas, but they're only half sci fi and barely anyone has even heard of them. Plus, a movie about the power of belief written by an atheist - no wonder people had to watch the commentary to get the message. You might think our movies spoon fed the point to the viewers, but at least we didn't encourage them to watch the movie a second time so we could describe scene by scene what is happening. And why is it you can't make it through five minutes of music, but you love listening to what each actor was feeling during every scene?
Yeah, our movies might be hard to get through if you're watching after your third trip to starbucks, but maybe you should put the caffeine down and enjoy the movie! If you insist on filling every single second put two TVs next to each other. On one play the 70s movie and on the other play a loop of people getting beat up. That way if you get tired of being inspired you have something to look at.
Sincerely,
The 1970s
PS We will admit your graphics are awesome.
Let us say this in a way you will understand - chillax.
So what do you consider a good sci fi movie? The Matirx? A movie that combines the fight against AI and philosophy/mysticism. Sounds familiar, oh, but we see, you've replaced classical music and inspirational visuals with rock music and fighting. Way to go - that's some progress you've got there.
And what do you consider good sci fi tv? Battlestar Galactica - gee we wonder where you came up with that idea. Only we see you've replaced goofy fun with a bleak vision of the future and more realistic violence. Sure our version had some silly looking robots and a really lame explanation for where they came from. But you just made the robots human - that's not even trying! And your explanation for how they came into their current form is - no one, including the robots, knows? How long did it take to come up with that idea? At least we can all agree on laughing at the 80s version!
Ok, Firefly and Serenity are cool ideas, but they're only half sci fi and barely anyone has even heard of them. Plus, a movie about the power of belief written by an atheist - no wonder people had to watch the commentary to get the message. You might think our movies spoon fed the point to the viewers, but at least we didn't encourage them to watch the movie a second time so we could describe scene by scene what is happening. And why is it you can't make it through five minutes of music, but you love listening to what each actor was feeling during every scene?
Yeah, our movies might be hard to get through if you're watching after your third trip to starbucks, but maybe you should put the caffeine down and enjoy the movie! If you insist on filling every single second put two TVs next to each other. On one play the 70s movie and on the other play a loop of people getting beat up. That way if you get tired of being inspired you have something to look at.
Sincerely,
The 1970s
PS We will admit your graphics are awesome.
Dear 1970s
Dear 1970s,
We get it, it is an emotional, grand moment, but the key word is moment. We don't need five minutes of classical music and what you consider impressive special effects every time you want to make a point. If you show a ship moving for 10 seconds we'll go ahead and extrapolate from there that it is continuing to move, you don't need to keep showing us.
We get that your vision of "advanced computers" and your ideas about racial interactions are a bit off, you're doing your best on special effects, and of course the fashion sense has become outdated. That's fine, we can get past all that. And you have some decent ideas so we can learn a lot by watching your movies. But we don't understand why you have to bury a half hour of good content in a two hour movie. And not just on occasion, but for every single movie. Of course it hasn't worked out too poorly for you since we tend to just remember the half hour where stuff actually happened. So there is still a lot of respect for your movies, but it doesn't seem right to do this to us when we want to see what is remembered so fondly.
Sincerely,
2008
PS Turns out AI is not that easy to create so you can stop being so paranoid and insecure about what will happen to humans when computers get smarter.
We get it, it is an emotional, grand moment, but the key word is moment. We don't need five minutes of classical music and what you consider impressive special effects every time you want to make a point. If you show a ship moving for 10 seconds we'll go ahead and extrapolate from there that it is continuing to move, you don't need to keep showing us.
We get that your vision of "advanced computers" and your ideas about racial interactions are a bit off, you're doing your best on special effects, and of course the fashion sense has become outdated. That's fine, we can get past all that. And you have some decent ideas so we can learn a lot by watching your movies. But we don't understand why you have to bury a half hour of good content in a two hour movie. And not just on occasion, but for every single movie. Of course it hasn't worked out too poorly for you since we tend to just remember the half hour where stuff actually happened. So there is still a lot of respect for your movies, but it doesn't seem right to do this to us when we want to see what is remembered so fondly.
Sincerely,
2008
PS Turns out AI is not that easy to create so you can stop being so paranoid and insecure about what will happen to humans when computers get smarter.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Election
Yay Obama!!!
I want to be super excited about Obama, but being happy about that win was dampened a bit by prop 8 passing (making same sex marriage unconstitutional in California). While same sex marriage is far from my top voting issue, it does amaze me that at the same time the first non-white president was elected that the California constitution was changed to specifically deny a group of people a right. Of the group I hang out with at work, the one other person who can vote in the US felt the same way so the mood wasn't a cheery as it could have been otherwise. Although last night it was interesting as people gathered in each other's cubes to watch the map change colors (favorite map moment was when NYT had colored Texas blue). Favorite (paraphrased) line of the night was when two Americans and two Iranians were in my cube:
American: "Do you think they'll re-elect Ahmadinejad next year"
Iranian: "Not sure, they might"
American: "But don't they think he's crazy"
Iranian: "Well, some do... but Bush got re-elected"
The CA ballot measures (other than 8) lined up basically how I was hoping - including funding for a fast train from SF to LA (I don't know if it is good for the state or not, but I voted for it because I want one!) And the abortion bill was defeated (although just barely).
Both of the crazy San Francisco measures were defeated (unfortunately I'm in a different county so I didn't get to vote on them). One was to legalize prostitution. Not in a controlled way like in Amsterdam, but cops would just stop arresting them. And the San Francisco sewage treatment plant was not named after George W Bush (largely because the workers did not want to work at a place named after him), but I think it is awesome that they tried.
I thought this Joy of Tech comic was only ok, until I got to the bottom left - HA!
And just in case you want to know how to say hello and thank you in Egypt (at least according to the tour book):
Hello: sa-lam'a-lay-kum
Thank you: shu-kran
I want to be super excited about Obama, but being happy about that win was dampened a bit by prop 8 passing (making same sex marriage unconstitutional in California). While same sex marriage is far from my top voting issue, it does amaze me that at the same time the first non-white president was elected that the California constitution was changed to specifically deny a group of people a right. Of the group I hang out with at work, the one other person who can vote in the US felt the same way so the mood wasn't a cheery as it could have been otherwise. Although last night it was interesting as people gathered in each other's cubes to watch the map change colors (favorite map moment was when NYT had colored Texas blue). Favorite (paraphrased) line of the night was when two Americans and two Iranians were in my cube:
American: "Do you think they'll re-elect Ahmadinejad next year"
Iranian: "Not sure, they might"
American: "But don't they think he's crazy"
Iranian: "Well, some do... but Bush got re-elected"
The CA ballot measures (other than 8) lined up basically how I was hoping - including funding for a fast train from SF to LA (I don't know if it is good for the state or not, but I voted for it because I want one!) And the abortion bill was defeated (although just barely).
Both of the crazy San Francisco measures were defeated (unfortunately I'm in a different county so I didn't get to vote on them). One was to legalize prostitution. Not in a controlled way like in Amsterdam, but cops would just stop arresting them. And the San Francisco sewage treatment plant was not named after George W Bush (largely because the workers did not want to work at a place named after him), but I think it is awesome that they tried.
I thought this Joy of Tech comic was only ok, until I got to the bottom left - HA!
And just in case you want to know how to say hello and thank you in Egypt (at least according to the tour book):
Hello: sa-lam'a-lay-kum
Thank you: shu-kran
Sunday, November 02, 2008
iWink uWink we all Wink for iceWink?
Apparently many of my half formed thoughts have a liberal twist, hopefully that will tone down in a few days.
Julie is right, lately I have tended to skip the items actually worth blogging about. Anyway, yesterday I went to uWink with a few others. It is a cool idea - they have two touch screens at each table, one facing each side. In addition to ordering your food on the touch screen you can play games. But it all felt a little forced. Having a menu organized by category and big pictures of each item seems good, but makes it hard to scan. The games were ok, but a bit cheesy - well maybe it is just that my side of the table lost to the other side. You can customize your order but the options are limited. Seems like a good idea for a bar if they reworked it a bit. Also seems like a good place to go on a date that is expected to go poorly (no need to talk or even really look at each other). Given all that, I did enjoy the meal - although that may have had more to do with being in a group where I was in the bottom 50% of LOTR fans.
After my previous post about fight club I thought it would interesting to watch it again. I'm watching it right now and it is like a whole new movie. Partially because of world events - it is a lot more attention grabbing now when they say "ground zero" and "weapons of mass destruction" in the first scene (did they predict the future or were those just phrases that were ready to be used at the time? I guess it is unlikely, but possible the movie actually helped with putting the phrases in everyone's mind.). But even more because now it is my life they are making fun of and rebelling against (only I like that life). And of course watching them build a terrorist network has a whole different feel now (especially one that is a network of loosely connected independently operating cells made up of young adult males disappointed with their place in society and looking to take down the American financial system!).
Julie is right, lately I have tended to skip the items actually worth blogging about. Anyway, yesterday I went to uWink with a few others. It is a cool idea - they have two touch screens at each table, one facing each side. In addition to ordering your food on the touch screen you can play games. But it all felt a little forced. Having a menu organized by category and big pictures of each item seems good, but makes it hard to scan. The games were ok, but a bit cheesy - well maybe it is just that my side of the table lost to the other side. You can customize your order but the options are limited. Seems like a good idea for a bar if they reworked it a bit. Also seems like a good place to go on a date that is expected to go poorly (no need to talk or even really look at each other). Given all that, I did enjoy the meal - although that may have had more to do with being in a group where I was in the bottom 50% of LOTR fans.
After my previous post about fight club I thought it would interesting to watch it again. I'm watching it right now and it is like a whole new movie. Partially because of world events - it is a lot more attention grabbing now when they say "ground zero" and "weapons of mass destruction" in the first scene (did they predict the future or were those just phrases that were ready to be used at the time? I guess it is unlikely, but possible the movie actually helped with putting the phrases in everyone's mind.). But even more because now it is my life they are making fun of and rebelling against (only I like that life). And of course watching them build a terrorist network has a whole different feel now (especially one that is a network of loosely connected independently operating cells made up of young adult males disappointed with their place in society and looking to take down the American financial system!).
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Grab Bag of Half Formed Thoughts
Apartment rent rates in California should have two different daily values, the insanely high one we pay now for when it doesn't rain and a midwestern rate for when it does rain. Charging normal apartment rates in California on days when it rains is like an ISP charging for days when internet access goes down. I'm cool with paying the mortgage on a 4 bedroom house and getting a 600 sq ft apartment with an outdoor walk to the washer/drier, but only if it comes with sun shine.
If cops can fine me for driving too fast on a sunny dry day with few other cars on the road, why can't I fine them for tail gating when it is raining?
Gas is $3.05! That's like free here. I'm going to start pouring a bit on the sidewalk for Elijah. If it gets under $3/gal I'm going to have a gas fire party at my apartment. Come to see the gasoline in a barrel burn and stay to see if the wooden apartment complex goes up in flames. Drill Baby Drill! Not to toot my own horn, but this is why I've been saying environmentalists shouldn't combine forces with other causes (oil independence, price of gas...) - if you say save the earth and save money on gas and then gas gets cheap it is easy to forget the core message. And if you push oil independence then more drilling starts to sound like a good idea (well, it still isn't, but it sounds like it). Of course on the other hand I don't like the new environmental commercials that show kids and scary music. I mean sure, it is all about the kids and you should be scared, but I think we can do better than scare tactics. And why do environmental groups send letters asking for money? Isn't that what they are campaigning against?
Why is it that when I spend $22 on organic chips and salsa at whole foods I worry about getting the $0.05 discount for bringing my own bag?
Am I a Palin certified real American? Almost all indicators point to no (such as my last comment). But I did grow up in the suburbs in Kansas and Ohio. Sure I'm skipping over the time in Paris and being raised Jewish and that since I turned 18 I've lived in Boston and California. But I really feel like where I grew up gives me a running chance of at least having been a real American even if I'm not now. Although is Overland Park real America? Or is it an island of fake America in a sea of real America? Seriously if you're from Overland Park I'm curious if you think it counts as Palin certified real America or not? I'd also throw in that while I did not do a lot of manual labor while I was growing up, I would count myself as hardworking when it came to school. Kind of ironic that being a hard working real American is what led to me becoming a costal elitist.
So a real American is someone in a small town working hard, especially someone working a salt of the earth job like farming, just to scrape by and putting in those long hours so their kids can have a better life and don't want the government getting too involved in their life. Hm, apparently the realest Americans are illegal immigrants.
If you are looking for new podcasts the first on my list would be the Bugle (Eric gets credit for introducing me to it). I think the first half is often funnier than the daily show. John Oliver definitely comes across funnier in the podcast than on the daily show. A podcast I picked up recently is The Moth. It is a bit more hit and miss, but if you're looking for podcasts it is worth checking out. It is real people telling real stories and some of them are amusing.
Why doesn't anyone specify that fivethirtyeight.com has to be spelled out? I've spent so long wondering why the hell 538.com is such a big deal!
If cops can fine me for driving too fast on a sunny dry day with few other cars on the road, why can't I fine them for tail gating when it is raining?
Gas is $3.05! That's like free here. I'm going to start pouring a bit on the sidewalk for Elijah. If it gets under $3/gal I'm going to have a gas fire party at my apartment. Come to see the gasoline in a barrel burn and stay to see if the wooden apartment complex goes up in flames. Drill Baby Drill! Not to toot my own horn, but this is why I've been saying environmentalists shouldn't combine forces with other causes (oil independence, price of gas...) - if you say save the earth and save money on gas and then gas gets cheap it is easy to forget the core message. And if you push oil independence then more drilling starts to sound like a good idea (well, it still isn't, but it sounds like it). Of course on the other hand I don't like the new environmental commercials that show kids and scary music. I mean sure, it is all about the kids and you should be scared, but I think we can do better than scare tactics. And why do environmental groups send letters asking for money? Isn't that what they are campaigning against?
Why is it that when I spend $22 on organic chips and salsa at whole foods I worry about getting the $0.05 discount for bringing my own bag?
Am I a Palin certified real American? Almost all indicators point to no (such as my last comment). But I did grow up in the suburbs in Kansas and Ohio. Sure I'm skipping over the time in Paris and being raised Jewish and that since I turned 18 I've lived in Boston and California. But I really feel like where I grew up gives me a running chance of at least having been a real American even if I'm not now. Although is Overland Park real America? Or is it an island of fake America in a sea of real America? Seriously if you're from Overland Park I'm curious if you think it counts as Palin certified real America or not? I'd also throw in that while I did not do a lot of manual labor while I was growing up, I would count myself as hardworking when it came to school. Kind of ironic that being a hard working real American is what led to me becoming a costal elitist.
So a real American is someone in a small town working hard, especially someone working a salt of the earth job like farming, just to scrape by and putting in those long hours so their kids can have a better life and don't want the government getting too involved in their life. Hm, apparently the realest Americans are illegal immigrants.
If you are looking for new podcasts the first on my list would be the Bugle (Eric gets credit for introducing me to it). I think the first half is often funnier than the daily show. John Oliver definitely comes across funnier in the podcast than on the daily show. A podcast I picked up recently is The Moth. It is a bit more hit and miss, but if you're looking for podcasts it is worth checking out. It is real people telling real stories and some of them are amusing.
Why doesn't anyone specify that fivethirtyeight.com has to be spelled out? I've spent so long wondering why the hell 538.com is such a big deal!
I'm a cooking genius!
First - I noticed that flour has a "best by" date (a mere 3 years late).
Second - Put a bit of oil in a pan then some instant oatmeal and about 1/3 the water you would normally use to make oatmeal. Set stove to about 4 (out of 10). If a lid is near by then cover. Let it cook for about 5 to 10 minutes - goal is not wet, but not crispy or burnt. Put on a plate and cover with raspberry preserves. You now have the 80/20 rule version of raspberry cobbler! Way better tasting than looking - I was sure it was a mistake until I tasted it.
Second - Put a bit of oil in a pan then some instant oatmeal and about 1/3 the water you would normally use to make oatmeal. Set stove to about 4 (out of 10). If a lid is near by then cover. Let it cook for about 5 to 10 minutes - goal is not wet, but not crispy or burnt. Put on a plate and cover with raspberry preserves. You now have the 80/20 rule version of raspberry cobbler! Way better tasting than looking - I was sure it was a mistake until I tasted it.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
I helped kill 6 people
Before you call the cops - I also helped bring all 6 back to life.
Well, a couple months ago devices with circuits I helped design were implanted into the bodies of 6 people in New Zealand! Part of the implant procedure is putting the patient into ventricular fibrillation, which is reasonably close to death (the heart has stopped pumping blood through the body). Then the doctor checks to make sure the device brings the patient back (obviously with paddles near by in case the device doesn't do its job).
I think that between the two years of waiting for this to happen and not being at the company when it did made the whole thing somewhat anticlimactic for me. Although every once in a while it strikes me that there are six people out there with circuits I helped design in their bodies. And then I think, oh god I hope I didn't screw up! And I feel like I shouldn't claim too much credit in case something bad happens. Actually that is part of my lack of excitement - a lot of what I worked on and pushed for was making sure it would work reliably, which won't be known until lots of people have them for at least five years.
But my primary concern has disappointingly quickly shifted from people's safety to the value of my (trivially small number of) stock options. Well, at least the two are sufficiently linked that I don't have to feel too bad about it. At least I've avoided wishing someone would go into cardiac arrest so the device could save them.
For anyone wondering why New Zealand - my understanding is their version of FDA trials is basically to ask the company to pinky swear that their device won't hurt anyone (seriously I think the company just signs some ethics statement - sometimes the US FDA doesn't seem so bad).
Well, a couple months ago devices with circuits I helped design were implanted into the bodies of 6 people in New Zealand! Part of the implant procedure is putting the patient into ventricular fibrillation, which is reasonably close to death (the heart has stopped pumping blood through the body). Then the doctor checks to make sure the device brings the patient back (obviously with paddles near by in case the device doesn't do its job).
I think that between the two years of waiting for this to happen and not being at the company when it did made the whole thing somewhat anticlimactic for me. Although every once in a while it strikes me that there are six people out there with circuits I helped design in their bodies. And then I think, oh god I hope I didn't screw up! And I feel like I shouldn't claim too much credit in case something bad happens. Actually that is part of my lack of excitement - a lot of what I worked on and pushed for was making sure it would work reliably, which won't be known until lots of people have them for at least five years.
But my primary concern has disappointingly quickly shifted from people's safety to the value of my (trivially small number of) stock options. Well, at least the two are sufficiently linked that I don't have to feel too bad about it. At least I've avoided wishing someone would go into cardiac arrest so the device could save them.
For anyone wondering why New Zealand - my understanding is their version of FDA trials is basically to ask the company to pinky swear that their device won't hurt anyone (seriously I think the company just signs some ethics statement - sometimes the US FDA doesn't seem so bad).
Thursday, October 23, 2008
6 Seconds
At work I sometimes use a screen capture program to show results (it takes whatever is on the screen and saves it to an image file). I typically set it to do the capture 8 seconds after I push the go button. It takes me at least one second to then get everything set up how I want it. Then, very often, with at least one second to spare I think to myself - I'm bored. So I've now bounded my time to boredom as less than 6 seconds. I find this disturbing. I could get bored more than 2.5 times during a single scene of Robot Chicken. <Insert lame joke about ending this post due to boredom.>
Life on other planets will be a let down
I realized today that if we ever discover life on other planets, initially it will be a serious let down. There's not going to be a moment of serious excitement, but rather a very long series of small steps.
The most likely way to find life on another planet is to find something like bacteria. Which to some scientists will be really exciting, but overall - whoo hoo - bacteria. Plus it will be really hard to prove that it didn't just get put there by coming in contact with the person or robot that found it. Heck there was that thing with the asteroid or whatever a long time ago and it was sorta big news for a while and now I can't even remember the story.
But let's say we actually discover intelligent life, which I think is what most people mean when they talk about discovering life. I think we've explored our solar system enough to know we're not going to find anything too interesting here. So one possibility is we'll get some questionable photo from a satellite which will then have to be followed up by another satellite that will take a really long time to get there. Once it gets there it could get exciting, but we're probably talking years if not decades. And that's probably just to get more pictures.
If the life we find is technologically advanced the other reasonably likely possibility is we would find a communication from them, may or may not be directed to us, long before we found them. Would probably be found by something like SETI. So we'd find an odd radiation pattern. Then over a long time it would be confirmed - have to make sure it was computed properly and check that it is persistent and not caused by human activity. Even if it said something interesting it would take a long time to figure out what it says. Or it could just be the spectrum from something like a power plant rather than a communication. Anyway, that's all years right there, then figuring out a way to send a signal and them catching on and so on would be a really long time. So maybe at some point regular communication could be set up which would be exciting, although travel to them would probably be decades if not centuries away.
I have no idea why this occurred to me today. At first it just sounded like a silly idea, but now I'm actually kind of bummed out.
The most likely way to find life on another planet is to find something like bacteria. Which to some scientists will be really exciting, but overall - whoo hoo - bacteria. Plus it will be really hard to prove that it didn't just get put there by coming in contact with the person or robot that found it. Heck there was that thing with the asteroid or whatever a long time ago and it was sorta big news for a while and now I can't even remember the story.
But let's say we actually discover intelligent life, which I think is what most people mean when they talk about discovering life. I think we've explored our solar system enough to know we're not going to find anything too interesting here. So one possibility is we'll get some questionable photo from a satellite which will then have to be followed up by another satellite that will take a really long time to get there. Once it gets there it could get exciting, but we're probably talking years if not decades. And that's probably just to get more pictures.
If the life we find is technologically advanced the other reasonably likely possibility is we would find a communication from them, may or may not be directed to us, long before we found them. Would probably be found by something like SETI. So we'd find an odd radiation pattern. Then over a long time it would be confirmed - have to make sure it was computed properly and check that it is persistent and not caused by human activity. Even if it said something interesting it would take a long time to figure out what it says. Or it could just be the spectrum from something like a power plant rather than a communication. Anyway, that's all years right there, then figuring out a way to send a signal and them catching on and so on would be a really long time. So maybe at some point regular communication could be set up which would be exciting, although travel to them would probably be decades if not centuries away.
I have no idea why this occurred to me today. At first it just sounded like a silly idea, but now I'm actually kind of bummed out.
Above the lip
Does anyone else have a spot a little above their upper lip that is particularly sensitive to spice? For some reason this spot often ends up hurting more than the inside of my mouth. I totally get eyes being super sensitive, but that spot just seems like normal skin that shouldn't be more sensitive than say my cheek or nose. I do think it happens more when I cook, but it also sometimes happens just from eating spicy food. I assume I do something to cause the spice to touch the spot. But why is that spot so sensitive? I know there is stuff you can eat to help dull the spice, but what do you put on your skin to do it? I have found that ice or cold water helps, but only as long as the spot stays cold.
If I put seeds from hot peppers on that spot every day would it eventually stop being so sensitive? Would the change be permanent or would I have to do that all the time?
If I put seeds from hot peppers on that spot every day would it eventually stop being so sensitive? Would the change be permanent or would I have to do that all the time?
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Euphemism
It seems like socialism is a bad word in the US (well, at least in parts of the US or for people pandering to parts of the US).
The word czar though is totally ok. It is ok to have a bailout czar, just as long as he doesn't do anything too socialist. Even though the word czar basically means king, which is definitely not an ok word in the US. Obviously the positions wouldn't get very far if they were called: Drug King, Copyright King, Bailout King, Terrorism King... Ok, czar is really closer to the word emperor, but same idea.
So isn't it time to just find a foreign word for socialism? I'm not saying the US should become socialist, but it would be nice to be able to discuss ideas that seem socialist. Maybe another good Russian word just to make it extra ironic.
The word czar though is totally ok. It is ok to have a bailout czar, just as long as he doesn't do anything too socialist. Even though the word czar basically means king, which is definitely not an ok word in the US. Obviously the positions wouldn't get very far if they were called: Drug King, Copyright King, Bailout King, Terrorism King... Ok, czar is really closer to the word emperor, but same idea.
So isn't it time to just find a foreign word for socialism? I'm not saying the US should become socialist, but it would be nice to be able to discuss ideas that seem socialist. Maybe another good Russian word just to make it extra ironic.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Pity
I feel like my posts yesterday got a bit preachy. I want to balance it out with a clever/funny post, but I started feeling sick today so I'm not up for clever/funny. Instead I'll just go for pity.
But I will leave you with a little bit of knowledge - the whole sex through a hole in a sheet thing - false.
But I will leave you with a little bit of knowledge - the whole sex through a hole in a sheet thing - false.
Uhhh - WTF?
I try not to do this many posts in a row, but WTF!
You gotta watch this.
After seeing this I wish I hadn't already voted so I could make the line next to Obama's name a little thicker (although the instructions said to make a thin line so maybe it is best that I already sent in my ballot).
Well, I used "WTF" so I feel compelled to link to this classic.
You gotta watch this.
After seeing this I wish I hadn't already voted so I could make the line next to Obama's name a little thicker (although the instructions said to make a thin line so maybe it is best that I already sent in my ballot).
Well, I used "WTF" so I feel compelled to link to this classic.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Golden Chariot
Along the same line of reasoning as the last book, I read The Golden Chariot. This book is about a woman in a women's prison who learns the stories of the other prisoners and decides if they should join her on her ride in a Golden Chariot to heaven. This provides framing for telling the stories of several women dealing with various aspects of life in Egypt.
The idea behind this and the last book is to get a bit of a feel for the culture, although I worry that it might be like watching The Wire before a trip to the US. Although really what has happened is not that I've gotten a feel for the culture, but that I've started to erase what I thought I knew about it.
This may by kind of obvious, but here it goes. First of all, I think that most of my knowledge of the Arab world and of Islam is some ultra-simplified stereotypes. Such as, I get the feeling a lot of Americans, including myself, are proud of knowing Islam is split into Sunni and Shi'ite. Wow - good job. That's like knowing Christianity has Catholics and non-Catholics. Way to really dig in and learn about the countries we are occupying. Next thing you know, I will have learned the name of a few cities in Afghanistan! For Iraq I already know Baghdad and Fallujah - go me!
Another example is marriage - I'm not sure exactly what my previous conception of marriage in the Arab world was, but what I'm figuring out is it is really complicated. I'm not saying it is good or bad, largely because I don't understand it well enough. But even if Islam has some simple rules, there are many variations on how to apply those rules and varying degrees of following them. I think my previous thoughts were equivalent to looking at a small subset of abstinence only groups and calling that American/Judeo-Christian marriage.
Ok time for me to get off the soap box. I'll just end that rant (which was mostly aimed at myself) by wondering when I'll catch on that all other cultures and religions are large, complicated topics rather than needing to figure that out one by one.
Anyway, the book was ok - not as interesting as the previous one. But it does describe some fairly messed up situations (I'm sure by anyone's standards - not just me judging other cultures) so that keeps things interesting.
And, yes, I'm still dealing with that in my head all the characters are white issue.
The idea behind this and the last book is to get a bit of a feel for the culture, although I worry that it might be like watching The Wire before a trip to the US. Although really what has happened is not that I've gotten a feel for the culture, but that I've started to erase what I thought I knew about it.
This may by kind of obvious, but here it goes. First of all, I think that most of my knowledge of the Arab world and of Islam is some ultra-simplified stereotypes. Such as, I get the feeling a lot of Americans, including myself, are proud of knowing Islam is split into Sunni and Shi'ite. Wow - good job. That's like knowing Christianity has Catholics and non-Catholics. Way to really dig in and learn about the countries we are occupying. Next thing you know, I will have learned the name of a few cities in Afghanistan! For Iraq I already know Baghdad and Fallujah - go me!
Another example is marriage - I'm not sure exactly what my previous conception of marriage in the Arab world was, but what I'm figuring out is it is really complicated. I'm not saying it is good or bad, largely because I don't understand it well enough. But even if Islam has some simple rules, there are many variations on how to apply those rules and varying degrees of following them. I think my previous thoughts were equivalent to looking at a small subset of abstinence only groups and calling that American/Judeo-Christian marriage.
Ok time for me to get off the soap box. I'll just end that rant (which was mostly aimed at myself) by wondering when I'll catch on that all other cultures and religions are large, complicated topics rather than needing to figure that out one by one.
Anyway, the book was ok - not as interesting as the previous one. But it does describe some fairly messed up situations (I'm sure by anyone's standards - not just me judging other cultures) so that keeps things interesting.
And, yes, I'm still dealing with that in my head all the characters are white issue.
The Said
The Saïd is a name for "Upper Egypt". "Upper Egypt" is the region SOUTH of "Lower Egypt". Ok, the upper and lower parts actually make sense if you think in terms of the flow of the Nile rather than North/South.
I want to go off on a rant about how translators should take the liberty of picking words and terms that don't conflict with existing words and that make sense in the language being translated to, but I worry that would come off a bit too ignorant so I'll settle for this meta-rant.
Update: After writing this I remembered that in general I dislike how languages are constructed (which helps explain the poorly formed sentences you have to get through to read this blog), so it doesn't make sense for me to single out translations.
I want to go off on a rant about how translators should take the liberty of picking words and terms that don't conflict with existing words and that make sense in the language being translated to, but I worry that would come off a bit too ignorant so I'll settle for this meta-rant.
Update: After writing this I remembered that in general I dislike how languages are constructed (which helps explain the poorly formed sentences you have to get through to read this blog), so it doesn't make sense for me to single out translations.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Voting in CA
This post is just for CA voters.
Here are the Sierra Club's endorsements. Even if you're not that interested in who they endorse, it is worth checking their opinions on props 7 and 10. These claim to be pro-environmental, but the Sierra Club claims they would actually do more harm than good.
Oh and Democrats oppose 7 and are neutral on 10 and Republicans oppose both 7 and 10.
In this post I'm not trying to push people to vote a certain way, but I was surprised by this so I thought others would want to know.
Here are the Sierra Club's endorsements. Even if you're not that interested in who they endorse, it is worth checking their opinions on props 7 and 10. These claim to be pro-environmental, but the Sierra Club claims they would actually do more harm than good.
Oh and Democrats oppose 7 and are neutral on 10 and Republicans oppose both 7 and 10.
In this post I'm not trying to push people to vote a certain way, but I was surprised by this so I thought others would want to know.
Fight Club
Is anyone else reminded of Fight Club? At the end they literally implode the major financial institutions. While not as dramatic, it sort of seems like we're finding out what would have happened if they did it a bit more figuratively.
Here's the latest Despair poster which seems appropriate:
Here's the latest Despair poster which seems appropriate:
Sunday, October 05, 2008
The Yacoubian Building
I guess the last post helps explain why I read The Yacoubian Building. It is about the residents of a building in Cairo and was the best selling Arabic novel in 2002 and 2003.
On the one hand reading the book seemed like a good way to get a bit of a feel for Egypt. On the other hand, the book is meant as a harsh criticism of the government and society so I imagine it is fairly exaggerated. The big message I got from it was how people lived their lives getting around the restrictions of religion and the government, and how those two push people's lives. Other than just trying to get a feel for the country, I think it is a good book on its own. A lot of it is about sex (married, homosexual, unmarried, paid, forced, pedophillia), religion, secret second marriages, greed, violence, politics, corruption, forced abortion, torture, terrorism (and for completeness, a tortured terrorist having sex because of religion) - topics that help to keep the pages turning and as you can imagine caused a bit of controversy in the Arab world. The building he picks has rich residents in the main building and poor residents living on the roof so he is able to cover a large number of perspectives and stories. The downside is that, like the show heros, it has so many characters and story lines I feel like there isn't as much of any one story line as I'd like.
One thing I learned about myself is that when I read, in my head all the characters are white by default, even if the book is set in Egypt.
On the one hand reading the book seemed like a good way to get a bit of a feel for Egypt. On the other hand, the book is meant as a harsh criticism of the government and society so I imagine it is fairly exaggerated. The big message I got from it was how people lived their lives getting around the restrictions of religion and the government, and how those two push people's lives. Other than just trying to get a feel for the country, I think it is a good book on its own. A lot of it is about sex (married, homosexual, unmarried, paid, forced, pedophillia), religion, secret second marriages, greed, violence, politics, corruption, forced abortion, torture, terrorism (and for completeness, a tortured terrorist having sex because of religion) - topics that help to keep the pages turning and as you can imagine caused a bit of controversy in the Arab world. The building he picks has rich residents in the main building and poor residents living on the roof so he is able to cover a large number of perspectives and stories. The downside is that, like the show heros, it has so many characters and story lines I feel like there isn't as much of any one story line as I'd like.
One thing I learned about myself is that when I read, in my head all the characters are white by default, even if the book is set in Egypt.
What if the Sun Went Away?
What would I do if I woke up one morning and there was no sun?
Well first I would get ready just like any other day since I normally don't see the outside till I walk out the front door.
Then there would be some checking of clocks and web searching to make sure the clocks were right and checking for news. Then maybe some phone calls to do a sanity check on the time and make sure others noticed the same thing.
Then what I think I should do is coordinate a meeting place with my family and make my way there while buying up supplies (especially canned food, water, gas, electric generator, maybe even weapons).
What do I think I'd really do? I think that if it was a week day I'd go to work.
I am disappointed with my hypothetical self.
Well first I would get ready just like any other day since I normally don't see the outside till I walk out the front door.
Then there would be some checking of clocks and web searching to make sure the clocks were right and checking for news. Then maybe some phone calls to do a sanity check on the time and make sure others noticed the same thing.
Then what I think I should do is coordinate a meeting place with my family and make my way there while buying up supplies (especially canned food, water, gas, electric generator, maybe even weapons).
What do I think I'd really do? I think that if it was a week day I'd go to work.
I am disappointed with my hypothetical self.
Friday, October 03, 2008
Debate
I just watched the VP debate (it is up on hulu.com if you missed it). I did ok through most of it, but at a certain point I got that head about to explode feeling coming on. So I saved all but one of you from some of my rambling by using email instead of this blog to vent.
Although I do have to ask - what's with all the winking? Did anyone else find that a little uncomfortable?
And I know it is classic politics to answer a question without actually saying anything. But Palin has taken it to a new level where she can put together over a minute's worth of words that don't even mean anything! It's like the Chomskybot if it left out a few parts of speech. Whoa - I just figured out how to beat the Turing test! The turing test is if you ask questions of a computer and of a person and cannot tell which is which then the computer passes the test. As long as the person the computer is being compared against is Palin the computer could easily pass.
Oh and as everyone clearly knows - I'm a cowboy. I will continue to remind you that I am a cowboy until you start to believe it. As a cowboy and so speaking as a cowboy does, I will repeat my main point that everyone knows I am a cowboy. Sure, that may be the most absurd thing you've ever heard, us cowboys understand that, but nevertheless I have a proven track record of being a cowboy. It is so intuitively obvious that I am a cowboy, or should I say "cowboy obvious" *wink*, and everyone knows my record of being a cowboy so well that there is no point in bringing up a single example or fact indicating that I am a cowboy.
Finally (or it was finally the first time I wrote this post) - Biden is from Scranton - why isn't he bringing up The Office and, more seriously, why isn't the The Office incorporating him (or at least discussion of him) into the show?
Well to end this post *inappropriately timed wink* written by this cowboy I will simply ask you to remember that I am a cowboy. Now to say thank you over and over again as fast as possible while giggling, which is how cowboys act at the end of debates.
Although I do have to ask - what's with all the winking? Did anyone else find that a little uncomfortable?
And I know it is classic politics to answer a question without actually saying anything. But Palin has taken it to a new level where she can put together over a minute's worth of words that don't even mean anything! It's like the Chomskybot if it left out a few parts of speech. Whoa - I just figured out how to beat the Turing test! The turing test is if you ask questions of a computer and of a person and cannot tell which is which then the computer passes the test. As long as the person the computer is being compared against is Palin the computer could easily pass.
Oh and as everyone clearly knows - I'm a cowboy. I will continue to remind you that I am a cowboy until you start to believe it. As a cowboy and so speaking as a cowboy does, I will repeat my main point that everyone knows I am a cowboy. Sure, that may be the most absurd thing you've ever heard, us cowboys understand that, but nevertheless I have a proven track record of being a cowboy. It is so intuitively obvious that I am a cowboy, or should I say "cowboy obvious" *wink*, and everyone knows my record of being a cowboy so well that there is no point in bringing up a single example or fact indicating that I am a cowboy.
Finally (or it was finally the first time I wrote this post) - Biden is from Scranton - why isn't he bringing up The Office and, more seriously, why isn't the The Office incorporating him (or at least discussion of him) into the show?
Well to end this post *inappropriately timed wink* written by this cowboy I will simply ask you to remember that I am a cowboy. Now to say thank you over and over again as fast as possible while giggling, which is how cowboys act at the end of debates.
Preconditions
Ok, one more article. This one is describing a meeting of 5 former secretaries of state where they all agreed the next president should meet with Iran without preconditions.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Articles
Normally I try to avoid filling this blog with links to articles, but I'm breaking the rule today.
This is an interesting article on the economic situation and the betting strategy that "basically always" wins.
This is a list of basic computer tips - some are super obvious, but most are worth knowing.
This is an interesting article on the economic situation and the betting strategy that "basically always" wins.
This is a list of basic computer tips - some are super obvious, but most are worth knowing.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Support The Earth
Another idea that won't go anywhere and probably wouldn't work even if it did:
Why not tie in the bailout with improving the energy efficiency of homes and buildings? Make it easier to renegotiate a foreclosure if the person commits to improving the energy efficiency of the home (even just simple stuff like adding insulation or upgrading appliances). Or give people more financial incentives to improve energy efficiency and install solar panels or small wind turbines - won't be a direct impact but more energy efficient homes are worth more so this would generally help keep housing prices from dropping as much. Or if a bank is going to take bailout money they should have to improve the efficiency of their buildings or commit to investing a certain amount in alternative energy companies.
I know my ideas are not that workable, but why isn't congress being at least a little creative? It seems like it might lead to better ways to improve the economy and it might help with negotiations - such as helping veterans would make it much harder to vote against and helping the Earth might convince some on the liberal side.
Why not tie in the bailout with improving the energy efficiency of homes and buildings? Make it easier to renegotiate a foreclosure if the person commits to improving the energy efficiency of the home (even just simple stuff like adding insulation or upgrading appliances). Or give people more financial incentives to improve energy efficiency and install solar panels or small wind turbines - won't be a direct impact but more energy efficient homes are worth more so this would generally help keep housing prices from dropping as much. Or if a bank is going to take bailout money they should have to improve the efficiency of their buildings or commit to investing a certain amount in alternative energy companies.
I know my ideas are not that workable, but why isn't congress being at least a little creative? It seems like it might lead to better ways to improve the economy and it might help with negotiations - such as helping veterans would make it much harder to vote against and helping the Earth might convince some on the liberal side.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Is America The Greatest Country On Earth?
Clearly a presidential candidate has to strongly assert that America is the greatest country on Earth if he/she wants a shot at winning.
But, is America the greatest country on Earth? I'm not saying I think it is not, I just don't know if it is. I feel confident it is high on the list. Of course to take the question seriously you'd have to define what you mean by greatest. Do most people in America think America is the greatest country on Earth? Do all leaders of countries claim theirs is the greatest country on Earth (seems like there would be some countries where that would be too absurd for even a politician to say)? Do most people in other countries think their country is the greatest on Earth? What portion of people in other countries think America is the greatest country on Earth? What portion of people in other countries thought America was the greatest country on Earth 9 years ago? I'm not asking any of these questions to be rhetorical - I really have no idea what the answer is to any of them.
I realize a leader calling America the greatest country on Earth is in there with flag pins as a necessary but meaningless gesture (not that some leaders don't mean it, but since they all have to say it, you don't know what they really think). But I think it would be interesting to know what they really think. Because it seems like it would lead to very different foreign policies. If America is definitively the greatest country on Earth it would probably approach other countries differently than if it was a great country by reasonable measures, but not definitively the best.
But, is America the greatest country on Earth? I'm not saying I think it is not, I just don't know if it is. I feel confident it is high on the list. Of course to take the question seriously you'd have to define what you mean by greatest. Do most people in America think America is the greatest country on Earth? Do all leaders of countries claim theirs is the greatest country on Earth (seems like there would be some countries where that would be too absurd for even a politician to say)? Do most people in other countries think their country is the greatest on Earth? What portion of people in other countries think America is the greatest country on Earth? What portion of people in other countries thought America was the greatest country on Earth 9 years ago? I'm not asking any of these questions to be rhetorical - I really have no idea what the answer is to any of them.
I realize a leader calling America the greatest country on Earth is in there with flag pins as a necessary but meaningless gesture (not that some leaders don't mean it, but since they all have to say it, you don't know what they really think). But I think it would be interesting to know what they really think. Because it seems like it would lead to very different foreign policies. If America is definitively the greatest country on Earth it would probably approach other countries differently than if it was a great country by reasonable measures, but not definitively the best.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
The Debate
I would blog about watching the debate, but I've suspended this blog until I find a way to fix the economy.
If only I had John Oliver asking me if I'm proud of that joke it would go from a bad joke to a funny bad joke (that's a reference for fans of The Bugle).
I was a bit disappointed by the debate. Ok, really I was just watching in case there was a "you forgot Poland" moment. But it felt a little like they were both phoning it in - watch Kerry and Bush and it feels like they were a bit more into it. Although I guess two people speaking intelligently and staying reasonably calm is a good sign. I also learned that McCain takes notes with a marker and writes really really big (what was up with that? and why can't I find a picture of it online?). Oh, and I did enjoy hanging out with the people I was watching it with.
I do have to say that it drives me crazy when old people tell young people that they don't understand with the implication that it is because they are too young. Experience is good and all, but young people are perfectly capable of understanding things. Major leaps in science often come from the young (look at the two most famous scientists: Newton was 25 when he published Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Einstein was 42 when he won the Nobel prize and most of his work was well before that). Major leaders can be young (Martin Luther King was 26 when he lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott). And there's the common idea that people have their young kids fix their computers. Heck here's a national security question: The Air Force is setting up a center for handling cyber warfare because it is likely to be a major issue in the future (there was actually a cyber attack on Georgia during the real one) - McCain do you understand what cyber warfare is, do you even understand how to connect your computer to the internet? I know that telling Obama he doesn't understand because he's a whipper snapper isn't exactly what McCain was going after, but as you can probably tell it is the nerve it struck for me.
Of course, walking 5 miles on a hot day to get to and from Target in flip flops even thought I almost immediately realized there was a blister starting makes me question the value of my opinion.
If only I had John Oliver asking me if I'm proud of that joke it would go from a bad joke to a funny bad joke (that's a reference for fans of The Bugle).
I was a bit disappointed by the debate. Ok, really I was just watching in case there was a "you forgot Poland" moment. But it felt a little like they were both phoning it in - watch Kerry and Bush and it feels like they were a bit more into it. Although I guess two people speaking intelligently and staying reasonably calm is a good sign. I also learned that McCain takes notes with a marker and writes really really big (what was up with that? and why can't I find a picture of it online?). Oh, and I did enjoy hanging out with the people I was watching it with.
I do have to say that it drives me crazy when old people tell young people that they don't understand with the implication that it is because they are too young. Experience is good and all, but young people are perfectly capable of understanding things. Major leaps in science often come from the young (look at the two most famous scientists: Newton was 25 when he published Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Einstein was 42 when he won the Nobel prize and most of his work was well before that). Major leaders can be young (Martin Luther King was 26 when he lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott). And there's the common idea that people have their young kids fix their computers. Heck here's a national security question: The Air Force is setting up a center for handling cyber warfare because it is likely to be a major issue in the future (there was actually a cyber attack on Georgia during the real one) - McCain do you understand what cyber warfare is, do you even understand how to connect your computer to the internet? I know that telling Obama he doesn't understand because he's a whipper snapper isn't exactly what McCain was going after, but as you can probably tell it is the nerve it struck for me.
Of course, walking 5 miles on a hot day to get to and from Target in flip flops even thought I almost immediately realized there was a blister starting makes me question the value of my opinion.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Support The Troops
I have no idea if this would work at all or what the exact details would be. But here it goes:
The government is about to spend a bunch of money trying to stabilize the economy and the housing market in particular. One approach is to deal directly with the banks, but that's questionable since they are the ones that took the risk. Another is to deal with the people who took on loans they cannot pay, but that again gets in the world of rewarding people who took risks (bit fuzzier in this case). Also it is probably harder to know where to target payments in order to maximize the impact on the economy. But there is a group that everyone agrees should be supported - as I'm told over and over by bumper stickers.
So here's the crazy idea - setup a program to help veterans buy homes. Probably couldn't be the whole fix, but helping a large group of people purchase homes might do a lot to stabilize prices and keep those mortgages owned by banks from dropping too far in value. I know hospitals and education and other stuff is really what veterans need to help with returning from combat, but I bet being able to buy a house wouldn't hurt. Plus, for once I would understand what the heck those bumper stickers are telling me to do.
The government is about to spend a bunch of money trying to stabilize the economy and the housing market in particular. One approach is to deal directly with the banks, but that's questionable since they are the ones that took the risk. Another is to deal with the people who took on loans they cannot pay, but that again gets in the world of rewarding people who took risks (bit fuzzier in this case). Also it is probably harder to know where to target payments in order to maximize the impact on the economy. But there is a group that everyone agrees should be supported - as I'm told over and over by bumper stickers.
So here's the crazy idea - setup a program to help veterans buy homes. Probably couldn't be the whole fix, but helping a large group of people purchase homes might do a lot to stabilize prices and keep those mortgages owned by banks from dropping too far in value. I know hospitals and education and other stuff is really what veterans need to help with returning from combat, but I bet being able to buy a house wouldn't hurt. Plus, for once I would understand what the heck those bumper stickers are telling me to do.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Software Licenses Are Taking Our Jarbs!
I know that in certain areas of engineering the software that an engineer uses can cost more per year than the engineer's salary (in certain cases significantly more). I imagine there are other fields where this is also true. Because the software is so expensive it is often stored on a central server so that anyone (up to a set number of people) who needs it can use it, but the company does not have to buy a copy for every employee. Alternatively they can use a license server, but either way the key idea is that for each license purchased one person can use the program at a time.
This has some advantage for people sharing an office since not everyone is using the exact same software at the same time. But there is a way to cut the cost of software in half - setup an office on the other side of the world so the company uses the licenses all day and night. Given the expense of the software it could be an advantage even if people in both offices made the same amount of money.
I have no idea if this is actually a major factor in outsourcing and setting up offices around the globe. But it seems like it would have some impact and no one ever talks about it. Doesn't seem too hard to come up with a license agreement that would not reward sending jobs oversees (In this post I'm not taking a position on if jobs should be sent over seas or not, but if someone is looking for an easy way to make an impact this seems like a good place to start). Could have a rule that the license is only for so many hours a day or just charge per man hour of usage of the software or could just charge by total number of engineers at the company or... Seems like there should be a reasonable solution that is neutral on where a company sets up its offices.
Oh and check out the new iTunes visualizer (in iTunes 8) - way cooler than the old one. The Genius thing seems cool, but I can't actually see myself using it.
This has some advantage for people sharing an office since not everyone is using the exact same software at the same time. But there is a way to cut the cost of software in half - setup an office on the other side of the world so the company uses the licenses all day and night. Given the expense of the software it could be an advantage even if people in both offices made the same amount of money.
I have no idea if this is actually a major factor in outsourcing and setting up offices around the globe. But it seems like it would have some impact and no one ever talks about it. Doesn't seem too hard to come up with a license agreement that would not reward sending jobs oversees (In this post I'm not taking a position on if jobs should be sent over seas or not, but if someone is looking for an easy way to make an impact this seems like a good place to start). Could have a rule that the license is only for so many hours a day or just charge per man hour of usage of the software or could just charge by total number of engineers at the company or... Seems like there should be a reasonable solution that is neutral on where a company sets up its offices.
Oh and check out the new iTunes visualizer (in iTunes 8) - way cooler than the old one. The Genius thing seems cool, but I can't actually see myself using it.
Friday, September 19, 2008
The Tipping Point
Not long after moving here I went on a book buying spree and one of the books I picked up was The Tipping Point, How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.
The overarching theme is studying trends that grow or fall very quickly rather than gradually. He claims there are three key aspects to an epidemic (includes anything from rise of aids to drop in crime in NYC to certain ad campaigns): the key people in spreading it, how "sticky" it is, and the context. He says the three key groups for spreading epidemics are connectors - people who have a large number of acquaintances they keep in touch with, mavens - people very knowledgeable about a topic who like to share their knowledge to help others, and salesmen - people good at selling an idea (ok that one was kind of obvious). Stickiness is once someone finds out about something will they stick with it - if someone tells you about a good restaurant you'll only keep going back if it is actually good. Context is a bit fuzzy but he makes the case that people's decisions are heavily influenced by their surroundings.
This book had a somewhat similar structure as the world is flat where he takes you through numerous examples (and in what I think is greater than required detail) to build the main idea. Although I think in the world is flat the main theme gets more weight, tipping point borders on being like freakonomics where each individual topic is interesting but there is no underlying thesis. I think the examples make a reasonable case that the three things mentioned help spread epidemics, but I don't think he did anything to prove they are all that is required or to show that there are not other paths to spreading that do not require those three.
For someone in marketing/sales/advertising/pr it is probably interesting (unless it is stuff those people already know). For others I think the examples are kind of interesting but I can't really see using the overall message. Also as someone on amazon pointed out it is a bit odd to write a book that is basically about memes and yet never use the term or point to any of the research on the subject.
One item from the examples that stuck for me is most of the time when someone gets a job from a friend it is actually from an acquaintance, not a close friend.
The overarching theme is studying trends that grow or fall very quickly rather than gradually. He claims there are three key aspects to an epidemic (includes anything from rise of aids to drop in crime in NYC to certain ad campaigns): the key people in spreading it, how "sticky" it is, and the context. He says the three key groups for spreading epidemics are connectors - people who have a large number of acquaintances they keep in touch with, mavens - people very knowledgeable about a topic who like to share their knowledge to help others, and salesmen - people good at selling an idea (ok that one was kind of obvious). Stickiness is once someone finds out about something will they stick with it - if someone tells you about a good restaurant you'll only keep going back if it is actually good. Context is a bit fuzzy but he makes the case that people's decisions are heavily influenced by their surroundings.
This book had a somewhat similar structure as the world is flat where he takes you through numerous examples (and in what I think is greater than required detail) to build the main idea. Although I think in the world is flat the main theme gets more weight, tipping point borders on being like freakonomics where each individual topic is interesting but there is no underlying thesis. I think the examples make a reasonable case that the three things mentioned help spread epidemics, but I don't think he did anything to prove they are all that is required or to show that there are not other paths to spreading that do not require those three.
For someone in marketing/sales/advertising/pr it is probably interesting (unless it is stuff those people already know). For others I think the examples are kind of interesting but I can't really see using the overall message. Also as someone on amazon pointed out it is a bit odd to write a book that is basically about memes and yet never use the term or point to any of the research on the subject.
One item from the examples that stuck for me is most of the time when someone gets a job from a friend it is actually from an acquaintance, not a close friend.
Survey of Economists
Monday, September 15, 2008
A personal first
I tried cheese pizza for what may be the first time ever! A near by pizza place has a pizza that uses soy cheese. And this is what happened:
Well, no, actually that was from the Egyptian Museum I went to on Saturday. The soy cheese pizza experiment actually went well, much better than my previous tofu cheese experiment (although I'm starting to wonder if Max and Steve tricked me into eating a slice of real cheese). Unfortunately the pizza was the Berkeley Soy Pizza which has no tomato sauce and is topped by veggies and veggie burger. I think I'd trade the soy cheese for tomato sauce and meat. Although it is nice to be full after eating only half a pizza.
PS Yes the excessive reflections may make that one of the worst pictures I've ever taken.
Well, no, actually that was from the Egyptian Museum I went to on Saturday. The soy cheese pizza experiment actually went well, much better than my previous tofu cheese experiment (although I'm starting to wonder if Max and Steve tricked me into eating a slice of real cheese). Unfortunately the pizza was the Berkeley Soy Pizza which has no tomato sauce and is topped by veggies and veggie burger. I think I'd trade the soy cheese for tomato sauce and meat. Although it is nice to be full after eating only half a pizza.
PS Yes the excessive reflections may make that one of the worst pictures I've ever taken.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Quick Follow Up
Yes, I realize that people living in the Bay Area using text from the Qur'an to transition into an attack on a Republican probably isn't the help Barack is looking for right now. Well, this blog has already ended any hopes of running for president and looks like it just eliminated political pundit as well.
Stop twisting his words!
A while ago I bought a Bible (part for the New Testament and part for the Old (yes I realize the translations may not be the exact same)) and a Qur'an. I haven't made it very far through either of them, and probably never will, but I just saw the follow paragraph in the Qur'an (note that it is a recent translation so who knows how it is interpreted in other versions):
God: there is no god but Him, the Ever Living, the Ever Watchful.
Step by step, He has sent the Scripture down to you [Prophet] with the Truth, confirming what went before: He sent down the Torah and the Gospel earlier as a guide for people and He has sent down the distinction [between right and wrong]. Those who deny God's revelations will suffer severe torment: God is almighty and capable of retribution. Nothing on earth or in heaven is hidden from God: it is He who shapes you all in the womb as He pleases. There is no God but Him, the Mighty, the Wise: it is He who has sent this Scripture down to you [Prophet]. Some of its verses are definite in meaning - these are the cornerstone of the Scripture - and other are ambiguous. The perverse at heart eagerly pursue the ambiguities in their attempt to make trouble and to pin down a specific meaning of their own: only God knows the true meaning.
Wow! Those last two lines may just be the most reasonable thing I've ever read in a religious text. I fear people might think the title of this blog is aimed at Islam or Radical Islam, but it is equally aimed at all religions (Sarah Palin I'm looking at you).
God: there is no god but Him, the Ever Living, the Ever Watchful.
Step by step, He has sent the Scripture down to you [Prophet] with the Truth, confirming what went before: He sent down the Torah and the Gospel earlier as a guide for people and He has sent down the distinction [between right and wrong]. Those who deny God's revelations will suffer severe torment: God is almighty and capable of retribution. Nothing on earth or in heaven is hidden from God: it is He who shapes you all in the womb as He pleases. There is no God but Him, the Mighty, the Wise: it is He who has sent this Scripture down to you [Prophet]. Some of its verses are definite in meaning - these are the cornerstone of the Scripture - and other are ambiguous. The perverse at heart eagerly pursue the ambiguities in their attempt to make trouble and to pin down a specific meaning of their own: only God knows the true meaning.
Wow! Those last two lines may just be the most reasonable thing I've ever read in a religious text. I fear people might think the title of this blog is aimed at Islam or Radical Islam, but it is equally aimed at all religions (Sarah Palin I'm looking at you).
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Rivalries are Fractals!
There's a bit of a rivalry between the "East" and "West". It has probably been built up to be more than it would be by politicians trying to blame "them" for "our" problems.
Within the West there is a rivalry between the US and Europe. It is not a strong one, but it exists and comes and goes based on world events. Right now it is probably more distinct if you don't count the UK as part of Europe (and don't forget Poland!).
Within the US there are rivalries between different regions. There is at least somewhat of a rivalry between each pair of the west coast, the midwest, the south, and the northeast. Politics has really highlighted some of these rivalries. At this level people can start to get offended if you confuse which region they are from.
Within the midwest there are rivalries between different states. This level tends not to be as strong, but it does exist, especially if you include the impact of sports.
Within Kansas there is a rivalry between cities and rural areas (ok, maybe cities should be in quotes unless we include a slice of Missouri).
There is a rivalry between the two "cities" in Kansas - Kansas City and Wichita.
Within Kansas City there is a rivalry between the "Johnson County" types and other areas (I should really know Kansas City better than I do).
Within Johnson County there are rivalries between the different school systems. Within Blue Valley there are rivalries between the different high schools. Within a high school there are rivalries between the grades. Within a grade there are rivalries between the different groups...
I wanted to go down a path that I had a "right" to go down. Although I think there are some far more interesting paths (think going from UK vs the rest of Europe then England vs Scotland and Ireland then Ireland vs Scotland). No matter how much you zoom in you have the same basic picture. That's a fractal!
The odd part of rivalries is that as you zoom in they tend to get more intense (ooops, so much for being fractals). Again the example of going from Europe down to Ireland vs Scotland comes to mind. Or here's another path:
From my personal observations some reform Jews have little problem learning about and participating in Eastern religions, have a bit more hesitancy going to a church, and show significant resistance to taking part in orthodox Judaism.
I think a piece is that the closer the alternative is, the more likely it is to be true, so people feel more need to distinguish themselves from it. Although I don't think that explains all of it. I bet if I bothered to open my intro to psych book or do 5 minutes of googling someone would probably have a real explanation, but instead you get a page of thoughts that have been forced together to create what can't even be called a hypothesis (since it makes no testable predictions, hm, maybe Sarah Palin will defend teaching it in schools like she does for creationism).
Since the penalty for confusing someone in one group for being in another increases as the proximity and similarity of the groups increases it really discourages trying to group people. Since if you go too broad there's no point and if you go too narrow any inaccuracy will cause great offense. Which is a way more hippie, we're all just people, conclusion than I intended. And I don't think it is valid since there is some value in recognizing cultural differences and you can't do that if you're not willing to do at least a little grouping. Aren't you glad you went through all that to get a conclusion that is clearly wrong?
On a total tangent: Picking which path I had a "right" to go down was a bit odd. I've been told I have to spend around 10 years in California before I can claim to be a Californian (and go through an earth quake, although I'm not sure how I'm going to distinguish that from the sound of loose floorboards shaking due to the people upstairs running around or that few minutes of rhythmic shaking that comes from my next door neighbors around the same time each night). And having left SoCal it is like I'm starting over with the Bay Area. There's no way I can claim Bostonian since that was just for college. Paris was way too short for that claim (plus the lack of speaking french). I don't even remember living in Ohio. So Kansas City (or as demonstrated in this post I feel the need to specify Overland Park) would seem to be the strongest claim. Although having lived there for about 14 years on and off and then not having lived there for 8 years I'd say I'm quickly losing that claim. I'm a nothing-an. Throw in a lack of real religious identification and not being particularly skinny or fat and while being a bit on the short side I can't really identify as short or tall. I would make the worst stand-up comedian ever! There's no group I can get away with making fun of and then say "it's ok I'm one of them"! I guess I always have my nerdyness - I feel the need to go read slashdot and be with my people.
PS Since this post is free to travel through any of the tubes I feel the need to add that I'm not really having an identify crisis. And yes I do realize I'd be in the short category. And if the dentist who converted in that episode of Seinfeld gets Jew joke rights, I've totally earned them.
Within the West there is a rivalry between the US and Europe. It is not a strong one, but it exists and comes and goes based on world events. Right now it is probably more distinct if you don't count the UK as part of Europe (and don't forget Poland!).
Within the US there are rivalries between different regions. There is at least somewhat of a rivalry between each pair of the west coast, the midwest, the south, and the northeast. Politics has really highlighted some of these rivalries. At this level people can start to get offended if you confuse which region they are from.
Within the midwest there are rivalries between different states. This level tends not to be as strong, but it does exist, especially if you include the impact of sports.
Within Kansas there is a rivalry between cities and rural areas (ok, maybe cities should be in quotes unless we include a slice of Missouri).
There is a rivalry between the two "cities" in Kansas - Kansas City and Wichita.
Within Kansas City there is a rivalry between the "Johnson County" types and other areas (I should really know Kansas City better than I do).
Within Johnson County there are rivalries between the different school systems. Within Blue Valley there are rivalries between the different high schools. Within a high school there are rivalries between the grades. Within a grade there are rivalries between the different groups...
I wanted to go down a path that I had a "right" to go down. Although I think there are some far more interesting paths (think going from UK vs the rest of Europe then England vs Scotland and Ireland then Ireland vs Scotland). No matter how much you zoom in you have the same basic picture. That's a fractal!
The odd part of rivalries is that as you zoom in they tend to get more intense (ooops, so much for being fractals). Again the example of going from Europe down to Ireland vs Scotland comes to mind. Or here's another path:
From my personal observations some reform Jews have little problem learning about and participating in Eastern religions, have a bit more hesitancy going to a church, and show significant resistance to taking part in orthodox Judaism.
I think a piece is that the closer the alternative is, the more likely it is to be true, so people feel more need to distinguish themselves from it. Although I don't think that explains all of it. I bet if I bothered to open my intro to psych book or do 5 minutes of googling someone would probably have a real explanation, but instead you get a page of thoughts that have been forced together to create what can't even be called a hypothesis (since it makes no testable predictions, hm, maybe Sarah Palin will defend teaching it in schools like she does for creationism).
Since the penalty for confusing someone in one group for being in another increases as the proximity and similarity of the groups increases it really discourages trying to group people. Since if you go too broad there's no point and if you go too narrow any inaccuracy will cause great offense. Which is a way more hippie, we're all just people, conclusion than I intended. And I don't think it is valid since there is some value in recognizing cultural differences and you can't do that if you're not willing to do at least a little grouping. Aren't you glad you went through all that to get a conclusion that is clearly wrong?
On a total tangent: Picking which path I had a "right" to go down was a bit odd. I've been told I have to spend around 10 years in California before I can claim to be a Californian (and go through an earth quake, although I'm not sure how I'm going to distinguish that from the sound of loose floorboards shaking due to the people upstairs running around or that few minutes of rhythmic shaking that comes from my next door neighbors around the same time each night). And having left SoCal it is like I'm starting over with the Bay Area. There's no way I can claim Bostonian since that was just for college. Paris was way too short for that claim (plus the lack of speaking french). I don't even remember living in Ohio. So Kansas City (or as demonstrated in this post I feel the need to specify Overland Park) would seem to be the strongest claim. Although having lived there for about 14 years on and off and then not having lived there for 8 years I'd say I'm quickly losing that claim. I'm a nothing-an. Throw in a lack of real religious identification and not being particularly skinny or fat and while being a bit on the short side I can't really identify as short or tall. I would make the worst stand-up comedian ever! There's no group I can get away with making fun of and then say "it's ok I'm one of them"! I guess I always have my nerdyness - I feel the need to go read slashdot and be with my people.
PS Since this post is free to travel through any of the tubes I feel the need to add that I'm not really having an identify crisis. And yes I do realize I'd be in the short category. And if the dentist who converted in that episode of Seinfeld gets Jew joke rights, I've totally earned them.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Bibliography
Hm, guess it is worth saying where the somewhat random references in the last post are from. Spoiler alert in number 4.
1. Highlander - when an immortal beheaded another he got the other's power, unless they are on sacred ground in which case the powers just go away. I'm not actually sure what happens if a non-immortal beheads an immortal, but seems like they should become immortal.
2. Most any vampire story (Buffy, Angel, Blade, Dracula...) - I think this one is fairly well known.
3. Greek myth I vaguely remember from 8th grade English class - Guy asks a greek god for immortality (instead of eternal youth) and gets it, but gets older and older till he shrivels up to the point of being a cricket (this is what I remember from 8th grade so some or all of the details could be wrong).
4. Dune - specifically end of book 3, beginning of book 4. Some authors skip a few years in telling a story, Frank Herbert skips 10,000 years. The father of the guy who lives 10,000 years can see the future so clearly that he loses his freewill.
I'm actually surprised I can't think of any other becoming immortal stories. I was thinking Bender (Robot from Futurama) since he often goes back in time and then waits to catch up with the present a number of times, but that only sort of counts. Fry (also from Futurama) sort of does the same thing, but spends his 1000 year spans frozen so that definitely doesn't count.
1. Highlander - when an immortal beheaded another he got the other's power, unless they are on sacred ground in which case the powers just go away. I'm not actually sure what happens if a non-immortal beheads an immortal, but seems like they should become immortal.
2. Most any vampire story (Buffy, Angel, Blade, Dracula...) - I think this one is fairly well known.
3. Greek myth I vaguely remember from 8th grade English class - Guy asks a greek god for immortality (instead of eternal youth) and gets it, but gets older and older till he shrivels up to the point of being a cricket (this is what I remember from 8th grade so some or all of the details could be wrong).
4. Dune - specifically end of book 3, beginning of book 4. Some authors skip a few years in telling a story, Frank Herbert skips 10,000 years. The father of the guy who lives 10,000 years can see the future so clearly that he loses his freewill.
I'm actually surprised I can't think of any other becoming immortal stories. I was thinking Bender (Robot from Futurama) since he often goes back in time and then waits to catch up with the present a number of times, but that only sort of counts. Fry (also from Futurama) sort of does the same thing, but spends his 1000 year spans frozen so that definitely doesn't count.
I'm On The Exercise Bike Thanks To Fiction
The main trick I use to push myself to exercise is remembering how much I don't want to have a titanium box put into my chest (well, it would be ok if it gave me super powers or something, but not to help my heart do what it should be doing anyway). However, that's more of a long term thought - skipping the gym one day isn't going to be the difference between needing a medical device or not. It often leads to the thought - I'll start getting to the gym everyday... next week.
So I've come up with a new motivation for the day to day: What if I become immortal tomorrow? You might think exercise would not matter at all if you are going to become immortal, but in most immortality stories the body you have when it happens is the body you keep forever. So if you've got an extra 10 pounds or your arms have atrophied a bit this might be the last chance to deal with it or regret it for hundreds of years (funny how most tales of immortals involve them dying within a thousand years or so).
You might think that becoming immortal isn't something to worry about, but all it takes is one car accident where you take off the head of a highlander and take his powers, or one vampire sneaking up on you and letting you drink its blood after draining yours, or remembering when a greek god grants you a wish to ask for eternal youth instead of eternal life. From that moment on till you are beheaded or staked or whatever happened to greek immortals that didn't become crickets, that's it, there's no amount of exercise that is going to make a difference. Of course if you gain immortality through becoming a giant worm it doesn't really matter, but you'd probably know already if you grew up on the spice planet and had a father that could see the future.
People are always so down on watching TV, but if I hadn't watched so much of it that I worry about what would happen if I became immortal I wouldn't have a cool new way to motivate myself to get to the gym.
So I've come up with a new motivation for the day to day: What if I become immortal tomorrow? You might think exercise would not matter at all if you are going to become immortal, but in most immortality stories the body you have when it happens is the body you keep forever. So if you've got an extra 10 pounds or your arms have atrophied a bit this might be the last chance to deal with it or regret it for hundreds of years (funny how most tales of immortals involve them dying within a thousand years or so).
You might think that becoming immortal isn't something to worry about, but all it takes is one car accident where you take off the head of a highlander and take his powers, or one vampire sneaking up on you and letting you drink its blood after draining yours, or remembering when a greek god grants you a wish to ask for eternal youth instead of eternal life. From that moment on till you are beheaded or staked or whatever happened to greek immortals that didn't become crickets, that's it, there's no amount of exercise that is going to make a difference. Of course if you gain immortality through becoming a giant worm it doesn't really matter, but you'd probably know already if you grew up on the spice planet and had a father that could see the future.
People are always so down on watching TV, but if I hadn't watched so much of it that I worry about what would happen if I became immortal I wouldn't have a cool new way to motivate myself to get to the gym.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Follow the light... To a snack
What is the set of logic that leads to a fridge/freezer combo where the fridge has a light but the freezer doesn't?
And really what is the point of the fridge light at all? Is a universal feature of fridges there just to help people while midnight snacking? Do you think people would snack less at night if fridges didn't come with lights any more? Is the solution to obesity that simple? Or would people just figure out that they can turn on the kitchen lights?
And you know those pig dolls people in movies have in their fridge that they ignore as they pull out arm fulls of food - wouldn't a better deterrent be to get rid of the fridge light?
PS Both this and the last post were written on my iPhone. Which might explain the slightly shorter than usual ramblings.
And really what is the point of the fridge light at all? Is a universal feature of fridges there just to help people while midnight snacking? Do you think people would snack less at night if fridges didn't come with lights any more? Is the solution to obesity that simple? Or would people just figure out that they can turn on the kitchen lights?
And you know those pig dolls people in movies have in their fridge that they ignore as they pull out arm fulls of food - wouldn't a better deterrent be to get rid of the fridge light?
PS Both this and the last post were written on my iPhone. Which might explain the slightly shorter than usual ramblings.
Let's do some swift boating
Did you hear that Sarah Palin is a guy? Yup, a cross dresser. I hear that the big male to female ratio up there in Alaska causes a lot of crazy stuff like that. And he's married to another guy so you know what that means...
You don't believe me? Well, ok, I'm not sure about the gay part, maybe the marriage is just a scam. But Sarah is definitely a guy.
Ok, obviously everything above is a terrible lie. But I say it is time for democrats to do a little swift boating/he's a Musliming of their own. And since Palin's gender is basically all people know about her it is the only obviously true fact to attack. So let's all go out and spread this "truth the media doesn't want you to know". Now all we need is some meaningless but catchy phrase people can chant in unison.
You don't believe me? Well, ok, I'm not sure about the gay part, maybe the marriage is just a scam. But Sarah is definitely a guy.
Ok, obviously everything above is a terrible lie. But I say it is time for democrats to do a little swift boating/he's a Musliming of their own. And since Palin's gender is basically all people know about her it is the only obviously true fact to attack. So let's all go out and spread this "truth the media doesn't want you to know". Now all we need is some meaningless but catchy phrase people can chant in unison.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Targeted Advertising and Ringing in My Ears
There have been a number of articles recently about how much information web companies are collecting about people, especially with the increasing trend of deep packet inspection. Stuff that I generally think is rather bad and is part of the reason why I support groups like the EFF and ACLU. But all of the articles seem to say that the big bad thing that companies are going to do with all that info is use it for targeted advertising. To which I say - so freaking what? If I'm missing something, someone please fill me in, but if someone can figure out products that I'm likely to want and show them to me in a way that appeals to me - good for them. Heck I spend all that time on amazon and netflixs rating books and movies I like so they can find more books and movies I should buy...
What the articles seem to leave out is stuff like changing the price given to different people based on their information, collecting medical info or other risk indicators and giving it to insurance companies or potential employers, what happens when the NSA asks for the information... Anyway, those articles made me feel the need to rant and now I have so we can move on.
Tonight I went up to San Francisco to see my cowoker's band play again. It was another small bar, but a bit more comfortable and was a good time. Although the band after them was playing way too loud - is there ever a time when a band asks how's the volume and it is ok to say - too loud, turn it down? They actually seemed to know they were playing too loud, but didn't seem to realize what a volume control is, in spite of having all sorts of fancy electronic equipment. So right now my ears are ringing. Actually it is more than just ringing since it is not just a high frequency tone, but a high frequency tone with a low frequency (about 2 Hz) amplitude modulation (aka the ringing is fading in and out).
What the articles seem to leave out is stuff like changing the price given to different people based on their information, collecting medical info or other risk indicators and giving it to insurance companies or potential employers, what happens when the NSA asks for the information... Anyway, those articles made me feel the need to rant and now I have so we can move on.
Tonight I went up to San Francisco to see my cowoker's band play again. It was another small bar, but a bit more comfortable and was a good time. Although the band after them was playing way too loud - is there ever a time when a band asks how's the volume and it is ok to say - too loud, turn it down? They actually seemed to know they were playing too loud, but didn't seem to realize what a volume control is, in spite of having all sorts of fancy electronic equipment. So right now my ears are ringing. Actually it is more than just ringing since it is not just a high frequency tone, but a high frequency tone with a low frequency (about 2 Hz) amplitude modulation (aka the ringing is fading in and out).
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
x^n+y^n=z^n
First for those that don't know the basics on Fermat's last theorem:
Back in 1637 Fermat wrote down a conjecture (or theory depending on if you believe what he wrote next or not) in the margin of a book and then wrote: "I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of this, which, however, the margin is not large enough to contain". For the next several hundred years many mathematicians worked on proving the conjecture. In 1993 Professor Andrew Wiles presented the proof he came up with after working in near isolation for 7 years. Soon after people realized the proof had an error. Then he spent a year trying to figure out how to fix it and eventually did.
Fermat's last theorem says that the equation x^n+y^n=z^n does not have whole number solutions for n > 2. An example of a solution for n=2 is x=3,y=4,z=5 since 3^2+4^2=5^2.
The book Fermat's Last Theorem starts in 2000 BC and tells the stories of the key mathematicians that led up to the conjecture and then those that led to the proof. It is actually an interesting way of taking brief (4000 years is a long time to cover in 150 pages) snapshots of the development of math across time. For the very early stuff, when the math is more understandable, the book goes into it a bit, but it does a good job of shifting its focus to the people as the math gets harder. It also does a good job of dispelling the idea that it was one guy in a 7 year stint that created the proof when really it was the build up of hundreds of years of effort. Also he wasn't unabomber isolated - he had a family and near the end even worked with two other professors, but he did spend a lot of those 7 years in his attic and kept his work secret the whole time. One of the interesting aspects of the proof is that it is actually done by proving a correspondence between two ideas in completely different areas of math. So rather than being a pure number theory proof it actually involves ideas about curves and other modern areas of math.
One thing the book reminded me of is that my math education cuts out somewhere in the early 1800s (except a small amount of very specific applied stuff). I'm not saying I know a lot up to then, but that is the point where I'm lucky if I recognize the name of a field, much less an actual concept. Which I guess is a combination of math being really old and thinking that I know something about math even though I've never taken an actual pure math class.
Anyway, the book was surprisingly interesting, although considering the topic is 4000 years of math building up to a single proof it didn't have to do much to exceed expectations.
Back in 1637 Fermat wrote down a conjecture (or theory depending on if you believe what he wrote next or not) in the margin of a book and then wrote: "I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of this, which, however, the margin is not large enough to contain". For the next several hundred years many mathematicians worked on proving the conjecture. In 1993 Professor Andrew Wiles presented the proof he came up with after working in near isolation for 7 years. Soon after people realized the proof had an error. Then he spent a year trying to figure out how to fix it and eventually did.
Fermat's last theorem says that the equation x^n+y^n=z^n does not have whole number solutions for n > 2. An example of a solution for n=2 is x=3,y=4,z=5 since 3^2+4^2=5^2.
The book Fermat's Last Theorem starts in 2000 BC and tells the stories of the key mathematicians that led up to the conjecture and then those that led to the proof. It is actually an interesting way of taking brief (4000 years is a long time to cover in 150 pages) snapshots of the development of math across time. For the very early stuff, when the math is more understandable, the book goes into it a bit, but it does a good job of shifting its focus to the people as the math gets harder. It also does a good job of dispelling the idea that it was one guy in a 7 year stint that created the proof when really it was the build up of hundreds of years of effort. Also he wasn't unabomber isolated - he had a family and near the end even worked with two other professors, but he did spend a lot of those 7 years in his attic and kept his work secret the whole time. One of the interesting aspects of the proof is that it is actually done by proving a correspondence between two ideas in completely different areas of math. So rather than being a pure number theory proof it actually involves ideas about curves and other modern areas of math.
One thing the book reminded me of is that my math education cuts out somewhere in the early 1800s (except a small amount of very specific applied stuff). I'm not saying I know a lot up to then, but that is the point where I'm lucky if I recognize the name of a field, much less an actual concept. Which I guess is a combination of math being really old and thinking that I know something about math even though I've never taken an actual pure math class.
Anyway, the book was surprisingly interesting, although considering the topic is 4000 years of math building up to a single proof it didn't have to do much to exceed expectations.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
In The Beginning... Was The Command Line
In my continuing quest to read everything Neal Stephenson has ever written I read In The Beginning... Was The Command Line. It is his take on operating systems when it was written in 1999. Given when it was written there are few people I would recommend it to (if you read this blog and you were in AEPi then it might be worth checking out). Although, if you are in that group then you know most everything the book says (although Neal does come up with some colorful analogies, which is actually a bit odd since a major portion of the book is talking about the issues with using a GUI as an analogy for what is really happening in a computer).
In the end he recommends BeOS which has since died. Although most of the reasons for recommending BeOS (fresh start and combination of GUI with access to command line interface) could be applied to Mac OS X (as he mentions here in response to question 8). I was a bit disappointed to find out that Neal is an emacs guy, although I probably would have been too if not for a certain roommate steering me in the right direction. For the last few pages he goes off into craziness as required of any Stephenson book (actually it is impressive that he touches on the ideas Seth Lloyd talks about in Programming the Universe which came out 7 years later).
In the end he recommends BeOS which has since died. Although most of the reasons for recommending BeOS (fresh start and combination of GUI with access to command line interface) could be applied to Mac OS X (as he mentions here in response to question 8). I was a bit disappointed to find out that Neal is an emacs guy, although I probably would have been too if not for a certain roommate steering me in the right direction. For the last few pages he goes off into craziness as required of any Stephenson book (actually it is impressive that he touches on the ideas Seth Lloyd talks about in Programming the Universe which came out 7 years later).
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Ghostwalk
Finished my signed copy of Ghostwalk (thanks for the book Mom and Dad) recently. It did start slow, but once it got going it was cool.
So the real history is that Newton in addition to being super science guy was also into alchemy and around the time he was going for a fellowship there were a few mysterious deaths that helped open up the position to him. Apparently he had not yet made a real impression by time he was going for the fellowship.
The author took the facts and came up with a story to explain it. Then to frame the story (I really want to use the term frame since it is one of two terms I remember from the literature class I took, although I don't think it is quite right since what I'm calling the framing is really the more significant portion of the story) she tells a story about present day Cambridge. The present day story revolves around a book with the Newton story the author is putting forward, and there are murders that are linked to the ones in the past.
I think this may be the first novel I've read that is set in the 2000s. Reading a story that involves people text messaging each other is a bit odd, not good or bad, just odd. The modern day story is told from the perspective of a woman who is dating a married man so I did have a little trouble relating to the main character. But the story was still interesting and the inner story about Newton was good. I also really liked that at the end she had a section specifying what is really known and what isn't so you aren't left half knowing a bunch of stuff.
So the real history is that Newton in addition to being super science guy was also into alchemy and around the time he was going for a fellowship there were a few mysterious deaths that helped open up the position to him. Apparently he had not yet made a real impression by time he was going for the fellowship.
The author took the facts and came up with a story to explain it. Then to frame the story (I really want to use the term frame since it is one of two terms I remember from the literature class I took, although I don't think it is quite right since what I'm calling the framing is really the more significant portion of the story) she tells a story about present day Cambridge. The present day story revolves around a book with the Newton story the author is putting forward, and there are murders that are linked to the ones in the past.
I think this may be the first novel I've read that is set in the 2000s. Reading a story that involves people text messaging each other is a bit odd, not good or bad, just odd. The modern day story is told from the perspective of a woman who is dating a married man so I did have a little trouble relating to the main character. But the story was still interesting and the inner story about Newton was good. I also really liked that at the end she had a section specifying what is really known and what isn't so you aren't left half knowing a bunch of stuff.
A Southern State
Upfront I should say I know nothing about the country Georgia or its conflict with Russia so I am not making any judgments about who was right or wrong or what the response should be (other than if you want to help you should check your tire pressure - odd how McCain and I have the same message, just I'm not being sarcastic).
But, if I was Putin and I got a call from Bush criticizing me for invading a sovereign nation I think my response would go something like this:
First there would be a few minutes of laughter.
Then: oh George, people underestimate you, or should I say misunderestimate - you really are a funny guy. Oh, wait, you're serious? Nah - you're still pulling my leg. Yeah, Bush telling me not to invade a country for a few days - ha! Are you mad that I went in or that I'm not planning to stay?
Then some more laughing.
Then: Oh wait, I'm not sure you have that strong of a grasp of irony. Did Cheney put you up to this? That guy has one twisted sense of humor. You know you should really run these things past Condi first to make sure he's not punking you. Actually things have been really tense around here, could you call a few other Russian leaders, they could really use the laugh right now. Well, this has been fun, but you should get back to watching the Olympics and I should get back to running a country. Say hi to your dad for me and I can't wait to hear what other jokes you've come up with when we sit next to each other at the closing ceremonies.
But, if I was Putin and I got a call from Bush criticizing me for invading a sovereign nation I think my response would go something like this:
First there would be a few minutes of laughter.
Then: oh George, people underestimate you, or should I say misunderestimate - you really are a funny guy. Oh, wait, you're serious? Nah - you're still pulling my leg. Yeah, Bush telling me not to invade a country for a few days - ha! Are you mad that I went in or that I'm not planning to stay?
Then some more laughing.
Then: Oh wait, I'm not sure you have that strong of a grasp of irony. Did Cheney put you up to this? That guy has one twisted sense of humor. You know you should really run these things past Condi first to make sure he's not punking you. Actually things have been really tense around here, could you call a few other Russian leaders, they could really use the laugh right now. Well, this has been fun, but you should get back to watching the Olympics and I should get back to running a country. Say hi to your dad for me and I can't wait to hear what other jokes you've come up with when we sit next to each other at the closing ceremonies.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Anthrax
Here's my theory on the whole anthrax investigation: the Wachowski brothers paid the FBI to come up with the current theory as a way of promoting DVD sales of V for Vendetta.
Why do I think this - well let's run through the FBI theory. A government scientist studying biological weapons releases a disease on the public in hopes of making money off of his vaccine and at the same time helps the right wing government increase its control over the country. Just make the scientist and the head of the government the same person and you've got the movie (no - I'm not a total conspiracy nut - I don't think anyone in the Bush administration was involved, but close enough to promote a movie).
Actually I wonder if the FBI even released that report. Hugo Weaving is so awesome he could have just dressing up as an FBI agent (he already has the costume) and given the report to the media.
If at any point in the news reporting you notice a bald jewish girl in the background you'll know I'm right.
Why do I think this - well let's run through the FBI theory. A government scientist studying biological weapons releases a disease on the public in hopes of making money off of his vaccine and at the same time helps the right wing government increase its control over the country. Just make the scientist and the head of the government the same person and you've got the movie (no - I'm not a total conspiracy nut - I don't think anyone in the Bush administration was involved, but close enough to promote a movie).
Actually I wonder if the FBI even released that report. Hugo Weaving is so awesome he could have just dressing up as an FBI agent (he already has the costume) and given the report to the media.
If at any point in the news reporting you notice a bald jewish girl in the background you'll know I'm right.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
TV
A little over two years ago when I moved to San Clemente I gave up my TV based on Eric's advice (ok, I actually just did not hook it up - it sat in my living room for two years till I moved to Mountain View). At first what I really liked about giving up the TV is I only had a few shows I bought from iTunes and some DVDs and stuff from college so I usually did not stay up late watching TV. This was very useful since I was starting a new job and was not ready to ignore the work day starts at 8 am rule. Over time I started finding websites where I could watch low and mid quality copies of shows which I have written about before. And the amount of available shows on iTunes increased.
Since then NBC and all the channels it owns (turns out they own everything) pulled out of iTunes. This caused a drop in my TV options for a bit. Then hulu was created (Julie gets credit for pointing this out to me). As more and more shows have been added to that (including the daily show and colbert report) there has been almost too many TV options. However, hulu is a bit tricky since it will sometimes only have a few seasons of a show or parts of a show.
To deal with getting hooked on a few shows I recently joined netflix. So far netflix has been awesome (well except for at first when they put a hold on my account and didn't tell me till I called to ask why they were not sending anything). However this has led to two issues. The first is that I almost have too much TV to watch now and sometimes actually feel bad that I'm falling behind on the daily show (I had to drop the colbert report subscription on hulu because it was too much TV). The second I don't have a real concrete issue. But it bothers me that I now get TV by mail. How backwards is that? Instead of using the cable that comes into my house or the DSL line, I use the internet to tell a company what shows to mail to me each day. Now I do know that if you are sending enough data eventually IP over USPS does actually win for speed and cost, but that's way more data than 3 or 4 episodes of a show each day. It also seems like the least environmentally friendly way too (especially when you account for all the paper packaging). Yes they have some DVDs you can stream, but 10,000 DVDs is actually not as many as you'd think (their mailing option has over 100,000 DVDs). Netflix plus hulu feeds into my preferred (semi-obsessive) favorite way of watching TV - pick one show and watch it from beginning to end then if it is good enough watch it all again (maybe not immediately). To help with the watching it a second time a person less honest than the person I pretend to be online might use the program handbrake especially since it will encode to ipod and iphone formats.
I think I could stretch and make some comments about getting rid of cable allowing a faster transition to TV over the series of tubes and even tie it in with developing nations that leapfrog the US in certain technologies because they are not tied to legacy infrastructure, but it is 1 am and I'm too tired to get it to make sense and definitely too tired to make sure I don't come off as totally arrogant when saying it (I'll save any tolerance you have for arrogance for when I get around to discussing why offshore drilling is a bad idea and is contradicted by what is often the news story just before or after it about how prices are stabilizing as demand goes down due to increasing prices and many of these changes will pay off in the long run, not just short term fixes. And the candidates claiming to support alternative energy given the main way to support it is to increase oil prices (ideally giving the extra money to efforts to help the environment, but even without that part it still works). Also I recognize people are struggling right now, but their problem is not high gas prices it is too little money given the total cost of goods they buy, if gas prices are high but they are given more money or other prices go down then there are still incentives to avoid oil, but people won't be struggling and since they still have incentives to avoid oil it both brings down short and long term demand and provides room in the market for alternative energy sources (how do you do this? well reducing taxes for the poor and creating more social programs is a good start) - hm that was almost like a blog in a blog, but with really bad grammar - sorry - oh and I guess I just ruined any chance I might have of running for president in the future. Actually that's another interesting topic - in 20 to 40 years we'll be able to look at what candidates put in their facebook profile and blogs in high school and college! There's going to be a whole generation that cannot run for president.).
Ok, now it is time to admit why I really joined netflix - hulu got me hooked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but only has the first two seasons. I was feeling very awkward about admitting I like the show since I always thought it was a silly high school show. But reading through the hulu comments apparently everyone else had the same issue that they thought it was a silly show for high school kids and then watched a bit and realized it is actually good. The interesting thing is the story is about the girl who would normally be killed or need saving, but in this case is the strong hero so to be good it almost has to look like a silly high school show from a distance. I would warn though that the first season is a bit too goofy (later seasons are still plenty goofy) and low budget so don't judge till season 2, and the movie doesn't count as part of the series at all. I also started watching Angel, but my opinion is it is not goofy enough. Watching Buffy leads to the same conclusion Julie had recently - Joss Whedon is a genius (same guy who created Firefly and Serenity, which is a large part of why I gave Buffy a chance). Oh and along those same lines if you have not seen Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog it's time to go check it out (also a Joss creation and stars Neil Patrick Harris). It's only three 15 minute clips and is free.
Circling back to hulu. A few tips that may not be totally obvious. First - subscribing to a show is great since you just have to watch your queue rather than checking each show to see if there is something new. Second - some shows expire so double check if you are going to wait more than a week or so to watch something (this is mostly true for new stuff like the Colbert report). Third - when you mouse over the video, on the right side there are some buttons that appear. Full screen is self explanatory. Some shows have a 480p button that switches to high res - definitely worth selecting - video is clearly better and I've sort of convinced myself that the audio is also better. And if you are going through your queue it won't stay in hi-res so you have to set it each time (and yes for some reason to have to leave full screen to set hi-res).
Well, every once in a while I have to justify naming the blog David's Random Ramblings.
Since then NBC and all the channels it owns (turns out they own everything) pulled out of iTunes. This caused a drop in my TV options for a bit. Then hulu was created (Julie gets credit for pointing this out to me). As more and more shows have been added to that (including the daily show and colbert report) there has been almost too many TV options. However, hulu is a bit tricky since it will sometimes only have a few seasons of a show or parts of a show.
To deal with getting hooked on a few shows I recently joined netflix. So far netflix has been awesome (well except for at first when they put a hold on my account and didn't tell me till I called to ask why they were not sending anything). However this has led to two issues. The first is that I almost have too much TV to watch now and sometimes actually feel bad that I'm falling behind on the daily show (I had to drop the colbert report subscription on hulu because it was too much TV). The second I don't have a real concrete issue. But it bothers me that I now get TV by mail. How backwards is that? Instead of using the cable that comes into my house or the DSL line, I use the internet to tell a company what shows to mail to me each day. Now I do know that if you are sending enough data eventually IP over USPS does actually win for speed and cost, but that's way more data than 3 or 4 episodes of a show each day. It also seems like the least environmentally friendly way too (especially when you account for all the paper packaging). Yes they have some DVDs you can stream, but 10,000 DVDs is actually not as many as you'd think (their mailing option has over 100,000 DVDs). Netflix plus hulu feeds into my preferred (semi-obsessive) favorite way of watching TV - pick one show and watch it from beginning to end then if it is good enough watch it all again (maybe not immediately). To help with the watching it a second time a person less honest than the person I pretend to be online might use the program handbrake especially since it will encode to ipod and iphone formats.
I think I could stretch and make some comments about getting rid of cable allowing a faster transition to TV over the series of tubes and even tie it in with developing nations that leapfrog the US in certain technologies because they are not tied to legacy infrastructure, but it is 1 am and I'm too tired to get it to make sense and definitely too tired to make sure I don't come off as totally arrogant when saying it (I'll save any tolerance you have for arrogance for when I get around to discussing why offshore drilling is a bad idea and is contradicted by what is often the news story just before or after it about how prices are stabilizing as demand goes down due to increasing prices and many of these changes will pay off in the long run, not just short term fixes. And the candidates claiming to support alternative energy given the main way to support it is to increase oil prices (ideally giving the extra money to efforts to help the environment, but even without that part it still works). Also I recognize people are struggling right now, but their problem is not high gas prices it is too little money given the total cost of goods they buy, if gas prices are high but they are given more money or other prices go down then there are still incentives to avoid oil, but people won't be struggling and since they still have incentives to avoid oil it both brings down short and long term demand and provides room in the market for alternative energy sources (how do you do this? well reducing taxes for the poor and creating more social programs is a good start) - hm that was almost like a blog in a blog, but with really bad grammar - sorry - oh and I guess I just ruined any chance I might have of running for president in the future. Actually that's another interesting topic - in 20 to 40 years we'll be able to look at what candidates put in their facebook profile and blogs in high school and college! There's going to be a whole generation that cannot run for president.).
Ok, now it is time to admit why I really joined netflix - hulu got me hooked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but only has the first two seasons. I was feeling very awkward about admitting I like the show since I always thought it was a silly high school show. But reading through the hulu comments apparently everyone else had the same issue that they thought it was a silly show for high school kids and then watched a bit and realized it is actually good. The interesting thing is the story is about the girl who would normally be killed or need saving, but in this case is the strong hero so to be good it almost has to look like a silly high school show from a distance. I would warn though that the first season is a bit too goofy (later seasons are still plenty goofy) and low budget so don't judge till season 2, and the movie doesn't count as part of the series at all. I also started watching Angel, but my opinion is it is not goofy enough. Watching Buffy leads to the same conclusion Julie had recently - Joss Whedon is a genius (same guy who created Firefly and Serenity, which is a large part of why I gave Buffy a chance). Oh and along those same lines if you have not seen Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog it's time to go check it out (also a Joss creation and stars Neil Patrick Harris). It's only three 15 minute clips and is free.
Circling back to hulu. A few tips that may not be totally obvious. First - subscribing to a show is great since you just have to watch your queue rather than checking each show to see if there is something new. Second - some shows expire so double check if you are going to wait more than a week or so to watch something (this is mostly true for new stuff like the Colbert report). Third - when you mouse over the video, on the right side there are some buttons that appear. Full screen is self explanatory. Some shows have a 480p button that switches to high res - definitely worth selecting - video is clearly better and I've sort of convinced myself that the audio is also better. And if you are going through your queue it won't stay in hi-res so you have to set it each time (and yes for some reason to have to leave full screen to set hi-res).
Well, every once in a while I have to justify naming the blog David's Random Ramblings.
Hands Free Cellphone Law
Recently a California state law went into effect that makes it illegal to use a cell phone unless using a hands free device. The overwhelming response has been that everyone has to buy a bluetooth headset. As someone who now works for a company in the general field of wireless communications I say go buy lots and lots of bluetooth headsets. You're not cool unless you have a bluetooth headset, but it is not cool to wear one so you should have multiple so you can keep them anywhere you might want them. (I actually honestly have no idea who provides the chips for those headsets, could be a competitor so maybe don't go on the shopping spree quite yet).
But I thought I could be cheap and clever and just put one of the old wired mic plus headphone in the car for the rare occasion when I talk in the car.
But just recently I realized that I speed almost all the time. I don't go too far over the speed limit, but typically I'm a bit over - in fact not being a bit over would typically disrupt traffic. So what's with the sudden freak out about breaking traffic laws? Especially since you could get multiple fines for being on the phone before equaling the cost of a decent bluetooth headset.
I haven't started following my own advice, but when it occurred to me I was surprised that no one else had brought this up yet.
But I thought I could be cheap and clever and just put one of the old wired mic plus headphone in the car for the rare occasion when I talk in the car.
But just recently I realized that I speed almost all the time. I don't go too far over the speed limit, but typically I'm a bit over - in fact not being a bit over would typically disrupt traffic. So what's with the sudden freak out about breaking traffic laws? Especially since you could get multiple fines for being on the phone before equaling the cost of a decent bluetooth headset.
I haven't started following my own advice, but when it occurred to me I was surprised that no one else had brought this up yet.
Monday, August 04, 2008
The Dark Knight
I went to see The Dark Knight: The IMAX Experience. I'm sure this is the first time you've heard anyone mention this movie, not sure why it doesn't get any press. I'm not going to say if you should see it or not, but if you are going to see it I'd recommend going for IMAX even if it means buying tickets a week ahead of time. And whenever there is a non-action shot, make sure to check out the background rather than just looking at the people in the foreground.
Even though he did not realize it, one of the friends I went with made me very happy. He noticed during the credits that Anthony Michael Hall was in the movie and wondered who he played. This gave me a chance to pull out the iPhone I had just bought a couple hours earlier (after waiting a mere 2 hours in line - thank goodness I had some Arrested Development episodes on my iPod) and answer the question using IMDB.
Which brings us to the real reason for this whole post - I'm trying to test the RSS reader on the iPhone so I need a feed to update.
Even though he did not realize it, one of the friends I went with made me very happy. He noticed during the credits that Anthony Michael Hall was in the movie and wondered who he played. This gave me a chance to pull out the iPhone I had just bought a couple hours earlier (after waiting a mere 2 hours in line - thank goodness I had some Arrested Development episodes on my iPod) and answer the question using IMDB.
Which brings us to the real reason for this whole post - I'm trying to test the RSS reader on the iPhone so I need a feed to update.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Shenanigans
I call shenanigans on this article. Ok, I completely believe that China is blocking lots of websites. I also think that government censorship is a very bad thing. However, I do not believe this is causing an issue for journalists.
There are a few reasons for my disbelief. The first is that (as I understand) in general the great firewall blocks people who do not otherwise have contacts outside China from certain material. Once you have a contact in another country there are all sorts of ways to get around it. More on this later. Second the article is talking about journalists in general so many of them are part of major news organizations that have journalists all over the world with varying degrees of web restrictions. And many of them have had reporters in China for a long time. So even if the average American or even average American company could not figure out how to get around it I would expect these companies to have invested in finding a way around it.
So how do you get around the great firewall? Well, lets start with the lowest tech. Perhaps you want to get to a certain Amnesty International site, you could write a NYT article about how you can't - or you could call an intern in the US (or perhaps India to avoid time zone issues) and ask them to print and fax or next day the information. Not great, but not hard to figure out. A bit more complicated, but instead of faxing send in an encrypted email (maybe average joe doesn't know how to do it, so hire a CS major from the local college to show you how). You could setup a proxy, takes a bit of knowledge, but a friend offered to setup one for me when I was there. You could probably use TOR which is a free program from the EFF and redirects web traffic through many computers so it is not easy to see where it is coming from or going to. Or finally the most likely - use VPN possibly combined with VNC. My understanding is basically all major companies have VPN setup (a way to securely join the company's network when out of the office), even the 100 person company I worked for used VPN (which was setup and maintained by one person). Plus I would think journalists need a way to securely submit their articles without government oversight or having them stolen. If just VPN is not enough then run a program like VNC or windows remote desktop (which comes with windows) that allows you to control another computer so instead of sending a website it is sending screen images and over an encrypted connection thanks to VPN.
Sorry, didn't mean to dig into the technical quite so much, but wanted to make it clear that any international journalist, especially if connected to a major news organization, should have no problem getting to anything on the web. So I say stop your fake whinnying and write about a real problem - perhaps all the Chinese people who really are not able to get to these websites.
There are a few reasons for my disbelief. The first is that (as I understand) in general the great firewall blocks people who do not otherwise have contacts outside China from certain material. Once you have a contact in another country there are all sorts of ways to get around it. More on this later. Second the article is talking about journalists in general so many of them are part of major news organizations that have journalists all over the world with varying degrees of web restrictions. And many of them have had reporters in China for a long time. So even if the average American or even average American company could not figure out how to get around it I would expect these companies to have invested in finding a way around it.
So how do you get around the great firewall? Well, lets start with the lowest tech. Perhaps you want to get to a certain Amnesty International site, you could write a NYT article about how you can't - or you could call an intern in the US (or perhaps India to avoid time zone issues) and ask them to print and fax or next day the information. Not great, but not hard to figure out. A bit more complicated, but instead of faxing send in an encrypted email (maybe average joe doesn't know how to do it, so hire a CS major from the local college to show you how). You could setup a proxy, takes a bit of knowledge, but a friend offered to setup one for me when I was there. You could probably use TOR which is a free program from the EFF and redirects web traffic through many computers so it is not easy to see where it is coming from or going to. Or finally the most likely - use VPN possibly combined with VNC. My understanding is basically all major companies have VPN setup (a way to securely join the company's network when out of the office), even the 100 person company I worked for used VPN (which was setup and maintained by one person). Plus I would think journalists need a way to securely submit their articles without government oversight or having them stolen. If just VPN is not enough then run a program like VNC or windows remote desktop (which comes with windows) that allows you to control another computer so instead of sending a website it is sending screen images and over an encrypted connection thanks to VPN.
Sorry, didn't mean to dig into the technical quite so much, but wanted to make it clear that any international journalist, especially if connected to a major news organization, should have no problem getting to anything on the web. So I say stop your fake whinnying and write about a real problem - perhaps all the Chinese people who really are not able to get to these websites.
Paul Reubens
Back when I was about 10 (for once that's actually the correct age) Pee-wee Herman got arrested for "dropping his pants" in a movie theater. Or so everyone put it. Being 10 I figured that was literally what happened (I took it so literally I thought he still had his underwear on). At some point kids realized that it was at an adult theater which made it seem a bit more justifiable. I haven't thought about Pee-wee Herman many times since then, but as I got older I figured that Pee-wee dropping his pants was clearly wrong, but didn't seem to match the amount of talk about it and backlash against him. The part that is embarrassing for me, is it is not until tonight, after seeing him in a small role, that it occurred to me that "dropping his pants" was a euphemism. The doubly embarrassing part is that even after having the epiphany the dropping his pants story was so ingrained that I had to look it up to be sure (thanks wikipedia for covering every question a person could possibly have).
Here's a crazy fact: the father of the guy who plays Pee-wee Herman flew for the British in WWII and was one of the founding pilots of the Israeli Air Force.
Here's a crazy fact: the father of the guy who plays Pee-wee Herman flew for the British in WWII and was one of the founding pilots of the Israeli Air Force.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
(50-3)^2
I was at the AT&T store yesterday thinking I was going to get an iPhone (turns out I could order one and get it in a few weeks - no thanks - if the gratification isn't instant I don't want any part of it). There were a few kids in the store playing with the iPhones on display. I think they were about 10, but I think all kids are about 10 (if you ever listen to my childhood stories you'll realize that I think half my life occurred during that one year). One of them decided that the most interesting thing to do with the iPhone was to type math problems into its calculator and then see if the other kids could get the right answer. While I wanted to play with the iPhone (although I'm a bit ashamed that I would have been using it to watch TV) I liked that the kid was doing math and doing the problems in my head provided entertainment while I waited to be disappointed by the lack of iPhones.
At one point the kid asked his mom - what is 47 times 47 and she responded 10,000 clearly just brushing off the question. To her credit - she was at a cell phone store with her kids - I think if you make it through that without going on a murderous rampage you've done good (I think that counts even without the kids). But I was so tempted to tell the kid how to do the problem. (instead of doing 47*47 do (50-3)^2 which is then just three easy problems: 50*50, 2*50*3, and 3*3 then subtract and add) but I figured that would not have been appreciated. But don't you think that in the interest of teaching a kid math most normal social rules should be suspended?
I convinced myself that I wrote this as just an amusing story since I haven't posted in a bit and as a question about societal rules. But I'm afraid it is really just a way to release a pent up need to tell someone how to easily square 47, which really isn't that satisfying considering that many of you know as much or more math than I do.
At one point the kid asked his mom - what is 47 times 47 and she responded 10,000 clearly just brushing off the question. To her credit - she was at a cell phone store with her kids - I think if you make it through that without going on a murderous rampage you've done good (I think that counts even without the kids). But I was so tempted to tell the kid how to do the problem. (instead of doing 47*47 do (50-3)^2 which is then just three easy problems: 50*50, 2*50*3, and 3*3 then subtract and add) but I figured that would not have been appreciated. But don't you think that in the interest of teaching a kid math most normal social rules should be suspended?
I convinced myself that I wrote this as just an amusing story since I haven't posted in a bit and as a question about societal rules. But I'm afraid it is really just a way to release a pent up need to tell someone how to easily square 47, which really isn't that satisfying considering that many of you know as much or more math than I do.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Ohlone Backpacking
Friday afternoon I took off from work and headed out to the hills in the east bay with three others and didn't return home till Sunday night. We covered 19.4 miles with a total elevation gain/loss of 6,988/6,517 ft which peaked at 3,817 ft where there was a 360 degree view. We went from Sunol Regional Wilderness to Del Valle. I learned that uphill hurts the muscles and down hill hurts the knees and ankles and it all hurts the feet. It was an international crowd so there was cursing in several languages going on. Ok, I'll skip the rest of the complaining and get to the good part.
Well the best part was the lunch time naps. Although meeting people and seeing some great views was nice too. The area we were hiking was also a cattle grazing area so there were some groups of cows to watch (downside - cow crap everywhere - upside - I smelled so bad I didn't really notice the cow crap smell). And I got some pictures from the peak which had a log book that we signed. For the rest of the pictures go here.
Well the best part was the lunch time naps. Although meeting people and seeing some great views was nice too. The area we were hiking was also a cattle grazing area so there were some groups of cows to watch (downside - cow crap everywhere - upside - I smelled so bad I didn't really notice the cow crap smell). And I got some pictures from the peak which had a log book that we signed. For the rest of the pictures go here.
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