After seeing this headline I figured I'd explain a little about what happened to Cheney (no he did not have his "heart battery" replaced - blocks of ice don't require batteries). Although, first I have to share my favorite take on the situation.
Implantable defibrillators (ICDs) and pacemakers come in two pieces - the can and the electrode. The electrode is the wire which in traditional devices go though a vein into the heart. The can in a tradition device sits under the skin near the top of the chest. The battery is incorporated in the can along with all of the electronics. When the battery runs down (typically indicated by the device beeping at some interval) the entire can is replaced. Both because once you open the can you don't want to seal it up again and re-implant it and because after 6 years it's good to upgrade to the latest model.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Vegas and Car Fire
Over the weekend I headed to Vegas for my class's pi reunion (3.14159265 years since graduation). It was a lot of fun - thanks to those who organized it and read this. It was good to see people I don't see much any more and even though there were a lot of people I didn't know it was nice to hang out in a crowd of MIT students again. It was also interesting to see the group of people in a different environment. And it was nice to see that I'm not the only person who has gotten old and can't stay up late anymore or eat as much.
Not that my life is in significant flux, but in the three years since undergrad I've lived three different places and had three different jobs (if you count grad school as a job). While there were some people who have settled into grad school or jobs, it was good to see that plenty of other people are also still bouncing around.
We stayed at the Wynn which was very nice. It was super hot in Las Vegas (on Saturday I was in a swimming pool, in the shade, and was still warm). Saw Cirque du Soleil's Mystere which was very cool and very weird. Won $7 playing video blackjack. And ate plenty of buffet food.
The drive out wasn't bad at all. But on the drive back we hit some serious traffic. Then on the final stretch of the ride things slowed down and there were flares blocking the right most lane because there was a car on fire! I'm talking beginning of Scrubs season 4 on fire (just before they get scooters), with three guys standing about 10 feet away watching the car burn.
Not that my life is in significant flux, but in the three years since undergrad I've lived three different places and had three different jobs (if you count grad school as a job). While there were some people who have settled into grad school or jobs, it was good to see that plenty of other people are also still bouncing around.
We stayed at the Wynn which was very nice. It was super hot in Las Vegas (on Saturday I was in a swimming pool, in the shade, and was still warm). Saw Cirque du Soleil's Mystere which was very cool and very weird. Won $7 playing video blackjack. And ate plenty of buffet food.
The drive out wasn't bad at all. But on the drive back we hit some serious traffic. Then on the final stretch of the ride things slowed down and there were flares blocking the right most lane because there was a car on fire! I'm talking beginning of Scrubs season 4 on fire (just before they get scooters), with three guys standing about 10 feet away watching the car burn.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Taoism
Well, if you've been following my reading pattern it is probably no surprise to see that Taoism by Jennifer Oldstone-Moore was up next. First thing I learned - Taosim and Daoism are the same thing.
I was going to say something about Taoism being to Confucianism as Kabbalah is to Judaism, but then I realized that I actually know less about Kabbalah than Taoism. Anyway, Taoism and Confucianism have the same base of ideas, but Taoism goes more into mysticism.
The Tao is "the way" and is the force that brought the world into existence. It's not a god, but rather a force (there are plenty of other gods - I think somewhere between Confucianism and Shinto for number of types of gods). People are not supposed to go against the Tao. Yin-Yang and Qi (Chi) are both key concepts in Taoism. Feng-Shui is also involved in Taoism.
The more mystical side of Taoism is that it involves searching for immortality through several means, one of which is alchemy (it is interesting the alchemy in the Neal Stephenson series I just finished is much closer to that of Taoism than what I would normally think of alchemy). Apparently gun powder was discovered in Taoist pursuit of immortality as well as several other scientific advancements. Also if you need an exorcism a Taoist priest is the way to go.
I was going to say something about Taoism being to Confucianism as Kabbalah is to Judaism, but then I realized that I actually know less about Kabbalah than Taoism. Anyway, Taoism and Confucianism have the same base of ideas, but Taoism goes more into mysticism.
The Tao is "the way" and is the force that brought the world into existence. It's not a god, but rather a force (there are plenty of other gods - I think somewhere between Confucianism and Shinto for number of types of gods). People are not supposed to go against the Tao. Yin-Yang and Qi (Chi) are both key concepts in Taoism. Feng-Shui is also involved in Taoism.
The more mystical side of Taoism is that it involves searching for immortality through several means, one of which is alchemy (it is interesting the alchemy in the Neal Stephenson series I just finished is much closer to that of Taoism than what I would normally think of alchemy). Apparently gun powder was discovered in Taoist pursuit of immortality as well as several other scientific advancements. Also if you need an exorcism a Taoist priest is the way to go.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Confucianism
Just finished Confucianism by Jennifer Oldstone-Moore. I know that Confucianism and Shinto influenced each other, and I'm reading fairly brief descriptions of the religions, but they seem to have a lot of similarities. Although Shinto does have way more types of spirits.
Confucianism seems to have a somewhat unusual story since a lot of it was established long before Confucius came around. It seems like a lot of the spiritual side was already established as well as some of the social theory. Then Confucius promoted a view of government and family relationships and all together it became Confucianism (Confucius was not actually that into talking about the spiritual side). On the spiritual side, spirits are dead ancestors and the spirit world in many ways mirrors the living world and the two interact. The concept of yin-yang comes from Confucianism as well as qi (chi). And the book didn't talk about it much, but divination is also somewhere in there. On the social side, families and the government are supposed to have well defined roles. Children are supposed to be respectful of their parents. Parents are supposed to educate their children and be compassionate. The role between the government and the people is supposed to be a lot like the role between parents and children. Part of the tradition is exams to determine who gets government jobs. Like most religions some of the ideas sound great (promoting education for everyone and compassionate government), but some aren't so hot (very unequal gender roles and obedience to a monarchy).
The connection between the emperor to the spirit world is a lot stronger than for others and there are a lot of rituals that only the emperor could perform. I think that a lot of the big tourist sites in China are Confucian temples where the emperor would perform ceremonies.
Confucianism seems to have a somewhat unusual story since a lot of it was established long before Confucius came around. It seems like a lot of the spiritual side was already established as well as some of the social theory. Then Confucius promoted a view of government and family relationships and all together it became Confucianism (Confucius was not actually that into talking about the spiritual side). On the spiritual side, spirits are dead ancestors and the spirit world in many ways mirrors the living world and the two interact. The concept of yin-yang comes from Confucianism as well as qi (chi). And the book didn't talk about it much, but divination is also somewhere in there. On the social side, families and the government are supposed to have well defined roles. Children are supposed to be respectful of their parents. Parents are supposed to educate their children and be compassionate. The role between the government and the people is supposed to be a lot like the role between parents and children. Part of the tradition is exams to determine who gets government jobs. Like most religions some of the ideas sound great (promoting education for everyone and compassionate government), but some aren't so hot (very unequal gender roles and obedience to a monarchy).
The connection between the emperor to the spirit world is a lot stronger than for others and there are a lot of rituals that only the emperor could perform. I think that a lot of the big tourist sites in China are Confucian temples where the emperor would perform ceremonies.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
HP
Since both of the comments on my last post talked about Harry Potter I figured I'd share my "Harry Potter situation" and an observation. Also note that in this post I compare HP to LOTR. I am in no way trying to say one is better than the other. LOTR is just a good comparison point as a long fantasy series that was recently turned into films.
I've seen all of the Harry Potter movies (the early ones multiple times). I listened to most of book 5 on tape while in Bar Harbor. At one point (sometime around when movie 3 came out) I started reading book 1 at the Harvard Coop. I'm not someone who typically re-reads a book (LOTR is a rare exception, but the gap was about 10 years) and already knowing the major points from the movie I was having trouble getting into it (I realize it wasn't a fair try since Harry hadn't even gotten to Hogwarts so I may give it another try at some point). And I was told the major plot points of book 6 (I'm almost tempted to contact that person to find out what happens in book 7 since she's probably done by now).
I like all the movies, but the last two seemed like they were rushing to hit the major plot points and unable to spend time on the character and background development that the other movies were able to capture (yeah, I think I stole this theory from someone else, but I'm going with it). I know hardcore Harry fans think that all of the movies had left out major details and I didn't know if listening to book 5 was throwing off my opinion so I decided to look at just how rushed the movies were.
I think it is fairly clear that the movies were trying to pack a reasonable amount in at the beginning, but the last two have been trying to fit in way more book per minute. And the first few books were about in line with LOTR's page/minute rate. Given the length of books 6 and 7 I hope they consider making longer movies or even splitting them into multiple movies (or I guess I could just break down and read the books rather than depending on film makers to cover all the details).
Final thoughts - I enjoyed the fight scene between Dumbledore and Voldemort although I spent a lot of it wondering when Harry was going to get up and do something useful (although when Dumbledore tossed him on his ass with a flick of the wrist I realized he was way out of his league). Perhaps someone knows the answer to this - for the kids it seems like a major portion of spell casting is saying the right word, but adults don't seem to have to say anything to cast spells. What's up with that?
I've seen all of the Harry Potter movies (the early ones multiple times). I listened to most of book 5 on tape while in Bar Harbor. At one point (sometime around when movie 3 came out) I started reading book 1 at the Harvard Coop. I'm not someone who typically re-reads a book (LOTR is a rare exception, but the gap was about 10 years) and already knowing the major points from the movie I was having trouble getting into it (I realize it wasn't a fair try since Harry hadn't even gotten to Hogwarts so I may give it another try at some point). And I was told the major plot points of book 6 (I'm almost tempted to contact that person to find out what happens in book 7 since she's probably done by now).
I like all the movies, but the last two seemed like they were rushing to hit the major plot points and unable to spend time on the character and background development that the other movies were able to capture (yeah, I think I stole this theory from someone else, but I'm going with it). I know hardcore Harry fans think that all of the movies had left out major details and I didn't know if listening to book 5 was throwing off my opinion so I decided to look at just how rushed the movies were.
| Name | Book [pages] | Film [minutes] | Book/Film [pages/minute] |
| LOTR | 1200 | 558 | 2.15 |
| LOTR DVD | 1200 | 682 | 1.76 |
| HP 1 | 309 | 152 | 2.03 |
| HP 2 | 256 | 161 | 1.59 |
| HP 3 | 320 | 141 | 2.27 |
| HP 4 | 752 | 157 | 4.79 |
| HP 5 | 870 | 138 | 6.30 |
I think it is fairly clear that the movies were trying to pack a reasonable amount in at the beginning, but the last two have been trying to fit in way more book per minute. And the first few books were about in line with LOTR's page/minute rate. Given the length of books 6 and 7 I hope they consider making longer movies or even splitting them into multiple movies (or I guess I could just break down and read the books rather than depending on film makers to cover all the details).
Final thoughts - I enjoyed the fight scene between Dumbledore and Voldemort although I spent a lot of it wondering when Harry was going to get up and do something useful (although when Dumbledore tossed him on his ass with a flick of the wrist I realized he was way out of his league). Perhaps someone knows the answer to this - for the kids it seems like a major portion of spell casting is saying the right word, but adults don't seem to have to say anything to cast spells. What's up with that?
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