tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87406612054126541902024-03-14T01:46:49.973-04:00AgraphiaAdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.comBlogger262125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-57123326055730948182008-08-30T10:11:00.002-04:002008-08-30T10:11:40.989-04:00Popping Kernels with Cell PhonesI have no idea how this is done, but I am eager to try it myself.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kAd0aWxs7kQ&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kAd0aWxs7kQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-70413435400047675552008-08-19T18:23:00.004-04:002008-08-19T20:02:01.874-04:00Lazy Summer DaysI truly have a hard time finding the motivation to post regularly on this blog. My hope was that it would encourage me to express my thoughts more effortlessly and improve my unrefined writing style, but thus far neither objective seems to have been achieved. Perhaps if I were to get in the habit of writing regularly I would find the flow of thought to arrive much more readily, cause at the moment it feels as though I have a logjam of thoughts that have built up unexpressed.<br /><br />I've been reading a fair amount lately. Just finished Ron Suskind's book "The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism." Overall I thought it was a good book. I particularly liked the way he uses individual characters to demonstrate how US foreign policy (the decisions of the few) can directly affect and in some instances afflict the lives of the many. Which is why we should be deeply concerned when the pretenses that our FP decisions are made on are, or in this case, later found to be, false. This is of course what is causing the most buzz in the media, but I think the underlying message of the book, of overcoming cultural boundaries and ideological differences, finding human and humane solutions between different people and citizens, should not be lost to the more immediate reaction of anger and general frustration that many feel towards how the Bush administration has completely and utterly disgraced and disregarded the values and principles that America was founded upon. It is sad that this administration continues to be incapable of accepting responsibility, admitting failures and past mistakes, and just being honest with the American people.<br /><br />But politics aside, in the end Suskind's book offers a brief glimmer of hope. While his book may not answer all of the problems in the world, it at least attempts to start a global conversation.<br /><br />It invokes the thought that perhaps we the people really can overcome these cultural clashes of differing world views and prescribed life-styles, if we simply engage in an ongoing dialogue based upon mutual understanding, respect, and most of all, tolerance.<br /><br />It doesn't take a genius after all to realize that only when we put down our guns and open up our ears, our mouths, our hearts and our minds to one another will we finally enjoy lasting peace.AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-86657430087278297162008-07-31T21:04:00.002-04:002008-07-31T21:06:29.287-04:00The Wearable Dog ToiletI had to go in for surgery today and now Im laid up in bed, seriously considering buying this for myself:<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wUbVjIswSbg&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wUbVjIswSbg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object>AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-61443845514975248662008-07-30T16:53:00.010-04:002008-07-30T17:40:06.402-04:00My Brain Made Me Do ItI just came across this interesting discussion on the implications of neuroscience on policy and law held at the Institute of Ideas in London, which I recommend checking out (in particular chapters two, six, and seven).<br /><br /><!--[if IE]><br /> <object width="430" height="284" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" quality="high" id="W484573217c08a2f7"><br /> <param value="http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/48233d8496b41f26/484573217c08a2f7/48233d8496b41f26/8af8c27f/sViewClip/1771/sWebHost/fora.tv" name="movie"><br /><![endif]--><br /><!--[if !IE]><!--><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" id="W484573217c08a2f7" data="http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/48233d8496b41f26/484573217c08a2f7/48233d8496b41f26/8af8c27f/sViewClip/1771/sWebHost/fora.tv" height="284" width="430"><br /><!--<![endif]--><br /><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><br /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><br /><param name="allowNetworking" value="all"><br /></object><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/48233d8496b41f26/484573217c08a2f7/48233d8496b41f26/8af8c27f/sViewClip/1771/sWebHost/fora.tv/widget.js"></script><br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Tallis">Raymond Tallis</a> opens the floor with what I think was a pretty fair rebuke of those 'who wish to blame their brains for their misdemeaners' using the recent research in neuroscience as proof. Tallis argues that this research does not answer philosophical questions pertaining to free will or legal questions about the allocation of blame. Moreover, Tallis continues on a more philosophical tact, 'if you wish to blame your brain for bad behavior, why stop there'? Since the brain is a physical entity it is therefore wired into nature and thus one could go so far as to say "the big bang made me do it".<br /><br />I think Tallis makes good points. Previously I had been under the sway of 'well, we might as well hold criminals accountable for their actions, regardless of the free-will question and the obvious failures of our justice system, because it just might have a minor effect on their decision to commit or not commit a socially unaccepted offense or crime. An effect, however small, nevertheless beneficial'. But Tallis and Magistretti have helped clarify the personal responsibility stance for me. Holding people accountable for their brain's decisions is thus potentially beneficial (behavior modifying) and intellectually justifiable (at least until I'm swayed otherwise).<br /><br />Anyways check out the vid. In chapter 6 there's some brief commentary on Benjamin Libet's interesting work, as well as some of the philosophical thought dilemma's such as the '<a href="http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/%7Ejgreene/">trolley problem</a>'.<br /><br />Feel free to share your thoughts on this topic in the comments section below.AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-47645221639490460772008-07-29T10:29:00.001-04:002008-07-29T10:29:47.566-04:00Falling Slowly - Glen HansardTodays song of the day. Enjoy!<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CoSL_qayMCc&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CoSL_qayMCc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-58283363759636626772008-07-27T20:13:00.005-04:002008-07-27T20:20:56.982-04:00Adam K - Coconut SkinsTodays song of the day, is me covering a Damien Rice song:<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qkm-60un5gM&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qkm-60un5gM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />(My voice cracks at one part and I fuck up a few times on guitar, but I'm too lazy to rerecord it and it also takes way too long to upload vids on youtube, so endure and hopefully enjoy.)AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-80382658218107495452008-07-26T12:41:00.003-04:002008-07-26T13:07:12.822-04:00Congressional Hearings on Executive Power: To Impeach or Not to ImpeachYesterday I tuned in and out of the <a href="http://www.c-span.org/search.aspx?For=executive%20power">House Judiciary Hearing</a> on the limitation of executive power. Summary: long, partisan, and unproductive. Bush has clearly flouted many of our constitutional laws, continues to circumvent congress on a number of national security issues, but so far as I can tell he has not committed an impeachable offense.<br /><br />Bruce Fein (who was perhaps the most impassioned witness at the hearing) did a diavlog with Firedoglake blogger Jane Hamsher on <a href="http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/13038">bloggingheads.tv</a> recently where he overviews the President et al's crimes and why they should be impeached. Fein explains why the war on terror does not or at least should not classify as a true war by way of <a href="http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/13038?in=00:28:14">analogy</a>, <a href="http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/13038?in=00:22:04">shares</a> his hypothesis as to why the American public doesn't care, and <a href="http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/13038?in=00:46:46">proposes</a> that we return to a constitutional government.<br /><br />Also Rush Holt had a piece over at TPM cafe, though it seemed to gloss over much of the legal controversies.<blockquote><br /><i>Much of the news and discussion about this surveillance legislation has to do with immunity from lawsuits for telecommunications companies that may have followed the President's request and overstepped the law. Generally, I believe that people and corporations should be held responsible for their actions. More important, though, is the other part of this legislation that would set the law for surveillance in the future.</i> <p><i>Any change to FISA must strengthen our ability to gather reliable, verifiable, and actionable intelligence on real enemies versus imagined or assumed enemies. I am not aware of any historical examples where a "fishing expedition" approach to intelligence collection has made our country safer. To the contrary, fishing expeditions are sloppy intelligence. There is an age-old principle used to avoid imagining someone is an enemy or a danger to society. The people who would seize persons, papers, and communications are not the same people who determine that the target should be suspect. A court considers the particular facts and then issues a particular search warrant. Neither police, nor intelligence agents should decide who is suspect. It is an important principle that is part of what makes the United States of America what it is: the government does not regard any American with suspicion first. Only after a due process is a person treated with suspicion. No individual, no class, no religion, no immigrant is lesser in the eyes of the government.</i></p></blockquote><p><i></i></p>One of the commenters had a pretty succinct post below the article where he/she writes:<br /><blockquote><br /><i>With respect, any bill that is debated that includes retroactive immunity for telecoms make a mockery of our laws, our Constitution and our values and so everything else you have to say is really academic and serves only as a distraction. That is the issue and it is an easy call. I am horrified and outraged that the bill is even being allowed on the floor of the house for one minute let alone being debated! It is an abomination, a sellout, and yet another examply of the pathetic cowardice of the Democratic Party at a moment that demands courage. </i> <p><i>We, the people, understand quite clearly that this administration (with Democrats aiding and abetting at every step of the way) has trampled our Constitution and used "fighting terror" as the cover story and excuse for it. Time and again have Democrats capitulated in the face of the intimidation and lies of that pack of criminals running the White House and the Republican Party. Democrats did so when authorizing the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq which is itself a Crime Against Peace--the worst of all war crimes! Democrats have done so repeatedly during the reign of terror presided over by Bush and his henchmen. </i></p> <p><i>But the sad truth is that at almost every turn, the Democrats could have stood in the way of tyranny and the destruction of our most cherished Constitution. Frankly, I don't give a damn about the rest of the details of the bill you and your colleagues will debate tomorrow. If it contains retroactive immunity for telecoms in any form whatsoever it is an affront to respect for the laws and Constitution of the United States and no Democrat with any spine at all should be caught dead supporting it. We Democrats are supposed to believe in the rule of law! Giving the wealthy, powerful corporations yet another way to avoid responsibility for their criminal actions is reprehensible to say the least.</i></p> <p><i>You make some good points here, but it is all beside the point if once again the Democrats demonstrate how weak and craven and calculating they are. I am so disgusted with Pelosi, Hoyer, Reid and Rockefeller that I can't even put into words how I loathe them and their failure to stand up to that criminal tyrant Bush! </i></p> <p><i>This is not a close call Congressman. You don't need to read what the "compromise" language is in the bill. The bill is a total and complete capitulation. It is a disgrace! Don't dance on this: oppose it. It is the right thing to do for America. If you or any Democrat votes for this bill it will constitute an open and willing failure to uphold your oath to defend the laws and Constitution of the United States.</i></p></blockquote><p><i></i></p><a href="http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/19/congress_on_friday_will_debate/#more">Link</a>.AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-45894004736314676082008-07-26T12:39:00.002-04:002008-07-26T12:40:08.418-04:00Big Spanish CastleI just came across <a href="http://www.johnsadowski.com/big_spanish_castle.php">this</a> cool optical illusion today. Enjoy.AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-34490931118241610442008-07-26T12:08:00.007-04:002008-07-26T12:35:35.134-04:00Brain MagicMagician Keith Barry, who has made a number of appearances on various tv shows, recently did a performance at TED, in which he show-cased a number of cool 'mindreading' and 'mind-control/misdirection' tricks.<br /><br /><!--cut and paste--><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="VE_Player" align="middle" height="285" width="432"><param name="movie"value="http://static.videoegg.com/ted2/flash/loader.swf"><param name="FlashVars" value="bgColor=FFFFFF&file=http://static.videoegg.com/ted/movies/KeithBarry_2004-embed-[None]_high.flv&autoPlay=false&fullscreenURL=http://static.videoegg.com/ted/flash/fullscreen.html&forcePlay=false&logo=&allowFullscreen=true"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"><param name="scale" value="noscale"><param name="wmode" value="window"><embed src="http://static.videoegg.com/ted2/flash/loader.swf" flashvars="bgColor=FFFFFF&file=http://static.videoegg.com/ted/movies/KeithBarry_2004-embed-[None]_high.flv&autoPlay=false&fullscreenURL=http://static.videoegg.com/ted/flash/fullscreen.html&forcePlay=false&logo=&allowFullscreen=true" quality="high" allowscriptaccess="always" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" scale="noscale" wmode="window" name="VE_Player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" align="middle" height="285" width="432"></embed></object><br /><br />A number of psychologists and philosophers have started looking into these cognitive tricks to gain insight into the workings of the mind and have produced a pretty interesting body of literature (I just hope they're not putting magicians out of their jobs).<br /><br />When I took theory of mind last year we read a good article by Dennet, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/explainingmagic.pdf%20">Explaining the Magic of Consciousness</a>, which was a rather valiant attempt by Dennet to dismantle or you could say dethrone Chalmers' so called hard problem of subjectivity. In the article Dennet uses a famous trick by Ralph Hull called 'the Tuned Deck' to demonstrate how words themselves can often mislead our minds.<br /><blockquote><br />The tempting idea that there is a Hard Problem is simply a mistake. I cannot prove this. Or, better, even if I can prove this, my proof will surely fall on deaf ears, since CHALMERS, for instance, has already acknowledged that arguments against his convictions on this score are powerless to dislodge his intuition, which is beyond rational support. So I will not make the tactical error of trying to dislodge with rational argument a conviction that is beyond reason. That would be wasting everybody's time, apparently. Instead, I will offer up what I hope is a disturbing parallel from the world of card magic: The Tuned Deck.<br /><br />For many years, Mr. Ralph Hull, the famous card wizard from Crooksville, Ohio, has completely bewildered not only the general public, but also amateur conjurors, card connoisseurs and professional magicians with the series of card tricks which he is pleased to call "The Tuned Deck"...<br /><br />Ralph Hull's trick looks and sounds roughly like this:<br /><br />Boys, I have a new trick to show you. It's called 'The Tuned Deck'. This deck of cards is magically tuned [Hull holds the deck to his ear and riffles the cards, listening carefully to the buzz of the cards]. By their finely tuned vibrations, I can hear and feel the location of any card. Pick a card, any card... [The deck is then fanned or otherwise offered for the audience, and a card is taken by a spectator, noted, and returned to the deck by one route or another.] Now I listen to the Tuned Deck, and what does it tell me? I hear the telltale vibrations, ... [buzz, buzz, the cards are riffled by Hull's ear and various manipulations and rituals are enacted, after which, with a flourish, the spectator's card is presented].<br /><br />Hull would perform the trick over and over for the benefit of his select audience of fellow magicians, challenging them to figure it out. Nobody ever did. Magicians offered to buy the trick from him but he would not sell it. Late in his life he gave his account to his friend, HILLIARD, who published the account in his privately printed book. Here is what Hull had to say about his trick:<br /><br />For years I have performed this effect and have shown it to magicians and amateurs by the hundred and, to the very best of my knowledge, not one of them ever figured out the secret. ...the boys have all looked for something too hard [my italics, DCD].<br /><br />Like much great magic, the trick is over before you even realize the trick has begun. The trick, in its entirety, is in the name of the trick, "The Tuned Deck", and more specifically, in one word "The"! As soon as Hull had announced his new trick and given its name to his eager audience, the trick was over. Having set up his audience in this simple way, and having passed the time with some obviously phony and misdirecting chatter about vibrations and buzz-buzz-buzz, Hull would do a relatively simple and familiar card presentation trick of type A (at this point I will draw the traditional curtain of secrecy; the further mechanical details of legerdemain, as you will see, do not matter).<br /><br />His audience, savvy magicians, would see that he might possibly be performing a type A trick, a hypothesis they could test by being stubborn and uncooperative spectators in a way that would thwart any attempt at a type A trick. When they then adopted the appropriate recalcitrance to test the hypothesis, Hull would 'repeat' the trick, this time executing a type B card presentation trick. The spectators would then huddle and compare notes: might he be doing a type B trick? They test that hypothesis by adopting the recalcitrance appropriate to preventing a type B trick and still he does "the" trick - using method C, of course. When they test the hypothesis that he's pulling a type C trick on them, he switches to method D - or perhaps he goes back to method A or B, since his audience has 'refuted' the hypothesis that he's using method A or B.<br /><br />And so it would go, for dozens of repetitions, with Hull staying one step ahead of his hypothesis-testers, exploiting his realization that he could always do some trick or other from the pool of tricks they all knew, and concealing the fact that he was doing a grab bag of different tricks by the simple expedient of the definite article: The Tuned Deck.<br /><br />I am suggesting, then, that David Chalmers has (unintentionally) perpetrated the same feat of conceptual sleight-of-hand in declaring to the world that he has discovered “The Hard Problem”. Is there really a Hard Problem? Or is what appears to be the Hard Problem simply the large bag of tricks that constitute what Chalmers calls the Easy Problems of Consciousness? These all have mundane explanations, requiring no revolutions in physics, no emergent novelties. They succumb, with much effort, to the standard methods of cognitive science. I cannot prove that there is no<br />Hard Problem, and Chalmers cannot prove that there is. He can appeal to your intuitions, but this is not a sound basis on which to found a science of consciousness. We have seen in the past – and I have given a few simple examples here – that we have a powerful tendency to inflate our inventory of “known effects” of consciousness, so we must be alert to the possibility that we are being victimized by an error of arithmetic, in effect, when we take ourselves to have added up all the Easy Problems and discovered a residue unaccounted for. That residue may already have been accommodated, without our realizing it, in the set of mundane phenomena for which we already have explanations – or at least unmysterious paths of explanation still to be explored.<br /><br />The “magic” of consciousness, like stage magic, defies explanation only so long as we take it at face value. Once we appreciate all the non-mysterious ways in which the brain can create benign “user-illusions”, we can begin to imagine how the brain creates consciousness.</blockquote>AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-81294793924821411812008-07-26T11:51:00.002-04:002008-07-26T11:54:11.002-04:00Argument to Beethoven's 5thI thought this was pretty creative:<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EEhF-7suDsM&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EEhF-7suDsM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object>AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-56808700971244717302008-07-26T11:37:00.001-04:002008-07-26T11:38:34.404-04:00The Zutons - ValerieTodays <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkYtU8i1TPk">song</a> of the day. Enjoy!AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-19903353847999212562008-07-26T00:22:00.004-04:002008-07-26T00:49:11.261-04:00Back to BloggingAfter receiving millions of requests to return to blogging and occasional death threats if I don't, I suppose it is time to announce that my summer hiatus is officially ended. Im back!<br /><br />Now I know many of you missed me, so I will try to make it up to you by posting as frequently as possible--at least sometime in the coming weeks, I promise.<br /><br />In the meantime here are some of the books that I've recently finished and recommend adding to your summer reading list:<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Occupation-Iraq-Winning-Losing-Peace/dp/0300110154"><br />The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace</a> - Ali Allawi<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Karamazov-Everymans-Library/dp/0679410031/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217046787&sr=1-4">The Brothers Karamazov </a>- Dostoevsky<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Complex-Societies-Studies-Archaeology/dp/052138673X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217046873&sr=1-1">Collapse of Complex Societies</a> - Joseph Tainter<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0393061310/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217046928&sr=1-1">Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Penguin-Press-Science-Diamond/dp/0140279512/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217046967&sr=1-1">Collapse</a> - Jared Diamond<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Penguin-Press-Science-Diamond/dp/0140279512/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217046967&sr=1-1"><br />The Ingenuity Gap: Facing the Economic, Environmental, and Other Challenges of an Increasingly Complex and Unpredictable Future</a> - Thomas Homer-Dixon<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Afraid-Schr%C3%B6dingers-Guide-Science-Thinking/dp/0688161073">Who's Afraid of Schodinger's Cat</a> - John Marshall and Danah Zohar<br /><br /><br />Currently reading:<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/This-Biology-Science-Living-World/dp/0674884698/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217047307&sr=1-1"><br />This is Biology: The Science of the Living World</a> - Ernst Mayr<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Postwar-History-Europe-Since-1945/dp/0143037757/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217047338&sr=1-1">PostWar: A History of Europe since 1945</a> - Tony Judt<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Modernity-Debate-Jack-Goody/dp/0745631916/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217047371&sr=1-1">Capitalism and Modernity</a> - Jack Goody<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Life-Matter-Autobiographical-Sketches/dp/0521427088/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217047395&sr=1-1">What is Life?</a> - Erwin Schrodinger<br /><br />Enjoy.AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-48843529718464513872008-05-18T17:09:00.000-04:002008-05-18T17:10:25.213-04:00When The Roses Bloom Again - WilcoTodays song of the day. Enjoy!<br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GqjTckG6qjA&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GqjTckG6qjA&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-21997950681154239162008-05-07T09:44:00.005-04:002008-05-07T10:12:48.217-04:00The Kentucky Derby: An Ominous Portent for Hillary Clinton?Well after staying up late last night watching the results come in from the Lake County district of Indiana it seems the Kentucky Derby allegory is becoming more than metaphorical.<br /><br />For all those who did not watch/are not familiar with the Kentucky Derby all you need to know is that a female horse, named eight belles, entered the race (not the usual sex of steed) and the day before the race Hillary, sharing a common sisterhood with the horse, decided to put money on her.<br /><br />So the next day at the race Eight Belles ran an incredible race, came from behind, and ended up crossing the line in second place, behind Big Brown, a less experienced horse, who many said should not be in the race. Sadly, Eight Belles had to be euthanized because she broke both her ankles.<br /><br />In other words, the best race that Eight Belles ever ran, would be the one that killed her.<br /><br /><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/sn/20080506/sp_sn/deathofeightbellescloudsbigbrownskentuckyderbywin">Link</a>.AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-68601230162504337112008-04-29T21:10:00.004-04:002008-04-30T17:21:33.343-04:00Thought of the DaySo today I found Kierkegaard. I've only read a few of his journal entries thus far, but one of them in particular spoke acutely to where I am right now (excluding the Gods will and Christianity references, but replace that with life and it pretty much sums up my current existential crises).<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">What I really need is to get clear about </span><i style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">what I am to do</i><span style="font-style: italic;">, not what I must know, except insofar as knowledge must precede every act. What matters is to find my purpose, to see what it really is that God wills that I shall do; the crucial thing is to find a truth that is truth for me, <span style="font-weight: bold;">to find </span></span><i style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">the idea for which I am willing to live and die</i><span style="font-style: italic;">. Of what use would it be to me to discover a so called objective truth, to work through the philosophical systems so that I could, if asked, make critical judgments about them, could point out the fallacies in each system; of what use would it be to me to be able to develop a theory of the state, getting details from various sources and combining them into a whole, and constructing a world I did not live in but merely held up for others to see; of what use would it be to me to be able to formulate the meaning of Christianity, to be able to explain many specific points--if it had no deeper meaning for me and for my life? </span><br /><br /><br />Currently my answer to the question <i>what am I to do</i> is: learn. But then if learning is the only thing I can believe in, the only thing I feel worthwhile, my fear is that, since <span style="font-style: italic;">living</span> life doesn't appeal to me as much as <span style="font-style: italic;">understanding</span> life, by the time I get to be old and gray, I may be wise, but I won't have lived in a meaningful sense, in a purposeful sense, because I haven't found an idea, belief, illusion, whatever to live for.AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-27011849416337810752008-04-28T19:33:00.000-04:002008-04-28T19:35:31.215-04:00Dear...<a href="http://www.radarmagazine.com/from-the-magazine/2008/04/letter_to_charles_manson_richard_ramirez_ted_kacyinski_bill.php">Via RadarMagazine</a>:<br /><blockquote>In the late '90s, pop-culture historian Bill Geerhart had a little too much time on his hands and a surfeit of stamps. So, for his own entertainment, the then-unemployed thirtysomething launched a letter-writing campaign to some of the most powerful and infamous figures in the country, posing as a curious 10-year-old named Billy.<br /><br />To his surprise, replies soon started pouring in. Everyone from Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld (on tree-fort diplomacy) to Oprah Winfrey, Mister Rogers, Janet Reno, and members of the Supreme Court had words of wisdom for Billy. ("I like the Egg McMuffin," wrote Justice Clarence Thomas when asked about his favorite McDonald's food. "Actually, I like almost everything there.") Responding to Billy's idea for a "Hustler for kids," Larry Flynt wrote back encouraging the fourth grader to "Hang in there. You'll be 18 before you know it." As it turns out, no group hates to disappoint a child more than convicted killers, all of whom responded promptly to Billy's questions about dropping out of school.<br /><br />Their letters, published here for the first time, range from criminally insane to downright sensible, offering snapshots of the personalities behind some of America's most hideous crimes. Recently, Radar asked Billy to follow up with his mentors as a college student. (<a href="http://www.radarmagazine.com/from-the-magazine/2008/04/letter_to_charles_manson_richard_ramirez_ted_kacyinski_bill_5.php" target="_blank">Click here </a>to skip ahead and read Billy's correspondence with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Larry Flynt, and other non-murderous celebrities)<br /></blockquote>AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-78968827032579589762008-04-28T18:53:00.004-04:002008-04-28T19:08:00.447-04:00Thought of the DaySo I randomly picked up Beckers<em> Denial of Death</em> today in the library and came across this gem of a passage:<br /><br /><em>The tragedy of mans dualism, his ludicrous situation, becomes too real. The anus and its incomprehensible, repulsive product represents not only phsyical determinism and boundness, but the fate as well of all that is physical: decay and death.</em><br /><br />I cant wait to see whats in store as I continue reading. So far Ive had a number of good laughs, but perhaps I shouldnt be so mirthful, since we are all just victims of the ideas of our intellectual era. The ancient Greeks, after all, despite all their rational insightfulness and thoughtful thoroughness, believed that the heart was where thought took place and that the brain was merely a cooling device. And no one needs to be reminded of the state of the universe before Copernicus...<br /><br />Who knows what ideas and beliefs we hold, people in the future will laugh at us for.AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-11041493846038024922008-04-27T22:58:00.002-04:002008-04-28T13:27:42.863-04:00End O the YearWell exams are over, the school year has ended, and my scheduled date of departure for home is this Tuesday. I had planned on spending my summer driving vehicles for my dad, teaching summer school special ed, earning money, and learning Chinese in anticipation for my voyage over there come August, where I would be teaching English in Shenzhen for a full year, but this exciting prospect has unfortunately faded into dark oblivion. Due to the Olympics, applicants (ie me) who are applying for teaching programs in China are required to have an undergraduate degree (ie not me). When I was informed of this I was devastated.<br /><br />China was my warm, red, rescue beacon, the lucky break, adventure, change, that I had been waiting for and looking forward to. I had used the prospect of China to motivate myself to finish the year strong, after a semester of skipping classes, flunking tests, recklessness, drugs, despair, etc.<br /><br />It worked too. I pulled myself out of the tail spin of failure, got an A in one class, and B's in the rest. But now there's no reward, nothing earned, nothing gained, nothing to look forward to for my effort.<br /><br />I'm still planning on taking the year off, but I just have no concrete image of what I'll be doing. I'll probably go back to teaching autism again. Work for my dad. Maybe even find a job with state dept or the Smithsonian. The year off actually won't be that bad. I'll be able to indulge myself with subjects I want to learn about, not prescribed and required to read. I'll have some money in my pocket again. And Ill be able to escape to the woods and hills of Virginia again. Go kayaking, rock climbing, and hiking again. I have missed nature terribly since I moved to this city. The only escape is Mount Royal, which offers a serene view of the city skyline, but the park itself is too full of people, orderly, and welcoming. Its like central park, a quick escape from the hustle bustle of the city, but you still feel surrounded by it, an animal in a zoo cage. Its not the untamed wild of the wilderness.<br /><br />I also hope to refine my writing this summer, as it has become an odious and painful activity. Words still have an appeal to me, as they are certainly incredibly persuasive and useful, when you have mastered the art of manipulating them, but words have somehow lost their allure to me. I want to write expressively, but there's this constant pressure to write impressively, and well to do that, it seems, you have to imitate or (to cover your tracks) synthesize the style of writing or writers that you admire, and I find that, (shameful is too strong of a word), unfortunate.AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-38766640929863304652008-04-27T04:50:00.000-04:002008-04-27T04:51:24.314-04:00Bon Iver - FlumeTodays song of the day. Enjoy!<br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/62i9Sodwp5o&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/62i9Sodwp5o&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-6997068333016760722008-04-24T15:50:00.007-04:002008-04-24T16:21:35.839-04:00Assessing the War on (t)errorSo it seems the main conclusion of a recent GAO report entitled "<a href="http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/summary.php?rptno=GAO-08-622&accno=A81707">Combating Terrorism: The United States lacks Comprehensive Plan to Destroy the Terrorist Threat and Close the Safe Haven in Pakistan's Federal Administered Tribal Areas</a>" is:<br /><br />7 years and 10.5 billion dollars later, the US hasn't <span style="font-style: italic;">removed</span> the threat of al-Qaeda, so much as <span style="font-style: italic;">relocated</span> it...<br /><blockquote>The NIE, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland</span>, also found that al-Qaeda had effectively found replacements for many of its senior operational planners over the years. The NIE stated that, in the past 2 years, al Qaeda’s central leadership regenerated the core operational capabilities needed to conduct attacks against the United States. It also found that al Qaeda’s central leadership, based in the border area of Pakistan, is and will remain the most serious terrorist threat to the United States.<br /><br />The 2008 DNI Annual Threat Assessment and other sources have concluded that the resurgence of al Qaeda terrorists on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan now pose a preeminent threat to U.S. national security. The assessment also examines the impact of not meeting the national security goals. It states that al Qaeda is now using the Pakistani safe haven to put the last element necessary to launch another attack against America into place, including the identification, training, and positioning of Western operatives for an attack. It stated that al Qaeda is most likely using the FATA to plot terrorist attacks against political, economic, and infrastructure targets in America “designed to produce mass casualties, visually dramatic destruction, significant economic aftershocks, and/or fear among the population.”</blockquote>AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-68365378796283213902008-04-22T22:06:00.008-04:002008-04-28T17:08:17.086-04:00Montreal HooligansSo things got pretty wild here in Montreal after the Habs won their first round in the Stanley Cup playoffs.<br /><br />I came out of the library around 11 to see the celebrations. St. Katherine (the main artery of Montreal) was filled with exuberant fans and honking cars. Police soon showed up and lined up in front of the Concordia Fine Arts building. I assumed to protect people from breaking the glass windows and hurting themselves, but this soon showed itself to be a rather stupid move, since the crowd began to hurl empty beer bottles at them (thus increasing the likelihood of broken glass...). Things soon got even more out of control as word got out that cop cars on mcKay and St Katherine had been set aflame. When I got there everyone was stampeding away from the burning vehicles. I figured they were afraid the cars were going to explode, so I just kept pushing through the masses. When I got to the front I realized everyone was running from the riot police that had lined up at the intersection. You could walk right through their line though, so I slipped through and got a closer look at the burning cars and the rowdy crowd. Fire trucks showed up on the scene and started spraying the three burning cop cars. The police just sort of stood idly by, not really doing much of anything besides making a presence. A few kids near me started kicking in the glass of a reebok store and grabbed the mannequin in the display window who was wearing a Habs jersey and hockey gear.<br /><br />Eventually more riot police showed up and the crowd started to disperse. I headed back to the library assuming the show was mostly over. When I finally headed home and walked down St. Katherine to see the damage, I was pretty shocked to see how many stores had been looted. A number of clothing stores had their windows broken into, some idiot smashed the window of a western union, then the two SAQ's (liquor stores) had had their windows smashed and looked severely raided. Broken bottles and trash littered the street. One guy I passed had manikin legs (presumably from the one I saw sabotaged)standing upright on his shoulders. A hobo had a manikin hand (presumably from the one I saw sabotaged) and asked me, rather wittingly, if I "needed an extra hand."<br /><br />Anyways there's a bunch of videos on youtube of the whole affair. This one was shot further downtown from where I was (towards Peel and St Katherine I think):<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LO4foXB5s1Y&hl=en"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LO4foXB5s1Y&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br />Here's a recap that I saw them taping today, but it has some footage from last night (including where I was, tho I haven't seen me yet):<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ho3OVroEM3M&hl=en"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ho3OVroEM3M&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br />I think this just goes to show that mankind really is a synonym for stupid. Why you would want to destroy your town after your team won one for your town is beyond me. It was, confessedly, quite an entertaining spectacle however, since it was certainly something you don't see every day, but I feel bad for the shop keepers and officers who suffered at the behest of drunk, stupid, and unresponsible teens and young adults. Celebrating is one thing, but looting stores and lighting cars aflame is just plain senseless.AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-52655708126906199772008-04-14T14:41:00.001-04:002008-04-14T14:41:40.535-04:00The Weakerthans - "The Reasons"Todays song of the day. Enjoy!<br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aW1d_xZNgO4&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aW1d_xZNgO4&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-67032875143936587152008-04-12T12:48:00.000-04:002008-04-12T12:49:24.485-04:00Tom Waits - Shiver Me TimbersTodays song of the day. Enjoy!<br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Op_JQLereMY&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Op_JQLereMY&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-84682795833563009022008-04-09T16:29:00.002-04:002008-04-09T16:31:11.568-04:00San Francisco Running of the TorchUpdate:<br /><br />It seems the running has been moved indoors...<br /><br />The torch has yet to leave the warehouse. Things are turning into quite a charade.AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740661205412654190.post-31181534293365532162008-04-09T14:00:00.003-04:002008-04-09T14:06:34.384-04:00Cognitive Dissonance & Choice Rationalization RevistedJohn Tierney has a good piece in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/science/08tier.html?em&ex=1207886400&en=2b8f677ffd1f2caf&ei=5087%0A">NYtimes</a> on Yale economist Dr. Chen's recent findings that suggest some of the older psychology experiments which showed choice rationalization were really just showing the Monty Hall phenomenon:<br /><blockquote>The Monty Hall Problem has struck again, and this time it’s not merely embarrassing mathematicians. If the calculations of a Yale economist are correct, there’s a sneaky logical fallacy in some of the most famous experiments in psychology.<br /><br />The economist, M. Keith Chen, has challenged research into cognitive dissonance, including the 1956 experiment that first identified a remarkable ability of people to rationalize their choices. Dr. Chen says that choice rationalization could still turn out to be a real phenomenon, but he maintains that there’s a fatal flaw in the classic 1956 experiment and hundreds of similar ones. He says researchers have fallen for a version of what mathematicians call the Monty Hall Problem, in honor of the host of the old television show, “Let’s Make a Deal".<br /></blockquote><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/science/08monty.html?_r=1&oref=slogin">Link to Monty Hall game</a>.AdamKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10912513812503378055noreply@blogger.com0