Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Geekiness

me: I'm mildly disappointed
I just found out that people here at the law firm don't consider me to be a geek
and I've always taken pride in my geekiness
C: *laugh*
aww shucks!
I'm amused at your disappointment
me: they think i'm well balanced and normal
which is totally baffling
C: I dunno. I think your self-definition is more important and significant that any other-definition of you.
So, if you feel like a geek and like that... then you are, by self-definition and it's a good thing
me: Sure, but if people are seeing things in me that I don't see that could be a problem.
Especially if they aren't seeing the right things.
Granted though in this case its not a problem
and its probably to my advantage
C: Well, then it's not really a pertinent worry, right?
me: But what else are they seeing that they aren't willing to tell me about
C: I mean, if people started to tell you " look, I think you are an angry person" and you don't see yourself that way, but that's the feedback you are getting.. .well, then it's something to think about But right now, it sounds like you are just making stuff up to worry about :)
me: LOL
C: that doesn't need to be worried about :)
me: well if someone saw something bad in me, maybe they are just too tactful topoint it out.
Some things just aren't worth bringing up, you know?
C: generally, it is your own responsibility to see what you consider good or bad about yourself and to change that if you want to. It isn't someone else's responsibility to bring it up. (Unless you are a child and then your parent may have some level of responsiblity)
me: true but how can you improve if you don't recieve any feedback?
C: Ok, or it is potentially an employers responsbility if the employee's qualities are affecting their work
me: also true
C: you don't need blatant conscious feedback... you received feedback everyday through interactions
me: also true and I suppose I think I have some self-consciousness about how others percieve me however vague that perception is
C: well, then, that sounds like some self-identified knowledge of self that you can choose to accept and be comfortable with or change
me: but I always thought that most of the things that I do and that define me did in fact blatantly earned me the label of "geek"
but apparently the definition of geek has changed withiout my knowing it which is entirely possible then of course I also live in Erie which isn't exactly the hub of the universe
C: whether that is true or not, the things that define you are still the same, from what you are saying and that's more the essence of it than the label
me: that makes sense
LOL or maybe they are just being polite because I'm a "minority".
That would be hilarious.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

BBC NEWS | Europe | Lace makers move into G-strings

Talk about entrepreneurial BBC NEWS Europe Lace makers move into G-strings

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Transcript: Verizon Doesn't Know How To Count - Consumerist

This was almost too painful to listen.

Transcript: Verizon Doesn't Know How To Count - Consumerist

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Creative minds

http://phoeby.blogspot.com/2007/01/creative-assman.html

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Alzheimer's vaccine 'in a patch'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6286689.stm

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6289847.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6289847.stm

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Friday, January 19, 2007

White beetle dazzles scientists

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6272485.stm

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Sex-change chemicals in Potomac

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6275841.stm

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Thursday, January 18, 2007

US woman dies after water contest

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6261509.stm

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Free Will

me: what's free will?
N: argh, I don't want to take a 7-9 pm seminar
me: hmm
so choosing not to take it implies free will?
N: perhaps.
but I don't have many other options.
me: so no free will there
N: free will, yes
but it's a choice.... do I want to finish my masters?
I want that more than I want my wednesady nights free, i think
me: hmm*ponder* I'll get back to you
N: ok
me: is free will the choice that an individual has to overcome their predispositions?
N: possibly :-)
me: or is that just a reaction to living in the society that we do?
I mean what one society finds morally unaceeptable could be totally fine in another take for example female genital mutilation
or even circumcision
*ponder*
How does our biology weigh into this?
At some point physics steps in how far does it go? Can there be free will if at the penutlimate level everything is random? Maybe its a question of starting points but how far back do you go to be able to safely say "free will starts here". I suppose at a pratical level you have to take things in context but is it true free will if its basis is not free?
I mean there are experiments that show that peoples decisions can be influendced by environmental factors.
How do we know that the decisions we are making are not so influenced? We don't because most of the time we are not aware of those influences.
For example magnetic fields have been shown to influence choice and in hindsight those subjects believed they were making choices they made uninfluenced.
Maybe its more of a "free won't" (as stated in the Wikipedia entry courtesy of C) you have a veto power.
On the other hand:
"Therefore we see at once that there cannot be any such thing as free-will; the very words are a contradiction, because will is what we know, and everything that we know is within our universe, and everything within our universe is moulded by conditions of time, space and causality.
... To acquire freedom we have to get beyond the limitations of this universe; it cannot be found here.""

That's Swami Vivekananda a Hindu philosopher (also from the Wikipedia entry)

You know, I need to revert to what I know. I've found that in any polar debate, the truth is really somewhere in the middle the questions shouldn't be a choice between the free will or determinism the fact of the matter is that its porbably somewhere in the middle

It took these quotes (also from Wikipedia) to remind me of that:

Philosopher Chandrashekhara Bharati Swaminah puts it this way:"Fate is past karma, free-will is present karma. Both are really one, that is, karma, though they may differ in the matter of time. There can be no conflict when they are really one.
Fate, as I told you, is the resultant of the past exercise of your free-will. By exercising your free-will in the past, you brought on the resultant fate. By exercising your free-will in the present, I want you to wipe out your past record if it hurts you, or to add to it if you find it enjoyable. In any case, whether for acquiring more happiness or for reducing misery, you have to exercise your free-will in the present.""

A contemporary American Buddishist monk, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, puts it this way:"The Buddha's teachings on karma are interesting because it's a combination of causality and free-will. If things were totally caused there would be no way you could develop a skill - your actions would be totally predetermined. If there was no causality at all skills would be useless because things would be constantly changing without any kind of rhyme or reason to them. But it's because there is an element of causality and because there is this element of free-will you can develop skills in life."

I think my difficulty was with the whole concept of what free will actually is.
Especially because it appears that we give it such a high value in Western culture
But as with most important things in Western culture, there is a duality that has arisen where one camp is conviced that one veiw is correct and is unable to try to find a middle ground of truth rather both camps are convinced they are correct.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Single-pixel camera takes on digital

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6263551.stm

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Dwarf planet 'becoming a comet'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6268799.stm

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Ali Quotes

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/boxing/6267397.stm

ON BEING THE GREATEST
"I'm not the greatest; I'm the double greatest. Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round. "
"It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up. "
"Floats like a butterfly, sting like a bee, his hands can't hit what his eyes can't see." Before the 1974 fight against George Foreman
"I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalised a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick." Again, before the 1974 Foreman fight
"I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and got into bed before the room was dark." Yet more '74 pre-fight build-up ahead of facing Foreman
"The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. "
"Superman don't need no seatbelt. "
"When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace. "
"I'm the best. I just haven't played yet." On playing golf

ON BOXING
"Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up. "
"Champions aren't made in gyms, champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill."
"Only the nose knows where the nose goes when the doors close."
"I never thought of losing, but now that it's happened, the only thing is to do it right. That's my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life." After losing to Ken Norton, 31 March 1973

ON RACE, RELIGION AND LIFE
"I am America. I am the part you won't recognise. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me."
"Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn't choose it and I don't want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name - it means beloved of God - and I insist people use it when people speak to me and of me." Announcing his conversion to the Muslim faith after first Sonny Liston fight
"What's my name, fool? What's my name?" To Ernie Terrell during their 1967 fight - Terrell had refused to call him Muhammad Ali
"I know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin' hell, but as long as they ain't free, I ain't free. "
"Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?"
"I got nothing against no Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me a 'nigger'. "
"Nobody has to tell me that this is a serious business. I'm not fighting one man. I'm fighting a lot of men, showing a lot of 'em, here is one man they couldn't defeat, couldn't conquer. My mission is to bring freedom to 30m black people." Before his fight against Jerry Quarry in 1970.
"A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life."
"What's really hurting me - the name Islam is involved, and Muslim is involved and causing trouble and starting hate and violence. Islam is not a killer religion, Islam means peace. I couldn't just sit home and watch people label Muslims as the reason for this problem." 21 September 2001, in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks

ALI vs FRAZIER
"Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wildlife." Ali
"It will be a killer, and a chiller, and a thriller, when I get the gorilla in Manila." Ali, before the "Thrilla in Manila" against Frazier
"Joe Frazier is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head." Ali
"I always bring out the best in men I fight, but Joe Frazier, I'll tell the world right now, brings out the best in me. I'm gonna tell ya, that's one helluva man, and God bless him." Ali, after the "Thrilla in Manila"
"I said a lot of things in the heat of the moment that I shouldn't have said. Called him names I shouldn't have called him. I apologise for that. I'm sorry. It was all meant to promote the fight." Ali
"The Butterfly and me have been through some ups and downs and there have been lots of emotions, many of them bad. But I have forgiven him. I had to. You cannot hold out for ever. There were bruises in my heart because of the words he used. I spent years dreaming about him and wanting to hurt him. But you have got to throw that stick out of the window. Do not forget that we needed each other, to produce some of the greatest fights of all time." Frazier in reflective mood.

ON OTHER OPPONENTS
"Hey Floyd - I seen you! Someday I'm gonna whup you! Don't you forget, I am the greatest!" To then-world heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson during the 1960 Olympic Games.
"Why, Chump, I bet you scare yourself to death just starin' in the mirror. You ugly bear! You ain't never fought nobody but tramps and has beens. You call yourself a world champion? You're too old and slow to be champion!" To Sonny Liston before their fight on 25 February 1964
"I shook up the world! I shook up the world!" After beating Liston
"That all you got George?" To Foreman late in the Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire on 30 October 1974

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Thursday, January 11, 2007

Intelligence

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise." -F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Doom for Hubble's iconic pillars

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6246333.stm

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Star may have four magnetic poles

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6246995.stm

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How spicy foods can kill cancers

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6244715.stm

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Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Now Reading


I gave up on Possession. Excerpts from a conversation about it:

C: and you? Any LUE insights?
Me:me? some
one thought: A book that labels itself as a "Romance" has three ways of going - 1) a sappy love story, 2) a "Romance" in the literary or artistic vein, or 3) a combination of 1) and 2)
Possession , which I just gave up on reading was in the third category
C: ooh, but that was a good movie!
:)
Me: they made it into a movie?
huh
C: hmm. I'm not sure about those categories.
You are probably right though
I think it's a movie with Gwyneth Paltrow
Me: really?
huh
I can see that
C: If it's the movie I'm thinking of, I really enjoyed it
Me: The book was very slow, the poetry was very good though and the literary Romance part of it was intriguing but the contemporary parts were just plodding, especially in comparison to the language in the old letters. The contrast was just too much
Anyway I switched to "Harpo Speaks!" an autobiography of Harpo Marx which is very interesting.
The Marx brother's up bringing was so much in line with "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" that it gave both books an air of authenticity. You look at how people in NYC lived in the early 1900's and you can only marvel at the changes that have come about in this country since then and just imagine what will happen in the next 40 to 50 years. Its incredible!

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Monday, January 08, 2007

Here comes the terabyte hard drive

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6147409.html

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Hubble makes 3D dark matter map

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6235751.stm

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Vast halo extends galaxy's size

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6240611.stm

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The Google Maps Guide to Ghostbusters

http://www.ironicsans.com/2006/04/the_ultimate_interactive_googl_1.html

Celebrity Patents

http://www.ironicsans.com/2007/01/celebrity_patents.html

Some of these are pretty amusing...

Dawn machine 'beats winter blues'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6233421.stm

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Inventor of instant noodles dies

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6237013.stm

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'New stem cell source' discovered

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6231099.stm

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'Plutoed' voted US word of year

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6240055.stm

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Friday, January 05, 2007

Black hole found in ancient lair

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6231623.stm

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Thief steals urinal from city pub

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hampshire/6234445.stm

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Thursday, January 04, 2007

Amazon boss shows off spacecraft

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6230245.stm

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