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Showing posts from January, 2007

Dude, iamsojelin, you actually made it through the first 7 min of this thing?

OK, Do NOT follow these links if you are easily offended. Or creeped out. Sometimes the weirdness of the internet boggles my mind. There are two links here that actually make up the totality of this "performance." One is the comment trail, which is hilarious: Comments And the second is the actual Video clip they are talking about. I recommend reading some of the comments first, if you are foolhardy enough to actually click on links in my blog anyway. The Video Skip forward to about the 7:00 minute marker and watch it for 60 seconds, if you dare. To get in the proper mind set, perhaps you should listen to this first:

What We Don't Know

A cool list. 42 of the biggest questions in Science . Some of my favorites: Why do Placebos work? Is the Universe made of Information? How do entangled particles communicate?

The Burrito of Doom

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After much trial and error, through gastronomical mishaps, skirmish lines of palatability and the unexplored regions of indelicacies beyond human imagination, I have stumbled across this rare specimen. A burrito of such impeccable pedigree that not only satisfies the appetite, sometimes for days, but also stands apart from others of its namesake in a saintly glow of exceptional nutritional, medicinal and beneficial effects. Not to mention it's scrumptious. It requires only about 5 minutes to prepare the basic mix for about 6 burritos. Click on the picture for a more detailed visual, but essentially you need these 6 things: Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas. 96% Fat Free. Uncle Ben's Ready Rice. Whole Grain Brown. Microwaveable in 90 seconds. Black Beans Sargento's Reduced Fat 4 Cheese Mexican shredded cheese Chicken Breast Salsa or Green Chili Nuke the rice for 90 seconds, then mix in the beans and chicken. Nuke again for about 60 seconds, then spoon out some on top of a couple o

Dresden Files

Watched the pilot last night. Our clan are all pretty much Dresden fans, having read all his books . It's always a bit iffy when they introduce a movie or series based on books, there's no way they can capture the nuances of imagination that readers have built in their own minds. That said, however, I think they did a pretty good job. Just the right flare with the screen play, doing things screen play does well but which is difficult to orchestrate in text. They didn't really start at the beginning, but at least they didn't butcher the context the way they did with Firefly. They also took a few tangents from the book. Murphy has a kid, from a previous marriage. A little discrepancy about Harry's uncle; in the flashback they held to the book line about him killing his uncle in self defense, but then it seems like he was still implicated as orchestrating the events with the skinwalker. Harry was ok as Harry, that was my biggest concern. Think they could have done a

And What About Irish Pranks, Ye Asken?

This little girl is hilarious! If you want some serious entertainment, listen to her prank calls here . In particular, check out Becky’s Demolition Company. How an 8 year old tries to orchestrate the demolition of her school.

I Just Love Japanese Pranks

Entering Strange Territory

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Our brains respond to sounds, specifically certain frequencies, in a way that opens some strange doors; last night I stumbled through one. I have several commercial CDs and tracks that explore this phenomenon with varying degrees of success; heck, even made some myself. The last few nights I've been busy in the batcave exploring a new direction. I was impressed by an older CD in my collection, which at a specific point, seems to catch the consciousness and spin it towards the netherworlds. Deciding to take a closer look, I broke down the segment at that point on the CD and ran it through my virtual lab apparati to isolate the effect. I rotated the spectral display of the sample like some iridescent bug under a powerful microscope until I had sifted down to the exact wavelength. And an interesting wavelength it was. Going back through years of notes, eeg research and personal experiments on various entrainment frequencies, I found the section dealing with this particular one under t

Free Will

[Warning. Rampant Philosophical Speculation] This article discusses, in part, a curious research finding in psychology that I've puzzled with off and on for several years. In the 70's a physiologist at the University of California named Benjamin Libet conducted one of those experiments that seems to be the norm in quantum physics these days; the kind that directly violates some of our most entrenched beliefs about the nature of reality. In this case however, it was the role our conscious mind plays in our behavior that's brought into question. A quote from the article will give you a flavor of the conundrum: "A bevy of experiments in recent years suggest that the conscious mind is like a monkey riding a tiger of subconscious decisions and actions in progress, frantically making up stories about being in control." One thing you should probably know about me, and the recommendation of this article, is that I'm pretty critical about ways most "experiments&q

New Year's Resolution

The Biology of Belief

"...for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." A mind-opening interview with the author of the book in the title. Some insights about lay assumptions on genetic determinism and fascinating observations about stress. "Since the World Trade Center attack, the health of the country has plummeted and the pharmaceutical companies' profits have skyrocketed (with a 100% increase in less than five years!)" A Romp through the Quantum Field This is a follow-up, of sorts, on the theme of the hammer and the nail :-) "We live our lives based in what we believe about our world, ourselves, our capabilities, and our limits. What if those beliefs are wrong?"

Idiocracy

Watched that movie last night (in the title.) It's about a poor Air Force sap that gets volunteered for a top secret experiment in hibernation. Through a mishap, they forget about his pod and he wakes up 500 years in the future. Instead of what we think might happen ---with humanity getting smarter and technology advancing--- people get dumber. With an IQ of 100, he's the smartest person on the planet. It's a fun, silly movie, but it's also a strange idea. And thought experiment. It got me thinking about aspects of humanity where we've regressed or haven't developed much at all. Aspects like emotional intelligence and spirituality. Now and then a person comes along like the Buddha or Christ or Mohammad and blinds the masses with a level of spiritual understanding that should be the norm. Scribes try to capture it with their limited faculties and rituals and religions spring up like apes mimicking human actions they don't understand. The rituals devolve into

A Day in the Life of a Goldfish

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Blogger's Block

Some ideas I'd like to hear discussed... (and, fair warning, I might even talk about some of these too...) From Margaret Mason : Think through all the counsel you've gotten over the years. What opinions have people offered that stuck with you, whether they turned out to be on the money or completely nuts? What makes your mouth water? A thick milkshake and salty fries on the boardwalk, or prime rib and bourbon crème brûlée over a linen napkin—tell us about your perfect meal. How did you get those scars? Your scars indicate what type of life you've lived. Whether you're athletic, fighting for your health, or just occasionally clumsy, let each scar remind you of the story behind it. What are your irrational fears, and where did they come from? Tell us your work stories. You're a font of wisdom, and you're getting sharper every year. Outline ten truths you believe to be universal. What do you love that no one else loves? Defend the indefensible. Find a centrally loc

Resolutions

Well I'm not quite ready for new years resolutions yet. Yeah it's a hokey tradition, but I usually take some time in January to re-assess the big picture, figure out where I went wrong (and right) the last year and plan my course corrections or new directions for the year to come. In Japan a bell rings 108 times at midnight to purge each of the 108 sins of the last year. I think you're supposed to keep present enough to hear them all, but my memories of said event at Meiji Shrine are a little fuzzy; I do remember lots of excellent amazaki though, drunk from a square wooden cup, which may have had something to do with losing track of the bells. But it was dang cold and the drink was hot. In any case, I'm not ready for the count-down just yet, maybe next week. In the interrim, I came across this article that fits in with the theme of improvements: 77 Ways to Learn Faster, Deeper, and Better It's an interesting checklist. Somethings you probably already know, some you

From XKCD Comics

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Read My Mind

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OK, this is just freaky. Especially the questions it picks to ask, but in the end, this sucker can tell you what you were thinking of. How do I know? If it worked with me (I was thinking of a frog) and the way I answered the questions, I'm pretty sure it will work on anyone. Give it a shot and see what you think. First, think of something. Then... Start Here. Click "Think in American" Ignore the three questions about your gender, age and location and click one of the games on the bottom. I picked Classic 200. Let me know if you stumped it, but answer the questions honestly! The questions were built with a neural net that learned from peoples' responses and contains some rather unusual branches for ferreting things out.