My carnivorous friend here derives from Ephesus, in modern-day Turkey, sometime 1-300ishCE. An epic place - it was the 2nd largest city after 'Rōma', had a massive theatre (where St Paul was almost mobbed in 54CE), aqueducts and from c135CE it had a massive public library - it was the shiz of the province of Asia, or close to.
Dec 31, 2009
Raawwwwrrrrrrrr!
My carnivorous friend here derives from Ephesus, in modern-day Turkey, sometime 1-300ishCE. An epic place - it was the 2nd largest city after 'Rōma', had a massive theatre (where St Paul was almost mobbed in 54CE), aqueducts and from c135CE it had a massive public library - it was the shiz of the province of Asia, or close to.
Dec 29, 2009
MSG; presumably ok for me
I just opened a tin of Pringles (of course, there is rather little left, content-wise). I'm always a bit suspicious of these delicious crisps in a can - for one, reasonably-ordinary food should not taste this good and be this addictive; but predominantly for the second reason i.e. that these little Belgian (yes, Belgian) wonders contain monosodium glutamate, a form of glutamate and a chemical (everyone knows you can't trust 'chemicals'!) given the terror-inducing acronym MSG. Turns out that there is little to be concerned about in consuming this stuff. Amazing what you learn.
Also courtesy of the Wiki (Procter & Gamble produce these tasty tasty snacks): "In a London courtroom in July 2008, Procter & Gamble lawyers successfully argued against Keiron Williams that Pringles are not crisps, as their actual potato content is only 42%. This exempts Pringles from the 15% Value Added Tax for potato chips and potato-derived snacks.The Court of Appeal, however, has reinstated the tribunal's decision. A spokesperson for Procter & Gamble stated that they have been paying the Value Added Tax protectively and therefore will not owe back taxes." How sneaky. 42%!
Also courtesy of the Wiki (Procter & Gamble produce these tasty tasty snacks): "In a London courtroom in July 2008, Procter & Gamble lawyers successfully argued against Keiron Williams that Pringles are not crisps, as their actual potato content is only 42%. This exempts Pringles from the 15% Value Added Tax for potato chips and potato-derived snacks.The Court of Appeal, however, has reinstated the tribunal's decision. A spokesperson for Procter & Gamble stated that they have been paying the Value Added Tax protectively and therefore will not owe back taxes." How sneaky. 42%!
Dec 26, 2009
who could've knuthed it?
Not I, said the non computer scientistAh, my friend, xkcd:
'casion'ly, you amaze me;
frequently you confuse me.
Quite often you amuse me.
For those not in the know.
"The whole thing that makes a mathematician’s life worthwhile is that he gets the grudging admiration of three or four colleagues."
"Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do."
"A mathematical formula should never be "owned" by anybody! Mathematics belong to God."
"I can’t be as confident about computer science as I can about biology. Biology easily has 500 years of exciting problems to work on. It’s at that level."
"An algorithm must be seen to be believed."
diver$ion
I should say something about economics, since I've promised as much in the sub-heading of this esteemed web-log.
Here's an interesting book, or so it seems. If anyone feels the need to buy me a book, this would do. Capitalism has got a bit of a bashing in recent times, though it was interesting to see, can't remember where (I admit it - I read too many right-wing blogs), the recent meltdown blamed on too much socialism! Of course, to be honest, too much socialism is always the problem - if only America officially ignored more poor people (and maybe, shhhh, privately helped a few), it would be truly great! Excuse the cynicism - truth is, I'm a fan of private enterprise.
I could I guess say something about commercialism around Christmas, but it's all a bit cliched and it's over for another year, thank goodness. I'm just sorry it's all gotten so messed up. I'm a fan, I think, of the advent conspiracy
Peace out & happy new-year
Here's an interesting book, or so it seems. If anyone feels the need to buy me a book, this would do. Capitalism has got a bit of a bashing in recent times, though it was interesting to see, can't remember where (I admit it - I read too many right-wing blogs), the recent meltdown blamed on too much socialism! Of course, to be honest, too much socialism is always the problem - if only America officially ignored more poor people (and maybe, shhhh, privately helped a few), it would be truly great! Excuse the cynicism - truth is, I'm a fan of private enterprise.
I could I guess say something about commercialism around Christmas, but it's all a bit cliched and it's over for another year, thank goodness. I'm just sorry it's all gotten so messed up. I'm a fan, I think, of the advent conspiracy
Peace out & happy new-year
Dec 23, 2009
must be getting desperate
kindly stolen from:http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/effect_an_effect.png
which just reminds me someone repeatedly spelt it as 'desparate' on another NZ blog. Oh, the shame.
sometimes life annoys one
The picture of the swimming rat is irrelevant, but it was unused; and actually seems to capture the feeling nicely enough.
Dec 20, 2009
“The world is my country, and to do good my religion”
According to an atheist club site I randomly came across while researching the (possibly) next article. I’ll stop talking about atheism so much soon, but I see some issues with the statement. First is one of grammar – I’ve always, in general, thought it a bit off somehow to place a comma in front of the conjunction “and”. This complaint was of course extremely petty, and to be honest Christians, and perhaps evangelicals especially, are rather poor at grammar (the extreme liberals like to avoid logic, so I guess we had to give something up to be fair), and other such stuff, judging by various books published by Christian publishing houses which I’ve read. Or maybe, like the atheists, they just can’t afford decent editors. I'm not even too sure about the "look ma, no, and" (I just made that up) rule - any suggestions?
What hit me first though, was the question of where precisely the normativity is coming from – what is it to “do good” and why bother? Specifically, what is “good”; is it perhaps just subjective? Of course, there are plenty of non-theistic ethicists who can at least attempt a cogent answer to this. I’m interested in the is/ought issue here. If any of these ethicists are reading, please give me a bell, or an email or a comment or something; as I think you ought to!
I’m not sure what the world being one’s country means really, but I think it’s some kind of reaction to North American (it might have been Canadian, so I dunno exactly) patrio-religionism. Maybe, on another note, only non-theists are allowed to believe in world government(?) – but why (leaving the government aside), stop at the world? It seems a bit narrow of this club (I am assuming that they intend to refer to earth); particularly if we live infact in a multi-verse.
What hit me first though, was the question of where precisely the normativity is coming from – what is it to “do good” and why bother? Specifically, what is “good”; is it perhaps just subjective? Of course, there are plenty of non-theistic ethicists who can at least attempt a cogent answer to this. I’m interested in the is/ought issue here. If any of these ethicists are reading, please give me a bell, or an email or a comment or something; as I think you ought to!
I’m not sure what the world being one’s country means really, but I think it’s some kind of reaction to North American (it might have been Canadian, so I dunno exactly) patrio-religionism. Maybe, on another note, only non-theists are allowed to believe in world government(?) – but why (leaving the government aside), stop at the world? It seems a bit narrow of this club (I am assuming that they intend to refer to earth); particularly if we live infact in a multi-verse.
Kids Say the Darndest Things
Children are amazing sources of philosophical insight. Imagine, if we hooked them all up Matrix-style in rows ... but no. The children currently visiting my family’s New Zealand Wunderhaus are particularly good at speculating on death; last visit the two older ones turned out to be nihilists. This concerned me. This time one of the main highlights has been overhearing their discussion on ways to cheat in a wrestling match – the superior-most idea seemed to have been to kill the opponent without the referee noticing, thus obviously, by virtue of the ‘3 second rule’, guaranteeing a win. That was pretty good, but (and I’m almost certainly reading too much into this) the real stunner for my philosophy antennae was the littlest one quietly wailing, as the others got in the car and said little one did up their sandals [reminding me now of this; Mark 1:7
], “don’t leave me behind”. It was a bit sad at the time, but it was oh so human and I can identify with it to a scary extent. “Don’t leave me alone; don’t leave me behind!” is a concept that most humans can understand. Maybe we’re just social animals, or maybe we are more – I don’t really know I guess, but I know that in the face of an apparently uncaring cosmos, (and I promise I'm not referring to any End-Times books here - I'm just being slightly disturbingly genuine) I’d much rather not be left behind.
], “don’t leave me behind”. It was a bit sad at the time, but it was oh so human and I can identify with it to a scary extent. “Don’t leave me alone; don’t leave me behind!” is a concept that most humans can understand. Maybe we’re just social animals, or maybe we are more – I don’t really know I guess, but I know that in the face of an apparently uncaring cosmos, (and I promise I'm not referring to any End-Times books here - I'm just being slightly disturbingly genuine) I’d much rather not be left behind.
Dec 17, 2009
It's a set up! Grab the tin foil hats!
The universe, life, the universe - it's all a set up! Sometimes it would appear so anyway.
Does anyone else find themselves wondering whether the Truman show is for real and they're the loser on the set; and then realise it's rather unlikely as the Truman show has absolutely nothing on this one? Of course, if this all really is something like the Truman show, someone is now saying a naughty word or two I suppose - but as I said, it probably isn't; as it is all just too ridiculous to be on TV, which is generally really rather bland; but of course, maybe that's 'cause the TV I (don't) watch is all produced, or filtered somehow, just for me, or maybe a few others too. There's also the Cartesian demon possibility, I suppose; but I do slightly prefer the Truman show option, as radical scepticism is even more depressing, not to mention a bit dumb. One thing is clear: the set-up is intricate.
Yes, I may have slight ego issues. But, so do you.
Does anyone else find themselves wondering whether the Truman show is for real and they're the loser on the set; and then realise it's rather unlikely as the Truman show has absolutely nothing on this one? Of course, if this all really is something like the Truman show, someone is now saying a naughty word or two I suppose - but as I said, it probably isn't; as it is all just too ridiculous to be on TV, which is generally really rather bland; but of course, maybe that's 'cause the TV I (don't) watch is all produced, or filtered somehow, just for me, or maybe a few others too. There's also the Cartesian demon possibility, I suppose; but I do slightly prefer the Truman show option, as radical scepticism is even more depressing, not to mention a bit dumb. One thing is clear: the set-up is intricate.
Yes, I may have slight ego issues. But, so do you.
an old spring slowly sprung?
“There are many people who do not believe that God exists . . . . They consider that the universe has always been as it is now and is ruled by chance rather than by Providence.” Peter of Cornwall, circa 1200 CE.
In recent centuries, the universe has got a lot older for Christians – and in recent decades, a lot younger for atheists. 14-17 billion years may seem quite old to someone not long past 17 years; but compared to an infinitely old universe, this one is a spring chicken.
Dec 12, 2009
the last piece
"Bookshops are one of the last pieces of evidence that people are thinking." Jerry Seinfeld.
This reminds me of the stereotypical German joke; you know it well; something about the captain of a ship in trouble calling a German coastguard, yelling "we are sinking!"; "vell, vhat are you sinking about?" retorts the dim German, preferably in a delightful accent which takes good note of the vowels as well as the consonants.
Anyway, having visited a bookshop or three in the last few days, notably the Queen St not-so-creepy-Santa Whitcoulls store, it's interesting to see what NZers are thinking about. Conspiracy theories, Buddhism and of course, sparkly vampires are 'in'; with half a handful of exceptions, science, academia and orthodox Christianity are so far out that they are presumably either cryogenically frozen or dying of frostbite.
This reminds me of the stereotypical German joke; you know it well; something about the captain of a ship in trouble calling a German coastguard, yelling "we are sinking!"; "vell, vhat are you sinking about?" retorts the dim German, preferably in a delightful accent which takes good note of the vowels as well as the consonants.
Anyway, having visited a bookshop or three in the last few days, notably the Queen St not-so-creepy-Santa Whitcoulls store, it's interesting to see what NZers are thinking about. Conspiracy theories, Buddhism and of course, sparkly vampires are 'in'; with half a handful of exceptions, science, academia and orthodox Christianity are so far out that they are presumably either cryogenically frozen or dying of frostbite.
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