http://youtu.be/ZHdsUICa7zY Eeh, not the best exit but in my defense it was the first one where I've been "on my own" at the exit. All previous times, someone's been holding on to me.

The second video is my 10th jump. I'm running out of levels to fail, though! I'm much rather take it slow and be sure I have it right than rush through the program.

I was considering buying it. Here are some pictures: http://imgur.com/a/OGWVw

The dealer gave me 48 hours to drive it and make my final decision. I didn't like the stereo; it didn't have a good bass response, even with bass turned all the way up and "middle" and "treble" ranges turned to -10. The stereo is very important to me as I spend a lot of time on the freeway, and like to listen to music. It didn't give me enough volume to listen to the Louis Armstrong CDs, and the static was much more noticeable than on my old Corolla's sound system. I took it to Car Toys and asked them for an estimate; they gave me a ridiculous quote of $2275 or something. One guy said the Corolla has bigger speakers in the back, and the acoustics of the car is better. Anyway I decided I couldn't live with that stock stereo in the Kia.

It's a shame, because otherwise it was a great car, fun to drive, got decent gas mileage, had enough room. The major other issue I had with it was that the rear seats didn't fold down flat. I tried to sleep in it one night but the incline was too uncomfortable. Why couldn't they make the back seats fold down flat?

I liked the rear tinted windows, and the bluetooth phone connectivity. The visibility wasn't so good looking backwards; the rear windows are small so even headchecks don't give a full view. Also the side mirrors were kind of triangular, pointed at the edges, which also reduced the visibility. I think I could have gotten used to that though.

There were also some spots on the trim that didn't rub off, maybe oil. And the front hood had a ding in it which I pointed out to them before taking it on the extended drive, and which they promised to fix for free.

But I ended up deciding to unwind the deal. If I'm going to spend $21k, I want to get everything I want; and that includes a good sound system (at least as good as the Corolla's!), and rear seats that fold down flat.

They didn't hassle me about backing out of the deal. They just looked disappointed. Oh well.

---

Afterwards I felt sad, driving the old 2000 Corolla. All that dealing with salespeople had gotten me accustomed to interacting with other humans, and I felt lonely by myself, despite my music.

I stopped by the upper Snoqualmie River, and put on my swim trunks. Then the sun went behind some clouds. I waded in up to my thighs, then decided it was too cold and got out. The bottom was very muddy in that spot, and my sandals were getting sucked into it. It was hard to walk.

I drove to another spot, and went for a jog along the Snoqualmie Valley trail. I found a path leading through the brambles leading to the river. This bank was rocky instead of muddy. I waded in. Again I got cold and was going to get out. Then I decided to splash water on my arms. Then I washed my face. Then I stood about waist deep and plunged myself in. It felt so good I did it a couple more times. The river at this spot was faster. There was a small island across maybe a 100 foot channel, but I didn't dare to try to swim to it. Maybe another day :)

Getting into the water was invigorating. It made me feel better. Jogging back, I came across a herd of deer, at least 50 of them. They got startled and ran away. I saw quite a few bucks with large sets of antlers.

See the following comments of mine:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2999311&cid=40749863
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2999311&cid=40745031
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2999311&cid=40744963

Also click on "Parent" to see them in context.

Can they really be described as "Troll" or "Flamebait"? Are they against Slashdot comment guidelines?

Slashdot is a very biased place. If I praise open source or bash Microsoft, then I easily get moded up, even if my post is uncreative and mediocre.

But if I defend the right to life, or the preservation of marriage, or religious tolerance, then I get modded "troll" or "flamebait", even if I am honest and reasonably polite.

If I wanted to play the game, I could simply write twenty "Linux rocks!" comments for every "religious freedom is a human right according to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights" comment. Then I would have infinite Karma.

But I do not want to do that.

* Note 1: not all conservatives are faithful Catholics and not all faithful Catholics are conservatives, but I happen to be both.
** Note 2: I _do not_ claim to be a _good_ Catholic. That will be judged by Jesus. I only claim to be a "faithful" Catholic. By that I mean that I support Catholic teaching, support the Church itself, and frequent the sacraments.

Stunning hubris.

Jeremiah Cornelius has covered this story, but if you haven't read this article about a journalist who infiltrated the G4S security firm, the private company to whom the security for the London 2012 Olympics has been outsourced, go take a look. It just gets worse and worse.

It's a pretty stunning story, not just the plan to evacuate London, not just the 200,000 body bags that were ordered, but the level of incompetence that G4S has shown thus far.

Ben Fellows, the filmmaker and journalist who went undercover as "âoeLee Hazledean", has recently revealed his true identity when the complete blackout on his story by the mainstream media, and other irregularities, have made him fear for his life.

The great Swedish alt-blogcasters Red Ice Radio also have some pretty shocking coverage (warning: includes some rather out-there material, but still interesting). In their 2 1/2 hour special, they get opinions from some pretty impressive people, but also from some, shall-we-say "less conventional" characters like David Icke. But even those interviewees have some fascinating insights (I happen to think Icke is not nearly as loony as he is portrayed). Depending on your tolerance for challenging consensus reality, YMMV.

As any Libertarian will tell you, there's no reason a CEO shouldn't be paid 2000 times the amount of an average worker, because they're worth it.

Keep that in mind when you read the story of Progress Energy CEO Bill Johnson. It's a tale of how mistreated the 1% are in Obama's America:

When Duke Energy announced its merger with Progress Energy last year, the two companies agreed that Progress CEO Bill Johnson would assume the same position at the combined company. So he did: On June 27, Johnson signed a three-year contract to helm Duke. When the merger went into effect on July 2, he assumed the position of CEO.

        And then, on July 3 at midnight, Johnson resigned

As the article tells us, Bill Johnson was forced out by the board after the merger, but just imagine the job he did in that one day as CEO when you read about his compensation package for that 24 hours:

Despite his short-lived tenure, Mr. Johnson will receive exit payments worth as much as $44.4 million, according to Duke. That includes $7.4 million in severance, a nearly $1.4 million cash bonus, a special lump-sum payment worth up to $1.5 million and accelerated vesting of his stock awards, according to a Duke regulatory filing Tuesday night. Mr. Johnson gets the lump-sum payment as long as he cooperates with Duke and doesnâ(TM)t disparage his former employer, the filing said.

Under his exit package, Mr. Johnson also will receive approximately $30,000 to reimburse him for relocation expenses.

Well, thank God for that $30k in "relocation expenses". Renting a U-Haul isn't cheap.

Like the saying goes "The rich are different than the rest of us. They are completely without shame." I want to know what the board of directors was doing the day this benefits package was approved.

But remember, according to Mitt Romney, Bill Johnson is a "job creator". Except, during the 24 very busy hours that Johnson was CEO, he laid off 900 workers. I wonder how much that comes to per laid-off worker?

2012-05-22

Jim and I are on a playground. We've just come from a bar. Jim had several drinks. He's in a good mood, showing off on the jungle gym. He's being loud, bouncing around on the equipment. I watch him, with some mixed feelings. There is an apartment balcony at the level of the top of some structure (bars?); as Jim makes his way across the top of that structure, at least two doors open and some young guys come out, and hail Jim, smiles on their faces. I think they made references to drugs, "Have you come around to buy some drugs?" or something like that...

I realize I don't want to be like that: I don't want to show off, to be loud, to disturb people nearby even if they don't seem to mind.

---

Another thing I wanted to write down, now it's slipped away. Was it about p ^ ~p? That both Jim and I can co-exist, even if we have opposite views on things like showing off on the jungle gym and having lots of friends?

There is no global overpopulation. Some places (such as Japan) are already experiencing population aging and decline, which is bad in many ways. Other places (such as the USA and specially Europe) already have sub-replacement fertility rates, and their population only grows because of demographic lag and immigration. It is predicted the the European Union population (now at 503M) will reach zero natural population increase by 2015 and zero total population increase in 2035 (at 520M), then start declining.

The USA will grow from 310M in 2010 to 403M in 2050. [1]
Asia will increase from 4.2B in 2010 to 5.1B in 2050, then start declining. [2]

The only region that is really growing is Africa. It will increase from 1B in 2010 to 2.2B in 2050. [2] Then its population density will be 73/km2. [3] Compare that to the current population density in Portugal (115/km2), in South Korea (487/km2) and in Taiwan (641/km2). [4]

Global population is predicted to grow from 7B in 2011 to 9B in 2050 and 10B in 2100 [5] and start falling soon after [6].

And according to [7], 40-50% of America-produced food is thrown away. According to [8], 1/3 of the world food is thrown away.
And this does not take into account that people eat, just for pleasure, excessive quantities of resource-intensive food (such as meat). If Americans/Europeans want to help the poor, an easy way would be to decrease (say, by 30%) their diet of meat. This will immediately reduce food demand and, for double bonus, the saved money can be donated to charity. And much arable land is wasted on subsidized inefficient corn-based ethanol. You can lobby your government to stop that.

Plus, there does not seem to be a negative correlation between population density and GDP per capita. [9]

African hunger is not caused by overpopulation. It is caused by corrupt and authoritarian governments, and by guerrillas/terrorists motivated by Marxism, Islamism, ethnic hate or simply greed.

Overpopulation fear-mongering is very old - at least as old as Malthus. One of its more recent incarnations was the 1968 book "The Population Bomb", which predicted mass starvation to occur in the 1970s.

Anyway, for better or for worse, there is already strong action taken by individuals, foundations, and Western governments, to restrict fertility in Africa.

1 : http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Analytical-Figures/htm/fig_11.htm
2 : http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Analytical-Figures/htm/fig_2.htm
3 : According to [2], Africa will have 2.2B people in 2050, and according to Google[10] and Wikipedia [11], the area of Africa is 30,221,532 km2
4 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_by_population_density
5 : http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Analytical-Figures/htm/fig_1.htm
6 : http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Analytical-Figures/htm/fig_6.htm
7 : http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/news/ng.asp?id=56376-us-wastes-half
8 : http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/74192/icode/
9 : http://sanamagan.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/population-population-density-gdp-per-capita-ppp/
10 : https://www.google.com.br/search?q=africa+area
11 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa

Most people have read "1066 and all that: a memorable history of England, comprising all the parts you can remember, including 103 good things, 5 bad kings and 2 genuine dates" (one of the longest book titles I have ever encountered) and some may have encountered "The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody", but these are the exceptions and not the rule. What interesting - but accurateish - takes on history have other Slashdotters encountered?

"We see that all men mean by justice that kind of state of character which makes people disposed to do what is just and makes them act justly and wish for what is just; and similarly by injustice that state which makes them act unjustly and wish for what is unjust."

- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Chapter V Section 1

---
My brother asked me today: Why did you react so strongly and negatively when Dad told you to do something? I said I had a limbic response, something upwelling from my gut.

I propose that the reflex emotion is due to a sense of justice? When someone tells me to do something, I want better reasons than "just do it"...

I think I'm wishing for something more just.

The Olympics is all about World Peace, we are told, but Charles Stross isn't quite convinced.

The science fiction writer and blogger is a little concerned about the extent to which Britain will go to keep corporate sponsors happy.

The Olympics: It's a movement. And everybody needs a movement, every day.

The G-Bread Man breaks it down for you.

I'm going to use the term God. If you find yourself dragging your religious preconceptions into this as a consequence of this label, feel free to substitute the word "Reality" where you see the word "God". I do this because, to my mind, they are describing the same thing using different technical languages that come from different knowledge systems, and I hope to provoke others to look at them the same way.

The universe can be understood in terms of the complexity of the arrangement of God's substance.

The singularity is the ultimate victory of Gravity and Entropy
The big bang is the ultimate failure of Gravity and Entropy

The creation of this universe is the eruption of the substance of God into an increasingly complex pattern. The limits of this complexity are imposed by, gravity, entropy and the amount of God. These limits will cause the complexity of the pattern to peak, and the complexity will degenerate back into simplicity, which will be pulled back into a singular state.

These perspectives as I've articulated them are written from the observing position of a living creature within the multiverse and bound by time.

From the position of an imagined observer outside of God, and thus outside of time, this would look very different.

To model this in your mind, it may be helpful to imagine the universe as a soap bubble being blown from a wand. The force of the big bang is like the air being blown at the soap film.

As this force causes the soap film to erupt out of a two dimensional plane into a three dimensional sphere, there are other forces at work that keep the soap film from simply disintegrating.

By acting in opposition to this "creative wind", these forces maintain the coherency of the soap film, allowing it to be a bubble with a beautiful complex pattern rather than simply dust.

However, from a perspective inside the soap film, these forces would look like the forces of entropy and gravity look to us. They drag us back towards the simplicity of death, just as the surface tension in the soap film drags the film back towards the state of being a plane.

This model makes an interesting segue into contemplation of the contrast between the infinite model of the universe and the finite model of the universe.

I believe the evidence does not support the perspective that we live in an infinitely expanding universe, because such a model would look like the soap film being blown into dust by the creative wind rather than assembling itself into the complex patterns that we see around us.

Some other interesting things to consider when looking at this model from the perspective of the outside observer watching the soap bubble of our universe being blown:

Does the ending of the creative wind cause the soap bubble to fall back into a simple plane, and have all it's complexity vanish as though it never was?

Does the creative wind cause the soap bubble to resolve into a sphere and blow off the wand?

Does the soap bubble resolve into a sphere but remain stuck to the wand?

If the observer sees the soap bubble fall back into a simple plane, that would imply that time resides outside the universe. This isn't really consistent with what we've observed about relativity.

If the creative wind causes the soap bubble to resolve into a sphere and blow off the wand, that would imply that the universe either is in the process of being created by some sort of God and cast away, or it already has been. This also implies that time resides outside the universe.

The model in which the soap bubble resolves into a sphere but remains stuck on the wand is the model that is consistent with relativity. It is the model in which the definition of time is permitted to remain relative to this universe.

In this model, the imaginary observer outside of the universe does not see any dynamic action in time because, residing outside the universe, there is no capacity to relate, and thus, they see the soap bubble in its entirety, at all of its "times".

Following this line of reasoning, the universe in its complex state and the universe in its simple state is something that can only be expressed in terms of time,

How can I verify this?

Not the right question

How might I make this a more useful predictive tool to govern behavior than others who have espoused similar views before me and failed to do so?

I might use the model to imply useful and previously unrecognized boundaries between what is local and what is global in scope in terms of the "laws of nature" and thus find new "patterns of reality" by implication or learn how to break "laws of nature" that were previously considered inviolate by moving beyond the scope of their pattern.

I might use the model to help people recognize the difference between knowledge systems derived from experimentation and knowledge systems derived from deduction, allowing people to abandon the false assurance of faulty tools and work towards reconciling the conflict between science and religion.

I wonder if Paul Davies would consider this to be #3 or #5?

I draw comfort from the fact that I am not really a 3 dimensional object transforming and translating. I am actually a 4 dimensional object experiencing becoming. I have a boundary on the top of my head, and on the soles of my feet. I have a boundary at the surface of my chest, and at the surface of my back. I have a boundary on my left side, and on my right. And, finally, I have a boundary at my birth and at my death. I will never cease, but will exist forever within these 4 axis. At the time of my death, I will finally consciously know myself in my entirety. I consider that something to look forward to.

Someone on Slashdot recently claimed I hadn't read Keep the Aspidistra Flying because I thought the ending was depressing. After I finished my PhD in 2007, I've managed to avoid the same fate and have successfully avoided having a real job for almost five years. I've done freelance programming and written four books, and had a lot of time to post on Slashdot (as you can tell from the fact that, so far, I've posted more than anyone else this quarter) and do open source stuff (Ohloh ranks me in the top 2,000 geeks with no life^W^W^W^Wopen source developers).

That's about to change though. I had two interesting job offers recently (I seem to get job offers from banks very often, but I have a very low tolerance for tedium, so I'd probably have been fired around day 3 if I'd taken any of them). One was from Google in Paris (yay!) but working on boring things (boo!). The other was from Cambridge University, which is about as well paid as you expect in academia (aww!) but basically involves working on the same stuff I do for fun (yay!) with some very intelligent people (yay!). Oh, and it's in a city where a quick search found four tango classes (yay!) and property prices not much lower than London (oops!) and which is both small and flat enough that I can cycle everywhere (yay!) and so does everyone else (look out!).

So, in a few weeks I'm moving to Cambridge. I'll miss looking out at the sea, but being able to dance tango more than once a week should be some compensation. There also seems to be a lively salsa scene, although having to learn yet another set of names for the same Rueda steps is going to be a little tiresome...

When I visited, I went for drinks with some of the makerspace guys the night before my interview (I have no idea how much I drank, but it didn't seem to affect my interview performance too badly...) and met someone who worked on the C++11 atomics spec (which I was in the middle of implementing at the time) and someone who had ported 2BSD to a 32-bit PIC with 128KB of RAM, so it definitely seems like a city with no shortage of geeks...

Tyche is a little slate lovebird. I've known him since birth, over a decade ago. He's always been small, since birth. He's very intelligent; he used to lift his sliding cage door, then hold it open with his legs to let his cage mate in or out.

Almost a year ago, he suffered some trauma while we were gone, and we took him to the vet (I noted the event in this post).

Since then he hasn't been able to fly anything like he used to. He'll still climb up to high spots and sometimes launched himself off, but he wouldn't be able to get any lift. However today I saw him fly across the room, a good 20 feet; the best I've seen him fly in a year!

He sleeps on a shelf above a window, which he hasn't been able to fly up to since whatever happened to him about a year ago. I put ladders so he can climb up to a table under the shelf, then another long ladder to the shelf. Sometimes he uses the ladders, but other times he prefers to climb up the curtain. When he gets to the top he moves along the top of the curtain to the ladder and hops between the rungs so he can get on its other side, to climb the last little distance up to the shelf.

As I wrote this, Betty, Tyche's mate, came and sat on my shoulder. I told her I was writing about Tyche. The birds know that I spend a lot of time on the computer and they are often curious about it, looking at the screen, walking across the keyboard, pecking at the keys...

Another k$5 diary about a lovebird, Tabitha: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2006/3/16/5470/68756