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zptdooda (28851)
deanpjm AT gmail DOT com
Canadian, but drinks Kilkenny - won't turn down a Guiness if you're offering
My D&D character
Alignment:
Neutral Good characters believe in the power of good above all else. They will work to make the world a better place, and will do whatever is necessary to bring that about, whether it goes for or against whatever is considered 'normal'.
Race:
Elves are the eldest of all races, although they are generally a bit smaller than humans. They are generally well-cultured, artistic, easy-going, and because of their long lives, unconcerned with day-to-day activities that other races frequently concern themselves with. Elves are, effectively, immortal, although they can be killed. After a thousand years or so, they simply pass on to the next plane of existance.
Primary Class:
Mages harness the magical energies for their own use. Spells, spell books, and long hours in the library are their loves. While often not physically strong, their mental talents can make up for this.
Secondary Class:
Rangers are the defenders of nature and the elements. They are in tune with the Earth, and work to keep it safe and healthy.
Deity:
Mystra is the Neutral Good goddess of magic. She is also known as the Lady of Mysteries. Followers of Mystra wear armor and carry shields with her symbol on them. Mystra's symbol is a ring of stars.
Find out What D&D Character Are You?, courtesy of NeppyMan (e-mail)
favourite Robert Frost stanza about this time of year
The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.
(from Two Tramps in Mud Time)
mod points and no time to use them
Just got 5 mod points again. I couldn't even use up the 5 I got a week ago in a fair and informed manner. Hmm, how to perform my civic duty?
Perhaps I'll concentrate this time on the "Browse at -1 to keep an eye out for abuses", and see if anyone's been sabotaging.
3 unusual places
I've long thought there are three locations in spacetime which represent fundamental mysteries - where the laws of physics break down and at some threshhold cannot explain all that is really happening at there.
1. At the moment of the/a Big Bang
2. Within a black hole
3. Within the mind of a sentient being.
The first two are setups for the third.
And the coolest part is that we are at the third location. So we can observe it. Any thoughts?
Bayes and the universe
Please feel free to leave comments and ideas
Occasionally I consider how minute the probability of actually being here is. The only reason that we can make this observation at all is that being here is a necessary condition.
As the saying goes, âoethe universe is bigâ.
A couple of fairly recent stories PBS: cosmic expansion and Multiple Universes discuss the scale of time and space.
B----------------------------------E
On the time line, our universe started about 13B years ago (B). But things wonâ(TM)t reach steady state â" which is when the universe gets really boring - for trillion trillions of years (E). By steady state I mean the time of the last significant event, such as the last proton decay. All black holes would have evaporated. I know this ignores activity causing cosmic expansion pressure. The universe would largely be a spray of subatomic particles. Would there be anything else? Please let me know. Iâ(TM)m interested in knowing whether thereâ(TM)d be chunks or purely a spray.
Weâ(TM)re so close to the beginning of the universe that I consider us to still be in a stage of the big bang. For most of the universeâ(TM)s time, it will be a dark spray.
Now think of how wide a time slice of the above scale that any/all of us are available to observe this situation and divide by the total expected nonboring lifetime of the universe.
Categories of reasons for the preposterous unlikelihood of being here include:
- the six constants weâ(TM)ve heard so much about
- the tiny fraction of time that weâ(TM)re here to observe this
- the chance of any of us actually being born (that was a heck of a race each of us won to start our lives â" phew!)
The independent chance of me or you (in particular) observing the universe is to quote the cliché vanishingly small.
But it all comes down to Bayesâ(TM) Theorem. Thatâ(TM)s the sole reason I have for observing right now.
