{11}

no we don't

2010-03-12T10:32:00.001-08:00

I heard Ars Technica's Ken Fisher reading this on NPR yesterday...

"Blocking ads can be devastating to the sites you love. I am not making an argument that blocking ads is a form of stealing, or is immoral...It can result in people losing their jobs, it can result in less content on any given site..."

SHUT UP

I've rarely wanted to pimp-block someone so bad...

"blah blah...Does that mean that there are the occasional intrusive ads, expanding this way and that? Yes, sometimes we have to accept those ads."

no we don't

If these poor abused companies have really staked the quantity and quality of their content and the jobs of their afflicted employees on a mechanism so fragile it's utterly defeated by a check box, then they're stupid and they'll die; the business model they've chosen is horribly flawed. Someone smarter should take their place.

Advertising will NEVER go away but popup ads are universally despised. There's probably a better way. Find it.

in reference to: http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/03/why-ad-blocking-is-devastating-to-the-sites-you-love.ars (view on Google Sidewiki)

Google Sidewiki: Groovy

2009-09-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

OR Google Sidewiki: Danger?

Jeff Jarvis has a debate going over at buzzmachine.com.

He and a host of others seem to think they've somehow lost control with the launch of Sidewiki, that Google just hijacked all the juicy future user-generated content that would otherwise plump their personal domains.

This view feels like an odd mix of insecurity and hubris. It shows zero confidence in authors/publishers being interesting enough to keep an audience engaged and participating when that audience suddenly finds there's another place to type.

Wait... there have always been other places to type, other conversations. Even the most loyal reader/contributor reads/contributes to other conversations (sometimes simultaneously with browser windows side-by-side - loyalty and promiscuity are not mutually exclusive on the Web).

If what you have to say is interesting, people will continue to talk to you. If you're LUCKY, they may even talk about what you have to say in other conversations. Maybe in Sidewiki. If what you have to say is not interesting (or inflammatory or abusive), good luck.

If an individual or entity makes a public statement free to anyone via the Web, I believe any and all reactions should be publicly stated (if desired) at no cost on the spot. Many sites still operate under the old print paradigm of one-way communication and make no provision for public user response. We're well past the days of one-way. Other sites require membership which requires the payment of valuable demographic goodies and/or personal contact info. That may be a good business model, but in social, conversational terms, it's extremely impolite.

So, let'em have Sidewiki. I firmly believe the audience at large has thoughts and opinions enough to fill every available channel to capacity. They'll fill them with suggestions and praise, corrections, indignation and bile (and spam). It will get messy. So? Clutter can be adjusted for. It could get ugly. Welcome to the Web.

Fear of trolls, prejudice, unfair competition, grudges, pettiness, hate and other human sins does nothing to dispel them. Bringing such filth into the light and up to the surface may make for easier cleanup.

With every contributor also acting as moderator, Sidewiki should be self-correcting. Posts will reach dominance through consensus (and a little algorithmic help).

Sidewiki isn't just "another" conversation. And it isn't an evil Google-devised content sinkhole. If Google has gained more control, it's only after offering every single individual a new degree of personal control over our collective conversation via this peer-to-peer-to-peer, dynamic, context-sensitive community of interest.

It seems to me the only thing lost with Sidewiki is the ability to pretend contrary views don't exist (ha ha Foxnews).

OR maybe I'm wrong. It's really hard to tell sometimes with Google. They're shady.

Link to this entry as posted on buzzmachine...
http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/09/25/sidewiki-what-google-should-do/#comment-401937

2008-12-18T19:34:00.001-08:00

still playing with this idea of mobile-anywhere-like-kinda blogging. iPhone at the dub, but too self-conscious maybe to say anything of respectable substance... so I blather

2008-11-30T18:14:00.001-08:00

took my fifteen-year-old straight son to see MILK this afternoon. had to procure rock band 2 first to get full buy-in on a two-hour historical political drama; "gay" was the very least of his aversion. enlightened child that he his, he walked out saying "awesome" right along with me: best picture '08, best director, best actor, best screenplay, etcetera, etcetera...

2008-11-27T20:46:00.001-08:00

"bringing the bling" and giving thanks with the good people at the dub. thanks with the idiots too.

2008-11-26T21:21:00.001-08:00

it works for what it's worth

2008-11-26T21:20:00.001-08:00

mopho bloggin' ho

ppps

2008-01-05T00:38:00.000-08:00

ppps - current-state partial sms memory transcription follows

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/2/07 SUN 12:29am | I just got this. You alright? Need a drink?

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/3/07 MON 2:47pm | Well here it goes... My mother just told me i was as fat as she's ever seen me

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/7/07 FRI 3:17pm | I have luke this weekend. Can i get a rain check for monday?

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/10/07 MON 5:50pm | Cool. I'm at target with del. Sorry i didn't hear the last text alert. I'll meet ya at the dub in a bit

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/10/07 MON 6:05pm | God you've already forgot my name

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/10/07 MON 6:09pm | :)

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/11/07 TUE 3:57pm | Gonna do christmas stuff tonight. You guys don't get caught jerking each other off. Let me know what time and I'll call in tickets

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/11/07 TUE 8:16pm | I just got home. I can't leave in the middle of making something

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/11/07 TUE 8:19pm | K

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/17/07 MON 9:21am | I can't tonight

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/17/07 MON 12:01pm | Jamie and lisa are having some problems so i didn't want to impose on them.

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/17/07 MON 3:53pm | 940 i think

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/17/07 MON 4:02pm | I can't talk right now. Let's talk tomorrow

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/17/07 MON 4:11pm | I already put a down payment on the apartment

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/18/07 TUE 5:26pm | I didn't think you were being that way.

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/22/07 SAT 1:02pm | Would you care to get together for breakfast tomorrow?

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/22/07 SAT 6:55pm | Let's do all good at 11. i can meet you or whatever

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/22/07 SAT 7:17pm | Why don.t ya. It'll be easier

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/22/07 SAT 7:21pm | K sounds good

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/23/07 SUN 11:07am | Trying to wake up...

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/23/07 SUN 11:26am | I'm going to feed Tj's cat. I'll let ya know when i get back

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/23/07 SUN 11:37am | Heading back. I could meet ya at your house if you like

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/29/07 SAT 5:41pm | Feel free to come by the inwood for a drink and a movie if you like

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/29/07 SAT 5:48pm | Awesome!

Elizabeth LOtR: 12/30/07 SUN 1:07am | Fucking picky mother fuckersout here...can't breath

Krissy new o7: 12/31/07 MON 11:23pm | And I'm 15 mins into the new year! C u guys in 45 mins! Love u all!

+12144562236: 1/1/08 TUE 12:36pm | Happy new years bitches! Xoxo!!

beerd: 1/2/08 WED 7:18pm | Your are more of a man than I am. And you're sick. Dude that video is the movie the ring.

7001: 1/3/08 THU 8:20am | Your T-Mobile bill is past due. You may make a payment using our automated system by dialing *7001

7001: 1/3/08 THU 10:08am | Thank you for your online payment. $185.98 paid on Jan 03. Confirmation #3358275.

Elizabeth LOtR: 1/3/08 THU 3:01pm | Barely alive. Still got that fucking cold and it's making me miserable. Got moved in for the most part. Hanging with luke cause i couldn't last night

Elizabeth LOtR: 1/3/08 THU 3:16pm | Thank you! I'd feel so much better if my face would just explode already

Elizabeth LOtR: 1/3/08 THU 3:27pm | That's not what i meant silly lol

Elizabeth LOtR: 1/4/08 FRI 7:19pm | It's too soon

aaa-me: 1/4/08 FRI 7:29pm | too soon??
aaa-me: 1/4/08 FRI 7:40pm | i'll give you a dollar if you give me a brief courtesy call
aaa-me: 1/4/08 FRI 7:55pm | was that a we-just-broke-up"it's too soon"
aaa-me: 1/4/08 FRI 7:58pm | i hit the button too soon. i'm stupid, but i'm not scary. just give me a quick call. super pretty please?
aaa-me: 1/4/08 FRI 8:35pm | oh man i AM stupid. one-way texting rocks! call me tomorrow, please, as a friend.

Elizabeth LOtR: 1/5/08 SAT 12:07am | Sorry i had started to watch a movie... I just feel like i need more time
aaa-me: 1/5/08 SAT 12:14am | send me right back one emoticon smiley of your choosing and i'll guarantee an immediate and sincere "ok" followed by time and space of your explicit design
Elizabeth LOtR: 1/5/08 SAT 12:15am | You're silly :)
aaa-me: 1/5/08 SAT 12:16am | ok

affine aversion

2006-08-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

Q: Is it intellectually dishonest, even cowardly, not to investigate all aspects of the human condition? (posed here: bunfight-over-warrior-gene)

A: It's natural to feel affinity for those "like" us. And, so, degrees of aversion for those "unlike". Others in our family are like us; our friends are like us; those of our race are like us; our countrymen are like us; people who enjoy the same books, movies and music are like us.

Everyone else is different.

Every individual is an active member of multiple, ever-expanding, overlapping teams organized by common traits, goals and interests. There will always be opposite traits, incompatible goals, rival interests. There are rival families, rival schools and towns, rival races and rival fan clubs.

Everyone harbors prejudice. That's not ignorance; it's genetic, it's physical. It's even crucial at times. If your team doesn't win, it loses. Right?

But every prejudice should be open to regular reevaluation. Without the latest accurate information, each subsequent evaluation is unlikely to produce progressive results.

It is the failure to recognize our multiple memberships; the unwillingness to accept the recognition; the inability to accurately, objectively reevaluate our prejudices that is a function of ignorance and/or ignoble self-interest.

Neither will be overcome through institutionally mandated restrictions on acceptable knowledge.

Any objective reader will likely give caveats appropriate weight. Anyone swayed by AFP headlines is likely to have been leaning already.

It IS intellectually dishonest, even cowardly, not to investigate all aspects of the human condition.

buh

2006-08-17T07:22:00.000-07:00

segway

2006-05-31T12:03:00.000-07:00

concept centaur

holy shittt

2006-05-14T20:25:00.000-07:00

belief and understanding are the same thing

what? no.

extra optical inch

2006-05-09T09:07:00.000-07:00

www.shaveeverywhere.com

2006-04-14T08:35:00.000-07:00

A Universal Philosophical Refutation

set eleven sister site

2006-03-29T08:18:00.000-08:00

set eleven

2006-03-26T07:21:00.000-08:00

roadkill has its seasons
just like any other thing
there's possums in the autumn
and there's farm cats in the spring

—Tom Waits from "Murder in the Red Barn" off "Bone Machine"

beer and big sandals

2006-03-01T07:59:00.000-08:00

i was afraid this would be lame, but since you won't let me pin you down, i'll open it up and say, hey, i know, let's hang out next...

how 'bout any day next week or sometime through april to may of 2016 when i turn 46 'cause if i haven't met an amazing girl by then i'll quit and become a buddhist monk because that stuff kinda makes sense to me now and meditation could help me deal with the failure and i'm already bald and barefoot and just lazy enough to wear a robe all day. plus, maybe i'll learn to make my own beer. but that's the trappists, right? where do they come from? never heard of "trappism". sounds way shady. bet girls talk to them. chicks dig shady dudes with beer and big sandals.

ode to sausage fingers...

2006-02-21T14:32:00.000-08:00

twin hunky hams adorned by ten knuckled wieners!

on first sight, "w-what the heck!?"
it ain't right, three keys a peck!

blink-blink-shake,
stare, back away...

chuckle-chuckle-grin,
gag a little then...

dire-digited wretch, all lesser none greater,
like eight chicken necks with opposable taters!!!

hooo, i'm done

Surgeon General's Warning: "A 2004 analysis published in the journal Neuroepidemiology determined that consumption of sausage during pregnancy is correlated with an increased risk of childhood brain tumors" - sausage

the fucking moon

2006-02-21T12:06:00.000-08:00

http://sauceruney.com/

perish the pinks

2006-02-21T11:30:00.000-08:00

and praise bob!

[dribble-dribble]

2006-02-21T10:49:00.000-08:00

touch me... again!!!

does anybody really know what time it is? does anybody really care?

2006-02-20T12:16:00.000-08:00

at the pub just before christmas, i got into a conversation with a guy in town from chicago selling christmas trees to southerners. it was tuesday night and he was looking for a party or just somewhere open late (he was used to 4am last calls in chicago) because he'd be wide awake for the next 30 hours. he explained that he had a sleep disorder (caused, he said, by hard-core cocaine abuse) similar to narcolepsy and was on this new drug modafinil...

"Get ready for 24-hour living" New Scientist '06 (not freely readable yet)

"The Great Awakening" New York Post '02

http://www.modafinil.com/

http://www.erowid.org/smarts/modafinil/

Tales from the Truck Stop

2006-02-13T07:56:00.000-08:00

Tales from the Truck Stop

maybe schmaybe

2006-01-24T07:23:00.000-08:00

Keys, glasses inna teef, laptop bag oh... ver my shoulder, phone to pocket, iPod stowed, coffee perched, door phuump mostly masks the sneaky crinkle of brown pastry paper as the remaining third of my no-sugar banana nut cake bounces once, skitters left on-edge and squirrels under the fucking car.

It took longer than ten seconds to fully grasp what I'd seen; ten seconds more for my eyes to adjust to conditions beneath the Civic... there!

In the low buzzy light of the garage the semi-shiny welcome mat-sized stain didn't quite look like oil... maybe cola, maybe...

Maybe I should accept the loss and move on.

dashed

2006-01-11T11:04:00.000-08:00

I was at a casino, I was minding my own business and this guy came up, he said 'You're gonna have to move, you're blocking the fire exit.' As though, if there was a fire, I wasn't gonna run.

If you're flamable and have legs, you are never blocking a fire exit. —Hedberg

dead pa mothahhfuckahhh

2006-01-03T08:43:00.000-08:00

Agape, I gaze through keyboards and cables, past the unspun legs of a precision nob’n’switch flippin’ master monkey with a mic to the skin-slappin’ gorilla blowing my mind:

DEAD PA are primates of superior descent;
If God so said “Let there be light,” this is what He meant.

O’Mojo most mad;
Star-forged DnB Preachers, these asses are bad.

The mixture swims thicker near intakes;
Bandwidth bunged and promptly plunged with arc-brilliant black and eager breaks.

The sleeper be awake; crack, spin feeed;
Synch, super-pose, collapse and breathe;
This is it, critical digital mass, believe.

A superfluid-slick, crystallizing, proselytizing archetypal kick-in-the-teeth;
Bitch got the beef.

Lo’ the rhythms right yo’ wrongs, Truth striding forth shall stomp your fettered soul free o’flesh and out brothahhh! way out!

first time traveler: a potpourri

2005-12-30T20:01:00.000-08:00

Type Ia supernovae/Orch OR/Spelling bee kid queries, quanders, stumbles, slumps, rouses, recovers and spells.

“But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?” —Cicero

“I could not see how much Easy Cheese I was applying to each cracker.” —Hedberg

Where do I begin? Do we end... I’ve never felt any connection with the idea of an after-life. Heaven in its variety—certainly not the self-loathing quilt of Hell—has never made the slightest sense to me; elaborate guesses colored by hope and fear of hopelessness. Each option suggests a place; familiar relationships with peers and superiors; situations, causes and consequences we can fathom. They are the fondest wish for this life to continue and a corrosive dread that, continuing, it may change too much.

Still, the notion of ‘ascendance’ through understanding and knowledge has appealed to me. The suggestion that life/consciousness is a form of energy or field that transits the physical in oscillating waves of experience puts me most at ease. It sounds pleasant enough. But, again, from ‘whence’ to ‘where’?

...
If this place is real; if reality is the sum total of the universe we inhabit; its constituent parameters and parts, knowable and not, ourselves, our kind and kindred constructs, animate or still; all possible... all conceivable… If this is it; now! Gone. All behind. Our futures are fabricated for peace of mind while puzzling over the past. If I am here, then I was certainly and will only ‘be’ but for the grace of maybe?
...

Maybe. As I sit still, here and warm, relaxed in body if not in soul, the odds are good. Who knows? Tomorrow may yet come. A new year may yet ring.

reunited, hey, hey

2005-12-16T08:31:00.000-08:00

PEACHES: CONFUCIOUS SAY "IS GOOD FOR LADY TO MEET MAN IN PARK, BUT BETTER FOR MAN TO PARK MEAT IN LADY". PUT THAT IN YOUR STRAW AND SUCK IT, YOU PIZZA EATING CHINGOW PUTA..................

HERB: you peter piper piece of shit. why don't you eat some? fuckin' vigangani. what's up diddo?

PEACHES: WHAT IN THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN DOIN YOU TIRTY TEVEN GHOULS AND GHOST FURBURGER CLUSTER FLYING FINGER FUCK. LONG TIME NO SMELL, DO YOU FORGET ABOUT THE LITTLE PEOPLE. WHEN WILL YOU BE HEADING DOWN TO C.C.? I DIDN'T REALIZE YOU WERE IN DALLAS OR I WOULD HAVED LOOKED YOU UP. I WAS THERE IN THE NOT TOO FAR PAST FOR A WEEK YOU MOON PATROL PLAYIN BISH. KERRI'S LITTLE BROTHER ASKED ABOUT YOU A WHILE BACK. HE HAS A TOYOTA, AND I WORK AT A TOYOTA DEALERSHIP, SO I RUN IN TO HIM SOME TIMES. I TOLD HIM I HAD NOT HEARD FROM YOU IN A WHILE, BUT AS FAR AS I KNEW, YOU WERE STILL A DRIED UP STINKY DICK LICKER FROM WAY BACK. ERIN SURE LOOKS DIFFERANT FROM WHAT I REMEMBER. DOES HE STILL WATCH NICK NICK NI NI NA NICK NICK NICK NICKALODIAN? "OLD TIMES, OLD TIMES" IS YOUR MOM AND SISTER DOIN O.K. ? WELL BEFORE I TYPE TOO MUCH TTYL... SINCERELY, LIZARD BOY

P.S. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT ALL ABOUT

HERB: i'm in dallas, been in dallas since i tried to drag your one eyebrow junebug cornhole munchin' ass here. don't give me that shit, i'll clinch up my butt cheeks n'rip yer dick off.

sister's doin' good, works at an irish pub about six blocks from here and gets me good and drunk on a regular basis. i need it because mom is living with me.

yeah. but she's doin' good too.

my son is 12 and here every other weekend and wednesdays. we play video games non-stop and if we had moon patrol he'd kick my ass.

i was out of work for a few years, but have been doing contract graphic design stuff for a few months and just got a fulltime job today. i work again.

i've been playing guitar on and off since you got me started. over the last few years i finally feel like i know what i'm doing. last christmas i bought a yamaha 16 track digital recorder and a good mic, but have only recorded a little.

i've been single and sexless for a... long time, but got laid recently, so i'm pretty sure i'm not gay. that was a close one.

what's it like for you? you've been breeding. how many now? how's jennny, lester and the parents?

PEACHES: THINGS HAVE BEEN PRETTY GOOD FOR ME. TWO KIDS. MY STEPSON GRADUATED HIGHSCHOOL LAST YEAR AND WORKS AT CRACKER BARREL WITH ME WIFE. MY DAUGHTER IS IN FIRST GRADE AND I'M TEACHING HER THE WAYS OF THE FORCE TO SOMEDAY BECOME A JEDI LIKE MYSELF. DO OR DO NOT, THERE IS NO TRY. I'M STILL MARRIED OF COURSE, BUT I CAN RELATE TO THE SEXLESS PART, BUT OF COURSE I AM GAY, AND YOU KNOW YOU ARE TOO. THERE IS NO REASON TO BE IN DENIAL YOU CUM GUZZLIN GUTTER SLUT. REMEMBER WE WERE ONCE IN THE CLOSET, BUT IT WAS SUCKING US IN. JENNY IS FINE AND IS MARRIED IN HOUSTON WITH 3 KIDS. TWO OF THEM ARE ON MY FRIENDS LIST, TIM AND DOUG. LESTER ALSO HAS THREE KIDS HERE IN TOWN. HIS OLDEST GRADUATED TWO YEARS AGO. THAT MAKES ME FEEL LIKE AN OLD FUCKER. OH FUCK ME, WHO AM I KIDDING, I AM AN OLD FUCKER.

MY MOM AND DAD ARE FINE. MY MOM ALWAYS TELLS THE STORY OF HOW SHE BUSTED ME SNEAKING OUT AND YOU WERE FLASHING YOUR HEADLIGHTS AT THE CORNER. MY DAD IS STILL A CRAZY OLD FART, FUNNIER THAN EVER. ANYWAY I'LL YACK AT YA LATER, I GOTTA GO BEAT MY MEAT.

new trix

2005-12-14T08:43:00.000-08:00

[beeep] sunday hi

So, Monday, Tuesday, today's Wednesday; not even three days. She called after five last time—but that was a Friday to Thursday and I'm not sure weekends should count at this early stage, so that would be three days, tomorrow. But I don't think she'll call on a Thursday again. Friday would be four days—a fresh number—but a little awkward with the weekend looming...

Tuesday was unexpected. A last minute school function kept me an hour later than hoped and I hadn't quite decided where we should go. Her neighbor was over and sounded distinctly masculine through the bad cell connection. She suggested I stop by—OK—they were eating grocery-store sushi and boiling crab legs (only a half-pound, but sure, I could have a bite).

"You guys need beer?" says I.

What the f...

BEER read the sign. BEER was the name and beer being my goal, to BEER is where I steered.

Beer being the proprietor's sir name and not suggestive of available inventory, PowerBar between my teeth, I get underway with an entirely unimpressive six-pack of Mexican suds.

What the fuck am I headed into? Park, up one flight with false calm; I can't remember knocking.

The door opens on an unfamiliar girl propped against the kitchen bar, eating a shrimp and giving me an expertly blank appraisal. Neighbor is cute. The amused face of my date appears as I drift in.

Nightmare scenarios torn away, my fondest dreams lay bare... Disoriented by the whiplash aerobatics of me man-mind, I hoist a neutral smile and tack toward the fridge with my brown bag'o brew.

The living room is stacked full of disassembled bedroom furniture: the TV is obscured by a massive headboard; the pet mouse is somewhere behind a dresser; room for one on the sofa. I take a spot on the floor and begin smoking.

They eat standing in the kitchen, chatting casually and... watching me.

Oh Blogger, where art thou?

2005-12-13T07:33:00.000-08:00

We're not one-at-a-timin'-it here! We're mass communicatin'!

Oh Blogger, where art thou?

yanko pitch

2005-12-12T12:18:00.000-08:00

power surge/failure... flickering fractional seconds flourescent free!

a beat - recovery

giddy excitment foams from every semi-enclosure, rising; faceless acres flooded with collective happiness :) :0 :]

a beat - recovery

comments...

2005-12-12T11:38:00.000-08:00

no sir, i don't like'em

blog. huh.

2005-12-12T08:14:00.000-08:00

From every head-high dingy tweed panel three-inch stickpins strain upwards in haphazard bunches like nightmarish nano-fungi adapted to cavern life. *air* A soft blue-white buzz stands like gelatin in this colossal novelty gerbil-maze mold. bluh blhhh...

goddamn, what a bummer

today i begin my three month sentence at ~bOº°P. yesterday i launched my very own weblog so i will have it: an accessible hobby while incarcerated.

i chose blogger (recently purchased by google) because it's free and way easy, if not full-featured. the hardest part was picking from the eight available templates (fully modifiable if you wanna dig into the html - just changed some fonts so far, but intend to redesign).

to get the feel for things, i started posting quotes from people who actually have something to say. later, maybe, i'll join the fray. for now i see it as a way to collate items i find interesting with links off to add depth. i don't manage bookmarks very well and this is a way to summarize and maintain context. i plan to link every stand-out name, word or phrase to either IMDB or Wikipedia (characterized this weekend as a hub of collective ignorance and ill intent - WARNING: DON'T BELIEVE A THING YOU SEE... or cross-reference asshole) because i can.

actually, i just realized this little email is the kind of crap i should be tossing about to fertilize the fields. so, just punch it up a bit and...

copy, post: seteleven.blogspot.com

forever

2005-12-11T15:51:00.000-08:00

poetry

The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossil poetry.

—Emerson

unchanged

2005-12-11T14:38:00.000-08:00

without any stimulus at all

A uranium nucleus may remain unchanged for billions of years and then without any stimulus at all, suddenly violently disintegrate.

—David Deuetsch "The Fabric of Reality"

persistence

In quitting this strange world he has once again preceded me by just a little. That doesn't mean anything. For we convinced physicists the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however persistent.

—Albert Einstein from a letter to the widow of Michele Besso

Time Capsules | 29

I suggest that the brain in any instant always contains, as it were, several stills of a movie. They correspond to different positions of objects we think we see moving. The idea is that it is this collection of 'stills', all present in any one instant, that stands in psychophysical parallel with the motion we actually see.

—Julian Barbour "The End of Time"

so i begin

2005-12-11T12:17:00.000-08:00

3.4 Do natural numbers need the physical world?

Let us consider one way (developed by Cantor from ideas of Giuseppe Peano, and promoted by the distinguished mathematician John von Neumann) that natural numbers can be introduced merely using the abstract notion of set. It also leads on to what are called 'ordinal numbers'. The simplest set of all is referred to as the 'null set' or the 'empty set', and it is characterized by the fact that it contains no members whatever! The set is usually denoted by the symbol Ø, and we can write this definition

Ø={ }

where the curly brackets delineate a set, the specific set under consideration having, as its members, the quantities indicated within the brackets. In this case, there is nothing within the brackets, so the set being described is indeed the empty set. Let us associate Ø with the natural number 0. We can now proceed further and define the set whose only member is Ø; i.e. the set {Ø}. It is important to realize that {Ø} is not the same as the empty set Ø. The set {Ø} has one member (namely Ø), whereas Ø itself has none at all. Let us associate {Ø} with the natural number 1. We next define the set whose two members are the two sets that we just encountered, namely Ø and {Ø}, so the new set is {Ø, {Ø}}, which is to be associated with the natural number 2. Then we associate with 3 the collection of all the three entities that we have encountered up to this point, namely the set {Ø, {Ø}, {Ø, {Ø}}}, and with 4 the set {Ø, {Ø}, {Ø, {Ø}}, {Ø, {Ø}, {Ø, {Ø}}}}, whose members are again the sets that we have encountered previously, and so on. This may not be how we usually think of natural numbers, as a matter of definition, but it is one of the ways that mathematicians can come to the concept. (Compare this with the discussion in the Preface.) Moreover, it shows us, at least, that things like the natural numbers can be conjured literally out of nothing, merely by employing the abstract notion of 'set'. We get an infinite sequence of abstract (Platonic) mathematical entities—sets containing, respectively, zero, one, two, three, etc., elements, one set for each of the natural numbers, quite independently of the actual physical nature of the universe. In Fig.1.3 we envisaged a kind of independent 'existence' for Platonic mathematical notions—in this case, the natural numbers themselves—yet this 'existence' can seemingly be conjured up by, and certainly accessed by, the mere exercise of our mental imaginations, without any reference to the details of the nature of the physical universe. Dedekind's construction, moreover, shows how this 'purely mental' kind of procedure can be carried further, enabling us to 'construct' the entire system of real numbers, still without any reference to the actual physical nature of the world. Yet, as indicated above, 'real numbers' indeed seem to have a direct relevance to the real structure of the world—illustrating the very mysterious nature of the 'first mystery' depicted in Fig.1.3.

[Fig.1.3 consists of three dots labeled: Physical world; Mental world; Platonic mathematical world, serially connected in a triangular 'loop'.]

—Roger Penrose "The Road to Reality" p.64-5