One of the choicest mistakes I've ever heard on the radio: on BBC World Service today, a reporter mistakenly said that under US law, the penalty for blowing a CIA agent's cover could be as much as "ten years in Britain". (he corrected himself: "ten years in prison")
Saturday 09.27.03
"People in their 60's are burning CD's at home," said Gerd Gebhardt, the chairman of the German Phonographic Industry Association. "Housewives, who should be cooking, are burning.""Kinder, Küche, Kirche" lebt noch!
Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect. - Linus Torvalds
Friday 09.26.03
Another Friday. As with many recent Fridays, I'm struck by how little I've gotten done this week--although this week was better than the one before.
Tuesday 09.22.03
To readers searching for info about about Amr Mohsen and/or Aptix Corporation: the relevant journal entry cataloged in search engines (July 27) is archived and can be found here.
This page has gotten a few search engine referrals today, from queries apparently related to Amr Mohsen and his indictment.
update: court documents related to Amr Mohsen's case here.
Saturday 09.20.03
While reading last night, I heard a rapping on my window, a noise I wasn't used to hearing, which turned out to be a bat coming to munch bugs (the latter being attracted to light coming through the window). Same thing is happening tonight as I write this, except the bat is hitting a screen instead of a glass window.
What I wanna know is, why did I only start noticing this yesterday, in light of the fact that I've been through six summers here, with every summer featuring both bugs and bats?
In any case, I have a (partial) answer to Thomas Nagel's question: I reckon that if you're a bat, insects taste good.
Friday 09.19.03
Happy nineteenth.
Thursday 09.18.03
My earliest memory is of a hurricane: Donna, which visited Long Island 43 years ago and uprooted a maple tree in front of our house. All I remember is my parents pointing out the front door at some serious weather and saying "hurricane". I was 11 months old; some people try to tell me I can't possibly remember something that far back. File this under "no way to know for sure".
Wednesday 09.17.03
In a conversation with a friend recently, I expressed my opinion that «person X» (a mutual friend) would be better off not doing drugs as much as he does. I was immediately reproached for being judgmental.
We all make judgments, and often for good reasons. People say "judgmental" to mean "judgmental in a way that I consider inappropriate", and that very opinion about which judgments are inappropriate is itself a form of judgment.
In any case, my opinion about drugs is based on personal experience abusing drugs as a teenager and years of first-hand experience observing drug abuse by others. I don't claim to know with certainty what's best for «person X», but I have an opinion about his drug use and make no apology for that.
Tuesday 09.16.03
A question about the behavior of groupies, from an article in today's NY Times:
Why on earth would nubile young women choose a rock star as a possible father of their children instead of more literary and reflective professionals such as, say, journalists?(Probably the same reason why nubile young men aren't throwing themselves at a mathematician-manqué-cum-mediocre-blogger.) The article gives this possible explanation, from an "evolutionary psychologist":
Dr. Miller sees music as an excellent indicator of fitness in the Darwinian struggle for survival. Since music draws on so many of the brain's faculties, it vouches for the health of the organ as a whole. And since music in ancient cultures seems often to have been linked with dancing, a good fitness indicator for the rest of the body, anyone who could sing and dance well was advertising the general excellence of their mental and physical genes to a potential mate.I suspect that's not the whole story.
Monday 09.15.03
My friends on the east coast are expecting a hurricane. My neighborhood isn't much subject to hurricanes, just earthquakes and (smoke from) forest fires. Speaking of which, a fire's in progress in the Sierra Nevada; our air is a lil hazy today. I guess if the fire was lit by a human it's not termed a natural disaster, huh.
Funny, how we deem ourselves unnatural.
Friday 09.12.03
From an article in this Sunday's NY Times Magazine:
The difference between a 97-m.p.h. fastball and a 100-m.p.h. fastball, says Jeff Bagwell of the Houston Astros, "is that sometimes you don't see it until it's in your face. It's a macho confrontation. You can see it in a pitcher's eyes -- he wants to dominate you. I like that."Yeah, you like that, don't you.
Wednesday 09.10.03
From the California voter information guide I got in the mail today:
Dear Voters, Please vote for me, thus breaking the Seventh Seal and incurring Armageddon.The candidate's online bio says (among other things) that he
even thought about becoming a Marine or a Navy Sealand that he
understands what it means to be an immigrant and not to be an immigrant at all.Another candidate:
I am a grocer who, with his family, specializes in selling cigarettes to adults who make their own decisions.Finally, another candidate's suggestion:
We should teach basic criminal penalties and yoga in our schools.100+ candidates for Governor: die Qual der Wahl.
Saturday 09.06.03
An article in tomorrow's NY Times Magazine about "the futile pursuit of happiness" quotes psychologist Tim Wilson:
We don't realize how quickly we will adapt to a pleasurable event and make it the backdrop of our lives. When any event occurs to us, we make it ordinary. And through becoming ordinary, we lose our pleasure.This is news?! I thought most people figured that out at some point.
The article also suggests that getting a nice car won't make you happy. Well, if it doesn't, maybe you didn't buy the right car. Research is underway; a year from now, ask me about my findings.
Monday 09.01.03
I set up my telescope a few nights ago to look at Mars. Someone asked why I did it a few days after the closest approach, as if Mars were substantially farther away from us on Saturday than it had been on Thursday. Anyhow--I saw the polar cap, way cool.
Books read recently:
- Pictures of an Exhibitionist: Keith Emerson's autobiography. Worthwhile if you're an Emerson fan, otherwise probably not.
- Where the Money is: True Tales from the Bank Robbery Capital of the World (the capital in question being Los Angeles). Good book. Saddening for what it reveals about the breakdown of urban society, but interesting throughout.
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