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Complex Numbers A complex number is expressed in the standard form a + bi, where a and b are real numbers and i is defined by i^2 = -1 (that is, i is the square root of -1). For example, 3 + 2i is a complex number. The bi term is often referred to as an imaginary number (though this may be misleading, as it is no more "imaginary" than the symbolic abstractions we know as the "real" numbers). Thus, every complex number has a real part, a, and an imaginary part, bi. Complex numbers are often represented on a graph known as the "complex plane," where the horizontal axis represents the infinity of real numbers, and the vertical axis represents the infinity of imaginary numbers. Thus, each complex number has a unique representation on the complex plane: some closer to real; others, more imaginary. If a = b, the number is equal parts real and imaginary. Very simple transformations applied to numbers in the complex plane can lead to fractal structures of enormous intricacy and astonishing beauty. ![Merit Badge in Quill Award
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| Finally, the last day of the hated month of February. Unfortunately, the weather report here indicates more cold days ahead, and possibly s**w. But at least the end is in sight: three weeks to the equinox. If I can make it that far without straying too far from my healthy-eating-and-exercise plan, begun on the solstice, I'll consider it a win. Then it won't feel so bad when I inevitably fail. I've been waffling about whether I want to reprise the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  [13+] in March - though I'm leaning toward not doing it this time. That merit badge up there  is from winning it in January; while I'm not focused on winning, I originally started doing it as motivation to blog every day, and I think I can do that anyway, writing about the subjects that interest me and not necessarily following a prompt. Still, it can be a great activity, and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants that extra motivation.Besides, I might need to give myself permission to skip a day or three in March. Perhaps I'll re-evaluate for the next round, presumably in April - though I might have to go to NYC for a few days then. In other "win" news, back in December, I signed up to do "I Write in 2019" [E] - one contest entry and one review per week. I've actually been successful at that as well - at completing the tasks, anyway. We'll see if that holds up. It's going to be especially tricky in October and November, what with NaNo and Prep, but I'll burn those bridges when I get to them. Again, I expect to fail eventually - so I can't be too disappointed when it happens.I'm starting to get antsy for travel again, too. Part of that, though, is the crappy weather we've been having (normal for February in Virginia, but still crappy), so we'll see if I still have the urge in, say, April. I'll be unsatisfied if I don't go somewhere this year; I just don't have any firm plans yet. Maybe in conjunction with my possible NYC trip. Probably another beer tour; if so, that will automatically fail my health efforts - at least while I'm traveling. I mean, losing weight is great and all, but beer is more important. |
| To follow up my last "there are probably no spacefaring aliens" post, here's some speculation about what extraterrestrial life might look like. http://www.cracked.com/article_26213_4-awesome-theories-about-what-real-aliens-w... It's Cracked, so this is more about amusement - and if you're cynical, clickbait - than science. But there's still some interesting stuff. And if we ever do run into something along the lines of what's been dubbed the "Octomite," we'll have to make sure we don't show them all of our television shows, in which our noble heroes immediately destroy anything that looks remotely like that. Too late. One line of reasoning speculates that we haven't met aliens because they know damn well we're xenophobic. Hell, they probably are, too. It's kind of a byproduct of natural selection. Humanity, along with all other life on Earth, is carbon-based. Carbon is great at bonding and forming long molecular chains, and it's often been assumed that carbon is a requirement for metabolism and other important functions that make life work. But "carbon chauvinism" has been disputed more and more over the years, which we're sure has led to some sarcastic comments about Silicon Justice Warriors. Yeah, look, what's methane? CH4. The C stands for carbon. Methane might - might - stand in for water (though it lacks some interesting properties that make water unique), but it's still fucking carbon. The next alkane after methane is ethane (hey, I learned this stuff before I knew how to read). Ethane is two carbons and six hydrogens. Replace one of those H atoms with an OH radical and what do you get? Ethanol. You know what would be cool? If we found ethanol-based life forms. Hey, it's not as crazy as it sounds. Astronomers have legitimately found entire clouds of ethanol floating out there in the galaxy. I bet it's even aged nicely. One theory is that life was brought to Earth by a meteorite that slammed into the planet, and so the only genetic material we could work with was what was available on that rock. Again with the life-came-from-elsewhere hypothesis. Still doesn't answer the question of how life got going in the first place. There are some thoughts on that subject (and they don't involve the supernatural, the presence of which would ask more questions than it answers), but there's no consensus I'm aware of. In any case, the speculation is fun. |
| Here we go with the alien theories again. No, I don't mean of the "abducted by" sort; that's a whole other issue. I mean the semi-scientific "where are they" variety. https://www.popsci.com/where-are-aliens-new-model If the galaxy is billions of years old and it took humans just a few decades to visit the moon and launch space stations, why hasn’t single alien spaceship landed on the White House lawn? And already they're asking the wrong question. I'm not saying there's not some interesting ideas in that article - else I wouldn't have bothered to read it, let alone link it here. And I definitely think the search for extraterrestrial life is of the utmost importance, as much for what it doesn't tell us as for what it does. So I'm not saying that we shouldn't be doing these things. I can also accept that the people who study these things for a living know more about this sort of thing than I do. But. I'll call our attention to this bit from the article: Second, no single habitat can endure forever, as humanity is rapidly realizing. Spreading to other stars can extend a civilization’s overall lifespan, but from the moment a new settlement is born its days are numbered. It may last for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years, but at some point, a catastrophe almost certainly will take it out. People who think we may be alone in the galaxy - and here, I'm going to limit the discussion to this galaxy alone, as others are further away than any of us can properly comprehend - have been accused of hubris. What, the argument goes, makes us so special? Here's the rub, though - I contend that the idea that other life-forms will necessarily evolve a species that is technologically capable is also full of hubris. So here are some points to consider. I'll try to be brief, because this is a blog post and not a book. Best estimates put the age of the universe at about 14 billion years. Age of the Sun, 4.6 billion years. Age of Earth, a bit less than that. Beginning of life, about 4 billion years ago. Modern humans, dunno, call it one million years - give or take. Exact time doesn't matter. What we call civilization, maybe 10-12 thousand years. Length of time we've been technologically capable of leaving the atmosphere: 60 years. There might be other types of chemical reactions that can produce life, but as far as we know, there are none more efficient than those involving water and carbon molecules. Water is unique for several reasons that I won't go into right now, but there's very good reason to believe that the easiest - and, therefore, fastest - way to cook life is to start with good old H2O. And while silicon might replace carbon in life processes, the sheer number of possible combinations of carbon with other elements makes that element by far the most likely (again, therefore, fastest) choice for developing life. Life as we know it also requires higher-weight elements such as nitrogen, iron and calcium. Again, there may be replacement options, but the point is that their atomic numbers are higher. Why does this matter? Because the only way to get them in sufficient quantities is to fuse them from lighter elements. Briefly, the universe started out as mostly hydrogen; this hydrogen condensed into stars; these stars fused it into (mostly) helium. Our solar system, including the sun, planets, and us, condensed out of cosmic dust that had been scattered by massive stellar explosions that created elements higher on the periodic table. Until you have a few supernovae, you simply don't have enough heavier elements to produce life as we know it - not to mention enough to fuel technological advancement, about which I'll have more to say later. Point is, this process takes time. So - with this knowledge, just how fast can life begin? Well, given that there was only about half a billion years between the formation of Earth (which was then molten slag) and the first known life, probably pretty quickly in cosmic terms, once a suitable planet is formed. But the formation of a suitable planet - one with the heavier elements available - was extraordinarily unlikely in the early universe, and only became possible after a few supernovae seeded the galaxy with oxygen, nitrogen, etc. But wait, there's more. Remember I pointed out that life on Earth probably got its start about 4 billion years ago. (People have argued that it might have been seeded from other planets, but to me, that just kicks the can down the road and, if true, would only support my upcoming point.) Consequently, it was a long time before a species capable of technology appeared. If the first humans evolved one million years ago, that's comfortably within the error bars of the 4 bya estimate for the beginning of life. So, for four billion years, life on Earth chugged right along, evolving to fit its environment, adapting to new environments, consuming itself, without the benefit or detriment of humans complicating the works. And here's the thing a lot of people miss about evolution: thanks to years of bad science fiction (and even some good science fiction), combined with some good old-fashioned narcissism, we tend to think of some life-forms as "more evolved" than others. But every single species on this planet has been evolving for the same amount of time, and the evolution of each of them was a matter of survival and, ultimately, adaptation. A snake is not "less evolved" because it has no limbs; it gets along just fine. A chicken is not "less evolved" because it has all the cognition of a plant; it, too, survives. And a human is not "more evolved" because we can blog; we, too, adapted to environmental conditions - it just so happens that those qualities that we call "intelligence" turn out to be fairly useful in hunting, and avoiding becoming, prey. Now, look, I'm not one of those misanthropes who insist that the world would be better off without us. But it would go on, and other species would keep on feeding, fighting, and fucking. Point is, there is absolutely no known law or principle of evolution that requires the development of those qualities that lead to space travel. As long as a species can thrive in a given habitat, there's simply no need, from an evolutionary perspective, to devote energy to bigger brains or opposable thumbs. And if it can't survive, as millions or billions of species have not, then it's far more likely to simply die out. And I can make the usual misanthropic arguments about how we're probably going to wipe each other out before we seriously get going into space, but that's irrelevant - we can't project that on other, hypothetical, technological species from other worlds. And, going back to the paragraph I quoted above, a planetary catastrophe (meteor strike, whatever) could have stopped the evolutionary line that led to humanity in the first place. In other words, it's possible that we got lucky. This isn't as unlikely as it seems, since we're here; after all, the chance of winning a lottery might be 1 in a trillion, but once you've won it, the chance of having won it is 1 in 1. There are other arguments to make - for instance, that without the event that led to the formation of the Moon, then most of those heavier elements I mentioned earlier could have simply sunk to the interior of the early, molten Earth, like rocks sinking in a pond - but I think I've gone far enough to make my main point, which is that, even given the 200 billion or so stars in our galaxy, it's entirely possible that we're on the only planet with spacecraft. I mean, life is probably prevalent. We don't know yet. But I think we can safely rule out a Doctor Who or Star Trek galaxy. It's bleak to think about, I suppose, but I guess we might just have to make our own destiny. |
| I've been hanging on to this one since before V-Day, and I'm finally to the point where I can read it without associating it with that disgusting holiday. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190211-the-dark-side-of-believing-in-true-love... Old-fashioned romantics might have the wrong idea about love. Strong beliefs in true love could be blinding you to both the good and bad in your partner, with sometimes toxic results. Never thought the BBC would jump on the "You're Doing It Wrong" bandwagon, but I suppose that's spilled over into everything now. Psychologists have found two scales that influence how we start and maintain relationships. One measures how much importance we put onto first impressions and early signs of compatibility, while the other measures how likely we are to work through problems in relationships. They are called implicit theories of relationships (because we don’t often talk about them). We might intuitively think of ourselves as more or less likely to believe in true love – but this is not something that we openly discuss with others or are conscious of when we start new relationships. Right, and I'm sure that these were verified in scientific tests and then replicated by other researchers. Regardless, I skimmed over the quizzes. But they might be useful to someone. Particularly in the early stages of a relationship the presence of an issue can precipitate a break-up, as the destiny believer realises that their “perfect” soulmate is fallible. The destiny believer may argue that their partner “never really understood me” or that a small fault is “evidence that we’re not really compatible.” This is the case even if the couple are relatively well matched, Franiuk has found. This is also an abominably common plot device in romantic comedies. Or at least the few I've seen. They say the course of true love never did run smooth – but a greater awareness of our own romantic tendencies might just help us navigate those bumps and turns along the way. "They" don't "say" that - Shakespeare said that, and in a play that was even more a satire on love and destiny than the infamous Romeo and Juliet was. It's a sad day indeed when a British publication fucks up a Bard quote... |
| I just have this to share today: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-construction-costs.h... Now, I know that not everyone is interested in infrastructure issues, or what's going on in New York. I'm a civil engineer with relatives there, so I try to keep up. But the reason I'm sharing this story isn't the mismanagement, or the graft, or the corruption, or even the cost overruns. No, it's some of the excuses given for why subway construction in NYC costs 4-5 times as much as it does in other major cities. “They’re claiming the age of the city is to blame?” asked Andy Mitchell, the former head of Crossrail, a project to build 13 miles of subway under the center of London, a city built 2,000 years ago. “Really?” Well, that and a few of the labor union requirements the article details. Side note: I'm not taking a political stand for or against labor unions in general. But what that article describes is as pure New York City as it gets. You know. Empire State Building, Times Square, stock exchanges, Broadway, Brooklyn Bridge, union inefficiency. But my absolute favorite part is toward the end when they compare it to a similar project in Paris. Across the Atlantic Ocean, Paris is working on a project that brings the inefficiency of New York into stark relief. The project, called the Line 14 extension, is similar to the Second Avenue subway. Both projects extend decades-old lines in the hopes of reducing systemwide overcrowding. Both involved digging through moderately hard soil just north of the city center to make a few miles of tunnel and a few stations about 80 feet underground. Both used tunnel-boring machines made by Herrenknecht. Both faced strict regulations, high density and demands from neighbors, which limited some construction to 12 hours per day. But while the Second Avenue Subway cost $2.5 billion a mile, the Line 14 extension is on track to cost $450 million a mile. There's an old joke that goes something like this: In Heaven, the French are the chefs, the British are the police, and the Germans are the engineers. In Hell, the British are the chefs, the Germans are the police, and the French are the engineers. But it's looking more like: in Heaven the French are the engineers, and in Hell, the Americans are. |
| https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/02/cat-psychopaths/583192/ When Becky Evans started studying cat-human relationships, she kept hearing, over and over again, about how cats are psychopaths. First of all, cats aren't psychopaths (as the article goes on to explain). That's just more made-up bullshit, like the folk "wisdom" that a cat will "steal a baby's breath." Shit like that has led to the death and/or torture of more cats than I care to think about. Second, there's a viral idea floating around the internet to the effect of "your cat is trying to kill you." Stop that shit. Stop it right now. To be sure, there are mean cats out there, just like there are mean dogs or people. But as a group? No. Here's the problem: I've known a number of cat-haters in my life, the kind of people who, when they see a cat in the road while driving, deliberately aim for it. People who drown cats, or throw stuff at them, or shoot them. Stuff that, if they did it to dogs, they'd face a mob with torches and pitchforks, but for some reason, when it's a cat, other people just shrug it off. Don't get me wrong - I'm not here to change anyone's mind about what animals they like or don't like. Not my business, though I could never fully trust a cat-hater. But there's a difference between not liking an animal (I'm not overly fond of dogs) and actively seeking to harm them (I never would). And the whole "your cat is trying to kill you" meme just fuels the fire of cat-haters, making it that much more likely that they'll harm an innocent kitty. So that shit needs to stop. Sometimes I wish that there were actually an afterlife, and your position in the hereafter is directly dependent on how well or poorly you've treated pets. In the meantime, why don't we all try meeting other animals halfway instead of trying to anthropomorphize them? A cat gives clear signals when it wants to be left alone - at least, clear to anyone who cares to learn a cat's body language. It also makes it clear when it wants to be petted; just don't fall for the exposed-belly trap. Cats roll onto their backs to show that they trust you; tickling most cats when they do that is a betrayal of that trust. (Having said that, I do have one cat who loves to have her belly rubbed. The fur there is very soft.) To summarize, cats aren't dogs. And neither cats nor dogs are people. |
| Feeling less angry today. I think I figured out what it was: It's freaking February. Yesterday it was cold and there was snow. Today, temperatures got up into the 60s (that's degrees American, of course). Consequently, I had one less thing to be grumpy about, and it made all the difference. Speaking of cold and other countries: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/13/churchill-canada-polar-bear-capita... Spend enough time in Churchill, and you will hear the stories. Of hearing a noise outside, pulling open the drapes and seeing a polar bear looking in through the window. Okay, that would actually be pretty cool. Of walking around a corner at night, coming face-to-face with a bear and, implausibly, scaring it off with the strobe light on a cellphone. I just want to point out that the scary part of that sentence, to me, is not "coming face-to-face with a bear," but the "walking... at night" in freaking northern Canada. I mean, how do you not freeze into a statue three seconds after leaving a warm place, like Lot's wife but with ice instead of salt? Of being about to, against all better judgment, walk the couple of hundred yards from restaurant to hotel room at night... Again with the walking at night. What do they serve in that restaurant - anti-freeze? In fact, the more of that article I read, the more I needed to take a trip to Belize. I can see polar bears at zoos. But in February, I have to travel to get decent weather most of the time. The bulk of bear viewing takes place on the tundra outside of town, from the safety of bespoke vehicles approximately the size of school buses atop airport fire truck wheels, the immense size of which enables the trucks to traverse treacherous terrain and keep their occupants beyond the reach of even the largest and most curious bear. In. Theory. Signs around the town remind residents and visitors alike to exercise caution and report bear sightings on the hotline – 675-BEAR. Pretty sure that number works in other places, too. But it means something different. Culvert traps, baited with seal scent, line the perimeter of the community; bears that are caught in them are taken to a holding facility, popularly known as the polar bear jail, where they are held for up to 30 days (without food, to enhance the deterrence factor of the experience) Because it's such an awesome idea to deliberately make a freaking polar bear hungry. Ayotte heard Greene’s screams and, clad only in a sweater and his pyjamas, ran toward the scene and brought his shovel down as hard as he could between the bear’s eyes. Canadians are a lot of things, but easily intimidated ain't one of them. So anyway, great article, but just reading it made me need a big, roaring fire. Or a tropical beach. |
| I've been feeling frustrated lately. No, not because of that. Or even because of that. I don't even know why. Emotion is like a foreign country to me: some things are familiar, but I don't speak the language, I don't fully grok the customs, and I feel like anything I do could be misinterpreted. What I don't understand, specifically, is that this isn't the first time I've worked on improving my overall health through a combination of diet and exercise - but past attempts have left me feeling better, not worse. Usually, I take some pleasure and derive satisfaction from working toward a goal of that sort, and seeing real progress. Not as much as I get from instant gratification, of course, but some. This time, though, I have been seeing real progress, and apart from a bit of overindulgence on Monday (something I had planned for), I've been pretty good about sticking to the basics: eat right and exercise. And yet, instead of feeling good about things, I've become short-tempered and sensitive to the slightest things going wrong. So yeah, like I said, I don't understand it at all. Clearly, I am missing something. That happens sometimes; what's obvious to other people is often obscured to me. It's possible that taking a break from my hedonistic lifestyle has caused some cognitive dissonance; I know I resent the idea that in order to have a chance to live longer, I have to chill out on a lot of the things that make life worth living. That could have something to do with it, and yet I haven't gotten to the point where I'm ready to give it up and go back to pizza and beer. I'll get to that point, eventually, but not today. Only thing I can think of to do is to channel my rage into extra effort toward my goal, but that doesn't address the problem: where is this abominable emotion coming from? I suppose I could see a shrink, but that hasn't been all that useful for me in the past. I figured maybe by writing about it, I'd gain some insight. But now I've done that, and I haven't gotten any ideas. |
| Everything in life is hazardous and it will make you sick! https://lifehacker.com/clean-your-phone-right-now-1832426763 Flu viruses that are capable of infecting others, for instance, can last on hard surfaces for as long as 24 hours, according to one study. This means anyone who touches your phone in that time could be vulnerable. Okay... this is not a bug; it's a feature. Anyone who touches my phone should become violently ill for a very long time. Don't touch my fucking phone. “Foot and mouth disease is very rampant in small children at nursery school-age, too,” Papadakos added. Isn't that... a cattle disease? Everything suddenly becomes more clear now. If you have access to one, Papadakos recommends using a particularly high-tech cleaning method: a UV disinfection box you place your phone in, which eliminates germs and electronic devices in seconds. They’re available for purchase on Amazon and they’re becoming more common in public restrooms and universities, he said. ...this article paid for by the International Association of UV Disinfection Box Manufacturers. If you’re looking for something a little less high-tech, Apple recommends using a lint-free cloth to clean your iPhone, the kind you receive with a pair of glasses. Have you seen the price of glasses lately? I think I could buy 20 UV Boxes for the price of one lint-free cloth. And probably three or four iPhones on top of that. So clean it as often as you would with your hands (and do it now, you’re doing us all a favor). I really hate when I find articles like this. Yeah, okay, if you're sick, stay away from people and don't touch shit they're going to touch. But I got really tired of reading stuff like, "We examined [insert common object] and saw more germs than live on a toilet seat!" Well, yeah, because toilet seats get cleaned. Look, unless someone in the vicinity has a c. diff. infection or something, germs are probably good for you. Your immune system needs exercise, too. Never, ever bring a black light to a hotel room (but do check for bedbugs). It's best to simply assume that everything is covered in a nice, healthy coating of immune-system-exercising germs. Sometimes I wonder if 2/3 of us have stupid allergies because we're not exposing ourselves to enough bugs. But hell, I'm not a biologist, so I could be way off. I just usually follow the "if I can't see it, it doesn't exist" philosophy unless it's in a kitchen. |
| Someone in my town decided that it would be a good idea to put a tequila bar upstairs from a whiskey bar. Okay, yes, it's a good idea. Except that it's dangerous. Well. Dangerous to me, anyway. The whiskey bar features scotch, bourbon, and other whisk(e)ys from around the world. The tequila bar features tequila and mezcal. Since these magic concoctions can only be produced in Mexico, they're not from around the world. I started by ordering a $50 shot of Bruichladdich Octomore. Because the server was a fucking idiot, I ended up with a $15 shot of Bunnahabhain. Now, look, I love Bunnahabhain. But I have a bottle at home. So why would I order that at the bar? Whatever. I drank it happily. Upstairs, I continued my birthday tradition by ordering a flight of tequila. Now... understand... I'm still drunk. So I'm not going to go into the details of tequila. Suffice it to say that, as the flight is called ¡Dios Mio!, it was amazing. Tequila is the nectar of the gods. Unpronounceable gods, but still... gods. Now, understand: I've been mostly abstaining for the last couple of months, in an effort to lose weight. So, between a) weighing less and b) being out of practice, it didn't take much for me to achieve a state of benevolent drunkenness. I wouldn't have done even that, except that I have a long history of drinking tequila on my birthday, and I'm not going to let a little thing like trying to lose weight stop me now. Still sore, however, about my lack of really expensive Scotch, I ended up going back downstairs and ordered a fine aged Lagavulin. Anyway. Point is, it felt good to get back to an alcohol-positive lifestyle. Not something I'll overindulge in for the next little while, but sometimes you just have to sit back and enjoy life. |
| At some point, birthdays stop becoming about growing up and start becoming about growing old. Personally, I think that point is age 21 in the US, because drinking. But now I find they're less about growing old and more about being one year closer to death. Hence, today's article: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-47030233 What are the biggest threats to humanity? Oddly, social media didn't even make the list. Neither did commercials, vegans, or SUV owners. Now I'm picturing a vegan ad agency executive driving her SUV while instagramming. Don't tell me that never happens. Volcanic threats But while the prospect of a super-volcanic eruption is terrifying, we should not worry too much. Super-volcanoes and other natural disasters, such as an asteroid striking Earth or a star exploding in our cosmic neighbourhood, are no more likely in 2019 than any other year. And that is not very likely. Before the 2017 eclipse, I noted that its track passed over or very close to the Yellowstone Caldera. So I tried to start a viral rumor on the internet that the massive combined gravitational force would trigger the Yellowstone Supervolcano. (Just to be clear, this was, is, and will continue to be bullshit.) It didn't take. I was devastated. The world was not. Growing threats The threats are complex and diverse, from killer heatwaves and rising sea levels to widespread famines and migration on a truly immense scale. And this is why I still celebrate birthdays. Well, apart from the existence of tequila. Because every birthday means 1 year less chance of me being alive when shit goes south. Also increasing are the potential risks from novel technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). Remember yesterday's entry about Lone Asshole Theory? This particular doom is related to that. Sure, we can try to put limits on AI - but all it would take would be one lone asshole ignoring those limits. Of course, I think the "threat" from AI is way overblown. Fuckers can't even get autocorrect to work right. Another threat is the possibility of a nuclear war. The 80s called. They want their fearmongering back. Increasingly dense and mobile human populations have the potential to see new influenza strains spread easily. And this raises concerns about a future outbreak like the 1918 Spanish Flu, which killed up to 50 million people. However, widespread vaccination programmes and other disease prevention measures help reduce this risk. I think my next attempt at viral scaremongering should be how the anti-vax "movement" was started by the Zero Population Growth (ZPG) people (or possibly the Illuminati or the Freemasons) in an attempt to reduce world population. With almost eight billion people living on Earth, we are increasingly reliant upon global systems to sustain us. These range from the environment that provides us with food, water, clean air and energy, to the global economy that turns these into goods and services. Maybe it's not a conspiracy theory. Study it out, sheeple. There is an old story of King Canute of the Danes commanding the sea to retreat. He knew he would be unable to hold back the tide and a similar sense of powerlessness can easily overtake us when we consider potential future catastrophes. However, the truth is that the Danes have been pushing back their shoreline for generations: building dykes and draining marshes to protect themselves from the oncoming tide. Ah... the power of civil engineering. Unfortunately, I'm retired. |
| https://thewalrus.ca/where-not-to-travel-in-2019-or-ever/ “My name is John!” shouted John Allen Chau from his kayak in November 2018 as he paddled toward strangers on the beach of North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal. “I love you and Jesus loves you!” In response, the people on the remote Indian island strung arrows in their bows. Yeah, I heard about this asshat when it happened. Got what he deserved. Unfazed by the genocidal threat his germs posed and fresh out of missionary boot camp, Chau made repeated attempts to land—ignoring arrows and Indian law—in an effort to bring the Gospel to the Sentinelese. "I know better than anyone else; the only law that applies to me is God's Law; and I'm doing The Right Thing!" Lord, save us from your followers. Media coverage of Chau’s acts was disturbing because it didn’t come off as coverage of a crime—at least, not of his crime. Other major news outlets similarly valorized Chau’s legally and morally corrupt foray, highlighting his conviction as if tone-deaf temerity were a quality to admire. Yeah, that bugged me at the time, too. So, basically, his act of trespassing was lauded by exactly the same kind of people who are perfectly happy to put up "Trespassers will be shot" signs and point shotguns at census workers. Yeah, that's consistent. As someone who has been called an adventurer before, I feel more of a sense of kinship with the person on Twitter who suggested this fix for the Times headline: “Remote Community Faces Biological Terror Threat From U.S. Religious Extremist Killed by Local Authorities.” To extol or glamorize any aspect of what Chau did risks condoning a brand of colonialism that should be anachronistic by now, and not just among missionaries. In fact, Chau’s evangelism is too easy a target, and it’s one that eclipses his more fundamental transgression. Pretty much this - though there's no way to know if the Sentinelese would have been aware of the bioterror threat he represented. This sort of thing puts me in mind of Star Trek. Okay, bear with me here. I seriously doubt we live in a Star Trek - type universe, with sentient alien races around every other star. The evidence just isn't there to support that idea. In fact, it's possible that we're the only intelligent life in the galaxy (not the universe, of course, but the galaxy). And before you start with the "no intelligent life" jokes, I'm using the term in the sense of "technologically advanced enough as a species to go into space." We meet that definition. We know of no other species that does. Also, I'm not saying that life isn't out there; just that there's absolutely no law that says intelligence (that definition, again) must evolve in an ecosystem, and that the circumstances that allow it might be exceedingly rare. Like, 1 in 10^100 rare. Okay, I digress, but it's important to my point. Suppose I'm wrong. Unlike that missionary dickwad, I can allow for the possibility. How do we keep from fucking up first contact? Star Trek proposed a sort of legalized, formalized ethical framework in the form of the Prime Directive. You know it, I'm sure, but basically it's "don't mess with pre-warp cultures." Various starship captains then proceeded to find reasons to bend or break it, but that's not important right now; what's important is that it's codified ethics. I have my issues with it as a concept - like Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, it seems hopelessly naive, for one thing - but it can be the basis for a discussion. Thing is, we can go ahead and discuss it all we want, but there's another problem. It probably has a formal name, but I have no idea how to look it up. I'll call it Lone Asshole Theory, or Waltz's Fourth Law: It doesn't matter how ethically 99.999% of us act, if the actions of the other 0.001% can screw things up for everybody. For example: Most of us wouldn't steal from a car, even if it were unlocked with the windows down. But we roll up the windows, lock the car, and remove valuables because some people do that. Most of us wouldn't set off a nuke in a major city, but all it would take would be one lone asshole to ruin everybody's day. The vast majority of humans wouldn't have slammed airplanes into skyscrapers, but those few that did made life more difficult for everyone else. Similarly, we could have a bunch of protocols in place in case we ever met aliens, but everything would be completely undone by one John Allen Chau. All it would take would be one inadvertent biological contaminant (unlikely, of course, but can't rule it out), or one twat on a "mission from God" to convert the Little Green Aliens to Christianity. Or whatever religion. Hell, there'll probably be missionaries from a whole lot of religions falling all over themselves trying to spread the "good" news. I call this a nightmare scenario. Waltz's Fourth Law basically explains why we can never have nice things. It's akin to the Tragedy of the Commons, but in that scenario, there are usually several bad actors; in mine, all it takes is one. So, do I have a solution? Hell, no; of course not. And like I said, it'll probably never come up. Almost certainly not in my lifetime. So the only thing I can think of is to continue to make people aware of the problem, and to do what we can to stop the Lone Assholes. |
| There are many things that make being an omnivore worthwhile. Chief among these things, of course, is bacon. I don't mean backbacon (which, in the US, is called Canadian bacon) or the kind of bacon they have in the UK, though those are also delicious. I mean the kind of strips of meat candy we have here in the US. Almost everyone knows how to cook bacon - or, actually, they think they do. Here's a rare article that doesn't start with "you're doing it wrong," but semi-scientifically tests various ways to turn bacon into cooked bacon. https://food52.com/blog/23779-how-to-cook-bacon-best-way-make-bacon-in-the-oven-... Now, I gotta be honest - I do the microwave method. I like crisp bacon and don't like the grease, nor do I have any use for it. I don't even like my eggs cooked in bacon grease. It's just a thing with me. Also I'm lazy as fuck and hate cleaning up; that method is quick and clean, and only requires that I contribute to the ultimate destruction of the ecosystem by throwing away stacks of greasy paper towels. I'm okay with that. But I'm always willing to consider other options - what's your bacon cooking method? (Vegans need not respond) |
| All this ranting makes me stressed. And I know a good way to relieve stress. No, not that. No, not that either. Gods... get your minds out of the gutter. I'm talking about this: https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/catPurrNoiseGenerator.php If you're fortunate enough to be owned by a cat, maybe you don't need it. Also, it's one of the few places on the internet where it's probably okay to read the comments. That site, incidentally, has other sounds you might find useful. |
| https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/02/09/what-happens-when-you... Ah... the frisson of schadenfreude. BITCOIN WAS introduced to the world in August 2008, in the aftermath of the financial crisis. According to its techno-libertarian fan-base, one of its main attractions was the promise that users could avoid dealing with the hated banks. But after a decade of amateurism, scams and billions of dollars of lost or stolen money, it is clear that many of the ramshackle institutions that play the role of banks in the cryptocurrency world make even their most reckless conventional counterparts look like paragons of good management. As an aside, there is literally no reason why anyone should be dealing with the Big Banks if they don't want to. While it will take a little work and maybe a little more planning, there are alternatives that don't involve ephemeral blockchain wizardry. Your local credit union, for example. Or national institutions such as USAA or Discover Bank. "But I like having the convenience of ATMs!" Yes, that is why these alternatives usually have deals where you get free withdrawals from any ATM. Most of them even have deposit-by-phone for checks. There are also debit cards available if you must go that route. And if you use credit cards or have/need a mortgage or whatever, there is, as I said, absolutely no reason you should ever have to deal with Wells Fargo and the like. And if people would stop dealing with Wells Fargo, they'd either have to change their ways or go out of business. Or, admittedly, pay off politicians to make the other banks go away, but that strikes me as way too obvious to ever actually work. Anyway. The latest example is QuadrigaCX, a Canadian cryptocurrency exchange that was granted protection from its creditors on February 5th. The problem, according to the firm, is not that it has lost its customers’ money, but that it cannot get to it. It says that Gerald Cotten, its boss, died unexpectedly in India in December. And this is where the schadenfreude comes in. Look, I didn't know the guy, but I'm not celebrating his death; that's not the point. The point is that, unless he was delusional enough to believe in the Singularity or the promise of consciousness uploads - and, to be sure, anyone involved in cryptocurrency could easily be that whacked - he knew he was going to die, just as we all do. So it's not his death that amuses me; it's the fact that... Mr Cotten was in sole charge of handling deposits and payouts, running everything from an encrypted laptop to which only he knew the password. Now, to be fair, I don't have my passwords written down anywhere, either. That's just common sense. But then, I don't have (nominally) billions of dollars worth of bits hidden away in my laptop. Some stories and poems, some spreadsheets, some games, some porn, that's about it. Nothing anyone will miss when I inevitably kick it. I can't say I really understand cryptocurrency. I have a vague understanding of what blockchain is, in a theoretical sense, and why it can underpin cryptocurrency. Thing is, though, I'm sure a lot of people don't understand cryptocurrency. But a lot of those people think they do, hence you get the wild speculation that we saw a couple years ago, culminating in a Dutch tulip-style bubble. That is why I call cryptocurrencies "Dunning-Krugerrands." And I have a pretty firm rule about speculating in experimental markets: that is, don't speculate in experimental markets. You're better off going to Vegas, and that's not saying much. Right now if any cryptofans are reading this, they're probably going, "Okay, sure, bitcoin isn't based on anything real, but neither are US dollars. ZING." Well, you have half a point. US dollars - most world currencies - are fiat currencies, meaning their value is pegged to no commodity (most used to be pegged to gold or silver, but that ended years ago). The USD is backed by the US government, which, despite attempts from all sides to bring it to a screeching halt, still keeps chugging along, if only on two cylinders. So, yeah, if the government collapsed, dollars would be worthless, just as bitcoins (or whatever) are worthless in the scenario in the linked article. But there's one important difference: If the US government actually collapsed, we'd have FAR bigger problems than the nominal value of the pieces of paper in our pockets. Contrariwise, if the owner of a cryptocurrency blockchain dies without a succession plan, you're boned - but you're still living in a semi-functioning economy. Okay, enough of that. Yeah, some people bought bitcoins (or whatever) and got lucky. A lot of other people did not. Point is, a whole lot of people who really didn't understand what they were getting into are now boned. I can't feel sorry for them, though; it was a greed thing and not what anyone with any sense would call a wise investment. Look, you wanna gamble, I'm certainly not one to judge. But if you did, I don't think you knew the actual odds. And that's what's reckless, not the gambling itself. |
| Somehow, I managed to delete my entire bookmarks folder dedicated to blog fodder. In the grand scheme of things, this isn't exactly Ragnarok, but it still pisses me off an inordinate amount. I could find no way to recover the 35+ links I'd been saving to (mostly) rant about here. I will allow myself five minutes to properly rage about this. ... ... ... ... ... Okay, I'm done. Such are the ephemera of online existence. I did remember the last link I added, so that's what we're going to discuss today. https://longreads.com/2019/02/11/atlantic-city-is-really-going-down-this-time/ Atlantic City Is Really Going Down This Time There’s no doubt that Atlantic City is going under. The only question left is: Can an entire city donate its body to science? Now, the site is called "longreads" for a reason, though I found the article worth reading. But I understand if you don't take the time to peruse it. Here's the tl;dr summary: Atlantic city is boned because of flooding and the casinos that are popping up everywhere along the Northeast Corridor, and they're trying to turn the place into a climate science laboratory. First let me say that this isn't an opening to debate climate change. Keep that shit on Facebook. I promise you that if you're not a climate scientist, you have nothing meaningful to contribute to the discussion on either side - and I'm not a climate scientist, either. No one's going to change their mind. This is about Atlantic City. I've said this before, but I don't know where, so I'll risk repeating myself: I've been to Vegas, Reno, and Atlantic City - the major gambling cities throughout all my adult life. Vegas is Vegas; there's nothing else like it in the world, but it has its own problems in the form of Lake Mead being perennially low these days. Reno is so depressing they had to bring Morrissey in to cheer it up (I'm not kidding; the first time I was in Reno I saw a billboard advertising a Morrissey concert). And Atlantic City makes Reno look like Disney World. The article speaks of a "duopoly" of gambling hubs between AC and LV, but I think they're giving Reno the short stick in that regard; Reno is even bigger than AC, but perhaps it is that city's relative proximity to Vegas that makes them leave it out. It's not even really that close, though - but it's one of my favorite drives, 8-9 hours through mostly empty desert, with the occasional ghost town along the way. When I first went to a casino in Atlantic City, one of the slot machines there was Monopoly-themed. This amused the hell out of me, as it is well-known that Monopoly was based on Atlantic City's streets, railroads, and other features. The guy who invented it lived there, so the story goes, and made it up to keep him busy during the Great Depression. Irony is thick on the ground, there. That casino is now closed, along with several others, and the ones that remain have... issues. So it will be interesting to see if the place can once again reinvent itself. While I have no moral issue with gambling, I will note that the more desperate a casino destination is, the harder it becomes for them to make a profit; consequently, games become stacked even more in favor of the house. And, as we've seen, in some cases, it's still not enough. They become less about entertainment and more about gouging visitors. Atlantic City is pretty damn desperate. And yet, take away the glitz and the blinking lights, and it's an interesting little beach town. I'm kind of hoping they do find something to keep them going, before it, too, becomes just another ghost town. Well they blew up the chicken man in Philly last Night now they blew up his house too Down on the boardwalk they're gettin' ready For a fight gonna see what them racket boys can do Now there's trouble busin' in from outta state And the D.A. can't get no relief Gonna be a rumble out on the promenade and The gamblin' commission's hangin' on by the skin of its teeth Everything dies baby that's a fact But maybe everything that dies someday comes back Put your makeup on fix your hair up pretty and Meet me tonight in Atlantic City Well I got a job and tried to put my money away But I got in too deep and I could not pay So I drew what I had from the Central Trust And I bough us two tickets on that Coast City bus Everything dies baby that's a fact But maybe everything that dies someday comes back Put your makeup on fix your hair up pretty and Meet me tonight in Atlantic City Now our luck may have died and out love may Be cold but with you forever I'll stay We're goin' out where the sand's turnin' to gold So put on your stockin's 'cause the night's getting' cold and maybe everything dies That's a fact but maybe everything that dies Someday comes back Now I been lookin' for a job but it's hard to find Down here it's just winners and losers and Don't get caught on the wrong side of that line Well I'm tired of comin' out on the losin' end So honey last night I met this guy and I'm Gonna do a little favor for him Well I guess everything dies baby that's a fact But maybe everything that dies someday Comes back Put your makeup on fix your hair up pretty and Meet me tonight in Atlantic City |
| I'm certainly not an expert on conversations, but this strikes me as annoying: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-3-minutes-it-takes-to-read-this-will-impr... The 3 Minutes It Takes To Read This Will Improve Your Conversations Forever Ask “why” three times. You want to annoy me? Keep asking me "why?" There are reasons I never wanted kids, and their constant "Why?"s are high on top of the list, along with diapers and my parents always telling me "Just you wait until you have kids." Don’t ask, “What was fun about your trip?” Instead, drill down and ask, “What was the single most fun moment of the trip?” I really, really, despise questions like this. It's like when people ask me, "What was your most embarrassing moment?" Fuck if I know - I've blocked it out. You want me to pick one of the other 10,000 moments at random? Then it won't be the most embarrassing. (Lots of examples of that in the article.) Look, I'm pretty sure there's some useful information here. Avoiding yes/no questions - I get that. "Wanna go to the movies?" "No." "Did you have a good day?" "Yes." But turning this around, someone asking me a lot of these questions feels like putting me on the spot. But hell, what do I know? I'm an introverted basement troll who happens to not live in a basement. What do you think makes for good conversation? |
| And now, folks, it's time for the February round of Bullshit Or Not! https://lithub.com/jonathan-franzens-10-rules-for-novelists/ Now, this is a short article, so I'm not going to paste it here. Because that would violate Rule #0: Don't Plagiarize. (It's okay to borrow. It's even more okay to steal. It's never okay to plagiarize.) So please, read the link (as noted, it is very short). First test of bullshit: who the hell is Jonathan Franzen? Won awards: Okay. Wrote for The New Yorker: Christ. I hate that mag. Conclusion: writes for writers, not for readers. Also, look at the picture. Look at it. "Okay, we need to make it clear that you're a writer, not a military officer, line cook, or assembly-line worker." All he's lacking is a pipe and a crystal decanter of Scotch. Consequently, anything he has to say is probably erudite as fuck, but that doesn't mean it'll be useful. I mean, if you want to drive a car, do you pay more attention to what drivers say, or what automobile engineers say? I mean, okay, probably a little of both, but when it comes to the practicality of driving a car, I want someone with experience driving, not someone with an intimate knowledge of torque ratios. On top of which, the linked article is really just an ad for his book. As such, it fails miserably - for me, anyway. So here's my take on the Rules: 1. So what? 2. Writing for money is a good thing. Because money is a good thing. 3. This... okay, I can agree with this. 4. "Irresistibly?" There are reasons to write in different points of view. Choose the most appropriate one. Avoid present tense. 5. When the information that is universally accessible is of questionable provenance, finding the actual facts is a valuable thing. 6. Literary-genre authors like to proclaim that paradoxes make sense. 7. Dafuq does that supposed to mean? 8. It is doubtful that most people are writing good fiction. 9. Unless you find books like Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series interesting, I'm uninterested in your opinion on writing. 10. Again with the impenetrable pronouncements. "I need a #10 here. How can I appear profound? I know; I'll throw in something about love." Now, I know, I know, this guy is published and I'm not, so maybe he knows what he's talking about. But if you can't figure out what he's actually saying, so what? It's torque ratios when I need to know how to start the engine. So, what do y'all think? Bullshit... or not? |
| Because my last few entries have been dark and deep, I just thought I'd share this video of 28 trombones covering Queen's (arguably) most famous song. Naturally, it is called BONEhemian Rhapsody, so I can't even. Source and more info: https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2018/11/29/671870946/28-trombonists-play-b... |
| https://www.brainpickings.org/2018/11/08/g-k-chesterton-heretics/ I'm not well-versed in philosophy. It's not that I'm not interested. I'm interested in a lot of things. It's just that I don't have the background. So when I see an article like this, I'm not afraid to admit I'm out of my depth. Just as a lot of people I talked to can't deal with mathematics - a position I can't relate to, but accept - I struggle with philosophical language. Philosophers build on earlier philosophers, on science, on religious thought to expand upon, or tear down, what has come before. Unlike math, philosophy, by its very nature, has no definitive answer. Unlike science, there's no rigorous testing and retesting of hypotheses with philosophy. It's ambiguous, and I'm not comfortable with ambiguity. Worse, my technical background has left little room for learning how to contextualize ambiguous thought processes. When it stops being ambiguous, it becomes science. Physics used to be called "natural philosophy." So - I have no doubt that what the author of the linked article is saying is important (whether I end up agreeing or disagreeing), but I'm having trouble unpacking it. Maybe someone reading this has some insight? |
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