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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Robin Zimmermann" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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12:00 am
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Open Thread 2008!
Buoyed by the terrific success of last year's, I offer you: another open thread! Post! Question! Answer! Flame! (Not too much flame, though - the extinguisher hasn't been recharged in a while.) Anything doesn't reply to regular posts can go here.
Tags: open thread
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12:10 pm
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Quick Question on the Big G
Surprisingly topical for a Sunday, the following question, reposted from ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) thequestionclub:
Inspired by a thread on IIDB, a two-part question:
1. Do you believe that at least one god is real? (For purposes of this question, interpret the word "real" as per Eliezer Yudkowsky's The Simple Truth.)
2. a. (For those of you who answered "yes" to the above:) Describe this god (or a few of the most important gods, if you ascribe to a more-than-one-god theory) to the best of your ability. If you are unsure, say, "I'm not certain of this, but I believe [...] with X confidence". If you cannot find the words, say, "I don't know if I can express this properly, but it is something like [...]". If you are tempted to say nothing at all, please: say something, however incredibly hedged. I specifically promise not to judge anything you say in any comment I make on this post. Just say what you believe.
b. (For those of you who answered "no" to the above:) Describe the characteristics that something would have to have to be called a god. Does it need to be a person? (Would being a person help?) Does it need to be able to subvert the laws of physics? Does it need to be benevolent?
---
Unlike on the post on thequestionclub, anonymous comments are allowed and unscreened, and I've temporarily disabled IP logging. Feel free to weigh in however you feel comfortable!
Tags: polls, questions
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08:25 am
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Writer's Block: Scaredy cat
Not-quite-copout answer: human beings.
Backup answer: dogs.
Why human beings? In general, most animals which are dangerous to me personally I can avoid simply by (a) living in town and (b) using a bear bag in the woods. (Sure, there's a little complexity in (a) with respect to mice et al., but that's only a little complexity.) However, there are human beings everywhere, and if there aren't, they can get there. Worse, human beings have all sorts of death-machines running all over the place (cf. cars), plus when they decide to hurt you they have tools and can get mad creative.
Why dogs? Because (1) they run up to you, (2) they're usually either large, crazy, or both, and (3) they're "friendly" in this really weird way - it puts pressure on you. A cat can chill out on its own - sure, it might enjoy being petting, it might rub against your legs if you happen to be convenient, but there's a real sense that if you simply left it could do its own thing and be fine. Dogs don't give that impression. Plus, there's the whole thing with the humans, where they will play with the dogs, throw stuff, talk at them, as if normal people would all do the same. Dogs aren't people - how are you supposed to talk to them?
Anyway, wrapup: humans are most dangerous to me personally, dogs are most creepy to me personally, and the other creatures which might qualify are safely far away.
Current Location: home\bedroom\north_desk
Current Mood:  nervous
Tags: animals, fright, writer's block
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07:14 pm
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An Object Lession in the Distracting Power of Literal Meaning
Listen to this track.
(If the embed fails, you can find the track here.)
Now, consider the question: if you didn't see the video or know the referents of the words, if it were a straight audio recording called "Fuval Unccl Crbcyr" and sung in a language you couldn't understand, how would you evaluate the emotional content of the track? (Yes, please, listen to it again. I'll wait.)
Would it be, perhaps, wistful? Or hopeful? Or even ... unhappy, in parts, however cheery in others?
Hm.
Current Location: home\bedroom\north_desk
Current Mood:  intrigued
Current Music: Shiny Happy People - REM
Tags: music, thoughts
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09:09 am
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Writer's Block: Step into My Closet
Restricting to shoes I have worn in the last year or so, whose vague location I know, I estimate:
- 2 pairs of sneakers,
- 1 pair of hiking boots,
- 2 pairs of dress shoes.
Of which I wear the boots and the newer pair of sneakers regularly.
Current Location: school\engineering_building\TA_office
Current Mood:  bored
Tags: number of shoes, writer's block
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02:05 pm
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Blog Plug: Overcoming Bias
I know some of you all (I'm thinking m'dad ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) zhurnaly and the Dread Medievalist goblinpaladin for starters) will love this blog, for three reasons.
First, Overcoming Bias is a cool goal.
Second, because it's written by people who know stuff and like to share. (Like Edward Slingerland in What Science Offers the Humanities, and yes, I still owe goblinpaladin the review, it's halfway done.)
Third, tasty, tasty writing.
Decoherence is implicit in quantum physics, not an extra postulate on top of it, and quantum physics is continuous. Thus, "decoherence" is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon - there's no sharp cutoff point. Given two blobs, there's a quantitative amount of
amplitude that can flow into identical configurations
between them. This quantum interference diminishes down to an
exponentially tiny infinitesimal as the two blobs separate in
configuration space.
Asking exactly when decoherence takes place, in this
continuous process, is like asking when, if you keep removing grains of
sand from a pile, it stops being a "heap".
The sand-heap dilemma is
known as the Sorites Paradox, after the Greek soros, for heap. It is attributed to Eubulides of
Miletus, in the 4th century BCE. The moral I draw from this very
ancient tale: If you try to draw sharp lines in a continuous process
and you end up looking silly, it's your own darn fault.
(Incidentally, I once posed the Sorites Paradox to Marcello
Herreshoff, who hadn't previously heard of it; and Marcello answered
without the slightest hesitation, "If you remove all the sand, what's
left is a 'heap of zero grains'." Now that's a computer scientist.)
From The Conscious Sorites Paradox, by Eliezer Yudkowsky on Overcoming Bias, as part of a long digression-from-a-digression-from-a-digression-from-a-digression on quantum physics (and, back up the chain, philosophical zombies, reduction, the Mind Projection Fallacy, and ultimately - I think - AI research. Unless ultimately is "Overcoming Bias", in which case ... what am I saying?).
Anyway, you know the problem with WIkipedia? You can totally get the same groove here. Very hypertext.
Current Location: school\engineering_building\TA_office
Current Mood:  enthralled
Current Music: Need Your Love So Bad - Eva Cassidy
Tags: blogs, life, links, science
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09:22 pm
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Level up!
So the AD&D 2.5 campaign has been running along biweekly, and today we finished up the first quest. Or, to be more precise, today we said, "hey, we were supposed to clear the mine, and that was four pages of maps ago..."
Yes, the mine turned out to be the entrance to a gigantic cavern system with weird phosphorescence, extraordinary patterns on the floor, funky traps, huge chasms, and mysterious (and often humorous) traps. It was awesome. In fact, when we went back to the blacksmith/mine owner, we said, "hey, can you put in a door so we can go back?"
He took it out of our reward, but nobody complained. Like I said, awesome.
Anyhow, that was that. Anyway, we netted over 1000 XP for the adventure, which added up to levels for everyone. Plus, mad cash, which added up to long sword for me! (My club was bequeathed to the half-elf thief/cleric - we're a thief-heavy party - to be Shillelagh'd with.) Also, picked up small mirror and silver dagger, for emergencies. So, now we have to rescue the kids who got snatched while we were off adventuring, and then see about the missing supply caravans.
Current Location: home\bedroom\north_desk
Current Mood:  accomplished
Current Music: Writer's Block - Britt Daniel/Brian Reitzell
Tags: games, geekery, personal history
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04:03 pm
![[User Picture]](http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/73732980/6424329) [Link] |
WPA Wireless Networking in Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Dunna work.
Or, if you prefer, EPIC FAIL.
(Summary, as far as I can tell so far: Mac OS X 10.5 uses the new, fancy, consistent standard that works perfectly with new, fancy, consistent networks, if you ever find one. When faced with a router with the old firmware - like any of them at UMD - the new OS, unlike XP, Linux, Mac OS X 10.3, and other such, breaks.)
(It's Comcastic! And, ironically, very Windows Vista.)
Current Mood:  angry by angramused
Tags: geekery, insanity, psa, whinging
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10:15 am
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Pants Unbankrupting
...to (ironically) borrow a phrase.
Just did a flist purge. Let me know if you noticed and want back on. Don't have time any more for some of this stuff - if, as your brain thinks, anything you make time to do is important, I'm making way to much crap important. (Will be doing a blog purge anon.)
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: For the Turnstiles - The Be Good Tanyas
Tags: geekery, life, psa
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07:45 pm
![[User Picture]](http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/48671133/6424329) [Link] |
See? It says I procrastinate right there!
From explodingbat, a little game: do the following quiz, ignore the Forer effected output, and use the profile matching feature to find not the complement to your personality but those most similar to it. Tweak the age and circumstances to be as close to your own as possible, then look through the list of your parallel universe siblings.
I've got a classic starving left-wing artist, a old-school game nerd/hacker (as in comp. sci student, not as in hooligan), some MySpacers with uninformative profiles, and another computer scientist (but this one a guitarist and proud furry).
My Personality
| | Neuroticism | | Extraversion | | Openness to Experience | | Agreeableness | | Conscientiousness | |
| You are sensitive about what others think of you. Your concern about rejection and ridicule cause you to feel shy and uncomfortable around others. You are easily embarrassed and often feel ashamed. Your fears that others will criticize or make fun of you are exaggerated and unrealistic, but your awkwardness and discomfort may make these fears a self-fulfilling prophecy, however you feel enraged when things do not go your way. You are sensitive about being treated fairly and feel resentful and bitter if you think you are being cheated. You lead a leisurely and relaxed life. You would prefer to sit back and smell the roses than indulge in high energy activities. You tend not to express your emotions openly and are sometimes not even aware of your own feelings. You do not like to claim that you are better than other people, and generally shy from talking yourself up, however you are not adverse to confrontation and will sometimes even intimidate others to get your own way. You often say or do the first thing that comes to mind without deliberating alternatives and the probable consequences of those alternatives.
| Take a Personality Test now or view the full Personality Report.
The best Buying Pet Gifts. |
Current Mood: tired
Tags: punch in the presence of the passenjare!
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12:39 pm
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Míshlê Robin
So I was pounding away at the grading, and my mind started to drift, and, well...
Raise not hypocrisy to the stature of a Great Sin! To prove hypocrisy is to prove moral failing, but to prove moral failing is nothing if it is not done to correct, and to prove hypocrisy corrects nothing. Instead treat each hypocrite as herself, and ask: which of the three hypocrites is she?
The first hypocrite is she whose professions are righteous and acts are unrighteous. To you, I say: praise her! Hard is the road of righteousness, and many will stumble from it - praise her for her noble words, and commiserate with her when she falls short of them.
The second hypocrite is she whose professions are unrighteous and acts are righteous. To you, I say: praise her! Rare is the soul whose instincts are so pure, and that she has been confused in her thoughts is no fault. Praise her for her noble deeds, and teach her to praise and take pride in them herself.
The third hypocrite is she whose professions are unrighteous and acts are unrighteous. To you, I say: take pity, for what all of us fear and strive to avoid, she suffers from, and teach her as you teach all who have lost their way.
Does anybody else find themselves writing their own personal scriptures in their head?
Current Mood:  creative
Tags: mysteries of the universe, personal history, thoughts
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09:56 pm
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A Novel Instrument
Via jfs, this remarkable little piece:
Tags: links, multimedia, music
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09:28 pm
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A fact is a terrible thing to distort.
No essays yet - school and school and school, unfortunately. However, I do have this pleasant little screed, sent to the campus newspaper in reply to a foolish little letter that appeared there today:
In the Friday, April 25, 2008 Diamondback, the following claim appears in a letter by one Tung Pham, Junior, Mathematics:
"There is no scientific consensus that global warming is caused by industrialized carbon emission[.]"
Tung Pham, you have been lied to. Such a consensus has existed for, at a minimum, over eighteen years. Why do I say eighteen years? Because the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, founded in 1988, released its First Assessment Report in 1990, from which I quote:
"We are certain of the following:
- there is a natural greenhouse effect which already keeps the Earth warmer than it would otherwise be.
- emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and nitrous oxide. These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect, resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth's surface. The main greenhouse gas, water vapor, will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it."
If, perhaps, you object that this report is outdated, I refer you to the Fourth Assessment Report, and specifically the Summary for Policymakers provided by the IPCC <http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr_spm.pdf>:
"There is very high confidence that the net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming.
"Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic GHG [greenhouse gas] concentrations. It is likely that there has been significant anthropogenic warming over the past 50 years averaged over each continent (except Antarctica) (Figure SPM.4)
"During the past 50 years, the sum of solar and volcanic forcings would likely have produced cooling. Observed patterns of warming and their changes are simulated only by models that include anthropogenic [resulting from or produced by human beings] forcings. Difficulties remain in simulating and attributing observed temperature changes at
smaller than continental scales."
Note the specific modifiers placed on each of these. These terms have been chosen to indicate exactly how certain these people are: "Very high confidence": at least 9 out of 10, "very likely": >90%, "likely": >66%.
All the IPCC does is review the scientific consensus -
"Mandate: The IPCC was established to provide the decision-makers and others interested in climate change with an objective source of information about climate change. The IPCC does not conduct any research nor does it monitor climate related data or parameters. Its role is to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the latest scientific, technical and socio-economic literature produced worldwide relevant to the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change, its observed and projected impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. IPCC reports should be neutral with respect to policy, although they need to deal objectively with policy relevant scientific, technical and socio economic factors. They should be of high scientific and technical standards, and aim to reflect a range of views, expertise and wide geographical coverage."
- and that consensus is unequivocal. Global warming is occurring. And global warming is occurring because human beings are causing it.
Robin Zimmermann
1st-Year Master's Student
Mechanical Engineering
Peace out.
Current Location: home\bedroom\north_desk
Current Mood:  determined
Current Music: Woodstock - Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
Tags: rants
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06:53 am
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Happy B-Day, goblinpaladin!
I was going to write an essay on something to celebrate, but I mixed up the time zones (and forgot), so ... enjoy a comic!
Current Mood:  cheerful
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06:03 pm
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Writer's Block: Define Cheater
Cheating attempts to gain the rewards of a good performance without the performance.
Tags: define cheater, thoughts, words, writer's block
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06:57 pm
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Writer's Block: Happy Earth Day
Commute by Metrorail. As for the second half, I could stand to be much less wasteful of resources - buy less junk, specifically.
Tags: earth day, writer's block
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08:32 pm
![[User Picture]](http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/64766749/6424329) [Link] | Okay, history question: has swearing always carried a social stigma? (Bearing in mind the usual class-related caveats, of course.)
Current Location: home\bedroom\north_desk
Current Mood: curious
Current Music: Only You Know And I Know - Phil Collins
Tags: questions
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07:31 pm
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Writer's Block: Almost Famous
Oh, for ... did the person who wrote the title never see that movie or something?!
*ahem*
Anyway, I think I would want to be a renown intellectual - a Dennett, Dawkins, Hofstadter ... even Searle would do in a pinch. Someone who the cognoscenti would consider worth reading, or at least discussing.
Current Location: home\bedroom\north_desk
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Holly Up on Poppy - XTC
Tags: almost famous, writer's block
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08:38 pm
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Detected through allergy - not mine, though.
Interesting (in a very whiskey-tango-foxtrot sort of way) fact of the day: Sunny D contains canola oil.
Best, packbat
Current Location: home\bedroom\north_desk
Current Mood:  annoyed
Current Music: A Thousand Tiny Pieces - The Be Good Tanyas
Tags: insanity, psa, weirdness
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07:36 pm
![[User Picture]](http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/71433337/6424329) [Link] |
Happy Mac!
MacBook White 2.4 GHz, first impressions:
- Keyboard is weird, i.e. not the same as on the computers I'm already accustomed to. On any objective measure, however, probably quite good.
- Screen: marvelous improvement. Mirror rather than diffuse reflections means easier reading in the face of ambient light (at least, as far as I can tell by shining a flashlight on it) and easier reading sans backlight (i.e. by shining a flashlight on it).
- There seem to be a lot of magnets around. Magnetic power connector, magnetic lid closure...
- The new Safari is cool, but I can't figure out how to set it to "Ask me what I what done with every kind of cookie, and I'll tell you whether to trust a given site or not".
- "Spaces" (the multiple-desktops thing - Unix geeks have seen this ages ago) rocks. Totally.
- The time from "two fingers on the trackpad scrolls? ... weird." to "whee!" is surprisingly short. (whee!)
In related news, I can't seem to import my old song ratings into the new iTunes library. Ah, well.
P.S. Those of you who listened to the voicepost (hi, chanlemur!) and therefore heard about my Not-Exactly-First Foray Into The One-Mile Race (now with 100% less training!) may be interested in seeing official times (I'm #81, Robin Zimmermann, 7:44.40) and official photographs (I'm the demented-looking chap slightly left of middle).
Current Location: home\bedroom\north_desk
Current Mood:  geeky
Current Music: Fidelity - Regina Spektor
Tags: geekery, personal history
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