Note for the day
In the past 24 hours, I’ve looked through a god-awful amount of net.porn.
On second thought, let me rephrase that: I’ve looked through a large amount of god-awful porn.
Some of it may actually have been good. I’m not sure. I’ve lost track.
This can be a very, very strange job sometimes.
Random things…
I don’t know what it is, but every time I’m in a game that Monte’s GMing, I leave with inordinate food cravings related to some random foodstuff that was mentioned during play. Tonight it was diner food – bacon and eggs, all that.
No diner food for me tonight, but now I’m home and enjoying cheese, crackers and ale. Which is actually even better.
I also formally took posession of my new place tonight at 12:01AM, and came by with Hans and Robert to check it out. (And drop off the first few boxes – the contents of my Stanford office) It’s a great place; roomy, lots of light, and with stained glass windows, a fireplace, built-in bookcases, and a washer and dryer. And remarkably cheap. (Ah, what a wonderful thing a renter’s market is. Of course, it’s been pointed out to me that “remarkably cheap” by Bay Area standards isn’t quite the same as by any other standards on this planet, but that’s as may be.) Right now I need to decide where to put things, and get minor things set up: DSL, getting the power and the phone in my name, and setting up some curtains for the back door. And perhaps for the front porch as well; I’ll need to hunt around and find a good material.
For those of you in the area, a housewarming party will probably occur at some point, although perhaps not in the immediate future.
Your quote of the day
From an article in the Guardian:
“Canada is subversively sending idiots into the global marketplace with American accents”
Forth, my faithful minions! Wahahahahaha!
(No, I’m not Canadian. I just like having hordes of minions.)
Interesting tidbit…
[politics filter]
Report on construction of new intelligence facilities in Iraq. Interesting both for its own utility and for what it implies about America’s long-term plans in the region. Compare and contrast with the continuation (with no end in sight) of low-intensity conflict there – what are we getting ourselves into? Can we maintain a long-term committment in the area?
No doubt we have the physical capability to do so, but there are some questions about the costs, how those might rise over time (Vietnamization, even?) and how dependent we may become on being able to hold that position. If costs rise, political will may wane, and then the gods alone know what may come next.
Choices of headlines…
From the NY Times front page, at the moment, the two top headlines:
“Strom Thurmond, foe of integration, dies at 100”
“Gays celebrate, and plan campaign for broader rights”
Contrary to what you may guess, these two stories are not related. The latter is about the Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas earlier today. But methinks the front-page net editor is having a bit of fun…
Addendum: Reading over the ruling in Lawrence: this is one worth looking over carefully. The court gave a very strongly worded ruling, especially the majority opinion written by Justice Kennedy. It’s clearly meant to serve as a precedent in the future in a very wide variety of cases. In addition to formally stating that homosexuals have legal rights equal to heterosexuals, it makes some broader arguments about the boundaries of privacy and what the government does and does not have a right to regulate. In the long run, this decision may be one of the most significant of the past few decades from the court with regards to a wide variety of social issues.
Wow, some good news in the paper for once. 🙂
Tired…
First day at Google today. Wow. It’s really as cool as it’s rumored to be.
And I am now really tired. So details later.
Bug of the day…
While searching for Aramaic dictionaries on Amazon, this came up. Note what it suggests readers may also be interested in.
Also, for your amusement, a bit of news from Germany…
Conversations on the mathematics of belief
(or, The Gods Must Be Crazy)
Last night, aided by a great deal of coffee and a strange mood, hansandersen, jrpseudonym and I had a discussion about Pascal’s Wager and the mathematics of belief. The results were… well, somewhat strange, but some of you may find them amusing or interesting, so here’s a brief summary. It’s incomplete – guys, you want to add in some comments with your own notes and thoughts from last night? I know there’s plenty.
So, without further ado: Magic 8 ball, what should I believe?
Yonatan Zunger’s Blog 