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The Science of the Perfect Second - a meta-article about us measuring time with insane accuracy - it made me think of a bit from the book Eifelheim (which plays with first contact with aliens during medievel germany times) - but in the present era a scientist notices old measurements of the speed of light were faster...

"Think it through, Jackson. Light speed is frequency times wavelength. So if c is dropping and wavelength is constant, frequencies must be increasing."
[...]
"So," she said, her excitement building, "atomic frequencies govern the rate at which atomic clocks tick. Of course, the speed of light has been constant since they began using atomic clocks to measure it. The instrument is calibrated to the thing it's measuring!

and I wonder if there could be anything like that

of all of the bizarre things I've seen while working in skilled nursing the one that's going to stick with me until I die is bug god

nothing can possibly prepare you for the moment you show up to give a man his apple juice and he says "Do you think bugs come from the same god as us? They're older than our god. They have their own."

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Somewhat thoughtful terf/trans argument on tumblr with attempts at science from both sides. (I think ultimately doomed with irreconcilable views of definitions and descriptivist vs prescriptivist "majority therefore THE WAY" thinking)

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When your last name is a country often going through conflict, idiotic custom shirts like these on offer hit a bit different.

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I had a fine time getting my bivalent COVID booster at CVS, but it has been tougher for Melissa - they were out when she showed up for her scheduled appointment (rumors of an ordering snafu on the initial batch), and now waiting on hold with the pharmacy to make sure they'll have it on hand this evening?

Well, 2 hours on hold and it starts to dawn "maybe they're not going to pick up".

Chainstore pharmacy folks are among the most exploited people in healthcare, I'd wager. The understaffing is pretty significant. Damn, that is one sexy biting lip emoji

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Hah, reminds me of this weirdly sexy ad for a russian dental office I saw in 2006:

SCUBA is an acronym for "Self contained underwater breathing apparatus". Tuba is also an acronym.
It stands for "terrible underwater breathing apparatus"

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Amazing slo-mo footage of insects taking off, and a nice unpretentious attitude from the creator, with a dash of "how this was made"

Two children found a bag containing twelve marbles. They argued over how to divide the toys and finally went to see the Mulla. When asked to settle their disagreement, the Mulla asked whether the children wanted him to divide the marbles as a human would or as Allah would.

The children replied, "We want it to be fair. Divide the marbles as Allah would."

So, the Mulla counted out the marbles and gave three to one child and nine to the other."

A repeat, but man is it a good reminder that in some ways our moral aspirations transcend what the universe and god seem to have set up for us. I enjoy that there's a range of body weights - a bit higher than where I'd like to be, but lower than where I've been - that correspond to years I've been around, divided by ten - today's "197.0" is a bit before I was born. And it's better than "201.8" of the current day or times lately where I've been dabbling into the future.

But, I'd like to explore more of, say, American History, weight/year wise than just the time since JFK. Maybe the Civil War.

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Fantastic use of greenscreen to warn people about why storm surges are not to be trifled with, and behind the scenes.... HONK! Lifehack (HONK!hack ?) :
On Ebay, for around $35, you can get "Kobo" e-ink readers (like a cheaper form of Kindle) I got one and then dragged every PDF from my band's set of charts onto it from my computer... now I have a full set of emergency sheet music, like we have a new friend join us in rehearsal.

It's klutzy in a lot of ways, but beats trying to juggle lots of folders of printouts. On an impulse I bought this small but dope Magnavox old-school TV with completely transparent sides...

Cool seeing Loaded4Bear on real hardware, top to bottom.

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Followup: a fellow old video game nerd points out that this tv, with its cool transparent case, was probably designed for use in prisons, where it can't easily hide contraband material, rather than being a hip iMac-influenced design.

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Best new iOS 10 feature: the new set of keyboard sounds. Rather than having the same click for every key, normal keys, white space/shift, and delete all have different sound effects. The result is a delightful little blurble that gives subconscious feedback about what keys you're hitting, very pleasing in an ASMR kind of way. The Best Key & Peele Sketches, as Chosen by 39 Comedians and Comic Actors a lot of stuff I hadn't seen... I still think my favorite might be one of the first I saw, Dubstep

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Buzzfeed:I Asked Atheists How They Find Meaning In A Purposeless Universe Arun​ pointed me to this. It begs the question that the Universe is purposeless, the assumption that purpose must come from outside the "system"; one of the things I'm being reminded of in reading "Redefining the Sacred" (to lead a discussion on it for my UU Science & Spirituality group) is that purpose can be an emergent property, one that swells up from all the less purposeful bits.

Oh well. She also says, "We aren't put on this earth to be happy."

Not your kids, anyway, mom.[...]Everything that's sexy-- mussed hair, straps that fall off the shoulder, a sweaty glow on the face-- is a bit askew , yes, but touchable.
[...]If you really want to promise something worthwhile, try this: I will stand by you even if I no longer love you. Now that's a promise. That really means forever.

This was the most disturbing book, viscerally and emotionally, maybe that I've ever read. There aren't many books I've read that are so wrenching or squicking that I have to put it down and come back to it later.

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After around 10 months of "5/2 Fasting" (600 calories twice a week, no other particular restrictions) I think I need to switch gears.

The first 4 months or so were pretty effective, but I've been more or less plateau'd since then, and still recovering from some indulgence over the summer.

My new inspiration is Chubster, a very down to earth book. It's technique is good old calorie counting - which, in the form of The Hacker's Diet ( https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/ ) was responsible for some of my most notable weight loss - though 10 to 15 lbs seems to be my limit for any particular plan.

The good thing about my time with 5/2 Fasting is I'm less afraid of being hungry than I was, better at being mindful, mentally acknowledging the feeling, but not being compelled to fix it immediately.

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[...] the frankly villainous dictum that all is fair in love and war.

Violating causality was a plugin.

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It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.

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I look in the mirror And I see a monkey But then I remember I love monkeys

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Coding Geekery and Curmudgeonism:

http://vimeo.com/49092644 - unconvincing video about the merits of Test Driven Development. Circular definitions and strawmen ahoy!

I think TDD is hunting for that promised land of tests that aren't A. trivial B. implementation coupled C. externally dependent D. more fragile than tested code. I'm not sure it exists.

Those are my practical reasons for disliking TDD. In theory too, it fails: its been mathematically demonstrated that any sufficiently powerful testing setup is as as prone to error as the thing being tested...

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I am I, plus my circumstances.

--via horkulated. I really believe cyriak is the unheralded genius of the youtube age.

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"I'm making their backsides wiggle and bringing us all together in funky communion."
As they stare at the singer who has abandoned the melody in favor of melismatically emoting, or the guitar player who has put his foot on the monitor and thrown his hair back to squintily wee a mishmash of pentatonic drivel, people don't understand that I'm making their backsides wiggle and bringing us all together in funky communion.

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Hey Tim Wakefield got his 200th win, FINALLY, nice to see some good news from the Red Sox.

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Phantom sensations reveal something fundamental about body awareness: it is not that phantom limbs are an illusion, rather it is the feeling of our actual limbs that is an illusion.

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http://www.wbur.org/2011/08/31/middlesex-jail Cambridge shows how to manage powderkeg jails: simple humanity. Specifically, popsicles and fans. This weekend Amber and I joined good ol "what happened to my sidebar" Dylan and a crew of people up at his family's cabins on Lake George, NY...

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http://www.thesandwichfair.com/ -Amber wants to go to the 3-day "Sandwich Fair" I was psyched, but it turns out Sandwich is a place name :-(





Those first two Dilberts don't seem that great to me anymore, I think they had more to do with my work situations then. "You only THINK there's a difference" can be the perfect line in the right circumstances.

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GAH - going to Portugal Friday. Would have more options if I knew how to drive stick. Any way to learn by then?? So, more thoughts on exercise, even though one week of good commitment is no guarantee of ongoing results.

Random thoughts:

• I'm struck by what a good idea for an aerobics-y program this is; much cheaper than real trainers (albeit not nearly as responsive), more private than a gym, more customized than DVDs, more varied than what I'd come up with on my own. I think that mix might be an important aspect, constant movement but with less of a sense of a grind that a treadmill or stepper has.
• I didn't do a routine yesterday -- I wasn't skipping, the program just decided it was a rest day -- and now I'm trying to think if I actually felt "worse" for not having done anything that morning, or if it was just wishful-thinking. (My body and my brain don't have the most reliable communication, and that goes all the way back to childhood to when I almost went deaf before reporting an earache to my mom.) I'm not sure if I've ever really had a feeling of "oh, I feel bad today because I didn't do my regular routine" -- it occupies that same quasi-mythical space for me as the "runner's high" -- so if I could develop that, that would be a huge positive change.
• Based on what exercises seem easy for me I seem to have strong upper legs. I think. On the other hand, I remember my old yoga class where it was always a pleasure to get onto the floor. (EB has noted I seem to like being horizontal, he'll often find me on the floor when it's time for a work break, or interacting with his daughter.)
• I'm not too body-clever, and some of the mutlipart aerobic steps take a lot of concentration, sometimes I have to make a little "left right left together" chant if the move isn't intuitive. And that's another weird thing I remember from yoga class; the easiest way for an instructor, virtual or otherwise, to break my concentration is a reminder to "stay focused".
• Yourself!fitness' Maya is voiced by Yumi Lee... I assume the semi-celebrity fitness trainer (interesting intro video there) and not the porn star who shows up on Google searches. (I find it interesting that the tutorials in the game switch over to a "polygon" mode, with a more abstract figure showing the exercise. I wonder if this is to prevent pervs using it for "poser art", a kind of porn made by putting video-game-like 3D models into various positions...)

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Accomplishments of the Moment
So watched the Red Sox get blown out yesterday, and then I got the September issue of the loveblender out. So I made my monthly heart doodle a baseball player. Not my finest work, but a decent proof of concept for my new tablet laptop.

kisrael/kirkjerk, alienbill, and loveblender... thanks EB for passing along the rule of More Than Three.

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Quote of the Moment

Each afternoon, I'd trudge across Park Avenue, pick up the Globe, throw out everything but the Arts and Sports sections, trudge back to my temp job, and head to the bathroom for about 40 minutes. I wasn't missed. By the way, here's something you probably already know: temping sucks. It's like committing suicide each day, but nobody ever finds your body.

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I think I would understand Windows better if I knew why the volume control takes about 30 seconds to actually show up.

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ONE: don't put a mouse for another PC next to the one you're using, you're going to get mixed up. TWO: don't put a cellphone there either

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Once upon a time it seemed like the Patriots knew how to make tackles. This. Has. Been. An. Exceeeeeedingly. Slooooooow. Week.

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Tales of the Moment
The other week, a search for information about the 'Whirling Dervish' eventually led me to the figure of Nasruddin, a kind of Zen master of thoughtful pranskterism (albeit from another tradition of faith)

Once a renowned philosopher and moralist was traveling through Nasruddin's village and asked Nasruddin where there was a good place to eat. Nasruddin suggested a place and the scholar, hungry for conversation, invited Mullah Nasruddin to join him. Much obliged, Mullah Nasruddin accompanied the scholar to a nearby restaurant, where they asked the waiter about the special of the day.

"Fish! Fresh Fish!" replied the waiter.

"Bring us two," they requested.

A few minutes later, the waiter brought out a large platter with two cooked fish on it, one of which was quite a bit smaller than the other. Without hesitating, Mullah Nasruddin took the larger of the fish and put in on his plate. The scholar, giving Mullah Nasruddin a look of intense disbelief, proceed to tell him that what he did was not only flagrantly selfish, but that it violated the principles of almost every known moral, religious, and ethical system. Mullah Nasruddin listened to the philosopher's extempore lecture patiently, and when he had finally exhausted his resources, Mullah Nasruddin said,

"Well, Sir, what would you have done?"

"I, being a conscientious human, would have taken the smaller fish for myself." said the scholar.

"And here you are," Mullah Nasruddin said, and placed the smaller fish on the gentleman's plate.

Another one I liked was:

Two children found a bag containing twelve marbles. They argued over how to divide the toys and finally went to see the Mulla. When asked to settle their disagreement, the Mulla asked whether the children wanted him to divide the marbles as a human would or as Allah would.

The children replied, "We want it to be fair. Divide the marbles as Allah would."

So, the Mulla counted out the marbles and gave three to one child and nine to the other."

Unfortunately his name doesn't have single spelling when put into English, so you have to type around... these anecdotes came from the Wikibooks page on him. So my cute little touchscreen laptop may have inspired some art from the guests of honor at the party we had on Saturday... this was beyond the fun rounds of "Eat Poop You Cat" we played.

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Prose of Saturday

Chapter Fourteen - Viewing the Pinnipeds, or An Effete Pandemic

Johnny Theremin lunged for the rubber cantaloupe, but the villainous Doctor Anthelion fired his Bilious Ray with deadly accuracy. Johnny fell short by inches, clutching his heroic duodenum and groaning manfully. "You'll never get away with this, Anthelion!" he bellowed from his intrepid diaphragm. Doctor Anthelion sneered. "That's such a cliche, Theremin. The Cantaloupe is mine! MINE!" Menacingly, he reached for the pliant rubber. Johnny Theremin writhed fruitlessly on the grimy Pergo.

"Stop right there, Doctor!" A voice rang out from the doorway just out of frame. Both men looked around to see Penny Panopticon, her Gatling gun slung nonchalantly beneath her left arm. Her immaculate Burberry hotpants gleamed beneath the harsh fluorescent lights.

"And why should I?" snapped the Doctor, adjusting his goggles malevolently.

"Because I - I have the Fantod!" announced Penny, gesticulating grandiosely.

"The Fantod! The Flammable Fantod?" gasped the malign Doctor, firing his Bilious Ray into the air in shock and emphasis.

"The very same!" shouted Johnny, leaping to his feet and brandishing his laser peashooter.

"I'm ruined!" howled the Doctor, crumpling to the floor in defeat and a small pool of deus ex machina.

"Johnny Theremin" stories are kind of interesting bits of guerrilla prose, continuing adventures written by various people on cocktail napkins and airsick bags to be discovered by unsuspecting readers. F. explained that its modeled after the work Neil Gaiman invented to claim he's working on when people ask. (I don't know if it's supposed to be a secret or not, Google comes up with suspiciously little on it.)

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Image of Saturday

--A collaboration between Me and Mr. Ibis...I drew the head, he added the color, torso, and really interesting arms. He definitely has a different kind of attention to detail than I do. I think it shows up in our coding styles too.

Quote of the Moment

Well, it's a perfectly agreeable, innocent thing to do, and it's a way of being human. What I hate about public school systems that cut out the arts because they're not a way to make a living...it is such a human thing to do, and it is the experience of becoming. If you make something, it wasn't in the universe before. And that feels so good to human beings, and to cheat kids out of that is criminal. Everybody should be painting now, or drawing, or whatever, just as they should be singing or taking walks or falling in love or whatever... it's so human, and not to teach kids how to do this is to cheat them terribly.

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Hints of the Moment
How to Win Carny Games. Interesting tidbit:

If these games are so hard to win, how come you see so many prizes being carried around? Some carnys have been known to simply give away prizes to pretty ladies in order to fool the masses seeing them walk into thinking "wow, if SHE can win that, I could!"

I always assumed their boyfriends had mad skills, or lots of money to spend. Another interesting thing was reading about a basketball player named Rick Barry who was a great freethrow shooter...but he made all his shots "granny-style".

--This kind of water jug is popular at work...I think it holds as much water as your supposed to drink in a day. Now that I've added eyes and teeth, it looks like I'm drinking from Maakies' Uncle Gabby's head...even more so in this most recent cartoon where he's shaved it.

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Quote of the Moment

... Had this been an actual emergency, we would have fled in terror, and you would not have been informed.

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Modern Folk Wisdom of the Moment
So FoSO, who lives not too far from me in Arlington, has made an observation that I thought was really clever, a neat bit of modernish folk wisdom: when it's summer, and you hear airplanes over Arlington, that means it's likely to be good sleeping weather. Cool huh?

It works because a high pressure system in the west is associated with weather from Canada, blue skies and cool dry air. And airplanes take off into the wind, so if they're heading west from Logan they'll pass over Arlington. (Candi, are you at all impressed?)

Went to Mohegan Sun last night for Peterman's bachelor party, just four guys having a good dinner and then trying their luck for a bit. I played a really boring "bet on black" roulette strategy for a long while and ended up even, Peterman had a bit more flamboyent strategy and more than made up for some poorer luck at other games. (Betting on a color like I did doubles your money if that color comes up (shade under 50/50 chance) or takes your money if it's the other color. I took that strategy for nostalgic reasons, I once wrote a roulette simulation to demonstrate to Lena that the seemingly foolproof strategy of betting a fixed amount when you win, then continually doubling your bet when you lose until you win again (thus making up for whatever you lost) fails without a well-nigh infinite bankroll, and quickly runs into house limits before then. Also, it's a vey easy to follow strategy, and I'm a bit of a gambling retard.)

It's so funny how the Indian-run casinos can't put up highways signs, so you end up going on these fairly unlabeled backwoods roads for a while, 'til finally these giant buildings spring up like the Star Destroyer at the start of the first Star Wars movie. The styling is kind of odd, as if Epcot center had a "Native American" section in its international section.

It seemed like there were a higher percentage of people in wheelchairs there, which adds a certain air of pathos. Overall I've decided I don't like gambling very much, I just find the stressful repetition off-putting. (Maybe in the long run I'm fortunate, I've heard that one of the worst things that can happen to a newbie is to win big the first time out...that sets you up to lose a lot trying to repeat that first big event.) Maybe my protestant upbringing intrudes, and talks away a certain joie de vivre from the whole thing for me.

Today's title ("why just waste time when you can waste money too?") is what I said a few times previously when I was tempted to cash out after struggling back to the break even point...but I was never up by more than 40. (If I had been up by 60, doubling my starting amount, I would've walked away.) Finally though, the night was getting a bit long, Peterman sensed it was time to go for him.

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Quote of the Moment

Don't bring me back anything.

I think that that line is a really witty mix of permission-granting and boundaries-setting that works on a couple of levels, almost like a phrase-based pun.

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Links of the Moment
100 Years of Design...some products do have such a grace and elegance to 'em...lots of pictures, and some interesting background reading too. Fun to contrast and compare that to Tack-O-Rama, a survey of some of our cultural's tackiest stuff. Heh...Love Blender is the fifth hit for a Google search for 'blender'...that's pretty good placement given how it's the name of a major applicance.

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Flash Toy of the Moment
I had been carrying around a defunct URL for a "Flashy Dancer" animation for years (literally, since 1998) and now I've found its new home. I can't link right to it, but go to the GlobZ flash site, click on the green box on the left (with Pacman on it), and then it is the first link listed. Fun to customize, especially the torsos.

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Dream Quote of the Moment

Despite their rather glossy coats, monkeys make poor mirrors.

I suppose it is true, if a bit strange.

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News Link of the Moment
(Not a link for animal lovers...) I guess the roadworkers thought the poor deceased badger really had become one with the road. Aw, man. I was worried this whole terrorist thing wasn't really sinking in. And maybe it hasn't, but my old neuroses seem to be giving me another fling. An everpresent twist in the gut, but mostly I find proof in the stirring of the bowels. (Yeah, yeah, you don't want to know the details...funny how it's so hard to find language for it.)

Mostly I'm afraid of future attacks. A nuke or something biological. I almost feel as if I'm living too close to Boston for my own comfort. I almost want to become a survivalist. I don't want the nation to have revenge, I want us to have safety. Any pro-strong-cryptography leanings I ever had are now shot to hell. So few human rights seem to compare to the right just to go on living. And, as shallow as it sounds, with a certain quality of life. Food and good plumbing and medical care at the very least.

I got the same thing before Y2K, and to a lesser extent when I started thinking that some kind of deliberate EMF jolt could throw us into a stoneage, and then again in my early-2000 "mortality crisis". It's always based on some kind real possible threat, but it's not any kind of helpful reaction.

Ay, maybe I'll read my Mortality Guide. Doesn't cover that whole 'quality of life' thing, but you know.

Incidentally, that Nostradamus Prophecy 'predicting' the WTC event is a complete fabrication.

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Quote of the Moment

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

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Link of the Moment
Something a little hopeful about New York City: forgotten NY. Kind of explores some of the old archaeological features of the place. I liked the special on "Arches and Bridges of Central Park".