elusiveat

Election Donations?

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:14:03 GMT

I just donated $250 to the Obama Campaign. Maybe it'll help.

I'd actually like to donate more to the Democrats, but am not sure whether it'd be best to donate to the Party or what. Thoughts?

"What makes people vote Republican?"

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 12:31:27 GMT

"What makes people vote Republican?" by Jonathan Haidt
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/haidt08/haidt08_index.html
(via Marmota)

What do you guys think?

Obama

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:07:02 GMT

I have no words.

Just an ordinary day at Dovregubbens.

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:40:09 GMT

The Farwing: "Oh, my god. I'd never thought of bright green rubber chain mail before... but now it's *all* I can think about! My brain is filled to the brim with bright green rubber chain mail!"

The Great Scandanavian Threat

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:10:56 GMT

Colbert Report:
http://www.thedailytube.com/video/12130/finland-is-the-enemy

Atheism and immortality (updated)

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:59:32 GMT

	Pagan	Christian	Animist	Jewish	Atheist	Buddhist	Agnostic	Total
Yes.	1	0	0	1	5	0	1	11
No.	1	0	0	1	0	1	2	9
Total	6	4	1	6	11	3	12	13

LJGrid - radiobutton/tickybox vs radiobutton/tickybox analysis made easy.

Mini Review: _Lars and the Real Girl_

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:29:56 GMT

Squirrelitude and I watched it on video last night, and finished watching it today.

It's a fun little movie. It's billed as a comedy, but I see it more as a feel-good drama. Slightly implausible in places, but fun to watch, with several interesting characters.

Bicycle-powered blender

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:20:43 GMT

I *want* one.
http://www.bikeblender.com/minib3.htm

Actually, I wanted one before I knew that they *actually exist*.

Sadly, they are not exactly cheap.

Atheism and immortality (is anyone surprised?)

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:42:09 GMT

Poll results: plan to live to 100 years old? (http://elusiveat.livejournal.com/282331.html) x religion (http://elusiveat.livejournal.com/259894.html).

	Atheist	Jewish	Buddhist	Agnostic	Animist	Christian	Pagan	Total
Yes.	5	0	0	1	0	0	0	11
No.	0	1	1	2	0	0	1	8
Total	11	5	3	12	1	4	5	11

LJGrid - radiobutton/tickybox vs radiobutton/tickybox analysis made easy.

Poll: Aspiring Centarian?

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:26:56 GMT

At dinner last night, C, a visitor to the house happened to mention that he was "old". Surrounded primarily by undergraduates, there's a lot of room for "old." After a bit of nudging he admitted that he is 43 years old.

By way of response, G asked: "Are you planning to live to 100?"
C: "Oh, no."
G: "I just wondered. I am."
[a few general mutterings to the effect that it's a silly goal]
Me: "I am too."
C: "You could do it. Especially if you eat like this every night."
A: "Yeah, I plan to live to be 100 as well... I should probably stop drinking as much at some point."

What followed from there was a brief discussion about the health benefits of drinking alcohol.

Anyway...

View Poll: Centarian

Tracking puzzle

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:58:02 GMT

What do you think? Is this what Ratatosk saw? (The coin is a quarter.)

More photos:
http://pics.livejournal.com/elusiveat/gallery/00008yfy (Edit: Link works now.)

Geographic context (the tracks occurred roughly at the center of this map):
http://maps.google.com/maps/mm?f=q&hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=42.015673,-87.662487&spn=0.001088,0.002494&z=19

Statue in need of caption (Milwaukee)

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:30:03 GMT

What would *you* put as the caption to this image?

Edit: If the image is less than clear, the label on the pedestal says "WASHINGTON" and the woman on the ground is depicted wearing a toga/tunic and pointing out the label to a similarly dressed child.

If I had to summarize the ecology conference in a sentence...

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 23:44:01 GMT

...I'd probably say:
"We have absolutely no clue what we're doing."

I don't mean to say that we're inept. There's lots of good information out there on a variety of environmental and ecological topics and issues, and some very good science being done.

What I mean is that despite all of this good information, we lack a good predictive picture of the full implications of current human activities. I can tell you that certain behaviors are obviously damaging (moving species around randomly; breaking up topsoil; releasing chemicals into waterways that aren't normally there; changing the chemical composition of the atmosphere). Other behaviors seem like they might mediate the effects of the damaging behaviors (planting trees in previously deforested areas; adding chemicals to counteract the effects of polluting chemicals; using biocontrol agents), The full implications of these ideas are not generally known, particularly when applied at a very large scale.

My opinion continues to be that a good rule of thumb is that when it comes to environment-altering behaviors, less is more. Because it's a lot easier to screw things up than to repair our screw-ups.

It's probably worth noting here that low-impact is pretty well correlated with low carbon footprint. My view of global warming is that it's a bad situation, but not the worst thing we are doing to the environment. But the current obsession with decreasing carbon footprints is unlikely to be a bad thing because there is so much else that relates to decreased energy consumption.

I think this pretty well sums up why I get twitchy when people talk about artificial carbon sequestration as a solution to global warming. It might decrease the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, but it writes off all the associated effects of human activities.

Mexican recipes?

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 23:14:40 GMT

Does anyone have any? Vegetarian and using traditional ingredients and seasoning?

Because I'm finding that the neighborhood I'm currently staying in is Mexican in much the same manner that Davis Square is Indian. In other words, specialized groceries are available. Bonus points for a recipe that calls for cactus paddles (which I've never cooked before).

Reforestation in China

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:49:50 GMT

Well this blows *my* mind, anyway:

From: http://www.fao.org/forestry/41256/en/

rough quote from ESA Keynote address

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:27:53 GMT

"We need to stop talking about these problems as though they can be prevented, and start talking about how to mitigate the damage. There's really no question that the sixth great extinction event has begun. ... This isn't going to complete in the next few decades, but over the next several hundred years. A long time for us, but the blink of an eye in geologic time. I'm probably not going to see the effects in my lifetime, but for the younger members of the audience there's a good chance that things are going to get a little more gritty. And your children... depending on how we manage things, they could have a really hard time of it."

Science Tattoos (via Usernamenumber)

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:16:14 GMT

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/science-tattoo-emporium/

Local Produce

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:38:38 GMT

Gather ye rose hips while you may.

(That's all.)

Sunscreen

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:12:22 GMT

More from the confusing world of science journalism ("Neither Science Nor Journalism" TM):
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/health/22well.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=science&adxnnlx=1216911880-64px10mpauBYdPAbycHOuA

Tango?

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:53:36 GMT

Does anybody have a recommendation for a place to do Argentine Tango in the Camberville Area? I know there's a ton out there, but wonder if anybody has specific good experiences.

python question for lazywebs: navigating directory tree

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:10:51 GMT

I'm having a hell of a time figuring out the simplest, cleanest way of navigating the directory tree from within a python script. All I want to be able to do is write or append to a file inside of a directory. I'm pretty sure I could figure out how to make this work from the documentation, but I'm not confident that I'd be doing it in the most appropriate manner (e.g. I might be using a low-level write function unnecessarily). Help?

The Onion... funny, or not?

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:11:14 GMT

Ams16 links to 2001 Onion article entitled "Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'".
http://ams16.livejournal.com/137621.html

Also worth looking at the "letter of complaint" mentioned by one of the commenters.

Discussion question: What should I read?

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:00:05 GMT

So, as I kind of indicated around the HHGTTG/GEB/Torah poll, I'm not much of a reader. Consequently, my reading list is vaguely infinite in length.

But it'd still be good to know what should go near the top of it. I'm mostly interested in reading things that improve me in some respect, whether by providing me with information or by changing how I think.

What do you think I should read?

(If there's anything that occurs to you, chances are that I haven't read it. I really don't read much, but I'll let you know if you come up with anything I actually have read [parts of].)

Poll: Reading

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:53:59 GMT

I tried to cover bases decently while still sticking to radio buttons. I'm not planning a follow-up to this poll. If you'd like to elaborate and/or complain, comments is the place for it.

My purpose here is to think about how we process information, not to discuss literary/intellectual merit, but if you comment please feel free to take things in whatever direction you like.

View Poll: Reading

Random questions for potential discussion

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:31:30 GMT

1) Can a polyamorous person be hir own "primary"?

2) There seems to be a pretty strong folk wisdom that there are non-sexual behavioral cues that indicate a person's sexual orientation. Does anyone know of any correlative studies actually demonstrating that the traits that tend to be picked up by "gaydar" are positively correlated with sexual orientation? (I'm not the one who came up with this question, but am defaulting to anonymous attribution for now.)

3) It's often said that the winners write history. It's probably true. It occurred to me a few weeks go that among the winners, hedonists are probably underrepresented as the actual *authors* of historical documents, or for that matter religious scriptures. (Who wants to write down what happened if the fundamental drive is to go out and *experience* more?) a) Is this a silly idea, or do you think there's a grain of truth (or both)? b) Assuming there's a grain of truth, how do you think it might influence the "received wisdom" we get from previous generations?