Planet 無 People
May 20, 2012 10:44 PM
May 20, 2012
Never before now have I wanted a lathe.
Previously.
Mirrored from jwz.org.
May 20, 2012 12:03 AM
May 19, 2012
deleted "[[KinnaYarber579]]" Mass deletion of recently added pages
by Unprompted at May 19, 2012 06:17 PM
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by Unprompted at May 19, 2012 06:17 PM
The weather was perfect today. My only gripe was that there were some mosquitoes, but they left me alone as long as I kept moving and stayed out of the shade.
I recorded a video of about an hour of the trip. I will post it as soon as YouTube digests it.
This is the best picture I took:
by cory at May 19, 2012 12:36 AM
Running on pavement is the worst.
This is some data from my first and only time running outside so far this year.
I thought I had run 5k, but I didn't, and I hurt in new ways.
by cory at May 19, 2012 12:28 AM
I went to Harriman Reservoir, hoping to do the perimeter, but it was way too windy. I still had a good time, and I had the lake almost entirely to myself, which is always nice.
The embarrassing part is that when I crossed the lake before turning around, I thought I was just going past a little outlet. I was pretty confused when I started seeing familiar landmarks on the wrong side, but in the end it was best that I turned around, as the wind only got worse.
The most notable thing from this visit was the storm damage. Numerous wooden garbage boxes were strewn around the edge of the lake. There was a crew of people cleaning up trees in one area.
by cory at May 19, 2012 12:23 AM
Ad·ver·sary calls out Combichrist for being misogynistic, racist fuckheads -- while opening for them.
It was when I got booked to play Kinetik, and I found out that I was scheduled to open for Nachtmahr and Combichrist. Given how strongly I feel about the way they do what they do, I didn't think I could just get up there and play and pretend as though I wasn't going to be followed by these two acts that I've openly criticized. I actually considered just cancelling my performance, and being done with it. I don't want to be associated with what they do, and I don't want to be a support act for them, even in a festival setting. But I took some time to think about it, and at some point I was listening to Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death and thought, "What would Jello Biafra do?" He'd use the stage time to tell people why he's pissed off. And so here we are.
They played this PowerPoint behind their last song:
Later in the linked article, the Combichrist guy rebuts with, "Hey, I'm just kidding with all that misogyny and racism, can't you take a joke?"
In case you couldn't have predicted that.
Industrial music began circling the drain in earnest in around 1995 and has been fully dead as a genre since 1999, and this brodustrial jock-rock bullshit from bands like Combichrist certainly brought nothing to the party.
"Football season is over, Veronica. Kurt and Ram had nothing left to offer the school except for date rapes and AIDS jokes."
Mirrored from jwz.org.
May 19, 2012 12:22 AM
May 18, 2012
I am enjoying both YO, IS THIS RACIST? and YO, SHOULD I DUMP THIS ASSHOLE?
My favorite so far:
Yo, why do people say it's hard to explain gay marriage to kids? I didn't realize it was actually illegal until High School because of Bugs Bunny cartoons.
Mirrored from jwz.org.
May 18, 2012 07:01 AM
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div>What does this do?</div><pre>def func():
&nbsp; print 'foo'
&nbsp; return
&nbsp; yield 'bar'
print func()</pre><div>Take a guess, then give it a try.</div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1454940121673019737-5363638865090326621?l=flamingcow.dilian.org' alt='' /></div>
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by flamingcow at May 18, 2012 04:43 AM
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May 17, 2012
"The elves will travel in a basket lined with sheep skin so that they can be comfortable on the journey."
MP for the Independence Party Árni Johnsen arranged for the relocation of a 30-ton boulder, which he believes is home to three generations of elves, from Sandskeið on Hellisheiði in southwest Iceland to his home Höfðaból in the Westman Islands today.Árni first encountered the elves’ dwelling when he was in a serious car accident in January 2010. His car overturned and landed beside the boulder 40 meters away from the highway, Morgunblaðið reports.
His SUV was damaged beyond repair but Árni escaped the accident unharmed. He considered whether the boulder might be a dwelling for hidden people and had it saved from landing underneath the south Iceland Ring Road when the highway was widened.
“I had Ragnhildur Jónsdóttir, a specialist in the affairs of elves from Álfagarðurinn in Hellisgerði, Hafnarfjörður, to come look at the boulder with me,” recollected Árni. “She said it was incredible, that she had never met three generations of elves in the same boulder before.”
“She said an elderly couple lives on the upper floor but a young couple with three children on the lower floor,” the MP described.
The specialist concluded that the boulder’s inhabitants were content with the move. “But they asked whether the boulder could stand on grass. I said that was no problem but asked why they wanted grass. ‘It’s because they want to have sheep,’ Ragnhildur replied,” Árni continued.
The specialist also said that the elves wish for the boulder’s “window side” to face the view. “I promised to do so,” Árni stated.
The boulder will be moved on the ferry Herjólfur and the elves will travel in a basket lined with sheep skin so that they can be comfortable on the journey.
Ragnhildur explained to Árni that when he was in the accident everything went crazy on Hellisheiði. Elves from all neighboring settlements were called out and there was much confusion until one large being took control of the situation.
“Ragnhildur said it was my protecting spirit, because my time hadn’t come,” he concluded.
Also: Angry Elves Said to Have Wreaked Havoc in West Fjords
Vigdís Kristín Steinthórsdóttir, a nurse, healer and hypnotist, believes hidden people, or elves, who live in the mountain were upset when the tunnel through Óshlíd was made and are causing these mishaps.
Mirrored from jwz.org.
May 17, 2012 10:08 PM
Renouncing Citizenship Makes Facebook Co-Founder Inadmissable To US
Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin's decision to renounce his U.S. citizenship just in time to avoid a large tax payment essentially means he will not be able to re-enter the United States again, immigration experts say."There's a specific provision of immigration law that says that a former citizen who officially renounces citizenship, and is determined to have renounced it for the purpose of avoiding taxation, is excludable," said Crystal Williams, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "So he would not be able to return to the United States if he's found to have renounced for tax purposes."
The provision of law isn't usually enforced, added Williams, "however, this guy is so high profile that this is probably going to be the test case."
[...] Two immigration lawyers said his explanation hardly passes the laugh test. Saverin's move was timed to the initial public offering of shares of Facebook stock. The valuation of the Facebook IPO explodes Saverin stake in the social media company to some $3 billion, on which avoiding taxes could save him at least tens -- if not hundreds -- of millions of dollars. Nor does it help his case that he relocated to Singapore, which levies no taxes on those earnings.
Two senators mobilized Thursday to crack down on Saverin and other tax dodgers.
"He's fucked," said Adam Green, an immigration lawyer based in Los Angeles. "He must have gotten horrendous advice."
It's plausible that Saverin simply decided the money he'd save would be worth saying goodbye to the United States forever.
$100M is 3.3% of $3B. It's a rounding error to this bozo, but he thinks it's very important that he give none of that back to the people who made his lottery win possible. Bravo, Sir, you are a true Hero of Capitalism.
Previously.
Mirrored from jwz.org.
May 17, 2012 08:05 PM
The long-awaited 6th edition of Programming Windows is scheduled to be published by Microsoft Press in November 2012, but you can purchase the ebook direct from the O'Reilly website today:
... more ...
May 17, 2012 01:53 PM
DNA Lounge update, wherein there are some awards, and some photos, and some epic douchebaggery.
Mirrored from jwz.org.
May 17, 2012 05:01 AM
May 15, 2012
So, I saw these guys at SXSW and bailed on them after 1.5 songs because they were 15 minutes late, and then did a 15 minute sound check, and I had places to be -- you do not pull that shit at a festival like that. Anyway, several people said they had a great live show, which I did not even remotely experience in that song and a half, so I gave them another shot, but I didn't experience it again tonight. Now let me be clear -- it sounded great, and I love their recorded material, and you should buy their album, but they have no show. People who think they have a show must be comparing them to DJs instead of to bands. It's true that the vocalist did occasional fills over the canned drum track, but when the drum-heavy song starts, and the person with sticks in her hands is just standing there bobbing her head... that's a fuckin' problem for me.
If this sounds like the band that you are in, please, for the love of all that is rock and roll: befriend a bass player and/or a drummer. Don't let your mere enthusiasm be the Maginot Line between you and karaoke. You won't sound that different, and people who have actually seen a show will think they are seeing one again.
Also, here's our Fuck You Apple moment for the evening:
Let's say the show has just ended, and you're leaning against the bar looking at the photos on your phone, select the two you like, hit "Share", and pound out a bitchy blog post like the one above... and then you decide, "I'd better pop over to Safari and make sure I spelled 'Maginot' correctly..." then you go back to the Photos app, and your post is gone. So you check the Drafts folder in the Mail app, and, no, it's gone.
So you have to re-type it from memory. Fuck You Apple.
Mirrored from jwz.org.
May 15, 2012 09:05 AM
Publicado en Diario de Noticias - MILENIO
Lunes 14 de mayo de 2012(*)
Mañana(*) hará un año en que fue, y luego no ha sido. Así, sin más. Estamos peor, nos siguen robando y engañando. La indignación se reveló justa y reacción lógica ante la situación, pero el sistema ha sido incapaz de dar una respuesta; todo lo contrario, la maquinaria ávida de controlar todo, pero además de ser querida (la más absoluta de las perversiones, no me cabe duda) ha conseguido casi quitarnos hasta ese último espacio de la ciudadanía. O igual no, igual ahora volvemos a empezar y tenemos unos meses de contenida esperanza de que... ¿de qué? Ojo con la respuesta porque atendiendo a las nuevas reglas de juego que nos están colando se podría considerar algo así como delito de sedición y si les invito a manifestarse me aplicarán un tratamiento penal de esos que sacan de la manga cuando lo único que pueden (saben) hacer es el palo y el tentetieso.
Así que no digo más. No tiene sentido, y no lo escribo resabiado ni rendido. Solo espero que muchos de quienes lean esto sientan, como yo, que deberían haber hecho algo más. Y que, de alguna manera, habrá que hacerlo. Porque la dignidad es algo que está en la base de nuestra indignación. El respeto. Valores básicos que antaño enarbolaban para hacernos creer que vivíamos en el mejor de los mundos posibles. Ahora que sabemos que ellos siguen viviendo en el mejor de sus mundos posibles, pero que para ello se tienen que comer lo poco bueno que había en el nuestro, ya no dicen nada. Solicitan comprensión y perseverancia, solicitan un crédito aunque no tienen un aval mínimamente decente. Y nos exigen que nos rasquemos la cartera de los derechos, y la del dinero, por supuesto, para que ellos sigan alimentando la bestia. Es curioso: a los únicos a quienes veo encantados de esa desmovilización ciudadana a quienes son realmente responsables, cuando menos por inacción, de la situación que vivimos. Y a sus palmeros, claro.
Por eso, no digo nada. Y ya con eso es decir demasiado.
May 15, 2012 08:43 AM
It is 1992 and I am at House of Usher. But I don't remember the 3rd floor of DV8 being so spacious.
Mirrored from jwz.org.
May 15, 2012 05:45 AM
So I finally went to see Avengers. It was pretty good. Cabin in the Woods was better. I think those two are the only movies I've seen in a theatre in at least a year, maybe two.
But, holy hell, there were twenty-five minutes of trailers before the movie started, beginning at the posted show time. Not even counting the (presumed) half hour of non-movie commercials before show time, which I missed.
Is 25 minutes the new normal? I remember being aghast when 15 became the new normal from 10, which seems like it wasn't that long ago.
With that many commercials -- about 1/5th of the running time of the movie itself -- why am I expected to pay admission too? I understood that my eyeballs were the product in this sale.
Mirrored from jwz.org.
May 15, 2012 01:33 AM
May 14, 2012
May 13, 2012
You know, just in case.
Spermatorrhoea means involuntary loss of semen, although the rings were also intended to prevent voluntary discharges from masturbation or Onanism. The ring was placed at the base of the penis and fasted with a screw such that any engorgement of the organ would meet with the teeth of the ring and arrest the process.
Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.
Mirrored from jwz.org.
May 13, 2012 11:22 PM
Tonight at the club I had no less than three people ask me, "What's with the furries?" These conversations went approximately like: "Why are you asking me?" "You're from the Internet." "Ok, which part confuses you?" "How many parts are there?" And then I referred them to the CSI episode.* It's fairly definitive.
"Uh oh. Semen."
Mirrored from jwz.org.
May 13, 2012 10:50 AM
Hey, I've now gone three whole days without DirecTV calling me on the phone! They called every day, twice a day, for ten days after I cancelled my service. I never answered, but I imagine a robot voice plaintively crying, "WHY WON'T YOU LOVE ME?"
Pro tip: Set your default ring tone to something quiet, and use a louder custom ring tone for anyone you might actually want to receive a voice call from.
Update, May 14: Hah! I spoke too soon, they're still calling!
Mirrored from jwz.org.
May 13, 2012 04:27 AM
[Headline ending in question mark omitted]
Unlike some other scientists engaged in geoengineering, Eisenberger is not bothered by the notion of tinkering with nature. "We have devised a system that introduces no additional threats into the environment,'' he told me. "And the idea of interfering with benign nature is ridiculous. The Bambi view of nature is totally false. Nature is violent, amoral, and nihilistic. If you look at the history of this planet, you will see cycles of creation and destruction that would offend our morality as human beings. But somehow, because it's `nature,' it's supposed to be fine.'' [...]The most environmentally sound approach to geoengineering is the least palatable politically. "If it becomes necessary to ring the planet with sulfates, why would you do that all at once?'' Ken Caldeira asked. "If the total amount of climate change that occurs could be neutralized by one Mt. Pinatubo, then doesn't it make sense to add one per cent this year, two per cent next year, and three per cent the year after that?'' he said. "Ramp it up slowly, throughout the century, and that way we can monitor what is happening. If we see something at one per cent that seems dangerous, we can easily dial it back. But who is going to do that when we don't have a visible crisis? Which politician in which country?''
Unfortunately, the least risky approach politically is also the most dangerous: do nothing until the world is faced with a cataclysm and then slip into a frenzied crisis mode. The political implications of any such action would be impossible to overstate. What would happen, for example, if one country decided to embark on such a program without the agreement of other countries? Or if industrialized nations agreed to inject sulfur particles into the stratosphere and accidentally set off a climate emergency that caused drought in China, India, or Africa?
Game Over for the Climate
If this sounds apocalyptic, it is. This is why we need to reduce emissions dramatically. President Obama has the power not only to deny tar sands oil additional access to Gulf Coast refining, which Canada desires in part for export markets, but also to encourage economic incentives to leave tar sands and other dirty fuels in the ground. [...]But instead of placing a rising fee on carbon emissions to make fossil fuels pay their true costs, leveling the energy playing field, the world's governments are forcing the public to subsidize fossil fuels with hundreds of billions of dollars per year. This encourages a frantic stampede to extract every fossil fuel through mountaintop removal, longwall mining, hydraulic fracturing, tar sands and tar shale extraction, and deep ocean and Arctic drilling.
Previously, previously, previously, previously.
Mirrored from jwz.org.
May 13, 2012 04:05 AM
May 11, 2012
These guys were fantastic, and I hadn't heard of them before tonight. I love it when that happens.
Mirrored from jwz.org.
May 11, 2012 07:41 AM
It's pancakes all the way down.
Also tentacles:
The Apollonian Pancake looks less than delicious. It's going to throw the syrup ratio right off.
Previously, previously, previously.
Mirrored from jwz.org.
May 11, 2012 04:29 AM
May 10, 2012
Preconfigured wifi man-in-the-middle attack-box with rickrolling built in: $90.
The WiFi Pineapple is a hot-spot honey-pot Most wireless devices including laptops, tablets and smartphones have network software that automatically connects to access points they remember. This convenient feature is what gets you online without effort when you turn on your computer at home, the office, coffee shops or airports you frequent.Simply put, when your computer turns on, the wireless radio sends out probe requests. These requests say "Is such-and-such wireless network around?" The WiFi Pineapple Mark IV, powered by Jasager -- German for "The Yes Man" -- replies to these requests to say "Sure, I'm such-and-such wireless access point -- let's get you online!"
And with the newly improved Pineapple Mark IV web interface, gathering interesting packets, spoofing DNS, watching web traffic and more is just a click away.
Source, video demo.
Previously, previously, previously.
Mirrored from jwz.org.
May 10, 2012 06:06 PM
If all goes according to plan, in one week, on May 17, 2012, you will be able to purchase a preview ebook of Programming Windows, 6th edition, for just $10. For that one-time payment of $10, you will also get the second preview ebook a couple months from now, and the final ebook later this fall.
... more ...
May 10, 2012 04:40 PM
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May 10, 2012 02:11 AM
Ayer mi participación en LA NOCHE DESPIERTA de Radio Euskadi, con Javi Domínguez, fue cara a cara... así que para mi fue una noche muy especial. Más raro que una Superluna que, al fin y al cabo, pasa más o menos una vez al año. Hablamos de eso, de cómo las noticias de la Superluna estaban un tanto sobredimensionadas. Y también hablamos de la noticia del Supermarte que, año a año, se pretende colocar tan grande como la Luna en los 27 de agosto; ya saben, uno de nuestros temas preferidos.
Se nos quedó en el tintero hablar de qué sucederá cuando tengamos una Superluna el 27 de agosto, con Supermarte tan grande al lado de ella. Sería algo así como Chuck Norris llevando una powerbalance. Quiá: dos powerbalances por lo menos.
La Superluna no es para tanto - LA NOCHE DESPIERTA
¡Sorpresa! Vemos a Javier Armentia muy cerca y con más brillo del habitual... Ah, es que está en nuestro estudio. Y sentimos defraudar a algunos, pero lo de ver la Superluna más grande y más brillante no es más que fruto de la sugestión. Como aquel cuento del traje nuevo del rey, vaya. Qué cosas nos cuenta nuestro escéptico mayor...
Ah, y un listado de Superlunas a partir de los cálculos de
John Walker. Claro, dirán algunos que el plenilunio unas veces se separaba un tanto del perigeo lunar... pero lo cierto es que a efectos prácticos el ojo no suele distinguir cambios en la fase lunar de un día para otro (eso no tiene nada que ver con el hecho de que en las pelis de miedo la Luna Llena dure varias semanas, eso es otra cosa y tiene que ver con la ignorancia supina). Y lo mismo respecto al tamaño: menos cuando no tenemos a la Luna de otro día para compararla. Y, finalmente, el brillo, tampoco: la propia atmósfera terrestre puede introducir más cambios en el brillo de la Luna que esas variaciones pequeñas. A lo dicho: tengan unas cuantas Superlunas para vender Supernoticias a la gente Superingenua...
- 6 de mayo de 2010, a 356.953 km. Perigeo y Plenilunio se dan en la misma hora.
- 19 de mayo de 2011, a 356.577 km. Idem.
- 6 de mayo de 2012, a 356.953 km. Idem (véase que son más de 400 km más lejos que el año anterior, cuando la profecía del terremoto en Roma)
- 23 de junio de 2013, a 356.989 km. Idem.
- 10 de agosto de 2014, a 356.896 km. Idem.
Así que ya ven, en 5 años, cuatro veces hemos tenido Superlunas más grandes que la de 2012. ¿A que no es eso lo que les habían contado? Ya...
May 10, 2012 12:43 AM
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May 10, 2012 12:19 AM
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May 10, 2012 12:03 AM
May 09, 2012
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May 09, 2012 05:50 AM
May 08, 2012
Publicado en Diario de Noticias, MILENIO
Lunes 7 de mayo de 2012
MÓNICO Sánchez, nacido en Piedrabuena (Ciudad Real) en 1880, quedó fascinado por las maravillas tecnológicas que estaban naciendo conforme nacía el nuevo siglo XX, así que se fue a Nueva York a ser ingeniero eléctrico e inventor. Desarrolló máquinas y medidores y uno de los primeros aparatos portátiles de rayos X. Creó una pionera empresa de aparatos eléctricos en su pueblo natal, las más avanzadas tecnologías desde mitad de la Mancha. Ahora, su colección de tubos, un recorrido alucinante por la forma y la función, se podrá contemplar en la sede coruñesa del Museo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología que se inauguró el pasado viernes. Ángela Ruiz Robles, nacida en Villamarín (León) en 1895, fue una mujer que consiguió ser educadora, y sobrevivir en un siglo muy difícil. Para aligerar la mochila de los estudiantes y adaptar los nuevos conocimientos al mundo educativo inventó un libro mecánico como el que también se exhibe ahora en el MUNCYT, precursor de los libros electrónicos. Dos atisbos de los varios miles de personas que son los autores de las piezas de este museo. No son tan conocidos como los artistas del mismo siglo que, esos sí, tienen muchos museos donde vivir y ser contados y contemplados. Nadie duda, sin embargo, de que son esos avances los que nos permiten vivir mejor.
Llevo mucho tiempo lamentando que en este país la ciencia parezca no existir y, cuando llegan tiempos de tijeretazos, nos dejan #sinCiencia y sin futuro. Este sábado, miles de chavales llenaban A Coruña para jugar en el Día de la Ciencia, como lo harán decenas de miles de personas el fin de semana en el Street Alicante Science. Esta semana, en el Planetario, el Ateneo programa charlas sobre el agua y las neurociencias; el viernes tenemos conferencias y conciertos para escolares y el público con el grupo Aviador Dro. Todo gratis, y abierto. Y no suele tener mala respuesta. ¿Por qué entonces les resulta tan fácil a los políticos olvidarse de la ciencia? Sin duda no hay tanto respaldo social, y por eso hace falta tener un museo nacional, semanas de la ciencia, y seguir invirtiendo en el conocimiento.
May 08, 2012 12:43 PM
May 07, 2012
Será mañana, a las 19.00, en el auditorio del Palacio Olaso, la Casa de Cultura de Trapagaran. No el fin del mundo, claro, pero si un cine-forum / debate sobre el asunto, en el que estaré con una antropóloga Maya (sic), Ana Morales, y con la moderación del periodista Félix Linares. Quienes asistan podrán ver algunas cosas sorprendentes, entre ellas un trocito de esa pelícual horrorosa de Roland Emmerich intitulada "2012" que es a las pelis de catástrofes algo así como Torrente al cine negro. El acto está organizado por el Área de Cultura del Ayuntamiento:
SINOPSIS :¿Hasta qué punto son ciertas las profecías que anuncian el fin del mundo para el 21 de diciembre de 2012? PONENTES: Felix linares, Javier Armentia (Director del Planetario de Pamplona) y Ana Morales (antropóloga Maya)
Como ya imaginan, servidor es de la parte que no cree que el 2012 sea más posible el fin del mundo que en otras ocasiones, aunque visto el ritmo de la cosa política-económica-social el catastrofismo puede resultar hasta creíble. No, en serio: desde luego ni los mayas predijeron un fin del mundo para 2012, ni avisaron de que el Sol emitiría malignas radiaciones, ni se nos viene encima un planeta asesino, ni la superluna existe ni causa terremotos, ni siquiera la programación de Tele5 parece especialmente apocalíptica; tampoco Betelgeuse estallará como una supernova y los desastres de un planeta superpoblado con superproducción de gases de efecto invernadero tampoco son algo como para poner "the end". Pero, ya saben, el discurso milenarista, apocalíptico o escatológico siempre ha tenido gran aceptación.
Pues eso, mañana hablamos del fin del mundo. Como anticipo, un regalo, la predicción actual que desde la NASA hacen de la actividad solar con la medida del número de manchas del Sol, comparándola con el ciclo anterior. Para quienes andan alarmando de una actividad inusitada, con tormentas solares que pueden acabar con la civilización actual (como hacen últimamente en el ABC, ya lo hemos comentado por aquí) espero que esta gráfica les haga pensar que, por lo menos, sus sensacionalistas titulares son al menos poco sustentados por los hechos. Que suelen ser, siempre, tozudos.
Pues eso, que si quieren, nos vemos en el valle de Trápaga.
May 07, 2012 10:43 PM
Prolixium posted a photo:
Yeah, I picked up a geode this weekend.
May 07, 2012 03:16 AM
May 06, 2012
I have been itching to go for a long kayak trip. I thought the weather wouldn't cooperate at all this weekend, but Sunday seemed good enough in the morning. It turned out to be perfect.
I parked at the state boat launch at the north end of Saratoga Lake. That was my first mistake. Parking was $8, collected by a machine that claimed to accept credit cards but just sat for minutes thinking about them. I ended up stuffing it with cash.
I headed north, against a light breeze, and didn't turn around until I hit the dam. I probably saw half a dozen other people in kayaks. Many locals seems to be out doing yard work.
I'm pretty sure I saw an otter on my way out, but I wasn't prepared with my camera. He dived as I approached. There were lots of birds and turtles as usual. I was surprised to see some quite gigantic fish. I tried taking some pictures, but this is the best I managed:
Just a chair I saw on my way back. I'm pretty sure this wasn't there when I went out. I think some fishermen found it and set it up there as a joke.
by cory at May 06, 2012 11:36 PM
May 04, 2012
Verán, con tanto tiempo aguantando iluminados, himbestigadores y enteradillos con mala baba, en cuanto veo un titular de prensa que pretende que unos presuntos científicos han comprobado la cientificidad de la presunta sábana santa o que dicen dar una explicación fenómenos paranormales como la pretendida capacidad de ver el aura humana, se que estamos ante un ejercicio de periodismo basura, y a un mal trabajo periodístico que ha dado carta de naturaleza a algo que, de tenerlo, supondría una buena cantidad de violaciones de los principios de la naturaleza y mandar a tomar vientos la mitad de la ciencia conocida. Y no es prejuicio ni cerrazón de miras, sino el más necesario y mesurado posicionamiento crítico que ha de exigir ante estas afirmaciones tan extraordinarias pruebas no ya extraordinarias, sino pruebas en un sentido real, más allá de las creencias o los deseos.
Como la sábana santa ha sido ya despiezada y explicada en todos sus aspectos vendidos habitualmente como misteriosos, el asunto del congreso de sindonólogos de Valencia, con el amparo de su universidad y el nihil obstat episcopal no va a ser objeto ahora de especial análisis. Las notas de prensa de estos días anteriores que se han recogido por muchos medios son muestra de lo poco que se trabaja en los medios de comunicación. No hay ningún aval científico a la especulación de que el sudario que se exhibe con tanto éxito en Turín sea un trapo que originariamente cubriera a un ser humano de hace 2000 años. Por el contrario, hay más que suficientes pruebas para encontrar que ese lienzo es medieval y que, desde luego, no contiene la impronta de un ser humano, sino una representación artística de lo que en esa época representaba el cadaver descendido de Jesucristo. Puro arte para una falsificación pía que tuvo en Lirey su comienzo. La sindonología es un cúmulo de insensateces sin ápice de ciencia, pero que una y otra vez se vende como tal. Ni la NASA atestiguó la veracidad del invento ni fallaron los análisis del Carbono 14, ni Cristo que lo fundó.
Pero es lo que hay:
El jueves por la mañana, según comenzaba un viaje desde Pamplona al Museo de la Ciencia de Valladolid, primero, para asistir al estreno allí de la producción de planetario "Noche estrellada en el Museo" y luego llegando a A Coruña, donde mañana visitaré el Museo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología,
Laura Chaparro me pasaba un enlace a una noticia en el ABC con el siguiente titular:
Científicos españoles explican por primera vez el fenómeno del aura de las personas
En términos neurológicos, la sinestesia consiste en que en el cerebro de ciertas personas se produce un «cruce de cables»
El aura humana, para empezar, no es "fenómeno". Hasta el momento no hay ni una sola publicación científica que haya descrito el aura (no confundir con el asunto de la visión en aura de las personas migrañosas, por ejemplo). Es cierto que hemos leído muchas veces que se afirma que nos envuelve una especie de cuerpo energético sutil, invisible habitualmente, llamado aura, y que hay mucha gente que afirma ser capaz de verlo, e incluso de dictaminar, analizando de alguna manera su forma, colores o movimiento, ciertos aspectos sobre el poseedor de tal aura.
Pero es un negocio inexistente. No se mide por métodos físicos, no aparece registrado por ningún medidor de energía (no, las fotos Kirlian tampoco tienen nada que ver con el aura sino con una descarga eléctrica o efecto corona completamente independiente de espiritualidades de todo tipo). No me voy a poner a demostrarles estos comentarios, porque lo cierto es que no hay una sola prueba de que eso del aura sea real. Y estaré encantado de reconocer que me equivoco, si me pasan la bibliografía adecuada. Por el contrario, una búsqueda por Internet les podrá ayudar a ver que realmente no desbarro.
Así que si según el titular unos científicos españoles han encontrado una explicación para un fenómeno inexistente, lo cierto es que estamos ante un hecho muy muy sorprendente. Leyendo la noticia nos encontramos con que uno de estos científicos de la Universidad de Granada es Oscar Iborra, bien conocido por andar afirmando maravillas animadas muy del gusto del magufismo hispano y de pretender dar respetabilidad universitaria a lo que, simplemente, no debería tenerla. No me alegra que esto suceda además en una institución académica que, en los últimos tiempos, se ha ido metiendo en unos berenejales como montar conventillos teológicos, apoyar psicoterapias oprobiosas y pseudocientíficas o vender energías sutiles y orientales o espiritualidad a dos duros... Ese tipo de prácticas que, por más que se denuncian y exponen, se siguen practicando con bastante impunidad.
Leemos:
En un artículo publicado en la prestigiosa revista «Consciousness and Cognition», los profesores del Departamento de Psicología Experimental de la Universidad de Granada Óscar Iborra, Luis Pastor y Emilio Gómez Milán han ofrecido, por primera vez en el mundo, una explicación científica al fenómeno esotérico del aura, un supuesto campo energético de radiación luminosa multicolor que rodearía a las personas a modo de halo y que resulta invisible para la gran mayoría de los seres humanos.
Conviene mencionar que la nota de prensa de EFE ha sido recogida con titulares menos sensacionalistas por otros medios. Por ejemplo, en
La Voz de Galicia:
Los curanderos que dicen ver el aura padecen en realidad sinestesia
Un grupo de investigadores explica científicamente esta supuesta virtud que, supuestamente, consigue captar un campo magnético de radiación luminosa multicolor que rodea a las personas a modo de halo
Realmente, la investigación no se refiere a que realmente esas personas "dotadas" perciban nada, ni a la existencia de esa nada percibida. Ya es una pena, que dediquen su investigación a una pretendida capacidad pero sin entrar en algo tan básico como si realmente perciben algo (mezclando sentidos o no, eso es otra historia, la tan de moda sinestesia).
Ya con eso uno podría olvidarse del supuesto hallazgo. A lo más han estudiado unas personas que dicen tener una capacidad y han encontrado que en ellas se produce un tipo de percepción no habitual pero tampoco del otro mundo...
Con lo que las afirmaciones del aura o su explicación científica quedan muuuucho más lejanas de lo que nos vendía el ABC o parecen querer indicar desde la nota de prensa.
Pero, y a falta de expertos que ya tendrán tiempo de hacer sus análisis más serenos y con mayor aportación de bibliografía, el otro punto que debería alertarnos para salir corriendo avisando de que de ciencia, poco, es que uno de esos curanderos que han estudiado y del que se da el nombre es ni más ni menos que el que fue muy popular Santón de Baza, Esteban Sánchez Casas.
No es tan difícil ni tan prolijo tirar de hemeroteca en la era digital, como para llegar a lo que se recogió en los diarios del 24 de junio de 1993, cuando este personaje, entonces joven promesa del esoterismo patrio, (por ejemplo,
la noticia en El País) consiguió que unas 30 personas tuvieran lesiones oculares al intentar, criaturillas, ver bailar al Sol cuando él pretendía convocar una aparición mariana. Así como lo leen, todo un éxito en la salud pública.
Unos meses después en aquel programa de "La Máquina de la Verdad" de Julián Lago (
aquí el enlace) el Santón se sometió al aparatejo en uno de los momentos más alucinantes de la televisión basura de los 90, con unas antológicas intervenciones del filósofo Gustavo Bueno, divertidísimo por la jeta y desparpajo del mismo.
¿Así que de convocador de vírgenes, de peligro para la salud de los crédulos y espectáculo de charlatanismo, el Sr. Sánchez Casas pasa a ser un sinestésico curandero con pretendidos poderes paranormales?
¿Y esto es una investigación científica universitaria? Anda. Pues estamos aviados.
May 04, 2012 12:43 AM
May 03, 2012
Ya estamos. Un ScienceCast de la NASA lo provoca:
Perigee "Super Moon" On May 5-6
Ya ven: la propia NASA usa el estúpido concepto de SUPERLUNA para vender noticia. Y no, eso no vale, porque se trata de un ejercicio de sensacionalismo sin sentido. Que además da rienda suelta a todo tipo de chalados & charlatanes. Aunque el artículo de su sección de noticias científicas no contiene muchos datos erróneos (aunque sí alguna interpretación muy errónea, como se apunta en los comentarios, gracias), ni da excesivo pábulo a especulaciones, lo cierto es que tal y como está presentado es precisamente gasolina en el incendio habitual de lo magufo / pseudocientífico. Y ya verán cómo algún medio lo convierte en algo potencialmente peligroso, como ya pasó el año pasado.
El año pasado, en marzo de 2011, ya se habló de la SUPERLUNA y desde el Planetario de Pamplona explicamos que: La Superluna es una Superexageración. No es nada excesivamente raro el tener una plenilunio cerca del perigeo de la órbita lunar, y aunque esa Luna Llena pueda verse un 14% más grande, o hasta un 30% más brillante, cualquier especulación sobre que esto produzca algún tipo de catástrofe es simplemente absurda. Ciertamente, hay un efecto de marea, de marea viva, como se da cada mes, al sumarse la marea solar a la lunar, y además la marea lunar (su intensidad depende inversamente del cubo de la distancia) es ciertamente mayor. Pero para de contar. Como explicábamos, cada 27,3 días la Luna pasa por su perigeo y cada 29,5 días tenemos un plenilunio. A veces se dan cerca y si la gente tiene ganas de llamarle SUPERLUNA, pues vale...
... salvo porque ese término ya está viciado de origen. En primer lugar no tiene nada de científico (por poner algo de corte más científico podríamos hablar de una conjunción o sizigia en el perigeo), y en segundo, viene de la mano de un astrólogo llamado Richard Nolle. Según él, entre los 3 días previos y los 3 posteriores a la superluna hay una mayor frecuencia de terremotos y erupciones volcánicas (léase, por ejemplo, el artículo en la wikipedia sobre el tema)
Así que no se preocupen. Esta Luna Llena del día 5 tampoco causará nada más que más de una mirada sorprendida al cielo. Afortunadamente, aún podemos mirar al cielo y contemplar la Luna... Eso es lo importante: las super-noticias, no.
May 03, 2012 06:43 AM
May 02, 2012
No es que estuviera inspirado, además... en fin. Pero la causa es buena, es necesaria, ya hemos hablado de ella #sinCiencia no hay futuro, iniciada por @aberron y ahora girando por el universo Amazings. Y si todo el mundo se retratara en un vídeo de menos de un minuto diciendo algo al hilo de lo que pasará con los recortes en ciencia, #sinCiencia... pues mejor que mejor. El pasado jueves me pilló @Irreductible y me grabó: #SinCiencia El Vídeo de Javier Armentia
Hay ya algunos testimonios más: Igor Campillo, Juan Ignacio Pérez, Jose A. Pérez Mi mesa cojea, Alex Fernández Muerza, Alfred López, Carlos Chordá, ... ¿por qué no te grabas algo?
May 02, 2012 06:43 PM
May 01, 2012
Vamos, que viene por aquí alguno de estos "himbestigadores" y ya le ha montado el libro al Iker Fiménez en un pis pas. Vean la foto-mosaico que he montado esta tarde en una iglesia abandonada en Vergalijo (una aldea que ahora pertenece a Miranda de Arga), que casi lo cuenta todo:
La iglesia, así de fuera, en un alto junto a la carretera, tiene pinta de sitio siniestro (vale, alguno dirá que todas las iglesias de hecho pueden tener ese punto siniestro, pero esta estaba abandonada y libre de bicho). Bueno, una ruina, además, con el techo casi caído, un estado de la nave más bien dejado... Porque a mi lo gótico no me pone, pero así en plan ikerístico o en general magufo podríamos decir...
... sobrecoge el ánimo ya desde la distancia, y cuando vas trabajosamente subiendo al otero que ocupa esta iglesia ahora caída en el olvido, misteriosa y desafiante, notas cómo el sudor se te enfría, y una sensación incómoda te recorre la piel de abajo a arriba. Es imposible no pensar en quienes estuvieron aquí y ya nos dejaron, es casi perentorio preguntarse si aún pasean entre estos muros donde solo extrañas aventuras o desconocidos y arcanos ritos se siguen celebrando...
Bueno, ya saben, la basura habitual de folletín de terror para preescolares de noche de campamento, al que añadiríamos más autobombo al sufrido investigador que, realmente, lo único que ha hecho es subir una mierda de cuesta.
Bueno, pues ahí estamos. Como ven en la foto anterior, en la parte delantera de la nave encontramos una urna, que contiene los restos de, según consta en la etiqueta:
Doña Francisca
Alcalde Lizari
+ 16 de marzo de 2010
A los 80 años
R.I.P.
Y fuera de la iglesia, frente a la puerta a medio tapiar (o sea, que permite perfectamente el paso), además de un laurel al que le han colocado una botella de plástico para asegurarle algo más de riego, una foto, que también ven en el mosaico.
La cosa, en plan magufo, da para montar una psicofonía rápidamente, y de paso un par de exorcismos, para luego hacer un especial del Milenio ese y un par de libros. A mi me deja alucinado cuánta tontería puede llegar a hacer un himbestigador. Pero como el chaleco de Coronel Tapiocca lo había dejado en el coche, y aún no me he bajado el iPsycho (o algo así, seguro que alguien ya ha inventado el cazador de psicorruidos para el tontófono de moda), dejando mi habitual escaso sentimiento trágico de la vida, simplemente he imaginado que esta mujer, acaso, tras la incineración, fue llevada por algún deudo a semejante lugar.
Lo que no se si es legal, o sano siquiera. Lo hablaba con Josemere a la vuelta: realmente la ceniza, a lo más, podría considerarse un residuo tóxico por aquello de los metales... no se si habrá normativas sanitarias al respecto. Pero vamos, cualquier relación de esa urna y la ceniza que contiene con una persona humana es puramente biográfica. Pensé en llevarme la urna, pero al fin y al cabo era de las de serie, sin nada especial. Si me resultara morboso pensar que eso fue un cadaver humano antes de ser ceniza, lo mismo me la habría llevado. Ignoro también si en eBay el mercado de las urnas mortuorias da para unas cañas... no creo que lo mire ahora, pero podría dar para una historia.
Lo gracioso ha sido que metiendo el nombre de la mujer en Google he llegado a unas cuantas páginas que, esto sí, me dan más miedo que estos parajes abandonados y ruinosos. Cosas como "nuestrorecuerdopuntocom", "inmemoriampuntoloquesea", "rememori"... resulta que existen y, a modo de red social para finados, recopilan de los obituarios de las funerarias y los periódicos los datos pertinentes, y te ponen luego un espacio por si quieres dejar tus condolencias, o una galería de fotos o vídeos. De verdad, qué miedo. Bueno, la cosa es que esta mujer en efecto, según informaba la Funeraria Vascongada,
murió el 16 de marzo de 2010 a los 80 años de edad, y su funeral se celebró en Lezo al día siguiente. Había muerto en Lezo y si miran en el enlace tendrán información sobre sus hijos e hijas, nietos y demás familia (por cierto, esto de la
Muerte2.0 es la hostia en bote:
acabo de tuitear su esquela, si es que estas páginas lo tienen todo)
Cabe pensar que alguno de sus deudos eligió esa abandonada iglesia de la Asunción (el típico pastiche neogótico) como lugar final de su querida Francisca. Plantaron el arbusto, dejaron la foto (vean que es la misma que está frente a la iglesia) y ahi largaron la urna de marras. Qué detalle. Que digo yo, claro, que si la buena señora había nacido en Vergalijo o algo así. Lo dejo abierto para que investigen con ganas.
También queda saber del misterioso destino de esta aldea, ahora poco más que unas pocas explotaciones ganaderas ("los quejidos de los corderos nos acompañaban en nuestra peregrinación a ese inesperado camposanto donde pasea el alma de Francisca..." podríamos escribir, en velada alusión a los miedos de Clarise que Hanibal recoge para domeñarla en la peli esa). ¿Qué sucedió?
Pues nada, que tampoco vamos a tener misterio, porque
Popular TV de Navarra ya se encargó hace unos años (dos meses antes de la muerte de Doña Francisca, ¿casualidad, causalidad? ¿no es inquietante, Carmen? ay amigos de la nave del tontería...) de recopilar los datos de este lugar de curioso nombre (he aguantado un buen rato antes de dejar caer ninguna alusión, noten que estoy muy muy formal), fundado en 1904 como habitación de los colonos de un terrateniente, Felipe Modet, que tenía por el lugar explotación agropecuaria. Los corraliceros tuvieron hasta revueltas sociales. Verán el vídeo:
Bueno, la cosa es que la vecina que cuenta un poco la vida de Vergalijo es Maria Jesús Alcalde. ¿Alcalde? Lo mismo es su tía, qué cosas... Pa mear y no echar gota. Por lo que se ve, la familia se sigue juntando todos los años... Pues que tengan un poco cuidado con dónde dejan las cenizas de sus muertos.
Ya ven, lo que tiene pasear por la Navarra profunda con conexión a Internet. Un reportaje más completo y de mejor calidad de la visita a Vergalijo y la misteriosa muerta de la iglesia abandonada,
está en el flickr de Josemere (gracias por subirlo tan pronto, todo un detallazo).
Y
yo subí algunas fotos también:
May 01, 2012 08:44 PM
April 30, 2012
Publicado en DIARIO DE NOTICIAS - MILENIO
Lunes, 30 de abril de 2012
Las personas que meditan realmente cambian su cerebro y se convierten en más capaces de alcanzar niveles de consciencia elevados, tienen mayor serenidad y paz interior. Por lo que se ve, la meditación produce más actividad en la corteza prefrontal izquierda tras miles de horas de introspección1, y se realizan más conexiones neuronales. Punset lo suele contar a menudo y ya sabemos que aquí la gente es muy de Punset, quizá lo único que va a quedar de la ciencia en España si siguen pegándole tijeretazos.
Pensar nos cambia, físicamente; de la misma forma que los niños van creando nuevas conexiones también los adultos podemos trabajar con el pensamiento y la acción. Hace unas semanas se publicaba un estudio2 sobre cómo los deportistas de élite son mejores en evaluar probabilidades y más rápidos en la toma de decisiones. Los futbolistas, por ejemplo, por más que se hagan chistes. Y esta semana pasada Science publicaba otro estudio de estos, que muestra que razonar suele llevar a perder la creencia religiosa3. Procesamos la información por dos vías: una rápida, emocional e intuitiva; otra más pausada, que opera de forma analítica. Es lo que han solido presentar como los dos cerebros, siempre en una especie de lucha interna. Pero de la misma forma que nadie separa su cráneo en dos, tampoco se mantiene la dualidad siempre. Por más que lo intuitivo y emocional nos lleva a creer en lo sobrenatural parece que cuanto más se aprende a pensar evaluando los hechos, argumentando las teorías y comprobándolas (eso que hace la ciencia, por cierto) somos más naturalistas. Aunque creer sea lo innato, se puede, según los científicos, aprender a dejarse de creencias irracionales. Así que en el fondo el carcamal con plaza de obispo en Granada tenía razón cuando decía que eso de enseñar Ciencias para el Mundo Contemporáneo era un peligro anticlerical.
Total que los budistas son más serenos y felices, los futbolistas piensan estratégicamente más rápido y quienes razonan adecuadamente se vuelven más ateos. ¿Sacan alguna conclusión?
Referencias:
(1) "Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation", Antoine Lutz, Heleen A. Slagter, John D. Dunne and Richard J. Davidson. Trends Cogn. Sci. 2008 Apr;12(4):163-9. Epub 2008 Mar 10. PMID: 18329323
(2) "Executive Functions Predict the Success of Top-Soccer Players", Torbjörn Vestberg, Roland Gustafson, Liselotte Maurex, Martin Ingvar1, Predrag Petrovic1. PLoS ONE 7(4): e34731. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0034731
(3) “Analytic Thinking Promotes Religious Disbelief”, Will M. Gervais, Ara Norenzayan. Science 27 April 2012: Vol. 336 no. 6080 pp. 493-496 DOI: 10.1126/science.1215647
Algunos enlaces: La meditación forja nuevas conexiones neuronales; Los futbolistas piensan más rápido que tú; Losing Your Religion: Analytic Thinking Can Undermine Belief; ¿Consigue el pensamiento analítico hacer que disminuya la creencia religiosa?; Ya estaban tardando (sobre las declaraciones de Javier Martínez, obispo de Granada).
April 30, 2012 06:43 AM
April 29, 2012
Un gusto volver a participar en el magacín científico de COMRàdio de los fines de semana, con Mónica López y toda su gente. Hablamos de ciencia y de cosas que no lo son y, hemos aprovechado, nos acercamos a veces a fenómenos sorprendentes o no tanto, pero que tienen una explicación o no tanto científica o no tanto. Es decir, lo que siempre pasa. Bueno, aquí el podcast y todo...
Javier Armentia i les experiències properes a la mort
Escrit per eureka el 29/4/12 • A la categoria Els especialistes, Preguntes sense resposta amb Javier Armentia
Una llum prodigiosa al final d’un tunel; l’ànima vola cap a la porta a un altre món, però quan arriba allà, unes figures de llum, potser familiars o àngels, l’indiquen que no ha arribat el seu moment… Estem al programa “Móns Paral.lels”? No, seguim a l’Eureka i ens visita a l’estudi al Javier Armentia, director del Planetari de Pamplona, divulgador científic i president de la Societat per l’Avanç del Pensament Crític.
El Javier ens parla avui de les experiències properes a la mort i de les experiències extracorpóries. Potser aquestes experiències són reals en el sentit de que les persones les viuen de veritat, però no són reals en el sentit de que tot allò no està passant… Descobrim què passa en realitat a la nostra ment quan tenen lloc aquestes “experiències”.
Podcast: Download
April 29, 2012 12:43 PM
April 27, 2012
This transcript was not translated by me. My Chinese is not that good. It was sent to me by a Chinese friend...
Dear Premier Wen, with great challenge I escaped. All the rumours and accusations of violence on me and in Linyi, as the litigant, I prove to you all that they’re all true. The truth is only worse than what’s been spread online. (00:34) Premier Wen, I formally raise the following 3 requests from you.
Screen: strictly punish criminals in accordance to law “Firstly, (I hope) you will personally look into this case. Appoint investigation team for thorough investigation, (00:57) and reveal the truth. Who sent out the order to 70 to 80 county public security and Party cadres to enter into my house and violently beat us up and harm us with out any legal documentation, none of them were wearing uniform, and forbidding us from seeking medical care after being injured in the violence. Who made this decision? This must be thoroughly investigated, and must be dealt with in accordance to the law. Because this thing is too brutal and inhumane, and will be negative to the image of our Party. (01:33) Over a dozen man broke into our house and violently beat up my wife. They pushed her to the ground, covered her in duvet and beat her up for hours. They also beat me up violently. (01:52)
I know many members of the county public security, including Zhang Jian, He Yong, Zhang Shengdong. And Li Xianli, who beat my wife up several times around the time when I left prison. (02:04) And Li Xianqiang, Gao Xingjian, all of whom must be strictly dealt with. There is another person, family named Xue, I don’t know the given name. As the litigant I have the following accusations for all of these people who broke the law. In their process of breaking into the house and beat us up, like Zhang Jian, he is the deputy Party Secretary of our Shuanghou Township, in charge of Politics and Law. (02:35) He announced several times that “we simply don’t need to care about the law, don’t need to care about what’s written on the law. We don’t need any legal process. What can you do?”
Several times, he brought people to our house to loot and beat us up. Li Xianli, he/she is the one who illegally detained me for a long time with his/her 20 people. He/she is the head of the first team. (03:09) This person beat up my wife several times. One time he/she chased my wife on the street, took her off from the car and beat her up. He/she also beat up my mother, extremely cruel and evil. Li Xianqiang, he knocked my wife down to the ground last year. He is said to be the staff or maybe head of the Justice Department of our village. At the time, he severely injured my wife’s left arm. (03:46) The person who attacked Bell at the village entrance, according to what I know, is called Zhang Shenghe, who is a staff of our township. He must be, what people call them online, “Army Coat”. He stoned CNN in February last year too. (04:11)
It’s definitely him, that’s for sure. I know this. I heard that many netizens are beaten up by female watch guards. I wasn’t aware at the time that female guards were hired. Then I found out that these so called female thugs are all female directors from various villages. (04:32) Some of them are relatives of the team leaders, though most of them are village female directors. There’re many more, I know they’re all from the public security system, even though if they’re not wearing any uniform. (04:52) Even though they don’t have any legal documents. They even declare that we’re not public security, so I asked them who you’re, if not the police. They say we are sent by the Party to do things for the Party. I don’t believe in it. (05:10)
They might be working for a law-breaking cadre inside the Party. Through information from various sources, besides 8 people in each of these teams by the village cadres, they hire at least over 20 people in each team. There’re 3 teams, so that’s at least 70 to 80 people. This year, because of the attention and participation from kind netizens, there are up to hundreds of people at peak time, creating a full blockade. (05:48) the basic structure was, taking my house as the centre point, there is a team (of watchers) in my house, a team outside my house. The team outside are spread around my house, on four corners and on the roads. And then, (05:59) there’re people at the entrance of each road leading towards my house. Starting from the centre point of my house, even to neighbouring villages, on the bridges of neighbouring villages, there’re 7 or 8 people sitting there. And then, these illegal cadres, using their power at hand, ordered cadres from the nearly village to accompany them there. And then there’re people hired to patrol around in cars all the time. The scale of patrol can be as far as 5 kilo metres away from my village. (06:40) Or even further.
There are at least 7 to 8 layers of guards in my village. All roads into the village are numbered. As far as I know, there’re at least 28. When they go to their posts, they’d say, go to #28. It’s the same on all the road entrances. (07:06) There’s really fully armed every where. I know that there’re up to 100 county security and officials who conducted illegal persecution on us repeated. I demand thorough investigation on them. (07:36)
Screen: Protect family safety in accordance to the law
Even though I am free now, my concern follows immediately, because my family members, my mother, my wife and my child are still in their devil claws. For a long time, they have continued to conduct this kind of persecution on them. (07:58) They might revenge franticly because of my departure. The persecution might be even more relentless. The orbital bone of my wife’s left eye was broken by them. It still shows when you touch it. Her waist was injured when they beat her up in the house covered inside duvet. (08:21) It still shows very obviously if you touch her waist. And they inhumanly forbid her from getting medical care after the injury. As an elderly mother, (my mother) was pushed over to the ground by a village party cadre on her own birthday. (08:56) She fell on her back and her head hit the door. She cried heavily. She said, “You’re doing this because you’re young.” They said, “that’s right. The young can do it. You’re old and can’t defeat us.” So shameless, so cruel and inhumane, so unjust.
My child, who’s just a few years old, is followed by 3 people everyday when going to school, and searched. Everything must be taken out from the school bag, and each page in the books are checked through. He/she’s watched and not allowed to leave the school or the house. (09:50) And the situation in my house, the electricity was cut since 29 July last year, and was only brought back on 14 Feb. My mother was banned from going to buy food since Feb. last year, making our lives extremely difficult. That’s why I am extremely worried. (10:23)
I call for the friends online to continue your attention (to this case), and increase your level of care, in order to get to know their safety situations. I call for the Chinese govt to ensure the safety of my family members, from the perspective of protecting the dignity of law and the interests of people. (10:41) If there’s any problems to my family’s safety, I will continue to seek justice for it.
Screen: punish corruption according the law (11:00)
Thirdly, people might ask, why did this thing continued for years and has never been resolved? I’d like to tell everyone here, the decision makers and the executors on the local level don’t want to resolve this issue at all. The decision makers are worried that their crimes will be exposed, that’s why they don’t want to resolve; for the executors there are huge corruption inside. (11:30) I remember in August, when they conducted Cultural Revolution style criticism on me, they said: “You said in the video that 30 million (CNY) was spent (on watching/controlling Chen). Do you know that this is 2008’s figure. Now it’s more than twice the sum!” (11:46) “This does not include the money spent on travelling to Beijing to bribe high level officials. If you are able to, speak it in public!” That’s what they said. Many people who’re hired said, “We’re given very little money, the majority is all taken by others.” This is indeed a great opportunity for them to get rich. (12:10) As far as I know, money is allocated from the village to the team leaders. For each person hired, it is 100 CNY per day. When these team leaders hire people, they’d tell them that the salary is 100 CNY, but I’ll only give you 90. I confiscate the 10. Locally, a day’s labour is around 50 to 60 CNY, but by doing this, you don’t need to give lots of hard work, very safe, you’re fed 3 times a day, they of course are all willing to do it, even for 90 CNY. (12:47)
But for a team of 20+ people, the team leader gets 200+ CNY per day, not to mention the govt. Also, according to my knowledge, during my detention, these people who watched my wife, they purchase the vegetable of their own land for the use of their team. They sell and buy at the same time, and keep the benefits in between. People are aware of all of these things, but they have no solution. (13:27) According to my knowledge, this fund for maintaining stability, the county can allocate several million CNY to the village. They’d say, “how much can we get? The majority are all taken by the leaders, we can only drink some soup.” It shows how serious the corruption is in this, and how power and money are misused. (13:56)
Therefore, I ask Premier Wen to launch investigation into these conducts of corruption and deal with them. The taxpayers’ money must not be used by illegal local cadres for harming people and harming the image of our Party. (14:18) All these shameful conducts are done by them in the name of the Party, and they say that the Party told them to do so. Premier Wen, many people do not understand all of these illegal conducts. Is it because of the illegal conducts by the local officials? Or do they have orders from the central govt? I think you should give a clear response to the people in the near future. (14:50) If thorough investigation is launched and the truth is declared to the general public, then the result will be obvious. If you continue to ignore it. I think… how will the public think?
April 27, 2012 11:47 PM
April 25, 2012
I've owned a GSM Galaxy Nexus (Samsung i9250) for a few months, now. It's generally been a good experience and a somewhat good (but not great) upgrade from the Nexus One. I wrote a short review on it here.
The one deficiency that I didn't initially notice is the lack of decent GPS reception.
When I had the Nexus One I would typically use the My Tracks application to plot my routes when walking or jogging. This, of courses, used the GPS. The Nexus One would take maybe a minute at most to obtain a GPS lock on its own (no Wi-Fi required) and then would keep the lock the whole time when the phone was in my pocket.
The Galaxy Nexus is a completely different story. The GPS is, quite simply, broken. It takes, on average, 5-10 minutes to get a GPS lock when standing outside with a clear view of the sky and the phone in the palm of my hand. Sometimes it takes longer but usually I give up after 10 minutes because, strangely enough, I do have a life. Unfortunately, even after this GPS lock is achieved, it loses it easily. Putting the phone in my pocket will cause the GPS lock to be lost within a few minutes, typically.
Unfortunately, it appears that I'm not the only one with the problem. This is unfortunate because this means if I call Samsung asking for a replacement phone most likely my situation will not improve.
Strangely enough, if I enable Wi-Fi and are within the vicinity of some networks, I can get a GPS lock fairly quickly. In fact, even sitting here in my condo typing this, with Wi-Fi enabled I can get a lock within a few seconds by holding the phone near the window. The phone will only see 4-5 satellites, but that's all that is needed for a 3D lock. This makes a little bit of sense because WPS probably seeds the GPS subsystem with location data so it knows exactly where to start (vs. a cold or warm start).
After searching around a little bit I found a few suggestions. One was to shut off the phone and remove the battery for a few minutes, which seemed silly since this suggestion only temporarily fixes the problem. The second, that seemed to work for a few people, was to force a cold start and redownload A-GPS data, both of which can be done using GPS Status & Toolbox, an application I've used in the past and is pretty darn neat.
Unfortunately, performing the cold start (reset) and redownloading the A-GPS data didn't work out for me. I was still left in the same situation as I was before. However, using the GPS Status & Toolbox provided me with some additional information about the GPS problems. Apparently when the Galaxy Nexus is stuck searching for a GPS lock, usually it actually does see a whole boatload of satellites, but fails to receive any data from them.
Let's look at some screenshots to illustrate this.
Here's a screenshot of GPS Status & Toolbox when standing outside with a clear view of the sky:
The above has no GPS lock. Note the bars in the middle of the screen. Those indicate satellite signal strength and gray apparently means no data.
Now, here's a screenshot of a good GPS lock with Wi-Fi enabled. I don't even have a clear view of the sky since I'm indoors. However, I'm standing at a window:
The green apparently means the sallite is used in establishing the GPS lock. The other color codes are below:
- Gray - no info
- Blue - has almanac
- Yellow - has ephemeris
- Green - used in fix
When I can get a lock I notice that the satellite colors transition from gray, to blue, to yellow, and then to green. According to Wikipedia, almanac and ephemeris are two parts of the GPS message, the other being time information and satellite health.
Why does the GPS on the Galaxy Nexus not quickly receive the second and third parts of the GPS message from any satellites when Wi-Fi is disabled? According to the first screenshot above, it can clearly be seen that a number of satellites are providing adequate signal strength, but most are just stuck in the no info stage or have only processed the first GPS message. I wish I had an answer.
I suspect the problem may be due to inadequate RF shielding of the GPS receiver inside the hardware itself. Perhaps the GPS receiver is getting a strong signal but it's too noisy and the messages are chock full of errors and can't be processed correctly. This is really only speculation, though
I haven't had a chance to stop by a Verizon Wireless store to see if the LTE Galaxy Nexus has the same problem. However, I think it may be difficult to test since I probably won't be able to take any of the phones outside for a good test!
Anyone have any suggestions or comments?
by prox at April 25, 2012 10:51 PM
April 23, 2012
If you've been following my blog, you know that for the past few months I've been working on the 6th edition of Programming Windows, which focuses on writing Metro style applications for Windows 8 using C# and XAML.
... more ...
April 23, 2012 12:00 PM
April 22, 2012
Prolixium posted a photo:
This is just the metal case.. and it's mostly idle!
April 22, 2012 11:25 PM
May 20, 2011
I suffer from an affliction where certain words trigger songs to start playing in my head. The word "summertime," for example, triggers the George Gershwin song from Porgy and Bess. (I once told my mother than "Summertime" was my favorite song, and she said "That's funny. I used to sing that song to you when you were an infant and I was carrying you around the apartment.")
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May 20, 2011 03:26 AM
May 19, 2011
The book 'Practical Cryptography' is perfectly good for giving an overview of basic concepts in cryptography, but its immediate practical advice to implementers is not terribly to the point or accurate. Here is much more to the point and accurate advice.
- For a block cipher you should use AES-128. If you don't understand your protocol well enough to know whether there are birthday attacks on your keys, you have bigger issues. (Shame on Schneier for still trying to revisit the AES design competition by yammering on about Twofish.)
- For an encryption mode, you should always use CTR, and always use a nonce of zero, and never reuse keys.
- For a hash function, you should use sha-256 until the winner of the sha-3 design competition is announced, and then you should use sha-3.
- You should always do encryption as a layer outside of authentication.
- For entropy, you should always do whatever the Python os.urandom() call does on the local platform.
- For a data format, you should use JSON. (Not XML!)
- For an RSA exponent, you should always use 2. Technically that's Rabin-Williams, and requires slightly different implementation, but that actually works in its favor. Rabin-Williams has a reduction to factoring, RSA does not.
- You should never use the same key for both encryption and authentication. If you need both encryption and authentication, you should use two keys. One for encryption, and one for authentication.
- If you're going to be using RSA, you should learn about encoding for it! This is by far the most historically error-prone part of crypto protocols, and Practical Cryptography bizarrely doesn't even mention it as an issue.
- You should not parameterize your protocols! That just creates compatibility problems. If necessary you can parameterize it by having two values, one good for the next twenty years, and one good until the end of time, but key sizes have gotten big enough that skipping that first one should be the default.
Maybe someday Schneier will write a book which I can recommend to people who are getting started in cryptography, but I'm not holding my breath.
Are you a good programmer? Try
this coding challenge.
May 19, 2011 04:16 PM
May 16, 2011
<div style="text-align: left;">I'm on a two-week trip to Dublin for work and decided to break it up with a trip to a city that I'd never been closer to than the airport: Paris. Luckily, I have a French-speaking friend who's great company, so off we went.</div><div>As the airfare to Dublin was covered by Google, I decided to splurge a bit on Paris. We ended up staying at the <a href="http://www.raphael-hotel.com/">Hotel Raphael</a>, which was excellent throughout. It's beautiful, if a bit overwhelming for modern tastes. Having a great concierge and a room with everything at hand, however, makes a world of difference. Also, a balcony with a view of the Eiffel Tower: awesome.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://michaelromei.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/galerie12.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div>Morgan arrived later than I did on Friday, so I ended up venturing out on my own to a restaurant with concierge directions and the ability to speak about 3 words of French. I ended up at <a href="http://www.restaurant-jamin.com/">Jamin</a> for my first taste of real French food. Lesson #1: no one orders wine by the glass. Lesson #2: holy shit, this is good! French has never been my favorite genre for restaurants in the US, but this was amazing.</div><div>Morgan arrived around midnight, and after figuring out the horribly baroque lighting system in the hotel room, we turned in and got up early. We went first to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jardin_des_Plantes">Jardin des Plantes</a>, which is beautiful if a bit ill-cared-for. The menagerie is actually better kept than the botanical gardens, probably because it attracts a bigger crowd. If you go, do visit the greenhouses though.</div><div><a href="http://www.parisiensalon.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/jardin-des-plantes.jpeg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://www.parisiensalon.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/jardin-des-plantes.jpeg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 399px; " /></a><div style="text-align: left;">We ate lunch looking out at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre_Dame_de_Paris">Notre Dame Cathedral</a>, then walked around it. The line was too long and we didn't head in. Instead, we headed up to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilique_du_Sacr%C3%A9-C%C5%93ur,_Paris">Sacré-Cœur</a>, with its amazing panoramic view of Paris. We stepped inside, but weren't terribly enthused; I don't think either of us is really a church person, even architecturally.</div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f0/Skyline_Sacre_Cour.jpg/1300px-Skyline_Sacre_Cour.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; " /></span></div><div>Of course, you can't go to Paris for the first time and not see the Eiffel Tower. Again we didn't go in/up because of the throng, but it's still impressive to see.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2610/3681355338_d8083b6e35.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 315px; " /></span></div><div>Then we were back to the hotel to clean up and change, and off to dinner with a quick stop at the rooftop bar.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://media.expedia.com/hotels/1000000/30000/28600/28507/28507_117_b.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 346px; height: 288px; " /></span></div><div>We had dinner reservations at <a href="http://www.paris-best-restaurants.com/top.php/restaurant-victor-paris-restaurant/zi108570">Restaurant Victor</a>, described by the concierge as a "bistro"; Morgan scoffed. We arrived, the food arrived, Morgan no longer scoffed. I had an appetizer of morel mushrooms in cream sauce that I will remember for quite some time.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://www.paris-best-restaurants.com/img/items/victor-restaurant-paris.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 250px; " /></span></div><div>The next morning, we checked out and headed off to a tiny, unassuming building that marks the entrance to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catacombs_of_Paris">Catacombs of Paris</a>. Down a long staircase, though long, small tunnels, and then past the bones of 6 million former Parisians artfully arranged. The experience is surreal; while there are plenty of pictures online, the sheer scale of the thing in person is stunning. It seems to go on and back forever. What's also stunning is something that would never happen in the US: the only things separating you from the walls of bones are signs are signs reminding you not to touch.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://8th-grade-english.wikispaces.com/file/view/paris-catacombs-2-wall-of-bones.jpg/51356611/paris-catacombs-2-wall-of-bones.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 403px; " /></span></div><div>After emerging into the sunlight slightly stunned, we took a quick trip to see the Louvre from the outside, then the hotel to pick up bags and off in our respective directions. I think I'll be headed back to Paris for a longer stay in the future. I seem to enjoy it very much.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://www.visitingdc.com/images/louvre-museum-picture.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 625px; height: 401px; " /></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1454940121673019737-6004374994407586232?l=flamingcow.dilian.org' alt='' /></div>
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by flamingcow at May 16, 2011 08:43 PM
May 12, 2011
I recently received two entirely unrelated emails from people who had posted videos on YouTube that were, in part, inspired by my book Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software (which is one of those rare computer books that doesn't become absurdly obsolete with the passage of time, and which, incidently, has recently become available in a Kindle edition).
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May 12, 2011 04:44 PM
April 26, 2011
This was intentional, right? This doesn't happen by accident, and yet...
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
It doesn't really give the impression that their Cloud Computing has much substance (whether it does or not is an entirely different question, this is just another post about
strange branding).
April 26, 2011 08:48 PM
May 17, 2010
May 20, 2009
According to wikipedia, "A human is a member of the genus Homo, of which Homo sapiens sapiens is the only extant subspecies." I agree with wikipedia. Apparently some people don't though, which is why I'm asking.
May 20, 2009 08:38 PM
May 15, 2009
So last night it was nice out so I took Carter to the dog park. He was actually very good with the other dogs, not too many dominance attempts and very little growling (only when one dog would not leave him alone!). It rained two days ago, and there was a huge puddle in the park, which had been churned up into a watery mud pit. Of course, all the dogs were going crazy rolling around in it and running through it at top speed splashing water everywhere.
Carter took a peek, waded in very carefully, then wandered off. I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking, okay, he just wanted to get his feet wet. Well, a little while later, he wades in again, takes a couple licks of the water . . . and lays down. Argh! It was actually pretty cute. I know he loves water so I figured he'd probably end up in there sooner or later. I counted myself lucky that he didn't roll in it at least.
They have kiddie pools at the park that people usually fill up with water from the hose to let their dogs lay in, and I don't mind when Carter does that because he usually gets out cleaner than he was when he got in. However, after wallowing in the mud, he needed a bath. Really he's been needing a bath for a while so this was a good excuse. I wiped off his feet when I got him in the car, then when we got home kept him on the leash and took him straight into the bathroom. Amazingly, I had little trouble getting him into the tub. The lesson learned is that if I keep him in his harness and leash, he can't really resist following me very well.
So I get him in the tub, get all his gear taken off, and start the shower running. He's being pretty good, so I start rinsing all the mud off of him (hard to do because the mud is mostly UNDER him). I try to get him to lay down so I can get more water on his belly. Okay, he mostly lays down. I let go of him to scoop up some water, and VOOSH! He's making a run for it!!! I make a frantic grab for him and manage to snag his back legs. Meanwhile he's gotten the shower curtain open and is scrabbling around on the floor with his wet and muddy front paws. Unfortunately I couldn't get any traction either because I was all wet and standing barefoot in the shower, and he managed to wriggle out and escape into the main part of the bathroom . . . where he immediately shook, spraying muddy water all over the floor, the walls, the counter, and the toilet.
Ben (who was downstairs working out) told me later that he thought by all the yelling I was doing ("No! Carter no!! Get back here! Bad dog!") that he'd gotten out of the bathroom entirely and was spreading mud all over the upstairs, but luckily I had shut and locked the bathroom door when I put him in there. In any case there followed a very slippery chase around the bathroom (amazing how much chasing is required in such a small space), where he managed to get muddy water all over everything he hadn't already covered, and I finally cornered him next to the tub and was able to lift his front feet in and then force his back feet back in. Phew!
He made a couple more escape attempts but I managed to stop him from getting his front paws out of the tub again, and he eventually submitted to being thoroughly washed. I think I got a pretty good workout. :P
For a dog that loves water and swimming, you'd think he would take a bath with dignity. Sigh. But I have to say, when he gets out of the tub and is clean and toweled off, it's totally adorable to see him zoom around the house trying to air dry himself.
My telling of this story totally doesn't do justice to his mad dash for freedom and the slip-and-slide chase that followed though. What a dog.
May 15, 2009 02:57 PM
May 10, 2009
If you want to use Skype with Bluetooth headsets on recent versions of Ubuntu Jaunty with an AMD64 architecture, this article might be of interest. If those words didn't make any sense, this article is definitely skippable.
When using Skype with a Bluetooth headset, I was getting error messages of the following form:
ALSA lib ../../../src/pcm/pcm.c:2165:(snd_pcm_open_conf) Cannot open shared library /usr/lib32/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_bluetooth.so
Since Skype only exists in 32-bit mode currently, you can only run it in AMD64 using the linux32 command. However, this requires 32-bit versions of all the libraries that Skype would need, including bluez-alsa if you want to use a Bluetooth headset. Ubuntu currently attempts to handle this with their ia32-libs package but the current version of this package is missing its bluez-alsa libraries (as indicated in the error message). This is the bug that has been reported here.
I have a horrible hack to fix this problem, mostly because I can't find where ia32-libs development takes place nor the Ubuntu development process. I downloaded the 32-bit version of bluez-alsa and used alien -t to convert it into a tar.gz file. I then extracted its contents and made an extremely simple Makefile with this content:
install:
cp ./usr/lib/alsa-lib/libasound_module_ctl_bluetooth.so /usr/lib32/alsa-lib/
cp ./usr/lib/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_bluetooth.so /usr/lib32/alsa-lib/
Next, I created a Debian package with checkinstall which you can find here. To my knowledge, these files are missing in Ubuntu Karmic too, so this might help those users as well.
Takeaway message: If you want to try my hack, download my new package (which I admitedly haven't been able to test on any other machines, so any feedback is welcome) and use your favorite package installer (the graphical one is probably the easiest) to install it.
May 10, 2009 05:13 PM
May 08, 2009
The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince: and yet 'tis nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment; 'tis to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep: and there is no other reason to be given why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up; there is no other reason to be given why you han't gone to hell since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship: yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you don't this very moment drop down into hell.
--Jonathan Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"
Business as usual this month, which is to say that not much is getting done. Sometime this month, I'll have to prepare my talks and code release for the NAACL conference, which is at the beginning of June in Boulder, Colorado. Other than that, I'm doing some exploratory research, but I don't know what will come of it. The class I'm TAing is over; I think I did ok, but will do better at organizing (making sure the assignment handouts are consistent &c) next time.
May 08, 2009 03:35 PM
May 07, 2009
flpsed is absolutely great. It is a simple pdf editor. It is technically for postscript files but it opens up pdf files as well. You have to save em as ps but you can always use ps2pdf to convert back. <br /><br />If you have a pdf form, it is a simple interface for filling in the form. Easy peezy japanesey. Give it a try. Linux only.<br /><br />sudo apt-get install flpsed<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/22180845-4222450024499172999?l=eschreiber.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div></content>
by Angry Moose at May 07, 2009 06:43 AM
April 27, 2009
April 24, 2009
Say you have a table foo with column value and you want to delete the row with the maximum value. You would think this would work:<br /><br />DELETE FROM foo WHERE value = (SELECT max(value) FROM foo);<br /><br />But they don't support this. You would have to copy the max value to another table and then join on that table or other such nonsense. The WHERE clause of a DELETE statement may not contain reference to the table you are deleting from. This also is so with UPDATE. Postgres has no such limitation and so that is where I shall be.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/22180845-1765858785862630774?l=eschreiber.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div></content>
by Angry Moose at April 24, 2009 12:43 AM
April 22, 2009
This morning, I was woken up at 6:40am by Lenovo customer service. I had a similar experience in the past with Dell customer service. Now, I know these companies outsource to India in order to save money on technical support. Presumably, the people in India are still qualified for the job. (Presumably being the operative word.) Why can't these people figure out time zones? I mean, India is a number of time zones away from any American time zone but seriously, just count and figure out when an appropriate time to call is. Hint: Don't call anyone for business purposes before 9am.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/22180845-6419091279600883356?l=eschreiber.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div></content>
by Angry Moose at April 22, 2009 04:43 PM
May 19, 2008
Wow been working like crazy recently, I sure hope something comes out of it. Here is the list of top ten things going on.
- My sister got her law degree
- Playa del Fuego
- Sensory Dep on Thursday
- Wrote two crappy poems
- Read some bernake essays(he sure is something)
- Twitter gets another bump of activity(maybe it will take off)
- I gave a talk at the FactSet conference (Google 101ish)
- Attempted to do some corporate stuff.
- 10!
May 19, 2008 01:41 AM
May 02, 2008
Whenever they are not fighting, they pass much of their time in the chase, and still more in idleness, giving themselves up to sleep and to feasting, the bravest and the most warlike doing nothing, and surrendering the management of the household, of the home, and of the land, to the women, the old men, and all the weakest members of the family. They themselves lie buried in sloth, a strange combination in their nature that the same men should be so fond of idleness, so averse to peace.
--Tacitus, "Germania"
Yeah, so I haven't gotten much done this past month. Which I suppose makes it just like last month. If (to misquote Dr. Spooner) I have not tasted the whole worm, still I think I have permitted several clammy inches to pass my lips. Hopefully it lacks the hooked head of a tapeworm, and will be easy to eradicate upon my return to more familiar surroundings.
Despite having done little, a fair amount has happened to to me, so I needn't leave this space empty. In the academic world, my ACL short paper is accepted, so I'll be presenting twice. And more importantly, I never need to rewrite it again. I'm also almost done with COLING reviews, my last set for this year (unless I get picked for EMNLP, then it's here we go again). And finally, I've been elected as faculty-graduate liason, the top graduate position of Brown CS. It's an honor, and also a load of paperwork; most of the potential nominees simply refused to be considered (for more or less valid reasons). With luck, Cincinnatus will not let the farm lie completely fallow during his term of office...
I've had time for a little more travel, notably a trip into France with friends to see an exhibit about Leonardo da Vinci. There was a tour, which went on for ages, and was in really awful French-accented German. I can tell it was awful because I could understand almost all of it. (Real German is still pretty much unintelligible-- today I misheard a Berlin soccer team's slogan, "arm aber sexy" (poor but sexy) as "arm aber setz dich" (poor but sit down) and had to wonder if even English words were beyond my comprehension when spoken by Germans!) We also saw Metz, which has a very nice Gothic cathedral unmarred by any Baroque interior designers. The exterior has some exceptional gargoyles, shaped like all kinds of beasts real and mythical. It has the Church and Synagogue statues as well, and Wikipedia claims it has a Judensau, which, however, I did not see. Ironic since some of the stained glass windows are Chagall.
For completeness' sake, I will mention that a few days ago I pinched a nerve between two of my ribs, which was unbearably painful and kept me up the whole night. When I got to a doctor the next morning, he basically just pressed on a rib and gave me some ibuprofen, which solved the whole thing neatly enough. Trivial, really, except that ow.
Finally, I am forced to remember that I turn 25 on Sunday. What a depressing notion! Let's draw this to a close before it gets maudlin...
May 02, 2008 07:07 PM
April 30, 2008
I seem to have completed the education game.
April 30, 2008 11:52 PM
May 05, 2006
May 02, 2006
They didn't make me read this in highschool.
May 02, 2006 05:04 AM
May 01, 2006
when the emotion drains away, so does the colour."with all eyes upon himexcept that the twothat matter the most..."nickel creek is amazing.
May 01, 2006 09:10 PM
April 30, 2006
+i was told i should update. +went to get my amish coffee... yes i travel over an hour to get coffee. it's that yummie. +came back thru decatur... stopped at mcd's for some food.... and some girls w...
April 30, 2006 11:11 PM
April 28, 2006
so, this week i stuck my new Swopper chair in the office. yes, i know, it's crazy. combine this with...
by cce at April 28, 2006 11:57 PM
April 23, 2006
keeping with my resolution to update this at least every month, here's the latest from providence. things are busily quiet...
by cce at April 23, 2006 08:56 PM
May 18, 2005
despite the hassles involved in getting there, I saw a really good concert tonight, Billy Idol of all people. while i didn't actually think about this during tonight, i did at the last concert i went to before this, Converge at the living room, and i thought about how i've been going to shows for a good number of years now and have seen a bunch of good (and bad) stuff. And so i began to think of the best shows (and worst as well) that i've ever been to, and how listing these would be such a typical livejournal entry that i might as well put it in. (saving all those ticket stubs over the years really helped come up with some of these that i'd forgotten about.) so without further ado,
top five concerts ever attended:
1. Rush - 2004 - Great Woods: 3 hours of heaven in an outdoor venue in a downpour. Heard 2112 live. 10 minute drum solos. This was definitely the greatest show i've ever been to, no question.
2. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - 2003? - Orpheum: Nick Cave rules, and they never tour that much, so this chance to see them probably represented my one and only. And thank god i went, because it was so much fun. first of all, i got to sit on a balcony with a seat. for this kind of show, a seat with a good view is definetely key. And the band was completely awesome...i've been a cave fan forever, and this was icing on the cake.
3. Fugazi - 2002 - Massart: before this show, fugazi last played boston 13 years ago. this was probably before i even got into ian's other bands, minor threat and government issue. sure it was in a gigantic hot as balls gym with shitty acoustics. It was also like 5 bucks, and goddammit, it was fucking fugazi.
4. Dropkick Murphys - 2001-5 - Avalon: I'll lump all of these shows together...for five years now i've gone to the annual dropkick murphys st patrick's day shows... and while the crowd has gotten worse and worse every year, the shows are still a ton of fun. playing "pipebomb on lansdowne" while performing ON lansdowne street... fun times
5. Metallica - 2000? - Great Woods: yeah it was the reload tour. yeah they're greedy bastards who are complete sellouts now. well, they were at the time of this show still the heaviest live band on the planet. this was also before they got that gorilla to play bass. played the thing that should not be, which is definitely not a concert staple, but one of my favorites. played about, oh, 4 new songs, the rest were pre-Load.
Honorable mentions: I couldn't pick one particular show, but in my years in boston especially, i saw Converge, Isis, and Cave in more times than i can remember, and almost every single one of those shows were euphoria. also: the dwarves, anal cunt, andrew w.k.,sick of it all, bane, the suicide file,type o negative, american nightmare, flogging molly, and billy idol definitely was cool too. and i grew up on Tree shows, which will always have a special place in my memory.
5 worst shows
1. Fuel - 2004 - hampton beach: crappy venue, fake casino, crappy band.
2. Biohazard/clutch - 2002 - jarrad's place: i went to see candiria, who played for like 20 minutes. clutch is alright, but the sound sucks here, and it wasn't enjoyable
3. Piebald - 2003 avalon - opened for cave in, i didn't get there late enough to miss this crap.
4. P. Funk - 2001? - lupos: i wasn't really a P. Funk fan at the time, and this was like 3 hours long filled with tons of lame white people dancing. super lame dreadlocks galore too. being underage, spent the entire time trying to bum drinks with my friend ritchie.
5. Godsmack, bunch of other bands - 1998 - still under my parents reign, i had to leave this show before the main acts even got to play, so i saw a bunch of crappy openers. Also, the perfect example of why a smoking ban is needed in clubs. I almost died i think.
5 shows i wish i could see/have seen:
1. U2
2. Rolling Stones
3. Led Zeppelin
4. AC/DC
5. Iron Maiden
May 18, 2005 06:25 AM
