Since we don’t live by politix alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all!
Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
Larvatus Prodeo was an Australian group blog which discussed politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
I had a dream about LP this morning. There was a discussion about artificial life, artificial intelligence, what a collective of robot “ants” could accomplish, and so on. The opinions were completely speculative, and I conceived of commenting that “I have found a medium/forum/… where you can directly test some of these ideas”, and then linking to, say, a wikipedia page on “primeval soup” – the idea being that the computational medium in question was simply evolution on Earth.
So I went looking for a good page to link to in this fashion, and ran across a similar thread on another discussion site, probably American. The comments themselves appeared on the screen in an unusual way – the font size was variable but generally big, comments were in different colors, and they appeared to be appended directly to each other with just a linebreak but no indication of authorship. Obviously the site had an unusual commenting system… The exchanges were brief but lively. One participant said they were 15, and another responded “I’m 8” (and I thought, I want to contact that 8-year-old!). Another said, in the midst of comments about which direction to favor amidst all these posthuman and antihuman possibilities, “I’m with the jatll”, presumably a sci-fi species I would need to look up. And at the very bottom of the thread, someone had written (paraphrase), “To conduct all these experiments, do you have to be at the end of the world??” – their meaning being, does the imminence of all these possibilities mean that we’re all about to go extinct. So once again I thought of a “clever” comment, “No, it just means you’re at the middle of the [history of the] world”, my implication being that the rise of a-life and A.I. marks the beginning of the second phase of the history of the world; it’s not the end of the world, it’s just the end of us. OK, now I just had to find out how to comment. I scrolled up and up and up, past all those colorful messages – and discovered it wasn’t live at all, it was an article in a webzine like Wired, presenting highlights of a discussion from an anime/gamer forum somewhere. How disappointing! But that explained the odd layout – it was an editorial choice. And then I woke up.
Eschewed the dog obedience club and headed for the last stretch of the Torrens Linera Park we hadn’t covered. Mostly beautiful scenery in the riverbed, bloody awful houses on either side. I think they were in the style of “ostentation”
Dog and me glad to see the car! Demi has flaked out in my study here for quite a while.
Took a few piccys, will look at them at work tomorrow.
Had a look through Mrs Beeton cookbook for the best way to make chips–I have a deepfryer with thermostat so will eat my way into cholesterol playing with it
Quietish weekend. Yesterday morning watched the DVD Amazing Grace. Impressive enough. On-line. Taking notes from various history books. re-wrote opening paragraphs of ch. 3 of my book conmpletely. They work, now. A good intro.
Sunday. Insiders enraged me so much I sent a comment to the ABC. On line with LP and Armchair General- in the latter I sometimes get into extended discussions with history buffs about the American Revolution. Spent most of the day taking notes from Robert Harvey’s A Few Bloody Noses? Appears to be quite a good revisionist history of the American Revolution. No footnotes, which is a bit disappointing. After this only got a few documents to transcribe from the net, then I can start writing chapter 3 properly. Feels good.
I spent today contemplating the weirdness of Perth, it’s a very strange town, and I’m glad to be home. Adelaide is prettier than I remember it being.
Began Sunday by driving an empty grain train to Laidley, then rode back to Brisbane on a full coal train.
Went home.
Slept until 5pm.
Rest of afternoon spent cursing Optusnet. Will be glad when my contract with them runs out next year and I can be rid of their dodgy and unstable and often 53.6kbps “broadband” service.
Terangeree, you can get out of your Optus contract early if they are not providing the service you signed up for. I did. 4 months into a 2 year contract, my wireless broadband became really unreliable…worse than dialup…I got out of the contract fairly easily..only had to mention “telecommunications ombudsman” once. Optus have oversold their network and they know it..one of their re-sellers told me so. Just get grumpy and get out, there is no point putting up with it.
Terangeree, Maybe also cancel the credit card you’ve got your payment hooked to – a bit of a nuisance but maybe necessary. Let them make the running.
I had ADDR continue to draw money after I had cancelled with them and that seemed the only viable option.
Pick any father’s day cliche. It was great. Due to the vagaries of ordering on line from shops who accept orders for out of stock items I got a receipt for this
Retro Style
With a matching musette, no less. It’s always lovely when you realise that your partner actually listens when you talk to them about your hobbies in which they have absolutely no interest
listened to some Don Cherry, some Birtwhistle and then some Cardew. Cleaned out roof gutters down one side..the easy side. cooked up a nice dhansak…
Does anyone know where to get a good recipe for okonomiyaki? I miss Osaka, and it’s only been 10 days…
The Geek was the centre of attention today, it being his birthday as well as Father’s Day. He got a decision-making dartboard from our elder son (via the school Father’s Day stall) and a Sonic Screwdriver torch from the younger. And I handed him the first Christopher Eccleston Dr Who series. (Was Empty Child the best Eccleston episode ever?)
I was saddened to hear of the death of Geoffrey Tozer (on 20th August; how did I manage to miss it thenA?). Heard him on the radio last year discussing Bach with the simplicity that comes from profound understanding. Listened to this as a farewell.
Mitchell that is a terrific dream.
Reading Gregor Salmon’s ‘Poppy’ about the opium trade inside Afghanistan. The same week that the United Nations Office for Drugs & Crime UNODC was in the news reporting a significant drop in trade. The Australian journalist recounts the half hearted efforts of UNODC at eradication of poppy fields in recent years which makes me a little suspicious of good news reports by embedded scribes in that hellhole. I must admit to patiently waiting for the embedded ABC journo Sally Sara to become ‘unbedded’ so that she can hopefully give us some warts’n'all honesty on what’s going on there post election. I’m not hopeful though in light of ADF and Russell Hill exertions. We got a taste of that on what really happened when refugee boat people tried to climb aboard RAN rubber duckies following the explosion aboard their vessel.
Terangeree (10)
RE: okonomiyaki… if you’re in Brisso, and your obviously hectic schedule allows you a Saturday morning, there’s a little Japanese stall at the Davies Park, West End markets which specialises in okonomiyaki on a barbeque plate. They do great dumplings too, and that’s about it. Quite the artists, they seemed to have plenty of Japanese customers, all making approving noises. Watching, fascinated, the process, I was reminded me of scenes from Tampopo (movie).
I’ve been trying to track down Tampopo on DVD for ages, what a great film.
With the anniversary of September 11 fast approaching, I did a bit of research to see how many crack-pot conspiracy theories there may be out there in the interwebs.
Unsurprisingly there are loads, however interestingly, there are a number that are at least, on the surface, quite credible and provide a great deal of detail and scientific evidence and witness statements to validate the prominent conspiracy theory that the twin towers were demolished not by the impact of the aircraft, but by by controlled explosives set-off after the planes had struck.
It all makes very interesting reading. Particularly the number of former US intelligence officials that are now coming forward and rejecting the US Government’s official version of events.
Anyway, if you’re interested, you can check it out here…
http://guttertrash.wordpress.com/2009/09/06/interactive-philosophy-was-911-an-inside-job/
Reb, I am selling Sydney Harbour Bridge, interested?
Steve,
Only if you through in the Opera House too.
Oprah House’ll cost ewe extra, I don’t just through things inn four know return.
yeak, okay, I meant ‘throw’
F**kin pendants…