Latest blog:

Twit Twat

8 months, 3 weeks ago

It seems, for now, I'm not so good at keeping this blog up to date. Perhaps twitter suits better my attention span... I'll put a feed here when i find time, for now, have a look at this page

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Latest music:

Songs before Sunrise

3 years, 4 months ago

My stream of unconsciousness:

2010-03-07 | Late Night Live - 2010-03-08
 The storms of James Hansen A discussion with the prominent NASA climate scientist about his journey of scientific discovery, the gradual process by which he became convinced of the science of global warming, and how he believes scientists need to address current public doubt.
2010-03-08 | http://i.imgur.com/eprqB.gif
2010-03-08 | How to Teach Yourself Programming
2010-03-06 | 2010-03-07 Climate change as an ethical issue
 Internationally renowned philosopher Peter Singer at the Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne. The World Meteorological Organisation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US have both classified the last decade as the hottest on record, the 1990s were the hottest before that and the 1980s the third warmest...and it is the poorest of peoples who suffer the most from this heat. So who should take on the responsibility of climate change? Is it as easy as saying rich western nations or is the answer a little more difficult?
2010-03-02 | Crazy or Disciplined?
 There's a fine line between crazy and entrepreneurial. If you bark at the moon to make it go away, you are considered crazy. But if you start a business for which there is less than a 5% chance of success, you are considered an entrepreneur.

If you feel the need to turn a light switch on and off exactly seven times before leaving a room, you have OCD. If you need to run exactly five miles every day before breakfast to feel right, you are considered disciplined and athletic.

On one hand, it is clearly different to engage in activities that have no practical value versus ones that do. Or ones that might. But what if the reason you engage in practical activities has nothing to do with your ability to reason, and everything to do with being lucky that your particular brand of crazy has some utility? That blurs the line.

I often think I was one lucky break away from being the crazy uncle who couldn't stop drawing pictures. For me, drawing was as much a compulsion as a career decision. From my earliest age, I drew on everything that would stand still. It's an extraordinary bit of luck that my compulsion turned out to be practice.

Warren Buffett modestly says he was lucky that his brain is wired in a way that suits the times. A few hundred years ago he would have been the crazy peasant who was always talking about ways to increase crop production if only he had the capital.

A Muslim, a Christian, and a crazy guy walk into a room. The one thing you can know for sure is that at least two out of three of them organize their lives around things that aren't real. And that's the best case scenario. Atheists would say all three have some explaining to do. And atheists are the minority, which is the very definition of abnormal.

My wife and I often have very different recollections of events. And not just the little details. Sometimes our shared memories don't even feature the same mammals, themes, or points. The scary part is that we don't realize these differences until we have some reason to compare memories, which doesn't come up that often. Every now and then there will some independent way to verify whose memory is accurate, and it is sobering to discover how many of the problems are on my end. A lot of my so-called life is apparently a patchwork of delusions.

The best you can hope for in this life is that your delusions are benign and your compulsions have utility.