2005
From crispyneurons
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[edit] 17 November 2005
I woke up this morning and discovered Val Kilmer will play my part in a movie. Angelina Jolie plays the part of my fiancée.
Huh.
[edit] 14 August 2005
A question arose in my mind: what is the bulk of activity of Earth, as compared to other planets? By activity I mean mechanical work, which is the most abstract form of physical activity I know of. It's not easy to get concrete answers, but I have three relevant conjectures.
I suspect that life doesn't exist on the vast, vast majority of planets. Hundreds of planets have been discovered, and none (so far) are even in the running, and I suspect that's representative. In those cases, planetary activity is limited to the geological and chemical: rock formation, plate tectonics, interactions of atmospheric gases and so on.
Here on Earth it is obviously very different. Geological forces clearly exist, but they can't possibly predominate when compared to all the biological activity, which mostly boils down to protein synthesis: the day-to-day operations of a cell. All of the living world depends on it. This is my first conjecture: that the dominant activity on Earth is protein synthesis.
Now with the recent rise of biological organisms capable of symbolic reasoning and toolmaking (namely, us), there's a new class of mechanical work being performed by designed machines. From bicycles to traffic jams, from the Internet to thermonuclear weapons, that's quite a bit of action. Nevertheless, it's the new kid on the block, and doesn't dominate. Thus we get to my second conjecture: That despite being currently overshadowed by biological activity, machine activity is coming on fast and furious, and is currently the most rapidly growing slice of the activity pie.
Third conjecture: in the future, machine activity will either surpass biological activity or the two will cease being distinguishable categories of activiy. Because after all, biology is not just the origin of intelligent will; but thanks to technologies like artificial selection and genetic modification, it is increasingly a subject of designed activity as well.
[edit] 29 July 2005
I'm on a roll. Did some renovations on the situation page. I think it's much clearer now. Also added Book 12 and Book 13 of the Iliad. It's past the halfway point now; the rest is downhill.
[edit] 28 July 2005
A number of fine-grain updates. I switched from using Apple's Safari browser to Mozilla's Firefox on my Mac, and updated the technology page accordingly. More and more I just use Linux anyway, and I'm happy with the support I've gotten from Fedora Forum], so that's on there too. I added a few new faces to my friends page. On my own page, I added links to my Tribe blog and my user page on Wikipedia. Lastly I added Book 10 and Book 11 of the Iliad.
[edit] 8 July 2005
Just posted the photos from this summer's Purple Turtle Funky Fiesta. Enjoy!
[edit] 5 June 2005
Added the Laserpod to my Wish List.
[edit] 28 May 2005
I wrote a term paper for my biology class this (now complete) semester. The subject: herpes. It examines the both the virus and the disease. It's about 15 pages and represents a fully researched and documented overview of the viruses and the diseases. I just got it back a few days ago. The biology professor gave it a perfect score.
[edit] 21 May 2005
And now... the much-delayed Xara Dulzura 2005 content!
I took this opportunity to clean up the burning page, the comprehensive collection of everything burn-related I've experienced since my first burn in 2002. The page is less and less restricted to the event on the playa; Xara isn't even affiliated with Burning Man at all these days. Eventually I'll have to generalize it but that's a project for the future.
[edit] 16 May 2005
The 'get a philosophy degree' project has definitely stolen precious time from the 'improve crispy' project. Hence the lack of timely updates. This is not a blog. My criteria for additions to this site are far more stringent, and so my updates are less frequent. Nevertheless, I usually try to update it at least once or twice a month. Now that the spring semester is nearly over, perhaps new content will appear more often.
For now, I have added Book 8 and Book 9 of the Iliad. I'm also in the process of gathering my photography from this year's Xara Dulzura. It's on several cameras, one of which is owned by someone else, and I need to borrow the last one to import and process its pictures. Hopefully that will happen soon.
[edit] 7 March 2005
Lying in a grassy, sunny quadrangle, the warm breeze envelops me in calmness. Closing my eyes, resting my head on my backpack, I listen to Django Rheinhart and Kerouac. My injured eye heals. In a relaxed state, the mind awakens.
Later, I retire into the library. I read Walker Percy's claim that symbols must be irreducible tetradic relations. I find the oversight in his reasoning and write notes and diagrams showing how his tetradic relation is really a snapshot of a triadic relation in the act of communication between two interpreting intelligences, splitting like a reproducing cell sharing components for the moment. One day this idea will be a paper or a chapter.
[edit] 29 January 2005
Speaking of social phenomena... Check out this network representing the romantic and sexual relations at your typical high school:
It's fascinating to me for several reasons:
- Just look at that topology. Yes, it's a disconnected graph with a large, dominating island -- that much I expected. But the largest island (shown above) is a closed walk -- it has a clearly ring-shaped structure, where the beginning and end vertices are identical. I certainly didn't expect to see a ring. I wonder how typical that is in sexual networks?
- The research seems to exclude nearly all non-heterosexual relationships. Or is there really only one bisexual relationship between students at this school? Either way, it seems bizarre.
- There's one guy with nine sexual or romantic relationships in six months! All I can say is, I must have gone to the wrong school. He's nailing chicks that are off the main circuit... maybe they're a little more willing.
[edit] 28 January 2005
A Reuters article recently quoted President Bush making the following remark in an interview on C-SPAN:
As a free-speech advocate, I often told parents who were complaining about content, you're the first line of responsibility; they put an off button [on] the TV for a reason. Turn it off.
This is the first time I've ever agreed with any remark the president has made on a social issue. I could hardly believe my eyes when I read it. This from such an uttterly loyal creature of the Christian right? The man who appointed Michael Powell to head the FCC, and thus to regulate 'morality' on television? What about all that ludicrous outrage about Janet Jackson's nipple?
If Bush really stands by those words, why does the FCC need to regulate sexual expression at all?
[edit] 6 January 2005
Relating to the dumbek... I received an email containing seven new variations to the serto rhythm from a friendly stranger. They're all on the page -- enjoy.
[edit] 2 January 2005
A turbulent and eventful year ends, and a new one begins. The home page is wiped clean for the new year's developments, the old one now part of history. This marks the fifth year of this site's existence. Damn!
It's been a big year for crispy. A year ago, the entire site could be compressed into a single 34.6MB tarball. Now that same backup takes 47.4MB. The oldest backup I have of the site, dated 21 July 2002, is only 6.1MB.
Added the Declaration of Independence to the Great Books. The project creaks forward.
Continue back to 2004...
