Mental Modeling

This article details some research into empathy, and how it appears that some animals (probably humans too) show strikingly similar neural activity watching another animal have an experience as the neural activity in the animal itself. The article casts this as "like mind reading", and I'm not sure that I agree with that characterization -- but the point here is that they're recognizing the mental hardware of empathy and projection. And that's damn cool. The mechanisms behind this are going to be fascinating, when they can tease them out.

See the world without leaving your seat!

Google Sightseeing is a cool blog set up to point you to interesting locations on (and images of) the planet, as seen through the previously-mentioned (and incredibly cool) Google Satellite.

I'm thrilled - the Encyclia Cochleata AND pink Phalanopsis are in bloom together... happy spring!

GabeusCorpus

Today's Tunes

The Thrills - So Much for the City

Yummy.

15 Years Ago: Nostalgia Trip

I was calling around looking for tickets to see George Clinton tomorrow at the State Theater.

I called the Disk Exchange on Central Avenue, and they didn't have any. But it was a cool flashback experience: That voice, the distinctive mellow monotone of the sole proprietor of The Disk Exchange named Nick hasn't changed in 15 years. Nick turned me on to Swans and Dos and Ministry and a whole ton of cool stuff back when I used to go and spend the bulk of my $320 paycheck from my full-time job at Blockbuster Video in his store every 2 weeks. Nick was "older" to us then, probably in his early 30's but he knew music, and he was really the only person in town who carried the interesting music. His store filled out my collection of Simple Minds LP's like no one else's could have, and brought me a ton of new and interesting sounds. My mind broadened almost incredibly during that time. He used to recognize me and we would occasionally talk about a recent show or a recent album, and share opinions but we weren't friends. He was Nick The Guy At The Record Exchange (the old name). But the sound of his voice on the phone was a trigger to a time when a day off meant paging through LP's (I didn't have a CD player yet), cigarettes, snack food, and clubs. I was transported into a world of the Stigmata 12" single, the "Just Say No/Mao/Yes" compilations, clove cigarettes, long nights in my dark green plaid trenchcoat and green beret spent at Channel Zero dancing, or making fun of people dancing, or just out on the town because there was nowhere to go, but we absolutely had to go there. Playing guitar in whatever public places they wouldn't kick us out of at 2 AM. Being a menace to the late night crowd at Wag's (late night diner) and drinking gallons of coffee. A flurry of constant creativity: writing and singing, dancing and music, almost all of it bad, but all of it sincere.

Damn, 1990 was a hell of a long time ago. I'm equally glad that I lived those days, and that I don't have to live there anymore. But it was nice to hear Nick's voice again. Good to know that he's there.

Benedict XVI

I'm not Catholic, but as a former Catholic (and oddly enough, occasional defender of the Roman Catholic faith) I find the election of Joseph Ratzinger a little depressing. As his central function appears to have been fighting any sort of reform within the Catholic church about sexual attitudes, it seems that the college of cardinals believes that the most important issues facing the world are not rampant poverty, hunger, violence, and oppression, but homosexuality, abortion, and the idea of married or women priests. What you do with your machete is your business, but what you do in your bedroom, Benedict XVI wants to weigh in...

The Catholic church used to seem like the denomination that really cared about real-world problems on a basic human level: justice, poverty, oppression. I had hoped for someone who might be concerned about those things, instead of a German version of Rick Santorum. This is one of the guys who actively fought that movement. Bummer.

There's an interesting cover article about him in the National Catholic Reporter about him from 1999. It says quite a bit about his controversial past. It appears that Gary's comparison to Karl Rove might not be entirely off-base.

What is the proper work of philosophy?

I avoid philosophy like one might normally avoid an ex-girlfriend. But I love philosophy, and I can't and won't stop thinking in that way, about this common life we're all living. I keep coming back to thinking about --- if not actually READING -- philosophy. So I've been fiddling with a word doc that may someday become a philosphy-related text, and in so doing, I have stumbled across an interesting idea that can be stated like this:

The proper role of philosophy the study of the human experience, as it is lived.

This would answer one of those nagging questions that I could never answer to my own satisfaction. Science teaches us so much about the world, it's leading to may answers about what traditionally was the purview of philosophers (most notably, questions about the nature and workings of the human mind, and that activity we call meaning). Psychology studies how we think and what we do. Anthropology studies human cultures. What's left for philosophy? Ethics. Virtue. Being. Meaning. Life, as it is lived. Wisdom. Looking at human living, from a systematic but not necessarily scientific perspective that treasures intersubjectivity more than objectivity. And it's not all that different from the job that it was when Socrates was doing it.

Whether this idea is a GOOD idea or not is outside of what I can accomplish this evening before I go to sleep. But it's interesting, to me.

The Unitarian Jihad spreads a lack of panic through the country

A startling new revelation of rational non-fundamentalists seeks to undremine the fabric of our increasingly repressive and hysterical theocracy:

People of the United States! We are Unitarian Jihad! We can strike without warning. Pockets of reasonableness and harmony will appear as if from nowhere!

The Unitarian Jihad

For those of you ready to join the revolution, there's also a Unitarian Jihad Name Generator.

Thanks to Heather for forwarding the link...
(posted by Brother Shuriken of Mild Reason)

Little India: Hinduism Made Easy

Sanjay Patel is an animator and artist at Pixar who has illustrated a short encyclopedia of the Hindu pantheon for children, which I find cute, and wonderful. I want to get a copy... Little India: Hinduism Made Easy

Thanks to Drawn! for the link.

Spring in Plant City; The Strawberry Century!

Dad (Alfie) and I rode the Tampa Bay Freewheeler's Strawberry Century yesterday, and it was a truly gorgeous day to ride. Starting at sunrise we did a metric century (62 miles -- we actually rode 64.4, but they told us that they threw in the two "bonus miles" for free) in 3 Hours, 57 minutes and 55 seconds, which was faster than anticipated. It felt good, but we went out way too fast. We covered the first 20 miles in an hour because of the fast pace of the pack, and I haven't ridden that fast in quite a long time. After taking a break at the 20 mile marker we didn't hook up with another group for more than a few minutes. I started to get tired after the 30 mile mark, and was completely depleted for the last 10-15 miles. But I ground those miles out, and finished what I started. I'd still like to complete a non-metric century, but we'll get there... Dad took some pictures, I'll post them when I get them.

It is cool that Strawberry Fields in late spring smell strongly like Strawberry Preserves as you ride through them, although it really shouldn't be suprising that strawberries smell like strawberries. It's a lovely smell.

Ironic?

Saw an interesting product branding choice today:
"Forest Pride" brand Cypress Mulch.

In the same vein, the package advertised that it has "100% recycled contents".

Recycled what? Trees, of course! It's mulch. I can see it now... "Well, these trees were just standing there, so we recycled them..."

Neato!

This is where I was born: Sept-Iles, Quebec, and this is where I grew up as a kid in Montreal (I can actually see the roof of my house! It's almost exactly in the middle.): Montreal, Quebec.

Here is where Jami and I went to last week: State College, PA, home of Penn Sate!

Thanks for the link Gabe! This was awesome.

Look, you can see our house from here!

Google Maps is incredible. They've added the ability to look at COLOR sattelite photos of your (already draggable) map, in stunning detail. This morning, I used ot to trace my old 13 mile mountain biking route across the FrontRange, in Boulder.

Here's Our old apartment in Boulder,CO from the air (zoom in and the spur of trail that comes out from the train underpass on the main road in front of you was our apartment.

You can also count cars in the parking lot at work (back when it was full). Once again, zoom in.

and see the grass flats in tampa bay near the pier in Downtown St. Pete.


OK people, FIND COOL STUFF and post it. Use the "link to this page" link to get the URL of the map/image itself.

Potty Humor

There's a big wet spot on the carpet just outside of the men's room near my office today and I just can't help but to snicker every time I pass it. We've been doing too much potty training.

Sometimes "adult" working life is strikingly like MIDDLE SCHOOL, except there isn't anyone waiting to kick my ass during gym class.

I wonder how much of that is just a function of my being me.

Thurston Moore: "The Best 90 Minutes of My Life"

Thurston Moore o' Sonic Youth writing about the joy and power of mix tapes. A great quote from the end of the article:

Once again, we're being told that home taping (in the form of ripping and burning) is killing music. But it's not: It simply exists as a nod to the true love and ego involved in sharing music with friends and lovers. Trying to control music sharing - by shutting down P2P sites or MP3 blogs or BitTorrent or whatever other technology comes along - is like trying to control an affair of the heart. Nothing will stop it.

Wired 13.04: PLAY

The Tulip King

Here's a link to an article by Jim Knipfel of New York Press regarding David Nash, leader of the Blue Tulip Party... This must be the sort of democracy our founding fathers had envisioned. Enjoy!

http://www.nypress.com/18/12/news&columns/knipfel.cfm

My hat in the ring

As we mourn the loss of our Holy Father, our thoughts must turn to who will next lead the faithful. At this point I am officially declaring my candidacy for Pope. My platform is simple: I promise to bring the circus back to the Vatican! May the Holy Spirit lead the Cardinals to the correct decision for the Church. By the way, if chosen, I will have a contest to decide what my official Papal name will be. I am currently accepting submissions.

Google Ride Finder

"I love it when a plan comes together"

It thrills me when I see technology maturing before our very eyes, and so often it seems to be coming from Google. Google has now made public their "ride finder", which tracks the location of (participating) taxis and shuttles. I'm not sure how USEFUL the information is, because the information is said to be "less than 5 minutes old". But it's way cool, and maybe a little creepy (sure could make tailing someone's cab a hell of a lot easier). Check out downtown Chicago, since there are 3 participating taxi services there...
The Google Blog post announcing the service

Google Ride Finder