I joined the green pen brigade today when I wrote a politician an email. I sent Dick Roche the minister for the environment the text below. He has the right to remove the newly discovered Lismullen henge. I think people and particularly politicians (who have five year life cycles) do not have the cognitive architecture needed to make such decisions.
I am writing to you in relation to the planned motorway in the Tara-Skryne valley. I would however like you to consider how your decisions will look to someone at the same remove from us as we are to the creators of the original megalithic monuments.
The Long Now organisation asks people to think about how their actions will affect the long term future. To illustrate how we can affect the future they are building a clock designed to run for ten millennia. This "clock of the long now" costs millions of dollars and will serve as a tourist attraction. The megalithic sites of Ireland are a form of clock of the long now that have already operated for over five millennia.
Economists describe the daily discount rate as the amount of consumption we are willing to put off today to save for later. Cats, who have a very low daily discount rate, will gorge and starve rather then ration food over a period of time. Humans however are capable of seeing how our decisions now will affect the future. It is rare that we make a decision that we know will have consequences more then a few decades from now. You however have a decision to make about preserving Lismullen henge in the Tara-Skryne valley that you know will affect the world for millennia. I ask you to consider the geological timeframe that the consequences of any decision on this site will persist.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Organ Donation
“A Dutch television station has provoked outrage after revealing that a new show will feature three ill contestants competing to receive a kidney.
The television programme will see a terminally ill woman select one of the three for the organ transplant operation.”
I am claiming on this idea.
“How about this for a show. We get 10 people on the transplant list one needing kidneys and a heart and another lungs etc. We then have a competition to see which one is killed to get organs for the rest of them. I know I am going to get a comment telling me this has already happened.”
The television programme will see a terminally ill woman select one of the three for the organ transplant operation.”
I am claiming on this idea.
“How about this for a show. We get 10 people on the transplant list one needing kidneys and a heart and another lungs etc. We then have a competition to see which one is killed to get organs for the rest of them. I know I am going to get a comment telling me this has already happened.”
Monday, May 28, 2007
Homemade ventilator 3
Could existing ventilators be modified to increase the availability of ventilation?
This paper “A Single Ventilator for Multiple Simulated Patients to Meet Disaster Surge” suggests that four people could use a single ventilator in a disaster situation
This blog suggests that the number of ventilators would need to be doubled to cater for a pandemic would be an extra 200,000 in the US. This would triple the current number. The paper above suggests it might be possible for current ventilators to cover this shortfall.
All these ventilators need to be manned by skilled personnel. These medical staff will themselves be affected by the flu pandemic. So the numbers of skilled staff to operate and repair ventilators and to nurse pandemic patients is still a constraint.
This paper “A Single Ventilator for Multiple Simulated Patients to Meet Disaster Surge” suggests that four people could use a single ventilator in a disaster situation
This blog suggests that the number of ventilators would need to be doubled to cater for a pandemic would be an extra 200,000 in the US. This would triple the current number. The paper above suggests it might be possible for current ventilators to cover this shortfall.
All these ventilators need to be manned by skilled personnel. These medical staff will themselves be affected by the flu pandemic. So the numbers of skilled staff to operate and repair ventilators and to nurse pandemic patients is still a constraint.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Homemade ventilator 2
Seems like this idea is actually being pursued by some one who knows what they are doing.
Pandemic Ventilator Project
They use a bellow design. I wonder how this is superior to a fan based system? The DIY Powered Respirator described here might be modified.
An estimate of the amount of energy required to breath is given here. Which back of the envelope is less then 20 watts. The fan in the DIY respirator is 13 watts so my sums are probably wrong.
So can a pc fan or a squirrel cage blower be made to operate for 3 seconds pumping 500 ml of oxygen into the lungs and then to allow this air to escape in 2 seconds? A microcontroller could be used to time this.
An alternative design is some sort of Iron lung. This gets around many of the nasty infection problems a putting a tube down your throat could lead to. However according to here
"This style of ventilator would be of no use in a flu outbreak, in as much as flu usually floods the lungs with fluids, and you have no way to remove the fluids."
So maybe homemade iron lungs are not the way to go?
Another thing that would be needed are sensors to
1. Signal when the machine failed to work correctly.
2. Signal when the patients gas exhalation or pressure were not normal.
Why might a DIY respirator be necessary? Some of the mathematics of ventilator shortage are on the Pandemic Ventilator Project site. And the cold numbers on survival rates without a ventilator are here.
Pandemic Ventilator Project
They use a bellow design. I wonder how this is superior to a fan based system? The DIY Powered Respirator described here might be modified.
An estimate of the amount of energy required to breath is given here. Which back of the envelope is less then 20 watts. The fan in the DIY respirator is 13 watts so my sums are probably wrong.
So can a pc fan or a squirrel cage blower be made to operate for 3 seconds pumping 500 ml of oxygen into the lungs and then to allow this air to escape in 2 seconds? A microcontroller could be used to time this.
An alternative design is some sort of Iron lung. This gets around many of the nasty infection problems a putting a tube down your throat could lead to. However according to here
"This style of ventilator would be of no use in a flu outbreak, in as much as flu usually floods the lungs with fluids, and you have no way to remove the fluids."
So maybe homemade iron lungs are not the way to go?
Another thing that would be needed are sensors to
1. Signal when the machine failed to work correctly.
2. Signal when the patients gas exhalation or pressure were not normal.
Why might a DIY respirator be necessary? Some of the mathematics of ventilator shortage are on the Pandemic Ventilator Project site. And the cold numbers on survival rates without a ventilator are here.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Fight Like Apes
Whelans 24/05/2007
After having “Lend me your face” stuck in my head for the last week I decided to go see this band in case they were half as good as that tune.
The band consists of
Some beardy man who dances round like a monkey with a miniature symbol.
A scatological singer with the temperament of a spoiled three year old.
The worlds tallest bass player, but he is under investigation for use of performance enhancing afro.
An oddly normal drummer who might be on an exchange program from Kraftwork.
The songs sound like demented nursery ryhmes all bounce and menace. Which is a very good thing as hearing another sensitive singer songwriter just might send me postal. Top notch live band this, they jump around the stage, playing the piano with their heads eating the microphones and they have fans who do a dance that is like hares fighting. Do you know how many bands get their own dance? These things are rationed carefully.
So go see this band and if you live far away buy the ep tie people to chairs and make them listen to it. You can tickle them a bit to but not so much they wee themselves.
After having “Lend me your face” stuck in my head for the last week I decided to go see this band in case they were half as good as that tune.
The band consists of
Some beardy man who dances round like a monkey with a miniature symbol.
A scatological singer with the temperament of a spoiled three year old.
The worlds tallest bass player, but he is under investigation for use of performance enhancing afro.
An oddly normal drummer who might be on an exchange program from Kraftwork.
The songs sound like demented nursery ryhmes all bounce and menace. Which is a very good thing as hearing another sensitive singer songwriter just might send me postal. Top notch live band this, they jump around the stage, playing the piano with their heads eating the microphones and they have fans who do a dance that is like hares fighting. Do you know how many bands get their own dance? These things are rationed carefully.
So go see this band and if you live far away buy the ep tie people to chairs and make them listen to it. You can tickle them a bit to but not so much they wee themselves.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Great Islamists of Irish History
Again the sickening Islamofascist brigade has infiltrated Irish schools. A book promoting the ideology of Islamic rules of modesty is on the Irish leaving cert course.
A cunningly disguised Al Qaeda infiltrator called Peig Sayers formed a sleeper cell off the coast of Kerry and endured a life of peasantry, contagious abortion, “what’s wrong with the potatoes?”, an beal bocht and general malnourished red neckitude to persuade Irish women to engage in the wearing of traditional Muslim headscarves. Peig was never observed in public without the "traditional Muslim headscarve", the only explanation for this can be that she was a secret Muslim spy.
And now people want to wear these scarves around? Next people will want to be allowed wear immodest clothing. Worse they will try to decide what color patch we are allowed to make them wear.
A picture of Peig, probably planning a Jihad. Have you noticed that you never see her and Osama Bin Laden in the same place? Coincidence or something more sinister?
A cunningly disguised Al Qaeda infiltrator called Peig Sayers formed a sleeper cell off the coast of Kerry and endured a life of peasantry, contagious abortion, “what’s wrong with the potatoes?”, an beal bocht and general malnourished red neckitude to persuade Irish women to engage in the wearing of traditional Muslim headscarves. Peig was never observed in public without the "traditional Muslim headscarve", the only explanation for this can be that she was a secret Muslim spy.
And now people want to wear these scarves around? Next people will want to be allowed wear immodest clothing. Worse they will try to decide what color patch we are allowed to make them wear.
A picture of Peig, probably planning a Jihad. Have you noticed that you never see her and Osama Bin Laden in the same place? Coincidence or something more sinister?
Monday, May 14, 2007
Meeting Gordon Brown
I was working in a shoe shop in Cape Cod when Kennedy overdosed on ocean. A few days later I see Gordon Brown wandering round the shop with some of his family. I point him out to the manager saying “He is going to be the next prime minister of Britain” I said this as they do not have a chancellor of the exchequer in the States that I know of and he goes over for a chat, no one else recognised him. Anyway later on Gordon brown starts queuing up with some shopping. He must have noticed that some of the people ahead of him were ripping out a coupon from one of those tourist leaflets that are left lying around. So he asks me If I have any of those coupon booklets. I grab one from behind the counter and give it to him. He really carefully tears out the coupon and hands it to me for his 10 dollar discount. Now someone who has to be earning 200K dollars a year delicately tearing out a ten dollar coupon is quite an odd thing to do. It is how you want the guy who controls your tax money to act though I suppose.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Road Safety Adverts 2
Have you seen the latest Irish road safety advert?
How pervy is that? Do you know what the vasoconstriction caused by having your legs crushed and the common results of a spinal injury are? An erection. Yeah the guy who gets pinned to the wall has a massive stiffy. Kind of hard to view the ad in the same way now isn’t it?
While on the subject am I wrong for staring at the tits of the girl in the Samantha Mumba body to body road safety ad? Check her out just before she gets loafed by her boyfriend, where she is flying through the air. Oh sorry is being turned on by a road safety advert not socially acceptable?
How pervy is that? Do you know what the vasoconstriction caused by having your legs crushed and the common results of a spinal injury are? An erection. Yeah the guy who gets pinned to the wall has a massive stiffy. Kind of hard to view the ad in the same way now isn’t it?
While on the subject am I wrong for staring at the tits of the girl in the Samantha Mumba body to body road safety ad? Check her out just before she gets loafed by her boyfriend, where she is flying through the air. Oh sorry is being turned on by a road safety advert not socially acceptable?
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Baby on board
Thanks for telling me because I was planning on ramming you. I must remember to read the rules of the road section where it describes how to really drive safe in the case of the other car contains an infant. You know the bit that tells you to stop treating the road like a demolition derby and to let the most sober person drive should you realise an infant is on the road. These signs remind us that we should feel no responsibility to other road users , ones who do not drink breast milk, and that is a service to us all.
Pfizer are Pimps
Prostitution is illegal in Ireland and in most of the United States. Nevada (and not all of it) have legalised it. Making money organising prostitution is generally called being a pimp and legally is a crime called "living of immoral earnings" or something like that.
Prostitution is having sex with someone for payment. This behavior has been observed in many monkey species particularly the Bonobo chimpanzee.
Being a porn star is having sex with someone for payment. This means it is a form of prostitution. The organisers of the porn industry are thus pimps as they organize people to have sex for money. Yet porn stars are not arrested and the producers (strange term that) of pornographic films have channel 4 reality TV shows and awards dinners for them. Actors in non pornographic films engaging in full frontal sex "12 songs" is one example of such a film. These actors are pornstars with better dialogue.
Recently sex has become subject to investigation with people having sex in MRI scanners and TV documentaries. Also sex has been medicalised. Drugs such as Viagra have been created. These drugs have to be tested. This testing involves seeing if the drug does indeed aid sex to take place. People taking part in scientific trials generally receive a small payment. They are having sex for money. This makes them prostitutes. Pfizer and other drug companies profit as a result of these drugs which could only be brought to market because of these experiments. They are thus pimps.
Prostitution is the most hypocritical topic in our society. Sex is used to sell everything. But you are not allowed to sell sex.
A few objections arise
1. The sex industry is dangerous. Yes it is, follow that logic and ban wooden products and never use anything wooden again.
America's Most Dangerous Jobs
Job Number Of Fatalities Fatality Rate*
Timber Cutters 105 122.1
Fishermen 52 108.3
All Occupations 5,915 4.3
2. Sex industry spreads disease
A McDonalds worker is more likely to kill you then a whore. If you are worried about illness ban smoking, drinking and make people exercise.
3. It is a sin it says so in the bible. As is working in a bank but we allow that nowdays.
Prostitution is having sex with someone for payment. This behavior has been observed in many monkey species particularly the Bonobo chimpanzee.
Being a porn star is having sex with someone for payment. This means it is a form of prostitution. The organisers of the porn industry are thus pimps as they organize people to have sex for money. Yet porn stars are not arrested and the producers (strange term that) of pornographic films have channel 4 reality TV shows and awards dinners for them. Actors in non pornographic films engaging in full frontal sex "12 songs" is one example of such a film. These actors are pornstars with better dialogue.
Recently sex has become subject to investigation with people having sex in MRI scanners and TV documentaries. Also sex has been medicalised. Drugs such as Viagra have been created. These drugs have to be tested. This testing involves seeing if the drug does indeed aid sex to take place. People taking part in scientific trials generally receive a small payment. They are having sex for money. This makes them prostitutes. Pfizer and other drug companies profit as a result of these drugs which could only be brought to market because of these experiments. They are thus pimps.
Prostitution is the most hypocritical topic in our society. Sex is used to sell everything. But you are not allowed to sell sex.
A few objections arise
1. The sex industry is dangerous. Yes it is, follow that logic and ban wooden products and never use anything wooden again.
America's Most Dangerous Jobs
Job Number Of Fatalities Fatality Rate*
Timber Cutters 105 122.1
Fishermen 52 108.3
All Occupations 5,915 4.3
2. Sex industry spreads disease
A McDonalds worker is more likely to kill you then a whore. If you are worried about illness ban smoking, drinking and make people exercise.
3. It is a sin it says so in the bible. As is working in a bank but we allow that nowdays.
Bizarre Suicide Cult Hates our Freedoms
How crazy would you have to be to commit suicide for a cause? Actually how crazy would a cause have to be? Surely any reasonable cause could never condone such deliberate self harm?
When you hear of the suicide attacks or hunger strikes of Islamo fascist terrorists you can understand simply by these actions how barbaric and dehumanising the ideas they espouse must be?
So would you agree to some sort of rule?
"Any group which engages in suicide attacks or attempts to extort changes in the functioning of our Democracy through self harm (hunger strikes, suicide attacks etc) will not be considered part of the political process"
This is an idea similar to in Popper's in "an open society" and has been used by the Irish and British governments to combat the IRA.
Such explicit censorship may not be necessary, even if you do not have something as explicit as section 31 banning the viewpoint of these sorts of undesirables, more subtle bias carries out the same job, when was the last time you saw an al Qaeda representative being interviewed on the news?
There is a dangerous movement like this in this very country. Your co-workers, friends even family could be supporters or even activists in this group. This is not the Communists but something much more insidious. A dangerous movement called "the suffragettes" exists. They have taken part in Suicide attacks in hunger strikes and has as their stated aim the perversion of our democratic process. They attack us because they hate us because of our freedoms and they must be stopped.
When you hear of the suicide attacks or hunger strikes of Islamo fascist terrorists you can understand simply by these actions how barbaric and dehumanising the ideas they espouse must be?
So would you agree to some sort of rule?
"Any group which engages in suicide attacks or attempts to extort changes in the functioning of our Democracy through self harm (hunger strikes, suicide attacks etc) will not be considered part of the political process"
This is an idea similar to in Popper's in "an open society" and has been used by the Irish and British governments to combat the IRA.
Such explicit censorship may not be necessary, even if you do not have something as explicit as section 31 banning the viewpoint of these sorts of undesirables, more subtle bias carries out the same job, when was the last time you saw an al Qaeda representative being interviewed on the news?
There is a dangerous movement like this in this very country. Your co-workers, friends even family could be supporters or even activists in this group. This is not the Communists but something much more insidious. A dangerous movement called "the suffragettes" exists. They have taken part in Suicide attacks in hunger strikes and has as their stated aim the perversion of our democratic process. They attack us because they hate us because of our freedoms and they must be stopped.
Irish Skeptics Live
Disease, Decay, discover your destiny
Irish skeptics live are ready and waiting for you to call. Find out your destiny based on statistics and evidence.
Using 700 year old shaving techniques developed by a monk we can predict your future. Be shocked how your actions now can effect you more then planets millions of kilometers away. Be amazed at the secret steps that to a healthy happy life*
Why are psychics more in demand then well the truth? And while I am on the subject what sort of psychics "are ready and waiting" you think one advantage of being psychic is you would not have to wait around for people to ring.
"I am off to put 10 Euro on the winning horse in the 3:30 at Leopardstown. Then Bob will ring just after I get back."
*dramatisation not secret. Treat your body and your mind with respect and try to be happy. “People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be” Abraham Lincoln
Irish skeptics live are ready and waiting for you to call. Find out your destiny based on statistics and evidence.
Using 700 year old shaving techniques developed by a monk we can predict your future. Be shocked how your actions now can effect you more then planets millions of kilometers away. Be amazed at the secret steps that to a healthy happy life*
Why are psychics more in demand then well the truth? And while I am on the subject what sort of psychics "are ready and waiting" you think one advantage of being psychic is you would not have to wait around for people to ring.
"I am off to put 10 Euro on the winning horse in the 3:30 at Leopardstown. Then Bob will ring just after I get back."
*dramatisation not secret. Treat your body and your mind with respect and try to be happy. “People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be” Abraham Lincoln
Steve Irwin is dead
I am really upset by this. Not because of the ambiguous guilt of encouraging and rewarding dangerous behaviour, not because of the loss of a husband and father of a young family. Because it means one of the three good shows on television is gone. Instead of the human kinetic bouncing ball of enthusiasm, knowledge and just plain fun we are going to have a new reality TV show called “fornication island”. In this a bunch of self obsessed egotistical whiney worthless babies you’ve never seen before rut like caged monkeys passing on some sort of fame spreading STD.
How about this for a show. We get 10 people on the transplant list one needing kidneys and a heart and another lungs etc. We then have a competition to see which one is killed to get organs for the rest of them. I know I am going to get a comment telling me this has already happened.
Steve Irwin was a 100% top fuckin madman and it is a sad day that he is gone. I am off to the pub to get drunk lest I end up watching some television and wishing Armageddon upon mankind.
President Predator
Have you noticed that half the cast of predator hold elected office in America? Jesse "the body" runs skullfuck or some such state and the Governator runs California. Could it be that people really think that they need to be protected from cosmic hunting aliens?
What sort of alien is going to go hunting anyway? Hillbilly yokels that is who. Predator probably has a gun rack on his pickup, a pickup which plays General Lee when the horn is blown. It does indicate something odd with the psyche that the ability to handle a gattling gun against intergalactic rednecks is more highly prized then say IQ.
So start the campaign President Predator 08 for 24:7:365 Nascar and the return of the Dukes of Hazzard. Mind you it would be kinda cool to see those three dots appear on the head of whatever Frenchy they have at the UN next time.
What sort of alien is going to go hunting anyway? Hillbilly yokels that is who. Predator probably has a gun rack on his pickup, a pickup which plays General Lee when the horn is blown. It does indicate something odd with the psyche that the ability to handle a gattling gun against intergalactic rednecks is more highly prized then say IQ.
So start the campaign President Predator 08 for 24:7:365 Nascar and the return of the Dukes of Hazzard. Mind you it would be kinda cool to see those three dots appear on the head of whatever Frenchy they have at the UN next time.
Fat Positive Feedback Loop
Imagine you had to carry around an extra 10 kilos with you everywhere. You'd get skinnier pretty quickly? So how come being fat is not self regulating? I have a theory that will require some weighing scales and a tape measure to test.
We get a canteen, and get a bunch of people who all get the same meal served to them. We then weigh the meal and the people, also get there height, gender and maybe age. Now if your fat you'd want to get less food served to you, if however you get more then a thin person your going to gain more weight then the thin person.
If it turns out that fat people get more food maybe we have a cause of fatness. You happen to get more food one day, gain a bit of weight, This makes the food disher-outer give you a tiny bit more food the next day. And your in a positive feedback loop.
We get the sex of the eater because I've noticed that women seem to get less food served to them then men, which considering they pay the same price is pretty miserable. If we can get a perchentage maybe we can get gender prices on meals. Also while I'm on the subject why do airlines allow a set amount of baggage? I weigh 85 kilos and am allowed 20 kilos=105 kilos. Someone who weights 60 kilos has the same baggage limit. Why not allow everyone 100 kilos including themselves and pay for the excess.
We get a canteen, and get a bunch of people who all get the same meal served to them. We then weigh the meal and the people, also get there height, gender and maybe age. Now if your fat you'd want to get less food served to you, if however you get more then a thin person your going to gain more weight then the thin person.
If it turns out that fat people get more food maybe we have a cause of fatness. You happen to get more food one day, gain a bit of weight, This makes the food disher-outer give you a tiny bit more food the next day. And your in a positive feedback loop.
We get the sex of the eater because I've noticed that women seem to get less food served to them then men, which considering they pay the same price is pretty miserable. If we can get a perchentage maybe we can get gender prices on meals. Also while I'm on the subject why do airlines allow a set amount of baggage? I weigh 85 kilos and am allowed 20 kilos=105 kilos. Someone who weights 60 kilos has the same baggage limit. Why not allow everyone 100 kilos including themselves and pay for the excess.
Happy Forecast
How come we still watch weather forecast all the time? It quite important if you are a farmer but most of us are not anymore. Even the pollen or pollution counts only apply to a minority of us. Why do we not have forecasts for useful things, things that effect modern life?
Why not a happiness forecast. You could tell if people were going to be grumpy today, weather cutting people off and undertaking are more likely to get you beaten to death. Picture the forecaster "Storm fronts could reach suburban psyches by sundown. All major idports have been closed". You might say "But you cannot forecast mass human behaviour like that". I would retort
1. Insurance companies do
2. You cannot forecast behaviour of individual air molecules but overall weather forecasters do a good job.
This lead to a problem. Pressure, temperature, moisture level all these are epi phenomenon of large amounts of particles. Talking about one particles pressure does not make much sense. Maybe happiness is a phenomenon of individual people and for large groups we need a new language of characteristics.
So what would you want to see forecast after the news?
Why not a happiness forecast. You could tell if people were going to be grumpy today, weather cutting people off and undertaking are more likely to get you beaten to death. Picture the forecaster "Storm fronts could reach suburban psyches by sundown. All major idports have been closed". You might say "But you cannot forecast mass human behaviour like that". I would retort
1. Insurance companies do
2. You cannot forecast behaviour of individual air molecules but overall weather forecasters do a good job.
This lead to a problem. Pressure, temperature, moisture level all these are epi phenomenon of large amounts of particles. Talking about one particles pressure does not make much sense. Maybe happiness is a phenomenon of individual people and for large groups we need a new language of characteristics.
So what would you want to see forecast after the news?
Gender Turing Test
From COMPUTING MACHINERY AND INTELLIGENCE By A. M. Turing
"The new form of the problem can be described' in terms of a game which we call the 'imitation game'. It is played with three people, a man (A), a woman (B), and an interrogator (C) who may be of either sex. The interrogator stays in a room apart from the other two. The object of the game for the interrogator is to determine which of the other two is the man and which is the woman. He knows them by labels X and Y, and at the end of the game he says either 'X is A and Y is B' or 'X is B and Y is A'. The interrogator is allowed to put questions to A and B thus:
C: Will X please tell me the length of his or her hair?
Now suppose X is actually A, then A must answer. It is A's {p.434}object in the game to try and cause C to make the wrong identification. His answer might therefore be
'My hair is shingled, and the longest strands, are about nine inches long.'
In order that tones of voice may not help the interrogator the answers should be written, or better still, typewritten. The ideal arrangement is to have a teleprinter communicating between the two rooms. Alternatively the question and answers can be repeated by an intermediary. The object of the game for the third player (B) is to help the interrogator. The best strategy for her is probably to give truthful answers. She can add such things as 'I am the woman, don't listen to him!' to her answers, but it will avail nothing as the man can make similar remarks."
Here Turing goes off to talk about computers but has his belief that you cannot tell gender differences ever been proved? If a man and woman cannot be distinguished then there must be no fundamental difference, other then physically, between them.
While I am on the subject I saw a program once where two cops went on instant messenger pretending to be children to see if any perverts would try it on with them. This would seem to prove that there is little psychological difference between children and adults because over instant messenger an adult can successfully convince another adult that he is a child. However it is possible to pretend to be someone who knows less then you. If I was pretending to be a dog or a chimp it would be hard for you to prove I was not over IM. If however I pretended to be Einstein you would quickly figure it out, especially if you were a physicist. So its possible to pretend to know less then you do but not to know more, particularly to someone who knows the answers to the questions they are asking.
There are lots of things that every physicist knows that I do not so I would fail a “physicist” Turing test. But are there things that everyone of a gender knows that the other gender does not? Can we in one simple experiment test whether different genders really come from the same planet?
Here is what I need
1. You to take part in the experiment
2. You to think up some good gender defining questions.
Questions like
1. How would you defend your house from a swat attack? Men could answer this.
2. What is the longest you have worn a pair of underpants for? If number of days is greater then four the person is a man.
3. When you bleed are there ever black clumps in it?
4. What is a good thing to say to a man in the urinal next to you? Men will answer "nothing".
"The new form of the problem can be described' in terms of a game which we call the 'imitation game'. It is played with three people, a man (A), a woman (B), and an interrogator (C) who may be of either sex. The interrogator stays in a room apart from the other two. The object of the game for the interrogator is to determine which of the other two is the man and which is the woman. He knows them by labels X and Y, and at the end of the game he says either 'X is A and Y is B' or 'X is B and Y is A'. The interrogator is allowed to put questions to A and B thus:
C: Will X please tell me the length of his or her hair?
Now suppose X is actually A, then A must answer. It is A's {p.434}object in the game to try and cause C to make the wrong identification. His answer might therefore be
'My hair is shingled, and the longest strands, are about nine inches long.'
In order that tones of voice may not help the interrogator the answers should be written, or better still, typewritten. The ideal arrangement is to have a teleprinter communicating between the two rooms. Alternatively the question and answers can be repeated by an intermediary. The object of the game for the third player (B) is to help the interrogator. The best strategy for her is probably to give truthful answers. She can add such things as 'I am the woman, don't listen to him!' to her answers, but it will avail nothing as the man can make similar remarks."
Here Turing goes off to talk about computers but has his belief that you cannot tell gender differences ever been proved? If a man and woman cannot be distinguished then there must be no fundamental difference, other then physically, between them.
While I am on the subject I saw a program once where two cops went on instant messenger pretending to be children to see if any perverts would try it on with them. This would seem to prove that there is little psychological difference between children and adults because over instant messenger an adult can successfully convince another adult that he is a child. However it is possible to pretend to be someone who knows less then you. If I was pretending to be a dog or a chimp it would be hard for you to prove I was not over IM. If however I pretended to be Einstein you would quickly figure it out, especially if you were a physicist. So its possible to pretend to know less then you do but not to know more, particularly to someone who knows the answers to the questions they are asking.
There are lots of things that every physicist knows that I do not so I would fail a “physicist” Turing test. But are there things that everyone of a gender knows that the other gender does not? Can we in one simple experiment test whether different genders really come from the same planet?
Here is what I need
1. You to take part in the experiment
2. You to think up some good gender defining questions.
Questions like
1. How would you defend your house from a swat attack? Men could answer this.
2. What is the longest you have worn a pair of underpants for? If number of days is greater then four the person is a man.
3. When you bleed are there ever black clumps in it?
4. What is a good thing to say to a man in the urinal next to you? Men will answer "nothing".
Another drug doping scandal
Fans of music were outraged last night when it was revealed that many recording artists throughout the 1960’s took a performance enhancing drug called Lysergic acid diethylamide. The artists in question have been stripped of all the Grammys, spray painted records and other worthless crap they received. “We will retrospectively alter past records sales and remove any blowjobs these bands may have received from groupies” said the world anti doping agency in an offical announcement.
The new clampdown on the use of performance enhancing drugs has also lead to the discovery of Polymerase Chain Reaction to being removed from history as its inventor was off his mash on LSD at the time. All criminals convicted from genetic evidence will now be released.
The new clampdown on the use of performance enhancing drugs has also lead to the discovery of Polymerase Chain Reaction to being removed from history as its inventor was off his mash on LSD at the time. All criminals convicted from genetic evidence will now be released.
Snakes on a plane
What a genius idea. You would not even have to pitch it to the big movie guy, Throw a suitcase through his window with a folded piece of paper in it. He reads the paper “Snakes on a plane” He fills the suitcase full of money to make the film and throws it out the window again.
I think I could start making creature feature disaster movies. You do not even need a script the title tells you everything about the film “Gorillas in the graveyard.” “Spider in side her” “piranha pool” “shark infested custard”.
“Gorillas in the graveyard” will star one of the tg4 weather bitches; you know the scaldy one who looks like she’d let you stick it anywhere. She plays the lab coated bespeckled totty with the hair in a bob. She lets her hair down when the characters hide out in an abandoned house.
Actually I’m getting a bit over excited I think I’ll just go lie down.
I think I could start making creature feature disaster movies. You do not even need a script the title tells you everything about the film “Gorillas in the graveyard.” “Spider in side her” “piranha pool” “shark infested custard”.
“Gorillas in the graveyard” will star one of the tg4 weather bitches; you know the scaldy one who looks like she’d let you stick it anywhere. She plays the lab coated bespeckled totty with the hair in a bob. She lets her hair down when the characters hide out in an abandoned house.
Actually I’m getting a bit over excited I think I’ll just go lie down.
A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Travel
The wasteful and needless use of seating on planes is a topic that has bothered me for some time. Airbus seem part of the way to solving this most inefficient situation. I contend however that this plan does not go far enough.In comparison to standing passengers completely supine passengers have numerous benefits as will be described below.
By use of a general anesthetic on passengers they can be packed much more efficiently. Also unconscious passengers require little or no attention from airline staff members. Other advantages arise from unconscious passengers, Security risks are significantly lower in the catatonic.
Much needed medical procedures can be carried out using the period of docility created by the use of anaesthetics. In a similar way to tranquilizing wild carnivores allows for dentistry, immunization and sterilisation the period of unconsciousness could be used as a major public health resource ,one in which the unfortunate characteristics of conscious patients can be avoided.
Rather then the unpleasant and possible dangerous configuration of piling passengers on top of each other, some form of individual compartment is preferable. The size and luxuriousness of compartments can be used to separate passengers into cost categories to allow income maximization.
Here an optimization problem arises. For reasons of physics planes tend to be built in a shape resembling a cylinder. Humans as luck would have it also bear an approximately cylindrical shape. This fact means that instead of a wasteful coffin like compartment a more efficient and aesthetically pleasing cylindrical container can be used. This is not as efficient as a hexagonal configuration but aerodynamic and in the short term morphological constrains prevent this superior shape being used.
I have included an picture describing a sample configuration that could be used when packing passengers into plane.
I hope you consider my proposal and see the economic and social benefits to unconscious passengers.
The fathomless tragedy of Sesame Street
A quick run down of the cast of Sesame Street will illustrate what and appalling misery fest it is.
The Grouch is clearly mentally ill. He is homeless and in need of anti depressants. Laughing at a mad guy who lives in a bin is cruel.
Let us teach children the fun of numbers with a member of the undead, the Count. Why not teach grammar with a zombie if you think vampires are the cure for innumeracy. While I am on the subject how come vampire parties are always so cool? Blade, the Hunger, Vampiros Lesbos they really seem to know how to throw a party. Can you imagine the Count hanging round at one of these bashes?
Finally is a tale of Sisyphean woe. Cookie monster is a simple guy with one simple pleasure. He loves cookies. Not so hard to make him happy you would think, but every time he gets a mouthful of cookies he has to puke them up off to the side of camera. He is bulimic. He has no esophagus and so has to vomit up the one thing he really loves. Tantalus himself did not have this level of torture inflicted upon him. Here is a monster whose sole raison d’etre is being destroyed by his eating disorder.
Anyone else see hidden pathos in the works of Jim Henson?
The Grouch is clearly mentally ill. He is homeless and in need of anti depressants. Laughing at a mad guy who lives in a bin is cruel.
Let us teach children the fun of numbers with a member of the undead, the Count. Why not teach grammar with a zombie if you think vampires are the cure for innumeracy. While I am on the subject how come vampire parties are always so cool? Blade, the Hunger, Vampiros Lesbos they really seem to know how to throw a party. Can you imagine the Count hanging round at one of these bashes?
Finally is a tale of Sisyphean woe. Cookie monster is a simple guy with one simple pleasure. He loves cookies. Not so hard to make him happy you would think, but every time he gets a mouthful of cookies he has to puke them up off to the side of camera. He is bulimic. He has no esophagus and so has to vomit up the one thing he really loves. Tantalus himself did not have this level of torture inflicted upon him. Here is a monster whose sole raison d’etre is being destroyed by his eating disorder.
Anyone else see hidden pathos in the works of Jim Henson?
Web 2.0 Laundry
Can we use the bleeding edge blue sky outside the box bullshit of Hype 2.0 in a real business? This is the Web 2.0 Laundry.
First thing is we do not charge for you to wash your clothes, that’s so last century. Instead when we wash your clothes we cover them in advertising. You get the free service you get the ads, bingo we have a business model.
Next we allow “donations” instead of expecting to get paid. This is the laundry’s almost traditional route of talking any money left in pants pockets. This donation is anonymous even to yourself so we advertise ourselves as cryptographically secure.
So far so good, but were lacking any “social network” buzzword bonus. Easy we give you someone else’s clothes. If you like these clothes the other persons karma is upped. In this way groups of people with similar interests cake, coke, and programming will form a unit and others with other similar interests bulimia, clenbuterol, and death will form another group.
Now we need to do something that works perfectly well at home and move it over to an unnatural habitat. Now clothes washing already qualifies for that but to make it really nonsensical like a chocolate kettle or an online isolation tank( actually forget I told you that I could get funding for that last one) we need to send the clothes on a really narrow network, pigeons trained to carry clothes is a good first start. Particularly as the pigeons shitting everywhere can only increase our profits.
So we guarantee to AJAX all your clothes send them off to random people who will using the hive mind form a social network , as soon as this reaches the tipping point our advertising revenue will 100% guarantee* that Google will wet themselves, then require our cleaning service and we will clean up.
*not a guarantee
First thing is we do not charge for you to wash your clothes, that’s so last century. Instead when we wash your clothes we cover them in advertising. You get the free service you get the ads, bingo we have a business model.
Next we allow “donations” instead of expecting to get paid. This is the laundry’s almost traditional route of talking any money left in pants pockets. This donation is anonymous even to yourself so we advertise ourselves as cryptographically secure.
So far so good, but were lacking any “social network” buzzword bonus. Easy we give you someone else’s clothes. If you like these clothes the other persons karma is upped. In this way groups of people with similar interests cake, coke, and programming will form a unit and others with other similar interests bulimia, clenbuterol, and death will form another group.
Now we need to do something that works perfectly well at home and move it over to an unnatural habitat. Now clothes washing already qualifies for that but to make it really nonsensical like a chocolate kettle or an online isolation tank( actually forget I told you that I could get funding for that last one) we need to send the clothes on a really narrow network, pigeons trained to carry clothes is a good first start. Particularly as the pigeons shitting everywhere can only increase our profits.
So we guarantee to AJAX all your clothes send them off to random people who will using the hive mind form a social network , as soon as this reaches the tipping point our advertising revenue will 100% guarantee* that Google will wet themselves, then require our cleaning service and we will clean up.
*not a guarantee
Pimp My Bitch
My latest social network web 2.0 idea is a sure fire zeitgeist surfing IPO gauranteed* cert. PetPimp™ a social network of prostitute pets that you can hire. No hear me out on this one. We tag the animals by species, location, interests...we’ll I assume all dogs are pretty much into the same sorts of things, but you get the idea. We then link you up with other pets.
Poor old Spot is heading towards the end how about you let him have some fun before he goes? Would you be willing to let us introduce him to some like minded bitch? You could send off your treasured companion in style. See this is starting to sound classy already.
How immoral can it be to pimp out your pet to make a few extra quid on the side?
The bloodstock industry is worth billions, how is horses shagging a hot water bottle any different from our company. Ok Spot is hardly a thorough bred racehorse but does that mean he cannot get some little love in his life? Yes the pet sex isn’t intended to be procreative but who are you the Pope?
Ok you are not willing to go as far as getting a prostitute for your pet, how about some normal legal porn then? They do it for Pandas, why not get a mucky movie?
Ever year there is a spate of stories about the latest dog yoga or whatever pet related craze sweeping California, does PetPimp™ sound any less believable then dog psychotherapists?
*not a guarantee
Poor old Spot is heading towards the end how about you let him have some fun before he goes? Would you be willing to let us introduce him to some like minded bitch? You could send off your treasured companion in style. See this is starting to sound classy already.
How immoral can it be to pimp out your pet to make a few extra quid on the side?
The bloodstock industry is worth billions, how is horses shagging a hot water bottle any different from our company. Ok Spot is hardly a thorough bred racehorse but does that mean he cannot get some little love in his life? Yes the pet sex isn’t intended to be procreative but who are you the Pope?
Ok you are not willing to go as far as getting a prostitute for your pet, how about some normal legal porn then? They do it for Pandas, why not get a mucky movie?
Ever year there is a spate of stories about the latest dog yoga or whatever pet related craze sweeping California, does PetPimp™ sound any less believable then dog psychotherapists?
*not a guarantee
How would Jesus be murdered?
Technology has moved on the "what would Jesus do?" slogan should be replaced with "how would Jesus be murdered?"
How old school is wearing a cross round your neck? Could we not update the symbol to more reflect the life of a semetic politician today rather then 2000 years ago? There unlikely to crucify him if he comes back today maybe we would have to wear a model explosive belt. How about a car being hit by missiles? Or someone out in a cafe getting ripped apart by shrapnel? Being crushed by a tank? being shot has been a consistent favorite maybe we can get gun necklaces.
How old school is wearing a cross round your neck? Could we not update the symbol to more reflect the life of a semetic politician today rather then 2000 years ago? There unlikely to crucify him if he comes back today maybe we would have to wear a model explosive belt. How about a car being hit by missiles? Or someone out in a cafe getting ripped apart by shrapnel? Being crushed by a tank? being shot has been a consistent favorite maybe we can get gun necklaces.
Long Term Caving Project
What are you doing for the next 10 thousand years? There is a plan to build a clock that will keep time accurately for 10k years. The main purpose of this is to get people to think long term and perhaps alter there actions accordingly. The clock is being placed in a cave because it is believed to be the most stable environment available.
Danny Hillis is building this clock. He makes some good points about the construction.
If something becomes unimportant to people, it gets scrapped for parts; if it becomes important, it turns into a symbol and must eventually be destroyed.” f something becomes unimportant to people, it gets scrapped for parts; if it becomes important, it turns into a symbol and must eventually be destroyed. The only way to survive over the long run is to be made of materials large and worthless, like Stonehenge and the Pyramids, or to become lost. The Dead Sea Scrolls managed to survive by remaining lost for a couple millennia”
Long term man made experiments have been taking place for about one hundred years. Observations of things in caves long term include.
1. Temperature readings using stalactites layer analysis.
2. Mud samples are used to tell climate in the past.
3. Natural nuclear reactors in Gabon could be used to test for changes in physical constants over time.
Could we set up an experiment in a cave now that would gather results for the next 10k years?
The choice of cave is important. It should be geologically uninteresting, no earthquakes volcanoes etc . The cave needs to be geographically isolated i.e. High above sea. Adding permanent structures to caves is a fairly bad idea. Also there is little point doing this unless people see it. So a tourist cave would be ideal given that it is fairly extensively damaged already.
So what experiment could you think of that would give out answers for 10k years? Apart form the Gedanken experiment could any of these actually be set up?
There are a few physics experiments that have been running for over a hundred years
The reason for thinking like this is not so much the egomania of “we will have giant tombs to ourselves in a few millennia” just to remind us that our actions do have long term consequences. For instance Newgrange can be regarded as a clock of the long now build six thousand years ago. The construction of the new motorway near the hill of Tara to me indicates a lack of this sort of long term thinking. Do we have the right to alter ancient still undiscovered long now tools to build a motorway for a technology that will probably be obsolete in a few decades?
Danny Hillis is building this clock. He makes some good points about the construction.
If something becomes unimportant to people, it gets scrapped for parts; if it becomes important, it turns into a symbol and must eventually be destroyed.” f something becomes unimportant to people, it gets scrapped for parts; if it becomes important, it turns into a symbol and must eventually be destroyed. The only way to survive over the long run is to be made of materials large and worthless, like Stonehenge and the Pyramids, or to become lost. The Dead Sea Scrolls managed to survive by remaining lost for a couple millennia”
Long term man made experiments have been taking place for about one hundred years. Observations of things in caves long term include.
1. Temperature readings using stalactites layer analysis.
2. Mud samples are used to tell climate in the past.
3. Natural nuclear reactors in Gabon could be used to test for changes in physical constants over time.
Could we set up an experiment in a cave now that would gather results for the next 10k years?
The choice of cave is important. It should be geologically uninteresting, no earthquakes volcanoes etc . The cave needs to be geographically isolated i.e. High above sea. Adding permanent structures to caves is a fairly bad idea. Also there is little point doing this unless people see it. So a tourist cave would be ideal given that it is fairly extensively damaged already.
So what experiment could you think of that would give out answers for 10k years? Apart form the Gedanken experiment could any of these actually be set up?
There are a few physics experiments that have been running for over a hundred years
The reason for thinking like this is not so much the egomania of “we will have giant tombs to ourselves in a few millennia” just to remind us that our actions do have long term consequences. For instance Newgrange can be regarded as a clock of the long now build six thousand years ago. The construction of the new motorway near the hill of Tara to me indicates a lack of this sort of long term thinking. Do we have the right to alter ancient still undiscovered long now tools to build a motorway for a technology that will probably be obsolete in a few decades?
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Ban Shampoo
There is a girl in Ireland who is four months pregnant with a fetus who due to a brain condition cannot survive. Our government is stopping her traveling outside of the country. They believe that should she travel she will get an abortion. I will pay more attention to arguments that support the governments position as long as certain criteria are met
The person arguing infects themselves with Scabies and crabs for the next five months. Someone without sexually transmitted parasites telling someone who does have them how to act lacks empathy.
The state no longer carries out cancer treatment as growths with human genetic material in them apparantly have rights. People with cancer should also have their passports taken away from them.
The person arguing infects themselves with Scabies and crabs for the next five months. Someone without sexually transmitted parasites telling someone who does have them how to act lacks empathy.
The state no longer carries out cancer treatment as growths with human genetic material in them apparantly have rights. People with cancer should also have their passports taken away from them.