Bizarre. I've been using Adblock for years and this is the first time I've even seen that ad.
Dom @58, the list of all the interlinked scam sites is fascinating. I admire that blogger's tenacity.
Hooray! I haven't even read it yet, been so busy, but it's wonderful to think of Neil Gaiman ranked among all the great authors I read as a kid.
My partner, henceforth named the Nice Jewish Boy, offers up the following anecdote about customs:
So in 2004 [mutual American friends] M. and B. drove me up from Connecticut to Toronto in my parents' van during winter break, so we could bring all my stuff, and then they drove back. At customs, when they take your passports and ask you where you were born, M. says "United States," and B. says "United States." But M.'s passport says Canada -- she was born there, they just went back to the States a couple days later.
That's when the customs people get suspicious, and they flip through M.'s passport and see lots of stamps for Syria [where M. has family]. They ask for driver's licence and registration. M. and B. hand over their licences, then open the glove compartment for the registration...and there's nothing in there but a yarmulke.
To make a long story short they spent the next six hours in a customs cell.
My poor old lappy nearly choked on that.
janetl @47: Oh god, I can’t imagine anything duller and more terrifying!
In my brief stint as a Neo-Atheist I encountered a lot of people who professed to live their lives not according to superstition or fuzzy-headed wishful thinking, but rational principles alone. And yet it became apparent that the so-called rational thinkers neglected to examine their own biases and perspectives, not taking into account how their own circumstances might affect their perceptions of events, and refused to look at phenomena in their broader historical or social or cultural context.* They clouded their own understanding and adopted limited, rootless perspectives on complicated subjects, thinking that narrow-mindedness made them more Rational and Objective.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen truly “rational†behaviour, and (in my mind) the theories predicated on it don’t model reality as well as they could. A society of rational people would not be recognisably human. Its econ classes would be much easier, though.
The DSM says OCD, some say “feral librarianâ€...
albatross @59,
*Treating a religion, for example, as consisting in a set of empirical statements which followers universally assent to and non-believers don’t, rather than a tangled-up cultural institution/moral framework/historical phenomenon which both shapes and reflects the state of the world...
Another factor might be how much it matters that you’re right and your opponents are wrong. It’s really hard to admit, “This person’s views are diametrically opposed to mine, but they’ve probably got good, sensible reasons for believing what they do, and I should try to understand how they came to those conclusions.†And this isn’t looking down my nose; if I had a Shoran self-name it would be something like The Unempathetic or The Alone.
Serge @62: “And when I withdraw my arm from this hat...voilà ! My hand has vanished completely! Take a look, there’s nothing up my sleeve, nothing in the hat...â€
(“Is Smith doing his stupid little party trick again?â€
“Sheesh. I think Milton invited him. Teach a man a cantrip and he thinks he’s Gandalf the White.â€)
janetl @47: Oh god, I can’t imagine anything duller and more terrifying!
In my brief stint as a Neo-Atheist I encountered a lot of people who professed to live their lives not according to superstition or fuzzy-headed wishful thinking, but rational principles alone. And yet it became apparent that the so-called rational thinkers neglected to examine their own biases and perspectives, not taking into account how their own circumstances might affect their perceptions of events, and refused to look at phenomena in their broader historical or social or cultural context.* They clouded their own understanding and adopted limited, rootless perspectives on complicated subjects, thinking that narrow-mindedness made them more Rational and Objective.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen truly “rational†behaviour, and (in my mind) the theories predicated on it don’t model reality as well as they could. A society of rational people would not be recognisably human. Its econ classes would be much easier, though.
The DSM says OCD, some say “feral librarianâ€...
albatross @59,
*Treating a religion, for example, as consisting in a set of empirical statements which followers universally assent to and non-believers don’t, rather than a tangled-up cultural institution/moral framework/historical phenomenon which both shapes and reflects the state of the world...
Another factor might be how much it matters that you’re right and your opponents are wrong. It’s really hard to admit, “This person’s views are diametrically opposed to mine, but they’ve probably got good, sensible reasons for believing what they do, and I should try to understand how they came to those conclusions.†And this isn’t looking down my nose; if I had a Shoran self-name it would be something like The Unempathetic or The Alone.
Serge @62: “And when I withdraw my arm from this hat...voilà ! My hand has vanished completely! Take a look, there’s nothing up my sleeve, nothing in the hat...â€
(“Is Smith doing his stupid little party trick again?â€
“Sheesh. I think Milton invited him. Teach a man a cantrip and he thinks he’s Gandalf the White.â€)
Andrew Kanaber @37, about "the magic of the free market", I ran into a former roommate at the café and got to chatting, and in discussing the recession it came to light that he has libertarian politics (not a big deal), and is one of those Gold Standard People (excused myself before I inadvertently slapped him with an economics textbook).
Math time! I realised my age (23) is equal to my Hebrew name (×—×™×”). That is, ×—×™, as any good Jew knows, is 18, and the ×” is 5, which makes 23. An exercise for any scholars of gematria: what could I name myself when I turn twenty-four?
My camera is a -- *checks flickr* -- Canon PowerShot SD1000, and I'm very happy with it. I keep it on manual so I can change exposure and such quickly, though disabling autofocus takes a tad longer. Like Madeleine @775, I like how it's flat on all sides so it's easy, for example, to rest it on a railing for a slow night shot, or a table for a close-up food porn shot.
It just takes good pictures.
Sure wish I could focus manually, though.
I Googled hopefully, but it looks like Table Morris Dancing is just a joke...for now.
@8 -- all knowledge is contained within the Fluorosphere -- White Rats, thank you!
My girlfriend, who mingles in Pagan, Burner, and BDSM scenes in the States, mentions Morris dancers with bells actually sewn in -- I assume with sutures or medical staples. Unfortunately I can't recall whether this actually exists or is something she would like to see happen.
The girlfriend and I have opened our presents and are watching the adaptation of Hogfather, and counting down to the Doctor Who Christmas special. No public transit in all London today so it's a day to be spent in laziness. Merry Christmas, all!
Oh no! Hope you feel better soon...
If Michael Ignatieff or Bob Rae becomes PM, I swear I'm going to find a way to leave the country. Doesn't anyone remember the last time Rae was in charge?
Aside from that, I'm terribly excited about all of this, despite having to follow it from abroad. The only way this could get better is if, in a gesture of goodwill, CTV returned the Hockey Night in Canada theme to the Ceeb.
Xopher @174: The California drug-nerds I've come to know refer to E by its proper name, MDMA, because slang terms can be so variable. I don't know if they go so far as to use quote marks, though.
David Harmon @144: I didn't know about Effexor/grapefruit interactions, and I'm on Effexor. Good thing I don't eat grapefruit -- I love the taste, could eat it plain every day (and will eat lemons as well, @163), but it's just too expensive.
I don't like bitter things, but both grapefruit and orange marmalade taste perfectly sweet to me.
Much enjoying the lab horror stories.
Nicole TWN @71, wouldn't one translate that "Fuck the war"?
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