I was totally like this after my wife and I got engaged. “Can’t you see that I’m engaged?! I am getting soup and I am engaged!!!”

And then after the wedding, “Can’t you see that I’m married?! I am eating soup and I am married!!!”

And then after we found out we were having a baby, “Can’t you see we’re having a baby?!* We are cleaning up the dishes from our soup and having a baby!!!”

* Granted, this one is easier as time goes on, because I can just keep my wife around as a sort of increasingly larger and larger, physical asterisk. Sort of handy.

St. Elmo’s Fire via pacalin: capncarrot

Sort of a biopic of Sarah Palin as a person.

I have a hypothesis that there is a shadowy hidden political party that knows no allegiance to any set of ideologies. It’s more of an emergent entity driven by millions of people and their media consumption. This entity drives a lot of people to and fro in an essentially chaotic pattern. There isn’t much rhyme or reason because it’s constructed out of a feedback loop — a loop seeded by consumption of itself.

For example: Television tries to show something to catch a person’s interest. Person may watch that thing for any number of reasons. That person is affected in some way. This may influence or alter future Television watching. Now expand this to books, movies, radio, twitter, blogs, etc. It’s not that media is bad per se, it’s that it is treated uncritically by and large and not viewed as a self-referencing and self-reinforcing entity. It should be viewed in the same way as a corporation; e.g. Media has a will to live.

The reason no one does view it so is because it’s exhausting trying to think critically about every single thing you’re exposed to — there’s too much. It is far easier to just think about a few and learn to trust a few other people’s judgement for the rest. It is the savvy (scary) politician who realizes this. In fact, people have realized this for  years but it really doesn’t work efficiently unless you have scale. If you’ve read the Foundation series by Asimov this idea will be familiar to you. You can not only predict but control sociological reactions if you know the right inputs.

There’s nothing new under the sun, people have always grasped for power; however there is a novelty for our age in the sheer masses of people involved and the ability for all of them to hear the same message at the same time. People are learning how to use this emergent entity, trying to ride the lightning. Obama did it. Glenn Beck is doing it. Palin is doing it.

That is new and I am curious to see how it is wielded.

Lastly, I’ve long wondered if Sarah Palin was diagnosably borderline personality disorder or at the very least narcissistic/sociopathic. It makes me sad to hear about symptoms that fit all of those diagnoses. Her interpersonal behavior has all the hallmarks of abusive relationships. Maybe that’s one of the reasons so many people can connect with her: we’re a nation of abusive relationships.

Look at this man. Do you love him? I do.:

Look at this man. Do you love him? I do. I really do. I commend these people. I laud them. And I do, in all honesty, I hope they continue to fight their version of the good fight, whatever that is.

It’s hard enough to find something that you believe in. It’s very easy to be jaded and to believe that nothing you can do really matters. After all, how easy is it to look at a country of 307 million people and say “You are one of I”? It’s a gigantic country, and easy to feel threatened by way of feeling forgotten.

Perspective. I do love my brothers and sisters in all their many forms. I’m glad these people feel they’re a part of something. However misguided I think anyone is, they’re still people and worthy of love. Even the angry hurtful ones.

“Under a government which imprisons any unjustly,” he wrote, “the true place for a just man is also a prison.” The essay inspired Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. in their struggles against injustice and through them, countless others.”

Link: The dissent of man

A list of a few people with the courage to stand up for their beliefs. 

I typically dislike lists like this because they basically build you up to feel great about humanity, but then there’s no takeaway, or the takeaway is so obtuse you can twist it to support whatever idea you hold dear. I guess that’s the part that really bothers me.

So I’ll provide you with a context: this list makes me look at my behavior and think, “If I went to jail for my convictions, would Gandhi tell me I was a dumbass for doing so?”

Update: The phrase I was looking for was: Sociopaths go to prison for their convictions, too. There’s a lot assumed in the “going to jail for something you believe in” idea. Make sure your idea is actually a good one. Better yet, ask yourself if your idea is actually a bad one.

They see me rollin’ they hatin’. 

I wholeheartedly approve of this message. 

As a father, one of my jobs is to support and encourage my wife to believe this. The idea of ideal body-shape is bullshit. Health is one thing, but how you’re naturally built and naturally grown is something entirely else.

It makes me sad to see people go through a life-change and then try to reclaim some mythical, idyllic past self. You get pregnant, your body changes. You turn 40 your body changes. You have gastric bypass surgery, your body changes. The key points are that you were never as lean and fit as you think you once were, and there is no ideal shape that everyone is going to fit into.

And the corollary: change is always happening. How you are now is how you are, and it is a result of everything that has gone before and gone into molding you. Buying into your own myth of your previous self is like trying to press Ctrl+Z on your person.

Just remember: it’s all forward motion — there is no “undo button” for your life. 

Is it the device that’s important or the things that allowed the device to exist that are important? What you think of as “technology” is probably wrong.

It’s not the smart phone that is the interesting bit, it’s the culture that created the idea and desire for a smart phone. It’s not the idea of neolithic people carrying a babies in slings, it’s the ideas, understanding, and human development that brought about the creation of the baby-sling. When future historians look at this time period, will they focus on gadgets, or will they focus on the kind of culture that desired the type of gadgets we have? 

And for us, navigating this world means we need to ensure we’re focusing on the scientist, not the monster.

This turtle totally tried to eat my wife. Also, I apologize for sounding like a yokel.

Cute Turtle Noms at Petco

I had always suspected this was the case. Experiments have indicated that venting negative emotions actually prods you on towards meaner behavior, rather than dispersing aggression.

This also reminds me of things I read in an anthropology class that talked about the lack of correlation between cultures with violent sports and lower crime. I.e. there is no evidence that playing violent sports “vents” societal aggression. The opposite is true, in fact (I wish I could find the citation for this but cannot).

It means both “I’ve got your nose” and “This is a penis”. I suppose if you’re prepared for both those interpretations, go for it!

IT IS EPIC

Epic Owl

That means maybe something like this wall decal system or perhaps this one

Also some plush Mario mushrooms and accoutrement! Eeeeee!

If other parents want to prime their son to be a football player by sports themes, or their daughters princess with a Disney theme, we’re totally going to prime our daughter to be a gamer through judicious application of Nintendo!

That is all.

This was going around a little while ago. I really like how he wasn’t just bashing on living a spiritual life. It’s neat to see people stand up in favor of both moderation and an active spiritual life.

They don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Rejecting biblical teachings outright is just as bad as blindly following them — there is value to be gleaned, yet.

Don’t ridicule Britney 

I love Craig Ferguson; I would start regular television watching just to catch his show.

Underneath the brogue and the jokes there is a lot of wisdom — I don’t know if that comes form life changes or if it was always there. Regardless where it comes from, I admire a man who can be open and joyful about his problems, and views the world with compassion as Ferguson does. He’s a good guy.

Ferguson Speaks From The Heart

That love which is blind is no love, that love which shuts its eyes to the faults of loved ones is partial and even dangerous.

Letters of Note: What makes you think I hate the British?

Thanks to my friend Ed for pointing this one out.

This changes everything!

I’d never heard that the statues were supposed to be painted! No wonder everyone hated the Greeks, their fashion was awful…

There are some interesting comments on that article. Namely that the Renaissance had this idea of recreating great works from hellenistic times, but they were really recreating ruins. And now when you and I think of ancient Greece, with think of serene white columns and pensive statues, when in reality everything was painted up like a colorblind hooker.

But on further reflection that really fits more with the rest of their culture, and with humans in general. People like bright, pretty things, you know.

The future is now! A robot controlled by living neurons!

This is kind of incredible, and it bypasses the whole AI problem by just putting a real brain into the machine. I will say I kind of feel bad for the rat donors, and wonder what sort of actual animal cognition goes on in there.

Fascinating to see this, if this is legit.

Were you aware that if you take a 24 or 50 mm lens and shoot backwards through it, you can do macro photography?

It’s a little ghetto, but it works. The only downside is your depth of field is insanely narrow. I’m still messing with it a bit, but it’s good fun. Check my photostream to see a few more examples.

This bear is made out of alpaca fluff. I almost bought it for our daughter, yesterday.

Also, I totally posted this from my phone.

I like articles like this because it isn’t so much about disagreeing with the other person, but more about trying to understand why someone would think differently from them.

Essentially it is that James Dobson was raised in an environment that led him to believe beatings and harsh treatment is the only way of rearing a child. Also, if the anecdote of him crying at the altar at 3 is true, I feel extremely sorry for him. No child should be made to feel that way. Ever.

Mount Catmore?

Screengrab from the midst of a music video for My Delirium by Ladyhawke. I love it.

(update: fixed the link to the video)

An NPR review on Scott Pilgrim: If you’re going to review the audience instead of the movie, I’m going to review you, the reviewer.

And having just seen the movie last night, my two cents are that 1) it is awesome, and 2) it’s sort of frenetic, and that may put you off the movie.

I hearted it, and laughed out loud several times. In some ways I enjoyed it better than the books, but then I’m not a huge fan of the books like some people are.

I wake up a lot in the middle of the night, lately. Things on my mind, stresses of the day going through my head. Last night at about 2:30 it occurred to me that all the things that irritate me about FoxNews (and to a lesser extent, media in general) is that a lot of the controversies amount to the old kid’s trick question:

So have you stopped looking at monkey porn, yet?

The reason it works is because the target frequently will answer “No”, meaning “No I have never looked at monkey porn”. But the trick is that it is easy to sound as if you are accepting the form of the question, implicitly damning yourself. That’s highly dishonest.

The whole thing is basically, “Are you still building a Mosque at Ground Zero?”, lying in the form of the question because no part of any of the implied points is true. This one is particularly evil because even if any of it were true, it’s implying a thing is bad that is not actually bad. Ugh.

Anyway, I haven’t actually watched the linked video, but I loled at the first comment.