Periodic Dosage Archive 2013-09
the obsession of efficiency of stirring coffee and fluid dynamics
every time i stir coffee, i can't help but think of turbulence, and the most efficient way to stir.
turbulence, for example, you can see the fascinating aspect of it, when a ink drops into clear water. That's not exactly turbulence, but diffusion or such, but still, the concept is fluid dynamics.
now, efficiency of stirring… for example, when you mix with a chopstick. Is it more efficient if you just keep going circular, or is it better to go side by side… or circular with reverse direction per circle… then we need to define what we are allowed to do. For example, is it minimum energy spent, or minimum motion of the tip of chopstick, or other. And, we have to consider speed. What speed are we allowed. Also, when thinking about this, you have to consider the size and shape of the cup, vs the size and shape of the stirring thing, for example: it can be a stick or spoon (long thing spoon or wide bottom spoon…).
then, my mind went into the most efficient way to stir with consideration of the ease to remember that fact. For example, if way A is most efficient, but way B is close but far more easy to remember, then, with B should be the right choice with respect to practicality. lol.
this isn't just stirring coffee, but whenever i need to mix things. And, when i see concrete mixer, design of the middle spindle of cloth washing machines, or consider the shaker bottle used by bar tenders to mix drinks.
so yeah, shake. For example, when i have a bottle of Starbucks coffee, often you need to shake. So, i have to consider the most efficient way to shake it. One way, is to hold the bottle, then twist your wrist. Another way, is to shake it vigorously up and down as do bar tender with their shaker. So, if minimum energy is our goal, which way is more efficient?
Religion Isn't Really Harmful, it Helps One Grow Power
hacker Aaron Swartz mentioned suicide, in 2008
a piece from the now dead Aaron Swartz
https://aaronsw.jottit.com/howtoget
Aaron mentioned suicide, in 2008.
online, you don't know how fucked up some admirable people actually are.
Aaron, being a celebrity, he's got a gaggle of programers following him. If Aaron farted something, the entire programing community is in concurrence. Hacker News Reddit idiots.
it has become my nature, my mission, to despise any celebrity and anything fart from the hacker news reddit shit. Mostly because they are brainless farts.
this piece by Aaron is also quite idiotic. Yeah, get the job he's got, then jump off the bridge.
What is Aaron like in real life? a piece of cock. you can smell it from a thousand miles.
but, i'd say, he's like what he is mostly inborn. It's his nature. Perhaps, he's pre-ordained to kill himself since he's born.
Sarah Palin Idiot, Has Politics Always Been a Circus?
so, it looks like the idiot Sarah Palin is on the news again….
every time i see her, i can't help but think how idiotic she possibly could be. And that George Bush. Though, i think one person i highly respect, Camille Paglia, seems to have voiced support of Sarah. I don't understand.
but anyway, let's assume Sarah and Bush are clowns of high order. Then, it's a interesting question, whether politics thru-out history are like that? and to what degree?
from what i know of Taiwan politicians, i think it's equally farcical.
i don't have expertise in history to say more, but it seems it's like that almost everywhere most of the time. (well, probably only in modern times, since in older time it's kings and the average citizens don't get to see the ruler's everyday life idiocy.)
since we made conclusion before evidence, let's just go on a bit.
it seems, it has to do with some complex social reasons and human nature…
anyhow, am thinking, first of all, politicians are those who are interested in power and or leadership. It is not usually of people with expertise or knowledge. People adept at leadership also usually require human skill, meaning, influence others, make others like you, support you. To some degree, it's a manipulative power to begin with. (as opposed to, being the scientifically optimal choice for the supporters's advantage)
the other thing am thinking is that, politicians are like that in part due to the general crowd being stupid. It's like this. You have a crowd, and statistically you can divide their IQ or know-how into sectors. By definition, the vast majority, 80%, will be below the 20%. (LOL. we have a stat fiat here!) So, politicians need to make the 80% happy. This is how things necessarily work in democracy.
nevertheless, it's interesting to know if in the whole American history, how do people see the politicians, what nature are they, are they stupid, selfish, and circus like?
since i became minimally acquainted with US politics since 2000, it's pretty much all circus like. Shallow issues, drama etc.
don't bother with info that came passively
If something is on TED, don't believe it, don't watch it, don't lend your mind to it.
a more stringent theorem is: don't ever read any thing that came to you passively, such as on social networks. Read, Seek, things only yourself.
but won't that take away 90% of things you'd be learning? Yes, and that reflects the poverty of the state of your brain.
Malala Yousafzai and Nobel Peace Prize
Intro of Ayn Rand and Her Philosophy, in Comics Strips
there's this character, named Ayn Rand, with her culty objectivism.
Her height of fame is around 1950s to 1970s. (she's born 1905, died 1982, aged 77). Though, she is somewhat popular among hacker type programers. I first heard of her around year 2000 by programer colleagues.
Her idea, that selfishness and capitalism are supreme, i much agree with. However, this “objectivism” smelled cult to me. Though i never knew much of her, other than that she wrote some novels called Atlas Shrugged Buy at amazon
there's this fascinating 66 pages intro/bio about Ayn Rand, at
http://activatecomix.com/162-1-1.comic by artist
Darryl Cunningham [ https://twitter.com/AcmeDarryl ]
it's a bit long, but is a very good, condensed intro and bio about Ayn Rand and her ideas. Highly recommended.
if you have time, you can also checkout Wikipedia:
“great power comes with great responsibility” -- Darth Vader
on the idiocy of comments of blogs of the tl;dr syndrom
xah's edu corner, extempore❗ episode 2013-10-03T11:47:17-07:00
there's a pesky problem of online comments. actually there's lots, but one am addressing today is the “tl;dr” syndrom.
as a online writer, often you get senseless comments to your blog/post/essay, where the answer is right in the article. People didn't bother to click the link, or, they did but just spend 10 seconds to scan it.
this happens to me often. On ranty or opinion oriented pieces, it's more understandable, but sometimes it happens on short technical programing piece.
if the article is long, it's understandable. but sometimes people ask questions that is specifically and intentionally answered by a short article.
it's hard to battle the problem.
you can tell them gently “did you read it” or “it's answered in the article”, but often even that is a bit too rub on one's nose.
it's a social problem of the online era… i wanted to comment on the grand scheme of things of human history but am not sure what to say. It's … must be something in history too, related to human nature, the nature of discussion, conversation. In digital age, this easily happens, because most human animals more enjoy conversation than some formal discourse. Before digital age, people have to write in by snail mail to comment on editorials. That is hard, so the comment is high quality. Each will take several hours to do, counting the careful reading of the article.
anyhow, i myself am susceptible to this silly behavior. Sometimes, when reading a post of interest, i want to comment on it. But, sometimes the article is long, and i don't really have time to spend a hour to read it among the ten thousand tweets posted online daily.
so the question is, to comment or not comment?
if the author i support, i usually tend to comment anyway. Because, in general, to support a writer, it's better to have comment than none, even if the comment is low quality.
ad-blocking and consequences
xah's edu corner, ad-blocking and consequences, extempore! episode 2013-10-01T16:48:36-07:00
so, there's this issue of ad-blocking.
there are these open source freedom loving folks, by day sings freedom of humanity, by night steal movies and blocking ads by the chant of the like of info wants to be free.
so, lots of them use ad-blockers (while, putting Google ads on their blogs).
one can give lectures about it all day, but as human animals, it won't work. However, it seems vast majority of people (outside of the hacker circle), are not bothering with ad-blockers, so all the sites on the web are currently safe.
but, it seems, it might get worse, if not already very worse. Many went with membership only (as in porn).
so, the consequence is that, sooner or later, nobody will create content. What you'll have is content the likes from hacker idiots, where, links are broken, things won't work.
that's quite a interesting scenario actually. I guess it already happened, where, daily people posting thousands of links to these crass sites, where they all repeat and refry the same info. (For example, vast majority of major news outlets, and also all the gif animations stolen from somebody's video on youtube… You know? for example, Time mag used to be real quality mag, but now their site is 99% of garbage, counting random photos (none original), cute things, random gossip, just like every other site)
ok, now i've thought about this, i guess nothing much worse would happen. Because i was thinking there's some point where something would happen.
ok, but anyway, am writing this originally to say something i learned. That is, there's a counter to the calamity scenario. That is, these content creators will start to mix in ads with their content, so there is no telling of which content is ad, which part if any is not.
again, that's already happening. for quite a number of years. There's text ad links… where the so-called blackhat CEO sell/buy links. For example, if you write blogs, people will pay you to have their link on your site, without any indication it's a ad or paid link. This market is huge, and the money you get per link is some ten times than actual ad.
ok, so it's actually all happening already, nothing special here.
now, the interesting question is what will happen if this gets worse and worse.
humm…. i can't think of anything particularly standing out. I guess then that people will start to buy books instead, and again this seems also been happening. namely, amazon kindle.
The Quality of Batman vs Other Superheros
Flashed Face Distortion Effect = Caricature Effect
prison life = great work?
took 15 min and read about prison life. I don't think i wanna be.
i always had a fascination with prison life. I mean, quite a few great mathematicians, author, did great work in prison.
so, i have idolize it as a environment to horn your character. Solitary confinement, with the most basic subsistence. Which, is not much different from the life i lead.
but, modern prison, isn't like that, i don't think. But actually, i am not sure in older times it's better. So, how's it possible for several historical figures doing great work in prison? dunno. For one thing, it's statistically rare. So, it's like someone won lottery. Sure it happens, but would happen to you as you'd hit by a asteroid…
Psychology and Moral Attitude of “Weapons Of Mass Destruction”
2013-09-07 Electricity Outage Incident. Mountain View, California, USA
2013-09-07T20:51:54-07:00
i heard a loud boom. 1 sec later, again, then again. Power's gone, for the whole blocks of neighborhood. no power = death
this is Mountain View, California, USA. 2:15 afternoon.
3 loud booms outside. Electricity out. All neighbor you've never seen came out. Firemen came first, then PGE. Fixed on 2013-09-07T20:51:54-07:00.
perhaps around half mile radius's electricity's out. Not sure what's the cause, probably some tree cutter. The PGE guy i asked said the circuit breaker jumped (something like that).
in modern society, in a city, when power's out, it mean, death.
all refrigerator ceases function. That means, all food'll go rot. Not just in your home, but all super markets.
there's no stove to cook neither (unless you are of the richer that uses gas fire stoves).
hot water's gone too.
and, while was enjoying Bach and sipping coffee and coding great code, boom, no more computer. No more internet. And, this means, the coders ceases functioning, and thus website starts to bitrot.
when the sun sets, pitch dark Becometh my sight. Basically, all activity after sunset is gonna be done for.
and not to mention zombies…