| I hereby demand... |
[Aug. 16th, 2009|06:22 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  irritated | ] |
That all republicans or any politician against a public option in healthcare reform, or against health care reform should stick to their principles. Please, come forward and say you are against medicare, medicaid and VA healthcare. These are all government "socialist" healthcare. Please stand by your convictions, and show your are of sound character and not a hypocrite or a person of questionable character, equivocating on such an important issue. |
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| Read books? |
[Aug. 8th, 2009|12:45 pm] |
I got this facebook thing where there is a list of 100 books that I guess might be considered books you "should" have read at some point, I think I had like 14, but anyway, no science books. Why not? What is lacking from Origin of Species that makes it not worth mentioning compared to Harry Potter? So I'll make my own list...
Copy and paste and put an X by the books you've read.
(in no particular order)
1. Origin of Species - Darwin
2. The Principia - Newton
3. The C Programming Language - Kernighan, Ritchie - X
4. Flatland - Abbot
5. Hackers, Heroes of the Computer Revolution - Levy - X
6. A Beautiful Mind - Nasar - X
7. Feynman Lectures on Physics - Feynman - (sort of)
8. Any Dawkins Book - X (The God Delusion)
9. Crypto - Levy - X
10. The Elegant Universe - Greene - X
11. Relativity: The Special and General Theory - Einstein
12. A Brief History of Time - Hawking - X
13. Cosmos - Sagan
14. The Interpretation of Dreams - Freud
15. The Mathematical Theory of Communication - Shannon
16. An Investigation of the Laws of Thought - Boole
17. Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - Abelson, Sussman, Sussman - (most of it)
18. The Art of Electronics - Horowitz, Hill - X
19. Calculus Made Easy - Thompson, Gardner - X
20. The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA - Watson
21. A History of Pi - Beckmann
22. Chaos: Making a New Science - Gleick - X
23. The Principles of Quantum Mechanics - Dirac
24. Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences (On the Shoulders of Giants) - Galileo
25. The Art of Computer Programming - Knuth
Uh, I feel like I must be missing a bunch, and probably threw in a few that aren't really classics, but that I liked. Improvements welcome |
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| Just saw an episode of Kitchen Nightmares... |
[Jul. 23rd, 2009|07:09 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
Gordon Ramsey was at a pizzeria in L.A. They used frozen dough. He called in some good pizza guys to show them how to toss the dough. He said he'd make them professional tossers. Nice. |
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| I had an idea... |
[Jul. 23rd, 2009|02:03 am] |
or two. One, I hate to say it, but jimmy fallon is not as unfunny as I thought. He may have just been under the influence of unfunny people, like fred armison (tonight's show) and tina fey. Who knows...
Also, I will start a blog that is filled with nothing but plausible sounding lies and half-truths. For example, were you aware that more people are killed by zoo elephants than lightning every year? However, if you are outside in Florida you are about as likely to be struck by lightning as you are to be in a car accident.
Also of note: If all the hair the average person grew on their head in a lifetime were laid end to end it would travel around the earth 1.5 times. Nice. |
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| Incense and Peppermints |
[Jul. 21st, 2009|10:53 pm] |
I made a toolbox, japanese style. With the scraps left over I made an incense burner/box in the same style as the toolbox. Check it... ( Read more... ) |
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| I'm thinking about wood... |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|08:20 pm] |
...and not because Alex is making me watch american idol. Or it is, but not because of the reason all you perverts are thinking of. I'm having something of a philosophical dilemma. Where woodworking is concerned, there is no such thing (as far as I know) as a western style or eastern style power tool. It's all the same. Where hand tools are concerned, however, there are quite a few differenes, and my dilemma is all about which is right for me. ( Tell me more... ) |
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| The equal time fallacy |
[Jun. 25th, 2009|04:09 pm] |
I was reading an article on New Scientist about HIV/AIDS deniers. It specifically talked about a woman who died in 2008 of AIDS-defining illnesses, and whose young child had died a year or two before that, after being breastfed, one of the ways that HIV can be transmitted. Of course, she never got any treatment and had been warned that she could transmit HIV to her daughter. Anyway, in the comments there were plenty of people that claimed there is no evidence that HIV causes AIDS, and some who even claim that there is not evidence that HIV exists. Others of the same mindset complained that the author did not get "the other side," not interviewing any deniers for the story.( Read more... ) |
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| Ah, the good ol' days... |
[Jun. 21st, 2009|11:34 am] |
Man, the good old days. Science specials should go back to the time where they consisted of line drawings on colorful backgrounds, classical music, and narrators that sound like kermit the frog. All these computer graphics and narrators like Morgan Freeman, its just too much. On another note, I want to make some of these paper models. Super sweet. |
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| Fake Mongolian Ramen |
[Jun. 17th, 2009|06:37 pm] |
1 package of ramen, any flavor
1 onion
some vegetables
some meat
2-3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
some vegetable oil
some water
cook up your ramen. I prefer some of the seasoning in the water, microwave for 3 minutes. Drain it. Toss the cooking liquid. Now, chop up your ingredients as you like. I prefer onions, spinach, and maybe a little broccoli or whatever else is available. Put about a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan, and crank the heat just short of all the way up. When the pan is really hot, put your veggies in. I like to put the onions in first to get them almost a little burnt, then the spinach last because it will wilt very fast. Add meat and heat, or cook, then add the noodles, and add the oyster and soy sauce with a bit of water (about the same amount as the soy and oyster combined). Stir around and cook at least until the liquid is gone, proceed with caution, however, since the pan is hot and if you stop moving the food it will burn pretty fast, and might burn anyway. I strongly recommend trying this with spicy italian sausage, decased and cooked like ground beef. Artificial crab meat is also a nice touch. A sprinkle of garlic powder on the veg before you add the noodles is also good. For an exciting extra twist, add a small drizzle of sesame oil and/or sirracha after it is cooked. It is a good idea to prepare everything before applying heat because once you do it all goes very fast. One Serving |
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| Neon Pasta Carbonara |
[Jun. 17th, 2009|06:22 pm] |
1 lb pasta (vermicelli or angel hair works well)
4 eggs
2 cups finely grated asiago cheese
8 pieces of bacon
1 onion
some fake crab
1-2 tbsp garlic powder
Boil your pasta. Cut the bacon into 1/4" pieces. Dice onion into fairly small pieces. Cook bacon in a frying pan, when brown, toss in onion and sautee until brown. Toss in crab meat, warm it up. Meanwhile, have your alter-ego mix the cheese, egg, and garlic powder (whatever amount looks good to you) together. Set aside. Have your other alter-ego put a glass baking dish (9x16 or whatever) in a 350 degree oven. Drain the pasta, put it in your magically hot glass dish, put the bacon, onion and crab mixture on the pasta and mix it up. Add the egg stuff and mix it up. The heat of the pasta and the dish will cook the egg enough, or so it goes, to make a creamy sauce without making scrambled eggs. The sauce part is true, at least. Enjoy! Probably won't need salt or pepper, but do what you will. Original carbonara has cream, the asiago is parmesan and romano, or no onion or crab, and the bacon is cooked in olive oil. I think this version is easier to eat because it's not as salty or heavy but just as tasty. Four, er, lots of servings |
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| umm... whut? |
[Jun. 15th, 2009|02:26 pm] |
interesting idea... click on play and win and here you go, what happens when a contest for technically minded people relies on a flash game. Notice how the scores are all the same... it's 2^31-1, the largest positive number representable with a 32-bit unsigned int. I'm pretty sure that would not be a score you can get with human skills alone... |
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| I've got wood... |
[Jun. 11th, 2009|11:36 am] |
...something like this. I guess my new obsession/hobby is woodworking. I can't say for certain that it is new, as I've always enjoyed the new yankee workshop, but it has risen to all-new levels of activity. I want to make boxes and whatnot joined by hand-cut dovetails, so I gets me a saw and chisel and am working on it. My burst of obsession make me wonder what the better approach is.( what is that you say-eeee? ) |
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| Hey look at my desktop! |
[Jun. 6th, 2009|07:07 pm] |
memenomnom....
Rules:
01. Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper at their LiveJournal.
02. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
03. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!
( Read more... ) |
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| Consistency is for Communists... |
[May. 29th, 2009|08:37 pm] |
So, apparently Craig T. Nelson does not realize that wellfare and food stamps are government assistance. You see, he didn't want the gov't to bail out the car companies... he asked where his bailout was, and then said he had been on food stamps and wellfare and wondered where his government bailout was. yeah...
So, what is the problem here? One, there is an amazing sense of entitlement in this country. And yet, anything that seeks to give people... WHAT THEY WANT... is communism or socialism or bad or whatever. The government shouldn't help people... except me, when I need help. If you do not believe in such assistance, then you should not accept it.
My problem is this. I am perfectly willing to trade a tiny chance for untold wealth for assurance of comfortable living. So what if the government takes 60% of my paycheck if I don't have to worry about spending the rest on anything but what I want to. What if you can go to the doctor and just show your driver's license, instead of pulling out your insurance card and money, or worse, just a bunch of money, or end up like thousands do and just never go. What if well-being is actually a public good that the government should support or help to support? Why should 4 years of college cost anyone anything? This country became a superpower (the superpower) during WWII because of science and technology. We are slipping out of this position because countries such as china and india actually have well educated populaces. Why shouldn't we be spending tons of money on education? Why should a factory worker make more than a math teacher?
I'll take my giant pay cut for a good life. Everyone can have a good life. If everyone else is doing better, you are doing better. Concrete example - Pasadena. Giant multi-million dollar houses, then walk two blocks and you are in a poor neighborhood with homeless people every few meters (ha, metric!). What is the point? I'll hole up in my castle and push the "trash" over there. Its still there, though.
In other news, I hope there will be strong voices for a single-payer healthcare system when obama comes up with his great healthcare reform, or he'll be as much of a failure at it as billc. |
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