Metaphysics in blogs

So apparently to be a good blogger one needs to read other blogs. Alas I have been so busy that I haven't been able to read hardly anything for fun (except for my daily comics). But today I ventured over to two of my favorite blogs and found religious discussions that I found quite interesting.

The first is Scott Aaronson's blog about a conversation with a fundamentalist Christian and deducing the rules of religious inference. The topic is quite hot for I see regularly scientists and secularists being more on the offensive about the flaws of religion in books, blogs, magazines, and almost every form of print. In addition to these publications we also see that Scott recieved almost 200 comments on the post, which just goes to show how hot a topic it is.

The next blog is a friend over at Orthonormal Basis blogging about questioning acts of faith. While I realize that some may see such a questioning as an unforgivable offense to the Almighty, in my Socratic sytle I would say question on for better to be a reasoned man. Perhaps most of all these two posts have woken me up a bit to things I use to think about quite a bit before I came to this cold dead campus of eternal work. (Not cold and dead because it is secular but rather because I work too much.)

As one of Aaronson's commenter's points out, a part of the missing analysis among these blogs is Wittgenstein's idea of "aspect blindness". In my humble view, it seems that both the fundamentalist and the over-analyzed scientist are both hiding important aspects of their beliefs. Aaronson's post demonstrates how often religious people will hold contradictions solely because they are religious beliefs, this sort of analysis presumes that scientific beliefs which are held solely because they are scientific are more worthy. This shoots to the more important religion/science debate rather than merely attacking the ability of some individuals modus ponens abilities.

Let me expound a bit more on a simple example. Which is a "higher" belief, the belief that without God we would not exist or the belief that without oxygen we would die.

Of course, the second one is verifiable and the first not. Perhaps its easy to stop and say that since this is so and it appears to be true (modulo any science fiction fantasies) that is a "higher" belief. But this in itself seems to be a matter of faith, that true justified beliefs are "higher" and even qualify as "knowledge" (once again modulo the Gettier problem).

But the first belief, or some equivalent religious belief, still might strike one as a "higher" belief simple because of its subject. Such a belief will not pass for any test of "knowledge" and thus also becomes a matter of faith to hold that it is a higher belief. To some this belief does not make a difference in the grand scheme of things, it appears that very little in one's life depends on beliefs of this type. Once again a matter of faith.

Before one starts to even evaluate these beliefs an act of faith must be made. Unfortunately much of the debate about religion and science are riddled with ad hominem and other fallacies, but this essential question of how such an act of faith begins so much of our world views that it will start wars and indecencies among the most rational people.

Of course this path of logic tends to take me into much longer philosophical diatribes, but I guess I should just end my post with a question. How can we evaluate religious beliefs with such scientific reasoning that requires we take an opposite stand of faith?

Gaa It's been a whole month

Wow December has flown by. One would think that the follow up to a post apologizing for my absence from my blog would come before a whole month has expired, but alas I'm trying to get all my experiments to work correctly and what not for my master's defense.

Being the last day of the year, it is an excellent time to evaluate whether I should continue posting or become one of the two hundred million people who "thinks they have something to say, until they're put on stage and asked to say it." Although to be a good blogger one not only needs to write on his blog but also read other peoples blogs and comment about them. Otherwise how do we make sure that we pat someone on the back and in turn they pat us on the back for for a well written post.

Well anywho, I have decided to switch over to the new blogger format and as a result I have also changed the template. I was a bit tired of the balloon looking boxes on the pitch black abyss. I am thinking of actually designing something that looks cool for it but as usual I make no promises.

Why I haven't blogged

hmmm I guess this is the nearest confession you get that I am a nerd. But after spending all my free time (and some time I should probably have been working) I almost beat Nethack for the first time. Alas for those who know what I am talking about, here is my dump. And yes that is me only 10 squares away from being able to finish the game.

Eowyn, lawful female human Valkyrie

        -----
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 |.......|.%%.---         --      -+-               a --- @.@|      .|
 |..._...-..%.%%%%  %      |       .                A%a@Aa%A.@@.._@..|
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        -----      | %%      |           |         |
                   -------   --         --   ------
                         |    --       --    |
                         ---   ----|----   ---
                           |          /    |
                           -----------------

Eowyn the Heroine St:25 Dx:18 Co:18 In:14 Wi:15 Ch:10 Lawful
Astral Plane $:0 HP:0(208) Pw:73(73) AC:-16 Xp:23/30043063 T:63123


Your inventory
Amulets
Z - the Amulet of Yendor named the real deal (alternate weapon; not wielded)
Weapons
a - the rustproof +1 Excalibur
b - the blessed rustproof +0 Mjollnir (weapon in hand)
Armor
r - an uncursed fireproof +2 pair of speed boots (being worn)
y - a blessed fireproof +2 T-shirt (being worn)
C - an uncursed +0 pair of levitation boots
F - an uncursed thoroughly burnt rotted +1 elven leather helm (being worn)
H - an uncursed +0 silver dragon scale mail (being worn)
N - a blessed rustproof +2 pair of gauntlets of power (being worn)
Comestibles
j - an uncursed giant beetle corpse
E - an uncursed lizard corpse
Scrolls
w - 8 uncursed scrolls of blank paper
Rings
e - an uncursed ring of teleport control
f - an uncursed ring of free action (on left hand)
q - an uncursed ring of slow digestion
M - an uncursed ring of regeneration (on right hand)
Wands
h - a wand of nothing (0:3)
k - a wand of create monster (0:15)
m - a wand of teleportation (0:0)
n - a wand of speed monster (0:5)
p - a wand of fire (0:6)
u - a wand of speed monster (0:6)
x - a wand of slow monster (0:7)
z - a wand of striking (0:5)
A - a wand of digging (0:5)
B - a wand of cancellation (0:5)
D - a wand of digging (0:0)
G - a wand of striking (0:5)
J - a wand of magic missile (0:4)
K - a wand of wishing named already charged once (1:0)
R - a wand of magic missile (0:4)
U - a wand of wishing named charged once (1:0)
V - a blessed wand of death (0:0)
X - a wand of cold (0:2)
Tools
d - an uncursed magic lamp (lit)
g - an uncursed magic whistle
i - an uncursed rusty stethoscope
o - a blessed +0 unicorn horn
t - an uncursed skeleton key
I - an uncursed towel
L - the Bell of Opening (0:2)
P - the blessed Orb of Fate (1:0)
Q - a magic marker (0:65)
S - a blessed bag of holding
T - 2 uncursed tallow candles
Gems
s - 2 uncursed luckstones
v - 2 uncursed diamonds

Contents of the bag of holding:
16879 gold pieces
an uncursed amulet of reflection
a cursed amulet of unchanging
an uncursed amulet versus poison
4 uncursed food rations
2 uncursed lizard corpses
3 uncursed lembas wafers
2 blessed scrolls of remove curse
an uncursed scroll of teleportation
2 uncursed potions of speed
3 potions of holy water
a blessed potion of object detection
an uncursed potion of object detection
2 uncursed potions of restore ability
an uncursed ring of fire resistance
an uncursed ring of cold resistance
a blessed +1 ring of increase accuracy
an uncursed ring of protection from shape changers
an uncursed ring of sustain ability
an uncursed rusty +1 ring of protection
an uncursed +1 ring of gain constitution
an uncursed ring of polymorph control
an uncursed ring of stealth
an uncursed ring of see invisible
an uncursed ring of invisibility
a wand of digging (0:7)
a wand of digging (0:6)
a cursed wand of cold (0:2)
a wand of striking (0:4)
a wand of magic missile (0:0)
a wand of striking (0:0)
a wand of probing (0:3)
a rusty wand of lightning (0:8)
a wand of striking (0:4)
a wand of striking (0:5)
a +0 pick-axe
an uncursed lock pick
a magic marker (1:33)
an uncursed oil lamp
a can of grease (0:6)
an uncursed blindfold
a can of grease (0:7)

Final attributes
You were the Hand of Elbereth
You were piously aligned
You were fire resistant
You were cold resistant
You were sleep resistant
You were shock resistant
You were poison resistant
You saw invisible
You were telepathic
You were warned
You were invisible to others
You were stealthy
You could teleport
You regenerated
You were protected
You were very fast
You had reflection
You had free action
You were extremely lucky (13)
You had extra luck
Good luck did not time out for you
You are dead (4th time!)

Spells known in the end
Name Level Category Fail
a - magic missile 2* attack 89%
b - create familiar 6* clerical 100%
c - knock 1* matter 89%
d - clairvoyance 3* divination 95%
e - sleep 1 enchantment 89%
f - extra healing 3* healing 82%
g - force bolt 1* attack 89%
h - healing 1* healing 74%
i - wizard lock 2* matter 89%
j - cure blindness 2* healing 74%
k - slow monster 2* enchantment 89%
l - charm monster 3* enchantment 95%
m - detect food 2* divination 89%
n - create monster 2* clerical 89%
o - light 1 divination 89%
p - confuse monster 2 enchantment 89%
q - dig 5 matter 100%
r - remove curse 3 clerical 82%
s - detect treasure 4 divination 100%
t - restore ability 4 healing 100%
u - jumping 1 escape 89%

Vanquished creatures
Asmodeus
Baalzebub
Orcus
Juiblex
The Wizard of Yendor (14 times)
Pestilence
Famine (twice)
a high priest
2 mastodons
Medusa
13 krakens
4 iron golems
3 storm giants
2 glass golems
5 balrogs
11 purple worms
2 gray dragons
7 silver dragons
6 red dragons
6 white dragons
an orange dragon
9 black dragons
7 blue dragons
a green dragon
5 yellow dragons
17 minotaurs
4 jabberwocks
Lord Surtur
10 baluchitheria
2 Angels
2 demiliches
Vlad the Impaler
6 stone golems
a master mind flayer
10 Olog-hai
6 Nazguls
6 pit fiends
4 sandestins
4 hell hounds
10 titanotheres
7 trappers
2 baby blue dragons
a baby green dragon
8 disenchanters
40 vampire lords
5 skeletons
12 aligned priests
5 captains
6 shades
3 liches
6 clay golems
11 nurses
10 ice devils
17 nalfeshnees
7 lurkers above
an Aleax
7 frost giants
an ettin
6 black puddings
25 vampires
7 lieutenants
39 ghosts
a valkyrie
3 queen bees
4 winged gargoyles
3 mind flayers
14 giant mimics
5 zruties
25 fire giants
9 ogre kings
6 ice trolls
11 rock trolls
14 umber hulks
6 flesh golems
13 Elvenkings
7 doppelgangers
15 hezrous
14 bone devils
11 large mimics
4 wumpuses
4 fire vortices
2 baby long worms
7 long worms
3 couatls
18 stalkers
9 air elementals
8 fire elementals
6 earth elementals
45 water elementals
6 hill giants
5 giant mummies
11 xorns
24 giant zombies
17 elf-lords
13 sergeants
7 barbed devils
9 vrocks
3 salamanders
16 wargs
2 winter wolves
12 hell hound pups
17 small mimics
3 glass piercers
9 warhorses
6 steam vortices
7 xans
6 ettin mummies
12 ogre lords
18 quantum mechanics
22 trolls
a sasquatch
6 wood golems
3 erinyes
9 mariliths
a djinni
8 sharks
14 electric eels
4 gelatinous cubes
4 pyrolisks
4 large dogs
3 freezing spheres
17 flaming spheres
18 shocking spheres
2 large cats
11 tigers
8 gargoyles
8 ochre jellies
7 leocrottas
12 energy vortices
4 mountain centaurs
5 stone giants
2 elf mummies
4 human mummies
4 red nagas
2 green slimes
5 pit vipers
3 pythons
38 cobras
59 wraiths
6 carnivorous apes
17 ettin zombies
5 leather golems
23 Grey-elves
63 soldiers
3 watchmen
10 horned devils
5 succubi
12 incubi
4 chameleons
a crocodile
68 giant beetles
5 quivering blobs
23 cockatrices
27 wolves
7 winter wolf cubs
4 lynxes
2 panthers
23 gremlins
4 spotted jellies
13 leprechauns
11 iron piercers
3 mumakil
7 giant spiders
3 scorpions
9 horses
3 ice vortices
10 black lights
12 vampire bats
2 forest centaurs
7 gnome kings
4 orc mummies
8 dwarf mummies
9 ogres
13 brown puddings
12 rust monsters
18 owlbears
4 yetis
5 gold golems
2 werewolves
14 Green-elves
9 piranhas
24 giant eels
9 lizards
8 chickatrices
2 dogs
3 dingos
3 housecats
7 jaguars
3 dwarf lords
4 blue jellies
3 gray unicorns
6 black unicorns
10 dust vortices
7 ravens
5 plains centaurs
6 gnome mummies
6 snakes
12 apes
16 human zombies
2 rope golems
20 Woodland-elves
106 soldier ants
78 fire ants
5 bugbears
2 imps
7 lemures
13 quasits
9 wood nymphs
3 water nymphs
8 mountain nymphs
2 Mordor orcs
12 Uruk-hai
an orc shaman
11 rock piercers
5 rock moles
5 ponies
7 fog clouds
14 yellow lights
a shrieker
11 violet fungi
18 gnome lords
4 gnomish wizards
4 kobold mummies
a black naga hatchling
3 gray oozes
2 barrow wights
16 elf zombies
12 ghouls
5 straw golems
3 paper golems
5 jellyfish
2 baby crocodiles
90 giant ants
3 little dogs
15 floating eyes
2 kittens
17 dwarves
8 homunculi
5 kobold lords
4 kobold shamans
11 hill orcs
22 rothes
3 rabid rats
7 centipedes
a giant bat
3 monkeys
8 orc zombies
14 dwarf zombies
3 wererats
4 werejackals
4 iguanas
138 killer bees
6 acid blobs
7 coyotes
3 gas spores
5 hobbits
8 manes
4 large kobolds
7 hobgoblins
19 giant rats
14 cave spiders
3 brown molds
4 yellow molds
2 green molds
4 red molds
72 gnomes
6 garter snakes
18 gnome zombies
9 geckos
15 jackals
6 foxes
7 kobolds
6 goblins
5 sewer rats
16 grid bugs
2 bats
10 lichens
9 kobold zombies
16 newts
2841 creatures vanquished.

Genocided species:
master mind flayers
liches
demiliches
master liches
arch-liches
5 species genocided.
Voluntary challenges
You genocided 5 types of monsters
You never polymorphed an object
You changed form 4 times
You used 9 wishes
You did not wish for any artifacts

Your skills at the end
Fighting Skills
(none)
Weapon Skills
dagger [Skilled]
long sword [Expert]
hammer [Expert]
Spellcasting Skills
attack spells [Basic]

Farvel Eowyn the Valkyrie...
You died in The Astral Plane with 2413317 points,
and 16879 pieces of gold, after 63123 moves.
Killer: Angel of Loki (with the Amulet)
You were level 23 with a maximum of 208 hit points when you died.

That silly google

While avoiding the dirty dishes that have made a hostile takeover in my kitchen, I noticed that google has put me at the top of some unlikely searches. I elaborate:

• The importance of labor day - Okay so I am a grateful for the link but I wrote like two sentences on the topic. For crying out loud there should be whole sites dedicated to this topic not some whinny grad student who has never gotten a decent wage in his life.


• Completely useless skills - This just cracks me up. A blog about a PhD candidate is ranked number one on the search for completely useless skills. Now it would be poetic if I were a humanities major but it's still pretty funny.


• squirrel chase math - Who ever was looking this up and found my site might be a little upset but it is a nice idea. "In other news, Perelman was attacked by ten thousand rabid squirrels today. Apparently he is nuts."


• Falling off the math cliff - I didn't so much fall as take a leap like Dan Osman without a good calculation on the appropriate ropes. So I guess the link is fitting.


• Scientists jerks - ah my favorite by far. Who else to call scientists jerks other than a struggling grad student. This link represents the plight of all grad students out there who have a deep lingering feeling that their lives are much more important than a piece of paper. Alas they will never take up their swords and standards to prove their worth, they just hunch over hit their keyboards a bit harder and mutter "jerk" loud enough for their pet cockroach to hear. And some of us blog about it.

I hope you enjoyed some of goggle's algorithms as much as I have.

Yosemite photos

So we went to Yosemite National Park this past weekend. You can see some pictures on my webpage. It was great, I think Yosemite is probably the prettiest place on earth. I really enjoy being out in "God's Country" even if I fell into the river while attempting to fish.

On another note, I know that I can never live in California. My father-in-law was looking at prices on property near Yosemite. $300,000 for .3 acres and a trailer house, which is more than an hour and a half to the nearest hospital. Real estate is unreal out here.

Too Busy To Blog

This week I have been way too busy to blog, but I have had some really great ideas to blog about. I guess I will do something I really hate, advertise what I will blog someday in the future.

• CS Drug = Coffee, Physics/Math Drug = Beer (Dr. Barnard should have warned me!)


• About Web Design (My hacker's guide to looking like you know what your doing - requested by many)


• Being a Well rounded Scientist (response to Lance's commenters and a few ppl in my dept)


• How I really really really loathe Mondays (it seems to be a theme in my blogging)

But anywho, I get to play softball today HOORAY! I might enjoy spring, oh glorious day. I am sure that Carly (who played in college) is going to handle me my lunch ... well life goes on.

About Blogging

So when I first started blogging on this site, it was merely to give my family and friends some insight to my thoughts. I also decided to have other blogs to put opinions and work related stuff, but that didn't work. So now this blog is a catch all for everything in my life, no matter how silly, boring, opinionated, or interesting it might be. But recently Lance Fortnow, a blogger who I greatly respect, has an entry pointing out the negatives of student blogging (although I think his entry could be more widely applied to any blogger). I also came across this entry by a blog that I think is well done arguing the other side of things. And finally another link that was left in the comments of the Lance's blog, just talking about blogging from a psychological perspective.

So since my blog has been getting more traffic, probably since I had that flaming post the other day about scientist being jerks, I think it is time for me to re-evaluate what blogging is to me.

1. First I see my blog as a medium of expression. Now this is a personal blog so it should reflect me as a person, meaning not only my work but my opinions and insights in the world as well.


2. This form of expression is written down so I should probably be as nice as possible here (something that I usually fail at doing), but not out of fear of losing a job but rather fear of hurting someone. Basically hold to my goal of offending by true content not argumentation style.


3. I should not shy away from the fact that I do have an opinion and my work is only one part of my life. If somebody can't see past my opinion (and it could certainly be false) and see that I am human being underneath, then I probably don't want to impress that person anyways.


4. Finally, as David Amulet pointed out to me, I blog for myself. Whether it be for my personal fear of being transparent in the world or just a way to relax, I'm not going to worry if people read it or not. I want a blog not to make me popular but to make me a better person.

Of course, Lance points out a very important fact: "The internet never forgets." It also makes people more accountable for their actions off of their blog, such as a professor in my department that made a racist remark about Indians, or the high school teacher that had his epitaph of Bush bashing recorded. My response to this is more about how much weight we should give to blogs, basically not much. While it is publicly available media, it is not peer reviewed and usually not official in any respect. And to any readers who have a problem with a blog (mine especially) I encourage them to send a private message and let them know. Bloggers are amateurs, we don't know when we really offend someone so be brave and let us know, politely.

Art in motion

I mostly wanted to see how this works, but I like the video too.

When tolerance turns into intolerance of the intolerant

Maybe I'm being judgmental, but the Chicago Tribune reports that the Dutch are now requiring an entrance exam, which seems pretty intolerant to me:

The Dutch entrance exam, which became mandatory last month, has been praised by politicians who believe it is a good way of screening out people who are not suited to live in the Netherlands.

But it seems that the Dutch are doing this because they are afraid of the intolerance of Muslim lifestyle and this measure is one of many "symptoms of panic and anxiety." But I guess my question would be, does this really work? While I would agree that there are certain customs of certain Muslims that should be banned, such as honor killings or female circumcision, but it seems that the article portrays a general sense: If you don't embrace our counter-conservative culture, you aren't good enough for us. In the wake of all the immigration marches in our country and around the world, the Dutch government seems to be showing its colors with such an act of patriotic elitism. Tell me again why the progressive European movement is so awesome?

Troops

Funny video, although my wife says it's kinda old: Troops. My only question is why does the storm trooper speak like a Chicagoan?

Aha so you do read my blog

So very often I have engaged in activities where I did not receive so much feed back from my audience, radio show host, physics Olympics organizer, teacher, to name a few times. But now I know that more than three people (Patrick, Dave, and my wife) read my blog. Hehe I guess I know in a very real way when I get to discuss my opinions with my classmates over a beer.

Let me say one thing is for sure, there is a lot of safety sitting behind the blogger API as oppose to on the spot. Not that I don't think that I can defend myself on the spot, but I really like this idea of thinking more fully through my responses. And let me tell you, some of my responses today were pretty silly. I guess that is what you have to do when you aren't convincing someone of what you have to say.

But anywho, discussion is fun. Over beer is even better. But if you are reading my blog, let me know or better yet put it in the comment box. Of course, I really like the comment box because I can moderate there MUHAHAHA.

NEW FUN COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME

Escapa! Hehe I got 19.5 s which prooves I'm brilliant =D

TOO MANY THINGS TO DO

So I just have too many things going on now a days to keep up with my blog. But never fear, I have been stuck on several homework problems for a while now so I do the only natural thing to do ... slack off and pretend it is all done.

In fact I think I found my second calling last night. A professional chef. Well singing and writing will never work out so I gotta do something artistic. But cooking makes me happy and at least I know that I am pretty good at it. Last night I prepared a pretty fancy meal for some priests at my parish. They seemed to really like it so much that I am getting tired of people saying thank you ... not! Yeah go ahead and tell me how good my food is.

I know between my last post and this one I had a bunch of things to say, but I can't remember any of them. I was contacted by a principal for a new KIPP school. I will go for an interview and all that but unless it really feels like what I should do I probably won't. My classes are going okay right now. I bombed my quiz in Architecture but I had a headache and was tired, it doesn't really matter.

Me a hero ... yeah I can see it =D

You scored as Maximus. After his family was murdered by the evil emperor Commodus, the great Roman general Maximus went into hiding to avoid Commodus's assassins. He became a gladiator, hoping to dominate the colosseum in order to one day get the chance of killing Commodus. Maximus is valiant, courageous, and dedicated. He wants nothing more than the chance to avenge his family, but his temper often gets the better of him.

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

UofC blaming who?

So apparently there was this party at the UofC that has gotten the administration and the black student population in a ruff. Some white kids had a party where they dressed like thugs, drank 40s, and listened to rap music. Then when some black students came they were appalled at the party.

Now what is the real issue here, that these kids were acting like all black people are thugs or that they were mimicking what they see in pop culture? In reaction to the party, there is going to be a large meeting on campus about race relations, which is a good thing, but my problem is that the community is shocked at the this party when it is exactly what the entertainment industry has been selling for the last twenty years. For example check out the billboard for 50 cent's new movie. And he is right when he says that it is no worse than any other action movie, he is just being targeted for criticism.

What I hope is that this might be a societal marker where the black community looks at what people are told is black culture and decides to change it. Not change the culture, because it is so much more, but the narrow image that the "selling rock or hoop shot" ideology is the only thing that preserves in black communities. And for the UofC to realize that the reason there are so few blacks on campus is not necessary because we are racist, but we hold students to standards that not easily attained without proper preparation. Preparation that is more accessible to rich white people, and that needed to be changed, 200 years ago.

A beautiful story

Okay so you might not agree in all fronts but overall I like this story:

Jail Escapee Gives up at Bar

The man stops his crime spree because he is worried about his daughter. Some might call it a moment of weakness when he gave himself to the FBI but others might call it epiphany. A drastic change that will carry him throughout his life. I pray that he has the courage and strength to carry the change to all parts of his life.

Which brings me to the problem of crime that most people don't really consider. Most criminals have been the victims of crime at one point in their lives. They buy into a life that has immediate perks with an associated cost of jail time. But when you visit people in jail they almost uniformly say that they are sorry for what they did and plan on changing their lives. Except when they get out they have to deal with the same problems that put them where they were to begin with. This is why half way houses and jail ministries are so important to give people like the man in this article support in his courageous move towards truth. I would love to believe that I would be strong enough to make such a change in my life, but alas it is one of those things that I never want to test. Maybe that is a good thing.

Me in Nethack

..)?...
...d...
.......

If I were a NetHack monster, I would be a little dog. I'm a loyal and trusting companion, always ready to protect my friends. Even if they do feed me tripe, sometimes.

Which NetHack Monster Are You?