| Sunday, July 5th, 2009 |
| 6:15 pm |
Getting what I want the hard way.
For my birthday present to myself, I purchased the Ipod Touch 2.2OS upgrade. Naturally about a month later Apple came out with 3.0, and I've been whining about it ever since. The ipod developed problems recently. Today I took it to the local Apple store, where they gave me a free replacement, thanks to the Applecare warranty extension that ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) chaiya and hakamadare gave me. The new replacement had the 1.5 version of the OS on it. I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how to get the 2.x version of the OS back, before finally stumbling across a chat link in the Apple store. After discovering the chat doesn't work in Firefox (but does in Safari) I talked to an Apple tech. He told me that in this sort of situation he normally puts the OS back in the purchase queue to let me download it, but that he couldn't do that in this case. So he is refunding me the money for the purchase, which co-incidentally happens to be the same amount as the upgrade from 1.5 to 3.0 will cost me. So I get my free upgrade to 3.0 after all. Yay! Current Mood:  chipper |
| Friday, June 12th, 2009 |
| 9:56 am |
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| Thursday, May 28th, 2009 |
| 12:30 pm |
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| Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 |
| 10:38 am |
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| Friday, May 22nd, 2009 |
| 2:52 pm |
My way or the highway?
What a great hack the state of Missouri just did!
However, the legislators did pass a bill meant to tweak the Springfield chapter of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement. According to a report in Sunday's Springfield News-Leader, Rep. Sara Lampe (D-Springfield) got an amendment added to a transportation bill designating a portion of West Bypass from Farm Road 142 to West Sunshine as the "Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Memorial Highway."
That was the portion of roadway the NSM'ers "adopted" last fall by pledging to regularly pick up litter there. Signs marking such "adoptions" are then erected by the state Department of Transportation. The DOT didn't think it could turn down the NSM request without infringing on the group's First Amendment rights.
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| Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 |
| 9:08 am |
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| Sunday, May 17th, 2009 |
| 10:35 pm |
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| Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 |
| 10:28 pm |
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| Thursday, April 30th, 2009 |
| 4:10 pm |
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| Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 |
| 12:57 pm |
Life and Death are in the power of the tongue
The girl was not just standing there. Obviously she was considering whether or not to do it. She rose to her toes and then went flat footed again several times. Finally I couldn't take the suspense. "Jump!" I yelled, and she did. She rose a tiny distance, not even enough to begin a flying fantasy, and then the drop began. I don't have any guilty feelings - she had free will, she didn't have to do what I said. But really, should I have gotten involved at all? ( Context below ) |
| Thursday, March 26th, 2009 |
| 2:01 pm |
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| Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 |
| 1:35 pm |
Someone is wrong on the internet!
Lured by a metaquotes post, I was browsing through the ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) antitheism community. I found an example of bad reasoning (in support of a conclusion I agree with *sigh*). I went to post a reply when I discovered that the community only allows members to post. So I thought I would post it here instead:
I saw this question posed in one of the threads from your group, and I'd be curious to know how you would answer it: "A final scenario: you're in a burning room. Equally distant from you are a young child and a freeze unit containing 500 fertilized embryos. You can only carry one out with you. Do you save the one real, existing child, or the 500 "potential" children who will spend the rest of their "lives" waiting in freezers to be incinerated anyway?"
Well, if you're saving the child, you're basically admitting that you value the lives of people more than the lives of embryos. If ESC ends up helping us find a cure for cancer then wouldn't that be akin to saving the child? Not trying to research to our full extent is basically like saying "oh well we won't try to save the child if it means we have to destroy the 500 embryos."Um, no. What if the choice was between saving the child and saving a lottery ticket that if you won might enable you to set up a charity that saved hundreds of children's lives? The point is that the actual child, here and now, outweighs the chance that you might win the lottery and only then be able to save the children. Similarly, you can't weigh the value of a cure for cancer against the value of the children/stem cells - rather you have to weigh chance of finding a cure via ESC * the value of the cancer cure against the value of the children stem cells. I'm by no means convinced your friend has studied the issue enough to correctly assign a weight to that probability, but I think sound argumentation is valuable in its own right. |
| Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 |
| 9:40 am |
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| Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 |
| 1:11 pm |
Triumph of General Zod - take 2
Based on The Triumph of General LuddNo more chant your old rhymes about old Robin Hood His feats I do little evoke I'll sing the achievements of General Zod Now the hero of Krypton's Revolt. The son of Jor-El was sentenced to die By unanimous vote of the trade And Zod who cannot a position defy Was the grand executioner made Whether flying through space or under the sea Or in Arctic Solitude's room Zod makes him kneel down by night and by day And nothing can soften Kal's doom When the whole race of Krypton's no longer oppressed Then shall Zod sheath his conquering sword Be his grievance instantly met with redress Than peace shall be quickly restored Let the folk of New Krypton lend their aid and advice Never ere their assistance withdraw Till the son of Jor-El pays an old-fashioned price Well established by custom and law |
| 1:09 pm |
The Triumph of General Zodd
Based on The Triumph of General LuddNo more chant your old rhymes about old Robin Hood His feats I do little evoke I'll sing the achievements of General Zod Now the hero of Krypton's Revolt. The son of Jor-El was sentenced to die By unanimous vote of the trade And Zod who cannot a position defy Was the grand executioner made Whether flying through space or under the sea Or in Arctic Solitude's room Zod makes him kneel down by night and by day And nothing can soften Kal's doom When the whole race of Krypton's no longer oppressed Then shall Zod sheath his conquering sword Be his grievance instantly met with redress Than peace shall be quickly restored Let the folk of New Krypton lend their aid and advice Never ere their assistance withdraw Till the son of Jor-El pays an old-fashioned price Well established by custom and law |
| Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 |
| 11:46 am |
Coming to Boskone
I've been letting this get out by dribs and drabs, but in case anyone else cares I will be there for Boskone. I'm sharing a hotel room for Friday and Saturday night. I have no plans for Friday night dinner (it will be in my room but guests are welcome). Saturday night I am eating with hakamadare but others are welcome. After the con on Sunday I hope to join up with Stan and Skia, and I will drive back on Monday. Anyone interested in making social plans feel free to contact me here or via my cell at the hotel (PM me for the cell number). |
| Monday, February 9th, 2009 |
| 1:55 pm |
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| 12:15 pm |
Tu B'Shevat
I celebrated Tu B'shavat by ordering a dried fruit and nut stuffed paratha from the new fleishic Indian restaurant in Teaneck. It was very good, but very sweet. I also atteneded Khal Chassidim's tish, which consisted of eating exotic fruits, singing some songs (they knew one Tu B'shvat song and then it was back to generic Yboneh Beit Hamikdash, etc.), and talking about the 4 new years in the Jewish calendar. I gave Reb Mechial a copy of a Tu B'shvat seder to take with him - hopefully next year they may be open to trying to do some of it as well. Afterwards YM (the crazy Satmar-with-NK-leanings) and EG (the M.O. guy with the feminist wife) and I talked about ontology , free will vs. determinism, and hashgacha pratis. One amusing note - YM made a comment about my age (he's in his late twenties I would guess) and lack of vigor and I replied "When I was your age I was a lot like you. No one ever strangled me, and that thought gives me the strength to endure you today." He was vastly amused - he generally feels I have too flat an affect. |
| Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 |
| 4:53 pm |
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| Thursday, January 29th, 2009 |
| 12:55 pm |
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