But even here in America we are starting to have problems:

Soon enough we are all going to have to decide between water and power. What really worries me is I have no idea who is going to make that decision.

blogactionday.change.org

[via information aesthetics]

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Animal of the Month: Immortal Jellyfish

‘Immortal’ jellyfish swarming across the world – Telegraph

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In second place is: Giant meat-eating plants prefer to eat tree shrew poo - BBC – Earth News

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A Softer World: 395

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[via Don't Panic > Magazine > Desire > THE BLACK HEART GANG]

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Beautiful and depraved: “Absolutely amazing.  Welcome back Massive Attack. And Mazzy Star. Two of the most iconic performers I’ve ever experienced.  And then this woman.  Wow.” Not safe for work. [if that link isn't working, the video is here too.]

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[via Whitezine]

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“Perhaps nothing has been more influential in determining the popular perception of the Italian game than furbizia, the art of guile… The word ‘furbizia’ itself means guile, cunning or astuteness. It refers to a method which is often (and admittedly) rather sly, a not particularly by-the-book approach to the performative, tactical and psychological part of the game. Core to furbizia is that it is executed by means of stratagems which are available to all players on the pitch, not only to one team. What are these stratagems? Here are a few: tactical fouls, taking free kicks before the goalkeeper has finished positioning himself, time-wasting, physical or verbal provocation and all related psychological games, arguably even diving… Anyone can provoke an adversary, but it takes real guile (real furbizia) to find the weakest links in the other team’s psychology, then wear them out and bite them until something or someone gives in – all without ever breaking a single rule in the book of football.

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Ultimately, these differences come from two irreconcilable visions of the game. The Spanish style understands football as something like a fencing match, a rapid and meticulous art of noble origins where honour is the brand of valour. To the Italians, football is more like an ancient battle, a primal and inclement bronze-age scenario where survival rules over honour.

But this just begs the question: why are the visions of the game so different in nations that are geographically and culturally so close?

Rajiv Sethi: Gamesmanship and Collective Reputation [via]

[via Core77]

If the climate changes rapidly enough, the human race is finished.  If the climate does not change quite that rapidly, we’ve got other problems.

For the sake of argument, let us assume that we are not beings in some religious pantheon, but are merely biological organisms of this Earth.  If the climate changes, i.e. if nature as we know it no longer exists, then how are we to think of ourselves?

For our entire history we have lived within a climate that is amenable to us.  Living in a new climate would be like living on an alien planet, without hope of returning to Earth.  The problem is:  we are not aliens, we’re Earthlings.  If we are not Earthlings, what are we?  Hence the problem of climate change is more than a problem of our survival, it is an existential problem of our species.

We don’t need any more existential problems, and since this is one preventable, lets do something about it.

The short version is that I’ve made computers try to survive the real world.  By real world, I mean my program contains lots of little files that make decisions, and these decisions are about buying and selling stocks, based upon actual real-time data available on the internet.  The decision engines (or ‘orgs’, as I like to call them) that correctly predict the movement of the stocks make money and eventually replicate.  Those orgs that are unsuccessful at predicting stock movements lose money and die off.  The replication process is governed by genetic algorithms that include various mutations.

The short short version is that the program is a cross between a stock market program and a tomagotchi (digital pet).  You host a colony of organisms that survive by ‘eating’ (buy and selling) stocks; it acts as your own personal hedge fund.

Anyway, I could use a tester or two, so if anyone here wants to participate, send me an email.  I’ll get around to writing up more details about the program soon too.

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In other news,  I’ve finally gotten around to updating the NYC Area Philosophy Calendar.  Someone even sent me a nice email asking if I was still going to do it (before I got around to it.. busy busy) and another person even asked if they could start adding events.

Hmmm, interest in the calendar (it only took 2 years).  An actual object (program) that came from studying philosophy (original theory of biology, 2004.).  It’s taken some time but I feel like I must be moving up in the world.

… Another alternative would have been to give you what’s called a popular scientific lecture, that is a lecture intended to make you believe that you understand a thing which actually you don’t understand, and to gratify what I believe to be one of the lowest desires of modern people, namely the superficial curiosity about the latest discoveries of science.

This quote is from the beginning of Wittgenstein’s “A Lecture on Ethics” or whatever the untitled transcript of the talk he gave to The Heretics Society is called.  I’ve seen this part of the lecture omitted; admittedly it has little to do with his later arguments.  However, I always felt that this barb was something interesting.

The quote has little force as an argument: it is merely his opinion that a superficial curiosity about the latest discoveries of science is bad.  No contradictions or other nonsense is pointed out, nor does it even evoke a parallel between those he is disparaging and some accepted foul thing.

But it is clear, concise and otherwise totally unlike everything else that Wittgenstein is known for, while touching upon the topics of belief, understanding, science, and desire.  Odd, no?

What the quote is, is a smear; it is an insult:  Calling something a lowest desire, without reason, is merely to insult it.  What’s going on here?

Say I have a superficial curiosity about the latest discoveries of science.  So what?  If the latest scientific research has little to do with my profession, say I’m a restaurateur, then what harm is there in having a passing interest in what other smart people do?  It might even be considered commendable that I make such an effort.

Now Wittgenstein is saying that my earnest effort is nowhere near commendable, but all the way at the bottom, the basest, of desire.  Since he accusing “modern people” it is not just ‘me’, but everyone.  This is insulting and unwarranted.

However, this isn’t exactly what Wittgenstein was after: he disliked superficial curiosity in scientific discoveries not because of the impulse of people to learn and take interest in others, but because it made people believe that they understood a thing which actually they didn’t understand.  Understanding difficult things is an accomplishment, and scientific research is difficult. In enjoying a superficial curiosity about the latest discoveries of science, he is accusing us of feeling a sense of accomplishment when we have done nothing to merit it: he is accusing us of mental masturbation.  Ouch.

We can also now understand why this criticism is “modern”.  Before  modern times, there was no way to have a “popular scientific lecture”: only in the last century or so have we had the communications technology and an available public which allows for such a thing.  You couldn’t expect feudal peasants to leave their farms or be educated enough to appreciate such a lecture.  But by November 1929, the date of this lecture, mass media was in full swing with the wide distribution of newspapers and books, and the start of national radio broadcasts.  Only with widespread media distribution did the danger of popular science becoming a narcotic exist.

Wittgenstein saw that with the modern increase in information distribution capability came a danger of intellectual drugging of the population.  It disgusted him that people would take pleasure from the feeling that they understood difficult theories with which they only had the most superficial engagement.  Unfortunately he had no argument or solution to prevent this, and so he resorted, as we all do when we are out of good arguments, to insults.

One can only think that the internet has made this an even more pervasive problem.  It blows our information distribution capability off the charts.  And we are, unsurprisingly, completely addicted to it.  It’s too bad dear Ludwig never really commented more on modernity, he seems to have been rather perceptive.

Along the same lines Bryan over at Soul Physics has listed some of the few places to find philosophy of science on the net.  Yours truly was pleasantly surprised to make the list.

It’s Only a Theory just asked whether the pure philosopher of science is going the way of the dodo.  This question is of some interest to me because 1) I like philosophy of science but I have only a passing interest in any particular science,  and 2) I’ve gone the way of the dodo:

I never thought I was going to be an academic and it became painfully obvious after a short stint in grad school that being an academic wasn’t for me (or at least the normal academic route isn’t).  Now there are a few reasons for this, but one of them was that doing philosophy of science in the way I saw fit wasn’t going to happen.  The details of physics or biology just aren’t what interest me: I care about what makes theories work and then downwardly applying any results to the sciences.    So I could have been one of these pure phil-sci people, but from my perspective at the time, and apparently it still applies, this won’t get you ahead in academic philosophy.

… but at least my rss reader has some more interesting stuff nowadays, and hopefully yours will too.

I don’t normally post anything that I’ve seen on Digg or Reddit, but this turns jaw dropping at around 1:28  [3:45]: moogaloop.swf

Industrial design:

Orbita Mouse Is One Big Scroll Wheel | Technomix | Fast Company

“Over its forty year life the mouse has seen some interesting re-inventions, and the new Orbita mouse is one that’s eye-catching. Its designers have taken the idea of a scroll wheel and inverted it, making the entire top surface of the mouse into a scroll dial.”

FORA.tv – MythBusters Co-Host Adam Savage on Obsession[16:54]

MythBusters co-host Adam Savage presents a glimpse into the mind of the obsessed and the motivation that drives their obsessions.

Industrial version of the Angel of Death shreds much more than paper – Core77 [multiple videos]

What “Will it Blend?” wants to be when it grows up.

Art:

YouTube – larytta – souvenir de chine – video directed by koerner union[3:13]

Really cool, like a kaleidoscope of animals.

Varini’s Trompe L’oeil | Trend.Land

“I am totally fascinated by Swiss Trompe L’oeil artist Felice Varini whom I just discovered.Dont be fooled by your first percetion of this work. These are not photo rendered images, it is master craft! He has worked on many interior spaces and exterior spaces which are even harder to believe. Varini’s work is comes together in full in only one exact point where the entire geometric calculation is percieved. From anywhere else it looks like some graphic design made of lines, concentric circles, and triangles of color. Here a gallery of some of his works.”

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Graphical Art:

Weeping Willow: Mood-Driven Data Sculptures – information aesthetics

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swissmiss: Typographic study of a-holes

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Dark Roasted Blend: What Kids Wish For

… A hat that would make everyone fall in love with you

Fun:

Human Wrecking Balls [via Core77]

“The stupidest show on TV.”

Welcome to 3EyedBear

I love these things: You print them, cut the piece of paper and glue, and you have a brand new toy in less that 10 minutes! I think this is one of the great successes of modern technology.

Best for last: I watched this thing over and over.[1m] via

I’m not sure if it is the gorgeous priest (this is the first time I’ve had that thought), the overall beauty of it, or the love on their faces. check out this live performance of the song and realize how amazing a singer she is.

Then, one of my teachers told me, “Make a suicide pact with ceramics.” So I took that advice to heart and made a “suicide pact with ceramics.”

That’s hardcore.

Election maps

Really cool visualization break down of the elections.

swissmiss: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

One of my favorite books from childhood.

Toyota IQ x SOMARTA II on Vimeo

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Amazing geared paper heart kinetic sculpture – Core77

Cool video [1:35]

whatever martha – Google Search

I saw watching a TV show called “Whatever, Martha!“  Old ‘Martha Stewart Living’ shows are watched and commented upon Mystery Science Theater 3000 style by Martha Stewart’s daughter Alexis and her friend Jennifer.  It is freaking hilarious.

PingMag – Advanced Beauty: Processed Volatile Moments

Advanced Beauty is a wondrous new DVD compilation comprised of 18 visuals by 20 artists, or rather sound sculptures, as curator Matt Pyke of UK-based Universal Everything would say. These transient pieces made by processing are for us to see how far you can really push the aesthetics of software generated visualisations and play around [...]

BibliOdyssey: Original Winnie The Pooh Drawings

Damn Straight.

….damn straight………………………….

(3:12) [via digg]

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Runner-Up: Pseudo-animals – The Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill

See videos of not-quite animals!

USA

(2:55) via cursivebuildings MUST WATCH

The National Anthem, 1983. Unbelievably good rendition.

YouTube – The Manchurian Candidate (1:26)

Modern presidential politics.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Candidate Comedy

“For those who haven’t seen the footage, McCain and Obama  appeared last night at a charity dinner in New York to roast themselves and each other. Some of it was very, very funny. McCain was really, really funny….  (candidates’ speeches, McCain, Obama – 14:53, 13:39 respectively)

Art and Logic (somehow)

somefield

Awesome vision of Alice in Wonderland (written by a logician, for those who did not know what Lewis Carrol’s day job was.)  [scroll down a little to see the Alice pictures.  And I would be forever in someone's debt if they bought me a print.]

Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes — FIRST PICTURES

Please let this movie not suck (take 2).

PingMag – Levi Van Veluw: What’s That Tree In Your Hair?

“Either you’ll be intrigued by the fascinating way Dutchman Levi van Veluw applies materials on his face, neck and head — or you’ll be kind of appalled by this weird appearance.[...]”

— All I want to know what this man does for Halloween.

Alcohol

Video review for real Duff Beer from The Simpsons | iFoods.tv (1:55)

This is well worth your 2 minutes.

MxMo XXXII Guilty Pleasures – Kalimotxo

I have yet to try this, but judging by the review and the accompanying video (21s), it looks near perfect.

Interactive Fun

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Rachael Ray Corn Porn (1:39)

“Okay, this is one of the funniest videos I’ve ever seen. It’s that evil little succubus Rachael Ray getting all naughty with an ear of corn – and being far more excited about it than any human being should be….

RRRR : Don’t Shoot the Puppy (game)

I haven’t gotten past level 12…

The Associated Press: Video games feature ads for Obama’s campaign

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swissmiss: The Unfinished Swan (1:55)

The Unfinished Swan – Really cool video of the tech demo.  This looks like serious fun!

i’m dead

Paid Notice: Deaths GREENSTEIN, NOAH – New York Times

not really me, but it is an odd site to see your name in the obits.