So I was on the way home with Mouse and bumped into Andrew Colbert playing outside the Bagel Shop. Since I had my Zoom on me, I flipped it on. Check it out. Continue reading “Bagelshop Blues”
On certainty
One of the great motive forces in man’s action is the desire to reduce uncertainty. Almost everything we do can be viewed as “insurance”. We eat now in case we are unable to eat later. We build a roof over our head on a sunny day so that we might be dry in case it rains. We save money for the same reason.
Truth is not a four-letter word
A man claiming to be Truth arrives at the temple, and wishes to meet the Dalai Lama.
Announced, Truth enters, sits, and the two sit long, in silence, examining each other.
Truth eventually breaks the silence, and says: “I am here.”
The Dalai Lama asks: “What took you so long?”
Truth responds: “I did not know what I was, nor where I was to be found.”
Dalai Lama: “Do you know now?”
Truth: “I cannot know.”
Dalai Lama: “Welcome, Truth” Continue reading “Truth is not a four-letter word”
Order, or dark matter?
In a previous post I mention emergent order in freely operating complex systems. In this one I want to make a scientific prediction. I believe that it will be discovered that “dark matter” and “dark energy” do not exist. John Moffat’s arguments in “Reinventing Gravity” are strong. Continue reading “Order, or dark matter?”
What a Beautiful Day
It is a gorgeous day today in Ottawa. When I came out the door to walk the dog there was a cardinal on my frozen(!) birdbath. I love feeding the birds (my birds, I often think), despite the squirrels and those nominal birds, the pigeons. I inherited my birdbath from my parents’ house in Toronto, and it reminds me fondly of my father. It is made of cement, and has a squirrel climbing the base. It came from a peculiar cement casting shop in Fesserton, Ontario, a small town on the way to our cottage on Georgian Bay. My father and mother bought all sorts of stone creatures from this shop and they festooned their “funny farm” near Fesserton with them, a strange property they bought on a whim as it saved us when the weather or the nightfall prevented our getting to the cottage by boat. Now they festoon our house in Ottawa, and having caught the bug, we also have two large lions guarding our front porch bought from the same shop.
Here is a picture I took a while back of some Raspberry Finches enjoying the bath.
The “Free” Internet
There it is folks, as “free” as it is. Click in and try to find yourself (circa 2006).
In an exchange of emails with someone on the topic of the “Free Internet”, some things came up in the discussion I would like to share.
Intelligent life exists elsewhere! Video evidence!
Today as we were chatting on a lazy Saturday morning about stuff Christy bumped into some youtube videos posted by “modelmark”. Here is a link to his youtube channel. What an interesting bunch of ideas and ways of looking at things.
I didn’t want to lose track of modelmark’s videos, so the link is now enshrined here. It seems that modelmark understands things in a similar way to myself. I may choose to comment and expand on his thoughts here…
Enjoy.
ben
PS: Oh, I know, I know, you are massively disappointed that this wasn’t a post about UFOs and extraterrestrials. Ok, ok, ok, I’ll give you some links so you can scratch your insatiable itch:
Continue reading “Intelligent life exists elsewhere! Video evidence!”
Self-organization, Consciousness, and Unintended Consequence
I realize as I read news and think about it and talk about current events with others that there exists a conceptual gap between how I think about things, and how others might, particularly those with whom I disagree on process despite agreeing on desirable outcomes.
I want a peaceful political environment for my children to live in. I would like it if they could freely pursue their dreams and ambitions. I hope that our environment does not degrade, and that in particular we humans do not knowingly excessively degrade it. I hope that our economies will be sufficiently prosperous that we might not suffer hunger and cold. I hope the rule of law persists.
In all these objectives I find myself agreeing with almost everyone I meet. It is in the processes by which we might achieve these objectives that I find myself in disagreement with all but a small few (thanks Christy!). Yet I know I am right. How can this be? Continue reading “Self-organization, Consciousness, and Unintended Consequence”
The Mouse That Roared
Our dog Mouse (our last was Wolf, son of Bear, dog of RedBeard) frequently gets walked at the Bruce Pit dog park in Ottawa. If you have a dog, you should know that they (and you!) are much happier and balanced when well-exercised. No-one reinforces this message in the public eye more and better than Cesar Millan, the “Dog Whisperer”, who will shortly be coming to Canada, and to Ottawa in particular. We would all do well to listen to Cesar’s messages of balance and humility, and to think more about what it all means in the grander context of humans who are in turn subservient to our “masters”, that is, our governments and their public institutions. Continue reading “The Mouse That Roared”
The Mouse That Barked
We are dog-people, and have had dogs pretty much all our respective lives. Our current hound is “Mouse”, a Bernese/Aussie rescue puppy from a pound in Alma, in northern Quebec. (We think we could have stumbled on a new breed, the Bossy 🙂
We thought, given the size of her paws when we first got her, that she was going to be Enor-mouse, but she stopped growing, and thus became simply “Mouse”. Continue reading “The Mouse That Barked”