What a wonderful little program JHymn is. Basically you read the instructions, then you run it and next thing you know all of your iTunes Music Store music has had its DRM stripped. Now I can play it on any device that I want and I don't have to worry about which computers are "authorized" and which aren't. So simple, so easy.

Planet Twinkie - Recipe Box

Hostess Twinkies Sushi

The New York Times reports on the rise of military channels, both independent and run by the Pentagon, talking about all things war-like.

The Human Clock is this cool collaborative site in which people send in photos of a particular time. Like a photo of Scrabble letters spelling out "Nine Twenty-One". Then when you go to visit the website, it chooses a picture based on the current time. So it's a huge collaborative photo taking exercise to take pictures of every time in the day. Cool project: humanclock.com

"These durable spheres can be hung from the trees as shown, making a treehouse. They could also be hung from any other solid objects or placed in cradles on the ground. There are four attachment points on the top of each sphere and another four anchor points on the bottom. Each of the attachment points is strong enough to carry the weight of the entire sphere and contents.  "

How cool are these!

Buy one now!

Nothing satisfies like a fine cup of coffee.

From: The LondonTimes Online - Comment

"The US will continue to regard the threat posed by radical Islamists, the dangers of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the behaviour of rogue states such as North Korea with more urgency than France and Germany. These countries should ask themselves whether their assessment of these perils is so much more modest because of evidence, or the inconvenience that acknowledging their intens-ity would entail. They might also ponder what it is about the promotion of freedom that they regard as so alien and objectionable."

Good point. Freedom good. (Oh by the way, War bad.)

News hit the 'net today that Rolling Stone has refused to publish an ad for a Bible that Zondervan is publishing. It is a translation-for-modern-times or some such slightly dangerous endeavor, but actually a real product for sale.

What is fascinating to me is that this is the exact same situation that Ad Busters finds itself in. (Read more about it here) They want to run ads that point out the ridiculous consumption trap that North Americans are in.

Adbusters and Zondervan are very different organizations whose messages I agree with: Corporations will destroy my freedom in the name of making money and Christ offers true hope. Adbusters is a far left, anti-corporate organization. Zondervan is a far right, pro-Christian organization. Zondervan sells stuff. Adbusters is about ideas. Neither of them can get their message into the media because the media doesn't like the message. Adbusters can't run ads that disparage consumption because the television stations depend on consumption to fuel advertising to buy ads to bring in revenue. Zondervan can't run an ad for a Bible because Rolling Stone thinks their audience will stop buying their magazine if they do. If your message is hostile to the corporations that control the media you do not get access to the media. Media corporations are controlling the message.

And in particular they are restricting the important messages that people need to hear.

Apparently Rolling Stone has relented and is now going to run the ad. Interesting... I wonder if the blog world response had anything to do with that?

This is a great little animated movie about procrastination. I had to upload it before I could get my stuff done. I'm not sure where it came from, but there are some credits in the beginning. Download movie

There has been quite a range of weather in Seattle recently. A little snow, a little torrential downpour, a little sun .. clearly caused by global warming. Anyway on the way onto campus yesterday, a cold snap caused the Drumheller fountain to freeze over. The ducks had nowhere to float. I snapped this camera phone shot to commemorate the somewhat rare event.

I started reading an advanced computer science textbook today on some specific types of machine learning and I noticed that the book opened with a discussion about how complex our biological brains are at recognizing patterns. The authors commented that we regularly perform very difficult pattern recognition tasks without a second thought and it was because "we have evolved highly sophisticated neural and cognitive systems for such tasks."

That made think about how absurd it is to talk about evolution using a phrase like "we have evolved." Regardless of the motive force in our evolution, it is only a drastically misplaced reverence of ourselves as humans that would cause us to develop such a vocabulary. We have had nothing to do with our evolution. If anything "we have been evolved" by something. I am inclined to see that force as an active and personal God. One may attempt to disagree with this, but in such case one must believe it is an innate characteristic of our world that evolves us. It any event, it is wrong to suggest it is ourselves.

Therefore from now on I am going to refer to the process of our species arriving where it is in the following terms: "We have been evolved...", as in, "We have been evolved such that we can recognize sophisticated patterns without a second thought." It is a slightly awkward, but more accurate phrasing.

This is so great! It's an action figure set that lets you create your own cubicle farm. I want. I want. It even comes with stickers to create your own wierd office titles like "Domestic Marketing Processor" and "Inter Information Specialist". There is a terrific website for them also. Click here.

There is a great page up at the Atari Times showing a modern adaptation of the classic Atari game "Adventure". The old version was a low-res masterpiece, in my opinion. The modern version recreates low-res in high-res!

The Online Computer Library Center has compiled a top 1000 list of the most widely held library books in it's member's catalogs. The complete listing can be found here: OCLC Top 1000

If the value of intellectual worth is considered on the basis of what people are willing to buy, then the top ten intellectual works published as books are:

1. The Bible
2. The Census
3. Mother Goose
4. Divine Comedy
5. The Odyssey
6. The Iliad
7. Huckleberry Finn
8. The Lord of the Rings
9. Hamlet
10. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

The academic wallets have spoken.

Q: How many hipsters does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A: What, you mean you don't KNOW??????