~p.sinter - roots, branches, leaves

Word of the day: weltanschauung

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:42:00 -0400

Weltanshauung (pronounced VELT-ahn-show-ung): A comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world, especially from a specific standpoint. Related mini-podcast here.

Taken from the German worlds for World (Welt) and View (Anschauung). Use in conjunction with Schadenfreude for an incredibly potent combination.

[taken from Merrian-Webster’s Word of the Day. Thanks to the keepers of the tongue.]

Build yer own damn rollercoaster… like this guy… and...

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:16:50 -0400

Build yer own damn rollercoaster… like this guy…

and then invite me over plzkthx <3

The Hype Machine

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:43:00 -0400

The Hype Machine:

Fantastic music aggregator with wonderously slick design. Beats tunage by a margin of at least 1,000:1 …because you know, it’s taking loads of loves into account.

Look at the tracks i’ve loved — something anyone can have over there by signing up. Has very nice last.fm integration too.

"Rule One: Concepts are connected by analogy. There is no way to decide at once whether an analogy..."

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:40:27 -0400

“Rule One: Concepts are connected by analogy. There is no way to decide at once whether an analogy is good or bad, because to some degree everything is connected to everything else. For example, potato crosses with apple, because both are vegetable and round in shape. From apple to snake, by Biblical association. From snake to doughnut, by formal likeness. From doughnut to life preserver, and from life preserver to bathing suit, then bathing to sea, sea to ship, ship to shit, shit to toilet paper, toilet to cologne, cologne to alcohol, alcohol to drugs, drugs to syringe, syringe to hole, hole to ground, ground to potato.”

- Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1989, P.618

from Fermilab’s plan for the next ten years. A nice...

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:15:00 -0400

from Fermilab’s plan for the next ten years. A nice graphic.

From the Introduction:

Particle physics is a central component of the physical sciences, focused on the fundamental nature of matter and energy, and of space and time. Discoveries in this field, often called high-energy physics, will change our basic understanding of nature. The Standard Model of particle physics provides a remarkably accurate description of elementary particles and their interactions. However, experiment and observation strongly point to a deeper and more fundamental theory that breakthroughs in the coming decade will begin to reveal.

(PDF Link)

Let’s hope it results in some functional clues.

Gettysberg Cemetary Dedication

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:18:00 -0400

Gettysberg Cemetary Dedication:

A Powerpoint Presentation by Peter Norvig.

(thx bassmint)

One of my favorite bits from a recently liberated man. . R.I.P,...

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:06:15 -0400

One of my favorite bits from a recently liberated man.

. R.I.P, George (you magnificent bastard.)

Perspectivity

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:38:00 -0400

Those that know me know i’m an overthinking, under-rested weirdo. I’m prone to speculate on everything from the color of a sound, the solidity of an idea, or the true transparency of light. My upbringing has given me a very skewed scope, i admit. My education has also told me that there’s no such thing as a true scope either. Somewhere through my experience i’ve come to believe that it’s good to realize that everyone’s experience is viable and changeable, and i try to keep this idea in play even as we’re volleying anything.

This type of perspective often throws people off. It’s made me think that most of the time people suspect that an opinion or idea must be genuinely believed in to even be talked about or considered. It makes me seem as though i’m merely arguing to get someone angry. Tends to place me at odds with empiricists whom are so certain that any questioning beyond their totemic library of personal [worldly?] experience is often seen as an affront to their intelligence or identity — as if my proposal is given as the one true way. And that’s it.

Said before, i’ll say again: I’m a simple man, but the ways in which i must interface with the world are becoming ever more sinuous and complex. I think that’s a healthy way to be, really! But i won’t try to sell you on it right here.

While playing the devil’s advocate, I guess my true motivation is not to be seen as the devil at all, but moreso a mere magnifying glass or means to catalyze a set of loosely formed opinions, to reflect and re-process things that might have more streamlined/elegant answers. When a viewpoint obviously stunts a person’s perspective, it might be worth nudging that wall to make sure it’s not a heap of cracked dust just ready for demolition.

How this applies to you, dear reader, i’m not quite certain. Been on this trip (and all thoughts are trips, you hippies) for most of the day and i’m merely releasing the steam before it comes out jagged.

A good example of this stance is captured in the following interview with Arthur C. Clarke, (taken from the July, 1986 issue of Playboy magazine):

ON MYSTICISM:
PLAYBOY: You write about the mind’s transcending, leaving behind, its material organic base, as you put it. Why do you regard the departure for the physical realm — leaving planet Earth — as desirable?
CLARKE: I guess that it’s just hard to imagine another direction in which to go. I hope I’m making sense. I guess it’s just pure laziness on my part — I should think of a new evolutionary outcome. But I’m very much against any form of irrationality and mysticism. I guess I’m a mystic who’s against mysticism.
PLAYBOY: What does that mean?
CLARKE: I’m so very sorry you asked that question.
PLAYBOY: Why?
CLARKE: It’s tough to explain. This universe is so incredible, and we constantly find new things out; but what we know may be such a small part of reality, if, indeed, reality is finite — it may be infinite. But one must always allow for the totally unexpected. So, in a way, talking about things that could be called mystical — well, I guess, I do try to allow for the idea that, as the famous scientist J.B.S. Haldane once said, “The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it’s queerer than we can suppose.” I’ve changed the word queer to strange, because, of course, the word queer has taken on a different context. And that calls to mind what I call Clarke’s Third Law, which is “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” — by which I mean things we take for granted now, such as transistor radios, that would be totally baffling, totally magical to even a man like Thomas Edison. I mean, if he saw a pocket computer, Edison would go totally crazy. He’d spend his whole life trying to figure out, “How does this work?”

—To put it another way, a person’s perspective is dependent on so many variables (that are psychoplastic, or practically infinitely changeable) that anything you could possibly think of as being the “end-all, be-all” of is absurd.

In summation, Keep mutating those brainmeats. Don’t get too hung up on anything. Solidity is for the walls.

Sometimes it speaks of the day’s events.

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:58:38 -0400

Sometimes it speaks of the day’s events.

phylum sinter - sun stands still [monobirdy] draft1.1a A draft...

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:39:00 -0400

phylum sinter - sun stands still [monobirdy] draft1.1a

A draft for the longest day of the year.

[PLZ2BUY4MEKTHX Dept.] Ampbot: the mother of all Rollys

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:47:00 -0400

[PLZ2BUY4MEKTHX Dept.] Ampbot: the mother of all Rollys:

Hasbro and Sega have teamed up to launch the Ampbot, the best toy i’ve seen in years. It’s essentially a Segway-type robot that is smart enough to follow you around while it handles music (via mp3 player hookup, stereo speakers and whatnot). It stands about 2.5 feet high and runs on batteries. The $500 buddy is literally something i’d sell a toe for. Any takers?

Short video demonstration at Engadget here.

PLEASE?

Puzzle Farter

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:32:00 -0400

Puzzle Farter:

[from the LOL, INTERNET Dept.]:

Wicked graphics circa 1989? Check.
High-Detail particle FX? Check buddy buddy.
Fart joke? A PLENTIFUL BOUNTY.

I’ve got loads of violent, sophisticated, and surreal games, but at the end of the day all i want is a simple butt-propellant simulator.

…I Smell a sequel?

Vote for this on current.tv here. Detroit <3

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:03:50 -0400

Vote for this on current.tv here.

Detroit <3

Video

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 06:52:30 -0400

Oxala / Obatala

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:07:40 -0400

Oxala / Obatala:

The main link above is a primer for the Obatala/Oxala faith.

This religion is [according to Umberto Eco’s account in Foucault’s Pendulum] an amalgamation of many faiths, filtered through the minds of the enslaved in South America.

In the book, the main character Cassaubon is in the Bahia State, now known as Brazil. While there he stumbles upon someone [who may be the Compte De St. Germain] who invites him to a Candomblé ritual wherein they discuss the religious Syncretism that has occured pretty much all throughout history… and that the important thing beyond the images or symbols used, is to venerate the force they represent.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Jordan Maxwell

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:12:03 -0400

Jordan Maxwell:

From the site:

“Jordan Maxwell continues as a preeminent researcher and speaker in the fields of secret societies, occult philosophies, and ufology since 1959.”

Semi-related: I am reading Foucault’s Pendulum right now. You should, too.

Word of the Day: Apophenia

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:03:54 -0400

“Apophenia is the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. The term was coined in 1958 by Klaus Conrad, who defined it as the “unmotivated seeing of connections” accompanied by a “specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness”.

Jupiter’s Red Spots, as seen from Hubble’s Wide...

Tue, 27 May 2008 19:06:55 -0400

Jupiter’s Red Spots, as seen from Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.

Related Article from Space.com - ‘Jupiter’s Spots Change Dramatically’

Hurricane Gordon [from September 17th, 2006] as seen from the...

Tue, 27 May 2008 19:03:22 -0400

Hurricane Gordon [from September 17th, 2006] as seen from the International Space Station.

Huge version here

We are Biology, and we are not only tough, but weird and echoy.

Mon, 26 May 2008 23:28:12 -0400

We are Biology, and we are not only tough, but weird and echoy.