| New blog |
[Jul. 13th, 2004|01:04 am] |
I've made a new blog, with the name "Mystery cult" which presently (after Midnight) sounds better than "crazyjames" but which will sound shit in the morning. Though still better than "crazyjames".
Here it is: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=88.8) mysterycult
If you want to keep reading my continuing adventures, update your friends list accordingly. |
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| Lying Feynman |
[Jul. 6th, 2004|12:32 am] |
Richard Feynman:
We have learned a lot from experience about how to handle some of
the ways we fool ourselves. One example: Millikan measured the
charge on an electron by an experiment with falling oil drops, and
got an answer which we now know not to be quite right. It's a
little bit off, because he had the incorrect value for the
viscosity of air. It's interesting to look at the history of
measurements of the charge of the electron, after Millikan. If you
plot them as a function of time, you find that one is a little
bigger than Millikan's, and the next one's a little bit bigger than
that, and the next one's a little bit bigger than that, until
finally they settle down to a number which is higher.
Why didn't they discover that the new number was higher right away?
It's a thing that scientists are ashamed of--this history--because
it's apparent that people did things like this: When they got a
number that was too high above Millikan's, they thought something
must be wrong--and they would look for and find a reason why
something might be wrong. When they got a number closer to
Millikan's value they didn't look so hard. And so they eliminated
the numbers that were too far off, and did other things like that.
We've learned those tricks nowadays, and now we don't have that
kind of a disease.
We don't have that kind of a disease anymore? Lying Feynman! I'm not cured of it. It frequently horrifies me that, though my programs are riddled with bugs, I only ever go looking for bugs when I get results that are different from what I expected. All the bugs that give me the results I was expecting get stay in there. |
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| More Saddam |
[Jul. 5th, 2004|09:13 pm] |
Foolish Saddam! Instead of pumping iron, you should have been stuffing doughnuts and acquiring an unhealthy pallor, in order to pull a Milosevic and have your show trial delayed on grounds of ill health.
And we all thought you were cunning. |
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| Furries |
[Jul. 5th, 2004|09:02 pm] |
The mighty Langford notes without comment:
Lisanne Norman won one of furry fandom's Ursa Major awards for Between Darkness and Light (2003), as Best Anthropomorphic Novel.
I am troubled by anthropomorphic animal, er, enthusiasts. As the mighty Sjoberg once remarked,
It's quite possible to enjoy furries for the fun and amusement they provide without having it turn into a sticky sexual fantasy, in the same sense that it's possible to stand in line for three days for tickets to a Star Wars movie without owning a toy lightsaber.
I am troubled that there are furry novels. I am troubled that there are enough of these, with a large enough fanbase, that awards are organised. I am troubled that furry fans are self-confident enough to go about the organisation of awards, and to publicise the fact.
Still, it takes all sorts. As Sjoberg went on to remark:
[I do not mean to] malign perversion for perversion's sake. Heck, given the modern standards of beauty, longing to have sex with a full-figured otter woman is only slightly less realistic than wanting to have sex with a supermodel.
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| Dalek attack! |
[Jul. 2nd, 2004|08:49 pm] |
I was assaulted today by a foot-high remote-controlled Dalek. That was the high-point of my day.
The second highest point was spam. Spam is getting ever more cunning. The insertion of random words into spam is a well-established method; the dictionaries used for this generally seem to be stocked with exceptionally pleasing words, so you get things like "iridescent embolism glosses philately". But the latest development seems to be whole sentences randomly cropped from data files and thrown in. This method seems to be behind my latest piece of spam, sent by that master-spammer Arcturus Q. Hallucinogens. I particularly like the way that toward the end the random sentences seem to be subtly warning you against the spam.
From: Arcturus Q. Hallucinogens (dare@ilovepussygalore.com)
Subject: Long maraphons..
And a very good morning to you! :)
Lovers of air travel find it exhilarating to hang poised between the illusion of immortality and the fact of death.
Those whom true love has held, it will go on holding.
You have enjoyed VlaCra and wish for a longer effect? GIAIis can make it happen.
Enjoy It! cystoepithelioma shams stacy clapped
Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.
Nothing resembles an honest man more than a cheat.
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| Saddam's beard |
[Jul. 2nd, 2004|12:17 am] |
I love Saddam's natty new beard. It doesn't have the "crazy old wino" vibe of his previous beard, but it retains the key advantage of that beard- making him look less like Saddam Hussein, the notorious evil dictator, one of the few people in the world who can make the sentence "George Bush is the real criminal!" sound silly.
Whatever the shortcomings of the occupation, and the likely shortcomings of whatever trial process they stick him through, it is rather satisfying to see the bastard standing in the dock.
I note that "Saddam Hussein also spoke about himself, as he often does, in the third person." ([ Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<a [...] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3858539.stm">') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.] I love Saddam's natty new beard. It doesn't have the "crazy old wino" vibe of his previous beard, but it retains the key advantage of that beard- making him look less like Saddam Hussein, the notorious evil dictator, one of the few people in the world who can make the sentence "George Bush is the real criminal!" sound silly. Whatever the shortcomings of the occupation, and the likely shortcomings of whatever trial process they stick him through, it is rather satisfying to see the bastard standing in the dock. I note that "Saddam Hussein also spoke about himself, as he often does, in the third person." (<a href=""http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3858539.stm">BBC</a>). It's good to see evil megalomaniacs acting according to stereotype! |
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| Football shenanigans |
[Jun. 29th, 2004|08:11 pm] |
BBC online's silly-news-item slot features a story about a photo of David Beckham on display in an exhibition being defaced with the words "you loosers" (sic).
The defacement would seem to be superfluous; the photo carries its own commentary. Our mighty penalty-taker is standing in front of a sign saying "DO NOT USE IN THE EVENT OF AN EMERGENCY". |
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| New username |
[Jun. 28th, 2004|09:49 pm] |
I plan to create a new livejournal account with a different username, because crazyjames is shite (it's all Kendrick's fault). It gives the impression that I resemble the office-joker character from the Fast Show. It's probably a true impression, but that's all the more reason to avoid it.
This raises the question of what new username to use. There's plenty of time to think about this, because the "create new account" script appears to be screwed right now.
All screen-names used on the internet fall into one of the following categories:
james232577: I am lazy as crap when choosing names
mystryss_raven_chylde: I am a fourteen year-old female Goth
killer_ninja_of_death: I am a fourteen year-old male Goth
thucydides: I am soooo clever. Look at the brains on me!
electric_panda: I am nearly as wacky as a man called crazyjames!
Actually writing your full name: There's a lot to be said for this, but it makes you horribly Googlable. I'm not sure I want future employers looking this crap up.
So that's what I have to pick from. Pedants will point out that it's trivial to think of shitloads of names that don't fall into any of those categories, but I will leave such small-minded people to their pedantry. All suggestions for names/naming categories will be graciously received, then rejected on grounds of "not invented here" and cast ignominiously into a dungheap. |
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