The Great Firewall of Korea

Yesterday I wanted to play online poker so I fired up my online poker program but it wouldn't connect. I tried a few times and it still wouldn't work. So then I tried to check the website. Which is when I was presented with this.From the picture you can get the general idea of what is going on. I painstakingly typed (why do people put large chunks of important text in images) the Korean into Google translate and got told it meant this

Illegal information (site) for blocking guide
Your party is trying to access illegal content sites are prohibited by law, and it has been blocked access to sites that let you know
This information is information and communication via the ethics committee's deliberation according to the Telecommunication Business Act, it is blocked due to questions regarding the sludge under the charge of the insti

(copied from a chat log from MSM which limits the size of messages, hence the abrupt cut off.)
This really annoys me for a few reasons. First, I haven't been stopped from doing this for the first five months I've been in Korea, so why is it a problem now. Second, nine out of the top ten Google results for "online poker" are not blocked (my site of choice is the only one blocked). Now one of those is Wikipedia, so probably wouldn't get blocked, but the others are sites to play poker and I have indeed since downloaded a different online poker program and used it without incident.

The main reason I'm upset is because I feel this is the action of an overreaching government reaching into an area they have no right to act in. The government is not a nanny meant to look out for each and every one of us. It is not the governments role to decide which web sites and which services I can and can not visit, just as it is not the governments role to decide who I can and can not talk to, nor what I can talk about with those people. I oppose this blocking of access to parts of the internet just as I'm opposed to the great firewall of China and the plans to try and implement such a system in Australia.

When a government creates such restrictions, it is restricting the freedom of it's citizens. It is denying them the freedom to choose what they want to do, who they want to associate with, how they want to associate with others. It is denying them their responsibility for their actions.

Also, when a government creates the means to enforce such restrictions, it is giving itself a great weapon that can be used against the people. Who gets to decide what is not appropriate for the people. The government. I think all would agree that China's massive restrictions on internet access are reprehensible. Why would any democracy want to take it's lead from China of all countries. To those who say that there are things that should be blocked, I tell you that they fall into one of three categories.

One, things that some people who like to enforce their world view on others find offensive, for example, Christians opposing online gambling or internet pornography. This is easily refuted by the fact that this is a free country, where people are free to do what they like. Or more childishly, you're not the boss of me (Senator Fielding please take note).

Two, things people claim are dangerous to some people, such as online gambling (again) or advice on how to commit suicide. This is ultimately a ridiculous argument that generally gets given an easy ride because of the emotions of the people making the claim. However its weakness is shown by changing its focus a little. Everyone would agree that hamburgers are unhealthy, contribute to high cholesterol and thus to increased chances of heart disease, heart attack, and other health risks. So for the benefit of us all, we should ban hamburgers. And while I would be glad to be rid of the red headed clown, I think we can all agree on the ridiculousness of such a claim. It is the responsibility of the individual to control themselves and not make excessively unwise choices, and only if they do, should we as a society then consider temporarily restricting the individual in question. And who knows, maybe someone contemplating suicide would be disturbed by the visceral description of how to slit your wrists and decide that life is worth enduring.

The third category of things that people want blocked on the internet are the truly terrible. Things like child pornography, snuff films and the like. These are terrible, and should be eradicated. However, never take opposing censorship with endorsing these things. The reason this should not be used as an argument for internet censorship is that we already have laws prohibiting this. These are the laws we should use when dealing with the purveyors and consumers of these atrocities. This is true of many situations where we already have laws covering things, and governments use emotional issues to convince people that giving them more power is a good and necessary thing where it is really unneeded and unwise.

On top of all these reasons based on principle, there is also the practical aspect that such restriction never cover everything. Note that I was easily able to visit other sites offering exactly the same services and was playing online poker again in under half an hour, although admittedly the new program is not as sleek as the one I used to use. Blocking only one site of its type is not only pointless, it's stupid. I mean really, when you block only one out of the top ten sites in Google, what's the point. You're really not trying. I'm tempted to try out Tor and see if I can get back onto Full Tilt poker that way.

End Rant
Writing time: 56 minutes
Time since last post: seven days
Current media: iTunes shuffle, currently Sleepy Seven by Bonobo

Mecca Mean Time

Some Muslim scientists have suggested that we should replace Greenwich as the prime meridian with Mecca, because Mecca is the true center of the Earth (unless Mecca is about 6400 kilometers underground, I very much doubt that).

This is a pointless endeavour that just makes these people look small minded and petty. Yes, the reason Greenwich was picked as the prime meridian was due to British supremacy and imperialism in the 19th century. However, after a little over thirty years after England formally adopted the Greenwich as the prime meridian, an international conference approved it as the universal prime meridian by a vote of 22-1 with two abstains (France in a spat of cross channel rivalry continued to use Paris as the prime meridian for a few decades).

This is besides the point though. Nowadays there is no difference between any two locations as a choice of a prime meridian except in one case. The exception is the Greenwich meridian, because all the maps we use today, all our atlases, all our books, all our GPS systems are set up to use the Greenwich meridian as the prime meridian. Changing the prime meridian will serve no useful purpose, and will make millions, perhaps even billions of books outdated and force unnecessary upgrades to all the electronic devices that deal with locations.

There are a number of aspects of how we talk about the world which originated due to the cultural, military or other supremacy of one group out of many. The use of the Greenwich meridian. The birth of Christ as the basis for numbering years. The imperial system of measures. twenty-four hour days. New years day on January first.

These things should not be replaced just because someone feels that they are being discriminated because they're not part of the group that is the origin of those terms. For this reason I don't like the use of CE and BCE instead of AD and BC. In some cases, such as which year is zero, there is no obvious choice of which alternative to pick, so again we should just stick with the one we use now.

The only time we should make the change is when the new is objectively better than the old. Thus we now use the metric system instead of the imperial system. The metric system is much simpler than the imperial system and so is easier to learn and use. It is much better than the imperial system and so we made the change.

Anyway, back to the original topic, with all due respect to the Muslims suggesting this, this is posturing. This is chest beating. It is roaring so that you're heard above the crowd. It's not going to change things. Your arguments are flimsy. For example, the suggestion that Mecca is a better meridian because true north and magnetic north align is not unique to Mecca. The Alaska-Canada border can make the same claim. And the magnetic north pole is not a fixed point. It's motion can be detected and measured. Over the history of the Earth it has moved all over the place, even so far as being at what is now the south pole.

Sure, good on you for being proud of your religion, but don't go suggesting changes that don't actually make things better and just are a lot of trouble to implement. Your preferred sites are no more special than ours, and everyone, not just us, is used to using ours.

End Post
Writing time: 43 minutes
Time since last post: about an hour and a bit
Current media: The Office

PETA does something not quite evil

Generally I think PETA are an example of the nuttier and extreme end of the hippy spectrum, what with throwing paint at people for wearing fur, protesting pounds putting down unwanted animals (if you don't want the animal to be killed, why don't you look after it yourself?), and being against the eating of meat, farming, circuses, fishing, the keeping of pets, the use of animals in medical testing, and aiding the legal defense of arsonists.

Today I heard something that while doesn't really change my opinion of the organization, I don't outright disagree with, and kind of support. PETA is offering a million dollar prize to the "first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012."

I'm generally for pretty much anything that encourages research and development in pretty much any area, and so long as the sponsor is fair in how they administer it, I don't really mind who ponies up the cash (obviously if the prize is blatantly biased to a result that's no good, but that's not a problem for purely technological type prizes).

However, this is the start of a process that I think will split the hippy community (this is noted in the article). There are many different types of hippies. Some are all about loving the animals and not harming their fellow creatures. Others are all about the organic food and that anything purely natural is best (not considering that all of the plants grown as crops are the result of nearly 6000 years of selective breeding). These forces are going to come to a head over this. This is a great way of reducing the number of actual animals needed to feed the world. Thus the animal lovers should be all for this. However the purity squad are going to see this as an abomination that must be stopped. And thus the hippies will be divided.

As to whether or not I'd eat this stuff, I think I'd be willing to give it a go once it is sufficiently developed. Say to the point where it looks, feels and tastes like the real thing.

End Post
Writing time: 29 minutes (I keep getting distracted while I write these things. Computers make it too easy to get distracted.)
Time since last post: 24 hours 46 minutes
Current media: The Office

Pulp Shakespeare

Some guy has rewritten some scenes from Pulp Fiction in the style of Shakespeare. Read and enjoy.

End Post
Writing time: 1 minute
Time since last post: a few hours
Current media: The Office

Proof of Concept

As has been mentioned, I recently got a new camera. Among the bonus stuff they through in with the camera was a tripod. Until today the tripod had been going to waste, just sitting in it's bag doing nothing.

Also, as my birthday occurred recently, I splurged and bought some bionicles (my uncle started giving them to me for birthdays and christmas, so when I was wondering the store I saw them and decided to get some for myself this time). This too has just been sitting unused, although it did make it out of the packet and was constructed.

Today I got an idea that would put both of these to work. Stop motion video production. So I got out the tripod, the bionicle and the camera and took a bunch of pictures. I couldn't do everything I wanted because the bionicle is rather hard to balance, and I couldn't really make it float in the air (I'm thinking about ways to do so).

Anyway, I present to you 4 seconds of video, vaguely inspired by the matrix.

End Post
Writing time: 5 minutes
Time since last post: about two hours
Current media: this post

Is making steady progress

I just finished writing my monthly student reports. I added it up and there were 65 of them. Quite a lot of them finish with the phrase "S/He is making steady progress". This is a weasel phrase that is quite useful. Note that it does not say how much progress is being made, or how fast they are making progress, just that they are doing so at a steady rate. But it sounds good.

There is a code to the comments I wrote. There is a different between good, capable, quiet but capable and able students. Some students work well, while others work diligently. Some are active participants, some are enthusiastic participants. Others participate enthusiastically or actively.

Annoying kids get sometimes lacks focus, lacks focus, or is a distraction depending on how bad they are.

I think the best report would be something along the lines of "x is a good student who works well in class." followed by a more specific comment about a specific strength of the student. There are maybe one or two of those per class.

I have thought about writing a small program to automatically generate the reports. Something for the command line that would take a few arguments and then pick a few relevant comments and organise them in a random order (a lot of my reports sound kind of the same. Some variation would be good.). Of course, I only really think about this while I'm writing the reports, so it never actually gets done. At this stage, I'm probably better of just to keep writing them out, as I've kind of got into a routine with them.

End Post
Writing time: 25 minutes
Time since last post: 1 day
Current media: The Office

Interesting Portents in the Tea Leaves

Good news from the United Kingdom. The British Government is planning on replacing the Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951 and bring such activities that are currently covered by it under the more mundane realm of consumer protection laws.

Of course, spiritualists, mediums, psychics, fortune tellers, diviners and more are opposed to this. For a start they say that this change will remove protection for genuine mediums. Having read the Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951 the only protections it gives is to those acting in a purely entertainment capacity, so I can't see how getting rid of it harms genuine psychics.

Unless, of course, there aren't any genuine fortune tellers, and those who say that they are know it.

Carol McEntee-Taylor of the Spiritual Workers Association had the following to say:

"If I'm giving a healing to someone, I don't want to have to stand there and say I don't believe in what I'm doing."

She's quite free to say she believes in it. She shouldn't be free to say that it is a safe and effective treatment unless she can reliably show it to be so.

She also stated:

By repealing the Act, the onus will go round the other way and we will have to prove we are genuine. No other religion has to do that.

If you are providing a service of any sort in exchange for monetary compensation, you are not a religion. You are a business, and should expect to operate under the rules businesses do.

I think they're also worried if they have to include a disclaimer that they are only providing an entertainment service, they'll still be liable to claims of false advertising as there is no entertainment value in what they do (except for asking them why they didn't see this coming).

All round I'm in favour of this. Psychics, mediums, fortune tellers, clairvoyants, palm readers, tarot readers, feng shui masters and others are fraudsters. Speaking to the dead, telling the future, reading minds, and all the other stuff they claim they can do (except for take your money) is fake. People who make false claims and take money from people based on it are committing fraud, plain and simple. If they wish to make a business of it, they should be able to show that it works. Put up or shut up, to phrase it simply. If I sell computers that don't work, I get in trouble. If I sell predictions that don't work, I should also get in trouble.

Of course it will put a dint in their credibility if they have to make bold disclaimers up front that they are merely entertainers, but then again, anyone who was genuine has an easy $1,000,000 waiting for them any time they want it. But in any other industry, credibility has to be proven by having a demonstrably reliable product, so they shouldn't expect their free ride to continue forever.

End Post
Writing time: 44 minutes (including distractions)
Time since last post: 2 days
Current media: The Colour of Magic

Someone wasn't practising what he preached

It has been reported that Tehran's chief of police, General Reza Zarei, was arrested. His crime? He was found in a house with six naked prostitutes.

Now first of all, props must go out to any man who can handle six women at once. However the problem is that this guy was in charge of enforcing the rather strict anti-vice laws, which go well beyond just outlawing prostitution.

This guy is likely in for some serious trouble though. In Iran the penalty for an unmarried couple dancing together at a party is a flogging. I can only imagine what this guy is going to get, but I'm sure it's going to sting. Perhaps something along the lines of the torture scene in Casino Royale.

End Post
Writing time: 15 minutes
Time since last post: 11 hours
Current media: Scrubs

Which would be better?

For reasons that will be divulged later¹ (on or slightly after April 30th) I'm trying to work out the answer to a hypothetical question. I'd appreciate some input.

Let's say you were choosing the location for a colony on a new planet. The planet is generally earth-like. Now obviously you need to be near a water source, so you want to be near a river. You want a lot of flat ground that's good for growing crops, but you probably also want to be near mineral resources.

I can think of two general types of locations. Inland plains or a more coastal location. The inland plains would give more space for growing crops, but the coastal site would allow you to fish as well as grow crops providing a more diverse food supply. However, a coastal site would be subject to more extreme weather conditions (hurricanes, etc) than an inland location.

So which would be better? If you can, please give reasons as well as an answer.

1: vague hint

End Post
Writing time: 8 minutes
Time since last post: 3 days
Current media: none

Awesome + Awesome = Awesome

Scrubs meets The Muppets. Enjoy.
End Post
Writing time: 2 minutes
Time since last post: 1 day
Current media: This post

Haven't we learnt anything?

There are a number of cautionary tales that have been written about the dangers of robots. The Matrix, I, Robot, Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, The Golem, Blade Runner, Robocop, and many more. Robots are dangerous. Robots are unpredictable. Robots are sneaky. Robots do things we never expect them to do.

So why would anyone think making a robot with a machine gun is a good idea?

Especially when said robot decides to start pointing the machine gun at people it shouldn't be pointing it's machine gun at. Fortunately, it didn't actually fire at anyone.

Seriously though, weapons are a serious matter. They should always be under the control of a sensible, reliable, properly trained human being (or other sentient being who matches those qualifications). No one should be making devices of any sort that fires without the active intervention of a human being. This sort of device is a dangerous idea that is rightly being shelved.

Writing time: 50 minutes (I got distracted)
Time since last post: 14 hours
Current media: BSG 2x04

Hammerblog

MC Hammer has a blog.

That is all

End Post
Writing time: 1 minute
Time since last post: 5 minutes
Current media: none

A Not So Cool Superconductor

A group of researchers at Indiana University have made an interesting discovery. They have found what looks to be superconducting behaviour in small clusters of aluminum (45 and 47 atoms of aluminum) with a critical temperature of around 200K (-73 degrees Celsius). The observed behaviour is a peak in the heat capacity of the clusters which is indicative of superconductivity. Such indirect tests are required because ordinary ideas of what superconductivity means break down when you only have 45 atoms involved.

This is pretty cool, but don't expect any real world applications any time soon. This high temperature superconductivity only works because of the very small size of the clusters. Change the size of the cluster by one atom and it goes away. We might be able to make a series of these clusters and weakly link them, but that is beyond the capabilities at the present moment.

Finally, although it in no way contributed to this work, I'd like to link to my honours thesis which was entitled "Superconducting correlations in metallic nanoparticles". Unfortunately, I don't have a copy on my computer here or anywhere on the web so I can't.

End Post
Writing time: 20 minutes
Time since last post: 4 days
Current media: none

A Dangerous Idea

I present to you the following statement from Illinois Representative Monique Davis.

What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous . . . it's dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!

So what is this terrible philosophy that is dangerous for our children to even know of? If you said atheism you'd be right. Atheist activist Rob Sherman was testifying to the Illinois State Government regarding a botched grant of one million dollars that seems to have been for a church to rebuild after a fire but ended up going to a school that rents space from the church which got some extraordinary government assistance in getting the grant approved (Governor pardons the school director off the cuff, it very quickly becomes a registered non-profit, no questions are asked about significant owed taxes, etc).

The representatives diatribe went on a bit longer. You can read it or listen to it.

Why do believers think atheism is so dangerous? Why do they feel that those who don't believe are a threat to them and their beliefs?

It's nice to know something I do is dangerous to children. Although I have told a few students about explosive devices made from easily obtainable household items.

End Post
Writing time: 21 minutes
Time since last post: 2 days
Current media: none

It's a special number

Apparently 42 university students were kidnapped in Iraq today.

I'm pretty sure I don't have to explain why this caught my attention.

End Post
Writing time: 1 minute
Time since last post: 8 hours
Current media: Torchwood 2x13

Another win for the space station guys.

Some more awesome stuff from the guys on the space station. It turns out that in their spare time they set up a rig to take detailed photos of cities on Earth. The pictures are awesome. Here's a video of the results.


End Post
Writing time: 4 minutes
Time since last post: 1 day
Current media: Dead Like Me 1x02

What did I do to deserve this?

I was just checking my email and noticed something odd. I looked at the web clip above the message list and saw this.

Potty Training In 3 Days - ThePottyTrainer.com - Potty Training Secrets That Work Say Good Bye To Diapers Forever

Now I've always assumed that the paid links that appeared in the web clips were like the ads on the side while reading email, in that they used the contents of my email to pick key words for the ads. So when I was sending emails looking for new jobs, I got ads for job websites and help writing resumes.

But I can not for the life of me fathom why my emails of late would in any way suggest that is an appropriate ad that would be relevant and of interest to me. There has been no mention of children, toilets, diapers or anything else pertaining to the ad.

Perhaps Google is not as omniscient as I thought.

End Post
Writing time: 8 minutes
Time since last post: 1 day
Current media: jPod

The Mimimum Acceptable Level

I get my news from a number of sources. The BBC, Crikey, The International Herald Tribune, Slashdot, Groklaw, The Bartlett Diaries, The Chaser, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Butterflies and Wheels, and News.com.au. This exposes me to a number of sources of a range of views, although mostly leftish, and a range in the level of quality. And one of the sad facts that comes from all this is that News.com.au and the newspapers it feeds from are really lacking when it comes to quality journalism. In fact, they are probably the least respectable news source I use and generally the least interesting.

There was one article though today which drew my ire and caused this criticism to be written. The article is this. You don't necessarily need to read it as I'm going to quote the two lines that so infused me with rage. The headline for this article reads "Rents to double over four years". Scary, especially for those of us whose employers are not obligated by immigration law to provide accommodation (finally, a second good point about Korea). This in and of itself does not cause me to question in any way the journalistic quality of the writer, nor indeed their quality as a human being. But then I read the first sentence of the story "Rents in major cities will rise by 50 per cent over the next four years, a new report predicts." Now, I'm infuriated. Now I have to question just what this person is doing as a journalist, for I am presented with one of two possibilities. One, the journalist lacks the basic mathematical knowledge to realise that a rent increase of 50% is not the same as doubling the rent paid. Or two, the journalist does not have sufficient command of the English language to realise that the word they used does not mean what they think it means (I wish I'd been able to phrase that so I could quote Inigo Montoya there, but my style and his don't quite mesh. Inconceivable, you might say, but it is so. Anybody want a peanut?) In either situation, this person should not be writing in a major (or even a minor) news source. When there is a contradiction this big in the first two lines of a story, one has to wonder just how much effort was put into the research and writing of the story.

I'm sure this is not exactly news to my small band of readers, but I felt the need to vent on this particular article, and to disparage News.com.au as a newsource. It provides the chicken mcnugget of news. Blech.

End Post
Writing time: 24 minutes
Time since last post: writing time plus a half hour or so
Current media: still none

The Salute

Right now in Australia there is only one salute that deserves the definite article. And that is "The Salute". Apparently Kevin Rudd saluted George W. Bush during his visit to America. For those who haven't seen it, the video is below. Please watch the bit with the salute and the bit of Kevin Rudd at a press conference just after that (up to about 45 seconds into the video).



First of all that is not a military style salute. I was in air cadets. A proper salute is much more energetic and rigid than that. That is more of a wave than a salute. I don't really get what the big deal is all about.

Second, does Kevin Rudd at the press conference remind anyone else of David Brent, the boss from the British version of the office. Just the wheezing laugh and the way he says "I was just saying hello... to the president of the United States of America" feel very David Brentish to me. It could be worse though. I'll renounce my citizenship the day a Prime Minister reminds me of Kath and Kim (not really, but I'll be quite unhappy).

End Post
Writing time: 7 minutes
Time since last post: 1 day
Current media: none

Tensions Building

The last week or so the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has been a bit rambunctious. It has expelled a number of officials from the Republic of Korea, tested between 3 and 6 missiles near disputed waters, called the new president, Lee Myung-Bak, a suck up to George W Bush. They have also said that they are willing and able to launch a preemptive strike that would burn the Republic of Korea to ashes.

Why is the DPRK so antagonistic right now. Well, mainly because the new president doesn't seem to be such a pussy compared to his predecessors. The last two presidents have pursued a "sunshine" policy regarding the DPRK. This has essentially meant giving lots of money, business opportunities and food to the DPRK, in the hope that out of gratitude they will give up communism and join the community of respectable nations.

One of the results of this policy was that the DPRK now has nuclear weapons. Respectability and friendliness don't seem to have resulted from the previous policy. So the new president has said that future aid deals will be dependent on the DPRK making verifiable steps towards becoming a part of the civilised world. Nuclear disarmament is a key one of those steps. The rhetoric is being stepped up because president Lee is meeting George W later this month, and the Bush administration is putting more focus on dealing with the DPRK in the hopes of having some sort of positive legacy when he leaves the white house early next year.

So now I'm getting a little bit antsy about living in a country that is technically in a state of war with its northern neighbour. Not much, but a little. I am a fair distance from the border so I'd get a little bit of warning if anything were to happen. If the shit does hit the fan, I'd pack my stuff and catch the next available means of transportation down to Busan, from which I'd fly or boat to Japan, and from there away from the hostilities (it's good to have a plan).

End Post
Writing time: 25 minutes
Time since last post: 37 minutes
Current media: jPod

Science is Good

Well, actually, this is more engineering than science, but it is still a story of people looking at the world and asking "What if it was different?" Today's hero is a man who hated making his bed, and wondered how he could get out of it. This man didn't just leave it at that though. He designed a bed that makes itself.

He has developed a prototype, and is looking to commercialise his invention. Let me just say, he'll have at least one customer, provided the cost is not too much, and the mechanism is not too obvious. Arms that reach out from under the bed and make it would be ideal, but I feel this is not quite how the actual device works.

End Post
Writing time: 7 minutes
Time since last post: 1 day
Current media: jPod

Corrupt from the bottom up

Lately I've heard a few bits and pieces about corruption in Korea which is making me a bit dubious about aspects of the culture here.

The first thing was last week all the food stands that line the streets near work were missing. Occasionally one might have not been there for a day or two, but there have always been some. So the absence of all of them was notable. I found out that last week was the yearly crackdown on such food stalls around here. Apparently the stands are illegal and the people who run them don't pay all (any) of the tax they're meant to. They also apparently make payments to the local police office (it's just down the street) to make sure they look the other way.

Today in the newspaper I read about the results of number of audits of public companies (companies owned by the government). These audits showed massive inefficiency, bureaucracy increased under the guise of downsizing, huge slush funds, executive perks and more. Just before the president was sworn in, there was an investigation into allegations of corruption involving the president. There have also been investigations of big companies, with Samsung having been found to have a multi-million dollar slush fund to bribe government officials, and it is expected that many other companies follow the lead of one of Korea's biggest and most prestigious firm.

And here I am seemingly criticizing all this from my lofty perch. But I too am dirtied in all this corruption. The national pension office has a signed contract that says I work less than 80 hours a month and get paid less than I do, so that I don't have to pay into the national pension plan, which would cost me about 5% of my pay, and get a chunk of my monthly pay in cash, so that my tax records match the alleged contract, but I still get the right amount of money. Well, if I'm pissed off with the company when I leave I know what to do to get back at them. A nice anonymous email sent a month or two after I'm gone (without providing any contact details) would be a nice way to work off any lingering resentment (I don't anticipate this being the case, although if I could mess up some students, there have been a few that have really bugged me).

Anyway, the all encompassing corruption seems to be endemic in Korea. It seems to happen at all levels, and while it is occasionally punished, this almost seems likely people are being punished for being caught or for being too greedy, rather than for the actual corruption. How can the rule of law be maintained where there are illegal food stands on every street? How can the police be trusted, if they are willing to accept small bribes to overlook small crimes? How can we know that they won't take a big bribe to overlook a big crime? Such systematic corruption is ill-suited to the modern world, and should be something that is vigorously hunted down, and not accepted as part of the way things work.

End Post
Writing time: 31 minutes
Time since last post: 1 day
Current media: Battlestar Galactica 1x12 (2 days to go)

Surely There's a Better Way?

I've just read about the result of the recent local elections in Conclurry. Apparently the votes were tied 428 a piece between Businessman Andrew Daniels and former councillor John Swalling. After a recount, the votes were still tied. So they did what the official Electoral Commission rules stated, and draw a name out of a hat. Apparently, this also happened in Winton.

In the case of such a close election, I hardly think it is fair to the electorate as a whole to reduce the entire affair to chance. And it is kind of ridiculous that a random draw is part of the official rules for elections. Especially when there are reports of missing postal votes.

Really there should be a new election. For a start, this would likely get more people involved in the election. Since mandatory voting did not apply to a local election, and given the low number of votes (856), I think it's safe to say that not everyone voted (even though it's a backwards nowhere kind of place (no hard feelings Conclurry), I'm sure there are more eligible voters who didn't vote. If there were to be a new election, I think more people would vote knowing how close it was, and that the value of their vote will be even more important than usual.

Random selection can also lead to acrimonious feelings in the community. There will always be the feeling among some that the winner didn't really win, and shouldn't be mayor. It is when things are close that we need to be most certain. Random chance does not help that.

My last objection is that democracy is meant to be the will of the people. No dice or draw from a hat can truly represent the will of the people.

End Post
Writing time: 28 minutes
Time since last post: 2 days
Current media: The Office

New Gadget

As previously stated I recently got my money from Japan. I had previously decided that when this happened I'd shell out and get a digital camera, so yesterday I went to the big electronics store and went looking. After an hour of looking at cameras, I decided upon a Kodak m853. I had narrowed it down between the Kodak or a Nikon that was $100 more expensive. The Kodak can also do some sort of neat panorama effect, but I haven't worked out how to do it properly yet (I get the same building appearing twice in the pictures). The Kodak guy also threw in a bunch of extras, a case, spare battery, a 2 gigabyte memory card, and a tripod (when he said it came with a tripod, I pictured a tiny little thing that would fit on a desk. It's actually a little over a meter tall).

I'm reasonably happy with what I got (although if I'd got anything much better I'd now be thinking about how much it cost. There is no way to win.) and it will be good to not rely on my cell phone as a camera, which was not as good as my Japanese cell phone at taking photos, and had an awkward naming convention that was not easily amenable to automatic renaming. The Kodak's naming convention is 100_xxxx.jpg where xxxx is a four digit number. The only downside is that xxxx appears to be the number of photos ever taken, which will alter the names I use but want affect the general scheme where photos are sorted by date and then by a chronologically increasing number. I wonder if there are any cameras where you can choose the filename convention yourself (are there other people as nit picky about this as I am?)

I am kind of annoyed that the camera does not show up on my computer as a USB storage device. I'm considering getting an SD card reader to compensate for this. I was initially using the special software that came with the camera to transfer the photos, but have since found out that there's a program from apple already on my computer that can do the same thing and also perform follow up tasks (such as run a bash script to rename the pictures) so I'm going to use that from now on I think.

Anyway, that's enough rambling about my new camera. Here's a picture of the new camera.

Edit: After looking at the online manual, I've got the panorama bit working. Here's my room as a panorama.


End Post
Writing time: 36 minutes
Time since last post: 1 day
Current media: Pleasantville

Profile Update

I have just updated my profile on the right since I noticed part of it is no longer accurate. Where it once read "regularly shaved" it now reads "irregularly shaved". This is actually a return to the previous version. I changed it to regularly shaved while I was in Japan because while I was working in Japan I would usually shave every day that I worked. Here, I usually only shave once or twice a week. This is mainly because the dress code here is more lax than the dress code in Japan. I wear almost the same clothes as I did in Japan, with the exception that I don't wear a tie here (One day I did wear a tie because they were taking photos for a brochure and I felt like I'd missed wearing it, which is weird because I would usually take it off as soon as I left work in Japan, but that also did change with time). In black trousers and a long sleeve collared shirt, I'm usually the most formally dressed guy. Others range from collared shirts to t-shirts, with the dress code requiring a collar. As in Japan, the women get kind of a free ride, with pretty much anything that looks reasonably respectable passing muster.

End Post
Writing time: 12 minutes
Time since last post: 75 minutes
Current media: Same as last post

CD

A forum I lurk on and occasionally pipe up on recently had a thread of making mock CD covers using the following rules

1) Go to Wikipedia's random article page.¹ The first article you get is the name of your band.
2) Go to the Random Quotations page. The last four words of the last quote is the album title.
3) Go to Flickr's Interesting photo page. Third picture, no matter what it is, is your album cover. (I cheated on this one. I used the first one I found on that page with a suitable Creative Commons license)
4) Put it all together.

The picture I put together following these rules is below.


Legal Notes: The original photo was by some guy called fedewild. The original and my picture are under an Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

1) I could type in the address for Wikipedia's random article page from memory. I'm not sure if this is a good thing.


End Post
Writing time: 10 minutes
Time since last post: 3 days
Current media: Battlestar Galactica 1x08 (7 days until season 4, oh yeah)

Oh Glorious Day

From my online banking statement

25 Mar 2008

PROCEEDS OVERSEAS TELEGRAPHIC TRANSFER 0231869 USD2685.51@0.9125 JAPAN LABOUR HEALTH AND

2,933.02

Oh yeah. It's finally here.

End Post
Writing time: 5 minutes
Time since last post: 10 minutes
Current media: Money by Monty Python

Sick as a dog

Yesterday was not a good day. At around 11am while I was having my shower, my guts clenched up and I started feeling nauseous. This didn't go away but I decided to endure it. I managed to get to work but the classes were killing me. I could barely stand up and walk around, and at times just sitting up was a struggle. After three lessons I surrendered and left work sick (I think this may be the first time I've missed work because I'm sick. The last sick day I recall was during second year at university). I went to a nearby doctor that spoke English and was informed I probably had gastroenteritis. The doctor gave me a prescription for some pills that were given to me in a set of sachets for each dose, which is good because there's six different pills, as well as a needle to help out. I had to get the needle in my but, which was a little embarrassing and a first (why can't all injections go into the arm?). After that I struggled home and lay in bed miserable for the rest of the day. I didn't get much sleep and still felt terrible this morning. However about 24 hours after the sordid affair began, my guts gave a giant heave and I puked up most of the water and ice cream I'd managed to consume in the previous 24 hours, which had a surprising positive effect on how I felt. Today I managed to get through work with nothing much more than a headache, but I wasn't able to finish the burger I got at McDonald's for breakfast/lunch/dinner (it was the first meal of the day but I ate it at around 6pm, and after this I'm going to eat another meal).

End Post
Writing time: 10 minutes
Time since last post: 2 days
Current media: None, although the music from my DS is playing in the background.

A New Address

Look up at the URL for this blog. You might notice it's different. For a start, there's no blogspot.com. Now it's http://blog.phlebasconsidered.net. I've been pondering getting my own domain for a while (back in the day I considered getting theboom.org, but that never happened) and finally did so. This is mostly because I've been messing around with mysql and php again and wanted to be able to put the stuff I've done online so that people can make what they will of them.

So far there isn't much at the site. There's a web interface to a history database I'm building. The data is currently very incomplete, but I'm working on that. And I may resurrect the forum system I started to build, but that's something I'd do more for the sake of doing than the sake of getting anyone to use it.

Anyway, just remember that there's a new address, but don't worry because the old blogspot one will still work (I may make a move to wordpress eventually mainly because I'd like to get rid of the bar at the top of the blog, but that won't happen for a while. Plus I like blogger).

And if anyone really, really, really wants an @phlebasconsidered.net email address, I might be able to sort something out (but I might make you jump through some hoops for my own amusement).

End Post
Writing time: 10 minutes
Time since last post: 1 day
Current media: None

Freedom of Religion vs Equal Rights

A rather interesting ruling has come out of a federal court in Dallas today. The case was a Southern Baptist seminary vs a former female professor. The seminary had fired (technically not renewing the contract, but that is mostly semantics (how else do you interpret "You're doing a good job, you know what to do and how to do it, but we're not going to keep employing you.")) because she was a woman.

So, an easy open and shut case. Clear discrimination on the basis of gender, scorn and misery heaped upon the seminary and life goes on for all.

Nope. The seminary claimed that its religious beliefs forbid women to teach a man. Their basis for this claim is the First Epistle to Timothy, chapter 2 verse 12 "I permit no woman to teach or have authority over a man." (Heaven help them if Hilary wins the election.) And so, to insure their freedom to practise their religion, they have the right to not employ a woman to teach a man (The article notes that the seminary does employ ten women as teachers (out of 116) but only one teaches theology and she teaches only women's classes).

This the court bought, and decided in favour of the seminary.

This situation is an interesting case. Here we have two groups claiming two different rights and trying to decide which takes precedence. On the one hand, we have the woman, clearly discriminated against because of her gender, wanting to be treated fairly on her merits as a teacher, without consideration of her gender. On the other side is a religious group whose beliefs require that men and women are not treated equally, and that to deny them their ability to treat men and women differently is to deny them their right to profess their faith.

This is a tricky one. Actually, no it isn't. Using religion to justify sexist actions doesn't stop it being sexist any more than using religion to justify racist actions makes that any less racist. The quote from Timothy is 2000 years old and from a society very different to the one we live in now. To use the bible literally as a set of rules for modern life is ridiculous. We don't stone people for adultery, and we criticise those who do (I'm looking at you, Iran). We've decided that that part of the bible doesn't work for us any more. And I have to say, neither does the quote from Timothy. It doesn't fit the modern world, so it's going to have to go. To put it bluntly, we're better than that now.

And what if I were to say my religious beliefs required I receive a 10% pay rise each year. No employer would accept that, and would not be liable for infringing my rights to religion.

Now that I've decided that the seminary is indeed in the wrong (my initial reaction was the same, but I wanted to work out why exactly. I'm embarrassed to say that the simple argument I give took me a while to realise.), just like a court should do we need to work out how to resolve the situation. There should definitely be some financial compensation. They should continue to pay her salary until she finds a new job (backdated to when they actually fired her, and only up to say three years), plus some extra as a lump sum (a few years pay at most. I'm not proposing a massive punitive sum, just enough to fix the mess they made). They should also be made to publicise what they did. I'm thinking a full page spread in several major news papers, plus any internal or student news publications. Such public notices should be prominently displayed and should stick to the facts, without trying to weasel out of the blame.

Case adjourned.

End Post
Writing time: 43 minutes
Time since last post: 12 hours
Current media: None

This is why we have a space program

The International Space Station was intended as a giant laboratory in space, and despite numerous delays and screw-ups in getting it up there, it is producing interesting and important scientific research. I'd like to highlight one of the most recent discoveries to come down to Earth from the ISS.

Boomerangs work in zero G. When thrown inside the ISS, the boomerang flew the same way it does on Earth.

This is cool. For a start, I didn't think the ISS was big enough to get a decent throw of a boomerang without hitting the walls. I'd like to see this research extended to see how boomerangs fly in zero g without an atmosphere. I think it would be different, but I'm not sure how much of the motion is purely from the rotational motion, and how much is the interaction between the rotational motion and an atmosphere.

There should be more of this sort of stuff going on up in space.

End Post
Writing time: 17 minutes
Time since last post: half an hour or so
Current media: jPod

A Fun(damentalist) Read

I had this site pointed out to me today. Fundies Say The Darndest Things. It's a collection of quotes from Christian fundamentalists presented in a bash.org format. To whet your appetite I'll quote one of the quotes that created the most violent reaction.

One of the most basic laws in the universe is the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This states that as time goes by, entropy in an environment will increase. Evolution argues differently against a law that is accepted EVERYWHERE BY EVERYONE. Evolution says that we started out simple, and over time became more complex. That just isn't possible: UNLESS there is a giant outside source of energy supplying the Earth with huge amounts of energy. If there were such a source, scientists would certainly know about it.

To which I want to say: It's the fucking Sun you retard. What do you think that giant ball of light up in the sky is doing?

So if you like to laugh and be outraged, check it out

End Post
Writing time: 11 minutes
Time since last post: 23 hours
Current media: The Daily Show

Those Wacky Jews

To round out my trifecta of crazy adherents of Abrahamic religions I now present "Those Wacky Jews". A high ranking Rabbi has come out and said that Jewish law forbids employing or renting homes to Arabs (I'm not sure if this is meant to be Arabs or Muslims. The article say Arabs but I wonder what would happen in the case of an Arabic Jew.).

This sort of thing does not help Israel. It's bound to piss off all the Arab countries that surround Israel, and they're already angry as it is. It's going to incite more hatred among the Israelis who follow this wack-job, and make life harder for those trying to sort out some sort of peace deal.

This isn't the first time this Rabbi has spouted dangerous nonsense. He supported calls from some of his fellow rabbis back in 2005 for soldiers to ignore orders to withdraw from the Gaza strip. Inciting mutiny in the armed forces is bad. Inciting mutiny to keep the fighting going is very bad.

He has also said that Jewish law requires the shooting of civilians in areas from which attacks on Israel come from. This is not just bad or stupid, it is suicidal. The only way forward for Israel is to claim the moral high ground. That means they should be generous and conciliatory at the negotiation, ruthless on defense, but under no circumstances should they ever engage someone who is not immediately engaged in hostilities against them. They should under no circumstances attack civilians. In fact, no one in any military should attack civilians.

Just like the christians need to tell people like those at Jesus Camp and muslims need to tell Al Qaeda to "shut the fuck up and stop ruining things for the rest of us" the jews need to shut this guy up. He's just making things worse for everyone.

End Post
Writing time: 17 minutes
Time since last post: 14 hours
Current media: None

Improving the odds

According to two recent news stories, if you want to get lucky, your best chances would be to find a depressed woman from New Zealand.

End Post
Writing time: 3 minutes
Time since last post: about 10 hours
Current media: None

Those Wacky Muslims

So, after The Satanic Verses, the Danish Muhammad,PBUH¹, cartoons², and others I can't quite recall at this moment, you might be wondering what will be next to rile up those who follow follow the prophet Muhammad, PBUH³.

Shoes.

Some smart person decided it might be a good idea to make a shoe with the word "Allah" written on the bottom. Perhaps he was trying to make a holy shoe. And much like it's illegal to step on Thai money because it has a picture of the king upon it, it is not done to walk upon the name of God. Well, it's not really the name of God, it's just the word "the god". It's not his actual name. I mean if it had Zeus written on it, then it's the name of a god, but just writing "the god" doesn't seem that specific.

Anyway, the authorities in the UAE didn't wast any time. The shoes have been destroyed, the shoe seller fined, and made to promise not to "display products that hurt the sentiments of Muslims".

This is one⁴ of the rather frustrating aspects of Muslims as a group.⁵ They are extraordinarily thin-skinned. Take the Danish cartoons. There have been many worse cartoons involving Jesus. I can't find any off the top of my head, but I'm sure they're out there.⁶ The worst a christian group might do is picket the paper or put out a press release or two. The don't burn flags of the country the paper is in, attack embassies, people from completely different countries and generally carry on like a mob.

And the whole Salman Rushdie thing. He wrote a book that's kind of based on the life of Muhammed, PBUH⁷, and he got threatened with death from the outraged Muslims. Compare this to the reaction to The Da Vinci Code, which while not featuring Jesus himself, is based on a rather novel interpretation of the Jesus story.

My advice to Muslims is don't take things so seriously. Take a chill pill, relax, and don't let things get to them so much.

1 Peanut Butter Underneath Helicopters
2 I now present my smiley art picture of Muhammed smiling :-)
3 Pretty Butterflies Unite Homewreckers
4 There are a number of them.
5 Like most groups, any individual I've met is nice and rational and easy to get along with, but as a group they do the most ridiculous things.
6 Please let me know where they are. I want to see them and laugh.
7 Please Buy Unferth Hay

End Post
Writing time: 35 minutes
Time since last post: 56 minutes
Current media: Jpod

Those Wacky Christians

As has recently been brought to my attention, it seems that Easter is this weekend.¹ And hot off the presses is a safety note from Phillipine health officials. Apparently, if you plan to take part in the ritual re-enaction of the crucifixion then you should get a tetanus shot beforehand and sterilise the nails.

Well, of course you should. Because after hours of pain and agony hanging from some pieces of wood which you are attached to by nails, tetanus is a little too much too bear. What next, a clean spear?

And for those who are only into a little flagellation instead of the full crucifixion, then make sure your whip is clean. You don't want to get an infection.

I am also amazed that people are actually willing to do this. The only way I'd end up attached to a cross with nails through my hands and feet is if a rather large unhappy mob put me there.² You'd have to be a serious nut job to consider doing this. Surely if Jesus³ were to look down at these people preparing for this he'd say to them "Look, you really don't want to do that. It's not good for you. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about."

Can any one give me an example of an atheist doing this sort of messed up shit. I'm willing to accept as a counter that sometimes atheists kill other people, but I don't know of any atheists willingly torturing themselves in such a way.⁴

1 Assuming, of course, that you follow the western tradition. Orthodox Christians have to wait another month.
2 Please don't take this as an invitation to do this.
3 Hypothetically speaking of course.
4 We usually make our self-inflicted torture mental⁵
5 sed s/We/I/ 4 > sed s/our/my/ > 4⁶
6 I think this footnote is superfluous and the footnote it is a footnote to is intentionally obtuse and the footnote that the footnote this is a footnote to is a footnote to is really just an excuse to get in some emotional wallowing into an otherwise easy anti-religious tract and it was also a footnote to the main text so I can do no more convoluted footnote to footnote type phrases⁷ that may or may not be difficult to parse.
7 Or can I?⁸
8 I won't since this is now getting old and the footnotes are approaching the size of the main text.

End Post
Writing time: 27 minutes (damn footnotes)
Time since last post: 5 days
Current media: None

An Interesting Read

Via slashdot I came across an economics paper entitled The Theory of Interstellar Trade. It's nothing too complicated, just a look at a few factors affecting interstellar trade between two planets. I wish to point it out mainly for the fact that the guy who wrote knows more than just economics. His choice of Trantor as the Earth's notional trading partner speaks for his sci-fi cred. And his diagram of a rotation about an imaginary axis is quite novel (you'll have to see for yourself).

I highly recommend it.

Edit: It has been pointed out that the link provided no longer works. To facilitate the dissemination of this fine work, I have taken the liberty of creating an alternate source. The link has been updated.

End Post
Writing time: 17 minuts
Time since last post: 6 days
Current media: Star Trek Voyager season 2

The "Idea of EsonLinji"

I have an idea in my head. It is an idea of who I am. It is an idea built up during my youth and it probably crystalised somewhere around the end of high school and the start of university.

More and more though I think that the "Idea of EsonLinji" is both limited and incorrect. The "Idea of EsonLinji" is an individual who has a very limited range of social activities, mainly things stereotypically nerdish. An individual whose sole interest was his work, almost to the point of obsession. An individual who would not stop to smell the roses. An individual who had absolutely no interest in romance. An individual who barely lives.

The "Idea of EsonLinji" is also not who I am. The "Idea of EsonLinji" does not care about the clothes he wears. I do take some care with what I wear. I want to be more sociable. I occasionally stop and smell the roses. Work is not the be all end all of life, it is a means to enable me to do the other things in life I want to do. Romance, while I'm somewhat behind what might be considered a normal rate of progress, is something that is slowly becoming part of my life.

So the "Idea of EsonLinji" is a bad idea and an incorrect idea. And yet it continues to stick around in my mind. It is a big part of who I think I am. When put into a new situation, the first reactions that come into my mind are usually those of the "Idea of EsonLinji". One of the things that sometimes stops me from trying new things is that I think "I don't do that sort of thing". And it's usually the "Idea of EsonLinji" who says that. Most of the time when I try something new I have fun. But I still have this voice that holds me back.

So what I need to do is to update this "Idea of EsonLinji". But this seems to be a difficult thing to do. I can't just download a patch for my brain like I can for a computer. Rebooting people doesn't work.

I am however reluctant to change the "Idea of EsonLinji". When I think about who I am I think of the "Idea of EsonLinji". While limited and incorrect, it is a big part of how I see myself, and from there, the world. I feel like if I change the "Idea of EsonLinji" I'll lose who I am. I'm afraid I'll change into something I don't want to be. I want to make sure that any change is an incremental point release, not a whole new version. I want EsonLinji 1.1, not EsonLinji 2.0.

Another reason I am reluctant to change is that over time I have convinced myself that I don't really want those things I don't have. That social butterflies are just people who are vain and shallow. That people who go out drinking every night are idiots. That people who watch reality TV are uncultured barbarians. That people who have a strong belief or passion in anything are misguided or delusional. That romance was a perilous minefield in which the dangers and costs far outweighed the potential gains.

I know that these are over exaggerated generalizations. But these are part of the "Idea of EsonLinji"'s "Idea of the world". But now I'm in the awkward mental position of looking down on these things and wanting some of these things at the same time. I'd like to have a passion in life, something that made me want to get out of bed in the morning other than that I've been lying in bed for longer than any sensible person should. The fairer sex really do have a lot going for them. Drinking with friends cane be fun (but there are still some idiots who drink, but they tend to also be idiots when they don't drink). Reality TV is still the realm of the uncultured swine though.

Trying to incorporate these things is a challenge. I can see the need to incorporate some of these things into my self. But I am resistant to the idea of doing so. Indeed, I put roadblocks in the way of making progress in the matter. Man is perhaps the only creature that can sabotage it's own efforts.

So that is the problem. The solution is yet to come.

End Post
Writing time: A few hours. It was originally written in "the deeply unfortunate doings of an ill-fated life"
Time since last post: 5 days
Current media: Stephen Fry's Podgrams

Once again, I despair for humanity

When I saw a headline reading "Uncle Beheads Toddler in Supermarket" my mind conjured ideas of horrendous accidents involving shopping trolleys or checkout conveyor belts. And so it was with a sense of morbid curiosity that I clicked and read on.

I was somewhat shocked by what I read. This was no accident. No, the uncle picked up a knife and cut off the boy's head in front of his mother because he was having a fight with her and her husband.

This guy is scum. I mean really, if you're having a fight with someone, you don't bring others into it. You settle things civilly. You don't hurt someone else. You don't hurt the bloody person you're fighting with. You don't bloody well cut off their kid's head in front of them out of spite.

Jesus Christ, mother of god.

Naturally, since this reprehensible act was performed in a public space, police were rapidly notified and the man has been arrested. And there is a sense of poetic justice when I note that the penalty for murder in his country is death by beheading.

End Post
Writing time: 13 minutes
Time since last post: 3 days
Current media: Season one of Star Trek Voyager

Women can do what now?

Is anyone else just learning that it is some sort of tradition that women are allowed to propose on February 29th during a leap year¹?

I've been through many leap years and have never before been told of this.² I wasn't aware there was any sort of restrictions on who was allowed to propose these days. I sort of had the idea that things had changed from the grand romantic gesture to more of a mutually agreed upon decision.³

And while this seems to be a minor gain in a battle I already thought won, it is somewhat undone by the fact that many women still expect the man to cough up for the engagement ring.

1) not that February 29th can occur in any other sort of year
2) I'm pretty sure this only got into the newspaper because today is February 29th.
3) Not that I'm opposed to grand romantic gestures, it's just they can put an awful lot of pressure on a person and can be rather make or break situations. But when done right, very impressive.

End Post
Writing time: 7 minutes
Time since last post: 15 minutes
Current media: still none (I should do something about that)

Hoisted upon their own petard

Most readers will no doubt be aware of what has been dubbed the sub-prime mortgage crisis. It seems a few years ago, a bunch of American financial institutions while seeking new ways to make money decided that it might be a good idea to give home loans to individuals with less than stellar credit histories. Now a lot of those individuals wanted to get a home loan, but couldn't afford the interest rates the banks would offer them. So, the banks, wanting to make a deal said, OK, we'll give you a cheap interest rate for the first few years then. The more astute individuals asked, but what happens when the interest goes back up. I still won't be able to pay the loan. To which the banks replied, No worries. The value of the home will go up, and you'll improve your credit history by paying off the mortgage, so before the interest rates go back up you can refinance. At which point many signed on the dotted line, and all were happy.

Well, almost everybody. Because the banks realised, hey, we've got a lot of loans with a high risk of default and we still haven't made that much money yet because we're giving them cheap interest for a few years, and we need cash to make more deals. What can we do?

We can sell our interest in the mortgages. Someone else gives us a bunch of cash now, and we give them a slow trickle of cash as people pay off their mortgages.

Great. Let's do it.

Oh, no one wants to buy these. How about a package deal? We give them 9 safe mortgages and 1 risky one as a bunch.

That worked. And so it went. Banks got into loan deals, wanted to get rid of the risk and sold off their interests in the loans. Some went bust and their loans were bought by other companies. There has all round been a lot of moving around bits and pieces so no one was stuck with the hot potato of a bad loan.

Recently, this caught up with a lot of people. The cheap interest rate periods were finishing, house prices hadn't risen, refinancing was as easy as people had been told, and foreclosures abounded.

Except for one man. One bulwark against the mighty tide of foreclosures. The man who had a secret that allowed him to stand against those who would take his home from him. And no, it was not pay in time.

The thing that makes Joe Lents stand apart from the crowd is this. No one seems to own his mortgage. He hasn't made a payment on his $1.5 million loan since 2002. Companies have tried to foreclose on him several times. And all he does is say "Prove it's you I owe the money to". And it works. In all the financial shenanigans and wheeling and dealing, something got lost along the way. In trying to hide themselves from the risk, the banks have hid themselves from the rights to collect on the debt.

And it looks like Joe is not alone. Judges aren't being so lenient about the matter any more, and more debtors are forcing their creditors to put up or shut up.

End Post
Writing time: 20 minutes
Time since last post: 30 minutes
Current media: None

Three Strikes Against Sharia

These are all a little bit old, but I would like to point these out. The following are a few items of Sharia law being applied in ways that should strike most people as being ridiculous. They are by no means the worst applications of sharia law, but still, the best way to get people to stop taking something seriously is to make them laugh at it (it's all well and good to say something is terrible, but when is the last time you took a clown seriously?).

The first item is about the unfortunate plight of a woman locked up in a Saudi jail. Her crime? Witchcraft. That's right. Witchcraft. Let's hope Emma Watson never goes to Saudi Arabia. And what vile act of witchcraft did she perform? Her accuser says she made him impotent.

Human rights groups have declaimed this conviction because of the undefined nature of the crime, the lack of representation for the woman in legal hearings, beatings by the police, forced confession and the extreme unfairness of a death sentence. It is a good point, and I thank them for making it. I wish to declaim this situation for the sheer stupidity of it. I mean really, witchcraft? This is the twenty-first century guys. This is the sort of thing that makes people look on the sharia as a backwards, middle ages code of laws. And rightly so in this case. Witchcraft is a backwards, middle ages idea. Witchcraft these days is for goths who want a bit of a ritual that may involve killing an animal and seeing real blood. It's for pagan wannabes. No one seriously thinks that there are women who make deals with the devil for power and go about bringing havoc on mankind (please tell me there is no one who seriously thinks this). Executing a woman for such a thing is ridiculous.

Next on our tour, Nigeria. Land of the scammer. Home of the 419-ers. The country full of people who die with no next of kin leaving behind only a pile of money and a less than scrupulous lawyer. And now, to top all of that, 18 cross dressing men. This group of men went out on the town in ladies clothes, and they were arrested. Originally they were going to be charged with sodomy, but the charges were dropped to indecent dressing and vagrancy. Much to the relief of the 18 men as sodomy is a capital offense in Nigeria (why can't they make fraud a capital offense? That would make the internet a much nicer place). Again, this is something most of the world has accepted is really no one's business but those involved, and so long as they do it in private, whatever floats their boat is OK (a few of the more conservative parts of America haven't got the memo yet, but it's in the post).

Lastly, we return to Saudi Arabia. In this case 57 men have been arrested for that most despicable crime of flirting. The men are accused of wearing indecent clothes, playing loud music and dancing in order to attract the attention of girls. Now honestly, you have to admire their audacity. I mean this is right up there with trying to move an immovable object. Trying to stop men trying to get women to be interested in them. Hell, even I've tried (and failed) to do that on occasion, and I am by no means the king of the lewd. If the music is ridiculously loud get them to turn it down. Arresting people for flirting is not so much out of date as just plain stupid. It will happen. No power on heaven or earth has a chance of stopping it.

So that's a look at the lighter side of the bad joke that is sharia law. It makes crimes out of that which is not a crime. It makes crimes out of that which is a natural part of being human. It imposes punishments that are severe out of proportion with the supposed crimes. It is old, it is out of date, and it needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century.

End Post
Writing time: 40 minutes
Time since last post: 3 days
Current media: None

The Money Cometh

I got some good mail today. A bunch of paperwork to claim my unpaid wages from Japan. I shall endeavor to have them sent back by the end of the week. Registered post. After making photocopies.

While this in general is good news, it isn't all great. The total unpaid wages are 430366 yen. Since it's a payment from the government for unpaid wages, they're only going to give me 80%. So that means 344292 yen (the bastards round a 0.8 yen down). Next is the bit I wasn't counting on. Since I'm no longer a resident of Japan (maybe) I have to pay 20% income tax. This is a bit shit since while I was there I only had to pay about 3-5% (I can't remember exactly, but it was a lot less than 20%). This brings the figure down to 275434.24 yen (I'm sure they'll round that down as well).

One thing I'm not sure of is if I still count as being a resident of Japan for the moment. My residency visa is still valid, and I never sort of went to city hall to inform them I'd be leaving Japan (I think I was meant to hand in my alien card if I did so, and I wanted to keep it as a souvenir, so I didn't).

I also have to decide where to send the money. The easiest is to just have them put the money in my Japanese bank account. They've already filled out the forms for this. I didn't close the bank account kind of for this reason. This of course means I'd have to make a trip back to Japan at some time. If I did this I think their chances of not charging me the income tax are slightly better, but not so good because someone knows I'm not living in Japan anymore (namely the people who sent me the documents). The other two options are to have the money sent here, or have it sent to Australia. Having it sent to Australia would probably be better, since no matter what, I'll be sending a lot of the money home to save (I've kind of already mentally written off the money, so anything I do get is kind of like money for nothing now). I'll probably use some of it to buy a digital camera over here (my korean phone is an ok camera, but the way it names photos is annoying. noname.jpg, then noname(1).jpg, etc, etc. and the bluetooth file transfer does not preserve the file creation data. This makes automatic renaming into my prefered photo filename format (yyyymmddnn.jpg, y - year, m - month, d - date, n - photo number for that day) quite frustrating. My japanese phone was much better in that regard). If I do go back to Japan, it would probably just be for an overnight trip one weekend and I think I'd just stay out all night rather than get a hostel room.

End Post
Writing time: 25 minutes
Time since last post: 4 days
Current media: None (I have been watching a lot of Red Dwarf lately though)

Scraping the Barrel (of Monkeys)

I have for some time now been lamenting the lack of quality original work in the cinematic arts. Nearly every movie that has been made, and most of those I've seen in the last few years has been a derivative of some other work (for example the Harry Potter movies, Serenity, Transformers, Stardust, Pirates of the Caribbean, X-Men, Ocean's 11-13, 300, Die Hard 4.0, Sweeney Todd, Doom, Sin City the list goes on and on). Long have I waited for an original work, not derived from a book, comic, tv show, another movie, or history.

Unfortunately it looks like I shall have to wait a while longer. For Hollywood has found another mine from which to dig up derivative works. Board games. Universal pictures has signed a deal with Hasbro to make movies based on board games. On the list are Monopoly, Battleship, Candyland and Ouija.

Just how useful is a board game as a base idea for a movie. I mean really, Battleships? Fine, a nautical action/battle movie. That would be fine. Will there be giant red cylinders falling out of the sky taking out ships? Will aircraft carriers unrealistically take 5 hits in different parts of the hull before sinking? Will ships stay in place while barraging each other with gunfire? Will the action take place on a square ocean? I think (and hope) the answer to all of these will be no. So why try and link it to a board game. Let's just make a naval action movie.

Same with Monopoly. There have been a number of finance, wheeler dealer type movies, and there are more to come. A hotel mogul is definitely an idea for a story, but does he really need to be building his hotels on the Boardwalk and the Strand to keep the vibrancy of the idea?

I guess this is just one more case of life imitating art.

End Post
Writing time: 38 minutes (it took a while to find a working link to the right Robot Chicken episode)
Time since last post: an hour or so
Current media: Pleasantville

More Good News

I actually just wanted to post some thought on the new Good News Week. Some are neutral and some are negative.

First, Paul's rendition of the theme song just doesn't seem the same. Bring back the old version.

Next, good god has Mikey Robbins gone grey. He has lost a fair bit of weight though, which is good.

Where is Julie McCrossin? It looks like she's too busy to come back to the fold. I hope she can make a guest appearance some time. I have yet to warm up to her replacement, Clare Hooper.

Also, I'm dubious about the amount of cross promotion that they're doing. It's cheap, tacky, obvious and cheapens the whole thing. And they should at least cross promote things the audience is going to be interested in. I may have been out of Australia for a while, but I really don't think that the people who watch GNW are likely to want to watch The Bold and the Beautiful. At least last week with Supernatural there was likely to be some sort of interest, although I went "who's he?" when they introduced the guy.

Other than that, they haven't changed the formula that much, and I hope to see some of the old regulars such as Adam Spencer, Natasha Stot Despoya, Rod Quantoc and others soon.

End Post
Writing time: 20 minutes
Time since last post: 32 minutes
Current media: Good News Week

Some Good News

Looks like I may be getting paid for September and October soon. Apparently the forms for claiming unpaid wages are finally being sent out to people.

End Post
Writing time: 1 minute
Time since last post: 3 days
Current media: Good News Week (rated M due to sexual references, drug references and adult themes)

Seoul

The week before last I took a trip to Seoul. I had five days off that started on the Wednesday (6/2/08). The reason for the time off is that it is Chinese new year, which is a reasonably big holiday over here (more so than Japan at any rate). So the school was closed for three days (although the Korean teachers had to come in and teach on Saturday which is pretty bad for them).

I caught the bus to Seoul on Wednesday. I had planned to wake up at 7, pack and get ready until 9, then catch a taxi out to the bus station, and catch the first bus I could. Well, I woke up at 9, packed and got to the bus station at around 11. I bought a ticket for a bus at 12 o'clock. Well, I saw a bus to Seoul at around 11:55 and tried to get onto that, but the guy checking tickets said it was the wrong bus. After a bit more waiting and watching the departing buses, I realised that the buses were running 30-40 minutes late. Anyway, my bus left at around 12:40, and I got into Seoul a little after 5pm. Then I got my first taste of the Seoul subway.

Seen at the Seoul bus station.

The trains in Japan are better. Especially better are the ticket machines. Here the machines only take coins (100 or 500 won) when tickets are in the 1000-1500 won range and 1000 won is a note. In Japan, you could stick a 10,000 yen note in and it wouldn't complain about it (10000 yen is about 100 dollars). In Seoul, most of the time I just bought a ticket from the guy in the ticket booth. The subway is about as complex as the Tokyo subway.

I made it to my hostel and checked in, and then wandered around to try and find some dinner. Unfortunately since it was lunar new year, nearly everything was closed. I found some fried chicken place and got some chicken that tasted strangely like ham.

On Thursday I took a walking tour out of the lonely planet around one of the old palaces. Along the way I stopped into the Seoul museum of history and of course the palace itself. While in the palace, I got to watch what I presume is a traditional dance performance.

After that I went back to the hostel to warm up for a bit before heading out near Incheon airport to have dinner with Sandra, one of my old housemates. She was on her way to Kazakhstan (She never really answered my question of "Why?") and had a twenty-four hour stopover in Seoul. On Friday we did a tour from the airport to a small temple that had a bunch of snow still lying on the ground despite it having been ten days since it snowed. After the tour we hung around in a coffee shop at the airport until it was time for her flight.


Saturday was spent wandering around the two other big old palaces. One was just an open walk around by yourself place, but the other had more original buildings and I seem to recall it being world heritage listed and so you had to go as part of a group. Fortunately I got to this palace at a time which meant I only had wait for about 15 minutes until the next English tour which was lucky. That night I went to one of the casinos in town hoping to find a low stakes poker game I could try my luck at, but there were none. I ended up playing some blackjack instead, but nothing much came of it.


I checked out of my hostel at around 11 on Sunday, and headed back to the bus station. While navigating between the subway and the bus station I came across a book store which had a reasonable collection of English books at very reasonable prices. I ended up buying 4 books for about 35000 won ($40) before having lunch. I caught a bus at 1, and this time the trip was much better. I got back to Daegu at around 4:30, which was about an hour or so quicker than the trip to Seoul.

Overall, the one word to describe Seoul is cold. My hands were cold all the time, as was the rest of me. I wore my beanie most of the time (the one time I didn't my ears got really cold). There is still more I want to see (the DMZ for a start), so I'll probably be heading back some time.

End Post
Writing time: 5 minutes (I cribbed from an email I sent to my family describing my trip)
Time since last post: two weeks
Current media: jPod 1x06

Ceci n'est pas un dialogue

Dramatis Personae
Frem - a nondescript individual
Merl - another nondescript individual
Jeway - a possibly omniscient observer

(Open on Frem, slightly left of centre stage, waist deep in a pool of mud.)

Frem: Oh woe is me for I cannot get up
But once when young fortune did fill my cup
My path stretched on for years and years to come
And I was sure that it was a good one
Alas it seems my path did not run true
And now I sit as though I were in glue
My legs though still are wont to run and walk
My mind has words but my tongue will not talk
The world has not the glory it once did
Now I see the walls that used to be hid

(Enter Merl from stage right)

Merl: I walk the world with no path in mind
No plan on hand I seek naught and thus find
things more wonderful than any one can
dream or hope to find in all his life's span
The journey of life is my goal you see
to succeed I do no more than just be

Frem: Hullo strange sir, who walks by me so free
Perchance you could stop to give aid to me
This path is not as clear as it once was
and has trapped this soul from the land of Oz

Merl: Well met, good sir, and let me have my say
and I do this with no thought of delay
If I thought that you were in any need
I would render you aid with all due speed
but I cannot see this predicament
that your words and deeds so loudly lament
do you not perceive the path before you,
that obstacles are not there to go through
but for you to experience all that is
life's path is not one that is straight and true
a fact that is only revealed to few
your peril is one of your own making
for you desire the woes of which you sing
the way out of your trap is easy seen
if you were to stand up of mud you'd be clean
and with your next step life's glory returns
with a brightness so like the sun that burns

Frem: Sir, your words in tone are both soft and kind
but they make me think thou hast lost thy mind
my woes, my pains are not of my making
but all are due to fortune forsaking
my side and leaving me to sink alone
into this wretched pool that chills my bone
I wish to leave this dire and morbid hole
and be free again to pursue my goal
but truth be told at this very moment
my thoughts as to what that is aren't cogent
once more I ask of you my friend with haste
do not let me sit and remain to waste

Merl: Stranger you sit and whine and waste your time
when if you were to stop this constant rhyme
you could pull yourself out of this deep hole
and walk free and sure and again be whole

Frem: Why do you still insist on blaming me
when it is circumstance that I'm not free

Merl: You tell me that it is fate that holds you
when all can see that it's plainly not true
the reason that you are in the hole still
is simply that you are lacking the will

Frem: If you are not willing to lend me aid
then leave me be to stay I'm not afraid
I'll wait for someone who is more inclined
to help one whose soul is very refined

Merl: I've tried to help you to see that your fate
is yours to discover you need not wait
but the path ahead you choose to ignore
but sit still on your Neptunian shore

(stage darkens. Jeway speaks, seemingly from everywhere)

Jeway: Look upon these mortals and hope to learn
from one who is free and one who does yearn
who share with each other their great folly
behind their words which might seem quite jolly
though verbose they don't speak to each other
they speak at a man and do not bother
to aid or help or do naught but be heard
the message is lost they don't hear a word
they can't make headway or progress at all
and so separated one day shall fall.

End Post
Writing time: about a week or so of thought. Maybe a few hours of writing in a notebook or typing actual words
Time since last post: less than a day
Current media: None

I have something to say

There is no god. The universe is a material thing. There is no supernatural. There is no higher being. Mankind is not special.

The universe has a set of rules. We do not yet know all of these rules, but we are working towards that goal.

A human being is a material being. It is made up of material components, and is a part of the universe. There is no supernatural component in a human being.

I wish to be quite clear. The universe has a set of rules. We may not know those rules, but there are rules. And every person, with no exception, is subject to those rules.

The rules are well understood. Humanity has expended much effort into understanding the universe, and has a long way to go still. The rules we have discovered, within their realms are incredibly accurate and precise.

But these rules are not the full story. We understand how to work with one particle. That is easy. We understand how to deal with two particles. This we can do exactly in almost every circumstance. Three particles is a different story. There we have to make approximations. We have to do mathematical tricks. We have to divide time into discrete chunks. We have to make approximations.

Everything we experience is a collection of billions upon billions of atoms. For some things, new approximations come into play, and again we can be exact. The motion of an object in the gravitational field of the earth can be described simply and elegantly by a mathematical equation. The behaviour of gases and other materials can be described by the rules of thermodynamics.

These rules are not derived from the behaviour of individual particles (although I would like to think that some general principles could be derived, and indeed may have already been derived from quantum theory), but are what are called emergent phenomena. One could study quantum mechanics for many lifetimes, but would not necessarily predict the phenomena of superconductivity. This is because superconductivity is a property of a collection of particles. No single particle by itself can superconduct. It is the collection of particles, interacting with each other, which creates this new, unpredictable phenomena.

And so it is with humanity. The human mind is a collection of particles, amazingly organised, which together exceeds the sum of its parts. The rules of the universe set the ways in which two particles interact, and these interactions are incredibly limited. There are merely four ways in which particles affect one another. But the rules describe the interactions between just two entities. And so, when a collection of particles interact and affect each other, the outcomes can be something which someone who studied the rules for millennia would never consider.

Emergent behaviour is something with which we are familiar. John Conway's Game of Life is a set of simple rules that apply to a two dimensional grid. Looking at just the rules, you could not predict the existence of patterns which not just sustain themselves, but produce other entities which endure in the universe of the Game. But such patterns exist.

And so it is with out universe. There is a set of rules by which all particles abide. But the behaviour of a collection of particles may follow those rules in ways no one could predict or expect.

And so it is. Without any intention of anthropomorphising, matter has found a way of organising itself which no longer believes itself bound by the rules of the universe. Human beings, and other creatures to a varying extent, are not just chunks of matter, but matter organised in such a way as to be self aware. To be able to think.

This is an awe inspiring thing. To consider that a set of rules that rigidly define the interactions of any two given particles, when applied to billions upon billions of particles acting upon each other gives rise to such amazing complexity and originality is mind boggling.

This is not something to be treated lightly. The ability to think, the awareness of one's self, the ability to weigh the consequences of ones actions and change them accordingly is a rare gift. It is something to be treasured.

The entire human condition is something of a contradiction. We are a material being, made up of material components which follow rigidly defined laws. But, the collective of matter displays properties which would never be predicted just by looking at the laws of nature. The Schroedinger equation, while being the fundamental underpinning of all the universe, does not answer all the questions.

But just because we are a collection of material parts, does not mean that humanity is not important. Actually, it does not mean that sentience, awareness is unimportant. The ability to think, to reason, to plan, to consider ones situation, to reflect on the past and hope for the future is a treasure.

It is not something to be thrown away lightly. Every human has these abilities to varying degrees, and different animals also have these capacities, although at the moment to a lesser degree than humans.

Intelligent life is precious. It is precious because it is able to recognise what it is, and to value itself. A rock can not do this. A plank of wood can not do this. At this time, a computer can not do this. But a human being can.

This capacity for thought, this behaviour which while following the rules of the universe, is not explicitly defined by the rules, is what is exceptional, is the thing which is to be treasured.

Life is precious. The idea that a collection of matter is able to arrange itself so as to be aware of itself, to think, to reason is extraordinary. It is to be revered. And so too is the universe which allowed such complexity to exist.

The universe is an amazing place. It is so full of wonder, of possibilities that the human mind reels away when considering the full grandness of it. When compared to the idea of a complex universe such as the one we live in, the idea of a supreme being tinkering with dials to make sure the universe is just right for humans seems small minded and self centred.

I will say this: Human beings are special. But so to is any creature who is aware of itself, who can reason and think, as would be shown by its actions. It is through this emergent behaviour, this going beyond the simple rules and finding new patterns of existence that can endure and spread that we rise above the simple rules that govern matter and become worthy of recognition.

Simply to be aware of oneself is a wondrous thing. Nowhere in the rules of the universe is such a thing described, but still it exists. It is a marvel of the universe that it can produce such things.

But, it is not a contradiction of the rules of the universe. The interactions of the particles in my mind, in any mind, follow the rules of the universe. By working together they can behave in complex, unpredictable ways, but each individual particle follows the rules of the universe.

I feel this has been somewhat of a rambling post, but let me summarise. The universe is purely material. The material universe follows a set of rules, which we do not as yet fully understand, but they do exist and we are trying to improve our knowledge of them of. The human mind is a collection of material components which exhibit behaviour that while not described in the rules, does not contradict the rules. Such entities which display such behaviour are rare, and deserve to be treated as special and important, despite the fact that they are merely a collection of matter.

End Post
Writing time: 1 hour 21 minutes (I'm not at my most coherent right now)
Time since last post: two hours ish
Current media: Pleasantville

DAAS

It has been quite some time since I listened to them but the Doug Anthony All Stars are still fucking awesome.

Although hindsight it makes me question why I thought it was a good idea to play my copied tapes of them in the car with Mum on the way to and from home on the weekends when I was in high school. Songs about bestiality, BDSM, and transvestites are not to be listened to with ones mother. Sorry Mum. At the time my enthusiasm outweighed my rationality. I now understand why she would buy me MacDonalds in exchange for listening to something else on the 45 minute trip between Cairns and Babinda.

Twenty odd years has not diminished the goodness that is the Doug Anthony All Stars (It's not twenty years since I heard them but it's about twenty years since they performed.).

Fuck Yeah

End Post
Writing time: 6 minutes (I thought I was much more distracted than that)
Time since last post: 4 days
Current media: None (just the music in my head)