Random things I have learned from Schrödinger's Kittens:

• The Copenhagen interpretation is old and busted.
  
• The universe is either real or non-local. TOTALLY NOT BOTH. (Real mean it exists when you're not looking at it. Non-local means that shit can somehow go faster than light.)
• This one time John von Neumann was like HIDDEN-VARIABLE THEORIES ARE IMPOSSIBLE and everyone was like OKAY YOU'RE SMART SO WE BELIEVE YOU and then later this guy was like PILOT WAVE???? and found out that hidden-variable theories can work if you accept non-locality.
• Einstein didn't know about non-Euclidean geometry until after he finished the special theory of relativity and if he had done is damn math homework he maybe could have figured out the general theory sooner.
• Quarks are a social construct.
• Quantum Electrodynamics is the most totally awesome scientific theory ever except for the fact that it gives you some infinites that you have to get rid of by dividing by infinite and then it works perfectly but still you're fucking cheating.
• Look at a CD. See the rainbowy shit? QED AT WORK.
• The theories of relativity contain square roots, and time is a negative dimension so that makes a negative square root, which gives us the singularity. BUT if you use imaginary numbers the big bang (singularity) doesn't occur. Yeah what.
• Inertia: when you think about it, it's FUCKING INSANE.
• If you watch a quantum pot it literally doesn't boil.
• There is no way to predict the orbits of three bodies. SERIOUSLY. Two? YES. Three? NO. Eight jillion? STILL NO.
  

If I mischaracterized anything apologies.

In other news, California is gunna let those faggots get gay married! Damn libruls!

I thought I was getting sick, then I thought I was having allergies, now I'm just going to settle on "I feel like crap" without worrying why exactly I do feel like crap.

My brain is totally not up for writing words into sentences here so if you miss my awesome LJing here is a cliff notes of what I'd be writing about:

-oh noes religion sucks
-oh noes I suck and am emo whinge whinge whinge
-wtf Lost wtf
-hoorays my job is mildly stressful and almost fulfilling but still pathetic enough I won't tell you much about it
-dude wtf electrons can move back in time wtf is up with that see I like science that means I'm not dumb
-also remember I'm learning thai did you know that are you impressed how impressed are you
-oh noes Hillary is totally sucking out and my opinions on politics are well-informed
-oh noes I did something stupid because I'm socially retarded and now I think nobody likes me
-hey did I mention I want a tattoo no well by the way I do so about that tattoo
-so this song quote in the subject line totally has deep significance I hope you get the reference please
-hey why am I in a good mood I am going to overanalyze this okay help me out
-here's a link to something you don't give two shits about okay
-oh noes I'm all emo again even though I was just in a good mood what the fuck I'm going to be emo okay
-oh man I totally am broke
-I'm totally still right about the god thing dudes

I demand information!

I'm all keened up on getting a new tattoo, and I'm going to do so once I have the spare change. (Hopefully by the end of the month.) But I need help.

Price. Like I said I'm probably going to get ไม่เป็นไร on my shoulder. My IPU tat cost $100 IIRC. This would cover less area but be more complicated. I'm guessing around $150? I really don't know the price range too well.

Where. For various reasons I don't want to go to Yankee. I'm not horribly snobbish so I mean anywhere that can trace some black lines onto my skin without fucking it up.
(Okay, leaning towards Blue Buddha.)


It's been over a year since I got my first tat. (I still love it- although I do need a little touch-up.) I dunno I'm not into piercings or anything but I am all for more tattooage. It's less about any "meaning" the tattoos have and more about just taking pride in some small aspect of my body.

Okay this post is uber-geeky. You've been warned.

There's an interesting Lost theory I read about... it sounded retarded but after a few week's thought I've kind of grown on it.
In unrelated news, I've found the creepiest product logo ever.
They're pretty tasty macaroons but this guy's gunna give me nightmares.

In other news, I think I'm sick and have allergies at the same time.

Drinking Skeptically
This is the best idea ever.

I should totally start a Burlington chapter.

I'm just worried that Btown has too many airheaded hippies.

You can buy the shirt she's wearing.
That's so wrong.

But I want one...

As an experiment I put every Belle & Sebastian album on my iPod and found out how long I could listen to nothing but B&S before getting totally sick of B&S. Conclusion: About a week and a half.

Current reading: Schrödinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality. It's over a decade old, but it's the 10-year update/sequel to In Search of Shrödinger's Cat. I love this shit, it makes my brain hurt. At this point I think I prefer the multi-worlds interpretation over Copenhagen... but both are pretty insane.

In other news, feeling a sharp pain and thinking it's a splinter but then slowly realizing you've been stung because it hurts a lot and oh it's swelling up and not having any clue what the fuck stung you is kind of disconcerting.

In still other news, spring makes me really loathe being single. </whinge>

I found $5 today so everything is awesome.

The latest Chick Tract is making the rounds and it is high-larious.


It has some disturbing parallels with Expelled.

In other news, I'm totally digging on the Bad Astronomer aka Phil Plait. Dorky science fun.

I have a good story that involves a mysterious structure, dangling earthworms, emergency seltzer, mud, a modified baseball bat, and a road the romans would have been proud of.
But I'll wait until I get ahold of the pictures.

ฉันเริ่มเข้าโรงเรียนครั้งแรกชั้นอนบาลที่เมืองไทยมีชั้นอนุบาลหนึ่งและอนุบาลสอง ต่อจากนั้นก็เข้าเรียนต่อชั้นประถมหนึ่งถึงประถมหกที่โรงเรียนสามัคคี ถึงแม้ว่าโรงเรียนจะอยู่ที่ภาคอีสานแต่ก็ใช้ภาษาไทยกลางในการสอนฉันเริ่มเรียนภาษาอังกฤษครั้งแรกชั้นประถมปีที่ห้าแต่ในโรงเรียนเอกชนบางแห่งเริ่มสอนตั้งแต่ประถมหนึ่ง เวลาในการเรียนชั้นประถมทั้งหมดหกปี

ETA:
I didn't write this, but I typed it. I can read it and comprehend it, but only because I just went over it.

Uncommon Grounds was closed yesterday morning so I had to go to Starbucks to get my coffee.

Abandon all hope ye who enter here.

Overpriced, pretentiously quantified (vendi? fuck off), and the stuff tastes like boiling liquid charcoal. I'm not trying to be cool and anti-corporate, their coffee is just fucking grody.

Maybe I'm spoiled by Uncommon Grounds which roasts beans on the premises but honestly I would rather have gas station french roast at any price.

I rushed home today all excited to play Portal. And then I went into the next room and there was GLaDOS. Damn short game. And easy. I suck at video games but it never gave me any challege. I really would feel gyped if I hadn't just borrowed my stepbrother's copy. You may call it a CAKEWALK but that would be stupid.

In other news it's FREE CONE DAY and I forgot and did not get a FREE CONE goddamnit.

I am so bored. I think maybe I'm done being introverted. I suddenly want to be around people, all the time. It's kind of weird. I'm idly thinking of volunteering somewhere... to feel useful once in a while and meet new people.

I think this is the most not fucked up I've ever been. I've really been feeling with-it recently as opposed to being pure emo drama. I'm also financially stable! Kinda.

Hooray.

I'm actually keeping up on my Thai study. I just need to stay away from my computer. I'll be spending more time lounging around coffeshops. I forgot how lovely Muddy Waters is. It's usually not worth the walk but it's right on the bus route coming back from work.

I'm still pissed off about Portal not working. Such a tease. Maybe I'll upgrade my RAM.
ETA: Well, I'm only 0.1 ghz under the minimum requirements for processor; I have more than enough RAM. Hmm.
ETA2: It appears to work fine if I just run it in a window! Wtf?
ETA3: Okay it's pretty awesome but uh a bit easy? The 2D flash version was harder. I'm not quite done but I think I'm reaching the end.

The Templeton Foundation asks "Does science make belief in God obsolete?"
Well, duh.

Stephen Pinker's answer is spot on.

Yes, if by...

"science" we mean the entire enterprise of secular reason and knowledge (including history and philosophy), not just people with test tubes and white lab coats.

Traditionally, a belief in God was attractive because it promised to explain the deepest puzzles about origins. Where did the world come from? What is the basis of life? How can the mind arise from the body? Why should anyone be moral?

Yet over the millennia, there has been an inexorable trend: the deeper we probe these questions, and the more we learn about the world in which we live, the less reason there is to believe in God.

Of course modern day professional theists try to deny that religion was ever supposed to have any explanatory value; they've turned theology into sophistic word games.

Why did God deem some acts moral and others immoral? If he had no reason but divine whim, why should we take his commandments seriously? If he did have reasons, then why not appeal to those reasons directly?

Exactly. If something is a "sin" there should be actual *reasons* it's a "sin." Not to mention the fact that nobody can claim to know what God's opinions is, since they're only working from an old muddled book of stories and/or voices in their head.

William Phillips is one of those religious scientists.

On the first question: a scientist can believe in God because such belief is not a scientific matter. Scientific statements must be "falsifiable." That is, there must be some outcome that at least in principle could show that the statement is false.

Okay, if I can hold a belief that isn't falsifiable, I believe the Invisible Pink Unicorn said you were an idiot. And why does he believe his brand of nonsense? Besides the silly anthropic argument, he gives this:

I believe in God because I can feel God's presence in my life, because I can see the evidence of God's goodness in the world, because I believe in Love and because I believe that God is Love.

Well... alrighty then!

Mary Midgley babbles pure pomo nonsense.

Kenneth "Waterfalls" Miller makes an astounding claim and asks us to just accept it please:

The categorical mistake of the atheist is to assume that God is natural, and therefore within the realm of science to investigate and test. By making God an ordinary part of the natural world, and failing to find Him there, they conclude that He does not exist. But God is not and cannot be part of nature. God is the reason for nature, the explanation of why things are. He is the answer to existence, not part of existence itself.

Okay if something is "supernatural" how do we know anything about it? Does it interact with reality at all? If so, it's fucking natural. If not, how can anybody claim to know anything about it- including the fact that it exists? Dark matter is invisible to us, but we can dimly see it's effects and we know it exists... the "supernatural" has failed to make any dent anywhere.

I'm so sick of and done with religion. Not going to go out of my way to read about it any more. I spent over a year studying it and I've come to the conclusion that the emperor really does have no clothes. It's bullshit. Utter bullshit. When some rational evidence comes my way that changes my mind, fine, but until then, all religion is bullshit and all believers are delusional.

I'm going to spend my time on language and pop sci other more interesting topics. I'm so fucking done with religion.

For shits and giggles I'm installing my stepbro's copy of Portal.

I don't expect it to be playable on my Dell Inspiron 1501.

Holy shit! It works great! I'm playing Portal! There goes my weekend!

ETA: Goddamnit. It crashes in test chamber 8. Every time! Augh.
ETAII: FIXED!
ETAIII: Not so much! I don't think I have enough RAM I'm getting pagefile crashes or something.

Okay so after a week of anticipation I did my gay little one-person protest of Ben Stein.
I would call it a minor success. Yes, I made an ass of myself, and embarrassed a friend, but it turned out well.
( An evening with Ben Stein )

ETA: Okay I'm quoted in the free press.

Stein took questions after the talk, and the first one was about his new movie, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed." The film, playing at the Roxy, is a provocative exploration of the debate -- or its stifling, in Stein's view -- between evolution and intelligent design.

A woman asked Stein how he could say with a straight face that Darwinism can lead to eugenics, which is an assertion made in the movie.

He responded that he can say it "with an extremely straight face." Just as he can say that two plus two is four.

lol.

re: tonight's Lost.

Jesus Christ.

( Spoilers )