tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60068110757313160352024-02-19T07:35:10.473-03:00UntheismTHIS BLOG IS DEAD. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED THEREIN ARE NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENTATIVE OF THE AUTHOR'S CURRENT OPINIONS| ESTE BLOG ESTÁ MUERTO. LOS PUNTOS DE VISTA EXPRESADOS EN EL MISMO NO NECESARIAMENTE REPRESENTAN LAS OPINIONES ACTUALES DE EL/LA AUTOR/A.Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.comBlogger142125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-24219430383225135092015-01-16T13:16:00.000-03:002015-01-16T13:16:35.657-03:00I may be retiring this blogI'm literally the only person who cares, since (as established many times) all my readers are imaginary. If somehow one of you is not imaginary and forgot to tell me, this is for your benefit too, I guess. Also if anyone happens by this blog on an accidental google search and for some unaccountable reason likes what I write and wants more.
I'm not the same person who started this blog, almost Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-70700247633674238412015-01-05T13:50:00.000-03:002015-01-06T17:51:53.898-03:00Death is bad, 2
I fully expected the last post to be a one-shot, but then Scott Alexander wrote a thing on ethics offsets:
Some people buy voluntary carbon offsets. Suppose they worry about
global warming and would feel bad taking a long unnecessary plane trip
that pollutes the atmosphere. So instead of not doing it, they take the
plane trip, then pay for some environmental organization to clean up an
Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-3904577549871702352015-01-02T19:59:00.000-03:002015-01-02T19:59:00.054-03:00Death is bad (but I'm not sure why)
(thoughts prompted by this post on utilitarianism and abortion)
I would urge you to read the linked article on its own, especially if you self-identify as an effective altruist or utilitarian or somewhere on that philosophical area. But for the purposes of this blog, there's an argument there that goes like this: Murder is very bad. Most people who support abortion are sure that killing a 1stCurrenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-33009533058712385852014-03-16T00:09:00.000-03:002014-03-16T03:36:02.916-03:00More alpha-negatrons!
Pal Sahota apparently found my previous post and may have taken offence at me using the words "crackpot physics" to describe his hypothesis. Over Twitter, he asks:
@sigmaleph Has @google paid you? Over 8900 views & many Profs & Phd's re-tweeted it. Its a hypothesis & could be wrong.Your qualifications?
— Pal Sahota (@searchasyoutype) March 15, 2014
I would've replied through Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-7631501322955977142014-03-10T03:35:00.002-03:002014-03-10T03:35:18.567-03:00Alpha Negatron
Anyone up for some crackpot physics? No? Just me then.
Pal Sahota has a theory that he claims unifies "gravity, magnetism, electromagnetic radiation and time", which is nice. Someone should probably let him know that magnetism and electromagnetic radiation have been unified for a while now, but still.
I took the liberty of looking over this document up on scribd, and I noticed a few odd Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-57812455188063296742014-02-14T00:16:00.000-03:002014-02-14T00:16:43.403-03:00How not to fix the problems with scienceOnce again, people have said something on the internet, and driven me to say others things in reply. Today's something is How the Scientific Method Silences All Ways of Knowing That Are Not White and Male, by Taeha Condon. If you know me at all*, you know this won't be a glowing review.
One would assume the article is about how they are some ways of knowing that are not White and Male, and the Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-9427508685407433382013-08-16T22:48:00.000-03:002013-08-16T22:48:07.442-03:00FSTDT Forums...A long time ago, in the mysterious times known as 2006, my younger self came across a website. It was funny, and it appealed to various interests that teenage me happened to be developing in that very moment. It was a website about making fun of stupid people, mostly stupid people that said stupid things in ways relating to taking religion waaaay too seriously. Seriously enough that one might Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-50418787547591574052013-05-24T15:30:00.001-03:002013-05-24T15:30:39.399-03:00Thoughts I have during class, 2After an introduction to the uncertainty principle, and a clarification that some of the common examples for it are not quite true:
"Huh, that makes a lot more sense now. It's not that position and momentum are there but we can't measure them because of quantum magic. Position and the wave number k are Fourier conjugate variables, and by De Broglie's postulates k equals momentum divided by h-barCurrenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-84709811661743202692013-04-04T20:29:00.002-03:002013-04-05T00:57:08.055-03:00Oh, heyAs has become a sort of tradition by now, I've noticed the state of abandonment of the blog once again and decided to revive it. Mostly, I blame the fact that I haven't been writing a lot, lately. Also, my last computer died in early January and I only got a new one a couple of weeks ago. Lost with that computer, incidentally, is all or most of my latest story, which was actually coming along Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-76007775999396320312012-08-31T18:50:00.000-03:002012-08-31T18:53:17.538-03:00Ateísmo+Hace un par de semanas, la blogger Jen McCreight publicó un poste proponiendo un nuevo movimiento dentro del ateísmo. En particular, un movimiento que vaya más allá de estar en contra de la religión (el Nuevo Ateísmo estilo Dawkins) y se manifieste sobre cuestiones como racismo, sexismo y homofobia.
El contexto es todo el quilombo que hubo en la blogosfera atea en el último año donde ciertos Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-40403268760636782562012-07-17T22:58:00.000-03:002012-07-17T23:06:52.887-03:00The power of the human soul"Oh yes, the complex is entirely self-sufficient. Food, water treatment, electricity, we handle it all ourselves. Right here in this very building, as a matter of fact"
"Is that so? How exactly do you manage that?"
"Well, we harness the power of the human soul.This structure is the result of years of hard work, of research, of trial and error. I've lost track of how many designs I tried until ICurrenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-20174592300492014792012-07-10T19:22:00.001-03:002012-07-10T19:24:39.968-03:00A word of warningWhat I'm going to do today is leave a note so that if at any point anyone finds themselves in the situation I did one month ago, they might find this post and save themselves some panicked guesswork.
One of the CDs I shot lasers at
Let's rewind one month, then. I am shooting lasers at CDs. And I don't mean in the usual "use the laser to read the information encoded in the CD" sense. Nor the Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-22924220955427913562012-01-23T23:16:00.000-03:002012-01-23T23:16:41.755-03:00In which Ashes is recorded for future useThis is apropos of nothing, but this idea has been worked into my mind and I feel like recording it here, because it might have some future use. Or not. It's here, either way. It's a simple system I call "Ashes", based on its two main symbols, the dash and the asterisk.
The rules are as follows:
-- is a valid sequence
** is a valid sequence
You can add - to the end of a valid sequence ending inCurrenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-15567910270533487392011-10-12T23:30:00.000-03:002011-10-12T23:30:50.283-03:00Evaluation: 0-TAPIR 2First, I'd like to make it clear that the recent pause in updates was due to laziness in writing Evaluations, not the story itself. Plus I had exams until yesterday. Anyway.
No title yet, as you can see, though I haven't focused much on one. It might become apparent once the story moves forward a little, or not, in which case I'll just makes something up. But let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-2184037937254326002011-09-27T21:53:00.000-03:002013-07-13T02:18:27.208-03:00Evaluation: 0-TAPIRWhat the hell is 0-TAPIR, you ask? A working title. Project TAPIR is what I like to call the novel I've been wanting to write for many years now and restarted several times. What I've got right now is a prequel of sorts to it, a story that happens in the same continuity involving some of the main characters. Hence the zero. (The zero goes at the beginning because otherwise it messes up the Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-56659450972979846072011-09-19T21:55:00.001-03:002011-09-19T22:00:28.431-03:00Evaluation: Countdown 2Many thousands of years ago, I used to do this thing where I posted weekly updates of my ongoing writing projects. It's back, baby!
Sort of. I've only written a handful of paragraphs yesterday, due to terminal laziness and lack of inspiration. Mostly laziness. But still, I'm back, and hopefully I'll get my shit back together.
Wordcount: 225
Total: 820Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-57178791816566465382011-08-27T00:43:00.001-03:002011-08-27T00:56:43.538-03:00ProofThatGodExists.orgMoving past that little bit of math the other day, we turn to philosophy, which is like math except much less precise, much less useful and a lot more open to discussions by laypeople in altered states of consciousness. Also a more common subject of my blogginations.
As you have no doubt cleverly deduced from the title, there is a website called proofthatgodexists.org, and it claims to have proofCurrenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-48214676322783673042011-08-23T21:04:00.002-03:002011-08-23T21:57:44.959-03:00Slicin' spheres
Illustrative MS Paint diagram 1
Imagine a spherical structure of radius r, which has within it multiple circular floors (see illustrative MS Paint diagram 1). You want to know the total area of those floors. The area of a circle is pi*radius^2, so you can easily calculate the surface of a floor located in the exact centre, since its radius is the same as that of the sphere, but the other Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-13579346553790298242011-07-25T21:22:00.000-03:002011-07-25T21:22:16.502-03:00Evaluation: CountdownBeen a while since I wrote one of these. Laziness really, though I have been working on stories.
Countdown is yet another Vurok story, it revises a bit of Void's backstory. It's after he discovered his powers, and after he went Pather, but before he met Ananke and became Void. Which means I'll be revealing his name! His surname, at least.
I have written 594 words so far, and I have an intro to Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-22251583285249091222011-07-13T14:48:00.000-03:002012-07-21T21:53:17.912-03:00Psychflare: Fehu
Fehu
The night had begun, as many do, at this little pub called Midpoint. It's more or less the same distance from the clubs east of Twenty-Third and those south of Twelth, which I guess is the reason for the name. Never asked. And, as usual, we were trying to decide whether to go east or south.
Marie wasn't around tonight, which skewed things against south. She needs to get high or drunk Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-85633941293745377352011-06-27T23:23:00.000-03:002011-06-27T23:23:58.208-03:00Evaluation: Fehu 6Last weekend was Father's Day, which happened to eat into my usual writing time, so that's why there was no evaluation last Monday. I considered putting something up around Wednesday or so, but instead I chose to keep working on what I have and make a bigger update today.
So, Fehu is nearing completion! The last major thing to be solved has been solved, as usual by accident. I happen to be Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-20574740869320702422011-06-13T22:21:00.000-03:002011-06-13T22:21:09.685-03:00Evaluation: TCOFTWOFTLSometimes I need to stop writing what I want to finish so that I can write what I enjoy. And so the few days I wrote this week were dedicated to The Chronicles of the Wars of the Light, a thing I thought of many years ago and decided to finally start.
Don't be misled by the title, it's a just-for-fun thing. The basic idea occurred to me when I was on the first or second incarnation of Project Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-67933400530642858042011-06-06T21:30:00.000-03:002011-06-06T21:30:38.698-03:00Evaluation: Fehu 5Not much to say today. The story still goes ahead at my characteristically sluggish pace, some parts I'm happy with, others less so. I'm not sure if I'm conveying the right feeling with what I write (but most likely not) and I don't know how to improve it.
I just realised an obvious trick I haven't been using that would probably help. Quantifying! Keeping track of exactly how much I write per dayCurrenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-6240270463232863442011-06-01T01:01:00.003-03:002011-06-02T16:04:17.177-03:00A box of smoking sinNewcomb's problem is a funny little thought experiment that goes roughly like this: Suppose Omega, the alien superintelligence, comes up to you, scans your brain, and then leaves two boxes on the ground. One, box A, is transparent, and you can see it has $1,000 inside. You can't see what's inside box B. Omega tells you that you can take both boxes, or only box B. If Omega expects you to take bothCurrenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6006811075731316035.post-16752172681307325442011-05-30T22:05:00.001-03:002011-05-30T22:07:36.112-03:00Evaluation: Fehu 4Back on track, yay! The words are flowing once again, as I predicted they would, and the story moves forward nicely. Plus, I have a bit of an idea where I go from here, which is generally a good way to end a writing session.
So I wrote yet another piece of dialogue, and as usual it was terrible. Though, if I'm not deluding myself, a bit less terrible than usual (I assign a high probability to "Currenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718395027826595076noreply@blogger.com0