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Feb. 24th, 2014 14:44Happy Birthday, novapsyche!
Feb. 24th, 2014
(no subject)
Feb. 24th, 2014 14:45Thursday February 20, 2014 My birthday. I don't feel 71 years old.
"June or July?," someone asked as I looked at a pile of snow taller than my head.
He meant when I thought the snow would be gone.
"June," I said. "But I'm an optimist."
***Shopped at Steeple People Thrift Store.
***Someone blessed me in Jesus' name. I thanked him. (Later, occurred to me I could have thanked him for the birthday present.)
***Adult Children Anonymous meeting. Rather smaller than usual, due to bad weather.
***On the bus home, one non-American was explaining to another that in the US it's customary for bus passengers to sit in each others' laps.
***Comments of comment:
seawasp 2/18/14: We aren't even sure how to MEASURE the actual computing power of the human brain; heck, I just saw articles claiming a revival of the "quantum structures involved with human thinking" which would utterly change any of the estimates, and even the existing estimates are equal parts barely-justified assumptions and handwaving. So I'm doubtful on that 2050 date.
Especially since even if I assume Moore's Law holds through that date, I'm only getting the typical computer being roughly one million times more powerful in 2050 than the typical computer today, which would imply that a typical computer today has the computing power of 7,000 human brains.
Reply: If people like you were right, we wouldn't have had Mars colonies by 1970. And we'd still have ground cars instead of aircars.
Lee Gold 2/19/14: FWIW, I think I'm a liberal (or at least a yellow dog Democrat) and I prefer B&W cocker scandals to cats.
Reply: I took the quiz, and scored as 58% conservative. This is unlikely to be accurate.
al_zorra 2/19/14: Happy Birthday! I hope it's thawing where you are.
Here, it's thawing and raining upon the piles of filthy snow and lagoons of dirty slush. Much, much better than snow and below freezing temperatures.
Reply: Above freezing temperatures. But sleet mixed with rain, followed by much more snow.
[Screen reader warning: next three paragraphs aren't in English.]
Mpls Snow Emergency @MinneapolisSnow Lub zos Minneapolis tau txiav txim tso xov hais tias yuav muaj kev thob dau ceev. Hu rau. http://www.minneapolismn.gov/snow/hmoob/index.htm … … (Snow info, Hmong)
Mpls Snow Emergency @MinneapolisSnow Minneapolis waxay ku dhawaaqday gurmad baraf. Fadlan wac (612) 348-7669. http://www.minneapolismn.gov/snow/somaaliga/ (Snow Emergency info, Somali)
City of Minneapolis @CityMinneapolis La Ciudad de Minneapolis ha declarado una Emergencia por Nevada. (612) 348-7669 y pulse 2 http://www.minneapolismn.gov/snow/español (Snow info, spanish)
***From politicalwire.com:
"The Constitution mandates that the minimum age to serve in the U.S. House is 25. That won't be a problem for Joe Newman," USA Today reports.
"Newman, 101, is seeking the House seat held by Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) as a write-in candidate."
***From Twitter:
LiveScience @LiveScience Has someone finally decoded the mysterious #Voynich manuscript? http://oak.ctx.ly/r/qafl pic.twitter.com/1bbkH7NoN6
Dan Goodman @dsgood Give atheists same right to refuse service to religiously-married couples #tellusatoday
(Context: proposed Arizona law allowing restaurant owners etc. to refuse to serve same-sex couples on religious grounds.)
"June or July?," someone asked as I looked at a pile of snow taller than my head.
He meant when I thought the snow would be gone.
"June," I said. "But I'm an optimist."
***Shopped at Steeple People Thrift Store.
***Someone blessed me in Jesus' name. I thanked him. (Later, occurred to me I could have thanked him for the birthday present.)
***Adult Children Anonymous meeting. Rather smaller than usual, due to bad weather.
***On the bus home, one non-American was explaining to another that in the US it's customary for bus passengers to sit in each others' laps.
***Comments of comment:
seawasp 2/18/14: We aren't even sure how to MEASURE the actual computing power of the human brain; heck, I just saw articles claiming a revival of the "quantum structures involved with human thinking" which would utterly change any of the estimates, and even the existing estimates are equal parts barely-justified assumptions and handwaving. So I'm doubtful on that 2050 date.
Especially since even if I assume Moore's Law holds through that date, I'm only getting the typical computer being roughly one million times more powerful in 2050 than the typical computer today, which would imply that a typical computer today has the computing power of 7,000 human brains.
Reply: If people like you were right, we wouldn't have had Mars colonies by 1970. And we'd still have ground cars instead of aircars.
Lee Gold 2/19/14: FWIW, I think I'm a liberal (or at least a yellow dog Democrat) and I prefer B&W cocker scandals to cats.
Reply: I took the quiz, and scored as 58% conservative. This is unlikely to be accurate.
al_zorra 2/19/14: Happy Birthday! I hope it's thawing where you are.
Here, it's thawing and raining upon the piles of filthy snow and lagoons of dirty slush. Much, much better than snow and below freezing temperatures.
Reply: Above freezing temperatures. But sleet mixed with rain, followed by much more snow.
[Screen reader warning: next three paragraphs aren't in English.]
Mpls Snow Emergency @MinneapolisSnow Lub zos Minneapolis tau txiav txim tso xov hais tias yuav muaj kev thob dau ceev. Hu rau. http://www.minneapolismn.gov/snow/hmoob/index.htm … … (Snow info, Hmong)
Mpls Snow Emergency @MinneapolisSnow Minneapolis waxay ku dhawaaqday gurmad baraf. Fadlan wac (612) 348-7669. http://www.minneapolismn.gov/snow/somaaliga/ (Snow Emergency info, Somali)
City of Minneapolis @CityMinneapolis La Ciudad de Minneapolis ha declarado una Emergencia por Nevada. (612) 348-7669 y pulse 2 http://www.minneapolismn.gov/snow/español (Snow info, spanish)
***From politicalwire.com:
"The Constitution mandates that the minimum age to serve in the U.S. House is 25. That won't be a problem for Joe Newman," USA Today reports.
"Newman, 101, is seeking the House seat held by Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) as a write-in candidate."
***From Twitter:
LiveScience @LiveScience Has someone finally decoded the mysterious #Voynich manuscript? http://oak.ctx.ly/r/qafl pic.twitter.com/1bbkH7NoN6
Dan Goodman @dsgood Give atheists same right to refuse service to religiously-married couples #tellusatoday
(Context: proposed Arizona law allowing restaurant owners etc. to refuse to serve same-sex couples on religious grounds.)
(no subject)
Feb. 24th, 2014 17:05Saturday February 22, 2014 "Ada [Lovelace] and [Charles] Babbage tried to apply their mathematical skills to predicting the outcome of horse races, and Ada died deeply in debt."
Julia Cresswell, Naming Your Baby; entry for Ada.
I recommend this book. Partly for asides such as this one. Mostly because when there are conflicting explanations of a name's origin, or the standard explanation is dubious, Cresswell says so. And there's a good bibliography of books and websites.
***From Friday's minnpost.org:
We’re No. 40! And I know why … City Pages' Aaron Rupar writes: "[A] sexual stamina study uses data from Spreadsheets, a mobile app that 'monitors data from user's movement and audio levels through the accelerometer and microphone to provide statistical and visual analysis of their performance in bed,' according to its website. … Anyway, using data from 10,000 users, Spreadsheets broke down the relative stamina of each state, and it turns out Minnesota is home to a bunch of two-pump chumps. Here are the results:
38. Oklahoma — (2:21)
39. Colorado — (2:21)
40. Minnesota — (2:19)
41. Ohio — (2:18)
42. Louisiana — (2:17)
43. Kentucky — (2:14)."
Do they have any idea how exhausted we are from shoveling snow?
Julia Cresswell, Naming Your Baby; entry for Ada.
I recommend this book. Partly for asides such as this one. Mostly because when there are conflicting explanations of a name's origin, or the standard explanation is dubious, Cresswell says so. And there's a good bibliography of books and websites.
***From Friday's minnpost.org:
We’re No. 40! And I know why … City Pages' Aaron Rupar writes: "[A] sexual stamina study uses data from Spreadsheets, a mobile app that 'monitors data from user's movement and audio levels through the accelerometer and microphone to provide statistical and visual analysis of their performance in bed,' according to its website. … Anyway, using data from 10,000 users, Spreadsheets broke down the relative stamina of each state, and it turns out Minnesota is home to a bunch of two-pump chumps. Here are the results:
38. Oklahoma — (2:21)
39. Colorado — (2:21)
40. Minnesota — (2:19)
41. Ohio — (2:18)
42. Louisiana — (2:17)
43. Kentucky — (2:14)."
Do they have any idea how exhausted we are from shoveling snow?