Panopticologist

Unlike Me, Monkeys are Willing to Pay for Porn

2005-10-03T18:10:00.000+13:00

A new study found that male monkeys will give up their juice rewards in order to ogle pictures of female monkey's bottoms. The way the experiment was set up, the act is akin to paying for the images, the researchers say.

The rhesus macaque monkeys also splurged on photos of top-dog counterparts, the high-ranking primates. Maybe that's like you or me buying People magazine.

The research, which will be detailed in the March issue of Current Biology, gets more interesting.

The scientists actually had to pay these guys, in the form of extra juice, to get them to look at images of lower-ranking monkeys.

Curiously, the monkeys in the test hadn't had any direct physical contact with the monkeys in the photos, so they didn't have personal experience with who was hot and who was not.

"So, somehow, they are getting this information by observation -- by seeing other individuals interact," said Michael Platt of the Duke University Medical Center.

Next, Platt and his colleagues want to see how people will perform in a similar experiment.

Link [via Cynical-C]

Uncrippled E-ink device

2005-10-02T12:20:00.000+13:00

Thanks to the lovely Chinese (and despite the shortsighted Americans/Japanese) we'll be able to buy an e-book reader based on the same technology as the Sony Librie (just like reading a dead-tree book, apparently) without all the shitty book-killing DRM. Tianjin Jinke Electronics' Hanlin V2 will read pdf, doc, ascii, ppt, xls, html. It's scheduled to come out in May 2006, runs on Linux, uses MMC or SD cards and will apparently be priced at US$349 (~NZ$500). I'm a cheap bastard, but the prospect of not having to lug around several kgs of books or deal with stupid fucking crippleware is very enticing indeed.

[Via BoingBoing]

Various Links

2005-09-29T18:43:00.000+12:00

The BBC has a great article on cool words in various languages including the wonderful 'bakku-shan' - a girl who looks hot from the back but is an uggo from the front.

And here are some pretty science pictures, also courtesy of the Beeb.

Armed dolphins escape in the disorder of hurricane Katrina. [via del.icio.us]

Cory Doctorow has started podcasting his stories in serial form.

Kamala Hayman, This Is Your Life

2005-09-26T10:33:00.000+12:00

This is why I gave up on the idea of being a journalist:

Attempt to clear up pool soiling

By KAMALA HAYMAN

At least one public swimming pool in Christchurch is closed every three days because a child has defecated in the water, costing the city thousands of dollars a year.

Worst affected is the Pioneer Leisure Centre, forced to close at least once a week due to a faecal incident. In the past four months it has closed 21 times for a total of 42 hours. All but one closure was in the leisure pool, usually crowded with children of all ages enjoying the wave machine, river area, fountains, or swimming lessons.
...
Christchurch City Council recreation facilities manager John Filsell said most faecal incidents were due to toddler toileting accidents and he urged parents to take steps to avoid them.

"The best thing the community can do is to ensure young children go to the toilet before using the pool."

[Chur Christian]

What I've Learned at University

2005-09-25T13:05:00.000+12:00

There are no such things as nouns. If you don't believe me read this, this , this and this. This could save you several years of scholarship.

The 50 Most-Cited 20th Century Works in the Arts & Humanities 1976-1983

2005-09-24T17:31:00.000+12:00

I'm ashamed to say that the only ones I've read cover-to-cover are Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations and Austin's How To Do Things With Words (does that make me a Philosophy of Language Geek?) , though I'm proud to say that I'm somewhat familiar with most of them (though I've never read any Joyce). I think that Kuhn's philosophy of science is indispensible to anyone wanting to understand anything - and it's also nice to see Popper in there a couple of times.
It would be interesting to see a more modern list. I would expect that with the rise of Cultural Studies and 'Theory' Freud and Lacan would be up the list, as would Foucault and Derrida. Would also be nice to see a time-series of most cited works, perhaps separated into categories for a visual representation of Kuhn's paradigm shifts or Hegel's Dialectic in the Arts. I'm sure some geek has already done it, but I don't have time to find it at the moment.

1	T.S. Kuhn	The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 1962
2	J. Joyce	Ulysses. 1922
3	N. Frye	Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. 1957
4	L. Wittgenstein	Philosophical Investigations
5	N. Chomsky	Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. 1965
6	M. Foucault	The Order of Things. 1966
7	J. Derrida	Of Grammatology
8	R. Barthes	S/Z. 1970
9	M. Heidegger	Being and Time. 1927
10	E.R. Curtius	European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. 1948
11	H-G Gardmer	Truth and Method. 1960
12	J. Rawls	A Theory of Justice. 1971
13	J. Joyce	Finnegan's Wake. 1939
14	J.R. Searle	Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. 1969
15	J. Culler	Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics, and the Study of Literature. 1975
16	G. Genette	Figures. 1966
17	N. Chomsky & M. Halle	The Sound Pattern of English. 1968
18	T.S. Eliot	The Waste Land. 1922
19	J.L. Austin	How to Do Things with Words. 1962
20	W.V.O. Quine	Word and Object. 1960
21	M. Proust	Remembrance of Things Past. 1914
22	L. Wittgenstein	Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. 1922
23	J. Joyce	A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 1916
24	W.C. Booth	The Rhetoric of Fiction. 1961
25	C. Levi-Strauss	Structural Anthropology. 1958
26	S. Freud	The Interpretation of Dreams. 1900
27	V.Y. Propp	Morphology of the Folktale. 1928
28	F.D. Saussure	Course in General Linguistics. 1915
29	J-P, Sartre	Being and Nothingness. 1943
30	S.A. Kripke	"Naming and Necessity" 1972
31	E. Benveniste	Problems in General Linguistics. 1966
32	K.R. Popper	Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge. 1963
33	J. Lacan	Lacan Ecrits
34	J. Derrida	Writing and Difference. 1967
35	N. Chomsky	Chomsky Syntactic Structures. 1957
36	R. Jacobson	"Linguistics and Poetics" 1960
37	E.D. Hirsch	Validity in Interpretation. 1967
38	C. Levi-Strauss	The Savage Mind. 1962
39	E. Pound	The Cantos of Ezra Pound. 1925
40	P.L. Berger & T. Luckmann	The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. 1966
41	M.M. Bakhtin	Rabelais and His World. 1965
42	M. Merleau-Ponty	Phenomenology of Perception. 1945
43	W. Iser	The Act of Reading. 1976
44	K.R. Popper	Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach. 1972
45	U.A. Eco	Theory of Semiotics. 1976
46	E. Auerbach	Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. 1946
47	E.H. Gombrich	Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation. 1960
48	E.P. Thompson	The Making of the English Working Class. 1964
49	J. Habermas	Knowledge and Human Interest. 1968
50	K.R. Popper	The Logic of Scientific Discovery. 1935

Link [via BoingBoing]

Schizophrenics Say the Darndest Things

2005-09-11T17:29:00.000+12:00

I enjoy listening to conspiracy theorists. They speak with conviction and make inferences with all the reckless abandon of a P-head in a high-speed car chase. Whilst copping a sleep in the library today (yeah, so?) I overheard a particularly good one. He even looked disconcertingly like that King of Delusional Paranoia, Philip K. Dick.
He repeated the usual Bilderberg, US Government are Satanists, Bohemian Grove, Skull & Bones stories, but had two very interesting - and to best of my knowledge, novel - theories.
The first is that Hurricane Katrina was going to miss New Orleans, but Satan (bastard that he is) guided it on course (presumably by blowing). A+ crazy, D- imaginative.
The second was that (drum-roll please) George H. W. Bush, as head of the CIA, made the young George W. Bush engage in sexual conduct with other senior members of the CIA and somehow gave him Dissociative Identity Disorder and 'programmed' one of his personalities to be an evil Satanist, the other a good Christian (it's 'well-documented' that all upper-level CIA agents 'donate' their children for these purposes). George W. Bush is half good-half bad, and 'they' can somehow switch between the two to use him as a puppet. Our conspiracy theorist said he felt sorry for Dubya, who 'really believes he's a Christian'.
The funniest thing he said, though, was that he was surprised his mother didn't want to listen to the truth. But then, he concluded, she is 'of a different generation'.
I used to think it was a waste that such obviously intelligent (he was quoting newspaper articles from 10 years ago down to the month, and I think it does take some level of intelligence to invent such an intriguingly complex world) people waste their time on this sort of nonsense. It does provide entertainment for the rest of us though. If there was a madman on every corner, the world would be a much more interesting place. It worked for Philip K. Dick.

Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey.

2005-09-11T12:49:00.000+12:00

The title has nothing to do with the content of this post because, basically, there is no content. Here's some random webshit though: Flying Spaghetti Monster: The Game, Stupid Quotes about Hurricane Katrina, Macgyver for President, Worldometers (constantly updated demographic and socio-economic statistics - funfun!)

My New Word: It's Slightly Naughty

2005-09-10T01:01:00.000+12:00

During a conversation with a friend about rugby today, I made a new word. This post is a claim to authorship. My new word is cryptosodomy. It is a noun and refers to any activity which involves covert male homoeroticism (I'm using sodomy to refer to gay male sexual conduct generally, not just anal sex). As of now (1:23 am NZ time 10/9/05) Google (the ultimate ontological arbiter of the 21st century) shows no results for cryptosodomy, crypto-sodomy or "crypto sodomy".

Which variation do you prefer? I'm inclined to the onewordnofuckinghyphen approach, but maybe it's too soon. The whole Two__Separate__Words thing is just awkward in my opinion, which is why I like those compound-happy Germans. I guess I would be happy for people to use either cryptosodomy or crypto-sodomy as the occasion permits, just use your judgment and use it wisely children.

Update: Drue has pointed out that cryptosodomITE is already a word (both hyphenated and non). See the comments for my Foucauldian dismissal of this new information as irrelevant to my coolness.

I do, however, feel I need to add something more to this wonderful nascent word-family. We need a standard adjective form: I suggest cryptosodomaic as I've always liked the word Aramaic - beautiful Aramaic, I can only imagine what the language itself sounds like. As for the verb form, I think cryptosodomise sounds a bit too bodily and literal. Since crypto- has the techie connotations of cryptography, I think it needs to be snappy and direct - this is the Noughties, afterall - and so I present the verb cryptosod. What does everyone think?

Gender Stereotypes in Advertising: A Meaningless Rant

2005-09-08T12:30:00.000+12:00

John Camm doesn't like advertising and offers a list of cliched 'rules' thereof:

"It's tiresome to see male characters in adverts who don't resemble anyone you know," he says. "But what's perhaps worse is the absolute reliance of advertising on its own regurgitated cliches."

Well, yeah. Though advertising isn't trying to represent life as it really is, but either trying to sell you a better one or use well-worn stereotypes as a shortcut to character development and narrative (it's hard to tell a story in 30 seconds). Advertising has a always seemed like a bit of a self-contained symbolic system to me (as is film and television, but perhaps to a lesser extent). His list seems pretty accurate though:

4. Mums are often harassed but NEVER depressed/unable to cope.

5. Any act of male stupidity (e.g. walking across a clean floor in muddy boots, putting the dog in the dishwasher, etc.) will be met with a wry smile, not genuine annoyance/anger.

14. Men are inherently lazy/slobbish; women are the reverse.

20. All women (except stay-at-home housewives) have interesting and enjoyable careers.

I've been reading (far too much) Judith Butler, who takes it as axiomatic that men have traditionally been associated with the mind and rationality and women with the body and materiality. If advertising reflects the prejudices of society, it would seem said prejudices have changed quite a lot. Women are still shown as more emotional (traditionally thought of as counter to reason) than men, but also more rational (because emotion and reason are no longer antithetical).

On the other hand, if the differing depictions of men and women reflect how each would like to see themselves, it would seem that men want to be dumb and laddish (probably true to an extent) and women want to be successful and sensible (also probably true). The truth is probably some combination of the two. It would be interesting to look at how men and women are portrayed when the ad is aimed at their own gender compared to when it's aimed at the opposite. I would suggest (and I'm simply pulling this out of my arse) that men are shown as laddish and slightly dumb regardless of the target-gender (both beer and cleaning-product ads) while women are shown as shallow whores in man-targeted advertising and successful uberfrauen in woman-targeted. I'm not sure what that says about the male gender, but it's probably not good - perhaps the depictions of us are right.

Pinioned the Bitch

2005-09-07T00:16:00.000+12:00

Disclaimer: Brad is deprived of both sleep and nicotine. Any sense-making is entirely coincidental and if you are in any doubt you should just get fucked anyway.

I'm fond of neither politicking nor crowds, so when I saw both at the University of Otago today I ignored it and got on with my business (reading about lesbians and whatnot). By the sounds of it, however, I should have had a closer look:

Labour Minister Pete Hodgson is facing police inquiries after assaulting a mother who was peacefully protesting at Otago University today, ACT Justice spokesman Stephen Franks said.
"She has confirmed to me that he pinioned her so that she could not raise her arms to show her protest sign to the television cameras."

Furthermore:

[T]he people who were there as part of the event, wearing the Labour gear, holding the balloons and passing out the leaflets. Oh, and ripping anti-Labour material out of the hands of students, stealing belongings and running away with them.

Man, I hate people. I've always found people willing to unquestioningly support one political party quite dull and unimaginative, but when I saw some of the Labour, Green and Act peeps (yes, I'm using that pejoratively) today I noticed something else. They Ugly.

Now, I'm a bit of an ugly fuck myself, but one mans ugliness does not an interesting story make. When there is a group, however, that disproportionately exhibits some quality, it would seem there must be some reason for it. My question, then, is this: Are ugly people attracted to party politics, or does joining a political party make you ugly? Perhaps there's some other quality required to join a party, dress in red and hand out balloons (stupidity perhaps?) which covaries with ugliness. I guess we need more data (though frankly, life would be much easier if anecdotal or entirely made-up evidence was enough) to be sure there even is a relationship to study, rather than the bitter imaginings of a cynical arsehole who's sick of all the fucking inane rhetoric masquerading as debate.

Economists are Bad at Economics

2005-09-03T19:58:00.000+12:00

The NY Times reports on a journal article on economics education in the US. It turns out that 78% of 200 professional economists at the 2005 AEA conference answered the following question incorrectly (I'll put the answer in the comments in case anyone wants to find out if they are better at economics than most professionals):

"You won a free ticket to see an Eric Clapton concert (which has no resale value). Bob Dylan is performing on the same night and is your next-best alternative activity. Tickets to see Dylan cost $40. On any given day, you would be willing to pay up to $50 to see Dylan. Assume there are no other costs of seeing either performer. Based on this information, what is the opportunity cost of seeing Eric Clapton? (a) $0, (b) $10, (c) $40, or (d) $50."

That is fucking astounding, but possibly even more telling is that

When they posed their original question to a large group of college students, the researchers found that exposure to introductory economics instruction was strikingly counterproductive. Among those who had taken a course in economics, only 7.4 percent answered correctly, compared with 17.2 percent of those who had never taken one.

The explanation for such performance, the article (which I can't be arsed reading beyond the abstract) suggests, is that courses are too mathematically rich and cover too wide a range of topics at the expense of really coming to understand anything at all.

I find studying economics here in New Zealand (1st year papers at Canterbury, 1st->3rd year papers at Otago) a lot more flexible than it sounds in the States. I don't plan on becoming a professional economist and am mainly interested in economics as a tool for understanding human behaviour, so it's been good that I've been able to avoid having to do any calculus.

There certainly does seem to be a trade-off between mathematical depth and intuitive understanding. The fact that US schools are opting for the former could reflect the scientific fetishism that seems to be quite prevalent in the social sciences there. American sociology, for example, is a lot more quantitative than elsewhere (not that I think that's necessarily a bad thing, but there's a trade-off). Perhaps it's the product of a more competitive education system: maths is harder, therefore better.

[via Marginal Revolution]

Philosophers Cause Wars

2005-09-02T00:47:00.000+12:00

The arguments in Kimberly Cornish's The Jew of Linz that Wittgenstein was the genesis of Hitler's anti-semitism:

A school photograph (shown on the cover of the book) shows Hitler and Wittgenstein standing next but one to each other.

The school had 329 pupils - not a huge school , and of a size when pupils would likely know each other.

They were the same age, although not in the same class, as Wittgenstein was a year ahead and Hitler a year behind the average (p.10).

A pupil records that Hitler called someone a "filthy Jew" who at the time did not realise he had Jewish ancestry, this description fits Wittgenstein.

In Mein Kampf Hitler recalls a Jewish boy "who was treated by us with caution, but only because various experiences had led us to distrust his discretion and we did not particularly trust him". Wittgenstein is well known for his "confessions" and his obsession to tell the truth, again making the link between Wittgenstein and Hitler at school.

Wittgenstein’s family was incredibly rich and powerful, hence Wittgenstein because of his family alone would have been well-known to the other pupils. However in addition Wittgenstein was a "small, unathletic, stuttering, homosexual, adolescent" (p.18) which means it is inconceivable Hitler could not have known Wittgenstein.

Both Hitler and Wittgenstein loved Wagner (p.12-14) and were both able to whistle large sections of his music. This common interest not shared by the other pupils again makes it likely they would have known each other.

Wittgenstein referred to other pupils as "muck" and spoke down to them using the term "sie" (p.18). It is on record that Hitler also referred to other pupils as "sie" (p.21) and this term was also used in later life by Hitler (p.22). Their both speaking in the same manner again points to a connection.

Both pupils were major figures of the twentieth century, it is likely that as children they would have stood out and hence be known to each other (p.18).

Wittgenstein had two homosexual brothers who had killed themselves. This would have made him widely talked about at the school (p.30), again showing Hitler must have known of him.

Wittgenstein’s family financially supported anti-Wagner artists and musicians. As a lover Wagner, Hitler would have known this and resented Wittgenstein for it.

The descriptions Hitler in later life gives of Jews actually fits Wittgenstein: the outward appearance of being european (p.23); bearing titles of nobility (p.23); being ‘court Jews’ (p.25); writing for the world press (p.27); spending the night in the Hotel Excelsior (p.30). Even Hitler’s laws defining who was a Jew (three of the four grandparents had to be Jews) seemed especially to be written for Wittgenstein (three of his four grandparents were Jews). This shows Hitler had Wittgenstein in mind when he pursued his war against the Jews.

Another reference Hitler makes to the Jews is "of German he possesses nothing but the art of stammering its language" (p.23) - Wittgenstein was a stammering Jew, hence again Hitler makes specific references to Wittgenstein into general attacks on the Jews.

Statically there few Jews at the school, hence Hitler’s references to Jews at the school make it more probably he was referring to Wittgenstein or had him in mind.

Hitler actually refers to Wittgenstein in a speech following invasion of Austria, when he says "would that on this evening, some of our international seekers after truth whom we know so well could not only see the facts but later admit them to be facts". "Seekers after truth" is a reference to a philosopher whom Hitler knows well - Wittgenstein.

Also some nice discussion on what Cornish might have been trying to do by making such a claim.

Link

Is Evolution Really Difficult to Understand?

2005-08-31T17:12:00.000+12:00

Philosopher Daniel Dennett has a nice article in the NY Times (or here if you don't want to register) on why Intelligent Design isn't science and there is no real 'controversy' to teach. I'm not going to discuss most of it because it's thoroughly sensible and everyone should just read it. One thing I did find strange, though, is his suggestion that evolution is hard to understand or somehow counter-intuitive - he uses the term 'mind-boggling'

Yes, eyes are for seeing, but these and all the other purposes in the natural world can be generated by processes that are themselves without purposes and without intelligence. This is hard to understand, but so is the idea that colored objects in the world are composed of atoms that are not themselves colored, and that heat is not made of tiny hot things.

I've heard many a fine person make similar claims - including Douglas Adams in this radio programme, where he says it's counter-intuitive that order can come about through the interaction of many unorderly things.

Personally, I don't find evolution counter-intuitive at all. In fact it's one of the very few scientific theories I can actually understand in a concrete way. We can precisely pinpoint the mechanism (natural selection) which brings about these effects. True, order and purpose are things we don't expect to just emerge without reason, but when we can explain how they come about in simple cause-and-effect terms, shouldn't our skepticism disappear?

By analogy, we wouldn't expect supply and demand to equilibrate in an unplanned market unless we had knowledge of some mechanism that would make it do so. There is such a mechanism: shortages or surpluses changing the pricing behaviour of firms and consumers responding to those altered prices. Given this economic insight, our grounds for doubting the equilibrating capacity of markets is gone and we accept that order can emerge from flux.

Does anybody agree? I'd probably be inclined to go with Dennett and Adams, they're both far smarter than me.

Litigious Creationists

2005-08-30T17:06:00.000+12:00

The Assn. of Christian Schools International, who represent private schools, are suing the University of California for religious discrimination.

Under a policy implemented with little fanfare a year ago, UC admissions authorities have refused to certify high school science courses that use textbooks challenging Darwin's theory of evolution, the suit says.

Other courses rejected by UC officials include "Christianity's Influence in American History," "Christianity and Morality in American Literature" and "Special Providence: American Government."

The 10-campus UC system requires applicants to complete a variety of courses, including science, mathematics, history, literature and the arts. But in letters to Calvary Chapel, university officials said some of the school's Christian-oriented courses were too narrow to be acceptable.

According to the lawsuit, UC's board of admissions also advised the school that it would not approve biology and science courses that relied primarily on textbooks published by Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Books, two Christian publishers.

Instead, the board instructed the schools to "submit for UC approval a secular science curriculum with a text and course outline that addresses course content/knowledge generally accepted in the scientific community."

What do they expect? A course on Creationism simply doesn't teach you anything about biology. As for the other courses, there's clearly nothing wrong with teaching a course about religion, but I assume since UC has declined to certify the courses they go beyond that and fail to address other issues or lack critical analysis*.
How can kids indoctrinated into this sort of anti-academic thinking be expected to perform at university? I dare say many academics would leave the US if they had to put up with too many self-righteous little fucks who think they know everything about biology because some crackpot tells them there are holes in the theory of evolution, misrepresents what 'theory' means and rejects evolution because we - the (boundedly) rational part of the human population - can't explain every aspect of evolution or 'prove' that it's true.

Link - free registration required but BugMeNot worked for me. [via Backwards City]

*Of course the UC could be evil lesbian satanists who want to prevent any sort of religion being taught in private schools, in which case I'm moving there immediately.

Dirty Old Anthropologists

2005-08-29T17:18:00.000+12:00

Today, Monday, 9.20.14, I had a strange dream; homosex, with my own double as partner. Strangely autoerotic feelings; the impression that I'd like to have a mouth just like mine to kiss, a neck that curves just like mine, a forehead just like mine (seen from the side). I got up tired and collected myself slowly.

Bronislaw Malinowski, A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term. Quoted in Wallace, L Sexual Encounters: Pacific Texts, Modern Sexualities. Cornell University Press, 2003. p159.

In the words of Oscar Wilde, 'a dirty mind is a joy forever.'

The Inerrant Word of God

2005-08-28T13:26:00.000+12:00

This letter from the Humanists of Utah to Tele-Conservative Laura Schlessinger demonstrates the hypocrisy of (virtually) all biblical literalists pretty well. Leviticus is by far my favourite book of the bible though - the New Testament just seems a bit flaccid by comparison.

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific laws and how to follow them:

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15:19- 24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?

Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? - Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Your devoted fan,
Jim

Link [via Guabancex]

Microsoft's Parental Guide to 1337sp34k

2005-08-28T13:01:00.000+12:00

While it's important to respect your children's privacy, understanding what your teenager's online slang means and how to decipher it could be important in certain situations and as you help guide their online experience. While it has many nicknames, information-age slang is commonly referred to as leetspeek, or leet for short. Leet (a vernacular form of "elite") is a specific type of computer slang where a user replaces regular letters with other keyboard characters to form words phonetically—creating the digital equivalent of Pig Latin with a twist of hieroglyphics.

Link

Corporate Social Responsibility

2005-08-27T14:37:00.000+12:00

For some reason Milton Friedman's 35-year-old NY Times article The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits has become popular with del.icio.us users (probably an interesting study of technologically-mediated memetics in itself) .

Friedman's arguments are a bit too tied up in the ideology of liberty for me, but I do agree with his conclusion. A market-based society accepts that voluntary trade is, generally speaking, the best way to allocate resources. A profit-driven company is an integral part of this system and if companies start worrying about aims other than profit* in any significant way, the system will be undermined.

Does this mean that companies should be given free reign to do whatever they want? Of course not. Companies (just as people) are bound by the laws of the society in which they operate. If we as a society think that there are certain things business should and shouldn't do, we should change the law to reflect that. Insisting that companies should be nice at the expense of their own bottom-line will do nothing more than ensure that only companies that ignore our whingeing will survive.

Changing the rules of the game means that we can control the conduct of companies without undermining the whole capitalist system.

*Long term profit - donating to charities and whatnot is simply good PR and will often increase, rather than undermine, long-term profitability.

Protectionism and Hollow Economies

2005-08-27T14:02:00.000+12:00

Chris at Stumbling and Mumbling gives a good analogy to show that pretectionist fears of lost manufacturing and agricultural jobs 'hollowing out' developed economies are misguided.

But what would an economy look like with its manufacturing "hollowed out"?
It'd look like my street, that's what. Almost no-one in Belsize Park Gardens, to my knowledge, works in manufacturing. And there are loads of service industries where no-one's employed either - and certainly, no agricultural jobs (though some do grow their own herbs).
This isn't jsut true of my street. It's true of most of the area. The people round my way work pretty much in just two industries: entertainment/meeja and financial services.
And are we poor? No. Sure, we have problems with single parents and drug users. But we're pretty rich, despite a catastrophic hollowing out of manufacturing, and despite the fact that almost all the food and clothing we buy is imported, sometimes from as far away as Camden Town.
What, then, is the difference between my area and a country that makes hollowing out a problem in the latter but not in the former?

Cultured Chimps

2005-08-26T22:48:00.000+12:00

Scientists have shown that chimpanzees conform to social norms. This would suggest that sociality is 'biological' and existed in a common ancestor.

They presented two different groups of chimps with a problem relevant to their wild cousins: how to retrieve an item of food stuck behind a blockage in a system of tubes.
One chimpanzee from each group was secretly taught a novel way to solve the problem. Ericka was taught how to use a stick to lift the blockage up so that the food fell out.
Another female chimp, Georgia, was shown how to poke at the blockage so that the ball of food rolled out of the back of the pipes.
Each chimp was then reunited with its group, and the scientists watched how they behaved.
They found that the chimps gathered around Ericka or Georgia and soon copied their behaviour. By the end of two months, the two different groups were still using their own way of getting at the food and two distinct cultural traditions had been established.

Brian Easton: What the Tax Debate is Really About

2005-08-26T15:18:00.000+12:00

[Leave] aside the rhetoric of greed, underneath the National tax cut package is the language that government spending should be restrained and cut, and that more of the nation’s spending should be in the hands of individuals. We recognise here the return of those who dominated economic policy in the 1980s and 1990s. We can say that with some confidence, because at various times when he was governor of the Reserve Bank, Don Brash stepped outside the narrow confines of monetary policy and talked about his economic prescription. A case in point was his speech to the London based Hayek Society, Friedrich Hayek being one of the leading thinkers of the right wing individualistic more-market solutions I described earlier.
I cant help thinking that National’s underlying agenda is the oft stated right wing strategy of giving substantial tax cuts and then forcing public expenditure cuts to rebalance the budget. It has not worked well in the US, but our political process is more disciplined, as we saw in 1991 when an incoming National government imposed severe expenditure cuts.

Does the public wants more money in its pocket, but having to finance expenditure currently borne by the government. Undoubtedly the public wants more money in its pocket, together with the existing level of government expenditure. Some are willing to sacrifice money in its pocket in order to maintain and increase public expenditure.
Of course, there are more-private less-public and the more-public less-private advocates. In principle the election is a test of which group is in a majority, although it is possible that other factors – including non-economic ones and a misunderstanding about the nature of the choice which the public face – may confuse the purity of the test.

Link [Chur Christian]

Economics, Piracy, Bullshit

2005-08-25T13:27:00.000+12:00

I've blogged previously about why some piracy can be good for software vendors (specifically Microsoft) because network externalities mean that even a non-paying customer can be a valuable one.
Chris Anderson of The Long Tail argues that piracy can be good for other content providers as well. He has two arguments for this. Firstly,

Any protection technology that is really difficult to crack is probably too cumbersome to be accepted by consumers. We've seen all sorts of failures of this sort before, from dongles to laborious and confusing registration schemes. Each seems better at annoying consumers than at building markets. The lesson from these examples is that zero-percent piracy is not only unattainable, it's economically suboptimal. If your content is uncrackable, it means you've probably locked the market down so tight that even honest consumers are being inconvenienced.

I agree with this. Crippleware is shit and unless a company has extreme monopoly power (which would exclude a black market) and customers really want the product no matter how crippled it is, i.e. it has a low convenience-elasticity-of-demand (look Mum, I made a new economic term), it will lose customers. But it isn't really that piracy per se is good for the content-provider, but that its prevention has unintended consequences.

His second argument is that

piracy can let you raise your prices.

The usual price-setting method is to look at the entire potential market, from the many at the economic lower end to the few at the top, and set a price somewhere in between the top and bottom that will maximize total revenues. But if you cede the bottom to piracy, you can set a price between the top and the middle. The result: higher revenues per copy, and potentially higher revenues overall.

This is complete bullshit. I'm not sure what he means by those at the "economic lower end to the few at the top", but will assume he is ordering consumers by their willingness to pay (~demand). It's true that if a firm ignores consumers with a low willingness to pay (I'm simplifying the economics here, we should really be talking in terms of price-elasticity of demand), they will be inclined to increase prices. But if they could increase revenue that way, why wouldn't they do it whether there is piracy or not. When a firm with market power sets their price they are always making a trade-off between receiving a higher price from a few and a lower price from many. The rational firm looks at the entire market and chooses a price which maximises profit. If a portion of that market leaves, revenue will either decrease (if the price was sufficiently low to sell to that portion) or stay the same (if the price was too high for them anyway).

Anderson does point that network externalities come into play, particularly regarding emerging technologies.

Add to this the familiar (if controversial) argument that piracy helps seed technology markets, and can be a net benefit. Especially in fast-developing countries such as China and India, the ubiquity of pirated Windows and Office have made them de-facto national standards. Few users could have paid for the retail versions at the start, but now that the spread of cheap technology, including free software, has led to an economic boom, Microsoft is finding a nice market for commercial software at the very top, in big companies and government offices.

This kind of seeding could well help some non-software content (not normally thought of as producing network externalities) become more commercially successful over time through word-of-mouth advertising, but I doubt it would help your average Hollywood blockbuster.

In summation, piracy is often good for software vendors, rarely good for music and movie vendors but its prevention is often very, very bad.

Fuck The Creationists

2005-08-25T10:19:00.000+12:00

It may seem that I'm hostile to religion in general, but I'm normally just being a facetious cunt. I don't understand how rational people can make the cognitive leap to believe in any particular religion, but accept that there are personal reasons for doing so. But fuck do I hate Creationism, whether thinly veiled as Intelligent Design or not. Until today I thought such backward thinking was confined to the more stupider portions of American rednecks. I was wrong.
I heard a group of fine-looking young gentlemen at this University of Otago reciting the argument (and I use that term loosely) of 'irreducible complexity' put forward by Michael Behe. The argument is that many biological features, the eye for example, require multiple components to work. Since evolution can produce and preserve mutations only one at a time, it is argued, these irreducibly complex features can't have evolved - what use is half an eye?. By the process of elimination God created the universe at it now exists. It worries me that our education system is so poor that university students can think that this 'proves evolution is wrong and that God created everything.'
I'm not going to argue against the claim as, frankly, I can't be fucked. I will simply say that there are plenty of examples of simpler forms of eyes in nature and that the ability to detect light is useful in many ways other than simply 'seeing' in the strict sense. Jellyfish, I think, orient themselves with simple light-sensing equipment for example.
Why do people need to distort the facts in order to defend their faith? Why are evolution and God thought to be mutually exclusive? Evolution does undermine Paley's 'Watchmaker' argument for theism, but surely theists realise they're on pretty shaky logical and scientific ground. Why isn't faith enough for these people?

Unusual Wikipedia Articles

2005-08-21T22:54:00.000+12:00

Everything from anti-tank dogs to belly-button lint (and why it's blue).

[via oisii!]

The Physics of Cow Tipping

2005-08-21T22:48:00.000+12:00

Link to pdf

Pastafarian Challenge

2005-08-20T12:49:00.000+12:00

There's $US750,000 available for anyone who can prove that Jesus isn't the son of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
I think I'm going to convert. Pastafarianism promises a stripper factory and beer volcano in heaven, and the claim that Global Warming is caused by the decline in pirates seems very plausible. I join the demands that the theory of FSM be given equal time in schools.

Richard Rorty on the RU Sirius Show

2005-08-19T00:21:00.000+12:00

Doesn't go into a whole lot of philosophical depth, but more cerebral than your average podcast. Link

Manhole-Covers and Naughty Words

2005-08-18T14:36:00.000+12:00

I apologize for my lack of bloguctivity (I love neologistic portmanteaus), but the procrastination had to catch up with me sometime. Look at this gallery of pretty Japanese manhole covers and read about the etymology of British swear-words for some idle amusement.

[via oishii!]

Google to give away WiFi?

2005-08-16T20:29:00.000+12:00

Business 2.0 on the possibility of Google giving the world (which as we all know is only America) free Wifi access. Could be just crazy enough to be profitable.

List Madness

2005-08-11T21:03:00.000+12:00

Chris at Cynical-C seems quite partial to blogging the occasional list from Wikipedia and, frankly, I like the way that man thinks. I've been perusing the List of Lists and here are some of my favourites:

Band name etymologies

BDSM terms

Characters from The Simpsons

Christian denominational positions on homosexuality

ClichÃ©s

Company name etymologies

Statistically superlative countries

Movie clichÃ©s by genre

Films that have been cited as being among the worst ever made

People who have publicly denied being gay

Portmanteaus

Scientologists

Self-referential songs

Serial killers by number of victims

Sex positions

Slang terms for drunkenness

Political slogans

Street names of drugs

Words with different meanings in British and American English

Stereotypical characters in the world of drama

Titles and names of Krishna

U.S. Presidential nicknames

Wasn't Me!

2005-08-11T16:58:00.000+12:00

I Wonder when the other celebrity will give up the name suppression. He's no stranger to controversy and seems pretty adept at bullshitting, he should be able to handle the metaphorical jandal. Link to Story.

Christianity vs. Satanism mp3 Compilation

2005-08-09T18:11:00.000+12:00

Amusing collection of mp3s. Track 3 is an especially entertaining outburst of pre-teen anti-evolutionism.

(Via Bibi)

Famous Kids

2005-08-09T17:45:00.000+12:00

Pictures of various celebrities as children. Apparently Robert De Niro has always looked like a badass.

(Via Exclamation Mark)

Doom on the iPod

2005-08-09T10:20:00.000+12:00

Some guys have apparently hacked up a version of Doom for iPodLinux. While it's not a perfect port, being able to play Doom is clearly the acid-test of whether something is a computer, so it seems the iPod is all grown up.

Mind-Reading via Brain Scans

2005-08-08T21:01:00.000+12:00

From the BBC:

Scientists say they have been able to monitor people's thoughts via scans of their brains. Teams at University College London and University of California in LA could tell what images people were looking at or what sounds they were listening to. The US team say their study proves brain scans do relate to brain cell electrical activity.The UK team say such research might help paralysed people communicate, using a "thought-reading" computer.

Einstein Quotes

2005-08-08T20:56:00.000+12:00

A collection of quotes from Albert Einstein. My favourite has to be "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."

The Economics of Crack

2005-08-08T20:33:00.000+12:00

Levitt and Dubner, the authors of Freakonomics, on the consumption of crack cocaine:

If so much crack is still being sold and bought, why aren't we hearing about it? Because crack-associated violence has largely disappeared. And it was the violence that made crack most relevant to the middle class. What made the violence go away? Simple economics. Urban street gangs were the main distributors of crack cocaine. In the beginning, demand for their product was phenomenal, and so were the potential profits. Most crack killings, it turns out, were not a result of some crackhead sticking up a grandmother for drug money but rather one crack dealer shooting another -- and perhaps a few bystanders -- in order to gain turf.

Woo New Zealand!

2005-08-08T19:59:00.000+12:00

Since New Zealand TV stations deem it necessary to point out whenever our humble country is mentioned in foreign programs, I will follow suit with the blogosphere equivalent. Tyler Cowen at the excellent economics blog Marginal Revolution outlines his favourite things Kiwi. He approves of Peter Jackson (everybody loves Peter), Janet Frame, The JPS Experience and Fush n Chups.

"Get Well Soon" Masks

2005-08-08T15:46:00.000+12:00

These are cool.

The very sterile looking white gauze mask inspired me to make it more cheerful and funny while still serving its purpose. This new mask is no longer masking, but transforming the part of the face it is hiding, integrating face and mask.
Currently there are 15 types of masks, varying from animals and human snouts, to zippers and (kimono) fabrics. Next to this customized masks are available, such as the mask for the Hanshin Tigers.

2005-08-08T15:37:00.000+12:00

The Official God Faq

False Memories Could Help Dieting

2005-08-06T16:18:00.000+12:00

[R]esearchers managed to convince people that strawberry ice cream and choc chip cookies - both fattening foods - made them sick when they were young and they really didn't care for them. They managed to get over 40 per cent of the 204 participants to agree with this. The next step is to see whether this mental aversion would actually carry over into their food choices. The team is also looking to see if false memory can be applied to healthy foods too - that is, can they convince people that they always liked vegetables when they were kids?

Link

Save Multimedia Files from Webpages with Firefox

2005-08-05T16:28:00.000+12:00

easy-peasy

First Windows Vista Viruses in the Wild

2005-08-05T13:42:00.000+12:00

An Austrian hacker earned the dubious distinction of writing what are thought to be the first known viruses for Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Vista operating system. Written in July, the viruses take advantage of a new command shell, code-named Monad, that is included in the Windows Vista beta code.

The viruses were published last month in a virus-writing tutorial written for an underground hacker group calling itself the Ready Ranger Liberation Front, and take advantage of security vulnerabilities in the new command shell. Unlike the traditional Windows graphical user interface, which relies heavily on the mouse for navigation, command shells allow users to use powerful text-based commands, much like Windows’ predecessor, DOS.

Ooh, Vista's going to have a command shell. I frigging hate using a stupid touchpad. Keyboards 4 Life.

The Alphabet: A Critique

2005-08-05T13:32:00.000+12:00

Some criticism of alphabet from a design perspective.

Another one from the scrapyard of design. The lowercase d is just a ripoff of the b, and it really bothers me the way the cap D is flipped vertically. It’s like someone wanted to emulate the Bb but just didn’t get it.

God vs Satan in the Stockmarket

2005-08-05T13:07:00.000+12:00

Everybody loves money, but some people like to invest in companies that don't do horrible things like undermine the institution of marriage by offering benefits to employees' unmarried partners or selling alceehol; thus virtue funds are born. Others choose to use their hard-earned money for awesome: beer, porn, tobacco and gambling - they can invest in vice funds.
Moralising is all well and good, but you can't argue with the bottom line. Apparently both virtue and vice funds have both been beating the general market.
interestingly, both virtue and vice funds invest in weapons, obviously a good pick in recent years.

Someone's in the Kitchen with Jesus

2005-08-04T19:42:00.000+12:00

Images of the big J in art, illustration and film.

Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts

2005-08-04T19:10:00.000+12:00

Mmm.......comprehensive.

Kim Jong-il: The Sun Shines Out of His Arse

2005-08-04T12:52:00.000+12:00

North Korea's Dear Leader Kim Jong-il never forgets a phone number, a cadre's career or a line of computer code.
According to an article posted on Tuesday on a Web site run by North Korea, Kim wakes up early every day for intensive memory training where he sits down and commits to his keen mind items such as the phone numbers of workers in his Stalinist state.

...

Kim pilots jet fighters, pens operas, produces movies and accomplished a feat unmatched in the annals of professional golf by shooting 11 holes-in-one on the first round he ever played.

Link (Reuters)

Are Attractive People Smarter?

2005-08-03T21:16:00.000+12:00

I found this journal article interesting. Abstract:

Empirical studies demonstrate that individuals perceive physically attractive others to be more intelligent than physically unattractive others. While most researchers dismiss this perception as a ‘‘bias’’ or ‘‘stereotype,’’ we contend that individuals have this perception because beautiful people indeed are more intelligent. The conclusion that beautiful people are more intelligent follows from four assumptions. (1) Men who are more intelligent are more likely to attain higher status than men who are less intelligent. (2) Higher-status men are more likely to mate with more beautiful women than lower-status men. (3) Intelligence is heritable. (4) Beauty is heritable. If all four assumptions are empirically true, then the conclusion that beautiful people are more intelligent is logically true, making it a proven theorem. We present empirical evidence for each of the four assumptions. While we concentrate on the relationship between beauty and intelligence in this paper, our evolutionary psychological explanation can account for a correlation between physical attractiveness and any other heritable trait that helps men attain higher status (such as aggression and social skills).

I had this idea a few years ago but dismissed it as silly. It actually seems quite plausible to me now though. The evidence is fairly compelling (although their claim of a deductive argument seems a bit strong for me). The article has all sorts of interesting asides aswell - well worth the 17 pages of reading.

Sin City Comic-Movie Comparison Images

2005-08-03T19:15:00.000+12:00

Interesting.

Super Mario World Soundtrack with Real Instruments

2005-08-03T18:39:00.000+12:00

For free at good old archive.org

Drunk Pigeons

2005-08-03T18:27:00.000+12:00

Heh.

Slate: "How I stopped an Internet sex hoax"

2005-08-03T14:04:00.000+12:00

A tale of espionage, intrigue and Wookie-porn.
Link

Bizarre Love Triangle

2005-08-02T21:22:00.000+12:00

The animation in this French film project looks really cool. There's a 'movie test' for download at the site. It seems to be a sci-fi story about immortality with copious amounts of lesbiosity set to cheesy euro-dance. My sort of movie.

Droogle - Search Engine for Drink Recipes

2005-08-01T17:39:00.000+12:00

Everybody loves drinking.

Gallery of Bizarre Road Signs

2005-08-01T17:30:00.000+12:00

Some of these are truly strange. Needless to say, alot of them seem to be Japanese.

To the Batcave

2005-08-01T17:02:00.000+12:00

Now you too can flip the head of a Shakespeare bust to gain access to your secret lair. Yours for a paltry $US299.99 ($NZ439.70), is this faithful replica from the original Batman series. It can be used to switch on any appliance; but frankly, if you use it for anything other than revealing a hidden door behind a bookshelf in your tastefully decorated library, you don't deserve it.

Ten Worst Song Lyrics Ever

2005-07-31T16:07:00.000+12:00

Includes such gems as:

"And if you want love
We'll make it
Swimming a deep sea
Of blankets"

and;

"Between the parted pages and were pressed
In love's hot, fevered iron
Like a striped pair of pants"

Link

Office Guns

2005-07-31T15:54:00.000+12:00

OfficeGuns have step-by-step instructions for creating high-powered weaponry from common office supplies. The Super Maul (pictured) is capable of firing a pencil at 34.4 metres per second with a range of 16.2 metres.

German Tree Swastika

2005-07-31T15:42:00.000+12:00

This 60-square metre swastika was created in the 1930s by planting Larch trees among Pines. It was only visible a few weeks a year when the colour stood out and has now been cut down by German officials.

Link

Random Urban Dictionary Definition

2005-07-28T23:35:00.000+12:00

Sandy Kane:

any old ex-stripper/street hooker with retarded looking "lemon-stung eyes" - or any toothless-Times Square skank-whore turned AA qualifier-turned-fakeTV-celebrity who lights her tits on fire and tries to be funny like ha ha i'm a funny stand-up comedianne look how fucked up I am.....

I got "sandy kaned" last night.

Why Piracy is Good for Microsoft

2005-07-27T22:36:00.000+12:00

Microsoft has announced that Windows users will have to prove their copy is genuine to be able to update the software (excluding security updates). They recite the usual 'poor us; naughty pirates!' rhetoric, but it seems to me that piracy is a major reason that Microsoft has maintained its OS monopoly for so long.

Software produces what economists call network externalities: the more people who use a product the more valuable it is. The most obvious example of a network externality is in the phone service - not very useful if you're the only one using it, but helluva useful if everyone is. Operating systems produce such externalities through compatibility issues and the fact that if everyone uses the same OS you don't need to learn a new one when you use a friend's computer.
Given that there are reasonable free substitutes, you would expect many (more) people to opt out if they had to pay for Windows. This would loosen the network-externality-based grip that MS has on the OS market and make switching from Windows more attractive for those people who do pay for the software. As more and more people decide to use Linux, the exodus would gather pace and the MS monopoly would erode. Piracy stops this from happening, since if Windows is as free (as in beer) as Linux, there is little incentive for the average user to make the switch.

Of course, it may be that the extra market share MS enjoys through piracy would be outweighed by the lost revenue from customers who would have paid for their product if they had to, but managed to get a pirated copy instead.

So, is MS's move to not offer updates to pirating scallywags foolish? I think it's probably a good idea if we consider it as a form of price discrimination rather than an effort to stamp out piracy. To be able to price discriminate, MS needs to sort customers by their willingness to pay. Some people are not willing to pay anything, but are nonetheless valuable customers since they contribute to the network effect. MS should let them have Windows for free. But if they do that, they will be giving it to otherwise-paying customers for free as well.

By offering paying customers a better product than non-paying customers they can, to an extent, get around the problem. Those who want the updates (an imperfect proxy for those with a higher willingness to pay for windows) are charged, while those who don't much care for updates or can find a way of getting them without paying (an imperfect proxy for those with a lower willingness to pay for windows) get it free.

They would only lose those (non-paying) customers who value Linux more than un-updatable windows and would gain money from those who were previously pirates but value the updates at more than the price of the software, and so would pay up.

There is no reason MS couldn't have done this, and much more, years ago. The fact that they haven't leads me to believe that they see things the same way I do.

Drawings by Barnaby Ward

2005-07-27T21:12:00.000+12:00

Freakin' cool, eh! I'd totally hit that.

Economic Sociology

2005-07-26T21:50:00.000+12:00

The Boston Globe has a nice article on Economic Sociology. I think the time is such that we can ignore a lot of the disciplinary boundaries in the social sciences. Sociology, economics and anthropology (and cultural studies, human geography and so on ad nauseam) are, to an extent, looking at the same things from different angles. It seems rather foolish for sociologists to ignore the insights of economists because they work under different assumptions. I suspect a lot of the antipathy among sociologists towards economics is ideological. It seems practically compulsory to be lefter-than-thou in sociological circles and people in general seem to misinterpret economics as the study of $$how-to-make-money$$.

From the article:

While economists continue to probe into social life, a growing academic subfield known as economic sociology is doing just the opposite--bringing tools and concepts from sociology to bear on the economy. We cannot understand how people earn, spend, and invest their money, economic sociologists argue, unless we understand social relations. If, as economists contend, incentives and choice are everywhere, so are social conventions and personal connections.

''The economy is social. It's a set of social relations. The economy is as social as a family or religion," says Viviana A. Zelizer, a Princeton University sociologist who studies how cultural attitudes and consumption patterns influence each other.

A leading figure in economic sociology, Zelizer is sharply critical of the dichotomy she calls ''hostile worlds," which juxtaposes ''a world of rationality, efficiency, and impersonality, on one side" with ''a world of self-expression, cultural richness, and intimacy on the other--with contact between the two worlds inevitably corrupting both of them." Real human beings, she argues, don't divide their rational and emotional, or personal and commercial, lives that way.

...

''Most people are trying to maximize economic goals and social goals at the same time. It's not like on Monday they try to maximize their wealth and on Wednesday they try to maximize their social status. It's all mixed up together," says Granovetter.

''We need theories that will actually give us some closure on how people do all these things together," he says. ''I think that's the big challenge in social science for the 21st century--to understand how those things all fit together."

Freaky-Looking

2005-07-26T20:51:00.000+12:00

Age-Maps: Two Photos of the same person at different times spliced together.

Link

The Opposite of Shoplifting

2005-07-24T18:40:00.000+12:00

In Culture Jamming News:

Shopdropping is an ongoing project in which I alter the packaging of canned goods and then "shopdrop" the items back onto grocery store shelves. I replace the packaging with labels created using my photographs. The "shopdropped" works act as a series of art objects that people can purchase from the grocery store. Because the barcodes and price tags are left intact purchasing the cans before they are discovered and removed is possible. In one instance a store employee even restocked the cans to a new aisle based on the barcode information.

Shopdropping strives to take back a share of the visual space we encounter on daily basis. Similar to the way street art stakes a claim to public space for self expression, Shopdropping subverts commercial space for artistic use.

Jamais at WorldChanging is reminded of another subversive-artsy-pranky-thing from way back:

Among the best pranks ever performed were the efforts of the Barbie Liberation Organization, which was supported by the organization Â®Âark. In 1989, the BLO purchased hundreds of Teen Talk Barbie dolls (of "Math is hard!" and "I love shopping!" infamy) and Talking Duke G.I. Joe dolls (prone to shouting "Vengeance is mine!"), swapped their voice electronics, replaced them carefully in their boxes, and returned them to store shelves. As a result, Barbie demanded to hear the lamentations of her enemies, and G.I. Joe sought assistance for planning weddings. As the subsequent BLO statement put it, "The storekeepers make money twice, we stimulate the economy - the consumer gets a better product - and our message gets heard."

I always thought it would be cool to replace Barbie dolls with proportionally more correct ones, cellulite and all. Perhaps they could get ever-saggier over time and eventually lose control of their bladder and take on that unmistakable smell of piss and biscuits.

Hilarious Japanese 'Smoking Manners' Ads

2005-07-23T13:21:00.000+12:00

There's 42 of these, pretty darned funny.

Link

Windows Vista / Longhorn Screenshots

2005-07-23T13:12:00.000+12:00

Microsoft have confirmed the next version of Windows will be named Vista.

Some screenshots of a Beta Version have apparently been leaked.

Does anyone NOT know who the drug celebrities are?

2005-07-23T00:14:00.000+12:00

Just Wondering.

There doesn't seem much point in name suppression in this information age we live in.

TradeMe Auctioning Warship

2005-07-22T18:24:00.000+12:00

The HMNZS Wellington (F69) is parked outside Te Papa in preparation for being sunk off Wellington's South Coast as a diving attraction, later this year.

Trade Me has exclusive rights to auction everything inside her before she is sunk. The 45-tonne main gun is not for sale, but everything else is - including brass shells and red buttons for firing torpedos (torpedos not included).

Link

Longhorn to be Released as Windows Vista?

2005-07-22T18:00:00.000+12:00

From C-net's Microsoft Blog:

Rumor has it that Microsoft plans to use Vista as the official name for the next version of Windows, which has been known by its codename, Longhorn.

In addition to the rumors on various Microsoft enthusiast sites, the company has also registered the domain name windowsvista.us, as noted by Windows watcher bink.nu.

The company won't comment, but it is expected to make some sort of Longhorn-related announcement Friday morning.

Vista is a fucking horrible name.

Potato-Powered Web Server

2005-07-22T17:50:00.000+12:00

It's no longer running on potatoes, but a single AAA battery which they say will last several years. Freakin' cool nonetheless.

This is an actual potato-powered Web server, currently online here. After the great SpudServer joke, I thought it would be interesting to see what an actual server capable of running on potatoes would look like. This server is very, very slow (around 0.2 hits/second), so you may have trouble connecting.

The CPU is a Microchip PIC16F876 running with a 76.8 KHz clock and a nominal 1.5V supply voltage (somewhat outside the manufacturer's specifications). At this speed and voltage, it draws 20 microWatts (0.00002 Watts), or roughly 100,000th to 1 millionth the power of any Intel 386 board I know of. It connects via SLIP at 4800 baud.

Link.

Scotty's Ashes to be Launched into Space

2005-07-21T22:22:00.000+12:00

The Ashes of James Doohan, the actor who played Scotty on Star Trek, are being launched into space. Not quite sure if that's as cool as Hunter S. Thompson being shot out of a cannon, but plenty cool enough.

The Future of RSS: Not Blogs

2005-07-21T22:10:00.000+12:00

From Feedforall:

Blogs vaulted RSS into the limelight but are unlikely to be the force that sustains RSS as a communication medium. The biggest opportunities for RSS are not in the blogosphere but as a corporate communication channel.

Even now, businesses that were initially reluctantly evaluating RSS are beginning to realize the power and benefit of the RSS information avenue. The inherent capacity for consumers to select the content they wish to receive will be the driving mechanism for keeping advertisements to a minimum and content quality consistent.

Google Moon

2005-07-21T22:01:00.000+12:00

In honor of the first manned Moon landing, which took place on July 20, 1969, we’ve added some NASA imagery to the Google Maps interface to help you pay your own visit to our celestial neighbor.

Link. Zoom in all the way for a bad joke.

Porn Causes Brain Damage

2005-07-21T21:54:00.000+12:00

From the Guardian:

According to Dr Judith Reisman, pornography affects the physical structure of your brain turning you into a porno-zombie. Porn, she says, is an "erototoxin ", producing an addictive "drug cocktail " of testosterone, oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin with a measurable organic effect on the brain.

Some of us might consider this a good thing. Not Reisman: erototoxins aren't about pleasure, they're a "fear-sex-shame-and-anger stimulant". Reisman's paper on the subject The Psychopharmacology of Pictorial Pornography Restructuring Brain, Mind & Memory & Subverting Freedom of Speech has helped make her the darling of the anti-pornography crusade, and in November last year she presented her erototoxin theory to the US senate.

Pdf of the paper.

As Mind Hacks rightly points out:

Pornography does physically affect the brain. In fact, everything we experience physically changes the brain in some way.

What Reisman is trying to do, is portray this physical effect as 'damage'. Furthermore, she argues the damage could be so severe, that an affected person would not be rational enough to engage in 'free speech' (notice the leap?).

Unfortunately, her self-published paper The Psychopharmacology of Pictorial Pornography Restructuring Brain, Mind & Memory & Subverting Freedom of Speech is highly selective when reviewing the published neuroscience research.

Many of her arguments are based on one-reference claims, and some only on what she calls "extensive documentation". One unmentioned implication is the fact that, if sexual arousal from pornography causes 'brain damage', then so will real-life sex!

Some of her arguments are just plain farcical. For example, she uses a statement by an aesthetician that "No nude, however abstract, should fail to arouse in the spectator some vestige of erotic feeling" to conclude that "all sexual images 'arouse' responses by viewers, including sexualised images of children." (p5)

Microsoft Promises Better Performance From Longhorn

2005-07-20T22:01:00.000+12:00

Microsoft says their next version of Windows will:

launch applications 15 percent faster than Windows XP does
boot PCs 50 percent faster than they boot currently and will allow PCs to resume from standby in two seconds
allow users to patch systems with 50 percent fewer reboots required
reduce the number of system images required by 50 percent
enable companies to migrate users 75 percent faster than they can with existing versions of Windows.

Pokernomics

2005-07-20T21:44:00.000+12:00

Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame is turning his data-analysis attention (and mad skillz) to the world of online poker with Pokernomics.

Understanding Successful Poker Play

How much more succesful can a player be if he knows the odds? What are the best betting strategies for getting the most money out of a winning hand? Are there simple betting strategies that can be used to win money even with losing hands? To what extent does position from the button and position relative to other players matter? Does having a big stack of chips allow a player to bully others and win more of their money? Do people lose big after winning a big hand, or does success follow success? These are some of the many questions we would like to answer.

Our goal is to understand the factors that make players succesful at poker. Many people have written books on poker theory, but there has yet to be a systematic analysis using actual data on what works and what doesn't. University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt hopes to change this and perform the first large scale analysis of poker.

How are we going to do this?

Every day, over 187 million dollars are wagered at online poker tables by over 2 million players worldwide. Recently, companies such as Poker Tracker have made keeping records of one's own play extremely easy. Individuals can now store tens of thousands, even millions of their own hands on their computers almost effortlessly. We at pokernomics.com are requesting that people send us their hand histories for analysis. We are particularly interested in analyzing the game of Texas Hold'em due to its immense popularity in the world of online poker. With the right dataset, we are confident that we can answer the questions above and many more.

What's in it for you?

Everyone who sends in at least 10,000 of their own hands will receive a free analysis of his or her poker play. We will identify the strategies you use that earn you the most money and will pinpoint your frequent mistakes that cause you to lose or prevent you from making as much money as you could have. We will tell you which starting hands you play best/worst. We can even tell you if you earn more or less at different times of the day, at tables with different stakes, or against certain kinds of opponents.

In addition, players who send in over 30,000 hands will get an autographed copy of Steven Levitt's book Freakonomics delivered to them. Players who send more than 50,000 hands will receive both an autographed copy of Freakonomics and a free freakonomics t-shirt.

Films Listed by Use of the Word 'Fuck'

2005-07-20T21:38:00.000+12:00

From Wikipedia:

Nil by Mouth (470) (128 minutes: 3.67 fucks/min)
Casino (422) (178 minutes: 2.37 fucks/min)
Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat (347) (113 minutes: 3.07 fucks/min)
Another Day in Paradise (327) (101 minutes: 3.23 fucks/min)
Summer of Sam (326) (142 minutes: 2.29 fucks/min)
Twin Town (320) (99 minutes: 3.23 fucks/min)
Ken Loach's Sweet Sixteen (313) (106 minutes: 2.95 fucks/min)
Narc (298) (105 minutes: 2.83 fucks/min)
The Big Lebowski (281) (117 minutes: 2.4 fucks/min)
Tigerland (276) (100 minutes: 2.76 fucks/min)

Racial Disparities in Taxicab Tipping

2005-07-20T21:13:00.000+12:00

Abstract:
We collected data on over 1000 taxicab rides in New Haven, CT in 2001. After controlling for a host of other variables, we find two potential racial disparities in tipping: (1) African-American cab drivers were tipped approximately one-third less than white cab drivers; and (2) African-American passengers tipped approximately one-half the amount of white passengers (African-American passengers are 3.7 times more likely than white passengers to leave no tip).

Many studies have documented seller discrimination against consumers, but this study tests and finds that consumers discriminate based on the seller's race. African-American passengers also participated in the racial discrimination. While African-American passengers generally tipped less, they also tipped black drivers approximately one-third less than they tipped white drivers.

The finding that African-American passengers tend to tip less may not be robust to including better controls for passenger social class. But it is still possible to test for the racialized inference that cab drivers (who also could not directly observe passenger income) might make. Regressions suggest that a "rational" statistical discriminator would expect African Americans to tip 56.5% less than white passengers.

These findings suggest that government-mandated tipping (via a "tip included" decal) might reduce two different types of disparate treatment. First, mandated tipping would directly reduce the passenger discrimination against black drivers documented in this study. Second, mandated tipping might indirectly reduce the widely-documented tendency of drivers to refuse to pick up black passengers.

Link

Erotic GI-Joe Fan Fiction

2005-07-20T00:15:00.000+12:00

Fan fiction is odd. I wonder who writes it.

At that moment, they had suddenly realized that even though they each were on different sides of the whole G.I. Joe/Cobra thing, they were still able to experience something wonderful between them.

That something is known as raw and untamed erotica ... and they were enjoying every minute of it.

A few minutes later, after he had placed his stiff...

Linky

Change Text Size in Firefox

2005-07-19T12:11:00.000+12:00

Every now and then, I find a firefox trick that changes my life. This is one of those times. Ctrl + will increase the text size to ease your squinting eyes, Ctrl - will decrease it.

More Dunedin Street Art

2005-07-19T11:57:00.000+12:00

There's a photoblog dedicated to Wellington street art here.

Rod Donald is an Idiot

2005-07-18T21:46:00.000+12:00

Commenting on the free-trade deal signed with Singapore, Brunei and Chile today, Rod Donald said:

"Exactly why we would want a free trade deal with Chile, a country that produces lots of meat, fish and fruit, is beyond me."

"It is an energy-wasting exercise in futility to ship identical goods back and forth across the Pacific."

That is such a bullshit argument. Just because New Zealand and Chile produce similar goods doesn't mean that NZ doesn't nevertheless have a comparative advantage over Chile in certain specific areas. If importing beef (for example) from Chile while exporting lamb was really an 'exercise in futility' then it simply wouldn't fucking happen. New Zealand Importers are not going to buy Chilean produce simply because they can, but only if it is more efficient to do so. Protectionism is rationally indefensible. Read this.

To be fair, I'm not totally opposed to the Greens. I support stronger carbon taxes (or actually, I would propose a different scheme, but that's another post entirely), which would make international trade (via increased transport costs) relatively less attractive. The Greens could oppose free-trade on the grounds that importers and exporters don't pay for all the use of the environment and is therefore socially inefficient (although that would apply to domestic trade aswell), but opposing it on the grounds of protecting our jobs or some other such nonsense is just short-sighted and ignorant.

Polynesians tried to outrun malaria?

2005-07-18T21:37:00.000+12:00

From the NZ Herald:

New Zealand researchers excavating a 3000-year-old cemetery in Vanuatu say it may offer clues to why mysterious voyagers who sailed through Melanesia - creating the Polynesian race - travelled so fast.

One possibility was that they were trying to outrun the worst form of malaria - not realising they were carrying the parasite in their bloodstreams, says New Zealand paleo-pathologist Hallie Buckley.

Early analysis of the first skeletons found late last year has shown the people had a heavy burden of disease-causing organisms, in particular parasites that cause malaria.

Futurama Movie

2005-07-18T21:02:00.000+12:00

Comedian and voice-actor extraordinaire Billy West says in a videoblog that there will soon be a Futurama movie going straight to DVD, with the possibility of a second one.

You can't see me, but I'm literally jumping for joy.

Pirated Harry Potter E-book and Audiobook available

2005-07-18T20:31:00.000+12:00

Didn't take long. That'll learn her for not releasing an e-book. Dead-Tree Publishing is so 20th Century.

Linux for NZ Schools

2005-07-18T09:36:00.000+12:00

The Ministry of Education has signed a deal with Novell for the provision of the SUSE desktop operating sytem at $99 per copy, about the same as Windows. "If schools want to have a Linux desktop now they can have one from a major international corporation with the support that brings rather than a free copy of (Linux distribution) Mandrake," the ministry's ICT consultant, Douglas Harre says.
I think this is great news. With the big developing countries (India, China and Brazil) picking up open-source software in a big way, it seems like the computing standard of the future and teaching our children to use it is probably a rather good idea.
I'm not sure what the problem would be with using the free distros for desktop PCs (as opposed to severs). They are, by all accounts, getting more and more reliable and user-friendly. If schools (and other state-funded bodies) can save money then surely it's worth looking into.

"Religious Dieting" on National Radio Tonight

2005-07-17T13:03:00.000+12:00

National Radio's Touchstone has a feature on the religious dieting movement at 5pm tonight.
From the website:

This spiritual awakening has been promoted by books like What Would Jesus Eat?, and The Makers Diet and by faith-based diet programmes like Weigh Down. The Maker’s Diet was on the New York Times Best Seller list for 16 out of the first 17 weeks following its release last year. Weigh Down offers 30,000 workshops across the USA, and thousands more internationally.

The authors of these contemporary books and programmes say that coupled with the teachings of the Bible, they offer a solution to both the spiritual and health maladies plaguing modern society.

...

They stress the importance of returning to a diet consisting of natural, unprocessed foods — foods that Jesus Himself could have eaten and foods that the Bible recommends.

Dieting For Him examines the phenomenon of religious dieting from academic, medical and participant points-of-view, and highlights the danger of modern man’s obsession with controlling and manipulating the world’s resources.

Sounds pretty interesting. It never ceases to amaze me how much utter bullshit people will buy into.

Get Your Bacon On

2005-07-17T12:55:00.000+12:00

A fairly extensive gallery of Francis Bacon paintings for your aesthetic pleasure.

Kiwi Kids are h4x0r Kids

2005-07-16T10:32:00.000+12:00

NZ Herald:

New Zealand children are among the world's greatest "cyber athletes" and this country is one of a dozen that lead the way in using computers in education.

Professor Heppell, described as an "online learning guru" in Britain, said other countries in the leading group included Thailand, Hong Kong and Norway - countries which shared New Zealand's ability to be "agile" due to their relatively small size.

But it was New Zealand's investment in information and communication technology that kept it at the forefront of a new learning age. "In terms of outcomes and investment New Zealand scores incredibly high in the OECD. Whichever party is in power, they have to keep doing that."

Professor Heppell also said creativity and ingenuity among New Zealand children was almost unrivalled when it came to technology and "that's probably the most precious thing in the world".

Parents were generally a passive generation, receiving media, but their children were cyber athletes.

Labour's New Billboard:Still Shit

2005-07-15T21:36:00.000+12:00

This isn't as ugly as their last one, but you still have to look for a few seconds to get what the fuck they are on about. There's no instant recognition of what it's advertising and will probably fail to communicate anything at all to the vast majority of people. National 1 - Labour 0.

Fujitsu creates flexible electronic paper

2005-07-15T20:40:00.000+12:00

Technophiles Rejoice! From the Press Release:

The new electronic paper features vivid color images that are unaffected even when the screen is bent, and features an image memory function that enables continuous display of the same image without the need for electricity. The thin and flexible electronic paper uses very low power to change screen images, thereby making it ideal for displaying information or advertisements in public areas as a type of new electronic media that can be handled as easily as paper.

Fujitsu say they plan to bring the new technology to market by March 2007.

Firefox 1.0.5 Out

2005-07-15T12:33:00.000+12:00

Get it!

Capill Sentence Too Short?

2005-07-15T11:51:00.000+12:00

Nigel at KiwiPundit says:

Nine years for what Capill did is too short in any case, but the absence of any non-parole period in the sentence is a massive miscarriage of justice. Surely Phil Goff now must change the law again. Sentencing laws that allow a child rapist to spend just three years in prison cannot be allowed to stand.

I'm not normally a proponent of longer prison sentences; someone who makes a bad choice shouldn't be punished for the rest of their life, and longer sentences aren't a very effective deterrent since criminals by their nature tend not to think of consequences; but the Capill sentence (not that I think he will be out in three years), and child sex offences in general, do seem overly short. I believe the recidivism rate for child-molesters is quite high compared with other crimes and the impact on the victims is obviously devastating. In a case like this, however, it is extremely hard to separate the extreme disgust at such a horrific crime and what is best for society.

RFID: It's the work of Satan

2005-07-15T11:31:00.000+12:00

Privacy advocate and Christian dumbshit Katherine Albrecht thinks RFID tags, which emit radio signals to let you keep track of things, are the Mark Of The Beast -mentioned in the book of Revelations - which the Antichrist will use to keep track of us. At least she's not a stupid as some guy who, in total ignorance of his own religion, once told me he thought tattoos were the mark of the beast.

Junk-Food Ads and Children

2005-07-15T10:34:00.000+12:00

Some new research by Wellington Medical School shows that 60 percent of advertising near schools is for food and 70 percent of that is for what the Ministry of Health calls unhealthy. The health lobby are claiming this is a major factor in the obesity 'epidemic'.
On National Radio this morning Mark Championan advertising wonk, claimed this could not be so because advertising never creates demand within a product category, but merely changes consumers' brand choices within a category.This is probably true, but I would expect that in the eyes of children, healthy and unhealthy food are pretty good substitutes. They will compare the percieved value of KFC and Sushi and make a choice between them. Healthy and unhealthy food can probably be assumed to be in the same category, so Champion's argument is probably wrong.

Microscopic Medicine

2005-07-14T20:13:00.000+12:00

Pretty, pretty pictures from the BBC:

Tiny kidney stones, so small they are nicknamed, “bladder sand”. The concentric ridges show successive layers of calcium oxalate crystallising to form the grains. The oldest bladder sand recorded was found in a 7000-year-old Egyptian mummy. Image taken by microscopist Spike Walker.

Anderton on Education

2005-07-14T16:49:00.000+12:00

Jim Anderton says he would like an education portfolio in the next government.

"I am not going to promise free education, what I am saying to people is that we are going to get student debt down by an incremental step. To pay the loan debt for students who graduate and stay in New Zealand for three years," Mr Anderton said.

I like the idea of incentivising the tertiary education system. Another option would be to drop the current subsidies slightly and give similar refunds (scholarships by another name) to those who perform well. Higher education has strong positive spill-over effects for society and should thus be subsidized, but anything we can do to stop lazy bastards from using that subsidy merely as a way to put off work for a couple of years would be a good idea.