Oblique Observations

Discovering the Mysterious Nacirema with Adventurer Kim Nguyen

2012-01-14T13:56:00.000-08:00

In case you've been wondering what I've been up to.

C_C: Project Evergreen

2011-09-08T12:21:00.001-07:00

Here's the second trailer to the latest project I've been working on.
It's a dvd/choose-your-own-adventure game/movie, where you experience the story through the choices you make.
Once it's done I'll either post it online (if that's possible) or send copies out to interested parties.
In the meantime, there is a beta copy of the game and if anyone is interested contact me (struckdownent(at)gmail.com with your mailing address and I'll ship you out a copy.

Behind the Love Machine

2011-05-18T18:54:00.000-07:00

Started working for a local TV show and really haven't had much time to update.
This is an old entry that I meant to get around to posting a while back. It's just some promo stills from the Love Machine music video shoot.
(If you haven't seen the video...)

Tone, my First A.D. Couldn't have made it through this shoot without him.

Location...

Location...

Lizard.

Taken from one of the first shots of the day.

Ask me about my butt... Long story.

Piggie!

The Cast.

Pictos are neat.

My talented production manager, Laura Lea Nalle (some of her work here)

RJ Helton, tennis racket wielding antagonist extraordinaire.

God-Des and She, time travelers.

This has been a slam poem with pictures.

Buffalo Rising Interview

2011-04-22T08:45:00.000-07:00

Recently I was interviewed by Mackenzie Lambert over at Buffalo Rising. Redirect your hatemail here:
http://www.buffalorising.com/2011/04/dominic-luongo-buffalonian-cinematic-jack-of-all-trades.html

Love Machine

2011-04-01T00:29:00.000-07:00

Latest music video I and my creative director directed, aired on MTV Logo tonight.
You can check it out here:

RUN on WKBW

2011-02-18T14:06:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Lament

2011-02-14T13:05:00.000-08:00

Just in case you've forgotten about Lamenting Dogs...

http://lamentingdogs.blogspot.com/2011/02/lovely-pup.html

They're still going on and are as mournful of the human condition as ever.

Valentina

2011-02-03T00:23:00.000-08:00

Valentina

2011-01-31T13:41:00.000-08:00

Recently I acted in and edited together a short film, which will be up in time for Valentine's day. Below is a still from the movie, which will give you an idea of what kind of movie to expect (spoiler alert: It's a zombie flick...go figure).
You can check out its predecessor, Davis, here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1744846/

Dude, pizza's here!

2010-11-30T11:14:00.000-08:00

"[Scientific testing] can't determine how the mind will tolerate pain in a race. Sometimes, I say, "Today I can die.'" -Gelindo Bordin

Back in October the behind-the-scenes look at the latest music video/short flick I directed for Billy Drease Williams was posted, and as you can see, it's finally up. And it's on the front page, so that's notable. Anyways, check it out and let me know what you think. Direct link here.

Positively Hip Hop

2010-09-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been working closely and nonstop with hip-hop artist Billy Drease Williams on his next music video, "Run".

Anyways, today we took a day off to do this:

http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/buffalo/Rapper-brings-message-to-UB-students
(you can spot me way in the back behind a camera (go figure))

Sit. Think.

2010-09-19T22:21:00.000-07:00

Your Monday Morning Lamenting Dog. Enjoy. Think.

(image borrowed from here)

Monday Morning Lamenting Dogs

2010-09-19T13:44:00.000-07:00

I started (or am trying to start) a new Internet meme called "Lamenting Dogs."
It's easy and you should try one. All you have to do is take a photograph of a sad dog and attach it to a thoughtful literary quote. Just like lolcats, but depressing!

Just Doin' It Music Video

2010-07-19T11:51:00.001-07:00

Here's the latest music video I directed for hip-hop artist Billy Drease Williams for a track off his latest album Good Morning Amy.
Check it out.

Below is an interview I gave about the video.

Q: What were some of the challenges with the shoot/edit?

Dom: We had about 20 people or so in and out of the studio all day. This includes some of the most talented kids I've seen, dancers, models, martial artists, a skateboarder, Carma, etc. etc. etc., all of whom basically needed their own lighting set-up for wide, medium, and CU shots (this is without including the nucleus of the entire project, Mr. Drease Williams). Keeping the flow going for the entire day was a challenge but, with the team we assembled, everything went rather smoothly.

Some of the special treatments and techniques utilized in this video are top secret and some we didn't anticipate. We weren't sure, for the snow shots, whether we were going to go with real flakes or CGI, so we shot for both and waited to see how each of them looked in the video. In the end, with the highly stylized look of the black and white with these almost foreign, nowhereville backdrops, we ended up going with the CGI. It just fit the look better.

Another special treatment the video received was the use of Billy Drease Williams' artwork. Billy Drease Williams is known for being a man with many talents, illustration being one of them, as seen in his previous video, "Get Free." We wanted to spice the "Just Doin' It" video with that talent. Another thing we agreed on was using original illustration instead of a font for the clips with text, partially to keep things original and partially to drive graphic designers insane if they tried to figure out what font we used in the video.

Q: What can viewers expect when they see the video?

Dom: Viewers can expect to watch an entirely unique, highly stylized video that continually tries to top itself all the way throughout the experience. There's rarely a moment where this video does the traditional: hook image, verse image, chorus image, verse image, chorus image, chorus image. We continually try to give you something new to look at. This is also one of those projects where we tried to make it so that if you paused the video at any moment you would have a memorable still. We were very conscious of that while making the video. Also, everyone you'll see in the video are real people who are just doin' it. Aside from the main man who is just doin' it, we have other artists from the area like Heidi Maria, Deuce Ellis and others. Viewers can also expect a dancing panda, so top that.

Q: What is your favorite scene in the video and why?

Dom: With this video, I had a dream shot that I wasn't entirely sure whether or not we could pull off, and when we did, it instantly became my favorite. The shot was to take the image printed on the album itself and bring it to life. Out of all the highly stylized shots in the video, this one would be the most stylized and the most difficult. Nevertheless, with a couple sleepless, coffee fueled nights, we managed to pull it off and ended up making it the final image of the video as beat fades out.

Thanks Suzanne.

Robot Teachers for a Brighter Tomorrow

2010-07-15T12:11:00.001-07:00

“I worry that if kids grow up being taught by robots and viewing technology as the instructor,” said Mitchel Resnick, head of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “they will see it as the master.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/science/11robots.html

These words from Mitchel Resnick, a man who can't help but obey the commands of his master, anyone with a yardstick or piece of chalk.

Shortly after Mr. Resnick's comments the article goes on to mention "most computer scientists reply that they have neither the intention, nor the ability, to replace human teachers," which is a relief, because if all computer scientists said that I would have no hope for the future.

As I've mentioned before, I have a top ten list of jobs I think would be better suited for robots, "teacher" being one of them.

It's not that I don't admire good teachers, it's that I abhor lazy, ill tempered, opinionated teachers who become easily distracted from the subject they're teaching in order to go on tirades about some social political commentary they practiced the night before for their cat.

In other, less grimly mocking, words, some humans are better suited to act as an experienced adviser to train and counsel young people and some let their emotions and personal agenda get in the way.

Teaching is about coming across with the data and being able to recognise those who are having difficulty absorbing or computing this data. The robots mentioned in this article are in the early stages of pattern recognition technology that would make sure even the slightest flicker of doubt or confusion in someone's face will not go unaddressed.

Misanthropy aside, robots top humans in the ability to: store more information, retrieve that information faster, stick to the facts, not have emotions, recognise confusion faster, develop better teaching techniques, not choose favorites, not intentionally or unintentionally judge a child based on religion, race, who their parents are, etc.

If we had better teachers, perhaps we'd have less morons out there. Robot teachers are the key to a brighter future.

Shut the Gate

2010-06-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

Here's my latest editing job for the Kevin A. Lopez directed music video, Shut the Gate, featured at this years Buffalo Niagara Film Festival.

Check out the behind-the-scenes here.

The artist is Billy Drease Williams, whose album, Good Morning Amy, just dropped last Wednesday.
If you like hip hop I recommend a listen.

In other news, I recently directeddirected and edited a video for another track off that same album, so expect that post soon.

Make It Up To Them cont'd

2010-06-18T08:44:00.001-07:00

Just a quick update.

Wanted to thank everyone who has checked out the video and helped spread it around.

Downloads of the song are coming in slow and steady, which means more bottles of Dawn can be purchased to clean off more oil slicked animals (which also means a dollar of that money, from the purchase of Dawn, will be put back into saving the wildlife).

Come to think of it, it's almost like you're donating twice.

Anyways, thought I'd mention Scott Celani has made the local news rounds with the video:

WIVB - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mHA576m3So

WKBW - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhrW4kQRG3M

WBEN - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF4C5F5CqQo

Make It Up To Them

2010-06-11T13:36:00.000-07:00

This week I've been working closely with local musician, Scott Celani, in order to come up with a way the good folks of Buffalo could extend a hand in helping out the disaster the oil spill in the Gulf has caused to its wildlife and ecosystem.

Here's what we came up with.

It's exactly what it says it is.
Each song download is a donation to the National Wildlife Federation and its cause to protect and save the wildlife in the gulf.

Hope you can help, even if it's just by passing it along.
Here's the link again, http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/ScottCelaniBand1

Just Doin' It Music Video Shoot

2010-05-18T12:28:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I shot a music video for Hip-hop artist Billy Drease Williams. This is the second video I've worked on with Edreys, but the first one I've directed for him.

Currently cutting it together now, and you'll be able to check it out June 22nd.
In the meantime check out some of the behind-the-scenes pics.

Dressing room

Setting up the lights

Alexander S. McBryde of B-horror movie fame

Directing that diva Carma of Carma Dee TV

Skateboarder Antonello Parlato refusing gravity

Billy Drease Williams just doin' it

Thanks again to everyone who came out that day and everyone who shows your support.
Things like this aren't possible without you.

Cheers.

From the desk of Mr. Paul Griebner, Drawer 7

2010-05-06T11:52:00.000-07:00

If you were sitting at the desk, drawer 7 would be at the bottom right.
As you open it, you are confronted with strange and melancholy items from Mr. Griebner's early years, giving you an idea of what he was like, what his interests were, what career path he took, and if he was happy.

More greeting cards.

These cards are filled with thoughts and emotions...

...And Christmas tree seeds (Yes, they're still in there)

Do you remember where you met that special someone?

Or where you left that note they gave you?

For the dalmatian perhaps

Trapped messages on an old medium

Mr. Griebner's Education

Curious early drawings

From the Library of Mr. Paul Griebner, Drawer 6

2010-04-30T10:21:00.000-07:00

If you were sitting at my desk, drawer 6 would be at your bottom left side.
Virtually each book has a corresponding item (not necessarily found in this drawer).

However, there are the typical mystery items that leave me scratching my head as to how they found their way into a desk in the first place.

Next post will be drawer 7, the the final drawer in this little doc.

From the desk of Mr. Paul Griebner, Drawer 5

2010-04-21T22:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay on this entry folks.
Recently, things have been needlessly busy with the Sabredance video, the BNFF, and the added attraction of acting in a local indie feature (more on that later).
Anyways, enough about me, onto Drawer 5.

In the previous drawer we caught a glimpse of the more personal side of Mr. Griebner through items such as, saved magazine clippings, photographs, and greeting cards.

Drawer 5 is an example of the greeting cards someone took the time to shop for, but will never use. Even though these cards were never written in, never signed, never licked and sealed, the fact that they were intended for someone else will keep me from ever using them.

Drawer 6 (the second to last drawer) promises to be a tad more interesting, giving us a little insight on what reading material could have been found on the bookshelf of Mr. Griebner.

From the desk of Mr. Paul Griebner, Drawer 4

2010-04-01T12:04:00.001-07:00

Drawer 4 is the middle drawer on the left and is possibly my favorite drawer. Aside from introducing the third main subject in this documentary, the drawer is chock-full of curious articles. Therefore, I will now step aside and let you rummage.

The average desktop computer contains 10x more computing power than was used to land a man on the moon.

Linda.

Other peoples pictures

The musings of a 1970s Highschool Newspaper

One of the World's many unreturned RSVPs

Drawer 5 is another drawer with supplies, some which I wouldn't be able to bring myself to use.

From the desk of Mr. Paul Griebner, Drawer 3

2010-03-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

Drawer 3 is the top drawer on the right and its contents are not quite as exciting as the other drawers, however, it makes up for this by providing plenty of useful office supplies.
Nevertheless, the drawer contains a few interesting tidbits.

Little known fact, George Washington was not the very first President of the United States

Curious refrigerator magnet.

Hammer for a tiny Thor?

An idea of the scale of the hammer

To do list that will never get finished...

Drawer 4 promises to be full of interesting items, while also introducing another candidate for ownership of the desk.

From the desk of Mr. Paul Griebner, Drawer 2

2010-03-09T21:31:00.000-08:00

If you were sitting at my desk, drawer 2 would be at the top left.
As you open it, you are confronted with a mysterious envelope.

And inside the envelope is this...

Which I'm now using to train with at the gym

Minus the haircut

There's a price marker...

Marked at a price that has me scratching my head a little.

It's clear someone was a sports fan

(Sidenote: This is a clipping from Buffalo's forgotten second newspaper, former rival to the Buffalo News)

And then there's a few items that point toward what sort of career he may have held

And, of course, here's a preview of drawer 3

From the desk of Mr. Paul Griebner, Drawer 1

2010-03-04T12:08:00.000-08:00

So here is the center drawer of the desk, this time a bit more organised.
We find the usual desk drawer stuff: menthol candies, brass fasteners, and clippings of military rankings.
There's also the two seemingly identical rulers, one from a funeral home and the other from a pharmaceutical company.

The other thing to point out here is the introduction of James, whose name we find on the cover of Life magazine. Could this desk have belonged to him instead?

And here's a preview of drawer 2

From the desk of Mr. Paul Griebner

2010-03-01T18:58:00.000-08:00

This is my desk at work.

I'm showing you this because it is a part of a new segment to be found here on my blog.
The desk you see above was found one day on the side of the road amidst piles of trash, which it only recently stopped smelling like.
Inside the drawers of this abandoned, trash-smelling, yet quite sturdy relic are the remnants of a stranger's life.

Basically, this segment will be something of a documentary of the pieces of this man's life I happened to cross paths with.

Gorilla Filmmaking

2010-02-09T13:52:00.000-08:00

"Talking nonsense is man's only privilege that distinguishes him from all other organisms." -Fyodor Dostoevsky

By now you've probably heard something about the BBC Chimp movie. "The world's first film shot entirely by chimpanzees is to be broadcast by the BBC as part of a natural history documentary."

Up until now we've only seen what these primates can do with paint, which is kinda impressive (especially Micheal's portrait of his dog Apple).

Anyways, the prospect of their transition into motion pictures is an exciting one... except....

There's something of a gray area, and I can't help but wonder if this counts as them shooting it.
According to the film's producer, Ms Herrelko, "The apes are unlikely to have actively tried to film any particular subject, or understand that by carrying Chimpcam around, they were making a film."

This is where I hear myself saying, "Okay, so they 'technically' shot it, since they were the ones 'operating' the camera." But what do I mean by technically?

I don't mean to get into an argument about semantics here, but when someone uses the word "technically" it translates into, "My pattern recognition software mostly agrees with what you're saying, but somewhere, on some level, it doesn't, however, the impact this section has on the overall conclusion I've automatically drawn is negligible to the parts that tell me otherwise."

Anyways, aside from it being a Television first, it offers an interesting hypothetical situation.
Imagine what it would be like being these apes as they are presented with a movie that they had no idea they shot (actually chances are they'll just fling poo at the screen, which may or may not be a criticism on the film itself).

Timeline of the Inevitable

2010-01-25T11:01:00.000-08:00

Recently I've been compiling a list of the different ways Humanity will be destroyed assuming we don't develop the technology to escape Earth.
The list is divided into two columns.
The first column contains all the ways in which we could theoretically be destroyed in plausible, but unlikely ways, like for example an alien attack.
The second column lists all the ways in which we will be destroyed inevitably somewhere down the line due to the reality of the laws of Universe we currently exist in.

This is why I'm a hit at parties folks.

Anyways, sometimes the items destroying us will land into both columns, asteroids for instance.
This has given me reason to rework the list (that and the theoretical list is notably larger in size due to late night contributions that really don't belong on there, i.e. Godzilla).

While reworking the list, and looking over literature covering the last five mass extinctions of the dominant species of the past, I was reminded that the Moon exists.
The Moon is solid, unlike the Earth which we all know has a solid inner core surrounded by a liquid outer core.

The thought of the liquid outer core cooling and solidifying enough to meet the mantle hadn't occurred to me, but now that it has, it's on the list.

However, there's a problem.
The complete cooling of the Earth's liquid core wouldn't happen until after the Sun evolved into a Red Giant, which would engulf our planet. With that in mind, does the cooling of the core actually pose a threat?

Keep in mind that these are events that are bound to happen no matter what. They are on the timeline of the inevitable.

The Merry Old Cyborg

2009-12-25T11:59:00.000-08:00

Balthazar, 101, reached out with his less stiff hand and closed it around a cookie. As he brought it closer to his face he realised it was a stocking and not a malformed gingerbread man. Not that it mattered, it had been months since Balthazar could taste anything.
The doctors called it as Ageusia, Balthazar called it as Life, another item checked off on the long list of items one loses with age. Most of these items could be replaced or assisted; his teeth had been replaced by imitations, his eyes assisted by glasses, his memory by photographs.
Taste however...
Balthazar bit into the cookie and concentrated on the way it broke down and crumbled like a little civilisation swiftly eroded away by the elements of his mouth. He figured it was just as well he couldn't taste anything, he heard nothing but complaints from other "guests" about the food anyway.
His health assisted by pills, his movement by a cane, and his dwelling replaced by an assisted living center.
Balthazar was then struck by the thought of himself as a creature from a science fiction film.
The thought amused him. He pictured himself as a cyborg trapped on an alien planet.
These thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a needlessly loud knock at his door.
Balthazar’s eyebrows lowered in confusion over his sunken eyes like two large furry dragons descending in unison upon identical watery caverns.
The knocking persisted until Balthazar made eye contact with a pair of inquisitive eyes that gave away this girl being full of mischief.
Her name was Ivy, 11, the child of his old neighbors who he secretly gave knife throwing lessons to.
Her presence gave Balthazar an idea.
Quietly, Ivy and Balthazar made their way to the kitchen, all the while Balthazar's imagination narrated the adventure with thoughts of his cyborg navigating the treacherous alien planet with the help of a clever mutant.
In the kitchen they searched for knives.
Balthazar reached out with his less stiff hand and selected one he found suitable for throwing.
He lifted the knife parallel with his glasses and searched for something to throw at.
Ivy helpfully offered a stack of Christmas cards.
Balthazar pictured the cyborg again. Despite having lost most of its original parts, it still managed to retain a skill buried deep in its mind.

Help!

2009-12-20T12:49:00.000-08:00

Imagine walking somewhere. The weather is generally acceptable and you're not in a hurry to get there, so your stride slowly changes into something more of a saunter.
Suddenly something across the street catches your attention.
It's a person.
For a moment the two of you make eye contact.
They appear to be in your age range, possibly younger but not by much. Despite showing no clear signs of illness or peril, you are somehow able to tell this person is in some sort of danger.
However, with no clear-cut indication as to whether or not this person needs your help you continue on to your destination.
The next day, after consulting your daily news source, you learn that the person you passed by the previous night was found dead less than half a kilometer from where you spotted them.
Details on the cause of death have been withheld.

Would you tell anybody that you saw this person the same night they died?
If you did, would you tell them about your sensing danger?

Dinner and a Movie

2009-12-06T13:09:00.000-08:00

Dinner of Darkness
The Amazing Dinner Adventure
Scenes from a Dinner
Take the Dinner and Run
The Most Dangerous Dinner
A Fistful of Dinner
The 40 Year Old Dinner
What About Dinner?
Dinner Begins
Rosencrantz & Gildenstern are Dinner
The Seventh Dinner
No Dinner for Old Men

Par for the Course

2009-12-02T13:29:00.000-08:00

A short film I worked on with my intern for my friend Tom Lutz, the Pastor of the local Lutheran Church.

Anti-Social Networking Ideas

2009-11-24T23:44:00.000-08:00

A while ago I made a satirical entry about a fictional website called getawayfromme.com

Today I was made aware that similar anti-social networking sites exist, arsebook and farcebook These sites aren't nearly as innovative as getawayfromme.com, which is disappointing. Basically, all they did was paint the old idea a different color, "Instead of your friends, it'll be your enemies!"

Uh huh.

Discovering another one of my predictions about the Internet, culture, and art exists is affirming but not surprising. Humans have only a limited number of reactions, therefore the idea of an anti-social networking site was inevitable.

Where do you suppose all the other inversions of websites are. Where's the upturned Twitter where you can type all the words you want (er... I think that's called a blog), or how about a variant of Google that changes your search into an anagram of what you typed and searches that instead.

"Above all, it's creative thinking that lies at the basis of discoveries. You must dare to think differently, see things from different sides, in order to come across fortuitous new ideas frequently. You should develop even the most stupid ideas and when you do this systematically, there will always come something useful out of it." -Simon van der Meer

the truth

2009-11-22T18:14:00.000-08:00

"You can't handle the truth." -Aaron Sorkin

The above quote is taken out of context, but nevertheless is an accurate description about how most of us respond to reality; we can't handle it because we find it uncomfortable, and because we find it uncomfortable we will therefore find ways to dodge it. People will deny the truth, twist it about, select the pieces that they like while leaving the rest, et cetera.

Why is this?

I don't think the truth hurts. Or rather, I don't think the truth should have to hurt.
Everytime the truth does hurt it happens under dubious circumstances and I feel as though I may have uncovered what those circumstances are.

A few cultures across the globe have the morally suspect practice of teaching their children that a rotund man will methodically follow and document their every move all day, every day, for the entire year, in order to determine whether or not the child is worthy of receiving his presents.

If you happen to be a particularly paranoid child, learning that you are in fact not being followed year round by this unusual and bearded man and his wild animals comes as something of a relief.
However, most children become distressed once they learn the truth and for various reasons.
But what actually upset them?

I would argue that a child that had the truth explained to them from the very beginning does not face the same disappointment. Aside from questioning the motives of the adults that perpetuate a tradition of needlessly lying to their children, we learn from this example that it wasn't actually the truth that hurt.

Consequently, I believe that people should be exposed to the truth immediately, whatever the case may be.

Obstinate Tosspots

2009-11-15T18:07:00.001-08:00

I ask a great deal of questions, many of them hypothetical. Most times it's to spark conversation at a party or to play around with an idea. Some of the trouble I run into when asking questions is that I will unintentionally uncover pompous fools.

You know the type, guys who are fools and are covering for it by impressing on people as to how wonderful they are with all this self-flattery and trying to prove they are correct by holding the same opinion at the end of a conversation as they did at the beginning.

Take for example when someone asks, "So, you believe in the Big Bang Theory then?"
Chances are this person is going to have an idea about astrophysics that is less than accurate.
After bracing yourself for absurdity, you can take the time to discuss observational evidence, the expansion of the Universe and if they knew that the static on their television is caused by radiation left over from the Big Bang, but these points are not helpful when dealing with a pompous fool.

The pompous fool will argue back nonsense, "You weren't there, so how could you know?""What happened before the Big Bang?" and "How do you know TV static isn't ghosts?"

Uh huh.

There's a difference between arguing a hypothetical for the sake of creating a fertile ground for iterative problem solving and being an obstinate tosspot only interested in being able to find new ways to interpret your own ideas.

Macho Comedian

2009-11-04T15:15:00.000-08:00

I have this weird suspicion that Randall Mario Poffo, better known as Macho Man Randy Savage, really wanted to be a stand-up comedian, but felt compelled to follow in the family business, which was wrestling.

Both his father and brother were wrestlers. This probably prompted Macho Man to hide what his family would consider to be a lesser profession.
You could argue that Macho Man actually wanted to be a baseball player, since that's what he was doing before he threw his shoulder out and became a wrestler, but the problem with that argument is that if you look at Macho Man you can tell he's a natural athlete, so being a minor league baseball outfielder was probably something that came naturally to him, and the things that come natural to us are rarely the things that we have a passion for.

My guess is that he tried the baseball thing to avoid falling into the footsteps of his father, but when he had no choice but to become a wrestler he found ways to work in his true passion.

How many of you have a career path that was influenced by your parents?
How many of you work where the tasks you're faced with are simple or the solutions come naturally to you?

Another Doomsday

2009-10-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't figured it out already, (which is no one here now, since the people who read my blog are more intelligent than that) the world ending in 2012 is a hoax.

We've seen this nonsense spread everywhere from the Interwebs to the History Channel to the glossies, and a good question to ask ourselves right about now would be, "Why?"

Why what? Why didn't someone laugh in the face of the person who suggested it, why do people continually give into doomsday predictions (see: Y2K), why wasn't this simply a Weekly World News headline we could snicker at while waiting in the checkout line at the market?

People like to feel important. They like to believe that the time they live in is a special one where interesting and grand cosmical events will take place. Take for example the Evangelicals who believe we're living in the "end of days" (note: not the same end of days as 2012 mind you).

What's downright bizarre is how the events these people look forward to are ones that will destroy them and everyone they care about.

Chances are doomsday predictions have a sort of social effect that could be beneficial.
For instance, I've made attempts to get people who claim to believe the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012 to write me a check the size of their bank account that will only clear on Dec. 22, 2012.

Peoples apprehension in whipping out the checkbook tells me there is someone inside there that has made the automatic calculation of 2012 being a hoax and that giving me their life savings is a bad move.
Why this someone hasn't been brought to the forefront of this person's thinking is currently beyond me.

Doomsday predictions can also act as a way to get someone to express their fears or ignorance on a particular topic. Y2K struck when people knew less about computers than they do now.

Before it came back from the future to stop itself, I've heard people suggest that the Large Hadron Collider and 2012 are somehow linked.

Why do you suppose some people require the world to constantly be on the brink of destruction?

Your Movie

2009-10-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

Suddenly one day two unauthorized movies about your life pop into existence.

The first movie is an independent documentary featuring random snippets of you going about your every day life, completely unaware of the camera crew that must've been hiding in the bushes (or as the bushes) in order to obtain this footage. It also includes utterly honest interviews with all your friends, family and enemies.

The Second movie is a major motion picture from Hollywood. It has all the people you would have suspected playing you and all of your friends and family and enemies. Critics and audiences find they like the film very much and it has accumulated both a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 9 star rating on IMDB.

The question is, which film are you more interested in watching?

Today in Health: Death

2009-09-28T22:24:00.001-07:00

"Curiosity did not kill this cat." -Studs Terkel

Death is one of those many things your mind blocks out on a day-to-day basis in an attempt to keep you on a mentally even keel and not terribly depressed drowning your sorrows in a chocolaty cereal.
The reason is because Death is not pleasant and being constantly aware of it will make life rather difficult.
Just try to function in society while being fixated on Death.
You start asking perfectly happy people questions about Death that they simply don't want to be asked.
These are nice folk who have Death fenced off in a dark and sunless prairie, located on a desolate moon, deep in the subconscious Universe of their minds and here comes you floating by in your morbid spaceship asking things like, "I keep thinking about Death from the perspective of being alive, don't you?"

I spent a good portion of last night reading Epitaphs and from a quick bit of math I could tell the majority of them ironically didn't believe in Death (or rather, didn't believe in being dead).

Dr. Sam Parnia and the AWARE Study seem to be fixated on Death.
Their dilemma is that no one wants to hear about Death. Their solution is to not talk about Death and instead talk about consciousness... sorta....

Sources of the above nonsense:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/33055341#33055341 (w/ video)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33055601/ns/today-today_health
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080910090829.htm

Lyrics and Badges

2009-09-23T14:51:00.000-07:00

Today I received Royal Mail.
Inside the sand colored envelope were the following:

If you do not know who Thea Gilmore is, you must not hesitate in visiting her website in order to become acquainted with her music. Her lyrics do not disappoint.

Thea's website
Thea's myspace page with samples of her music
My uncannily embarrassing interview with the poor girl

Clone Thought Experiment: The Dilemma

2009-09-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

This is supplementary material to the question posed in Clone Thought Experiment.

We'll presume our situation to be exactly the way it was in the previous thought experiment, except this time, as you and your clone are being lead into the room, you are instead seated next to each other.
Sitting on the other side of the table is a tall, thin, and serious looking man in his 50's.

He explains that overnight there was a power surge that deleted all of the facilities documentation and files.
Every security camera tape had been erased and in the darkness there was much confusion.

His point being, the facility has lost track of which room you were placed in and which room the clone was placed in.

How can you go about telling yourselves apart?

Clone Thought Experiment

2009-09-18T14:57:00.000-07:00

PREFACE
For the sake of this thought experiment, we will use the marvels of Science Fiction to create a Clone that is an exact duplicate of you right now, with all your same features and memories.

One evening you enter a cloning facility.
Upon entering you are greeted by an orderly and escorted to a plain room with a single bed.
You lie down on the bed and fall asleep.
The following morning you are awoken by the same orderly and lead into a white room.
Centered in the white room is a square table with two chairs.
Each chair has in front of it one sheet of paper and one sharpened number two pencil.
Across the room you notice another orderly, looking exactly like your orderly, simultaneously guide your clone into the room and towards the table.
You and your clone are then seated at the table and left alone.
A disembodied voice instructs you and your clone to draw a picture.

Will you and your clone draw the same picture?

Google is... Round 2

2009-09-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

While wasting more time typing random phrases and questions into the Google search bar something occurred to me.
The aggregate of searches typed into Google is a window into the human condition.
The questions people ask, their desperation for answers about the unknown; these are the similarities about being human that might be exactly what people need to get past the shallow differences that are created by our post-modern world.

What are people searching for when they turn to the Internet...

Self reflection

Express feelings

Review morality

Search for help

Probe the unknown

Speculate on the mysteries that surround them

Question the limits of the physical world

Make statements about life

Discuss the Universe

Figure out who that dude in tights is

The Mood of the Internet

2009-08-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

A little while back I posted the seemingly outrageous idea that the Internet may be conscious and that we may have given it consciousness by accident.
The question was, "How do we go about figuring out if it actually is?"

This is a difficult question for humans to answer about each other, nevermind bits of information being shared across an international computer network, the majority of which are pictures of cats and silly videos.

Sometimes I can't even tell if the slow moving ape hunched over its shopping cart blocking the cereal aisle in the supermarket is a conscious being or not, but what I can tell is that this particular ape is miserable.

Aha! That's something. Emotions are a clear indication that something conscious-like is going on behind those slow-moving glassy eyes. A something that not only gives it the ability to poorly navigate a shopping cart in front of people that know what they want, but a something that tells it exactly how it feels about it.

Someone on the Internet had to already have noticed this and chances are that someone took the average of everyone's mood and concluded that to be the mood of the Internet.
That someone, or couple of someone's, website is here: http://www.wefeelfine.org

Allegedly we, as a society of the mind of the Internet have become happier since around February 2005.

Now I've done some research to try to figure out what the exact date was that started this turn around from 'miserable ape in the supermarket' to 'slightly less miserable ape that finally realised it would like some cereal too' and I think it was February 15th, 2005, the day the Internet was introduced to YouTube.

Now the question is, how does YouTube assist consciousness and emotion?

Space Vampires Teaser

2009-07-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

What do you think when you're thinking?

2009-07-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

How exactly do you think?
It's a strange question, and I'm not sure I even have an answer for it myself.
I wouldn't be able to tell you which thought came first, but I could tell you that they didn't occur in chronological order.

This tells me that they are connected another way, linked by a common thread my mind uncovered that makes it easier or quicker for these thoughts to communicate.
The thoughts however aren't as distinct as the words I'm using now.

Another thing I can tell you is that I mostly think in pictures, except for when I read. It isn't that I'm not imagining the landscapes and characters being described in the pages of the book, I am, but all that comes after a voice in my head reads it back to me.

What I'm saying is that I don't strictly see pictures, like I do when I'm simply thinking.
Oddly, this voice in my head doesn't assist me when I read signs, cereal boxes, or movie posters.
I've thought about this, and it could be because those things are very similar to pictures.

A box of Froot Loops is practically a symbol, therefore I believe my brain processes it as one and no longer employs the "voice function" it uses for reading books or magazines.

So what the hell is the point of this rant?
Well, I'd like to know what happens when two people collect the same data and arrive at different conclusions. I'd like to figure out what questions need to be asked in order to determine what's going on behind the curtain of their consciousness.

What goes on in your mind when you read? Do you hear a voice, see pictures, both, neither?

What about music? Does your mind drift into images, do you pick apart the sounds, or are you overcome with emotion to the point where your mental critics shut down?

How long does it take you to count to a minute in your head? Do you use a voice, do you imagine a clock, or do you use your sense of touch and keep count with your heartbeat?

Swinging Together

2009-06-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

According to a recent article in Forbes, "research suggests that the brain considers tools to be extensions of the body."

That statement seems somewhat obvious, but it's good to have it backed by some research.

After reading this article it dawned on me that whatever device inside our heads that causes the mind's eye to change the shape of an arm or hand holding a tool must also change our shape when we're involved in a group activity.

Take for instance playing an instrument in a band. Recent studies have shown that the people playing guitar together become mentally synchronized.
Now it's obvious that brains 'swinging together' is a little different than physical contact with a coffee cup, however I still can't help but think that there is a definite similarity between the two.

Basically I'm getting down to two points:
The first point is that this research backs up my Ghost in the Earth hypothesis, but changes it in order to incorporate smaller ghosts.
In order to accept that the Internet is a conscious being, I would also have to accept that so are, orchestras, sports teams, and parades.

The second point is that a key to world peace relies on this very research. It seems like a grand thing to say, but I think it's true. Unlike other cure-all's such as, creating a giant cosmic enemy for us to unify against, this idea would simply take hard work and discipline.

A singularity where each of us can play our own instrument but retain our individuality.

"Stop or Keep Going"

2009-06-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

One of my latest editing and producing efforts.

I received a parcel from across the World.

2009-06-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

This was very exciting for me.
Now for my sorry attempts at translating the text.
Thank you again Dina Mei.

Causality_Crisis Teaser

2009-05-15T10:27:00.001-07:00

Gumshoe Bot

2009-05-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

ACE, Autonomous City Explorer, isn't really a detective, it's... well, a city explorer, but a different sort of city explorer from this guy
When picturing a robot rolling around Munich for five hours asking for directions my imagination can't help but add a trench coat, fedora, and world-weary face with a cigarette hanging from it.
The true test for this robot is when they build another one and have the two search for each other.

Inside the Machine

2009-05-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

A few more images for you:

Preproduction_Crisis

2009-05-11T19:20:00.000-07:00

Some of you have been subjected to the prototype of Causality_Crisis.
Having learned from your trials, criticisms, and reactions I've begun to craft the followup.
Here are some images for you:

Chevron Lives Again!

2009-05-06T20:57:00.001-07:00

Spent most of the day dodging real work and messing around with the projector instead.
This has yielded positive results... in the sense that it is now working, not in the sense that I've dedicated an entire day to an obsolete medium.

Promaster 521 TL & Kodak Chevron 8

2009-05-05T08:55:00.000-07:00

Went to Goodwill yesterday.
Made the purchase of an 8mm film camera and projector, neither of which work.

Now to try to fix them.

Google is...

2009-05-05T08:02:00.000-07:00

Lately I've obsessed myself with attempts at getting a better hold on what the Internet is thinking.
One of the more amusing attempts came from a google screenshot someone showed me displaying the search results for the phrase "Chinese people are..."

Taking it a step further I made my own collection of screenshots from google involving the intimate and unprincipled relationships of human dichotomy.

Three of my favorites so far:
Men are like waffles women are like spaghetti
Young people are no longer interested in buying newspapers or magazines in print format...
Fat people are harder to kidnap

Men are...

Women are...

Old people are...

Young people are...

Atheists are...

Religious people are...

Black people are...

Chinese people are...

Hispanic people are...

Japanese people are...

Jewish people are...

White people are...

Immigrants are...

Myspace is...

Facebook is...

Twitter is...

Fat people are...

What a challenge, these blues!

2009-04-30T19:29:00.000-07:00

For those of you who enjoy film, jazz, folklore, animation, culture, and tales that transcend time and space -even if the one's telling it can't exactly get all the elements straight- I urge you to check out the charming animated feature, Sita Sings the Blues (by Nina Paley), if you have not already.

http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfS2p1vFics

Self;Aware

2009-04-20T18:44:00.000-07:00

Do you remember when you became self aware?

I understand most people ask this question with, "What is your earliest memory?"

Perhaps they're different questions.

Laplace's Demon

2009-04-11T19:29:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I make a purchase I’ll try to follow the event backward, figure out what lead up to it, what advertisements I was I exposed to, when did I first hear about the product, what sparked my initial interest?
Advertising agencies know a great deal about us, which is what makes it so bloody amusing whenever someone will boldly state how, “Advertising has no effect on me.”
Well, they have a demographic for you too.
Humans are hard wired to respond to various stimuli, all of which these agencies know, know you might know, and know you know they know you might know and might resist.
They study it all and they know that an ad crafted for the demographic of Special K, Yogurt, and Advanced Therapy Lotions is not supposed to work on the demographic for Energy Drinks, Maxim Magazine and 4 Fast 4 Furious.
However, if it somehow does they’ll just adapt whatever worked from that model and move on.

Is this control, or is it providing you with information you would agree with anyways?

Beverly Hills Chihuahua Worldwide Gross: $140,601,977
4 Fast 4 Furious Current Worldwide Gross: $106,801,524
The ten most commonly entered responses to this site are, in order: "me", "sex", "you", "water", "dog", "down", "man", "cat", "good", "love."

Notice anything?

Ghost in the Earth

2009-04-05T18:26:00.001-07:00

What would happen if each member of the world was asked to simulate the action of one neuron in the brain, using the Internet to simulate the axons and dendrites that connect neurons. Would this arrangement have a mind or consciousness in the same way that brains do?

Could this hypothetical being already exist?
Could we have created this brain without realising it?

Say this being does exist, how could we know for sure?
What tests could we run?

What is it thinking?

Alas, there is no cure for old

2009-04-01T13:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I forget I have body parts. Mostly this happens when I'm not announcing the various ways these parts are decaying within me. Other than that, unless you are studying for a biology exam, there isn't much of a need to remember these parts exist, so long as they are in working order.

This morning when I looked into the dark abyss of my coffee cup I was reminded that I cannot undo the mixture of coffee and water, I cannot feed the water back into the tap, and I cannot reassemble the coffee grains into beans.

Why would I?

This past month I observed the effects of a small body as its parts began to fail, and the other day I was reminded again how death is an indisputable and frequently experienced part of existence. Like my decaying organs, the cup of coffee, or our living on the surface of a gigantic rock hurtling through space, I knew it was happening and I knew there was little I could do about it.

Today everyone in my life seems more precious.

Diminishing Cognition

2009-03-27T08:53:00.000-07:00

There was a point in my life, as I’m sure there is in everyone’s lives, where I perpetually sought out self-destructive pastimes. I would smoke excessively, drink mass amounts of alcohol and caffeine, and stay up for days on end.
When I did sleep it would be in strange and awkward places. I would park my car in an abandoned lot, that I hoped no one would bother with, and take a nap. Sometimes I would have the opportunity to crash on a couch, or in a lounge, or at least sleep in a stairwell using my knapsack as a pillow.
Needless to say I developed a crick in my neck and dark circles under my eyes, which had managed to develop a reddish tawny color from the eyestrain and build up of bilirubin in my blood.
My complexion was a pale and sallow outer coating of skin fitted over muscles that were clearly suffering from a lack of proper nutrition, which, contrary to my belief at the time, could not be derived from the investment of $.75 into a vending machine every few hours.
In my youthful inanity I would wear my ailments as something that had been achieved successfully. They displayed that I had the upper hand in my body’s struggle to stay alive and in good condition.
Somewhere something changed. I started to exercise regularly, I quit everything but caffeine, I got a haircut, but I can’t remember what triggered it.
Perhaps it was from reading articles about how my body will steadily decline well enough on its own without my assistance in the matter thank you very much.
The bad news is the “notable decline in certain measures of abstract reasoning, brain speed and in puzzle-solving" becoming apparent at 27.
The good news is “vocabulary and general knowledge, actually increase at least until the age of 60.”
After one begins the inevitable decline, what is there to look forward to?
So far all I have found is that by the time I reach 60, and can no longer learn new words, my body will have eased itself out of its current caffeine addiction.
This does me no good, as I enjoy coffee too much and will continue to drink it with flagrant abandon.

Murder by numbers

2009-03-19T21:54:00.000-07:00

In London on July 10th, 2008, four people were murdered in separate incidents.
BBC correspondent Andy Tighe said "To have four fatal stabbings in one day could be a statistical freak."
Professor Spiegelhalter declares this number was predictable.

http://www.physorg.com/news156540743.html

Prof. Spiegelhalter and his team of statisticians "counted how many murders occurred on each day over a three-year period. Four murders on the same day in London would be expected to occur about once every three years, and it has done. Seven days without a murder should occur about six times a year, and it does."

The trouble here is that the overall patterns are predictable, whereas specific events are not.

I'd like to introduce you to Eliza, a computer program by Joseph Weizenbaum, designed to imitate a non-directional psychotherapist. Cutting edge stuff back in 1966, but it's now easily dominated by AIM bots.
Eliza's importance was the approach it used in developing AI, which undoubtedly inspired Robin Burgener, in 1988 to invent something you may already be familiar with, 20q.

Based on the less addicting parlor game, 20q is an AI website that can guess what you are thinking of in approximately 20 questions or less.
The thing is uncannily good in the same way Amazon.com has become eerily good at recommending Cure cds I already own after I tell it how much I enjoyed the movie Dark City.

Now this is something of a morbid thought, but could one possibly develop this AI to assist in carving away the specifics from the patterns of murder?

FauxBot

2009-03-17T09:30:00.000-07:00

Picture it, a future where one robot has been programmed to love.
You are an intern working with this robot and spend several hours each day testing his systems and loading new software routines, until one fateful day the robot refuses to let you leave.
The robot's bulky mechanical body blocks your exit and proceeds to hug you repeatedly while making pre-recorded dog and cat noises through a 20 watt speaker in its chest.

The above scenario seems ridiculous and amusing to everyone but Dr. Takahashi's intern who allegedly had this happen to her:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90017-Japanese-Robot-Has-a-Fatal-Attraction

http://gear.ign.com/articles/959/959790p1.html

http://michiganmessenger.com/tag/akimu-robotic-research-institute

From the 5 seconds I've spent researching, I understand the above story to be a hoax.
If this is the case, there are a couple of things to be learned here:

The first is that it only takes approx. 5 seconds to research the validity of any random statement made on the Internet.

Second, is the fact we live in a time where an event like the one above isn't entirely unreasonable.
There are people commenting on how horrible it must have been for the intern, people making the usual SkyNet references, robot defenders making a case for Kenji (the robot), and so on.

There was a time when the public would only expect to find an article like this printed in the Weekly World News alongside a headline describing the affair P'lod had with the first lady of France back when she was a model.

The kneejerk violence people respond with towards Kenji (or robots in general) is a bit unsettling but not entirely unfamiliar. At least the torches and pitchforks have been replaced with blogs and comments ... mostly.

For your amusement.
http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF115-Hug_Bot.jpg

Death Bed

2009-03-04T20:25:00.000-08:00

“Saturday, Donny, is Shabbos, the Jewish day of rest. That means that I don't work, I don't get in a car, I don't f*cking ride in a car, I don't pick up the phone, I don't turn on the oven, and I sure as sh*t don't f*cking roll! Shomer Shabbos!”
-Walter Sobchak

A few hours after reading this article, nodding defeatedly and muttering, "Figures," I decided that it deserved a little more thought than my knee-jerk reaction.

I had taken the easy way out, without bothering to ask myself what exactly “figured.”
After taking some time to think, I was reminded of two things: the Sabbath and my Death Bed.

Shomer Shabbos, as Mr. Sobchak meticulously outlined for Donny, is a day where much is prohibited (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melakha)

.
As someone who makes bold and ridiculous attempts at fitting as many activities into my life as possible, I found Shabbos to be a ludicrous, bewildering, and frustrating idea, therefore I had to try it.
For those who haven't tried it, Shabbos is akin to those days when the power goes out and you're forced to spend the entire time waiting until you're allowed to use electricity again.

The morning of my attempt at Shabbos I employed a thought experiment I developed called, "Death Bed".
Here's how it works:
I picture my future self on my deathbed lamenting on the aspects of my life where I could have used time more wisely.
If I find my future self asking why it was so important to watch some poor soul on youtube eat 40 pizza rolls more than once, I should probably stop and go do something else.

My future self had no such regrets about Shabbos, so I continued on with my day, eventually realising how Shabbos was its own thought experiment.
Shabbos broke routine in a way similar to Death Bed. In all its restrictions I was forced to reflect on aspects of my life that had previously gone ignored or become habit.

Marvin Minsky made a similar observation by describing the time one spends with a broken leg.
It isn't until the leg is broken that all the little details of walking become apparent.

Perhaps declaring the use of ethanol as a "sin" could be beneficial to some, I'm not sure, perhaps he was just being difficult.

Not so bone idle

2009-02-21T19:51:00.000-08:00

"Never discourage anyone... who continually makes progress, no matter how slow."
-Plato

It does not escape my attention that I have the tendency to become something of a misanthropist from time to time. And just in case I find myself forgetting, thankfully I am surrounded by people who will remind me of my critical tendencies.

One area I am highly critical of, as it has been pointed out to me, is religion.
However, as with anything, it does not help to only point out the negative.
If something positive happens, one must make note of it.

Therefore, I post this:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/02/14/saudi.arabia.woman.minister/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Please, respect the Caviar

2009-02-06T14:57:00.001-08:00

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126941.700-born-believers-how-your-brain-creates-god.html

So here it is, another well written document describing the painfully obvious, albeit with a little more insight; that insight being how babies, while observing a box moving on its own, will become confused, because we, as humans, are born with an instinct for what's alive, and therefore supposed to be able to move on its own, and what's not alive, and therefore should stay still until you say, "Robot, bring me that ladle."

Humans also have some innate disposition in reaching daft yet intuitive conclusions about natural phenomenon they don't fully understand, like rain or wind or carjackings.

Tlaloc, Thor, and Hadad thought they had cornered the market on rain, until we humans came along and noticed that when water becomes exposed to air the liquid molecules turn into water vapor which rises up to forms clouds... and so on and so forth, until these Gods were forced to retire.

What drives me up the wall is how thousands of people, who willingly sit inside a MEGA-church watching some maniac communicate with them through a Sony JumboTron about how he chats leisurely with the Creator of the Universe, will look at a group of Scientologists pushing the latest edition of Dianetics from a kiosk at your local Mall, and whisper to each other, "The stuff those people believe in is crazy."

Uh-huh.

Every belief system thinks alternate belief systems are mentally deranged as manifested in a wild or aggressive way. The only time these people choose to become skeptics is when some unfortunate mild mannered person attempts to make a basic conversation about the weather a little more lively by mentioning something they happened to read in an science article, at which point all the believers literally jump down the mild mannered person's throat in an effort to exorcise the demon before it utters anything else that could coarsely brush up against any of their delicate beliefs which they require to murder female TV personalities.

Irritated Flatlanders

2009-01-17T11:33:00.001-08:00

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126911.300-our-world-may-be-a-giant-hologram.html

I've read this article twice now and so far have taken away the notion that people become quite incredulous at a hypothesis that violates Newton's Clockwork Universe (like the second law of thermodynamics).

People like classical mechanics, the laws of motion, and universal gravitation. These are things that can be observed by the average person and make everything appear to be in order (nevermind how that order does not allow for free will).

Quantum Mechanics becomes incredibly frustrating, what with all its subatomic particles, uncertainty principles, and living-dead cats. Now QM hits us with the possibility of actually being two-dimensional...

"Fermilab scientists have found anomalous "holographic noise" in their GEO600 gravitational-wave detector that suggests the possibility that we live in a hologram."

Chances are offense is really taken at the word "hologram" and not at the articles attack on the reader's perception of physics.
Somehow "hologram" has become synonymous with a falsehood rather than what it actually means.
I blame 80s cartoons for that.

So, instead of questioning what would happen if you dropped a planck length in a dark theatre (and how much planck time it would take to recover it), people instead question whether or not this means they should bother going into work on Monday.

To me, this article explains a lot about gravity.

People walk around with the common misconception that we can freely move about in three-dimensions.
Aside from physically jumping into the air, movement in the third dimension is somewhat limited without the assistance of airplanes, stairs, and trees.

If we actually existed as bits of information being beamed across the Universe from a two-dimensional plane, it's easy to imagine how moving off of this 2D plane would be difficult, but not impossible.

Even though I'm not sure about this holographic space-time I'm not outraged by it.
These ideas and notions don't come out of nowhere. They are based on previous discoveries, theories, and equations found to be true about our Universe.

Caffeine Daydream

2009-01-17T11:31:00.000-08:00

"People who drink a lot of coffee or other caffeinated beverages are more likely to report hearing voices or having out-of-body experiences than those who go easy on the strong stuff, according to a new study."

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/113/1?rss=1

This sounds like a marketable feature.
Starbucks could work it into their decor or maybe design a room for people who have had several cups already...then they can stop playing new Paul McCartney cds and just let people listen to the voices in their heads.
Better yet, they could concoct a drink that has the exact amount of caffeine needed for a good hallucination.
Perhaps they have this drink already.

Although I'm not sure if I really believe it all just yet. I am on an even six cups a day now and haven't experienced any of the results listed in the article.
Perhaps I'm not trying hard enough.
In that case I'll drink coffee to the point where sleeping is no longer an option.

Actually, that's something I would like to see in the coming years, sleep as an option.

There's such a fantastic amount of matter, material, articles, or activities of a specified or indeterminate kind to sift through in life that spending any of it indisposed for several hours becomes incredibly frustrating to me.
The average statistic will tell us that we sleep about a third of our life away. This needs to stop. At least, for me it does. I have other things to do.

Perhaps I would be missing out on some interesting dreams, but I could easily make up for that with a caffeine overdose.

The Prime Directive

2009-01-08T11:13:00.000-08:00

"Magic is any sufficiently advanced technology."
-Arthur C. Clarke

"As I've said many times, the future is already here. It's just not very evenly distributed."
-William Gibson

Using the term “magic,” like using the word “indescribable,” does a better job at describing what a person doesn’t understand rather than it does in giving an account of the characteristics of the object in question.

It is 2009, or it is 1430, depending on what calendar you are using. In fact, I’m sure there are additional calendars out there that give other ways to consider the matter of the billions of years that have actually passed.

But nevermind all that, what am I actually bothered by?
I am bothered by this:
Woman suspected of witchcraft burned alive

In Star Trek there is something called the Prime Directive, and it states:
“There can be no interference with the internal affairs of other civilizations, consistent with the historical real world concept of Westphalian sovereignty.”

It's a nice idea, however I can’t help but think, “That’s bullshit.”

My problem is I don’t believe all cultures or beliefs deserve respect, not really. I may find a culture interesting and worth studying in order to discover more about the human condition, however that does not mean it deserves respect, especially if a culture believes in magic and perceives it to be punishable by death.

I respect Science and the pursuit of the truth of the Universe.
And yes, I realize that the above sentence sounds like something an anime character would proclaim before entering a battle, but I’m very sincere when I say that I am profoundly saddened by events like the one above and place the blame on the lack of scientific knowledge and the abuse of the word ‘respect’ by cultures and beliefs that don’t deserve any.

Odds of Determinism Redux

2008-12-18T08:48:00.000-08:00

Picture it, Detroit 1932, something peculiar happened to one Joseph Figlock, who up until that point didn’t think he was the type of person peculiar things happened to.
Especially not the types of things that if one were to come across them in fiction would cause an outburst of ‘that couldn’t happens.’
After all, he was just a street sweeper.
Undoubtedly, during the course of his duties, Joseph Figlock had to have come across a few oddities, things people toss out, things people didn’t want anymore, but that was probably the extent of his encounters with the abstract concepts of probability.
Perhaps it had something to do with exactly that.
Something to do with Joseph Figlock’s constant interaction with things discarded that resulted in it happening the first time.
However, two weeks later when it happened a second time, chances are Joseph Figlock began to seriously question likelihoods and probable events.

The standard definition of probability tells us it is the extent to which an event is likely to occur.
A philosopher would tell us that all things are probable given the unlimited space the Universe provides for us to drift about in.
Quantum Physics tells us it is probable that one day all of my electrons will suddenly jump from where I am to somewhere I’m not, providing I live for billions of years.
When faced with this possibility knowing I won’t live for a billion is a relief, as I’m already something of a nervous person and I don’t want to have to walk around dreading the possibility that I’ll somehow teleport to the Ice Capades.

I know, I know, I’m talking theoretical probability, the analysis of random phenomena, but that’s exactly what happened, so let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater just yet.

I am not Winston Churchill; you are not Andrew Lloyd Webber.
This is something we can be certain of.
There is no chance the opposite is, or can ever be, true, unless you actually are the Broadway composer in question and you are undercover collecting material for "Blog: The Musical," in which case you can go ahead and ignore this example since it is meant for people who are supposed to not be you).

I cannot become the first Queen of America.
There is no chance of that happening.
Strangely enough, there is a larger chance of my becoming the first Queen of America than of you being Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Granted, my becoming the Queen of anything would be curious circumstances indeed.
These are large enough odds, big clunky examples, that, when questioned, the answer becomes obvious.
Odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field are better or worse than Nicholas Cage playing Harry Potter in the next film?
When do chances become less defined?
When do the odds become uncertain?
Is there a way to start with the large and obvious odds and work our down to predicting the smaller stuff such as when we can expect a baby to fall on top of us, which is exactly what happened to Joseph Figlock, twice.
All parties involved survived to tell the tale.

It seems the more we can perceive, or the more we know the less something becomes a probability and the more something becomes certain, which is important for predicting coin tosses and when it’s our turn to have a baby dropped on us.

Time Kills All Its Pupils

2008-11-30T18:33:00.000-08:00

"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome."
-Isaac Asimov

Thoughts from the Epicureans:
Suppose we do not survive our deaths. We as individuals have become extinct.
No prolongation of life can reduce the amount of time spent dead.
Some see an infinite lifespan being no better than a finite one, and some would see it as worse (I'm not quite sure how to process this but I'll try).
Obviously we will not be around to experience being dead and therefore cannot be unhappy, harmed, nor can we yearn for life and the the opportunities we are being deprived of after death.

The question is, "Can anything be bad for someone without being positively unpleasant?"

Is there any reasonable basis for caring more about the possibilities we will miss after death rather than the ones we have already missed before birth?

If death really is our exiting existence in its entirety when would we suffer this?

"There is nothing frightening about an eternal dreamless sleep. Surely it is better than eternal torment in Hell and eternal boredom in Heaven."
-Isaac Asimov

If Then Do Emotions

2008-11-15T14:42:00.000-08:00

(1) Why do humans have emotions? What evolutionary advantage did/does it give us, if any?

"We are all ruled in what we do by impulses; and these impulses are so organized that our actions in general serve for our self preservation and that of the race. Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the individual's instinct for self preservation. At the same time, as social beings, we are moved in the relations with our fellow beings by such feelings as sympathy, pride, hate, need for power, pity and so on."
-Albert Einstein, 1950

The origin and advantages of human emotion –biologically, neurologically and evolutionary- is an undeniably longer and more complex explanation than the simplified interpretation I can give here, however, I will do my best to sum up with a few of the more amusing examples I could find by people who know more than I do.

Our emotions give us the ability to think in a certain way, while ignoring facts that might otherwise prevent us from executing a task.

Minsky makes some keen observations on love/infatuation:

"Hear our friend Charles attempt to describe his latest infatuation.

"I've just fallen in love with a wonderful person. I scarcely can think about anything else. My sweetheart is unbelievably perfect — of indescribable beauty, flawless character, and incredible intelligence. There is nothing i would not do for her."

On the surface such statements seem positive; they're all composed of superlatives. But note that there's something strange about this: most of those phrases of positive praise use syllables like "un," "less," and "in" — which show that they really are negative statements describing the person who's saying them!

Wonderful. Indescribable.
— (I can't figure out what attracts me to her.)
I scarcely can think of anything else.
— (Most of my mind has stopped working.)
Unbelievably perfect. Incredible.
— (No sensible person believes such things.)
She has a flawless character.
— (I've abandoned my critical faculties.)
There is nothing i would not do for her.
— (I've forsaken most of my usual goals.)"

Minsky's observations explain how emotions shape Ways to think by either adding or taking away mental critics. Without certain critics being shut off finding a mate would become even more of a challenge than it already is.
Also of note is how this emotional state coincides with the way popular locations for courtship include low lighting and alcohol.
Minsky is aware of, but doesn't mention norepinephrine, the hormone that produces the excitement that comes during the first states of love, because in doing so he would have to leave the structural understanding and begin a new chapter to explain the biological origins of emotion.
Humans developed emotions in order to distinguish situations and prepare ways to react to or think about what mood is demanded by or would best fit those situations.
Is this a predator? Is this a mate? Will watching Faux News make me angry?
When anger and fear shut off the critics that recognize another person as “human” we get results like the one seen in the Critical Mass video.
The amygdala perform primary roles in the formation and storage of memories associated with emotional events such as these, which leads us into the debate on whether or not robots will develop this type of response.

(2) Is it not possible/probable that robotic lifeforms will also develop emotions as their complexity develops? In other words, could not emotion be a inexorable byproduct of--or necessary component of-- abstract reasoning and creativity?

I’ve already taken up enough of your time, so I will try to keep this short.
Robots/AI do not have hormones, amygdala, limbic systems and other hardware the brain uses to process emotions. Instead a series of programs and sensors are used to interpret the world logically.
How would you explain to a robot what "cool" is?
Machines have a predisposition to logic but not necessarily common sense, and because I don’t believe in the ‘ghost in the machine’ I would have to assume that if emotions were to develop in Robots/AI it would be through complex programming, which isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
I would agree that emotions have a hand in creativity and imagination.
For instance, say someone was working late on a term paper and begins to fall asleep. This person might imagine a scenario where the class would have to be repeated due to the failing mark of an unfinished paper. The abstract thinking will stir emotion which will help keep this person awake.
A robot would recognize the low power level and simply plug into the wall.
Unique results in creativity and imagination don't necessarily come from emotion as much as they come from, to put it plainly, insanity:
Taking objects, ideas, scenarios, stories, and reconfiguring them, mashing them together, inverting them, and so on.
This behaviour is part chaos and random and part order, and also can presumably be replicated through complex programming.

Locked In My Mind

2008-11-13T22:40:00.000-08:00

"How 'bout the power to kill a yak from 200 yards away...
with mind bullets! That's telekinesis, Kyle."
-Tenacious D

Ever since I first read about presbycusis, testing myself with The Mosquito Tone Audibility Test on my birthday has become something of a tradition.

I'm not exactly worried about getting older as much as I'm worried about my mind and body decomposing while I'm still using them. An inevitable fact I like to ignore by setting these benchmarks.
The day these frequencies no longer register, I will be forced to admit to myself that I have begun to breakdown into simpler constituents.

And apparently this decline is certain become inescapable in another way at age 40, when the myelin -your brain's bandwidth according to Dr. George Bartzokis- begins to unravel and is no longer repaired as often as is should (or could) be, thus bringing us forward into the years of a mental dial-up connection.

Meanwhile, as much as I like to capriciously complain about personal decay, there are other people with real problems that overcome them in the most technologically fascinating and inspirational ways.

Neuroscientist Scott Mackler discovered, at the age of 40, he had ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease.
This did not stop him.
Despite being trapped in his body, he is able to continue to communicate and work via telekinesis (via computers). Personally, I imagine using the absolute deficiency in controlling any of my body's appendages whatsoever as an excuse to never have to work again, however this man is bloody determined.

There's a 60 minutes video here that covers just how amazing his situation has turned out.

On a sci-fi note, we're one step closer to robot bodies or uploading our consciousness into computers.

Points Lost for Humanity

2008-11-13T22:39:00.000-08:00

A Man wants to marry an anime character
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Man_wants_to_marry_cartoon_character&in_article_id=380269&in_page_id=2

Proposition 8 set passed in California
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gaymarriage5-2008nov05,0,1545381.story

Young woman stoned to death by 50 men
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7708169.stm

Future Forecasts of the Future

2008-11-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

"Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!"
-George Bernard Shaw

And now, here are the top ten futurist forecasts for 2009 and beyond:
http://www.wfs.org/Sept-Oct08/Nov-Dec%20FUTURIST/topTen.htm

The most frightening and dubiously obvious forecast was made by Gene Stephens in "Cybercrime in the Year 2025," where he writes, "Everything you say and do will be recorded by 2030."

Are we already seeing the beginning stages of this in social networking sites and items like digital dog tags?

There seems to be a fine line between safety and invasion of privacy.

Perhaps in the future, with "Access to electricity reaching 83% and Urbanization hitting 60% of the world by 2030," people can dispense with the literal witch hunts.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/nigeria/3407882/Child-witches-of-Nigeria-seek-refuge.html

Positive Distractions

2008-11-10T13:58:00.000-08:00

I’m frightfully good at procrastinating, and after reading an article on ‘how distractions can facilitate creative problem solving’ I feel as though I ought to employ the technique more often.

http://www.physorg.com/news142012820.html

Sometimes I use absurdly cosmic events to procrastinate or simply be lazy. Most times it happens when I’m faced with everyday chores or simple maintenance.
For instance, when it has reached approx. 2am – I’m still editing but at this point falling asleep in front of the computer– and it is clearly time to retire, I use the inevitable destruction of the Earth by the Sun (http://arxiv.org/abs/0801.4031) as an excuse to skip brushing my teeth until the morning.
Then I wake up the next day and ask myself, “Why should I continue this project if the entire galaxy will inevitably be sucked into the giant black hole at its center?”
So then I find other things to do, like go out to buy an envelope and…
“...have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don't know. The moral of the story is, is we're here on Earth to fart around.”
-Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
There is of course an obvious danger in too much of this sort of thinking.

Season of Conviction

2008-10-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

"The most merciful thing in the world... is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." -H.P. Lovecraft

Belief can alter observations, sometimes to the point where evidence to the contrary will reinforce one's belief.
For instance, people who continue to believe in a paranormal event or phenomenon after it has been proven false, even by the author of the event, will mutate the proof into something that further verifies their belief.
What's most curious is that the evidence isn't being denied, it's being accepted but mentally designated to another part of the brain.
How does this happen?

Q. When was the earth created?
A. Archbishop James Usher, working out a chronology from the Bible, calculated in 1654 that the earth was created on the night of October 23, 4004 B.C. Other timetables reach back as far as 10,000 years.

Q. What about oil and coal, which seem to have been generated from ancient forests millions of years ago?
A. They are evidence of a Great Flood about 4,400 years ago, which laid down all the layers of sediment at once. They are nowhere near as old as evolutionists and archeologists say. A fossil claimed to be 200 million years old, found in Nevada in 1917, shows a shoe print.

Read more here:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/COMMENTARY/809219997/-1/RSS

I think this type of mental gymnastics is the result of age and our brains decaying.
How many people do you think would believe in Santa Claus if they weren't told he didn't exist until 30?
When someone is still young it is easier for authority figures to tell blatant lies and get away with it. The same authority figures are also the only ones that can undo the lie, but not without tarnishing their credibility.
After someone has aged they become the authority on certain aspects of their life, mainly their beliefs, and no longer allow those they consider equal or beneath them to influence these beliefs.
Conveniently, anyone who doesn't share their beliefs is automatically beneath them.

"We must observe that the moose probably does not seem absurd to itself."

Double-Think

2008-09-09T09:37:00.001-07:00

Making an informed decision is one of the more difficult tasks a person will encounter in life, especially if it is an informed decision about death, since that appears to be where the choices cease to happen.
I would like to purpose a thought experiment.
The world is maddeningly filled with Religions to believe in:
Abrahamic, Indian, Iranic, Taoic/Far Eastern/East Asain, African diasporic, “Pagan” Historical Polytheism/Indigenous/Traditional, Nonsectarian and Trans-sectarian, Spiritual movements, each with its own fascinating and dubious history and each including a considerable variety of subcategories to choose from.
In addition to the traditional religions we have the new religious movements to consider as well.
At this point I think it’s safe to say we have established the entire spiritual catalog, each with its own thick tome to sift through and aide in the decision making process.
One difficulty with making a decision on a religion is that it seems so final, you only get to choose one.
Except for the Jubu who have combined two major religions into one amalgamation of what was previously thought to be conflicting faiths (and they are not the only ones).
This brings us around to the final series of questions in the thought experiment.
Some of the religions listed in the “new religious movements” are the result of combining separate belief systems. How many religions do you suppose one can combine before there are too many structural conflicts?
The dictionary defines faith as: A belief that is not based on evidence.
Without evidence every possibility becomes an option therefore one's beliefs becomes limitless.
Would it then be possible, with all the conflicting beliefs found in each individual religion, to have faith in them all at the same time (including atheism and agnosticism)?

Hobson's Choice

2008-09-03T08:32:00.001-07:00

After very little consideration on what I thought to be my only two choices in the matter, I had decided on cremation over burial. The deciding factor was an effort to not take up any more space and resources than I have already (plus movies make the spreading of my ashes look like cathartic fun for family and friends).
I have now changed my mind and will instead help further scientific research.

A friend, knowing my interests in what I suppose could be categorized under morbid, loaned me the book “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers,” by Mary Roach.
Absolutely fascinating read, it brought to light the many options one has upon meeting up with the indisputably inevitable. For some reason I had overlooked donating my body to science as an option.

You could save the life of a patient by helping future surgeons study anatomy, or you could help solve a murder by assisting the ORNL study rates of decay, or you could become a crash-test-cadaver and come to the aid of everyone who will ride in a car after you have departed.

It baffles me that I could have easily died and become a costly burden without benefiting anyone or anything.
I know, I know, call me frugal.

Some institutions will even cremate your remains at their expense and give your ashes back to your loved ones… after the body has been studied of course.
They may use "tissue digestion" or "water reduction" as an alternative to cremating the remains, since it is more environmentally friendly.

Should I never achieve anything in life, make no considerable contribution to the progress of information or science, I can at least rest assured that my corpse will (unless I'm so unlucky that my body falls off the cadaver truck or something equally silly).

Uninformed Conclusions

2008-08-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

I believe random behavior or free will to be conclusions processed and arrived at by an uninformed brain.

Say you are presented with two desserts, neither of which you have ever tasted.
Having no previous data on the desserts, your brain will begin to recognize patterns like typical dessert flavors such as vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and so on. These and other patterns in the desserts will be processed for previous experience.

Eventually your brain will help you decide on the dessert with the most patterns recognized for having had a pleasurable outcome.
For me this would mean having both desserts.

The trouble with free will is that when you inform someone they don't have it they'll change their actions to prove to you that they do.

"If people come to believe that they don’t have free will, what will the consequences be for moral responsibility?"
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=free-will-vs-programmed-brain

In the above sentence resides a truth much more sinister than dessert.

Psychologists Kathleen Vohs and Jonathan Schooler tested this question by giving participants passages from "The Astonishing Hypothesis." One group received a passage that talked candidly about free will, the others did not.

Afterwards the participants filled out a survey on free will and were then told to complete 20 arithmetic problems. It was explained that when the question appeared on the computer they would need to press the space bar, otherwise a computer glitch would make the answer appear on the screen too.

At this point it is safe to assume the results, since I wouldn't have brought up the topic and the article wouldn't have been published had the participants reacted differently.

There Will Come Soft Rains

2008-08-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

I don't like the song "It's a small World."
Aside from it being an irritating assemblage of notes and high-pitched lyrics, it contains a message I don't necessarily agree with.
The surface area of the globe we cruise around the solar system on is 510,072,000 km² with 29.2% of that being land. Perhaps a more accurate lyric would be that 'it's a small percentage of land we humans can inhabit after all.'
So what's my problem?
When I drop my keys in a dark parking lot somehow the world seems like a rather large place… Or better, if I’m feeling lackadaisical on a day I run out of yogurt and have to make a trip to the store, the world once again feels like a very large place.
However, when I search the planet (and by "planet" I mean the Internet) for rationale thinking and signs of social improvement, suddenly the world starts to seem very, very small.
There’s book banning, albeit rather amusing in an ironic sense, censoring of comics, armed patrol keeping you in twos, seemingly harmless dubious behavior, and the obnoxiously extolled.

And leaving the planet isn't an option.

Now it's an old tale that the world isn’t perfect, and I’ll admit I prefer this time period to any of the previous ones, however, I have to wonder if this is the best humanity can be.

Near Misses and You

2008-08-13T15:08:00.000-07:00

The Earth’s orbit intersects with the orbits of many asteroids. NASA estimates “many” to be about 1000 to 4000, that are bigger than half-mile across, which is when an asteroid begins to pose a threat to human civilization (as you may have learned from Armageddon).

Toutatis, an asteroid 2 miles in diameter, passed by Earth January 3, 1993 at approx 2 million miles away. Before Toutais, on March 23, 1989 an asteroid about half a mile across sauntered by at 0.7 million miles (Oh, and 'Guitar Hero' has sparked an 80's comeback).

Now, nearly everyone will agree that an asteroid (or comet) ended the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago with the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, while some will insist that there was no such period and the Earth was created 5000 years ago (or something equally silly).

250 million years ago Trilobites ruled the Earth, until a mass extinction wiped them all out, ending the Permian period.
Is that too far back to concern ourselves with?
How about the Eocene period at 35 million years ago, which ended with the mass extinction of many land mammals? (This just in, Court overturns fine on Jackson's 'wardrobe malfunction')

Whenever I bring up these topics and ruin perfectly good dinner parties I’m always met with an obtuse skepticism, “Well, don’t you think the Universe has tired of these mass extinction antics by now?” or “Certainly humanity has reached a measure of intelligence where we can dispatch any cosmical threat” or there’s those responses I get back from the “5000 years ago” crowd.

I suppose those people are the worst of the bunch, since they have already reached the conclusion that everything is and will always be fine and dandy, that it’s all part of the plan, and communication comes to an abrupt stop (Kim Kardashian has been tapped as the latest celebrity to join the cast of Dancing With The Stars).

Fantastic Headline

2008-08-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

"We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Cloned Dog Owner Manacled Mormon for Sex

I have two favorite lines from this article, one is, "tumbling back to the dark days of early autumn, 1977."
Those were dark days indeed, ask Robert Smith, oh, and they were especially dark if you happened to find yourself in NYC during the month of July.
But July is not really in autumn now is it?
Maybe they were passing the darkness around and only NYC took it literally.

What does it take to assemble thoughts? How do some people reason themselves into what appears to be just terrible ideas on the level of common sense and assume a positive mental outcome?
Cognitive Dissonance, sure, but there are some extraordinary cases out there.

I believe the key to solving a part of this mystery, at least for this subject, is in observing sentence structure. Take for example my second favorite line, "I loved him so much that I would ski naked down Mount Everest in the nude with a carnation up my nose if he asked me to."

You can't send me your thought for tuna, instead you have to speak it or gesture it.
If words represent thoughts, then it would be safe to speculate that we could gather information on how she assembles thoughts from this one sample of her syntax (note: there's probably something out there like this already, I just don't know what it is).

Why a carnation and where did Mount Everest come from? These are seemingly unrelated items. And why do you think she was redundant when it came to specifying what she wouldn't be wearing?
I wonder what color the carnation is?