Category: the odes
11/05/08 12:07 - 52ºF - ID#46540
Taking a break from little girl news...
Science!
..Choice!..
...Peace!...
....Dreams!....
....Justice!....
.....Courage!.....
.......Evolution!........
..........Rationalism!...........
....................Moderation!....................
.................................Forethought!....................................
.......................................and................................................
Obama!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
Permalink: Taking_a_break_from_little_girl_news_.html
Words: 22
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: work
11/03/08 07:07 - 54ºF - ID#46485
Question for the web experts here
((e:paul), this is the same project I talked to you about, ages back. Its finally being hosted at the NCI.)
Ideally, I want a forum-like interface online with email functionality. The forum should have the ability to accept emailed posts from researchers (who are disinclined to login and post online) and display these emails in appropriate subject threads - somewhat like Google Groups + Gmail. The forum should also have sections with restricted memberships for say, certain working groups.
The question is, am I making a reasonable request and is this kind of thing do-able on a website? Would I need to provide any extra information?
Permalink: Question_for_the_web_experts_here.html
Words: 159
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: the odes
11/02/08 11:31 - 42ºF - ID#46472
How big a pile was this?
From
The search for a missing Buffalo girl came to a happy ending Saturday night.
Police combed the neighborhood after the girl's mother reported her missing from their Sweet Avenue home Saturday afternoon.
It turned out Reid was home all along.
The six year-old was found sleeping under a pile of clothes in the house.
One has to wonder...
Permalink: How_big_a_pile_was_this_.html
Words: 69
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: e:strip
11/01/08 01:59 - 47ºF - ID#46460
E:Strip: The Written Word
The humble comment bubble rose from the footnotes this Halloween and carried out its alphabetized vendetta.
The armed attack of the comment bubble extracted some arbitrarily awesome sweet personal, political and candy-raver responses!!
I don't think any other bunch of folks can quite randomly turn a last-minute hastily-put-together costume into such a rich and varied interactive real-time experiment. It speaks volumes about us as a community.
Step out from your virtual pixels and claim your real comment bubbles by dropping virtual ones. :)
Indeed!
(e:hodown), you are hands down miles and mountains better than the Joan character. I am positive she cannot make those figs-from-heaven that you made. Nor can she ever look as awesome as you did!
Get over it! ;)
Yeah, and I will see you in hell.
I will leave you with this powerful message.
- Thanks for the pen (e:paul). I think I lost it...
- Sorely missed:
(e:boxerboi): You! You! You m&m! See you on Monday. ;)
(e:mrmike): You are probably the world's only handsome zombie!
(e:gardenmama): I can't wait to meet you!
(e:theecarey): Did I miss you????!!!
(e:leetee) & (e:uncutsaniflush): Hope you had an awesome Halloween!
(e:lilho): Good wishes for getting better!
(e:ladycroft): Wish you were here!
(e:Chico): Missed you as well.
Other (e:missingpeeps): Have an awesome weekend!
Permalink: E_Strip_The_Written_Word.html
Words: 338
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: the odes
10/28/08 09:57 - 38ºF - ID#46398
Survey is in the air...
1. Have you ever ignored people intentionally as a sort of getting back at them for ignoring you in the past?
2. Did you feel guilty about it?
3. Did you care more about your guilt and give up your ignore-stance?
4. Or did you care more about your vendetta and continue ignoring till the end of time?
Please answer with a yes/no, at least. Thanks for your time! (In advance).
-TP
Permalink: Survey_is_in_the_air_.html
Words: 80
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: the odes
10/27/08 02:39 - 44ºF - ID#46360
Deepavali ki Haardik Shubhkaamnaayen!
- Hearty well-wishes to you all on this day of the festival of lights.
Permalink: Deepavali_ki_Haardik_Shubhkaamnaayen_.html
Words: 23
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: tourism
10/26/08 03:43 - 58ºF - ID#46351
A Sequence of Haircutters
My first one was all the way up at North Plaza. For want of a better sense of direction, and the gleeful excitement of having a "metro" train service within walking distance once again, I took it all the way up to south campus and was quite disappointed when the driver announced that it was the last stop. I don't know what I had been expecting but I do remember wondering whether it would come out in another city's downtown.
Somehow this seems so appropriate, not to mention way cooler. Downtown to downtown - symmetric underground and overground sections. Like a light rail but also like a tube. The romance was killed brutally at south campus.
So back to the main story, that trip was memorable not only for the huge metro asymmetry disappointment but also for the near hysterical haircutter. She started carelessly whacking my hair off. I don't really ask too much from my haircutters. I just want it all off and a decent non-eggy looking outcome at the end. But I got more than I paid for.
She told me the whole in-detail story about how she was going to call her wedding off because she had just found out that morning that her fiance had given her a fake golden ring with a fake diamond pasted on it. She also sniffled into my hair. I didn't mean to be insensitive but.. Geez. I never went back.
The second haircutter had moved his shop from Utica to the basement of an old people's home on Main Street. It started out okay but I was the only one below 60 in that room and one of the old ladies was bitterly complaining that her new hair colour was not purple enough.
It unsettled me. Oh, and that place smelled really funky as well.
A few haircuts at not-very-memorable-places later, I met this haircut lady!
I swear she must have been a drill sergeant in her past life! She yelled at everyone in the shop - customers and employees alike, and gave me something very close to a military buzzcut. I was too scared to say anything and slunk out!
Then I met the best haircutter ever - LaShawn! I don't think anyone ever cut my hair so well as her. My hair didn't grow out of shape for a whole month! It was as if she had sprinkled magic dust on my hair and bullied it into behaving.
Unfortunately, she went on maternity leave after I had that haircut and I haven't seen her since.
The next one was downright freaky. While cutting my hair, he casually mentioned how his dream career was to become a mortician! Nice way to boost confidence levels in a client.
The last really interesting haircutter was an indophile.
He was covered in so many tattoos, it was hard to tell what kind of clothes he was wearing! He told me that his boyfriend usually tried out unique designs on him first and that's how he ended up with so many. I found that what little I know about Hinduism was very deficient compared to his encyclopaedic knowledge!
I seem to have knack for meeting the most bizarre haircutters and going to the weirdest of haircutting settings.
Permalink: A_Sequence_of_Haircutters.html
Words: 578
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: music
10/24/08 10:18 - 51ºF - ID#46313
It's a wild world... of awful covers!!!!
This is one of the 400+ covers from hell, painstakingly sung with acoustic shredding prowess by none other than proud Frenchman - Grum Lee!
Another mind-blowing cover: Grum Lee's smooth... er.. Rough Criminal! If Michael Jackson were dead, he would surely be moonwalking in his grave if heard this. So should you, even if you are alive, BTW.
And nothing is ever complete without a complete destruction of the Final Countdown. Yeah finnnnnnnaaaaall couuuuuunnnttdown!!!! Yeah.
Permalink: It_s_a_wild_world_of_awful_covers_.html
Words: 94
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: eating in
10/23/08 11:55 - 42ºF - ID#46290
Whoring Peppercorns. Since early 1600s
~~~~Theyyam.~~~~
~~~~Fresh Peppercorns!!!~~~~
~~~~Dried Peppercorns~~~~
~~~~Pongal~~~~
~~~~Ravai Kanjeevaram Idly~~~~
~~~~Pongal, Bonda and Rasam~~~~
~~~~Tiiru Chadam (Or Seasoned yogurt rice)~~~~
Yeah, we are completely deranged about food, colour and spices, down south. :)
More Thalassery ->
Permalink: Whoring_Peppercorns_Since_early_1600s.html
Words: 104
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: eating in
10/23/08 08:46 - 46ºF - ID#46287
Addicted!!
a)
b)
I need a quitline for these two, pronto!!! :/
Permalink: Addicted_.html
Words: 35
Location: Buffalo, NY
Author Info
Date Cloud
- 12/21
- 12/15
- 02/15
- 01/15
- 11/14
- 08/14
- 04/14
- 02/14
- 11/13
- 07/13
- 09/12
- 08/12
- 07/12
- 04/12
- 03/12
- 02/12
- 01/12
- 12/11
- 11/11
- 10/11
- 09/11
- 08/11
- 07/11
- 06/11
- 05/11
- 04/11
- 03/11
- 02/11
- 01/11
- 12/10
- 11/10
- 10/10
- 09/10
- 08/10
- 07/10
- 06/10
- 05/10
- 04/10
- 03/10
- 02/10
- 01/10
- 12/09
- 11/09
- 10/09
- 09/09
- 08/09
- 07/09
- 06/09
- 05/09
- 04/09
- 03/09
- 02/09
- 01/09
- 12/08
- 11/08
- 10/08
- 09/08
- 08/08
- 07/08
- 06/08
- 05/08
- 04/08
- 12/07
- 11/07
- 10/07
- 09/07
- 08/07
- 07/07
- 06/07
- 05/07
- 04/07
And my, your teenage strong brood of 522 teenage kids create such loudly deafening and opinionated babble. Thank goodness you are quite a generous cool parent. LOL ;-)
Religion - If I never heard about it again it would be awesome. I find it ironic that estrip is pretty much my only exposure to it. Religious people would probably say it was a sign - that my own creation is speaking back to me in religious terms. I just think its irritating like a teenager that talks back to its parent.
I don't have a problem with creating such a frame as well, but I have a big problem when scientists ignore this frame of reference, conveniently forget about limits and start to generalize the results of a few such limited experiments to everyone and every scenario. *That* is bad science.
Generalizing without recognizing limitations and not being cognizant of pitfalls in such a generalization is equal to being dogmatic, married to your hypotheses and practicing scientific fundamentalism (equivalent to religious fundamentalism or even extremism).
I personally want to release a fatwa against such scientists. Or may be a well-directed jihad might be better? Hmm...
Of course we are friendly--that's well established.
Also, no doubt that Science produces wonder--I've experienced as much.
Now for the things that require more thought . . .
The proclamations of a person of faith should also be held to a standard. No, I do not use the scientific method every week (as that would be science) but there are other measures of truth that are considered.
Good liturature isn't less good or less life changing because it isn't subject to independant observation. It resonates with experience, and with the established body of knowledge, or it doesn't. It makes people better, or it makes people worse.
And a priest/minister/rabbi that does not take a scripture and proclaim it in such a way that it builds a healthy community can and should be criticized, and often is.
"Both are a way of life (or should be) both can reveal truth, or conceal it--when it is practiced wrongly."
I couldn't agree more. There is good science as well as bad and one rotten science experiment at the base can topple the whole pyramid of sound experiments built on top of it.
"For the spiritual world, for meaning, for purpose--for those questions, I find science lacking. (I know science gives answers, but they don't resonate with me or inspire)"
And here, I have to disagree a bit. What is inspiration? Is inspiration not 50% hope and 50% wonder? Science provides both in more generous doses than any other discipline. What is purpose? What is the purpose of what? Of us being here? Or being what we are? Or us doing anything "worthwhile"? I think practicing good science aids humanity in many many ways, touches lives through healing and small comforts, shapes lives by understanding a bit more of our being everyday, brings purpose to the pursuit of a happy contended life, defines contentment in terms of service to others, helps us examine disparities and come up with solutions, examine evolution and yet impose our strong inherent need for equality by erasing the unequal and sometimes brutal effects of evolution in populations. Thus, depending on how you look at it science can be as resonant and inspiring as you want it to be just as social science can be as rigorous and real as you make it. :D
Lack of reproducibility makes me very suspicious. It's hard for me to take specific religious claims seriously when they require preferred frames of reference in a general sense. That foundational distrust means I can't derive any satisfaction from religion.
I have no problem creating a personally preferred/privileged frame of reference, as a by product of my existence limited in space and time. To me that's a situational necessity, but allowed to persist only to reasonable limits as such.
And so there's my horror at any hint of special or revealed truth in a nutshell.
Also, science requires you to think for yourself and practicing it well requires that you try and critique what is believed every time you think of something new. A scientist, unlike a priest is not received well (and may in fact be denied funding or booed off the stage), if s/he preaches without experimental/observational evidence and logic to back up his/her statements in a sound fashion.
Like science, religion tends have rituals, habits, disciplines. These can become a healthy way of life, or mindless superstition and dogma.
Both are a way of life (or should be) both can reveal truth, or conceal it--when it is practiced wrongly.
I love science (well, I studied a social science, so the "real" scientists might disagree) to understand the truth of the natural world, there is no better method.
For the spiritual world, for meaning, for purpose--for those questions, I find science lacking. (I know science gives answers, but they don't resonate with me or inspire)
Scientific claims can be verified independently. The scientific method aims to increase accuracy and precision in understanding the world. Things which are science could conceivably be rediscovered were the world to fall into a dark age and we forgot all current knowledge.
Religion is that which will never arise the same way twice. Religion and faith are about things that can't be assessed outside of the context of their own claims and culture. If we all forgot about Jesus today, tomorrow he'd be gone for good. Unless he came back for a second time of course :)
Some science is messy and imprecise - we model weather with only the ability to understand some of the patterns and systems that occur, and global warming is tough to explain with concise equations, but it is possible to picture an outside alien taking notes and coming up with similar theories.
The great thing about science is that it encourages you to throw out that which has been disproved. Religious texts have crufty old stuff that ends up just conveniently ignored, treated as literature, or in the worst case sneaks up and snares the unlucky innocent village herbalist.
---------
------------
Someone has accused me of treating science like a religion, having faith in it like Christians have faith in Jesus. Thoughts?