Mnemosyne's Notebook

New Biz Idea

mutecypher — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 01:17:12 +0000

It would be tacky to ask friends to bid on what I use as their ringtone. But is there a plausible business in asking strangers to bid on the privilege of, say, the guitar intro to “Don’t Take Me Alive,” as their ringtone when they call me? It seems like an odd experiment that a psychology/business major might propose: would someone be willing to pay a small fee to give someone else a small pleasure at random intervals (to hear a 20 second snatch of a cool song)?

This seems both obvious and counter-intuitive, so I suspect that others have had this weird idea.

Cogitate and Ruminate

mutecypher — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 04:00:46 +0000

Way back in my 20′s I was active in a Pentecostal Church. I was talking to a friend one day, and he made disparaging remarks about Evolution. I was not happy with my responses to his comments, and felt motivated to read up on Evolution and the scientific basis for it. Having been a physics major, I accepted Evolution as true, but didn’t know enough about to really do much in the way of defense. Especially when my friend gave me some of the Creationist books. I could tell that their answers weren’t really scientific, but I didn’t have enough knowledge to go beyond “that just doesn’t smell right.”

Since I knew that he had been called as a witness at a Scopes-like trial involving giving equal time to Creationism in high school science, I chose to read Stephen Jay Gould. He wrote well and I gobbled up many of his books. I felt a debt of gratitude to him for the knowledge and information I gleaned from his writing.

So I read all of Gould’s books up to “Wonderful Life.” Then I couldn’t help noticing the criticisms of his interpretations – especially from the scientists he lauded for doing such amazing work in analyzing the fossils in the Burgess Shale. And as I read more about Gould, his run-ins with E. O. Wilson, I just felt my respect for him diminish. He spoke in platitudes about respect and trying to free scientific inquiry from cultural biases, but appeared to be deeply mired in the politics of academic science, with the goal of quashing the views of those he disagreed with. And then Daniel Dennett’s book “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea” even further reduced my esteem for Gould.

Now comes a paper suggesting that Gould was guilty of slandering a 19th century scientist, Samuel George Morton, with charges of data manipulation to fit what Gould labeled as “racist” theories. The paper (here) closes with the statement

Morton’s methods were sound, and our analysis shows that they prevented Morton’s biases from significantly impacting his results. The Morton case, rather than illustrating the ubiquity of bias, instead shows the ability of science to escape the bounds and blinders of cultural contexts.

Would that Gould had risen to that standard himself.

Cousin Marriage and the Birth of Civil Society

mutecypher — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:11:53 +0000

Steve Sailer has an interesting tidbit on how the Catholic Church’s ban on cousin marriage helped diminish tribal thinking in Europe – which laid the foundation for what we think of as civil society. Here.

Francis Fukuyama is as shallow as Malcom Gladwell.

I’m feeling a return to my normal levels of psychic energy, so I’m planning to blog regularly again. This should be the first in a daily string.

20 Movie Channel

mutecypher — Wed, 04 May 2011 04:45:59 +0000

If I had a TV channel that only showed 20 movies over and over, here’s what they would be. These aren’t necessarily the 20 “best” movies, only the ones I love the most.

Blade Runner
Bound
Chinatown
Chitty Chitty Bang Band
Clockwork Orange
Dogma
Duck Soup
Godfather
Godfather II
Gone With The Wind
Heathers
The Maltese Falcon
Manhattan
Moulin Rouge
Notorious
Pulp Fiction
The Red Shoes
Rio Bravo
The Searchers
Serenity

What would be on your channel?

Adolf was a stinky baby

mutecypher — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 19:17:55 +0000

My daughter forwarded this stop-motion film from the early days of WWII. Many commenters called it propaganda. It’s certainly exaggeration – but I don’t think it was done to convince anyone of anything they wouldn’t already have thought. It’s just mockery done vigorously.

It’s a bit chilling to see China and the USSR as our allies, but that’s the way it was. I read an article recently that said if the winner of a war is the country that is better off after the war than before, only the USSR could be said to have won WWII. I don’t think I agree with either the definition of “winner” or of the designation of the USSR – but the comment did make me pause and think a while.

Fun iTunes juxtapositions

mutecypher — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 19:06:18 +0000

So, this weekend’s entertaining consecutive songs in iTunes are

“Go, Stop” (Pearl Jam, Jane’s Addiction)
“You Picked Me, You Found Me” (A Fine Frenzy, The Fray)
“Man in the Box, My Friend of Misery” (Alice in Chains, Metallica)
“Cold, Frozen” (Annie Lennox, Madonna)
“Paradise City, Nebraska” (Guns-n-Roses, Bruce Springsteen)
“World Turning, Delirious” (Fleetwood Mac, Prince)
“Because the Night, Dream On” (Patti Smith, Aerosmith)
“Baker Baker, Rebel Rebel” (Tori Amos, David Bowie)

It takes so little to entertain me.

Thoughts on the PBS Documentary “Growing Up Online”

mutecypher — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 01:04:10 +0000

From my Scribd account and one of my teacher certification classes

View this document on Scribd

Lesson Plan on Vertex, Maxima, Mimina for Quadratic Functions

mutecypher — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 01:00:56 +0000

For and algebra I class, from my Scribd post.

View this document on Scribd

Unit Plan for Quadratic Equations – From Scribd

mutecypher — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 00:58:56 +0000

View this document on Scribd

The Curve of Heaven

mutecypher — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 21:23:41 +0000

From Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale

“A bridge,” he proclaimed, “is a very special thing. Haven’t you seen how delicate they are in relation to their size? They soar like birds; they extend and embody our finest efforts; and they utilize the curve of heaven. When a catenary of steel a mile long is hung in the clear over a river, believe me, God knows. Being a churchman, I would go as far as to say that the catenary, this marvelous graceful thing, this joy of physics, this perfect balance between rebellion and obedience, is God’s own signature on earth. I think it pleases Him to see them raised. I think that is why the city is so rich in events. The whole island, you see, is becoming a cathedral.”

“Does that leave out the Bronx?” someone asked.

“Yes,” Mootfowl replied.

I’m re-reading this wonderful book