aesmael

I have said this before, although not here yet:

I think when we experience a desire to share music [or something else which may be the subject of a similar desire] with others this is often a proxy for a less commonly known or appreciated desire. I think what we often truly wish to share is the experience of the moment, the emotions that are being inspired in us. "I want to share this ecstasy, this joy, this wonder, this passion, this moment of empathy or grief or oneness [...] and the only way I know to even approach doing so is by sharing with you what is the immediate inspiration of my feelings."

Autism is often partly characterised as an extreme self-absorption, and my impression is this is considered some explanation for 'why autistic people are annoying to be around'. Of course I could not speak for everyone but that does not seem true to me. At least in that being so self-absorbed as to be uncaring of others or their feelings would suggest a low likelihood of sharing topical enthusiasm. The irritation to others would come from being unable to distinguish interest from disinterest in those being enthused to (something I have tried to learn). Also at least for me there are times when interest and enthusiasm overflow and I feel compelled to express it somehow - If I try not to I find myself moving to do it some minutes later anyway, without volition in my mental record. Since, thanks to the first thing I tend to feel guilty and end up apologising lots if I try sharing with people in person, even if I try to make sure they actually are interested and even if they actually are interested, this often results in prolific blogging and tweeting. Which I've missed over the past year or two but that's one of the costs of being liked, apparently maybe.

Which is possibly a bit off-track. This is more like two posts squashed together into one, the first expressing an opinion about what drives sharing of emotional inducers and the second saying roughly "The world is fantastic and wonderful and I love it and often write lots because I want to participate in this wonder and joy with other people and share / gain understanding back and forth". That's been said before, will be again. Sometimes get caught up in the urge to.

Bored with that titling system. Let's leave it blank for now.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars

1. Thoughts on Day One of the DNC [Maybe I should amalgamate all the Scienceblogs postings under a single heading. I find something vaguely distasteful about this and the last post from here. Maybe it is an air of self-congratulation.]
2. Effete Hollywood Elitists for McCain

Google Reader Shared Items

1. The Future of Books [via soltice. Was expecting "E-books: Yea or abomination?" Instead, Pretty.]
2. Laser pointers banned in New South Wales after rash of attacks on pilots [via soltice. But I want one.]
3. Super Mario Girls [via soltice. Cute, yes. Not everything needs to be done with sex appeal in mind though. And since when are "fluffy clouds with faces and bubbly turtles and blocky landscapes" unmanly? But I like the picture.]
4. Cat 5 wedding rings help nerds couple [via soltice. I, uh, don't know what these actually do.]
5. Moe Angel with Headphones [via soltice. Cute cute cute! *save*]
6. Bioware devs debate whether Wii is part of gaming [via gentle_gamer. It seems an odd question to me, since the Wii seems clearly a device for playing games, but the post is just a quick summary linking to an interview. No, wait. That was a preface too. Interview here. There are lots of words there at the beginning but I am not entirely sure these people are saying anything... a bit like reading some Post-Modern discourse. It seems like an interesting question though: what counts as gaming? I want to say "playing a game". This talk of narrative... that seems like something else to me. Something called 'narrative'. Describing the experience of playing a Wii as "toy-like", or making a distinction with sports such as tennis, this seems to me like an attempt to mark gaming as a particular kind of experience, a particular approach to an activity. I think what is being gotten at is a degree of seriousness and immersion. I think it probably does constitute a bundle of approaches, any subset of which can apply at a given time, and what the Bioware folks are talking about constitutes one of these subsets. Although reading to the end of the page I think I misunderstood them a bit. I am being vague because I am tired. Possibly follow up later with input from others?]
7. Celebrate Mario Kart Wii with alternate karts, Wii wheel substitutions [via gentle_gamer. Funny.]
8. Working NES squeezed into ... an NES cartridge [via gentle_gamer. Wow, neat! This title messes with my ideas of how it should be pronounced.]
9. SIU responds to anti-feminist email [via gentle_gamer. Oh, wow! It feels so rare to see such a desirable response, it can get disheartening.]
10. The Fag Bug is back! [via gentle_gamer. That's a pretty creative and great response to vandalism. Interesting seeing the change in tone of people's responses between the first post, in which Erin Davies starts her mission, and the second post, in which it is revealed she is getting a book and film deal out of this.]

Gmail Web Clip clickings

1. David Wain Moves From Wainy Days to Role Models [Who is this guy? Why do I care what he does? I fear curiosity clicking from gmail has gotten the better of me...]
2. Time to "Free the Airwaves" [Google would like people to be activist on their behalf.]
3. Top Fun Date Ideas [These are not romantic? My idea of a going-somewhere date is to do something we will enjoy, so these seem more like standard date ideas than special fun ones. Admittedly I have been on very few dates in my life, but this makes it seem like something which is supposed to be very restrained in ways which are not interesting to me. At least now I know what an Interpretive Center is.*]

Respectful Insolence

1. "To kill and cure cancer, you must first understand it" [Orac is as ever verbose.]

Signout

1. The luxury of time [I've not encountered this blog before. This is... fascinating. Not much to say because processing.]

Uncertain Principles

1. It's 4am [Labs are not supposed to be flooded. Unless you work in underseaology.]

My assignment is as done as it is getting, so I sleep now. Test in five hours.

*This whole response reads like something which I would respond to in someone else with scorn, as if they are trying to show off how special and above ordinary concerns they are. Ah well.

Again, not so much read. Didn't I used to read more? Most of it after the point I decided I was too tired to do anything productive but not yet willing to sleep. Eventually I worked out why: it is because I am doing other things with my time, often social things. If I spend a few hours on Skype with soltice and pazi_ashfeather, of course I am not going to doing quite so much reading in the day.

Cosmic Variance

1. Dark Matter and Fifth Forces [Unfortunately I know this stuff less well than I ever did, but still a moment of "Oh wow, that is really interesting" in reading.]

Google Reader Shared Items

1. Biodiesel Mythbuster 2.0: Twenty-Two Biodiesel Myths  Dispelled [via soltice. Long, interesting. Not something I am really qualified to evaluate. Looks decent though.]
2. Electric Skateboard (Double Comic) [via gentle_gamer. skipped because I am not reading xkcd yet.]
3. Gibson intros SG Robot Guitar, new edition of Les Paul version [via soltice. My first thought was that this must be a guitar designed by William Gibson. I still do not know.]
4. What is the big deal about stuff white people like? [via gentle_gamer. When I started reading this I thought I would have some quick, possibly snarky thing to say in response, but it turned out to be a serious criticism of the blog, one that made a lot of sense to me. Oh, one thing to add. I am inclined to agree with the comments to this post that 'Stuff White People Like' is fairly conservative in outlook in cliche in line, but the way it is framed still does some good by jarring white people to take another look at their assumptions and culture. At least, it did for me the first time I encountered it.]
5. Video: Little Big Man - today is a good day to die [via soltice. A robot driving a robot. Sort of. But it tempts me to have thoughts about things so it must be art.]
6. Australian government wants power to snoop work e-mail, IMs [via soltice. Oh, those insidious terrorists.]
7. Toon: A Few Reasons Why (We Need a Transgender Rights Bill) [via gentle_gamer. Interesting. Not ever seen this site before. The rest of her work on the site seems pretty neat too.]
8. Libraries in crisis? [via soltice. Refers to here. Not so great news for someone hoping to work there next year. I am not convinced the writer of the article knows what ey is talking about though.]
9. Toon: The Joys of Tax Time! [via gentle_gamer. If this keeps up, I may subscribe myself. Or this is good too.]
10. Burning Car [via gentle_gamer. First thought: bored. On further examination, fascinated by the moments which might be so captured and their preservation marking dramatically the stilled moments of time marking the shifting sources of these images.]
11. Yuri's Planet [via gentle_gamer. Thought I had starred this for possible desktop use. Apparently not. Fixed now.]

ScienceDaily

1. solticepazi_ashfeatherLeishmaniasis Parasites Evade Death By Exploiting Immune Response To Sand Fly Bites [Sometimes I wonder what immune systems do when they are not being subverted. Sometimes.]

Although the galaxies depicted in Stargate: SG1 and Stargate: Atlantis exhibit a remarkable frequency of terrestrial, habitable planets, it is also notable that such worlds in each galaxy exhibit generally a distinct, consistent terrain.

Specifically, nearly every world on each show is a forest, and the same forest within the show, but a different one between shows. Clearly significant - this researcher thinks the Atlantis forest looks greener and has higher resolution leaves than the SG1 forest, and possibly indicative of seeding by a hitherto unknown precursor species separate to the Ancients, or possibly merely a shift in Ancient aesthetic.

(10:37:16 PM) flynnacatri: http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=980814
(10:38:06 PM) aesmael: Medic flowers are very rare, but have tremendously fantastic properties.
(10:38:20 PM) flynnacatri: Zigactement!
(10:38:24 PM) flynnacatri: Like bezoars
(10:38:31 PM) flynnacatri: ...and sleep...
(10:38:36 PM) flynnacatri: and anithistamines. Dammitr
(10:38:47 PM) aesmael: Sleepistimines.
(10:39:14 PM) flynnacatri: yesssss....
(10:39:20 PM) flynnacatri: frog pils
(10:39:22 PM) aesmael: Bezoars live deep in the forest. Their quills make extracting the healing juice a risky prospect.
(10:39:27 PM) aesmael: Dessicated.
(10:40:06 PM) flynnacatri: Requires gloves of the northern silver thistle leaf and tongs from sapient pearwood to fend off the individually attacking bristles
(10:40:07 PM) aesmael: http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2008/04/01/
See? You are real!
(10:40:23 PM) flynnacatri: No. I am a typing autobot.
(10:40:57 PM) aesmael: Alt-form?
(10:41:06 PM) flynnacatri: Invisible
(10:41:38 PM) aesmael: Translucent.
(10:41:46 PM) flynnacatri: Dryers are evil consumerism
(10:41:46 PM) aesmael: Transparent aluminum.
(10:43:12 PM) flynnacatri: Yes! IT CALLS ME! A great disturbance in the ocean mesopelagic zone! As if many phytoplankton CRIED OUT in sudden terror
(10:43:33 PM) aesmael: =^____^=

If it did not taste so good with every drop, surely we would stop drinking it.

Since it was not visible from here, I am going to watch the lunar eclipse via Celestia. Celestia is being finicky in GNOME and KDE. Going to try installing the GNOME frontend, see if that helps. Also xorsa because it looks fun.

Stolen from metaquotes:

Cutlery and Utensils: A Brief Taxonomic Study of the Evolution of Eusociality in the Kitchen
Trojanhorse Heales-Shadowfax, BSc (Hons)


The oldest known members of the Order Utensillida (Kingdom; Objecta, Phylum; Kitchenae, Class: Preparata) are those of the Family Incisidiformes; the Knives. Today the only common extant genus of incisids is the nominate genus Incisa, which are brood parasites.
From basal incisids arose the two groups of higher utensils; the nominate family Utensillidiformes, which includes the rarer and more solitary forms such as Whisks (Miscidae), the Slicers (Egg-Slicers, Ouefcoutidae, and Cheese-Slicers, Fromagecoutidae), and the predatory Meat-Tenderisers (Carneidae) and Garlic-Presses (Alliumsativumidae); and the large family Plataeiformes, or Spoons. The plataeids have two basic modes of life; monogamy (practised by the Spatulidae) and eusociality (as seen in the Plataeidae). The tendency for the more advanced plataeids to be smaller than their less specialised cousins is well documented.

Incisa cuculia, the Steak Knife Cuckoo.

Incisa cuculia is the most common of the incisids. Adults form colonies living in wooden blocks, and may be highly diverse in form. In general, females are slender, gracile forms known as boning or filleting knives. Males are heavier, and dominant males may become cleavers in later life. Juvenile forms are steak knives and seek shelter in the cutlery drawer amongst colonies of Plateus eusocialus, the spoon-bee, where they masquerade as soldiers until maturity.


Misca misca, the Common Whisk

This utensil is a parasitoid, ultimately responsible for the demise of any utensil drawer or jar. It draws nourishment from entangling other utensils and may end up snarling so many hapless victims in its maw that it can no longer function itself.

Meat tenderisers, garlic presses, cheese and egg slices, (genera Carna, Alliumsativum, Ouefcouta and Fromagecouta)

Most utensil drawers will have only one or two of these hermit utensils; they do not cohabit easily and there is usually fierce competition between them until their numbers are reduced to a sustainable level in any one kitchen.

Spatula pisca; the Faithful Spatula

Technically, the spatula is the female of the species, where the fish-slice is the male form. This level of sexual dimorphism is responsible for their being placed often in separate species by early taxonomists. Interestingly, this genus practices live birth of young; young spatulas resemble the female closely but will be smaller and more rubbery, thus making them both easier to give birth to, presumably, and more useful to the cook.

Plateus eusocialus; the Spoon-Bee

These are an indispensible kitchen organism, eusocial with the ladle as queen, knives as soldiers, spoons of various types as workers, forks as drones and teaspoons being the larval stage. The spork is a sad hermaphrodite mutation, the increase of which is probably due to increased use of pesticides in food. Often, cooks will find measuring spoons (Plateus sucraetcetera) in spoon-bee colonies; thi is an example of symbiosis; by using the measuring spoon the cook is giving it more food, and the use of it for the task of measuring means more time in the hive (cutlery drawer) for the teaspoon larvae. If there is more than one ladle in the drawer, they will fight to the death and often wreck the drawer at the same time. This fight to the death may take years; it works by one ladle being pushed towards the front of the drawer, inducing the cook to use it more often and thus wear it out faster.

More research is being conducted as this article goes to press.

This is the kind of thing which prompts me to try and restrict delicious postables to other such gems[1]. Perhaps interestingly, biology is blue while chemistry is white and physics yellow.

[1] Although 'gems' is privileging the value of inorganic matter over organic as something to be treasured I did not find a suitable alternative. At least they are both reducible to impure carbon.

    Since the election is coming up so quickly now (no faster than ever before, and as we approach summer, slower, in fact, in truth [though not significantly]), I will concentrate first on those parties running candidates in the electorate where I will be voting, in reverse order of my current opinion of them. Afterward, I mean to finish with any parties I may have missed.
    Therefore, our next target: Christian Democratic Party.

    Their policies page. I covered them only briefly once before. This time I will focus on their federal policies. It is just the one long page, so no need for frequent linking this time.

( Follow behind the cut! )

    And that is it. The rest details their positions for the 2004 campaign.

    In summary, this is the party which means to establish Christian primacy in Australia by

• Disallowing Muslim immigration for a decade
• Placing chaplains in all schools
• Smearing the good name of gay men and lesbians by associating them with child abuse
• Continue to block same-gender marriage
• Encourage children to believe it is wrong and dangerous to be anything but heterosexual
• End safe sex education
• Ban abortion
• Enforce the Sabbath
• Ban pornography
• Filter the internet
• Repeal anti-discrimination laws
• I'm sure I missed something

    I advise that no one vote for this party, and hope they break up soon.