The Cage (torture)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/nov/12/secondworldwar.world

Years later Tony Whitehead, a consultant psychiatrist in Brighton, recounted in his memoirs how, as a young aircraftsman delivering a belligerent SS sergeant to the Cage, he was shocked to see a German naval officer in full dress uniform on his hands and knees, cleaning the entrance hall floor. An enormous Guardsman stood with one foot on the prisoner's back, casually enjoying a smoke. When Whitehead collected his prisoner three days later, the man was completely subdued, rarely looked up, and addressed him as sir. "I do not know what had happened to him at the London Cage," Dr Whitehead wrote.

-Max

--
"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F.Smith (manual, p. 69)

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

In Defense of Eye Candy

Aesthetics are a part of user interface design. Relevant to what
you're working on with GURPS, eventually. (You gotta admit, it's
pretty ugly right now.)

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/indefenseofeyecandy

-Max

--
"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a
man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and
desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although
he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F.
Smith (manual, p. 69)

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me."

Facebook

Aunt Carol,

I noticed that you and Aunt Bonnie were kind of annoyed recently by Facebook's suggestion that it might become a subscription service. You may find it interesting to know that:

* Every month Facebook spends $1 million on electricity, probably another $500K on bandwidth, and $2 million on new computers for storing pictures/etc, according to http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/31/facebooks-growing-problem/

* According to http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/06/facebook-advertising-rates-technology-internet-facebook.html, there's almost no way the company can raise that much money through pure advertising. It's looking right now as if Facebook either finds the magic money pixie dust, or they start charging a subscription fee, or they become government-sponsored like PBS, or they go away. So enjoy it while you've got it! Someday you may be telling your grandkids about the "good old days."

-Max

--
"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

"Earn"

From a political blog post on the meaning of the word "earn," a nicely-expressed thought that I agree with: "unconditional love" is a weird thing for people to desire. Emphasis added in bold.

 

We expect God to show unconditional love to all people, again no matter how they act. According to the doctrine of divine unconditional love, God loves sadists as much as He loves the kindest individuals. No one earns God's love; we receive it, like sports trophies, for breathing. Many fine people believe this about God, but I think it is religio-cultural-specific, and non-biblical. In 15 years of study in a yeshiva I had never heard the phrase, and it would have struck me, as it still does, as quite odd. It depicts God as a love machine who, like an air-conditioner that emits the same amount of cold air no matter how the inhabitants of a house act, emits the same amount of love no matter we act. It means that we in no way influence God's love for us. I don't find that comforting. And it is certainly no more likely to induce decent behavior in human beings than a God who does show conditional love based on human decency.

 

-Max

 

--

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

 

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

Budget graph

Interesting graph:

 

http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/04/the_tea_parties.php

 

(Bottom of the page.)

 

-Max

 

--

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

 

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

Feynman and the Rise of the Thinking Machines

Via Chaos Manor, an interesting tale of Richard Feynman's thinking habits:

http://www.longnow.org/views/essays/articles/ArtFeynman.php

-Max

--
"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a
man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and
desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although
he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F.
Smith (manual, p. 69)

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me."

Sunspots redux

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/01apr_deepsolarminimum.htm

--
"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a
man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and
desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although
he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F.
Smith (manual, p. 69)

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me."

"The Princess is sleeping"

Bob & Barnacle,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q8L4NYvAQI

I saw this between conference sessions today and wondered if you had seen it too. I think it's awesome!

-Max

--
"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

Testing Javascript

This doesn't really belong on the blog, but I am testing whether JavaScript works on blogspot. If it does I may put my concentration-and-memory game up here. [script deleted] So far it's not working. -Max