Michael Flynn's Blog, page 70
June 29, 2010
Gestern
Welches so ferne sieht
There was some question over a confusion of Wieners with Prussians. As a public service I offer this explanation. Even in Germany millions of people do not understand Ostdeutch, as the following PSA indicates:
Now my own personal excuse is that my Folk were Badners, who came from Oberhausen & Niederhausen in the aftermath of the '48. Of course, not many understand Badner, either:
When you speak German, try changing your ich to i and your bist to bish. Once when I asked...
There was some question over a confusion of Wieners with Prussians. As a public service I offer this explanation. Even in Germany millions of people do not understand Ostdeutch, as the following PSA indicates:
Now my own personal excuse is that my Folk were Badners, who came from Oberhausen & Niederhausen in the aftermath of the '48. Of course, not many understand Badner, either:
When you speak German, try changing your ich to i and your bist to bish. Once when I asked...
June 28, 2010
Musikalische Spass
The Intriguing Thing
about this recording of Radetsky Marsch in Wien is how well Germans take direction. Watch the audience.
Radetsky. The only Austrian general to have actually won a battle with an army known for winning a prize for snazziest uniforms.
about this recording of Radetsky Marsch in Wien is how well Germans take direction. Watch the audience.
Radetsky. The only Austrian general to have actually won a battle with an army known for winning a prize for snazziest uniforms.
June 25, 2010
More Notes From the Untergang
The Government and its Scientists Will Save You
from the horrors of having a best friend in childhood
No word yet on whether adults will be permitted to have best friends.
When Chimps Go Bad
It seems that Our Simian Cousins aren't always Nice.
The Question now is: are humans more like chimps or more like bonobos. Evolution has shaped one to be warlike and the other to be peaceful. (Wonderful thing, evolution: no matter what the outcome, even two opposite outcomes, it can be explained as a "sel...
from the horrors of having a best friend in childhood
No word yet on whether adults will be permitted to have best friends.
When Chimps Go Bad
It seems that Our Simian Cousins aren't always Nice.
The Question now is: are humans more like chimps or more like bonobos. Evolution has shaped one to be warlike and the other to be peaceful. (Wonderful thing, evolution: no matter what the outcome, even two opposite outcomes, it can be explained as a "sel...
June 23, 2010
News from the Untergang
From a Psychology Today blog:
Thus, the injunction against assisted suicide – like that against unassisted suicide – is commonly underwritten by the doctrine of human dignity. But the whole edifice starts to crumble once we bring Darwin into the picture. With the corrective lens of evolutionary theory, the view that human life is infinitely valuable suddenly seems like a vast and unjustified over-valuation of human life. This is because Darwin’s theory undermines the traditional reasons...
Thus, the injunction against assisted suicide – like that against unassisted suicide – is commonly underwritten by the doctrine of human dignity. But the whole edifice starts to crumble once we bring Darwin into the picture. With the corrective lens of evolutionary theory, the view that human life is infinitely valuable suddenly seems like a vast and unjustified over-valuation of human life. This is because Darwin’s theory undermines the traditional reasons...
June 21, 2010
Cry Havoc!
And Let Slip the Digs of War!
One night during the Crimean War a particularly exposed British redoubt in the trench-works around Sevastopol suddenly found itself the object of a strong Russian attack. Although the British managed to hold the Russians, they were consuming ammunition at a prodigious rate.
Fearing that his position would soon be overrun, the officer commanding the post tore a leaf from a pocket note book. On it he scrawled "In great danger. Enemy pressing hotly. For Heaven's...
One night during the Crimean War a particularly exposed British redoubt in the trench-works around Sevastopol suddenly found itself the object of a strong Russian attack. Although the British managed to hold the Russians, they were consuming ammunition at a prodigious rate.
Fearing that his position would soon be overrun, the officer commanding the post tore a leaf from a pocket note book. On it he scrawled "In great danger. Enemy pressing hotly. For Heaven's...
June 15, 2010
m_francis @ 2010-06-15T19:24:00
Ads You Would Be Unlikely to See Today
First, a couple of ads that are a hoot:
Picture phones before Jobs thought of them. Yet, my granddaughter has a webcam on her computer and makes calls via VOIP. Doesn't need the phone because it's built in.
Anyone having read James Blish's Cities in Flight books knows what a spindizzy was. What a surprise to find them advertised.
"Lightspeed smooth"? A Dillon-Waggoner Graviton Polarity Generator? Someone tell me Rigid Tool sold these......
But other ad...
First, a couple of ads that are a hoot:
Picture phones before Jobs thought of them. Yet, my granddaughter has a webcam on her computer and makes calls via VOIP. Doesn't need the phone because it's built in.
Anyone having read James Blish's Cities in Flight books knows what a spindizzy was. What a surprise to find them advertised.
"Lightspeed smooth"? A Dillon-Waggoner Graviton Polarity Generator? Someone tell me Rigid Tool sold these......
But other ad...
Family Matters
1 Cousin -1 Wedding
I was traveling yesterday, but I ought to mention that my cousin's daughter was married on Saturday. (That would be first cousin once removed.)
This would ordinary pass with little notice - I have a lot of cousins and many of them have children - except for the peculiarity of her husband, Steve.
Steve and Amy were born on the same day, in the same hospital, barely minutes apart.
Their mothers recovered in the same hospital room.
They attended the same school, same high s...
I was traveling yesterday, but I ought to mention that my cousin's daughter was married on Saturday. (That would be first cousin once removed.)
This would ordinary pass with little notice - I have a lot of cousins and many of them have children - except for the peculiarity of her husband, Steve. Steve and Amy were born on the same day, in the same hospital, barely minutes apart.
Their mothers recovered in the same hospital room.
They attended the same school, same high s...
June 13, 2010
Brain in a Box
This Gödel is Killing Me
I really wish I could take credit for that pun; but no...
Some years ago, J.R. Lucas formerly a mathematician and philosopher of Merton College, Oxford, wrote in "Minds, Machines and Gödel" (and later in The Freedom of the Will) that Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems implies that mechanistic theories of the mind are false.
Gödel's theorem states that any consistent system strong enough to produce simple arithmetic contains unprovable, though perfectly meaningful...
I really wish I could take credit for that pun; but no...
Some years ago, J.R. Lucas formerly a mathematician and philosopher of Merton College, Oxford, wrote in "Minds, Machines and Gödel" (and later in The Freedom of the Will) that Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems implies that mechanistic theories of the mind are false.
Gödel's theorem states that any consistent system strong enough to produce simple arithmetic contains unprovable, though perfectly meaningful...
June 11, 2010
Rumors
Word has Reached My Ear
that Tor will be reissuing the 4-book "Firestar" series in trade paperback, starting with Firestar in August 2011.
H...
that Tor will be reissuing the 4-book "Firestar" series in trade paperback, starting with Firestar in August 2011.
H...
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