Blab. A reader has an epiphany. Right here in public.
Steve, I went to the hypercube
site and the picture boxes were blank and never came up. I guess my epiphany
is that I am not meant to "see God." So tell him "hi" for me - geewits
We did. God says, Get a real browser.
(For the record, the second link in that entry
was misdirected. It's fixed now.)
Blab. The squeamish (like us) will not want to click on this
reader's favorite link.
snap.
Ewww!
Blab. A reader shares our dismay.
too bad about the saran wrap
Yeah. It
sort of defeats the whole effect, don't you think?
Blab. A reader has a friend with a mental aberration.
A demented person could pass
the time by listing (or yelling out loud) peoples names with an apostrophe
"s"
after their first name or title. I'm not exacty demented by I can
pretend:
Dolly's Llama (Lama)
Lyndon's Johnson
Elmer's Fudd
Lucy's Ball
Beaver's Cleaver
Martin's Short
Sherri's Long
and so on.....
Speaking of names, what is the German
meaning of the name Swartzenegger?
I guess the question is, "Why do some
people's children have the silliest last names?"
So, first, it's Schwarzenegger. Second, we are cunning, but we are
not a linguist. However, we suspect that this comes from schwarzen,
which means black, and egger, which means one who harrows
or selvedges.
We hope this clears things up for our not-exacty-demented reader.
Blab. A reader helps us understand the validity of our beliefs.
We believe.
Justin Case (a pseudonym
if I've ever heard one)
How can you be sure that your beliefs
are any more valid than Justin's? Simple -- you can't. The most fundamental
nature of our existence is that we're all going to die someday. The second
most fundamental nature of our existence is that there are some things
we simply cannot know with any certainty.
Personally, I believe in the words
of William of Occam: "Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate," or
as we like to put it these days, the simplest solution is the one most
likely to be true.
Generally, "evidence" to prove the
existence of God does nothing but confirm what some people have chosen
to believe. You would think that, if something as important as God actually
existed, there would be tangible evidence to that effect that couldn't
be explained away by a simpler explanation.
Of course, the believers would argue
that there is evidence all around that nonbelievers simply refuse to see
or accept, or that the lack of evidence is just God testing the faith of
the believers.
Belief can be argued endlessly, because
it is absolutely subjective. Like the inevitability of death, I think we
just have to learn to just accept the fact that we will likely never know
if our beliefs about the existence or non-existence of God. That's how
I sleep at night, anyway. That, and staying up too late playing Uru.
L.
Justin Case - oh, we get it!
But we were actually focused on the astonishing leaps from 4-cube
to numbers associated with a 4-cube to numbers associated with some
random book, and the subsequent belief that 4-cubes were therefore a powerful
explanatory framework for all the stuff in that random book.
We are unable to get our brain in a state where this would make sense.
But it makes compelling sense to Case. How can that be?
Unless it's
all a hoax. That would make us feel much better.
Blab. A reader anticipates our worries about Justin Case's authenticity.
Seems they're
serious alright - about parting more suckers from their hard earned.
Ever noticed how the old snake-oilers and their barkers all ended up on
the 'net?
-AJL
To wit:
Consider the fact that all
the income is going to pay for credit services and fee and the remainder
goes into a Ministerial Trust account, which is dedicated to Jesus Christ
and His Kingdom and by Charter everything is turned over to Him after His
return after the battle of Armageddon...and it is expensive ($4,500 minimum
plus other fees). When the Ministerial Trust fees are paid in full
you will then be able to deduct the full price from your taxes as a charitable
donation.
So is it Fervently-Believed Truth? Or Total Bogosity? Or Brain-Addled Legalese?
It's so hard to tell!
Blab. A reader - a seriously addicted reader (and we love that)
- wonders this.
Who would win in a fight:
GOD'S HYPERCUBE TRINITY MODEL or NATURE'S HARMONIC SIMULTANEOUS 4-DAY TIME
CUBE?
You know, we were wondering that same thing! We'd have to go with the Time
Cube, entirely because no aspersions have ever been cast on its authentic
nuttism.
We like authentic nuttism.
Blab. A reader makes us check our inventory.
Do you have Paris Hilton's
cable filter, low mortgage rate spam? Even Paris Hilton's cable filter,
low mortgage rate spam would help.
No, we don't seem to. If any of our readers do, we encourage them to contact
you.
Blab. Knowing our complete inability to avoid stupid online tests,
a reader writes:
Are you racist, ageist, or
Bushist? Take Harvard's
online test to find out!
This stupid online test is actually sponsored by real, Ivy League, academic,
social science types. That makes it respectable. Or, at least, as
respectable as social science ever gets.
And we learn that we have a moderate automatic preference for old
as compared to young, a category which we share with a mere 2% of the
Great Unwashed. (Most people prefer young; we thought we did too. But obviously
we do not; anonymous social scientists are bound to know much more about
us than we do.)
We also have a strong association between science and male relative
to female. This is not much of a surprise to us, having worked for
over thirty years in a monastic environment.
Finally, we discover that we have a moderate automatic preference
for white American relative to African-American, a trait that we share
with a full 26% of you folks out there. (A mere 10% showed any degree of
preference for African-American relative to white American. That surprises
us.)
Plurp. Last week's Plurp searches:
-
ian naked pitures
-
helen in catwoman suit
-
helen naked pitures
-
naked pitures of loli
-
furries
-
ian naked pictures
-
iris chacon
-
loli
-
mia
-
monet outlet store
Which disturbs us more: ian naked pitures or monet outlet store?
Readers are invited to read our mind.
Plurp. What brand are
we?
penus
Your brand will be unique because
this denotes:
recognisable skills
And - we are not kidding - here is the associated ad.
Whatever could it mean? (/usr/bin/girl)
Plop. AT&T just patented
techniques that would allow spammers to get around spam filters. You have
to wonder why.
Plurp.
The blue dog
pledged to do
something else
with your tongue
Blab. A reader points us at ...
GOD'S
HYPERCUBE TRINITY MODEL
YES! There is proof that God exists.
Finally. It is a wonderful teaching aid, you will understand the Trinity,
the physics of the universe and E=mc2 as never before. In fact, you may
even have a serendipity epiphany.
In fact, we are completely fascinated with people like Justin Case (the
author).
Basically, Case shows how
to make a 4-cube (well, OK, a 3d projection of it) from pipe cleaners.
A good craft project. Then he counts various things about it (edges, vertices,
etc.) and finds these numbers (sometimes only after a good deal of effort)
in the Bible. This impresses him and he decides that he's (a) solved all
of the problems of physics, (b) proved that God exists and (c) unified
the two.
Now, we're sure he really believes this. What fascinates us is why.
What keeps us awake at night is wondering how we are different from him.
What makes us think that our fervently held beliefs are any more sensible,
have any more to do with reality, than Case's?
Readers are requested to solve
our problem for us. As always.
Blab. Our dedicated Uruist writes:
Finally got Uru working.
I don't know if it was the updated drivers I finally found or if the stars
aligned just right the next day. Ubisoft seems to think my video drivers,
which I updated before I even installed the game, are out of date. Says
something about their technical support, I think.
Anyway, the game is running, and I'm
enjoying it. So far, it's very beautiful, although the ability to move
around in 3D comes at the cost of a considerable amount of quality of the
images. Even a good 3D engine just does not match the quality of raytraced
images, so a lot of objects appear rather muddy, especially if they have
curves (which is just about everything.)
Personally, I thought the system Presto
came up with for Exile created a good illusion of 3D, while at the same
time preserving the quality of the images. I don't think the 3D adds that
much to the play experience, but I can see why Cyan Worlds would want to
go with it; Riven had a googleplex of CDs, as did Exile, while Uru has
just one.
The gameplay is what you'd expect
from a Myst game, although a bit more complex than previous games. The
inclusion of contemporary events in the game world adds an interesting
element; reading about some project manager's obsession with the New England
Patriots with giant mushrooms growing out the window was an interesting
dichotomy.
Mostly, however, Uru captures a lot
of the mystery and atmosphere that hasn't been present since the original
game. Riven was graphicly beautiful, but the gameplay was oddly sterile
and, ultimately, dull. Exile was a nice diversion, but it was a small game,
a pulpy short story compared to a novel.
Uru has a lot of interesting depth,
especially for the serious Myst geeks (like me) who have actually read
the three Myst novels and the stuff on the D'ni Restoration Council website.
For me (Myst geek), it was worth the
effort to get it going. For the casual player who may have liked Myst 10
years ago and hasn't thought about it since, maybe not.
L.
Here's where we get to tell our Myst story.
When Myst first came out, a friend of ours was quite smitten with it.
You
gotta play this!, he said. OK. We were impressed with the graphics,
though the movement felt very Colossal Cavey.
We went to the Power Station. We fiddled with the ten controls that
present themselves. The power went out.
What happened?, I asked my friend.
You blew the fuse, he said.
Boy, that wasn't obvious, we replied. What do I do now?
Oh, he said knowingly, now you have to find another fuse.
That's it! I'm done. If I wanted to play a game in which obvious
actions had unanticipatable results that required endless running around
to get back to where you were before you started, I'd just go back to the
office.
Blab. A reader starts out on the Myst topic, but then gets distracted.
We understand. That happens to us all the time.
(We _like_ the still pictures
in the Myst family; it's part of the schtick. But then we like text-only
Zorks also, similarly bound for the dustpan of history.)
Um, what were we going to say?
Oh yeah! We're puzzled about
how the nasty actions of those football players or whatever count as _sexual_
abuse. Similarly with the Abner Louima (?sp) case; that was generally
called "sexual" abuse also. Not clear at all what was sexual
about either one, though. No organ of reproduction were involved
(only organs of excretion and inanimate objects); there was no tenderness,
no intent to arouse or cause pleasure, no hint of orgasm. So where's
the sexual component?
I mean, sure, some acts that bear
an indirect superficial resemblance to the nasty acts are in fact intended
to arouse pleasure and lead to orgasm and all, but that's pretty indirect.
Can someone eating a popsicle in a park be charged with public 'sexual'
behavior?
(I know, I know, go write in my own
weblog, eh?)
Our options seem to be:
(a) Explain the obvious,
(b) Abuse our Treasure reader, or
(c) Move on.
We choose (c).
Blab. On the topic of juveniles being tried as adults, a lawyer
writes:
For juveniles committing
or contemplating committing a crime, one suspects that being members of
the varsity football team contributes greatly to be treated as "juveniles"
rather than "adults."
Of course, the lack of consistency
is built in so that people can say to juveniles "You're a juvenile, so
you don't have any rights" when it suits them and "You're an adult, so
you have adult responsibilities" when it suits them, too. After all, if
you're under 18, you're basically just livestock, right?
L.
This suggests new menu options.
Blab. Continuing to pander to Helen is this reader.
If Helen stops contributing,
I will walk too. Better apologise profusely.
Or live without your stern demands? Tempting!
Blab. A Treasured Reader tries a gentler ploy.
Please come back, Helen!
If not for Steve, then for your hopefully-Treasured Readers.
That's very sweet. We hope it works.
Blab. Will the blog ever be the
same?
The blue dog need not wonder.
The blog will never be the same. The river of all wisdom (which flows around
but not thru plurp) can never be the same.
I think we need to develop a device
that can block cell phone calls within 100 feet of our car. That way the
idiot driver using a cell phone will lose the signal when we approach.
Having been nearly run off the road several times by cell phone drivers
I'd pay a great deal of money for such a useful gadget.
As for SUV drivers, just remember
the fact: BCLP (big car, little penis). It's a compensation thing. It's
rumored you drive a miata. Guess we'll have to wait for Helen to post a,
hopefully unedited, comment :-)
Dorian, the small car driver
We never edit Helen's contributions. To anything.
Blab. A reader hits the nail right between the eyes.
RE: "Plurp.
The blue dog wondered
if the blog
would ever be the same"
Is the snippy blue dog needing a little
nap?
The answere must be blowing in the
vacuum that is our collective awareness.
We think that pretty much sums it up.
Blab. We warned those of you in SUVs that our
Modest Proposal to ban you from many roadways and shaft you for traffic
violations was our good-hearted attempt at reconciliation, and that you
had better take us up on it. Now, a less charitable reader writes:
No. No coexistence. Four
wheels good, SUVs bad. Or something like that. Kill 'em!
Act now. We cannot be held responsible for your delay.
Blab. A reader exclaims:
I LOVE YOU, CONCORDE'S NOSE CONE!!
Fortunately, it was for
sale.
"Concorde still arouses the
same passion," said Air France President Jean-Cyril Spinetta.
Still, we have to wonder exactly what she's going to do with it.
Blab. A reader excites itself to the point of stutterage.
"Denny's Restaurant Night
Shift Waitresses": that would be hhot.
We feel such sorrow for our reader. In so many ways.
Blab. A reader sends us something truly frightening.
this is a PLURP
extravaganze...you should be able to charge admission to this!
We always knew there was something fishy going on there. We just didn't
know it was that fishy.
What are we talking about? You're just going to have to click
on the link. We know. You hate that. You'd rather we just explain it
to you. In very small words. But do it anyway. Smile stupidly and wipe
the spittle from your mouth with the back of your hand.
It'll be fun.
Blab. A reader, viewing an ancient movie, finds something yet
new.
Helenism from 'Short Circuit
2', which was on the TV the other day:
'You've hit the nail right between
the eyes'
Clearly a jumbled mix of hit the nail
on the head and hit between the eyes.
I-thank-you.
Nice! We're a bit suspicious of the true, spontaneous nature of this Helenism,
it being from a movie script and all. But it's so cute that we're compelled
to record it in the official
archives.
Blab. A reader sends us truth. At last.
From Terry Pratchett (one
of my favorite authors) in "The Truth":
"But too much reading had taken its
toll. William found that he now thought of prayer as a sophisticated way
of pleading with thunderstorms."
For other reasons why this man is
a genius, read here.
We read Pratchett in the dim, distant past. We disagree with his interpretation,
though. In this idiom, we believe that prayer is a way of feeling better
about the fact that thunderstorms happen.
Blab. Our Best Spam O' The Day was in Portuguese. Babelfishing
it yields this.
Our department of election
of the division "Latin America" located its email in the InterNet. We are
looking for professional serious to extend our participation in the market,
for performance in the area of e-commerce, supervision and distribution
through an international contract. Bigger information could be gotten clicando
here
Yours truly, Depto Election.
Further translation is welcome, we're pretty sure, as we have no idea what
this means. But we do absolutely love the new (to us) Portuguese verb (in
the present participle): clicando.
Blab. Here's something completely inexplicable.
Aim a Toyota tatami mat at
a Toyota, Mia.
What are we do to with this? Add it to the pile of things
inexplicable, we figure.
Whatever could be next? We never know.
Blab. A reader wants to know ...
Do you have Spanish chestnuts?
No, but we understand that even Spanish chestnuts would help.
Blab. An unimaginative reader writes:
Saturday will be the 40th
anniversary of the reason this site
is tasteless.
A Webcam from the book repository on Daley Plaza? Heck, that's nothing!
If you wanted something really tasteless, you'd add a bit of Flash
to it and let visitors ...
See?
Plurp. We are participating in NaSenWriMin.
Same idea, but less of a time
commitment.
Yak. Very, very funny, from Sunday's marathon of Queer Eye
for the Straight Guy.
It takes a village, people.
Plurp. Nyotaimori? Well, sure! But in Seattle?
And what's with the Saran Wrap? Gauche. It's not even a bondage
thing.
Yo. Midwinter gifts galore!
For Allura: smittens!
For the rowdy kids next door: the Lead
Paint Coloring Book. That'll calm 'em down.
For
your therapist: the Freud
lapel pin.
It plays the song "Try to
Remember" when you flip the switch implanted in Freud's head!
Or, if you're a therapist yourself, you can go with the Freud
finger puppet for your clients. Just thinking about where they
put their finger will have them coming back for years.
Yow. We had the best time today!
For a project we're getting started, we're making a model of heat flow
in a data center. So we pulled out our ancient thermodynamics book and
spent several pleasant hours deriving forms of the heat diffusion and air
flow equations suitable to our particular situation.
Our whiteboard is covered with differential equations and surface integrals.
Imagine the fun!
We never do that stuff any more. We should make sure we do it at least
once a year. Just to keep the neurons alive.
Plurp.
as an atheist the waters
of my soul do not run deep
Nice.
(Oh, and a Secret Note to Paul: the person in question
is going to try very hard to be at the event in question, unless the (currently
unpublished) calendar of school ballet events indicates a conflict. So
we are looking forward to you dressing up real pretty.)
Yo. Here's something curious (and funny, but that's not the point).
Somebody creates a
funny page (that's not curious) and somehow gets it to be #1
on Google (that's curious). How does he do it? We don't know! These
guys suggest an obvious (and undocumented) possibility.
Do our readers know how? That's what we want to know. And how!
Plurp.
The blue dog
bought a Pavlov
finger puppet
