Oblique observations

Macho Comedian

szotial@aol.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:05:06 GMT

I have this weird suspicion that Randall Mario Poffo, better known as Macho Man Randy Savage, really wanted to be a stand-up comedian, but felt compelled to follow in the family business, which was wrestling.

Think I'm talking nonsense? Watch this clip:

Both his father and brother were wrestlers. This probably prompted Macho Man to hide what his family would consider to be a lesser profession.
You could argue that Macho Man actually wanted to be a baseball player, since that's what he was doing before he threw his shoulder out and became a wrestler, but the problem with that argument is that if you look at Macho Man you can tell he's a natural athlete, so being a minor league baseball outfielder was probably something that came naturally to him, and the things that come natural to us are rarely the things that we have a passion for.

My guess is that he tried the baseball thing to avoid falling into the footsteps of his father, but when he had no choice but to become a wrestler he found ways to work in his true passion.

How many of you have a career path that was influenced by your parents?
How many of you are doing something that comes naturally to you while secretly working on your passion?

Is Google...

szotial@aol.com — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:00:22 GMT

Everyone remembers the Google screenshots I've captured on this blog?

Well, monochromeninja just informed me that this page exists: http://www.gdumb.com

Now that I know someone has this covered, I can get back to work on more serious topics and stop messing around with the silly questions people have for the Internet.

Why I am for the Global Blasphemy Law

szotial@aol.com — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:57:31 GMT

If you're not familiar with the Global Blasphemy Law allow me to sum up:

No one anywhere on the planet Earth is allowed to, in any way whatsoever, insult any and all religious beliefs, under penalty of something probably very nasty and ludicrously legal.

(If you like, you can read more about it here: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1027/p08s01-comv.html)

So, why exactly am I for this nonsense when it clearly violates any and all free speech, while also giving these people permission to slap several hefty fines on my person?

Because they couldn't.
And the reason they couldn't is because they wouldn't be allowed to admit they were offended in any way whatsoever, because that would mean that they would have to admit that they held religious beliefs, which, under Global Blasphemy Law, they are not allowed to do.

Allow me to explain, and follow my logic carefully, because it is calculatedly flawed.
1. No one is allowed to insult any religion according to Global Blasphemy Law.
2. Most holy books will insist on its followers not worshiping alternate deities.
3. Belief in another deity or set of beliefs is abhorrent in the eyes of God and therefore an insult to that religion and its people (not to mention the act being punishable by eternal torture).
4. Hence, the mere practice of any religion would be an insult to any other religion, thus making it impossible for anyone to practice anything.
5. World Peace?

So there you have it, problem solved and everyone can go back to just getting on with their lives.

Mortality Quote

szotial@aol.com — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:10:36 GMT

"Whatever became of the moment when one first knew about death? There must have been one. A moment. In childhood. When it first occurred to you that you don't go on forever. Must have been shattering. Stamped into one's memory. And yet, I can't remember it. It never occurred to me at all. We must be born with an intuition of mortality. Before we know the word for it. Before we know that there are words. Out we come, bloodied and squalling, with the knowledge that for all the points of the compass, there's only one direction. And time is its only measure." -Rosencrantz

Another Doomsday

szotial@aol.com — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:09:06 GMT

For those of you who haven't figured it out already, (which is no one here now, since the people who read my blog are more intelligent than that) the world ending in 2012 is a hoax:

http://www.physorg.com/news175236478.html

We've seen this nonsense spread everywhere from the Interwebs to the History Channel to the glossies, and a good question to ask ourselves right about now would be, "Why?"

Why what? Why didn't someone laugh in the face of the person who suggested it, why do people continually give into doomsday predictions (see: Y2K), why wasn't this simply printed in the Weekly World News so we could snicker at it while waiting in the checkout line at the market?

People like to feel important. They like to believe that the time they live in is a special one where interesting and grand cosmical events will take place. Take for example the Evangelicals who believe we're living in the "end of days" (note: not the same end of days as 2012 mind you).

What's downright bizarre is how these events people look forward to are ones that will destroy them and everyone they care about.

Chances are doomsday predictions have a sort of social effect that could be beneficial.
For instance, my attempts to get people who claim to believe the world will end Dec. 21, 2012 to write me a check the size of their bank account that will clear on Dec. 22, 2012.

Their apprehension in whipping out the checkbook tells me there is something inside their head that has made the automatic calculation of 2012 being a hoax. Why this something hasn't been brought to the forefront of this person's thinking is beyond me.

Doomsday predictions can also act as a way to get someone to express their fears or ignorance on a particular topic. Y2K struck when people knew less about computers than they do now.
Before it came back from the future to stop itself, I've heard people suggest that the Large Hadron Collider and 2012 are somehow linked.

Why do you suppose people need the world to constantly be on the brink of destruction?

Asteroid Blues

szotial@aol.com — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:46:25 GMT

Good news everyone!

Remember April 13, 2036 when Apophis (the asteroid) was likely to encounter Earth causing much upheaval and devestation?
http://subtlegray.livejournal.com/86916.html

New data has come in that leads us to believe it is now less likely to hit Earth, which is good because it would have hit us exactly four years before we become able to upload our consciousness into computers.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091007-apophis-hazard.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/by-2040-you-will-be-able-to-upload-your-brain-1792555.html

Two Movies Hypothetical

szotial@aol.com — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:12:37 GMT

Somehow someone produced two unauthorized movies about your life.

The first is an independent documentary. The documentary features vignettes of you going about your life completely unaware of the camera crew that must've been hiding in the bushes (or as the bushes) in order to procure this footage. It also includes uncomfortably honest interviews with all your family, friends, and enemies.

The Second movie is a major motion picture from Hollywood. It has all the people you would have suspected playing you and all of your friends and family. Critics and audiences alike find they like the film and it has both a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has a 9 star rating on IMDB.

Which film are you more interested in watching?

Mono no AWARE Study

szotial@aol.com — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:24:45 GMT

Death is one of those many things your mind blocks out on a day-to-day basis in an attempt to keep you on a mentally even keel.
The reason is because Death is not pleasant and being constantly aware of it will make life rather difficult.
Just try to function in society while being fixated on Death.
You start asking perfectly happy people questions about it they simply don't want to be asked.
These are nice folk who have Death fenced off in a dark and sunless prairie, located on a desolate moon, deep in the subconscious Universe of their minds and here you come in your morbid spaceship asking things like, "I keep thinking about Death from the perspective of being alive, don't you?"

I spent a good portion of last night reading Epitaphs and from a quick bit of math I could tell the majority of them ironically didn't believe in Death (or rather, being dead).

Dr. Sam Parnia and the AWARE Study seem to be fixated on Death.
Their dilemma is that no one wants to hear about Death. Their solution is to not talk about Death and instead talk about consciousness... sorta....

Sources of the above nonsense:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/33055341#33055341 (w/ video)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33055601/ns/today-today_health
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080910090829.htm

"Curiosity did not kill this cat." -Studs Terkel

Lyrics and Badges

szotial@aol.com — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:11:39 GMT

Today I received Royal Mail.
Inside the sand colored envelope were the following:

If you do not know who Thea Gilmore is, you must not hesitate in visiting her website in order to become acquainted with her music. Her lyrics do not disappoint.

Thea's website
Thea's myspace page with samples of her music

You and your Clone: The Dilemma

szotial@aol.com — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:44:52 GMT

This is supplementary material to the question posed in You and your Clone

We'll presume our situation to be the exact way it was in the previous thought experiment, except this time, as you and your clone are being lead into the room, you are instead seated next to each other.
Sitting on the other side of the table is a tall, thin, and serious looking man in his 50's.

He explains that overnight there was a power surge that deleted all of their documentation and files.
Every security camera tape had been erased and in the darkness there was much confusion.

His point being, the facility has lost track of which room you were placed in and which room the clone was placed in.

How can you go about telling yourselves apart?

You and your Clone

szotial@aol.com — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:01:49 GMT

PREFACE
For the sake of this thought experiment, we will use the marvels of Science Fiction and assume the Clone in question is one of those clones that is an exact duplicate of you. It will look exactly like you and have all of your memories.

One evening you enter a cloning facility.
Upon entering you are greeted by an orderly and guided to a plain room with a single bed.
You lie down on the bed and fall asleep.
The following morning you are awoken by the same orderly and lead into a white room.
Centered in the white room is a square table with two chairs, one on either side.
Each chair has in front of it one sheet of paper and one sharpened number two pencil.
Across the room you notice another orderly, that looks exactly like your orderly, simultaneously lead your clone into the room and towards the table.
You and your clone are seated at the table and left alone.
A disembodied voice instructs you and your clone to draw a picture.

Will you and your clone draw the same picture?

Internet Anthropology: Round 2

szotial@aol.com — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:16:38 GMT

While wasting more time typing random phrases and questions into the Google search bar something occurred to me.
The aggregate of searches typed into Google is a window into the human condition.
The questions people ask, their desperation for answers about the unknown; these are the similarities about being human that might be exactly what people need to get past the shallow differences that are created by our post-modern world.

Self reflection

Express feelings

Review morality

Search for help

Probe the unknown

Speculate on the mysteries that surround them

Question the limits of the physical world

Make statements about life

Discuss the Universe

Figure out who that guy in the red cape is

Toby

szotial@aol.com — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:23:42 GMT

Back in college, the editor of the campus magazine nicknamed me Toby.
This didn't really change anything about me. Another personality, a "Toby" with his own distinctive qualities and characteristics never developed.
Oddly, I never felt the urge to correct him when he called me Toby and neither did anyone else. No one else ever called me Toby, just him.
All his calling me Toby really did was allow him to remember my name.

Recently I took an online poll of what people believe.
Below is a list of the more interesting responses.

Lord I Know We Don't Talk by KEVIN DEVINE
Evolution Of Faith
Undecided
Ill let whomever sort it out...
Pet the Frog
nope
Soul Power
Alien
physics
other than my own there are yours
God's there....
Awesomenism
Bokonism. all religions are foma!
Free Agent
ask me
mishy mashy congo degrassi
Science, in HD
If you know me, you should know
...just trying to be a good person to other people is work enough at this point
open minded
unearthly
Pokemon
Lemmy is God
Grand theft auto
Buffalo Bills Football/ NC State Basketball
wouldn't u like to know
Jedi
Imagine no Religion
Depends on the hour
Religion = War
I believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins
A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly:
Toby likes god. i think she is great.
"Nature is not matter only, she is also spirit." - Carl Jung
Mother Earth and Father Time
Some may never live, but the crazy never die.
lovin sweet baby jeebus
God? You out there?
non-existant
Agnostic with an option to buy
bow down to Lord Crom
Patrickism
There must be a god, but he's laughing his butt off about organized religion.
I believe
Karma
Agnosticlasticathobuddhist
I hate religion, it's horrible
Jewish/Buddhist/And This and That
believe in God
presbyterian - the christian left
Sam Raimi
Hmm
spiritual; not into organized religion
Norm MacDonald
evolution is real.
If there's a potluck luncheon at the end of service, I'm there :)
The Sabres
?
panoramic

Feel free to add yours to the list.

The Internets Mood

szotial@aol.com — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:31:27 GMT

A little while back I posted the seemingly outrageous idea that the Internet may be conscious and that we may have given it consciousness by accident.
The question was, "How do we go about figuring out if it actually is?"

This is a difficult question for humans to answer about each other, nevermind bits of information being shared across an international computer network, the majority of which are pictures of cats and silly videos.

Sometimes I can't even tell if the slow moving ape hunched over its shopping cart blocking the cereal aisle in the supermarket is a conscious being or not, but what I can tell is that this particular ape is miserable.

Aha! That's something. Emotions are a clear indication that something conscious-like is going on behind those slow-moving glassy eyes. A something that not only gives it the ability to poorly navigate a shopping cart in front of people that know what they want, but a something that tells it exactly how it feels about it.

Someone on the Internet had to already have noticed this and chances are that someone took the average of everyone's mood and concluded that to be the mood of the Internet.
That someone, or couple of someone's, website is here: http://www.wefeelfine.org

Allegedly we, as a society of the mind of the Internet have become happier since around February 2005.

Now I've done some research to try to figure out what the exact date was that started this turn around from 'miserable ape in the supermarket' to 'slightly less miserable ape that finally realised it would like some cereal too' and I think it was February 15th, 2005, the day the Internet was introduced to YouTube.

Now the question is, how does YouTube assist consciousness and emotion?

Space Vampires: from another dimension

szotial@aol.com — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:35:49 GMT

Ways of Thinking

szotial@aol.com — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:44:18 GMT

How exactly do you think?
It's a strange question, and I'm not sure I even have an answer for it myself.
I wouldn't be able to tell you which thought came first, but I could tell you that they didn't occur in chronological order.

This tells me that they are connected another way, linked by a common thread my mind uncovered that makes it easier or quicker for these thoughts to communicate.
The thoughts however aren't as distinct as the words I'm using now.

Another thing I can tell you is that I mostly think in pictures, except for when I read. It isn't that I'm not imagining the landscapes and characters being described in the pages of the book, I am, but that all comes after a voice in my head reads it back to me.

What I'm saying is that I don't strictly see pictures, like I do when I'm simply thinking.
Oddly, this voice in my head doesn't assist me when I read signs, cereal boxes, or movie posters.
I've thought about this, and it could be because those things are very similar to pictures.

A box of Cheerios is practically a symbol, therefore I believe my brain processes it as one and no longer employs the "voice function" it uses for reading books or magazines.

So what the hell is the point of this rant?
Well, I'd like to know what happens when two people collect the same data and arrive at different conclusions. I'd like to figure out what questions need to be asked in order to determine what's going on behind the curtain of their consciousness.

What goes on in your mind when you read? Do you hear a voice, see pictures, both, neither?

What about music? Does your mind drift into images, do you pick apart the sounds, or are you overcome with emotion to the point where your mental critics shut down?

How long does it take you to count to a minute in your head? Do you use a voice, do you imagine a clock, or do you use your sense of touch and keep count with your heartbeat?

Swinging Together

szotial@aol.com — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:24:13 GMT

According to a recent article in Forbes, "research suggests that the brain considers tools to be extensions of the body."

That statement seems somewhat obvious, but it's good to have it backed by some research.

After reading this article it dawned on me that whatever device inside our heads that causes the mind's eye to change the shape of an arm or hand holding a tool must also change our shape when we're involved in a group activity.

Take for instance playing an instrument in a band. Recent studies have shown that the people playing guitar together become mentally synchronized.
Now it's obvious that brains 'swinging together' is a little different than physical contact with a coffee cup, however I still can't help but think that there is a definite similarity between the two.

Basically I'm getting down to two points:
The first point is that this research backs up my Ghost in the Earth hypothesis, but changes it in order to incorporate smaller ghosts.
In order to accept that the Internet is a conscious being, I would also have to accept that so are, orchestras, sports teams, and parades.

The second point is that a key to world peace relies on this very research. It seems like a grand thing to say, but I think it's true. Unlike other cure-all's such as, creating a giant cosmic enemy for us to unify against, this idea would simply take hard work and discipline.

A singularity where each of us can play our own instrument but retain our individuality.

"Stop or Keep Going"

szotial@aol.com — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:33:41 GMT

Here is my latest editing and producing effort, the Kev Hannibal hip-hop video, "Stop or Keep Going" directed by NYC Fifth Column member Kevin A. Lopez.

Words

szotial@aol.com — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:01:04 GMT

The Zen disciple sits for long hours silent and motionless, with his eyes closed. Presently he enters a state of impassivity, free from all ideas and all thoughts. He departs from the self and enters the realm of nothingness. This is not the nothingness or the emptiness of the West. It is rather the reverse, a universe of the spirit in which everything communicates freely with everything, transcending bounds, limitless. ... The disciple must, however, always be lord of his own thoughts, and must attain enlightenment through his own efforts. And the emphasis is less upon reason and argument than upon intuition, immediate feeling. Enlightenment comes not from teaching but through the eye awakened inwardly. Truth is in "the discarding of words", it lies "outside words". -Yasunari Kawabata

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_hypothesis

Economic Crisis as reflected by IMDB

szotial@aol.com — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:08:11 GMT

IMDB polls are typically obvious market research, and I suppose this one is no different, except for how it unwittingly took a snapshot of where a good number of unemployed insomniacs spend their time.

, or

The Delivery of Nawaz Sharif Zardari

szotial@aol.com — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:27:09 GMT

This morning I read an article about how Long Island convenience storekeeper, Mohammad Sohail, used compassion and a shotgun to change a "would-be criminal's mind -- and apparently his religion."

The whole story in a nutshell is that Mohammad Sohail was closing up shop when the criminal entered demanding money, at which point Mohammad pulled out a shotgun causing our now would-be criminal to cry. Mohammad felt compassion for the man and gave him $40 and a loaf of bread. The man reacted with an interest in being Muslim. Mohammad wasted no time, converted the man, and gave him a new name.

What I wonder, and what my mind has been toying with since this morning, is what if the storekeeper had a completely different set of beliefs.

Say the storekeeper was a Scientologist or a Trekkie, would the criminal have been so impressed that he would have wanted to become a member of Starfleet or a Jedi?
Or what if Mohammad was a greyhound enthusiast. Would the night have ended with the would-be robber adopting a dog?

I think so. Under those conditions, a desperate and impressionable mind met with compassion would have accepted whichever formula brought about that reaction.
The storekeeper could have been a really fat guy and he could have given the criminal a box of twinkies and explained to him the benefits of high-fructose corn syrup.

However, the story ends with the would-be robber running out of the store as Mohammad turned around to get him some milk (or in the case of my imagination, chocolate milk). I'm not sure what this means. It could mean that the robber was just placating Mohammad until he could get away, but I doubt it.
I wonder if he remembers his new name.

“Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” -Oscar Wilde

From across the World

szotial@aol.com — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:23:42 GMT

This was very exciting for me.
Now for my sorry attempts at translating the text.
Thank you again dina_mei

Blame

szotial@aol.com — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:15:40 GMT

Whenever someone makes an outrageous claim such as the infamous, "McDonald's made me fat," the knee-jerk response is to list for this person all the actual reasons they have acquired a less than desirable mountain climbing physique, because you can clearly see the lack of willpower and unwillingness to exercise and eat healthy, and why can't they?

Certainly I have once again been thinking about free will/choice, the human mind, and the automatic calculations it makes on a daily basis that somehow result in something as unreasonable as Vanilla Ice jumping a fence on a yellow motorcycle (I know, it sounds like I'm just stringing words together).

At one time, an orange jacket and splotchy colorful shorts were a wardrobe combo worthy of praise. In hindsight we have a good laugh and blame it on the bizarre logic system established in the 90's. But in reality no outfit is safe from time.

Eh, but I'm getting myself a little off topic here... What I was trying to point out was the general use of blame and praise in an attempt to make one's life better.
What I mean by that is how we as a species use this tagging system in order to create our own working models of reality.

The fat person blames McDonald's for being fat, and in a sense this might work for them, providing they stop eating there because it is what they believe to be the source of their unhappiness (we can presume them to be unhappy because they are not praising McDonald's for their current condition).

What we see that they don't are the boundaries they have placed on what I refer to as "blame proximity."
They only extend it as far as McDonald's, probably in an effort to avoid any real work.
However, if the boundaries of blame proximity were extended too far we could end up blaming Emperor Charlemagne.

I believe this is how black cats end up with such poor reputations.

Gumshoe Bot

szotial@aol.com — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:38:01 GMT

ACE, Autonomous City Explorer, isn't really a detective, it's... well, a city explorer, but a different sort of city explorer from this guy
When picturing a robot rolling around Munich for five hours asking for directions my imagination can't help but add a trench coat, fedora, and world-weary face with a cigarette hanging from it.
The true test for this robot is when they build another one and have the two search for each other.

Destiny's Kismet

szotial@aol.com — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:25:19 GMT

A long time ago Destiny took a day off.
No one really knows for what.
Upon returning to work Destiny noticed that nothing had changed.
Fates remained tangled and providence sustained its reputation as being utterly indifferent.
Everything was moving along the same, without manipulation.
So, she left again.
Destiny hasn't been back to work since.