Killing Afghanis

I just heard on the news that The President of the United states said the killing of 16 Afghani civilians was "outrageous and unacceptable."  Something easy to quote, and the media decided to do, as is their duty.  I imagine the President's men spent a great deal of time agonize over which two words he should express in his press conference, and  made sure to tell the White House press corps to make sure to highlight those two words.  It couldn't be "abhorrent."  No.  That might signal something about how abhorrent our troops are, and our troops are all (naturally) heroes, n'shit.  "Unacceptable" is good.  Killing those people in there homes (unarmed civilians... including children)... that's really "unacceptable."  This kid is going to get a "stern talking to."  Maybe he'll get reduced to pay-grades, for that "unacceptable" behavior.  I remember getting a B in math, once, and my mom told me something similar.  "You love algebra!  This behavior is outrageous and unacceptable!"

Yeah, that US soldier was there in support of US Special Forces who were training am paramilitary force to help reinforce US troops.... A sort of Vietnamization of the Afghan war.  What a load of BS.  I don't even know where to begin.  It's like grading a C-student's physics homework.  I'd like to help but ALL of your assumptions are wrong, to the point where I think you should just drop of out college altogether and become a firewatcher.  Yes, someone who's sole ability is to watch fires.  You don't report fires as the occur.  You don't help fight the fires.  You watch them, because that's all your fucking little brain can handle.

Killing kids is really terrible, though.  All of it is terrible, but the kids really stick with you.  How many of those kids could have grown up to be brilliant?  How many of those kids could have become mathematical geniuses like Srinivasa Ramanujan.  Or a brilliant painter or artist?  And if you think those sorts of things are rare, all human life is rare, and to be honest everyone is brilliant to some degree... And if you think its rare in Afghanistan, maybe it's because they don't have schools and a proper infrastructure to support all the geniuses clipped at the bud... And if you think that a First World country can come to Afghanistan to bring them schools and a proper infrastructure by sending in soldiers armed to the teeth, then you should really quit what you are doing right now and pursue a career as a firewatcher.

How to feed geese.

You bring a bag of bread crumbs to the pond, and throw some crumbs near a couple of geese.  The geese come closer, eating the crumbs.  You throw them a few more.  The geese eat them and come closer.  You drop a few more bread crumbs near your feet, since the geese are already there.  They eat them before they hit the ground.  You are out of bread crumbs.  The geese attack your pant legs.  You try to walk away.  The geese are birds and can fly faster then you can walk.  You run.  They fly.  You get home.  The geese shit on your car.

Religion

Getting into an argument with someone over religion is like explaining a joke to a slow person.  They'll never get it, and when you finally give up, its lost its humor.

Leap years

I hate leap years.  It isn't that every four years (with some exceptions) we get an extra day.  What I hate is that we think we have it all figured out.  We know that a year is 375.25 days.... exactly.... right?  Wrong.  It's more along the lines of 365.242199 days per year.... But, it's even more complicated than that.

And it changes periodically, depending on a number of factors. The Earth is in orbit around the sun, but it isn't really in a vacuum.  The Earth picks up matter from space, expels matter into space, collisions from asteroids of various shapes distort our orbit, slightly.

Bad Astronomy also did a blog on something similar.  It is exceptionally difficult to determine when we determine when a year is up.  It should be based on when we return to the same place in our orbit.  Ok, when is that?  How do we determine that?  Based on the fixed stars?  But, the Sun is moving through its orbit in the galaxy, so those fixed frames of reference are themselves changing.

Why do I hate leap year?  Because we think we've got the year all figured out, and that we think it is precisely 365.25 days...

Discordianism states that all the order in the Universe is an illusion.  We wish there to be order, so we impose it on all our observations.  We create rules and structures and all of science is based upon those our observations whose underlying theorem is that there is a form or order... a set of rules which we must understand....  Maybe Chaos is just plays tricks with us...

Probably won't get this job

So, yeah, I'm been working a job on a temporary basis, with the understanding that I might eventually be taken on as full time...  I wrote about this a few days ago.  Somehow, today, I really felt like I won't get get hired on. Can't say why, just a really bad feeling that I'm not needed.  The group used to have many more people in it then there are now.  The others are on temporary assignment to other divisions, and they are all experts in lots of different stuff.  I'm an expert in nothing.  I pick things up, but no expertise....  Anyway, by April (at some point) they will make their decision, and let me know.

Evolution

Forget, for the moment, the technical issues surrounding the following exercise.  I suppose, it can be run using a shell script, perhaps, but anyway...  Let's run some computational experiments on evolution.  Consider the following.  You wish to write a series of programs that do the following things to test evolutionary processes:

• Load it's own source code into memory.
• Search on the Internet (or through a large database) to find ways to make the program faster.
• Copy the new lines of code into the source code, and write it into a different file.
• Compile the new source code.
• Run the new code.

If the new code doesn't compile, then that "species" dies out.  If it does compile and run, then the new code starts repeating the cycle above again, finding new code to implement into it's source and recompiling it's new children.

Essentially, you will create a series of programs that try to reprogram themselves.  You will, in a way, create a new "ecology" populated by running computer programs.... (you could even go so far as to say that the "programming language" is the haploid part of the the life cycle and the running program is the diploid part)

You can measure how quickly a certain lineage evolves over time, how quickly it can reproduce itself, how complex (over time) the program can become.  And you could even try other variations, by adding limited resources to be shared within a community, or other needs that must be performed prior to reproduction.  

Supposed you introduced sex.  One running program encounters another running program and loads their source code as well as its own.  You could either pick out the best parts of both and load that into the next generation, or (supposedly like modern biology does it) at random, with half from the "mother" and half from the "father".

What about cannibalism?  Can a machine write code that not only makes itself more efficient, but also delete source code from other competing programs?  Initially, I would have said"no", there wouldn't be any evolutionary advantage, but what if there were something outside of the program that might cause it to compete.... an "environment" if you will....  

I'll bet someone has already done this.... I'm too lazy to search for it, though...

New Job

I haven't posted in a long time.  I don't know why, maybe there isn't much to say.  I started a new job this month, which is exciting.  I'm working as a "consultant" but with the hope of becoming a full-time employee at the new company.  The manager says "If you work hard, we could offer you a full-time job."  I'm taking him at his word.

But, to be honest, everyone there seems very friendly, including the manager.  My cubicle overlooks a river, and I'm right underneath the approach/take off pattern for the airport, so there are always interesting things to look at.  And, of course, it's not just me staring out the window, either.  There are interesting projects to work on, and I'm learning new things all the time.  For instance, I took a course in Java 8 years ago and never used it once since.  Now, I am developing Java code, so it's nice to "re"learn new things.  And, the group I'm working in is using Agile software development, so they are training me to us their method, which is nice.  Plus, everyone in the group has a PhD, and in similar fields to what I studied, so that's cool, too.

I do what I'm asked to do, quickly, which I hope is making a good impression.  But, I also sometimes screw around.  I do, sometimes, check out some blogs that I've been following (not much, but a bit) on the work computer online.  There are some sites that are blocked, such as Facebook, but that's ok.  And, I'm not surfing porn or anything.  A lot of the blogs I follow are science-y blogs anyway, so...

One person, the next cubicle over, seems to be streaming videos on his computer.  He's in a different division from me, under the same VP.  I noticed it a few times while I was going to get hot water for tea.  I thought it was funny, but paid no attention to it, except when I get up... He got fired today, for that.  Yeah, that sucks.  I mean, I can understand why since he did seem to be always streaming things.  And you have to work while you're... you know... "working."  But, still.  Did he get a warning?  He was a "temp" like I am, so maybe they just let him go rather then discipline him.  I hope I didn't screw up my chances by surfing too much.  I really like my job....