Random Rants

15 Things That Make Me Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 01:16:00 +0000

Time to brain dump. This is what happens when I don't blog for a while. I make no claim of immunity from my observations below.

The economy is bad. It has been worse, much worse. We (as in the over-consuming, fat, lazy, intrinsically entitled people that we call US citizens) caused the problem. We need to fix the problem, which is proving difficult given our token characteristics I just mentioned. It isn't going to fix itself. The government isn't going to fix it for us. We have to dig in and get to work... all day... every day. If you have the chance to speak to or read about someone who lived through the great depression, you'll find yourself in the midst of a reality check.
At what point does someone become intrinsically entitled to something, especially when it comes to money, work, status, cars, lawsuits, and the like? Is that possibly an oxymoron? It should be. Where did this idea come from. Unless you were born with an 11th toe or a tail, you pretty much started off on the same standing as everyone else. Whey you die, you have no entitlement, because there is no more you. Everything in between is what you make of it. You are not entitled to a job, a certain pay grade, health insurance, or even housing or food. What you are entitled to is the opportunity to play by society's rules to gain the things that society values. If you choose not to play by the rules, that's fine, but don't expect society to (and in pains me to even use this phrase any more) "bail you out." If you don't like your society, find another one. If you can't or won't, learn to deal with it. We all have problems.
There is no such thing as a religious child. They don't grasp the concept of religion. By extension, there is absolutely no such thing as religious specificity for a child. It's absurd. Saying that he or she is a "Catholic child" or a "Muslim child" or was born a Hindu is simply naive. Claiming that children can somehow be born with a pre-defined religious view is highly unlikely, given that all children just so happen to believe in the same religion as their parents until they reach the age of high reasoning. This is true of biological or adopted children ... this kind of logic drives staticians crazy.
Plastics suck. Plastics are the devil. Somehow they have been branded as a much cleaner alternative to glasses, woods, and metals. Where do plastics come from? Oil. Where do plastics go when we're done with it? A small portion is recycled, but most ends up in trash, landfills, and eventuall rivers and oceans. How long does plastic take to naturally bio-degrade? We really don't know, because it hasn't happened to any plastic that has ever been manufactured. The first plastic cup that was ever used is still with us, so is the first plastic grocery bag, plastic pen, plastic water bottle, and anything else that has the word "plastic" in the title. Sure, it breaks down into smaller pieces, causing issues for smaller and smaller forms of life, but it has yet to bio-degrade into its original components. How much is out there, well, see for yourself: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22431379#22431379
Buying water is quite possibly the closest we come to insanity each day. Municipal water is safer and cleaner than bottled water, requires no plastic bottles, no fossil fuels to transport, and is already paid for by your and my tax dollars. Do us all a favor and use a drinking foundain, or at a minimum, just refill your old plastic water bottle from the tap.
Stop buying stupid shit. You know what I'm talking about. Just stop it.
Our primary and secondary education system is unacceptable. The workload is far too light for most students. No Child Left Behind is so silly that I don't even know where to start. There is far too little emphasis on the fundamentals: math, science, and grammar. We do not reward teachers in our society. We do not have a common (as in national) curriculum. We aren't keeping up with global trends in education. Parents are not demanding enough of their children's or children's teacher's performances.
This little love-in called "the healthcare system" needs to be squashed. Healthcare providers, HMOs, Insurance Companies, lawyers, and politicians are all part of one big gang bang while the patients and familes barely hold the rank of assistant fluffers. Patients that spend most of their time trying to kill themselves via tobacco, tanning, and french fries are part of the problem, as are patients that go to scientific health care institutions and expect miracles, but these really pale in comparison to the freakiness that's going on in the next room.
Stop complaining about the cost of gasoline, stamps, milk, and other basic items. For what they actually provide, they are amazingly inexpensive. If the USPS suddenly disappeared, how much would you charge to deliver letters anywhere in the country for someone you don't know? Have you ever walked a mile carrying four full bags of groceries? Try it, and then reconsider the cost of a gallon of gasoline, which could carry you, your groceries, your family, and a half ton vehicle your original mile plus another 20 or so. That plastic bottle of water in your plastic grocery bag probably cost you as much as the gallon of gas anyway.
If you're having trouble "making ends meet", perhaps you need to re-evaluate where you have placed your ends. Bitching about no money to ride the bus or buy bread doesn't say much when you have a cigarrette hanging out of your mouth. Ranting about gas prices doesn't have much affect when you're in the process of purchasing a lottery ticket.
Does anyone else find it interesting that our congress had time to inquire into the deeply troubling and obviously endangering precidents set by the Major League Baseball steroids scandal in 2006, while minor issues such as the war, healthcare, social security, our education system, and our dependence on foreign oil were pushed to the side? Seriously!? Pause, take a deep breath, and think about this for a good 5-10 seconds. The lack of responsibility is staggering.
Data access (internet, cell phone, etc.) in the USA is terrible. We have more unused fiber optic cabling than we know what to do with, but a significant portion of the country can't get anything better than dial-up networking with long distance charges. Here's an idea... put our tax dollars to work tearing out the legacy phone system and providing fiber to every house in the country. It creates jobs, provides free and open knowledge to the masses, and is sure to offer a much needed jump to porn sales.
Think before you talk. Don't just think about the words that you're going to say, think about what they mean to you and what they will mean to the recipients of the words. In particular, think about the differences in what they mean to the two parties involved. If there are any differences, stop, and reconsider.
To disagree with someone is not the same as to argue with someone. Just because someone holds a different view/belief/opinion than you do does not mean that they are assaulting you or that you need to defend yourself. Along these same lines, if you are arguing something that can not be proven, you need to re-evaluate your core reasoning skills, and/or quote possibly your medications. An argument that can be proven always trumps an argument that can not be proven.
Stop spending so much time trying to conform. If it feels good, it's probably okay. Unless you're mentally deranged, then not so much.

Now that I have that off my chest, I can start blogging about happy things again.

The Baby Has Arrived!

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:32:00 +0000

We'd like to introduce Collin Christopher Weis to the world! Collin was born on 9/1/08 at 11:46pm, weighing in at 9lbs 2oz and 21" long.

See him here.

Thanks to everyone for their ongoing encouragement and support. We (all three of us) very much appreciate it!

Conversational Beer

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:35:00 +0000

I find myself judging cities by only a few deciding factors, usually consisting of their airport quality, general cleanliness, and roadways. I used to judge cities by the general look of the people that inhabited them, but I found that far too depressing, so I moved on. Today, I've decided I'm going to start judging new cities by the conversations that I listen in on. It's probably just a phase, and I'm sure I'll resort back to something far more shallow and simple, like the smell of the hotel lobby, or the percentage of women with above-size tops, but for now, I'm sticking with my conversation idea. As a side note, I had a brief jaunt with using hotel room quality to qualify an overall city, but I found it to be far to disgusting to consider and unusually a-typical. One dark curly on a remote control, and suddenly a dream excursion in a mountain village became second rate to a Motel 6 in downtown Indianapolis. But, I digress....

The conversation methodology poses two problems for me:

I have to listen in on conversations that I have no business hearing, and
I have to explicitly not react to things that are said as part of this conversation

It ends up that problem 2 is far more difficult to overcome than 1. First off, given the right surroundings, 1 isn't a problem at all. Sit at any bar in any restaurant, and you'll quickly be able to pick up on several conversations, made audibly clear through the wonders of alcohol. I also have no remorse about being busted for listening in. After all, who the hell am I to the others involved? If they don't like it, they can shut their cake holes.

The second problem is far harder to cope with. People say some really stupid, but funny, things when they think no one else is listening. Here are a few gems I heard tonight.

Patron to bartender: "That cork is really stuck." Bartender back to patron: "Creme Brule?"
Patron from local geography: "Boulevard Wheat is an excellent local micro-brew." Patron from west coast: "Uh huh." (This one nearly made beer shoot through my nose.)
Patron: "Can I have one of your wings?" Other Patron: "I'm got burnt ends."
Patron: "Oh my god, you're so awesome!" Other patron: "I know, I know!"
Patron: "Why did this come with two spoons?" Bartender: "One of them is mine."
Patron: "I don't play any sports, but I know a lot about them. I just don't agree with how people stand behind their local teams... (long pause...)" Other Patron: "(pause...) (blink..., blink)"

Based on this, I'm going to write off my most recently traveled city as "drunkenly naive", which is a good rating in the grand scheme of things.

A Deviant With A Toothbrush

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:10:00 +0000

I was buying a toothbrush and socks at a local store tonight. I was waiting in line, behind a family with some small children who were in the process of checking out, and ahead of a short young woman who had a few small items and no cart. The family in front of me was purchasing a variety of thing, including a young girl's pink ballerina costume. Had this been late October, I wouldn't have thought this to be particularly odd, but being a 90+ degree in early August, I decided to ponder on possibilities for the use of the costume. Was it an impulse purchase to keep a grumpy daughter happy? Do people in Kansas dress very differently than people in other states during spells of high temperatures? Was this girl actually a ballerina and had traveled great distances with her family to give a performance, only to realize, much like my situation with my toothbrush and socks, and she too had forgotten a vital piece of equipment.

I was almost starting to make sense of the situation when another checkout isle opened and the woman behind the cash register announced that her isle was open. This generally leads to an awkward moment between the people already waiting in the nearest lanes. Who has the right to go to the new isle? Who should stay? Can one pass another person during this unexpected lane change? When is someone committed to an isle and not allowed to change?

These are issues that everyone ponders when this situation arises, but this is not what concerned me about this particular instance. Rather, it was the comment that the short young woman standing behind me posed after I quickly said "go ahead" to her, implying that she should go ahead of me in the new isle. She quickly responded with "No, no, you go ahead, errr...., Ummmm..." I must have had a confused look on my face, because she felt the need to explain her indecision. She said she didn't know if the pink ballerina dress, already on the counter ahead of me, was mine or not, so she didn't know if I would want to move to the new isle since I was arbitrarily committed to the existing isle.

This was deeply concerning. She actually considered that the pink ballerina dress belonged to me, the guy standing in line in business attire, holding socks and a toothbrush. I can only imagine, while standing behind me in the isle for several minutes, what she was thinking of my intended use for the dress. Did I have a daughter in need of a dress? Was I some kind of a fashion designer looking for inspiration? Was I a horrible social deviant with intentions of doing terrible things involving a pink ballerina dress, a package of socks, and a neon green wear sensing medium bristle toothbrush?

I chose the latter, as it was the most fun. I simply said, while quickly moving to the newly opened isle, "Oh no, not for me. I prefer purple ballerina dresses with my socks." I paid, walked out of the store, and didn't look back.

When Money Flows Like Water

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:22:00 +0000

I recently watched a documentary titled Who Killed The Electric Car and also started reading/listening to The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria. I know that's a lot of heavy input, but after finishing up the most recent David Sedaris book, I felt the need to give a little back to society. I'll spare you my reviews, but they both provided me with a large number of facts and figures that I had not known or considered before. As a sample:

China is big... really big, yet despite their huge economy and impending world dominance, their GDP per capita is still quite low.
The US is the largest consumer of almost everything, but the largest producer of very few things.
Wal-Mart brings in almost 8 times as much money as Microsoft each year.
If you were to combine the work forces of GM, Ford, and General Electric, they do not come close to matching the work force of Wal-Mart. What does this say about our culture and values?
Hundreds of years before Columbus's voyage to the new world, China had far more ships than did Europe, their ships were vastly larger, and they were technically superior in almost every way. Why did China not discover the new world instead of Europe? Chinese leadership at the time virtually made sailing illegal for reasons apparant at the time. That seemingly simple choice may be the only reason China is not the single dominant super power in the world today.
As a country, the US is one of the most arrogant and hypocritical entities in all of history. The fact that we are despised by so much of the other countries of the world is not at all surprising.
The electric cars of 25 years ago are still superior in many ways to equivalent modern concept vehicles. What happened?
Over 20% of our nation's electricity is generated from nuclear power plants, which are far more green than coal burning plants. Far less environmental and direct damage to human life has been produced by nuclear power plants than almost all other types of energy generation in the last 30 years. Why then, have no nuclear plants been built in the last 30 years while hundreds of coal burning plants have?
Hydrogen fuel cell cars, while being promised as a "within 15 years" reality for the past 30-40 years, still consistantly fail to be cost-effective solutions and have virtually no fueling infrastrucutre. Why then is this the technology that almost every politician focuses on as the transportation enerty source of the future?
Purchasing water in a bottle, of any sort, is stupid. Unless you happen to live in a place that has unsafe drinking water or none at all (which means you most likely don't live in the United States), there is no excuse for drinking bottled water. The actual water is less safe, not at clean, far more expensive, and about as anti-green as one can be. The cost of fuel that is wasted in the United States simply by shipping bottled water across the country in one year is staggering. How staggering: analysts estimate the the amount of money wasted by drinking bottled water rather than tap water in the United States in one year is enough to provide basic potable drinking water sources to almost everyone in the world within the same amount of time. Think of that the next time you walk past the drinking fountaing and blow $1.29 on a 20 oz bottle of water.
Evian, a popular bottled water vendor, is NAIVE spelled backwards. Those French are tricky. ;-)

Anyway, you can do what you want with this, but it's certainly food for thought.

The Vegetables Are Speaking To Me

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:12:00 +0000

So far today, I've knocked out two certification exams, three customer calls, multiple email messages, the debugging and resolution of two customer-related issues, one flight, and a bunch of people watching. I still have to cover three states, 2hrs of flying, a drive home from the airport, probably a cold beer, and then a short sleep before I start the motor again tomorrow morning. Oddly, I don't feel like I've accomplished much today. I blame the 12-hr old airport sandwich I just ate. I thought it strange of the lettuce to be talking to me. The dancing I would expect, but not so much the talking. Hello Ms. Tomato!

Ohio, Wars, Floods, and Happy Babies

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:29:00 +0000

I've always liked the Cincinnati airport. It's small, quaint, generally very busy, but also unusually easy to navigate and action packed with people for the watching. People watching is really the thing that I like to do most in airports. Very few other places offer such a variety of emotions. Confusion, aggression, love, disappointment, joy, dismay, and many other can be seen just by sitting in a chair and watching the people walk through the terminal.

Seeing as how my airline seems to have lost our flight crew, we're now delayed over 90 minutes on the last fight to small town Iowa.. Seriously, I'm not making this shit up. (Side note... my emotions after this announcement resulted in partial insanity and possible physical brain damage.) So, I decide to get a little exercise and start slowly walking up and down the rows of people, just for the social fun of it. Here are some of the highlights:

A slightly older woman, wearing one of those hair pieces that looks like a doiley, was busily knitting a very intricate thin piece of cloth. If I didn't know better, I would think that she was knitting the raw materials to actually make some kind of a shirt. This woman either has an abundant amount of self control and dedication, or she's a business traveler and knits the raw material for clothing compaines in her delay time at airports. Based on my experiences flying over the past several years, I'm banking on the latter, and I'm willing to bet that The Gap is too.
A young woman, extremely tan with a hair cut that only a beautician would attempt to wear each and every day, was sitting in a chair, eating something. I'm not sure what she was eating, because I was distracted by her low cut brown strapless dress... sans bra from what I can tell. I chose to observe this until I saw fit to move on.
A young woman, extremely tan with a hair cut that only a beautician would attempt to wear each and every day, was sitting in a chair, eating something. I'm not sure what she was eating, because I was distracted by the nasty glare and scowl she was radiating in my general direction. I saw it fit to move on.
A young man, obviously in the army based on his garb, was having a deep conversation with a middle-aged gentleman about a recent war-time event he happened to live through. Most of the people around the men were listening in, intently, as he quietly, almost cautiously, attempted to tell the story. It was obviously very disturbing to him, and at one point, he started to cry. When it comes to american men and women and the war(s) our administration continues ramming down the throats of americans, as much as you despise the war, remember that these are real people, just like you and me. Hate the game, don't hate the player.
A very young woman, looking like someone out of one of those craptacular high school california beach drama television shows, was sitting and reading US Weekly while a small swarm of men eye-balled her. Given her advanced reading level and her seeming peace with the ogglers, I don't think this is anything new to her. Seriously, who attempts air travel in a high heels and a one-piece strapless bar dress? I'm not complaining... I'm merely asking the question.
A very large woman, holding her daughter while the daughter drinks milk from a bottle. In and of itself, not very strange, but the daughter appeared to be in the 3-4 year range of age. I'm certainly no parenting expert, or even a parent at all (at least not for the next 4-6 weeks), but I think that when your child starts to understand the individual letters on the yellow labels around the formula cans, it's time to star the weaning process. (Bonus side note: weaning is a word that is both funny and used far too infrequently. I award myself 5 extra points for using it correctly.)
A man sitting near me, entering in page after page of accounting data to his computer one index finger keyboard click at a time. He mentions that he recently lost several weeks of digital records in a flood, along with his wife's business. He was "happy to be doing this" after seeing what others in the area are having to cope with. There is certainly something to be said for the midwestern work ethic and general demeanor. It's always refreshing to see it when traveling, and so often overlooked by those that live along side it each and every day. A trip to the east coast doesn't cure many things..., but this is one of them.
My personal favorite: a woman, traveling with three children, all under the age of ten, a stroller, diaper bag, and all of the fixins. She is holding her youngest, a young boy, probably around 1yr old. The boy has a cell phone placed to his hear, and he goes back and forth between laughing, listening intently, and speaking baby gibberish, with the occasional phrase resembling "dada". The look on his face is priceless. Technology, as cold and complex as it generally seems, sometime allows wonderful things to happen.

Flipping the Mathematical Bird

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:16:00 +0000

I believe that when it comes to problem solving, the following can be said:

There are many incorrect ways to solve a problem, even if the outcome is correct
There are very few correct ways to solve a problem, often only one

That being said, I pose the following 5th grade math "word problem." The important thing to note about this particular problem is that there are at least two obvious ways to figure out the solution. One is the right method, the other, although technically correct, isn't nearly as eloquent. I'll make the numbers easy, and if no one figures out the right method to solve the problem, I'll make it known in a future post. Here we go...

Two trains are heading straight toward each other on the same set of tracks. They are currently 100 miles apart and each is traveling at 5 miles per hour. There is a bird that continually flies back and forth between the trains as they approach each other. The bird flies at 20 miles per hour. How far will the bird have flown when the trains meet each other?

Notes:

Don't worry about the physical/logistical details... you're missing the point
Don't cheat by reading other people's posts (at least not until after you have come up with your solution)... you're missing the point
Don't Google it... you're missing the point
If this takes you more than a few minutes, you're not using the right method to solve the problem
If you start writing down lots of calculations on a piece of paper, you're not using the right method to solve the problem
This can easily be calculated in your head
Mathematically inclined people tend to choose the wrong method to get the solutions

The moral of this is that being smart, intelligent, or some kind of a genius in a given area doesn't necessarily mean that you know the best way of solving a problem. Often, simply a different view of a problem, even if naive, can still yield the right methodology. The real problem is getting smart, intelligent, and/or genius-types to accept that their method is not the best.

Random Questions From The Recent Past

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:56:00 +0000

Just some random questions/concerns I need to voice:

Why do people constantly refer to themselves in the 3rd person online? Facebook status messages, IM away messages, out of the office messages? Is the goal to trick others into thinking that the system somehow posted the message on your behalf, and that you, the author and object of the message, somehow are unaware of your current status? This sounds like a serious mental condition to me.
Why do people constantly goof the tense of the verb "forget?" I hear this all the time: "What is your name again? I forget your name." Shouldn't it be "I forgot your name" instead? Are you actively forgetting the other person's name as you are speaking, or did you more likely forget their name at some previous point and are now simply making this known to another person, thus requiring the past tense of the verb. At least use a modifier to make it correct: "I always forget your name" or "I always forget things." Again, the lack of differentiation between past and present is either a serious mental condition, or a remnant of far too much time travel. You be the judge.
Why do people tap on soda cans before opening them?
Why do people still insist of generating paper documents and mailing them through the post office, requiring paper, time, and fuel to deliver? Email seems to work pretty well.
Along those same lines, why is it secure and good practice to fax a document, sign it, and return it via fax, when emailing a document, printing/signing it, and then scanning/emailing it back is not secure? Last I checked, most fax machines don't have biometric security mechanisms.
Why do most retail stores, banks, airports, etc., have a well defined area of space between the current person being waited on at the counter and the rest of the line that is not to be occupied by any person other than in passing? What could possibly be going on that requires a 10ft front-to-back safe zone, while still quite happily allowing another person to stand two feet to the left/right so they too can go about their business? Last I checked, sound has a way of progressing in all directions, not much backwards. Is this a fundamental misunderstanding of basic physics, or something more?

Talk amongst yourselves. ;-)

Coding the Past

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:39:00 +0000

Errr.., moreso code form the past. I found some old code snippets (C, Python, Perl, Java, Bash) I wrote many years ago and decided to put them online just for S&Gs. You can look at it here.

http://www.weiserthanbefore.com/source_code/

Happy reading.

A Flash of White

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 21:03:00 +0000

So, I'm sitting at home, working out of my home office, and a man drives by in a white minivan, stops shortly after he passes my house, backs up, parks alongside the curb, and proceeds to ake a few pictures of my front porch area. He then drives off, never to be seen again.

Should I be concerned?

Technologies To Be

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 01:58:00 +0000

Every so often I have an idea for new technologies that have yet to be created or conceived. I usually forget about them right away, only to see them being sold by some big company a year or two later. Not all of them are revolutionary ideas. Actually, most of them are probably things that lots of people have though about, but no one has taken the time to create. Anyway, here are a few of my ideas...

An OpenSource NDMP library, complete with bindings to common scripting languages (Perl, Python, etc.), and client / server packages. The API should be simple to understand and program against, despite NDMP's underlying complexities. This would give other OSS software packages, such as Amanda, the ability to backup various different platforms using a standards based protocol. It would also eliminate the need to purchase outrageously priced client agents from the big-name backup software vendors. I personally think this would be an outstanding project for Google Summer of Code or even a graduate level course in software engineering.
The personal VoIP phone. Much like a cell phone (or possibly even as a feature on a cell phone), this phone has the ability to attach itself to Wifi or LAN networks, register itself with some sort of a public VoIP provider service, and send and receive calls free of charge. For whatever reason, despite the fact that people send email, IMs, and various other forms of digital communication free of charge each and every day, these same people think they have to pay by-the-minute for voice calls. It makes no sense.
A centralized global database for contact information. I know, I know, invasion of privacy, junk email, identity theft, spam, blah blah blah. Get over it people. If someone wants to track you down and/or send you something, they will find your contact information, so why not make this a useful feature. The idea is that someone keeps an online database of contact information for everyone, and companies such as banks, magazine publishers, and utility companies are required to actively monitor this single source for changes in your contact information. If your email address changes, they know it and automatically change it in their systems. If you move to another city, everything gets automatically re-routed. If you're going to be on vacation in France for two months and want all of your snail mail, email, and phone calls to be routed to a different location, you can simply log into a web site for this big database of contact information and enable this. I don't think people or businesses should be required to use the database, but it would benefit both to do so.

Anyway, that's all I have for now. In case you didn't read this, just wait a few years and I'm sure you'll know what it was all about.

Three Mental Puzzlers: An Explanation

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:32:00 +0000

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that these three mental puzzlers are quite horrible to think about. But... there is a point to all of this.

Basically, scientists performed some very interesting research by asking these three puzzlers to a sample set of people and observed their brain responses to each. The results were as follows:

The first question tended to invoke activity in the portion of the brain that is responsible for making decisions based on logic.
The second question tended to invoke activity in the portion of the brain that is responsible for making decisions based on emotion.
The third question invokes both the emotional and logical decision-making portions of the brain. Furthermore, it invokes both of these regions much more intensely than either of the two previous questions.

This alone is fairly interesting, but the researchers found that the final puzzler actually caused a third portion of the brain to become highly active in addition to the other two. This is a highly evolved portion that is only found in humans and not in other primates. It is what gives humans the ability to arbitrate between possible solutions that seem to internally conflict. If something is logical but emotionally challenging, or illogical but emotionally pleasing, this part of the brain makes the final decision. Test subjects who were able to make the "logical" decision to the last question were very active in this portion of the brain, while subjects who couldn't make a rational decision tended to have much less activity in this portion of the brain.

Take it for what it's worth, but it's good to know that at least most humans can make more advanced decisions that our simian brothers and sisters!

Three Mental Puzllers: Question #3

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Mon, 14 May 2007 01:52:00 +0000

This isn't meant to be a trick question. Given the following dilemma, please explain your choice of one of the two possible outcomes.

Scenario :

You are in a village in Vietnam during the Vietnam war. You and your entire village of 16 people are hiding in some brush. Heavily armed enemy forces are marching along a path that runs near enough to your location that they are able to hear any significant noises.

Question:

Knowing that the enemy will kill everyone in your village if you are discovered, and also knowing that one of the 16 villagers is your sick infant child who currently has a very bad cough, will you smother and kill your child in order to keep it quiet, thus saving the other 15 villagers, or will you do nothing, knowing that your child will make noise, causing all of the 16 villagers to be discovered and killed?

Bonus Question:

If the child was not yours, but rather the child of another villager, would it change your decision?

Too Good Not To Post

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Sat, 12 May 2007 01:36:00 +0000

For those of you who don't know my brother (no, not that one... or that one...)

http://www.myspace.com/nvrgnadi

Here's a preview, Hawkeye style!

And Now For Something Completely Different

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Sat, 12 May 2007 01:20:00 +0000

As a break from the recent seriousness of this blog, some random funny pics...

Three Mental Puzzlers: Question #2

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:23:00 +0000

This isn't meant to be a trick question. Given the following dilemma, please explain your choice of one of the two possible outcomes.

Scenario :

You are standing on a walking bridge over a single set of train tracks. Far to your right, on one end of the track, you see 15 people performing maintenance on it. Far to your left, on the other end of the track, you see a train rapidly approaching. Standing next to you on the bridge is a pedestrian. You are too far to visually or audibly notify any of the 15 individuals working on the track.

Question:

Knowing that the train will eventually hit and kill all of the 15 individuals on the track, do you push the pedestrian off of the bridge and onto the track, knowing that the train will hit and kill this person and stop prior to hitting the other 15 people, or do you allow the train to continue and kill all 15 laborers?

Three Mental Puzzlers: Question #1

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 01:42:00 +0000

This isn't meant to be a trick question. Given the following dilemma, please explain your choice of one of the two possible outcomes.

Scenario :

You are standing on a path near two sets of train tracks. Far to your right, you see one track with 15 people performing maintenance on it. Far to your left, you see another track with 1 person performing maintenance on it. Striaght ahead, you see a train rapidly approaching on the track with the 15 people. Next to you is a track switch lever that would allow you to divert the train onto the other track with the one person. You are too far to visually or audibly notify any of the individuals.

Question:

Knowing that the train will hit and kill all of the individuals on the track that it travels on, do you pull the lever and cause the lone laborer to die, or do you allow the train to continue on its current track and kill all 15 laborers?

A Greater Than Desirable Day

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 02:32:00 +0000

All in all, it's been a pretty good day.

I had the chance to eat some awesome barbecue at Wabash BBQ. It' s a little hole-in-the-wall BBQ joint about 30 minutes outside of Kansas City in rural Missouri. The pictures on the web site make it look like a "classy" establishment. I assure you, it's just as dodgy as any other good BBQ joint, but the food is just as good. I would highly recommend the brisket, althouth the pork was quite tasty as well.

I got finished up with this week's work a little ahead of time, allowing me to bump up my flight tomorrow and hopefully be back home at a reasonable time. It's always nice when you go into a week of "unknown" work and end up with a hard-fought success. It certainly makes the job rewarding.

I cought a flick tonight: Wild Hogs. The movie isn't going to win any awards, but it was funny to see the mix of actors/actresses working together, and Marissa Tomei is never hard to watch. There were some hilarious scenes, especially during the credits. John McGinley is a comedic rock star!

And..., as probably the best thing that happened today... Steve Alford is leaving the University of Iowa to coach at..., well..., I don't really care, so long as he's not at the U. of I. any more. Good riddance! Now maybe I can start enjoying basketball again!

The Rhubarb Conjecture

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 03:36:00 +0000

I realize that we've recently had some nasty weather in the central Illinois area, and I completely understand that when the weather gets bad, roads get bad, and accidents happen. Snow drifts, white outs, black ice... they can all cause accidents. What I don't understand is how, when the weather gets bad in this part of the state, classical physics stops applying to drivers and their vehicles.

Take Newton's First Law of Motion. In a nutshell, it says that an object will keep moving at a constant velocity in a straight line until some other force acts upon it. In the case of a moving car, if the car should happen to hit a patch of ice of a bunch of snow while traveling a normal highway speeds on a straight stretch of highway, it should continue to move in a straight line and, if anything, slow down a bit. To better illustrate, here is a diagram of how a vehicle should react when sliding on ice:

This seems simple enough. But what happens when classical physics start to break down? What happens when quantum mechanics become relevant? What happens when black holes, space-time continuums, and nuclear interactions play into the equation? Can we even begin to explain these complex interactions in a mathematical or scientific context? At this time, we can not. What I can offer is to diagram this complex reaction as I witnessed it this morning while driving on a rural highway in central Illinois. Keep in mind, very minimal amounts of wet snow (less than 1") were involved. No known external forces were acting laterally on the vehicle:

It can be seen that the car clearly dis-obeys Newton's first law by proceeding not in a straight path, but rather in an irregular path ultimately placing the vehicle at an arbitrary location, known locally as "in the rhubarb."

I will continue to write more on the Rhubarb Conjecture as time goes on, as I feel that empirical evidence will show that the effect can be witnessed in other environments, such as the running paths of our nieghbors' dogs, or the shopping cart isles at Wal-Mart. Until then the Rhubarb Conjecture will remain just that, and not a law.

Still Kicking

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 01:41:00 +0000

Well, I'm still kicking. I have to apologize for my hiatus from blogging. I'm going to make a valiant effort to get back into the swing of things. Since my last post, a few things have happened...

The holiday season came and went. It was a good celebration all around this year.
Work has been crazy kinds of busy, but it's a good kind of crazy. I really like my company and my job, which is refreshing given my last work experience.
I've been doing a lot of traveling. Most recently, I spent a week in Houston, TX.
The weather in central IL has been a little nasty for the past few weeks. Lots of snow, ice, and wind. Apparently, our cat doesn't care for snow drifts, as she didn't see the humor in her little outing yesterday. ;-)
When the temperature is above 10 degrees, I've been smoking bigger and better things. My most recent adventure was a pork shoulder, which I smoked for around 19 hours. It was awesome.
As usual, I've been reading lots of tech books. I finished up the "Gimp" book, and I'm almost done with "Open Sources 2.0". Also, per a co-worker recommendation, I'm reading through "Peace, Love, and Barbecue" in my free time. This book rocks! I highly recommend anyone who smokes/barbecues to read this book.

Let the blogging begin!

Oh Deer!

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 01:26:00 +0000

The deer in Central Illinois are either explosive, suicidal, or just plain stupid.

I'm not sure why, and I don't exactly know what it means, but in here in the flatness that is Central Illinois, vehicles don't hit deer on the roadways; rather, they seem to cause deer to explode. Growing up in Iowa made me all to accustomed the not-so-random deer "near-miss" while driving. It was a nightly ocurance around dusk in the fall. I learned quickly that I needed to actively look out for them at all times when driving. It was not uncommon to see a deer carcass laying along the side of the road or in a ditch somewhere, nor was it uncommon to have to break to not hit one.

What I didn't see very often was what can only be described as a "splat" mark on the interstate that is the remnant of a once live deer. This is what we have in Central Illinois. I have some theories as to why this is:

Deer don't get hit at all. They seem to become so frightened at the sight of an oncoming vehicle, they they internally combust and explode. I propose this is caused by the Illinois varieties of corn and soybeans, which seem to be grown more for energy purposes than consumption in modern times. Apparantly an 86-octane ethanol blend in a deer that is scared $*%@-less causes an explosion and resulting mess all over the highway. I haven't had time to test this theory to scale yet, but given the soybean content of our cat's food, and the concentration of "funk" that seems to be eeking out of her butt on a regular basis, I think it's just a matter of time before all of the data is in.

Deer are suicidal. How do I know this? Well, the other night when I was driving home from a recent football game, around 11:00pm , a deer walked, not jumped or ran, out into the middle of my lane on the highway, stood straight up facing me head-on, and attempted to bite the big one. I was moving along at around 75mph and I didn't see him until my low beams met his eyes, which was far too close to have time to think. I know it was a "he" because he had a large rack of antlers... and because it was obvious his nagging deer-wife was the one who drove him into his current state of being. Anyway, my hand managed to make the car swerve violently and recover just in time to avoid the creation of yet another deer "splat". I say my "hand" because I'm not convinced my brain had anything to do with it, which I guess is a good thing, but maybe not either. This marks the third time I've had to put the car against an impromptu driving test. So far, its record is 3-0. If I don't write another blog for a long long time, the record has probably become 3-1. I'm reminded of a movie...

Deer are stupid. I really have no way to back up this idea, but given the number of stupid people in the world, I see no reason that there can't be equally stupid deer. Most people can't walk and talk at the same time, and they only have two legs to control, whereas a deer has four. Of course, deer don't talk either, but maybe they're doing something else that is dually perplexing, like chewing gum, sniffing for food, or being shot at.

Or, is this all just some kind of a conspiracy hatched at the North Pole by the big man in red and his 8 elitist deer (Reindeer that is) in order to continue the hard-fisted rule of Christmas sleigh-pulling dominance. Hmmm.... talk amongst yourselves...

Go Hawks!!

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:19:00 +0000

Check it out. The frappr thing is pretty cool!

http://www.herky.net/
http://www.frappr.com/herkynation

How 'bout 'dem Hawkeyes!

Flying out where the buses don't walk

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 22:56:00 +0000

I wish to give a quick summary of my recent traveling experieces:

Plan 1)
To fly from Dallas/Fort Worth to Peoria during mid-afternoon
Result 1)
I spent the night in Atlanta (don't ask)

Plan 2)
To fly from Peoria to Omaha on a late-afternoon flight
Result 2)
Camped out in O'Hare for 6+ hours and ended up arriving in Omaha around midnight

Plan 3)
To fly from Omaha to Peoria on a late-afternoon flight
Result 3, in progress)
The flight is already delayed an hour, and the one other guy in the terminal decided he needs to sit right behind me and talk loudly on his cell phone. Prognosis: not good.

Flying in the United States, as of right now, is slightly less than desirable. Unless it takes more than 8 hours to drive somewhere, you are probably better off renting a car or working on that space-time transporter. Or, and this is my personal favorite, lighting a bunch of candles, sacrificing some chickens, humming, and getting lit on $6 airport bottles of beer. Note: it is not advised to try to hum while drinking $6 airport beer; sacrificing chickens while drinking $6 airport beer can be oddly rewarding.

Result 3 Update)
The flight has been pushed back another 30 minutes.

I have to believe that there is a better mode of transportation in this country. Perhaps I should look into Amtrak, or Greyhound, or maybe just take up ultra-long-distance hiking. Really, how long could it take to walk from Peoria to Omaha???

Shit... gotta go... my chicken just ran off.

The Chronicles of Aspen: The Bike, The Bus, and The Superhero

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher C. Weis) — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 16:42:00 +0000

Tuesday in Aspen was action-packed with blog-worthy incidents. I've decided to list them below in order of increasing impressiveness.

I started off the day with a road trip up a mountain on a bus with a bunch of different people. We got to the top of the mountain, took some pictures, and biked back down. The guide for the "tour" was a middle-aged woman who was extremely bubbly and knowledgeable about outdoor activities in Aspen. She made the trip a lot of fun. The concerning thing about the trip was not so much the bike ride down the mountain, but the inability of others to understand the fundamentals of biking. I realize that not everyone bikes on a regular basis, and that "new" multi-speed bikes of today may be confusing to someone who isn't used to a mountain-class bike, but seriously people... after 3 miles of biking, how can you not figure it out??? We had to crawl down the path because others in the group (all but about 4-6 of us) had no idea how to properly brake and/or shift a bike. Maybe I'm off my rocker on this one, but if one is going to sign up to go biking in the mountains, braking and shifting are probably two skills that one should invest in learning prior to the outing. Just an suggestion from someone who knows nothing.
After the biking trip, I decided to catch a bus back to the hotel. Now, I don't claim to be a guru when it comes to deciphering the intricate coding schemes and labeling conventions that is Aspen's public transport documentation, but I felt fairly comfortable that the shown bus route would get me to my preferred destination with little chance of error. To help you to better understand, I started my journey at the bottom-right of the square on Main St., and I needed to stop at my hotel somewhere between the Castle Ridge turn-off and the Aspen Highlands Ski area. The entire route is only a few miles long, so I figured if I missed my stop or was on the wrong route, I could simply ride back to where I started and try again. ..... Fast forward two hours .... I've been sitting in the same seat on the same bus for two hours now. I don't exactly know where I am in the wonderful state of Colorado, but I feel closer to Denver than to Aspen. Apparently I mis-read the map (obviously a result of my lackey map-reading skills). I missed the part where the bus doesn't stop and the Aspen Highlands Ski Area and instead continues on for another 3 hours in a direction that can only be described as "directly away from Aspen." So... I got a 4 hour tour of Colorado aboard a hot and bumpy city bus. At least I know where to find a mall and a Wal-Mart in Colorado now.

Given this incident, there are a few things I would like to make known to RFTA, the public transit organization that services Aspen and areas "directly away from Aspen":

Maps are only useful if followed correctly. Seems obvious to me... not so much to the RFTA.
The big displays on the front of the buses aren't a whole lot of good if they consist of acronyms that are a maximum of three letters in length. Example: "X CMT/RP/AVH/Mrn." I've since learned that the "X" at the beginning means "express route" and is a completely different (yet mysteriously undocumented) route.
Not everyone is trying to screw RFTA out of $0.50 by lying about their ages. The time the bus driver spends arguing about a rider's age costs way more money than it's worth. Get over it.
If a bus should happen to be changing its route while there are riders on the bus, it would seem customary for the riders of the bus to be notified of said event. Lack of doing so may cause riders to become mildly concerned and non-complacent (non-complacent: a state of mind between the states of 'contemplating how to kill a bus driver' and 'if I jump out of the door now, am I more likely to be killed by oncoming traffic or by rolling off of a cliff'.)

And finally, the most impressive thing of the day for me occurred when waiting for the bus the spawned the previous topic. An entire group of 4-6 year old children was crossing the street, accompanied by a few adults. I assume it was a summer school/camp sort of organization. All of the kids had on standard Aspen attire: designer jeans, name-brand sun glasses, Rolex watches, diamond jewelry, etc., etc.. That is, all of the except for one. I like to think of him as the chosen one. It was obvious great things were to come of his life. He'd possibly become a brilliant CEO, a Nobel prize winner, or one of the most honorable humanitarians this planet has ever known. This was made clear by his desire to stand out, his need to differentiate himself, from the other children. Did he do this by wearing more expensive clothes? Not likely. Did he dress himself in full business attire? Certainly not. Could he even see where he was going? Doubtful. Was his outfit one that would define him as an individual? Absolutely. It takes a true leader, a "chosen one", to dress himself in a full-blown Spider Man costume, for a short park outing on a 85-degree day in Aspen. It is obvious this individual is going somewhere, even if it requires a supervisory hand to lead him, due to lack of proper vision through a poorly designed costume head-piece.

Seriously... it made my day.