Thoughts on Socialization

This is just a braindump of questions and hypotheses that have probably already been examined...

Do animals that are more independent when they are young (i.e. less dependent on others) become less social as they age? Are animals that are more dependent in youth remain social in life? Where does a need for society come from? The need for social interaction drives civil behavior, which needs to be a part of any AI participating successfully w/the human race.

Capabilities: A being who is dependent on others to succeed must learn how to interact with civility. A being who is underequipped to deal may develop feelings of hostility from inadequacy (Adam and Eve). A being overequipped may become hostile from arrogance. Are all human beings restricted to this region of capability, or do the least capable and most capable of us possess feelings of hostility that are caused by that condition?

Would an independent AI that developed far beyond human capabilities retain its empathy for mankind if it evolved as mankind does, as a completely dependent being (a baby) into a mature, independent being? Humans remain dependent on society throughout life to survive, but could conditions intersect that would enable an AI to become completely independent from society?

An independent source of energy. Ability to self-replicate. ...

Facing Heaven Peppers

In my journey into the world of Szechuan cuisine, there is one ingredient that I have until now been unable to find, and is absolutely essential for producing the Real Deal, and that is... The Facing Heaven Pepper.

I've wandered through dozens of Asian and international food stores in St. Louis and Los Angeles, calling "Nǐ yǒu cháo tiān jiāo ma?" and I've scoured the web for leads, but the one thing that finally came through for me was to phone a friend. Or actually send the friend a Facebook message (I mean using the phone to talk is so passé...), and that friend lives in Toronto, Ontario, a multicultural mecca for North America. Seriously, if you've never been there? In some parts of town, Toronto actually has street signs with Mandarin translations. Plus I had the best Szechuan food outside of China there, and actually it may have even been slightly better than the stuff I had in China, so if any town would have them, Toronto would have them. And now, without further ado...

I give you the Facing Heaven Pepper:

Note the Chinese characters on the bottom right corner: 朝天椒. Recognizing those characters is the only way you would know that this is the right chili, unless you could identify them visually.

The beauty of this pepper is that it gives its unique flavor and heat over to the dish, and then just goes to the background, providing exactly the right amount of heat to complement the NUMBING sensation of the Szechuan peppercorns. The overall effect is addictive. ADDICTIVE I TELL YOU!

Even as I write this I am germinating some of the seeds to see if I can grow this beauty in my backyard. Can you even germinate seeds from dried chilies? I shall soon find out...

I think we should start stalking other people (you don't stalk me like you used to)

I want to hurt you because i love you.

If i want to eat your arm, it's because i love you.

You make me want to puke

and kiss your sweet face.

New drink: 21st Century

Equal parts Square One Botanical and Lillet. Add about 3-4 dashes of Angostura bitters.

This is possibly a bit TOO smooth. Goes down like water. I recommend the following modifier:

Healthy dose of green Chartreuse, and all of its "130 Alpine herbs".

I haven't tried it yet, because I don't have any Chartreuse, but I have a feeling it's right on the money.

New favorite drink: Botanical Cocktail

About two weeks ago I received my copy of Gaz Regan's new book, The Bartender's Gin Compendium. I've been on a huge gin kick ever since my friend Adam introduced me to the Martinez. In the early pages of the book, Mr. Regan describes a drink common to the latter half of the 1800s called the Gin Cocktail. He sketches out a recipe of gin, simple syrup, bitters, and "perhaps a little curaçao or or absinthe." Sounds good!

So, a few days ago I was browsing through the gin section at my local Wine and Spirits retailer, and I saw this thing I had never seen before called Square One Botanical.

From their website:

"Square One Botanical is a bold organic rye spirit, infused with a striking blend of 8 organic botanicals - pear, rose, chamomile, lemon verbena, lavender, rosemary, coriander and citrus peel. This enticing composition of organic fruit, floral and herbs creates a captivating fragrance and offers a seductive taste experience in cocktails."

They say that Botanical is not vodka. Because of its complex infusion, it is essentially a gin, but without the juniper. Gin is defined by its juniper flavor. In fact the word gin is actually a corruption of the British slang word gen, which is short for genever, which is the Dutch word for juniper. Genever was once a style of gin (now beginning to make a comeback) that had a very malty, almost whiskey-like palate, unlike today's highly refined gins. It is also the earliest known style of gin to become popular.

Anyway, not to bore you w/the details (although I do recommend that book), but this new spirit by Square One is distilled identically to gin, but w/out the juniper, which some are saying is a revolutionary idea, and possibly a completely new type of spirit. I'm actually pretty excited about it. So... on w/the cocktail:

Botanical Cocktail
2 oz Square One Botanical
1/2 oz simple syrup
1/2 oz absinthe (been using Pernod)
3-4 dashes of bitters (been using Angostura)

Stir well in broken ice and strain into cocktail glass. Amazing!

Notes for ripping your own logs with minimal setup

If you're like me you have a very small workshop and therefore must be extremely discriminate about what large tools you fill it with. I have finally developed a fairly reliable process for ripping logs found in neighbors' yards after they fell a tree for whatever reason using only one major power tool: the bandsaw.

You need:

14" bandsaw w/6" riser block (Or bigger. I use a Powermatic PWBS-14CS.)

Wood Slicer resaw blade (The biggest one that will fit on your bandsaw. I use 3/4".)

14" chainsaw (Or bigger)

Scrub plane

Jack plane

Jointer plane

1. Square up the log as well as possible w/the chainsaw. Be very careful to get the surfaces as flat as you can manage, which is not easy w/a chainsaw. I set the logs on end on a sort of makeshift platform so I can cut all the way to the bottom w/out hitting concrete. Another key element here is to nail a scrap piece of wood to the bottom of the log like an arm, and then lay a bag of dirt, or some kind of dead weight, on the arm. This will keep the log from turning as you saw through w/the chainsaw, which creates a tremendous amount of torque.
2. Once you get the kind-of squared up log into the shop, use the planes to flatten the flattest side of the log to the point where it will sit stably on the bandsaw's deck while you push it through.
3. Tune your bandsaw to use the Wood Slicer, which is the most awesome bandsaw blade ever created. If properly tuned, it will cut through like butter. I mean really take your time here or you will be extremely pissed when your blade drifts diagonally into your log. Set the tension high and make sure you have enough clearance. Oil the bearings, whatever you need to do to make that bandsaw cut straight.
4. Place the log flat side down on the bandsaw deck and rip as straight a line as you can. Repeat this process until you have four flat sides
5. Now rip your well-squared log into rough boards.
6. Dimension the boards w/your planes.

You might not need to do the whole chainsaw bit if you can come up w/some great log jig for your bandsaw. I haven't figured one out yet.

This may all sound easy, but it is extremely time consuming to flatten the faces, and the bandsaw ork requires a very good understanding of the bandsaw. Read up everything you can on compensating for drift and properly tuning the bandsaw or you will just waste a lot of potentially great wood.

Ripping found logs is fun, because it's usually really old growth hardwood, which can be ridiculously expensive to purchase, but one problem I keep running into is that the tree was usually cut down due to some kind of insect invasion. You might have to throw away several boards due to bore holes, but there will be some gems in there too.

Ahh, that legendary pugnacity!

From the Online Etymology Dictionary:

Irish

c.1200, Irisce, from stem of O.E. Iras "inhabitant of Ireland," from O.N. irar, ult. from O.Ir. Eriu (acc. Eirinn, Erinn) "Erin," which is from O.Celt. *Iveriu (acc. *Iverionem, abl. *Iverione), perhaps meaning "good land." Meaning "temper, passion" is 1834, Amer.Eng. (first attested in writings of Davy Crockett), from the legendary pugnacity of Irish people. Irish-American is from 1832; Irish coffee is from 1950. Wild Irish (1399) originally were those not under English rule; Black Irish in ref. to those of Mediterranean appearance is from 1888.

Aye, 'tis both a gift and a gallows.

Allow me to Elucidate my Bracketological Veracity...

You have to click on the image to actually be able to read it.

Yes, I'm a dreamer, but I mean c'mon, hah!? Come on! You gotta rally behind the Mounties when such an unprecedented opportunity presents itself! Oh yeah, Pittsburgh over Syracuse is almost ridiculous, but Pitt did beat Syracuse earlier this season, and dude, a Backyard Brawl for the Championship? Holy shit!

Damian! Hah!? Let's see that bracket!

The Martinez

I've recently plunged myself into the world of cocktails. Here is my favorite way to mix a Martinez, the sweeter, darker ancestor of both the Martini and the Manhattan:

1.5 oz sweet vermouth (been using Cinzano)

1.5 oz Old Tom gin (been using Hayman's)

.25 oz Maraschino (been using Luxardo)

1 Maraschino cherry

dash of Regan's Orange Bitters

I like them sweet and on the rocks, so... Pour the vermouth over 6-8 icecubes, and stir until the ice is broken in (rounded off). Pour in the gin and the Maraschino, and drop in the cherry, and shake the bitters bottle three times. Stir well. The cherry will hide beneath the ice.

Now comes the important part!

Pour a little more Maraschino on top, so it floats, and add two more shakes of the bitters.

Delicious.

Stick your nose right in there and take a deep breath. The aroma alone is intoxicating. Once you take a sip you'll want another. And, since you floated that Maraschino, you don't notice that it gets stronger as you continue to imbibe. Yes!

Punny Picture

Get it? :D

Counting seconds

One Mississippi... Two Mississippi... "It took two seconds." WRONG!

Zero Mississippi... One Mississippi... "It took a just over one second." CORRECT!

Design Sense

This is going to seem like a silly detail, but I was just reading an article about a new program at Google that will pay anyone who finds a previously unknown security vulnerability in Chrome $500.

"The standard payment for eligible bugs will be $500, with a special — and comical — reward of $1337 for 'particularly severe or particularly clever' vulnerabilities."

Now there's the kicker. There's the trademark Google stamp of thoughtful, considered application of design in every little thing they do. See, 1337 is leet for "elite." Even in considering how much money to award people for finding bugs, the spirit of design has triumphed behind Google's doors.

I'm not a huge Google fan (Palm Pre rules!), but you have to admire their attention to culture.

Black holes

Seems like if the big bang was not the first big bang, and it's a cyclical event, then black holes may become unstable once they run out of matter to consume. Once all black holes have consumed their galaxies, and all the available ISM, and each other, and there is just one, and it runs out of all matter to consume, all gravity is consolidated, all EVERYTHING is consolidated, then a new reaction begins to occur, like an engine that has run out of coolant. The reaction reaches a critical point and an explosion occurs that is proportionate to the mass of the object.

Of course, this depends on the assumption that the Universe will stop expanding, and that the weak force known as gravity will gradually mop up.

Thus spoke The Armchair Physicist.

Brain dump

"Well Rebecca, get your basket, let's go down to the wood,

You might not pick any berries but you'll come back feeling good." (Fiery Furnaces)

The Fiery Furnaces are going to be here on Saturday. 'Nuff said.

My boss has an agenda incongruent w/my own. Sixty hours gets me fifteen minutes of face-to-face on the phone, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't really listen to me then, except to determine how to stay a step ahead.

The secret to Szechuan dry-fried beef is to fry it twice. The first time draws out excess moisture. The second fry gives you chewy, delicious strips of beef. Add a Thai twist by dry frying with nam prik pao!

I'm taking one class this semester: Probability. The classes are from 11-12, two days a week. There's an unsophisticated pun it there somewhere.

Cold beer.

I have a couple of really great ideas per year. It's fairly exciting when it happens. Someone with initiative could get rich on these ideas, and maybe change the technology landscape. I document them thoroughly, and stuff them away.

CC's Depot Dogs

I actually went to Home Depot today just to get two fully loaded hot dogs and a Diet Coke. The hilarity of that is just now setting in. At the time it seemed like a perfectly normal thing to do. I was really craving one of those hot dogs, so I went to Home Depot for lunch. Yep, yep.

I think I'm addicted. I could eat two more right now. The combination of that celery salt and the hot and sour sport peppers (pickled peppers) cutting through the warm, meaty flavor of the hot dog is divine. A cold Diet Coke washes it down... man. It's only 1:50pm... I could still get out there and get some more...

Thomas Grandi's amazing turns

Put this on loop, lie down, and let your brain melt right out your ear...

Awesome New Asian Fusion Recipe

I've been working on it for about a week now. I think it's one of my best ever for three reasons: First, it tastes like nothing else, and it tastes wonderful. Second, it's impossible to not get right. Third, it's versatile.

• Heat three to four to five tablespoons of peanut oil in a sauté pan over medium to low heat.
• Add a good, healthy portion (like say three forkfuls) of Tianjin preserved vegetable. (If you've never heard of this stuff, you should be able to find it at your local Asian market. Warning: it's addictive.) This portion gets bigger every time, but I think four forkfuls may be the upper limit.
• Add a hefty amount of fresh ginger - like a whole thumb, including the fleshy part attached to the palm, cut into slices of approximately 200 micrometers. (That's 1/5th of a millimeter. It's easier to get thin slices of ginger if you slice WITH the grain. You don't really have to use the digital calipers, but thinner is better.)

Heat until the ingredients become fragrant. This is the base. From here there are two variations, depending on what you're trying to accomplish. If you're just making rice, then...

• Shred 1 whole fennel bulb into hearty, slaw-like pieces w/a knife, add to sauté

Or, if you're making pork chops, then...

• Add 1/2 tsp of anise seeds

If you went the fennel route, you need to cook that fennel for a few minutes until it's tender. Keep the heat no higher than medium. These ingredients can burn. If you went the anise seeds route, then you just sauté for a minute more. Either way, the next step is...

• Add 1 tsp of fresh minced garlic

Heat until garlic is cooked, like maybe 1-2 minutes, then remove everything from the pan, except for any excess oil.

The next step would be to either 1) cook your chops in the leftover oil until done, and then at the end turn up the heat to give them a nice browning, and then serve w/the mixture on top of them, or 2) fold the mixture into a heap of cooked jasmine rice.

It's really, really, really, really good. I mean really good.

iStupid

How about more grammar?

American Politics Bullshit

"Well, you see, Johnny, we have a two-party system."

"Well what's that?"

"Well, that's where you have one party write legislation, and the other party tries to sabotage it."

"Huh."

"Yeah."

"That sounds like a game."

"Well, I guess it is a kind of game."

"But what if there's something really bad gonna happen, like an asteroid's gonna hit us or something?"

"Well, then one party will try to write legislation to save the planet, and the other will try to sabotage it."

"Huh."

"Yep."

"But if we get hit by an asteroid, we could die."

"Yes, but if they pass legislation that keeps us from getting hit by the asteroid, then the other party will lose."

"How come?"

"Well, that's just how it is, Johnny."

"I don't get it."

Glitter and Doom Live

Did you know that Waits has released a live album from his Glitter and Doom tour? There's nothing from St. Louis on there - THAT WAS SUCH AN AWESOME CONCERT! - but Get Behind the Mule is on there, and the live version of that alone is worth the price of the album, I think.

Remember when we all sang Innocent When You Dream during the encore? That was awesome.