Category: Brain Farts

Noah was what we call a ‘bad drunk’!

Brain Farts / Religion & AtheismLeave a comment

After God was done killing everyone and everything on Earth, save for what Noah was hauling aboard the Ark, it came to pass that things had to start anew. Noah, his boys, and their wives set about begetting in order to repopulate the Earth. A man needs hobbies and old Noah, who was already 600 years old at this point, got into wine making, a business I heartily approve of. He also got into wine drinking and would, from time to time, hit the sauce a little hard. Turn, if you will, to Genesis 9, verses 18 to 29 wherein …

Some Thoughts on Capitalism, Universal Basic Income, and Automation

Brain Farts / LifeLeave a comment

The concept of Universal Basic Income (UBI) is not new, but surprisingly few have heard of it or truly understand the reason for it and why, now more than ever, it is vitally important. In simplest terms, UBI is a regular cash payment made to every person. You don’t need to work for it and you can do anything you want with it. Some see it as money for nothing, a lazy person’s way of getting a handout from the rest of society. Proponents, many of whom don’t actually ‘need’ UBI, see it as a necessary means to keep the …

My Research Paper with Beyoncé and Tommy Hilfiger

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You may be tempted to think of Beyoncé as just a talented singer and performer just as you might see Tommy Hilfiger as nothing more than a fashion designer behind a popular clothing brand. You may be tempted, but I ask you to reconsider. Both of these fine people recently joined me in exploring a fascinating topic which has just been published in our research paper titled, “Emulating Interrupts Using Introspective Symmetries.” First and foremost, I have to say that I am extremely excited to have my name associated with such talented people, but also in knowing that the three …

Today’s Bible Quote Examined : Kings 2:23-25

Brain Farts / Religion & AtheismLeave a comment

If you’ve every wondered whether God and his prophets have a sense of humour, wonder no further. Harken to the word . . . 23 And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. 24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children …

Schrödinger’s Elon Musk

Brain Farts / Life / OpinionLeave a comment

Are we living in a simulation? In various interviews, Elon Musk has famously stated that there is a one-in-a-billion chance that we are not living in a simulation. Turning that around, he is saying that we are almost certainly living in a made up universe. A hyper-realistic fantasy. He cites, among other things, the rapid increases in video game development, to show that given enough time, it should be possible to create a perfect simulation. And, if such a perfect simulation has been created, then it must be created time and time again. Some people make light of this argument, …

My Linux Nightmare

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Let me tell you about a Linux nightmare I woke up from this morning. Yeah, I know, the Linux chef had a Linux nightmare. If you're looking for how to spell schadenfreude, it's schadenfreude. To be more specific, it was a Linux command line nightmare. You see, in the dream, I was locked up somewhere, with bad hombres of one sort or another having trapped me and whoever I was with in some dungeon-like room. Maybe they were aliens, like real aliens. Doesn't matter. There was no way out but there was all sorts of junk lying around. So, I …

Turing Test Failure

Brain Farts / OpinionLeave a comment

Yesterday, I had a weird Turing moment.  As background to this post, I should tell you that I was listening to a podcast on robots and artificial intelligence where Sam Harris was chatting with Kate Darling. Had I not been listening to this, I might have forgotten about my Turing moment. Here's what happened. Yesterday, I received a call from a telephone solicitor, trying to sell me some emergency service for my furnace, insinuating as they spoke, but they were some safety issues that needed to be addressed. At first I was confused by what he was saying, despite being …

Cemeteries and Churches

Brain Farts / Humour / Life / Religion & AtheismLeave a comment

Today was another day of summer camp for the boys. One was at soccer camp and the other at skateboard camp. That, however, is not really what this post is about.  After picking the boys up, we passed by a cemetery on the way home. My youngest, the 8 year old, looked out the winder and asked, "Dad, why are cemeteries often beside churches?" I told him that was a good question and built my explanation thusly. You see, my boy, churches are often thought of as God's house. What's happening then is that people are being buried next to …

Internet Speeds, Real vs Advertised

Brain Farts / OpinionLeave a comment

This is a story about Internet speed, real vs advertised. After I dropped the kids off at school this morning, I listened to a CBC Spark podcast. On that podcast, Nora (the host) spoke to a gentleman from CIRA, the Canadian domain organization responsible for the .ca domains. He spoke of a new speed test designed to provide _real world_ statistics regarding Internet performance. If you're curious, I'll provide the link shortly. When I returned home, I decided to give it a try. Using the CIRA speed test, I found that I had upload speeds of 20 Mbps from here …

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