Category: Life

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, …

Transformative Music and the Power of Radio

LifeLeave a comment

The first time I paid for a piece of music was back in 1972 which means I was either 12 years old or would, at some point in that year, be 12 years old. The music I bought was a 45 RPM record, a single, by one Sammy Davis Jr. The song, which I’d heard many times on the radio, was “The Candy Man”, and I still remember going to the store and handing over my hard-earned 99 cents to pay for it. I can’t remember the store but I do remember the experience. It was exciting in ways that …

The Old Woman. Work, Contribution, and Value.

Life / OpinionLeave a comment

There was a time when somebody might have observed that a stay at home mom didn't work. As a stay at home dad, I have first hand experience regarding with this concept. You do a lot, but you don't get paid for it. It's the job that's not really a job. That's not what this is about. I mention moms, and dads, because that's one place where work isn't valued, at least not financially. Most people will, sometimes grudgingly, accept that the work does, however, have a value you need to measure differently. You're still contributing. You're still working. To …

Anonymous Trolls on the Rick Mercer Report

Life / OpinionLeave a comment

The right to post anonymously is a contentious one, made that much more difficult by the low-life scum whose entire purpose it to sow discord. They are a pox on the Internet and they are, as Rick Mercer rightly points out, ruining it for the rest of us. However, I can understand, and appreciate, that for some people, posting anonymously can be a matter of life and death. That fact makes RIck's rant on the Rick Mercer Report (scroll down for the video) more complicated than it might otherwise be. I do tend to believe that people should be accountable …

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 …

Anthropomorphizing Spirit

Life / OpinionLeave a comment

This morning,  I  was telling Sally about an xkcd cartoon where the Spirit rover is doing its  work on Mars,  counting down the days until its mission is over. The rover is seen thinking about the day when it can come home, then starts to question what it did wrong as the days and months pass. Eventually, humans return to Mars, long after Spirit had “died”. In the final panel, there’s a domed city on Mars, and Spirit is in the middle of a park dedicated to the little robot. As I told her this, Sally was making fun of …

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