DNA, the code of life? Or only part?
Hofstadter asks whether the meaning is in the code or the interpreter?
Which came first? The chicken or the egg?
DNA isn’t exactly like that, because the existing form affects the expression of the code. Which in turn affects the expression and replication of said code. DNA should more be […]

Prompted by reading a chapter on Zen in “Gödel, Escher, Bach”:
Zen seems to be a sort of holism to the extreme… dissolving the self to become one with the universe and achieve enlightenment.
In some ways I see the use for this viewpoint while meditating and as a relaxation technique. In particular the concept that all […]

Looks like I’m not the only one:

“Is someone you work with taking Provigil to give them an extra competitive edge? I’ve spoken with one executive who says he uses it regularly to work twenty hour days, and the buzz lately is that it’s the “entrepreneur’s drug of choice” around Silicon Valley. Over the last week […]

I’ve been reading a little about social dynamics and what makes people attractive. There is the obvious and oft mentioned confidence, but another one is a lack of response to criticism or insult. Or rather, not being dramatic about things. If you respond, you give those people acknoledgement to whatever their frame was (a frame […]

A video with a really great explanation of curve numbers and how to turn a sphere inside out.
My spatial mind felt a mite expanded after watching it.
Haven’t been writing much here due to being very busy. I’ve moved to Wellington, I went to Kiwiburn, I’ve started contract work continuing my PhD work part time, and […]

I recently attended a workshop on invasive species distribution and spread modelling. One interesting thing to note, is that APHIS has lost a lot of biological inspectors (people trying to intercept biological contaminants that may result in foreign species establishing in the USA) to Homeland Security. A similar thing has happened in Canada with CFIS […]

So yesterday, at the end of my journey from Vancouver, my luggage got left in Sydney, Australia. Whereas I went all the way through to Christchurch. “That’s fine” I thought, since Christchurch airport promised to deliver the luggage to my house the next day.
It just arrived. But one of the zippers is broken off, and […]

The article linked below calls for the general public and policy makers to talk about drugs openly, and stop negative rhetoric about them, and actually discuss the issues instead of fear-mongering (via Tatjna).

In particular, the comparison to mountaineering is quite nice:
The truth is that recreational drug taking is like mountaineering. When all goes well, as […]

Today is the International Bloggers’ Day for Burma. More than three thousand bloggers around the world are participating to raise awareness of the Burmese junta and its oppression of Burma’s people. The protests may have been stamped out,and the monks murdered or imprisoned, but the international community must continue to pressure the Burmese regime […]

So BarCampChristchurch went pretty well. Quite a few interesting talks/discussions and I think my talk on the Singularity held some interest for people:

It’s also fortuitous that the BarCamp was on the Friday before the Singularity Summit 2007 because it meant I could at least pretend I was attending! On a side note, the Summit got […]