Forbidden Planet

I have had a number of paranormal experiences in my life which spurred an interest in the paranormal when I was younger. However, in spite of all that, I am decidedly skeptical of paranormal claims. The second paranormal experience (here for the first) I recall occurred when I was 7 or 8 (grade 2 or 3). It was a dark, gray, cold day in December. I was walking home from school with my friend Sheldon. It was probably near 16:00. We had gone up 36th avenue and had turned right on St-Antoine, when I noticed lights in the sky over the golf course (back in the early 70s, Grove Hill park was an open field and north of Provost was a golf course). They darted about quickly. Sometimes they stopped. Through out the whole routine they would change colours from red to white to orange. I pointed it out to my friend and said I thought someone was playing on the clouds with a coloured flashlight. He replied that it was UFOs. "What are UFOs?" I asked back. “Unidentified Flying Objects. Space...

Since blogger is refusing to upload even small teaser images at the moment (the message that comes up mentions something about a firewall … blah, blah, blah). You will have to leave my blog to go and check out some really nifty icons and desktops over here at the 2006 GUI championships.

At least that is the way Sofia heard the line from Bif Naked 's song Choking on the Truth . The actual line was "I am honesty". Later I popped "The Best of the Animals" in and Sofia remarked, "This is better, you can enjoy it without having to be on drugs."

In the building I work, we have a pair of large metal-framed glass doors in the central corridor. I presume they are fire doors. Anyhow, it is not obvious whether you push or pull on them. So, they had lettering put on the doors, near the handles, to let you know if you should push or pull. I don't think it made much difference because I, and others, still push or pull at the wrong time. I think this falls in the category of poor user interface design. The problem is that putting the lettering near the handle is pointless, unless you have never used a door before and have to think about grabbing the handle. For most of us, this is an automatic reflex and we simply reach out for where we expect the handle to be and then push or pull. We keep our eyes pointed straight ahead, there is no need for us to lower them and look at the handle. Image nabbed from here .

Discovered an interesting psychological test called the IAT (Implicit Association Test). The claim is that even if we exercise a strong control over conscious thoughts and attitudes, the truth is that we have subconscious biases that this test is able to ferret out. It requires you to quickly sort through a variety of items and assign them to one of two columns. The first set might have the columns "Male" and "Female" and you will be asked to sort male and female nouns and pronouns. The next round may have the columns "Career" and "Family". Again you will be asked to sort items. Finally, each column will get two categories, for example, "Male or Career" and "Female or Family" and you will have to sort 4 sets of items into those two columns. The theory is that we subconsciously associate certain concepts, say male and career or female and family. When we mix up the categories to be "Male or Family" and "Female or...

I have mentioned before that Anthony de Croud is the most popular search term landing people to this blog. Sometimes makes me wonder if I should delete the post and references to it. Today, someone left an anonymous message on my blog - incongruously placed in my post Thirty Days Hath September My best guess is that it was placed by a robot which crawls the web looking for references to Anthony de Croud and then posts this: Anthony Le Croud: I have received a card from you saying that good luck will follow if i resend the card. (Chinese proverb) If you are a missionary, what kind of missionary are you. If you are a Christian missionary i have good news for you: Christians don't believe in luck. They trust in the Lord. Unfortunately you are placing curses on people by saying bad luck will follow if they do not do as the card says. I break the curse you place on me in the Name of Yeshua and hope that you will forgive me for my bluntness. Have a blessed day and may you find peace i...

The past few months I have been reading a lot on writing - everything from how to write, how to get published, even how to do book binding. The most recurrent theme is how hard it is to be a writer. There are always wonderful quotes like: "There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein." - Walter Smith "Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." -Gene Fowler Holly Lisle , an author (someone I have notread), has a pretty interesting web site filled with resources for writers and inspiration and support. However, in her free ebook, Mugging the Muse , she has this to say: "Let me define the act of writing for you. As a writer, you're going to attempt to sell the products of your mind to a world that doesn't care right now whether you breathe or not. You're going to strip your soul naked and parade it in front of editors and agents, publisher...

When I was a kid growing up in Canada, Rocket Robin Hood and Spiderman were two classic cartoons put out by Canadian animation company (Krantz Films) in Toronto. You can see the opening credits to both. I am pretty sure that Spiderman aired in the States, I am not so sure about Rocket Robin Hood though. I have a feeling that was distinctly Canadian fare. Each Rocket Robin Hood episode was probably no more than 10 minutes long, but was stretched out to a full half hour by playing the same interlude pieces over and over again (there were maybe 8 or so interlude pieces). Krantz had also done a cartoon version of Hercules back then, each episode was about 5 minutes long and was stretched by having on of the characters (a centaur) repeat his lines twice: "Hercules! Hercules! Look! Look! It's Daedelus! It's Daedelus!" (they also made a number of historical vignettes featuring Max the 2000 year old mouse - "I know. I was there.") This is the Rocket Robin Hood openi...

I recently read Without Conscience by Robert Hare - it is about psychopaths. There are a number of characteristics which define a psychopath, including: - glib, easy free flowing speech - thrill / excitement seeking - charming - egocentric / self centered - low empathy While I see these characteristics in other people, the one characteristic I found most interesting was the lack of fear. Dr. Robert Hare performed an experiment on test subjects who were wired up to receive a painful, but non-lethal electric shock. As a countdown timer approached zero, most test subjects would become anxious – detected by measuring sweating in the fingertips. Psychopaths were the exception, they showed no response. This has interesting consequences because it shows that psychopaths (sociopaths) do not anticipate or respond to pain or suffering. Therefore, any form of treatment which relies on some form of punishment (aversion training) will fail with a psychopath, since they don't learn or get it....

You can read the story here . I always thought they were called humans. [updated 18-October-2006 @ 17:45 to provide missing link. Thanks Rennyba ]

Last night I decided to conduct an experiment using myself as a test subject (although, not quite in the Timothy Leary sort of way). I was curious what effects I would observe when reading with only one eye. Each eye sends information to the opposing brain hemisphere - information from the left eye goes to the right side of the brain, information from the right eye goes to the left side of the brain. Each hemisphere specializes in different functions and the way it interprets the world. The two hemispheres are joined by a bundle of nerves called the corpus callosum . How would biasing which hemisphere received information affect my reading experience? I lay down to read a short story called Dead Run. It is about a trucker who hauls souls to Hell (found in New Stories from The Twilight Zone ). I started by closing my right eye and quickly changed to simply covering my eye with my hand since it was more comfortable. Instead of propping up my head with my hand on my chin, I sort of propp...

There is something warm, inviting and elegant about spiral or winding staircases. Certainly, both Sofia and I would love to have a home with a majestic curved staircase. For the time being, we have to make do with a simple straight stairwell. Pictures nabbed from here and here .

Aside from finding grey hairs on my head and chest, I now have another sign of aging, increased eyestrain while reading. I had my eyes examined a few months ago and my near vision is fine (for the curious, I am near sighted and have 20/30 vision in my right eye and 20/40 in my left, with some very mild astigmatism - this has not changed in more than 25 years). I have noticed over the past few months that when I read, I need to have the book a little further away from me than I used to. It needs to be further than 12 inches (30cm) from me. If it is closer, I can still read, but I definitely notice increased tension on my eyes, as well, the pages and words take on an unreal flatness. This makes reading in the bathtub, with book propped on my chest, harder since I find myself having to now hold the book a little higher and a little further away - tiring my arms. Image nabbed from here .

Since I do a lot of highway commuting between home and work and Ottawa and Montreal, I am able to obtain pretty reliable information on my fuel consumption (it is between 6.9 and 7.5 L/100Km - I do a quick compute in my head every time I fill up). Various factors will affect fuel consumption including weather, road conditions, and the type of driving I do (city versus highway). One of the things we are constantly told is that a car burns 10% more fuel for every 10Km/h you are above 100Km/h. So if you are doing 120, you burn 20% more fuel than if you were doing 100. I can categorically state that my experience contradicts this idea. Websites promoting this idea often display charts showing diminishing fuel efficiency over 100Km/h. The stated reason is a combination of engine efficiency and drag. The door to door trip from my home in Ottawa to Montreal is 170Km, about 165 Km of that is straight highway. The door to door trip from My home in Ottawa to my work is 32Km - 30Km of which is ...

Apparently, according to this blogthing: Your Life Is Worth... $535,500 How Much Is Your Life Worth? It would certainly be nice - in cash, of course. Don't know why the hands are chained up though. Seems a strange image to associate.

I generally cook on the weekends as Sofia does it during the week (mostly because she is here and I am in Ottawa). The challenge is always trying to prepare something that will not have the kids turn up their noses. As I rummaged through the fridge looking for what was available, I found a chicken I had boiled the previous weekend (to make the stock base for Barscz - pronounced bar-sh-ch - Polish beet soup). Since there was a lot of meat, I decided that I would make chicken-a-la-king - however, I lacked mushrooms and, so, used chef's discretion to make a substitution or two. Meat from 1 boiled 1.5Kg (3lb) chicken, chopped into pieces. 1/3 cup (80ml) butter 2 medium onions, chopped 1 Red bell pepper, chopped 1-1/2 cups (375ml) chicken stock 2 cups (500ml) milk or cream or similar 1 teaspoon (5ml) salt Dash of pepper 3/4 teaspoon curry powder 1/3 cup (80ml) flour Sauté the onions in the melted butter until soft and translucent (about 10 minutes). Add the chopped bell pepper and sauté...

Everyone has a need to belong, to have connection with other people, to be part of a community. Most people belong to several different communities: ethnic, linguistic, sports, religious, etc. However, I find that most people give in and conform to mode of speech, style of dress, or some other conformant behaviour or mode. I do not. Adapting to a group is alien to my way of thinking. I like to be with people, I like belonging, but I do not feel the need to dress the same way, to talk the same way, to think the same way. I seek people similar to me, but I do not seek to adapt to them. Of course, in some case you have to learn some of the basic rules; if you are going to play soccer, then you need to know the rules of the game (which I suppose could be argued is a form of conformity). I have a strong distaste for wearing branded clothes and avoid it if I can. I remember, in high school, my mother asking me if I wanted clothes like the other kids were wearing -- my answer was no. She did ...

When I was younger, I found the world to be a hostile environment. This was in part a result of the Cold War, in part because I was of Polish ancestry (my surname is very distinctly Polish) and experienced the prejudice and discrimination of being 'suspect' (just as Muslims are today). After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world climate seemed to change, to improve and become less hostile. There were some growing pains, but they did not seem to be ideologically driven as they were in the past. However, I find today's climate no better, and perhaps worse, than it was when I was growing up. I offer for you this passage from George Orwell's 1984: Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are cre...

While investigating why my computer seems to be using more memory than usual, I zeroed in on the google toolbar which came preinstalled on my computer. It did not seem to be taking up too much memory, nonetheless, I targeted it for uninstallation. Prior to uninstalling it, I decided to see what features and options it offered (I never used it - which was another good reason for uninstalling it). In doing so, I noticed that it offered a translation feature (disabled by default): by hovering over a word, it would translate the word into your language of choice, or you could send the whole web page for translation. Several weeks back, I had a similar idea, I thought how great it would be to have a dictionary plugin for the browser which would allow you to (1) translate words from one language to another, (2) provide thesaurus functionality, (3) allow spell checking. I envisioned it working by either hovering the mouse over the word to get a list of translations (which is how google's ...

Today is Jason's birthday. He s 5 years old (finally). He has been waiting for this day for months. We had a small celebration yesterday with my parents for him. It was a good time. I have taken the day off work today and later we will assemble a robot kit he got yesterday. The picture was taken while we were in Peru this past summer. Image is copyright of me.