Month: May 2011

Mathematician Eric Priest draws out the similarities:

Science has its own set of guidelines in the same way that religious belief does, but within those guidelines it has enormous freedom. And so one of the key features of science, and being a scientist like myself, is to be open, to be open to questions, to be open to new experiences, to expect that my ideas are going to change and going to evolve in the future. And I think the same is true for religious belief. To me the life of faith is a pilgrimmage; it's a journey.

Arlington, Virginia, 6.27 pm

David Cain chastises himself for using words that usually indicate he's being "presumptuous, simple-minded, or sneaky." Part of the reason he recoils from using the word "deserve":

The typical story is like this: “Something terrible happened today, many people suffering, who deserves the blame?” And that’s the fun part, the payoff. The discussion surrounding who deserves to be ostracized, fired or killed is always more attractive than the one about how we can help.

A funny and touching homage to mothers this Mother's Day:

No More Questions! from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

And posts his final thoughts from beyond:

It turns out that no one can imagine what's really coming in our lives. We can plan, and do what we enjoy, but we can't expect our plans to work out. Some of them might, while most probably won't. Inventions and ideas will appear, and events will occur, that we could never foresee. That's neither bad nor good, but it is real.

I think and hope that's what my daughters can take from my disease and death. And that my wonderful, amazing wife Airdrie can see too. Not that they could die any day, but that they should pursue what they enjoy, and what stimulates their minds, as much as possible—so they can be ready for opportunities, as well as not disappointed when things go sideways, as they inevitably do.

Gavon Laessig captions:

From a recent Ask Reddit, here is just a tiny fraction of the photos that were submitted when redditors were presented with the question, “What is the drunkest photo ever taken of you?”  You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want a drink.

A lovely anecdote from Pulitzer prize-winning author Jennifer Egan:

Very often I fall asleep while reading. I never seem to be able to decide that I'm done…I just like to keep reading until my body decides for me. More often than not, my husband will turn off my light and take away the book.

Robert Krulwich marvels at this dancing spider trying to enchant a heavily drugged female:

Jumping spiders will dance for dead ladies, freeze-dried ladies, ladies pickled in alcohol, cardboard versions of ladies with paper arms and legs, ladies that aren't their kind of spider, but both insisted the lady spider in our video, the video we just saw, that female was alive, (drugged, yes, but otherwise unharmed). She just didn't move much.

Colleague Paul Feig, of "Freaks And Geeks" fame, explains:

Judd actually has this whole thing they do with side-by-side screenings at two theaters right next door to each other and do a “P” version, which is a polished version, which is the one we think is close to what we want to have be our final cut. And then another one called the “E” version, the extended version, which is the dumping ground for everything we think might work, or we wanted to try, or we’re just curious if it’s gonna work. And out of all of those screenings, you’ll always get about five or 10 new things that you didn’t think were ever gonna work that go through the roof and you plug ’em into the polished one.

(Hat tip: Tim Carmody)

Andrew Sprung spotted a parallel between "The Wire" and the intel-gathering that led to Osama's compound, agreeing with J.F. at DiA that "the death of bin Laden was the triumph not of Jack Bauer, but of Lester Freamon." Sprung:

The [show's opening] medley tracks the movements of cops and bureaucrats and people on Baltimore's poorest streets. It's often struck me that the sequence captures the dignity, the intensity, the concentration in the most mundane human tasks — punching the buttons on a pay phone, dragging on a cigarette, snapping a photo, exchanging cash for product, u-turning a bicycle. It somehow screens out any moral content we might impose on the actions, shows us all as conscious animals doing what we do.

A reader recommends a similar TV show:

There was a TV series last summer on AMC called "Rubicon" about intelligence "consultants". It never got good ratings and was cancelled after one season.  Much was made of it being a conspiracy theory show, but I found watching the analysts trying to find patterns in raw data fascinating.  There was criticism of the show that some episodes not a lot happened, but I found the season very satisfying, giving me some understanding of how intelligence work really happens.  If you haven't seen it, I recommend it.  It was essentially the anti-24 show, where barely any cell phones or "cool computer stuff" is shown and torture is not shown in a good light. Here's a trailer.