tsujigiri

The editorial comments of Chris and James, covering the news, science, religion, politics and culture.

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Saturday, September 21, 2002

Here's some more info theory: the long-term payoff of a horse-race betting strategy is expressed by the "doubling rate" of your "portfolio," in which each set of bets is treated like an investment. If X is the outcome of the race, and you receive some side-information Y (for example, that Secretariat has been replaced by a horse which was stolen from the dog-food factory), then the doubling rate changes by an amount equal to I(X;Y), the mutual information between X and Y, which can in principle be computed.

In the stock market, side information changes your doubling rate by an amount less than or equal to I(X;Y). Perhaps, in some cases, omniscience won't help you.

Friday, September 20, 2002

Here's a post for science buffs, meaning myself. X and Y are uncertain events. The mutual information between two events X and Y is the amount that we could reduce our uncertainty of X by observing Y. So if X is a coin toss, and Y is a different coin toss, then the mutual information between X and Y is zero. But if X is a coin toss and Y is a record of the outcome of that coin toss, we stand to gain all information about X by observing Y (the mutual information is 1 bit).

Now suppose that X and Y are coin tosses, and Z=0 if the outcomes of X and Y are equal, or Z=1 if the outcomes of X and Y are not equal. The three-way mutual information of this setup is negative. Here's some equations:

I(X;Y;Z) = I(X;Y) - I(X;Y|Z)
I(X;Y) = 0 (that's the mutual information of X and Y)
but I(X;Y|Z) = H(X)-H(X|YZ) > 0
where H(X) means "the uncertainty of X" and H(X|YZ) means "the uncertainty of X given the results of Y and Z"

What does it mean!?

According to this article, the University of Utah is the fourth most religious campus in the country. And according to the LDS Institute director, "the U only looks so secular due to the extremely conservative reputation of Utah as a stateā€¦" I was starting to wonder if I was becoming overparanoid, but now I feel much more secure in saying that I feel like I'm going to Bob Jones University.

Thursday, September 19, 2002

Orthodoxy: According to fundamentalist born-again Christians, only Christians can be saved (and thereby go to heaven), and only those who preach the doctrines of the trinity, salvation by grace, and biblical inerrancy can be Christians. Mormons go to hell because they "worship the wrong God." The idea seems to be this: if I say the little Jerry Fallwell prayer, I'll only really be saved if I accept the doctrine of the trinity. Otherwise I will have prayed to the wrong god.

Let's look at this from god's perspective: obviously god must hear the prayer of the misguided believer. He hears everything. So perhaps he concludes that they are talking to someone else. The obvious question now is: how wrong can a believer's theology be before god stop's listening? When someone says, "our father who art in heaven...." God says, "hey, that's me!" But when they say "our father who art on Kolob" he says "wha? They must be talking to someone else."

What about believers (such as little kids) who have no theological training at all? Does God respond to the prayer of a 4-year-old who thinks he has a beard and lives on a cloud? What if we imagine God having the wrong race or gender? Does he listen then? What if the little kid calls him by the wrong name? What if somebody says, "I don't know if there's anyone up there but if there is, I'm talking to you!" What if someone calls him Allah? Does he ignore those prayers? Germans say "Gott." Do their prayers get through? What if someone thinks "Satan" is the name of the all-powerful trinitarian God who saves by grace and is the father of Christ. Does God hear the prayer that runs, "our Satan who art in heaven..." The theology is right but the name is confused. Surely the true God would punish such a failed attempt at worship with the eternal lake of fire.

fat racist Georgia bitch

This just in from email-forward-space:

Remember the book "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"? Well, here's a prime example offered by an English professor at a U.S. University.

"Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. One of you will then write the first paragraph of a short story. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth. Remember to reread what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking and anything you wish to say must be written on the paper. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached. The following was actually turned in by two of my English students:

Rebecca and Gary.
----------------------------------------------------------------
STORY:
(first paragraph by Rebecca)
At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.
-----------------------------------------------------------
(Second paragraph by Gary)
Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago.

"A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit. ----------------------------------------------------------
(Rebecca)
He bumped his head and died almost immediately but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel," Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her.

She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth, when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things round her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.
---------------------------------------------------------
(Gary)
Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live.

Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dimwitted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through the congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan.

The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret Mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid, Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The President slammed his fist on the conference table. "We can't allow this! I'm going to veto that treaty! Let's blow 'em out of the sky!"
----------------------------------------------------------
(Rebecca)
This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic semiliterate adolescent.
----------------------------------------------------------
(Gary)
Yeah? Well, you're a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. "Shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of FUCKING TEA??? Oh no, I'm such an air headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels."
----------------------------------------------------------
(Rebecca)
Asshole.
----------------------------------------------------------
(Gary)
Bitch.
----------------------------------------------------------
(Rebecca)
Wanker.
----------------------------------------------------------
(Gary)
Slut.
**********************************************
(teacher)
A+ - I really liked this one.

HOLY SHIT: What the hell is wrong with the press? I just found this article from independent.co.uk, about the three men detained in the Florida "terror scare." This is a frightening example of a rampaging rumor-mill. It makes me wonder how much distortion there really is in the press when we don't have the luxury of confirming the facts: Read This

Among other things, the article lists the men as being "of Jordanian, Iranian and Pakistani origin." Two of them are American citizens, one born in the US. "a woman in a Georgia restaurant said she overheard them talking about a terrorist strike on Miami." That's not what she said. "The woman in the restaurant said the men had boasted they would make Americans cry on 13 September just as they had cried on 11 September." That's not what she said by a long shot. Holy shit. I guess we can expect every journalist to abbreviate and embellish to make an article sound better.

Wednesday, September 18, 2002

Reign of Tabloid Journalism... Why is Bill O'Reiley on television? Why can't I get rid of him? Why is he so damn stupid? Maybe his tabloid-TV background explains his crippled approach to journalism. From foxnews.com:

"O'Reilly's career changed in 1989 when he joined the nationally syndicated Inside Edition as senior correspondent and backup anchor. Within three weeks, he took over the anchor chair from David Frost. During his six years at Inside Edition, the show was one of the highest-rated "infotainment" programs in America.

"In 1995, O'Reilly left to enroll in the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he received a Master's Degree in Public Policy. Upon leaving Harvard, Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of the then startup FOX News Channel, hired O'Reilly to anchor The O'Reilly Factor.

"Bill O'Reilly continues to live on Long Island where his best friends are guys with whom he attended first grade."

The real problem with Bill O'Reiley is that my mother watches him constantly, regurgitates his opinions, and has even begun conversing in his style. The style is that of a nine-year-old: cutting people off, accusing them of underhanded tricks, snickering at remarks before they can be made, and slandering anyone who disagrees with MacCarthy-style slurs. Talking with my mother has never been so irritating.

Tuesday, September 17, 2002

Denouncements were the modus operandi of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany. I watched a documentary which reported the contents of recently uncovered Nazi-era documents from East Germany. Among the revelations: there were only a handful (12 I think) of Gestapo agents in all of Bavaria (southern Germany). These 12 agents supposedly terrorized the population, forcing them to live in fear that if the said or did the wrong thing they would be taken away. How could only 12 agents inspire so much fear? The answer: they did not investigate claims made by one citizen against another. They only acted. Whenever a citizen wrote a letter of denouncement accusing another citizen, the Gestapo would appear and take them away.

U.S. law enforcement agencies have gone back and forth on the subject of racial profiling. They usually say they won't practice profiling. But the Georgia woman who spied on neighboring customers at a restaraunt has been praised for her "alertness." To her they were suspicious because they were brown people -- Muslims of Middle Eastern decent. Agencies are hoping more people follow this woman's lead. So it appears the method of denouncements is to become a preferred method of American law enforcement. Enter the new Gestapo, called Homeland Security.

Will the U.S. ever be able to provide reasonable education? This article gives a good indication of what's holding us back. Schools are bending over to accomodate the emotions of students, rather than setting an example of rational thought and decision-making. Student's react emotionally to things they are not familiar with, and don't understand. An intelligent person can look at an anarchist's argument and conclude that they disagree. An idiot hears the argument's title and seeks removal of the person making it. The school in this article accomodating the desire of some students to limit their exposure to ideas they disagree with. But no one gets educated when they're only being told things that they already know and are comfortable with. This case should be a perfect opportunity for educators to demonstrate how arguments can/should be met with arguments. Instead they showed how to meet arguments with hostility, censorship, and force.

Yesterday's news: three Florida medical students have their carreers derailed by a fat racist Georgia woman. (From CNN.com:) The woman told police she heard one of the men asking, "Do you think we have enough to bring it down?" Another one of the men replied, "If we don't have enough to bring it down, I have contacts and we can get enough to bring it down." To Eunice Stone, that meant they wanted to blow something up.

It's ironic that on the day of this incident, I argued with my mother over how these words could be interpretted. I said, suppose Mohhamed (my brother-in-law, who happens to be a Muslim from Egypt) is sitting in a Shoney's talking about the car that he just purchased over the internet (which he did), and he plans to hire someone to bring it down to North Carloina, where he lives. My sister might ask him, "Do you have enough [cash] to bring it down?" My mother dismissed my scenario as unlikely. How odd it is that they actually were talking about a car:

CNN Article

In spite of the complete lack of evidence against them, and the lack of any indication that they said anything threatening, a mountain of threats was delivered to their medical school, which responded by revoking their internships. Isn't it nice to see that the freedoms and futures of innocent Americans, in this modern age, cannot be held hostage by the collective racism of our ignorant nation. (That was sarcasm).

Of course, friends and acquaintences of Eunice Stone said that she could not possibly be a racist. Somehow that reminds me of a comment I once overheard in the South: "Now I ain't racist, but them niggers gotta learn..." Whoever said that couldn't possibly be racist and not even know it (oooh, sarcasm again). Even more baffling was the early insistence by law enforcement agencies that these men "are going to learn their lesson," even after they were exonerated. Threats still linger over whether they will be brought up on hoax charges, all for having an innocent private conversation in a restaraunt while a fat ignorant racist Georgia woman eavesdropped. They also suffered at the hands of sensationalism and fabrication by the media:

Miami Herald Article: the media lied from local news to CNN

Media coverage on these men is evaporating. They will be legally exonerated, but the court of public opinion has done them an injustice for which they will likely never be compensated. Thanks a fuck load, CNN.

Monday, September 16, 2002

One of my articles was picked up by the New York times online edition... Students Without Insurance Risk Losing Future Benefits [click here]

First post... Erin was forwarded this email petition last month. Comments will follow... Dear President Bush: Many of us were deeply touched to hear you recite a portion of Psalm 23 in your address to this great nation in the dark hours following the terrorists attacks. We were encouraged and comforted to know that we truly had a believer working with us and for us in our nation's highest office. We, the people of America, are requesting that you lift the prohibition of prayer in schools. As the pledge of our great country states, we are to be "One nation, under God." Please allow the prayers and petitions of our children in schools without the threat of punishment. Currently adults and children in the schools are prohibited from mentioning God unless of course His name is uttered as part of a curse or profanity. Madeline Murray O'Hare is dead. Let her legacy of atheism in our schools die with her! Sincerely, The People of America (Mark 10:13-14) "People were bringing little children to Jesus to have Him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this He was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." -------------- MY COMMENTS -------------- Zoom in on the phrase "Please allow the prayers and petitions of our children in schools without the threat of punishment." Where to begin? Obviously, no child is prohibitted from saying an elective prayer in school, and there is no such punishment. In that respect this is propaganda and misinformation. But I want to look at a theological aspect... What does prayer accomplish, in a theological sense? You're talking to God, telling him stuff he already knows. He knows what's going on (presumably), he knows what people need, he knows what you want. I've often noticed that people try to make their prayers sound nice, even poetic. Will God be moved by the fancy rhetoric of a well-phrased prayer? Is the prayer designed to convince God to do things your way? Is that why they talk about the childrens' "petitions" to God? If there are enough bowed heads, God will respond to the large public interest? It seems as though God will do what He wants whether He hears prayers or not. So why does the believer pray?