1- Racecar drivers- are they required to wear seatbelts? I would think so. But suppose they weren't- would any of them choose not to wear their seatbelts? Considering how dangerous the sport is already, should they be allowed to make that choice in this hypothetical world? If not (for the driver's safety), then why are they allowed to race cars? Nevermind the excuse that they have to wear seatbelts to set a good example for the kids who watch- if that's the reason, then what kind of example does racing cars set? It's funny where people draw lines to rationalize what they love.
2- Suppose there is a land ruled by evil laws, and you have a good product to offer which, in its purest form, runs contrary to the evil laws, but can be watered down so as to not violate them. Is it more evil to go to the land and offer the watered down version, or not go there at all? Is either option not evil? I guess if you figure the good people ruled by the evil laws can find ways to get around the laws, then the best (least evil) thing is to do what Google does. The lesson they teach is: when confronted with an insurmountable monster, subvert with a smile rather than fight with pressure of absence. Is this a good lesson? That is, if confronted with something I don't like, something I figure I won't be able to change any other way as effectively, is this what I should do?
UPDATES:
According to this, Google would be out of China by 2010 April 10. Today is the 11th. Google is not out of China but google.cn is no longer serving censored results. Or any results. It's redirecting to uncensored Hong Kong. More info here, here, and here. It's a sticky situation, but again, probably the best way possible.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Note to self- I'm actually pretty cool
Going over my volunteer history, I stumbled upon this photo set from a few years back when Z & I worked on HabitatForHumanity. I forgot how hard I worked on that stuff; plus how it overlapped with my work with HandsOnAtlanta for the Katrina Evacuees. Not to mention my recent work with HoseaFeedTheHungry.
So kids, pay heed- volunteer work makes you feel proud in the future. (As opposed to mandatory altrusism, which is not as good.)
So kids, pay heed- volunteer work makes you feel proud in the future. (As opposed to mandatory altrusism, which is not as good.)
Friday, October 9, 2009
Photos from Japan
2008 September
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UPDATE: 2011-07-21: Access to these photos is currently limited. If you want to see them, please contact me.
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Lots more here
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UPDATE: 2011-07-21: Access to these photos is currently limited. If you want to see them, please contact me.
===
Lots more here
Iroha
Even the blooming flowers
Will eventually fade.
Even our world
Is not eternal.
The deep mountains of vanity-
Cross them today,
And superficial dreams
Shall no longer delude you.
Significance: This is the English translation of a Japanese syllabary pangram called the Iroha. It contains all the morae found in Japanese. It's similar to the English pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." -- with one major difference: the Iroha is more efficient. It uses every kana only once, except one. The famous English pangram has 35 letters- 9 more than necessary to include all our letters.
Still, just as the ABC song is used for teaching the alphabet instead of the above English pangram, the Gojuon is used more than the Iroha.
It's probably just as well that we don't use "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." to teach our alphabet. Nevermind the ordering- that's only an excuse because it's what we're used to. The ABC song just makes learning about some arbitrary alphabetizing easier because of the lack of redundancy.
I suppose that's why the Gojuon is used more than the Iroha. Nevertheless, that shows an amazingly lower tolerance for redundancy than us. Consider this: there are other English pangrams but the above one is by far the most popular, probably due in part to its use of imagery. BUT what if another pangram were more popular, just as pronouncable, equally or more vivid, made just as much sense, and only repeated one letter? Wouldn't it be impossibly tempting to use that instead of the ABC song?
I think so. (At least then, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" wouldn't have to share its elegant melody.)
Note also that the Gojuon lists the morae in a phonetic order. Wouldn't it be great if our alphabet were so organized, possibly taking care of the ever-awkward "ellemminno" problem, like so:
AHJKRBCDEGPTVZFLMNSXIYOQUW
or if we want to keep a-z:
AHJKRFLMNSXIYOQUWBCDEGPTVZ
I can dream, can't I? Who knows- maybe one day people will look back at now and laugh at the stupid English teachers teaching the silly ABCs instead of the AHJs
Will eventually fade.
Even our world
Is not eternal.
The deep mountains of vanity-
Cross them today,
And superficial dreams
Shall no longer delude you.
Significance: This is the English translation of a Japanese syllabary pangram called the Iroha. It contains all the morae found in Japanese. It's similar to the English pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." -- with one major difference: the Iroha is more efficient. It uses every kana only once, except one. The famous English pangram has 35 letters- 9 more than necessary to include all our letters.
Still, just as the ABC song is used for teaching the alphabet instead of the above English pangram, the Gojuon is used more than the Iroha.
It's probably just as well that we don't use "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." to teach our alphabet. Nevermind the ordering- that's only an excuse because it's what we're used to. The ABC song just makes learning about some arbitrary alphabetizing easier because of the lack of redundancy.
I suppose that's why the Gojuon is used more than the Iroha. Nevertheless, that shows an amazingly lower tolerance for redundancy than us. Consider this: there are other English pangrams but the above one is by far the most popular, probably due in part to its use of imagery. BUT what if another pangram were more popular, just as pronouncable, equally or more vivid, made just as much sense, and only repeated one letter? Wouldn't it be impossibly tempting to use that instead of the ABC song?
I think so. (At least then, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" wouldn't have to share its elegant melody.)
Note also that the Gojuon lists the morae in a phonetic order. Wouldn't it be great if our alphabet were so organized, possibly taking care of the ever-awkward "ellemminno" problem, like so:
AHJKRBCDEGPTVZFLMNSXIYOQUW
or if we want to keep a-z:
AHJKRFLMNSXIYOQUWBCDEGPTVZ
I can dream, can't I? Who knows- maybe one day people will look back at now and laugh at the stupid English teachers teaching the silly ABCs instead of the AHJs
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