Rod

Seen…

… over the backyard fence while grilling. Mother and daughter.

… and earlier in the week. Happy Wife takes the trash out before going to work. How lucky am I?

Writing vs. Speaking

Something I instantly wanted to agree with the second I read it:

“Having good ideas is most of writing well. If you know what you’re talking about, you can say it in the plainest words and you’ll be perceived as having a good style. With speaking it’s the opposite: having good ideas is an alarmingly small component of being a good speaker.”

More on Writing and Speaking @ paulgraham.com. I haven’t visited his site in a long time, glad to see he’s still writing.

Summer’s Swan Song?

Cycled south today, along Southport parkway, down Old Klatt road to John’s road, through Oceanview subdivision, over Rabbit Creek road past the gun range and the hi-caliber reports, down Old Seward road past the dragon flies and cattails of the rush, and finally out to the New Seward highway heading south.

I stopped at Beluga Point to watch the Beluga whales chase silver salmon up Turnagain Arm. Then I turned around and cycled back home. A smidgeon over 30 miles. 65 degrees, sunny, and a light wind. May have been summer’s swan song.

Back at home on the deck with wine ‘n cheese, and Lucy.

Race To The Moon

How many Armstrongs does it take to bicycle to the moon? Note to competitors: Doping will not be tolerated. Enforcement: Blood samples (A & B) will be automatically collected by an intravenous device affixed to each participant prior to leaving earth. Samples will be assayed randomly every 25K miles, roughly ten times, by a nano-module intrinsic to the collection device. A positive test for a banned substance (see appendix) in both samples will trigger the instant disintegration of the cyclist’s Lycra compression suit, leading to sudden ebullism, and, consequently, disqualification. There is no appeal in a vacuum.

Rebel With A Phone

Now that Apple has won its patent violation lawsuit against Samsung, I’m pleased in a way to know my phone, a Samsung Galaxy II S, is now out of law. Ha!

Free Will … again

Another discussion on the existence of free will. To most people the question seems silly, of course humans have free will. Then ask these people to define free will. Not so easy. Certainly not for people who have committed themselves to the belief that every effect has a prior cause. And I mean every effect, all the the way down to every atomic interaction of everything in existence, including, I’m afraid, the human brain. On this view, even every one of our brain states had a prior cause in biochemistry, each one in turn eventually reducible to physics. Hence, from the second you were born, right up to the present, your behaviors have been determined. (Note determined does not necessarily mean knowable). There’s no getting around this, unless you care to challenge the laws of physics. I don’t, which is why I side with Nietzsche, who (supposedly) said of free will: “It is the ability to pull oneself from the swamp by their own hair.”

Having said that, I have always argued, and continue to believe that my (un-coerced) actions certainly seem to me to have been freely chosen by me. If I do something wrong I expect people to seek justice for that wrong based on the belief that I could have done otherwise. Because I submit that, with relatively few exceptions, every human being holds the belief that all human action is indeterminate before it occurs. Meaning, of course, every action could have been different. It’s always seemed that way to me, too.

And yet, in reason and logic, the incompatibilist in me sees the contradiction. In light of what is known of the laws of physics and the immutability of cause and effect, I see no way around this contradiction, and for what it’s worth I’m not alone*.

* See, for instance, the comments of “SilverAce” at the the first link.

Fair Day

I pedaled to Palmer yesterday to meet up with Happy Wife who’d driven there earlier to go to our state fair. A couple miles shy of 50. A glorious August day.

Ah, the Matanuska River, placid and peace-loving, no?

NO!

The river takes what the river wants.

Let that be a lesson to brides everywhere eager to trash their dress.

August Fruit

Not many places ten minutes from home where you can walk with your dog through a 1400 acre park, nearly alone (Lucy ‘n I passed a few off-road bikers), and take one step off the trail to pick a palmful of wild ‘n sweet red raspberries. I ask you…