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Below are the 25 most recent friends journal entries:

November 14th, 2009
09:37 pm evwhore [Link]	NHL Suspension Flow Chart Heh: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2775/4093950458_03e4645497_o.gif via the Canucks newsgroup Tags: hockey (Leave a comment)
09:31 pm evwhore [Link]	I love the Onion Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be Tags: the onion (Leave a comment)
06:26 pm evwhore [Link]	Amazing science fair projects Amazing in some sense, at least. http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/35-amazing-science-fair-projects/ via jpmassar. Check out the sweater in #4, and the outfit in #15. #11: fich says this one made him think of my goatse tag #16: that haircut and mustache say future chain store manager #20 will appeal to rcfox et al. (I'll use the userpic, but I can't bring myself to put the science tag on this.) (Leave a comment)
November 13th, 2009
10:21 pm evwhore [Link]	You are not alone This boingboing thread rocks. Tags: awesome, glbt, nttawwt (Leave a comment)
10:15 pm evwhore [Link]	Greenland Ice Cap Melting Faster Than Ever Paging rcfox... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091112141311.htm Satellite observations and a state-of-the art regional atmospheric model have independently confirmed that the Greenland ice sheet is losing mass at an accelerating rate, reports a new study in Science. This mass loss is equally distributed between increased iceberg production, driven by acceleration of Greenland's fast-flowing outlet glaciers, and increased meltwater production at the ice sheet surface. Recent warm summers further accelerated the mass loss to 273 Gt per year (1 Gt is the mass of 1 cubic kilometre of water), in the period 2006-2008, which represents 0.75 mm of global sea level rise per year. Professor Jonathan Bamber from the University of Bristol and an author on the paper said: "It is clear from these results that mass loss from Greenland has been accelerating since the late 1990s and the underlying causes suggest this trend is likely to continue in the near future. We have produced agreement between two totally independent estimates, giving us a lot of confidence in the numbers and our inferences about the processes". Also: Record High Temperatures Far Outpace Record Lows Across US (4 comments \| Leave a comment)
07:02 pm patrissimo [Link]	Warm & Healthy foods? My diet principles include: low calorie density, minimal processing, lots of fruits & vegetables. Not that I stick to them perfectly, but at least those are the goals. I've been having more trouble now that the weather is reminding me that I live in Northern California. I crave warm food, but fruits, vegetables, and salads are usually cold. I am having trouble coming up with warm foods that are high in vegetables and low in calorie-density. Vegetable soup? Steamed vegetables? Stir-fried vegetables? Ok, that wasn't hard. But I see the real problem now. All of those require cooking. One of the hidden benefits of "minimal processing" is that food often goes from the store to the fridge to my tummy without the inconvenience of passing through the stove. Warmth = cooking = stove. Hmph. Tags: diet (7 comments \| Leave a comment)
06:04 pm evwhore [Link]	I need TP for my bunghole via boingboing, a surprisingly interesting history of toilet paper and the marketing thereof. Um, wow: "Currently, the United States spends more than $6 billion a year on toilet tissue—more than any other nation in the world. Americans, on average, use 57 squares a day and 50 lbs. a year." There's no WAY I use 57 squares a day. So if that's really the average, someone's eating too much Colon Blow (and no, I don't have a square to spare). They don't say, but let's assume a square means a square, regardless of plies. Poll #1485127 Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 43 How much toilet paper do you think you use a day? View Answers Much less than 57 squares 15 (34.9%) Less than 57 squares 15 (34.9%) About 57 squares 3 (7.0%) More than 57 squares 6 (14.0%) Much more than 57 squares 4 (9.3%) Tags: polls (19 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:12 pm patrissimo [Link]	Thiel Foundation Website The Thiel Foundation (sadly no longer called "The Shire") has a fancy new website up. You can find TSI under "Freedom", and some other familiar faces under Science & Technology. Peter's essay on The Contrarian Hero particularly resonates with me: Contrarians stay centered for the same reasons they see so clearly—because rigorous application of fundamental principles aligns thinking with feeling, creating a clear picture of the world that explains how it ought to work, how it does work, and our place in it. Once you achieve a clear and true picture, apparent contradictions fall away. The right road is still steep and treacherous, but at last it's clearly marked. This is the predicament of the contrarian hero: his eyes are opened. Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, and every step reveals not only the futility of reaching the peak, but also the impossibility of turning aside. Tags: peter thiel (Leave a comment)
12:55 pm patrissimo [Link]	posts other places I won't cross-post everything, but as I'm trying to establish traffic for these blogs... On pua4ltr: choiceful posts How to Make your Woman Happy: Study PUA, and I post The Repetition Game And Presence. On LATNB: Second talk from Seasteading09 is up: Michael Strong on Free Zones and how they could lead to innovation in government. Current Music: The Siren - Nightwish (4 comments \| Leave a comment)
November 12th, 2009
11:38 am patrissimo [Link]	Structured Procrastination Posted on Less Wrong. Upvote it unless you are a horrible human being who kills puppies for fun. (Writing this post does not count as structured procrastination, btw :) ) Current Music: Our Solemn Hour - Within Temptation Tags: less wrong, procrastination, self-development (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
11:22 am evwhore [Link]	boingboing/CD reviews new Pratchett novel Cory likes it, and I read his review up until this point: I wouldn't call this the best Discworld novel ever (I think my vote for that honor would go to Monstrous Regiment, which, incidentally, can be read without having read any of the other Pratchett novels). But it's in the top five. Oops, that instantly disqualifies the review in my mind. Monstrous Regiment is the only TP novel that I started but didn't finish (with the caveat that there may be some recent ones I haven't read at all). IIRC one of the things that put me off was that the characters were too stock and cookie-cutter and the writing seemed mechanical and labored. Maybe I should give it another chance though. Tags: terry pratchett (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
11:14 am evwhore [Link]	Neat clock Numbers on a bicycle chain: via boingboing Tags: clocks (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
November 11th, 2009
01:51 pm evwhore [Link]	The Matrix as a Charlie Chaplin short via boingboing, "A Russian actor's group called 'Big Difference' remade The Matrix as a Charlie Chaplin silent film." "Which pill would you choose: blue or red?" "How would I know? It's a black and white movie!" Tags: awesome, movies, the matrix, video (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:13 pm evwhore [Link]	A metaphor for my Republican friends Follow Nancy Pelosi's lead and get nailed in the nuts: Tags: video (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:13 pm patrissimo [Link]	Nightwish & Tarja (background: I get into new bands rarely. Nightwish is one of the 2 bands I've gotten into in the last ~4 years. They are "Operatic Metal", which is just plain awesome. The singer and the band didn't get along and split up a couple years ago, the rest of the band kept the name Nightwish.) I finally got and listened to the two post-breakup Nightwish band member albums: the non-Tarja Nightwish album (Dark Passion Play), and Tarja's solo album (My Winter Storm). My conclusion is that more of the awesomness of Nightwish lies w/ the non-Tarja than the Tarja. The replacement singer is noticeably worse than Tarja (who is amazing), so I don't like the new Nightwish album as much as the old ones, but it maintains the atmosphere and awesome energy. Whereas Tarja's new album, while her voice is lovely, frankly sounds rather uninspired. My favorite song is her cover of Alice Cooper's "Poison", because Alice Cooper rocks hard, unlike Tarja's original songs. Tags: music (15 comments \| Leave a comment)
11:24 am evwhore [Link]	The men who stare at Goatse I can't believe that title didn't occur to me sooner. Although I'd give more props for someone who actually pranked a marquee to say this, instead of what appears to be a bad Photoshop job. (Link is entirely SFW.) Tags: goatse, movies (Leave a comment)
11:19 am patrissimo [Link]	Happy relationship > competitive govt On it's 2nd day, PUA4LTR already has more traffic/day than an average day on Let A Thousand Nations Bloom. Apparently it's a topic of more general interest...whoodathunkit? :) next post will address "PUA as manipulation" (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
November 10th, 2009
09:48 pm patrissimo [Link]	Email E-mail is such a funny thing. People hand you these single little messages that are no heavier than a river pebble. But it doesn’t take long until you have acquired a pile of pebbles that’s taller than you and heavier than you could ever hope to move…But for the person who took the time to hand you their pebble, it seems outrageous that you can’t handle that one tiny thing. “What ‘pile’? It’s just a pebble! (Life After College) (3 comments \| Leave a comment)
09:42 pm patrissimo [Link]	genetic explanation for higher male variance? those who, unlike me, know something about genetics can tell me if this is plausible or not, but it sounds plausible to me: I think the reason for the preponderance of males amongst important creative geniuses comes in part from their chromosomal structure. Females have two X chromosomes, so a recessive mutation on one chromosome is less likely to be expressed. Males are more likely to express both recessive mutations on the X chromosomes and all additional traits coded in a Y chromosome. In this way, males are capable of greater variation in all traits because 1) they have more variation in their genetic material. Two X chromosomes are redundant in a sense, whereas X+Y is an X and an additional Y, and 2) males are more likely to express recessive mutations on their X. What is well known is that having one X chromosome in males leads to a greater likelihood of some disorders, but it could also be the case that only one X also leads to a greater incidence of positive deviations from the norm. Tags: genetics (11 comments \| Leave a comment)
05:35 pm patrissimo [Link]	Bodyweight workouts When I looked a year ago or so for a site that offered regular bodyweight workouts, including instructions on how to do everything, I didn't find anything good. But now there is BodyFitBurn. Check out their intro manual, a very informative PDF, or their thrice-weekly exercise circuits. Tags: exercise (Leave a comment)
02:29 pm patrissimo [Link]	quantified self / sleep Ok, I think I'm finally ready to do some quantified self-style intervention testing on my sleep. Slept really badly last night, and pretty badly the last few, feeling really tired (but not as bad as I would be w/o Adrafinil!). I think this will be really good b/c instead of acting according to numerous vague and unknown theories, I can actually test them. Then I can use the things that work and abandon the things that don't, instead of wondering every night which of 17 things I should do. I feel guilty about not having done this yet, for some reason, but it was actually a strategic decision. My sleep was so bad before that nothing seemed to work, so there seemed to be no point in testing anything, plus I had no energy to test. Now that I've had the MMA surgery, my hope is that behavioral and minor physical interventions can measurably affect my sleep. Plus I have more energy to do this. Anyway, I am open to feedback on my experimental plan. I think I have a pretty good hypothesis pool, so I am most interested in feedback on outcome metrics and the general method. (I feel somewhat guilty working on this during work time, but then I remind myself that sleep is by far the largest factor in my work productivity - improving my sleep would be like hiring another 1/4-1/2 of a Patri, which is well worth my time to work on!) Current Music: 7 Days To The Wolves - Nightwish Tags: apnea, self-experimentation, sleep (5 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:32 pm patrissimo [Link]	LJ vs. specialty blogs In general, I think my writing will be more effective if I move my advocacy to special-purpose group blogs. My level of professionalism & commitment to quality/accuracy will be higher, I can leverage other authors, attract an audience who are interested in the topic rather than "whatever Patri writes", etc. It just seems like a better way to do things. Like, given that GNXP exists, it's useless for me to post on IQ, race, nature/nurture, or any of that stuff. I mean, those guys know way more than I do, they spend more time on it, they write higher quality stuff...they can actually sway minds. My rants are fun (and that's why I write them), but I doubt they will do much to spread knowledge or change anyone's mind about anything. Whereas widely-read, high-quality specialty blogs can create cultures around their ideas. Look at what happened w/ Overcoming Bias, it's spawned an entire community of people around Eliezer & Robin's ideas. I meet smart interesting people who read OB/LW all the time (and not just at OB/LW meetups!) I suspect has strongly influenced at least thousands of people, perhaps tens of thousands. Anyway, I think/hope I've succeeded in doing less political ranting (though not none) since starting LATNB, and hopefully I can channel all my sociobiology into PUA4LTR. And every time I go into any more depth on genetics, global warming, or IF than a passing mention or link, y'all should tell me to shut up and write about things that aren't better covered by others :). Current Music: 7 Days To The Wolves - Nightwish Tags: blogging (5 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:31 pm patrissimo [Link]	Ok, I couldn't help it I failed my saving throw against taking on another (small) project, and I've started a new blog: PUA4LTR. In my defense, starting a group blog has the potential to be a low-effort high-reward project. I have no interest in providing a majority of the content, I just want to get the ball rolling, find good co-authors and guest posters, and most importantly a good editor to handle the day-to-day work. This worked great with Let A Thousand Nations Bloom - we got a great editor (Mike Gibson), I write a post every couple weeks or so, but we have a slowly growing set of authors and readership. Traffic is not growing as fast as I'd like, but it is filling a niche that I think is unserved and incredibly important - advocating competitive government and structural reform. And PUA For LTR is also a niche that is unserved and incredibly important. There are not only no blogs on it, there are hardly even any posts on it on the numerous PUA blogs! Which is ridiculous. I mean, yeah, cold approach pickup of tasty babes in bars is way sexier and more fun to imagine doing, it makes better internet fantasy material. But what about in real life - especially when you grow up and move beyond just trying to get laid? To some degree, this niche is served by material that predates PUA and does not self-identify. Yet this material is based on different terminology and in many cases different theories of attraction. Both are based on the real world so they surely overlap to some degree (I dunno, I haven't read much more than Gottman & Mars/Venus), but I think applying the enormous, rapid progress in PUA to LTRs is very low-hanging fruit. Go read the About page for my...um...initial manifesto. Here's the blog, the RSS feed, and you can read it on LJ as pua4ltr. Here's our call for authors/editors. Current Music: 7 Days To The Wolves - Nightwish Tags: blogging, pua (19 comments \| Leave a comment)
November 9th, 2009
11:12 pm evwhore [Link]	Home is where... jnala posted a while ago about how home used to be where the stereo and CDs were, then it was where the Internet connection was, but lately he realized it was where the cats are. By any of those measures, the LV house is now home, although I still have a shitload of unpacking to do. The cat has of course been here since I drove down on Saturday, all the other boxes I didn't drive with me are now here, and I can has Internets[1]. Although to be precise, I didn't truly feel at home until I fired up Quicken just now and updated all my account transactions -- I hadn't realized how dependent I've become on Quicken to keep my financial shit together. Not that I'd be totally hosed without it -- everything is either downloaded from financial institutions so there's a backup source, and I do duplicate manual entry for my checking account, but it really is nice to have everything organized in one place. [1] Actually, being who I am and what I do, the LV house has had Internets since my September visit, at which time I set up a machine to live here so that I could transfer my email services etc. over seamlessly without any meaningful downtime when I moved -- I've been sending/receiving e-mail from the LV box for a few weeks now. Yes, I'm a geek. Tags: cats, geekiness, house, phoenix, quicken (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
12:11 pm patrissimo [Link]	Reflect upon delusion? Today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was 13, and not yet into politics, so it didn't mean much to me at the time (although I'd briefly met President Reagan the year before, coincidentally at a White House dinner that dmorr attended for the same reason I did). Let A Thousand Nations Bloom has a link roundup (or as we call it, a link archipelago!), and Michael Strong has a reflective post: Decent, responsible graduate students were not to be seen going to a libertarian lecture, even at Chicago: it was that simple. Meanwhile, discussions of whether violent revolutions were necessary for the (obviously desirable) transition to socialism were entirely mainstream academic conversation. Within academia up through the 1980s, discussions of revolutions in which violent death is routine were acceptable, but envisioning a society without legitimized aggression was disreputable. I wondered: Were these people insane? On November 9, 2009, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is appropriate to reflect on the extraordinary human capacity for delusion... (9 comments \| Leave a comment)

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