..entr0p3te.. profile picture

..entr0p3te..

It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.

About Me

clump of carbon with a modicum of self awareness
Important issues of the moment: Save the Planet: (clip taken from the Discovery Channel's program "Addicted To Oil" )
Also: Save the Internet :
Quotes of the moment: "Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders." - Nietzsche
"It's better to be at the bottom of a ladder you want to climb than half way up one you don't." - Tim from The Office (U.K.)
"The whole world is about three drinks behind." - Humphrey Bogart
"This must be how failure starts... an incompetence in mastering the common tasks of everyday life." - Charlie Black from Metropolitan.
"Don't waste your time, or time will waste you." - Tamil proverb / Muse lyric
"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Our Loyalties are to the species and the planet.
We speak for earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish
is owed not just to ourselves, but also to that Cosmos,
ancient and vast, from which we spring." - Carl Sagan
"I like to think about the life of wine. How it's a living thing. I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were growing; how the sun was shining; if it rained. I like to think about all the people who tended and picked the grapes. And if it's an old wine, how many of them must be dead by now. I like how wine continues to evolve, like if I opened a bottle of wine today it would taste different than if I'd opened it on any other day, because a bottle of wine is actually alive. And it's constantly evolving and gaining complexity. That is, until it peaks, like your '61. And then it begins its steady, inevitable decline... And it tastes so fucking good." - Maya from the film Sideways
"It's not who you are underneath; it's what you do that defines you." - Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), Batman Begins
"There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path." - Morpheus, from The Matrix
"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth - more than ruin - more even than death... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man." - Bertrand Russell
Actress of the moment: Zhang Ziyi
Primate of the moment:
The Bonobo
"Bonobos are in crisis. Humankind's closest relatives are teetering on the brink of extinction. Found only in the forests of the central Congo Basin, bonobos are being hunted for meat and profit. Bonobos are the rarest of all great ape species and no one knows how many survive. In fact, most people don't even know they exist! These amazing primates, who are so much like us, remain shrouded in mystery. " - bonobo.org
* Find out more...
* Here's a FAQ about what Bonobos may tell us about "our inner ape".
Fake words of the moment:
Words that should be in the dictionary, but aren't. fath·om·ous [from Tina, a.k.a. SempreVive]
adj.
    so deeply profound as to be unknowable, sublime. dark and otherworldly, shrouded in mystery. vast in depth; the fathomous ocean

Dolt·er·geist [a Rich Hall sniglet ]
n.
    a spirit that decides to haunt someplace stupid, such as your septic tank.

Inane Factoids of the moment:
Ever wonder what the unintelligible screaming underscoring Wondershowzen's warning message is? Well, I just happened to have the TV on mute and inadvertently glanced at the closed captioning. Look left to find out...
Computer model of the moment: The Blue Brain Project
No, it's not a Pollock. "Flying through the column" is a rendering of a computer simulation of a single neocortical column of neurons, reverse engineered by EPFL and IBM and modeled on IBM's supercomputer, Blue Gene.
Artists of the moment:
M.C. Escher: Three Worlds
René Magritte: Le Seize Septembre
"My painting is visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question, 'What does that mean?'. It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable." - René Magritte (Thanks to "I heart Huckabees" for inspiring this post.)
Photographer of the moment: Rebekka:
These photos are as mesmerizing and beautiful as the Icelander who took them.
Thanks to Mike H. for discovering her work!
Inconvenient truth of the moment: What makes meat. (From goveg.com )
WARNING: CONTAINS SCENES OF SEVERE ANIMAL CRUELTY.
Check out vegcooking.com .
Architect of the moment: Richard Morris Hunt:
If you're ever in Newport Rhode Island, visit Marble House.
Moment of the moment: The Tank Man Tiananmen Square, China, 1989
"After all others had been silenced, his lonely act of defiance against the Chinese regime amazed the world. What became of him? And 17 years later, has China succeeded in erasing this event from its history?" - Frontline
Song of the moment: Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime , by Beck
There's a light that never goes out , by The Smiths
I edited my profile with Thomas’ Myspace Editor V3.6 !

My Interests


Making sure the Internet remains in the hands of the people, and keeping it out of the hands of corporations.

I'm also fond of cutting edge science, meme genesis, the panoply of life, new england towns, the irish countryside, venerable trees, port wine, passionate people, songs that make my eyes close, food that makes my eyes water, films that rekindle my love of film, and everything that makes me laugh (for example, when Stephen Colbert fights with his bulletpoints.)

I'd like to meet:

Gooble Gobble. I accept you. One of us.

Another important issue of the moment:

Music:


4 Strings, Air, Andrea Bocelli, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Aphex Twin, Asobe Seksu, Badly Drawn Boy, Bauhaus, Baxter, Beatles, Beck, Belle And Sebastian, Belly, Bent, Bill Evans, Billie Holliday, Bjork, Black Box Recorder, Black Pig, Blondie, Bob Dylan, Bowie, Broadcast, B-Tribe, Calla, Cat Power (a.k.a. Chan Marshall), Cocteau Twins, Coldplay, Coltrane, Covenant, Crystal Method, Dead Can Dance, Dean Martin, Death Cab For Cutie, Decemberists, Delerium, Denali, Depeche Mode, Django Reinhardt, Doves, Eisley, Elbow, Emiliana Torrini, Enya, Feist, Franz Ferdinand, Peter Gabriel, Goldfrapp, Hammock, His Name Is Alive, Hooverphonic, Hugo Largo, Ibrahim Ferrer, Interpol, Julie Cruise, Keane, Kim Dico, KMFDM, Kosheen, Kristin Hersh, Laika, Led Zeppelin, Massive Attack, Meat Beat Manifesto, Ministry, Moby, Modest Mouse, Mogwai, Mojave 3, Morcheeba, Morrissey, Mozart, Mum, Muse, My Bloody Valentine, New Order, Notwist, Michael Nyman, Olive, Opus 3, orbital, Oscar Peterson, Ottmar Liebert, Pastels, Peggy Lee, Perry Blake, Pixies, Portishead, Pretenders, Radiohead, Red House Painters, REM, Richard Strauss, Ryan Adams, Shellyan Orphan, Sigur Ros, Sinatra, Sixteen Horsepower, Slint, Slowdive, Smashing Pumpkins, Sneaker Pimps, Snow Patrol, Snowden, Sol Seppy, Solar Twins, Sonic Youth, South, Squarepusher, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Starsailor, StellaStarr*, Stereolab, Sundays, Talk Talk, The Dears, The Doors, The Doves, The Libertines, The National, The Police, The Postal Service, The Rapture, The Smiths, The Strokes, The Walkmen, This Mortal Coil, Thomas Newman, Throwing Muses, Travis, Tricky, Vast (How good is this freakin guy), Velocity Girl, Veruca Salt, Vivaldi, Tom Waits, Ween, Weezer, White Stripes, Wilco, World Party, X, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yma Sumac, Yo La Tengo, Zero7 (esp. feat. Kim Dico, or if you're from Denmark, Kim Dickow)

Vocalist of the moment: Chan Marshall, a.k.a. Cat Power
Some might hear echoes of Bjork or Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon but I think her voice has a haunting sound all its own.

Movies:


2046, Lost In Translation, Lord of The Rings, Bladerunner, AI, Taxi Driver, Broken Flowers, Heat, Glengarry GlenRoss, Monster, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Memento, Insomnia, October Sky, Trainspotting, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Matrix I, Cast Away, Adaptation, Run Lola Run, Groundhog Day, Young Frankenstien, Jacob's Ladder, Dune, Mulholland Drive, Solaris, The Tarantino Films, Brazil, Star Wars (Episodes 4 & 5, although I'm a special effects geek, so the others are cool too), Excalibur, Finding Nemo, Fly Away Home (don't laugh it gets worse), Labyrinth, Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, and countless other movies I've seen and loved, although I might never remember some of them again.

Television:


Samurai Jack, Battlestar Gallactica, Space Ghost, Adult Swim, MXC, Seinfeld, Curb your Enthusiasm, Extras, The Daily Show, Colbert Report, Northern Exposure, American Chopper, South Park, Subterranean, Modern Marvels, Who's Line, Kids in The Hall, Wondershowzen. Yeah, I watch way too much television. Bad me.
Update: Tivo now delivers Podcasts, so I've been listening to downloads from Slate and Science Friday. But this aint really "television" anymore... Hmmm. We can download TV programs over the Internet and listen to Live 365 Internet Radio on our widescreens. Yep, it finally happened. TV is no longer on TV. I guess that begs the question, "what am I on?"

Ok, two things. 1. How did the closed captioning transcriber figure that out? (if they didn't have the transcript) 2. What goes through the transcriber's mind while typing this stuff up? (if anything) 3. Why on earth do I find this interesting? (ok, three things) This just in. I heard new unintelligible screams during another warning message, but closed captioning was missing (he said through clenched teeth).

Books:

I'm currently devouring "I am a Strange Loop" by Douglas Hofstadter. I'm also reading "The Rainbow And The Worm: The Physics of Organisms", by Mae-Wan Ho. Some of my faves: "Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid", "Tao Te Ching", "Angela's Ashes", "Watership Down", "Non-Zero", "Consciousness Explained", "21 Dog years", "Where The Wild Things Are".

Heroes:


Anyone who doesn't need a snooze button, Anna Politkovskaya, Atwar Bahjat, Carl Sagan, Douglas Hofstadter, Oliver Sacks, Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson, and Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- nürnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- shönedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm.
Martian Landscape of the moment:
The sunlit cliffs and basaltic sand dunes in southern Melas Chasma.
Cover art of the moment
Dead Can Dance, A Passage in Time
Anecdote of the moment:
What did Bob whisper to Charlotte?
Bill Murray was asked what he whispered to Scarlett Johansson at the end of Lost in Translation. Here's his response:
"I guess the answer is, there's somethin' that makes it impossible to tell," he says. "But I'll tell ya a good story about it. I'm gettin' on the ferry at Martha's Vineyard, and some guy yells out from across the way, 'Bill, what'd ya say to her?' Everyone hears him ask, and I pause for a second with my mouth open and start to speak. And as I start to speak, the foghorn sounds, about a twenty-five-second blast, and I just"—Murray starts moving his lips silently—"I acted it out like I was saying something really sincere, and the crowd laughed so hard. It was great. I couldn't have bought that moment."
Here's Bill's full interview from Esquire Magazine.
Links of the moment:
Read what was actually Lost In Translation from an extraordinary, ordinary guy in Japan. Also, find out what "Here's looking at you, kid" means in Japanese.
Which philosopher are you? Your Result: W.v.O. Quine / Late Wittgenstein There is no provable absolute truth. The way you see things is dependant on your language. Truths exist only within a language, and change as the language does.(This quiz was made by S. A-Lerer.)
Sartre/Camus (late existentialists)
Nietzsche
Aristotle
Early Wittgenstein / Positivists
Immanuel Kant
Plato (strict rationalists)
Which philosopher are you?
Take More Quizzes

My Blog

Tautology

  Tautology   Existence is neither rational nor irrational.Existence is rational and irrational.Existence is everything.Existence is nothing.It is a paradox.Existence isexistence..... ...
Posted by ..entr0p3te.. on Sat, 25 Aug 2007 10:40:00 PST

A Force of Nature

Several million years ago, man's ecological footprint was about the size of, well... a footprint. The only lasting effect these ancient humans had on their environment were the impressions their feet ...
Posted by ..entr0p3te.. on Fri, 06 Apr 2007 01:56:00 PST

The Hot Sauce Study

Did you know that thinking about your own mortality affects how you treat others?  I found out about this from the PBS program "How Art made the World" (excellent series btw)...  In 1998, p...
Posted by ..entr0p3te.. on Wed, 26 Jul 2006 11:15:00 PST

Dark energy

So, the Universe is expanding.  Right. That much we knew.  Then in 1998, they discovered that its expanding faster and faster.  Something apparently is stepping on the gas. &n...
Posted by ..entr0p3te.. on Fri, 19 May 2006 10:16:00 PST

Crazy claptrap, gabby gobbledygook, and bombastic bunk.

Ok, it's official.  I'm going to start posting blogs.  There's some really wacky crap being written out there, so if my blog stinks like poop, then I'm in good company.  Feel free to co...
Posted by ..entr0p3te.. on Wed, 15 Feb 2006 02:33:00 PST