Monthly Archives: July 2011

July 12, 2011

Sideband #9: Analog vs Digital

In earlier Sidebands I have tried, as our English teachers used to say, to “compare and contrast” related pairs of concepts that are sometimes mistakenly conflated. The first pair, Truth and Facts, are similar enough to make distinctions between them debatable. Even the language can twist you up once you start talking about true facts and false facts. The next two pairs, Good vs Like and Ignorant vs Stupid, are well-defined and distinct.

In all three cases, there are similarities and differences (hence “compare and contrast”), but a key difference between those and the current topic, Analog vs Digital, is that none of them are really opposite pairs. There is no Yin and Yang aspect to them; one does not exclude the other. I’ve already mentioned true facts. Something can be both good and liked (or neither). Someone can be both ignorant and stupid (being neither is both good and likeable).

Not so with analog and digital! They are true Yin-Yang pairs; one excludes the other.

4 Comments | tags: analog, digital, Dualism, quantum physics, Yin and Yang | posted in Basics, Sideband

July 11, 2011

Sideband #8: Wikipedia

By Wyrd Smythe

Readers of this blog may have noticed by now that a lot of the links in what I write lead to Wikipedia.

I don’t work for Wikipedia, and I’m not even a contributor to its content. I am a big fan of that site (for several reasons), and I’d go so far as to say I think it’s the best site on the internet.

I mean, come on, how cool is it having a free online encyclopedia that doesn’t assault your senses with those increasingly annoying ads that infest just about every other site out there.

Leave a comment | tags: Wikipedia | posted in Sideband

July 10, 2011

Death: The Sandbar

By Wyrd Smythe

Last week a friend of mine experienced one of the worst things that can happen to a parent: outliving your very young child.

The past 16 months of her thread in life’s tapestry is particularly tragic and heart-breaking. It started a year ago March when her son, seven years old then, was diagnosed with a brain tumor and given 12 months to live. Then, last November, her husband died at age 35 in an unexpected asthma attack. At that time, she was pregnant with their third child, a girl born this past May.

Last week this part of the thread finally ended having taken both men from her young life and leaving her to raise her newborn and five-year-old daughter. If there is anything that leavens this heavy loaf, it is that she has the strong support of family and many friends. She is well-loved, which doesn’t balance the scales or make it easier to bear but provides some solace. Her journey also should serve to remind us all just how rich and blessed our lives are and how we must cherish and appreciate each day.

7 Comments | tags: death, John D. MacDonald, Travis McGee | posted in Basics, Life

July 10, 2011

Sideband #7: Down with 3D!

By Wyrd Smythe

I completely forgot to rant about 3D when I wrote about the Green Lantern movie. Part of the reason I did forget is that I didn’t see it in 3D.

Except for certain special cases — basically occasionally checking to see the state of the art — I will never willingly see any movie in 3D.

Number me, along with film critic Roger Ebert, as a hater of 3D.

Leave a comment | tags: 3D, Roger Ebert | posted in Movies, Sideband

July 10, 2011

Sideband #6: The Boston Syndrome

By Wyrd Smythe

In the Green Lantern post I mentioned “The Rocky Syndrome.” That’s what I call the common American trope where a single hero prevails after having the living crap beat out of him (or her) and being at the edge of defeat. (I’m going to assume you’re all familiar enough with the Rocky films to know what I’m talking about.)

A more modern example is one of the first (and greatest) action films of its kind: Die Hard. (Obviously, I’m talking about the first one. The others are… okay, but that first one is a classic. One of those films you can watch many times and still enjoy.)

In fact, that’s such a great film that one of these days I’ll have to write a post about it, but for now I want to talk about what I call, “The Boston Syndrome.”

11 Comments | tags: Boston (album), Boston (band), Heavy Metal (magazine), M. Night Shyamalan, The Sixth Sense | posted in Movies, Music, Sideband

July 9, 2011

Movies: Green Lantern

By Wyrd Smythe

Finally saw Green Lantern; thumbs definitely up. I’m no Green Lantern expert, but I’ve read enough to recognize a lot honor done to that comic. The Guardians and Oa seemed pretty on the money to me; so were Abin Sur, Tomar-Re, Kilowog and Sinestro. And I had no problem with Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan; no more so than Christian Bale as Batman or Toby Maguire as Spiderman. Or with Robert Downey Jr as Ironman, for that matter. (And I like them fine, in case you mistake me as being sarcastic.)

I also appreciated the way Hal used the ring: unusual, and yet appropriate, inventions to solve the problem at hand. That seemed very Green Lantern-ish. I’ve always considered slightly odd-ball combat and rescue tools as kind of a signature of the comic. For one example, lofting the oil tanker with a pair of bigass rams and then blowing it up with AA guns.

That was pure GL.

1 Comment | tags: comics, Green Lantern, Heroes (TV series), superheroes | posted in Movies

July 7, 2011

Vector Thinking #1

By Wyrd Smythe

Last time I talked about opposing pairs: Yin and Yang, light and dark, north and south. I mentioned that some pairs are true opposites of each other (for example, north and south), whereas other pairs are actually a thing and the lack of that thing (for example, light and dark). Such pairs are only opposites in the sense that an empty cup is the opposite of a full cup.

However, in both cases, the opposites stand for opposing ideas; two poles of polarity, and it is polarization that I address today. Specifically, I want to discuss a way of thinking that helps avoid it.

It’s easy to divide the world into sides. Many sayings begin with, “There’s two kinds of…” It seems easier to break things down into opposing points of view than to consider a variety of views. It seems easier to compare features between two things than twenty. Our court system has two sides and so does our political system (despite many attempts to create a viable third party).

4 Comments | tags: debate, discussion, parameter space, thinking, vectors, worldview | posted in Basics, Philosophy

July 6, 2011

Sideband #5: Reading Backwards

By Wyrd Smythe

Have you noticed how blogs and emails are training us to read backwards? Or if you want to read forwards, you have to go to the bottom and read upwards?

Blogging sites post your most recent post first and the oldest (that fits on the page) at the bottom. If you come to a site for the first time and read posts from top to bottom, you’re reading backwards in the order of their posting.

If you wanted to read them in chronological order, you’d have to find the oldest and read upwards.

Leave a comment | tags: Christopher Nolan, Insomnia, Memento, posting, reading, The Prestige | posted in Sideband, The Interweb

July 6, 2011

Yin and Yang

By Wyrd Smythe

In my second post I raised the topic of mind versus brain. There is (or, perhaps more accurately, may be) a duality. I mentioned that there are two basic schools of thought: one holding that mind emerges from brain and the other holding that they are distinct, that mind is – somehow – not physical. For now, the duality of the brain/mind question is open.

But there is definitely a duality in the two schools: the two opposing points of view. In this post I want to focus on the idea of duality and the idea of ideas in opposition. This post is about Yin and Yang.

13 Comments | tags: binary, Dualism, trinary, Yin and Yang | posted in Basics, Philosophy

July 5, 2011

Sideband #4: Ignorant vs Stupid

By Wyrd Smythe

One last very important distinction: there’s a big difference between being ignorant and being stupid.

To be ignorant is to not know something.

We are all ignorant. In fact, given how much there is to know, we’re all far more ignorant than not. Granted, some more than others, and if there is any crime, it is in remaining willfully ignorant in the face of knowledge.

That’s stupid.

2 Comments | tags: stupid | posted in Basics, Philosophy, Sideband