Coding In Paradise

disinformation | i have met god and he lives in brooklyn "The weird thing is that in Japan, which has never had any Jews, anti-Semitic books sell in the millions. In the millions."

disinformation | i have met god and he lives in brooklyn . "It's outsiders that, as Thomas Kuhn will tell you in his theory of scientific revolutions, it's outsiders who perceive the big picture in a way that no one else could see it. Like Erwin Schrodinger in his book, What is Life? He was a physicist and he came up with this seminal book that started all the modern biology we know, right down to genetics. Hid did it about 40 years ago or so. He was a total outsider. Outsiders can see what insiders cannot see. Being an outsider is an incredibly lonely proposition--I tried to kill myself 2 weeks ago--that's how lonely it gets, but it is an incredibly fruitful proposition, because of what you can see."

disinformation | i have met god and he lives in brooklyn

"Howard, you sound like you're on coke. A lot of it."

"That's what people used to always say to me when I was in the music industry. But I am a bit manic, tonight, yes. Well, two weeks ago (January 14th, 1998) I tried to commit suicide when the divorce proceedings with my wife, Linda became too much for me. I ate 80 Valium, fourteen Chlorpromazine, and gave myself an intramuscular injection of five cc of Lidocaine Hydrochloride, which according to my copy of the Physician's Desk Reference was an unequivocally fatal dose. I actually so close to dead that the Grim Reaper had digested my soul and was burping up the remains. For two and half days I lay in bed like a corpse, the blood pooling in my body and breaking out through the skin, almost like stigmata. When I woke up I'd lost the use of three limbs and 40% of my circulatory system. I've been experiencing the highest spiritual and intellectual highs and the lowest of the lows in roughly 15 minute cycles ever since. As a scientist, it's an incredible thing to witness, but being the person experiencing it, it really sucks. So I tried to kill myself. Yes, you could say I'm a little on edge, that's for sure.

disinformation | i have met god and he lives in brooklyn "Or how the arch skeptic, dark lord of Disinformation becomes convinced, and tries to convince you the reader, that Howard Bloom is next in a lineage of seminal thinkers that includes Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Freud, and Buckminster Fuller and how he is going to change the way we see ourselves and everything around us." Howard Bloom has a wild name and is a good writer, but I don't know if he's the next Newton, and I'm sure he doesn't look as good in black horn-rim glasses as Buckminster Fuller.

Ok, folks, I'm going to ruin the suspense for you, but it was Kristin who shot J.R..

I'm creating paper prototypes of my Web 2.0 project; I create the UI out on paper, and then put it in front of people and pretend like they are clicking around. I'm doing extensive usability testing on people this way.

I think there should be a John Ritter Hall of Shame.

Good morning boys and girls! Snort!

CNN.com - Dog attack trial opens in S. Africa - November 19, 2001 "Six white policemen have gone on trial in South Africa for allegedly setting their dogs on three black immigrants."

South Africa - What Every Tourist Should Know "Potential tourists to South Africa are being warned abroad to look downcast when robbed and to carry enough money to satisfy the robbers."
- The Cape Times 27/2/1997

South Africa - What Every Tourist Should Know:
South Africa is the first country which has completely abolished the death penalty

South Africa's crime rate is the highest in the world per capita (excluding countries at war.)

South Africa has one of the highest numbers of reported rape cases in the world per capita.

South Africa, World Crime Capital? - Nedbank ISS Crime Index vol 5 No 1 Many refer to South Africa as the crime capital of the world. This has been disputed by the minister for safety and security, Steve Tshwete, and the national police commissioner, Jackie Selebi. What do the figures say? Interpol data and South African crime statistics show that South Africa’s high level of violent crime sets the country apart from other crime ridden societies.

Lonely Planet World Guide | Destination Swaziland | Introduction From the countries-you've-never-heard-of-before-department: "The smallest country in the southern hemisphere is also one of the most easy going - laid-back Swazis are more likely to celebrate for fun than than demonstrate for reform. A progressive and hands-on attitude towards wildlife preservation has endowed Swaziland with a striking bunch of national parks and game reserves, and black and white rhino, elephant, and more recently, lion, have been reintroduced. You can trek, horse ride, raft on wild rivers or cycle through many of the parks and get surprisingly close to a huge variety of wildlife. The system of reserves also protects unique and rare plants and plant communities, such as the finbos ('fine bush' in Dutch) , more common in South Africa."

Lonely Planet World Guide | Destination Mozambique | Introduction On dealing with land-mines while in Mozambique: "Stay on roads and well worn tracks where other people have obviously gone before. Take special care on road verges in rural areas - for example, if you want to head into the bushes for a pee. It's even possible to set off a mine by standing on the road and peeing into the verge."

Lonely Planet World Guide | Destination Equatorial Guinea | Introduction "Equatorial Guinea's main problem could also be its biggest advantage. A very poor country with a largely stagnant economy, about the only attraction aside from the beach is the many bars that you'll find on almost every corner of every village and town. While this is potentially disastrous, it is the underdeveloped, backwater feel - combined with the opportunity to party with the locals - that appears to attract adventurous visitors." - I never even knew this country existed before.

East Asian Studies Documents: Constitution of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, 1948"Article 15. The state protects the right to ownership (rights to governing, rights to using to transferring) and the rights to inherit property of organisations and individuals. As for the land which is under the ownership of the national community, the state ensures the rights to using, transferring, and inheriting it in accordance with the law." - Laos is a Socialist/Communist country. This is taken from their constitution, which is fascinating. I hear that the Laos Communist Party is pretty draconian, but they opened up the country for tourism a few years ago. It is interesting that the above Article 15 protects different kinds of property ownership; the land stuff is interesting as well.

Lonely Planet World Guide | Destination Laos | History "Laos has the dubious distinction of being the most bombed country in the history of warfare." Wow.

I was on the public access station in my college my freshman year of college. The name of the show was The Not So Late Show. For some reason the cast bio page lives on in cyberspace; here's a funny bio of me. The embarassing thing is this is what comes up if you type my name in Google; yeah, I want employers to see this.

I went to Pi Pi Island recently (caa Pi Pi in Thai) a few days ago with those cool girls I met from Finland. Pi Pi Island is where they filmed the movie The Beach. Here are some pics of that.

Here I am with Petra on a long-tailed boat going to Pi Pi La, the small island with the lagoon that Leonardio De Caprio fought the shark in The Beach:


This was the view of the ocean from our bungaloes on Pi Pi Don:


We went to the island with no hotel reservations, and almost had to sleep on the beach when there were no hotels open! We finally ended up finding something though, thank god.

Here's another pic of the water; man I love that color:


Here's a pic of the island from the ferry as we approached the island for the first time:


Feet!


Riikka gazes out into the distance....


The day before we went hiking into the jungle with a cool guy named Somchai; we found a remote jungle pond and jumped in! Everyone else had bathing suits, but I didn't, so I stripped and skinny dipped. You can see my neon whiteness below:


Driving into the jungle; those are rubber trees on either side:


I had this crazy-ass desert earlier that day that Somchai introduced me to; most of it was neon glowing, and I couldn't tell what it was; it was good though:


Here are all of us on Phuket:


Enna: "Like duh!":


I take Thai language lessons in Kamala; this is one of my teachers:


That's Y'all folks!