I’m now 2-0 on the season watching Phillies games live. I gotta say, I don’t know for sure if Citizens Bank Bark was worth the money the city kicked in for its construction – but it is a fun place to spend an afternoon.
And now, I am going to begin a week-long experiment that I like to call “going to sleep when I feel tired,” so there’ll be a more substantial post tomorrow. Good night, everybody!
Lore Sjoberg has diversified the content at Bad Gods to include comics strips – including this great strip about a Buddhist RPG – and a collection of limericks based on famous poems. After a day of reading and discussing all the wonderful examples of humanity’s depravity in The Lucifer Effect, I kinda need to unwind a little, and this hits the spot.
I’m probably a biased audience, but I gotta say, philosophy sure does seem like fertile ground for web comics. Then again, I guess everything is fertile ground for web comics.
The AP has a pretty good article on a humans vs. computer poker match set to start tomorrow at a conference on artificial intelligence in Vancouver. The article does a nice job of explaining exactly why poker is seen as an interesting challenge by artificial intelligence researchers.
The game-tree approach doesn’t work in poker because in many situations there is no one best move. There isn’t even a best strategy. A top-notch player adapts his play over time, exploiting his opponent’s behavior. He bluffs against the timid and proceeds cautiously when players who only raise on the strongest hands are betting the limit. He learns how to vary his own strategy so others can’t take advantage of him.
That kind of insight is very hard to program into a computer. You can’t just give the machine some rules to follow, because any reasonably competent human player will quickly intuit what the computer is going to do in various situations.
I’m definitely gonna be on the lookout for the results of this test. Sounds like a fun conference.
I’m following the reports on the Michael Vick indictment, and there are two things running through my head:
1. A few days ago, I was seeing reports that this very indictment was unlikely. I’m not blaming any particular reporter; I have no reason to believe that the reporters on the case worked diligently and trusted reliable sources. But sometimes when we want the news now, rather than when it’s ready, we get the story wrong.
2. There are already calls for boycotts and suspensions and boycotts if there are no suspensions. And yet there are plenty of indications that many NFL powers that be want to see how this plays out in the legal system first. I can’t say I have anything against that approach – let’s see how Vick defends himself from the charges which, at the moment, are just charges. That said, should the trial and related investigations reveal enough proof for people to be confident Vick is guilty, even if he manages to beat the charges, I don’t think I’d have a problem with the NFL using something less than the reasonable doubt standard in making its decisions about whether Vick is fit to be a player in the league.
Had an 8:40 AM education class today. I didn’t handle 8:40 AM classes well when I had no kids, was single, and lived five minutes from the classroom building. Throw in the wife, kids, and 75-minute commute, and hoo-boy, have I been a zombie today.
Did some textbook orders for my fall classes – thank goodness for databases that let you do searches by ISBN code. I didn’t realize that we’re apparently shifting to longer 13-digit ISBN codes, but there is unsurprisingly a copious amount of ISBN information on Wikipedia.
I’m also looking for textbooks on economics and various topics in world history for my own use. I may have found some candidates – I’ll report back – but if anyone wants to toss suggestions into the comments, go for it.
Nothing profound today, but I must say I got a kick out of this story: not only did the Phillies avoid losing the 10,000th game in their history – they’ll be the first pro sports franchise ever to lose that many, once it happens – they helped save the Colorado grounds crew from a runaway tarp during a rain delay. Now we just need to ride that tarp onto a hot streak.
It took 10 innings, I got rained on, and I watched the last inning from the concourse, but:
The Losing Streak is over!
After more than fifteen years and at least a dozen games, I have seen the Phillies end a baseball game triumphant. I’m thinkin’ world peace is right around the corner.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go finish digesting some ballpark chicken fingers . . .
I was working on a post and then I accidentally hit the close-browser button. I’m taking that as a sign I need to try again when I’m more coherent.
In the meantime, I present you with this link, so that you can make your own Star Wars Hammerhead sock doll.
We are all about the helpful laundry tips here.
Edit to add: Oh, heck, go check out the entire Kids Crafts section of the Star Wars website. Two words: Droidel Dreidel. And I thought I needed to get my head back together.
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has gotten permission to offer a “plenary indulgence” to Philadelphia-area Catholics who visit shrines or do other faith-affirming things. I admit, I went to a Catholic parish grade school in Philly, I went to a Catholic prep school in Philly, and then I went to a Jesuit university in New York, and I’ll be damned if I can figure out how this is supposed to work, despite the Inquirer writer’s valiant attempt to explain what a contemporary indulgence does and why Lutherans are still, let’s say, less than thrilled with the whole thing.
If I’m following this, the doctrine runs like so:
I really wish I had seen a rate sheet while I was in school, so I would know how much time in purgatory I’ve racked up and whether or not these indulgences are worth the effort.
Of course, the somewhat mocking tone I’ve taken here has probably added some time to my sentence. But it does strike me that this story illustrates the major tension I’ve always felt running through Christian thought: on the one hand, there’s the notion that it’s all in God’s hands and we should trust that things happen for a reason and it will all work out. And on the other hand there’s the notion that what we do with our lives matters. Take that paradox, throw in a bureaucracy, and the result is me sitting here scratching my head
We attended the wedding of our friends Mike and Suzanne tonight, and had a great time. Congratulations and best wishes to both of them.
At the reception we got a reminder of how careful it pays to be with the language. You may be familiar with the wedding-DJ game of having people at a table pass a knight or a spoon or something from the table around while playing music, and then whoever has the item when the music stop has to perform some sort of task. Not everyone knows the game, however, so it’s important to explain the rules.
Well, the DJ instructed us as follows: “Everyone pick up an item at the table and pass it around.” So at our table eight utensils started making their way around, as we all looked at each other going :I don’t think this is how it’s supposed to work.” We had pared our way down to one spoon when the music stopped – and I got left holding the spoon – and the DJ announced that several tables had been passing multiple items around. (Including a candle in one case. It may be better to play this game earlier in the evening if there’s going to be an open bar.) So I was spared whatever task was assigned that round. Maybe next time preprinted diagrams are in order.