extend the life of a friend!! (if your friends are rechargable batteries)

obsessedly ... spellcheck suggests ‘blessedly’! ... okay ...

blessedly killing time ... ... oh no!!

save your batteries kids! there are basically two popular types of rechargeable batteries, and i’ve researched how to make them last longer (see http://www.batteryuniversity.com/ for pages and pages of info, or keep reading for my Reader’s Digest version ...

extending the life of your rechargeable batteries can save you a lot of money (hundreds of dollars for a laptop) ... and a lot of inconvenience if you can’t afford a new battery!

Li ion (lithium ion) batteries are found in laptop computers, iPods, and most newer mobile phones. to extend the lives of these batteries it’s best to recharge them fairly randomly ... after one or two hours of use in the case of an iPod or laptop, after a day of light use in the case of a mobile phone. fully depleting these batteries and then fully recharging will actual lower their efficiency.

Ni-Cad (nickel cadmium) or Ni-MH (nickel metal hydride ) batteries are more finicky and are found in older mobile phone, cordless phones, and sometimes come with cameras. they have a 'memory' which means that if you continually use them for one hour and then fully recharge them, they begin to 'think' that one hour is their maximum capacity! so for these batteries you can greatly extend their lives by always fully depleting them, then fully recharging them.

that’s it. i hope this helped!

visual news

"Want to stay up on the latest news but think Google News is dry and boring? For something a little more visual, try 10x10. The site lets viewers scour the top headlines using photos, which combine to create a broad snapshot of the world every hour on the hour." ~from Wired News

http://www.tenbyten.org/10x10.html

how much of your current positivity would you ascribe to yoga?

.. considering the size of the numbers popping into my head when i consider that question (remember, i'm the analytical one), i can't believe that i don't practice yoga more often ...

i need some meaning i can memorize ...

... the kind i have always seems to slip my mind

... and here's another great music video

(for nenem? 8(D)

bobby and norman

come on, go for it ... give us two sentences for the bubbles ...

chris' new cd

so i'm writing 'to' ( = 'while listening to and being influenced by') a CD i made for my cousin Chris to write 'to'. yes, you have it. i am affected by the songs i've chosen ... does this mean i'm in Chris' headspace? :S
[begin transmission]
".... little girls ... bobby and norman ... blue-haired girl ... does that make me like bizzarro Charlie Brown? ... hey she's cute ... i smell god! ... i mean good! ... hey girls ... did i just tell i lie? ... did they notice? ... no ... to both ...

why does honey just randomly turn hard and sugary? an open jar of perfectly liquid honey will be sitting in my cupboard for months and then suddenly i'll go to put some in my tea and the entire jar will have "gone bad" (i realize it's not going to kill me to use this, but hey ...

and, and ... does a drastic change in air temperature necessarily imply that air has been exchanged, or can it be that heat was transferred between the air particles and they all stayed where they were? ... i've thought about this one, with my highly analytical but poorly scientifically eduacated brain and i have some thoughts ... air is an excellent insulator ... a cold front meeting a warm front causes high winds and storms ... i'm sure one of you know ... and if you don't, it's a fun test of your analytical / observational skills ...

music you should sample: bands: the arcade fire, aqueduct, the postal service, lcd soundsystem ....

drink you should try: jagermeister, amaretto, coke (optional)

people you should listen to: maybe not me ...

quantum physics & freedom v. determinism

i am also intrigued by Quantum Physics and what it’s discoveries imply about our reality. melon collie (in his comment on my previous post) is correct that scientists can most easily explain the activity of sub-atomic particles using matrices of probability; for any given experiment it is not possible to predict the exact outcome, but after a while you see that the outcomes are not random, but follow a specific pattern of distribution.

now, what this means for the metaphysical argument of freedom v. determinism is still unclear. melon collie is saying that the fact that there is uncertainty implies that there is freedom inherent in the decision. i’m not so sure that quantum physics could be used to prove either a free or a deterministic reality.

meet Max. Max has a decision to make. quantum physics can best describe Max’s range of options using a probability matrix. at the end of the day, however, Max will only make ONE decision. quantum physicists seem to be saying that the decision will be completely random, but will fall within the matrix of probabilities. i have trouble believing that this choice is random. if it is, then one might easily conclude that life is meaningless! so let’s put that aside and assume that the choice is not random. if it’s not random, then was the choice pre-determined or chosen out of free will? we are back to the original question!

it doesn’t seem that quantum physics can help us with this metaphysical question, but it does tell us one thing; if we do live in a “free” reality, this freedom seems to be constrained by a pattern of distribution. if an outcome has a zero percent probability to occur, no amount of “freedom” will make it occur!

(it is also necessary to remember that quantum physics, to date at least, is only applicable at the sub-atomic level. when scientists view the world at a more macro level, Einstein’s theory of relativity still reigns supreme. perhaps String Theory will be able to collapse this divide and give us further insight into our reality ...)

are determinism and moral responsibility mutually exclusive?

tonight our philosophy club was to discuss Harry Frankfurt's essay:

"Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility"
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctytho/dfwCompatFrankfurt.htm

the article deals with the classic metaphysical argument of freedom v. determinism by considering the following:

if the world is deterministic; that is, if effect follows cause ad infinitum, then can a person be said to be morally responsible for his actions?

put more simply: are determinism and moral responsibility mutually exclusive?

i welcome your thoughts ... i will certainly be adding my two cents very soon ...