KITTIES

A stray cat that hangs around our neighborhood has apparently been preggers this whole time. The one dry spot she found was under our electric meter. We have some cat food and a nice cardboard box for her if she so chooses.



One of those will be named Captain Whiskers, I promise you. I'm thinking the master chugger on the left.

On a related note, if you're in DC and looking to adopt...

Fiesta DC 2010

Mt. Pleasant

















At this point my camera batteries died, but my little 2 mega-pixel cellphone did a pretty good job for itself.











A well-deserved hydration break.



I think these are traditional pimp outfits.





Bull heads are all the rage.



Aaaand welcome to Brazil.

Worst. Summer. Ever.

Thank you, Weather Channel, for acknowledging that our summers suck. DC got 1st for worst summer and 2nd for worst winter this year. Not too shabby.

Hopefully today's 90+ degree temperature is the last gasp of swamp weather.

Future Embarrassing Note in History

From The Agitator:

Defending Murfreesboro’s Hallowed Ground:

Residents of Murfreesboro, Tennessee have now gone to court to prevent the construction of a mosque and community center—a mere 900 miles from Ground Zero. The construction site has already been targeted by arsonists.

The project was greenlit under a recent Tennessee law called the Tennessee Religious Freedom Act, passed to make it easier for religious organizations to get around local zoning laws to build houses of worship. The law puts an extra burden on local officials to demonstrate the government’s interest in preventing the construction of a religious structure.

Mosque opponents argue that the center shouldn’t be covered by the law, apparently because...mosques aren’t churches.

Mosque opponent Kevin Fisher was scheduled to speak but had to leave due to health problems. A couple of hours before the commission meeting, Fisher filed a lawsuit against the commission in chancery court to stop construction of the Mosque.

“This case is about making sure that it’s really a church and making sure the county commission and planning commission stop operating as puppets,” Attorney Joe Brandon Jr. told the Murfreesboro Post.

Emphasis mine. Here’s some more fun from the opposition:

Local residents expressed their fear and anger at two past meetings of the Rutherford County Commission when area Muslims were granted permission to build a new Mosque. Some told commissioners they feared Muslims would try to kill them while others contended Muslims were here to replace local government with Sharia Law.

Opposition to the Mosque gained the attention of Televangelist Pat Robertson. In an August 19 airing of the 700 Club, the one-time failed Presidential candidate said Muslims could be bribing county government.

“I don’t know whether anybody is getting a pay-off, but it’s entirely possible,” Robertson told his audience.

On August 28, someone burned excavating equipment where the Mosque is being built damaging the equipment. The incident also followed vandalism against the site’s sign in January and June.

But don’t go drawing any broad conclusions, here.

Fisher made a point to tell the Murfreesboro Post this wasn’t about intolerance toward Muslims.

Around Town 6

Day temperature has dipped into the 70s, night temperature is a pleasant low 60s, and humidity has been cut in half. I don't think I've closed my window for the past couple of weeks. It's almost the technical end of summer, but the best weather for strolling, running, and being comfortable outside in DC will hopefully last a little longer. Fall itself is a nice time to be in DC, and the weekends are filling up already.

Stroll down 16th St NW.











Keeping an eye out for pooping birds.



















Those are called "crazy people".



Kazakhstan wins for sweetest embassy statue.







Someone is outside usually every day, but more frequently in a position that looks less like praying to Planned Parenthood.





He shall play you the song of his people.







If you had to guess what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's biggest concern is, what would you guess?

The Black Swan

I finally got around to putting the requisite time into this book (2nd edition) during the family trip to Wales a month and a half back. Similarly to Nietzsche, I found that jotting down notes while reading was helpful to both solidify my thoughts, remind myself of convergences, and point out questionable arguments. I'll just summarize some of them briefly.

In short, I thought the book was excellent, made a very good argument, and helped to pull together some of my disparate concerns with probability, statistics, econometrics, and knowledge in general, retroactive explanations/justifications and what it means to be an expert in a soft field in particular.

It tied together many questions I've had from philosophy of science and biology classes. Philosophy of science was largely above my head at the time. I'd like to take it again.

His style reminded me a lot of reading Nietzsche. It is bombastic, witty, bold, and powerful. Both of them find aphorism very useful. Aphorism is tricky, but they both do it well.

I can easily see the influence of thinkers such as Nietzsche, Hayek, and Hume, three of my favorites. This is especially evident in views on the inherent weakness of empiricism, the importance of art and aesthetics to knowledge (cue Joanna Newsom's excellent line, "never get so attached to a poem you forget truth that lacks lyricism"), the problem of knowledge dissemination in an increasingly complicated world, the vacuity of most modern philosophizing, the human need to force reality into simple molds to our own demise (ecce Procrustes), the unimportance of free will vs. determinism, amor fati, the value of having a sense of control over one's life and time, respect for Stoicism, and general zeal for living.

The only real place that I think he risks misapplying his theory, or rather should show some more epistemic humility, is in his treatment of diet and general health based on our evolutionary past. I might write more about this elsewhere, so for now I'll just say that empirically he and the paleos may be right, but theoretically are guilty of strong adaptationism. A minor critique of an excellent body of thought.

I really enjoyed the book and actually smiled when I finished the main body. There are several points of disagreement that I won't get into further, and I'm not sure of some of the life lessons he draws from his theories, but I highly recommend giving yourself the benefit of reading Taleb.

A few scattered quotes I jotted down:

"Being an executive does not require very developed frontal lobes, but rather a combination of charisma, a capacity to sustain boredom, and the ability to shallowly perform on harrying schedules."

"A theory is like medicine (or government): often useless, sometimes necessary, always self-serving, and on occasion lethal. So it needs to be used with care, moderation, and close adult supervision."

"Worry less about small failures, more about large, potentially terminal ones."

"Worry less about embarrassment than about missing an opportunity."

"Half the time I hate Nietzsche, the other half I like his prose."

"Missing a train is only painful if you run after it."

"But an aggressively stoic prior disdain and rejection of the grapes is even more rewarding. Be aggressive; be the one to resign, if you have the guts."

"It is the duty of every author to represent the ideas of his adversaries as faithfully as possible."

"Let human mistakes and miscalculations remain confined."