Archive for August, 2007
Indica, Laid to Rest.
Our dog Indica died today. The whole family went to Matthew’s new house to help him move. Indica came with us because like I said, the whole family was going. We left her there behind the house on Kernsville road in Orefield, Pennsylvania. In the ground overlooking a field which can no longer be farmed because of the layer of shale that is about 2 feet down. She looks over the field and lays beneath the stars. Guarded by Matthew and a tree line, she sleeps an endless sleep. A cross made of sticks and pliable flower stalks marks her grave.
Those who knew her would agree that she was the best dog they had ever met. She will be sorely missed. At six years old she never mothered a single litter. Sadly, Indica’s mild manners have no heir.
Sensai told us that Indica told her that it was okay and that she’d be born again as a new puppy. Regardless, Sensai didn’t want to leave Indica in the ground. I can’t understand how she is dealing with this tragedy so well. She told us that she was sad, and that she would miss her dog. She also showed me a dance that she claims would have kept Indica from going into the road.
Rest in peace, Indica. You will be missed and your memory shall be celebrated.
Re: Lifecode: From egg to embryo by self-organization
There has been some recent ‘buzz’ lately stating that PZ Myers has outright called Stuart Pivar a “crackpot.” I have read as much of PZ’s writing on Pivar that I can find. I am unable to say confidently that he did in fact call Mr. Pivar a “crackpot.” It may be implied by Mr. Meyers that Mr. Pivar’s work is completely unfounded by any standards. By he never outright called the man a crackpot. I for one believe that the lawsuit is absolutely ludicrous.
Allow me to point out a passage on Mr. Pivar’s publisher’s website.
“Axiom House publishes works of fiction. In these novels, names, characters, businesses, places, and incidents are products of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Opinions expressed therein do not necessarily represent the opinions of either Axiom House or the respective authors.” quoted from here.
Am I to understand that Mr. Pivar’s “book” was published by a company that only publishes works of fiction? If that is true would it not also imply that Mr. Pivar’s work is that of fiction? Certainly we can all agree on that by reading PZ’s summarization without even noting the passage above.
Regardless of that, it seems that Mr. Pivar’s work is completely unsupported by the publisher. I would regard this is a smart move for them to make. It seems that Mr. Pivar has been mis-quoting and downright making things up and listing it as a quote from several respected members of the scientific community. An example which I will quote below can be found here.
“Dr. Neil de Grasse Tyson
Another possibility is that life has encoding that has nothing to do with DNA. That would be more important for biology than finding other life with DNA, because it would be a way to encode life that no one has dreamt of before No mere mathematical curiosity, this physically plausible model should be investigated seriously by biologists.
Neil de Grasse Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium”
The quote above which was attributed to Mr. Tyson was taken from an interview three years ago.
As you can probably tell by the URL of the link to that page, this was taken down. There is another page that was removed from view which can be found here.
Someone mentioned that Mr. Pivar must have access to some high-grade Marijuana. I have done some digging and I found an old photo of Mr. Pivar with Andy Warhol “packing a bowl.”1,2
1 “Packing a bowl” is a common term used by “potheads” to refer to the placing of marijuana into a glass pipe which is commonly known as a “bowl.”
2 Disclaimer: This image was borrowed from pittsburghlive.com and can be found here. I do not claim ownership to the rights of this image and use it only for satirical (parody) purposes.
Bioshock Demo Released for PC
Bioshock, a game that has been long awaited for it’s immersive game play and highly sophisticated AI system has been released as a demo for the PC. It is available on a lot of the usual places that make you wait in queues. I will not name URLs, but needless to say, “Surely, there is a torrent of this file.” Yes, my friends, there is indeed a torrent for this file. Behold Bioshock PC Demo. [thepiratebay.org]
I may need to point out that this is a completely legal torrent as it is a demo version and is being released for purposes of demonstration of a product. As such it is limited in its game play and is not the ‘full release.’
Enjoy.
Silly IT Recruiters
Why is it that recruiters - particularly those that sound like they are of mid-eastern descent - feel that it is necessary to immediately follow up an e-mail with a phone call? Is their urgency such that they think that we IT professionals don’t check our e-mail? It is not that urgent to me that you contact me twice in the same minute. I check my e-mail regularly. I check my voice mail as well. I suppose it is really my fault. I should stop using Dice. Every time I update my Dice resume I get a torrent of calls and e-mails from aforementioned recruiters. These are not, I might add, the type of recruiters I’d like to be speaking to.
The type of recruiter I’d like to speak to are the ones that honor my request that you absolutely DO NOT call me during the hours of 9:00am to 6:30pm. If you need to contact me during those hours you may e-mail me. I do check it regularly. Your message will be received. Additionally I am a tad miffed by the types of jobs these people are offering. These are not local. Nor are the tele-commute-able. Do they even read my resume before suggesting I might be a candidate for such a job?
My theory is that they are commissioned to blanket any and all IT professionals with absurd job offers and annoying phone calls. I can’t even understand what they’re saying on my voice mails. It is absolutely pointless to call me to notify me that you have e-mailed previously. NOTICE: I may not have checked it within the three seconds it took you to dial my phone number. It is a game of numbers. If they contact X many professionals they are bound to get Y many potential matches.
I have an idea. Make your recruiting company’s website not look like it came from some template. Don’t contact every single user of Dice. You could hire fewer recruiters this way as you wouldn’t need to staff a freaking call center to do your job. Alternatively you could sweeten up the deal a bit. If the job looks attractive then you’ll get responses. If it looks like you’re not even trying then forget about it.
I am Stephen Holsinger and I’m hounded by mid-eastern recruiters that got my info on Dice. *Grrr!*
Tornado rolls through Nesquehoning / Jim Thorpe
Here’s some video footage of a tornado / thunder storm that went through today while I was at work. Here is some video footage taken by me. I just happened to have my digital camera with me today. The storm included hail and high winds. It actually came through town, and swept back around and came through again. We’re lucky that a tornado didn’t touch down near us.
Part II
Part II