White and Nerdy

Weird Al Yankovic has just released "Straight Outta Lynnwood", featuring a parody of this song:




Here is Al's version


The sad thing is that I understand Al's lyrics, and I'm pretty sure that half of Chamillionaire's "lyrics" aren't even words.

Bonus Day

And while I'm at it, I've had something to say all week but been too busy to write it down:

First, you need to understand the concept of truthiness. Now that you've read about that, imagine that it doesn't just apply to our favorite ne'r-do-smart, but to hard science as well. I know a guy who uses truthy science. That is, he asserts things as true because they should be true. Never mind the facts, if something is conceptually easy, then the implementation must, per force, be easy as well. The exorcism power of the entire Catholic church has banished the Devil from all of the details in this guy's mind.

Here is an opinion poll question: Can an automobile navigate in suburban traffic patterns using only a 30-meter range scanning LADAR and a curb sensor?

Your opinions are welcome!

Is society disintegrating?

Welcome back, faithful reader. And yes, I acknowledge that there is only one of you. I've been thinking lately about evolution and meta-evolution; Evolution of societal meta-organisms versus the traditional evolution of people.

If one accepts that societies are organisms (at least they share some properties thereof), then do societies evolve (as in survival of the fittest) or do they learn (as in our 200-year old American democracy* is a spoiled rich kid who has nearly spent all of his trust fund). Societal organisms should be longer-lived than their constituent people, but then do they breed? Do they preproduce by sharing memes? Is Victorian society a dead organism, or did it learn to become industrial England?

And the reason I'm thinking about this is because I wonder if the kind of stupid stuff my boys do is the same level of stupid stuff that boys (who will, after all, be boys) did 100 years ago. Or 1000.







*There is a saying: "Democracy is the system of government where everybody gets what the majority deserve." It is one of my favorite quips, but I do not know to who to attribute it.