Vegan? – No thanks, I’m not hungry…

Failblog.

Occam’s razor

Here’s the link. At least when it comes to the second half of the century, the two variables track each other quite closely. Follow the link for more.

How many firms “deal” with their economic troubles

My previous post on newspapers just reminded me of this strip, which I would assume is actually more relevant now than it was when it was first made four years ago:

Just browsing…

Random wikipedia browsing. The arrows indicate that I followed a link leading to the article on the other side of the arrow head. I had been reading about exoplanets (did you know that we have detected only ~350 planets outside our own solar system?) a couple of days ago, so there was nothing random about the article I started out with:

55 Cancri -> 55 Cancri d -> Argument of periapsis -> Orbital mechanics -> Universal variable formulation -> Laguerre’s method -> (jump) trebuchet -> Torsion engine and Battle of Xiangyang -> Yuan Dynasty and Song Dynasty -> I felt tired and went to make a cup of coffee, so I stopped browsing even if I did get rather curious about the early development of forensic science that took place in the Song Dynasty centuries before this field was first studied in Europe…

If you have but the least bit of interest in any given subject X, obtaining more knowledge about X is usually both fun and rewarding. Don’t ever let anybody tell you differently.

Huge estimation errors – dinosaur edition

Scientists have discovered that dinosaurs may have been much lighter and sleeker than previously thought because of potential flaws in the equations used to calculate their weight.

The findings could force researchers to rethink many of their beliefs, particularly about giant plant eaters such as apatosaurus which had been thought to weigh up to 37 tons. The creature’s real weight was closer to 18 tons, according to new calculations.

“Palaeontologists have for 25 years used a statistical model to estimate the body weight of giant dinosaurs and other extraordinarily large extinct animals,” said Gary Packard, from Colorado State University, whose research will appear in the Zoological Society of London’s Journal of Zoology this week.

“We have found that the statistical model is seriously flawed and the giant dinosaurs probably were only about half as heavy as is generally believed.”

The research does not suggest that dinosaurs were shorter in length or height. These dimensions are clear from the size of their bones. Instead, Packard’s work challenges the depiction of many giant herbivores. Until now they have been shown as well-rounded, powerful animals, when they are more likely to have been skinny and muscular.

Such findings would affect more than just appearance. It would suggest that these animals were leaner and faster, needed less food and had significant differences in lifestyle from what was previously thought.

…

Here’s more, HT: Razib. No link to the study, which I would just love to read, as it will not be published until later this week.

I’m pretty sure these findings, if Packard is rigth, will have a profound impact on the field. As the article mentions, size is but one of several variables that need to be reestimated and -explained: A lot of the theory on behaviour, metabolism, thermoregulation ect. on the megafauna inhabiting the earth back then will also need to be rewritten.

Will this get him killed eventually?

The question has been asked before, however it remains as relevant as ever. I still believe the most likely answer is no, but I’m pretty sure a lot of other options are still on the table. Via Susan Polgar’s blog:

MOSCOW — Chess master Garry Kasparov staged the latest of his guerrilla hit-and-run protests against the Kremlin on Wednesday, showing up at the criminal trial of a former billionaire and engaging in a brief, heated debate with one of the prosecutors.

Spectators gawked and whispered when Kasparov sat on a front bench in the courtroom where Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, is being tried on charges he embezzled billions of dollars while he was the chief of the Yukos Oil Company.

Kasparov and other supporters of Khodorkovsky say he is chiefly guilty of making an enemy of former President Vladimir Putin.

Last week Kasparov used a similar gambit, popping up Friday at a ceremony in Sochi during the mayoral race in that city, host of the 2014 Winter Olympics. He managed to do what the challengers on the ballot hadn’t: confront the Kremlin-backed candidate, Anatoly Pakhomov.

…

Kasparov, one of the most famous of the Russian opposition leaders, said before the trial began it was his “civic duty” to demonstrate support for Khodorkovsky.

…

The latest Khodorkovsky case is seen as a test for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who has called for judicial and political reforms and for broader participation in elections.

These measures would reverse the course set by Putin, Medvedev’s mentor and predecessor, who rolled back democratic reforms during his eight years as president.

“As long as this trial continues, the talk of liberalization remains just talk,” Kasparov said at one point. “It makes the whole concept of law and justice a sad joke.”

…

I must admit that I admire Kasparov. He has had a wonderful career, he’s one of the most brilliant chess players that have ever lived, and he could do pretty much whatever he wanted to for the rest of his life. He has a lot to lose, and the expected personal gains from his current activities are very small. Yet still he spends most of his time now working for democratic reforms and speaking out against the tyranny of the current regime. He has some idiosyncrasies, yes; some of his ideas are a little odd, yes; but that’s the case with most of the world’s significant dissenters.

Oh, a short addenda: I have not written about Iran during the last weeks, even if I’m well aware a lot of stuff is going on there. If you want to know more about that subject, read about it somewhere else – preferably other blogs. The short version of my owns views is this: a) (Of course) the whole election was a fraud, both in theory (who were allowed to run) and in praxis (massive voting fraud). b) Ahmadinejad sucks, and most of the alternatives, including Mousavi, suck marginally less. c) I know very little about Iran and thus do not feel confortable writing about this subject. Also, I wouldn’t say that I don’t care about what goes on in Tehran these days, I just don’t care enough to blog much about it. As said, lot’s of other people do.

A little recycling is probably in order:

Maybe it doesn’t need to be so hard after all…

The clip is from The Big Bang Theory. I’ve seen the first two and a half episodes, and so far I think it’s hilarious.

Why culture matters…

Jewkes and her colleagues interviewed a representative sample of 1,738 men in South Africa’s Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.

Of those surveyed, 28% said they had raped a woman or girl, and 3% said they had raped a man or boy. Almost half who said they had carried out a rape admitted they had done so more than once, with 73% saying they had carried out their first assault before the age of 20.

The study, which had British funding, also found that men who are physically violent towards women are twice as likely to be HIV-positive. They are also more likely to pay for sex and to not use condoms.

Any woman raped by a man over the age of 25 has a one in four chance of her attacker being HIV-positive.

…

Here’s the link, via MR.

Stuff like this is also one of the reasons why I’m not an anarchist. I’m not inviting to a long discussion here, I’m just saying that things like these certainly do not in my mind disprove that Hobbes had a point.

17 kilometer

1 time, 3 kvarter.

Ikke nogen imponerende tid, men jeg er smadret. Ingen øvrige opdateringer i dag.

If research papers had a comment section…

Link.

Bombardér hovedkvarteret 1.5

Her kan du finde min første post relateret til Mikkel Plums bog, hvis du ikke allerede har læst den. I denne post følger herunder nogle flere citater fra bogen, som jeg allerede nu ikke har noget problem med at anbefale, selvom jeg indrømmet stadig mangler at læse halvandet hundrede sider:

i) For at arbejderne kan leve, må de dræbe kapitalisterne. For at arbejderklassen kan komme til magten, må den sende borgerskabet i døden. [...] Der er for lidt had her i verden, og det bor i de forkerte hjerter. Der er for få våben her i verden, og de ligger i de forkerte hænder. Der er for lidt revolutionær bevidsthed her i verden, og den sidder i de forkerte hoveder.

Leif Varmark, Vindrosen #3, 1973. (gg. s.135 i B.h.)

…

ii) Baader-Meinhof-gruppen kan og skal naturligvis forsvares over for borgerlige, men en tilbundsgående diskussion indadtil af sabotageaktioner – af problematikken omkring legalitet-illegalitet er en forudsætning for, at den danske venstrefløj kan tage ved lære af f.eks. den tyske venstrefløjs erfaringer … De fleste af os er parate til at blæse en lang række virksomheder i luften, for vi har snakket så længe, men vi har åbenbart ikke snakket længe nok og godt nok. Det må være vores opgave at hjælpe til med at få arbejderne og arbejdernes kommende parti til at give startskuddet til åbning af fronten.

Vibeke Sperling, Politisk Revy, august 1972 (gg. s.236 i B.h.).

…

iii) Vi afviser, at den palæstinensiske befrielsesbevægelses flykapringer og aktioner i Israel er terrorisme. Det palæstinensiske folk står bag disse kampformer, og dette er for os det afgørende.

Anne Grete Holmsgaard, International Bulletin #14, 1978 (gg. s.263 i B.h.).

…

iv) Teorier om og forsøg på ad fredelig vej at gennemføre socialismen, har altid ført til nederlag for arbejderklassen. Arbejderklassen kan ikke tage den borgerlige statsmaskine i besiddelse og sætte den i bevægelse for sine egne formål. Tværtimod må arbejderklasssen sønderknuse det borgerlige statsapparat og erstatte det med arbejderklassens egen statsmagt, proletariatets diktatur. Arbejderklassen må forberede sig på væbnet kamp i opgøret med borgerskabet … Historien har med al tydelighed vist, at den herskende klasse aldrig frivilligt giver afkald på sin magt, men vil anvende statsmagten til at under trykke arbejderklassens kamp for socialismen.

Kommunistisk Arbejderparti (KAP)’s principprogram, 1976 (gg. s.266 i B.h.).

Ezra Levant still going strong

It’s against the law in Canada to publish anything that is: “Likely to expose a person to hatred or contempt.” Steve, that’s crazy. Exposing a person to feelings is against the law? I mean – according to that definition, if you go to Yat Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Israel, and you leave with hateful feelings towards Germany, Yat Vashem the Holocaust memorial is guilty of a hate crime…

[...]

Freedom of speech is the strangest thing, Steve, it’s a gift you’ve got to give your enemies, if you want to keep it to yourself. [...] It’s something we have to give to the folks we totally despise, people who are wrong and rude and offensive, because if they can’t have it, well then we won’t have our rigth to be dissidents.

…

From this 18 minute interview with Ezra Levant, who is still going strong (I was unable to embed the video, but I recommend it, especially to those of you who haven’t heard the name of Ezra Levant before). These two articles are great too – do follow the link in the latter to the Power Play episode – the whole setup is just hilarious.

What I have been reading

i) Dickens. I have completed the book now, well a little while ago, but I never got to tell you people what I thought afterwards. That’s an easy task: Read the damn book! Nuff said.

ii) Catch-22, by Joseph Heller – I have finished that one since my last book update too. It was very good, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, even the parts I wasn’t supposed to be enjoying.

The book is very funny, but you should not read it (only) for the laughs. The sheer absurdity of almost everything that goes on in the book is a big part of what makes it so wonderful, but that absurdity applied just as well to the real world at that time, which is a point Heller gets across with great force. I’m still very impressed by the way the book changes direction about half way in or so, without ever really breaking the flow of the story: It gradually becomes more serious, more tragic, as Yossarian’s “friends” keep dying all around him, for no good reason, and people all around him keep trying to kill him too, for no good reason. The moronic XOs and COs, people like Major Major Major Major Major, and their various stupid ideas, even more absurd proposals, their own motivations for doing what they are doing – and their complete lack of understanding of their soldiers’ motivational setup – combined with the stupid bureaucratic setting that these people work in, makes for a lot of very funny pages – until you remember that not all of this is made up by Heller, and that some of those people were actually very real. It’s that way about a lot of what happens in the book; it’s funny, but you know deep down that you’re actually not really supposed to be laughing here. Heller seems to all the time be telling us between the lines that if you think the book is messed up, then you’re wrong; it’s not the book that’s messed up, it’s the real world that’s messed up.

iii) Franz Kafka: The Trial, translated by Breon Mitchell. I have completed the novel, even if I have still not yet read the last 20 pages of the “Fragments” section of the book (Kafka died before the novel was ever finished, and he wrote in his will that it was to be destroyed when he died. The Fragments part of the book consists of additions, unfinished chapters ect. that never made it into the novel proper).

It’s not a fun book to read. In a way, it is actually a horrible book to read. But you can’t lay it down. At least I couldn’t. It wasn’t anything like I’d expected, but then again, after having read it, I realized that I actually didn’t really know beforehand what to expect. It’s absurd like Heller, but not much fun to read. Just like Yossarian, Josef K. is caught in a catch-22, before that term had ever been coined. As the novel progressed, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I might have done things differently from Josef K., had I been in his situation; but the more pages you read, the more you realize that whatever you might have said or done differently, very little would have changed. The novel is so well written that the slow but still immensely brutal realization that there is no escape, no hidden loophole somewhere that you (or Josef K.) can find to bring a stop to the nonsensical trial, which incidentally pretty much nobody – including the people who are trying to get you convicted – seem to know anything about, is almost as hard on the reader as it is on Josef K. As you read on, you get to feel K’s despair, and I must say it really got to me. All the way through, you can’t stop looking for loopholes that just aren’t there and never were.

Heller was greatly inspired by Kafka’s authorship, and the impact of two other authors I have read recently, Fyodor Dostojevskij and Charles Dickens, are also easily recognisable in his novel. Catch-22 is, even if it has twice as many pages as the latter, easier to get through than The Trial, even if it is not exactly a walk in the park. If you’re not sure if you can handle Kafka, my advice would be to start out with Heller and then perhaps later move on from there. As Howard Jacobsen puts it in his introduction to Catch-22, Heller’s book is: Kafka popularized rigth enough, Kafka made available to those who would never go near Kafka, but by no means Kafka alleviated.

iv) Bombarder Hovedkvarteret, by Mikkel Plum.

I have in a recent post made it clear that I find the book very promising. I naturally still do.

En løbetur

En lidt mere personlig post, ikke om politik eller noget i den stil. Bare en post om en del af den der hverdag med diabetes, jeg før har snakket en lille smule om.

En almindelig sommerdag med et styk løbetur sen eftermiddag:

Inden afgang: De obligatoriske blodsukkermålinger.

Målte blodsukkeret halvanden time før afgang, for at vide om der evt. skulle tages ekstra insulin for at få blodsukkeret ned i et acceptabelt leje. Hvis blodsukkeret er over 15-16 mmol/l. og der er ketonstoffer i urinen, er det uklogt at dyrke motion som diabetiker. Blodsukkeret kan stige yderligere i stedet for som normalt at falde. Det kan have en lang række ubehagelige konsekvenser.

Foretrækker at tage afsted med et blodsukker omkring 10-14, og så spise en rugbrødsmad eller to umiddelbart før jeg smutter. Ja, det mindsker den teoretiske præstationsevne, da der går blod og ilt til mave-tarmkanalen som musklerne kunne have brugt. På den anden side mindsker det også behovet for tilførsel af hurtige kulhydrater inden for den første time, og det passer alligevel bare ikke ind i min dagligdag at løbe to-tre timer efter et hovedmåltid, hvilket efter sigende skulle være det omtrent optimale.

Blodsukkeret halvanden time inden afgang var 11.2. Ok, jeg vurderer ikke at der er behov for ekstra insulin. Jeg tager blodsukker igen ti minutter før afgang. 10.1, næsten uændret. Det er ok. Jeg tager en klapsammen
med leverpostej og pakker min rygsæk imens. Drikker også en halv liter vand eller så, det er varmt udenfor i dag. Regner med at tage 12-13 kilometer, så en halv liter juice samt en pakke dextrose (druesukker) medtages. Det burde være mere end nok til alle forudsigelige og uforudsigelige uforudsete hændelser.

Måske burde man tage en halv liter vand med også, men det er tungt at løbe med al den væske, og jeg burde kunne klare mig uden. Til sidst findes mp3-afspilleren frem. Jeg har bla Lipatti, Pizarro og Brendel med. Det lyder godt, og det får mig til at slappe af. Musikken får det med andre ord til at blive meget nemmere at håndtere kilometerne.

Løber……..

Efter 20 minutter første pause, dog kun ca. 20 sekunder til en hurtig blodsukkermåling. Blodsukkeret er 8.8. Forventeligt, jeg startede ud i relativt lav intensitet. Burde kunne klare 20 minutter mere uden hvil eller hurtige kulhydrater. Så det gør jeg. 20 minutter senere er blodsukkeret 5.1. Nu er jeg også ved at kunne mærke, at jeg ikke lige er startet længere, de 20 minutter var i relativt høj intensitet uden dog at være på intervaltrænings-niveau. Det vil den næste halve time også være, altså relativt høj intensitet, så jeg tager det meste af juicen, 3/4 eller så, og gemmer resten. Tager også fire styks af druesukkertabletterne. De to, både tabletter og juice, er meget på en gang, men jeg kan mærke at min højrehånds lillefinger og ringefinger ryster en smule, mens jeg laver et stræk: Mild hypoglykæmi, blodsukkerapparatet er ikke 100% præcist og det betyder også noget, hvor hurtigt blodsukkeret er faldet (og kan forventes at fortsætte med at falde). Pausen tager vel fire-fem minutter alt i alt, jeg forsøger at holde mig varm, men vil helst ikke starte ud igen, før jeg har givet det et par minutter mere, end jeg ellers ville. Mild føling lige før høj-intensitet motionsudøvelse skal påbegyndes er ikke optimalt, så jeg giver druesukkeret et par minutter ekstra til at virke.

Løber………

25 minutter senere pause nummer tre. 9.1. Blodsukkeret er kommet lidt op igen, og mon ikke jeg godt kan klare de sidste par kilometer uden større problemer? Tager de sidste slurke juice og drager hjemad i jævnt tempo. Jeg skal alligevel have lavet lidt mad, når jeg er kommet hjem, så det gør ikke så meget hvis blodsukkeret er på vej ned til den tid.

Efter jeg er kommet hjem laver jeg lidt aftensmad, tager et blodsukker igen og tager min hurtigtvirkende måltidsinsulin til aftensmaden (husk at mad får blodsukkeret til at stige, hvorimod insulin får blodsukkeret til at falde, og at type 1 diabetikeres problem er, at blodsukkeret stiger for meget når de spiser eller drikker, fordi de ikke producerer insulin), og her halverer jeg dosis i forhold til dagen før, hvor jeg ikke have været ude at løbe.

Senere på aftenen tager jeg basisinsulin for natten. Det er insulin der optages langsomt og virker over relativt lang tid, ca. 24 timer. Jeg justerer dosis, fordi motion som den jeg lige har dyrket både sænker blodsukkeret på kort og langt sigt, og fortsætter med at påvirke insulinoptagelsen i relativt lang tid. Hvis ikke jeg justerer dosis, vil jeg få for meget insulin i forhold til, hvor meget kroppen har brug for, og det kan betyde hypoglykæmi selv relativt lang tid efter, at jeg kom hjem fra løbeturen (en lang løbetur eller lignende kan sænke blodsukkeret i op til et døgn efter motionsudøvelsen er afsluttet).

Ca. 12 timer senere, dagen efter, tager jeg min morgen-basisinsulin for den følgende dag. Jeg justerer igen dosis på baggrund af løbeturen dagen før (dog ikke så meget som jeg gjorde aftenen før), fordi motionen stadig kan forventes at påvirke mit blodsukker i løbet af dagen.

Først mere end 24 timer efter jeg kom hjem fra mit løb den foregående dag, er alle insulindoserne tilbage på “normalen”. For jeg har nemlig aldrig søvnbesvær, er aldrig stresset, arbejder altid lige mange timer i løbet af en dag, dyrker altid, bortset fra den dag, samme mængde motion hver dag, spiser altid alle måltiderne – som aldrig afviger fra hinanden fra dag til dag – på samme tidspunkt, og har altid samme appetit, når jeg gør det.

(Det normale er aldrig normalt, det vil altid kun være “normalt”)

Et par citater

Fra Mikkel Plums Bombarder Hovedkvarteret!

Mellem 1939 og 1941 modtog Tyskland [fra Sovjet] 865.000 tons olie, 140.000 tons mangan, 14.000 tons kobber, 3.000 tons nikkel, 101.000 tons rå bomuld, over 1 million tons tømmer, 11.800 tons hør, 26.000 tons krom, 15.000 tons asbest, 184.000 tons fosfater, 2.736 kilo platin og 1.462.000 tons korn.

…

Hvornår var det nu, at SF kom til verden? De fleste mener at kunne huske, at partiet opstod i protest mod stalinismen, og at den direkte anstødssten var Sovjetunionens invasion af Ungarn.
Den røde hær rykkede endeligt ind i Budapest 3. november 1956, og verden var rystet. Blev SF dannet 4. november? Nej! Det afgørende brud mellem DKP’s centralkomite og formanden for DKP gennem mere end 20 år, Aksel Larsen, skete ikke i dagene efter.
Det skete først dagen efter, at Aksel Larsen havde ladet sig “hænge” af Osvald Helmuth på Avenyscenen 20 oktober 1958!
Der gik altså to år før Aksel Larsen og hans støtter tog sig sammen og gjorde det, Halldor Laxness kaldte “melde kommunistpartiet ud af kommunistpartiet”, hvis stenhårde stalinistiske leder Aksel Larsen selv havde været i årtier.
I de to nævnte år lå Aksel Larsen og hans folk helt på linie med Moskva i alle afgørende spørgsmål, og de forsvarede sovjetkommunismen, som den udviklee sig i alle centraleuropæiske lande, uden at kritisere diktaturet og dets forbrydelser i nævneværdig grad.

I Folketinget 6. november 1956, tre dage efter invasionen, sagde Aksel Larsen bl.a.: “Tilstanden i Ungarn kan ikke betegnes som andet end borgerkrig, hvor dele af landets indbyggere står imod andre dele af landets indbyggere, hvor landets skæbne står og store dele af befolkningens liv står på spil, begivenheder, som i sig selv kunne være en forberedelse til eller medføre en europæisk storkrig, og som i sidste instans har ført til, at sovjettropper har grebet ind for at opretholde ro og orden i landet” [dette er formodentligt en nærmest mundret oversættelse af Pravdas ledere i de dage, og er, naturligvis fristes man til at sige, lodret løgn. Der var lige så meget tale om "borgerkrig" i Ungarn, som der var tale om "revolution" i Rusland i 1917. Førstnævnte var en erobringskrig/invasion, sidstnævnte var et statskup].

[...]

Grunden til Aksel Larsens eksklusion og dannelsen af Socialistisk Folkeparti efter to års “tænkepause” handlede om noget helt andet: Jugoslavien.
Aksel Larsen tog i foråret 1958 parti for Tito og dennes uafhængige linie over for Sovjet. [...] Dette forår kom et nyt sovjetisk direktiv ud til alle komunistpartier mo fordømmelse af Jugoslavien. Aksel Larsen sagde for én gangs skyld nej. Han havde i et stykke tid bag kulisserne prøvet at få DKP til at ændre kurs og forholde sig mere uafhængigt/kritisk til Sovjetunionen [min tilføjelse: ikke til kommunismen]. Årsagen til dette var, at DKP efter Ungarn totalt havde mistet sit tag i den danske befolkning. [min tilføjelse: Det er motivspekulation, eftersom ingen sandsynliggørende kilder inddrages, men jeg deler ikke desto mindre MP's vurdering. Husk i øvrigt, at det forhold at AL ikke primært stiftede SF pga. Ungarn, på ingen måde betyder, at mange af de nye medlemmer som stødte til, ikke gjorde det som følge af Sovjets erobringskrig to år tidligere]

[...]

Flertallet i DKP’s ledelse sagde “ja” til Kremls krav om fordømmelse af Jugoslavien. Det førte til, at Aksel Larsen i sommeren 1958 formulerede et memorandum mod den øvrige ledelse.
Det kom til åben strid, som endte med Aksel Larsens nederlag. Han blev nu nødt til at forlade sit parti, hvor lidt han end ønskede det.

…

Jeg har aldrig hørt andre forklaringer på dannelsen af SF end Ungarn, så sidste citats indhold var meget nyt og overraskende for mig. Plums bog lover rigtigt godt.

Jeg har stadig ikke internet, og der går nok nogle dage mere før jeg får det. Så forvent få, hvis nogen, opdateringer før næste uge. At jeg først læser kommentarerne om et stykke tid bør naturligvis ikke afholde Jer fra at give feedback.

Update

I have moved, and I don’t have an internet connection at my new place yet. So I probably won’t update this blog for a while.