What’s so Funny ‘Bout “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding?”

Have to start by qualifying that I appreciate this song quite a bit… But follow me here… Here’s a quote from the Elvis Costello version of Nick Lowe’s song.

…

I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?

And each time I feel like this inside,
There’s one thing I wanna know:
What’s so funny ’bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What’s so funny ’bout peace love & understanding?

…

I’ve been kicking this idea around for a while, but am I the only Elvis Costello fan in the world who finds amusement in the thought that this song is a cynical enjoyment of the hilarity of the ideas of peace, love, and understanding? As opposed to being a plea for them…

May Not Be My Place to Say…

Since I’m not Muslim. Or religious.

But the Kaaba is the most awesome pilgrimage site in the world – And this seems like desecration.

To show my ignorance, I didn’t know that Mecca was that big a city in the first place.

And I thought access was restricted to believers only.

So can nonbelievers buy these places?

Seems like it completely kills the value of the hajj if you can stay in a hotel overlooking the thing.

For once, Duane sides with the fundamentalists…

This Is Freaking Mindblowing

At the TED conference, this guy presented that they’ve found… Go ahead and sit down…

Metadata in DNA

Holy Shit. Not only is DNA a unique and seemingly convenient shape – the shape is information. Previously it was thought to be just wadded up in cells – just wadded up. Now we’re learning that The FORM ITSELF is part of the program.

This is bigger than we can comprehend. Think about the discovery and subsequent use of the first order information in DNA and what that’s done to our understanding of the world. To resort to analogy, DNA as analyzed by the Human Genome project is an 8-bit one-dimensional line of information. This is a 3d object… We’re talking about n levels of information…

Literally all life is pure information. In 50 years life itself could be redefined…

Lest we Forget…

Sure, there are shinier newer baubles in the Hold Steady catalogue.

But …Almost Killed Me is really fucking good.

That’s all.

Ballmer

I cannot say the things I want to say from my office computer…

“Ballmer repeated his earlier assertions that open source ‘is not free…’ “