Dennett on memes
Dan Dennett on the Ants, terrorism, and the awesome power of memes:
Remembering
What we remember is not the event itself, we remember the last time we remembered it.
— Ajahn Brahmavamso
1, 2, 3, ...
Leland McInnes at The Narrow Road gives us a lesson on the varieties of the infinite:
Problems that involve infinity have a tendency to read a little like Zen koans. Take, for example, this problem: Suppose we have three bins (labelled “bin A”, “bin B” and “bin C”) and an infinite number of tennis balls. We start by numbering the tennis balls 1,2,3,… and so on, and put them all in bin C. Then we take the two lowest numbered balls in bin C (that’s ball 1, and ball 2 to start) and put them in bin A, and then move the lowest numbered ball in bin A from bin A to bin B (that would be ball 1 in the first round). We repeat this process, moving two balls from bin C to bin A, and one ball from bin A to bin B, an infinite number of times. The question is, how many balls are in bin A and how many balls are in bin B when we’re done? Think carefully!
Daily Walks
Diane Varner’s photoblog Daily Walks is well worth a look. This is one of my favorites.
On Freedom of Speech
The whole point of freedom of speech, if you ask me, is because it makes it easier to spot the assholes on the horizon.
— Elizabeth Bear, talking about Don Imus