Mokka mit Schlag

If anyone out there has the JDK installed on Windows, could you run this program and tell me what output you get, and what version of Windows and the JDK you’re using?

import java.nio.charset.*;

public class URLtest {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println(Charset.defaultCharset());
    }
}

Just leave a comment with the info. Thanks.

Continuing to think about Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, I noticed that the Stanford Prison Experiment continues to confuse me. Just what was Quirrell really thinking here? On no level did this make sense. And then I realized that I had neglected one key event in the story. Bellatrix comes to believe that her master is inside Harry. At the time I just assumed without reflection that this was just a necessary part of the plot to free her, but what if it’s more? In fact, what if it was one of the main purposes of the whole breakout? Voldemort is preparing Bellatrix to be ready for the time when he moves from Monroe/Quirrell’s body to Harry’s.

Now if this were any regular fiction, I’d stop there, but consider the author for a moment: Eliezer Yudkowsky, a man who does research in artificial intelligence and is fascinated with the idea of AIs and the singularity. Hmmm.
Read the rest of this entry »

For many centuries, bleeding patients was a standard treatment for many diseases. Cancer? Bleed the patient. Headache? Bleed the patient. Fever? Bleed the patient. Pneumonia? Bleed the patient. Bleeding was accepted medical wisdom.

Perhaps surprisingly to modern patients, bleeding worked, at least some of the time. I.e. the patient would get better. Of course, a lot of the time if the doctor does nothing, the patient still gets better. No one bothered to ask whether it was the bleeding that caused the patient to get better or not. Few people even knew how to phrase the question.
Read the rest of this entry »

An idiosyncratic list of the most intriguing, most mind altering, and just plain fun books/movies/etc. I read in (not necessarily published in) 2012:
Read the rest of this entry »

In 2012 I saw:

• 335+ total species
• 204+ species in New York
• 58 Life Birds (mostly in Cuba, but a few in New York, one in Bermuda, and one in Florida; total now at 850)
• 12 new ABA area Birds (Total now in the vicinity of 500, though that may include a few like Muscovy Duck, Black Swan, Cockatiel, and Budgerigar that “don’t count”)
• 13 new New York State Birds (Total now at approximately 300)
• 7 new New Jersey State Birds (Total now at approximately 182)
• 15 new Louisiana State Birds (Total now at approximately 143)
• 40 new Florida State Birds (Total now at approximately 77)
• 35 new Plaquemines Parish Birds (Total now at approximately 85)
• 6 new Orleans Parish Birds (Total now at approximately 123)
• 2 new Jefferson Parish Birds (Total now at approximately 61)
• 9 new Kings County Birds (Total now at approximately 230)
• 3 new Queens County Birds (Total now at approximately 202)
• 8 new New York County Birds (Total now at approximately 112)
• 4 new Richmond County Birds (Total now at approximately 111)
• 12 new Nassau County Birds (Total now at approximately 138)
• 8 new Suffolk County Birds (Total now at approximately 132)

I didn’t go to the Bronx, and added no new birds in California.

Read the rest of this entry »

We now have two-and-a-half more chapters of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality to consider. Chapter 85, while awesome and sad, doesn’t add a lot to the mystery. Nor does Chapter 87, which is primarily further character development for Harry and Hermione. But Chapter 86, now that’s interesting.
Read the rest of this entry »