Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Michael Blume's LiveJournal:

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Friday, November 20th, 2009
12:02 am	Katja Grace explains why we must 'follow our hearts' Current Music: Skullivan - They Might be Giants, The Spine Surfs Alone EP (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
6:24 pm	Any chance we can all agree on this one? Current Music: Cyclops Rock - They Might Be Giants, Mink Car (1 Comment |Comment on this)
6:18 pm	I rather love this song Baby check this out, I've got something to say -- Man, it's so loud in here! When they stop the drum machine, and I can think again, I'll remember what it was. Baby check this out, I've got something to say -- Man it's so loud in here! When they start the love machine, and I can love again... I'll remember what it was. Current Music: Man It's So Loud In Here (2002 Remix) - They Might be Giants, Man, It's So Loud in Here EP (3 Comments |Comment on this)
12:25 pm	WTF, TMBG? Robot Parade, the adorable children's version. Robot Parade, the fierce thrashy metal version. Current Music: Rest Awhile - They Might Be Giants, Working Undercover for the Man EP (Comment on this)
Monday, November 16th, 2009
9:19 pm	Me: You've never had root beer before? Roko: No -- we don't raise beverages to non-integer powers in Europe. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 15th, 2009
2:47 am	Fact-based people. John F: "So this next song is from our controversial new album. I know a lot of people just super-hated this song, but, well, I don't think any of them are in this theater tonight." Then they sang Science Is Real, including: I like those stories about angels, unicorns, and elves Now I like those stories as much as anybody else! But when I'm seeking knowledge either simple or abstract the facts are with science the facts are with science! As people applauded at the end of the song, John F pointed out how nice it was to see we had so many "fact-based people in the house tonight". Current Music: Science Is Real - They Might Be Giants, Here Comes Science (2 Comments |Comment on this)
2:29 am	TMBG show 11/13 Setlist TMBG show Friday night. Glorious, sublime, joyful, perfect. Must write more, but at the moment I just want to remember as well as I can what they played. I'm fairly sure they played all the songs on this list, and pretty confident they didn't play any others except a couple I didn't know. Order is *much* more sketchy. Meet the Elements Subliminal Cowtown Istanbul (Not Constantinople) Clap Your Hands Damn Good Times Take Out The Trash Birdhouse in Your Soul Shoehorn With Teeth What Is a Shooting Star? Particle Man Hearing Aid Science Is Real My Brother the Ape Whistling In The Dark Why Does the Sun Shine? The Mesopotamians The Famous Polka Dig My Grave Where Your Eyes Don't Go They Might Be Giants Don't Let's Start Drink! Fingertips (YES, the whole thing -- they played Everything Is Catching On Fire, and I thought -- aww, cute, a 15-second encore. Then they didn't stop, and I was a Happy Mike.) Dead Current Music: Fingertips (What's That Blue Thing?) - They Might Be Giants, Apollo 18 (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
1:27 pm	The "war on Christmas" As one of the most enthusiastic atheists I know, I'd like to disclaim any involvement in this year's so-called "war on Christmas". Like Dawkins, I'm still a cultural Christian. ie: Christmas trees are pretty, eggnog is delicious, Christmas carols are marvelously fun to sing, Christmas, in general, is a good time =) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 6th, 2009
8:03 pm	On reform I often post things I run across that nicely convey positions I've already held, that my friends might be enlightened. Today I'm going to post something that utterly took me by surprise, and which I hope will significantly affect my thought in the future. G.K. Chesterton: In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it." This paradox rests on the most elementary common sense. The gate or fence did not grow there. It was not set up by somnambulists who built it in their sleep. It is highly improbable that it was put there by escaped lunatics who were for some reason loose in the street. Some person had some reason for thinking it would be a good thing for somebody. And until we know what the reason was, we really cannot judge whether the reason was reasonable. It is extremely probable that we have overlooked some whole aspect of the question, if something set up by human beings like ourselves seems to be entirely meaningless and mysterious. There are reformers who get over this difficulty by assuming that all their fathers were fools; but if that be so, we can only say that folly appears to be a hereditary disease. But the truth is that nobody has any business to destroy a social institution until he has really seen it as an historical institution. If he knows how it arose, and what purposes it was supposed to serve, he may really be able to say that they were bad purposes, that they have since become bad purposes, or that they are purposes which are no longer served. But if he simply stares at the thing as a senseless monstrosity that has somehow sprung up in his path, it is he and not the traditionalist who is suffering from an illusion. Current Music: From Me To You - The Beatles, Past Masters (Comment on this)
1:47 pm	So it turns out... That among other awesome things, Isaac Asimov was a pretty nice guy Current Music: Over The Ocean - The (alternate universe) Beatles, Everyday Chemistry (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
12:16 pm	Letter From Utopia Your brain’s special faculties: music, humor, spirituality, mathematics, eroticism, art, nurturing, narration, gossip! These are fine spirits to pour into the cup of life. Blessed you are if you have a vintage bottle of any of these. Better yet, a cask! Better yet, a vineyard! Be not afraid to grow. The mind’s cellars have no ceilings! What other capacities are possible? Imagine a world with all the music dried up: what poverty, what loss. Give your thanks, not to the lyre, but to your ears for the music. And ask yourself, what other harmonies are there in the air, that you lack the ears to hear? What vaults of value are you witlessly debarred from, lacking the key sensibility? Had you but an inkling, your nails would be clawing at the padlock. --Nick Bostrom, Letter From Utopia Current Music: They Might Be Giants, Apollo 18 (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
11:57 pm	So I was presented with this question: Might you support, as a parent, washing your child's mouth out with soap or applying a dab of hot sauce to the tongue of a child who's using inappropriate language? * yes * no and found that clicking 'no' didn't seem to suffice. I wound up writing this: Cursing and Soap The more I think about this practice, the more it offends and disgusts me. Follow me for a moment: A child is born essentially powerless. No money, no political power, but first and foremost, a child is physically small, and thus can be physically overpowered at any time. I think you'll find that most children are pretty keenly aware of this fact. Cursing, then, is an infantile way of playing with the idea that *words* can have power. It's simple, it's easy, and yet it carries the power to shock any adult within earshot. Eventually, most children are going to want to experiment with it. Of course, cursing is a pretty cheap form of verbal power, compared with a logical argument, or even emotional rhetoric. A smart parent can try to explain that to a child -- that there are better, *more potent* ways to use words for power. Ways that intelligent adults will actually take note of. Washing the mouth out with soap, on the other hand, sends almost exactly the wrong message. It essentially says no, you are not allowed to take power in that way -- I can still overpower you physically, and can still cause you pain. Until that changes, you will remain powerless. It teaches them that in the end, physical power is what counts. It's a horribly perverse form of education, and were I to become a parent, I would not consider it for a moment (1 Comment |Comment on this)
11:38 pm	Justin: I tried to think to myself: 'what would steven do in my place?' Steven: Always a good heuristic. Current Music: Tenpenny Bit - Dervish, Midsummer's Night (Comment on this)
11:38 pm	(talking about alternate-universe counterparts) Steven: Now we just need to find clean-shaven Blume. Steven: Though you're not evil, so clean-shaven Blume must be super-good. Current Music: Experimental Film - Songs To Wear Pants To, songstowearpantsto.com vol. 4 (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 30th, 2009
9:53 pm	OK, why didn't anyone tell me last.fm was this cool? http://www.last.fm/user/SingularMike Current Music: Swan Arcade -- Dwelling in Beulahland (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
7:26 pm	There is a fundamental difference between the creationist and neo-darwinian worldviews. The former posits a system in which creation necessarily involves a downward step, and in which the ceiling is already occupied. The latter posits a form of creation pointing upward, and a ceiling that is currently vacant. The implications of these differences for the future are staggering... Current Music: You Won't See Me - The Beatles, Rubber Soul (2 Comments |Comment on this)
7:26 pm	My friend Katja just penned a very clever post asking what is hope?. A+ would read again =) Current Music: (06) The Word - The Beatles - The Beatles, Rubber Soul - Mono (Comment on this)
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
2:38 pm	since the beginning no mind has created another mind as a creative rather than procreative act. Just wrote this. It's sloppy, and I shall probably write it again many, many times over, but it's an attempt to pose, in a handful of sentences, the question I've been grappling with for the last several months: Humans do this cool trick called comprehension. We turn it on things around us, and the world changes. We turn it on birds, who fly, but do not understand how to fly, or on beavers, who build dams, but don't know why. We turn it on these things and all of a sudden we can instantiate that comprehension in reality, and build a million variations on a theme in an eyeblink, where evolution would have taken aeons. We've turned it on aerodynamics, on chemistry, on nuclear physics, and have changed the world with them. The one glaring omission is the thing itself, comprehension. We have yet to turn our power to comprehend upon our own comprehension. How will the world change when we do? (Comment on this)
12:35 pm	Adopt a Clitoris (not a joke, do click) Current Music: (13) Got To Get You Into My Life - The Beatles - The Beatles, Revolver [Mono] (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
5:03 pm	Cynicism Katja: cynicism is wonderful! it's like sunshine and birds singing! Mike: you don't sound very cynical... Katja: that’s because I'm explaining how wonderful cynicism is! You just don't understand it properly. (Comment on this)