The human nervous system has substantial delays in the transport and processing of signals, and the delays vary. But somehow, the brain synthesizes a coherent timeline. From a recent article at edge.org:

So if the visual brain wants to get events correct timewise, it may have only one choice: wait for the slowest information to arrive. ...

... This window of delay means that awareness is postdictive, incorporating data from a window of time after an event and delivering a retrospective interpretation of what happened.

It also takes time to signal muscles. To play music in proper time, muscle commands to strike notes have to be dispatched just the right amount of time in advance. The player's perception of each note's tone is in turn assembled after the fact. The whole process is quite smeared out in time, yet a good musician has precise control over rhythm.

Neuroscientist Benjamin Libet did some famous experiments on voluntary muscle control, showing that circuits in the brain actuate in advance of the subjectively-judged moment at which a free choice was made. As Susan Blackmore put it, "Many philosophers and scientists have argued that free will is an illusion. Unlike all of them, Benjamin Libet found a way to test it." (Needless to say, this is a can of worms--which I will not try to untangle here.)

Perception of time is related to memory. Diminished ability to record experiences in memory might be related to how years seem to pass more quickly as we age. (The article I quoted from above touches on this point.)

Consider also that simultaneity is relative, as Einstein showed. Time is so not what it ordinarily seems to be.

Yesterday, I said to expect more dog pics. In keeping with today's theme, I offer 28 seconds of motion picture--with your (free?) choice of .avi (3.5 MB download) or YouTube.

My house guest. Expect dog pics for the next few days.

Watch out for animals that are missing a leg or two.

a newspaper clipping I saved because of the similarity of the names of the two top-selling albums

This guy appears to have taken up residence somewhere near my house. (He's very welcome.) He's been like other jackrabbits who've settled here over the years: very wary of me at first, but gradually less so as we get to know each other.

I'm less subject to motion sickness in a car or airplane if I am at the controls.

Professor Leonard Mlodinow:

The psychologist Bruno Bettelheim concluded that survival in Nazi concentration camps depended on "one's ability to arrange to preserve some areas of independent action, to keep control of some important aspects of one’s life despite an environment that seemed overwhelming." Studies suggest that, even in normal conditions, to be happy, humans must feel in control.

This makes sense to me. I think it's okay to like control, within reason. The problems come from excess: liking control so much that you are unfair to others or to yourself.

I remember once making a recording (just for fun) of me singing with someone. In playing the tape back, I was aghast to hear the tone of my voice when we were discussing arrangements; I had been dictatorial without realizing I was doing it. A tape recorder was just the thing to point that out to me. All it had to do was present me with myself, no commentary required.

Happy nineteenth, everyone.

Tommyjournalcomments supports links now.

And,
I'm wondering if anyone would like a way to follow when comments are posted. Possible options include email notification or a comments RSS/Atom feed. I like the syndication feed method better, but I'm open to suggestions.

Free chalk as enticement.

Records of several cultures describe a supernova in the year 1054 that was bright enough to be seen in daytime for 23 days. Chinese texts call it a guest star (客星).

No one knows for sure why it isn't mentioned in European records. Perhaps it was written out of history, as its rise and fall conflicted with a belief dating from Aristotle that everything outside the sphere of the moon's orbit was immutable.

Betelgeuse is considered a supernova candidate. It may be shrinking, and maybe that's the prelude to an explosion. As much as I like the way Orion looks with Betelgeuse present, I think it would be so cool to be around at the right time to see a star flare and then fade away.

Impractical fashion items are less popular here in the desert than they are in cities. This is part of why I feel at home here.

I just got back from a couple days in Los Angeles, where I was reminded that (some) people do things like wear neckties, ride fixed-gear bicycles, and drive Hummers with 25-series tires.

To each his own, of course.

The US Supreme Court denied cert today in Pietrangelo v. Gates. That is, they refused to hear an appeal challenging the military's don't ask, don't tell policy.

I remember how we got DADT. In his first weeks in office, President Clinton was mired in controversy over his wish to end the existing ban. Much time and energy was wasted arguing. Clinton caved and accepted a pathetic compromise. At the time, Jimmy Carter said that Clinton should've just issued an executive order and been done with it.

Here we are, 16 years later, with another Democratic president failing to take the bull by the horns. Obama says Congress has to do it. In the meantime, gay soldiers continue to be discharged even though 75% of Americans polled say they should be allowed to serve openly.

The President could take care of this.

I'm disappointed with Obama (for other reasons as well, but one topic is enough for today).

I see ever more use of criteria as a singular noun (i.e., where criterion would work). It used to be less common, but not unheard of; from Merriam-Webster Online:

The plural criteria has been used as a singular for over half a century  <let me now return to the third criteria  -- R. M. Nixon> <that really is the criteria  -- Bert Lance>.

Quoting two public figures who resigned in disgrace doesn't sound to me like a ringing endorsement of the usage, but rather more like if you want to sound like Nixon or Lance, go ahead.

Will further use of singular criteria lead to wide acceptance? "Only time will tell," says m-w.com.

Why does a criteria grate on me while an agenda doesn't? Because agenda was already in wide use as a singular by the time I was born.

I try to appear unruffled when I hear a criteria, lest I seem as stubbornly attached to the styles I grew up with as George Will did when he said (in a recent screed about the evils of denim):

This is not complicated. For men, sartorial good taste can be reduced to one rule: If Fred Astaire would not have worn it, don't wear it. For women, substitute Grace Kelly.

Being conservative often means "I liked how things were when I was a teenager".

Terms of service (hereafter referred to as ToS) often illustrate a company's values: by whether they show thoroughness or carelessness, whether they are easy or torturous to read, and whether they are fair. Although ToS are primarily constructed for the benefit of the companies that impose them on us, some examples clearly show respect for users and some don't.

So when a new search engine links to the blanket terms for a range of products, saying

2. When You May Use the Service.
You may start using the service as soon as you have finished the sign-up process.  ...

then either the company insists you sign up before submitting search queries (uninviting; I thought they wanted to increase market share), or the ToS are ill-considered.

The next section:

3. How You May Use the Service.
In using the service, you will:

• obey the law;
• obey any codes of conduct or other notices we provide;
• ...

So much for the terms being clear.
other notices we provide... where?
This is agreeing to a pig in a poke.

Are there Bing-specific terms of use? Good question. When I tried to post on the Bing forums, I was asked to review and agree to four different sets of legal terms, including Bing's Terms of Use, which aren't there at this moment (404 Not Found).

There is no excuse for this. If M$ can afford an $80 million ad campaign for Bing, they could put up clear, fair terms of service--if they cared to.

For further entertainment, consider the tour of several lands in §29(e) of the terms:

India. If you live or your business is headquartered in India, then you are contracting with Microsoft Regional Sales Corporation, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Nevada, USA, with a branch in Singapore, having its principal place of business at 438B Alexandra Road, #04-09/12, Block B, Alexandra Technopark, Singapore, 119968, and the laws of Washington state law governs this contract, regardless of conflict of laws principles.  ...

Gotta love the redundancy and subject-verb disagreement in "laws of Washington state law governs".

Setting legal and grammatical issues aside, how does Bing look? Well, if you think Google's main page isn't cluttered enough--that is, if you like seeing gratuitous junk sprinkled around before you even search--Bing may be the search engine for you. Last time I looked, Bing's main page had a link "Rope the wind/Find the perfect kite". Uh, no thanks.

Speaking of Google, their ToS are also not without entertainment value:

2. Accepting the Terms

2.1 In order to use the Services, you must first agree to the Terms. You may not use the Services if you do not accept the Terms.

I can't read that without thinking, "How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat."

Bumps in a road jerk oil drops off of passing cars, as evidenced by variations in the heaviness of the stain in the center of a traffic lane.

Orographic clouds aren't induced by the same kind of inertial mechanism that makes cars drip oil--but even so, the phenomena remind me of each other.