While You Were Away

Independent Brian and Brian, discussing weekend plans.

Nazzy's currently in the air, most likely somewhere over the Midwest, on her way home from Monterrey, Calif., where she went to a parisitology conference.

As many of you know, these trips are when I'm visited by "Independent Brian." Independent Brian is kind of like my Tyler Durden, the version of me I want to be, if it weren't for the fact that I live in a world with rules. Those rules are all too obvious when Nazzy's around so Independent Brian can't come out. This was a bonus Independent Brian week as classes were cancelled. Here is a recap of the things I did with Independent Brian:

Friday: Went to West Philly Mike's and got drunk.

Saturday: Studied and took my mom to dinner and the movies (hey, even Independent Brian does the right thing sometimes)

Sunday: Rented "Employee of the Month" and finally tried out the ADS DVD copying device the company sent me about six months ago which will copy any video source to your computer or to DVD. Unfortunately, I didn't have a DVD burner so I bought one for $30 off some guy in Pottstown who I found on Craigslist. However, so far I have yet to be able to burn a DVD using the device. This may be because of the discs I've been using so I haven't given up on it yet. It did burn a CD successfully. In the meantime, I went grocery shopping. I also did my taxes. I spent the rest of the night playing "Black," a video game for the Xbox where you basically shoot evey last mother fucker you can find. It's awesome. I was upset though because I wanted to rent "Gears of War" for the Xbox 360 but Blockbuster has some F'd up rule that you can't rent 360 or PS3 games with out a major credit card. I didn't have mine with me so I got Black instead. Great game, although it takes way too long to get to a spot where you can make a save.

Monday: Went to work and my boss laid the prospect on me that I could go on a trip to Miami for the weekend to cover Samsung's press events and sit in their box for the Super Bowl. Spent the night playing Black, still trying to get the DVD burner to work and sitting on my butt.

Tuesday: Found out from my boss that I'm indeed not going to Miami or the Super Bowl because one of the magazine I work on has had the deadline pushed back so now the upload is squarely during the same time I'd be in Miami. I wish I didn't know there was even the prospect of going. It's like getting a ticket to the nexus but not being able to find it. So I spent the night playing more Black, still fiddling with the DVD burner and eating an entire tub of Cool Whip.

All in all, I'd say Independent Brian had an entirely unproductive five days. I'd expect nothing less. Thanks Independent Brian! Come back soon!

Read the full post here!

The Internet, the Final Frontier

If you'd like to see me in all my video goodness, check out this video of me interviewing Fred Von Lohmann at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month.

Fred is an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, having represented groups like the makers of the Morpheus file sharing application while it was being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America, as well as the makers of the JibJab cartoons, which were being sued by the owners of the rights to the Woodie Guthrie song it parodied.

We spoke about the Microsoft Zune media player, for which Microsoft is paying a royalty to Vivendi's owned Universal Music Group, one of the "Big 5" record producers. This is the first time the maker of a media player has paid a royalty like this. We also spoke about XM Radio, which the RIAA is suing for fundamentally doing the same exact thing on satellite radio using the Pioneer Inno and Samsung Helix that we used to do in the 80s when we recorded music off the FM radio onto cassettes.

I was pretty honored to speak with Fred and I think it turned into a pretty good piece. Enjoy.

Read the full post here!

Responding to Swinburne, Williams

In response to my last post, I wanted to add a few comments as to why I don't agree with Professor Williams. First of all, the situation Williams was positing was misrepresented in the paper I was originally reading by Swinburne. Williams created a situation whereby one person swapped brains with another. Swinburne edited this position as carving one person's brain into two halves and placing them into two new people.

So my response is more to Swinburne, than it is to Williams. Swinburne's attempt to support Descarte's substance dualism is flawed because:

a. his conception of consciousness as a unity cannot be supported. Consciousness isn't a unity. I am never conscious of everything that I have ever been or am now. Think about it: Aren't there memories that you have that you can't recall right now but may at a later date remember and could affect your consciousness?
b. the only thing he ever proves is that we conceive our identity as associated with our brains. How does this prove the existence of the mind?
c. consciousness is immediately affected by our bodies. whatever body we may enter, we are conscious of that body as a limitation of our abilities.
d. we need a body. we can say nothing of the brain unless we have a body to put that brain in.
e. his characterization of perceiving with the mind only is severely flawed. This is my problem with people who have out of body experiences. You see because you have eyes. You hear because you have ears. You feel because you have nerves. You smell because of your olfactory senses. If your mind left your body, you wouldn't have these senses.

Swinburne, as well as Descartes (pictured above), can never get around these problems, nor can any other dualist.

Read the full post here!

The Mad Surgeon Story

"Who is this dashing young man?" you may ask. Well, it's Bernard Williams, the 20th-century western philosopher who published an article entitled "The Self and the Future," in which he posited the "mad surgeon story," which is summed up like so by Richard Swinburne in his chapter on Body and Soul:

Suppose that a mad surgeon captures you and announces that he is going to transplant your left cerebral hemisphere into one body, and your right one into another. He is going to torture one of the resulting persons and free the other with a gift of one million [dollars]. You can choose which person is to be tortured and which to be rewarded, and the surgeon promises to do as you choose. You believe his promise. But how are you to choose? You wish to choose that you are rewarded, but you do not know which resultant person will be you. You may have studied neurophysiology deeply and think that you have detected some all-important difference between the hemispheres which indicates which is the vehicle of personal identity; but, all too obviously, you could be mistaken.

The exercise is meant to force one into the position of affirming that the brain alone, or at all, cannot be the source of a person's identity, but rather the mind, or soul. I have some arguments against this, which I will share tomorrow. But I'm curious to see if you all have something to say first. Post a comment or send me an e-mail.

Read the full post here!

The Fattest Man ... Ethics vs. Morals

I was reading this story today on ABCnews.com and there was something about it that fascinated me: the anecdotes from men who swear there's no messages coming from their brains to stop eating. As you may or may not know, I've been overweight nearly my entire life and the number one reason is over-eating. I don't know what it is, but if you gave me a bowl of chips, or full package of chocolate chip cookies, I would eat the whole bag, if it weren't for a different part of my brain telling me to stop. When I say a "different" part of my brain, I mean other than the one that says "you're full" or "you've eaten enough." I stop eating when I start thinking of all the weight I'll gain. This message is not coming from the same area of the brain. And forget it if I'm feeling depressed because that takes over the latter message because I'm not feeling worthy of being attractive.

I think there's a lot more to eating control than we've learned yet, and I hope the research these people are conducting will lead to more answers.

... On another note, last night was the first Ethics class of the semester and if there's one thing I want to make sure I avoid, it's confusing ethics with morals, since the Prof (who I happen to adore for her Midwest/Northwest gender-neutral hippie attitude) is adamant that no one ever discuss the topic without understanding the difference. So here's a tip: Morals are the rules we accept for determining right from wrong. Ethics is the study of how we come to accept those rules as our morals.

Tonight is the first Philosophy of Mind class, so I'll have an update on that tomorrow.

Read the full post here!

RIAA Blows ... The Mind-Body Problem

Here's a shot I snapped at last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Supposedly the Recording Industry Association of America reserved a booth at the Sands Convention Center (the overflow site for the primary convention center attached to the Hilton), but never showed. Unfortunately, its presence was felt in a lot of places along the show floor, as the RIAA is going after companies like SanDisk and iRiver, which are making it easier for consumers to wirelessly share the music from their portable media players (unlike the Microsoft "Goon," which turns the faucet off after three measly days or plays). Meanwhile, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and others would like a word with Sling Media, which now has a device that lets you post the videos you record from your TV to a Web site. Consumer electronics freedom has never been in more peril...

On another note, today's the first day of the spring semester, so I'll be shuffling off to West Chester in a couple of hours for my Ethics course. Tomorrow is Philosophy of the Mind. I've been reading up and even tried to have a debate about the mind-body problem with my scientist girlfriend. It wasn't going to happen. It's like discussing NASCAR with a Scrabble champion: two different disciplines. Nazzy seemed to be more obsessed with designing a Shutterfly scrapbook of our photos from Costa Rica anyway.

Read the full post here!

Costa Rica Pictures Now Online

We laughed, we cried, we scratched our bug bites. Here's a link to the pictures from our trip to Costa Rica, with a running commentary by yours truly. The pictures include this one of a funny mistranslation of "SK8 or die." Hasta!

Read the full post here!

Las Vegas - Consumer Electronics Show -Day 1

Thanks to Nancy for taking this pic. This is outside the Riviera Hotel and Casino where we were staying for the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show. I was only able to attend the event for two of the six days it ran (4 days of exhibits plus two days of press events), but that was two days too many for my feet, which were sore by the end of day one, which is when we took this pic.

How I survived a trip back home from Costa Rica, then on to Vegas and endured the show, I'll never know. I got to check out some nice iPod accessories, as well as new media servers, which I think are going to be really big soon now that the prices are coming down. For a couple hundred bucks, you can watch every movie or TV show stored on your computer right on your TV, either wirelessly, or plugged in using a digital connection for Ethernet.

I also got to interview Fred von Lohmann, whose a really big dog when it comes to consumer electronics freedom. He's a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. More to come tomorrow!

Read the full post here!

Costa Rica - Day 8 - Con Mucho Gusto!

It is with great sadness that Nazzy and I leave for the aeropuerto de San Jose. We've had such a wonderful time that it is very difficult to leave. Here, the weather is beautiful and work is something that seems intangible. In Philadelphia, it's cold, possibly snowing and work begins manana. But we should be thankful for having this week at all. And we are. It seems like we've been here more than a month. My father y Maria have been so kind and welcoming, almost catering to our needs, as well as Maria's daughter Melissa. I will post all the pictures and videos this weekend, after I return from a business trip in Las Vegas. Until then, Adios!

Read the full post here!

Costa Rica - Day 7 - Arenal Volcano

Unfortunately, you're looking at the best view we ever got of the Arenal Volcano, or any volcano for that matter. Despite three days in Lake Arenal, the clouds never cleared to a point where we could see the whole mountain, let alone clear up at night so we could see some of the lava flow down the active volcano. We left Lake Arenal to return to San Jose and got to meet mi abuela nueva, my new grandmother, by marriage, who made me laugh by encouraging Nazzy and I to drink tequila as soon as we walked in the door. She made us an excellent, authentic Mexican meal. We finished off the day by getting massages at the spa and taking Dad, Maria and Melissa out for sushi.

Read the full post here!

Costa Rica - Day 6 - ATVs and Eagles Victory

Lexi, Nazzy and I went on an ATV 4x4 tour of some of the back roads in Lake Arenal. Afterwards, we went back to the house to watch the Eagles beat the Giants, 23-20. OK, I watched the Eagles game. Nazzy and Lexi laid by the pool. We finished the night with my dad's world famous pasta sauce and a game of No Limit Texas Hold 'Em. Sorry, forgot to take video today. May have had something to do with the non-stop margaritas and pina coladas.

Read the full post here!

Costa Rica - Day 5 - Canopy & Tabacon Hot Springs

We spent the better part of Saturday riding cables along canopies hundreds of meters from the ground, flying 70-80 KPH along 750 meter cables. The first few cables were pretty scary, not knowing what to expect. Uncle Greg was the only one of us to have done it before so he took to it like a fish to water. The rest of us got the hang of it by the end and then it was off to Tabacon Hot Springs, the single biggest resort in all of Costa Rica. It was filled with more than 10 hot spring pools and a wet bar - yes, you get your drinks without leaving the pool.


Nazzy, riding one of the higher, faster cables.

Read the full post here!

Tabacon Hot Springs

The wet bar at Tabacon Hot Springs. Why would you ever leave the water? We didn't for quite a while.

Read the full post here!

Costa Rica - Day 4 - Zoo Ave

Today, Uncle Greg and cousin Alexa arrive and we take the three and a half-hour journey to Lake Arenal with Nazzy and my father. But before we do, we visit Zoo Ave, which is not the name of a road, but means literally, in Spanish, Bird Zoo. I thought this might be a lame visit because walking around and looking at birds for two hours doesn't seem like my idea of a fun time. But this zoo had a lot of other mammals, as well as lizards too, including monkeys, jaguars, iguanas and tortoises. It turned out to be nearly as fun as La Paz.

Monkeys playing in Zoo Ave.

Read the full post here!

Costa Rica - Day 3 - INBioparque

This was the second of the two sloths that we stumbled across at INBioparque, a non-profit research center just outside San Jose, Costa Rica, which conducts research on the local plant and animal life, studying its biodiversity and discovering new ways to protect it, as well as utilize the data for the improvement of human life, resulting in new drugs, cosmetics and other products. What was so cool about this preserve was that it was filled with animal life in a natural habitat, rather than in a zoo where everything is behind a cage. In this case, we walked along the path and just stumbled upon this sloth, climbing up a tree about 10 feet away. Wow. As you could imagine, Nazzy really got her geek on, as the guides were asking her questions, when it came to the insects and plant life. I also have a lot of pictures that I will share later when I have a chance.

Read the full post here!

A Better Look at the Sloth

Read the full post here!

Costa Rica - Day 2 - La Paz Waterfalls

Today was a trip to the La Paz Waterfalls, butterfly farm, frog farm, snake farm and Poas Volcano. Everything was excellent, except for the volcano, which was so foggy, we couldn't really see down into the crater. Otherwise, the sites were breathtaking, as you can see from the photo. The waterfalls were great, too ;) Hasta Luego!

Read the full post here!

More From La Paz

Read the full post here!

Costa Rica - Day 1 - Meet the New Extended Family

Meet my new, extended family, Maria, my step-mother. Her daughter, and my new step-sister Melissa is behind the camera. Say cheese!

Read the full post here!

We Made It to Costa Rica!

Today we got off the plain and had a nice day walking around the city of San Jose. We're staying with my father and my new extended family in Escazu, CR. More to come...

Read the full post here!