Actually, I love that we have the technology to randomize all of my music. I like to be surprised. I like to listen to the differences and similarities between one random song and another. I feel like it is the ultimate way to experience music, the most challenging way you can make for yourself. blah,blah,blah....etc.

I don't know about the patting my self on the back part, but other than that, yeah that's exactly what I'm doing. Slapping 'free will' onto a mechanism. I'd never actually thought of it like that until I read this article. I don't actually believe that people have 'free will' in any idealogical sense of the term, so instead of just saying "I think 'free will' is bullshit, anyway.", I said what's thought of as 'free will' is just this mechanism, and that the capabilities and complexities of utilizing this mechanism, the things we can do with it are so much greater that mapping 'fruit fly free will' onto 'human free will' can really only be done metaphorically to make sense of the connection. Doesn't mean I'm right, of course.

I think at least metaphorically you could call this free will, I mean what is free will anyway? People are pretty predictable, and people that arent' are considered unstable. Free will comes up very seldom in people's lives, imagine if you had to think through and decide about everything that you did, you'd never get anything done. We all run on algorithms and you could characterize free will as the ability to recognize, alter, and create new ones.

I wish this had happened to me before I read about it. Trying to get my brain around 'Text entered was wrong' would have entertained me for quite awhile.

This story is apparently complete crap, made up by a politician to gain further support for a bill he was trying to get passed.

http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDBlog=21

Of course there is no way to know for sure, but I find bloggers to be at least slightly more credible than politicians.;)

My YouTube search has been rewarded; irrefutable proof that Sesame Street was brilliant:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dhUFxaauNTE

So I'm 38, I loved this show when I was a kid, but I had no interest in segments like this one. Now, I find this segment oddly beautiful and relaxing, it's like the opposite of a viral video. Essentially though, that is what sesame street was doing, making viral content with the intent to teach. I'm going to go look it up on YouTube right now, there was lots of fantastic stuff.

Eating multiple smaller meals works as good as anything, doesn't matter much what you eat(although I mostly avoid sugar, oh how I miss coca cola). I lost 15 pounds in a month when I switched to this(purposely lowering my total calorie intake), and I don't eat particularly well, and I drink way more beer than I should. I eat more with each meal now and my weight remains stable after the initial, staggering loss. It's just a metabolism hack, one that in my case worked so dramatically it scared me a bit. I also rode my bike to work 4 days a week and did a half hour Pilates workout 5 days a week.

The fact that if you burn more calories than you consume you will lose weight is indisputable. You will lose weight if you are using more energy than is coming in, even if all you eat is candy bars(doesn't mean that you will be 'healthy'). Exercise burns extra calories, thus it will help you lose weight. I can't believe anyone would put out a book suggesting that exercise might be pointless or bad for you. Being sedentary means burning less calories. Being sedentary and thus consuming more calories than you burn will cause you to gain weight. You don't have to run ten miles.

Here's a diet that doesn't require a huge level of discipline: Substitute any beverage you might have for water(drink a lot of water). Take a one hour walk every day. Don't eat more than you would usually.