Mood: Sick
Currently listening to: Drive - Incubus

Hrmmm... not much to actually talk about today - went to uni, ran some errands, and spent the rest of the day coughing my guts out in the comfort of my own home.

Fun.

On another note, i find myself dropping off to sleep at the strangest hours of the day. For example, it is now currently 6:30am. I'm not sure if this is some side effect of my current physical malaise or just another quirk of my usually rampant insomnia but it is beginning to get annoying - and not to mention more than a tad disorientating.

So... what to talk about? How should i entertain you all tonight?

Well, time to browse the Net for some inspiration i guess...

Genetic Programming



So i was having a few thoughts on that evolutionary theory thing and one thing led to another and eventually led me to this site here which extols the virtues of a fascinating field of programming... Here's how it works and what it promises to do:

"Genetic programming starts with a primordial ooze of thousands of randomly created computer programs. This population of programs is progressively evolved over a series of generations. The evolutionary search uses the Darwinian principle of natural selection (survival of the fittest) and analogs of various naturally occurring operations, including crossover (sexual recombination), mutation, gene duplication, gene deletion."

"Genetic programming (GP) is an automated method for creating a working computer program from a high-level problem statement of a problem. Genetic programming starts from a high-level statement of 'what needs to be done' and automatically creates a computer program to solve the problem.

There are now 36 instances where genetic programming has automatically produced a result that is competitive with human performance, including 15 instances where genetic programming has created an entity that either infringes or duplicates the functionality of a previously patented 20th-century invention, 6 instances where genetic programming has done the same with respect to a 21st-centry invention, and 2 instances where genetic programming has created a patentable new invention."

"The fact that genetic programming can evolve entities that are competitive with human-produced results suggests that genetic programming can be used as an automated invention machine to create new and useful patentable inventions. In acting as an invention machine, evolutionary methods, such as genetic programming, have the advantage of not being encumbered by preconceptions that limit human problem-solving to well-troden paths. Genetic programming has delivered a progression of qualitatively more substantial results in synchrony with five approximately order-of-magnitude increases in the expenditure of computer time (over the 15-year period from 1987 to 2002)."

Fascinating eh? Actually using and implementing Darwin's evolution theory as a means of creating automated machine creations - how cool is that? After all, in many ways our own individual thought process work along similar lines/principles when it comes to ideas or problem solving (inclusive of other surrounding factors of course - education for one) so could this well be the first step towards an effective means of true artificial intelligence? I mean, isn't conscious problem solving (and therefore conscious adaptation) one of the main facets of the term 'intelligence'?

Be sure to check out the site - the amount of explanatory details they provide make for some interesting reading.

My War - Fear And Loathing In Iraq



This is a very talked about blog at the moment and i decided to take a look - its maintained by a soldier currently posted in Mosul and allows for a very vivid portrayal of his life in that warzone (plus it seems authentic enough given the amount of coverage he's received - the US Army's version of the infamous Baghdad Blogger? :p).

Here's a taster of the contrast he provides (and i would tend to believe his version given reality):

"This is what CNN wrote on their website about what happened yesterday here in Mosul:

Mosul clashes leave 12 dead
Clashes between police and insurgents in the northern city of Mosul left 12 Iraqis dead and 26 wounded, hospital and police sources said Wednesday.
Rifle and rocket-propelled grenade fire as well as explosions were heard in the streets of the city.
The provincial governor imposed a curfew that began at 3 p.m. local time (7 a.m. EDT), and two hours later, provincial forces, police and Iraqi National Guard took control, according to Hazem Gelawi, head of the governor's press office in the Nineveh province.
Gelawi said the city is stable and expects the curfew to be lifted Thursday."

Of course, he was there at the time and his description of events are vividly different:

"There was reports of a buncha people, wearing all black armed with AK's hanging out there. Our job was to locate and kill them. We were driving there on that main street, when all of the sudden all hell came down all around on us, all these guys wearing all black (Black pants, and a black t-shirts tucked in), a couple dozen on each side of the street, on rooftops, alleys, edge of buildings, out of windows, everywhere just came out of fucking nowhere and started firing RPG's and AK47's at us. I freaked the fuck out and ducked down in the hatch. I yelled "WE GOT FUCKIN HAJI'S ALL OVER THE FUCKIN PLACE!!! THERE ALL OVER GOD DAMNIT!!!" Bullets were pinging off our armor all over our vehicle, and you could hear multiple RPG's being fired and flying through the air and impacting all around us. All sorts of crazy insane Hollywood explosions bullshit going on all around us. I've never felt fear like this. I was like, this is it, I'm going to die. I cannot put into words how scared I was. The vehicle in front of us got hit 3 times by RPG's. I kind of lost it and I was yelling and screaming all sorts of things. (mostly cuss words) I fired the .50 cal over the place, shooting everything. My driver was helping me out and pointing out targets to me over the radio. He helped me a lot that day. They were all over shooting at us. My PLT was stuck right smack dab in the middle of the ambush and we were in the kill zone. We shot our way out of it and drove right through the ambush. The street we were driving down to escape, had 3 to 4 story high buildings all along each side, as we were driving away all you could see were 100's and 100's of bullets impacting all over these buildings."

Yup, 12 fatalities indeed - good job CNN.

Plus, don't you just love the emotional contrast between each article? ;)

Sullen, Depressed President Retreats Into Private, Paranoid World




Hrmmm... is President Bush showing more and more Hitler-esque tendencies? Or rather, is he beginning to lead an administration that has more in common with Nixon? Or is this the strain thats starting to show through - after all he is only human, and all those negative comments are bound to take their toll. An interesting article regardless...

"A sullen President George W. Bush is withdrawing more and more from aides and senior staff, retreating into a private, paranoid world where only the ardent loyalists are welcome.

Cabinet officials, senior White House aides and leaders on Capitol Hill complain privately about the increasing lack of “face time” with the President and campaign advisors are worried the depressed President may not be up to the rigors of a tough re-election campaign..."

"...Among cabinet members, only Attorney General John Ashcroft, a fundamentalist who shares many of Bush’s strict religious convictions, remains part of the inner circle. White House aides call Bush and Ashcroft the 'Blue Brothers' because, like the mythical movie characters, 'both believe they are on a mission from God.' Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, the man most responsible for waging America’s war on terrorism, complains to staff that he gets very little time with the President and gets most of his marching orders lately from Ashcroft. Some on Ridge’s staff gripe privately that Ashcroft is 'Bush’s Himmler,' a reference to Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the SS (the German Police) under Adolph Hitler..."

"...Psychiatrists say the increasing paranoia at the White House is symptomatic of Bush’s 'paranoid, delusional personality.' Dr. Justin Frank, a prominent Washington psychiatrist and author of the book, Bush on the Couch, Inside the Mind of the President, says the President suffers from 'character pathology,' including 'grandiosity' and 'megalomania' – viewing himself, America and God as interchangeable. Dr. Frank also concludes that Bush’s years of heavy drinking 'may have affected his brain function – and his decision to quit drinking without the help of a 12-step programs puts him at a far higher risk of relapse.'"

And Now For Some Video Action

On a lighter note, here are some videos which i managed to find lying around the web... enjoy! ;)

Oh, and just a bit of a warning - please try and ignore the porn ads which surround the streaming window! *ahem* ;p

That, and you shouldn't press the play button until its completely buffered m'kay?



Ok, first up we've got this AMAZING transformers 3D animation video which features them breakdancing - and it is SERIOUSLY GOOD!!!



This is a comedy skit which follows Jerry to jail following the events of the final Seinfeld episode - seriously funny and a must-see for those of you who miss Seinfeld! ;)



Hehehe... watch this comedy skit! All i'll say is that it proves that we males can multitask after all! ;)

Ok, well lets get into some XXX rated stuff now - these two clips are mind-boggling to watch for different reasons (none of which are for pure porn lah) but if you're squeamish about nude people or sex in general then please ignore this section m'kay? ;)



This clip is from Japan. Yes, Japan - so it MUST be weird! Basically its some sort of female talk show (think Oprah) and in typical style they've got some male prositutes on stage surrounded by curious/screaming Japanese women who are encouraged to... ah... 'experiment' with the men as part of some 'better sex' talk. Surreal.



Ok, this one's the last one and, mein gott, all i'll say is that i never imagined that THIS was possible... Trust me, its AMAZING! Erm... in the biological sense... ;p

Great, now everyone probably thinks i'm some sort of perv now - all the more reason to hit the sack... right after i finish reading How the war in Iraq has fueled Al Qaeda and ignited its dream of global jihad... Awesome article, and a great summary of what is currently happening, so make sure you read it!

Yeah, i'll shut up now - Ciao!