Philosophy and Binbags

In a nuclear bomb, fission will not occur unless there is enough Uranium 235 to sustain a reaction once triggered. This quantity is called Critical Mass.

In my bedroom, practical activity will cease unless there is enough organisation to let me work without spending an hour sorting through heaps of stuff to find anything. This level is called Critical Mess.

The stuff in my room is about to reach Critical Mess. If I don't do something about it now, it'll probably collapse into a blue hole and destabilise the universe.

In other words: Urgent spring clean. Before I do anything else. At all.
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Well, I think an hour of filling binbags with paper is enough for anyone.

Aside from a lot of missing CDRs and DVDRs, I re-rediscovered four of my old philosophical notebooks. I kept them in my early 20s, thinking they'd be a way to keep hold of all the insights and ideas that I'd forget otherwise.

Some entries now seem obvious, others confused, and some I've no idea what I meant. Here's an undated entry (probably mid 1994), chosen at random from near the end of book 1:

If a person comes accross a simple object with no apparant purpose, e.g. a stone, this discovery produces little other knowledge.

If a person comes across a complex object with some apparant purpose, e.g. a wristwatch, this discovery produces the inference of a craftsman [sic]. Indeed, the craftsman inferred is one to be noted for skill and wisdom in the science of design.

If a person comes across a simple object with some apparant purpose, e.g. a slingshot, a craftsman can again be inferred, but not one of any great skill or wisdom.

If a person comes across a complex object with no apparant purpose - call such an object a 'Widget' - what kind of inference could be made? An insane craftsman who creates purposeless curiosities? A chance creation of nature like, say, a statue created by errosion of rock? A craftsman who began to create a machine but left it incomplete? An abstract artist? A joker?

Now ask the question: Which of the above does the world [universe] resemble? The world is complex, yet seems to achieve nothing.

William Paley's Teleological Argument is not invalid [sic], but it is incomplete.

I suppose it does contain a possible refutation of the Argument from Design, which is being resurrected again by creationists. Not that the argument needs any further disproof, though I seem to have considered that it may be valid in 1994. What I wrote back then wasn't (all) stupid, but it does feel rather elementary.

I should scan the notebooks before they get any more dog-eared, dump the originals, and keep a disc of the scans for the odd occasions when I'm curious about what I wrote.
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Until Nick mentioned it, I had no idea that Gorgeous George Galloway was on Celebrity Big Brother. But it turns out he's in the house with Michael Barrymore, Rula Lenska and the rapper from Goldie Lookin' Chain.

A few weeks ago, our glorious leader addressed the party, telling them we must appeal to the kind of people who watch Love Island and Big Brother. I didn't think he meant it quite so literally.

Ah well, I still have no intention of ever watching a reality TV show, in roughly the same way as I have no intention of putting dogfood up my nose.
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My camcorder is a DCR-TRV340E, with three infolithium batteries, two memory sticks, and 18 or so Hi-8 tapes. The power switch keeps slipping momentarily to 'off', meaning the whole unit resets at random intervals, which means, even though everything else works fine, it's pretty useless.

And that's why I wanted a replacement - still no word on that, though I don't expect rapid progress.

It seems Sony don't even make Hi-8 cameras anymore, though the sticks and batteries should fit into their newer stuff. There is a local sony repair shop - who charge UKP90 just to look for a fault.

All I want is something to take decent pictures with. And maybe some indecent pictures too.