The Krishna Transform

I have been sleeping a lot while in Sydney. I also find myself getting tired really early. It is 12:30 in the morning right now and I am on the verge of passing out. I didn’t even do that much today. Just walked around the city, drank hot chocolate, read my novel, then sat at home.

Another crazy thing is I find myself feeling like an old man. My knees for some reason were really bothering me. Not sure why. I don’t run or play sports. I only walked around today (at a normal pace) yet for some reason my knees felt funny. I like to cross my legs when I sit in chairs so not sure if that could be causing problems. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Anyways, the hot chocolate I got in the city was from Max Brenner. They make awesome hot chocolates. It is basically a cafe devoted to making various chocolate things. I love it.

Time to pass out. So close to finishing Almost moon. Alice Sebold is a great author. I really enjoyed this book thus far. Up next is sea of poppies or bloodsucking fiends… Not sure which I will start.

For those that don’t know I am in Sydney until September 4th visiting family.

I flew out on the 12th. I haven’t been up to anything too exciting since I got here. Mainly just relaxing and watching movies.

I watched Scott Pilgrim versus the world on Saturday and I thought it was quite good. I am not sure how much my cousins enjoyed it though. I think the movie is quite enjoyable if you have read the comics but for the average viewer it may seem a bit strange.

I also watched Hot Fuzz, Blade Runner, Predator, and How to lose friends and alienate people. A common theme when I come to Sydney is to watch a lot of television.

Expect very intermittent posts… For my few readers I am sure this is something you are quite use to.

I am almost done! I can almost taste freedom. I just need to get through physics and I am home free. Physics is on Monday and I haven’t really done much prep for it. I am at the Math and Computing building on campus with Nelson right now studying.

These last two days have been pretty great. Thursday after my exam I chilled with Amy and Ian. We got some sushi for dinner. Afterwards I just finished watching a KDrama. The night was still young though so I started a new series with nelson.

Today I was at the library for a few hours doing some physics, met up with some group members from my number theory seminar, went home and did some more physics.

Around 5:30-ish I went out with Amy, Ian and Nelson to go look for sandals. The current pair I am using are pretty old and quite uncomfy. I was committed to buying Birkenstocks. So we get there and I try on a few pairs and realize Birkenstocks are horribly uncomfortable. After talking to one of the clerks it seems I need to break in these sandals. So I ended up getting this style of Birkenstocks. My god these sandals are uncomfy. They better be crazy comfy quickly. I am a little surprised I spent so much money on sandals.

After getting sandals I went to Amy and Ian’s for dinner. Before dinner Amy straightened my hair. You can see photos here, here, and here. I always like getting my hair straightened, I just could never justify getting it permed. I feel that is too permanent. It also seems not many people support my choice for straight hair. I will probably be cutting my hair back to being super short when I get back to toronto.

After dinner Amy Ian Nelson and I went to get some bbt. Andrew eventually joined us and the 5 of us played some big 2. It was pretty fun. Amy was doing pretty well at the beginnign but after she lost once she was basically could never get back her steam. A big chunk of the game was Andrew, Nelson and Ian alternating as President. The highlight of the night was at the beginning of the matched Amy was president and I called what card I would beat her with (it was a 9 of clubs) and I beat her with a 9 of clubs. I was very impressed with myself.

Now it is time to get back to studying. I will head home around 4, watch an episode of bad guy, then get some sleep.

Exams have just started but I have cleared two of four. I handed in my complex analysis exam on Wednesday. The exam was a take home final which was very helpful. If I had to do that exam in class there is no doubt in my mind I would have failed horribly.

The exam consisted of 8 questions totalling around 3 hours worth of questions. The prof didn’t give mark breakdowns for questions, just how much time he would have alotted for each question. I was unable to finish answering 3 questions, and they were two 30 min questions and a 40 minute question. For the two 30 minute questions I probably got about 1/2 to 3/4th the way through the question. The 40 minute question was basically blank.

Regardless I am pretty sure I passed the course. That was my biggest worry because I was barely passing the course entering the exam. I am so glad complex is done.

Besides complex analysis I wrote my philosophy exam on Tuesday. It wasn’t really an exam though, it was more so a midterm since it was only worth 20%. Not much to say about philosophy. I loved the course. I will probably continue to make random blog posts where I just bring up random issues we discussed in class.

Now I am studying for my Real analysis final that is on August 5th. This is yet another course which I am barely passing. Luckily the final will be weighted 75% so I still have a chance to turn things around. I barely have any idea how to solve problems in Real analysis.

I just need to get through this term and then I can relax. As always I am hoping for some kind of epiphany that will suddenly make me understand real analysis.

Also I think I may get an iPhone 4 tomorrow. Possibly 32 gig. Hopefully I can get a slightly better contract.

Once again my brother and I are enrolled in the Apple iPhone developer program. Perhaps this year we will actually make an application haha.

I still really want to make a music based game. I also know actual musicians so I feel I should make use of that. The biggest problem of course if figuring out an interesting concept for a game. I am a big fan of Elite Beat Agents but I don’t want to just copy an already existing idea.

I think developers can access the iPhone/iTouch music library now so I should take advantage of that. I am a big fan of 8-bit music so perhaps something involving that. The site 8 bit collective has a great selection of homemade 8bit music. Still not sure what I can do with all this though… I should probably learn Objective-C first.

Nelson loaded up the Toronto Star on my computer to show me the weather and I noticed this on the side.

The box says “Don’t Miss”, and following that three of seven articles involve death, and a fourth one involves someone getting really hurt. Now the choice of using “Don’t Miss” I find somewhat strange. The death and injuries of random people aren’t important unless you happen to know the individuals involved. When I think of articles I shouldn’t be missing I think of articles pertaining to stuff the government is doing, something happy, or something that could disrupt my day to day life. Someone dying is a sad thing but I feel by creating a whole article about it and putting it in my face as something I really should read is wrong.

I should probably read over these posts but it is late. If things are incoherent it is probably because I read too much into something that is nothing.

I saw Inception today with Amy and Ian. The movie was quite good. Christopher Nolan is a genius. I feel I should check out some of his other movies.

I am still watching Full House and it is slowly getting better.

It is 4:45 so I am going to make this post very point form-y. I am doing my essay on the immorality of torture.

Torture is bad.
People defend torture by considering the ticking time bomb scenario.

Ticking time bomb scenario (TTBS) says Mr. X has planted a bomb somewhere in the city. You have caught Mr. X. You have tried to get him to tell you where the bomb is. He won’t tell you where the bomb is. Are you morally obligated (or allowed) to torture him?

Suppose it is morally permissible to torture him. Then we can consider two cases. One where he is tortured in a public setting, meaning the public is aware he is being tortured and why. Or two, he is being tortured under the radar so no one knows he is being tortured.

In case one we will have to create some legal framework to define who can be tortured. Dershowitz considers the idea of forcing people to acquire warrants from judges before torturing people. This is flawed because judges can be appointed, so you can simply appoint a judge who will always agree to torture. Any legal framework has the potential to be flawed and corrupted. Having this legal framework gives the state the power to revoke any individuals universal human rights (article 5). This is a lot of power to give to the state. Also need to define a set of torture practices

In case two we have no idea who is being tortured so it is unclear whether or not they are actually guilty of anything. If they are being tortured under the radar it is impossible to know what sort of torture practices they are employing. No one can be held accountable. If people tortured under the radar then technically they will be taken without warning and tortured.

Both cases seem to have flaws. Another flaw lies in the idea of the TTBS. TTBS requires the law enforcement to have a lot of information about the perpetrators. Namely they need to know who is causing the attack and enough intel to be able to kidnap a particular member. The odds of this happening are low. A more practical situation would be the police have caught a man who MAY know something about the bomb. Do we torture him?

If we say yes then technically we are torturing an innocent man since we don’t know if he actually knows anything. Since we are torturing an innocent man what is to stop me from torturing his family or friends? How long do we torture him for? Days? Weeks? Months? Should this be done in the public’s eye or behind closed doors? Another realistic scenario could be we have 10 men, 9 innocent, 1 guilty. Do we torture all 10 in the hopes of finding the bomb? Once we start torturing innocent people it may not be clear whether or not what they say is true or not. If someone is being inflicted with immense amounts of pain they will be put into flight mode. They will say whatever they have to to get out of the situation. This can lead to bad information and thus wasted time.

The sheer act of torture in and of itself is evil. It dehumanizes people. To inflict torture is to inflict intense physical and psychological pain. I need to think of more arguments for this idea. I feel the idea that it is so evil and dehumanizing is important. Maybe something along the lines of, as soon as we embrace the notion of torture we have become less human? If the only way to save a group of people is to become a monster and do horrific things to our fellow man, is that something we should do? Is it justified to take in and become evil to save lives? I feel this is stuff I hear in anime’s.

Any other input or ideas as to why torture is bad would be much appreciated.

5:00 a.m. Time to get some sleep. Going to be running on very little sleep the next few days. Complex assignment and midterm monday, this essay and real analysis assignment wednesday. I may ask for an extension on the real analysis assignment though.

Hopefully this post was coherent.

This post may be quite fragmented since I have been rewriting various parts of it.

I am slowly reading through papers trying to think of arguments for various essay topics. One possible topic is, “Is the death penalty morally permissible or not?”

I personally feel the death penalty is not permissible.

Two arguments I know of for the death penalty are
1. It is the only way to get justice for a murder
2. It can act as a deterrent for crimes such as murder.

When someone commits a crime our legal system will step in and impose a punishment that will force the perpetrator to pay for any damages he or she causes. So in the case of theft, the perpetrator will have to pay for any damages or stolen property to the victim.

This basic idea gets a bit more muddled in the situation of crimes such as murder. If a person kills someone, what punishment can a system impose that will have the same value as the life they took? You can’t put a monetary value on a persons life (unless you are an actuarial scientist)). So the natural idea would be a life for a life. If a person kills someone they have to make up for it with their own life. People will also contend that this is the only way to offer family and friends of the victim some kind of justice.

Following the previous point, the death penalty does offer closure to family and friends of the victim. People close to the person that died may feel comfort in the fact that the person who killed their friend no longer lives. However this sort of emotion, just and reasonable as it may be, doesn’t seem like a trait humans should have. We shouldn’t take solace in the fact that someone has died.

The other argument for the death penalty is that by imposing it people will think twice before performing acts such as murder. I am pretty sure though studies have shown this isn’t a actually the case. People who are thinking of killing someone would do so regardless of punishment.

I have wrote/rewrote my arguments against the death penalty over and over again and can’t seem to construct a good argument yet. My basic idea is that the death penalty feels more like an act of revenge. The person who has committed the crime isn’t given any chance to make amends for his or her mistake. I believe in idealistic worlds, in particular that all humans have some piece compassion. Following this belief I would argue that a man or woman can make amends for their mistakes.

Of course the problem with this argument is we can find people in history who will most likely never attempt to make amends for their mistakes. An easy example would be Hitler. However I still don’t think it would be right to issue the death sentence on Hitler. There is something evil about the death penalty which I clearly can’t express into words yet, but when I do expect another post.

The top of my hair is slowly turning brown. For the longest time I just thought it was the lightning in my bathroom or something but it is actually getting quite brown. Based on what I have read on the interweb just now it could be due to being in the sun for long periods of time.

I haven’t cut my hair since September, so it has been almost 9 months since I got my hair cut. However women with long hair don’t get their hair cut and their hair is still black…. Not sure what is going on. Someone figure out what is happening to my hair.