The Erdemovic Dilemma

At the height of the Bosnian war, Drazen Erdemovic was a 23-year old soldier in the Bosnian Serb army led by Radko Mladic. When war broke out, Erdemovic was an unemployed electrician with a wife and newborn son. He had no enthusiasm for the war, but in an effort to support his family he enlisted with Croatian forces but was soon expelled for releasing prisoners slated for abuse. Erdemovic specifically requested assignment to a non-combat unit “so that he would not have to shoot anyone."

On July 15th, immediately following the fall of Srebrenica, the unit was dispatched to Pilica Farm outside the city. When buses filled with civilian prisoners arrived, Erdemovic’s unit was ordered to lead them into the field in groups of 10 and shoot them all. As soon as Erdemovic realized what was happening, he refused to participate. As he later testified:

"They told us that a busload of civilians would come from Srebrenica. I said immediately that I did not want to take part in that. . .and they told me, ‘If you do not wish to … you can just go stand in line with them. . .and we will kill you too’ I [was] not sorry for myself, but for my family and son who then had nine months, and I could not refuse because they would have killed me."

Erdemovic chose to participate in the firing squads, and he later estimated that he personally killed as many as 70 people over several hours, all of whom were bound and gagged and shot in the back

Question: Can Erdemovic be blamed for the killings?

Perspectives on the Meaning of Life: Existentialism

This is a part of the Perspectives on the Meaning of Life series.

Existentialism says each man and each woman creates the meaning of his and her life; meaning cannot be determined by a supernatural god or an earthly authority. Existentialism says meaning must be created not discovered. Thus one is free to define meaning on an individual level. In seeking meaning to life, the existentialist looks to where people find meaning in life, in course of which using only reason as a source of meaning is insufficient.

To the existentialist, existence precedes essence; the (essence) of one's life arises only after one comes to existence. Kierkegaard coined the term "leap of faith", arguing that life is full of absurdity, and one must make his and her own values in an indifferent world. This interpretation of the concept is often related to the insistence on the absurdity of the world and the assumption that there exist no relevant or absolutely good or bad values. However, that there are no values to be found in the world in-itselfdoes not mean that there are no values: We are usually brought up with certain values, and even though we cannot justify them ultimately, they will be "our" values. One can live meaningfully (free of despair and anxiety) in an unconditional commitment to something finite, and devotes that meaningful life to the commitment.

Albert Camus explores the implications of Existentialism in The Myth of Sisyphus. In the essay, Camus introduces his philosophy of the absurd: man's futile search for meaning, unity and clarity in the face of an unintelligible world devoid of God and eternal truths or values. Camus compares the absurdity of man's life with the situation of Sisyphus, a figure of Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat forever the same meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again. The essay concludes, "The struggle itself...is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

When Seasons Greetings go Wrong!

In honor of thanksgiving, I decided to play with the social conventions involving greetings. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Sasha Fierce: Happy thanksgiving

me: no thanks

Sasha Fierce: Huh

me: i reject your seasonal greeting

Sasha Fierce: Uhm

U cant

Reject it

N why wud u

me: yes i can

Sasha Fierce: ..

Why wud u

me: just to b a prick

duh

me: happy thanksgiving

Laura Atlas: you too Grahamers!!!

me: no thx

Laura Atlas: sorry lol

me: happy turkey day

Arnold Peppercorn: back at you

me: no thx

Arnold Peppercorn: alright

fuck off then

trick

me: happy thanksgiving

Max Dunbar: you too

me: no thx

Max Dunbar: fagot

me: go fuck yourself

i am rejecting your seasonal greeting

Max Dunbar: i'm rejecting your rejection

me: oooh

does this mean i HAVE to have a happy thanksgiving now?

damn u for bringing me joy on this solemn day of indian massacre

me: Happy thanksgiving!

Ricardo Santiago: Thanks gm. Happy tofurkey day to u too

me: tofurkey, are you serious?

Ricardo Santiago: Yeah man. I'm going to have it for the first time today...

me: u vegetarians don't deserve this holiday

i retract my 'happy thanksgiving'

Ricardo's new status message - Happy Tofurkey day everyone!

me: ...

Learning from MMORPGs

MMORPG's may have more to tell us about ourselves then we realize. Already, social scientists have been studying how people interact in these games. Since the interactions between MMORPG players are real, even if the environments are virtual, psychologists and sociologists are able to use MMORPGs as tools for academic research. Sherry Turkle, a clinical psychologist, has conducted interviews with computer users including game-players. Turkle found that many people have expanded their emotional range by exploring the many different roles (including gender identities) that MMORPGs allow a person to explore.

Economist have gotten in on the act too because many MMORPGs feature living economies. Virtual items and currency have to be gained through play and have definite value for players. Such a virtual economy can be analyzed (using data logged by the game) and has value in economic research; more significantly, these "virtual" economies can have an impact on the economies of the real world. One of the early researchers of MMORPGs was Edward Castronova, who demonstrated that a supply-and-demand market exists for virtual items and that it crosses over with the real world.

More recently, in World of Warcraft, a temporary design glitch attracted the attention of psychologists and epidemiologists across North America, when a" disease of a monster began to spread unintentionally—and uncontrollably—into the wider game world. Blizzard had implemented a new dungeon which included a spell effect called 'Corrupted Blood'. It was a spell that did damage to you, and if you came near other players, the spell effect passed on to them. The spell was intended to exist only in one dungeon, but there was a bug and it got out. Players went back into towns and were spreading it to other players.

Blizzard got calls from the CDC - the Center for Disease Control - saying: "Hey, what's all this about the disease in your game? We want to look at the simulation data - it might help us in a real-world situation." The Center for Disease Control used the incident as a research model to chart both the progression of a disease, and the potential human response to large-scale epidemic infection.

The Clock Puzzle

The Problem: If you look at a clock and the time is 4:20, what is the angle in degrees between the hour and the minute hands? (The answer to this is not zero!)

The Answer: 10 degrees. First, some basic math: every minute on the clock is 6 degrees (360 degrees divided by 60 minutes = 6 degrees per minute). Although the minute hand is directly on the "4" on the face of the clock, the hour hand no longer is. Why? The hour hand was directly on the "4" at 4:00, but at 4:20 it's already a third of the way into its journey from the "4" to the "5." Every hour, the hour hand moves 30 degrees (five minutes). Since it is exactly 1/3 past the hour, the hour hand is 1/3 of the way into its 30-degree trip, which is 10 degrees past the "4" on the face.

Anomy: Part II

This is a follow up to Anomy: An Epic Poem in Three Parts

Part II follows the protagonist as he brokers a deal with the Devil to get to Eden so he can eat the apple from the tree of life. This section pays homage to Faust, a classic German legend about a man who makes a pact with the Devil in exchange for knowledge. The story has been told by many authors but the two most influential works on Anomy were Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and Johann Goethe's Faust.

-------------------------------------------------

The tree cannot be found on a map
To find it, I must first face a trap
And with Satan strike a deal !
So to learn what he knows
To Lucifer, I will propose
For my soul, the garden be revealed !

Before I can live a life eternal,
I must contract a pact infernal !

The Devil hangs down in New Orleans
Preying on people without means
In the house of the rising sun
He plays poker in the member’s club
With Asmodeus, Lillith and Beelzebub
Until his time on earth is done.

I asked him if he knew where Eden lie,
He nodded his head and answered aye.

I said that I was here to trade
For the tree, my soul I’d pay
And the Devil responded to me,
“I think most mortals would confess
Death is never quite a welcome guest
But even fewer men seek my company.”

“To close most pacts I must cajole
Yet you eagerly offer up your soul.
Without a fight, the deal is a bore.
Besides, I’d never get the soul you supply
Once you have a body that cannot die,
For your wish you must give more.”

“Should you insist that we proceed;
You’ll have to take someone’s soul for me”

The debt I offered I could not tender,
To promise a soul I’d need a lender
I must concede the request gave me pause
To serve the devil may be too much to bear
But for all eternity can’t one life be spared?
If my means damn me, I’m saved by my cause

I told the Devil I’d give him his price,
And he said just my offer would suffice
Satan’s show of mercy was mighty odd,
He said, “Souls do me no good in the end,
I’m only interested in making humans bend
To show they are more like me than God.”

“You are young and fueled by pride
Like I was when I decided to defy
But I have seen rebellion lost.
I once gazed upon God’ face
Now I know not his embrace
But understand defiance’s cost.”

“The souls I collect will all rise one day
When He returns, their debts are repaid
But I will still be stuck in hell
And like me, your soul will not rise
Because your body is still alive
And an empty earth will be your cell.”

I’ll not let a pleasure I’ll never know
Keep me from where I need to go !
I told Satan I care not of my fate,
Even if I’m making a mistake
It is my decision alone to make
And my desire is to see Eden’s gate.

More dissuasion he did not attempt
He knew now I would not relent
No matter how much he implore me.
I swear I saw the Devil sigh
But by the next blink of my eye
The gates of Eden stood before me.

-------------------------------------------------

The centerpiece in Part II of Anomy is Satan. As I wrote, I had trouble reconciling how the Devil can be evil and culpable but still a creation of God who only did what he was predestined to do. Thus in Anomy, the Devil is not a villain but a living cautionary tale--he defied God and is now stuck on earth serving as a warning to others. He's not evil as much as bored. It is this boredom that has lead him to buy souls. He recognizes that his trade is pointless as all souls will rise eventually in the second coming. Thus he only gets people to sell the souls and compromise their ethics so as to irritate God and point out that if humans are worthy of forgiveness, perhaps so is he.

Die Hard Riddles

The following riddles all come from the classic 90's action flick, Die Hard with a Vengeance. If you can solve them all, congratulations, you're well equipped to defend New York from terrorists.

The Problem: What has four legs and is always ready to travel?

The Answer: An elephant, because it always has its trunk.

The Problem: As I was going to St Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Every wife had seven sacks, every sack had seven cats, every cat had seven kittens. Kittens, cats, sacks, wives--how many were going to St Ives?

The Answer: Just one, you! The man and his wives and cats are not going to St. Ives, just you are.

The Problem: You are in front of a fountain. You have an empty 5 gallon and 3 gallon jug of water. You must measure out exactly 4 gallons of water. You cannot eyeball at all, it must be exactly 4 gallons.

The Answer: There are two solutions to the water jug riddle.

1. Fill the 5 gallon jug and the pour the water into the 3 gallon jug. This leaves two gallons in the big jug.

2. Empty the 3 gallon jug and pour in the two gallons from the 5 gallon jug, leaving space for one gallon in the small jug.

3. Refill the 5 gallon jug and pour water from it into the 3 gallon jug until the small jug's full. That leaves exactly four gallons in the big jug!

The second method is:

1. Fill the 3 gallon jug and pour the water into the 5 gallon jug.

2. Refill the 3 gallon jug, and pour into the 5 gallon jug until the big jug is full, leaving one gallon in the small jug.

3. Empty the big jug, and transfer the one gallon from the small jug to the big jug.

4. Refill the small jug and pour all three gallons into the 5 gallon jug, resulting in four gallons in the big jug.