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June 29, 2006

Utterly Random Quick Links

Posted by Dorkafork

*** You may think you've seen a skydiving video like this one, but you probably haven't.

*** This starts off as your run-of-the-mill moral dilemma:

On Twin Earth, a brain in a vat is at the wheel of a runaway trolley. There are only two options that the brain can take: the right side of the fork in the track or the left side of the fork. There is no way in sight of derailing or stopping the trolley and the brain is aware of this, for the brain knows trolleys. The brain is causally hooked up to the trolley such that the brain can determine the course which the trolley will take.

But then it gets ridiculously easy:

On the right side of the track there is a single railroad worker, Jones, who will definitely be killed if the brain steers the trolley to the right. If the railman on the right lives, he will go on to kill five men for the sake of killing them, but in doing so will inadvertently save the lives of thirty orphans (one of the five men he will kill is planning to destroy a bridge that the orphans' bus will be crossing later that night). One of the orphans that will be killed would have grown up to become a tyrant who would make good utilitarian men do bad things. Another of the orphans would grow up to become G.E.M. Anscombe, while a third would invent the pop-top can.

And so on and so forth.

*** Cat massage.

*** This author dares to challenge conventional banana eating habits.

*** You can watch the first episode of the second season of the best show on TV here. Won't be there forever. (The Venture Brothers is to Johnny Quest as Futurama is to The Jetsons. Except a little dirtier. Did I mention Futurama is coming back?) It's much better if you've seen previous episodes, but there it is.

*** From one of The Retropolitan's recent posts on the subjects of dating, socializing, etc.

I ended up around veritable mobs of gorgeous people, some of them so beautiful that I instantly knew that my scripted opening line about Lex Luthor would fail.

Hey, we've all been there. And by "we" I of course mean "the developmentally disabled weirdos that continue to read and write for this site."

Posted by Dorkafork at June 29, 2006 08:02 PM | TrackBack (0)

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Comments

Talk about ridiculously easy run-of-the-mill moral dilemmas. Meanwhile, it is Germany v Argentina tomorrow: You tell me who to support. Can't they both lose?

Posted by: Flea at June 29, 2006 09:53 PM

Oh dorkafork, you're alive!

I just love a happy ending.

Posted by: Bill from INDC at June 29, 2006 09:58 PM

Watch what you wish for, Bill. You'll get more posts like this.

Posted by: dorkafork at June 29, 2006 10:06 PM

Finally, some evidence that cats actually have a use.

Posted by: rbj at June 30, 2006 08:19 AM

I had a friend in high school whose cat would come into her bedroom at night while she was asleep and lick her earlobes. They were all chapped!

Posted by: Babs at June 30, 2006 10:54 AM

Heh.

Posted by: Bill from INDC at June 30, 2006 11:37 AM