Archives March 2007

Hovind Figures Out the Whole “Defense” Thing

Kent and Jo Hovind were back in the news last week:

Kent and Jo Hovind were back in federal court this week seeking acquittal on charges of bank structuring.

The couple’s attorneys argued there was no intent to defraud the government by making large deposits just under the $10,000 threshold that triggers bank-reporting requirements.

I can’t help wondering why they didn’t make these arguments the last time they were in court. It could have saved everyone a world of bother.

Frankly, Hovind comes across as a child who’s finally learned out that mommy really means it this time.

The article also notes:

He remains in the Escambia County Jail awaiting transfer.

Hurm. I’d’ve thought the state of Florida would’ve managed to transfer him by now.

A date for Jo Hovind’s sentencing has been delayed pending a ruling by U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers on the request for acquittal on the bank structuring conviction.

No date has been set for her ruling.

This was originally set for this coming Thursday, but I guess it’s been postponed.

Switzerland Invades Neighbor


The Associated Press reports:

What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein.

According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers wandered just over a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.

A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story but said that there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion.

“We’ve spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein and it’s not a problem,” Daniel Reist told The Associated Press.

TSR confirms.

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Software Enzymes for Musical Composition

When
I last wrote about using evo-devo to compose music,
I had gotten stuck on the problem of implementation. In particular, I couldn’t figure out how to write a seed organism that would develop into a simple composition that I could then use to evolve other tunes. I also wasn’t sure how to get the various genes to actually work together, not at a level at which I could start coding.

After some thought, it occurred to me that enzymes and proteins act sort of like functions in software: they bind to molecules (take arguments), which they can then modify, and sometimes release another molecule into the surrounding medium (return a value). So I just needed to come up with the software equivalent of an enzyme.

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