White Deer

I saw a white deer this afternoon.  It was nibbling at a security fence on the eastern side of the railway track between Bagshot and Ascot.  The deer was a pure white, not just a yellowish white, and didn't appear to have any darker patches or spots.  There were several other normal-coloured (grey-brown) deer with it.

Update on Tue 2008-10-21 by Tristram Brelstaff

I saw this animal again, a week or two ago, and it occurred to me that it might not be a deer but a large goat.  I will keep a watch whenever I go that way (which is not very often nowadays).

Update on Sat 2008-10-25 by Tristram Brelstaff

I saw this animal again yesterday.  It was sitting with some others, including a black one.  They most probably are goats.

Lotteries and Hope

A pearl of wisdom from Eliezer Yudkowsky:

Understanding that lottery tickets have negative expected utility, does not mean that you give up the hope of being rich.  It means that you stop wasting that hope on lottery tickets.

I might not agree with all that Eliezer says (it would take me some fairly intensive study before I could say that), but I do find him to be one of the more interesting writers out on the web at the moment.

Some People Need to Get Out More

Shutdown is an exciting new command line program available in Windows 2003 and XP.

Bearded Pig

A Bearded Pig (Sus barbatus) at London Zoo.

Golden Poison Dart Frog

A golden poison dart frog (Phyllobates terribilis) at London Zoo.