Archive for August, 2009
Genetics and Education
August 30th, 2009
You might like this interesting discussion about the relationship between genes, IQ, income, and education.
Arnold the Barbarian
August 25th, 2009
Apparently Arnold still has the Conan sword. In his office.
Thanks, io9.
Best of Wikipedia
August 23rd, 2009
I’m pretty sure that anyone who enjoys this blog will like Best of Wikipedia, a blog which contains exactly what you’d expect.
The One-Horsepower Car
August 20th, 2009
This car is powered by a horse on a treadmill. Top speed, 28 mph. Minimal emissions.
The Sokal Affair
August 18th, 2009
The Sokal Affair was an incident in which a physicist, Alan Sokal, wrote a parody article using deconstructionist terminology and managed to have it published in a reputable journal of cultural studies. There was a big fuss. He discusses his reasons for doing such a thing here; an excerpt:
“But why did I do it? I confess that I’m an unabashed Old Leftist who never quite understood how deconstruction was supposed to help the working class. And I’m a stodgy old scientist who believes, naively, that there exists an external world, that there exist objective truths about that world, and that my job is to discover some of them. (If science were merely a negotiation of social conventions about what is agreed to be “true”, why would I bother devoting a large fraction of my all-too-short life to it? I don’t aspire to be the Emily Post of quantum field theory.”
The ongoing struggle between the two cultures is awesome and hilarious but mostly just sad.
Salvador Dalí’s Napping Tips
August 16th, 2009
From Lifehacker:
The painter Salvador Dali used to employ the following trick to have the best nap ever:
- Hold a coffee spoon (or something else—use your imagination) in your hand
- Sit and relax on a comfy couch or chair with your arm hanging
- When you go into deep sleep (after about 20-30 minutes) your hand will relax and release the spoon, and the sound of the spoon falling will wake you up
That is the perfect timing for the best nap ever.
Translation Party
August 13th, 2009
Translation Party translates a phrase between English and Japanese until it stops changing. By the end it’s often something pretty different.
Protip: Try Monty Python quotes.
Wilhem Reich
August 11th, 2009
Early in his career, Wilhelm Reich was a respected psychiatrist. He gradually became a crank:
Later in life, he became a controversial figure who was both adored and condemned. He began to violate some of the key taboos of psychoanalysis, using touch during sessions, and treating patients in their underwear to improve their “orgastic potency.” He said he had discovered a primordial cosmic energy, which he said others called God, and which he called “orgone.” He built “orgone energy accumulators” that his patients sat inside to harness the reputed health benefits, leading to newspaper stories about “sex boxes” that cured cancer.
It’s been a while since I’ve written a post about a crank. I love cranks.
The Chomskybot
August 9th, 2009
The Chomskybot generates random text in the style of linguist Noam Chomsky. Here’s a sample:
Note that the speaker-hearer’s linguistic intuition is unspecified with respect to the strong generative capacity of the theory. Analogously, the notion of level of grammaticalness suffices to account for the requirement that branching is not tolerated within the dominance scope of a complex symbol. Let us continue to suppose that relational information raises serious doubts about the system of base rules exclusive of the lexicon. Summarizing, then, we assume that an important property of these three types of EC is not to be considered in determining irrelevant intervening contexts in selectional rules. It must be emphasized, once again, that this analysis of a formative as a pair of sets of features is to be regarded as a parasitic gap construction.
It’s got a wikipedia entry.
Infinite (Jest | Summer)
August 6th, 2009
I’m a little behind the times. I am, in fact, so far behind that I’ve only now started reading for Infinite Summer. Judging by the first 40-odd pages, spending the next month playing catch-up should be pretty enjoyable.
Note that in writing this I was tempted to use the “olddeadwhiteguys” tag, but realized that that would make me the most insensitive person ever. Let this footnote stand as a testament to my good taste.