Sunday, July 25, 2004
It looks like that cheating doper Lance Armstrong is going to win another Tour de France. Go USA!
Some people mistake my use of the phrase "cheating doper" for some kind of moral condemnation. Just the opposite. I'd be disappointed if he wasn't doping. If he was just that much superior to his competition naturally, then he'd have an even greater moral obligation to dope up. It'd be the only sporting thing to do.
Here's a longbets.org proposition: within 2 years, compelling evidence surfaces in the media showing that Lance Armstrong used performance-enhancing substances in at least one of his Tour victories. (Hint: it's a sucker's bet -- the evidence is already there.)
Some people mistake my use of the phrase "cheating doper" for some kind of moral condemnation. Just the opposite. I'd be disappointed if he wasn't doping. If he was just that much superior to his competition naturally, then he'd have an even greater moral obligation to dope up. It'd be the only sporting thing to do.
Here's a longbets.org proposition: within 2 years, compelling evidence surfaces in the media showing that Lance Armstrong used performance-enhancing substances in at least one of his Tour victories. (Hint: it's a sucker's bet -- the evidence is already there.)
Saturday, July 24, 2004
Schwarzenegger deems opponents 'girlie-men' -- twice
Was it tactical or strategic, or a simple gaffe? I'm not sure. And though it should have illustrated to the "peeble of Cally-forn-ya" everything that's wrong with their leader, I think it was actually a good political move. A point for the Visitors.
California Power Use Reaches a Record
The Governor probably doesn't deserve any credit for this, but he'll take it anyway.
Gov. Arnold 8
Tomohiro 5
Was it tactical or strategic, or a simple gaffe? I'm not sure. And though it should have illustrated to the "peeble of Cally-forn-ya" everything that's wrong with their leader, I think it was actually a good political move. A point for the Visitors.
California Power Use Reaches a Record
No blackouts were expected because there was enough power-plant capacity to meet demand.
The Governor probably doesn't deserve any credit for this, but he'll take it anyway.
Gov. Arnold 8
Tomohiro 5
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Just got the following email. I'm assuming it's a worm. Rather clever -- well engineered. One of its secret powers: it's virtually Google-proof. All the results I got were just copies of the message saved to mailing lists.
I can imagine idle university adminstrators around the world opening this up.
click to enlarge
I can imagine idle university adminstrators around the world opening this up.
click to enlarge
Monday, July 19, 2004
Bub and Bob
Ask and ye shall receive over the internet. A page dedicated to Bubble Bobble music. Including the indescribable Hillbilly Rodeo Remix.
Ask and ye shall receive over the internet. A page dedicated to Bubble Bobble music. Including the indescribable Hillbilly Rodeo Remix.
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Kids dangle from meat hooks for fun
And you thought freaks got piercings for purely aesthetic reasons.
And you thought freaks got piercings for purely aesthetic reasons.
Friday, July 16, 2004
It's time for all good boys sodomized by Pat Boone to step forward.
Thursday, July 15, 2004
I read the first two chapters of James Surowiecki's new book, The Wisdom of Crowds, at the campus book store yesterday. I enjoy the neat counterintuitive moralisms of his New Yorker columns and I'm enjoying the book, too. I'm looking forward to getting back to it next time I'm at the book store.
But he seems, thus far, to be trafficking a form of enlightened mysticism. I notice that he slips in a number of qualifiers in tossing out his claims regarding the magic of markets: a lot of generally's and usually's. He's hedging. Also the anecdotal quality of a lot of his early examples raises questions. Not that the anecdotes aren't accurate or even somewhat representative. But they do hint at a selection bias (the kind of thing, ironically, an intelligent market transcends.)
According to the examples he provides, crowds are good at making predictions related to crowd behavior or, say, in the case of jelly beans or ox weight predictions, intuitive acts that are so intuitive, we may may not even recognize them for what they are. Predicting the number of jelly beans in a jar or the weight of an ox is not so much a demonstration of some kind of esoteric collective insight into the mysteries of candies or livestock as it is an exercise in correlating visual perceptions with some kind of standardized unit of measurement -- something we all have some ability to do instinctively. The deviations over and under the correct result, being effectively random, cancel one another out. It's an example of groupthink -- to use a term that's been popular lately and that I heard Surowiecki himself on the radio expostulating about this week -- as much as anything.
Here's a falsifying case: get your huge, diverse crowd and have them predict the sequence of the genome. You could have them work on that last 10 percent that scientists with the genome project haven't worked out and is going to be the most expensive part to sequence. The problem is not just that the group won't do better than say 25-35% in their predictions, but that the information as a whole is usless unless it's over 99% accurate.
Surowiecki suggests markets as a new tool for business and science. But it would probably involve as much energy and expense figuring out for what situations, beyond the obvious cases, this would be appropriate as just hiring the good old experts and letting them take apart the problem. Ultimately you'd be relying on informed elites -- with some heavy number-crunching of past performance -- to make the decisions about what novel situations in which to apply this. Is there a meta-market for figuring out where the wisdom of markets applies?
But, sure, if you want to know how people will vote or what movie they will see this
weekend or what type of car will be most popular next year, any large group is going to be better than a single expert. The aggregate in this case accumulates a lot of relevant information that the expert can't really get at except by tapping the aggregate. I suspect that the book will end up being an argument for the superiority of powerful polling and database technologies (like Google) over traditional human-grounded market research presented in the guise of a radical new thesis about society.
But he seems, thus far, to be trafficking a form of enlightened mysticism. I notice that he slips in a number of qualifiers in tossing out his claims regarding the magic of markets: a lot of generally's and usually's. He's hedging. Also the anecdotal quality of a lot of his early examples raises questions. Not that the anecdotes aren't accurate or even somewhat representative. But they do hint at a selection bias (the kind of thing, ironically, an intelligent market transcends.)
According to the examples he provides, crowds are good at making predictions related to crowd behavior or, say, in the case of jelly beans or ox weight predictions, intuitive acts that are so intuitive, we may may not even recognize them for what they are. Predicting the number of jelly beans in a jar or the weight of an ox is not so much a demonstration of some kind of esoteric collective insight into the mysteries of candies or livestock as it is an exercise in correlating visual perceptions with some kind of standardized unit of measurement -- something we all have some ability to do instinctively. The deviations over and under the correct result, being effectively random, cancel one another out. It's an example of groupthink -- to use a term that's been popular lately and that I heard Surowiecki himself on the radio expostulating about this week -- as much as anything.
Here's a falsifying case: get your huge, diverse crowd and have them predict the sequence of the genome. You could have them work on that last 10 percent that scientists with the genome project haven't worked out and is going to be the most expensive part to sequence. The problem is not just that the group won't do better than say 25-35% in their predictions, but that the information as a whole is usless unless it's over 99% accurate.
Surowiecki suggests markets as a new tool for business and science. But it would probably involve as much energy and expense figuring out for what situations, beyond the obvious cases, this would be appropriate as just hiring the good old experts and letting them take apart the problem. Ultimately you'd be relying on informed elites -- with some heavy number-crunching of past performance -- to make the decisions about what novel situations in which to apply this. Is there a meta-market for figuring out where the wisdom of markets applies?
But, sure, if you want to know how people will vote or what movie they will see this
weekend or what type of car will be most popular next year, any large group is going to be better than a single expert. The aggregate in this case accumulates a lot of relevant information that the expert can't really get at except by tapping the aggregate. I suspect that the book will end up being an argument for the superiority of powerful polling and database technologies (like Google) over traditional human-grounded market research presented in the guise of a radical new thesis about society.
For trying to turn my blog into a vacuous advertisement for their service (without compensating me), LAUNCHcast goes on the Shit List. It might be a deal -- if you didn't have to use IE to listen to it and then have to reload it every third song because the player crapped out on you. And who knows what kind of malicious viruses it's exposing you to.
I'll probably still sign up. As soon as I get that office job.
I'll probably still sign up. As soon as I get that office job.
Monday, July 12, 2004
LAUNCHcast: You have exceeded the usage limit on our free service
But those are all the things I like. This sucks. I was just getting it trained to play what I like (though I noticed it still plays a lot of the sort of mediocre new releases that I could expect to hear on any normal adult alternative radio station.)
If I had some mindless office job where I sat in front of a computer all day, I'd probably sign up. Until next month, I'll just go back to KCRW's web stream.
For the rest of the month, your free service will be restricted:
• No customized radio
• No song skipping
• Low (mono) audio quality only
But those are all the things I like. This sucks. I was just getting it trained to play what I like (though I noticed it still plays a lot of the sort of mediocre new releases that I could expect to hear on any normal adult alternative radio station.)
If I had some mindless office job where I sat in front of a computer all day, I'd probably sign up. Until next month, I'll just go back to KCRW's web stream.
Friday, July 09, 2004
Pentagon Says Bush Records of Service Were Destroyed (NY Times)
From censusresearch.com:
Microfilm should not be unspooled with acid, razor, or open flame.
payroll records of "numerous service members," including former First Lt. Bush, had been ruined in 1996 and 1997 by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service during a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm. No back-up paper copies could be found, it added in notices dated June 25.
...Bryan Hubbard, a spokesman for Defense finance agency in Denver, said the destruction occurred as the office was trying to unspool 2,000-foot rolls of fragile microfilm. Mr. Hubbard said he did not know how many records were lost or why the loss had not been announced before.
From censusresearch.com:
There are 3 main types of microfilm: Silver Halide, Diazo, and Vesicular.
Silver microfilm has been designated as the preferred format for archival purposes. Though not as clear a film as diazo, its durability (75 - 100 years) has often made it the format of choice for research libraries.
Diazo film is a cost-effective alternative to Silver. With a higher contrast image, diazo copies made from Silver Masters, are often of better quality than the original. With a shelf life of about 40 to 50 years they offer good durability at a much lower cost.
Vesicular, a pale milky blue film, is easier for manufacturers to produce but its appearance generally leaves a negative first impression on customers. Surprisingly, it produces a relatively good image.
Microfilm should not be unspooled with acid, razor, or open flame.
Thursday, July 08, 2004
Went grocery shopping this morning. Cherries at $5.99/lb. Five ninety-nine -- a pound! People bitch and moan about a 2¢ rise in gas prices. This is a like a 500% rise in prices -- since last week! A bag of cherries will run you almost $20.
It's some kind of cherry conspiracy. Vote Kerry.
It's some kind of cherry conspiracy. Vote Kerry.
Monday, July 05, 2004
Saw Dodgeball this weekend. I was really looking forward to this for some reason and waved off Harry Potter, Spiderman 2, Farenheit 911 a second time, and De-Lovely for the chance to see it.
Lately it seems a lot of trailers highlight the lamest parts of a movie. I suppose it's a concession to the 13-17 year-olds who make up 80% of movie audiences. At the other extreme, there are those movies which exhaust all the best gags in the previews. The commercials for Dodgeball looked pretty funny. If this is the low-brow stuff, I thought, the rest of the film could be damned funny. Dodgeball is more than the sum of its trailer clips. But not much more.
I got the impression for the previews that this was a film about some alternate galaxy (not that far away and not that long ago) where dodgeball is a major professional sport. Rollerball meets Caddyshack. That was the best case scenario. But then I wasn't counting on a character who thought he was a pirate. We get a flashback of the lad aspiring to be a cheerleader at his Catholic high school eating fat girl muff in a tryout gone horribly and tastelessly awry. How about a short flashback of Steve the Pirate dressed up like the Real Slimy Shady catching his first glimpse of Johnny Depp as Pirate Keith Richards in a Pirates of the Carribbean movie poster outside his local movie house? Or riding Pirates of the Carribbean as a 6 year-old and popping a boner? Instead, he lunges at us, a hackneyed and inexplicable Fisher King.
I guess I should have taken the subtitle, "A True Underdog Story," more seriously. It turns out it's the same old bloated tale of a group of losers coming together to save the family farm from a mustache-twirling villain. Except in this case, the family farm is Average Joe's Gym (run by above-average slacker Vince Vaughn) and the villain (Ben Stiller, making us all feel the burn) doesn't twirl his mustache so much as jerk off with greasy slices of pizza. Now Arnold Schwarzeneggar playing White Goodman -- that would have been a fucking masterpiece!
Most of the jokes in the movie are so exhausted and fat, they're blowing before the scene's half-played. To learn the rules of dodgeball, our loveable squad of losers gets hold of an old educational film from the local high school. This is a gag that The Simpsons have turned into an art. But it's been worked to death there and the influence here is pretty obvious. Tone down the stereotypes and the cliches and this would a comedy for the ages. It would also be about 25 minutes long (a little longer than the average movie preview.)
What this movie needs is some more fucking dodgeball action. That was by far the funniest part of the film. Balls-in-your-face jokes get old real fast. There is something about seeing someone actually get smacked in the face with a red rubber ball that never does.
Lately it seems a lot of trailers highlight the lamest parts of a movie. I suppose it's a concession to the 13-17 year-olds who make up 80% of movie audiences. At the other extreme, there are those movies which exhaust all the best gags in the previews. The commercials for Dodgeball looked pretty funny. If this is the low-brow stuff, I thought, the rest of the film could be damned funny. Dodgeball is more than the sum of its trailer clips. But not much more.
I got the impression for the previews that this was a film about some alternate galaxy (not that far away and not that long ago) where dodgeball is a major professional sport. Rollerball meets Caddyshack. That was the best case scenario. But then I wasn't counting on a character who thought he was a pirate. We get a flashback of the lad aspiring to be a cheerleader at his Catholic high school eating fat girl muff in a tryout gone horribly and tastelessly awry. How about a short flashback of Steve the Pirate dressed up like the Real Slimy Shady catching his first glimpse of Johnny Depp as Pirate Keith Richards in a Pirates of the Carribbean movie poster outside his local movie house? Or riding Pirates of the Carribbean as a 6 year-old and popping a boner? Instead, he lunges at us, a hackneyed and inexplicable Fisher King.
I guess I should have taken the subtitle, "A True Underdog Story," more seriously. It turns out it's the same old bloated tale of a group of losers coming together to save the family farm from a mustache-twirling villain. Except in this case, the family farm is Average Joe's Gym (run by above-average slacker Vince Vaughn) and the villain (Ben Stiller, making us all feel the burn) doesn't twirl his mustache so much as jerk off with greasy slices of pizza. Now Arnold Schwarzeneggar playing White Goodman -- that would have been a fucking masterpiece!
Most of the jokes in the movie are so exhausted and fat, they're blowing before the scene's half-played. To learn the rules of dodgeball, our loveable squad of losers gets hold of an old educational film from the local high school. This is a gag that The Simpsons have turned into an art. But it's been worked to death there and the influence here is pretty obvious. Tone down the stereotypes and the cliches and this would a comedy for the ages. It would also be about 25 minutes long (a little longer than the average movie preview.)
What this movie needs is some more fucking dodgeball action. That was by far the funniest part of the film. Balls-in-your-face jokes get old real fast. There is something about seeing someone actually get smacked in the face with a red rubber ball that never does.
Sunday, July 04, 2004
Gov. Arnold 6
Tomohiro 5
'Dirty' talk results in an apology by Riordan
Woh, easy, Kahuna. The little girl was just looking for a little attention from her Book Daddy.
Richard Riordan, apparently still in campaign mode.
(No points for either side here. Unless Egyptian radicals seize our State Secretary of Education and cut his head off. That'd be a point for my side.)
Tomohiro 5
'Dirty' talk results in an apology by Riordan
State Education Secretary Richard Riordan has apologized for joking that a child's name meant "stupid dirty girl."
In a videotaped exchange at the city's central library on Thursday, a girl asked Riordan if he knew that her name meant "Egyptian goddess."
Riordan, who apparently believed he'd been asked what her name meant, replied, "It means stupid dirty girl."
Woh, easy, Kahuna. The little girl was just looking for a little attention from her Book Daddy.
Richard Riordan, apparently still in campaign mode.
(No points for either side here. Unless Egyptian radicals seize our State Secretary of Education and cut his head off. That'd be a point for my side.)
Thursday, July 01, 2004
I used to subscribe to The New Republic. Now I subscribe to Google news alerts about Debra Beasley Lafave. The world is going to hell in a handbasket and I'm going along for the ride.
On the other hand, I kinda like this Launchcast radio on Yahoo Messenger (though it just crapped out on me for some reason.) And now it's playing Matchbox 20. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
On the other hand, I kinda like this Launchcast radio on Yahoo Messenger (though it just crapped out on me for some reason.) And now it's playing Matchbox 20. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
