Re: [silk] Silklisters in Boston/Cambridge?

[Sean Doyle]

I've been in Boston for more than 25 years - it seems completely normal to
me. But yes -
a) Layers.
b) Pay attention to the weather forecasts for temperature. Predictions of
precipitation are often wrong but wind chill predictions are subjectively
accurate :-).
c) If you're going to drive a car - you might want to stay off the road
until you're used to driving on ice. Boston is very good at clearing roads
but a few years ago in a blizzard I was driving (taking someone to the
emergency room) but I'm an experienced driver in the snow... and I still
spun out. Luckily no one else was on the road and nothing was hit.
d) Try to get your apartment to be near your classes :-).
e) Complain about the weather - this raises your core temperature.

I really don't think it's bad at all but it's probably Stockholm Syndrome.


On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 4:25 PM, Thaths  wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 10:10 PM Chew Lin Kay 
> wrote:
>
> /delurks
>
> And excepting that, anyone has tips to help a tropical baby
> survive her first winter? (how is it snowing in March?!)
>
>
> The cold is just one part of the misery. The other is the dearth of
> daylight.
>
> I strongly recommend you get a couple of these Happy Lights:
>
> https://www.amazon.com/Verilux-HappyLight-Energy-Lamp-5000/dp/B002Q2H2JC
>
> Thaths
>

Re: [silk] Podcast recommendations?

[Sean Doyle]

I would echo
99% Invisible - very clever and humane take on design
BBC's In Our TIme. I usually enjoy the pieces on the humanities more than
the Science/Math ones - the latter tend to be too simplified.
Nature
Science
History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps
History of Philosophy in India (I'd be curious what people here think about
this - for me it's all new ground).

And - I'm still subscribed to the Bugle. Hopefully it will come back to
life. BTW - I had never heard of Andy Zalzman before he appeared on the
'Nature' podcast as a visiting scientist. That was hysterical.


On Tue, Aug 9, 2016 at 3:13 PM, Bruce A. Metcalf 
wrote:

> Greets,
>
> I should think that silklisters, especially the quizzers here, might enjoy
> the podcast of Futility Closet .
>
> I don't do podcasts for a variety of reasons, but I devour the FC blog,
> which has much the same spirit.
>
> Hope you enjoy.
>
> Cheers,
> / Bruce /
>
>

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Sean Doyle]

On Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 2:27 AM, Venkat Mangudi - Silk <
s...@venkatmangudi.com> wrote:

> We,  as in Indians,  love renaming stuff. Roads,  cities,  states, and just
> above everything else that may or may not belong to anyone in particular.
> Cologne is now Koln. How is this any different?
> On Sep 10, 2015 11:26 AM, "Ekta Bahl"  wrote:
>
> > No faculty shortage for a "course in corruption" in India.
>

When I visit Long Island (part of New York State) I'm always amused when I
see the road signs for "New Highway":
https://www.google.com/maps/place/New+Hwy,+Amityville,+NY+11701/@40.708254,-73.4014755,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e82b3ce1fb74e7:0x114871aa590cfd8c
I don't know the history - but "New Highway" has been around for a while.

Some times I think - wow - there's no corruption here because no one paid
for the highway to get named after themselves. Other days I think that this
was a mark of 'peak apathy'. But I am amazed that no one has stepped in to
give it a name.

[Unless - of course - it was named after someone named 'New'  :-)]


> >
> > On Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 9:17 AM, Udhay Shankar N 
> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > ​
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> http://www.deccanherald.com/content/500134/national-law-school-plans-offer.html
> > > ​
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
>

Re: [silk] Old book smell

[Sean Doyle]

On Sat, Jun 22, 2013 at 1:57 AM, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan 
chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Sat, Jun 22, 2013 at 11:26 AM, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 
  That was terrible. One more joke like that and I'm gonna  cry foal.
 
  You could do that till your voice is horse, and no one would care.
 I suggest we all stop making an ass of ourselves.

At the risk of returning this thread to the beginning and ruining it - I
think that Quixote is largely about the importance of making asses of
ourselves.

Re: [silk] Old book smell

[Sean Doyle]

I wouldn't recommend the 1922 Quixote; 1605 and 1615 were much better
years. If you can't find this vintage I'd suggest the 1939 Menard which had
some of the similar organics.




On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 6:01 AM, gabin kattukaran gkattuka...@gmail.comwrote:

 On 19 June 2013 14:05, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
  Trust you to make a hash of things.


 There's another thread going up in smoke.

 -gabin

 --

 They pay me to think... As long as I keep my mouth shut.

Re: [silk] Fwd: Wine tasting is bullshit. Here's why.

[Sean Doyle]

YOKO? You Only Know Once?


On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 1:29 PM, Ramakrishnan Sundaram r.sunda...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 On 29 May 2013 18:39, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

  The closest approximation to infinite threads (at least on silk) are
  pun cascades.
 

 Yoko. Here we go again.

 Ram

Re: [silk] Andy Deemer Does Bangalore Breakfast Joints

[Sean Doyle]

On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 8:31 AM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.comwrote:


 That's right, a thousand year old culinary tradition handed down from
 father to son, cultivator to cultivator, gourmand to gourmand, and wood
 fire to wood fire to deliver the best of the farm on to the plate needs
 help from an industrial manufacturing process designed for maximum shelf
 life and taste that polls well among eight year olds.


This is one area where the US is ahead of India. We removed biodegradable
materials from food long ago and now focus on packaging.  And we're now
working on the education system so that the eight year old mentality
persists into adulthood.

Re: [silk] Andy Deemer Does Bangalore Breakfast Joints

[Sean Doyle]

On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 8:44 AM, Ramakrishnan Sundaram r.sunda...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 On 29 January 2013 19:08, Sean Doyle sdo...@gmail.com wrote:

  materials from food long ago and now focus on packaging.  And we're now
  working on the education system so that the eight year old mentality
  persists into adulthood.
 

 Judging by your media and your Congress, surely you've perfected that? If
 not, I'm sure we can set up an exchange program with our media and pols.


I would welcome that. We're having a definite quality control problem here.
Fox has been aiming at a 3 year old mentality (mine! all mine!) but the
rest of the media isn't as coherent.  And.. to prevent too much thread
drift - our Congress could definitely use an upgrade. Remember - these are
the culinary daredevils that wanted to rename French Fries to Freedom
Fries. Nutella would be pretty radical in their book. Perhaps if we made
the food on Capitol Hill spicier all these people would leave and their
replacements would be more interesting.

Re: [silk] Andy Deemer Does Bangalore Breakfast Joints

[Sean Doyle]

On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 9:01 AM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.comwrote:

 On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 7:29 PM, Sean Doyle sdo...@gmail.com wrote:

  I would welcome that. We're having a definite quality control problem
 here.
  Fox has been aiming at a 3 year old mentality (mine! all mine!) but the
  rest of the media isn't as coherent.  And.. to prevent too much thread
  drift - our Congress could definitely use an upgrade. Remember - these
 are
  the culinary daredevils that wanted to rename French Fries to Freedom
  Fries. Nutella would be pretty radical in their book. Perhaps if we made
  the food on Capitol Hill spicier all these people would leave and their
  replacements would be more interesting.
 

 There's an old expression, 'Quando dio, vuole castigarci ci manda, quello
 che desideriamo.' When the Gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.


Hm. I wonder what prayers these Congressmen are the answer to?  Or
perhaps.. I have a vague memory of Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim - God does
extract retribution for evil.. he just has very bad aim.

Re: [silk] Two history podcasts to top them all

[Sean Doyle]

On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 9:49 PM, Ashwin Nanjappa ashwi...@outlook.comwrote:

  At today's Chennai silk list meetup the topic of history podcasts came
 up. I offered to post to silk list asking
  everyone for recommendations.
  1. What are two (history or other) podcasts that are the best in your
 opinion?

 My vote is for In Our Time:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Our_Time_(BBC_Radio_4)

 It is not specifically about history, but almost half the topics are
 related to history one way or the other. I have been a regular listener of
 IoT for many years now. I love the discussion format and Bragg's
 jolly demeanor.

I agree. Bragg is often surprised at what his guests say (e.g., that Malory
of Le Morte Darthur was a thug) - he obviously prepares for his podcast
but he doesn't try to script/control his guests too much (except in in the
interest of time). The variety of topics is wonderful. I wish that the
science/math ones went deeper but almost all of the presentations on
history or literature are new to me.

I'm also fond of 99 Percent Invisible:
http://99percentinvisible.org/
It's an interesting mix of design and history.

Re: [silk] English expressions that irritate me

[Sean Doyle]

On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 12:19 PM, John Sundman j...@wetmachine.com wrote:

 If we're going to really work on this compilation, I think we need to
 think outside the box and push the envelope.

Don't push too hard - we might jump the shark.

Re: [silk] Diversity and trust

[Sean Doyle]

On Sat, Feb 25, 2012 at 9:58 PM, John Sundman j...@wetmachine.com wrote:

 What's odd, depressing, and curiously interesting to me is that although
 there are people in this country from all over the globe, Americans with
 virtually every genetic marker borne by humans on earth, the race
 question in the USA pretty much still revolves around black and
 white'; that is, European and African. Really, it's as if people who came
 from (or whose ancestors came from) India, North America, China, Japan,
 Viet Nam, Laos, Mexico, Peru, Indonesia, etc, etc, etc don't even exist
 when the subject of Race in America comes up.


Yes - I see the same thing.

I'm a standard-issue caucasian  American (4 generations ago all of my
ancestors came from County Cork, Ireland). My daughter is Chinese. When she
was 5 we read to her the story of Rosa Parks and how she refused to give up
her seat and move to the back of the bus. My daughter's question: if she
was there - where on the bus could she sit? She's neither black nor white.

We didn't know so we asked her kindergarten teacher (who is
Chinese-American). Her teacher didn't know so she called up her father in
New York. He said that no one knew - which made it too dangerous for the
Chinese in the US to travel outside of major cities. Some people would
classify you as white and others as black and all would treat you horribly
if you didn't behave according to the role that they had assigned to you.
So he just stayed in NYC for the 1950s.

It's amazing (and depressing) that these rules existed (and still exist in
mutated forms) but they are so undefined (well.. they are defined
retroactively when transgressed). What a mess.

Re: [silk] Plus by Google

[Sean Doyle]

Nishant -

Please add me if you can. Thanks.

sdo...@gmail.com

Sean

On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 10:45 PM, Nishant Shah itsnish...@gmail.com wrote:



 On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 12:41 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:



 I'm in, but I don't seem to have the ability to invite people. Tried a
 couple of different ways and hasn't worked yet.

 Udhay,
 The trick is to find the people you want to add using their gmail address,
 into one of the groups. Once you add them, it seems to give the option of
 inviting them.

 See if that works.

 Cheers
 Nishant
 --
 Nishant Shah
 Director (Research), Centre for Internet and Society,( www.cis-india.org )
 Asia Awards Fellow, 2008-09
 # 00-91-9740074884
 http://www.facebook.com/nishant.shah
 http://cis-india.academia.edu/NishantShah

Re: [silk] (no subject)

[Sean Doyle]

Surely the null hypothesis has to be better specified than that...

Re: [silk] Is Sitting a Lethal Activity?

[Sean Doyle]

On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 11:45 AM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote:


 Oh, and for some reason people are down on this
 whole euthanasia thing. Beats me.

 When I was in 4th grade I was late for a class in upstate NY .. it
consisted of the health teacher explaining why 'youth in asia' was evil and
against God's plan. I think it was another year before I figured out that I
had misunderstood her rant. I already had decided she was crazy.

Re: [silk] Silk, the interactive edition

[Sean Doyle]

On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 3:44 AM, Charles Haynes hay...@edgeplay.org wrote:

 apologies for using a top posting phone client

 [Kids today! They do (thing I disapprove of) much more than when *I* was a
 child! I wonder if it is due to lack of parental discipline?]

 Translation of previously untranslatable Harappan enscriptions.

What a coincidence! That's what SETI announced today as the most common
message in the universe. It's a common pattern in the cosmic microwave
background radiation from the big bang.

Re: [silk] Close the Washington Monument

[Sean Doyle]

On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 12:45 AM, Calvin cjwl...@yahoo.com wrote:
 A more poignant reminder would be to body search everyone who enters the
 building, Congressmen included.
I suspect that most Congressmen are exhibitionists - so this might
actually be an incentive for them :-).

Re: [silk] Close the Washington Monument

[Sean Doyle]

This is a good idea but doesn't really go far enough. They need to recover
the outside of the monument in some reflective material so they can project
ads on the side. After a generation people will think of this as large HD TV
and will lose its iconic status. It can then be safely moved to Disneyland
for exhibits about freedom.



On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 4:24 AM, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com wrote:

 http://bit.ly/gx7cDA

 An empty Washington Monument would serve as a constant reminder to
 those on Capitol Hill that they are afraid of the terrorists and what
 they could do. They're afraid that by speaking honestly about the
 impossibility of attaining absolute security or the inevitability of
 terrorism -- or that some American ideals are worth maintaining even
 in the face of adversity -- they will be branded as soft on terror.
 And they're afraid that Americans would vote them out of office if
 another attack occurred. Perhaps they're right, but what has happened
 to leaders who aren't afraid? What has happened to the only thing we
 have to fear is fear itself?
 An empty Washington Monument would symbolize our lawmakers' inability
 to take that kind of stand -- and their inability to truly lead.

 [...]

Re: [silk] What's the strangest thing you've eaten?

[Sean Doyle]

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 12:05 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
 I think we had a similar thread lo, these many years ago, but still.

 Inspired by a friend's status message about lutefisk, I ask silklisters
 to let us know what is the strangest thing they've eaten.

In Kangding I was treated to a hotpot restaurant by some of my wife's
colleagues and it was delicious. I remember feeling a big queasy about
duck intestine and yak stomach but when I ate it all I could feel was
the unusual texture and the kick of the red, red (did I mention red?)
spicy sichuan sauce it was in.

The most surreal part was being asked if I had eaten stomach before; I
said I had - I had recently eaten haggis. I was asked to describe it..
and when I did they looked visibly ill and said That's disgusting!

Re: [silk] What's the strangest thing you've eaten?

[Sean Doyle]

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 10:40 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
sur...@hserus.net wrote:
 Sean Doyle [23/11/10 22:02 -0500]:


 You made a chinese guy look ill? That's a first.

The folks in Kangding were ethnically TIbetan; in my experience they
have very different eating habits than Han. For example - if we have
Chinese visitors here in Boston they often want to eat at a Chinese
restaurant (and they will be very picky) but Tibetans want to try
everything (ribs joints, mexican food, .. ) just to try something
different.

But I don't think it's hard to make a Han Chinese queasy. When I was
taking Sunday Mandarin classes the school would have potluck dinners
and I would make recipes from Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty
sichuan cookbook. I would get complements from other caucasian parents
but rarely could I get any of the instructors to even try what I had
made because the texture would be 'wrong'. I'm sure that I hadn't cut
the vegetables correctly or the wok I used couldn't get to a high
enough temperature (I have an electric stove) so I cooked for longer
than was specified in the recipe.  Trying to get feedback was
comically impossible. I don't think they were being difficult - I
think it was a real visceral reaction to food that was fresh from the
uncanny valley :-).

Re: [silk] ELIZA? That's my great-grandma...

[Sean Doyle]

On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 9:35 AM, Deepa Mohan mohande...@gmail.com wrote:



   And I agree with all those comments down below, which point out what's
 wrong with the chatbot way of handling criticism, denial and negation.

Agreed. I worry this will set off an arms race - the people that fund GW
deniers will now fund an army of chatbots. I'm sure there's an twitter
version of Gresham's law - any sane comments or discussion will get
overwhelmed by the bots.

Sent from my bot's iPad

Re: [silk] ELIZA? That's my great-grandma...

[Sean Doyle]

On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 10:43 AM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

 On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 9:05 PM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote:

  Warming? Is for the birds. Will at most kill a billion.

 What. An. Awesome. Quote.


I think Eugen is being too optimistic.  We're already probably fried because
we're paralyzed by idiots and the people that hire them (who may be idiots
themselves). But in addition to the normal human idiocy we have active noise
generators (like Fox news) that broadcast misleading information with such
frequency that it becomes the standard wisdom.

Permitting the bots in the loop basically cuts off one of the possible
avenues of feedback on the internet.. which is the only communication
mechanism I see that isn't completely dominated by corporate 'free speech'.

But how likely are we do use this feedback when we've not acted on it for
decades? Probably not very.




 --
 ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] Kindle your children?

[Sean Doyle]

On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 5:00 AM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote:

 On Mon, Nov 01, 2010 at 10:34:38AM +0530, Venkatesh Hariharan wrote:
  On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 12:34 AM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote:
 
   And don't try reading a 100+ MByte color PDF or DJVU on a Kindle.
   Nevermind that a DIY library will be most likely have a web interface,
   with WLAN or 3/4G access.
  
 
  Reading PDFs on the basic Kindle is not a great experience. I found that

 What I meant that these are scans of large books, typically with
 color illustrations. I do not think Kindle can even render these at
 all. DJVU Kindle cannot render at all, IIRC.

My eight year old often reads to me at night from my iPad. We download books
from Amazon to the Kindle app (the iBooks store has a much smaller selection
of books). She loves it.

I think that the screen is pleasant to read but I think the main attractions
for her are:
a) It's novel.
b) It makes her feel like an adult to be reading from the iPad.
c) There are a lot of choices for what to read.

We also get books from the local library so she has a mix of real and ebook
reading experiences. It's also good for her to see the choices that you are
presented from entering searches vs. walking down a library aisle and seeing
what books are clustered near the one you were looking for.

The pictures on the iPad are just fine for the books she has been reading.
 We look at color PDFs in iBooks or the Goodreader app (I started using
Goodreader before iBooks became available and I like it).

From a father's point of view - if I'm trying to get her to read out loud to
me she is much more enthusiastic using the iPad for reasons (a) and (b)
above. I expect this to wear off over time.

I haven't used the real Kindle for more than a minute or two so I can't
comment on eyestrain. I've been happy with the iPad - I tested it as an
e-reader by reading the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (I hadn't read any
of these before - I guess I shouldn't admit this on this list) and it was a
wonderful immersive novel-reading experience.

The main argument I've heard from people who own both an iPad and a Kindle
is that the Kindle is preferable as an e-reader on the NYC subway. You can
read with one hand as you're holding onto the strap or pole.



 --
 Eugen* Leitl a href=http://leitl.org;leitl/a http://leitl.org
 __
 ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org
 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A  7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

Re: [silk] test

[Sean Doyle]

On Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 1:19 AM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

Beep
This is a test of the emergency silk system. This is only a test. Had this
been a real message you would have been advised not to top post in this
thread and to await further threads.You have been listening to the
emergency silk system.


 --
 ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] test

[Sean Doyle]

On Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 11:29 AM, Deepa Mohan mohande...@gmail.com wrote:



 How much lower can this go?

I believe that's up to Udhay. He has to tell us when we've passed or failed
the test.

Re: [silk] Parenting rewires dads as well

[Sean Doyle]

On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 11:07 PM, ss cybers...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Wednesday 18 Aug 2010 1:45:26 pm Deepa Mohan wrote:
  I have a question...why does this rewiring not work (it obviously
 doesn't)
  when the father does not accept responsibility for the child? Does the
  re-wiring only occur if the father is willing to acknowledge the child
 as
  his?...which would mean that the re-wiring only happens if the father is
  consciously willing to let it happen.
 

 You are probably right here. A cuckolded father, or the father of an
 adpoted
 child is likely to have those changes for that reason.

Speaking anecdotally as the happily rewired father of an adopted child.. I
think it's all about conscious attention.

I'm sure it's true that any sustained activity will rewire the brain. But
activity that requires you to pay close attention (is the crying caused by
sleepiness? gas? fear? Why is it different than the one the day before?...)
probably jolts more neurons.  Also - like torture in stress positions.. I'm
sure that neurons are more malleable when deprived of sleep (wonder when
they will publish the results of Guantanamo? :-) ) .

I'm not sure about the role of hormones here. My daughter was one year old
when she was adopted and was very fearful of my appearance (she's from
China; I may have been the first caucasian bearded male she ever met). She
would only look at me in the bathroom mirror of the hotel.. otherwise she
would turn her head away. When I held her closely she would attack (mostly
the eyes).  But I think the initial feeling of bonding was there after a few
days; within two weeks we were very close. it would be interesting to know
how quickly the rewiring occurred (did is precede or follow the feelings?)

Even though I had accepted the responsibility for caring for my daughter
before I met her - I think it's safe to say that I felt completely
unprepared during that first meeting. So if there is a role in rewiring for
the simple fear of discovering that you don't have the slightest idea what
you're doing .. I'd believe it.

Re: [silk] Ten toughest books to read

[Sean Doyle]

On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 12:34 PM, Radhika, Y. radhik...@gmail.com wrote:
 I never liked Ayn Rand - always felt like she was a drill sergeant insisting
 on her way...and all that aggrandizement of architects - utter rubbish.

Yes - I couldn't stomach the characters and the tone. It's been a
while since I touched this (30 years?).

Another book I had trouble with (finished only about 1/4 of it -
unusual for me) this last year was Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I
took a strong dislike to all the characters - I suspect it was class
prejudice on my part. I know this is unjust and cranky - the writing
was great - but I was hoping that all the characters would move on and
more interesting ones would move into the neighborhood.

As I write this I think I must be channelling my mother. When I was a
kid watching Star Trek she used to make fun of their whole world: You
mean - in the future no one has a real job and they fly around in
spaceships all day wearing pajamas?.  Although I'm sure Austen's
characters weren't wearing pajamas I do wish that with their
compassion and intelligence that they found something better to do
with their time.

Re: [silk] Another kind of handwave

[Sean Doyle]

On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 5:10 AM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=with-a-wave-of-the-hand

 With a wave of the hand
 How using gestures can make you smarter


Nietzsche claimed that you should only trust thoughts that you had while
walking .. he might find this article too hand-centric :-).

It makes sense (to me) that gesture would shape thoughts as well as being a
social signal. Of course - after reading this article I might make more
expressive gestures so that I appear to be thinking deeply.

Re: [silk] Casual Hellos and Food

[Sean Doyle]

On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 12:09 AM, Udhay Shankar N [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Jeremy Bornstein wrote, [on 9/1/2008 10:24 PM]:

  I was told once that the now common (in the USA anyway) How are you?
 was a shortened form of How are your bowels?


 Apparently, a not-uncommon greeting in Texas(s) is Shit Howdy.


Ah, Texas. Different culture. :-)

Re: [silk] VW to launch beetle in India next year

[Sean Doyle]

The main problems I've had with it (and there were a few) are electrical. It
handles very well - I think it's fun to drive.
I've also been in two traffic accidents with it and the other cars had much
worse damage than mine. I'll admit (Massachusetts driving story) that both
times it was my fault - I was stopped at a stoplight and everyone knows that
in Massachusetts that can be fatal. In one of the accidents I was hit from
behind and then I hit the car in front of me. I had some pretty bad
scratches on my back bumper and a headlight popped out (which I popped back
in) but the car in the back lost its bumper and the hood was crumpled. So -
it's a sturdy beast.

Gas mileage could be better - it's only ~ 27 mpg. In general I'm happy with
it.

On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 12:55 AM, Thaths [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 10:23 AM, Sean Doyle [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  Otherwise - a nice car.

 The new Beetle? A nice car?! While it looks great - an excellent
 offspring of an illustrious parent - inside and out, I've heard awful
 horror stories about maintenance woes and frequent breakdowns.

 Thaths
 --
 I saw this in a movie about a bus that had to SPEED around a city, keeping
  its SPEED over fifty, and if its SPEED dropped, it would explode. I think
  it was called, 'The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down'. -- Homer J. Simpson

Re: [silk] VW to launch beetle in India next year

[Sean Doyle]

Remember to stock up on the directional lights and headlights - they have to
be changed often (at least my experience with a 2000 Beetle). The first year
I had to replace at least one directional bulb a month; I still have to
replace the headlight bulbs every 6 months or so.
Otherwise - a nice car.

On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 11:05 AM, Madhu Menon [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:

 http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?tp=onautono=44835

 Sigh, might have waited for next year rather than buying my Estilo now.


 It's going to be priced well above your Estilo, so I wouldn't worry too
 much.


 --
*   
 Madhu Menon
 Shiok Far-eastern Cuisine
 Indiranagar, Bangalore
 Visit us @ http://www.shiokfood.com
 Shiok on Facebook:
 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bangalore-India/Shiok/7498426855

Re: [silk] VW to launch beetle in India next year

[Sean Doyle]

On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 9:00 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
[EMAIL PROTECTED]wrote:

 Sean Doyle [18/08/08 13:23 -0400]:

 Remember to stock up on the directional lights and headlights - they have
 to
 be changed often (at least my experience with a 2000 Beetle). The first
 year
 I had to replace at least one directional bulb a month; I still have to
 replace the headlight bulbs every 6 months or so.
 Otherwise - a nice car.


 Nah, unfortunately, I bought myself a suzuki estilo (tiny little hatchback,
 in hot pink no less.. what www.zenestilo.com says is fusion purple - blame
 my 3 year old daughter for that if you will)


Nice color - thanks. My 5 year old daughter would like it - she gets upset
when I talk about repainting the car as a scarab beetle and would rather it
be pink.



srs

Re: [silk] What a cool name...

[Sean Doyle]

Agreed - I put this name into our product's test suite as soon as I saw it
;-)

2008/8/16 Venkat Mangudi [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 http://xkcd.com/327/

 -V

Re: [silk] Disadvantages of an Elite education

[Sean Doyle]

A number of years ago a co-op student from Germany came into my office and
said that he had just become an American citizen. I was very surprised - I
told him I had no idea he was applying.

His response - no - I'm not legally an American - but this weekend I became
a cultural American. How could he do that? He said that he had eaten food
while driving his car.

Everyone in the office treated him like an 'American' after that.

On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 10:36 AM, Perry E. Metzger [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:


 Deepa Mohan [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
  I think my tambram daughter married an American because, having taken

 Careful on terminology here. Remember, American to most of us over
 here in the US is a citizenship, not an ethnicity, religion, descent
 group, etc.


 Perry

Re: [silk] Wikipedia

[Sean Doyle]

It's not just a reference - it's delicious (via Boing Boing)

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/03/beijing-restaurant-s.html

Of course - the wikipedia has to be freshly edited or it tastes stale.

On Dec 4, 2007 7:28 AM, Udhay Shankar N [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Casey O'Donnell wrote: [ on 06:24 PM 11/1/2007 ]

   Good question. I just have this vague unease that it's becoming a _de
   facto_ reference, and wanted to spend some cycles in clarifying my own
   misgivings about it.

 snip


 1.) That other people have linked to Wikipedia based on what I'm
 searching for.
 2.) Google is encouraging people with generic searches like the above
 to go there.
 
 I think either is interesting. I wouldn't say it is bad, but I do
 think I understand Udhay's unease.

 Dirty Laundry coming out (via Eugen)

 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/04/wikipedia_secret_mailing/

 Udhay

 --
 ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] trust

[Sean Doyle]

On 10/13/06, Kragen Javier Sitaker [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Many churches in the US have gorgeous stained-glass windows which arenow encased between sheets of cloudy, yellowed plexiglas to protectfrom thrown stones.In the Northeast (where I live) most of the plexiglas covering stained glass windows is to keep in heat during the winter. So - there might be more than one explanation for this.
Everything else - agree. Other examples?Not sure about this - but when I go to malls it seems that they try to keep everything as open as possible. There might be some security device at the door that you walk through - but they try to keep the lines of sight as open as possible so you don't feel spied on. But when they close the doors on individual stores there is often a hidden grate or something that pops up and looks like you're in a terrible neighborhood. Which one is the real picture of security?
When I was in Sichuan this summer the only places I saw that had large amounts of broken glass on top of concrete walls were monestaries. These were in very rural areas. 

Re: [silk] Dzongkhalinux: made in Bhutan

[Sean Doyle]

Thanks. That makes much more sense than the other pages I had seen.On 6/12/06, Biella Coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:Sean Doyle wrote: Why are they building on top of Fedora Core 2? This seems very old.
I think they are building on Debian:http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/06/msg1.html:During that time period, the Department of Information Technology
(DIT) has been able to build a complete system with complete supportfor the Dzongkha language. The system is based on Linux and morespecifically on Debian. It consists of one CD which can be eitherinstalled or used as a live CD (the installation system is using
Morphix, not D-I which was not ready at that moment).This email, written by a Debian developer who went there, provides apretty good overview of the project.

Re: [silk] Dzongkhalinux: made in Bhutan

[Sean Doyle]

Why are they building on top of Fedora Core 2? This seems very old.I'm not asking to be snarky - I've only been to Bhutan once and know no Dzongkha (yet). This is very cool - I remember people being much more interested in Microsoft than Linux last Summer and a lot of it had to do with the support for Dzongkha fonts and integration into the OS. 
On 6/11/06, Venkatesh Hariharan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
In 6/10/06, Thaths [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Rishab, comments? Thaths http://www.dit.gov.bt/newsdetail.php?newsId=44
 3 June 2006 - While the promise of integrating the Dzongkha Unicode system, developed since 1998 at a cost of US$ 523,000, in Microsoft Vista may be out of the window locals have come up with a much cheaper
 but more advanced software for Dzongkha computing. Called Dzongkhalinux , the software enables to chat, write emails, surf Internet, play music or video, in Dzongkha.Karunakar, who is the project lead for 
IndLinux.org (www.indlinux.org)had gone to Bhutan and spent a couple of months there to help themlocalize Linux and other open source software to the Dzhongkalanguage. If I remember right, he has also been to Nepal and Iran to
share his expertise in localization.Venky

Re: [silk] Nikon d70s

[Sean Doyle]

When I first posted to this thread I think I missed the main point of why I love this camera.In high school I did a lot of photography (had a simple SLR, simple darkroom, lots of time..) - but I graduated in 1978. Over time I devolved to using just point and shoot cameras (first film, then digital) and was never satisfied with the results. The D70 is the first camera I've had since high school that I can *play* with. It's _fun_. 
First - you can take lots of pictures very fast with low latency. Second - there isn't (until you fill up the buffer - maybe 10 pictures) any lag when taking the pictures. Third - the default zoom lens that comes with the camera is very useful. Fourth - while it's a very powerful camera the default settings work pretty well.
I'm spending a lot more time thinking about what picture I want to take and experimenting with ideas on what might or might not work. When things don't work I usually can see why and I have new ideas on what to try next. So - it's an excellent tool  self-teaching device. 
Today's mission - a pond near my daughter's daycare has geese and yesterday 7 goslings hatched (my daughter claims that the mother's name is Candy Hot  Sour Soup and the father's name is Tree Branch) and we'll take some family pictures. I need practice taking bird pictures and these are 'sitting ducks'. :-)
On 5/2/06, Pavithra Sankaran [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: - I had an occasional image quality problem that I didn't understand - a black shadow...you took the hood off -no problem.
I should add (to my earlier post about the D70) thatif you use a wide angle lens (including the standard18-70 lens available with the D70 body), you shouldget appropriate filters for it. Else, you are likely
to (read definitely will) see vignetting along theedges of the image.P.__Do You Yahoo!?Tired of spam?Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

Re: [silk] The Economics Of Prostitution

[Sean Doyle]

This makes complete sense - - if everything in the world is explained by supply and demand, and- if human decision-making is the same for all decisions- you don't have an economic side of the brain and a non-economic side
then this work is a real contribution. But I have my doubts :-)It's like Gary Becker's theories on the rationality of committing suicide - when your net present discounted value of future experiences is less than zero it's the only rational thing to do. But - what if rationality is overrated here?
I'm a child of the enlightment - but I don't think it's a sin to float the idea that the brain's hardware doesn't necessarily produce rational outcomes. I'm not suggesting any spooky spirit mechanisms - I'm sort of a Darwinian and think that the brain was optimized for survival. There's certainly overlap in the skills you need to survive and the skills you need to be a rational economic actor but they are not the same.
In some ways I have no doubt that everything *could* be described by supply/demand/rationality/optimization - but to translate the human experience into this limited vocabulary requires some subtlety and skill. And then it's only a model. The model may have its uses but it will have limits too. 
My obnoxious take on this sort of thing is that the language of economics provides an alternative way to describe human behavior that gives the illusion of understanding and power. There is *some* understanding there and you can get some limited predictive power for some domains. But knowing the limits of the model is key and I haven't seen much work there (there's the Tverskey and Kahneman tradition - which I liked when I read it many years ago - but from what I've seen they are looking at cognitive limits on what most can agree is 'economic' behavior) What we need here is what distortions happen when you are looking at cognition that involves a lot of personal history, shame, physical excitement, hopes for the future, etc. 
As a joke it's like the Godel jotd from the other day - but the problem here is that it's hard to model the system when you're inside of it. Economics fixes that problem by pretending that you're on the outside looking in. And then they forget to laugh at the joke.
On 3/10/06, Biju Chacko [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
http://tinyurl.com/rn7x7The Economics Of ProstitutionMichael Noer, 02.14.06, 12:00 PM ETWife or whore?The choice is that simple. At least according to economists Lena
Edlund and Evelyn Korn, it is.The two well-respected economists created a minor stir in academiccircles a few years back when they published A Theory ofProstitution in the Journal of Political Economy. The paper was
remarkable not only for being accepted by a major journal but alsobecause it considered wives and whores as economic goods that can besubstituted for each other. Men buy, women sell.