Trying to be quick - 16 January 2007

[silveradept]

I have class bright and early tomorrow, so I’m trying to get this in all before too late.

It got posted on my friends list, so how could I not have noticed. 16 January was Appreciate a Dragon Day. Cheesecake is a good way of doing so, actually. Or so I’m told.

It’s official - Barack Obama's going for the Presidency. This should not be a surprise to anyone. What would be a surprise is if he manages to survive the next year and get the nomination, since his primary opponents and potential Republican challengers are now going to be turning the dirt-digging machines up high.

A new way of looking at the U.S. - each state relabeled with a world country whose GDP it resembles closely. Interesting comparison possibilities, as well as the realization that the U.S. does wield economic clout - now all it needs to do is use it in responsible and world-assisting ways. Thanks to Trampoline Systems and it’s way of arranging and filing the e-mail, 200,000 of Enron's e-mail messages are available to search and browse. That might stand as an example of what not to do with your GDP clout. Selling military technology to governments that are hostile to you is probably not that great, either. What does look good, though, is opening up a "pay as you can afford" restaurant. College students would probably love the place. Of course, I’m not entirely sure they would remember it when they moved on to their lives, and send back some of their new salaries, but it would beat eating Ramen for six years.

According to EDGE, these are the top 100 most endangered species. Extinction happens naturally, through evolution, yes, but it’s disheartening to watch as humans accelerate the process through poor stewardship of the planet.

The latest victims of identity fraud, and possibly a fast-growing segment, are children. Get a name, an SSN, and do the damage while the child’s growing up - then when it comes time for college or for credit, oh, look, that number’s already in use and has had bad credit wreaked all over it. That’s pretty effective, but also pretty low. One would think that credit would check to make sure the identity is real with the appropriate government offices, but with the way “pre-screened” credit offers appear, I’m guessing there’s at least potentially pretty lax practice going on.

Texas considers putting repeat sex offenders to death. One more step toward re-instituting stoning for adultery, perhaps? Or many of the other bloody and barbaric penalties accorded for breaking the law of Tanakh? Considering Texas’s lineage of having elected G.W. Bush Governor, and then President, maybe this is some of his roots showing themselves off. If implemented, don’t look confused if the number of murders related to sexual crimes goes up.

In pretty stark contrast to what was said at the beginning of the as-yet-undeclared war in Iraq, the U.S. commander in Iraq says results won't be quickly coming.

Insert whatever “sucks” joke you like here. It’ll be a funny way of introducing The Vintage vacuum cleaner museum, which has a history and then galleries, and VacHunter's galleries as well.

Popular Science was a little bit off in predicting the future in 1945. They thought housing was going to become prefab stainless steel igloos. Instead, we got skyscrapers first, and then the prefab homes. Still, predicting the future is always a dicey sort of prospect. SanDisk is betting that people will want solid-state drives (no moving parts) rather than the current incarnation. If they can make ‘em big enough and cheap enough, I’d say they’re definitely on to something. On the other end of it, though I don't think an H3 with faux-wood paneling is going to catch on at all. James Randi is revising his stake in the future-prediction act - all challengers for his $1 million U.S. prize must first gain fame before approaching him. Additionally, he’s going to start calling out some of the most renowned psychics and espers to put their skills to his tests. If they refuse, he’s probably going to use that as his proof that they’re all charlatans, and either be ignored or actively attacked by the people who believe in the psychics. It’s a recipe for more tension, I think.

Reading faces can be just as hard - a robot that was too lifelike for some was deemed "too scary" to show children. Apparently, humaniform robots give too many people the heebie-jeebies for us to be seeing them any time soon.

A reminder to all of us writing papers: Know your comma placement. Eats, shoots, and leaves is fine when describing a panda on a rampage. But serial comma killing can create some interesting unintended consequences. When you must be clear, use as many commas as you need.

There are more women living unmarried than married, the New York Times reports. Which tells me nothing more than that women are able to live successful lives on their own - without the additional hassle of being social pariahs for not having a husband. Tennessee Guerilla Women seems quite pleased with this revelation. I’m okay with that. These days, marriage may be more about the tax breaks than anything. And the ceremony with the religious overtones, of course. From there, though, cohabitation seems to be the way things go nowadays, if boy and girl want to see each other and live together. Doesn’t hurt anyone’s chances, really - the people who were going to be independent will stay that way, and people who find independence nice will stay that way, too.

Anyway, since it’s that time again, I think I’ll head off to bed. G’night.

Comments

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Pre-fab houses for $670? Sha, riiiight. Ours cost $46k. Although the one my aunt and uncle had in Tennesee in 1954 I think cost them less than $500. I'd have to double check. I should ask Aunt Barb if i can scan in her brochures she saved. Of course, neither of those is/was an igloo. Hmmm. If those Igloos are only 11" high at the apex, you'd better be careful if we ever do start living in them! ( According to the blue print, the actual room is only 7'6" high. YIKES!)

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

the Million Dollar psychic prize is kind of an interesting challenge, though I wonder what they think about things like Tarot, I-ching, Runes, etc. I'm also not entirely sure that just because someone can do one psychic thing, they can do them all, so I'm not sure the tests would be accurate, unless they are designed for what that particular psychic claims to be able to do.

The robot is kind of scary looking - it just looks like a skull. They need to somehow give it a real face, i think. It sort of looks like Jason. or is it Freddie? Mike? I don't know, I don't watch those movies, but you know what I'm talking about, right?

...I grew up in Russia and live in the Netherlands? wha? And how is MI like Argentina?

A pay-what-you-can restaurant sounds pretty nice. I do wonder if the NPR show World Cafe has gone after One World Cafe though over the name.

[aoanla.livejournal.com]

Ahem. Marriage has historically generally been about the tax breaks and the legal gains (from inheritance, merging of family resources &c). The religious blessing isn't an integral part of it (and, of course, isn't necessary in most countries; conversely, some of the younger religions will bless non-marriage relationships as well), and the whole "marry before you have sex" thing is actually originally derived from the importance of ensuring hereditary for the child (hence the significance of mistresses vs wives in cultures where this is considered acceptable, and the varying stigma of bastards).
Now, the nature of society has generally been such that women have gained slightly more personal advantage than men from a marriage (inheritance and marrying into money and power nonwithstanding), but mistresses often gained as much from their positions (albeit with no legal recourse), and were generally loved more consistently (physically and emotionally!) into the bargain.


...sorry, point of annoyance with me, there.

[jokermage.livejournal.com]

As a regular reader of Randi's newsletter, I can tell you that the tests have to be mutually agreed on before the challenge can take place. The parties need to be able to remove the known explanations while accurately testing a specific claim. If the known explanations cannot be removed or the specific claim is not tested, then the test is meaningless. James Randi himself does not even get involved until the test parameters have been agreed to by both sides.

[silveradept]

Tarot and runes and that require subjective interpretation - what Randi wants to see is something that defies the laws of physics and chance to produce an otherwise unexplainable ESP/psychic phenomenon. He wants people who can talk to the dead, or shoot fireballs out of their fingertips. (Incidentally, the tester and Randi apparently agree on an acceptable test before it goes forward.)

It's a Terminator-type robot lookalike. Not that flesh would necessarily lessen the creep factor. Building in a blinking subroutine might help, though, if flesh were added. It would still creep people out, though, to see a head starting at them... possibly more so if it was blinking.

The map shows a country that the U.S. state's GDP is close to. So you grew up in a state whose GDP was about that of Russia's. Get it?

I doubt that NPR's done anything - I don't think they can, because the names are different enough that nobody should confuse one for the other in any sort of trademark dispute.

[silveradept]

Oh. Guess I bought into religious versions of history myself. Although, then the next question is "If it's been about taxes and inheritance all this time, then why so much grief about giving those benefits to everyone who wants to be married, at least in the civil sense?"

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

My inner linguist rages against the serial comma article.

It's ambiguous both ways, but I find the serial comma, otherwise known as the Oxford comma, to be just as offensive, if not moreso.

Sure, she cites: "We visited my parents, Mother Theresa and the Pope." but often you'll see "We visited my mom, Mother Theresa, and the Pope." Which is just as confusing (and actually can't be corrected by reversing order: "We visited Mother Theresa, my mom, and the Pope" is just as bad.)

So just pick one for your default unambiguous situation (I recommend not using the serial comma especially for short lists because it really disrupts the visual flow) and just be aware that some ambiguity may exist and correct accordingly. Or avoid these crazy situations by easily recasting the sentence: "In Hawaii, we saw the newlyweds, Jack and Diane" is much better as "We saw Jack and Diane, the newlyweds, in Hawaii". For the other case: "She went out with my sister, Mary, Janet, and their friends" can really only be rewritten without the Oxford comma for clarity. ("She went out with Mary, Janet, their friends, and my sister" has an entirely different meaning implying that the speaker's sister isn't a friend. "She went out with Mary, Janet, my sister, and their friends" is no less confusing than the first sentence.)

All told, just be careful.

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

Ooops, forgot "We saw Jack, Diane and the newlyweds, in Hawaii" as the other option for the first sentence, depending on meaning.

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

And I suppose the best case for the second sentence does also need an order shift:

"She went out with Mary, Janet, my sister and their friends"

[wanderingbhikkh.livejournal.com]

On the subject of marriage: Its existence in a good 90-95% of human societies documented by anthropology should say something. I'm not going to say what, I haven't a clue myself.

Even so, this is definitely a score for the wimminfolk. And the kind that doesn't necessarily involve verbal castration, which is always a plus. I wonder how many unmarried men there are out there, though?

I do know, though, that I always intended to marry. What's surprising about this is that my parents cohabit ever since my mother stopped believing in marriage, at her wedding.* It just seems ... appropriate. And, like John Lennon pointed out, he married Yoko because he wanted to. Plenty of people made statements by not marrying, but he didn't want to bother with statements.

I dunno, I just hope married folk don't start getting the brunt of it.

*I always thought THIS WAS A CLUE that perhaps the marriage to Tony wouldn't last...

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

What do you mean by "known explainations"?

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

"We saw Jack and Diane, the newlyweds, in Hawaii"

I'm going to assume that Jack and Diane are the newlyweds.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Fire out of their fingertips? eeek. but alright, so the tester has to agree to the terms, I guess that makes it a little better, but even so...I'm sort of skeptical of the psychics that perform "on command" as it were. I don't consider Tarot andthose things to having psychic powers, but there are some people that do, which is why I asked. I agree with you that it's all in how someone interprets the cards - and how well they know the person they're reading for. I get told I give "accurate" readings to my friends, but I bet if I do a reading for a stranger, it wouldn't be as accurate.

Are they going ot put the head on a body? that might lessen the creep factor, too.

Yes, now I get it. I think. GDP is how much a country is worth, right? So, are Russia and the Netherlands good countries to be?

*nods* Yeah, they're different, but that doesn't stop some people from still trying to sue over names.

[jokermage.livejournal.com]

Basically cheating, although some psychics don't realize it. Others do it on purpose.

Take bending spoons with your mind. This can be accomplished by either pre-bending the spoon before the demonstration to weaken it or by bending it by hand when no one is looking. A spoon bending test therefore has to eliminate those possibities.

There are other ways to fake being psychic. Just watch any stage magician or mentalist do similar tricks. Things that seem impossible can be fairly simple with the right understanding of psychology and the right equipment.

For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G18NfN76bAs

[aoanla.livejournal.com]

Because politicians buy into the religious version now, too. (Or rather, they know that people who vote for them do...)

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see what you mean.

I never really got the "Bending a spoon with your mind" thing to be honest.

[silveradept]

GDP is Gross Domestic Product. It's not how much the country is worth, but the worth of the goods and services the country produces. So that Texas's GDP is roughly the same as Canada's saying something about the economic power that Americans wield on command, basically. It's not making any value judgments about how good the country is to live in, but it is saying that each of the states of the United States can produce in goods and services, the amount of at least one other nation in the world.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's sort of frightening in a way, isn't it?

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

Indeed, the sentence with the other meaning would be "We saw Jack, Diane and the newlyweds in Hawaii".

[silveradept]

Frightening? Only the ways to which such economic power can be put.