Going Black and White for November
AKA, farting around with Flickr and Instagram. A corridor between buildings where I work. The view from my room. Click the link to see more.
Category: This Modern Life
Why Chess Computers do Not Signal Skynet
An excerpted chapter from Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise is worth reading in its entirety. It deals with how Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in 1997: Deep Blue had won. Only, it had done so less with a bang than an anticlimactic whimper. Was Kasparov simply exhausted, exacerbating his problems by playing an opening… Read More Why Chess Computers do Not Signal Skynet
Dealing with Zombie Debt
Megan McArdle, illuminating a very real issue: Very old debts are very difficult to collect, because they disappear from credit reports after seven years, and after a state’s statute of limitation on debt collections expires, the collector can’t even sue. So these wily collectors either hope that the debtor feels bad about being a deadbeat… Read More Dealing with Zombie Debt
Mom Claims to be Breastfeeding Her 12-Year-Old Son on ThoughtCatalog, and the Internet Fails Another Satire Test.
Sometimes it’s hard to know when an idea is so crazy that someone advocating it is pulling your leg. I’ll admit it: when I read this paragraph… The fact of the matter is, if it weren’t natural, I wouldn’t still produce milk, and it wouldn’t feel good to breast feed my son. Because of the… Read More Mom Claims to be Breastfeeding Her 12-Year-Old Son on ThoughtCatalog, and the Internet Fails Another Satire Test.
I’m Surrounded by Women.
Which is to say, the dearth of posting at this blog will be entirely blamed on the arrival of my youngest daughter, who blessed us earlier this month. When normal blogging will resume, I cannot say. Babies are attention machines, and it’s summer.
Old Internet Article About the Metric System Nails it
Metric is useful for certain things, but Imperial is more human. Then I start to realize that for length there is a similar problem in the metric system, in that you can’t divide a meter continuously by 2 without getting fractions. In the English system, the rulers are divided by quarters and eighths and 16ths, but… Read More Old Internet Article About the Metric System Nails it
The “Dear Burrito Guy” Essay, and Why Irony Does not Translate
Over on Medium, a fellow referring to himself as “Lucky Shirt” (twitter handle, I’m assuming), just penned (it just sounds better than “typed”) an amusing rant about his poorly made burrito. View at Medium.com It’s funny in that over-the-top-rage way that the Internet loves to love; most of the joke is in how ridiculous it… Read More The “Dear Burrito Guy” Essay, and Why Irony Does not Translate
Buzzfeed Trolls Buzzfeed
Heh. The sads in the comment section makes it even better. I’m a bad person.
The Passing of a Dog
James Lileks says good-bye to his beloved Jasper, and as someone who still remembers fondly the dog of his youth (McGee, Bane of Moles, Scoffer at Chain-Link Fences), I was moved beyond the capacity to write anything useful in response. And what’s the point anyway? Everyone who’s had a dog understands; no one else could… Read More The Passing of a Dog
The 27 rules of suits.
Care of: The Best Article Every Day. Some of these, worth knowing.
Content Blues 