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A Most Interesting Puzzle
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Aug. 6th, 2006 @ 10:08 pm
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This post gives the sets S(2) through S(15) for a puzzle I've posted here.
( If you ain't doing the puzzle, don't look below the cut. It's boring. )Mood: Eat Soup Ears: Fischerspooner - Never Win |
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A Moment for the Reader to Look at Events Outside This Journal
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Mar. 5th, 2006 @ 04:14 pm
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In case you missed it: Ennis/Whedon nerd fight.
Also, ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kotikokura pointed me to the Scientology Christmas Pageant. I wish I had known about this when it was playing in LA. I would have made the effort to go. I like their socks. Very Godspell.
Finally, I am guest-blogging over at Is There No Sin In It? as Phutatorius' Chestnut. If you care, add it to your RSS feed or whatever you geeks do. As sporadically as I usually do, however, I will probably continue to post here.
Mood: slippery when bored Ears: The Conet Project - Iran/Iraq Jamming Efficacy Testing recor |
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In Which the Author Almost Loses It
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Feb. 25th, 2006 @ 03:15 pm
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I just read Mark Halpern's The Trouble with the Turing Test. I'm just aghast at how off-the-mark Halpern is. He asks all the wrong questions, and makes all the wrong observations. He desperately wants to point out that the emperor is wearing no clothes, by lamely flinging the rhetoric of a critical thinker like a chimp flings poo. I am very disturbed by this article, since I was pointed here by Arts & Letters Daily. I hope this is not being taken seriously.
( more, angry inside )
Mood: grackle Ears: The Paperchase - AliverAlungAkidneyAthumb |
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Wherein the Author's Future Looks Bright
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Feb. 24th, 2006 @ 11:40 am
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Aries (March 21 - April 19):You will be overly sensitive this week. Small opportunities will present themselves as burdens to you. Also, stay indoors hiding in your bathroom all this month, there are unexplainable, giant gamma-ray explosions in your fucking zodiac sign!
Your Lucky Day is Wednesday Mood: bursty Ears: Xiu Xiu - Dr. Troll |
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Wherein a City Speaks
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Feb. 23rd, 2006 @ 12:07 am
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Overheard in Davis:
Girl: I know what you are saying, but just beacause you think he brags too much, doesn't mean that Beowulf is a jerk...
-- 3rd and A
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| » Wherein The Reader Finds Three Gentlemen of a Persuasion |
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Dear Misters Edward Droste, Owen Pallett, and Patrick Wolf,
Sirs, I am flattered by your attention. I find you each to be charming young men, deserving of the reciprocated love you have each tried to find from me. By now, you must have gathered that I am doomed and incapable of love. In light of this, it should be clear that I cannot marry any of you. The memory of the time we have spent together will always be with me.
PS: Please stop "forgetting" your violins at my place.
Feb. 21st, 2006 @ 08:19 pm
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| » Wherein The Author Contemplates Changing Research Directions |
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 Chris McManus of the University College London published a short article in Nature (v.259, Feb 5, 1976) entitled "Scrotal Asymmetry in Man and in Ancient Sculpture." I guess, in nature, the higher-testicle is the larger but, among statues, the lower hangin' nad is bigger. McManus was addressing the discrepancy. Some researchers are so lucky! MacManus just went around looking at balls for a year. Mind you, they were statues ... but statues' balls can be exciting (see my post on agalmatophilia). His article's table data is behind the cut.
I like the quote by Winckelmann to the right -- its as if he is trying to draw a connection between the eye and the testicle. Perhaps the left needs to be keener to spy the smaller right testicle? Makes sense to me: I will start calling my left eye my 'nad peeper.
I am reminded of sukitawdry's anecdote of a little-known survey of Egyptian cock size done by the famous Orientalist Sir Richard Francis Burton.
Oh, also: A White Bear sent me this ... (which doesn't say anything we don't already know).
( McManus' data )
Feb. 20th, 2006 @ 04:23 pm
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| » A Warning to the Reader, Which May One Day Save His or Her Life |
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Attention: Rogue PK Dick replicant has gone awol
Lets get Deckard on the case. The only redeeming feature is that the android PKD can be rooted out with something much less sophisticated than the Voight-Kampff machine: simply ask if he is human, and he responds no.
Feb. 20th, 2006 @ 12:08 am
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| » In Which the Fermi Paradox is Looming |
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This proposed experiment may just elevate string-theory from religion to science. In the Standard Model, the creation of a black hole is so prohibitively expensive that its infeasible in our modern particle accelerators. In the 10 or 11 dimensions of string theory, however, it might just be possible to produce a micro black hole at a facility like CERN's Large Hadronic Collider (LHC). The rapid deceleration (as two particles are smashed together) induces phase transitions in strongly interacting matter, similar to the ones that are believed to occur in the vicinity of a black hole. Here's an FAQ on the process.
( Should we be concerned? )
Recently, another way to find evidence supporting string theory was announced; it does not appear to threaten the globe with doomsday scenarios.
Feb. 16th, 2006 @ 01:46 pm
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| » Wherein is Contained a Provocatively Thick One |
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 Is pitch thick? The verdict is still not in, apparently, since the University of Queensland's 78 year-old pitch drop experiment is still running. Started in 1927 by Prof. Parnell, the experiment has yielded one big glob of pitch about every 10 years. The last drop was in Nov. of 2000. The picture to the right is from the '79 drop. The drop of pitch and the young lady (both pictured) were married within 4 months of the picture. The marriage ended in '88 when the '79 drop was crushed by the next drop of pitch. His widow has not remarried, but has found companionship through a long-distance relationship with 18 ounces of bauxite located in Perth.
The piece of paper shown in the picture represents the total record of the experimental data. Using average Brisbane temperature data, its estimated that this sample of pitch is about 100 billion times more viscous than water. The next drop will probably not come for a while: they recently began to air condition the hall where the experiment resides.
You can apparently watch it live. The last drop in '00 fell, unfortunately, during a hiccup in web-cam operation. Sounds fishy to me.
The maintainer of the experiment, Prof. Mainstone, recently won an Ig Nobel award for his work.
Feb. 14th, 2006 @ 10:19 pm
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| » In Which a Satirical Cult is Transformed into a Commodity for Children |
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Q: Are we not jail bait? A: We are Devo!
A new generation is putting on the power dome made popular by what I suppose we all must start referring to as Devo 1.0. Yes, its the new Disney-owned Devo 2.0! (Videos available at their official site). And here I thought we're all devo, but I guess some kids are more devo than others.
At first it may not look like more than a cover band, but they are -- they are a reincarnation of the original band, being directed and aided by Mark Mothersbaugh. With his help, 2.0 has given us the first new Devo song in 15 years: Cyclops. It remains to be seen, however, if Devo 2.0 will be more than just a band and pick up the torch to continue the pop-influenced, surreal, SubGenius-style religious cult also known as Devo.
( more )
Feb. 13th, 2006 @ 02:52 pm
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| » In Which a Cult Member is Stymied |
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The LaRouche Youth Movement has come to my campus. For those of you who don't know, it is basically an economics-based doomsday cult recruiting 18-25 year-olds around the country.
In front of my student union, I passed two LaRouchies singing an "Impeach Cheney" chant, acapella in a church choral style. Another approached me, selling copies of the EIR.LYM Member: Bush's invasion of Iraq is like masturbation -- it may feel good at first, but it benefits nobody!
Me: Are you saying LaRouche is anti-masturbation?
LYM Member: Um.... I walked away, pretending to look horrified. In retrospect, I think LaRouche might be anti-masturbation. Just look at how the LaRouchies had edited the "kills a kitten" wiki entry. Maybe he just has a problem with kitten killing? If so, you'd think he would go after Frist more often, instead of just Cheney.
For those of you interested in the LaRouchies but cannot decode their rhetoric, I have made a handy mostly-crazy to very-crazy translator:( more )
Feb. 8th, 2006 @ 11:29 pm
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| » In Which is Contained a Woman's Trouble of Great Interest |
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 Fetus-in-fetu (as you know or may have experienced, dear reader) is the situation in which one of two twin embryos forms a cord or stalk (pedicle) connecting it to its twin and then ceases to develop. It is classified as a tumor, but is differentiated from a teratoma in that is has a rudimentary spinal cord. There has been much confusion in the medical community about drawing the line between a terratoma and a fetus-in-fetu. Some argue that as long as several striking organizations exist that teratomas tend to lack, (ie metameric segmentation, craniocaudal and lateral differentiation, body coelom, "gestational sac"), the term may be applied. It appears to be a term of art.
( more )
Relatedly, happy birthday to kotikokura.
Feb. 3rd, 2006 @ 08:08 pm
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| » Wherein is Contained a Quote which Prompts the Author to Recall Times of Awkwardness |
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...Instead of learning how to dance, women learn how to respond to a man dancing by just barely moving out of his way. A random talking point here, supporting an argument on why women are more flexible in their ability to take direction in a classroom situation. I have no real issue with the claim -- it may be somewhat true, I don't know** -- but the supporting comment made wonder: Is this what girls learn from ballroom dancing?
( Do little girls even take dance classes anymore? )
Feb. 2nd, 2006 @ 02:44 pm
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| » In Which Author Just Doesn't Get It ... Any of It |
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Either hipsters are having kids, or the hype around Arcade Fire has just reached a bafflingly comic climax.
Nov. 17th, 2005 @ 10:24 pm
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| » In Which the Author Assumes that Uncle Miltie is Straight |
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SAT time...
Poll #611265
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: Alldrag queens : women, as
The first position is held by Chicago theater critic and journalist Kelly Kleiman [1 2]. The second position is held by many LGBTQ people I have talked to, such as the coordinators of my school's drag ball. Few have expressed the last opinion beyond "sure, drag is camp ... like collecting antique cookie jars and other gay crap."
I will try to do this last opinion more justice than the arbitrary labeling of things as camp. In understanding the drag queen as intentional high-camp, one will better understand my opinion of its (surprisingly weak) relationship to both female parody and performative gender-fuck.
( more... )
Nov. 12th, 2005 @ 11:09 pm
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| » Covering a Span of One Night, Namely All Hallow's Eve |
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If I could but make this pumpkin pregnant in defiance of all nature! Then at the culmination of its unnatural labor, I'd cut out its guts and make pie.
Oct. 31st, 2005 @ 11:22 pm
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