The deteriorating simulation feeling now very strong

I think about great computer scientists like Knuth, E. W. ("Lenny") Dijkstra, whoever used to typeset the hexadecimal columns in Run magazines. Now look around.

Physiognomy one thing, phrenology another.

I've spent the whole day grading. If someone could invent a miracle technology that could automate both the sorting and feedback aspects of this arduous process, they might not get rich but would have the admiration and respect of teachers everywhere!

Especially if you are old enough to remember reading it at the time, what now is your opinion of the NYT's Whitewater coverage?

What we call entropy, a famously confusing concept, was originally described (in German) as "rearranging the table of contents," (Verwandlungsinhalt) which is much more intuitive.

A potential "sleeping beauty" here, in terms of citation potential:

I heard a rumor that the current (U. S.) president used to love Lingua Franca and the Chronicle forums, which explains some of the attention being paid to higher education now.

I sometimes wonder if a certain author worried that the bane of Thulsa Doom, visited upon his namesake, would return for him.

We use a type of personnel management system called this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corners..., and I don't think anyone gets my Infocom jokes about it, which is very much what I deserve.

tiger:elephant::giraffe:?, which I assume was the question, is kind of hard? An outlier from Miller Analogies, I must assume. (Acacia?, but do tigers eat elephants)

Paul Meehl: "So far as I know from extensive reading in biography and history of science, _not one major theoretical contribution was the work of a committee_." True? Very likely. Implications? There are none, how dare you.

I collect inspirational footnotes and share them from time to time:

Perhaps it is not as understudied or unremarked as I imagine, but psychometrician types who become convinced of their own extraordinary ability through high performance on tests they design are worthy of sustained reflection of the "but for the grace" type.

Help me summarize my key wins this quarter!

Got a little confused by the news, so I was looking up "plato tattoo," and it turns out there are several philosophical commentaries on the ethics and aesthetics of bodily adornment footnoting that doughty (not doughy, despite his name) figure.

Reading a book with my good Dutch, Letters from an Earthapple Eater.

Putting The Conchologist's First Book (1839) as an id item on exam.

For certain basic researches in literary science, I'm currently reading through every JSTOR entry for "marie roget" OR "marie rogêt" (trust but verify), and I came across "The Symbol of the Archaic" again, which I had to re-read, even though it's a cursory reference. It's just that damn good.

Ooh, a minor update to biblatex-swiss-legal!

I enjoy Slow Horses, but I'd like it even more if it were a pure office comedy, perhaps with a subtle bit of The Prisoner ‘vibe.’

I remember a long, fan-fiction style excursus on the subjects of rationalism, AI dangers, consciousness-uploading, Russian cosmism, the computer, and such topics called "The Canons of Joffrey." I can't find it anywhere.

Just typed my favorite publishers' location: Yonkers-on-Hudson. What, you're going to omit this? That's how you want to live?

A chuck roast I tend to buy at Costco has increased in price by about 5/3s over the last month or so. I just saw another post wondering about levels of media coverage of this sort of thing between now and a couple of years ago.

There's a haunted particle accelerator on the edge of campus, rumored to be brimming with interdimensional rifts.

Haven't read the opinion yet, but I suspect it's reminiscent of one of Judge Crease's later efforts.

Recently finished a good book whose secondary argument was that cognitive science (Chomskyan/Fodorian variety) had no influence on literary theory. But: it did. The issue is that these efforts were not part of the author's training or sphere of interest. What you read is all there is.

Reading Shanks's Rectification of the Circle to 607 Places

Mr. Moore and I to Paul’s school, to wait upon Mr. Crumlum (Mr. Moore having a hopeful lad, a kinsman of his, there at school), who we take very luckily.

Bad polyphenism: "when the water level is low and desiccation is imminent, the tadpoles develop a morphology (wide mouth, strong jaw) that permits them to cannibalize. Cannibalistic tadpoles receive better nutrition and thus metamorphose more quickly, avoiding death as the pond dries up.[8]"

So Paracelsus 'invented' laudanum: "It was early suspected that opium was the real agent of the cures which Paracelsus professed to have effected by this costly means; hence the name was applied to certain opiate preparations which were sold as identical with his famous remedy" (OED).

I found the third edition of Ben Hur (1860) with the duplicate line on the free book shelf.

Making up people to get mad at is kind of fun. Consider the proprietor of the "Barnacle Cove: Estimating the Estimand" blog. I asked him to add an RSS feed, and he replied: "oh, Reddit Speaks Statistics. Sure," in a tone that implied he would not in fact do it. This is jerk behavior!

A statistics textbook from the early 80s uses a grip strength test for women athletes in different sports as an ANOVA example. Tennis was the highest. Racquets were heavier then, suggesting a much-needed follow-up. What if it's golf now? What then?

Hammett's chief of police in Red Harvest gives an "athletic wink." And I read a profile of a grunge band once, in Spin or Moss-less, that described the guitarist speaking in "clipped athletic tones." I have pondered this latter one especially for what, twenty years, however long it's been.

Taxonomists of plot have yet to discover this one: a band of misfits with abilities greater than the sum of their parts defeat an overconfident enemy, while comedic interludes punctuate their improbable plans.

the annoyance of probability violating our intuition (if not logic) causes those who learn a bit about it to imagine they have discovered the Key to all Thought, Art, and Science. Many such cases. Not me, though.

Someone with his ear should tell him, the president I mean, that he's not a good enough literary critic to publish in The Explicator. The results might surprise us!

If you restricted yourself to American, Roman, Faculty: who is the most fucked-up senator? I lack the method and specific knowledge to answer the question as it deserves.

Titles are hard. I go back and forth between The Powys Era and The Age of Powys.

If you go to "Median Rent Over Time" here www.unitedstateszipcodes.org/28511/#real-..., you can see that you can get paid $666m each month to live in Atlantic, NC---not a bad deal. I probably would have stayed, had I known.

I was intrigued by the comments here about cryptocurrency (what is that by the way, something on the computer?) and the endowment of a well-regarded university. Details seem analogous to someone walking into the state fair with $600 and spending two of them on a rigged game---counter-fiduciary!

Just read the phrase "sword and sorcery ethos" in a wikipedia entry. Much to consider there. As a universal ordering principle, we might say "s&s logos." For the passions of combat and wizardry, pathos would do. But ethos?

?UCBAdmissions---> which department in 1973 was offering admission to 500 students?

I was a twitter user for quite a few years, and I always enjoyed accounts of this type: academics, wild F/F ratio (100:1 or so), never heard of them, never post (except occasional announcement of talk, book, article), no conceivable authentic social media audience.

Saw a list of common phrases people had forgotten were from Game of Thrones, but it didn't list "Ser Pounce" (kitty name).

A kind of cultural revolution scenario in which professors are made to admit that Bertrand's Box, Monty-Hall-style problems are just tricks.

Some of the SD songs are clearly SF: "Pretzel Logic" and "Sign in Stranger" for two. Take "Night by Night." The official lyrics read "When the joker tried to tell me\I could cut it in this rube town" I hear "I couldn't cut it in the smooth town," which seems more consistent with what follows. (+)