Making Light: Fckng Ralph Nader, fckng Public Citizen ::: January 04, 2006, 05:51 PM P J Evans: Lin: I was wondering if you have a good ax-murderer in the shower scream. Maybe I need to find some tomato worms next summer? I thought it was tomato toads that elicited the scream. Anyway, if you want a scream, you could do worth than choose the Wilhelm, courtesy of Film Sound Clichés. Best wishes for a successful outcome to Teresa, Xopher, and all. And I hope I find the right meds for me before they are taken away. --- Making Light: Fckng Ralph Nader, fckng Public Citizen ::: January 06, 2006, 12:24 PM Eric H: ...don't forget to go after the CSPI for effectively quashing Olestra over trumped-up nonsense.... Apart from reminding you that this is not the thread for grinding your axe, I'd like to express my firm belief that nobody effectively quashed Olestra. Olestra was effectively quashed by the phrase "anal leakage". The moment those words hit the public consciousness, Olestra was dead. You don't have to exaggerate or trump it up--it doesn't matter how rarely the side effect occurs. The very act of thinking about the percentage of people who experience anal leakage being incredibly vanishingly small has the effect of making people flee from Olestra like it was made of chopped up babies. Do not taunt anal leakage. --- Making Light: Open Thread 56 ::: January 06, 2006, 07:33 PM My favorite Latin moment arrived last year, when some powerful bureaucrat decided he absolutely positively needed the date of my BS degree. Month and year won't do, gotta have the day. Many people just make things up*, but there's that nagging feeling of lying to an Federal Government Official that made me want to be reasonably certain of any date I supplied. Fortunately, I found my diploma. Unfortunately, the only datelike information on the thing was "SUBSCRIPSIMUS PRID. NON. IUN. ANNO DOMINI MCMLXXIII". Thank goodness for Google and informative pages about the Roman calendar--I'd never have guessed what it meant, and the explanation was so weird I needed to read it in two places to believe it. I'll let anyone who wants go on their own snipe hunt; anyone who just gots to know can send me e-mail.** ---------------- * I once invented a certainty that I didn't intentionally jump off a bicycle and knock myself out, when the truth is that the minute of amnesia preceding the accident was enough time that I might have decided to jump. I can't imagine why, but my belief in free will says it's possible. At least I think that I probably didn't brain myself intentionally, and I know the person reading my affidavit wasn't interested in questions of free will and epistemology, so I signed. ** Oddly enough, I've told at least one individual several times that information that I was not posting on Making Light was available by sending me e-mail, only to see him request the information on Making Light. Anyone who gots to know had better gets it right, or Mr. Passive Aggressive will emphatically abandon them to the kindness of Somebody Else. --- Making Light: Open thread 59 ::: February 07, 2006, 03:14 PM John: Aerogel is tempting, but pricey. I've occasionally thought of something to do with it, but nothing practical comes to mind right now. Hmm. I was amused to read that "Aerogel is composed of 99.8% air and is chemically similar to ordinary glass." I'd think it would be chemically similar to air. It's 1/3 air by weight, but that means only half the molecules are SiO2. Hmm. I wonder how you suffuse it with another gas. (put it in a vacuum and see if it acts like Ivory soap?) I read somewhere that H2+Cl2 can be ignited by light. So if you suffuse an aerogel with these gases, then turn on the light, I wonder if it would explode or just burn on the periphery. Makes me long for my basement chem lab, but maybe I should just be glad I survived. Supermagnets are also tempting, and I guess I could be careful about checking the friends and family for metal bits, but what if the UPS guy has a pacemaker? Sounds like I might not want to play with them at home. --- Making Light: Open thread 59 ::: February 07, 2006, 03:21 PM I'm not a big fan of Arlen Specter, but at least he's willing to say Gonzales is smoking Dutch Cleanser. I invite the resident poets to filk the phrase "Bon Ami que fumar" [*]. --- Making Light: Open thread 59 ::: February 08, 2006, 04:41 PM Larry Brennan is thinking more the malicious, imp-like brownie, not the adorable, cookie-pushing brownie. So what about the sycophantic, toad-eating sort of brownie with the toffee about the nose? Isn't that the primary qualification for a cronyjob? It isn't what you know, it's what you nose. --- Making Light: Open thread 59 ::: February 09, 2006, 11:50 AM Dave Bell: Serge, isn't there something like "natural person" as a term of legal art, a human as distinct from a corporation. I don't know about legal art, but it's used in the WSFS constitution with that meaning. Ghu knows whether androids, replicants, or clones qualify. Incidentally, thanks for reminding me of the anomalous uses the phrase "term of art" may be put to. Still life with lawyers. Negligence descending a staircase. --- Making Light: Making Light at Boskone ::: February 21, 2006, 02:03 PM Boskone was fun. I didn't ask about D&S because Gardner Dozois was not in evidence, in spite of the many panels for which the program listed "Gardner" in big type at the beginning of the list of participants. I don't imagine I'm the only one who took that double take. One thing not to tell your favorite author is just about anything when she's taking a phone call about the panel she's supposed to be at right now. Especially since I knew about that panel, and was planning to attend, until my plans got distracted. Sorry, Teresa. Going to the autograph session with an author's early novel and mentioning how much more I liked it than her other stuff has since struck me as a possibly infelicitous remark. And when I saw Susanna Clarke's lecture at the Smithsonian, I was moved to ask about her wonderfully amusing use of footnotes. I started out with "What possessed you...", but a fortunate stammering fit gave me time to reformulate the question. --- Making Light: Making Light at Boskone ::: February 26, 2006, 11:53 AM Apropos of what not to say to authors, I just ran across a copy of Anthony Haden-Guest's cartoon collection The chronicles of now (Allworth Press, 2002). I hope it is not too much to copy the captions from the section entitled "I LOVED YOUR BOOK And Other Good Stuff to Say to a Writer at a Book Party". ... I saw it in Barnes & Noble and it looked great. ... I'm going to save it for a rainy day. ... I've heard great things about it. ... Who's your agent? I've decided to write a book too. ... I thought it was a selling review actually. ... This is the same book you were working on five years ago? ... Who is it about? That's three pages--and not the funniest--out of 218, and the cartoons are also worthwhile. --- Making Light: Rec'd ::: March 01, 2006, 03:01 PM Dave H.: Aconite: but *I* am one of Teresa's fans. I hope that doesn't preclude Aconite thanking you on your behalf. Aren't you grateful? On behalf of the greater fanosphere* I thank the universe for having people like you in it. And she. And the rest of us, too, even the ones, if any, who reject my usurpation of their benediction. ---------------- * Not to be confused with the much flatter Fano plane. --- Making Light: Rec'd ::: March 02, 2006, 09:33 AM Am I the only one who can't hear "pmln" without thinking "thtmln"? "Melts in your hand before you put it in your mouth." --- Wikipedia Talk:Surreal number/Archive 1 The "equivalence class" formulation should be dropped Conway didn't use equivalence classes, and they don't belong in the standard presentation. { 1 | } = { 0, 1 | }, they aren't just "==". If someone wants to present an "equivalence class" formulation, I invite them to add another "alternative formulation" section where it doesn't confuse the issue. If you want to consider this a non-extensional definition of equality, that's what it is. If you can't cope with that, the extensional view is that numbers and games are abstract objects^[1] and { . | . } is a function (or FUNCTION) mapping Ug × Ug -> Ug. But calling { 1 | } and { 0, 1 | } unequal is broken. I'm planning to fix this unless someone cares to dissuade me. --Dan 03:07, 3 March 2006 (UTC) [1] But then you have to explain to Janet Davis, at the beginning of this discussion, how "what they are" is a question that can't be answered in any concrete sense. Abstract object just are, and we can only describe them by what they do. So give up concreteness or give up extensionality (but shun this second-hand equivalence classism). --Dan 03:07, 3 March 2006 (UTC) --- Making Light: Veggie question ::: March 03, 2006, 11:38 AM Eve: ... I got some "I want to have your babies" comments from one after making her a vegan chocolate cake that tasted as good as an egg-and-butter one, if not better. Was she making the same joke, suggesting that your babies would taste as good as the cake? (Were you?) I'm fine with the cannibalism part of these jokes, but I'm never sure whether the question of whether cuisine is made with real (e.g., Irish stew, Neapolitan ice cream) comes out of my paleface arrogance. At any rate, it's pretty trite. --- Making Light: Veggie question ::: March 03, 2006, 01:00 PM Mary Dell: Re: transsubstantiation, eating the consecrated host is not cannibalism, so I'd assume that it's also not carnivorism [ok, probably not a real word][*]. I don't remember what that exact reason is that it's not cannibalism, but they made a big point of explaining it back in my Catholic school days. Just as my pagan friends make a big point of having a religion that doesn't practice ritual cannibalism. Anyway, if it's not cannibalism, it's theophagy--is that any more moral? Another take is that the god is nourished by the sacrament, so the communicant is the one being eaten. I'm not worthy, I'm not food, and I'm not going. ---------------- [*] carnivory is in the OED. So is carnivoracity, but only as a 1730 nonce by Pope. --- Making Light: Veggie question ::: March 04, 2006, 12:11 AM I think you have to break the chalk before you eat it, too. --- Wikipedia User talk:MarSch/Archive 1 Request for comment Back when I joined, you (probably automatically) sent me If you have any questions, check out Wikipedia:Where to ask a question or ask me on my talk page. and I'm looking for someone who knows Wiki Math Realpolitik. If you'd like to comment on the applicability of WP:NOR/WP:NPOV as questioned in Talk:Number system I'd appreciate it. I don't really want to stir up controversy--I really was suggesting a matter of skating close to the edge, rather than a violation--but I'd like to have an informed opinion on where we are supposed to draw the line. I am even less sure of whether there is anything fishy about Mathematics Magazine or Rick Norwood, but if so, you could mention them, too. On the other hand, if there's no issue, you're welcome to edit this question off your talk page if that has the potential to reduce embarrassment. -- Dan Hoey 18:49, 9 March 2006 (UTC) --- Wikipedia Talk:Number system Glad to see so much discussion here. I'm not sure either just what is intended, though the sense it would make is that Wikipedians would be distanced from personal involvement in the choice of references they cite. Thats why I suggested both WP:OR and WP:NPOV. I've solved the problem here by replacing your citation with a link to the article on Tetration, which discusses the topic in detail, online. If you think a citation to your article will improve that article, I believe you should take it up there. But if there are enough references there, you might save yourself the embarassment or controversy. --Dan Hoey 02:08, 10 March 2006 (UTC) --- Making Light: Spin ::: March 13, 2006, 01:19 PM I'll confess I didn't get around to any nominating this year (nor do I think I ever have) but thank you thank you thank you for praising Spin well enough for me to buy it. It will be hard for me to break down my Hugo voting inhibitions, but there's a good chance for this gem. Not to mention that its mention of "Infant Innocence" led me to Google, and seeing "by Ogden Nash" led me to this halcyon heirloom from the Making Light archives, which I somehow missed when it came out. Reading it whole is a grand example of what makes ML so good-- from the penalties for willful ignorance, to Covenant roleplaying, to punctuation in disequilibrium, to the generic question of romance and horror, and more. [Must... restrain... ellipsis... ....] At the end, I have to wonder if the question of PR=TJP has ever been settled by anything as definitive as finding them in the same room or telephone booth. --- Making Light: Spin ::: March 14, 2006, 10:36 AM Damn what a book. I'm dragging like shit today, because I hit the point of no return yesterday evening and was up to 2:00. And I want more! I wonder if Jack Vance could write the sequel. At least the sleep deprivation anesthetizes me from feeling like I've been eaten by the bear. Thanks again for the recco. --- Making Light: Spin ::: March 14, 2006, 10:50 AM Larry Brennan: I just had a very Outer Limits vision of what's behind the Spin. V'z cerggl fher "Gb Freir Zna" vf Gjvyvtug Mbar, abg Bhgre Yvzvgf. Oh, and the humor of the book was fantastic. I laughed out loud at least three times, which is a lot for me. Even the Erq Urvsre stuff was comitragic. --- Making Light: Open thread 60 ::: March 15, 2006, 08:54 AM On the JackDannism topic, has it been suggested that Patrick's recent electioneering was an attempt to Spin Robert Charles Wilson? --- Making Light: The perfect uselessness of Warren Whitlock ::: March 15, 2006, 09:11 AM Dave Luckett's ...they're not your hosts.... brings me back to my favorite joke: "You're the host, they're the parasites." Sorry if you've heard this one too many times. That's the problem with favorite jokes. --- Making Light: Dumbest of the Twenty Worst ::: April 18, 2006, 01:57 PM Love is being wasted Taken place by hatred I nearly bought one of the "Happy Bunny" books this weekend, but they are just a little too sparse. Still, I have to give them credit for a most wonderful adage: Hate is a special kind of love that we give to people who suck. --- Making Light: Open thread 64 ::: April 26, 2006, 02:09 PM Todd Larason wrote: Okay, I give up. I've googled, I've thought, and I've tried to remember. What does "FAQK" mean? Frequently Asked Questions, Kinda? I'd like to know, too. I'm also terribly curious about whether Lore Sjöberg's FAQK is the first such piece to be written by someone who hasn't previously written an autobiography for Wikipedia. --- Making Light: Glass flow ::: May 08, 2006, 07:03 PM To quote an old alt.folklore.urban tagline, Eppur si fluove. --- Making Light: Styrofoam tits ::: May 11, 2006, 01:58 PM Jules: What is it with 'chiaroscuro' these last few days? Anne and I were talking about the meaning of "coruscate" as a word we mislearned from context, and I saw a great need for a word describing flashes of blackness: coruscuro. And on the topic that started all this, if you want to make huge styrojugs with a shape that is more globular than tubular, you need to glue them to a big ribcage, and when the desired waist is sized so that it would fit in the cleavage (and you know she's limber enough) of course you're going to see some jut at the bottom of the ribcage. I wouldn't want to be her orthopod. --- Making Light: Styrofoam tits ::: May 11, 2006, 04:10 PM pedantic peasant: The book you want is Bad Magic, and yes, you do want to share in the wrongness. It's the only serio-fantastic novel I can recall that can stand next to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell without blushing. And I say that with the author here, because it isn't often I get to gush at an author where it's due. The lagniappe at the end is worth the price of admission. Stephan, I hope you're writing another at least half as good. --- Making Light: Styrofoam tits ::: May 11, 2006, 04:16 PM Aside from the cost, and the fact that aerogel shatters like glass (which it is, after all), it's terribly vulnerable to a water attack. When aerogel gets wet, it stops being a super-light glass and becomes a glass that is heavier than the fat it was supposed to replace. --- Making Light: Styrofoam tits ::: May 11, 2006, 04:23 PM fidelio wrote: Consider the motivation for staying in shape if you have to work out at the gym naked. Remember etymology: "Gymnasium" is a word for the place we go to get naked. Of course, etymology does lead us down strange pathways. Are those orchids, or did your jockstrap spring a leak? --- Making Light: Styrofoam tits ::: May 19, 2006, 03:00 PM Anarch: Which is an interesting topic in its own right: what other words should exist in English according to similar grammatical rules that apparently don't? The Washington Post writes "employe" for "employee". By the law of French loan-words I think "employe" should exist, and dictionaries list it as a legitimate alternative spelling, but everytime I see it I wonder, "Who the hell let people like that be the Washington Post?" They look like they're selling their literacy for a ha'pworth of ink. --- Making Light: Absolute Write is gone ::: May 25, 2006, 06:34 PM Given that Stephanie C is setting up her stand on Absolute Write's pavement, why pile on Bauer? Bauer is a crook and serial lawsuemouth, but that just makes her an easier frame. After all, how is this different from Stephanie saying she's pulling AW's plug because she got a nasty phone call from Osama bin Laden, except that people will believe the Bauer story more easily? Hell, maybe the Bauer story is true, but that doesn't make it less convenient. So this nofollow stuff may be an undeservedly kind response--maybe we need a campaign to link SC and "Writing Wise" to the shoddy little plot that she used to get it started. Maybe JC hosting, Totalweb, and Mike C can get stuffed into the same slimy little nexus with her. Chutzpah disguised as spinelessness shouldn't go unpunished. --- Making Light: Absolute Write is gone ::: May 26, 2006, 08:43 AM I wrote: Given that Stephanie C is setting up her stand on Absolute Write's pavement, why pile on Bauer? Bauer is a crook and serial lawsuemouth, but that just makes her an easier frame. Having received Ianal advice that the above trudges close to the edge of liable hear say, please understand that I do not mean to accuse Bauer of actually violating any law, so "crook" must be taken in its sense of "providing offered services in a way so infelicitous as to constitute disservice". I regret any misapprehension due to my carelessness in expressing this side-issue to the message. Moreover, I regret the word "crook" as being regrettably vague even in its intended nonactionable way. The term "congenital frauditrix" would be far more apt. The point remains that any possible or conjectured enmity between Stephanie Cordray, JC Hosting, JamesC, TotalWeb, and the infamousmentioned Bauer merely makes them enemies of enemies to society, free speach, and the American Way. And to say that the enemies of our enemies are all lies is incorrect; sometimes they slip a bit of nonfalsehood in just to keep us confused. That's the hell of the curate's egg--the good parts lead us on to the further foulness. --- Making Light: Absolute Write is gone ::: June 13, 2006, 04:54 PM Alexander McCall Smith has become a full-time writer, but his day job used to be Professor of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. The biographic information in his books mentions that he wrote the definitive work on The Forensic Aspects of Sleep. I am profoundly curious about what it could refer to. --- Making Light: A monthly family budget ::: July 20, 2006, 02:14 PM Way up top, mintichen wrote: Who spends $1,000 per month on clothes anyway? I saw The Devil Wears Prada last weekend. Opened my eyes, I'll say. The ending was cute, but it dropped my suspended disbelief like an anvil. --- Making Light: A monthly family budget ::: July 21, 2006, 08:17 AM Madeline F: Yep, WaMu. I didn't pimp them by name.... But WAMU is one of Washington, DC's NPR stations, and while I don't worship NPR, they don't deserve to have their name tarred with the wasteful huge organized retail experience. How about Wa'rt for a pimpless contraction? Unless you're sensitive to the insult to HPV, which also can hardly be said to deserve the association. --- Making Light: "The flying shards of a better tomorrow" ::: August 15, 2006, 12:10 PM Any word on whether Aasif Mandvi is a pseudonym? What about an anagram? Flying head-on into the twin birth pangs of a new opportunity. --- Making Light: "The flying shards of a better tomorrow" ::: August 15, 2006, 12:14 PM head-on Hrmph. I guess that's supposed to be headlong. Pullet surprise material. ---