Posts by Amy Gale
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HOWEVER, yes, exactly. And it amuses me this point has been made in the same forum where certain people have expressed their vociferous opinions against homeopathy, when at the very most, from a skeptic’s perspective – barring outright fraud – you’re spending money on something that supposedly does sweet F-A.
It matters because some people may use homeopathy as their ONLY treatment. It matters because charging vulnerable people huge amounts of money for tiny amounts of distilled water is disgusting behavior.
I remain vociferously against both those things. Color me intolerant.
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Up Front: First, Come to Your Conclusion, in reply to Tom Beard,
do people write Gatsby/Nick slash, Murakami fanfic and Oulipo combinatorial erotica with the works of Calvino, Queneau and Perec?
This is a fun game to play. Find a big fanfic archive, and search in it for instances of - anything. You can put restrictions on the measure you are trying to optimize. For example, compete on any of these:
* most ludicrous crossover (personal best find: Sonic The Hedgehog + Casablanca)
* TV show with highest ratio of adult-rated fic
* for a given show, predict the most popular pairing
* three characters whose pairwise slash counts give the severest violation of the triangle inequality
Note that you don't have to actually read anything you find, although you don't have to refrain from reading it either.
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Busytown: A new (old) sensation, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
does any have a couple of hundred grand they could loan a brother?
The independent bookstore down the street from me is currently being transformed into a community-owned cooperative with $250 shares. You could always do that. Or some for-profit variant.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to giovanni tiso,
This was one of the starkest US/NZ university contrasts I came across.
$[X] toward your studies, NZ-style: interview with multi-dignitary panel, health certification, reference verifying that you are of sound moral character.
$[X] toward your studies, USA-style: they mail you a check.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Megan Clayton,
Ditto my experience – very likely I suspect with the same scholarship interview and perhaps the same panellist.
Is it really a big sekrit? Georgetti, right?
I was more scared of the GG and Chief Justice, myself.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Danyl Mclauchlan,
I don’t think it’s the training that poisons some computer scientists like that. Many of them are broken going into first year. It’s a subset of the type attracted to the discipline: intellectually brilliant, arrogant, utterly incapable of interacting with other humans. You meet people like that in biology – and in other fields too, I guess – but very rarely, compared with the high incidence of that personality type in compsci.
Are we talking about actual computer scientists, or fictionalized ones on TV? Because it sounds like a tired old stereotype to me.
I know dozens (perhaps hundreds) of CS PhDs and have known waaaaay more undergrads than that, and I can't say it's something I've noticed. I'd happily sit down today with anyone from my undergrad or grad departments and have a cup of tea and a chat.
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Busytown: A new (old) sensation, in reply to Jolisa,
Craig, you may have just inadvertently kicked off Public Address Books’ new fiction line-up… I am already making notes for Zombie Alone.
Let's do this thing. I call dibs on Really Big Shark At The Bay.
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I will be in NZ in November and if I don't get to meet PASers and eat chips and drink beer I will cry.
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Hard News: Gaying Out, in reply to Christopher Dempsey,
Is someone willing to volunteer to read it and give us the summary in 30 words or less?
"I'm comfortable with that."
There. Didn't need 26 of the words, or the actual reading experience for that matter.
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uh, guys? I didn't say that…