entombed in the shrine of zeroes and ones

One man's quest to earn the Most Human Human award at the Turing Test.

The author calls it an essay, but i believe that it's more apposite to label his article a manifesto regarding the ownership of data.

Why has this man been donating well-made art forgeries to museums for the past three decades?

"Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and the former Alaska governor Sarah Palin have something in common: they are both cowgirl politicians.  In this, they are symptomatic of the too-narrow ways in which the United States is willing to accept women as leaders."

There is a 14-year-old girl who lives in poverty in Uganda who said to her chess coach, "Coach, I will be a grandmaster someday."

A woman who has no amygdala and no fear.

If i told you that 80% of the antibiotics sold in the US were sold for farm animals, you might be skeptical of my claim; but would you believe the FDA?

The Best Magazine Articles Ever

If Ken Thompson calls himself a programmer, not a developer, or an engineer, then anyone who shares that profession should follow suit.  I don't care that this article is over 20 years old, damn it.  Now get off my lawn.

Scientists from Tübingen, Germany, show that people really walk in circles when lost.

You might remember that i quite enjoyed I ♥ Huckabees; this long essay about the movie is what i would have written if i were in any way qualified to write about philosophy.

If you're in the Bay Area and have the time this weekend, please drop by Blossom Hill Crafts and visit their pottery sale.  2wanda will be selling her pottery and her soap, and besides pottery you can also find jellies and photography for sale.

If not, then please enjoy mjg59's précis of fruit fly ovary extraction.

I never could relate to people who really got into the badness of certain forms of art, like Mystery Science Theater 3000 or the cult of Rocky Horror Picture Show.  But that changed once i watched a few episodes of the epically bad CSI: Miami.  The writing is sub-mediocre, even for Hollywood; the main characters not only have an extremely narrow set of behavior, but they are only allowed one or two facial expressions (David Caruso's two facial expressions are with and without sunglasses, if that counts as two); the non-recurring characters are acted with the care you'd see in your typical high school play.  And this lily is gilt with the choice of an H2 as the official crime lab vehicle.  I can't recommend this show to anyone; however, for those of you who revel in experiencing awful stuff, it might just be up your alley.

wacky_hijinx informed me some time ago that Kevin O'Neill would be signing yesterday, so i dropped by and picked up a copy of O'Neill's and Alan Moore's latest League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novel, Black Dossier.  O'Neill was very kind and drew something on the first page for all comers.  He asked me what i wanted, and i said, "Surprise me," and i got a really nice Miss Murray.  I'm still reading BD; it is, well... it's mad.  It includes a set of 3-D glasses.  That's all i'll say for now.

Week 6: still not king employed.  Now that we're essentially in holiday season, it would be too optimistic to hope for a job before 2008.

palecur and i will be leaving tomorrow afternoon to go to Los Angeles to see Soda Stereo.  I believe that it's fair to say that they're the band i've been wanting to see play for the longest time.  We'll be back in time for Thanksgiving.

divisadero embedded a preview to possibly the greatest videogame-based movie of all time.

Remember Liquid Television?  sanspoof linked to something that reminds me heavily of the best parts from that show.  As far as LTV goes, one short that always stuck with me was "The Running Man" (part 1/part 2); the haunting music in the final minute remained imperfectly in my memory, so that when i first heard Michael Hedges's "Spare Change", i thought it was the music they used in the cartoon (it isn't).  Although there isn't a performance of "Spare Change" on YouTube, there is a huge amount of Michael Hedges content there, and, well, thank god for YouTube, because now i've seen Michael Hedges play.  Unless you know tronpublic, you've probably never seen anyone play guitar the way Hedges plays "Silent Anticipations".

Theo Jansen is a kinetic sculptor.  He does amazing stuff.

Via warrenelliscom, a levitating, powered lightbulb.  Thank you, Nikola Tesla, wherever you are.

"It took my 8-year-old son just a few seconds to shake loose some hidden history from within the official transcript of the [Coalition Provisional Authority]."  Thank you, Microsoft Word.

"Just think about your options.  You know Coach isn't going to give you back your scholarship just like that.  If she finds out [that you're pregnant] and if you decide to keep it, that's gone."

Kim and i recently went to SFSU to see elmuchacho perform with the jazz band.  Before the show got started, i went to the bathroom.  While taking care of business, i noticed the graffiti which all had various recognizable phrases that contained 'out', but the graffiti all turned that into 'grout'.  Most of the graffiti was appropriately written on the grout itself.  I captured some of the witticisms with my phonecam (yes, while i was peeing; what can i say, i got skills).

GROUT DAMNED SPOT, GROUT


[GRO]UT OF SIGHT GROUT OF MIND


Think grout side
the box

Via sanspoof: hundreds of people draw Batgirl.  Maybe the artist types who read my journal want to participate in the mindless nuttery, too.

Via jennyaxe: "[Alito's] motive... remains unclear."

Don't recall where i saw it, but this proposal for a one-party political system in the United States makes so much sense, i predict it will be widely ignored.

Head to A Perfect Circle's site for a gallery of wartime propaganda posters (among other goodies, such as a discomforting video for their version of Lennon's "Imagine").

nerdsholmferret had asked what the picture on the wall was.

It's a painting in the style of Gonzalo Endara Crow, by Fernando Reinoso.  Endara Crow's disciples are called "talleristas" (workshopmen) and they painted in his style; however, according to this interview, Reinoso was never a tallerista.

I named the image "tren al cielo" ("train to heaven") after a movie made in Ecuador that had that title, and which starred James Coburn in a supporting role.

OAK-JFK on JetBlue: TV on an airplane is a good thing.  You just get sucked into whatever you're watching and the time just flies by, just like at home, except on a plane, that's exactly what you want to have happen.  I heartily endorse this service and/or product.

Watching Mets-Cubs, hoping to see Sammy Sosa's 500th home run.  Cliff Floyd steps up to the plate, and waves his bat just so, saying, "Put it here."  So Matt Clement winds up... and puts it there.  Floyd puts it out of the park.

Getting out of JFK is a trip in itself.  Mostly a bad one.

Carnegie Hall is... impressive. Awesome ("Remember what 'awesome' meant before it applied to pizza?"). Belleville High School starts us off with the Overture to Candide, one of my favorite pieces, and one that, due to its difficulty, i didn't expect high schoolers to perform. They also played Ives' "Country Band March", which sounds like a Sousa march arranged by a drunk Bill Bruford. The Leigh kids play damn well (they came away with a gold rating, so the judges must've agreed); Whitacre's "October" was especially impressive. Concord High School played Copland's "Danzón Cubano", which felt like a flat, sterile version of Gershwin's "Cuban Overture", except captain_nesky tells me that Copland's piece came first. The Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music's wind ensemble was the best group of the night, playing a wonderful selection (including a Wagner piece which i found very enjoyable[!]) at a high level of talent and emotion; they also added an unlisted encore, a piece that was based on "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" and resembled those cringeworthy Christmas medleys in structure except it didn't suck, as a tribute to the troops in Iraq.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is very nice. The medieval arms and armor display is my favorite; their array of various polearms is the coolest part. Afterwards, Kim, elmuchacho, and i had dinner with Ed and Elena at Jacques Brasserie, which was superb, especially their ale and chocolate soufflé.

Envision a busy Grand Central Station hallway. On one side, a corridor leads to the restrooms; the line to the ladies' room snakes out into the hallway. On the other side, a gathering of men placidly await their women.

Note: if you are as allergic to the Bee Gees' music as i am, do NOT eat at Ben Ash on 7th Av. Yeah, the food's good —a bit pricey for a deli, but the portions are huge— but godDAMN, how can you enjoy your meal when it's all motherfucking Bee Gees, all the motherfucking time?

It was only on my recent trip to Portland, when i came across the Kinks' The Kink Kontroversy, that i realized that the cover to Sleater-Kinney's Dig Me Out was an homage.