Input Junkie

I don't think this needs a context.....

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:20:42 GMT

This is a deleted scene from the movie of the Half-Blood Prince. I only read the book once, and I don't remember where it fits in the story-- maybe it's about Dumbledore's funeral.

And I haven't liked the HP movies I've seen all that much-- they don't look right. Perhaps I'd be happier with an animated version (drawn, goddamit, not CGI!) based on the illustrations used as chapter headings. The only thing I've been really delighted by is the initial musical theme from the first movie. It isn't Harry Potter, but it's a fine evocation of magic.

However, I love this video, and I like to think I'd love it even if I'd never heard of Harry Potter.

It back up my notion that, much as I can enjoy flashy special effects, fantasy movies still run on acting.

Link thanks to rm.

Addendum:: The embedded video doesn't seem to work--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyDrF8azi2U

Colored bubble update

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:23:33 GMT

A while ago, I read an account of the long quest to make colored bubbles.

<a href="http://www.zubbles.com</a>They're for sale now.</a> Unfortunately, they're only available in blue and pink, even though the video includes a number of other colors.

The other Cold War barrier

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:17:31 GMT

There was one across the Bering Strait:

During the Cold War, the Bering Strait marked the border between the United States and the Soviet Union. The island of Big Diomede in the USSR was (and is) only 2.4 mi (4 km) from the island of Little Diomede in the USA. Traditionally, the indigenous peoples in the area had frequently crossed the border back and forth for "routine visits, seasonal festivals and subsistence trade", but were prevented from doing so during the Cold War[4]. The border became known as the "Ice Curtain"[5]. In 1987, American swimmer Lynne Cox symbolically helped ease tensions between the two countries by swimming across the border[6] and was congratulated jointly by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.

The people who were most affected:

A potent link in the connection between Alaska and the Soviet Far East are the Yupik and Inupiaq Eskimo peoples on both sides, who traveled back and forth for hundreds of years before the Cold War. When the border was closed in 1948, many Eskimo families were split, and their members were unable to visit or even communicate for 40 years.

Their special situation was one of the chief arguments for opening the frontier as Gorbachev's policies began to dissipate four decades of tension between Moscow and Washington.

The reunions of Eskimo families have, by all accounts, been poignant. Even those who have no close relatives on the Soviet side were deeply moved by the opportunity to visit others who share their threatened traditions.

``Hearing my own language spoken was like a dream,'' said June Martin of Nome, who visited the Soviet town of Provideniya last summer.

Her father, Tim Gologergen, who also made the trip, was struck by the fact that the Yupik spoken on the Soviet side was the language he remembered from growing up on St. Lawrence Island in the early decades of the century. Alaskan Yupik, he said, has been heavily infiltrated by English.

The article is an overview of contact between Alaska and the Soviet Far East, written in 1990-- this is something I hadn't heard about, and it's quite possible it would be of interest for doing a bit to fill in one's vision of the world.

The universe shows mad scientist tendencies

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:24:36 GMT

Evidence of anti-matter in lightning

Link thanks to Geek Press.

A copy editor for trials

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:49:34 GMT

In a recent comment, I said

I've felt for a long time that there's something wrong (epistomologically? ethically?) with the idea that prosecuting and defending attorneys should just try as hard as they can to win (within very wide limits), but I've never been able to put a finger on it.

Maybe there should be a third "side" which is supposed to point out logical and factual errors without being biased towards any of the parties in a legal case. Judges don't seem to be terribly thorough at it.

Here's a little more detail....

I'm not sure who should pay the copy editor so as to discourage conflicts of interest. If the defense has the resources, it would be reasonable to split the cost between the defense and the prosecution, but frequently, the defense doesn't [1]. Having the government pay the copy editor (any suggestions for a better name?) seems like the only alternative since I can't imagine a charity raising enough money to pay for all the copy editors which are needed.

I'm sure that a lot of people would love the work, and that the meetings of the Association of Justice System Copy Editors would be interesting in some sense or other.

Adjectives distant from their nouns

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:39:52 GMT

gubernatorial governor
Athens Attic
(George Bernard) Shaw Shavian
uncle avuncular

Any others?

On not trusting stories

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:36:41 GMT

Here's a 16 minute lecture by Tyler Cowan about the limits of the human default of thinking in stories.

The central idea is that you need to leave out a lot (mostly the messiness of the real world) in order to make a compelling story, and that while you can't give up stories (they're built into human nature), it's worth developing dubiousness about getting engaged in them.

I just tried to check some details, and the site wouldn't let me play the lecture twice until I deleted the cookie for the lecture.

Anyway, he suggests that any story with good vs. evil, or about getting tough, or that one's life is something coherent like a journey should be viewed with suspicion.

Link thanks to Less Wrong.

The comments there mention Nassim Taleb as also cautioning people against stories.

Composing a Life by Mary Catherine Bateson is about women's lives not fitting into the neat trajectories expected of men's lives. At this point, I'm wondering whether men's lives aren't that tidy either.

The 5000 Fingers of Doctor T.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:55:50 GMT

The Most Beautiful Movie Ever Made, or at least the most delightfully weird movie.... is available online.

This is the only feature-length movie written by Dr. Seuss, and that should be a good enough reason for you to see it.

sovay wrote a detailed review, which roughly does it justice. In addition to all its other virtues (Siamese twins connected by their beard on roller skates! a ladder that just goes way up to nowhere! the dictator's wardrobe scene with dancing valets!), it has the best evil minion song I've ever heard. And I mean barbershop singing about having poison ivy, unlike the more respectable schools.

She mentions that there were commercials, but when I saw it, it didn't. Maybe crackle.com is using intermittent reinforcement.

How can this even be a question?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:20:44 GMT

Supreme court considers whether it's legal for prosecutors to railroad people.

Prosecutors are normally immune from lawsuits involving work during trials. But the case heard Wednesday considers whether the immunity also includes prosecutorial work before the trial starts. A ruling is expected next year.

According to transcripts, Stephen Sanders, a lawyer representing Pottawattamie County officials, told the Supreme Court that lower courts should not fashion exceptions to prosecutorial immunity.

"If a prosecutor's absolute immunity in judicial proceedings means anything, it means that a prosecutor may not be sued because a trial has ended in a conviction," Sanders said. "Yet that is exactly what happened in this case."

Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal argued that if prosecutors have to worry at trial that every action they take will somehow open the door to liability, then they will flinch in the performance of their duties and not introduce that evidence.

But Justice Sonia Sotomayor questioned him, saying, "A prosecutor is not going to flinch when he suspects evidence is perjured or fabricated?"

Anyone know whether there are states that have laws forbidding this level of misconduct?

Itty Bitty Study Leads to Large Conclusions

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:29:40 GMT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091102/lf_nm_life/us_mood_memory

I was in a bad mood to start with, that's why I didn't quite believe the article. But I might be right.

Aside from cute paradoxes, would somebody public please point out that checking an interesting theory about people in highly limited and artificial circumstances doesn't prove anything?

The Lounge Lizards' My Clown's on Fire

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:13:48 GMT

Some odd music (possibly jazz*) which includes aa-oogah horns.

I've got some theories about why I like it so much, but I'm curious about how it sounds to people who come to it fresh.

What's the weirdest music that you like?

*It may be jazz in the same sense that alternate history is science fiction. AH isn't really very much like science fiction, but it appeals to people who like science fiction and there's nowhere else to put it.

Stranger than you can imagine

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:23:19 GMT

Life may have begun in proton-powered rock pores. If you look at what all living creatures have in common, it's less than you might expect-- in particular, the cells membranes aren't similar, and pumping protons might be a more basic energy source than chemical bonds.

It's at least conceivable that the first life was in serpentine (a mineral-- if there's a garden of Eden pun in there, I couldn't find it) rock in the early, acidic ocean. It had DNA, RNA and proteins, a universal genetic code, ribosomes (the protein-building factories), ATP and a proton-powered enzyme for making ATP. I have no idea how or why it would have grown a skin.

And I'm wondering if this is part of the Fermi Paradox-- any old watery planet could have a primordial soup, but what are the odds of the right sort of rock in the right sort of ocean?

Link thanks to andrewducker.

Two subcultures, divided by a single language

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:17:04 GMT

View Poll: #1471423

The Men Who Stare at Goats is gonna be a movie!

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:55:42 GMT

Do you like mind-blowing cynicism about the powers that be? Do you feel as though there's never quite enough unimaginable energetic stupidity to feel superior to? Have you ever suspected that the way the government behaves has a logic beyond human ken? Then The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson, an investigative humorist, is the book for you. It argues that some of the more grotesque behaviors from the CIA are the result of parapsychology theories taken up by a US general who'd been shocked by the US loss in Viet Nam.

Honestly, I have no idea whether it's true. If I had my druthers, it would be art (very good art in the spirit of Joseph Heller) rather than anything in reality.

However, this post is brought to you by what I call the Martian sociologist-- the little thing in the back of my mind which only wants interesting stuff to happen.

Anyway, the movie is coming out on November 5, and I also recommend Ronson's Them, about various conspiracies.

Movie news from a discussion of the way smarter movies are apt to come out in the fall at Marginal Revolution.

Distracted by the economics of silkies

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:36:25 GMT

It isn't what this poem is about, but there's a mention that it used to be much easier for silkies (seal/human shapechangers) to find bags of gold.

Ok, gold was made illegal for private ownership (there were exemptions for jewelers and dentists) in the US in 1933, but I don't know the history of gold coins for other countries, nor when gold coins were out of circulation enough that you'd been unlikely to find them in a sunken ship.

I'm going to assume that any silkie who was interested in gold would be tracking storms and ships so as to be able to follow a sinking ship down-- I think they'd be hard to find otherwise without tech. How deep can a seal dive? Google [seals depth -navy +mammal], you're my pal. Elephant seals dive 700 meters, harp seals (described as not as strong divers as other seals) dive 370 meters.

But what species is the typical silkie, and how deep is the typical shipwreck?

If gold is valuable to silkies, do they have an economy? What might a silkie trade to another silkie for gold? I will assume that the ocean is big enough that a silkie can just hide gold rather than needing institutions (family help?) to keep their gold from being stolen. The ocean seems safer than the silkie trying to hide gold on land.

It's all fandom's fault. I didn't used to care about world-building.

Here's a good version if you'd rather the fine old eerie stuff:

Roasting tomatoes

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:59:33 GMT

From Well-Rounded Mama:

You wash your tomatoes. It doesn't matter what kind you use. I used big red 'maters, golden, orange, Romas, heirlooms, cherry 'maters, you name it. They all work.

Cut 'em up. I quarter the big ones, and halve the small ones. They cook faster that way. Toss 'em with a little olive oil, then place them on an oiled cookie sheet.

Slice up some onions and toss them in with the tomatoes. Put in some unpeeled garlic cloves too (not peeling them lets them steam instead of dry out, and tends to make them more flavorful and less bitter). Sprinkle it all with a little sea salt, a little oregano and thyme, and whatever other spices float your boat. There's no exact science to it, just throw in whatever sounds good to you, in whatever proportions you like.

Then roast 'em in an oven on 400 degrees for about an hour or so, till they are semi-dried up but still all bubbly. (You choose how dry you want them to get; still a little bubbly is how I like mine.) If you arrange your oven racks properly, you can roast two pans at once.....and trust me, you're going to want to! I did four pans over the weekend and could've done more if I'd had the time.

When they are done, let 'em cool a tad, then use a spatula and scoop them off into a bowl. Taste, and know you've gone to heaven....even if you're not much for cooked tomatoes. Rinse and repeat till you are out of tomatoes or out of storage space.

Friendly courtship from the movies?

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:55:39 GMT

I just watched the "Marianne the Librarian" clip

from The Music Man. I haven't seen the movie since I was a kid, and I didn't especially pay attention to the boring people stuff back then. I mostly remember the musical numbers as songs, and the marching band fantasy at the end.

Good God, that's courtship which is indistinguishable from bullying.

And there's the less politicized issue of assuming that introverts need to be broken down by extroverts.

The whole plot is pretty amazing. My mental filing system seems to be offline-- any other notable examples of trickster plots where everything which normally would have caused damage turns out to lead to a solidly happy ending?

Anyway, in the interests of washing that clip right out of my mind, would anyone care to recommend a clip or a whole movie that's about courtship which doesn't include either person squelching the other?

Canned tomatoes, a justification

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:22:58 GMT

The reason I used canned tomatoes in that soup is that there's been scarcely a tomato that I've checked in the farmer's markets which smelled like anything. I'm guessing it's a result of a rather cool, damp summer in and near Philadelphia

I've also guessed without checking that if a tomato doesn't smell like much, it isn't going to taste like much. dcseain tells me that there's actually no correlation between flavor and smell for tomatoes, and I admit that I hadn't considered the possibility. I will say that insisting on tomatoes that smell good is a way of getting tomatoes that taste good.

A pleasant soup

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:26:22 GMT

I was thinking of doing a chili, but I didn't use a recipe and ending up with a soup that doesn't at all resemble a chili but which I'm quite happy with.

some olive oil
a cup or so of cooked kidney beans
a pound of buffalo burger (available from Trader Joe's)
2 medium-sized sweet onions
2 ears of corn (cut off the cobs)
some hot peppers of various sorts-- I think only one or two of the smaller ones were vicious-- call it 5 tablespoons' worth, with the total average not far off medium
a can of cooked tomatos, including the liquid-- maybe twice the size of a Campbell's soup can
a cup or so of chicken stock* and corn left over from a previous project

I chopped up the onions and peppers and pan-fried them in the olive oil. I think I started them at a high temperature, then turned it down. Soon after that, I broke up the hamburger (TJ's sells it in frozen patties), and added it. When the hamburger was brownish but not completely cooked, I put the hamburger, onions and peppers in a pot with the tomatoes, corn, beans, and chicken stock, and simmered it for a while-- maybe two hours.

*whole chicken simmered in store-bought chicken broth, so the result is pretty rich. I don't skim off the chicken fat.

The implausible real world

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:23:17 GMT

In a discussion of Zenna Henderson's People stories, a reader mentions that the psychic powers were believable, but not the silver dimes. The production of silver dimes ended in 1964.

I thought the poppy field in the Wizard of Oz that put Dorothy to sleep was bad art-- it didn't fit with the other sorts of fantasy in the book or movie. As it happens, opium poppies produce low-lying fumes that make the fields too dangerous for children.

Anything else you can think of in fantasy which you didn't believe but which turned out to be true?

On the singular 'they'

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:19:04 GMT

An essay about the singular 'they' having a long historical usage, being used by major authors, and being no less logical or more ambiguous than other features commonly accepted in English. The comments include somewhat about different sorts of singular 'they'.

Can't reach dreamwidth

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:05:48 GMT

I'm having a problem with my password, their procedures haven't worked for me, and neither does the complaint form. Is there any other way to reach the dreamwidth team?

When I try to log in, I get a password error page.

I've reached my limit on password requests, so I can't recreate the exact sequence of things not working, but the only way I could get through to the password reset was through the page with the capcha. However, even though I'd get told that my password had been successfully reset, it didn't work. I went through that process twice.

When I try to send them a complaint, I get "Invalid form submission. Please refresh and try again."

Addendum: Thanks, and never mind. Either something got fixed at their end, or I was consistently relying on a form completion that wasn't right, or both.

The better eggplant

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:41:41 GMT

One of the folks at a local farmers market has been describing spherical Italian eggplants as being "buttery". I've been cooking with them, and they are milder than the usual and exceedingly pleasant.

Unfortunately, it's past the season for them here, but if you see a spherical eggplant (only 10 months or so till they come round again) and you have any chance of liking eggplant, check it out.

Probably the right kind of seeds.

Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:03:28 GMT

An overview of tameness/aggressiveness experiments

The next task was to measure tameness, for which they used the "glove test". Wearing two cotton gloves and a third made from chain mail, a researcher moves his or her hand slowly towards the rat, attempts to touch it and pick it up. "You can do anything with the tame rats," says Albert. "You can touch them, you can pick them up, you can move them around, you can move their arms and legs." The chain mail is there for the aggressive rats. "The moment you open the cage door some of them will come flying at the glove, bite it, latch on and scream," he says. "After testing you sometimes have bruises on your fingers."

The title of this post is also the title of a Cordwainer Smith story which includes minks bred for maddened aggressiveness-- which is broadcast telepathically as part of a security system.

Another part of the security system is a trip wire set off by a search which includes that misspelling-- a very modern detail.

Is bad epistomology an indicator of devil worship?

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:51:43 GMT

Especially if it's combined with a big smile at getting away with killing someone? (See minute 7:51)

Short version if you don't want to watch the video: Cameron Todd Willingham was executed for the death of his three daughters in a house fire. At the time, the forensics of arson were based on guesswork, and more recently, it's been discovered that a lot was what was thought to be evidence of arson is actually just normal traces of accidental fires.

The video includes Jack Johnson, the prosecutor (now a judge) who believes that Willingham was guilty, even though there was no solid evidence against him, and who smiles a lot when claiming that such things as being an Iron Maiden fan makes it plausible that he (Willingham) was a satanist.

Link thanks to The Agitator. Scurrilous speculation is entirely my own.