Play chess against the computer. Watch it think.
Thinking Machine 4: Play the Game (via MeFi)
Thinking Machine Chess
// April 28th, 2005House Sale Update
// April 27th, 2005Well, the people who looked at the house yesterday didn’t make an offer. We were their third choice, because (get this) they wanted something in a subdivision. To each their own, I guess. Kinda disappointing, but it was good to get the house over the “ready to show” hump.
As I type this, we have realtors crawling all over the house measuring rooms (with a nifty laser rangefinder, no less!) and taking pictures. We’ll be listed shortly.
Dude Falling
// April 26th, 2005Omygod Omygod
// April 26th, 2005Right at this moment, a nice couple is looking at our house, trying to make a decision about whether they can seem themselves in it. We’re hanging out at Panera Bread (tasty lunch, plus free wireless access!) until 2:00ish, at which point we’ll go drive by and see if they’re gone yet.
Their agent spilled some beans to our agent that she technically shouldn’t ought-a have spilled. Evidently they’re pretty darn motivated to get into a house quick. They’ve booked a home inspector for tomorrow. Whatever they settle on, they want to have it under contract today. Naturally we set our asking price right at the high end of our range.
It’d really be something to have the place sold before it even hits MLS!
UPDATE: in the form of an AIM conversation with Rudi:
rudiriet: you back from Panera yet?
DanRay0424: yep
rudiriet: how’d it go?
DanRay0424: Well, the only evidence we have that anyone was here was, the light in the hall was turned off
rudiriet: wow.
DanRay0424: That’s what we know so far: somebody came, turned off a light
Make your own Pope hat!
// April 25th, 2005
Now you too can be Pope Pius XIV with: Make your own Pope Hat!
The alternative is to wear the cereal-bowl dealy.
Biker vs. Squirrel
// April 23rd, 2005I’ve read this before, but it knocks me on the floor every time I see it.
CUAgain : Neighborhood Hazard (or: Why the Cops Won%u2019t Patrol Brice Street)
Money Origami
// April 23rd, 2005
A cow-orker of mine once showed me how to make a pair of pants out of a dollar bill. This was the same guy who invented the Fancy Pants Dance. He discovered what David Letterman knew all along: pants are inherently funny.
This site doesn’t have the pants-folding instructions, but it will show you how to fold boots, glasses, sailboats and sepants from dollar bills. Good for impressing young children!
Penguins go through Metal Detector
// April 21st, 2005
The oops list
// April 21st, 2005Don’t click the link below if you’re afraid of flying. This is a large gallery of images of aviation accidents–everything from a B52 mid-crash to the classic story of the prop plane that got away and minced everything in sight.
Also, don’t miss the images titled “Women Live Longer” at the bottom of the page. It’s so
‘The dry wall has a mild flavour’
// April 18th, 2005Artist Emily Katrencik is eating her gallery. Literally. Every day she takes a bite from the plaster wall, chews, and swallows. Every day she aims to eat a portion of wall nearly 2″ square. So far she’s eaten away a hole big enough that she can stick her head through it into the gallery owner’s living space.
This isn’t her first foray into art at the intersection of architecture and cuisine:
While an art student she set herself the ambitious task of illegally eating Harvard University’s Carpenter Center, Le Corbusier’s only building in north America. She would sandpaper the concrete at night and make lollipops out of the dust she collected. “That had a very metallic flavour,” she says of the modernist classic. “I found that very enjoyable.”
Guardian Unlimited | Arts features | ‘The dry wall has a mild flavour’
So You Want To learn Japanese…
// April 17th, 2005I confess, I’ve had the idle thought that it might be neat to learn Japanese. But… maybe not.
I don’t care how many anime tapes you’ve watched, how many Japanese girlfriends you’ve had, or books you’ve read, You don’t know Japanese. Not only that, majoring in the godforsaken language is NOT fun or even remotely sensible. Iraqi war prisoners are often forced to major in Japanese. The term “Holocaust” comes from the Latin roots “Holi” and “Causm”, meaning “to major in Japanese”.
So You Want To learn Japanese…
What do your pets do while you’re at work?
// April 17th, 2005
Swing Dance Update
// April 17th, 2005Last night Marcy and I competed in the finals of our first Lindy Hop competition. Out four couples dancing, Marcy took third and I took fourth. I deserved fourth place — I got randomly paired with the weakest follower in the contest and didn’t really dance my best — but Marcy was clearly robbed. Anyhow, it was fun and a good experience. We met a bunch of new people, made a bunch of new friends, and we’ll definitely do it again! Or, I will, anyway. Marcy, fierce competitive creature that she is, wants to compete in a venue she has a little more control over. This random partnering thing gives her Type A Personality Seizures.
In other news, Marcy is now Vice President of the Piedmont Swing Dance Society. She and two other PSDS board members and their partners (that’s me!) get to be on a Greensboro TV station dancing to promote an event we’ll be participating in. Fun!
We Are (considering maybe the possibility of perhaps) Moving!
// April 14th, 2005That’s right, the rumors are true-ish. We ARE looking at a great house in Greensboro, NC. It’s a gorgeous Duch Colonial, built in 1890. It sides on a fairly busy street, but inside the house you don’t notice the road noise all that much.
Here are the pix!
This is the front of the house. That’s Friendly Avenue on the right (with the bus), a major one-way four-lane road that runs E-W through downtown Greensboro. We’re only a couple blocks from downtown, but inside the house it’s very still.
The house was built in 1890. It’s not on any historic registers, though, so we’d be free to update and modify. In fact, it’s clear there have BEEN some updates–places where walls have been moved around, etc.
Here’s the living room. The current owner still lives there, so this is their stuff. Look at that great window nook! Marcy’s been wanting a window seat–this is a gorgeous spot for one!
This is the back door of the kitchen. Good big kitchen. The layout is a little bit funny–the sink is across the kitchen from the dishwasher, is the main thing. Note the cute transom light there!
And through that kitchen door is:
A super adorable breakfast nook!
Here’s the back elevation.
Then, here’s my favorite detail of the house:
This is a shot straight up from the bottom of the stairwell. Above the stairwell is a window-lit sort of cleretory or cupola. The ceiling is 12 feet there, and the added-on AC ductwork makes a sort of recessed windowed area. Very cool!
Here’s another shot that makes it easier to see. Note that you’re looking at the TOPS of the upstairs bedoom doors there–standard 8-foot doors. It’s very lofty and dramatic.
Oh my HECK!
Reach Out and Touch No One
// April 14th, 2005
Great article from the New York Times on people faking cell phone calls in public for reasons either mundane or nefarious. I’m interested in the way technology mediates public and private spaces. Somebody on a cell phone in public immediately creates a bubble of personal space around them, which may or may not be appropriate or appreciated. Here’s a whole bunch of people manipulating that effect in reverse!
Oh, and the hot girl above? If you see her on the phone… she’s not interested.
The New York Times > Fashion & Style > Thursday Styles > Reach Out and Touch No One
Nintendo Themes, A Cappella
// April 14th, 2005
To Rule the Earth…
// April 13th, 2005Comparisons of the sizes of various historical empires. At a mere 2,200,000 square miles, the Romans were pikers!
Pulling Down the Saddam Statue a Propaganda Stunt
// April 13th, 2005
I generally take internet conspiracies with more than a few grains of salt, but this one seems pretty well supported.
The claim, on this the anniversary of the glorious liberation of Iraq, is that:
1) The statue was actually pulled down by US Marines with their own equipment,
2) The square wasn’t jammed with cheering Iraqis–in fact only a hundred people or so witnessed the event, and
3) Those who were there were members of the Iraqi National Congress, an organisation of exiled Iraqis dedicated to taking the country back from Saddam. Evidently they were brought in by the US forces specifically for this event.
The article claims that through judicious framing of the video shot and misleading narration, a piece of theater was created for the American people to convince us that we are liberators and not occupiers.
The article actually shows pictures taken by non-conspiracy-compliant photographers to back this claim up. It goes on to describe the bogus intelligence that the Iraqi National Congress spoonfed the Glorious Liberators of the Adminstration–variations on the theme “He has WMDs!”, mostly.
I don’t entirely know what to think of this, but it certainly does look like we were lied to.
An Anniversary Worth Remembering by Harry Browne
Update: I did a bit more googling about this. From The LA Times, July3 2004:
It was a Marine colonel — not joyous Iraqi civilians, as was widely assumed from the TV images — who decided to topple the statue, the Army report said. And it was a quick-thinking Army psychological operations team that made it appear to be a spontaneous Iraqi undertaking.
This article includes quotes from the psy-ops commander on the scene. Pretty hard to deny.
Looks like blogger johnyawe was on top of this a year ago.
How did I not know this before? How did this story not make it out?