The Wampus Cat

2009/10/26

“All the News We Hope to Print”

Filed under: academia, culture, environment, humor, politics, print — The Wampus Cat @ 15:16

IRAQ WAR ENDS

I just wrote that I get way too many things to believe from AG, but they’re usually in my email inbox. Today the post office box had yet another good thing from AG, a July 4th New York Times (“liberal” is an inapt adjective). AG met up with Yes Man Jacques Servin (nee Andy Bichlbaum, Ray Thomas, etc.) in Los Angeles for an event promoting the Yes Mens’ new movie The Yes Men Fix The World at the Hammer Museum. AG managed to pick up a couple NYTs and sent one on to me. The best thing that has come in the mail in quite a long time. Thanks bucky.

The London Review of Books

Filed under: academia, culture, politics — The Wampus Cat @ 14:29

Mary-Kay Wilmer Portrait

The London Review of Books is the only subscription I keep up to a paper newspaper or magazine, and Mary-Kay Wilmer, the editor, is one of the reasons why I’m so insistent that it keep coming. Here’s a good Guardian piece on her and her new book, which isn’t (very unfortunately) coming out in the States until April 2010.

[Photo from the Guardian article. Guardian article via AG, who sends me so many wonderful things every day I can't keep up with them]

2009/08/08

The Lure of the Labyrinth

Filed under: academia, culture, design — The Wampus Cat @ 15:32

wow

CJR and I have been playing a game that her dad worked on, Thinkport’s fantastic The Lure of the Labyrinth. I’d come across the game before and never got into it, but on the second go round, I can’t stop playing. It’s supposed to be for ~5th grade kids in math class, there’s a lot of pattern recognition and arithmetic. Games that are explicitly “educational” usually aren’t that interesting to kids, but remove that “educational” tag, and you’ve got kids at at least one Chicago Public Library absolutely loving Labyrinth (CJR, worried about the silly games that the kids in the branch she’s working at were playing on the library computers, introduced them to Labyrinth. It was, and still is, a hit). The game doesn’t need to be played in a classroom, you can just sign up with a Thinkport account and go. It’s also Flash, so no downloading files necessary (except for, ah, Flash). There are some tedious parts and I wish the user had keyboard control of the character, but these are small issues. I’d recommend checking it out yourself and telling the kids you know about it.

[Image is a screenshot from one of the first narrative sections of the game.]

2009/06/09

Success Brings Rewards

Filed under: academia — The Wampus Cat @ 16:09

Success Brings Rewards

To teach myself a lesson for getting an “A” in a class I did not expect to get an “A” in, I bought some red shoes.

“A brief guide to scientific literature”

Filed under: academia — The Wampus Cat @ 15:34

“It has long been known == I haven’t bothered to check the references.

It is known == I believe.

It is believed == I think.

It is generally believed == My colleagues and I think.

There has been some discussion == Nobody agrees with me.

It can be shown == Take my word for it.

It is proven == It agrees with something mathematical.

Of great theoretical importance == I find it interesting.

Of great practical importance == This justifies my employment.

Of great historical importance == This ought to make me famous.

Some samples were chosen for study == The others didn’t make sense.

Typical results are shown == The best results are shown.

Correct within order of magnitude == Wrong.

The values were obtained empirically == The values were obtained by accident.

The results are inconclusive == The results seem to disprove my hypothesis.

Additional work is required == Someone else can work on the details.

It might be argued that == I have a good answer to this objection.

The investigations proved rewarding == My grant has been renewed.

Synthesized according to standard protocols == Purchased.”

[Also readily applies to the Humanities. I'm done with college. This list is from Rich Chin's "Rules of the Lab"]

2009/05/19

Filed under: academia, internet, linux, technology — The Wampus Cat @ 21:09

Ah, Internet2. Just a thought about downloading the Ubuntu 9.04 ISO on the University of Chicago network from the Argonne Labs servers. It got as fast as 21 MB per second. (Here are the university members of Internet2.)

2009/05/14

Filed under: academia — The Wampus Cat @ 14:04

A nightmare scenario. (Adam doesn’t really think this about political science majors.)

2009/05/13

Filed under: academia — The Wampus Cat @ 22:53

Among the things I wish I had known at the beginning of college (alongside “Picking an easy major that you’re not really interested in will wind up being difficult for unusual reasons”) is that there is a place on campus to get decent food late at night. The University of Chicago campus isn’t the best place to be if you’re looking for a quick dinner at 8:30 at night (or later) but in the last year I discovered an Au Bon Pain in the Hospitals. It’s become my source of food whenever I am working in the library until late (which is now about every weeknight). It’s not the best but it works.

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