feed your brain in the office
How to write a sestina. Getting a computer to write about it itself. Full text of The Policeman's Beard was Half Constructed, written (sort of) by AI bot Racter. The terror of sleep paralysis. More on sleep paralysis. Some information on decision trees and machine learning. Great anecdote on neural networks.
Labels: AI, machine learning, neural networks, poetry, sleep paralysis, writing
Interview with Jason Fortuny, 'professional internet troll. Proprioception, the internal sense. There is a name for the almost-black you see in absence of light. There is an actual condition called the Exploding Head Syndrome, but it's not what you might think. Disruption of the sleeping cycle, deliberate sleep deprivation, and taming sleep permanently. The dissimilarity in birthrates. Cover designers of famous writers. Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. Satirical WWI (images) maps of Europe. The urgent issue of national security that the US didn't deal with.
WWII bombing run based on travel guide to Britain. The British accidentally sink ships with 7,000 concentration camp victims. More than you should ever know about the serial comma. Enjoy the short popularity of intelligent music. Euphemisms used to talk about Iraq policy. The online traces of the alleged anthrax killer. "Neither the campaigners nor the police would comment, because they’re made of Lego and therefore can’t talk."
Terribly awful journalism. The joy of pursuing the absurd, people who read dictionaries. What is the role of character in society? Life at the bottom of the ocean. Amazing photos of the still virgin Large Hadron Collider. A quest to getting one's head around memory. More on memory palaces. A discourse between Benjamin Franklin and... the gout. Review (with pop-up ad) of a new book about Kafka. Article on the moral opposites of Dostoyevski and the Marquis de Sade. Geniuses aren't necessarily born that way. The lugubrious way of life of behaviour-modifying parasites. Mind Muphry's Law and think twice before you correct someone's spelling. The deceit of Amazon reviews. A dedicated pastry chef if there ever was one. Who really were the 'responsible' parties of the Love Canal disaster? Britain, like any country, has hordes of deeply befuddled people.
Labels: character, disaster, dostoyevski, genius, insects, journalism, LHC, memory, memory palace, ocean, parasite, pastry, reviews, sade
Some of these quotes are brilliantly funny. Redesign package for Gmail. The psychology of the Sims. Patterns arising from simple interactions, and its role in games. Something to wrap your head around. Loteries are used primarily by those who cannot afford it. The end of humanity? A small mistake can mess things up right good, as demonstrated over and over (images) again. We saw the heavy metal monk, but how rockin' is the Middle East? The historical mistakes of a great film. Interesting new research (obtrusive heading) on autism. Perception influenced by 'random' brain activity? Unsettling new military development.
Today is exactly 4 years since the Paraguay supermarket fire, killing 374. Silly interview with the creator of Solitaire/Patience. Simple rules leading to complex behaviour: Langton's Ant, more Langton's Ant, and Paterson's Worms. Langton's lambda parameter, from randomness (too chaotic) to complete order (too predictable), to the Edge of Chaos. Very interesting article on removing the clutter of traffic signs. The ancient history of humour, a review of two books on the subject. The calendar computer of the old Greeks. A read on lifts/elevators that will keep you occupied for a while. The security video (youtube) of the unfortunate man mentioned in the story. What is it like to lose one's sense of smell? It's good to know some phrases in a foreign language, especially these.
