Category Archives: Uncategorized

My good friend Soren Kirkegaard once said about irony: Irony is a disciplinarian feared only by those who do not know it, but cherished by those who do. He who does not understand irony and has no ear for its whispering lacks eo ipso what might be called the absolute beginning of the personal life.Continue reading “Cameron’s Ironic.. or not!”

Last summer my good friend and former bandmate Dan Paluska was shipped off to a remote island off the coast of Scotland to compete in the latest reality competition, TLC’s Escape from Experiment Island. The second episode airs tonight at 10PM. The plot is simple. It’s Junkyard Wars meets Survivor. Characters within and between teamsContinue reading “Escape from Suvivor Junkyard Wars”

Mr. Negroponte wrote a simple and elegant introduction to the Technology Review’s 10 Emerging Technologies issue this month, touting the benefits of interdisciplinary research, youth and creativity. Even though it’s a simple reiteration of the Media Lab party line, the article sent my mind off in a thousand directions. As an academic in an interdisciplinaryContinue reading “Diversity breeds creativity”

This week’s New Yorker carries a fascinating story, one that is unfortunately not online, but would surely spread like crazy if it was. It tells the sad tale of people who are “locked in,” that is having lost complete communication with their muscles, and in turn the outside world. These people are not in comas,Continue reading “Locked in but not locked out”

Mardi Gras.. Cancun?! What kind of life is that for a graduate student? I’ll be making my return to the Sunbelt Social Networks Conference at the beginning of February to present more findings on the analysis of Blogdex data. Since the findings last year were such a big hit, I’ll make sure and post themContinue reading “Sunny Cancun”

In response to Rusty’s offensive image of the week: I felt I should let our readers know that the infamous bunny-with-pancake has passed on to bigger better worlds with more ridiculous stunts. Its owner documented the entire event. I cried.

Two bits of MIT related news that might be interesting to the outside world: first, four MIT professors, including one Marvin Minsky (along with Steven Pinker and Rodney Brooks) wrote memos to President Bush answering the questions “What are the pressing scientific issues for the nation and the world, and what is your advice onContinue reading “Marvin reorganizes, Bill reorders”

After about 15 minutes of translation with Babelfish, I was able to set myself up an account on the ISize ECard site, a Japanese electronic card system. Just check out some of the awe-inspiring flash cards they have to offer, and you’ll see why the effort is worth it. I can’t see any reason toContinue reading “Kiss BlueMountain goodbye!”

A most useful writing guide, Matt Olson gives us an inverse Strunk and White for the web, along with some witty social commentary on the average virtual community member: How to Write Like A Wanker

This week I must shift into overdrive with respect to my generals examinations, to be completed by the end of February. I’m reading a massive amount of papers every day, and since I’ll be avoiding the Interweb as much as possible, I’ll try and post some choice quotes from my reading to keep people stimulated.Continue reading “Thank you women”