NBC has webcams around New York City. The one looking off the Manhattan Bridge still shows a cloud of smoke. The one listed as looking off the World Trade Center has gone black. [via Robot Wisdom]
Yesterday, I was wondering what was in the World Trade Center. I knew nothing about the building, besides the fact that it was very tall. The Washinton Post has put up a listing of the businesses that had offices in the two towers, along with an indication of the company's industry. [via Robot Wisdom]
An admittedly rough argument for how skilled a pilot would have to be to hit the World Trade Center, with an interesting reader comment following it up. [via Rebecca's Pocket]
I've encountered a couple of responses to what happened yesterday - anyone who's been watching television or reading about the attacks as seen them: anger, grief, shock, vulnerability, desire for revenge stemming from those feelings, and fear of acting too quickly on our feelings. I think that everyone is having all of these feelings, and is so overwhelmed, that the words and actions that are coming out are ways to release some of the grief and fear.
Nobody seems to know how to act today. Some people seem untouched and unclear on why others are shaken by yesterday's events. I think that's the hardest response for me to see. But mostly people are trying to go on with their lives, with the uncertainty about what actually happened, and what comes next, floating around in their heads.
And things aren't over yet. Even the immediate crisis isn't over. There are still many, many people missing, and many, many people working to find survivors while there is still hope, and to help get New York City and D.C. back up on their feet. So while people will of course start talking about what to do now, I hope the country doesn't forget the people who are still personally dealing with yesterday's horror.
This morning's events have been unreal. I was listening to the radio as the planes hit around the east. None of the news websites are up, but NowThis is doing a good job of cataloging the morning's events and finding at least a few links.
I've found a television now and managed to hear a few more details myself (though I wish coverage could have been faster about the location and aftermath of the crash in Western PA - some of us know people down there, who, thankfully, I've received confirmation are fine). The coverage has moved on to recreating what happened and following the rescue efforts.
I can't imagine what will happen next. It seems that this confirms suspicions that national security is in some ways more for projecting an image of security than for eliminating risks. Four crashes within such a short period of time! A congressman from eastern PA started in with accusations about this being the fault of insufficient defense funding pretty early on, but I'm cynical that one can entirely eliminate these risks.
I occasionally enjoy Jon Carroll - I say that, of course, because I enjoyed two things he wrote this week, and now ... I will share them with you. (If I didn't, this wouldn't be much of a weblog.) Today, he talked about DVD commentary tracks, complete with his own rendition of the typical ramblings one hears in them. And yesterday, he put out a plea to pedestrians to be more predictable, particularly to cross the street when a driver waves you across rather than get into a stalemate over who should go first. Which is very good advice, so long as you remember to look for other oncoming traffic first. Too often, a driver in one lane will stop and wave me across, but the drivers in the opposite lane just keep driving. Or, a driver will stop to let me cross, and the person behind them decides to pass them. It's tempting to see a driver tell you to cross and just go, but they rarely bother to check if everyone else is being as thoughtful.
I love the 50lb Butter Palm Pilot (featured at the 2001 Minnesota State Fair). [via Windowseat]
If you're looking for a job, or looked for a job recently, you might be interested in this article about the privacy practices of Monster.com [via RRE]. I've heard a number of people praise them recently, and there is even a quote suggesting grads looking for jobs check them out in my grad group's latest handbook, so I was a little unsettled to hear that their privacy practices may not be as strict as one would wish. Two points that caught my eye:
4) Monster.com supplies AOL Time Warner, a marketing partner and owner of vast customer databases of its own, with information from job-search activities -- including unique resume I.D. numbers from job applicants who post a resume on Monster.com.
5) MonsterTrak, a job site for college students hosted at Monster.com, screens different job opportunities based on where students go to school; and asks students to provide age and gender information without the benefit of a specific privacy policy.
There's always something great over at Pop Culture Junk Mail, even when Gael is in the middle of moving halfway across the country and starting a new job:
The Visual Elements Periodic Table is one of the most beautifully done sites I've seen. Definitely try the Flash version. I don't need a periodic table, but I'm coveting their wallchart of this one.
Every geek should visit the Dew Death Calculator and check how close they are to drinking enough cans of Mountain Dew to kill them.
Fallingwater is falling down, but thankfully they now have the money to fix it. Growing up, I never knew this was a famous building. We used to go for hikes up in that area, and I just thought of it as "that weird house that stuck out over the stream". I've never been inside, so I'm glad they're working on it and I'll still get a chance to check it out. [via Breaching the Web]
I'm glad there are enough instances of the genre to call for a Mathematical Quotations Server, though I think they go a little outside just mathematical quotations. I'll leave you with some of my favorites:
We are not very pleased when we are forced to accept a mathematical truth by virtue of a complicated chain of formal conclusions and computations, which we traverse blindly, link by link, feeling our way by touch. We want first an overview of the aim and of the road; we want to understand the idea of the proof, the deeper context.
Weyl, Hermann
Unterrichtsblätter für Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften, 38, 177-188 (1932). Translation by Abe ShenitzerA formal manipulator in mathematics often experiences the discomforting feeling that his pencil surpasses him in intelligence.
Eves, Howard W.
In Mathematical Circles, Boston: Prindle, Weber and Schmidt, 1969.On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
Babbage, CharlesErrors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.
Babbage, CharlesAn expert is a man who has made all the mistakes, which can be made, in a very narrow field.
Bohr, Niels Henrik DavidHow can you shorten the subject? That stern struggle with the multiplication table, for many people not yet ended in victory, how can you make it less? Square root, as obdurate as a hardwood stump in a pasture -- nothing but years of effort can extract it. You can't hurry the process. Or pass from arithmetic to algebra; you can't shoulder your way past quadratic equations or ripple through the binomial theorem. Instead, the other way; your feet are impeded in the tangled growth, your pace slackens, you sink and fall somewhere near the binomial theorem with the calculus in sight on the horizon. So died, for each of us, still bravely fighting, our mathematical training; except for a set of people called "mathematicians" -- born so, like crooks.
Leacock, Stephen
In H. Eves Return to Mathematical Circles, Boston: Prindle, Weber and Schmidt, 1988.There is no branch of mathematics, however abstract, which may not some day be applied to phenomena of the real world.
Lobatchevsky, Nikolai
In N. Rose Mathematical Maxims and Minims, Raleigh NC:Rome Press Inc., 1988.
Machines in the Myths is a nice, accessible article looking at claims seen in the media recently that artificial intelligence has created conscious computers and dissecting what those claims actually mean. It lays out a nice, high-level description of many of the types of AI research going on and how they might relate to building a conscious machine. Plus, I get an acknowledgement for mailing her some pointers :)
So much for the spirit of open debate... Okay, I was a little biting in my previous entry's comments about InfidelityToday, but my point was that people might have better relationships if they took sexual infidelity as just one sign of the health of the relationship (and not necessarily the most significant), and that I wasn't convinced the test could prove anything. Clearly, that warranted the following reply:
People like you make me sick. You are truly an ignorant moron and I suspect an over zealous ultra right wing born again hypocrite republican freak too! Your twisted logic and pathetic observations and opinions are astounding to say the least. Your right about one thing, there is a huge market fo this product and we believe our products to have the potential to change the world even if only in a small way.
Your comments about our product being patent pending proves just how little you know about anything. Do you realize the patent process is a long and slow one? No one has ever been issued a patent over night. That's not the way it's done. Now go back to sleep! IDIOT.
I'm still trying to understand how my opinions align me with the right-wing. I thought we observed a couple of years ago that republicans like to denounce infidelity; I would think, by stereotype, they would be all for catching unfaithful spouses and sneaking around to do it if necessary. And I can't imagine what grounds he is using for the hypocrite accusation. It's almost as if he thinks I'm saying you should put up with whatever your spouse does, even if they cheat on you. He can't be so intellectually unsophisticated as to have misread me that badly, can he?
But the second paragraph would seem to indicate exactly how little this guy knows about carefully reading what people write instead of assuming they are stupid and predictable because they disagree with you. The length and difficulty of the patent process, which I understand perfectly well, does not change the fact that having a patent pending does not guarantee that the product is unique or functional. I did not say "If it's so good, why don't you have a patent yet?" That would have been ignorant of me. However, until one has a patent, one's patent status isn't a reliable testament to the quality of one's product.
I did go check, and they do have a trademark on "Checkmate". I couldn't find the patent application, but the database just doesn't seem to go back that far.
It's not just graduate students who feel mistreated. Now postdocs, who in many fields are spending longer and longer in this supposedly temporary position, are organizing and talking of unionizing. Academic life gets very hard all around, once family and broader life considerations start to get factored in. [via Sigma Xi: In The News]
States are starting to legislate that schools cannot require children to take Ritalin and other behavior modifying drugs, or even suggest the drugs to parents. Well, that's good. But is this going to change the fact that the number of "behavior problems" being reported is on the rise? What are teachers who formerly would have called parents and suggested (requested?) that their children be put on Ritalin now going to do when they face the same behavior in the classroom? Are schools going to try to identify what it is about schools that are making children act this way? Or are teachers going to call parents telling them to "do something" about their children, and expect them to do it as quickly and effectively as drugs can do it, or else their kids will be kicked out of school? [via RRE]
In response to a spam that caught my eye, I linked to www.infidelity.com back on June 8th, saying:
"So you don't have to go check how they follow up their claim of being able to categorically prove, in 5 minutes, whether your spouse is faithful or not, they mail you a chemical test to detect semen, along with directions on all the places you might want to look for it. This just seems so sad, and so stupid, and yet I suspect they'll find a market for their product."
I mention this because, a couple of days ago the people of InfidelityToday (as represented as a guy with a hotmail address, which always strikes me as the sign of a reputable internet business...) contacted me, thanking me for my link, but disagreeing with my assessment of their product as "sad and stupid". In the interest of open debate, I copy part of this letter here, as it is in no way personal and is from a company, not an individual (in case any readers fear I'm going to post their mail all over my site...):
Other so called educated author types have claimed this must be a scam or a joke too. Nothing could be further from the truth! Not only do we have a patent pending on this amazing product, CHECKMATE is also a federally registered trademark. This product has also been cleared with the FDA! Now, even if certain people think this is sad or stupid it appears as though the federal government and our customers has taken this product quite seriously. We also have new distributorships opening in many countries around the world and are constantly being hounded by others wanting in on this.
Well, I didn't say it was a scam or a joke. I believe the product can detect semen. Not, of course, that having a patent pending means it works - pending means they haven't granted it yet. And getting a trademark has even less to do with the quality of the product. But, at least we know they put in the effort to do a bunch of paperwork. Nor did I doubt the potential demand for the product. In fact, it's exactly this demand I find sad. But let's see what they say about the people who use the product:
The most important thing you must know about this product is the fact it has helped countless numbers of people who find themselves in a very bad situation. I believe you made a snap judgment about this product without considering one very important point. This is not something a person would just purchase and use on a daily basis every time someone left the house. This is for people who have tried everything else and are really suffering from the effects of being treated unfairly. It's not always as easy as "just leave em". Most of our customer are upper income types who have something to lose and they want to know for sure before they make the next move.
Is this product really helping people? If your marriage has deteriorated to the point you're testing your spouse for signs of infidelity, you have serious problems. Whatever the result, you need to be doing some serious thinking about what is happening and changing your relationship. If they are "really suffering from the effects of being treated unfairly", what does it matter if their spouse is physically cheating on them? There is a problem to solve right there - and the solution doesn't necessarily have to be divorce. However, the solicitude for the "upper income types" who will continue to suffer in order to maintain their lifestyle so long as there is no infidelity is heartwarming. Certainly, low-income types have much less to lose going from a double-income to a single-income lifestyle.
And how does this make them sure? If their product finds nothing, that doesn't guarantee your spouse didn't have sex. And, if it finds something, well, how do you know it's the result of an infidelity, particularly when said spouse is a man? I would suspect any husband having an affair, confronted with this "evidence", could make a pretty simple excuse and turn the argument around to their spouse's distrusting use of this product.
The people who have successfully used this product think of us in a godly manner (read the testimonials on one of our sites) and we are constantly being thanked and praised for the work we do and the service we provide.
Godly, huh? I wonder that the people who would use the word "godly" would apply it to, or even take advantage of, this product... Wouldn't people who were concerned about godliness also have a respect for honesty, open dealing with others, and trust? Again, why is an incidence of sex the be-all and end-all of infidelity (and by implication in previous pieces of this message and the website, of whether a marriage should be broken or not)?
One last point for you to ponder. . . When old Henry Ford first started making the Model T many many people "hated the damn thing". Even though his invention was truly revolutionary in its nature some ignorants still continued to ride the horse for another 30 years! Looking around today, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize the fact Henry was truly a visionary and genius to boot.
Wow! Ignorant people kept riding horses until 1938? Thank goodness we don't see that happen anymore! And was Ford's car really revolutionary and genius, rather than the final, critical, and insightful step in a century of developing cars that finally made them appealing to a wide audience? Please, PLEASE, don't tell me they are hoping with this analogy to suggest that "CHECKMATE" will have as widespread an impact on society as the automobile had. That would be enough to get me to sign up with the Amish right now...
Once again, thanks for the link.
Oh, no problem. I hope you'll appreciate my further honest thoughts on your product as much as you appreciated the last batch.
I'm only happy when it rains
I'm only happy when it's complicated
and though I know you can't appreciate it
I'm only happy when it rains
you know I love it when the news is bad
and why it feels so good to feel so sad
I'm only happy when it rains
pour your misery down...pour your misery down on me
pour your misery down...pour your misery down on me
I'm only happy when it rains
I feel good when things are going wrong
I only listen to the sad sad songs
I'm only happy when it rains
I only smile in the dark
my only comfort is the night gone black
I didn't accidentally tell you that
I'm only happy when it rains
you'll get the message by the time I'm through
when I complain about me and you
I'm only happy when it rains
pour your misery down...pour your misery down on me
pour your misery down...pour your misery down on me
pour your misery down...pour your misery down on me
|pour your misery down
you can keep me company as long as you don't care
I'm only happy when it rains
you wanna hear about my new obsession
I'm riding high upon a deep depression
I'm only happy when it rains
pour some misery down on me
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