Month: August 2004

In Search of Fun Kid’s Lit

By AMH

From last weekend’s NYT book review section, Why Teachers Love Depressing Books spoke direrctly to my own childhood reading experiences. Reviewing Welcome to Lizard Motel: Children, Stories, and the Mystery of Making Things Up by Barbara Feinberg, which talks about imagination in children’s literature, it says: Only a reader as attuned to realism as Feinberg could have puzzled out so nuanced a defense of imagination in children’s lives. She sees the memoirlike problem novels as symptoms of ”the drastic fall from grace that the imagination has suffered in popular understanding” and her generation’s insistence on ”making our children wake from … Continue reading In Search of Fun Kid’s Lit

Genetic Spam Filtering

By AMH

Ooooo – the technology behind this new Chung-Kwei spam filter seems really sexy and the results sound good. Borrowing genetic sequencing techniques is a smart step beyond the Baysian filtering type tools, which the spammers are starting to subvert with those word lists at the end of messages. It’s not immediately clear to me how this algorithm avoids that problem, though. It would seem to also fall victim to messages which are substantially made up of non-spam random content.

Representation and Expressibility

By AMH

Looking at whether representation dictates expressibility in the human mind, a study was done of the ability of a Brazilian tribe without language for distinct numbers to perform counting activities, and it was found that the ability was severely restricted. The activities took the form of creating same-sized piles or matching the number of items into a jar with the number of items removed, and they generally did not succeed if there were more than a couple of items. The news article implies that there is a lack of ability to count, which seems too broad a statement – it … Continue reading Representation and Expressibility

Wooooo!

By AMH

I’m back, and you may now call me Dr. Screenshot, if you like. Or Professor Screenshot. Your choice!

Misplaced Magazines

By AMH

I’ve been into several Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores this past month, mostly browsing the magazines. I am appalled that in several (but to be fair, not all) of them, science magazines are shelved in the “Men’s Interest” section, right next to Maxim and Stuff. I know this is the case for the Borders in Ithaca, NY. I’d love to hear if this is the case for stores around other people as well. Do you think we could find a way to make it more uncomfortable for a teenage girl to pick up a copy of Scientific American or … Continue reading Misplaced Magazines

Reviewese

By AMH

If you read many professional book reviews, you’ll recognize the phenomena described as “reviewese” in this article on the cliches of book reviews. While useful shorthand, things can get out of hand: The “x meets y” construction is an invaluable way of summarising a book whose disparate elements might call for lengthier description. Another is to talk of an author’s progeny — he or she could be the bastard offspring, or bizarre lovechild, conceived in a crack house by the union of Marcel Proust and Jeanette Winterson. Yet another is the culinary image: take Tobias Smollett, stew him in his … Continue reading Reviewese

Coverage, or Lack Thereof

By AMH

I’m only idly watching the Olympics, but I was impressed by the Beach Volleyball coverage. It was so useful for the commentators to point out that the sand surface is forgiving but the women have to brush the sand off themselves – the closeup of Misty May’s sandy thighs didn’t communicate that fact sufficiently.

AAA Plug

By AMH

If you plan on doing any traveling by car, you absolutely must join AAA. Besides being covered if you break down, run out of gas, or generally need automotive help, the free maps and tour books can get you around the country and in and out of strange cities, and the attraction and restaurant recommendations are good. And if you call them, they’ll help you find an office near you while you’re on the road and give you directions so you can restock your maps on the go. That’s not including the fact that, if you’re going to many tourist … Continue reading AAA Plug