Monthly Archives: January 2012

I got lunch today at Sunny’s diner. Service was slow, and the servers ignored us for quite a long time despite the tiny venue. A distinct language barrier made it difficult to get anyone’s attention. During the course of our … Continue reading →

The reviews I got back on my manuscript essentially demanded that I perform animal (or human, but that’s harder) experiments in order to improve our validation of the technique. Normally this might be very upsetting, as arranging the required experiments … Continue reading →

I submitted my first real scientific manuscript in December, and I got back the reviews yesterday, after about 7 weeks. (This seemed like forever, but I am told that it is if anything unusually snappy.) I was chagrined to read … Continue reading →

Suppose you could build the perfect taxi system. How much would fare be? Suppose a taxi driver makes the median annual income of full-time employed Americans ($39,336/year) while working for a standard full-time-equivalent number of hours (50*40 = 2000 hours/year). … Continue reading →

I saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last week, and at first it seemed to transcend the common movie categories. Heavy on atmosphere and foreboding, a murder mystery but also a high tech action movie, all infused with sexual … Continue reading →

This weekend was the MIT Mystery Hunt. Last year my team (codex) won the hunt, and with it the customary prize of writing and managing next year’s hunt. I made no attempt to look like I was contributing to the … Continue reading →

I saw The Artist on Friday night. I highly recommend it to anyone who’s wondered what the authentic experience of a 1920s silent film was like. To me it’s long been a small mystery how a compelling feature film could … Continue reading →

In American English, there are a handful of noun phrases containing a demonym, typically highlighting some bad attribute wrongly associated with this ethnic group. These phrases are now falling out of use, as people realize that the implied stereotype is … Continue reading →

No snow this week, no snow forecast for next, and not even really any snow last month or the month before. A good year so far for bicycling, but still kind of a disappointment. I guess there’s still plenty of … Continue reading →