Links for 2008-11-17 [del.icio.us] The Aggregate Magic Algorithms Useful little algorithms for quick calculations sounds of manifolds Really weird-sounding clips of how different manifolds sound like... Free Blog Templates for Wordpress & Movabletype - CSSEZ Quotable Krugman The fact is that most senior officials have no idea what they are talking about: discussion at high-level meetings is startlingly primitive. (For example, the distinction between nominal and real interest rates tends to be regarded as a complex and useless bit of academic nitpicking). Furthermore, many powerful people prefer to take advice from those who make them feel comfortable rather than from those who will force them to think hard. That is, those who really manage to influence policy are usually the best courtiers, not the best analysts. I like to think that I am a good analyst, but I am certainly a very bad courtier. Reference Paul Krugman, Incidents from my career, undated. Canada rushes in, where Singaporeans fear to tread Big news in Singapore - the constitution’s changed again! What, you didn’t hear? Well, duh. No referendum, no public debates, just a quick note in the local press. No ginormous hassle like one would have in the United States in order to pass an amendment. No media circus. No arguments back and forth. Efficient, no? Sure, Singapore isn’t the US. But still, you’d think the public ought to be consulted when changing a document THIS important. IANAL but I thought the whole point of a constitution is to spell out the contract between government and the governed, curbing the power of the government to do whatever the heck they wanted. Not that I am necessarily disagreeing with the need for this amendment, but this just reeks of more “Oh here’s an inconvenient law on the books, it won’t let us do X.” “OK, let’s just remove it then” shenanigans. But what’s new? I just wonder what page of the ST that story got printed on. In other news, a Canadian national paper, the National Post, runs an exclusive interview with Chee Soon Juan, after yet another devastating defamation lawsuit was lodged against him. What is the Canadian connection, you ask? Besides harboring a significant population of ex-Singaporeans, many of whom can be traced back to the Nanyang University diaspora, the latest thread linking these two countries is the Canadian law firm Amsterdam & Peroff, which has been active in several high-profile cases of defamation and anti-state litigation work. A quote from the homepage of their website proclaims proudly that they are One of the few lawyers in the world [good at] taking on the state when the state starts acting like a criminal. There’s even a funny picture of Dr. Chee on Diane’s blog: The funniest part, I think, is when Diane Francis compares Dr. Chee to a modern-day Job for his suffering. Let’s hope his wife and sister don’t turn into a pillar of salt the next time they looks out a plane window. References   Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia, PM Lee says constitutional changes a major refinement to reserves framework, 2008-10-21. Diane Francis, The National Post, Singapore’s shame: ordeal of Chee Soon Juan, 2008-10-21. The 50th anniversary of the video game Fifty years ago today1, William Higinbotham, a staff scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, unveiled the world’s first2 video game. Called Tennis for Two, Higinbotham designed and built the circuits for the game for the 1958 Brookhaven Visitors’ Day, and by all accounts was a smash hit! Unfortunately for history, the game never made it big beyond the confines of the oscilloscope and circuit board at Brookhaven. The credit must go to Atari’s Pong game for being the first popular video game that spawned several entire multibillion-dollar industries - the arcade, the computer game and various accessory industries. Here’s a video of Tennis for Two - considering its age, it looks surprisingly modern and playable! References Joe Gettler, Brookhaven National Laboratory, The First Video Game? FootnotesOctober 18, 1958The title of first video game is somewhat disputed; however, it is manifestly clear that Tennis for Two was pioneering in two aspects. First, it had the first computer animations ever used as an integral part of the gameplay. Second, it was the first publicly available video game, albeit limited to the visitors of Brookhaven’s Open House in 1958. This much, at least, remains unchallenged. The 50th anniversary of the video game Fifty years ago today1, William Higinbotham, a staff scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, unveiled the world’s first2 video game. Called Tennis for Two, Higinbotham designed and built the circuits for the game for the 1958 Brookhaven Visitors’ Day, and by all accounts was a smash hit! Unfortunately for history, the game never made it big beyond the confines of the oscilloscope and circuit board at Brookhaven. The credit must go to Atari’s Pong game for being the first popular video game that spawned several entire multibillion-dollar industries - the arcade, the computer game and various accessory industries. Here’s a video of Tennis for Two - considering its age, it looks surprisingly modern and playable! References Joe Gettler, Brookhaven National Laboratory, The First Video Game? FootnotesOctober 18, 1958The title of first video game is somewhat disputed; however, it is manifestly clear that Tennis for Two was pioneering in two aspects. First, it had the first computer animations ever used as an integral part of the gameplay. Second, it was the first publicly available video game, albeit limited to the visitors of Brookhaven’s Open House in 1958. This much, at least, remains unchallenged. DSC01573.JPG [Flickr] Elia Diodati posted a photo: DSC01572.JPG [Flickr] Elia Diodati posted a photo: DSC01570.JPG [Flickr] Elia Diodati posted a photo: DSC01568.JPG [Flickr] Elia Diodati posted a photo: DSC01567.JPG [Flickr] Elia Diodati posted a photo: DSC01563.JPG [Flickr] Elia Diodati posted a photo: DSC01559.JPG [Flickr] Elia Diodati posted a photo: DSC01555.JPG [Flickr] Elia Diodati posted a photo: DSC01554.JPG [Flickr] Elia Diodati posted a photo: DSC01535.JPG [Flickr] Elia Diodati posted a photo: DSC01534.JPG [Flickr] Elia Diodati posted a photo: DSC01533.JPG [Flickr] Elia Diodati posted a photo: DSC01531.JPG [Flickr] Elia Diodati posted a photo: DSC01527.JPG [Flickr] Elia Diodati posted a photo: DSC01528.JPG [Flickr] Elia Diodati posted a photo: Reblogging tribolum [T]he University of Arizona… offered me a bond-free scholarship via an email. I replied to ask if there were any conditions attached, specifically a bond of employment. While the details were that I had to maintain certain grades in order to keep the scholarship money going for the whole duration of undergraduate study, there was no bond of any kind. They wrote back, saying they were giving me the scholarship because they believed I could contribute to society after graduation. Not American society. Humankind. If for whatever reason you feel like signing away x years of your life to a government agency just so you can study at an overseas college, please please please read Tribolum’s story about a bond-free scholarship to a US university. With apologies to Maya Angelou, I, too, know why the caged bird sings: The caged bird sings with fearful trill of the things unknown but longed for still and is tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom Why word sucks ‘”Text corpora is the lifeblood of most of our developement and texting processes”, says Mike Calcagno, general manager of the Microsoft group that manages Word.’ I think this second-hand quote summarizes everything that is wrong with Microsoft Word’s grammar checks. It imposes all sorts of ridiculous, arbitary, whimsical and nonsensical “grammatical” rules, whines whenever you use words that it thinks you cannot figure out how to use correctly, and is often unable to parse sentences properly, leading to all sorts of spurious complaints. To name just one artificial grammatical rule, Word makes distinctions between the usage of ‘that’ and ‘which’ when in many cases it’s possible to interchange them. It then comes as no surprise, then, that the Word development group is apparently led by a person who cannot even manage to enforce simple concord of plural nouns with plural verbs. When I am forced to use Word, I always have the grammar check feature turned off. I know it’s possible to customize the grammar check options, but it’s simply too much to take. Reference 1. Carl Bialik, Wall St. J., “Making every word count: Computers and the web complicate vital research on frequently used language”, 2008-09-12, A12. My first Wordle I was interested in Wordle but wasn’t sure what exactly to analyze with it. Then inspiration struck: What to eat today? The Omnivore’s Hundred (from Tym) 1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions. 2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten. 3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. 1. Venison - the teppanyaki venison at Wee Nam Kee chicken rice opposite Novena Church used to so good… 2. Nettle tea - the interesting thing about it is its indicator properties. When you add lemon, it changes from green to pink 3. Huevos rancheros - so bad for you, but so good! 4. Steak tartare - I felt this was like wagyu sashimi… 5. Crocodile - I might have had this, but I forget. 6. Black pudding - nothing to write home about. Taiwanese curdled pig blood on a stick (豬血糕) is much worse. 7. Cheese fondue - Gruyère makes the difference 8. Carp - not exotic for us. 9. Borscht - I had this at Moscow’s Shemeretyevo airport. It was surprisingly good 10. Baba ghanoush - yum 11. Calamari - sotong balls, breaded rings, braised… it’s all good 12. Pho - double yum 13. PB&J sandwich - triple yum. Smuckers! 14. Aloo gobi - quadruple yum. 15. Hot dog from a street cart - too often. Coney Island FTW! 16. Epoisses  17. Black truffle - does having tasted black truffle oil count?  18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes - Wisconsin cherry wine is surprisingly good. Peach wine, divine. Apple, good. Pear, meh. 19. Steamed pork buns - 叉燒包 = awesome. Wow Bao only marginally makes the cut. 20. Pistachio ice cream - B&J is always good. 21. Heirloom tomatoes - Brandywine! Red currant! 22. Fresh wild berries - I ate blackberries in Scotland, and found a strawberry patch in rural Illinois. They’re right - farm raised ones just don’t taste as good, even though local-grown still trumps supermarket California berries anytime. 23. Foie gras - Singapore’s Ember restaurant serves the incredibly divine foie gras with cream of mushroom soup. 24. Rice and beans - I make arroz con frijoles too often. 25. Brawn, or head cheese - eww 26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper 27. Dulce de leche - I prefer caramel OR custard separately 28. Oysters - yes! 29. Baklava - ok 30. Bagna cauda 31. Wasabi peas - real wasabi, not that cheap dyed horseradish garbage that’s found in tubes, makes a huge difference 32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl - yum 33. Salted lassi - yum, although mango lassi is more my thing 34. Sauerkraut - picked cabbage. yuck. 35. Root beer float - best done with Berghoff’s beer and B&J vanilla 36. Cognac with a fat cigar - no smokies! 37. Clotted cream tea - just tried it, albeit not in Devonshire. I have no idea why clotted cream makes a cuppa so special! 38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O 39. Gumbo - best in the South, obviously. Other places do really bad imitations. 40. Oxtail - surprisingly yummy. 41. Curried goat - I assume lamb vindaloo isn’t quite the same… 42. Whole insects 43. Phaal 44. Goat’s milk - tasty 45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth US$120 or more - I paid for a tasting.  46. Fugu 47. Chicken tikka masala - standard Indian fare in the US. 48. Eel - unagi 鰻 and anago 穴子 are both delicious.  49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut - the only way to eat this is fresh off the machine. Once you do it, you’ll never eat it cold again. 50. Sea urchin - umi sashimi is indescribably creamy and briny. Yum!! 51. Prickly pear 52. Umeboshi - overrated. Then again, I don’t like pickled anything. Tsukemono 漬け物 are a pure relic of pre-refrigeration history. 53. Abalone - inedible as sashimi, fantastic as noodle soup 54. Paneer - good 55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal - I confess 56. Spaetzle 57. Dirty gin martini - what’s the big deal? 58. Beer above 8% ABV - ditto 59. Poutine - So bad yet so good. I once made a pilgrimage to Québéc just for it… 60. Carob chips - the surprising resemblance to chocolate chips ends the moment you bite into them 61. S’mores - Kinda gross, actually 62. Sweetbreads 63. Kaolin － Not unlike a sake version of vodka. The Taiwanese version is smoother than the mainland Fujian variety. 64. Currywurst 65. Durian - the best thing to eat in front of revolted ang mohs 66. Frogs’ legs - 田雞 is best stir-fried 67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake - yes, yes, yes. Yum, ok, yum. I don’t like cinnamon. Oh god, I’m a pig! 68. Haggis - surprisingly less gross than its description might suggest 69. Fried plantain - not unlike goreng pisang, but using plaintains to make amarillos results in something crispy and not mushy.  70. Chitterlings, or andouillette - Isn’t this kway chap? I hate it! 71. Gazpacho - so good on a hot sticky day 72. Caviar and blini - Russian sturgeon roe. yum. Haven’t tried them together though. 73. Louche absinthe 74. Gjetost, or brunost 75. Roadkill 76. Baijiu - 高粱酒 is very vodka-y, while tea spirits 茶酒 is gross. 77. Hostess Fruit Pie - blech 78. Snail - escargots! 79. Lapsang souchong - very smoky, but good 80. Bellini 81. Tom yum - duh 82. Eggs Benedict - according to Wikipedia, McDonald’s Egg McMuffin is poor man’s knockoff! 83. Pocky - too often 84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant - ouch 85. Kobe beef - good raw, better barbecued on a stick. The burger at Serendipity in Manhattan is just showy and defeats the purpose 86. Hare (rabbit counts!) 87. Goulash 88. Flowers - Sunflowers. I once ate cooked apple flowers, and I’ve had basic flowers in my basil sprig. Do ixora nectar, rosebud and chrysanthemum teas count? 89. Horse - basashi 馬刺 is touch and chewy. Even Japanese from outside Kumamoto think it’s gross. 90. Criollo chocolate 91. Spam - downtown Edinburgh before 11 am smells of fried spam. Geez. 92. Soft shell crab - not chili crab, but still good 93. Rose harissa 94. Catfish - unremarkable. Apparently only Midwesterners and Southerners eat them; the rest are repulsed by its bottom-feeding habits. 95. Mole poblano - Tex-Mex! 96. Bagel and lox - Gravlax is also good 97. Lobster Thermidor - Does Lobster Newberg count? Ironically, New England was once so awash with lobster that it once had a law that said that servants could not be fed lobster more than thrice weekly. 98. Polenta - grits and cornmeal are as close as I’ve come to it 99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee 100. Snake - Taipei’s snake blood soup 蛇血燙 is the epitome of WTF is this food!!?? I counted 72/100. That’s probably too high a score ain’t it? Yet another example of Channel NewsAsia’s “quality” journalism “CNA…kwality journalism as always” - b_catenin Thanks to b_catenin who discovered this massive Channel NewsAsia FAIL. On the surface, this insipid article seems like nothing more than the typical bland coverage of the Olympics. However, the choice of accompanying photo makes it blindingly obvious that at least one person, probably more, is asleep at the editors’ offices. That is most certainly not an Indonesian flag on the badminton player’s shirt! If you’re wondering what country’s flag that is, it’s India. The confusion is understandable when one takes into account that in Chinese, India is 印度 while Indonesia is either 印尼 or 印度尼西亚, and that both Indonesians and Indians are relatively dark-skinned. Still, when you add this to the increasing pile of evidence that Channel NewsAsia does a really terrible job of journalistic inquiry and fact-checking, it is really not at all surprising that the Singapore media doesn’t have a particularly sterling reputation anywhere. The birthplace of ‘anteanteanteantepenultimate’ Ennui finally got the better of me and I’ve decided to coin the word ‘anteanteanteantepenultimate’, meaning “sixth from the last”. Welcome! I searched for the sequence of words ‘ultimate’, ’penultimate’, ‘antepenultimate’, … on Google and got this particular distribution of hits: Hopefully I now get to skew the tail end of this plot a little. Heh heh. Links for 2008-08-11 [del.icio.us] Dovecot secure imap server The LHC, what’s the mystery? The Large Hadron Collider has reached its operational temperature and should be ready to fire today, with injection tests scheduled over the weekend. The first actual experiments are scheduled for September, but if you’re absolutely dying to find out what’s going on right now, here’s a summary of the testing so far. Meanwhile, if you’re still unsure as to what the big deal with the LHC is all about, here’s a short summary:  The rate of the development of science The rate of the development of science is not the rate at which you make observations alone but, much more important, the rate at which you create new things to test. - Richard P. Feynman, The meaning of it all Tomorrow’s a big day The Olympics begin at 2008-08-08, 8:08 pm (GMT+8), thus ushering in two weeks of frantic festivities and flaunting physiques. The Large Hadron Collider will be turned on, with a 10-25% probability of making Stable Black Holes That Eat Up the Earth, Destroying All Living Organisms in the Process And Singapore will gear up to celebrate yet another year of economic prosperity and racial integration. Happy birthday.