Sounds Like Fun
A new themepark in Berlin called "Ossi" (Eastern) takes visitors back to East Germany. Almost fifteen years after the collapse, "Ostalgia" has hit the hipsters.
The plan is for surly border guards to monitor the people queuing up to get in, to randomly search them, demand their euros are changed into DDR banknotes and warn them not to bring in "decadent" western literature on to the premises. Signs at the entrance will proclaim: "You are now leaving the German Federal Republic."
Inside, visitors can expect a Dome-like experience built around a typical east German street, the building of a Trabant car, the recreation of a secret police cell, the songs of the Young Pioneers, food and drink in a typical Ossi restaurant.
In other bizzare European news, the owner of a pizzareia in Denmark has banned Germans and French from the establishment because their countries are "disloyal" and "anti-American".
Thursday, February 27, 2003 04:34 p.m.
A.I ... Eh
Salon has a two part series on Hugh Loebner. He's the guy to judge programs that come closest to passing the Turing test. He is also "out and proud" as a frequent john of sex workers.
Loebner has many enthusiasms. He likes prostitutes. He likes marijuana. He likes pornography. He likes the Loebner Prize. He likes wine and fine paintings. And he likes Hugh Loebner. He spoke enthusiastically about all those things. But I was surprised to learn that he didn't seem to care much about artificial intelligence, per se.
His interest in the field has always been pragmatic, he told me, never philosophical. He's a hedonist who thinks work is an abomination and sloth is our greatest virtue. He got interested in A.I. because he hoped the day would come when robots and A.I.'s could do all the work and people could play all the time. I asked him about the current state of A.I. research. Well, he said, some progress was evidently being made in the area of "decision support" systems, but that didn't really interest him too much. What about the quality of entrants in his competition? "Pretty gruesome," he said. "Gruesome."
It's an awfully fun read.
Thursday, February 27, 2003 03:56 p.m.
Spring Fever
Forget any cynicism these last few months; there's nothing like someone new to add spring to your step. I'm walking into telephone poles and giggling like a naughty schoolgirl by no catalyst but the ever wandering mind.
Thursday, February 27, 2003 01:51 p.m.
Tap This Business Week explains that wiretapping is archaic because there are far to many technologies to deal with -- the old bug-the-phone trick is barely relevent. That doesn't stop the FBI from expanding its powers each time something new hits the market, "Every time the technology moves ahead, you have all these pitfalls -- all these potential points where we can creep away from the status quo to a far more intrusive type of surveillance," says Lee Tien, a senior attorney at San Francisco-based advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Thursday, February 27, 2003 01:48 p.m.
"Iron Lady" Cuffed Bosnia's "Iron Lady", Biljana Plavsic got eleven years today for war crimes.
Thursday, February 27, 2003 01:41 p.m.
Public Choice Analysis of Cheating
Here's idea to tag onto my monogamy model; the people with which you cheat are almost never as attractive as the one you are with. There are two ways a man can make a woman feel important: either making her his partner or cheating on his partner with her. The latter is somewhat disingenous flattery, and allows plenty of women to bask in their delusions. Promiscuous women rarely understand that most men will have sex with just about anything -- it's what they can give you in addition to sex that takes class. They mistake sex as actual affection, and walk away the morning after rationalizing they are "liberated," a "reject you before you reject me" type of paradox. But the only real way we can assert our attractiveness is by having signifigant others that match or exceed our intellect, looks, and charm.
Plenty of people in "monogamous" relationships "cheat," but after the fact, very few actually leave their partner for the other. A woman envious of another will try to get with her partner regardless of whether or not she finds him attractive. That he might detract, even for a matter of minutes, validates an irrational woman's jealousy.
If my partner found another woman more attractive than me, he'd be with her instead. That being stated, would it bother me if my partner "cheats?" Of course it would, but it's a scratching sign of disrespect, not a crushing blow of defeat. How can I be jealous of inferior women? As Anais Nin wrote to a cheating lover, "My poor Lenny, how blind you are! A woman is only jealous when she has nothing, but I who am that most loved of all women, what can I be jealous of?"
Wednesday, February 26, 2003 04:01 p.m.
Censor News Network, 2
Robert Fisk, a name sullied by hack-job "warbloggers" but a man well-respected by sober readers, has a commentary for the Independent on how news will be edited for your greater ignorance. He describes CNN's unwieldy "script approval" policy, reminding us only after the the Gulf War did CNN admit Pentagon "trainees" were sitting in the Atlanta office.
Tuesday, February 25, 2003 04:22 p.m.
Comrade Gephardt
The Armchair Economist, Steven Lansburg has a brief op-ed in WSJ on Dick Gephardt's presidental platform, "trickle-up economics." It's just as bad as it sounds. The Kansas City Star says he kicked off his campaign pledging to support national healthcare and an "international minimum wage."
Tuesday, February 25, 2003 10:27 a.m.
Ja Rule of Law
National Review reminds us today that not everyone in Europe is left.
Indeed, I predict libertarianism will flourish in Europe before the US for the same reasons stated over here. Netherlands is on the brink of a libertarian uprising. Germany will be the next to go; it's linked (and located) closely enough to the East, where Hayek is as near enough to a houshold name as an economist can get. And the Swiss, who have made fiscal responsibility comfortably Eurotrash with all their investment bankers that drive Vespas to work and look like Wallpaper models, are in a league of their own.
The article, weirdly enough, mentions former Cato intern Chreston. Remember him? He's started his own think-tank in Copenhagen. Good going.
Monday, February 24, 2003 11:59 p.m.
Talk, Talk, Talk Alina found this excellent piece in the NYT suggesting "For years, therapy has been about discussing and reliving your trauma. But now there's a an argument that it may be better simply to keep it to yourself." Well, better to tell a professional than bore all your friends -- though I find friends in "therapy" never seem to tire of the subject of themselves
Monday, February 24, 2003 6:52 p.m.
Saddamned
What a let down. The Economist has headlined "Why War Would Be Justified" in big red letters this week. But inside there's only a couple of articles on the UN, and a vague editorial explaining it's the "analysis of the problem" that divides hawks and dove. You think? Of course it ends on a clever note, "Saddamned, perhaps, if you do; but Saddamned, also, if you don't." In any case, Washington will let out a collective post-coital sigh once the war begins. The motivation for action has reveled itself to be mere psychology. They've convinced themselves there's no turning back now and it will happen anyway, so why not now? They forget picking scabs creates infections.
Something interesting is writer and physicist Natsuki Ikezawa's journal of his travels through Iraq that you can see here. I got it off AlterNet's "War on Iraq" XML channel that's been continually feeding good stuff
Monday, February 24, 2003 05:05 p.m.
But If You Say It In Person You Sound Like A Pretentious Dork
Another something from The Morning News: NYC Jargon. Some good ones:
Deliglare (noun): What you get when you draw a blank after being asked for your order in a deli line.
Remnick (verb): To claim an anecdote is out-of-bounds for group conversation, based on two or more people having read said anecdote in this week’s New Yorker. E.g., ‘Did you read that in the New Yorker?’ ‘Yeah. You did too?’ ‘Yup. Oh well, this conversation’s remnicked.’
Stoopified (adjective): The feeling you have after being glared at for walking on the sidewalk that your neighbors have converted into their own personal patio.
Twenty-somethings (noun): People who, when it’s time to pay for dinner, have nothing smaller than a twenty-dollar bill.
Monday, February 24, 2003 03:56 p.m.
WHOIS: Who Needs to Know? EPIC is bringing privacy concens about the WHOIS database to the FTC's attention.
The report (pdf) says, "WHOIS data places a burden on the ability of individuals to maintain their anonymity."
Monday, February 24, 2003 02:03 p.m.
Another Example of How Introverts and Politics Don't Mix
Novelist and travel writer, Paul Theroux was a boy scout with Michael Bloomberg. He describes the mayor as once, "a good kid, methodical, intelligent, and kind... Bloomberg could be relied upon. He didn't tease, he didn't mock. I remember his seriousness and how he listened."
Monday, February 24, 2003 12:25 p.m. Value Judgements: So Passe Funny op-ed about "media hubris" WSJ pointing fingers at Talbot at Salon and Maer Roshan of Talk. In Newsweek, Anna Quindlen has a Don DeLillo-type essay wondering if zeitgeist politics --duct tape et al --are just as "escapist" as "Are Your Hot?" Unsuprisingly, Reason magazine, where Whitney Huston is considered a relevant public figure and American Idol updates run weekly, is nonplussed.
Monday, February 24, 2003 12:16 p.m.
Empire Absurd
TAC explains the futility of imperialism imposed on the Middle East, and that militaristic action will further divide us. Iraq isn't like Japan that had a hundred years of Western influences.
Roger Scruton in The West and the Rest comes to this conclusion on the deeper divergences in political culture that seem to flow from Islam and Christianity respectively: “The virtues of Western political systems are, to a certain kind of Islamic mind, imperceptible—or perceptible, as they were to Qutb and Atta, only as hideous moral failings. Even while enjoying the peace, prosperity, and freedom that issue from a secular rule of law, a person who regards the shari‘a as the unique path to salvation may see these things only as signs of spiritual emptiness or corruption.” Perhaps skeptical thinkers like Aron and Scruton are wrong and the neocon cheerleaders for imperialistic democracy-imposition are right, but one would not want to bet America’s future on it.
Economics in One Hour
If you want to brush up on price theory, or never had the chance to explore the wonderful, frightening world of economics, Thomas Sowell's book Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guild to the Economy is what you're looking for. It's completely easy to read, goes over everything you need to know (and will remember,) and, believe it or not, there is no graph in sight.
Saturday, February 22, 2003 09:10 p.m.
Like Moesha, Only Not Stupid
Sexiest woman alive, Sofia Coppola is developing a show on UPN with the guy behind "Six Feet Under." "Platiunum" is about the hip-hop industry, and premieres Tuesday, April 15. Seems as good a reason as any to take my tv up from the basement.
Saturday, February 22, 2003 06:03 p.m.
Truants for Peace Something makes me think, the greater motivation for yesterday's peaceful protest by Washington area high schoolers was getting out of P.E, rather than the war on Iraq
Saturday, February 22, 2003 03:14 p.m.
No Small Talk, Please. I'm an Introvert
Don't Be a Hero favorite Jonathan Rauch has an essay in the new Atlantic, Caring for Your Introvert. He "comes out" as one of us, who feels "to be alone with our thoughts is as restorative as sleeping, as nourishing as eating," even though he is blessed with plenty of social graces and is far from "shy"
We're "a minority in the regular population but a majority in the gifted population." And extroverted intellects are either capable of the "nourishing" thought-process simultaneously while in converation, or they're just kidding themselves.
Identifying my introversion is how I got over my shyness. This was no small feat for a girl who said scarcely five words at a time until voting age. I decided to put a great effort into meeting interesting and exciting people (and keeping in touch with them) -- over living at the social mercy of whomever was my roommate or whomever should sit next to me in class. My level of aggressiveness is directly correlated to my interest in another person's company. If I'm going to be picky about my friends and aquantainces, I have to be pragmatic too -- or else I'm alone.
Saturday, February 22, 2003 03:09 p.m.
Are Libertarian Women Naturally Devoid of Character?
It's always puzzled me terribly why libertarian women are -- while considerably more "normal-acting" then their male counterparts -- frequently boring personalities. I really hoped "The Future and Its Enemies" might catch on like "The Bell Jar" among high school girls.
My frustration is not some subtle call for attention. I say this all because I want company. I wish there were more women who are exciting characters in addition to libertarians, because then they could be my friends. Before I offend anyone before beginning with my argument, let's get this out of the way: at least half of the top ten most intellegent women I know are libertarians. Sadly though, those five women are the only libertarian women I consider worth talking to.
Libertarians and other fiscal conservatives understand economics. To do so as a man requires no above-average capabilities. Men are naturally better at analytic and quantitative reasoning. However, women are expected to have the advantage when it comes to communicative and verbal skills. If a woman has above-average reasoning
so that she may comprehend economics as easily as a man, it may be to the disadvantage other attributes. Evidence of this is that female libertarians are not the major communicators in the party, though women are expected to be good writers and speakers.
This still does not explain why male libertarians are eccentrics and females are "normal." For that question I have to go on a wild hunch. A passion for libertarian politics is unusual. Your average libertarian is libertarian enough -- and well-versed in public choice -- to decide there are few benefits to a life in politics or wonkery (certainly no fiscal ones.) But a passionate libertarian -- one who eats and sleeps in liberty -- may very well devote his life to it, and happily. So what leads the libertoid ladies into it? They aren't creative enough to figure out career alternatives.
Change may be on the horizen, but in the meantime, I'll pluck my female friends from artsy and literary patches.
A More Portable Dorothy Parker My favorite was when she telegraphed her editor, who interupted her honeymoon with essay requests, "Too fucking busy, and vice versa." And I loved her toast, " Three and I'm under the table. Four and I'm under the host." Here are some other nice ones:
Sanctuary
My land is bare of chattering folk;
the clouds are low along the ridges,
and sweet's the air with curly smoke
from all my burning bridges.
Men
The hail you as their morning star
Because you are the way you are.
If you return the sentiment,
They'll try to make you different;
And once they have you, safe and sound,
They want to change you all around.
Your ways and moods they put a curse on;
They'd make you another person.
They cannot let you go your gait;
They influence and they educate.
They'd alter all that they admired.
They make me sick, they make me tired.
Inventory
Four be the things I am wiser to know:
Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.
Four be the things I'd been better without:
Love, curiousity, freckles, and doubt.
Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.
Three be the things I shall have till I die:
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.
Interview
The ladies men admire, I've heard,
Would shudder at a wicked word.
Their candle gives a single light,
They'd rather stay home at night.
They do not keep awake till 3,
Nor read erotic poetry.
They never sanction the impure,
Nor recognize and overture.
They shrink from powder and from paints...
So far, I've had no complaints.