I honestly don't care much for Michael Jackson or his music. But I found the following online article amusing. Stolen from here

Click through to the article if you want more details about minority game theory.

From http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/29/13-year-old-trades-ipod-for-walkman-reports-on-mysterious-ancie/:


If you want to get an idea of just how fast technology moves, a brilliant piece from the BBC should help light the way. The setup is simple enough: 13-year-old Scott Campbell is given a Walkman and told by his dad that it was "the iPod of his day" -- and that's when the fun begins. Having never used or even seen the device, the young man proceeds to experience the kind of equilibrium-destroying confusion which we can only imagine the elderly first felt when attempting to set a VCR timer (you do remember what VCRs are, right?). We've collected a few of the choicest bits from the teen's observations, but we highly suggest you read the full article... you won't be sorry. Our favorite picks (direct quotes):

• When I wore it walking down the street or going into shops, I got strange looks, a mixture of surprise and curiosity, that made me a little embarrassed.
• It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.
• I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down "rewind" and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured.
• When playing, it is clearly evident that the music sounds significantly different than when played on an MP3 player, mainly because of the hissy backtrack and odd warbly noises on the Walkman.

Greetings from Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ).  Just finishing up a fantastic five-day tour.  Mark had been invited to give a talk at Idea City.  This included first class airfare, hotel, and free registration for him and a guest.  So guess who came along.

Idea City is very much like TED, but smaller.  Several of the guests I talked to indicated that it was very much like what TED used to be ten years ago when it was smaller and less star-struck. Fifty speakers were given twenty minutes to talk about what they were doing. Twenty minutes seemed to be the perfect amount of time.  And each evening, there was a cocktail party.

Idea City seems is the creation of Moses Znaimer.  He seems to be an institution in Ontario.  The first owner of an independent TV station in Toronto. He seems to still be in complete control of the event.

Among my favorite talks:

David Ben: magician. He showed us, on large screen TV, his stacking a deck of cards and dealing himself three aces.  Even with someone cutting the deck. He even explained exactly what he was doing, and I couldn't see it on TV.  Be very careful of any dealer who creates a slight distraction (anteing, or the like) during the cut.

Rick Miller, performance artist. 

Will Alsop:  He's (in)famous in Toronto for his design of the Ontario College of Art and Design. He imagines redesigning all of Dundas Street to match his whimsical visions.

Eric Yam:  An amazing 17-year old. Winner of the 2009 NASA International Space Settlement  Design Competition.

Philip Rosedale: Creator of Second Life

Louis-Rene Lafond: Paper Airplane Champion

Scott Cassell: Chronicler of the Humboldt Squid, the 15ft long killer squid.

Some of the talks were too Toronto-specific or Canada specific.  (Do I really care whether a certain Toronto freeway should be torn down?)  And when Terry Mosher (aka political cartoonist "Aislin") showed us his favorite cartoons, the Brian Mulroney ones made no sense to me.  I was also promised at least one crackpot per day, but we only got one.

Most disappointing:
 
Randi Zuckerberg: Director of market development at Facebook. Sister of Mark. Talk was mainly "Rah, Rah Facebook."

This morning, the speakers (and their guests) were invited to a brunch at Moses' house.  His wife is an artist and designer and has created a beautiful home filled with art and lush gardens. The food was yummy, too.

For a short time only, the iPhone version of  Lonely Planet's Guide to San Francisco is free.  It's apparently part of a WWDC promotion.

I already posted the Bible quiz that Mark's niece was required on her confirmation. Her sister just graduated college with a degree in Women's Literature, and is going to graduate school in Library Science. Her undergraduate thesis was on The Lottery.

Of course, the graduate-to-be was required to take a similar test.

1. Which of these famous Jacksons wrote short stories?

(a) Michael
(b) Janet
(c) Stonewall
(d) Jesse
(e) Shirley

2. When Lady Macbeth found a puddle on the carpet, what did she say to the dog?

3. Which of these is a novel by D. H. Lawrence:

(a) Lady Chatterly's Lever
(b) Lady Chatterly's Liver
(c) Lady Chatterly's Lover
(d) Lady Chatterly's Louver

4. [Question added by special request] What is the first name of the playwright who authored Pygmalion, Major Barbara and Man & Superman?

(a) John
(b) Paul
(c) George
(d) Ringo

Hint: The rest of his name is "Bernard Shaw"

5. [In the special category "Women's literature and moons of Saturn"]
Which great work of women's literature features the name of this moon of Saturn: Atlas

6. Which great work of women's literature features the name of this moon of Saturn: Prometheus

Hint: Think subtitles!

7. Which of the following was NOT the name of an official beanie baby?

(a) Legs the Frog
(b) Squealer the Pig
(c) Flash the Dolphin
(d) Killer the Rabbit

8. [For a new graduate student in Library Science] Who invented the Dewey Decimal System?

Extra credit. Full name.

( foobar )

As other's have already noted, John Sybalsky died on Monday while visiting his folks on the East Coast.  This news has hit me a lot harder than I realized.

I was a student in the Stanford Quad's second class in April 1983, the only spring class that the Quads ever held. John taught us all-position dancing from the very beginning.  If your very first "Relay the Deucey" is from a left-hand wave with boys together and girls together, how are you supposed to know that that's unusual?  April 1983 was also sort of the middle of my coming out.  Coming to terms with my sexuality in learning to square dance in a straight-but-accepting environment are certainly comingled in my mind.

John was famous for putting strong, but not yet at the level dancers into a square and cuing them through their parts, while keeping the dancing flowing. I was certainly the "victim" of this on many occasions.  Yet I also remember this backfiring.  He cued an extremely talented but blind C2 dancer: "Charlotte follow Frank. What am I saying?"

And oh he could be nasty behind the mic.  "You have left hand waves. <pause> <pause> Are you in a left hand wave? <pause> <pause> If you're not in a left hand wave, perhaps you might want to turn around<pause><pause>" keeping the whole floor waiting while waiting for one person to realize he was turned around.

The really scary thing is that my peers are starting to die of "natural causes".  Yes, I had too many friends and lovers die turing the 80s and 90s, but at least there was a disease I could rage against.  But then Sheldon died ten years of a heart attack. And Damon died five years ago of a heart attack.  And now John.  And I know it's only going to get worse.  I know what the actuarial tables say, but that doesn't make it any easier.

Enough. 

Edited 5/31.  Fixed misspelling in subject line.

Just saw Star Trek.  Mark says Titan is in the wrong place.

(Mark knows the science advisor; she knows where Titan is.  I'm sure this is one of those cases where "art" trumped science.)

It's good to know that Palo Alto airport is more than happy to oblige when you ask for "expedited landing".

My little plane hadn't been flown in over a month, which isn't very good for the plane. I decided to take it up for an hour just to get the oil circulating.  As I reached the end of east end of the Dumbarton Bridge, I decided I didn't really like the fact that my oil temperature was further in the yellow than it usually is, and it was staying there.

I called up the tower and asked for "expedited return to Palo Alto."  Too high a temperature can kill your engine quickly.  They happily let me cut in front of another plane that was in the landing pattern. The controller used the term "distressed pilot" when talking about me to another plane.  Not really distressed; more like very unhappy.

An amazingly racy ad from a German financial company on how to, um, er, grow your money.

To quote one comment:

Last night was a Netflix double feature:

We started out with Caprica. This is intended to be the  pilot to a new TV series starting next year, and taking place 58 years before the start of Battlestar Galactica. A reasonably good plot.  Reasonably interesting characters. I'm looking forward to the television show.

Pajama Game: I had heard much about this musical, set in a a pajama factory, but had never seen it. I knew that Hernando's Hideaway somehow featured in this musical, but never had any idea how it fit into the plot! In any case, I enjoyed it far more than I expected. More songs than I realized came from this musical. Doris Day was sexy before she recreated herself as a virgin. The Bob Fosse choreography style was just beginning to emerge from conventional styling. And damn, Carol Haney can dance.