This is your mind on weblogs: ________.

Something Technorati

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 07:35:55 GMT

Mona Lisa 83% happy

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 07:29:16 GMT

...the researchers scanned a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece and subjected it to cutting-edge "emotion recognition" software, developed in collaboration with the University of Illinois. The result showed the painting's famous subject was 83 percent happy, 9 percent disgusted, 6 percent fearful and 2 percent angry. She was less than 1 percent neutral, and not at all surprised.

Gone fishin'

Sun, 21 Aug 2005 21:46:16 GMT

The real action is over on the OPML blog, so if this looks dead, try looking over there. I'm going to be using this blog for parts (i.e. maybe I can get some things I like about Radio working over in OPML land), but it's just more lively and fun over there. See ya!

Quote of the week

Thu, 18 Aug 2005 02:10:54 GMT

"We are in a process of absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning." "A Senior Official" in the Washington Post 8/14/05

Incendiary

Tue, 09 Aug 2005 15:39:53 GMT

It now appears (I'm behind in my New Yorkers) that the word muttered by the desk clerk before Russell Crowe threw the phone at him was "Whatever".

My first wikipedia edit

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 07:14:47 GMT

I changed "employies" to "employees". Daring. I got there because I was testing the amazing wikipedia widget for Dashboard.

You gotta try this:

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 01:25:52 GMT

Tiffany vs Margaret... Baby name popularity. Try typing in just the first couple of letters of a name to see how it works.

Alternative Museum Audio Tours

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 20:24:45 GMT

Great idea

Happy Birthday Kathy!

Tue, 26 Jul 2005 18:41:18 GMT

My geeky side has a new home.

Tue, 26 Jul 2005 18:20:44 GMT

An experiment in new blogging software: if you want huge doses of geekiness then look here: Constantly updating list of OPML weblogs..

If this doesn't work try this (and vice versa).

Polymath

Tue, 05 Jul 2005 05:49:54 GMT

"Describing herself as a polymath, Sontag once declared that, 'to be a polymath is to be interested in everything, and nothing else.'" (From this obituary.)

Well, at some point this weblog will become completely embarrassing, because I'll have to try to clarify what I think it's about, and that's not going to be pretty. At least each post will eventually scroll off the page.

What I think it's about is self-development, using an evolutionary idea, that by writing and writing (it's hard to make myself write full paragraphs, since they reveal the state of things--I'm much more drawn to write the obtuse little squibs) I'll gradually make the connections and build the structures in my own brain that I think ought to be there. That I won't feel fully smart until they're there. that they have to be mirrored in writing or they don't exist. That there's a mental ecology that needs tending, or flushing, as the case may be, in order to be healthy.

The other thing it's about of course is making connections with others, becoming known. Somehow people have to be able to talk about the things that are important to them. Some people have no problem doing this, but others of us find it awkward and artificial to bring the conversation around to something we find interesting, and even then find it almost impossible to express much about it. Aagh. Thoughts that seem coherent when mulled privately prove thin and insubstantial when offered up.

As I was saying tonight, I'm hoping to discover how the things that seem interesting in what I read are linked, or have something in common. Will I see it or will others see it? Maybe they can tell me (Stephen's idea). I was expressing how this might end up being a log of frustration, frustration that I really can't participate in "the issues of the day," or of any other day. I read a fascinating article about Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the Nation, and also the Guardian; and that may be that for that subject. Yes, there's quite a mixing of feminism, anti-multiculturalism, human rights, questioning liberal values, left and right: a heady brew. But I can only penetrate the first 2 inches into the topic. Then there's the Supreme Court. And the books on Evolution (Dawkins and Gould). And the novels I want to read. Well, it's all fodder for writing practice, and the fact that it's in public does provide the extra frisson.

Anglicize this! (No, really, I like it...)

Tue, 05 Jul 2005 05:21:59 GMT

Casting the Last Stone by Steve Gillmor "After a week of Rojoing the syndisphere, I've finally found something good to say--maybe. This Ross Mayfield post augurs for a new post-del.icio.us fraglet style, where each factoid is couched in the soundbite-sized Extended field. It's Liz Smith meets Movable Hype. All the news you can eat in zipless link-blog chunks. One of them dropped [...]"

The Ancestor's Tale

Tue, 05 Jul 2005 00:26:52 GMT

Marvelous book--I'll read all of Richard Dawkins after this, even though I bogged down in "The Selfish Gene". This one's 5 times as long and bog-free. It's rewarding in one way the "Eighth Day of Creation" was--although not so prodigious in its writing, its subject matter carries a similar excitement, and Dawkins is a good enough writer to present it. His writing has lots of virtues: he knows where he is in his story, his tangents return to the point he left off, he's able to complete his thoughts, his logic is coherent. These are qualities not always to be found even in science books (see "How not to learn about Emergence").

More Neal Stephenson

Mon, 04 Jul 2005 23:42:52 GMT

(see below)

Polite rant

Sat, 02 Jul 2005 17:51:48 GMT

From what I gather, the multi-author tool sounds appropriate. I want 2-machine posting more than I want mobile posting. Folder synchronization sounds good I'm very unclear on the Asset Manager recommendation--it appears to be something to do with posting pictures. Interesting also that its author sounds like he may be leaving Radio behind for Moveable Type. I'm grateful for the help to be had here, and to the folks doing the helping. I find the overall process awfully daunting: choosing between these different tools will take days of experimentation--I know that's why they call it the frontier, except we're now 15 years in and I'm not a cowboy. Folder synchronization also sounds ideal, if I can figure out how to configure _that_. Not clear on the advantages or disadvantages of these various solutions, though I'll be finding out. It's funny, I suppose the easiest solution would just be to designate one machine the weblog machine and the other not, but I'm willing to go through endless hoops just to not be limited like that.