In related news, people should be buying their Zombie Fleetwood Mac tickets now if they want to be sure to get in. Someone should ask Stevie how she's enjoying the post-foxy, post-winsome life.
Did we forget to mention that being 5 or more months pregnant excuses one from all civilized behavior?
I'm sorry for your loss of personal space, heebie.
On a non-related note, is the Federalism thread broken somehow? I can't get it to load past comment 158.
What Sir Kraab says is true.
Speaking as a furious defender of My Personal Space in a plane seat: I'd feel like pondscum if I objected to a very pregnant woman reclining her seat, or indeed anyone who, because of permanent or temporary disability, really needed to.
The problem is the bastards who just recline their seat because they don't give a damn about the comfort of the person behind them. Now if we could just kill all of them, the people who really need to could do so without shame, and the rest of us could enjoy much more pleasant flights, most of the time.
In fact, with proper ticket-tracking, the people who really need to recline their seats could sit one behind the other on all planes... hey, that's actually a workable solution, why don't they do that? Check a little check box that you're going to want to recline your seat during the flight, and then you have no way to complain when some other bastard pushes the back of their chair into your face.
Check a little check box that you're going to want to recline your seat during the flight, and then you have no way to complain when some other bastard pushes the back of their chair into your face.
That is brilliant. You sign up by whether you want to sit in a reclining column or a stationary column.
"Column" as opposed to row of seats, I mean.
Mug you too! What does that mean?
Poor heebie. You let the assholes who privilege their personal space over everybody else's get to you. Next time, just don't listen to them.
maybe you can ask someone sitting in the front row where they usually place the baby holding baskets to switch seats with you
i would recline if i were pregnant without any second thought and even ask the person in front of me to not recline b/c it's for the baby, not self
if all is done what could be done and no use then i would rant perhaps
Look, in just a few short months, H-G will be tormenting everyone else on the airplane with the mind-rending shriekscoos and ga-gas of her offspring, and vengeance will be hers. It's all good.
But seriously, folks, can anyone successfully load the Federalism thread past comment 158, or am I just experience some weird local anomaly in the space-time continuum?
Such anamolies have been known to interfere with spelling and verb conjugation.
15: Did you try to say something not-funny? We've uploaded a program to deal with you.
I used to do the same as the OP. I find it hard enough to sleep on a plane as it is, though, that nowadays I have no qualms about reclining.
16: in an anomalously time-shifted way, too.
17: Stop trying to mess with me, CJB. You have to go and actually try to load it before you post that.
23: is that "remember the fuckin' alamo?"
22: Dude, I loaded it twice. And I just loaded it again for shits and giggles. All the way to 180.
25: The last 30 comments are really fantastic. I'd go into more detail, but I don't want to make M/tch jealous.
See, the poor kid is already lashing out at helpless pregnant women. Good thing I can seek refuge in the Federalism thread.
27: Proof Again of Super Intelligently Intelligent Heebie Geebie = "lashing out"?
Not to mention that you're hardly helpless. That cat of yours is fierce! And surely Jammies knows how to dial 911.
911 made fun of us when we called them last time you were lashing out at me.
31: Did they tell you to get up get get get down?
Yes, and then they said for me to put on my late crown. I called 411 for an explanation, but they're a total joke in my county.
34: You should have asked if they had a listing for "Bridgeplate, Standpipe".
I was on four flights this week and took careful notice of whether the reclined/not reclined status of the person in front of me made a difference in my comfort. Answer: not at all. (n=2 in each sample group)
15: But seriously, folks, can anyone successfully load the Federalism thread etc.
Happens to me often enough; clearing the cache usually works.
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Is there research on people who don't understand the function of "Reply All", even after decades of email use? Is there, like, some biological obstruction to their ever being able to comprehend it?
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Is there, like, some biological obstruction to their ever being able to comprehend it?
Does basic stupidity count? OTOH my wife, who's far from stupid, has a weirdly difficult relationship with electronic devices of all sorts, so maybe that's not it.
39: Decades. At least two.
40: Does basic stupidity count?
It could, but the offending email in question is from a past recipient of a MacArthur "Genius Grant", so it seems unlikely.
I guess the alternative is that said person understands the function of "Reply All" perfectly well, but badly misjudges how much the numerous people getting his email care about the minor thing he had to tell the original emailer about.
Are you in a position to reply to him (and only him) every time he does this with a quick, curt "Please don't use Reply All when you're only replying to one person. Thanks!"
Who hasn't had an e-mail address for decades?
41
Decades. At least two.
What's the context of the e-mail? I mean, intra-university, the IT industry...?
Because while some people here and there have been using e-mail since 1989, it's definitely the exception rather than the rule, I think.
MacArthur Genius Grant winner, has been using e-mail for decades, inferred lack of social graces... I think we're talking about R/ichard St/allman.
the alternative is that said person understands the function of "Reply All" perfectly well, but badly misjudges how much the numerous people getting his email care about the minor thing he had to tell the original emailer about.
This is sadly common.
A lot of people are resigned to the fact that their email inbox is just something that will receive dozens of messages every day that the recipient has little or no interest in, so it doesn't seem like it would really bother anybody to add one more potentially irrelevant email to the massive pile of irrelevant emails they have to constantly delete. Compared to the benefit gained by people who may be interested in the thing, that is.
38: Oh, come on. Back on the veldt.
Maybe he's like one of those people who, at all-you-can-eat places, gets as much of the most expensive food as he can, whether that's what he likes the most or not, because that way he's getting the most for his money. Hitting "Reply All" instead of just "Reply" represents much better value per click!
This is sadly common.
Yeah, I would think they would do what normal people do and broadcast their unimportant little issues on a blog.
53: I had a friend like that and it embarassed the hell out of me. He ate all of the (expensive) mussels at a buffet and had the nerve to ask for more. It was as if it was his sworn mission to drive mussels off the menu.
Oddly, he wasn't a libertarian, but a Communist.
55: To each according to her need, Emerson.
He ate all of the (expensive) mussels at a buffet and had the nerve to ask for more
in fairness, he's the man you want by your side when the commies come over the border. I wouldn't have the nerve to eat even one single mussel from the steam table at an all-day buffet.
Isn't the simplest explanation that the Official McArthur GeniusTM simply clicked the wrong button? "Reply" and "Reply All" are generally right next to each other. This should be no weirder than a typo.
Also, can you give us hints about which Official McArthur GeniusTM you know? Anyone we've heard of? Anyone cool? If you are going to name drop, you've got to give us more information.
My claim to fame: My wife is friends on facebook with someone who is friends on facebook with Alison Bechdel.
Hitting "reply all" is about as common as not getting your superscript right.
Also, can you give us hints about which Official McArthur GeniusTM you know? Anyone we've heard of?
I already guessed this, and it's freaking essear out, so he's keeping mum.
Isn't the simplest explanation that in academia (and maybe in other parts of the world too, but who would know about those?), the more you are known for being abso-fucking-lutely brilliant, the more people are willing to put up with your lack of social graces?
the more you are known for being abso-fucking-lutely brilliant, the more people are willing to put up with your lack of social graces?
Or, in a corollary, that often the most brilliant abstract thinkers tend to be crap at practical matters?
My claim to fame: My wife is friends on facebook with someone who is friends on facebook with Alison Bechdel.
Don't sell yourself short, rob. I enjoyed your essay in Watchmen and Philosophy.
58.1 is no excuse, at least not if the Official McArthur Genius uses Microsoft Outlook or another e-mail program that's similar to it in this way. When I hit "reply all," a window for a new message opens up and the names/addresses of everyone it's getting sent to appears in the "to" field. The list of people it's going to appears directly above the e-mail's subject line, and if you don't at least glance at the area of the subject line, that's a different but equally stupid kind of stupidity as intentionally hitting "reply all."
Apparently the stock market is back to 1997, and has lost more than half its value since its peak. Two different booms have been erased. The turnip-backed currency is looking better than ever. The unemployed can all be put to work storing currency, trimming the rotten spots, quarding against currency rats, pushing currency to the store for shoppers, and punishing people who use alternative or fiat forms of currency. Fiat currency is what got us into this mess.
I was at an eat-all-you-want buffet recently (Chinese, roughly), and there was a sign up warning that if a person was seen to be wasting food, they'd be chucked out and banned. There were also photos of people who'd done a runner by the door.
66 - turnips? I didn't have you down as an Animal Crossing-er, John.
60: No, I count myself as fortunate that I've never met RMS.
58: Also, can you give us hints about which Official McArthur GeniusTM you know? Anyone we've heard of? Anyone cool? If you are going to name drop, you've got to give us more information.
Probably no one you've heard of? It's really not so exciting; they give out quite a few of things. I've met at least 6 or 7 recipients, mostly physicists, and run into three of them on a regular basis these days. Anyway, this is not the first time there have been "reply all" incidents from this person; it's a pattern.
62: True in general, but I guess I'm thinking of the cases where Mr. Star Professor ends up spending his career largely in the company of obsequious underlings—who are not frank with him about the stupid shit he sometimes does, because frankness can lead to conflict, which might lead to a less-than-stellar letter of recommendation—and as a result doesn't have the opportunity to learn from the sort of peer-to-peer feedback that we mere mortals often get.
If Sifu's guess is right, the Genius in question certainly isn't using Outlook.
I imagine he uses emacs as his MUA.
I went to school with at least one MacArthur Genius, D/on D/ay. Like Al/lan F/urst, he was a wonderfully nice guy whose success I do not resent in the slightest.
I suppose that I should inform the newbies here that I am a nihilist and do not honor the absurd taboos against schadenfreude and ressentiment. Thus, my earlier statement is significant. .
Screw you, Jesus and Nietzsche.
71, meet 69.1. My guess would be Mail.app on a Mac, or maybe Thunderbird.
I've stood next to RMS in the gaggle after a talk, while a bunch of more excited undergrads peppered him with questions. I remember someone trying to challenge him on some point; it didn't turn out well. But yeah, dude really does look and dress like the archetypal hacker.
I was going to say that I'd never heard of Animal Crossing before, but there certainly seems to be some profound wisdom in there. I didn't see turnips, though.
73: There's no need to guess, essear! Just look at the headers!
A guy I went to grad school with was married to a medical doctor. The doctor was firmly of the opinion that professors are absent minded because their workplace lets them get away with it--doctors can't pull that sort of crap. IIRC her plan was to keep my colleague from growing absent minded by imposing a zero tolerance policy at home.
I don't think the policy worked out.
74: were you close enough to smell him?
I've told the story before, I think, of my friend who was hired to type for him (RMS has RSI). Not the most emotionally stable boss in the world.
Stupid HTML. It's so literalistic and refuses to interpret what you meant.
78: Yes, but contrary to popular mythology, he didn't really smell!
68: Rah and I have been fucked in the turnip market lately. We are reliant on fishing and vast orchards of exotic fruit. If the apocalypse causes us to be homeowners in a village of manimals then we are going to be co-kings in short order.
Apparently I'm really into exclamation points today!!!
81 probably contains several different phrases that are best unused on Unfogged. Oh well.
fucked in the turnip market
very adventurous.
83: huh huh, you said "vast orchards".
78: must've been an accident. Maybe somebody spilled bleach on him.
I do think that the absent-minded professor stereotype isn't all that prevalent among the population of professors at large, but there are always some amazing examples of it in every department.
I, on the other hand, am the very model of organization and punctuality.
78: "My free software advocate has no nose!"
"No nose!? How does he smell?"
"Terrible!"
My claim to fame: My wife is friends on facebook with someone who is friends on facebook with Alison Bechdel.
FAIL. I'm close friends in real life with someone who is friends with Alison Bechdel *and* who got a "tip o' the nib" shout out in one of her cartoons. Consolation-wise, at least you now live within 15 miles of where all 3 of us went to college.
And I'm friends with Sir Kraab.
90: So what you're saying is, your Bechdel number is 3?
Also I'm related to Lady Aberlin.
Two of my ancestors have been hanged for killing family members. I win again.
MacArthur Genius Grants do not necessarily go to geniuses, or even to exciting and interesting people. There's some mind-blowingly boring work that's been rewarded.
It is a lot of money though.
A great-aunt on my mother's side kept pillow mints in a small bowl in the entry hall of her tidily-kept walk-up apartment in a small Midwestern city.
Yeah it is hard to see how that deserved a genius grant, Stormcrow.
95: They managed to catch Lethem and McCarthy, though, so it's not completely random.
Two decades of e-mail use - so the genius in question is using Pine?
OT: Scott Lemieux links to David Simon* on the consequences of the demise of Baltimore newspapers:
In January, a new Baltimore police spokesman -- a refugee from the Bush administration -- came to the incredible conclusion that the city department could decide not to identify those police officers who shot or even killed someone.[...]
Anthony Guglielmi, the department's director of public affairs, informed Baltimoreans that, henceforth, Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld would decide unilaterally whether citizens would know the names of those who had used their weapons on civilians. If they did something illegal or unwarranted -- in the commissioner's judgment -- they would be named. Otherwise, the Baltimore department would no longer regard the decision to shoot someone as the sort of responsibility for which officers might be required to stand before the public.
As justification for this change, Bealefeld, in a letter to the City Council, cited 23 threats in 2008 against his officers. [...] Bealefeld didn't mention that not one of the 23 threats against officers came in response to any use of lethal force. Nor did he acknowledge that 23 threats against a 3,000-officer force in a year is an entirely routine number...
The commissioner was allowed to stand on half-truths. Why? Because the Baltimore Sun's cadre of police reporters -- the crime beat used to carry four and five different bylines -- has been thinned to the point where no one was checking Bealefeld's statements or those of his surrogates.
*Yes, Homicide and The Wire Simon.
The terrible thing that people in seats in front of me on airplanes often do is to lower their seats until they (viz., the seats) are in direct contact with my knees and then to perpetually bounce back and forth to "get settled" or some such bullshit, causing me annoyance or serious pain, depending on the vigor of said bouncing.
Just had to get that off my chest. My apologies for being on-topic.
Witt should have her own political blog. As I understand, she has a real job and everything, but still.
she has a real job
Two, even.
(That's the nicest way to remark on my endless threadjacking that I can imagine. Seriously, thanks. Should I mention that when I recently encountered someone named Hogg, I thought, Now why does that sound so familiar...ohhhhhh, right ?
Two of my ancestors have been hanged for killing family members.
Yeah, well, some of us have ancestors who killed family members and didn't hang for it. For example, my gr-gr-gr-grandfather killed his own brother-in-law in a drunken altercation and pretty much got away with it, except that it caused a bit of a rift in the family, not surprisingly.
(I'm not sure why he got away with it, since the court records have not survived. But I know that he was taken up to the assizes to stand trial for "Wilful Murder," and I know that a few years later he was back on the farm being assessed for taxes and enumerated for the census and etc. Either the jury returned a lesser verdict of manslaughter [not uncommon when the penalty for murder was death] or they let him off completely.)
I never recline my seat on an airplane, but I wouldn't dream of asking the person in front of me to likewise refrain. I think that's a bit wimpy of me, frankly.
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OK, since Iris stopped nursing, I have put her to bed - virtually every night. And the last thing I always say is, "Schlaf schön, kleines Kind." Tonight she just said back, "Schlaf schön, Daddy." I'm ready to melt.
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As justification for this change, Bealefeld, in a letter to the City Council, cited 23 threats in 2008 against his officers. [...] Bealefeld didn't mention that not one of the 23 threats against officers came in response to any use of lethal force. Nor did he acknowledge that 23 threats against a 3,000-officer force in a year is an entirely routine number...
This is actually the plot of a Season 1 episode of "Starsky and Hutch."
What?
OK, it's really AB's fault. We're all driving back from a restaurant (Greek, 2.5 stars), and some guy in a Monte Carlo cuts us off pretty egregiously. AB says, "Easy there, Starsky." The questions commence from the back seat. Once I bring up "Huggy Bear," AB is primed, and we go to wikipedia and Youtube after the kids are in bed. A night or two later, I dial up the Hulu, and there it all is. And you know what? Pretty good. 3 of the first 4 episodes revolve around corrupt cops. A good blend of genuinely entertaining and kitschy - whenever the quality drops, you laugh at the soundtrack/cliched characters/clothing/decor.
105: I do not recognize alleged murders unsanctioned by the State, nor should anyone.
Maybe Witt could be a cob-logger somewhere. Keeping up a steady flow of posts is really a killer, I know (I've never be able to do it). I'd gladly invite her to my blog if she could trollify herself a bit. Alternatively, I'm absolutely sure that Dave at Seeing the Forest would welcome her as an occasional poster.
13, 21, 23: I went back to that thread, and briefly thought it was from this past January, and I couldn't figure out the dynamic at all. Then I recalled that it is no longer 2008.
Working alone can be a real bitch.
Starsky & Hutch was no Riptide.
Dude, just because it has a hacker in it doesn't make it awesome.
113: dude it had a robot. Did Starsky & Hutch have a robot?
I believe that the car was robot-like, yes.
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Just read the "Greatest Philosopher" thread over at Crooked Timber. What's with philosophers being so uptight over hoi polloi stepping into their space?
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Sometimes David Soul was a little robot-like.
Actually, I'm trying to figure out how it was that I didn't watch enough Riptide to really remember it. Dorky? Check. On TV while I was in JrHS? Check. Quite embarrassing to admit watching at the time? Check. Still faintly embarrassing to admit watching? Check.
It must have been on during the time that I was trying to watch The Playboy Channel through the scrambling.
trying to watch The Playboy Channel through the scrambling
Wow, flashback. Boy howdy, but the internet sure did change certain things.
117: You must not remember the episode where the bad guys string him out on H so he'll give up the location of his hott GF who's hiding oput from the bad guy. They should give him a retroactive Emmy for that shit, boy-o.
I think I'm actually too young for Starsky & Hutch.
Not ephebophilia-wise, just in terms of my tv habits when it was airing.
OK, I'm struggling with the fact that Riptide's executive producer was Jo Swerling, Jr., whose father wrote "It's a Wonderful Life," and whose brother is/was "the world's leading radar theoretician of the second half of the 20th century."
WTF?
122: Private detectives and a robot? What? Why did no one ever tell me that the golden age of television was happening when I was a toddler?
124: I have no first-hand memory of it - I was 3-6 during its run. But I'm pretty sure I had the car as a toy.
But seriously, I'm not being ironic in 109.last - I find it genuinely entertaining. Part of it is certainly kitsch/nostalgia (even if I don't recall the show, I recall the 70s), but it's fine for that to be part of something's entertainment value.
What about "Mr. Merlin"? Hidden gem?
Oh, internet:
When Quantum Leap crosses with Friday the 13th, can blood loss be far behind? Read QUANTUM THE 13th and see!
In the sequel to "QUANTUM THE 13TH," Sam tangles with Riptide and The Real Ghostbusters when Al's holographic form is sucked into a ghostly dimension.
I watched every episode of Man from Atlantis in real time.
I watched every episode of Automan in real time.
The best episode of Blood Quantum Leap was when Sam was transported into the life of Clarence King and given the task of revealing to his wife the truth about her husband.
I watched every episode of Manimal whenever it made it over on the packet steamer, but I think there were only about 5 episodes. Then the A-Team came along.
134: oh, yeah, I watched that, too. Manimal and Automan: the two great lost classics.
Whoah. I don't remember Automan, per se, but I do have a vague memory of this Cursor character. I love how computers work on TV.
136: well, Cursor also appeared in Tron.
Except it was called "bit", come to think of it. And wasn't horny.
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Vicki Iseman, the woman who sued the New York Times because the newspaper suggested she had an affair with McCain, defends herself on CBS.
In the video at that link, I found her very persuasive. But can someone who is an open defender of John McCain be said to be credible? Discuss.
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You youngsters don't remember the progenitor of the talking-car series: My Mother The Car.
hey you people who are hanging around here are computer types, yes? Can I ask you a question? Will you answer it?
I need somebody to make me a computer program. That's not the question. The question is, I don't know how hard it would be. (okay that's not a question either).
How do I find out if this is the kind of computer program that someone from an affiliated school would be willing to do as a semester project, for little to no money but their names in papers, or if it is the kind of computer program that I have to find a budget for and hire real grownup programmers?
I am totally willing to do either of these things, or something else, I just really don't know how to find out the basic level of work I'm even talking about. Ideas? Help?
In the video at that link, I found her very persuasive
I feel ethically obligated to be absolutely scrupulous in listening to her, mostly because her critique of the newspaper is very much in accordance with my biases, and because watching HRC's treatment in the press last year reminded me of how miserable and no-win it is to be a woman in the political spotlight.
But I have to say, I came away from that link thinking that she was just as invested in her own image and version of reality as the NY Times was in theirs. Yeah, they were sleazy and unbelievably intrusive and horrible to her. And it's quite possible that she didn't have any kind of sexual or romantic relationship with McCain. But on the strength of the body language, evasiveness, and eye contact in that interview alone, I wouldn't hire that woman to lobby the PTA.
Cecily, if you don't feel like describing the project here, you can email me: matt at unlikelywords.com.
Well, can you say a bit about what it's supposed to do?
oh I totally feel like it. I just don't know if it's boring.
The project is an ASL/English dictionary. The tricky part is that it needs to be searchable by individual components of ASL signs, so that overall it will be pretty video intensive. But, it also needs to be accessible to children who cannot read fluently in English.
Basically I need a program to organize a bunch of videos of ASL signs, corresponding English words, and videos of definitions, so that I can choose a succession of elements (the sign is made on the face. The part of the face is the forehead. The hand has two fingers extended. The thumb is also extended.) and the program will eventually tell me which signs match all of the components that I chose.
Does that makes sense? should I email people about this when I am less drunk for more clarification?
the newspaper suggested she had an affair with McCain
Technically, the newspaper did not suggest she had an affair with McCain and any such suggestion readers found in the story was unintended.*
*Or whatever the newspaper's clarification was in its statement as part of the settlement.
I do not recognize alleged murders unsanctioned by the State, nor should anyone.
Well, I didn't say "murder," of course, because it's not clear to me whether this should count as murder or manslaughter.
But there's no question that James killed Daniel by hitting him on the back of the head with a block of wood (possibly "the handle of a spade") "about the size of a man's wrist", and there's no question that the Crown brought charges against James, and meant to see him done for the murder of his brother-in-law. Apparently it all started when James's eldest brother John ("who was much intoxicated") attacked Daniel, and was then "carried off to bed" by "his friends." And James then promised Daniel he wouldn't hit him with "a pothook," but then attacked him with a block of wood when his back was turned. According to newspaper accounts, "the unhappy man [the brother-in-law, Daniel] lingered for two days speechless," which sounds quite awful, and "a quantity of blood was extravagated" from his skull, for what purposes I do not know and cannot say.
John the eldest brother, who never married, willed his land to his youngest brother James, my gr-gr-gr-grandfather the murderer-manslaughter, on condition he should "at no time sell or mortgage the said land hereby so devised," whilst reserveing "two acres, more or less, to the Roman Catholic
Church." John met with a French-Canadian bishop in 1848, at which point he made the initial donation of land, and the 1851 census of Canada duly notes the existence of a "Church of Rome" (a small wooden chapel, where a wooden church now stands) upon his land.
These folks came from Tipperary, probably the most violent county in Ireland at the time, and they had sins to atone for.
And James then promised Daniel he wouldn't hit him with "a pothook," but then attacked him with a block of wood when his back was turned.
Presumably James was released in recognition of his scrupulous honesty in announcing his intentions WRT drunkenly braining his drunken kin.
I suppose "drunken" is redundant when discussion the Irish*.
* I've a grandmother O'Toole, and, but for an adoption, I'd be JHester, so back off.
Reportedly Iseman settled the suit on terms very favorable to The Times.
Sometimes you just hope that both parties get on a small aircraft which then crashes.
I'd take the Irish more seriously if they took more care to get their marriages, homicides, churches, etc. properly registered with the authorities.
James Joyce tried to get jobs on the basis of an Irish "university". He fooled the Austrians with his "diploma", too. Give him credit for brass.
Scott Lemieux links to David Simon* on the consequences of the demise of Baltimore newspapers
I saw this today and thought it was kind of funny:
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2009/2/17miller.html
Not to say that Joyce wasn't a bright guy who would have done well if he'd had a proper education.
I'd take the Irish more seriously
Ha! I feel no moral imperative to take the Irish seriously, frankly (though there are admittedly certain scenarios where I'm going to take that side more seriously than I probably should, I will concede). I'm just a humble Canadian, and mostly loyal to the Crown (but not quite always!), whose grandfather, after whose wife I was named, had a way of saying "fool" that sounded more like "amadan," and he would say it out of the side of mouth, the better to express his pure snarkitude. Da was quite devout, and he really worked those beads to the very bone, and when he died my father gave me his missal, which was well-thumbed and well-worn, and which smelled of hope and of despair, and of stale tobacco and of sticky humbug candy.
The sisters at St. Pat's used to tell me to pray for my father's father, which, you know, when you're five or six years old, can really sort of freak you out. But I now give them credit for their clear-eyed, if somewhat baroque, admission of human mortality, I truly do. Kudos to them for not trying to hide the truth from a little kid, I really do now give them props for that.
Can I ask you a question? Will you answer it?
Yes. Just did.
147: now, being more serious, how do you intend to encode the signs? There is a relatively formalized way of doing that, right?
My instinct would be that you could do a version of this fairly inexpensively if you have a standard way of coding it and a one-to-one correspondence, but to make it 1. easy to use and 2. robust would take both time and money.
Yeah, I have a way to do it that involves complicated encoding of various sign parts as letters and numbers. This is fine for my fancy linguistic type work, but not fine for trying to make educational tools.
There are surprisingly few "relatively formalized" ways of encoding signs, and to my knowledge none on the order of what I'm taking about. Which is mainly the development of an interface between my phonological analysis of a sign and a non-linguist (child) user of the language.
So I totally know that somebody has to help me make this program, I just don't have any idea of how fancy of a programmer that person has to be. Would a computer sciences grad student be able to do it in a semester? or am I talking about hiring a firm for 3 years? I have not a clue, but need to figure it out before I can go forward with the whole thing.
157: I was thinking speficially of work by one person who wrote an ASL dictionary in the seventies or something. I forget the guy's name, but he had a way of encoding based on handshape, location, and movement and so on. I don't know if he addressed prosody or anything. You probably know (a) who I mean and (b) more about this than me.
Anyhow, if you're just talking about "take a video of a sign, and manually index that to my phonological description and some text talking about that sign's meaning", and you want a pretty interface, you could probably get an undergrad to do it in a semester, sure, although I would be way of a computer science type since they don't tend to be driven by interface concerns. Look for somebody majoring in multimedia design or something similar. If you're talking about software to automatically extract the sign features from the video and find the relevant index based on that, then you're talking about a different, much bigger, much harder problem, although one you could plausibly interest e.g. a computer vision type in.
I don't need software to extract anything, but I also want a more complicated componential structure than Stokoe (1965 Dictionary of ASL on Linguistic Principles is what I think you mean). Basically, I want a searchable database where:
1. what you input is a series of selections of sign elements (clicking on parts of the body and choices from among different handshapes, etc)
2. what you arrive at in the end is a combination of video data (video of the sign, video of someone signing the definition) and text data (English equivalents and English definition)
Overall the goal is the creation of classroom materials that are usable by children who know ASL but do not know English (with the goal of improving their reading and writing of English).
I kind of know how to make a really clunky version of this, as, like, a website, where each selection of a thing links to a different page with a different result or further choice. But that seems like a really clumsy way to go about it.
I kind of know how to make a really clunky version of this, as, like, a website, where each selection of a thing links to a different page with a different result or further choice. But that seems like a really clumsy way to go about it.
Yeah, so if you want, like, the slicker version of this, where things zoom around and parts of the body get highlighted in color on the page and so on -- the video game interface version, succinctly -- then find some multimedia design student to do it in Flash. Shouldn't be too difficult to build a framework.
Stokoe (1965 Dictionary of ASL on Linguistic Principles is what I think you mean)
Yep.
So you think an undergrad or grad student could to this by building it in Flash in a semester or so? (or, towards that end of the spectrum as opposed to hiring a company to put fancy adult people on the job for years)?
69 It's really not so exciting; they give out quite a few of things.
95 MacArthur Genius Grants do not necessarily go to geniuses, or even to exciting and interesting people.
Two of them wrote letters of recommendation for me, and I still didn't get a job this year.
Fucking job market.
161: well, I think they could build a framework that you could then populate. Yes, probably, in some form. How well it worked would be heavily dependent on 1. how thorough your spec was and 2. whether they had an intuitive sense of how to make this kind of thing slick looking, but the programming challenges are not major.
Basically, I want a searchable database where:
1. what you input is a series of selections of sign elements (clicking on parts of the body and choices from among different handshapes, etc)
2. what you arrive at in the end is a combination of video data (video of the sign, video of someone signing the definition) and text data (English equivalents and English definition)
So if I understand -- you're planning to do the work (which sounds really labor-intensive!) of assembling all the videos/text/input choices and how they relate to each other; what the programmer would do is design the database that would hold all of that, and produce a nice interface to it? In that case I agree with Sifu, a student can do it. But -- remembering my own experience of agreeing to program things as an undergrad -- it might take longer than originally estimated, as undergrads are prone to have to drop work or work few hours at times when classes/life/etc get to be a bit much to juggle.
Well, to start with, I'm just doing a pilot version with a pretty limited number of target words/signs. But yes, it is pretty labor intensive, and yes, I am planning to do the organization.
So it is very helpful and awesome to know that this is generally the type of project that a student can do (and I have money to give the students, which can help with timeliness, plus the project overall is not on a particularly strict schdedule) rather than the kind of project I need to hire a real live programmer for.
So it seems like, I am going to have a project up soon for which a qualified student could earn academic credit, money and byline credit (on publications related to both design and, later, classroom efficacy). If anyone is or knows of a student who would be interested in such a project, please email me. Cecilycecily, at Geemail.
Thanks Mineshaft!
162: Worst job market that anyone I know can remember, including the late 80s/early 90s. I'm really sorry you're caught in the riptide. So much so that not even your geniuses are adequate flotation devices. (If you want me to extend this metaphor, just put a quarter here.)
Thanks for the encouragement, Ari.
Eh. I'll try it again next year. Maybe a PhD in hand, another article, and a TAship in a Scandinavian film class will do the trick.
In the meantime, I have pickup work as a superspy, so we'll get by.
Plus, next year you will be able to put on your CV that you are the wife of The Beefo Meaty, which is one qualification that no other candidate will have.
Did you say a TAship in a Scandinavian film class? Say no more; your genius award is on its way. (Kidding aside, we didn't even look at people without PhD in hand this year. And that's not the norm for us. So yeah, I imagine you'll have better luck once your degree is done. Plus, you'll be Jetpack's favorite wife, which is saying something.)
Not really, apparently he forgets about them left and right.
Dude, I've seen this guy's organizational skills firsthand.
I'm pretty sure he couldn't pull off juggling multiple ladies.
He could if you helped him a bit with the organizational part.
As good Chinese wives of Emperors were supposed to do.
That is, good wives of Chinese emperors.
The thread has veered elsewhere, but I have to nevertheless offer my own wisdom/whine about those damned seat-recliners. I blame my bipolar tendencies on all those red-eyes I had to take for work years ago, and during that hellish time noticed that vis-a-vis seat angle, a lot depends on where the plane took off from. South Asia for example - seat-reclining is a MUST. (Before anyone calls me a 'RACIST!1!!!', I shall duck behind my own Asian-ness). In fact, you have missed out on a critical part of the flight experience if you stayed upright...you've been suckered, and haven't got your VFM from your flight.
What also interested me was that it was the older, slightly built, mild-mannered people* whose recline was most likely to break your knees and upset your sad little plastic glass of fruit juice. (Insert graph correlating repression and seat recline angles here).
*There you are after the security check, chatting with the small, sweet middle-aged lady with jasmine flowers in her hair, who opens her tiny cloth purse to show you pictures of her first grandchild. You board the flight and what do you know, she's in 21A, right ahead of your seat and actually, she hated you.
I'm pretty sure he couldn't pull off juggling multiple ladies.
I first read this as jiggling multiple ladies.
Blume, I am feeling your pain. I thought I was a shoe-in last year for a great position at a nearby medical school, doing network security work that was going to be really fascinating. I made it as far as an interview with the head of the department and an HR person and still got turned down. Today I had a phone interview for a security team at a nearby university managed by a much-loved ex-boss from years ago, a position that would do even more fascinating network security work, and have all my toes and fingers crossed but the phone interview was rough and I've been doing basically exactly this job for a decade already.
Happily I am already employed, and stably so, but badly want out of my current job. My employers have figured out that the job market is in the shitter and are taking full advantage of it.
Actually I guess 178.last kind of negates that I'm feeling your pain, but I am very sympathetic.
I first read this as jiggling multiple ladies.
Only two hands, you know.
Re 179, I'm not in so bad situation for this next year at all. I should have plenty of teaching,* and hey, spending your first year of marriage teaching a bunch of classes you've taught before instead of navigating the stress of the first year of an assistant professorship is definitely not a bad thing.
*If I luck into more than one section of an intensive language course, there's the possibility that I could make more than an assistant professor. (Though with no benefits.) That is just not right.
When I'm old enough, I'm going to be Granny Weatherwax. Especially on planes.