Jim Moskowitz's Journal

The. Best. Bad. Pun.
I woke up this morning, from a dream involving Gene Klotz giving a lecture about the 'net to a gargantuan auditorium, with what may be the best pun ever running through my head. I have no idea why the muse has decided to vouchsafe me with this pearl, but I feel it only proper to pass it on to you for safekeeping.

It was a description of a wiki site that was seriously underutilized, both in not containing much information and in rarely having anyone update it. It was indisputably a weenie, weedy wiki.

Amazingly, google indicates that only two other people have come up with this, and one of them didn't seem to realize it was a pun.

Current Mood: Used up this week's creavitity
Current Music: Siegfried Wagner: Symphony in C -- not as memorable as his father's

So what *else* is old?
I had always thought the phrase "Democrat Party" was a recent development, possibly Frank "Winning through Implication" Luntz's attempt to give Republicans a way to blunt the goodwill associated with the word 'democratic'.
But I just watched on C-SPAN an excerpt from Ronald Reagan's speech at the 1976 Republican Convention, after Ford had gotten the nomination and he clearly mentioned the danger of "the erosion of freedom under Democrat rule". Turns out (sayeth wikipedia) the 21st-century popularity of the term among Republicans is just a flare-up of something that dates back to the 19th century, and which was favored by both Hoover and McCarthy.
I wonder what other phrases that I've always thought werre modern actually date back a century?

Current Mood: unfocused
Current Music: Michael Tippett, Concerto for Double String Orchestra -- pretty, crisp, and cool

The Jones soda has been aerosolized
I was carrying a bunch of bags in from the PhillyShareCar, which I'd used to go shopping for both groceries and workshop materials, including a wading pool, modeling clay, clothespins, and fun noodles (which is another story, one that's getting detailed in this month's SWAPA). I had to get out my keys, so I set one of the bags down on the concrete, and it started hissing. I didn't want to investigate right then because I had the car stopped in the middle of the parking lot, flashers on, so I hurried up to my apartment. After I put away the refrigeratables, I investigated the still-hissing bag. It was, as I'd suspected, one of the cans of Jones Soda. As I took it out from the bag the room instantly started smelling sweet. The can was about 2/3rds full, and the very tiny hole that had been made in its side was continuing to vent strawberry-lime stickiness in a cloud, powered by the carbonation and all the jostling. I quickly opened the can--which took off the pressure and ended the spraying--and poured it into a glass, then quickly returned the car. I managed to get soda sprayed all over my face and glasses as I picked the can up, so it's off to the shower. But I wanted to share the story first :^)

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Prokofiev: The Age of Steel ballet -- boisterous enfant terrible music

somewhat averted
Tonight Psi Phi held a board gaming in Parlors. I went, since it was the first one of the semester (aside from inauguration, which I couldn't make). When I arrived people were still waiting to see how many would come. So we spent 15 minutes playing Miles' cool variant of Class Struggle/Dalmuti/whatyouwill. Then we decided to start playing real boardgames, and various people described what they'd brought (I had Modern Art, Evo, and Carcassonne). There was uncertainty and dithering for five minutes, then someone made a push for critical mass to play Risk-2150. Five people headed off to that, and immediately the remaining four said "let's play Magic" and peeled off to another corner of parlors and started playing. I just sat there by myself for a minute, as everyone else started setting up, feeling ignored. I got on my coat and said I'd head off.

Miles gave a sympathetic look, which made me pause and come over to his game, and then my unhappiness was averted, because I suggested to them that I might play a two player game with someone while four played Risk-2150. Orion agreed, and we played Polarity, which I'd only ever heard about - it's a skill game involving disc magnets which you try to position on a board so that they're not lying flat, but lean on a diagonal in the air, held up by the other magnets already on the board. It's tricky but pretty fun and very cool looking. It took 20 minutes, by which time two people I didn't know had come in and gotten interested in gaming, so we four played Chrononauts.

After that Orion took over for the departing Jamison in Risk, and Annie arrived, so I put off leaving long enough to play a couple of games of Lost Cities. I'm glad gaming happened, and I'm even glad I went, but it was a close call.

Current Mood: back to work
Current Music: Gliere: Ilya Murometz Symphony (Stokowski/Phila.) - heroic but also kinda turgid

A rebuttal to xkcd

And here's my Do-It-Yourself version for anyone else with opinions and Photoshop.

Current Mood: offbeatly accomplished
Current Music: Gerald Finzi: Magnificat - graceful grandeur in the English pastoralist traditio

Game idea: The Wiki Races
Can anybody give me suggestions, and perhaps volunteer for a playtesting session, of a game/pastime/contest that I thought of which I'm calling "The Wiki Races" in honor of a cherished kids TV show?

At its heart, the game is about trying to get from a given starting page on Wikipedia to a target page as fast as possible, solely by clicking links in the body of the article (nothing in the sidebar or footer). I'm thinking that "fast" in the sense of "fewest clicks" is more conducive to a good game than "least elapsed seconds", although there'd have to be some time involved to determine when a round ends, since it's hard to be certain that a shorter path might be found given enough effort. So I'd do the Ricochet Robots mechanic: players all start simultaneously; when one player has found a path they may call out "got it in [n]!" Everyone (that player too) has one minute more to look, and call out "got it in [m]!" Whoever's called out the lowest number proves they have in fact found a path in that many clicks, and if so wins the round.

I like the game because it rewards an interesting ability: to broadly think about ways that various subjects might be linked, and what intermediary connections might exist. For example, I get from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_sign
to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington

in seven steps, via geography: I start by linking to Spanish, then Spain, then Spanish colonization, then Great Plains, United States, Washington DC, and Washington (going back while writing this email I see there was a much faster shortcut).

I figure first person to 12-divided-by-number-of-players wins.

What do you think?

Current Mood: ready to rally
Current Music: Manolis Kalomiris: Symphony No. 1 "Levendia" -- sinuous but unsophisticated

First parlorgaming of the year
Tonight's parlorgaming was ne plus perfecto. It was announced on the new Fun list (by me) and at Psi Phi (I don't know who by since I couldn't make the meeting) as being from 7 - 9 tonight. I got there at 7 and didn't see anyone at first, then ran in to Rhiannon (sp?) the frosh, who was over in the lounge. We waited in the east parlor, afraid at first that nobody else was coming. To pass the time we played the bet-your-points-to-move-the-penny-toward-your-goal game, which was just finishing when people arrived, all within about five minutes: Eric, Erin, Herbert, Michael, Rebecca G., and Will. We Pavloved for an hour (including getting Herbert to open all the curtains in the parlor (including the one she inadvertently tore down the curtain rod of :^) and totally confusing Erin when trying to get her to put her palms together - she became fixed on this bubblewrap-padded envelope, convinced we had clapped because she had (with both hands) picked it up. She did many things to it including jumping up and down on it triumphantly).

Then we had one of the most fun games of telephone oracle I've been in, a bit of which will be in SWAPA. Let me just say that a handwritten "S&M" should get mistaken for "gum" more often. The results are hilarious. Annie arrived near the end, bringing the student:alum ratio to 1:1 which is lower than I was hoping for, but if word of this parlorgaming's niftiness spreads hopefully there'll be more interest in the next one.

Current Mood: anticipating San Francisco!
Current Music: Fritz Brun, Symphony #2 - why have I never heard of this guy before?!?

I completely love how silly the dreaming brain can be
I woke up this morning with a vivid memory of having discovered a great dictionary entry for the next time I get to run a round of email fictionary: there's a second definition of the term 'orbital mechanics' that's totally unrelated to the astronomical first meaning; I would have the contestants create plausible second definitions, and see if they could determine the true one. Which is, according to the lower-right-hand page of the dictionary I saw in dreams around 8:30a.m., an ornamental method of cooking and displaying chicken.

In other news, I'm back from a week in Louisiana with eight other SWILums, doing work in the heat for some state parks and a wetland-plant farm -- but less work than I'd expected on a service vacation, as you've probably already read about in others' postings. I managed to sprain my ankle four days before leaving, effect an emergency crash cure by completely keeping off it for 60 hours, and got it in good enough shape to work on it, gingerly the first day but increasingly vigorously as days went by.

Oh, and I wanted to show off my new lj icon.

Current Mood: Residually tired
Current Music: Francois Joseph Fetis: Fantasie symphonique for organ and orchestra (in head)

Quick update on the suitcase front: It was finally delivered to me 72 hours after my flight landed, on Friday afternoon (the person who handed it to me made sure I knew that he and the driver surely do appreciate any tips or gratuities I was willing to offer them). I had just enough time to grab things from it and head on a bus up to NYC for Kyra's farewell storyreading, and had a lovely time. It doesn't make up for three wasted days of waiting, but maybe my nastygram to USAirways will get me some recompensation....

Another beautiful day spent trapped indoors
It's 79 degrees, sunny, and low humidity outside. I know this because Wunderground tells me, and because I feel it at my window. But I can't go out and enjoy it because, for a second straight day, I'm sitting waiting for a truck from USAirways baggage services to come and return my suitcase to me. I flew back from Boston on Tuesday, and my luggage wasn't there when I arrived. Since then I've heard a half-dozen different explanations: that it's on it's way, that they don't know where it is, that they can't find Greylock, that they realized they were bringing me the wrong suitcase, that it's already been delivered to me...

I'm ready to scream, and what I would scream is "USAirways sucks". Exacerbating the frustration, they also lost my luggage on the flight *up* to Boston last week, though that time I had it back in a few hours. I've never had a baggage problem before, in maybe a dozen flights with them, and I have lots of frequent flier miles with them so I'm not switching to a new airline until I get enough miles for another free flight and take it... but I'm sure going to try avoiding checking my luggage from now on. Time to buy some less-than-three-ounce containers of toiletries.

Current Mood: grrrr
Current Music: Johan Svendsen: Symphony #2 - uplifting and cheerful

Tonight Herbert, Eric, Michael G. and I went to Nifty Fifties and then played Settlers (Michael's first game. Amazingly, the beginner didn't win :^) amid discussions of geiger counters, Orson Scott Card, foreign words for odd things, and suchlike.

We discovered that (Noda's) Settlers set is missing things - the white pieces and the circles for numbering each hex. I made crude substitutes out of paper (which are in the set now, Noda, in case you need to keep using them -- but I hope you know where the actual pieces have got to). It was a nicely silly evening, and a good if slow and 7-overfilled game, and just a wonderfully sweet respite from worries about the future of SWIL/"???", a reminder of how much I love it when people come together around creative play. So thank you!

Current Mood: content
Current Music: John Knowles Paine: 'As You Like It' Overture (in head)

Out of the past, and into the woods
My too-busy day included setting up the stage for an orchestra rehearsal I couldn't attend, hopping a train into Philadelphia to do the Liquid Nitrogen demonstration at the Franklin Institute for the first time in... six years?.... heading back to strike the stage, and going to the opening night of Into the Woods.

I got kind of nervous about doing this demo, which I semispontaneously decided to do a couple of days ago (I've started a consulting project for the Institute, teaching the demo, the current script for which I wrote) -- nervous enough that I had trouble getting to sleep last night and had it appear in my dreams. Of course it wasn't unfamiliar material, but would I remember the flow, the words, the stage manner.... and I was ecstatic that the answers to all three were yes. A bit rusty, and a little too explanation-heavy (partly from not remembering where to make which points and partly because four trainees were in the audience and I wanted them to see as much as possible, especially of the scientific explanations, since most of them have theatrical backgrounds and tend to focus on that instead of on information), but definitely presentable, and well-received (I'm very fond of audience approval :^)

I also want to thank everyone who came to the SWIL talent show; that turned out to be my warm-up.

Getting to watch Into the Woods in LPAC made a spectacular reward. It's Sondheim, which guarantees interesting plots and intricate lyrics -- and vice versa; I at least liked all the players and loved the Witch, Cinderella's Prince and the Mysterious Man In The Woods. If you're unfamiliar with it, Sondheim weaves a whole bunch of fairy tales together, starting out like we expect but intertwining and trading characters until they're leading wholly new lives (and with no narrator to guide them anymore since they kill her off!). It's playing for the next three days and I highly recommend it!

Current Mood: The good kind of tired
Current Music: Title song from Into the Woods

TurboTax hell!
Yesterday was going to be my work-all-day-on-taxes-get-them-done-in-one-big-push day. Instead it was my bang-my-head-on-the-keyboard-in-one-big-frustrated-mess day.
( Forthwith, the Pain )

Current Mood: grrrr
Current Music: Darius Milhaud: Symphony #8 "Rhodanienne" - skittery & spiky

"his sleek, hairless pecs glistening in the surf"...
...is one of those things I would have bet money that George W. Bush would never say on live television. But that's what the Radio and TV Correspondents' Dinner is all about.

George. Bee. Zay.
We had an impromptu roundsing in our apartment tonight, where 'we' signifies Chris W., Jillian, Noda, Chelsea, Mike C., BDan, Eric, Rebecca, Herbert, Lydia, Mark, and I. There we stumbled upon the first Rounds/Parlorgame crossover that it's ever been my pleasure to play: we sat in a circle and sang the round "George Bizet". Collectively. Each person sang the next note, keeping in tempo with the song, so it circled around and around. When someone goofed up (forgot the syllable or forgot to sing at all) they were out, and we started again with the next person taking the first note.
Then when we got good at it, which happened pretty quickly, after only a few mistakes, we tried a harder version: singing it as a round. So person 'A' sings "George", then person B sings "Bee", then person C sings "Zay" while at the same time person A starts with "George" for the other part. Boy did it fall apart quickly. We made it slightly easier by separating the parts, so it was D starting the first part, and F was singing "Zay" as A started with the "George" of the second part---it was easier this way because separating the voices gave you slightly more time to hear the melodyline that was coming at you before it was your turn to sing in it---but that only meant we could get eight words in before completely falling to pieces instead of six. I'm still optimistic that it's doable with enough practice, but more importantly it was a nonstop half-hour of being reduced to giggles. Highly recommended!

Current Mood: warm and happy
Current Music: Guess :^)

The face on Earth!
Who needs the Face On Mars? It's only visible at low resolution. This one's right here, and quite clear no matter how close you zoom:

Site for a SWIL vacation? We could work on making an earring for it...
Source (link to google maps).

Current Mood: Playful
Current Music: Zhao Jiping "Fate" from Raise The Red Lantern - awesome!

Romantic Meteorological Miracle
(I bet nobody's ever titled an LJ entry that before!)

This is completely awesome: it's the most recent 54-hour-ahead pressure map created by the National Atmospheric Model. In other words, it's a computer simulation of what the barometric pressure will be 54 hours after the program was run. Specifically, the morning of Valentines Day.

The atmosphere appears to be fond of us :^)
(Except that if this winds up being right, the snow I've been hoping for will be mostly rain for us....)

Current Mood: Can't stop weather-surfing
Current Music: Jacques Ibert: Suite Élisabethaine - neobaroque fluffiness

Wireless woes
I spent seven hours yesterday banging my head against wireless technology, with nothing to show for it except a banged-up head. My dad is using my old G3 blue-and-white desktop Mac, and I'm trying to get him on the net. For Christmas I got him comcast high-speed cable internet, whose modem is set up in the room where the TV is. When I move the computer into that room and plug it physically into the modem with an ethernet cable, it works fine. But dad doesn't want the computer there, nor does he want cables snaking around the house. So I want to connect him wirelessly. I bought a wireless PCI card for the G3, since there isn't an official Airport card for it, and it seems to be working fine. I bought an airport base station (the original graphite version, which should be plenty for the G3 and that wireless card). All the pieces are there. But I can't make them work.
Both the G3 and my iBook detect and connect to the airport fine. The airport's lights show that it's communicating both (wirelessly) with the computers and (over ethernet) with the cable modem. But there's no actual connection; nothing loads, from either the G3 or my iBook. Tellingly, one light on the cablemodem, an amber one which usually flashes whenever it's sending/receiving, stays utterly solid when connected to the airport. The airport auto-setup on the CD-rom that came with the airport base station won't run on the G3 because it's using a 3rd-party card, so I have to configure it with the Admin Utility, but I think I'm getting the settings right.... I think. But when I had the G3 hooked up directly and used DHCP, it gave me IP and router addresses starting with 71. When I tried the same thing with the airport, it got assigned number starting with 192. I don't think that should be happening, but I don't really know.

On the hope that there's just a problem with the base station, I'm bringing it back to Swarthmore and I'll see if swapping it for the (non-graphite but oh well) base station we use is any more successful. If it doesn't work there either I'll assume it's the culprit, and see about getting my money back. Sigh, this is enough to make me say maybe the grapes were sour anyway and my dad wouldn't use the net if he had it......

Current Mood: Frustrated
Current Music: Schumann: Overture, Scherzo,and Finale (in head)

Tales of the Absentminded
Yesterday at the end of Orchestra 2001's rehearsal, as people were leaving, someone noticed a cell phone sitting on the floor next to a music stand. It was next to a water bottle and breath mints, and there was still a score and pencil on the stand, so we figured whoever it belonged to was just in the bathroom. But ten minutes later when almost everyone had left everything was untouched. ( Then the phone rang. )
He's not the only brain-impaired person. Just now I made myself some hot cocoa and decided to make it minty. Altoids would take too long to dissolve so I put in a drop of peppermint oil. I remarked to Noda that it was neat how when I put it in the lighter-colored layer of foam rushed away from it, leaving a large darker circle. Then I took a sip, not having realized that I'd been observing a phenomenon called 'oil floats on water', and what I sipped was almost entirely the peppermint. Whoooo, is that a way to clear your sinuses! Took ten minutes to get that taste to subside in my mouth, but once I'd stirred the cocoa it was actually pretty good. :^)

Current Mood: Plum tuckered
Current Music: Anton Reicha, Symphony in f minor -- stormy classicism

Autofocus Creole: a game
You already know about googlewhacking, finding pairs of words that only bring up a single hit when looked for together on google. I decided that's not as good a measure as I'd like of how uncorrelated two words really are, because it doesn't take into account the base rarity of the individual words -- it's not really that odd that two words would only return a single google hit if each of them by themselves are only on a small number of pages. What's more intriguing, to me anyway, are words that by themselves are quite common, but which nevertheless rarely appear together.

So I'm defining a number I call the Google Correlation of two words:

GC(x,y) = #hits for x y / ( (#hits for x) * (#hits for y) )

Most pairs of words will have quite small GCs (except for stormy petrals, I suppose!), but the question is, how small can you get? What's the smallest nonzero GC you can find?

Any googlewhack will have a numerator of 1, but won't necessarily be that tiny because its denominator may also be small. For example, one of the recent finds at googlewhack.com, Jotted cruddiness,
has a GC of 1 / (795000 * 2740) = 4.59073589 * 10^-10.

But my best so far, Autofocus Creole, is down at 685 / (14700000 * 5570000) = 8.36600349 * 10^-12.

So have at it, and share your finds! Anyone who wants to help me make a webpage for people to report these, I'll share all the credit with you once it becomes a fad :^)

Current Music: Carl Nielsen: Symphony #1 - bold & innovative