Carleton Planet

Carleton News: Stephanie Cox Attends Symposium and Presents a Paper

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:57:58 +0000

Stephanie Cox, visiting assistant professor of French, recently attended the 20th Quebec Studies Symposium organized by SUNY-Plattsburgh on "Montreal Identities: Literature, Ethnicity and Culture" in Montreal, Quebec from April 4-6, 2008. She was invited to participate with other Quebec specialists from the US and Canada. Later that month, Professor Cox presented a paper entitled "Manifesting Marginality in the Visual Space of the Graphic Novel in Satrapi's Persepolis" at the recent Women In French conference in Dallas, Texas.

Carleton News: Carol Rutz Talks

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:55:51 +0000

Carol Rutz, director of the writing program, gave invited talks and faculty workshops on writing assessment during the month of March at Bard, Bates, and Whitman Colleges.

Carleton News: Carleton Football Team Recognized for Volunteer Efforts

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:53:27 +0000

The Carleton College Football team received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition for their volunteer work this past fall in Rushford, MN for clean-up following major flooding in the area. Congressman John Kline presented the team, represented by coach Kurt Ramler and student James Colbenson (who is from Rushford) with an award on April 21st.

Carleton News: Joe Chihade and Students go to Chemistry Meeting

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:49:11 +0000

Joe Chihade, associate professor of chemistry, accompanied five students: David Anderson, Karen Borchert, Nakita Natala, Lucas Riley, and Yirong Zhu to the annual meeting of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in San Diego to present a poster describing their work on unusual mitochondrial aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. The same weekend, two other students, Julie Brown and Maraia Ener, presented their research in the Chihade lab at the American Chemical Society's national meeting in New Orleans.

Carleton News: Eleanor Zelliot's Article to Appear in Encyclopedia

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:39:13 +0000

Eleanor Zelliot, Laird Bell Professor of History, Emerita, whose article "Dalit Literature" begun ten years ago, will appear in Cambridge University's volume on "Language in South Asia". Also, her article on "Understanding Dr. Ambedkar" will appear in the Religion Compass, an internet encyclopedia.

Carleton News: Nancy Wilkie a Speaker in Panel of Cultural Property

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:25:58 +0000

Nancy Wilkie, William H. Laird Professor of Classics, Anthropology, and the Liberal Arts, was recently a speaker in a panel discussion on "The Who, What, Why and How of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee (CPAC)" sponsored by The International Foundation for Art Research, New York.

Carleton News: Mary Moore Easter a Featured Speaker

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:22:32 +0000

Mary Moore Easter, Rae Schupack Nathan Professor of Dance and the Performing Arts, was the featured speaker/performer on Undine Smith Moore Sunday at the First United Methodist Church, Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Her talk was titled, "The Composer's Daughter: Legacy." In addition, Professor Easter was the Black History Month speaker/performer for the Veteran's Administration at Fort Snelling in February, where she was honored with a Certificate of Appreciation.

Greg Lohmeyer '05: The Best of Mike Cooley

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:19:00 +0000

Patterson Hood may be the outspoken front man, Jason Isbell may be boy genius, Shonna Tucker might be Isbell's ex-wife and a hell of a whiskey slugger, and Spooner Oldham might be a living, breathing rock legend, but lately I've been appreciating Mike Cooley's work with The Drive-By Truckers. On each album over the course of their career, one of the Truckers seems to have the better batch of

Carleton News: Deborah Gross Presents a Seminar and Keynote Address

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:18:08 +0000

Deborah Gross, associate professor of chemistry, presented a seminar in the School of Earth and the Environment at the University of Leeds, UK and a keynote address for the 2nd European Online Aerosol Mass Spectrometry Workshop, also held at the University of Leeds, in April.

Carleton News: Carleton Seniors to Showcase Artworks

Fri, 09 May 2008 18:58:52 +0000

The 16 studio art majors from the Carleton Class of 2008 will present a display of their work in an upcoming campus-wide gallery exhibition entitled “Strata Incognita.” The show opens with a pair of receptions on Friday, May 16, beginning at 7 p.m. in Boliou Hall. The reception will then move to the Art Gallery at 7:30 p.m. The works will be on display in both locations through June 13. The opening reception and ongoing exhibition are free and open to the public.

Library News: Featured Library Resource: Eighteenth Century Collections Online

Fri, 09 May 2008 18:29:30 +0000

Eighteenth Century Collections Online is a digital collection of every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in Great Britain during the eighteenth century, as well as thousands of important works from the Americas.

KRLX 88.1 Free Radio Northfield: KRLX Quizshow-down Week 4 Champion!

Fri, 09 May 2008 17:49:36 +0000

In Thursday's quarterfinal Showdown, Nicole Feldman and John Cossette made it to the final round. When the two players tied at the end of the game, the grand prize came down to one final question. "What year was St. Olaf founded?" The two wrote down their best guesses; Nicole was just 15 years away from the correct year (1874), but John stole the victory when his guess was off by just 14 years.

John secured his spot in the next round, but more importantly took home the free Tiny's Chicago Dog.

If you want the chance to win a Chicago Dog, and you think you're quick and smart enough, E-mail blinkb to get on the show. All of the regular season Showdown winners will return 8th, 9th, and 10th week for for the ultimate showdown of champions.

"KRLX Quizshow-down" Thursdays at 7:00pm

Ken Wedding's CompGov Blog: Russian political economy

Fri, 09 May 2008 13:21:00 +0000

With all the attention recently paid to the new Russian president, the new Russian prime minister, and the militaristic Victory Day parade, broader analysis is neglected.

James Lerch alerted me to a Newsweek article about political economy in Russia. Owen Matthew's account makes the whole picture look pretty shaky.

And the political implications are?

Economy of Clay

"Moscow is flush with oil money. But the new President Dmitry Medvedev needs to do more than just redistribute it to bring his nation back to fiscal health...

"Moscow may seem an odd place to host a major international boat show—not least because Russia's capital is nearly a thousand kilometers from the open sea. But over the last few years, a heady combination of easy oil money and a taste for excess has worked strange miracles in this, Europe's brashest capital...

"Across town... the skyscrapers of the Moskva-City business development are springing up like mushrooms after the rain. By 2015, Moscow will boast the 10 tallest office buildings in Europe...

"On paper, Russia's basic economic indicators appear quite healthy: growth has averaged 7.5 per year for the last eight years, the country's massive debts have been replaced with a $150 billion stabilization fund, and its trade balance shows a healthy surplus of $72.5 billion last year...

"[B]y some estimates, Russia's GDP growth should have been closer to 14 percent...

"The underlying reasons for Russia's underperformance are more political than economic... the policies of Putin's Kremlin—which will doubtless be continued by the Medvedev administration—have considerably worsened Russia's economic situation... Put bluntly, 'the state uses the law selectively to expropriate the property of its enemies—or of any business which individual bureaucrats want to steal,' says Sergei Filatov, an activist for the United Civic Front opposition group...

"The result is a kind of state-sanctioned extortion. And by extension, that every businessperson in Russia knows that his or her business is only safe from being raided and stolen by bureaucrats or police to the extent that they have powerful allies in the police or administration themselves...

"Not surprisingly, given the fact that it is more profitable to be a bureaucrat than a businessman, that the size of Russia's bureaucracy has risen by 50 percent in the eight years of Putin's rule... More, a survey last year of 16-to-24-year-olds by the Moscow-based Levada Center found that nearly 70 percent of young Russians aspired to work for the state rather than become entrepreneurs...

"[T]he Kremlin has been the fastest-growing Russian corporation of all, extending state control into almost every sector of the economy from energy and metals to the defense industry, car and aircraft makers and the media. These giants are grossly inefficient by any Western corporate standards, yet the flood of oil money coming in obscures their fundamental unsoundness in a deluge of cash..."

Christian Ruzich '92: Best. Survivor. Ever.

Fri, 09 May 2008 13:08:00 +0000

Survivor master

I've been rooting for Amanda all season, but after last night's episode, I think Cirie deserves to win. She proved that she is the strongest "outwit" player ever. It's been like watching a master at work all season, and last night was her crowning achievement.

The amazing part is that she's managed to instigate so many people getting voted off, and yet I don't think she has any enemies on the jury. She has a way of putting ideas out there in such a way that it seems like they were thought up by the group, or by someone else, leaving her unscathed.

Ratchet Up / John Schott: Sky Ceilings

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:51:18 +0000

I'm not sure whether this is the new digital image or the old trompe-d'oeil. But I have a hankering to put a sky ceiling in my living room. Unfortunately I have an old school plaster-and-lath house, rather than the aluminum and fluorescent grid of new build construction. Still... [Via Boing Boing]

Erik Hanberg: Drinks at Maxwell's

Fri, 09 May 2008 12:06:40 +0000

Last night Mary and I walked about 500 feet to have drinks with Marguerite, the Skydiving Agent, at Maxwell's. It was the first time I'd been there since the crazy packed opening night.

It looks incredible inside. The lighting is perfect, the decor is cool. As Mary put it, it looks like it could be in New York.

We had some meat and cheese on a plate to go with our drinks, and that was very good, too. Good service, good food, good atmosphere. And looking at the dinner menu, it looks surprisingly affordable.

We'll definitely be back. Again, welcome to the block, Maxwell's!

Dan Schofer '00

Fri, 09 May 2008 10:58:38 +0000

5-9-2008
Light Road + Spring Creek. 63 minutes. 10 miles.
Mild (49 degrees), cloudy, and breezy. Perfect morning. Continuous 10 mile run - didn't stop after warm-up or before cool-down (it is 1.5 miles from home to the start line). Standard hilly 7 mile steady run with splits: 5:42, 5:56, 5:42, 5:44, 5:55, 5:30, 5:38 for 40:11 (5:44 pace). Felt really good and relaxed the whole way. Very strong and controlled. Nice workout.

Tom Swift: Signed Copies, 25 Percent Off

Fri, 09 May 2008 09:21:25 +0000

Don’t ask me how I know, but I have it on good authority that “Chief Bender’s Burden” has been added to the River City Books staff selection display for May. Why should you care? Well, this means you can buy new, signed copies for 25 percent off the cover price. The discount applies in-store as well as online (the sale price is not listed at the RCB site but don’t worry; you’ll receive the discount). The offer expires at the end of the month. No limits. Hey, just in time for Mother’s Day. And not too early for Father’s Day!

Michael Moore: Twitter Updates for 2008-05-08

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:59:59 +0000

Just because meeting a deadline is "the responsible thing to do" doesn’t mean you should do it. #
Hillary Clinton bluntly plays the race card. When can this campaign finally be over? How desperate can one get? http://tinyurl.com/6zqjjg #

Amy Reynaldo '88: Friday, 5/9

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:23:00 +0000

NYT 7:38
NYS 5:36
LAT 5:10
CHE 4:39
Jonesin' 3:49
CS 3:05

WSJ 8:19

On this day in 2007, I was vacationing in Liverpool. O, to be in England! Except never again in May—the only time I've ever had seasonal allergies was last May in England.

The Friday New York Sun crossword, "Ends in the Middle" by Alan Olschwang, threatened to stymie me in the lower left corner, but somehow I extracted the right letters from the darkest recesses of my brain. (As opposed to the well-lighted parts.) Two theme entries contain the ABC end of the alphabet in their middles (TAB COLLARS and REHAB CENTER), and the other two contain XYZ. The problematic corner was where the insane Roman numeral multiplication problem and unfamiliar ["Strangers on a Train" costar] crossed the [DC Comics villain] whose vowel-free name I've seen in a crossword, MR. MXYZPTLK. The first M starts MCM, or [LXXVI x XXV], and the second M is in RUTH ROMAN. Favorite clues:

[Wire cutter?] is a BARB, as in the sharp part of barbed wire.
The [Subj. of the book "Treasure-House of the Language"] is the OED. Crossing that entry, aptly, is a [Word with English or language]: BODY.
[They're exhausted] means what? GASES, of course.
[Venus, e.g.] for a brand of women's RAZOR. It's nice to get some shaving action in a crossword that doesn't involve ATRA or TRAC.
[Nuncupative] means ORAL. As in "Delivered orally to witnesses rather than written: a nuncupative will."
The [2004 Lindsay Lohan movie] is MEAN GIRLS, written by Tina Fey.
GOD is clued with ["Universe Ends as ___ Wakes Up Next to Suzanne Pleshette" (headline in the Onion)].

Least known to me:

["___ of Lambeth" (W. Somerset Maugham's first novel)] for LIZA
Theme entry HYDROXYZINE, [Antihistaminic drug]. This may be used more as an anti-anxiety drug than for hives/allergy, and it's been around for more than 50 years. (XANAX, the [Pfizer antianxiety pill], rounds out the anxiety medicine category in this crossword.)
[Chicago cop Lieberman in Stuart M. Kaminsky novels] is ABE.
Stanford University's motto is German: "Die Luft DER Freiheit weht," meaning "The wind of freedom blows." (It's "die Freiheit," a feminine noun, but when the article replaces "of the" it turns into "der" with some dative case action. I'm a little fuzzy on the mechanics at this point.)
["The American ___" (Carelton Mabee biography of Samuel F.B. Morse that won a Pulitzer] for LEONARDO (also the name of one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
[Larry who broke the color line in the American League] is DOBY. Why isn't he better known?

The New York Times crossword by Jim Page just wasn't on my wavelength. Favorite clues:

[Egyptian ___ (cat breed)] for MAU—it's only faintly familiar, but look at its spots! Bonus points for cuteness.
[Organization originally called the Jolly Corks] is the ELKS; aww, why did they change?
[Where many lives are expended] is a video game ARCADE.
["Doonesbury" journalist Hedley] for ROLAND.
[Flying piscivores] for ERNS. Rex has great ERN notecards designed by Emily Cureton.
An ELECTRICIAN is [One who may do a wire transfer], sans question mark.

Least favorite entries:

PALSY, [Buddy-buddy]. You gotta tack a "-walsy" onto that.
Three suffixes: ANE, [Suffix of some cyclic compounds]; ITES, [Plural suffix with urban]; and ATIC, [Axiom ender].
MDX, [A multiple of CLI]. Why not specify that it's 10 times CLI?
The abbreviation ANC for "ancient" rather than the African National Congress, clued as [Not at all recent: Abbr.].
RINA, [Actress Morelli of "The Leopard," 1963]. Despite the favorable combo of letters in her first name Rina Morelli gets precious little play in crosswords.
SMALL HOURS, or [Predawn period]. I much prefer "wee hours."
SUBSYSTEMS, or [Secondary arrangements]. Lacks flavor.
NETTY, [Like lace].

Other clues that I suspect will stump many people:

[Bit of ballistic evidence] for SHELL CASING
[Bat shapers] for LATHES, which turn wood
[Builder of a hanging nest] for ORIOLE
[Projecting bit of architecture] for ORIEL (I mucked up that corner by mistakenly entering fellow crosswordese OSIER)
[Jib used to give a boat more speed] for GENOA
[Yellowish-orange spread] for APRICOT JAM (...or maybe it was just me who had trouble seeing that one)
[It tells you where to look] for a CROSS-INDEX, with SEE cross-referenced to it
[1960s TV Western] for LAREDO
[Cousin of a guinea pig] for PACA

Updated:

Matt Jones goes themeless, as he does a few times a year, in this week's Jonesin' crossword. Two of the three long entries in the midsection—in the puzzle's womb, as it were—are FRATERNAL TWINS and RAISE CHILDREN. Those aren't coincidental—Matt's a new dad! Favorite parts of the puzzle: [Meg's mom, on "Family Guy"] is LOIS, who is the star of this video clip that perfectly encapsulates parenting; EDITH PIAF, with her last three letters crossing the stack in the middle of the grid; the [Meat Puppets song coverd by Nirvana on "MTV Unplugged"] is "OH ME" (and would you believe none of Nirvana's Unplugged songs seem to be available as phone ringtones?); and [Phrase said after smacking one's forehead], or "NOW I GET IT," making its second crossword appearance this week. Not wild about the heavy use of word endings in CRUMBLIEST, SYRUPIEST, and LONESOMELY, but will forgive it since Matt will soon enough be getting the Stewie-on-Family Guy treatment from two kids at once.

Doug Peterson's LA Times puzzle used plenty of Friday clues to make it harder to figure out what the theme entries were, since the theme entries were pretty much ungettable without knowing the gimmick. I suppose if I'd started at the bottom of the grid, where, I BEFORE E, [Start of an English rule, and this puzzle's theme], was lurking, it would have come together sooner. [Athena's appearance?] is a WISE MIEN (with an I before the E in the second word). [Doctor's office status, often?] is PATIENT PENDING (patent). [Components in relatively slow computers?] are POKIER CHIPS (poker). And [Tales from the market?] isn't about the stock market—it's GROCERY STORIES (stores). I love the word SKITTERED ([Skipped along]) and should use it more often than I do.

Jim Leeds' Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Cross Examinations," gets TESTY (39-Across) by sneaking four standardized tests (and, in keeping with the publication that published this puzzle, they're all ones a college student or grad might take, not a mere SAT) into rebus squares in the four longest entries. KI[M CAT]TRALL contains the MCAT; PUL[LS A T]RICK ON has the LSAT; READIN[G MAT]TER has the GMAT, and OLIVE [GRE]EN holds the GRE. There were two unknown-to-me answers that crossed—"Little MATTIE," the Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem, and "TU[LSA T]IME," the Don Williams hit single, but what else could go there but an I? The rebus crossings were all smooth as silk—ENI[GMAT]IC, A[GRE]ES, and TO[MCAT]S. I don't know that I would have thought it possible to make an MCAT/LSAT/GMAT rebus crossword! But the rebused entries all work, and the entire puzzle is solid.

Mel Rosen's CrosSynergy crossword, "Have Courage!", tosses synonyms for brave into the theme entries: a VALIANT EFFORT, FEARLESS FOSDICK, and Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD. Fantastic clue: [Bridges of Los Angeles County] for BEAU Bridges. With five or six other names from show business, this crossword felt more like an LA Times puzzle—and they weren't showbiz names from the '30s, '40s, and '50s, so I enjoyed it thoroughly.

This week's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Getting a Business Degree," is credited to Maryanne Lemot, which anagrams to "not my real name"—it's editor Mike Shenk's work. Not only does this puzzle have plenty of sparkling fill—like PUFF PIECE; two [Item in a certain kit] entries, SNARE DRUM and HI-HAT (from a drum kit); CAR WASH; SCOREBOARD; and SORE THUMBS—it's also got an entertaining theme. The insert-a-group-of-letters theme can fall flat or it can gleam, and this one gleams by adding a dry MBA to assorted base phrases:

[Support for a funeral parlor hoist?] is EMBALMER GANTRY; I wonder if seeing the Elmer/embalmer pairing was the seed of this puzzle. I don't know that I knew a gantry was a type of crane.
[Candy from a marine machine?] is THE SEA GUMBALL (The Seagull).
[Ones seeking locations for Bollywood movies?] are BOMBAY SCOUTS (Boy Scouts).
[Boss's holiday dinner dilemma in a tight economy?] is TRIM BACK OR TREAT (trick or treat).
[Time in office marked by reckless excitement?] is a SLAM-BANG TERM (slang term).
[War between origami artists?] is FOLDING COMBAT (folding cot, the most WAN [Anemic] of the base phrases).
[Term of endearment from Gable?] is MY SWEET LOMBARD ("My Sweet Lord"). Carole Lombard and Clark Gable were husband and wife, not merely costars.

Christopher Tassava: "Being Tibetan" Isn't Listed

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:12:21 +0000

In the course of my work today, I happened to see the official medical form which the People's Republic of China requires of all foreigners who want to enter the Heavenly Kingdom. This was the beauty part:

(Click through for the larger Flickr version)

Doug LeMoine '94: Muxtape / Non-interface interface excellence

Fri, 09 May 2008 02:55:45 +0000

Muxtape has blown up — just a matter of time, I guess — but I hope this doesn’t mean that they’ll add a bunch of “features” to it. It’s basically two things — the homepage where you pick a mix, and the player where you listen — and it doesn’t need much more. Really! Please!

Part one of two: The home page. It’s where the “navigation” is. There’s no keyword search, no “categories.” Just you, the name of each mix like a sticker on a cassette tape, and the sense of rooting around in a cryptic virtual shoebox, popping a mix in, listening for a little while, striking gold, or not, and moving on. It’s a really lovely and evocative of the simpler, more mysterious times.

Part two of two: The “player.” It’s genius. No “friends” or “people who are also listening to this” or “messaging” or “you may also like.” Just the songs, links to buy them, and an indication of which track is playing.

For the record, I don’t think it needs much else. Whatever happens, I really hope this stuff is NOT added:

Search. Please, no search. Of course search would make it easier to find mixes that “match” your keywords, but who wants that? Well, I did, at first, but after I poked around I realized that I was having way more fun exploring, letting go of the way that I normally explore. We need more non-keyword-oriented ways of exploring! Seriously! It’s way more fun to roll the dice than to look for what you think that you want, and it’s somehow more appropriate to music
Any kind of “profile-generating.” The madness must be stopped somewhere, sometime. A way to connect with mix-makers would be nice, but no names, birthdays, pictures, blogs, or any of that.
Any kind of more “predictable” homepage. Please. Just show the random stuff. Let people start here. It’s scary and frustrating and annoying at first, but it becomes fun, magical. Perfect! Done!

Christopher Tassava: The Secret-cret-cret-cret

Fri, 09 May 2008 02:53:51 +0000

I'm not a big fan of John Mayer's music, but he's a great writer and this video on how he makes music is damn funny.

Makin' Music with John Mayer on FunnyOrDie.com
I gotta get me a red Adidas tracksuit.

Greg Watson '95: Google Now Reads Minds

Fri, 09 May 2008 02:48:08 +0000

This is a little scary. I’ve been using Google Reader for a while now for reading my RSS feeds. All of us at work have started using the “share” feature to share items we find interesting. One day this week I was checking Google Reader and I had two thoughts about how the share feature could be better.

I wanted to be able to share any web article I came across, even if I didn’t find it in Google Reader.
I wished I could add a note to the items I shared so I could provide context for my somewhat-random choices.

I looked in the FAQ and searched the web to see if there were any hacks that would let me do this, but didn’t find anything. When I got home from work I started up Google Reader and was stunned to find that both features had been added since that afternoon! Not only can Google now read minds, but they work fast.

Shout: Faces on Bricks

Fri, 09 May 2008 02:42:16 +0000

Springtime at Carleton is generally associated with random acts of artwork. Remember the tepee, giant table and chairs, and iron stick figures scattered across campus? This year’s collection of outdoor art embodies the same uniqueness, but favors a more rogue style. Our favorite? A shifty face projected onto the side of the Concert Hall after dusk.

Click here to read more about the site-specific media works gracing campus.

David Ocker: One Year of Mixed Messages

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:05:00 +0000

Hey, over on the right where it says "Hey! Over here on the right.", is Mixed Messages - a whole other blog. My other blog. One of my other blogs.

Today (May 8, 2008) is the one-year anniversary of my first post to Mixed Messages. In 29 more years I'll make a big deal out of it.

Click here to see the initial Mixed Messages post. Or just look at this picture. The three little duckie squeeze-water-pistols are still in their individual cat-food-tin boats buffeted by the waves of our kitchen counter.

Mixed Messages is a TumbleLog hosted by Tumblr. Go start your own. I started mine because I wanted a way to post single pictures or little items frequently and easily. Each post here on Mixed Meters takes too much time and thought.

If you go to Mixed Messages most recent post you can scroll back through page after page of previous Mixed Messages posts using the hard-to-find "previous" or "next" links at the very bottom of each page.

Mixed Messages posts automatically appear in the right hand column here at Mixed Meters through the miracle of RSS, whatever that is. For a while the Mixed Messages pictures re-sized automatically when they appeared at Mixed Meters - but something changed and I can't fix it. So Mixed Meters readers can only see the left half of every Mixed Messages picture. Click on them to enable the workaround. It's a burden I'm willing to have you bear.

Gradually I settled on two principal categories for Mixed Messages content:

my own original pictures
music-related quotes which I found amusing (either because of their profundity or because of their utter stupidity. Can you tell the difference? Try it with this one.)

The most popular Mixed Messages post falls into neither category. (It gets a lot of hits from the search engines.)

Many of my Mixed Messages pictures (and hundreds more) can be see at my Flickr Blog.

Message Tags: Mixed Messages. . . blogs. . . tumblelogs. . . Mixed Meters. . . David Ocker

Glenn McDavid: Bicycle and bus

Thu, 08 May 2008 21:42:03 +0000

I rode my bicycle to and from the Rosedale park-and-ride (about three miles each way) both Monday and Tuesday. From there I took an express bus to work in downtown Minneapolis as I usually do. I gave my knees a break yesterday and drove to Rosedale, but I was back on the bike this morning. I hope to manage 3-4 carless commutes each week through the summer and early fall.

Long ago I read an article arguing that per passenger mile the bicycle was the most energy-efficient form of transportation known, not only to homo sapiens, but throughout the animal kingdom. It was in a reputable scientific publication, Physics Today IIRC, with plenty of numbers, equations, and graphs. I wonder if I could track down a copy of it.

Carleton Athletics: Men's Baseball: Guevin Receives Academic All-District Award

Thu, 08 May 2008 20:33:13 +0000

Carleton College junior pitcher Ethan Guevin was selected to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District 5 second team. He went 3-5 with a 3.21 ERA, while ranking fifth in the conference with 47 strikeouts over 47.2 innings pitched. Guevin’s earned run average was fourth among MIAC hurlers with as many innings.

Carleton News: College Prepares to Begin Construction on New Residence Halls

Thu, 08 May 2008 20:09:07 +0000

Carleton will begin construction on two new residence halls on the southeast part of campus on Monday, May 12. Following approval on May 5 by the Northfield City Council for a Conditional Use Permit for the project, construction of the $27.5 million halls will begin with a goal of occupancy for fall term 2009, or September of that year. The contractor, JE Dunn Construction, will mobilize on the site May 12. The two residence halls will accommodate 230 students in both suite and traditional dormitory style rooms. Approximately half of the new residence hall beds will be devoted to increasing the number of students living on campus, thus reducing future participation in the “Northfield Option.”

Dan Schofer '00

Thu, 08 May 2008 21:05:40 +0000

5-8-2008
Lisbon + Sutliff + Light Loop / Mud Road. 66 min / 30 min. 9 miles / 4 miles.
AM: Cool and breezy. Ran extra slow and easy the whole way. Legs felt pretty tired. PM: Easy shakeout run during practice.

Doug LeMoine '94: Essential information / Mixing drinks, tying knots, arguing

Thu, 08 May 2008 19:58:59 +0000

I like to tell myself that I don’t read stuff like this, but Esquire’s got a pretty excellent list of “75 skills every man should master”.

33. Hit a jump shot in pool. It’s not something you use a lot, but when you hit a jump shot, it marks you as a player and briefly impresses women. Make the angle of your cue steeper, aim for the bottommost fraction of the ball, and drive the cue smoothly six inches past the contact point, making steady, downward contact with the felt. Illustration: Leif Parsons.

There are some good, less predictable skills: 5. Name a book that matters; 21. Argue with a European without getting xenophobic or insulting soccer; 52. Step into a job no one wants to do.

And then there are the predictable things:

Drinking-related stuff: 17. Make one drink, in large batches, very well; 24. Know his poison, without standing there, pondering like a dope; 32. Describe a glass of wine in one sentence without using the terms nutty, fruity, oaky, finish, or kick.

Outdoors-related stuff: 14. Chop down a tree; 26. Cast a fishing rod without shrieking or sighing or otherwise admitting defeat; 51. Build a campfire; 55. Point to the north at any time; 68. Find his way out of the woods if lost; 69. Tie a knot; 74. Know some birds.

Sports-related stuff: 4. Score a baseball game; 11. Swim three different strokes; 65-67. Throw a baseball over-hand with some snap. Throw a football with a tight spiral. Shoot a 12-foot jump shot reliably.

Social context?

I would think that Esquire has made lists like this in the past, and if so I think it would be interesting to compare lists across time. For instance, there’s nothing explicitly sports-knowledge-related or steak-knowledge-related — “Have a favorite team,” “Know the difference between a New York Strip and a T-Bone” or something like that — all of which seem like they’d be requirements in the past. It would also be interesting to know if lists like this are recent developments. Would the Esquire magazine of Norman Mailer’s era craft a list like this? Probably not, actually. Or, if they did craft lists, they’d be one-item lists: “1. F*** lists.”

Via BuzzFeed.

Kurt Kohlstedt '02: 12 Monuments Dedicated to Death and Destruction: From War Memorials to Military Sculptures

Thu, 08 May 2008 19:45:34 +0000

War monuments are in many ways the most captivating structures mankind creates. Perhaps they catch our attention because they symbolize our most violent moments or the extremes of victory and defeat that transcend everyday reality. Some of these structures commemorate turning points in history, wins and losses that changed the courses of countries or even entire continents. Others are simply awesome architectural designs worthy of appreciation in their own right. From around the world, here are twelve of the most memorable, unique and extraordinary war monuments and memorials in military history.

The Motherland Calls was the tallest building in the world when it was constructed, measuring 279 feet from the plinth to the tip of the sword. The monument commemorates the Battle of Stalingrad and was built by Yevgeny Vuchetich in Volgograd, Russia in 1967. The figure, which is 170 feet tall, is Valentina Izotova, a native of the city, who posed for Mother Motherland. The result is both impressive and imposing.

El Alamein is a city west of Alexandria and north of Cairo that played a major role during World War II including the November 1942 battle when Montgomery’s forces routed Rommel’s Afrika Korps and Winston Churchill said of this, “This is not the end, nor is it even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Shown above is the war monument that the Italian state built on a hill 5 miles west of the city to commemorate the thousands of Italian soldiers that died in Africa during WWII. There is also a German Military Cemetery situated on the Tel el-Eisa hill and a Commonwealth War Cemetery with graves of soldiers from various countries that fought from the side of Britain.

The Korean War Veterans Memorial was built in 1986 in Washington D.C. to honor members of the U.S. armed forces who served in the Korean War and viewed from the above it looks like a circle intersected by a triangle. The Field of Service (the triangle) is where visitors approach the monument for the first time and see the 19 stainless-steel statues representing ground troops on patrol. There is also a granite curb on the north side with the 22 countries of the United Nations that helped in South Korea, while on the south side there is a black granite polished wall.

photo by Jon Charest

The World War II Memorial is a national memorial to all Americans that fought the World War II and is located in Washington D.C. on the former site of Rainbow Pool between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. It all started in 1987 with a proposal to build a WWII memorial that took about seven years to receive federal approval for construction. Out of more than 600 design submissions, a proposal by Friedrich St. Florian in 1997 and work on the monument began. The structure consists of 56 pillars (each one is 17 feet tall) and two arches, the “Atlantic” and the “Pacific”. Each of the 56 pillars is inscribed with one of the 48 US states from 1945 and the District of Columbia, the Alaska Territory and Territory of Hawaii, the Commonwealth of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It opened to the public on April 29, 2004.

The USS Arizona Memorial recalls the Japanese imperial forces attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, which became the starting point of the United States’ involvement in World War II. It was the worst naval disaster in American History, no less than 1,177 sailors died on the USS Arizona during the attack. The remains of the sunken battleship were turned into a memorial which is now the final resting place for 1,102 of the crewmen. There is an approximately 75-minute tour that includes a 23-minutes film on the history of Pearl Harbor and then a trip on the Memorial.

photo by Aldor

The Arc de Triomphe is a quintessential symbol of Paris that lies at the western end of the Champs Elysees in the center of the Place Charles de Gaulle also known as the Place de l`Etoile. It has been designed by Jean Chalgrin in 1806 and was dedicated to all those that fought in the name of France, especially in the Napolenian Wars. On the underside of the arc are the names of the Generals and the wars they fought in, while beneath lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Charles Godfroy flew a biplane through the Arc de Triomphe after the Victory Parade of 1919 that celebrated the end of World War I.

Tugu Negara is Malaysia’s National Monument (that’s what Tugu Negara stands for) and was built in Kuala Lumpur just near the House of the Parliament. The monument is dedicated to the heroic fighters who died for the country’s peace and freedom, against the Japanese occupation during the World War II and after. There are seven bronze figures that symbolize leadership, suffering, unity, vigilance, strength, courage and sacrifice. The “Tugu Negara” also symbolizes that it will preserve traditions (the left side) and will build the future (the right side).

The Women of World War II is an unusual monument in one critical regard. Most people think of war as a male-dominated phenomenon but there are some monuments that are dedicated to the role of women in wartime. The sculpture by John W Mills is located in Whitehall London to the north of Cenotaph and consists of 17 different clothes and uniforms that women during World War II had to wear at their jobs.

The Merchant Seafarers War Memorial is a sculpture by Brian Fell from 1996 dedicated to the Merchant Seamen of Cardiff Bay and Butetown. This work includes both a beached hull of a ship and a timeless face, along with an interpretative mosaic with inscriptions and portraits of local wartime seafarers by Louise Shenstone and Adrian Butler.

The Fortress of Brest is the second largest war monument in the former Soviet Union. Located in the city of Brest in Belarus the sculpture is a tribute to the famous “courage” defense against Germany that attacked the Soviet Union during the first days of World War II. Its size is impressive and the figure display a palpable toughness.

The Sydney War Memorial is located in the southern extremity of Hyde Park. Also known as the ANZAC War Memorial, this complex was designed by Bruce Dellit and Rayner Hoff to commemorate the Australian Imperial Force that fought during World War I. It was completed in 1934 and is supposed to be Australia’s finest Art Deco structure. You may want to visit it at night because the colors and the reflection in the nearby lake makes it even more beautiful in the evening. On the exterior the building has a cladding of pink granite and consists of a massed square superstructure punctuated on each side by a large arched window of yellow stainless glass.

The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument lies in the center of Indianapolis, Indiana, lies a 284-feet tall monument built from gray limestone and bronze in a neoclassical style. The structure commemorates Hoosiers who were veterans of the Indiana war (1776 to 1865). The Colonel Eli Lilly Civil War Museum is located in the monument’s lower level while a 30-foot statue of “Victory” tops the obelisk. The view of the surrounding area from the 250-foot high observation deck is simply spectacular.

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Shrinking Footprints: Increased Biofuel Production Linked with Global Food Shortage

Thu, 08 May 2008 19:13:30 +0000

The World Bank reported that worldwide, food prices have gone up 83% and the developing world is being hit the hardest. On April 10, Haitians took to the streets demanding the resignation of their president when the price of food staples like rice and beans increased more than 50%. In addition, in the last few weeks there have been protests related to food in Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Cameroon. Developed countries are not immune—in the U.S. food costs increased 4% last year and are expected to rise at the same rate in the coming year. There is no doubt that this is a complex problem with no easy solution. Droughts conditions (particularly in Australia, normally one of the world’s largest wheat producers), rising oil prices (making petroleum based fertilizers more expensive) and new food policies discouraging large food reserves all contribute to the food shortage that has led to this world-wide price increase.

Another factor related to food shortage seems relatively preventable: the move from food production to biofuel production. Despite the fact that U.S. is one of the world’s top producers of wheat, a staple food throughout much of the world, pressure is growing for many American farmers to switch from crops such as wheat to corn to be used for biofuels. And, this pressure is coming from the government. In President Bush’s 2007 State of the Union address, Bush called for biofuels to replace 15% of gasoline used in the United States. In an attempt to pass supposedly environmentally friendly legislation, the US has made it its policy to subsidize biodiesel and ethanol. As a consequence more and more of the corn, soybeans and palm oil once produced for food as now being produced for biofuel.

It seems fairly obvious that the United States needs to rethink its “green” policies if they threaten the food security of the rest of the world.

Margaret Taylor: I can has light?

Thu, 08 May 2008 19:04:00 +0000

So the Lolcat Bible will likely induce eye-rolling for most people, but I think it's kind of an interesting linguistic phenomenon. Lolcat is a brand new language, spawned by the Internet. Is it a natural language or an artificial language? Semi-synthetic, maybe?

Carleton News: Carleton Students Earn $10,000 "Projects for Peace" Grant

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:47:53 +0000

Carleton students Melissa Mayer ’09 (Marietta, Ga.) and Emily Litwin ’09 (South Orange, N.J.) have received a “Projects for Peace” $10,000 grant from the Davis United World College (UWC) Scholar Program. Mayer and Litwin will use their award to conduct a three-week puppetry arts workshop in the Fountain Estate, an impoverished neighborhood of Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The program will engage at-risk youth in a creative, educational, and secular curriculum geared to enhance positive and peaceful social interaction. The program will take place during the summer break, a time when little organized activity exists for Fountain Estate youth.

Carleton News: Long-Time Carleton Trustee John Larson '60 Dies

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:27:08 +0000

Longtime Carleton College trustee, John Larson ’60 P’92 ‘93, died on Friday morning, May 2, 2008, after a two-year struggle with cancer. Larson actively served on the Carleton Board for 23 years, participating on nearly every Board committee, including the Executive Committee. A government major who graduated with honors and earned his MBA from Columbia University with honors, Larson established with his brothers The Larson International Fellowship, in memory of their parents, Frances W. and Eugene Larson, in 1986. Larson’s family includes many Carleton alumni, including his wife, Linda ’62, daughter Suki ’93 and son Rod ’92, as well as brothers Bob ’56, David ’63, sister-in-law Emily ’65, nephew Chris ’89 and niece Amy ’93.

Carleton News: Veteran Investigative Journalist Willy Stern to Discuss War from the Soldier Perspective

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:15:17 +0000

Veteran investigative journalist and Headley Distinguished Visitor-in-Residence in American Studies Willy Stern will deliver a talk entitled "Boots-on-the-ground: A war correspondent shares nitty-gritty impressions of Iraq as the soldiers themselves see the conflict” on Tuesday, May 13 at 7 p.m. in Leighton Hall, room 402. Stern’s presentation is free and open to the general public

Tom Swift: This Election Offers A Choice

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:01:30 +0000

“Chief Bender’s Burden” has been nominated for the 2008 Midwest Booksellers’ Choice Awards. The ballot is, naturally, open only to Midwest area booksellers. If you are one of those and you happen to be reading this post, first, I am sorry Google led you astray and, second, I would sincerely appreciate your support during this election.

I am Tom Swift and I approve this message.

Carleton News: Mid-East Lecture Series Focuses on Islamic Understanding of the Human Body

Thu, 08 May 2008 17:31:12 +0000

As part of Carleton’s ongoing Mid-East Connections speaker series, associate professor of religion Shahzad Bashir will present a lecture entitled “Between God’s Image and Satan’s Workshop: The Human Body in Islamic Thought and Practice” on Monday, May 12 at 7:30 p.m. in the Gould Library Athenaeum. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Julia Scatliff O'Grady: Right?

Thu, 08 May 2008 17:23:32 +0000

Be they acronyms, terms or expressions, communities share words. In my community, many of us end comments with "right?" Students do it. Even professors do it. Like "um" or "ahhh," when I start counting, I get edgy. Right does not make might. The leap here, I believe, is to express my thoughts without a need for affirmation. Can I say something and then have the courage to bathe in the silence? Right? Right?

Carleton News: Carleton to Host Special Celebration of African American Sacred Music

Thu, 08 May 2008 16:59:43 +0000

The Carleton College Department of Music will host an exciting four-day celebration of African American spirituals, hymns, and gospel music Thursday, May 15 through Sunday, May 18. All events will take place in the Concert Hall and are free and open to the public.

Carleton Athletics: Women's Track and Field: Preview: Knights' Distance Runners to Lead Way at MIAC Championships

Thu, 08 May 2008 16:45:37 +0000

Senior Katherine Wingert and a strong contingent of middle-distance runners lead Carleton into the 2008 MIAC Outdoor Championships. The Knights, who finished sixth at the conference indoor championships in March, will need spectacular performances up and down the lineup if they want to repeat last year’s third-place showing in the outdoor season. Follow the "More" link for heat sheets and live results.

River City Raven: rivercitybooks

Thu, 08 May 2008 16:39:37 +0000

Twenty-five percent off. Who doesn’t like a great book that’s 25 percent off?

Let me flip the question around: Don’t you think Mom would like a great book for Mother’s Day? Of course she would! And do you think she’s going to care that you picked it up for one-quarter off? No way! Besides, she’s not going to know anyway.

So here’s how you make that happen: stop by the old neighborhood bookstore and browse their newly minted May staff selections. These are new books that booksellers like enough to recommend to the world. There are novels, books of poetry, biographies, works of American history, narrative nonfiction, and several books for the kiddies.

And did I mention they are 25 percent off? Of course I did! What do I look like? Don’t answer that!

Carleton Athletics: Men's Track and Field: Preview: Knights Ready for MIAC Championships

Thu, 08 May 2008 16:34:09 +0000

The Carleton men’s track and field team will look to carry its strong showing at the conference indoor meet over to this year’s MIAC Outdoor Championships. When the Knights finished fifth indoors, the team established 18 personal bests. Carleton will need some outstanding performances once again to move into the upper half at the outdoor meet. Follow the "More" link for heat sheets and live results.

Dave Marquardt '84: Bike to Work 2008: Tree to Trees: The Parmer Commutes

Thu, 08 May 2008 16:20:33 +0000

May is Bike Month, and here in the Austin area Bike to Work Day is Friday, May 16. I've only ridden my bike to work once so far this spring, and intend to ride on May 16, possibly another time before then too.

One of the activities this year is Tree to Tree: The Parmer Commutes. This ride starts in Cedar Park and heads down Parmer Lane and beyond to the Arboretum area in northwest Austin. It just so happens that I commute on part of this route, so I intend to join this group at Lakeline and Parmer at 7:10 and ride down to Music City Cycles and then beyond to Sun. The ride map shows the group going along Riata Park Circle, right next to Apple and a short distance from Sun.

Cedar Park to the Arboretum - Tree to Trees the Parmer Way
Find more Bike Rides in Cedar Park, Texas

If you live up north in Cedar Park or Round Rock somewhere near Parmer and work somewhere towards northwest Austin, consider joining the ride.

David Schraub: Round Four

Thu, 08 May 2008 17:16:26 +0000

Amazingly, the Indiana 9th District is looking at the fourth consecutive battle between the same opponents, with Democratic Rep. Baron Hill defending his seat against former Rep. Mike Sodrel. Sodrel challenged Hill in 2002 but lost, but then won the re-match in 2004. Hill got his seat back in 2006 and now the race is on again 2008. It's expected to be negative -- 6 years of running against each other has created some bad blood.

I'm curious: what's the record for most consecutive cycles where the same two major party candidates faced off?

David Schraub: Coin Op and Cona Op

Thu, 08 May 2008 17:02:56 +0000

One of my friends at Carleton wrote her senior thesis on the tension between America's counter-insurgency tactics in Afghanistan, and our counter-narcotics tactics there. It was a good argument that I think deserves greater attention (I say that while I'm sure I'm not doing it full justice).

The link between the drug war and the war on terror is no mystery. Terrorists like drug money because its already an underground economy, so the transfer paths are already present in ways designed not to alert the authorities. But fighting the drug war makes allies of the terrorists and the drug producers -- the cartels, yes, but also the peasant population which grow the crops as their primary source of income.

This creates a problem. Basically, America's standard counter-insurgency operations revolve around the "winning hearts and minds" cliche. We try and stabilize regions, build institutions, increase the well-being of the locals, and help them get their goods to the market. If they like us, or even if they just are content with the status quo, the support for the insurgency withers away. Win for Team America.

Our counter-narcotics operations, by contrast, are based on eradication. We go in, and destroy the poppy crops. This means that our first exposure to many Afghan families is decimating their livelihoods, which is a problem on the whole hearts-and-minds metric. More specifically, rather than seeing Americans as a source for enhanced stability or a brighter future, locals instead rationally conclude that the only way to keep their crops safe is to insure that America or the central Afghan government doesn't get near them. That makes support for the insurgents skyrocket. And the insurgents reciprocate by protecting and promoting poppy cultivation. This dynamic has made it nearly impossible for anti-Taliban forces to crack the Taliban's hold on Southern Afghanistan, which, in addition to being their original base of support, is also a prime poppy region. The insistence on fighting the drug war in this way is making it impossible for the army -- and the Afghanistan government -- to do its job: unite the country, and stifle the insurgency.

Carleton News: Schier Offers Analysis in USA Today on Democratic Presidential Race

Thu, 08 May 2008 15:17:37 +0000

Steven Schier, the Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor of Political Science, is quoted in today's USA Today on whether or not apparent Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama needs to heal his fractured party after he all but wrapped up his party's presidential nomination. "The question really is whether identity politics becomes more important than partisan politics," Schier says. "Do you get so upset that a member of your group is not being nominated that you abandon your party?"

Carleton News: Tun Myint Appears on CNN, Speaks To Star Tribune About Myanmar Tragedy

Thu, 08 May 2008 14:40:28 +0000

Tun Myint, visiting professor of political science, appeared on CNN on Wednesday, May 7, regarding the cyclone and resulting tragedy in his home country of Myanmar. Myint was born in what was then referred to as Burma, but he left the country in 1989 when the military junta came to power. Myint spoke on CNN about his five brothers who remain in the country and the fact that they are safe. He offered insight into what is happening on the ground in that country, since media access has been limited since the cyclone's impact. Myint also offered his opinion on why the government has been slow to react and accept international aid. Myint also spoke with the Star Tribune, which appeared in today's edition. "Bureaucracy is one obstacle because the military structure is very centralized in its decision making, and that might even slow things such as visas," he says. "The aid has to be really strategic."

Trevor Burnham: Ayiti: The Reckoning

Thu, 08 May 2008 14:27:22 +0000

This is the proudest day of my life.

When I wrote my previous post on the UNICEF-supported web game Ayiti: The Cost of Life, it seemed impossible to even survive for two years. (The goal is to make it through four, with bonus points for accumulating extra money and education.)

So, for all of my impoverished Haitian readers, here are a few quick tips:

In the beginning, there aren’t many good jobs available, but you’ve got health to burn. Use your women as Market Women whenever possible, and use healthy family members as Rum Distillers and Farm Hands. Use less healthy members as Volunteers. Ignore the family farm and the school. Buy New Shoes and a Radio right away, but don’t waste money on anything else yet. Keep Living Conditions set to Decent.
Send sick folks to the clinic for specific treatment, if you can afford it. Don’t let anyone stay home and rest unless you’re broke.
Volunteering is awesome. It’s a cushy job, you get free education, and you’ll see substantial community improvements within a couple of seasons. Stop volunteering after you have a Library, a Health Information Center and a Soccer Field.
Buy a Bicycle as soon as a Construction Worker job becomes available. You do have enough money for a Bicycle, right?
Skip the Bed. Save up for Livestock and Interior Plumbing.
Got Plumbing? Okay, now you can send your kids to school.

If UNICEF could only spread these words of wisdom, the Third World would surely be a much happier place.

KRLX 88.1 Free Radio Northfield: You've been waiting for this

Thu, 08 May 2008 14:25:01 +0000

This Friday's Bandemonium is Avril Lavigne, during which Mitchell Lundin will expertly track her growth chronologically across her records. Her first album "Let Go" is a beautiful and haunting portrayal of a sad and lonely teenager, while her second album Under My Skin shows a stronger grasp of her identity yet vulnerability. In her third album “The Best Damn Thing,” she lets loose and just goofs off. When you come right down to it, Avril Lavigne is just fun. All three of her albums have reach number one on the Billboard charts and the has multitudes of adoring fans. I’m sure some might scoff at this top 40 intrusion into college radio, but do not even pretend you didn’t enjoy “Girlfriend.”

Tune in Friday from 7:00-9:00 pm.

Ken Wedding's CompGov Blog: Divisions within the theocracy

Thu, 08 May 2008 14:16:00 +0000

As is often the case in a less-than-transparent and partially-democratic political system, recognizing politics can be difficult. Thomas Erdbrink, of the Washington Post offered some hints by highlighting a Tehran newspaper article.

Ahmadinejad Criticized for Saying Long-Ago Imam Mahdi Leads Iran

"Several leading Iranian clerics criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday for saying that the last imam of Shiite Islam, a messianic figure who Shiites believe was hidden by God 1,140 years ago, leads modern-day Iran...

"Several clerics in the Iranian parliament accused Ahmadinejad of implying that Imam Mahdi or Imam Zaman (Imam of the Age), as the Shiite messiah is also called, supports his government. Since the 1979 revolution, Iran's government has been overseen by Shiite clerics, but religious leaders here have resisted Ahmadinejad's frequent hints that his government's actions are guided by the Mahdi.

"Clerics said in interviews published Wednesday that the president should not use the imam to his political advantage or to silence critics of the government.

"'If, God forbid, Ahmadinejad means that Imam Zaman supports the government's actions, this is wrong. Certainly Imam Zaman would not accept 20 percent inflation rates, nor would he support it or many other mistakes that exist in the country today,' wrote Gholam-reza Mesbahi Moghadam, a cleric belonging to a powerful faction close to Iranian businessmen and established religious figures. His comments appeared in Ettemaad-e Melli, a Tehran newspaper owned by a cleric who is critical of Ahmadinejad...

"The clerics also feared that the president's remarks in Mashad could make it harder to criticize the government. 'These kinds of statements might create an image of a holy relation between persons and religion, which will close the path for critics,' Mahmoud Madani Bajestani, another cleric and politician told Ettemaad-e Melli..."

Paige A. Bowen: heading back north

Thu, 08 May 2008 14:10:45 +0000

paige was jealous (and rightly so) that i got to see the lions, so i’m going to pick her up in pacwach and we’re going to spend a couple days in murchison. planning on camping out on the delta. i got a nifty little stove today at the gas station. it’s a six-liter propane tank with a screw-in primus burner and a heavy bracket that sits on top where you set your pot. all together, it’s a little bigger than a basketball. orange, too. just gotta remember to bring matches.

Erik Hanberg: Leif Enger's "So Brave, Young, and Handsome"

Thu, 08 May 2008 12:30:12 +0000

I read Leif Enger's latest book over the last few days.

So Brave, Young, and Handsome is set in 1915, and it is very centrally about the closing of the frontier. It is like Lonesome Dove in that respect, although you might say Larry McMurtry's book chronicles the last breaths of the frontier whereas this book is focused more on its death rattle.

There was much to appreciate about the book. Some set pieces and scenes will stick with me for awhile. The characters--Siringo and Glendon especially--will stick. And the story is most definitely a good one.

But I wasn't swept up like I was with Peace Like A River. I'm not sure what the difference was exactly. In so many ways they are similar--the journey across a nostalgic American landscape, the firm hand of the law on the trail as well--but So Brave didn't have the same purpose and drive as his first book. In So Brave the main character was along for the ride so much the moments when he consciously chose his destiny were hard to distinguish.

The book also touched two of my "literary hot buttons." I am growing more and more weary of writers in books/movies/plays. Especially when the writer at the end of the story thinks, "Maybe I should write this down." I could make a HUGE list of these stories, but off the top of my head I can think of: So Brave Young and Handsome, Wonder Boys (the film), Avenue Q (kind of), Stones in his Pockets, Elf (although fortunately he doesn't start as an author).

It's a tired conceit. Becket, in So Brave could have just as easily been a failed singer/songwriter who finally finds himself and begins to sing or write songs again, and it would have been that much better.

And I was also annoyed by the regular end-of-chapter foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is great when the character suddenly gets a sense of dread that he's never going to see his home again. It's more frustrating when the character knows that something in advance and just hints at us. A la: "It seems strange, looking back, that I ever believed I would soon be home again." or "How could I know he was indeed to take flight, and very soon, and that it would be I, and not Redstart, who went with him?"

Ending chapters like this is annoying. It works a shade better with a third-person omniscient narrator--"Little did he know, that this simple, seemingly innocuous act, would result in his imminent death." (That's from Stranger Than Fiction if you didn't recognize it.)

But when you are in a first-person story, you don't like your narrator consciously holding out on you like this. I'm all for dramatic chapter endings (my mystery novel is full of them), but I felt like Becket or Enger was breaking a compact with the reader.

I did enjoy the book, and it was fun to see Northfield's Cannon river at the beginning. It also made me interested in picking up Peace Like A River again. And it makes me look forward to his next book, which I hope comes sooner than 6 years (the space between his first and second books).

Michael Moore: Twitter Updates for 2008-05-07

Thu, 08 May 2008 04:59:59 +0000

Matlab is like a hate/hate relationship. Absolutely no love. #

Dan Ehrenberg: Interval maps in Factor

Thu, 08 May 2008 04:50:00 +0000

Recently, I wrote a little library in Factor to get the script of a Unicode code point. It's in the Factor git repository in the vocab unicode.script. Initially, I relatively simple representation of the data: there was a byte array, where the index was the code point and the elements were bytes corresponding to scripts. (It's possible to use a byte array because there are only seventy-some scripts to care about.) Lookup consisted of char>num-table nth num>name-table nth. But this was pretty inefficient. The largest code point (that I wanted to represent here) was something around number 195,000, meaning that the byte array took up almost 200Kb. Even if I somehow got rid of that empty space (and I don't see an obvious way how, without a bunch of overhead), there are 100,000 code points whose script I wanted to encode.

But we can do better than taking up 100Kb. The thing about this data is that scripts are in a bunch of contiguous ranges. That is, two characters that are next to each other in code point order are very likely to have the same script. The file in the Unicode Character Database encoding this information actually uses special syntax to denote a range, rather than write out each one individually. So what if we store these intervals directly rather than store each element of the intervals?

A data structure to hold intervals with O(log n) lookup and insertion has already been developed: interval trees. They're described in Chapter 14 of Introduction to Algorithms starting on page 311, but I won't describe them here. At first, I tried to implement these, but I realized that, for my purposes, they're overkill. They're really easy to get wrong: if you implement them on top of another kind of balanced binary tree, you have to make sure that balancing preserves certain invariants about annotations on the tree. Still, if you need fast insertion and deletion, they make the most sense.

A much simpler solution is to just have a sorted array of intervals, each associated with a value. The right interval, and then the corresponding value, can be found by simple binary search. I don't even need to know how to do binary search, because it's already in the Factor library! This is efficient as long as the interval map is constructed all at once, which it is in this case. By a high constant factor, this is also more space-efficient than using binary trees. The whole solution takes less than 30 lines of code.

(Note: the intervals here are closed and must be disjoint. <=> must be defined on them. They don't use the intervals in math.intervals to save space, and since they're overkill. Interval maps don't follow the assoc protocol because intervals aren't discrete, eg floats are acceptable as keys.)

First, the tuples we'll be using: an interval-map is the whole associative structure, containing a single slot for the underlying array.


TUPLE: interval-map array ;

That array consists of interval-nodes, which have a beginning, end and corresponding value.


TUPLE: interval-node from to value ;

Let's assume we already have the sorted interval maps. Given a key and an interval map, find-interval will give the index of the interval which might contain the given key.


: find-interval ( key interval-map -- i )
    [ from>> <=> ] binsearch ;

interval-contains? tests if a node contains a given key.


: interval-contains? ( object interval-node -- ? )
    [ from>> ] [ to>> ] bi between? ;

Finally, interval-at* searches an interval map to find a key, finding the correct interval and returning its value only if the interval contains the key.


: fixup-value ( value ? -- value/f ? )
    [ drop f f ] unless* ;

: interval-at* ( key map -- value ? )
    array>> [ find-interval ] 2keep swapd nth
    [ nip value>> ] [ interval-contains? ] 2bi
    fixup-value ;

A few convenience words, analogous to those for assocs:


: interval-at ( key map -- value ) interval-at* drop ;
: interval-key? ( key map -- ? ) interval-at* nip ;

So, to construct an interval map, there are a fewi things that have to be done. The input is an abstract specification, consisting of an assoc where the keys are either (1) 2arrays, where the first is the beginning of an interval and the second is the end (2) numbers, representing an interval of the form [a,a]. This can be converted into a form of all (1) with the following:


: all-intervals ( sequence -- intervals )
    [ >r dup number? [ dup 2array ] when r> ] assoc-map
    { } assoc-like ;

Once that is done, the objects should be converted to intervals:


: >intervals ( specification -- intervals )
    [ >r first2 r> interval-node boa ] { } assoc>map ;

After that, and after the intervals are sorted, it needs to be assured that all intervals are disjoint. For this, we can use the monotonic? combinator, which checks to make sure that all adjacent pairs in a sequence satisfy a predicate. (This is more useful than it sounds at first.)


: disjoint? ( node1 node2 -- ? )
    [ to>> ] [ from>> ] bi*  ;

: ensure-disjoint ( intervals -- intervals )
    dup [ disjoint? ] monotonic?
    [ "Intervals are not disjoint" throw ] unless ;

And, to put it all together, using a tuple array for improved space efficiency:


: <interval-map> ( specification -- map )
    all-intervals [ [ first second ] compare ] sort
    >intervals ensure-disjoint >tuple-array
    interval-map boa ;

All in all, in the case of representing the table of scripts, a table which was previously 200KB is now 20KB. Yay!

Christopher Tassava: Hybrid Vigor

Thu, 08 May 2008 04:20:55 +0000

Listening to MPR on the way up to the Cities this morning, I heard, via one of the sponsorship spots, that Chevy is making a new "Tahoe hybrid." A Tahoe hybrid? Good lord - that SUV is only slightly smaller than a UPS truck. They get 20 miles a gallon, max! What's the alternative to gasoline here? Jet fuel? Baby seals? A tiny nuclear reactor?

Cheryl Klein: The Quote File: Sentences

Thu, 08 May 2008 02:57:00 +0000

"I'm probably more interested in sentences than anything else in life." -- Tom Robbins "My sentences are all I have. My life has always been an engagement with words. I do not have very much of a physical life. I write, I edit, I teach. And in all of these activities the focus of my attention is sentences. Sentences are continuous with my inmost being." -- Gordon Lish "The sentence is my

Alicia Mazzara: Brasserie Beck

Thu, 08 May 2008 01:43:46 +0000

Belgian food is starting to quickly become an overdone fad in DC. However, having spent most of my life in the Midwest, deprived of moules and frites, I just can’t seem to get enough of them. Plus, trying new restaurants gives me an excuse to eat french fries, even though I know they’re bad for me.

Two weekends ago, Lee and I made reservations for any early dinner at Brassiere Beck. BB opened about a year ago amid serious hype. Reviews seem to be mixed, but BB also keeps popping up in various best new restaurant lists. While that’s enough to make one a little hesitant, Brasserie Beck definitely exceeded my expectations on several counts.

Lee and I each ordered a salad ($13) to start - bibb lettuce with roasted beets and frisee with lardons and poached egg. I’m sorry there are no salad shots — I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture. The beet salad arrived with thin slices of beet arranged in a circle and a little pile of lettuce leaves and minced red onion in the center. As an avid beet fan, I have eaten many a beet salad. This rendition was perfectly acceptable but not very memorable. The mustard dressing was very mild, and I thought the raw onion overwhelmed their delicate flavor. I think a gentle dressing works will with tender bibb lettuce, but a little more acid would have brought out the sweetness in the beets.

The frisee salad, on the other hand, was divine. Like, eyes rolling back in my head, weak knees, drooling a little divine. The presentation was also delightful - the mound of frissee was topped with a parmesan toast crisp and a perfectly poached egg. I love this flavor combination, but in the past I have noticed that this salad can become overpowered by the sherry vinegarette and becomes soupy once the egg yolk is mixed into the greens. What is notable about Brasserie Beck’s salad is that the salad is dressed just lightly enough to impart a vinegary pucker that is smoothed out by the richness of the yolk. But the best part is the addition of little deep fried shallots, which opens the salad up to an entirely new level of flavor suggestion and gives it greater textural interest. I would go back for this salad alone.

For my entree, I obviously ordered mussels and frites ($20). I’ve heard that the food at Brasserie Beck is very rich, and I did not feel hungry enough to order a regular entree ($23-$26). You can also order the mussels or raw oysters as an appetizer, but the mussels are big enough for a meal. I ordered mine with curry and apple; other combinations include the classic white wine, herbs, and garlic, as well as fennel and chorizo. The mussels come with frites and a trio of dipping sauces (mayo, curry mayo, and Marie Rose sauce - aka ketchup and mayo).

My mussels arrived in a huge yellow skillet which matched the screaming yellow broth. The food tasted as colorful as it looked; the apples were so spiced and salty, it was difficult to eat more than a few bites. While I thought the broth was too intense to eat alone, this intensity allowed it to impart greater flavor to the mussels. In the past, I have found that sometimes the broth tastes delicious, but mussels themselves are a bit bland. Personally, I would rather have my mussels taste better, but this might be off-putting for someone who loves to sop up the juices with their bread.

On the other hand, the frites tasted fabulous when dipped in the curry broth, putting the accompanying mayonnaise dips to shame. Brasserie Beck’s frites are very light and crispy. There is not a hint of greasiness; they have a wonderfully airy crunch that contrasts nicely with the creamy mayo. I like the Marie Rose sauce, as I find straight mayo a bit too gooey, but ketchup a bit too watery. That said, I do think the Marie Rose could have had a little more tomato flavor. The curry was the most flavorful of the three, and probably would have been my favorite if I were not already eating curry mussels.

Lee ordered the special, pictured above. I must be honest and say that I couldn’t completely understand our waiter (he had an accent and spoke quickly). I know it involved red snapper, balsamic reduction, basil, fried shallots, and that Lee ate it so fast that I only got to try a bite of it. I think that means it was good.

For dessert, I ordered the waffle du jour, and Lee had the bread pudding. The waffle was, in my opinion, the ideal balance of crisp exterior and light, tender interior. It was incredibly delicate and served with stewed blueberries and lemon ice cream. The bread pudding was much heartier–it was a dense cube of bread and chocolate. I thought the chocolate was a nice complement to the vanilla and egg, but the texture is quite thick. I personally prefer bread pudding that is custardy, but even then I still don’t care that much for it.

It would be criminal not to mention that Brasserie Beck has an incredible selection of Belgian beers. The beer list is more like a tome, and includes a detailed description of the flavor, color, and alcohol volume. You can also ask to speak to the beer sommelier (yes, a beer sommelier), who will make a recommendation based on your preferences. He spoke to the table next to us and was very knowledgable. Indeed, all the staff we dealt with were incredibly attentive, quick, and professional.

The thing I like best about Brasserie Beck is that it’s incredibly versatile. I know that versatile is kind of a strange word to use, so let me explain. Your dining experience is really what you make of it. You can go for a lighter meal of seafood, salad, or small plates, a special occasion meal, or a multi-course tasting menu. The mind-boggling selection of beer makes it worthy of a trip just for drinks and maybe an appetizer or two. You could spent a lot of money, or a little bit of money. The restaurant itself is broken up into a series of rooms and odd-shaped nooks, making it suitable for a large party or an intimate dinner. The atmosphere and menu are flexible enough to accommdate any of these possibilities. I will most certainly be back soon.

Amy Reynaldo '88: Thursday, 5/8

Thu, 08 May 2008 01:27:00 +0000

NYS 4:53
NYT 4:23
LAT 4:15
CS 3:21

Customarily I don't put up my daily post until after I've done the NYT crossword. Well, it's time to put my kid to bed, and I suspect I will be putting myself to bed for the night, too. Getting two hours into a seven-day course of antibiotics has, oddly enough, not restored me to good health. In the meantime, I've done the Sun puzzle and encourage you to solve it if you don't normally do the Sun. And of course, you're free to chat about the Times puzzle after you've done it, and I'll hope to remember not to read spoilerific comments before I get to that crossword.

Karen Tracey's latest New York Sun "Themeless Thursday" displays her trademarks:

Scrabbly geography: PIZ BERNINA, the [Highest mountain in the Rhaetian Alps]; and ST. JOE, [Walter Cronkite's Missouri birthplace, informally)
Pop culture/people's names: GERARDO, the ["Rico Suave" rapper]; and FELICITY HUFFMAN, [She lost out to Reese Witherspoon for Best Actress of 2005]; [Stand-up comedian Richard] JENI; Ed ASNER, [Santa voicer in "Olive, the Other Reindeer"]; ["PopoZao" rapper, familiarly] for K-FED (Kevin Federline, Britney Spears' ex); ["30 Rock" creator] Tina FEY; ["99 Luftballons" album] for NENA
Tech stuff: VISTA, [XP successor]
Super-Scrabbly name that's hard to squeeze into a grid and has crazy letter combos: TCHAIKOVSKY, [Subject of the biopic "The Music Lovers"]
Colloquial speech: "NOW I GET IT"; British slang CERT

Favorite clues: [Money moneymaker] for AD SPACE (as in Money magazine); [Wax alternative] for EYEBROW TWEEZERS; the verb [Cool] for ABATE; and [End to end?] for the letter DEE.

Updated:

It took me far too long to grasp what Harvey Estes was doing in his New York Times crossword. With theme entries clued [With 6-Down, 34-Down], [See 3-Down], [With 35-Down, 34-Down], and [See 11-Down], it would have behooved me to read the clue for 34-Down: 3 letters, [Handheld computer, or holding hands]. Aha! That's PDA, a PERSONAL DIGITAL / ASSISTANT and PUBLIC DISPLAY OF / AFFECTION. Who knew the two PDAs both expanded to a 15 and a 9? Lively fill and clues include ESPRESSOS ([They really get steamed]); INDOCHINA ([Red River area]); NO PASSING, which is [What a solid yellow line may indicate] on a road; [Move like ketchup] for OOZE; NO MA'AM ([Polite turndown]); KIBOSH ([Unwelcome end, with "the"]; [Pitchers may hold them] for ADES; and [Chasers in a saloon, perhaps] for a POSSE. I like the Thursday obliqueness of the clue for 1-Across: guitar [Neck attachments] are CAPOS, but the clue doesn't make the guitar aspect at all obvious. If you didn't twig to that and you didn't know Robert CULP was Bill Cosby's ["I Spy" co-star], that first square might be tough. A new-looking clue for ENYA: ["Paint the Sky With Stars: The Best of ___" (1997 album)] didn't point me in the right direction. Hell, with just the Y in place, I half contemplated putting STYX in there.

I usually like bird-themed crosswords, and Dan Naddor's LA Times crossword has a good "Birdman" theme—five fictional characters whose second names are birds. I'd never heard of LINCOLN HAWK, the ["Over the Top" arm wrestler], but CHRISTOPHER ROBIN, ICHABOD CRANE, and ATTICUS FINCH are all classic names from literature, and these days pretty much everyone has heard of Captain JACK SPARROW, the ["Pirates of the Caribbean" hero] of the recent movies. It was a tad jarring to have both SAWN ([Cut]) and RIPSAWS ([Wood cutters]) in the same grid. There was a Roman numeral math problem I had to solve, [CCCXVII thrice], because I didn't know the first crossing, [Russian composer Cesar]. (It's CUI crossing CMLI.) It amused me that ROSS, right there at 1-Across, was clued as [Susan ___, George's fiancee on "Seinfeld"]. (With straightforward crossings, for those of you who completely forgot, or never knew, this TV trivia.)

Patrick Blindauer's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Back Nines," includes six words that end with NINE:

MEZZANINE, or [Level in the theater]
ASININE, or [Dumb]
LEONINE, or [Strong and regal]
QUININE, or [Tonic water ingredient]
EPONINE, or ["On My Own" singer in "Les Miserables"]
SATURNINE, or [Gloomy]

I checked OneLook to see if any other common -NINE words were left out. Yep—CANINE and FEMININE, which lack 6- and 8-letter partner words; with an even number of letters, neither could stand alone in the center of a 15x15 grid. The grace note here is the unsignaled PGA in the center, clued as [Org. for drivers] rather than something long-winded like [Org. whose members play the back nine].

Christopher Tassava: Not the Opening Line from a Bad Writing-Workshop Story

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:42:34 +0000

But rather, a one-sentence description of a post-workday errand:

When I went to the new Kwik Trip to redeem my coupon for two free bags of milk, a young woman asked me, "Sir, would you like a hot dog for dinner?"

Kwik Trip: the gas is expensive, the milk less so, and the surreality is free.