meta

I was going to post about much more serious things, but given the title of this blog, I couldn't resist sharing this map.

This seems like as good a time as any to describe the thought process behind the naming of my blog, so I'll do that too. The url is strongai.blogspot.com, as in Strong A.I. Look it up on wikipedia if you want to, but I guess, put simply, if you believe in Strong A.I., then you think that it's theoretically possible to build a machine that's conscious in the same way that humans are conscious. A lot of people are really uncomfortable with this concept--I certainly am--but I also don't see any way around it unless you introduce a vaguely religious sounding concept of higher consciousness that I instinctively mistrust. Anyway, that's my Armchair Philosopher take. But even though it's disconcerting to think of some computer essentially having feelings and being creative and basically being human in a way we think is unique to us, it's also pretty damn cool. And I want to help design that computer. Also, wouldn't it be cool if I was that computer? or if one of the thousands and thousands of blogs out there was actually written by him/her/it? So I kind of wanted the url iamarobot, but that was taken. so I took this instead.

and now onto the title. writing a "hello world" program is one of the first things you tend to do when you're learning a new programming language. I don't know how it became such a widespread practice, but it definitely is one. and it's so ingrained in me now that whenever I'm learning any new application, "hello, world." tends to be one of the first things I type. That's what happened here. exciting, no?

free trade

summary of this fascinating nytimes article:

So, have you guys heard of the labels "organic" or "cruelty free" or "sustainable"? Well guess what, there's a new touchy-feely label in town! These days, all the hip coffee shops in Brooklyn are selling this cool new* product called "fair trade" coffee. Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and McDonalds have recently** picked up on this trend! It's not mainstream yet--after all, Maxwell House doesn't sell it, and there are like 30 people in Middle America who still drink Maxwell House. Besides, it's vaguely European.

So here's how fair trade works: coffee distributors buy coffee beans from farmers at fair prices. Get it? fair trade = fair prices? Clever, right? You might be wondering, who decides what a "fair" price is? Well, we wondered the same thing. Unfortunately, it turns out, no one really knows or cares. We asked a couple people, and they just looked at us funny, so we stopped digging, because, well, it's not like we're hard-hitting news reporters. We work for the style section for crying out loud! Besides, it's not like distributors would lie to you and claim to be more ethical than they are just to jack up prices. So just trust us. After all, we are totally hip, with a finger on the pulse of the "green revolution!" (P.S. We totally stole that phrase from Tom Friedman. He's a middle aged father living in suburban Maryland, but sometimes he shares a page with Maureen Dowd, so you know, he has street cred.)


*in 1998
**in 1999

Why I miss Smith

I was reading this blog post at the NYT today.

Since it's only available to TimesSelect subscribers, I'll summarize.

It's a stream of consciousness rambling that starts out talking about the romantic comedy film class she took at Dartmouth last quarter. She moves on to analyzing how romance has changed in the age of facebook. Apparently, it's likely that no guys signed up to take the romantic comedy class because if they put that class on their facebook profiles, they'd look gay. Right, because everyone lists classes on their facebook profiles. She then starts talking about the possible long term consequences of people getting bashed on websites when they're young and then having those hurtful remarks show up years later on their "google resumes."

Here's a quote:

For example, Dartmouth students have recently had to deal with the construction of the Web site boredatbaker.com (which has cousins at the other Ivies, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University and Stanford). Intended as a community tool, this Web site has mutated into a forum for the anonymous publication of very personal attacks on students who must try their best not to be emotionally affected when people publicly question their sexuality, comment on their physical appearance and speculate about their value as humans.

I just don't see anyone at Smith ever getting offended at someone questioning her sexuality. Flattered, maybe, but mostly just indifferent. Why can't the rest of the world catch up?

I mostly liked the post. Social networking sites and "google resumes," to borrow her term, are a popular topic to report on at the moment, and while she didn't say anything new, it was nice to actually hear the opinions of someone who uses the sites she talks about. Also, the writer seems smart and articulate, but self conscious, and not always cognizant of when she needs to edit down her own work. I can definitely relate to that.

This is probably offensive somehow, but I wonder if the VA Tech shootings are going to help DC get voting representation in congress? As I understand it, the reason the bill to give DC & Utah a vote died last time was that some republican congresspeople attached a rider to repeal DC's super strict gun laws. Given the awful demonstration of gun violence that just occurred, I think they'd be much more wary of trying something similar if the bill comes up again. On the other hand, at this point the DC voting rights issue is so buried in the news cycle that maybe the bill will get lost in the shuffle. Who knows?

trend

the lady behind the counter at subway just called me sir. in fairness, she was looking at the counter at the time, but still. oh, and I got new glasses. they are blue and shiny, and though metal, they look vaguely like horn rims. there will be a picture once I locate a camera.

♥, HRG

now with extra gender ambiguity

Today at Starbucks the server called me sir. so I just stood there and stared at him for half a minute. he probably didn't even realize that he had said "sir" and was mad at me for holding up the line, but whatever, I don't feel bad about it.

I have a little history of people absentmindedly addressing me as male. It's happened when boarding an airplane, when visiting a museum, when judging a debate round, and at more than one cash register. These are just examples from after puberty.

I was an androgynous little kid. It didn't help that from age 6 to about 14, I always had really really short hair. (At 6, I got my hair cut because I idolized my ballet teacher, and I wanted short hair just like hers. This has to be the girliest reason ever to chop all your hair off.) One time at day care, another girl tried to kick me out of the girls' bathroom because she was so convinced I was a boy. The fact that I have a gender neutral name did not help. (The only other Sasha she knew was male.) She and her friend were taunting me and what the hell was I supposed to do to prove I was a girl? Thankfully, I guess, considering the surroundings, the only thing we could come up with was for me to wear a dress to school the next day. It's not like I even saw her at school the next day, but I did wear something pink and frilly.

I'm used to people getting my gender wrong, but I still have very mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I went to Smith College for 4 years, and after being around a fairly sizable number of females who favored men's clothes and male haircuts, I've learned how unobservant people can be. Especially outside of Northampton proper, where I think a fairly visible trans population has made some people wary of referring to gender at all, if you have a buzz cut and a men's cut polo shirt, a lot of people will overlook the fact that you have breasts or a completely female sounding name and think you're a guy. But the thing is, I don't have a buzz cut or wear polo shirts. My hair is short, but still longer than most guys' hair. I've got broad shoulders, but also breasts. And it's not like I have an adam's apple or a 5 o'clock shadow.

So there's always this sneaky little insecurity that maybe all those bored servicepeople are right, and there's something about me that on first impression reads male. I think a lot of people secretly fear that they don't quite fit in: maybe within your group of friends you wonder if everyone really likes you or just tolerates you. maybe you get accepted to a prestigious college and wonder if the admissions office made a mistake. It's so common that it's boring, and when you think about it rationally, you realize it's ridiculous. Still, it eats at you a little bit. And the gender thing is just this insecurity writ large: It's like the world telling you, not only do you not quite fit in with your friends, or at your job, or at school, but you don't quite fit into one of the least exclusive peer groups in existence: your own gender.

I mostly don't let this get to me, but sometimes a random server at starbucks can rekindle the nagging insecurity. I guess the ironic thing is that even as I feel inadequate for being not quite female enough, I also sort of take pride in it. If you're different, you're special, and how special must you be to not even fit in with your own gender?

cognitive dissonance

Ted "the Hulk" Stevens was on NPR today talking about global warming. (link)

a few choice quotes:

The causes [of global warming], if there are causes, are caused in Chicago and New York and not caused by our small population in Alaska.

emphasis mine.

Oil and gas doesn't have anything to do with global warming!

To be fair, he does go on to specify that it's not oil and gas per se, it's the fact that we use them.

Also, he says that if we don't get the oil and gas from Alaska, we'll get it from somewhere else, just at higher prices. Honestly, that's kind of the point. He's a republican and they're supposed to like markets, right? This is simple supply and demand. Higher prices lead to lower consumption and lower consumption leads to less pollution.

I know it's the internet, but...

so there was this article in the NY Times last weekend about "Amazing Girls" who all have next to perfect SAT scores, take tons of AP classes, are the president of 12 different clubs, and have solved world hunger in their spare time, but still can't get into Harvard. article here. Versions of this article get written all the time (hello, Alexandra Robbins.) but this was a particularly compelling one. I read it, I liked the cute little description of Smith College's Ivy Day that one father gave, and I moved on. I have a lot of opinions about college admissions, but none of them are new or original, and in fact, I was beginning to thing that there wasn't anything new or original to be said. Today, however, Judith Warner of the NY Times, managed to do just that. link here.

The big idea she came up with was that it may actually be good for these girls to not be part of the 9% accepted to Harvard or Princeton or whatever. They've been striving towards and achieving these incredible goals since a very young age, and it's probably good for them to fail for once. maybe they'll learn to base self worth on something less fleeting than outward success. to be sure, she said some things that unsettled me, like:

I think this is partly why so many grown-up amazing girls with high-earning husbands find themselves having to quit work when they have kids. They simply can’t perform at work and at home at the high level that they demand of themselves.

On the one hand, I think she's right. People expecting perfection from work & family life are unlikely to get it. On the other hand, I think it's too easy to interpret her as saying people are wrong for wanting accomodations to be able to work and raise families simultaneously. whatever, I'm not going to get into this now, but suffice it to say, I don't agree with everything she said, but her blog post definitely got me thinking...

and then I read the comments. They were filled with so many self-congratulating platitudes that I actually felt my capacity for original thought shrink as I slogged through them. A few people had interesting or at least valid things to say. For example, when anyone posts an article like this, it is good to point out that hey, most of the kids in the US don't have the opportunity to be this overachieving, even if they want to. Still, there were far too many comments of the form, "Judith, I totally agree with you! That's why when my kid got a B once, I was totally okay with it! He still got into [insert highly selective school here], and yeah, it's not Princeton, but he's so happy on his path to become this generation's great theoretical mathematician that we're glad we didn't push him to re-take the SATs when he only got a 1520. And he's so polite and caring, too! I always knew it was the right decision to make him quit Lacrosse and Karate so he could focus on becoming a world class Badminton player. Other parents should just lighten up!"

okay, I'm exaggerating. but not much.

cat

Okay, so a cat who lives in a library in Iowa is not as exciting as a marmoset or a Scottish Highland Cow, but this cat (named Dewey...aww!) is quite adorable.



Some might discern a passing resemblance to a certain ill-natured feline named Bob/Boris who graced the couches & classrooms of Green Street, Northampton, but the article about him claims that he's been living in the small town of Spencer, Iowa for the past 19 years. All I know is that Bob supposedly moved away at the beginning of last year, and all of a sudden, a year later, his doppelgänger shows up in the New York Times. Coincidence? I think not.

Also, as the article mentions, Dewey/Bob/Boris now has a book deal. Apparently this will be the next "Bridges of Madison County." I guess because they're both set in Iowa, or something.

cooking

tonight I am going to a passover seder. here is my favorite charoset recipe (from memory):

1 apple
1 lemon
.25 cups pine nuts
.5 cups walnuts
.5 cups ground almonds
.5 cups sugar
1 hard boiled egg
cinnamon to taste

chop everything that can be chopped into small pieces (a food processor works well) and mix together. oh, and obviously remove things like seeds, but leave the lemon peel.

I'm not really sure where the recipe originated. I got it from a packet on passover that included "charosets around the world" that my sunday school passed out in 2nd grade. each kid in the class made 1 recipe and then we had a big communal seder where we got to try them all. this one was "north african" and it was by far the best.

why don't I make charoset more? I guess it's not that great a topping for anything but matzah, but I could eat large quantities of it plain. in fact, I did for breakfast today.

I also made a sephardic charoset recipe out of the NYTimes. It had McIntosh apples, pecans, almonds, wine, and dried dates. I had to go to 3 different stores to find dried dates, and they cost $7 for 10 ounces! and then they were too tough to be cut up in the food processor, so I had to chop by hand. all in all, too labor intensive & expensive to justify the good, but not great final product. still I am going to heavily market this recipe tonight at dinner, because the more they eat of this, the more north african charoset for me. also, it does taste better after a night in the fridge, as my breakfast this morning confirmed.

by the way, my cousins wanted me to make challah for passover. I make fantastic challah, but I had to remind them that despite being a very jewish food, it doesn't really fit in with the whole "unleavened bread" theme of the evening.

and here's what I really wanted to make: torta divina. This tastes really really good, and it's surprisingly easy to make. (the hardest part was not spilling water when I was pouring some into the casserole dish I used as an improvised "bain marie.") The best part is that it's kosher without trying too hard. there aren't any awkward substitutions of matzoh meal or potato starch or other ingredients that are only used because the first choice is not available.

the hosting cousins have not tried this dessert yet, so they declined to have me prepare it. When I make it for my uncle's birthday in 2 weeks, they will realize that they missed out.