December 2010
48 posts
“I sometimes think of an imaginary economy with two sectors: music and bathtubs.”
– Tyler Cowen
a non-debate about Frank Gehry
mortgagez: why do we need to spend extra money to make our buildings look like claymation?
me: so your dull gray life can have a little inspiration
mortgagez: i get my inspiration from the screen i stare at all day, thank you
me: (similar to the reason for making claymation as such)
mortgagez: claymation is cheaper
mortgagez: and you don't have to live in it when you're done
mortgagez: buildings are costly and important
mortgagez: it's like
mortgagez: let's spice up this surgery with some whimsy!
me: chicken run cost $45 million
me: let's go make a claymation movie!
mortgagez: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/11/06/mit_sues_gehry_citing_leaks_in_300m_complex/
mortgagez: 300mm
me: 6.7 chicken runs! you're preaching to the choir
a joke to tell when you see a Kindle
That’s a weird-looking Etch-a-Sketch.
“This is America! Everything is a joke!”
– the wife’s Singaporean aunt, relating how she explained Facebook to her mother-country relatives
mortgagez: i like the idea of "shorting" research
mortgagez: pay us 200k/yr, and we'll do the opposite of your advice
generally
Bold patterns on the outside of an article of clothing: cheap (not classy).
Bold patterns on the inside of an article of clothing, hence invisible: expensive (classy).
3-D TV: the opposite of flatscreen?
mortgagez: like... the idea of "justice" is a cancer
you don't know anything about "Jingle Bells"
Facts via Wikipedia:
It was originally a Thanksgiving song.
It should really be “Jingle, Bells!” — “jingle” is a verb, an imperative, as you’ll realize when you think about the grammar of “jingle all the way.”
Sort of a downbeat verse:
A day or two ago, The story I must tell I went out on the snow, And on my back I fell; A gent was riding...
updated lyrics
Swim in a deep sea of slankets.
“We are not doomed to endless gridlock.”
– Obama. Lol. What’s that Hamlet line about ladies protesting?
Eliezer lays down the law:
Also, considering that you have apparently been reading this site for years and you still have not grasped the concept of subjective uncertainty, and you are still working with a frequentist notion of probability, nor yet have you even grasped the difference, I would suggest to you in all seriousness that you seek enlightenment elsewhere.
(Sorry, people, there’s...
Not exactly "post." →
Subject line of an email I just got:
S. KOREA ARMY SAYS TO HOLD LARGEST-EVER LIVE-FIRE DRILL ON THURSDAY ON MAINLAND NEAR BORDER WITH NORTH
But I read it as:
S. KOREA ARMY SAYS TO HOLD LARGEST-EVER FIRE DRILL ON THURSDAY ON MAINLAND NEAR BORDER WITH NORTH
Comical Asian fire drills: not just for the Chinese anymore!
Wall Street Cards →
“Because your clients are worth it, send a card that shows you care.”
What a bunch of jerks. →
my world is different
me: woke up with nose blood all over my pillow
me: bad omen
mortgagez: i have a kitten at home for a few weeks
mortgagez: it's really quite cute
It's been a long struggle, but we finally did it. →
things that I've been implicitly led to believe...
a multi-horse, closed sleigh
not a lie
mortgagez: mint.com tax tip #10: die
Some different problems. →
Things are going to be okay! →
“How one longs, in a way, for endings like that of DeLillo’s first novel,...”
– Chad Harbach. In a way.
“Deciding to turn to politics, Luthor becomes President of the United States,...”
– history.
bottlenecks
me: Why did that thing start being a thing now as opposed to any previous time not prior to the time it was used unironically?
lux: It's arbitrary. Eventually all things will become things, but only so many things can be transitioning at a time.
mortgagez: David Hume had said in 1742, “Nor is a porter less greedy of money, which he spends on bacon and brandy, than a courtier, who purchases champagne and ortolans [little songbirds rated a delicacy]. Riches are valuable at all times, and to all men.”
mortgagez: shocking how nicely porters live in this quote
WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED IN 1820?!? →
All right, last one, but it's a real doozy. →
Curious. I'm pretty sure that thing is not more... →
Also, really strong recent love trend!
Also, the correlation here is bananas.
People really don't talk enough about the... →
Should we be worried about peak racism? →
financial analysis
boss: there is no way [Wells Fargo] is worth more than [JPMorgan]
me: yikes
me: i agree
boss: seriously, in the following situations:
boss: (1) held at gunpoint
boss: (2) in war being shelled
boss: (3) sipping riesling at US open
boss: (4) investing children's trust funds
boss: is there any one in which you would take john stumpf over jamie dimon?
boss: please
me: no, but you left out milking cows and whittling
boss: ok
boss: fine
just in case
mortgagez: i hate everything
mortgagez: just throwing that out there
mortgagez: in case you forgot
anyway
mortgagez: anyway, i've made suicide plans
mortgagez: pretty excited about them
“Joe Jonas is a pop icon, so he’s probably eating filet-mignon Cheez...”
– Richard Blais, Top Chef: All Stars.
“For example, one approach to preventing robot overpopulation might be to...”
– Stephen Omohundro
Final Jeopardy "questions" the wife has gotten...
Mona Lisa (Famous Paintings)
Agatha Christie (British Women)
Na’vi (Movies & Language)
This has all happened in the last month. It’s a little alarming, frankly.
“Sure, and people feel safer driving than riding in an airplane, because driving...”
– EY
“You have to be nice to [mortgagez]. He’s your only friend.”
– the wife
“The often angry-looking Nassim Taleb just published a book of unlinked tweets:...”
– Falkenstein. Zing!
“Short it. NOW. I’m holding you responsible if I see that commercial again.”
– the wife, re: Procter & Gamble (ticker PG). She was extremely offended by the new Charmin ads where the poop bears who love rubbing toilet paper all over themselves are implied to be sexually active. (And she’s no fan of that Gilette “shave so that your son knows you love him”...
“Abrams’s lack of experience soon became evident. He blew up at producers if a...”
– Gabriel Sherman, NY Magazine from October. Relatedly, I sure have a lot of “funny” quotes from articles I read on the subway like a month ago to post here, so brace yourselves!
Perhaps I should be embarrassed for not already knowing this, but apparently an important concept in statistical learning theory is the “support vector machine,” which seems to involve deciding on a good hyperplane to cleave some kind of high-dimensional concept space. But anyway: do you support vector machines?
“For a first time borrower (if possible to sort the statistics to this level)...”
– this Google Answer took a turn toward the end. Also, later, in response to a person who said he would do some research on this: “I would like to work with you..I like your trusting approach re money.” That’s got to be the most suspicious thing anyone could possibly say in a...
don't go to the Caribbean for your honeymoon
You’ll get a lot of emails from “The Leading Hotels of the World.” Now I know the following:
Grand Resort Bad Ragaz in Bad Ragaz, Switzerland, offers “Grand Resort GOLD BATH with 23-carat gold” and “One 50-minute Gold Temptation Massage per person.”
Grand Hotel Park in Gstaad, Switzerland offers “Visit to hot air balloon museum,”...
Phil Falcone is the man
Throwing money around as only newly minted billionaires can, the Falcones bought a mountaintop villa in St. Barts and the Penthouse mansion of Bob Guccione on the Upper East Side. A leggy brunette who grew up in Spanish Harlem, Ms. Falcone turned heads with a Prada sensibility and her pet pig, Wilbur…
Through the Harbinger Group, a publicly traded company that once processed fish oils,...
“Episode two expands on this theme, featuring the arrival of an arrogant, albeit...”
– I would not have guessed that working in the US diplomatic corps in Canada involved so much television criticism. Perfect job for Brown grads of a certain stripe? (via fattailed)