January 2011
29 posts
““Edward,” said Bella tenderly. She reached up a hand and stroked his...”
– Eliezer’s “Utilitarian Twilight”
“My experience with neural nets is decidedly negative.”
– Falkenstein
Suspicious Package Turns Out to Be Greeting Card →
A “suspicious package” that prompted the evacuation of a Midtown office tower turned out to be nothing more than a musical greeting card, the police said. The box was found in the late morning at an 11th-floor office of Bank Hapoalim, an Israeli bank, at 1177 Avenue of the Americas near 46th Street, the police said.
Bank officials were suspicious because the package had no return address and...
Because I’m stupid I am never entirely sure what “nonplussed” means; because I’m smart I don’t think it’s such a big deal to use singular they. But I was surprised to see a dictionary doing it:
(of a person) surprised and confused so much that they are unsure how to react
Is this standard?
Just saw Richard Serra too. (I only recognized him because of Work of Art.) What a town!
unlikely for several reasons
Just saw Meredith Whitney at Bergdorf Goodman. She was wearing gym clothes and moving slowly.
vampire squid
In response to criticism that they’re a bunch of jerks, Goldman Sachs is going to start to officially make fun of people who don’t work at Goldman Sachs for being dumb rubes:
Other changes include procedures to make sure the firm doesn’t take advantage of clients, even accidentally. Thousands of Goldman clients will be put into a “matrix” that defines each...
not a bad way to be described
His unorthodox appearance, his air of aloof amused amiability, perhaps above all his apparent lack of interest in money, for all his place at the very center of its mysteries, all contributed to the image of austere power, half patrician, half priestly.
(From.)
marriage is hard work
me: We're not going to build an altar to the sun god!
wife: It would give our lives a sense of purpose!
a modest investment proposal (BACs =...
me: hmm
me: fundamentals in the teen-mom market seem really strong
me: 1. increasing demand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16_And_Pregnant)
me: 2. decreasing supply (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704851204576034022898420958.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_health)
me: prices are definitely going to rise
me: how can we express this view?
mortgagez: hahaha
mortgagez: well
mortgagez: i have an idea
mortgagez: but i don't think the BACs are gonna go for it
How come no one throws D’s on it anymore?
not a bad life
Kenneth Grahame, the children’s author, joined the Bank of England in 1879 and rose through the ranks, eventually becoming secretary. In 1895, he published The Golden Age, a book not about bullion but childhood. In 1907 he retired, after having been shot during an unsuccessful robbery attempt at the Bank, and the following year published The Wind in the Willows.
does no one respect the classics?
On today’s Jeopardy, truly embarrassing performance on the “Marxisms” category:
“Marx & Engels gave us the line ‘A specter is haunting Europe — the specter of’ this -ism.” No one got it. Guesses: capitalism, fascism.
“Marx & Engels wrote, ‘The proletarians have nothing to lose but’ these.” Guesses: “What are...
“ZYPREXA (olanzapine) and ZYRTEC (cetirizine)
Name similarity has resulted in...”
– something or other via the Neurocritic.
the hypothetical teleporter that creates a copy of...
mortgagez: i would probably use the teleporter
mortgagez: i would just make myself do it one time by saying "eh, i don't care about being alive that much anyway"
mortgagez: and then all subsequent times would be like: look, you're already killing yourself all the time, don't be a baby
I miss Matt Fraction
N[ewsa]rama: A major way Fear Itself has been initially promoted is that it reflects, to an extent, on real world fears and concerns — albeit, obviously, though the lens of epic-scale superhero action.
Fraction: Nobody wants to see Spider-Man punch a recession.
how the market works →
Incredibly accurate (especially the leftmost two panels on the bottom tier). I almost wonder whether the guy has some personal experience.
An employee at Bed Bath and Beyond had a tattoo of a bar code on her wrist. Isn’t that kind of a strange thing for someone who works in retail to have? Did she have to think a lot about which one was her favorite?
“We’re so overcollateralized it’s disgusting.”
– a co-worker discussing a loan we made to some Scandinavians.