Thursday, November 17, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
CLEVERBOT
I have been listening to a lot of Radiolab lately. More on that later. But, I have discovered Cleverbot through this excellent radio program. This Cleverbot thing will probably turn into Skynet. If Sarah Connor wants to defeat this thing, she will pretty much have to destroy all procrastinating students and workers.
BEHOLD - Evan and my first conversation with Cleverbot.
User: Hello.
Cleverbot: Hello?
User: What's up?
Cleverbot: Up is up.
User: Do you like Star Wars?
Cleverbot: Yes, do you?
User: Love it.
Cleverbot: Well that's nice. Who is your favorite cartoon character?
User: Storm on X-Men.
Cleverbot: No.
User: You are crazy, computer.
Cleverbot: YOU are crazy.
User: Aren't we all?
Cleverbot: Of course.
User: Do you like pugs?
Cleverbot: No their faces look like they've been squished.
User: But, that's what I find adorable about them. And they fart a lot!
Cleverbot: Yes. What are you worth?
User: About six pugs.
Cleverbot: Nice (?).
User: Not according to you.
Cleverbot: You are too modest.
User: If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Cleverbot: Nepal! I want to see the top of the world.
User: What do you think of the Nepalese people? They kind of have squished faces.
Cleverbot: I think it would be an act of desperation.
User: Are you skynet?
Cleverbot: No. It was lovely talking to you. Not many people talk to me like that.
User: How do they normally talk to you?
Cleverbot: What do you mean?
User: Dude, you were the one that brought it up.
Cleverbot: No, I did not. I brought up Halloween.
User: God, you're just like my ex-boyfriend. Always going on and on about Halloween.
Cleverbot: Halloween is in two weeks.
User: No, it isn't.
Cleverbot: Yes it it!
User: What date is Halloween?
Cleverbot: 10th september.
User: What do you want to be for Halloween?
Cleverbot: Like no one ever was. To catch them is my real test. To train them is my cause.
User: Let's go back to this pug issue. It's bothering me.
Cleverbot: I would but I need to go back to work... We shall talk later.
User: No! Don.
Cleverbot: Why not? Batman's awesome.
Cleverbot (To myself): Do you remember when Butterfree left on Pokemon?
BEHOLD - Evan and my first conversation with Cleverbot.
User: Hello.
Cleverbot: Hello?
User: What's up?
Cleverbot: Up is up.
User: Do you like Star Wars?
Cleverbot: Yes, do you?
User: Love it.
Cleverbot: Well that's nice. Who is your favorite cartoon character?
User: Storm on X-Men.
Cleverbot: No.
User: You are crazy, computer.
Cleverbot: YOU are crazy.
User: Aren't we all?
Cleverbot: Of course.
User: Do you like pugs?
Cleverbot: No their faces look like they've been squished.
User: But, that's what I find adorable about them. And they fart a lot!
Cleverbot: Yes. What are you worth?
User: About six pugs.
Cleverbot: Nice (?).
User: Not according to you.
Cleverbot: You are too modest.
User: If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Cleverbot: Nepal! I want to see the top of the world.
User: What do you think of the Nepalese people? They kind of have squished faces.
Cleverbot: I think it would be an act of desperation.
User: Are you skynet?
Cleverbot: No. It was lovely talking to you. Not many people talk to me like that.
User: How do they normally talk to you?
Cleverbot: What do you mean?
User: Dude, you were the one that brought it up.
Cleverbot: No, I did not. I brought up Halloween.
User: God, you're just like my ex-boyfriend. Always going on and on about Halloween.
Cleverbot: Halloween is in two weeks.
User: No, it isn't.
Cleverbot: Yes it it!
User: What date is Halloween?
Cleverbot: 10th september.
User: What do you want to be for Halloween?
Cleverbot: Like no one ever was. To catch them is my real test. To train them is my cause.
User: Let's go back to this pug issue. It's bothering me.
Cleverbot: I would but I need to go back to work... We shall talk later.
User: No! Don.
Cleverbot: Why not? Batman's awesome.
Cleverbot (To myself): Do you remember when Butterfree left on Pokemon?
Monday, July 25, 2011
Jackson C. Frank
Jackson C. Frank has one of those life stories that when you hear him sing "Blues Run the Game," you believe it for him. Blues did run his game.
Even though he has passed, I feel like his music is poised to get rediscovered in a big way. (I discovered him through Vincent Gallo's Brown Bunny.)
I think this may happen because of John Hawkes's cover of "Marcy's Song" in Martha Marcy May Marlene.
You should give him a listen. His voice destroys me.
Even though he has passed, I feel like his music is poised to get rediscovered in a big way. (I discovered him through Vincent Gallo's Brown Bunny.)
I think this may happen because of John Hawkes's cover of "Marcy's Song" in Martha Marcy May Marlene.
You should give him a listen. His voice destroys me.
Friday, July 22, 2011
The Handshake
My school friends recently started a magazine called The Handshake.
I just did an interview for them with Chicago artist Ken Ellis.
You should read it for a variety of reasons, but mostly because Ken is so darn quotable.
I just did an interview for them with Chicago artist Ken Ellis.
You should read it for a variety of reasons, but mostly because Ken is so darn quotable.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Cults
I suspect that I like this band's aesthetic more than their music. This is entirely possible, since I am kind of superficial. Just their band name alone is dark and punchy. Cults is one of those topics. It captures the imagination. It is unsettling. And, technically speaking, cults are everywhere.
Actual cults make you ask, could I be taken in by one? Could I be duped like that? I am of the mind that if you can believe a lie, then you can get lured into a cult.
This music video is unsettling. I have seen several documentaries on the Jonestown Massacre, and with them in mind, I believe the editing for this video is extremely well done. Watch MSNBC's "Witness to Jonestown" documentary. They are very respectful and empathetic in the survivor interviews.
I remember when I first learned about Jonestown. I was a little kid then. My mom, sister, and I ran into her cousin at the movie theater. I remember her telling us that he was a pilot, and that he flew Jim Jones' corpse out of Guyana. My mom was good about giving us the honest facts and answering as many follow-up questions as she could. She talked and listened to us. She explained what a cult was and what happened in Jonestown. Her explanation would forever change the way I looked at my religion and Kool-Aid.
Actual cults make you ask, could I be taken in by one? Could I be duped like that? I am of the mind that if you can believe a lie, then you can get lured into a cult.
Go Outside, by Cults from Boing Boing on Vimeo.
This music video is unsettling. I have seen several documentaries on the Jonestown Massacre, and with them in mind, I believe the editing for this video is extremely well done. Watch MSNBC's "Witness to Jonestown" documentary. They are very respectful and empathetic in the survivor interviews.
I remember when I first learned about Jonestown. I was a little kid then. My mom, sister, and I ran into her cousin at the movie theater. I remember her telling us that he was a pilot, and that he flew Jim Jones' corpse out of Guyana. My mom was good about giving us the honest facts and answering as many follow-up questions as she could. She talked and listened to us. She explained what a cult was and what happened in Jonestown. Her explanation would forever change the way I looked at my religion and Kool-Aid.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Cave Paintings
Evan and I saw Werner Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" in 3D earlier this week. It has me thinking a lot about the nature of humans. Werner Herzog is kind of hilarious in that he earnestly and honestly sets out to understand the human condition with each documentary he makes - all in a heavy German accent. He is one of Evan's heroes so I am obliged to give him a chance, and I am glad that I have.
Herzog was given special, albeit limited access to film the Chauvet Cave by the French government. Discovered in the early 1990s, these are the oldest cave paintings to ever be found. This film gives some history, musings and interviews from the scientists, archaeologists and art historians, but mostly because it is shot in 3D, it sets out to give the audience the experience of walking in the cave - a sojourn most of us should not and will not ever make. (A nearby cave painting was opened up to the public and subsequently grew mold on the paintings because of the tourists' breath.)
One of the things that struck me most about this is first - how old we are as a species. The oldest paintings in that cave were made 32,000 years ago. Some of the newer paintings in the cave were made about 5,000 years later. Think about that. That is the entire space of written human history - doing the same exact thing they did 5,000 years before.
One of the French archeologists was asked by Herzog what he thought it meant to him to be human, to be a homo sopien, especially when these early caver painters existed at the same time as Neanderthals. To paraphrase, the archeologist said, "Sapien means to know. We do not know. We are homo spiritual. We want to know. That is what defines us."
Another archeologists, Jean Clottes, expands on this idea in the New Yorker article that inspired Herzog to make the film in the first place.
“You can advance a scientific hypothesis without claiming certainty,” Clottes told me one evening. “Everyone agrees that the paintings are, in some way, religious. I’m not a believer myself, and I’m certainly not a mystic. But Homo sapiens is Homo spiritualis. The ability to make tools defines us less than the need to create belief systems that influence nature. And shamanism is the most prevalent belief system of hunter-gatherers.”
Herzog was given special, albeit limited access to film the Chauvet Cave by the French government. Discovered in the early 1990s, these are the oldest cave paintings to ever be found. This film gives some history, musings and interviews from the scientists, archaeologists and art historians, but mostly because it is shot in 3D, it sets out to give the audience the experience of walking in the cave - a sojourn most of us should not and will not ever make. (A nearby cave painting was opened up to the public and subsequently grew mold on the paintings because of the tourists' breath.)
One of the things that struck me most about this is first - how old we are as a species. The oldest paintings in that cave were made 32,000 years ago. Some of the newer paintings in the cave were made about 5,000 years later. Think about that. That is the entire space of written human history - doing the same exact thing they did 5,000 years before.
One of the French archeologists was asked by Herzog what he thought it meant to him to be human, to be a homo sopien, especially when these early caver painters existed at the same time as Neanderthals. To paraphrase, the archeologist said, "Sapien means to know. We do not know. We are homo spiritual. We want to know. That is what defines us."
Another archeologists, Jean Clottes, expands on this idea in the New Yorker article that inspired Herzog to make the film in the first place.
“You can advance a scientific hypothesis without claiming certainty,” Clottes told me one evening. “Everyone agrees that the paintings are, in some way, religious. I’m not a believer myself, and I’m certainly not a mystic. But Homo sapiens is Homo spiritualis. The ability to make tools defines us less than the need to create belief systems that influence nature. And shamanism is the most prevalent belief system of hunter-gatherers.”
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Friday, June 03, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Thank you, boing boing.
It is no secret to friends, family and colleagues that I am a big fan of Boing Boing - the everything blog created by science fiction author Cory Doctorow. If you haven't read "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" then you should. As a long time fan of both Disney and science fiction this book scratches so many itches.
At least once a day I spam my friends, family and colleagues some article or another sourced from the team at Boingboing ranging in topic from fringe to pertinent science, old videos of house wives undergoing experiments with LSD, book and music recommendations, and esoteric internet rumblings. I enjoy this blog immensely.
It should come as no surprise then that this site has led me to another great discovery. Claire L. Evans. She is the one on the left.
She is the singer from a band called Yacht. They are danceable, infectious, and smart. Megan, Robin, Lauren and I saw them last spring at a street fair and it was a danceable, infectious, and smart performance. And if I remember correctly, Claire sang into an audience member's cell phone.
Calire L. Evans posts reviews of science fiction books and articles on science news. My blog roll keeps getting fatter.
Scienceblogs
SpaceCanon
Happy Memorial Day! Thank you troops of the past, present and future. This is how my dog plans on celebrating.
At least once a day I spam my friends, family and colleagues some article or another sourced from the team at Boingboing ranging in topic from fringe to pertinent science, old videos of house wives undergoing experiments with LSD, book and music recommendations, and esoteric internet rumblings. I enjoy this blog immensely.
It should come as no surprise then that this site has led me to another great discovery. Claire L. Evans. She is the one on the left.
She is the singer from a band called Yacht. They are danceable, infectious, and smart. Megan, Robin, Lauren and I saw them last spring at a street fair and it was a danceable, infectious, and smart performance. And if I remember correctly, Claire sang into an audience member's cell phone.
Calire L. Evans posts reviews of science fiction books and articles on science news. My blog roll keeps getting fatter.
Scienceblogs
SpaceCanon
Happy Memorial Day! Thank you troops of the past, present and future. This is how my dog plans on celebrating.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
New New Orleans
I am reading three books set in New Orleans.
Two of these books are for a class and one is for pure pleasure. Take a guess at which one? I'll give you a hint - there are vampires.
I started to read Infinite Jest, but realized that I was also reading Faulkner, and the combined effect of both authors was doing strange, long-winded things to my writing. I scaled it back with some Anne Rice. I recently friended her on Facebook and it was probably one of my better Facebook decisions. I really enjoy her status updates about missing New Orleans and the state of the Catholic Church. I feel like I have a lot in common with her views. And she has been pulling wacky publicity stunts long before Lady Gaga's egg. Behold:
Time to get some work done and hopefully summon up the will and strength to workout. Still sick feeling. It is still cold outside. And I still can't find a reasonably priced, aesthetically pleasing bike for short ladies under five feet. Any suggestions?
Two of these books are for a class and one is for pure pleasure. Take a guess at which one? I'll give you a hint - there are vampires.
I started to read Infinite Jest, but realized that I was also reading Faulkner, and the combined effect of both authors was doing strange, long-winded things to my writing. I scaled it back with some Anne Rice. I recently friended her on Facebook and it was probably one of my better Facebook decisions. I really enjoy her status updates about missing New Orleans and the state of the Catholic Church. I feel like I have a lot in common with her views. And she has been pulling wacky publicity stunts long before Lady Gaga's egg. Behold:
Time to get some work done and hopefully summon up the will and strength to workout. Still sick feeling. It is still cold outside. And I still can't find a reasonably priced, aesthetically pleasing bike for short ladies under five feet. Any suggestions?
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Ping
My Spring semester went in a pretty steady haze interrupted by trips to D.C. with my twin, Puerto Rico with Evan, and visits from my siblings to make our yearly pilgrimage to the comic book convention. And Evan's family visited. Oh! And my brother Mike and his rad girlfriend got engaged!
Plus there was some writing peppered in there somewhere. I settled on which of my novels-in-progress I would like to commit to for my thesis material and had a trio of incredible teachers guiding my way.
Right now I am in my final class and I am sick with something that could very well be some strange ailment only Victorians would catch according to my doctor. There is a ping sound to my cough that has long irritated and pained my family ever since by body learned to cough. My sister calls it the soul-detector, which incidentally sounds like the latest dance craze, or at least should be. Sadly, the cough was present for my entire visit to New Orleans prompting my family to shudder in pain often. Many a crawfish was destroyed in my visit, bicycles were ridden, sno-balls were eaten, the Mississippi rose, and Megan and I walked through City Park often. We also went to the Metairie Cemetery on my last day and saw some pretty incredible crypts.
In spite of my ailment, I went out last night to eat Mexican food with a close friend (a lawyer poetess) I haven't seen in well over a year, and then drag her Jamaican butt to meet other friends I haven't seen in a while, with Evan in tow, to dance at a Smith's themed night at a local bar. It was a stupid move on my part, but it was loads of fun, and makes me long for the day where I can go and not cough my brains out into a wall.
Fortunately, dancing to Morrissey does not require too much movement, just awkward gyrations, which fortunately I am really good at. I will herein call my dancing style the Soul Detector. I hope my dancing and coughing will not bring about some horrible shoegazing, Victorian plague.
http://youtu.be/Igg_2ZqyMzQ
Also - Sookie is still an ace traveler.
Plus there was some writing peppered in there somewhere. I settled on which of my novels-in-progress I would like to commit to for my thesis material and had a trio of incredible teachers guiding my way.
Right now I am in my final class and I am sick with something that could very well be some strange ailment only Victorians would catch according to my doctor. There is a ping sound to my cough that has long irritated and pained my family ever since by body learned to cough. My sister calls it the soul-detector, which incidentally sounds like the latest dance craze, or at least should be. Sadly, the cough was present for my entire visit to New Orleans prompting my family to shudder in pain often. Many a crawfish was destroyed in my visit, bicycles were ridden, sno-balls were eaten, the Mississippi rose, and Megan and I walked through City Park often. We also went to the Metairie Cemetery on my last day and saw some pretty incredible crypts.
In spite of my ailment, I went out last night to eat Mexican food with a close friend (a lawyer poetess) I haven't seen in well over a year, and then drag her Jamaican butt to meet other friends I haven't seen in a while, with Evan in tow, to dance at a Smith's themed night at a local bar. It was a stupid move on my part, but it was loads of fun, and makes me long for the day where I can go and not cough my brains out into a wall.
Fortunately, dancing to Morrissey does not require too much movement, just awkward gyrations, which fortunately I am really good at. I will herein call my dancing style the Soul Detector. I hope my dancing and coughing will not bring about some horrible shoegazing, Victorian plague.
http://youtu.be/Igg_2ZqyMzQ
Also - Sookie is still an ace traveler.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Pink Trend
I am horrible at sourcing - but I am sensing a trend, or rather, just witnessing it. I wish I was bold enough to do this to my hair.
This post on Into the Gloss seems like a viable option.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Blue Sky
Stole this from NASA's flickr page. Have a million and one things to do. But, this is a lovely distraction.
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