In addition to lifting boxes and making copies like a well-trained monkey, I started a new job (and technically different, so I got two job, mon!) today. I’m filing the correspondence of some famous dude I’d never heard of, William Bullitt.

Megan the (6th-year, nearly-finished) philosopher and I met yesterday to start studying German again… it’s amazing how much you lose in a week and a half. I also drove around with Matt for a little while as he schmoozed with an old Jewish taylor; he has all those politician-like skills, so I need to remember not to trust him.

At home, I’ve been distracted from my science fiction lately by two things: Halo 2 and Wikipedia. The new playlists with the new maps were released yesterday, although they have way too much Team Slayer and Territories instead of the far more fun CTF and Assault. The new maps seem really great for CTF, especially, but I’ve only played a couple games of it on any of the five new maps.

As for Wikipedia, I started scrounging through old historiographical papers in order to edit articles; I added a small bit to “Modern Evolutionary Synthesis” and a large amount (probably too much) to “Atomism.” Both articles are still pretty poor, so I want to spend some time making them good, since they are some of the few things I actually know enough about to write both intelligently and extemporaneously. Also, there is no entry at all for G. Evelyn Hutchinson, although there are short entries for even some of his more obscure students (e.g., Ursula Cowgill, for whom Hutchinson wrote comparatively lackluster recommendations, as I discovered during my research paper last semester). I hope to remedy that with a modest article.

The Wikipedia model really does seem like a valuable way for academcis to spend their time. It’s not deep, but for most academic subjects, cutting-edge work is so esoteric that only other closely-related scholars even care about, much less understand, the work going on. Whereas even the most basic encyclopedia-level introductory information is hard to come by for obscure topics.

If and when I’m a professor, I’m going to have the final paper for all my classes be to create a well-written, well-referenced Wikipedia article. I know I would have put more into that kind of project than stupid undergrad research where you know it will never be useful to anyone, anywhere. And that’s something where a few books’ worth of reading, critical thinking and careful writing can actually yield a result that has lasting value. As an added bonus, it’s a way to support the ideals of free as in speech, a phrase and a concept of which I’ve been very enamored of late.

Even though I like Microsoft a lot more now than I did before I had XP (and I don’t begrudge them the right to make money from their products, despite misgivings about corporate power), there are still things about M$ that seem counter-productive to the greater good. Regarding the relationship between capitalism, Microsoft and open-source, I recently read the so-called Halloween document and found it to be extremely interesting, even if it’s very old news.

While I don’t have any doubts that History of Science is really the way to change the world, all the time I’ve spent reading /. articles lately make me think I need to invest some time learning to program, as well.

Reading: The Man in the High Castle

Listening: The Beatles, The Preachaholicz

Watching: Fantastic Four

Faith and I saw Fantastic Four tonight. I give it 4/10 (appropriately enough, I suppose). The reasons to see it are:
1. Human Torch (humor value)
2. Jessica Alba (though not her character)

The reasons not to include:
1. the pathetic, lame, awful, thin plot
2. the one-dimensional, whiny villain (Dr. Doom, no less, who should be rather complex and anything but whiny)
3. the acting, all around

I can’t wait till Sin City comes out on DVD, with all the special features and extensions. I pretty much feel about that movie the same way as my favorite critic David Edelstein (who even likes Mystery Men). Naturally, he feels about like I do about F4.

1,096 thoughts on “”

  2. You win the prize for most intriguing sentence I’ve read today.

    “I also drove around with Matt for a little while as he schmoozed with an old Jewish taylor; he has all those politician-like skills, so I need to remember not to trust him.”

    You and this guy (he’s really running for office; is that a real website?) drove around with an old Jewish tailor that he was schmoozing with? What were they schmoozing about? I’m really interested to know more. Why was the topic something that makes you not trust this guy? Was it mafia related? Everyone knows old Jewish tailors are in the mafia. Why were you in the car?

    Reply

  500. I have been surfing online more than three hours today, yet I
    never found any interesting article like yours.
    It is pretty worth enough for me. Personally,
    if all site owners and bloggers made good content as you did,
    the net will be much more useful than ever before.

    Reply

  523. Hey would you mind letting me know which web host you’re using?
    I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different browsers and
    I must say this blog loads a lot faster then most. Can you
    suggest a good internet hosting provider at a fair
    price? Thank you, I appreciate it!

    Reply

  544. Hi, I do believe this is a great website. I stumbledupon it 😉 I’m going to revisit once again since I bookmarked it.

    Money and freedom is the best way to change, may you be rich and continue to help others.

    Reply

  551. Definitely believe that which you stated. Your favorite reason appeared
    to be on the net the simplest thing to be aware of.
    I say to you, I definitely get irked while people consider worries that they just don’t know about.
    You managed to hit the nail upon the top as well as defined out the
    whole thing without having side-effects , people
    could take a signal. Will likely be back to get more.

    Thanks

    Reply

  568. Hello just wanted to give you a quick heads up.
    The words in your article seem to be running off the screen in Safari.
    I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with web browser compatibility but I figured
    I’d post to let you know. The style and design look great though!
    Hope you get the problem solved soon. Many thanks

    Reply

  581. I’m impressed, I must say. Rarely do I encounter a blog that’s equally educative and
    interesting, and let me tell you, you’ve hit the nail on the head.
    The issue is something that too few folks are speaking
    intelligently about. I am very happy that I found this in my hunt for something relating to this.

    Reply

  593. Hello I am so grateful I found your blog page, I really found you by error, while I was
    browsing on Bing for something else, Regardless I am
    here now and would just like to say cheers for a remarkable post
    and a all round entertaining blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time
    to browse it all at the moment but I have book-marked it and also added in your
    RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read more, Please
    do keep up the excellent work.

    Reply

  605. Hey there! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted
    to give a quick shout out and say I truly enjoy
    reading through your posts. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that deal with the same topics?
    Many thanks!

    Reply

  614. Vanguard Specialty Imaging is the leader in thoracic outlet syndrome diagnosis and education. We created
    the NeoVista® MRI, widely known as the thoracic outlet syndrome test of choice.
    Vanguard Specialty Imaging can help you find a thoracic outlet
    syndrome specialist, and will help you understand thoracic
    outlet syndrome symptoms, thoracic outlet syndrome diagnosis, and
    treatment options, including thoracic outlet syndrome exercises.
    For all your thoracic outlet syndrome questions, visit tosmri.com.
    Don’t guess with TOS!

    Reply

  620. Hello, I believe your web site could possibly be having web
    browser compatibility problems. Whenever I look at your web site in Safari,
    it looks fine however, if opening in Internet Explorer, it
    has some overlapping issues. I just wanted to give you a quick
    heads up! Aside from that, wonderful blog!

    Also visit my homepage – https://findpcapps.com/

    Reply

  635. I’ve been surfing on-line more than three hours these days, yet
    I never discovered any attention-grabbing article like yours.

    It’s pretty value enough for me. In my opinion, if all website owners and bloggers made excellent content as you probably did, the web shall be
    a lot more helpful than ever before.

    Reply

  641. Hi there! This is kind of off topic but I need some advice from an established blog.
    Is it very difficult to set up your own blog?
    I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty fast.
    I’m thinking about setting up my own but I’m not sure where to
    begin. Do you have any points or suggestions?
    Many thanks

    Check out my web-site; https://findpcapps.com/

    Reply