This etsy color-driven interface is quite fun. Usually I think that more complicated interfaces (especially flash-driven ones) are more hindrance than help, but in this case it doesn’t seem like overkill. The two problems with it, however, are that it’s unclear when you might need something of a specific color but not care what that object might be (earrings! a notebook! a tea cozy!) and the search algorithm doesn’t seem to be able to pick out the main object in the photo, so if you choose green, you get green objects as well as objects photographed on a green background. But in general it’s a good way to explore what’s on offer at etsy.com.
Read MoreTag "images"
The other night I was sitting with my sister at Walker’s in Tribeca and we noticed a gentleman at the bar who bore a passing resemblance to Kurt Gödel, a resemblance emphasized by his glasses which looked much the same as those shown below:
I’m not sure if the gentleman in question was specifically intending to emphasize his similarity to Gödel or if he was merely going for a dapper 1930s look in general. I’d like to think the former, but other evidence (such as the knot of his tie, which included actual pleats!) points more to the latter.
Read MoreA few years ago, Walt and my sister and I were on a roadtrip to Michigan, accompanied by the dulcet tones of John Hodgman, reading to us from the areas of his expertise (this audiobook was free for a while on itunes, and may very well still be — if it is, I advise you to get it, especially if there is a roadtrip in your future).
Those of you who have read (or heard) the book know that it contains a rather long list of hobo names. Â Recently, on Mr Hodgman’s website, he mentioned a possible HOBO SUPER HERO:
He says:
PERSONALLY, I cannot tell if this is an authentic artifact of the past, or an inauthentic one.
PLEASE LOOK. ARE THERE ANY COMIC BOOK DATING EXPERTS WHO MIGHT AID ME?
Off the top of my head, just a few of the many potential readings of this last sentence include:
- He is looking for an expert in identifying when comic books where created.
- He is looking for an expert in identifying when books were created who is also a comic.
- He is looking for an expert who goes out on dates with comic books.
- He is looking for an expert in going out on dates with books who is also a comic.
- …
I don’t have the inclination to make this list as comprehensive as the hobo name list, but I think one could easily double the length of this list, if not more.
Read MorePlease read my latest pickle news.
Read MoreI just watched Klute last night. Great cinematography. It brought back memories of NYC from when I was small, and you had to wear your purse across your body for fear of “snatchers” and Times Square was seedy and dangerous and there was still great art on the subways. Anyway, two things: Jane Fonda had the “one mullet to rule them all” and Donald Sutherland used to look a lot like Tobey Maguire.
I read a sentence on Laura Holder’s site and apparently my sentence processor will not be defied in its demand to attach low, because I could only get one reading for it (not the correct one, either). Here’s the sentence:
Even after clicking through and looking at the photo in question, and reading the article, I was convinced that the photo was of a man who was using a concealed camera, and I kept looking at the photo to see if I could detect the hidden camera…
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urgenteyextranjero
Originally uploaded by sararyan.
What occurred to me when I looked at this photo and its caption (Put your urgent foreign mail into this lion’s mouth) is that the use of AND here could be interpreted either with the distributive or collective reading: does the lion accept mail that is either urgent or foreign? Or does an individual piece of mail have to be both urgent and foreign for it to enter the mouth? The former reading is probably more likely, but ignoring for the moment VPs which *require* collective readings (gather, be numerous), it seems like the distributive reading tends to be preferred, ceteris paribus: ‘these letters are urgent and foreign’ seems to require that each letter be both urgent and foreign. Or perhaps my intuitions are shot to hell and I am completely wrong about this. I know this mereology stuff is oh so popular these days with the semantico-philosophy set, but it’s always seemed to me like something pragmatics should solve.
Read MoreI spent the weekend in DC at the rally/march. Some pictures are on my flickr page, and I’ve made comments there, but something struck me during the march (other than the traditional “W is a deluded dangerous asshole; I have a great family; marches perforce bring out Che t-shirts, etc.”) concerning signs and speech acts. Is carrying a sign tantamount to making that speech act? If the sign contains an imperative, e.g. “BRING THE TROOPS HOME” then to whom is this imperative addressed? I’m not being snarky here about preaching to the choir — I actually think there could be some interesting analysis done on this type of “speech act” if it is indeed such.
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I had some littlenecks, raw on the halfshell, with lemon juice and cocktail sauce, standing on the boardwalk at Coney Island, and NOTHING BAD HAPPENED. This could be a whole new world.