Success Threshold

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/08/earth-scars/blast-interactive
This is a cool infographic about the Tunguska Incident which I enjoyed but raises more questions than it answers.  First, did it really take a super computer to create that animation? Second, does a supercomputer being involved make this any less bullshit? Third, what did Siberia do to this meteorite to make it so upset? The third question isn't funny is it? It felt like better symmetry to put the third question in, and I deeply regret it.  Thus is life. 

The dinner went well, I had fried cheese, a sirloin steak, and a Belgian waffle.  It was definitely the safe route, but I ate well.  All of my girlfriend's coworkers were fascinating and brilliant people, with their 5 languages and ability to juggle and dance on call.  It was interesting to see what people ordered.  There were those who got pate who were more continental, they followed it up with the veal and chocolate moose.  The British and Germans got the salad with the sausage and the ice cream.  And the girls got another girlier salad with chicken stew and the gingerbread ice cream.  I was the only one who went with the steak and fried cheese.  Cultures!

I'm back in Belgium, from Greece.  The cliff notes:
Day 1: Quick tour of Anavissos, Freshly Caught Fish Feast right on the Aegean
Day 2: Long walk through the Acropolis and Athens, Heat Stroke, A Viewing of "The Birds" in Greek by Aristophanes in the outdoor theater of Dionysus, Recovery from Heat Stroke
Day 3: Beach, Lunch under a Fig Tree, Beach, Perfect Lambchops Place, backseat convertible ride through the country
Day 4: Temple of Poseidon, Beach under temple of Poseidon, Watching of Sunset at Temple of Poseidon, Ice Cream and Fire overlooking moon and Temple of Poseidon
Day 5: Beach, Outdoor Barbecue
Day 6: Flight home where I dreamed Uma Thurman joined the cast of lost, yet was unable to shoot down all the Dharma Fighter planes.

The food was fantastic.  I now love Greek Salads, especially those without lettuce.  We picked fish out of a drawer of ice before it was prepared, and specified the type of lamb we wanted, all sans menu.  Had a fantastic day, and fall in Athens.  I fell down the stairs of the Acropolis.  An accident in an awe inspiring place becomes less Clumsiness, and more a fall from grace.  I blame my own hubris, or at least the dust on the bottom of my new sandals.  Wicked bruise, I'm going to take it back to the SA office where I work and file for domestic abuse.  Its my word vs. my girlfriends on the stand, and I imagine her being a convicted felon should give me more leverage in deciding what movies to see in the future.  No more missing "The Notebook" for "Spiderman" anymore for this guy! Then I didn't drink enough water in the 100 degree heat.  I kept seeing signs for 35 degrees and figured I had it under control. That is until I realized how cold it was under the hot sun.  I napped, showered, drank water, and was at least 20% by theater show time.  AMAZING theater and audience.  Super hot out, yet 8000-10000 in their Sunday best, raptly watching a masterpiece i didn't understand a word of (a play! who cares about plays? the greeks that's who!). Noone went to the bathroom, except one guy who also apparently had heatstroke and vomited into his hand up the steep marble stairs.  The Greeks we were accompanied by, didn't even notice that is how good of an audience they were. Some guy behind me, in the silence of the multitude hushing their very breath tore a humongous piece of cheese off.  If i wasn't still sun drunk and hungover, dizzy and nauseous, I would have laughed much louder and longer.  What bravery!  Childish humor side note; Apparently around Anavissos there are two big serious gangs as far as I can tell from the Grafito tags; The Buns and The Ack!.  People actually tag "BUNS" on lampposts and retaining walls and stray Greek dogs.  I'm pretty sure this gang street fights with snapping and dance, a la West Side Story. 

The beaches were amazing.  The food was amazing.  All in all my girlfriend and I had a fantastic time in Greece.  There are more stories, but I have to go brave Belgian cusiene.  If I don't return, tell posterous I love him/her, and cancel my Boing Boing RSS feed. 


*At some point I'll work on catchier or more sensible titles. But not both.

Made it alive to Brussels.  Strange place.  Noone can decide what language to speak, or what cultures to dislike.  It is nice to know where you stand.  In the UK you can hate the French and in France vice versa.  I figured that Germans would be a safe bet here, but they seem to have cordial relations.  I think the Belgians dislike themselves the most, so I really don't know where I stand. 
The fasting fell apart more due to boredom that hunger.  Speaking of hunger, we have a big Belgian dinner next Friday when we get back from Greece.  I was excited for a typical Belgian meal, until I started reading, or should I say translating, the menu.  I came across this little gem, Choesels au Lambic de Kam.  Choessels? The closest thing I got to an explanation came from here which indicates that Choessels:

is a rich and now rare offal stew served with a single lamb's testicle floating on top!

Girl Talk's (a Pittsburgh outfit) new album "Feed the Animals" is a triumph of tedium. The album is in no way tedious, but the process of creating it from hundreds of clips must have been; finding the good bits, singling them out, setting the proper speed, finding a good match, maybe putting another good match, and edit the whole thing to rock.  People say an album should have highs and lows.  Others*, myself included, disagree thinking a good albums should start out rocking, and just keep rocking harder.  Feed the Animals does just that.  The album is seriously all rise. Going back to tedium, making this video set must have been quite the chore.  Worth it!

 

*Barney from HIMYM

Rawr! Waddle! Rawr! Gimme my PHD!

"A period of fasting with no food at all for about 16 hours is enough to engage this new clock," said Dr. Clifford Saper of Harvard Medical School, whose study appears in the journal Science.

I mean it works on lab rats, how could it not work?  You would be surprised how much I personally have in common with a lab rat.  Actually you might not, I'm a law student.  Although human, I too am strenuously tested in horrendous and sterile conditions. 

Interesting article from the Atlantic, kinda turning the old idea of conspicuous consumption on its head.  The rich don't spend as high a percentage of their riches to seem rich as the poor.

To test this idea, the economists compared the spending patterns of people of the same race in different states—say, blacks in Alabama versus blacks in Massachusetts, or whites in South Carolina versus whites in California. Sure enough, all else being equal (including one's own income), an individual spent more of his income on visible goods as his racial group's income went down. African Americans don't necessarily have different tastes from whites. They're just poorer, on average. In places where blacks in general have more money, individual black people feel less pressure to prove their wealth.

The same is true for whites. Controlling for differences in housing costs, an increase of $10,000 in the mean income for white households—about like going from South Carolina to California—leads to a 13 percent decrease in spending on visible goods. "Take a $100,000-a-year person in Alabama and a $100,000 person in Boston," says Hurst. "The $100,000 person in Alabama does more visible consumption than the $100,000 person in Massachusetts." That's why a diamond-crusted Rolex screams "nouveau riche." It signals that the owner came from a poor group and has something to prove.

This passes the most important standard for me, the all too rare one of "plausibility".* I think that rich people do spend money to prove they are wealthy, but I don't think it is as conscious of a reaction as poor folk. The havenots spend to be seen in a BMW, while the haves spend their money so an not to be seen in anything less than a BMW.

Full Article at Atlantic Monthly

 

*Ask my girlfriend; I'm always quoting this study or that study without really thinking about the reasonableness of what I'm saying.  When she questions the validity of my awesome and interesting facts (fruit flies reproduce faster in a vacuum, children who speak vulgar Latin as a primary language are more likely to move to the deep south)  and I realize that there is very little believable about what I'm saying, I'm left sputtering about how "I read it on the internet", a foolproof defense. Then inevitably, she throws the "internetness" of said quoted study back in my face.

 

Usually I would react in fear when a building explodes in flames, but for some reason I think this is intentional.