Friday evening

Friday evening. Eigenvalues, with Dogtoberfest.

Shallow wading

"One study says that email is more corrosive to your I.Q. than pot."

- New Yorker, Nov. 9 issue

The internet age has made the Inada condition applicable to the consumption of knowledge.

Why would I dig deep into a question when I can surf Wikipedia? It's much more enjoyable to read about something brand new for 15 minutes than to re-read Hegel for yet another 15 minutes. So we end up eating lots of candy-like trivial info bits and not so much of the meat and potatoes power ideas.

Taste testing: dark dark chocolate

Blind(ish) results. Tasting has been over the past month, here's the final ranking.

1) Green & Black's (85%)
2) Hachez (88%)
3) Scharffen Berger (82%)
4) Lindt (90%)

The Lindt Chili comes in at 1a) but it's really a different category.

The G&B is the most creamy. Which you can't say for the Lindt, which turns play-doh-ey in your mouth. The Hachez comes at you from a different angle with a nuttiness. The SB* is nothing special. I think it beats the Lindt only because 90% is just too high for me.

*SB was bought by Hershey's in 2005. Make a better product, guys!

Sloth

Big plans. Big expectations. Big dreams.

But they didn't build Rome in a day.

For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired. - Robert Frost

Stats

You know when newspapers write health advice, "drinking tea with milk can reduce the effects of the calming agents in the tea by 27% because proteins in the milk bind with the calming agents so they aren't absorbed into the blood stream." You know that the 27% is a BS figure.

AP should change their style guides so that instead it is written, simply, "drinking tea with milk can reduce the effects of the calming agents in the tea" or maybe "by a percentage in the range of 0% to 50%".

Economies of scale and waste

I used to feel guilty about wasting foods. But I believe this sense of guilt, combined with the wonders of economies of scale, is at least partly to blame for the amount of obesity in our country. So recently, I have been teaching myself to enjoy wasting food or beverage when I know it would be overkill to eat or drink it all. For example, this morning, I dumped half a cup of coffee down the sink. (It was half-gleeful, still half cringe-ful, I admit.)
I guess they call this process of deliberately, consciously re-teaching what is "good" "cognitive behavioral therapy," and it can also be used, (like music), to close the gaps between tribes.

The brain

Saw my parents this weekend, which was fantastic. Them and my sister and brother-in-law, family.

This morning we got on the topic of alcohol and the brain. My sister told a story about Christopher Hitchens drinking two Johnnie Walker blues before a lunch lecture. Apparently he is famous for performing best with a little bit in him.

My dad pointed out that alcohol has a two-part effect on the brain. First it opens up blood vessels in the brain, and it's actually easier to remember things, which is part of why we get so talkative after a drink or two. Then later, the alcohol closes blood vessels, and that's why we shouldn't drink more than a couple drinks, and why hangovers make you dumbbb.