• Fauxlogism: a false word, usage, or expression. Best one so far – Michael Bayesian Filters:

    1. a series of computer based filters, trained over time through an artificial intelligence process, which allow computer controlled motion picture cameras to automatically record high budget action sequences in the style of producer/director Michael Bay.

    2. a method of filtering email spam that relies on producer/director Michael Bay to manually read and sort all incoming messages.

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    1/21/2008

Fauxlogisms

Fauxlogism: a false word, usage, or expression. Best one so far – Michael Bayesian Filters:

(1) comments | Mon, 01/21/2008 - 12:00am
  • Off-topic: if you’re a regular reader of crazymonk.org, check out page 20 of the latest issue of Wired magazine, with Sarah Silverman on the cover: Jon May has a Futurama -related excerpt from one of his comments on this blog.

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    1/19/2008
  • Even though Clinton won the most state delegates in today’s Nevada caucus, because Obama did so well in the rural and northern parts of the state, he’s being initially assigned more national delegates from Nevada, which is of course what counts in the end. Of course, more national delegates are assigned during the County Conventions, so this will likely change, but that does allow the Obama campaign to muddy the waters a bit.

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    1/19/2008

Back from the caucus

Quick update: just got back from caucusing here in Reno, Nevada. Obama took 50% of the delegates in my precinct compared to Clinton’s 29%, but CNN is calling it for Clinton. I’ll be back in a bit with pictures and more details, but I’ll just say one thing: if you don’t think those Muslim emails going around are hurting Obama, you’re wrong. One elderly woman with a Clinton sticker shouted at me nastily: “I won’t vote for a Muslim!” I spoke with another person who had the same belief, and I later saw her in the Clinton corner. Very depressing.

(22) comments | Sat, 01/19/2008 - 12:00am
  • Should Vladimir Nabokov’s son destroy the unfinished manuscript of The Original of Laura , which his father asked to be destroyed before his death in 1977? Ron Rosenbaum at Slate ponders the question:

    Does the lust for aesthetic beauty always allow us to rationalize trampling on the artist’s grave? Does the greatness of an artist diminish his right to dispose of his own unfinished work?

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    1/16/2008
  • Only 18.3% have chosen to pay the $5 for Saul Williams’s Niggy Tardust so far, a disheartened Trent Reznor reveals on his blog. Williams, on the other hand, is more optimistic in this CNET interview, explaining the reason they released the numbers:

    But really [Reznor’s] whole purpose of releasing that statement was that we could avoid some of the pretentiousness of some of the other groups that have perhaps done something similar, like Radiohead keeping numbers to themselves and us wanting to say, ‘Hey, look this is an open experiment that all artists should know.’ I think that this information is essential for all artists trying to do what we’re doing and figuring out whether this is something that will work.

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    1/11/2008
  • Most pollsters are skipping the Nevada caucuses because they think the transient population, the newness of the early caucus date, and the nature of caucuses themselves make it too difficult to do. Having worked for a statewide campaign here, I know this to be true, but this is great: I might be able to walk into my caucus location next week without a pre-declared winner. (via political wire)

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    1/11/2008

The broken nomination system

As happy as I am about Obama’s recent surge, Harry Reid is right: the presidential nomination system is broken. I think one big primary day would be a mistake, but how about choosing four representative early primary states that changes each election?

(13) comments | Tue, 01/08/2008 - 12:00am