The reverse-Bechdel test (2012/02/27)
The “Bechdel test” is a test which categorizes movies based on a simple criterion: At some point in the movie, is there a conversation between two women which is not about a man?
[read more...]Quick review: ASUS G53SX (2012/02/27)
To make a long story short, the price of playing games with my spouse is having a 15" gaming laptop. We picked the ASUS G53SX because I have been pretty happy with my older G73JH.
[read more...]Cognitive sickle-cell anemia (2012/02/12)
Sickle-cell anemia has been a favorite example of biologists for years, because it’s an obviously harmful trait which is strongly selected for by evolutionary pressures. The gimmick is simple; it’s a recessive trait, so you only get the anemia if you have two genes for it. If you only have one gene for it, you’re effectively immune to malaria. In circumstances where lots of people die from malaria, this can be a marvelously useful trait to have – useful enough to make up for losing a few kids to anemia.
[read more...]Helpy McHelperson: An advice blog (2012/02/10)
Helpy McHelperson is my attempt to solve a crucial problem: I do not spend enough of my time giving people Useful Advice.
[read more...]Rails: How to SANELY connect to an old database (2012/02/10)
The world is full of helpful people advising that, to connect a model to another database, you just do:
[read more...]How to be richer than you've ever been (2012/02/07)
Wealth is largely self-norming; while people tend to want more money, past some point (I think currently around $50k/year income in the US) it stops actually showing measurable effects on happiness.
[read more...]Phishing continues to succeed, banks mystified. (2012/02/07)
My best sentence ever (2012/02/07)
I am concerned. We made a down payment on a lesbian and before it even shipped it got hit by a seagull.
[read more...]Monkeys and Robots (2012/02/06)
I’ve been reading a book on “Scrum” methodology. Interesting stuff, and a lot of it makes sense.
[read more...]Stealing the declaration of independence (2012/01/31)
Tumblr is full of jokes about “steal the declaration of independence”, which are (Jesse informs me) references to a move called National Treasure in which Nicholas Cage intends to do this.
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