Vicky Tiel

Vicky Tiel's life story, as summarized in the NY Times article (August 19, 2011) reads like a novel loaded with sex, adventure, fame, and quotable lines: "I have a man.  I dress like this to show other women how to get one."

The NY Times article rightly says, "In between liaisons and her unlikely friendship with Ms. Taylor and Richard Burton, Ms. Tiel became the greatest designer you never heard of."  Certainly I don't think she ever crossed my radar.  (Not hard really.  When Us breathlessly reports that Sean is breaking up with Melissa or that Tiffany, Sam, and Fluffy are now a three-some I have no idea who they are.  If Tiel's name appeared in New York magazine I didn't note it.)

The article was occasioned by the publication of her book, “It’s All About the Dress: What I Learned in 40 Years About Men, Women, Sex, and Fashion”.

Jackson C. Frank Hard to Find?

An online biography states:

One of the most interesting and enigmatic cult figures of 1960s folk, Jackson Frank's reputation rests almost solely upon one hard-to-find album from the mid-'60s.

"Hard-to-find" is a peculiar term. A quick search found 16 offers for the CD on eBay and 33 videos on youtube. Not the record mind you, but in another era the tunes would be hard to find.  Now they're just a few clicks away.

Another manifestation of the glory of capitalism: if there is a market there will be a supplier.

I'm sure the postings to youtube violate all sorts of copyrights.   Never the less, his own version of "You Never Wanted Me" is reminiscent  of Bob Dylan's lyrics and Tim Buckley vocal mannerisms (with a more limited range). 

It's odd that Sandy Dennis's version of his song is more famous and until I looked for him on the web I'd heard either version.

"Dualing" Law Suits Over Sexuality Identity Question

In response to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education concerning Elmhurst College's including a question about sexual orientation and gender identity on its undergraduate admissions application poster 1272784 wrote:

So now, we wait for the conservative lawsuit that says they are discriminating, and the liberal lawsuit that says they're invading privacy, right? "Dualing" lawsuit time.

Clever, I thought.

Jason Edmiston Art

I stumbled over Jason Edmiston's drawings. Their style is reminiscent of the hot rod cartoons of the late 50's early 60's which showed gape mouthed grotesques in hot rods. Invariably, their right hands were held high on a Hirst shifter. Those were black and white drawings. These are in color.

Two appealed to me: the Creature in the Black Lagoon in a bubble bath with his rubber duckie and King Kong blogging on top of the Empire State building. Everyone will appreciate the banana substituting for the Apple logo.

About That Body ...

Here's the followup to the July 9th post about the unclaimed body, "Take My Body Please".

The headline for Jennifer Hewlett 's July 14th story in the Lexington Herald Leader read:

Unclaimed body to be buried; son says he was 'not a very nice man'

Robert George whose body had lain unclaimed in the Univeristy Kentucky Chandler Hospital morgue had been a guest of the state of Indiana for "criminal deviant conduct" and had been alienated from his family.   Married "six or seven times" his relations either wanted nothing to do with him or lacked the resources to bury him.
 
Quotes from his son, Robbie George sum up a sad life:
 
"I hate to sound mean and crass ... but he created this life for himself."
"It's an unfortunate set of circumstances. He was not a very nice man."
"This man here, he caused a lot of people a lot of grief."
"He took a plea bargain so it wouldn't reflect his actual, true crime."
"He only did one prison sentence out of many that he could have been charged for."

The story mentioned that the body didn't meet the criteria for bequeathal programs.

Exclusively New Zealand

Through the usual round about means I received a link to Minaret Station ("Tented Luxury in the Remote New Zealand Wilderness"*), an exclusive resort, accessible only by helicopter in New Zealand.  A web search led me to a video on Exclusively New Zealand.  The video opens with a didgeridoo and a drum over an image of the sun setting over the mountains.

The effect may be different south of the equator, but with live people appearing only half way through I felt I was being prepped for a terror-in-paradise/vacationing-with-psychopathic-killers/dormant-nameless-horror-awakes video.  Am I reading too much into this?

The shot below is typical of scenes preceding the attack on unsuspecting outsiders.  The heads of the attackers would com in from the lower  right of the screen.

The photos on the Minaret Station web site were taken by Fredrik Larsson.  He described of how he took the photos.  (Behind the scenes from the Minaret shoot in February of this year.)  There is a great shot of the Minaret Station in the snow - something not found on the resort's web site.

What struck me in looking at the photos was how unsuitable I am for a place like that.  (Yes, it's all about me.)  It's the nature of advertising to show off the subject.  Rooms should appear as large as possible.  Everything should sparkle or, if not sparkling (sparkling linen?) be as comfortable and luxurious as possible.  (I see your 350 thread count and raise you 50.)  

Maybe the target market doesn't want to see other people in room they themselves expect to occupy.  This is far different than clothing.   (Wow!   I'd look really great in that bathing suit.  I expect that there is some woman out there - there's got to be one - who'll believe that some dress will slim their thighs enough to make the man of their dreams fall in love with them.  Delusion does not require drugs.)   (Note to self: consider investigating correlations between thrift store shoppers and those who shop at budget stores. )

The images shown below prompted this post.  No books on the wall?  Why would I want to be there.  But look at the luxury!  Why two sinks?  Do people like to wash up side by side?  Is it a competition thing? I realize that commercial photography needs to make the subject appealing.  it's clear I'm not in the target audience.

A bathroom the size of a squash court certainly indicates luxury, but how many steps do you want to take from the toilet to the sink?  Why two sinks?  Do couples like to wash together?  Is sharing the same sink icky?  Is it a keeping up with the Jones thing? 

(Is this another manifestation of Thorstein Veblen's conspicuous consumption - a term I haven't heard in a good long while.  In talking to a friend about building a house, she said she'd definitely want her own bathroom so she wouldn't have to share it with her boys.  I was taken aback: bathrooms in my universe serve only a few limited purposes: 1) a sacred place to read the NY Times and 2) washing and brushing, 3) storing medicine, and 4) relieving oneself.  Maybe she was thinking about resale value while I was thinking of living in a place until I died.  Wasn't the problem with girls hogging a bathroom and getting boys into them to get washed?)

Must be my advancing age. My ideal vacation is becoming a nap in some comfortable spot where birds won't poop on my head and sap won't ruin my clothes or my book. Jeez  I'm no fun.

*That's the way I remember it.  What is actually on the site is a night time photograph captioned  "Luxury Tented Lodge in the Remote New Zealand Wilderness".

Hanlon's Razor and How Law School Students Lose the Grants Game

Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

On the other hand, an article by David Segal in the Sunday Business section of the NY Times from May 1 of this year, "Behind the Curve, How Law Student Lose the Grant Game and How Their Schools Win" indicated that law schools could be using grants to:

1. Boosting the school's ratings based of the quality of their entering classes 
2. Recovering revenue when the grant students' grades fall below a specified GPA.

The first reason is common among all schools of higher education, offering scholarships to students to increase their ranking and making the school more appealing to future students.  However, with law schools grading on a curve it becomes statistically more difficult for a student to achieve the specified GPA.  The difficult in calculating the odds of maintaining the grant is dependent on the median GPA of the school.

Note to presumptive law school grant recipients: learn to calculate standard deviations and learn the practical applications thereof.  The Golden Gate Law School for example requires a 3.0 GPA to maintain the grant.  50% of the class got a grant, but only a third of the students get a grade of 3.0 or better.  Do the math: a sizable portion of the students with grants are expected to lose them.

Once the student loses a grant the student is faced with deciding whether to continue at full fare (a win for the school as the student's undergraduate GPA has already served its purpose) or go to Plan B.

I passed a reference to the story to two profs who teach statistics for a toss off in class.

It is a companion piece to Segal's article about employment after law school, "Is Law School a Losing Game?" That earlier article pointed out quite clearly that the employment statistics published by law schools doesn't provide the details necessary for presumptive students to know how many of those jobs are behind the counter at Starbucks.

 

Pictogram Movie Posters by Viktor Hertz

Viktor Hertz has made a series of movie posters as pictograms. Rosemary's Baby was the one which appealed to me.

You can see the rest of the pictograms movie posters by clicking on the image below:

Death Cross

The financial news is trumpeting the "Death Cross" the day a short time moving average, typically 50 days falls below a long term moving average, typically a 100- or 200-day moving average.

The smart money (if such a thing exists) will head for the most stable stocks to preserve capital.  I'm guessing that companies that governments need will do well.  The only group I could identify which should do well in stringent financial times are those doing infrastructure testing and specialized maintenance.

The simplistic reasoning is this: governments trying to minimize expenses will hire these firms to verify where they can scrimp without jeopardizing public safety.  All it will take to give these firms a real boost is another incident like the Minneapolis bridge collapse in August of 2007.   (The thought sprung to mind because the Death Cross chart reminded me of images of the Interstate 35W bridge catastrophe.   On seeing the image again I admit that the lines don't cross.  Credit the association to the power of imagination.)

Shoplifing Plea Dooms Woman

The link will only take you to the first part of the story, but this is a good one.

A woman given only 6 months to live because of end-stage heart failure was released from jail this past January so she could be put on a heart transplant waiting list. Because she violated court orders by smoking and more importantly stealing stealing teeth-whitening strips, diet pills and Oil of Olay last month she's back in the slammer and is now ineligible for a transplant.

In reinstating her sentence the judge pointed out that the this was her 69th arrest, her 27th on felony charges.

There's not much to add, only to note that given 6 months to live in January, she beat the prediction by living into August.

13,000 MPH Test Plane Vanishes

Govenment Technology put it succinctly:

The Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) was launched aboard a rocket at 7:45 am Thursday, August 11 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Designed to reach any point on the planet in under an hour, the launch was the second test of the HTV-2 system. Following separation from a Minotaur IV rocket, the HTV-2 began flying at Mach 20. Shortly thereafter, contact was lost.

Air Force Maj. Chris Schulz, DARPA HTV-2 program manager said, “We know how to boost the aircraft to near space. We know how to insert the aircraft into atmospheric hypersonic flight. We do not yet know how to achieve the desired control during the aerodynamic phase of flight."

I imagine it is hard to track something moving about 17 times the speed of sound (by my calculations), but I would have expected that one of the first things they might have done was figure out how they were going to track it.

Ooooh! Second thought: wasn't there a James Bond film like this - Blofeld masterminding a scheme to kidnap satellites? Also, I wouldn't put it past Lex Luthor.

Spam from the "Internal Revenue Source"

I got a piece of e-mail today from the "Internal Revenue Source" informing me that it couldn't process my return as "field" (filed) because the "person identifiedas (identified as) the primary taxpayer" did not provide the necessary documentation.

I will not be keeping this for my records.

Years ago a columnist for one of the computer trade rags complained that the spam he was receiving showed that the spammers weren't even trying. If I remember correctly, the salutation contained the field name instead of his name, something like Dear {firstname} {Lastname}.

Satan Sandwich Diagram

Representative Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's (D-MO) description of the recent agreement to raise the debt ceiling as a "Satan Sandwich" got significant media play.  I think this cartoon makes things clear (http://www.npr.org/2011/08/07/139033731/double-take-toons-the-devils-details):

 

God stays in heaven because... / Torquemada

About a month ago I was going through some old newspapers when I spotted a column by Liz Smith from October 27, 2002.  The rest of the paper has long been recycled, but I've carried around the first part of the column ever since. She asked for the source of a note she wrote to herself:

God stays in heaven because He fears what he has created here on Earth.

I figured a web search would yield the result.  A couple of pages of links later I can say that many variants exist on the web.  One link lead to "Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams" on IMDB: "Do you think God lives in Heaven because He too lives in fear of what He created?" 

Maybe "God stays in heaven because ..." can be as popular as "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

Of the chicken crossing the road jokes, my favorite variants have various personalities offering explanations.  Of these my favorite still remains:

"I don't know, but give me 30 minutes with the chicken and I'll find out. - Torquemada

(If you follow the link to the chicken crossing the road jokes you'll see that in that version Torquemada estimated only 10 minutes to get to the truth. It was 30 minutes when I first heard the joke so I tell it that way.)

I once told the joke to some college students who found it funny even though they didn't know who Torquemada was.  They were stymied because they couldn't spell his name. I suggested that they look up the Spanish Inquisition.

Meditation on Words I had to Look Up

In a story bout Emma Watson (Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films) the writer use the word febrile to describe the situation in a museum when fans recognized Ms Watson.  OK, I wrote it down and looked it up:

febrile -

1. Having or showing the symptoms of a fever.

2. Having or showing a great deal of nervous excitement or energy.

I doubt I'll need the word - Do I even know anyone with a great deal of nervous excitement or energy?   Maybe years ago, but we're all older now, subdued rather than mellow.

Then, in Michael Gorra's review of "When We Were Orphans" by Kazuo Ishiguro (NY Times Sunday Book Review, September 24, 2000) I came across a word with relevance to life as I think I know it.

Englishness -- in fact, human interaction of all kinds -- will remain for him a form of learned behavior, in which he compounds the simulacrum of a character from both the gestures of the people around him and his reading in ''The Wind in the Willows'' or Sherlock Holmes.

simulacrum -

1. an image or likeness.
2. a mere image or one that does not represent the reality of the original.

Is online education as practiced by some of the instructors anything like a real education?  I think of the Comp Sci students rolling their eyes describing one of their courses as watching PowerPoint on the web.  Definitely not the challenging exchange of ideas promised by the school's bulletin.  Paraphrasing a quote from "Good Will Hunting" might be applicable here: an education you could have gotten for a $1.50 in late charges at the public library

And, pardon my riff, the ability to take a Computer Architecture course on youtube with Anshul Kumar, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, IIT Delhi might suggest that the quote should be updated to reference internet charges.  While the majority of youtube viewers prefer watching dogs and cats doing tricks to lectures in English with an Indian accent, I find this stuff mesmerizing.

(Of special fascination was a reversal of labels in a slide about Big and Small Endian memory organization.  I thought that a flub like that would be fixed in post production unless they wanted to convey an authentic experience of a professorial stumble.  A classic academic joke has a prof in one of the hard sciences saying that the proof or derivation of an equation is obvious.  When a student has the temerity to ask to see the proof the instructor starts, then stops, stares at the board for a while before rushing from the room, returning many minutes later with notes, continuing, "Like I said, it's obvious."  Then, reading from his notes, the prof completes the problem.)

I saw the next two words in Kathleen McElroy's article, "A Little Rusty?" about adults preparing for standardized grad school tests.

esurient
1. Hungry; greedy.

I don't believe I ever saw this word before. She, as well as other journalists scored surprisingly low on essays because she "hadn’t incorporated G.R.E. vocabulary favorites like “esurient” and “vitiate.  Esurient was dictionary.com's Word of the Day on October 05, 2009 which must give it some sort of cache, but why would anyone use the word except to score points.  (Duh, this is an exam chucklehead.)  

It's not much different than years ago when I was advised that worming agape, amity, and ennui into an essay would increase the grade on and essay half a grade point.  Tough to do in most chemistry and physics reports, although it might work in biochemistry.  (There is the well-known "greedy algorithm" in Huffman compression, but the formal name the greedy algorithm.  The profs I know would probably be miffed to look up esurient to find that it means greed . 

vitiate
1. to impair the quality of; make faulty; spoil.
2. to impair or weaken the effectiveness of.
3. to debase; corrupt; pervert.
4. to make legally defective or invalid; invalidate: to vitiate a claim.

Now here's a word to conjure with!  I'd guess that most people outside the legal profession would assume some relationship with vital or vivacious giving the cognoscenti the ability to insult people to their face.   (This assumes, of course, that people are too lazy or embarrassed to look up or ask about a word they don't understand.)

When Genius Failed

As I was going through some things my father filed away, I came across some pages taken from the New York Times Book Review from September 24, 2000.  My guess is that he was attracted to Floyd Norris's review of"When Genius Failed" by Roger Lowenstein.  Although Floyd Norris, the NY Times' chief financial correspondent, was writing about "The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management" (the subtitle), his comments jump out as prescient:

It is far too early to know what the long-term lessons of the Long-Term saga will be. But it is clear that Wall Street has not learned much. Banks and hedge funds still use complicated derivatives to gain tremendous leverage, just as Long-Term did in placing its ill-fated bets in the stock market. ...

''Greenspan's more serious and longer-running error has been to consistently shrug off the need for regulation and better disclosure with regard to derivative products. Deluded as to the banks' ability to police themselves before the crisis, Greenspan called for a less burdensome regulatory regime barely six months after it.'' He complains that Greenspan has supported the banks in efforts to avoid making meaningful disclosures about their investments in derivatives.

It takes time, but seven years later we had Lehman Brothers, AIG, and the whole sub-prime mess making the scary Long-Term Capital Management fiasco pale by comparison.  As Norris said, there are limits to what academics can do for investors.

I was reminded of an academic discussing his analysis of eastern European's rocky transition from Communism to a market-driven economy.  His results indicated that a quick, painful dislocation produced the best results.  When asked if that is what he would recommend to national leaders, the professor, said that was what the data indicated, but, he was quick to add, he was not an official who would face the wrath of the populace whose life's savings and retirement benefits evaporated.

WNYC's Summer In the City Photos Document a Crime

WNYC, New York City's public radio station has a photos of summer in the city. One of the images (shown below) shows water bottles for sale. See the little red band on the water bottles? That's characteristic of bottles brought in from New Jersey which have no refundable deposit which, if I'm not mistaken means it is illegal to sell them in New York which requires a deposit for plastic water bottles.

I fantasize that there will be a first Amendment issue here when somebody tries to locate the seller by issuing a subpoena for Stephen Nessen, the photographer.

Leisure Dive

With the same fascination as cats in sink there is Leisure Dive, a web site showing pictures of people (mostly guys) in relaxed postures diving into pools.

The Sun or Where Else Would I Learn About Pastafaians?

Rupert Murdock's News of the World has ceased publication ostensible in response to the phone hacking scandal in Britain.  (Reporters hacked into phones of relatives of soldiers killed in Afghanistan, impeded a murder investigation by deleting phone messages on a missing girl's phone leading police to believe the girl was still alive, and bribed security officials guarding Britain's royal family.) 

Fortunately the Sun is still publishing.  How else would I learn that Austria's Niko Alm successfully campaigned to be photographed for his Austrian driver's license with a pasta strainer on his head? Although an atheist, Alm claimed to be a Pastafarian, a devotee of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, their "only dogma is the rejection of dogma".

If Othodox Jews could wear a yarmulke despite Austria's proscription about head gear in the driver's license photo, why couldn't he wear a pasta strainer if it was part of his religious observance?

Makes sense to me.  (It's also a welcome relief from daily reports of bombing, assassinations, and squabbling politicians.)

61.5 Full-Time-Equivalent Positions

I thought I'd found another instance of public idiocy in the second paragraph of the story, "Washington State Shrinks IT Department’s Head Count" in Government Technology.  Was the Washington State Department of Information Services reducing their head count by 61.5 employees?  The image of the average family with 2.5 children flashed across my mind, with the attendant explanation by statistics profs that, no, the average family was not the result of an error in imitating Solomon's decision, but just the result of a mathematical calculation.

The department is cutting 61.5 full-time-equivalent positions from its 460-person work force, an opening salvo in further changes that will fundamentally alter the department’s future.

OK it's equivalents, not actual people.  The wait continues for a genuine example of a goof of this sort.