Tales of the Golem; or, the Modern Epimetheus

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Highway run into the midnight sun

Langskaill, Orkney, 12:05 am, June 17

Thursday, June 25, 2009

If I'd known they'd line up just to see him, I'd've taken all my money and bought me a museum

We've heard there is a picture of Golem 1 in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Fame!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Season ticket on a one-way ride

Congratulations to NPR puzzle veteran Dileep Rao, who made his movie debut this weekend to rave reviews.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Sometimes I get tired of the waiting

Wolfram Alpha is now available for use.

Perhaps I'm being too demanding for the first week of release, but I'm very disappointed.

It fails on just about every question I think of myself (as opposed to things on their list of prepared examples).

It does not understand "air density at 60,000 feet."

It understands "pressure at 60,000 feet." And it understands "air density at 2 mm Hg." But it is not able to combine these things. It does not understand "air density at (pressure at 60,000 feet) and (temperature at 60,000 feet)." That was pretty much my minimum expectation of what it would do.

It does not understand "pressure at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean."

When I ask "distance to Barnard's Star in 10,000 years," it gives the impression that it is parsing the request correctly. It seems to know that I want the distance to Barnard's Star at the time 10,000 years from now. But it gives the wrong answer. It does not know that the distance to Barnard's Star is changing with time.

I find it hard to reconcile this weak performance with the claim that they have encapsulated most of the knowledge in a research library.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late

As expected, California foreclosures have fallen in the last two quarters due to the state-imposed notification requirement. But initial notices of default (not plotted in this graph) are at a record high this quarter, so foreclosures will be spiking again in the near future.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Floating in a tin can

Played pub trivia this week with Christian Clemenson and Googy. One of the questions was, "On which space mission did humans travel the furthest distance from Earth?"

Jerome pointed out that both Christian and Googy were in Apollo 13.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Like a surgeon

Celebrity sighting, at O'Brien's: Peter Jacobson, a.k.a. Dr. Taub from House, who appeared to be playing on Patrick's team on Oscar trivia night, but didn't stay the whole time. I was tired and I left early too.