Another batch of links for you. One of the stranger links this week is about how a Violinist Taps Artificial Intelligence to Interact With Her Unique Sound. I find myself reluctant to dig into that story, having once attended an “experimental” violin concert, from which we fled in agony as soon as possible (they didn’t give us an intermission, so all we avoided was the reception afterwards, but still). Enjoy the links!
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What does one eat when in a hurry? Why, a banana with peanut butter and raisins, and a sliced apple! This has to be one of our favorite snacks / afternoon meals, and has seen us through times of feeling particularly uncreative. Yes – even people who supposedly blog about food feel uncreative. Hence the current obsession with “wraps.” They’re easy, they can be held in one hand whilst using the other hand on the mouse (shameful, eating at the computer), and they take absolutely zero mental capacity: slather some hummus onto a tortilla, throw in some cucumber slices, some feta, and a veggie sausage, then … wrap. Done, takes 10 minutes to make enough for two or three people, and has the bonus aspect of being quite tasty.
Now, for today’s question: titbit or tidbit? We’ve seen it repeatedly, over here, as “titbit” … which not only seems like a misspelling, but somehow very, very wrong. We realized, though, that the word “tit” is just the name of a bird. So, a titbit would be a small bite of something tasty? Sure. Go ahead and think that, if it helps.
The draft thesis was submitted for end of year review and was apparently well received. We’ll see what comes back in writing, of course; and, of course, the school year has ended, so that written critique of the thesis is a bit long in coming. In any event, though, things are still on schedule for submission of the draft which is for the viva sometime in the next month or so, with the hopes that we can have the viva before September. That would get us free of Glasgow before it starts to really get nasty around here. Woo hoo!
Things are looking better on the health front, with all labs coming back fairly normal, and with my energy starting to come back. Who knows, perhaps we’ll even make it to our pool again some day. Thank you to all of you who have supported us both through this.
-D
In an effort to get back to providing these links more regularly, this week’s batch is below. Be sure to check out Kids, Surveillance, and the Damned Internet, in which Cory Doctorow talks about how various technologies actually train children, skinner box style, to accept surveillance as normal. Also, Climatology-Defying Paper Yanked for Plagiarism is worth a read; do know that I’ll be following that issue in particular, as this guy ruined numerous careers with his plagiarized paper … which turned out to be garbage. Feel sorry for him? Not so much.
Another batch of links for you. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted one of these… but the draft thesis is turned in now, so I’m finally able to catch up! Enjoy!
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Meet the Stump Grinder. It is LOUD. It is loud despite listening to music with in-ear, noise-cancelling headphones.
I have 48 hours to finish up whatever I can of the draft PhD thesis for submittal on Friday. Gardeners? You’re SO not helping.
They’ve begun with the lawn-mowers now. It’s after 6 p.m. We like our garden, true … but can’t the maintenance wait a couple of days?
-D
Another batch of links for your enjoyment.
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A surprising development is taking place in a nearby park. You may remember the site of this development from previous pictures… because it was once a vacant lot full of soggy couches and stained mattresses, all things which were burned in a huge bonfire on Guy Fawkes Night … but now is the site of a playground. A positive step, right?
The playground has a gravel undersurface, covered by a waterproof barrier, a felt liner, and then …sand.
Hm.
Now, not being engineers or park designers, we may not have the right of it, but it seems a mistake to cover an entire playground in sand. It just rains here SO MUCH. We’re afraid the park builders have condemned the neighborhood park to damp, sandy sadness, rather than leaving it as it was: a happy, frolicksome place for the burning of mattresses, rubbish, and whatever else came to hand.
Not to mention the …cats.
We hope they rethink this, and that the park is not going to be the grand kitty-litter palace it looks like it’s turning out to be. (Point of interest: T. played in a sand-filled park like this when she was a child. Her favorite pasttime was sifting through the sand and picking out the cigarette butts. Great game, eh, and it would really work well in Glasgow! C’mon! Everybody play!)
Meanwhile, a little closer to home, there’s Lights! Camera! and indeed, Action! Yes, our wee street and crescent are in the middle of a film or TV show — we have no idea which. By nine a.m., the end of the road was filled with trailers and guys on cherry pickers with big HD cameras. T. did not recognize the camera as an HD, she was just peeved that a man seemed to be filming the house. So, she took a picture of HIM. Then she worried he’d taken a picture of her taking a picture of him…
The big lights went up with their diffusers, and apparently all kinds of drama went on. T… didn’t notice, as she was on her computer, and not hanging about windows all day. It took D. coming from work and saying, “Hey, look out the window!” for her to realize the film crew was still there.
We have gained a greater appreciation of the rigors of being filmed. For one thing, it rained all day, and was windy, which would have made things uncomfortable the guys on the camera lifts. D., who actually walked home from work past the site, reports that he saw scaffolding inside holding more cameras, and someone painting a wall — the fumes from the light and heat must have been intense. And those lights are painfully bright – we had to close the kitchen blinds because every time we turned that direction, our eyes were automatically drawn — and then we were blinded. They were apparently filming daylight in the flat, and we had to laugh — when it is EVER that bright in Glasgow? Maybe the show is set in Australia. Hrm.
They packed up around eight and stood around in the street for awhile afterward, but we still have no better idea of who they were or what the show might be. Suppose we could have asked. Maybe tomorrow, if they show up again.
Meanwhile, all’s quiet in the ‘hood. Except for the car alarms, the feral children shouting in the park, and the man in the slouch hat walking his ferret… Can you believe nobody’s filming?
-D & T
Sunday was beautiful, capping off a warming trend in the weekend, it was a full 19°C/68°F — gorgeous, balmy weather at last, and our first fully springlike weekend. Of course, because of the way life goes, D. spent the entire weekend in the house sick, and T. had to attend a three-hour chorus rehearsal in the loveliest part of the day.
Shorts abounded, and T. walked back from rehearsal in jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt, feeling decidedly overdressed as contrasting her city compatriots. It was nice to see everyone out and about with dogs and toddlers in tow. Nicer still is the fact that although it blew up a storm late last night and it poured this morning with the temperatures dropped by fifteen degrees, it promises to blow (blow being the operative word – really windy!!!) through by noon and the sun will come out again.
The daffodils are all out — and there look to be signs of actual tulips. They’re the last bulbs up, around these parts, so if we’re seeing actual tulips – not forced, but grown from bulb – that does indeed mean that true Spring has finally arrived. T. remains skeptical, but persuadable.
The photograph is dreadful – taken with a cellphone camera – but it shows just how many people were outside. Glasgow is the second largest city in the UK, and it only takes a sunny day to remind you of this! Still — nice to see the smiles and relaxed faces. Have a happy week.
Another batch of links for you. Not so much this week, as I’m working on revising the thesis. Of particular note, though, are The Long Road to Eichmann’s Arrest: A War Criminal’s Life in Argentina and A Triumph of Justice: On the Trail of Holocaust Organizer Adolf Eichmann. True, it’s a depressing subject, but well worth reading.
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Not that many links for you this week – it seems the media is focused on Japan and nuclear issues rather than the usual topics of the Links I gather. Enjoy!
