Author Archives: Anton

three extropian items

Mike Linksvayer attended a lecture on “Changes in the Disparities in Chronic Diseases During the Course of the Twentieth Century”. Perry Metzger shares a report (pdf) on infrastructure in Somalia. (Later: Michael Tennant comments on it at Strike The Root.) … Continue reading

Posted in economics, futures, medicine | 1 Comment

pointless papers please

I[dentifying]D[ocument]s and the illusion of security, op-ed by Bruce Schneier. Identification and profiling don’t provide very good security, and they do so at an enormous cost. Dropping ID checks completely, and engaging in random screening where appropriate, is a far … Continue reading

Posted in security theater | Leave a comment

boarders repelled

Some little while ago, I changed the name of a file used in the comment process, and submission of comments by spambots ceased. Comments are now open, until another wave breaches the battlements. I’m betting that the number of good … Continue reading

Posted in blogdom, me!me!me!, spam | 1 Comment

we become our parents

Spent yester evening with stepbrother and his rentmate. Conversation was largely about mathematics, and at some point they both got the giggles because (they said) I was manifesting mannerisms that they recognized from having taken physics from the same professor. … Continue reading

Posted in me!me!me! | Leave a comment

but you can, it seems, temporarily withhold the sky from me

The opening of Serenity has been postponed from April 22 to September 30. Joss Whedon says: April got crowded with a lot of titles aimed at a similar demographic, and the studio [Universal Pictures] decided September was a clearer corridor … Continue reading

Posted in cinema | Leave a comment

Buffy the School Counselor

I felt a bit silly for not recognizing Jonathan Woodward when he played the vampire in Buffy 7:7 “Conversations with Dead People”. He looked familiar but I thought it was only because he resembles young Bill Murray. Then in the … Continue reading

Posted in cinema, music+verse | Leave a comment

all of you, you’re nothing but random seeds!

On BART today, a fellow passenger saw me making notes on paper and occasionally looking up, and got the idea that I was taking statistics on the passengers. No, I said, I’m doing math for my own entertainment. He sat … Continue reading

Posted in California, mathematics, me!me!me! | Leave a comment