Relevant History

Waiting for parents at the Big Building

Colbert has never been funnier

Again via Light Skinned-ed Girl: Colbert and Cookie Monster.

"In the Sixties and Seventies me like the Robert Downey Jr. of cookies!"

humor

Great Popular Science Magazine ad, c. 1950

From Light-skinned-ed Girl:

Are you Suffering From Hidden Talents?

Alas... No, I'm not.

Interestingly, this is the same year in which Popular Mechanics published it's now-classic home of the future article-- the one that later gave rise to the Nunberg Error.

Plus: another link from LSG, "Listening for the Click."

No edging

There's construction around the Big Building, so the kids can't edge it. Edging is an age-old school activity in which the kids go all the way around the Big Building, holding on to the various pieces of molding, columns, etc.. Sort of like buildering for the under-13 set.

I wonder at how many schools kids climb on the main building? It's more the sort of thing they do at Cambridge or West Point, than an elementary school. (Though no one has put a car on the roof... yet.)

Quote of the day

David Swerdlick on "The Audacity of Taupe:"

As a biracial American, for the first time in my adult life I'm really proud of my country. Even though the "national conversation on race" is turning out to be like trying to use an iPhone to call someone on a CB radio, my people are coming to light in the public consciousness in a way that we never have before.

A question I doubt any cat has ever asked

 

Cats in a box

Greetings from Changi Airport

I'm in the magnificent Terminal 3 at Changi, waiting for my flight to San Francisco. I've got two hours before we start boarding, and I plan to do some work before I get on the plane. I doubt I'll have a power adapter at my seat, the way I did on the way over.

via flickr

The flight home leaves around dinnertime, lands in Hong Kong around 9:30 local time, then gets into San Francisco around 8:15. So while I was in perpetual early evening on the way to Asia, I'll be in about 20 hours of darkness on the way back. Actually, I expect it'll help me get more done.

I was supposed to go to Malaysia today for a meeting, but fortunately we were able to do it over the phone instead. I think I would have collapsed if I'd had to get on two more planes today.

After that, I went to Raffles City, grabbed some sushi at Jason's Market (my favorite easy lunch), then grabbed the MRT out here.

cool fountain at raffles, via flickr

I've got a ton of writing and about 5000 e-mails I need to take care of. Workshops generate a lot of follow-up.

airport, Changi, Singapore, SQ002, Travel

Japanese Dining Sun

Last night I had dinner with a few people from NUS and Oxford at Japanese Dining Sun (or Sun Japanese Dining, or even possibly Japanese Sun Dining), in Chijmes, a former Catholic convent turned entertainment destination (I hope it's all deconsecrated).

The restaurant itself is high minimalist, with some really nice touches. It's a chain, with other branches in Hong Kong and Shanghai, but still I quite enjoyed it.

via flickr

I had the seafood kamameshi, a kind of hot pot with seasoned rice and vegetables cooked together, then topped with roasted eel, squid, and other things. It was outstanding.

via flickr

The raw salmon and roe appetizer was also really, really good.

It was also really good to get these different people from various parts of my professional life together: a couple Oxford students interested in technology transfer, and NUS people in the new media program.

One of my good friends has the admirable ability to put together terrific dinner parties, and it's a skill be able to mix up people from different backgrounds or places who'll get something from each other's company. Another on my long list of things to learn to do!

dinner, Singapore, Travel, chijmes

Workshop

I'm back in my hotel, after the workshop at NUS. The workshop went quite well: it was an excellent group, and we got some very good ideas and scenario work out of them.

For me, these things are exhausting. Not only does each one require several days of prep but they demand a full day of being ON, which is pretty draining. In the room you have to be hyperactively engaging, listen carefully to everyone, draw people out, convince the skeptics, synthesize the conversations, etc., etc.. Plus beforehand you've got to think like an events planner (should these tables be moved? do we have enough water? will the air conditioner make too much noise?) and roadie (how do I move these tables?).

And before that, you've got to plan out every step of the day-- not so much with the expectation that you can operate the day with military precision, but to give you a clear enough sense of what you're doing to make it possible for you to successfully improvise when something unexpected happens (like when you're scheduled to restart at 1:30, but the waiters only bring out the main lunch course at 1:20).

Even for me, who was described by a college housemate as having two emotions, on and off (she later added a third, strobe), it requires a lot of energy.

But I really like doing these workshops-- not because they're easy, but precisely because they're hard work, and several different kinds of work. The technology for supporting them is changing rapidly, and there are some huge opportunities to do interesting new things. And a good workshop has some of the best of teaching, which I think I'll always regard as the noblest of activities.

I'm going to rest up for a bit, then go have dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Chjimes.

Singapore, Travel

View from my hotel room this morning

I woke up around 5, and couldn't get back to sleep. I often wake up early the day I'm running a workshop.

via flickr

I know it looks the same as last night. I expected it to be raining, but it hasn't rained since I bought an umbrella yesterday morning.

night, Singapore, Travel

One last picture

And off to bed.

via flickr

night, Singapore, Travel

Funny sign

via flickr

I hear it's delicious with Angelina Jelly.

Thanks folks, I'll be here all week.

Now off to soak in the tub.

signage, Singapore, Travel

Back in the hotel

It's late in the evening, and I'm back in the hotel for the night.

I had dinner with my father and stepmother, at a Japanese restaurant near their apartment off Orchard Road. (They know how to live.)

At one point, we realized that the last time we'd eaten dinner together outside the United States was about 35 years ago, when we were living in Brazil. Pretty incredible, though only just a bit more incredible than the fact that we happened to be in Singapore at the same time.

I had several meetings today, and the big future of science workshop is tomorrow. So I'm going to do a little work to get ready for that, then go collapse into bed. I had a bunch of coffee late this evening-- more than I really should have-- but I think I'll still be ready to sleep when I put the last touches on the map I'm working on.

family, restaurant, Singapore, Travel

Singapore in the early hours

I made it to Singapore safely My flight arrived just before 1, and half an hour later I'm in the cab mon my way to the hotel. (The subway stops operating around midnight.)

The cabbie is talking on his cell phone, like cab drivers pretty much everywhere. If you had to come up with a list of the professions that have been most radically transformed by the cell phone, I think you'd have to count cab drivers in the top three: mobile phones have turned what was a pretty isolated kind of work-- or one where the only person you were in regular contact with was your dispatcher-- into one where you can stay connected to other people continuously. From what I can tell, some of my drivers don't make lots of calls: they just have the line open, and talk on it episodically. It's the way most of us treat IM windows-- it's open, but that doesn't mean you have to constantly fill the channel.

We're listening to Gold 90.5, classic hits all day. It's playing Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water." The morning hosts are named Maggie and Hamish. And yes, I'm in Asia.

Singapore, Travel

On my way to Singapore

I'm in the waiting area, about to get onto my flight. I'm flying through Seoul this time, so my transit time is going to be several hours longer than usual (and getting from here to Singapore is already enough of a trip, thanks very much); however, it's the flight I was able to get.

I'll be on my usual return flight, through Hong Kong. And I spend almost 50% more time in Singapore than I'll spend getting to and returning from Singapore.

I couldn't find my SD card reader and Singapore SIM card, but I can replace those very easily. Little electronics things are one of those things that it's trivially easy to take care of there, and I wasn't really happy with how complex it is to make international calls from my Singapore phone number. So maybe I'll try someone else. If there is a someone else.

I've got some e-mail to send, and incredibly, more reservations to make, before I get on the plane. And my bag is full of article drafts, workshop agendas, and the like. The work never ceases.

SFO, Singapore, Travel, SQ01

POWER!

The seats on this 777 have power outlets. Man, this is a much better flight than I imagined.I can get some serious work done.

Of course, it's not as essential to have access to my movies, since I've got all these channels-- and possibly a better screen than the one on my computer-- but still it's nice.

I switched rows, and now have an empty seat beside me. Maybe I can get some stock feeds or flight information going on the middle seat monitor, and it'll feel like a Bloomberg terminal.

Singapore, SQ015, Travel, Travel

Installing the new washing machine

The guys were here about an hour, and now we have the ability to wash clothes again! Very exciting. Now I can wash clothes to take with me to Singapore.

Scootering to class

AI isn't quite there yet

From AdFreak:

Thanks to Anthony!

China, signage

Countdown

I'm starting to do all the things you need to do before a trip-- or that I need to do these days, at least. They alternate between work things (e-mailing participants in next week's future of science workshop, setting up meetings with prospective clients or project partners in Singapore and Malaysia), travel-specific things (looking for good restaurants, checking train times between KLIA and Putrajaya), and personal stuff (taking my best shoes to the cobbler's, figuring out where my Singapore SIM card is).

Having studied the history of Victorian travel, I know that part of what I'm doing is imitating my subjects; but on a short trip like this, I can't afford to NOT have everything all set up before I leave. Ideally, my days should be as full as my bags are light. With only three nights there, the former at least shouldn't be any problem!

Singapore, Travel

Nice restaurants in Singapore

Anyone have a recommendation for a nice restaurant in Singapore? I'm organizing a little dinner with various friends next Thursday night, and while I'm really familiar with the hawkers and street places, I don't have a clue about good places to eat that have things like tablecloths, and waiters.

Well, I have one or two clues, but I'm trying to expand my horizons past Orchard Road and Clark Quay.

restaurant, Singapore, Travel

Going home

Tree coming down

One of the oak trees lost a bunch of branches a few days ago. Unfortunately the rest of the tree has to come down. The arborists have been cutting of sections of it over the last couple days.

Peninsula is an especially lush-- or maybe just overgrown-- place. And of course you don't want things falling on the kids. Still, it's a shame to lose any of these great oaks.

Something you'd think would come from the Onion, but...

Instead, this amazing story comes from Projection, Lights and Staging News:

Russian Laser Show Leaves 61 Partially Blind

MOSCOW — At least 61 cases of permanent vision loss have been confirmed after lasers for an open-air event were used indoors instead. The organizers for the Aquamarine Open Air Festival moved the festivities under tents to shelter attendees from a driving rainstorm, and powerful lasers designed for outdoor use were used under the tent.

Instead of streaming out into the open sky, the rays from the lasers bounced off the tent’s interior, with a level of visual intensity that was enough to cause permanent vision loss. Some victims lost up to 80 percent of their vision, with visible retinal scarring.

The all-night dance party took place in Kirzhach, outside Moscow. Cosmic Connection, the group that organized the event, has not commented on the incident.

Sleeping on it

From The Guardian:

After a particularly creative night's sleep, Paul McCartney rushed to the piano at his girlfriend Jane Asher's house to scribble down a tune he had heard in a dream. That song, Yesterday, would become a Beatles classic.

Few can claim their slumbering hours are as productive or as lucrative, but scientists have found evidence that "sleeping on the problem" does work. By scanning the brains of volunteers, they found that a good night's shut-eye seems to stimulate new brain connections that promote learning by turning a weak memory into a stronger one.

Dr Sophie Schwartz, from the University of Geneva, gave volunteers the task of remembering unknown faces or using a joystick to follow a moving dot on a computer screen. Some were then allowed to sleep while others were not. They repeated the same tasks the next day while having their brains scanned. The results showed that "a period of sleep following a new experience can consolidate and improve subsequent effects of learning from the experience", says Schwartz.

brain, memory

Machines of Loving Grace

Richard Brautigan's 1968 poem.

Coyote Point Museum

Today, in my ongoing campaign to keep the kids entertained and out of the house while I'm playing single dad, I took the kids to the Coyote Point Museum, in San Mateo. It's in a very nice park. I tend to forget that there are these nice little parks scattered on the Peninsula, especially along the water. And the museum (technically the Museum for Environmental Education) is surprisingly good: it's got a little zoo/habitat, a museum with hands-on exhibits, and a permanent exhibit on the ecosystems of the Bay Area.

The whole place is very striking. The building looks like something from Portola Valley Ranch.

via flickr

The ecosystems exhibit alternates between drawing aesthetic inspiration from flyers for 1970s UC Davis environmental science courses, and posters you'd see in a Santa Cruz vegan restaurant.

via flickr

The quotes used in the exhibits range from Aldo Leopold to Vandana Shiva. In other words, the place is a perfect microcosm of northern California culture.

via flickr

It's pretty striking that there are so many of these little, but high-quality, museums and zoos in the Bay Area. The San Francisco zoo gets the attention, but the Palo Alto zoo is excellent for little kids (it's all small animals), and Coyote Point is less overwhelming than San Francisco.

museum, san mateo

Single dad Saturday

I took the kids and their aunt to the Redwood City theatre this afternoon to see Wall-E today. It was terrific, though I admit I nodded off during a crucial scene (I skipped the coffee this morning). It's a bit depressing that you can make such a good movie around the premise that the planet has been made uninhabitable; I'm afraid that while my generation grew up with the idea of nuclear war hanging over us, my kids are growing up with the reality of serious climate change-- and they know it.

The one down side to the outing was that I lost my wallet. We realized it on the way to the car; I ran back and checked around the seats, looked in the bathroom, and retraced my steps, but nothing. (The people cleaning the theatre were concerned that someone had come in, but after I explained why I had returned, they adopted an attitude of Olympian detachment. Not that I expected them to mount a search party, but what happens if a kid wanders off? Is the theatre staff as disinterested? Something tells me they're not very good with emergencies.)

So of course I called the bank and credit card company as soon as I got home. I'll have to go to the DMV on Monday and try to get a new drivers' license. Then there are insurance cards, Costco, etc.. The one thing I didn't have much of in there was money: ironically, though, the most valuable bill in there was a 20 pound note from my trip. It's also interesting to discover how poorly designed these services are to handle problems like lost cards: even the credit card company didn't do a very good job of explaining the procedure for getting a new card, telling me when the new one would arrive, etc.. They were mainly concerned with making sure that I knew it was okay to keep sending them money.

My daughter's at a friend's house on a sleepover, and my son is now out for the night. I think I'm going to have a couple beer.

Quote of the day

Believing in the improbable is quickly becoming a survival skill. (Kevin Kelly)

future, quotation

They seem to expect something

Working in my new home office

via Flickr

I really like this new setup!

The tangled history of "Sweet Lullaby"

Michael Nielsen points to a really interesting 2004 post by Ethan Zuckerman at My Heart's in Accra about the song "Sweet Lullaby," its tangled origins and history, and the challenge that "field recordings" now present as both cultural and legal objects.

“[F]ield recordings” have gotten a great deal more troublesome in recent years. My friend Bernard Woma is one of West Africa’s leading balafon players.... In the mid-1990s, one of the best ways to hear Bernard play live was to visit him at Nandom House in the Mamobi neighborhood of Accra. After church on Sundays, Bernard and friends would drink pito (a homemade millet beer), eat bean cakes and play traditional Bewaa-style xylophone music. One Sunday in November 1996, Mark Seidenfeld approached Bernard and asked for permission to make a field recording of one of these [informal Sunday afternoon] sessions. Bernard, nice guy that he is, agreed.

On one of his subsequent trips to the US, Bernard’s friends told him how much they’d enjoyed his new CD, “Live at the Pito Bar”. Seidenfeld had gotten in touch with John Zorn’s Avant record label, who, fascinated by the polyrhythms of Bernard’s playing, agreed to release the album. The resulting CD credits Seidenfeld as the producer, Zorn as executive producer, assorted engineers and associate producers… but doesn’t list Bernard or any of the other performers. Oh, and Bernard didn’t get paid, either. Nor did he given permission for the recording to be released commercially.

Perhaps the folks at Avant/Disk Union assumed that, as a “field recording” of “traditional” music, they had no obligations to the performer. But... Bernard’s got a website, a hotmail address and a teaching position at SUNY Fredonia. And while Bernard plays in a traditional style, many of the pieces he plays are original compositions.... And the liner notes imply that the unique sound of Dagara xylophone is the product of pito-fueled drunken frenzy, rather than the product of a sophisticated musical culture.

music, anthropology

Single dad

My wife left tonight for a week-long course in Williamburg, Virginia, so I'm playing single dad for the next few days.

I confess I haven't really thought very far about what I'd do with the kids, other than let them watch movies that Mom wouldn't allow (or that I've convinced them Mom wouldn't allow), and take them to Wall-E during the weekend.

Actually, they do pretty well with just one of us, though they tend not to stop talking. They generally talk a lot, but for some reason they do more of it when there's only one of us to listen.

parenting

Building my new home office

Since we moved into our house in 2001, we've used part of the garage as a home office. Actually, functionally speaking much of the house is a home office at one time or another, but my desk and books are in the garage. Some of my books, at least: I've long had more books than is good for me, and not enough space for them, so at least half of them have been in a storage shed or the Institute. (An occupational hazard: my father and stepmother have a two-story octagonal library in their house, and have also filled the basement with books!)

I've long dreamed of having enough space for all my books. A couple weekends ago, we went to Ikea and bought some shelving. We bought it right before I went to Europe, so we didn't get it assembled before I left; but on Saturday we got it built. Finally, I've got space for all my books. I've got to put two rows on each of the shelves, but I've had to do that since Berkeley, so I'm used to it.

my daughter alphabetizing books, via flickr

So now I have bookcases and working space on three sides: the armoire, the new tall bookcases beside those, and the short white bookcases forming the other arm of the U. Heaven.

my son in my new intellectual control center, via flickr

I'll spend the next few days happily alphabetizing the books, then figuring out the ideal way to arrange them around me. Actually, I'm not likely to ever find an ideal system; I'll keep reorganizing them forever, as projects come and go.

Update: A Finnish friend informs me that the design for the Ikea bookcases I just bought is, shall we say, an homage to bookcases long sold by a Finnish company, Lundia. Their Web site doesn't seem to have an English section, but their designs-- particularly their chairs-- look edgier than most Ikea furniture these days. Maybe the difference is that Ikea design, for all its Swedish origins, is now a generic global modern, manufactured in and designed to appeal to buyers in China and Copenhagen alike, while Lundia's is more purely Finnish.

ikea, menlo park, office, work

Here they are!

We'll have to prune them carefully, but they'll be a great addition to the yard. Eventually when they're tall enough, we'll be able to get rid of the magnolia.