Do Not Taunt Happy Fun Paul

[links] Gladwell vs. Pinker, on quarterbacks (and other topics)

2009-11-28T17:03:07Z

A while back, I saw the Malcolm Gladwell article "Most likely to Succeed", concerning predicting the performance of teachers and NFL quarterbacks. (I thought I'd linked to it from my LJ, but apparently I didn't). Recently the article was included in a Gladwell book "What the Dog Saw", Steven Pinker wrote a review of the book, and a debate ensued. Me, I'm fascinated by the debate for multiple reasons:

* Gladwell and Pinker are two of my favorite intellectual/cogsci writers, so it's fun to watch them at odds with one another.

* The topics of teaching and football are both near and dear to me.

* Statistics! In particular, some of the (unintentional?) errors of selection bias made by Berri and Simmons, in trying to avoid other errors of selection bias.

* Gladwell uses ad hominem attacks. He dismisses Steve Sailer, one of Pinker's sources, as "a California blogger with a marketing background who is best known for his belief that black people are intellectually inferior to white people." (Sailer, to his credit, responds directly on Gladwell's blog, addressing only the arguments, and ignoring the personal slam and mis-summarizing of his other work.) Gladwell also dismisses the "Lewin Career Forecast" from Football Outsiders (my favorite statistical sports site) and even mis-attributes their research to "Niners Nation". Overall, he responds to Pinker with "But maybe on the question of subjects like quarterbacks, we should agree that our differences owe less to what can be found in the scientific literature than they do to what can be found on Google."
Well, my impression of Gladwell is now lessened by his attacking the sources (mere racists and bloggers) and not their arguments. I already knew Gladwell had something of a propensity, as a journalist who cannot be expert in everything, to go to a single academic source on a topic, stick with their presumed authority, and fail to critique the argument properly, but I hadn't seen such a cut-and-dried case of it before. I still like his work but I will now be even warier to take it as gospel than I was before.
What's also interesting is the split among commenters-- some people admonish Gladwell, others go along for the ride. Hey, if a guy's a racist, he can't be worth listening to, right?

Anyway, here are the links to the articles and commentaries:

Malcolm Gladwell's original article in the New Yorker, "Most Likely to Succeed: How do we hire when we can’t tell who’s right for the job?"

Steven Pinker's critique of Gladwell's book

Gladwell's response on his blog

Eric Loken (of Criteria) chimes in

Berri, co-author of the main study used by Gladwell, responds to Pinker

Jason Lisk (of Pro Football Reference) focuses on the Berri/Simmons paper

the Football Outsiders link where I found all the articles since the original one, delightfully entitled "Malcolm Gladwell vs. Steven Pinker vs. David Berri vs. Jason Lisk vs. David Lewin". The comments reference still more sources, such as Brian Burke's on AdvancedNFLStats.com.

[links] immunization, sleep loss & weight gain, defending what?, first T-giving, '00s in 7 min

2009-11-28T14:47:43Z

Clearing out more tabs (if only I could clear out my head so easily)...

An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All

Sleep Loss and Weight Gain

Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be (from The Onion)

Tisquantum and a true story of the first Thanksgiving (post by xiphias)

and one more video:
The Aughts in Seven Minutes (with a definite US focus)

[links] video: Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody

2009-11-28T13:28:45Z

[via filkertom, among others]

[links] video: piano stairs

2009-11-28T13:11:45Z

[links] Sherman & Mr. Peabody: the origin story!

2009-11-14T15:38:29Z

This video is the very first "episode" of "Peabody's Improbably History" (from the old "Bullwinkle" show), featuring Mr. Peabody's background, how he adopted Sherman, and why he built the ~~Wayback~~ WABAC Machine.

This was a surprising find from, of all things, a football statistics site, specifically this article in the N.Y. Times.

[links] articles: Anyone is guilty, Jung book, Racial discrimination starts young

2009-10-17T22:23:24Z

Boston Phoenix interview with Harvey Silverglate on his book "Three Felonies A Day," in which he explains how federal justice has become sufficiently perverted in this nation that federal prosecutors, if they put their minds to it, could find a way to indict almost any one of us for almost anything. [h/t: madfilkentist]

Carl Jung wrote and illustrated a book about his own internal psychic journeys, and for decades his family has kept it closely guarded. It's just been published with translation. Here's the New York Times article about it. [h/t: sunspiral]

Interesting article in Newsweek regarding when and how kids start discriminating based on race. [h/t: ultimatepsi]

[links] videos: V8 blender, Ghost Busters (1954), Canadian Please

2009-10-17T21:53:27Z

h/t to xiphias, who comments, The folks at Top Gear invent a blender that is, by my calculation, approximately two hundred times as powerful as a "Will It Blend?" Blendtec.

"Ghost Busters" (1954) [h/t: lhn]

"Canadian, Please" [h/t: autographedcat]

[links] Cat vs...

2009-10-04T02:15:29Z

I love cats. Really. But sometimes, the schadenfruede, so funny. I think it's the combination "tail twitch + anticipatory butt wiggle" that does it.

Cat vs. aquarium! [h/t: thnidu]

Cat vs. mirror! [h/t: larksdream]

[links] videos: "I Gotta Feeling", "An Awful Lot of Running"

2009-10-02T16:25:35Z

Two song videos for which the song is good but the video, made by someone else, is even more impressive:

"I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas, incredibly well-choreographed video by 172 communications students at l'Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), filmed as one continuous five-minute shot! [hat tip to filkertom]

"An Awful Lot of Running" by Chameleon Circuit, excellent video by Ed Stockham AKA smilinglimpet (done in less than a week for a contest). [hat tip to orawnzva]

Podcast about Trock or "Time Lord rock" (featuring an impressively annoying amount of ignorance, IMHO, especially in the first 30 minutes or so, but better thereafter) and a short article about Trock by Annalee Newitz, who ought to know better than to stereotype filk.

Songs whose titles are not included in the actual lyrics of the song

2009-09-12T16:00:01Z

"For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield

from Wikipedia:
While the song has come to symbolize worldwide turbulence and confrontational feelings arising from events during the 1960s (particularly the Vietnam War), (Stephen) Stills reportedly wrote the song in reaction to escalating unrest between law enforcement and young club-goers related to the closing of Pandora's Box, a club on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California. The song's title appears nowhere in its lyrics; it is more easily remembered by the first line of chorus: "Stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down."

Stills said in an interview that the name of the song came about when he presented it to the record company executive Ahmet Ertegun who signed the Buffalo Springfield to the Atlantic Records owned ATCO label. He said: "I have this song here, for what it's worth, if you want it." Later they decided that should be its name.

In 2006, when interviewed on Tom Kent's radio show "Into the '70s", Stephen Stills pointed out that many people think "For What It's Worth" is about the Kent State Shootings (1970), despite having been actually recorded four years before that event.

What are some other songs whose titles appear nowhere in their lyrics?

"Fluorine Atom" links

2009-08-31T02:32:25Z

My music web site is back online, so here's a link to my songs page, including a link to the best recording I have of "Fluorine Atom", recorded by Barney Evans at my Interfilk Guest Concert at ConChord last year.

Pegasus nomination! squee

2009-08-31T00:23:35Z

For those who haven't heard yet:

My song "Fluorine Atom" was nominated for a Pegasus Award (the annual awards for filk music) in the floating category "A Little Bit Rock and Roll". (I'd known of the nomination over two weeks ago but the nominees weren't made public until yesterday.) Thank you to everyone who voted for my song in the brainstorming and/or nomination phases!

It's an honor just to be nominated. Yeah, I know, people always say that, but really, check out who the other nominees in my category are! Jeff Bohnhoff ("Come to Mordor"), Rand Bellavia and Adam English of Ookla the Mok ("Das Über Tuber"), Tim & Annie Walker ("Howl at the Moon") and Vixy & Tony ("Six-String Love")-- not only are those BIG names in filk, but those are really good songs!

Congratulations to my fellow category nominees and to the nominees in other categories, especially fellow MASSFILC officer Gary McGath for "Mad Scientist's Love Song" in the "Best Classic Filk" category and fellow northeasterner Batya Wittenberg for "Gabriel Gray's Song" in the "Best Filk Song" category. Other nominees whom I consider friends include Kathleen Sloan, Brooke Lunderville, Kathy Mar, Heather Dale and Ben Deschamps, Amy McNally, Dr. Mary Crowell, and Steve Savitsky.

The 2009 Pegasus final ballot is here. Please feel free to vote if you consider yourself a filker! If you don't know anyone on the list except me, however, please refrain from voting. Thanks!

[Edit: Now that my site is back up from maintenance, I have added a link to my songs page, including a link to the best recording of "Fluorine Atom", from my Interfilk Guest Concert at ConChord last year.]
(I would also like to make a new recording that is, er, a little MORE rock and roll, but I'm not sure when I'll get time for that! Also, I either need to find a drummer or else figure out how to use GarageBand or some other program.)

[links] Lie-Down Comedy with Colin and Brad

2009-07-31T18:43:00Z

(Last of the tab-clearing links posts! At least for now. :-)

11 minutes long, but worth it. Two guys from "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" provide an alternative to "stand up" comedy. :-)

[hat tip: filkertom]

[links] Bruins ad (sports rivalry humor)

2009-07-31T18:38:49Z

[links] The Homeopathic Emergency Room (and more on knowledge)

2009-07-31T05:13:20Z

Funny but pointed!

Hat tip to hsifyppah. Discussion here, including a link to the following "beat poem" by Tim Minchin:

...which in turn reminds me of a favorite quote of mine, one I recently reread:

I have a friend who's an artist, and he sometimes takes a view which I don't agree with. He’ll hold up a flower and say, “Look how beautiful it is,” and I’ll agree. But then he’ll say, “I, as an artist, can see how beautiful a flower is. But you, as a scientist, take it all apart and it becomes dull.” I think he’s kind of nutty.

First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people-- and to me, too, I believe. Although I might not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is, I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. But at the same time, I see much more in the flower than he sees. I can imagine the cells inside, which also have a beauty. There's beauty not just at the dimension of one centimeter; there's also beauty at a smaller dimension.

There are the complicated actions of the cells, and other processes. The fact that the colors in the flower have evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; that means insects can see the colors. That adds a question: does this aesthetic sense we have also exist in lower forms of life? There are all kinds of interesting questions that come from a knowledge of science, which only adds to the excitement and mystery and awe of a flower. It only adds. I don't understand how it subtracts.

- Richard Feynmann, What Do You Care What Other People Think?, p. 11.

[links] If Just One Person

2009-07-31T05:05:06Z

Warning: Have a handkerchief ready. Especially if you loved what Jim Henson created as much as I do.

[links] RoboGeisha!

2009-07-30T13:05:28Z

[hat tip to filkertom, who correctly warned, "Not safe for work. Or anyone, really."]

(And yes, frighteningly, it's real.)

[links] We Didn't Start the Flame War

2009-07-30T12:52:26Z

[thanks to filkertom]
Well done! There's something inherently funny about rhyming, no-class comments sung in Billy Joel's voice (the impersonator does a good job), but it's the way the webpage-come-to-life video synchs up with the audio that really makes it all work.

[links] Hip-hop, Victorian style

2009-07-30T03:35:56Z

[links] What happens when a tornado hits a train?

2009-07-30T03:31:18Z

[thanks to ceo]

Info about the tornado, from the YouTube page:

January 7, 2008 ...The tornado started at 3:30 pm about 1.2 miles north of Poplar Grove in Boone county and ended at 3:48 pm about 3.2 miles north northeast of Harvard in McHenry county, Illinois.
The first signs of damage were at Quail Trap road where trees were damaged and sections of roofing were removed from a shed. A large barn was destroyed and other buildings were severely damaged. Large trees were snapped or uprooted. The tornado reached its maximum intensity of EF3 at the northeast corner of Centerville road and Beaverton road. A two story farm house and garage were leveled and large trees were stripped of all branches. The tornado was about 100 yards wide through this area.

There was damage to trees, power lines, barns, and sheds. The tornado then crossed the Boone/McHenry county line as a weak EF0 tornado with just minor tree damage at this point. It crossed Hunter road and continued to track northeast across Ryan road as an EF0 and caused mainly minor tree damage. It crossed White Oaks road then it uprooted a hardwood tree and snapped off pine trees at their base along Maxon road. The tornado intensified as it moved toward the town of Lawrence where it produced the worst damage. Significant damage occurred in the town of Lawrence particularly at a house that had more than half of its roof ripped off and garage blown out.

The tornado then moved across the Chicago and Northwestern railroad where it blew 12 railroad freight cars off the track. The train was moving at the time the tornado hit it...so as the main engine stopped...the remaining cars on the track continued along it and slammed into the front part of the train. This caused a few more cars to derail...including one containing hazardous materials that caused the evacuation of the town of Lawrence.

As the tornado moved east of Lawrence it once again started to weaken with some tree damage and shingles off of a few houses on the northeast side of town. It then ran along Oak Grove road for a stretch where it produced EF1 damage with a hardwood tree snapped at its base and knocked over an old...weakly structured barn with estimated winds around 100 mph. It then headed across farm fields and headed for hwy 14 where it damaged a metal barn and sheared a few trees. As it crossed highway 14 it flipped a semi-trailer and injured the driver at a truck stop weigh station.

[links] Fun with Post-it Notes (2 videos)

2009-07-30T03:29:22Z

EepyBird's Sticky Note experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.

[The second video comes from the same guys who brought you the "Diet Coke & Mentos experiments". Hat tip to ruthling for the link.]

[links] JoCo ASL (plus more Judi Miller)

2009-07-29T21:44:31Z

So, lately ultimatepsi and I have gotten increasingly interested in Sign Language. At Concertino, we learned many fun (though not necessarily useful) signs from hsifyppah, so that we could sign such phrases as "Jesus is not a squid" and "The lobster eats me". At Confluence, UltimatePsi (in particular) picked up a bunch more, including the signs for "pirate", "elephant", "freedom", "soldier", "lie", and "prison", plus some actually-useful ones like "all", "in", and "day". It was also the first time judifilksign signed any of my songs ("Happy Song Virus"), but I quickly discovered that I can't watch her while I sing or else I get totally thrown off! (UltimatePsi watched some and picked up signs for "alien" and "prison"/"cell". Alas, there's no video.)

The thing that fascinates me most about ASL translation is the grammar and rephrasing, so I've included literal translations when available.

ASL of Jonathan Coulton's "Still Alive":

This was a triumph.
HERE TRIUMPH
I'm making a note here:
I WRITE
Huge success.
BIG SUCCESS
It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.
HARD EXPRESS MY SATISFIED

Aperture Science.
{APERTURE} SCIENCE
We do what we must because we can.
DO WHY? WE CAN
For the good of all of us
HELP-(all)
Except the ones who are dead.
BUT NOT PEOPLE DEAD

But there's no sense crying over every mistake.
BUT YOU NOT CRY ABOUT MISTAKE+++
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
YOU TRY+++ UNTIL CAKE GONE
And the science gets done and you make a neat gun.
SCIENCE FINISH, YOU MAKE COOL GUN
For the people who are still alive.
FOR PEOPLE STILL ALIVE

I'm not even angry.
I NOT ANGRY
I'm being so sincere right now.
I TELL TRUE
Even though you broke my heart and killed me.
NO-MATTER YOU BREAK HEART, KILL-(me)
And tore me to pieces.
TEAR-(me)+++
And threw every piece into a fire.
THROW-(me)-(at)+++ FIRE
And as they burned it hurt because
AS BURN HURT WHY?
I was so happy for you!
I HAPPY FOR-(you)

Now these points of data make a beautiful line.
NOW POINTS {DATA} MAKE BEAUTIFUL LINE
And we're out of beta, we're releasing on time.
NOW FINISH, LEAVE ON-TIME
So I'm GLaD I got burned.
I HAPPY I BURN
Think of all the things we learned
THINK-(about) ALL LEARN
For the people who are still alive.
FOR PEOPLE STILL ALIVE

Go ahead and leave me.
YOU LEAVE-(me)
I think I prefer to stay inside.
I PREFER STAY INSIDE
Maybe you'll find someone else to help you.
MAYBE YOU FIND OTHER PERSON, HELP-(you)
Maybe Black Mesa...
MAYBE BLACK TABLE
THAT WAS A JOKE. Haha. FAT CHANCE.
THAT JOKE, FUNNY, FAT MAYBE
Anyway, this cake is great.
AND CAKE AWESOME
It's so delicious and moist.
DELICIOUS, MOIST

Look at me still talking when there's science to do.
LOOK-(at me) TALK++, SCIENCE NOT FINISH
When I look out there it makes me GLaD I'm not you.
I LOOK-OUT, HAPPY NOT YOU
I've experiments to run there is research to be done
HAVE EXPERIMENTS, RESEARCH
On the people who are still alive
ON PEOPLE STILL ALIVE

And believe me I am still alive.
BELIEVE-(me) I STILL ALIVE
I'm doing science and I'm still alive.
I DO SCIENCE, I STILL ALIVE
I feel FANTASTIC and I'm still alive.
I FEEL AWESOME, I STILL ALIVE
While you're dying I'll be still alive.
AS YOU DETERIORATE, I STILL ALIVE
And when you're dead I will be still alive.
WHEN YOU DEAD, I STILL ALIVE

Still alive
STILL ALIVE
Still alive
STILL ALIVE

ASL of Jonathan Coulton's "First of May":

I woke up this morning
MORNING I AWAKE
I had a scone and a large house blend
SCONE EAT, COFFEE DRINK
And then a little conversation with my squirrel and chipmunk friends
SQUIRREL, CHIPMUNK FRIEND [ix-loc] CONVERSE
I said Im sick and tired of winter
I TELL-THEM WINTER SICK-OF-IT
And I wish that it was spring
I WISH SPRING START SOON
And then a little fellow named Robin Redbreast began to sing
BIRD ROBIN FLY-DOWN START SING

And he sang
HE SING
Ooh ooh child, whatd you think the cold winters gonna last forever?
[O-handshape] CHILD YOU THINK WINTER CONTINUE?
Ooh ooh child, nows the time for all the people to get together outside
[O-handshape] NOW ALL PEOPLE MUST COME-TOGETHER OUTSIDE

Cause its the first of May, first of May
NOW MAY 1ST, MAY 1ST
Outdoor fucking starts today
FUCK++ OUTSIDE START TODAY
So bring your favorite lady
BRING YOUR FAVORITE WOMAN
Or at least your favorite lay
OR YOUR FAVORITE HOOKER
The waters not cold baby dip in your big toe
WATER FINE, TOE DIP-IN
Maybe Ill see you in flagrante delicto
MAYBE I SEE-[you] NAKED
Grass below you, sky above
GRASS FLOOR, SKY
Celebrate spring with a crazy little thing called fucking outside
CELEBRATE SPRING HOW? FUCK++ OUTSIDE

I thanked him for the information
THANK-[him] FOR INFORM
I cried a little when he flew away
HE FLY, I CRY
I watched an episode of The Peoples Court
I WATCH TV

And I tried to plan my day
MY DAY TRY PLAN
I called up my old lady
WIFE CALL-[her]
She wasnt home so I called my girl
NOT HOME, MY GIRL CALL-[her]
I asked her if shed like to join me as I
ASK-[her] IF SHE WANT TWO-OF-US
Entertain the world
WORLD ENTERTAIN

And I said
I SAY
Ooh ooh child, Ill bring a blanket and I promise I will brush the ants off
[O-handshape] CHILD, BLANKET BRING, ANTS I WIPE-OFF
Ooh ooh child, youre gonna like it when were taking each others pants off outside
[O-handshape] PANTS++ REMOVE, YOU ENJOY OUTSIDE

[chorus]

So we went to the park together
TWO-OF-US GO-TO PARK
We were walking in the midday sun
NOON WALKING
We met all kinds of people and we
MEET+++
We fucked everyone
FUCK+++
We fucked a lady who sells ice cream
WOMAN ICE CREAM VENDOR, FUCK-[her]
We fucked a man with a tan Shar Pei
MAN WITH DOG TAN, FUCK-[him]
Everyone who needed fucking well they
ALL PEOPLE NEED SEX
They got fucked today
THEY FUCK+++

So come on
COME
Ooh ooh child, open your mind and your heart, feel the spirit moving through you
[O-handshape] CHILD MIND, HEART OPEN++, FEEL HEAT [all-over]
Ooh ooh child, you'll feel the warmth of the love when I stick it to you... outside
[O-handshape] CHILD YOU FEEL LOVE WHEN I FUCK-[you] OUTSIDE
[chorus]

And the same, but live on stage!:

... which also shows just how hard signing songs on-the-fly is. judifilksign is indeed a wonder!

While I'm at it, let me throw up a few examples of the amazing judifilksign signing on stage:

[links] Fred Astaire + Michael Jackson

2009-07-29T15:04:01Z

A rather ingenious mash-up synching up Fred Astaire movie clips to "Smooth Criminal":

[links] Tim Minchin

2009-07-29T14:07:47Z

Still more tab-cleaning-out. :-)

[Thanks to maedbh7 for introducing me to Tim Minchin.]

Peace Anthem for Palestine:

Inflatable You:
(NSFW!)

Not Perfect (a sweet song, though I change the "country" lyrics when I cover it):

guitar tab

The YouTube lament:

Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen cover):

[links] David Sedaris attempts to explain Easter... in French

2009-07-29T14:02:45Z

Audio only. For some reason I get a kick out of the terms literally translated from French, such as "Easter is a party for to eat of the lamb." But mostly it's fun for the cultural clash.