An apple a day

probably would not have kept my wisdom teeth from needing to be removed, which is apparently the case. I went to the dentist today, and at least I have no cavities. I also confess that I really like my dentist, Dr. Keohan. I just picked the closest preferred provider to the office, so it's kind of surprising that it worked out. And I was kind of sketched out the first time I went, since it's just this tiny little old school storefront, but everybody there (all three of them) is very nice and relaxed and funny and there's a fish tank and the radio playing. Much more pleasant than Harvard Vanguard, which cost me money, anyway. Go figure.

Donald

The Trump is quite funny on SNL. If it, say, happens to be sitting on your TiVo, watch it! Also, The Economist has an interesting take on the show:

Slugging it out, say, in the jungles of Borneo for a $1m prize, a more typical reality-TV formula, is unlikely to illuminate the real lives of most American middle managers. The drama that Mr Trump offers cuts closer to the bone.... the show is the second-most popular series on television among 18-49-year-olds with incomes over $100,000, lagging only “The West Wing”...

O.C. soundtrack (at last!)

Bought the new O.C. soundtrack at the recently-enlarged Newbury Comics. A fun listen, and it includes a link to a web site with video of the scenes containing each song. While wandering the net, I also ran across fashion from the O.C..

Mmm

Lisa's in town so Andrea tooks us to Peking Tom. I highly recommend the banana rolls and green tea ice cream dessert.

Social networking platforms?

Thanks to Mike, saw a talk at the Berkman center about SocialPhysics by John Clippinger. (Also had a yummy free lunch!) His idea of instantiating communities with a template of behaviors called a "culture" is pretty intriguing, and the paper he links to about the economic and biological aspects of trust is interesting.

Mmm, smart art

Martin let me tag along to a panel at Art Interactive coinciding with their exhibit called eVolution. Sadly, one of the pieces wasn't working and another one wasn't on, so I'll have to go back later. The two I did get to see were pretty interesting, and the talks were thought-provoking if somewhat repetitive of things I've heard before. It occured to me that both reality television and art with artificial life in it are both fascinating because the creator establishes a set of rules and then sets the thing free to produce unpredictable results. At best, he can control the presentation of what happens. The guy from Art Interactive thought that the key was that both appeal to our desire to play God and be voyeurs, but Christiane thought that evolving art was really appealing because it was interactive (although so is some reality television, I'd argue) and that reality television was fundamentally different because what we were watching were people instead of simple rule followers. Still, you have to wonder, if reality television has led to the decline of the sitcom and hour-long drama, will evolving art supplant deterministic art?

Ah

This blog is now protected by MT-Blacklist! Stupid comment spam. Many thanks to Jay Allen, though. I was rather impressed by how the people with drug-related spam flocked to the drug-related entries, though. Those spam people sure are smart. I wonder if the new Moveable Type authentication system will work out.