Absinth Dragon

Thanks, miso!

Bogus Paper

MIT students pulled off a nice prank on behalf of the "World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics" They worte a program that generated research papers, complete with analysis and graphs and everything. One of the fake papers actually got accepted to be presented at the conference, even thuogh it was complete gibberish. They tried to point out that the conference's sole purpose is to make money, not giving a shit about scientific value...

"Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access
Points and Redundancy" -- was accepted for presentation...."Rooter" features
such mind-bending gems as: "the model for our heuristic consists of four
independent components: simulated annealing, active networks, flexible
modalities, and the study of reinforcement learning" and "We implemented our
scatter/gather I/O server in Simula-67, augmented with opportunistically
pipelined extensions."
(Link)

The holy grail of greeking-bots has been unearthed! :-0

Links (the submitted paper(pdf), research paper generator)

Veggie Pasta

Yesterday was a good day. I went swimming in the morning, then took advantage of the great sunny weather and took a walk through Prague. It was surprisingly quiet, almost no tourists (later I found out they were all standing under the astronomical clock in the Old Town square, hundreds of them). I felt really hungry though, so I went to Billa and bought some stuff. I didn't want any meat, perhaps owing to the the fact of having seen Skritek(here and here) recently:) This is what came out of my resolution to make myself a healthy meal:

1. Ingredients: Tomatoes, zucchini, white yoghurt, corn, green olives and pasta.



2. Boiled water with a bit of oil and salt
3. While it boiled, I have let the corn thaw in the microwave and cut the veggies (I like bigger chunks:)



4. After 10 minutes the pasta was ready. Took them out and cooled them with cold water. Supposedly it prevetns them from sticking to each other...



5. Then I mixed the pasta with a little bit of the youghurt and a lot of basil (forgot to mention that withthe ingredients:)



6. Added vegies and voilá!





It tasted better than it looked...

Note: I admit I was quite bored :-)

Later I went to meet Zaba, Matus and Ivan, they were rock-climbing on Petrin...I'll post some pictures later...

Update: No takze cestoviny sa vraj nemaju prelievať...(Link)

Lorem Ipsum

Ever stumbled upon this text?:

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."

I have been searching the web for good looking page layouts, and saw this text on quite a few of them. Since I don't understand as much Latin as I would like to, I got curious enough to do a little research.

Supposedly, "Lorem Ipsum" is a passage from "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" by Cicero, making it more than 2000 years old (2010 exactly)! It has been used since the 1500's as a dummy text designed to keep the viewer's attention on the type or layout instead of the actual content. This actually has its own term, it's called "greeking" (although the text is obviously latin NOT greek). In the process, I have found a couple of nice "lorem ipsum" or "greeking" generators:

This one lets you "greek" in various styles, such as Matrix, Marketing, Metropolitan, Pseudo German and Techno Babble. Here's an excerpt of hillbilly greeking:

"Gritts fussin' her ass yer co-op, done mashed, me hoosegow yippie mule cain't. Shootin' guzzled truck bacon mobilehome rustle, preacher jest jail. Beat, pickled, wild muster up afford. Mobilehome skinny greasy caboodle soap catfight, reckon her said country hoosegow askin' got damn..."

This one actually spits out quasi intelligible english text:

"Just the good ol' boys, never meanin' no harm. Beats all you've ever saw, been in trouble with the law since the day they was born. Straight'nin' the curve, flat'nin' the hills. Someday the mountain might get 'em, but the law never will. Makin' their way, the only way they know how, that's just a little bit more than the law will allow. Just good ol' boys, wouldn't change if they could, fightin' the system like a true modern day Robin Hood."

It seems to contain passages from real literature, e.g. Knight Rider, A-Team, The Dukes of Hazzard and even Ulysses. Which maybe makes the text too intelligible and thus contrary to the aim of greeking. It's fun nevertheless.

There are tons of greeking bots out there. My favorite is http://ungreek.toolbot.com. It lets you greek using the U.S. or Canadian constitutions, Immanuel Kant, Charlotte Bronte, the Dada Manifesto, the GNU Public License in Swedish or esperanto (and more!):

"Mondskalaj lingvokomunumoj kies parolantoj estas senescepte du aux plurlingvaj Cxiu komunumano akceptis la! Pri la lingvo Ni estas movado por lingvaj. Lingvon ekmastras gxin Plena posedo de Esperanto eblas ecx per. Movado por lingvaj rajtoj Lingva diverseco La naciaj registaroj emas konsideri la. Estas unu el malmultaj mondskalaj. Kaj pritaksi aajn solvojn al la lingva malegaleco kaj lingvaj konfliktoj Ni asertas. Kondamnas al formorto la plimulton de la lingvoj de la mondo Ni estas. Kaj neoficialaj kunvenas sur neuxtrala tereno dank' al la reciproka volo kompromisi Tia ekvilibro? "

Translation of Lorem ipsum at www.lipsum.com

I have to do some (i.e. a LOT) schoolwork today as it is due tomorrow...Hopefully I'll overcome my laziness. At least today...

Google Sightseeing

I love this blog. Too bad it's only USA Google sightseeing though:-( My favoites are the plane graveyard and the Large Type section....

http://www.shreddies.org/gmaps/

Area 51

check out the famous Area-51 in Nevada!! Thanks to google:-)

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=groom+lake,nv&ll=37.272835,-115.798731&sll=36.518555,-115.561924&spn=0.060081,0.085402&sspn=0.127029,0.120678&t=k&hl=en

How does Batman pee?

Last night I stumbled upon a hilarious conversation on imdb.com, discussing the methodology of Batman's urination ..:-) My favorite:

"I think Batman is very territorial...the way dogs, cats and bears are. Perhaps there is a zipper in the Barsuit and he wizzes in certain areas (alleys, rooftops etc) to mark his territory?"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372784/board/nest/16403624

"Revolution in Military Affairs"

How We Lost the High-Tech War of 2007
From the January 29, 1996 issue: A warning from the future.
by Charles J. Dunlap, Jr.
01/29/1996, Volume 001, Issue 19

A very interesting and alarming article describing a possible scenario of a future attack by "fanatics" on Amercia. It was written almost ten years ago so now a lot of it is not quite right, but the general idea is still aplicable today, I think. I did not enjoy reading it...

Face Analyzer

click to view results

Beta academic: Not as intelligent or ambitious as Alpha Academics, but still focused on being materially successful.

Expected Occupations: Lawyer, Doctor, Investment Analyst, Accountant, Architect, Engineer, Professor, Researcher, Psychologist

So, it seems I'm a Middle Eastern Beta-Academic female!!!! Haha:-) At least I'm not gay 8-)

Also in my supposed profile:
You are a long-term planner, diligent worker and avoid risk as much as possible. You are of above average intelligence and have the ability to focus on tasks that seem unimportant at present, but can lead to greater things in the foreseeable future. You are not keen to interact with others or make social connections. You would rather gain material wealth before putting yourself in a position to be judged. You are not confrontational unless someone directly opposes your intellectual beliefs. You are highly concerned with your social status. You are keen to avoid risks that could jeopardize your long-term plans. You take a calculated approach to life, working hard to control all aspects of it in order to not leave anything important to chance.

You tend to be a perfectionist and quite self-conscious. You sometimes wish you were less reserved and more like some others you see who are more bold and outspoken in social situations. But as much as you try to be like them, you cannot, because you care too much about the future to ever be comfortable taking risks in social situations.

Most of it is elephant dung. Take yours and let me know what you think...

Shame!

Wow, this isn't worth commenting on!!!!!!!!!!

Another embarassment, insult even?, George W. did not take his gloves off for the handshake with our president, nor with the wives of the politicians (nor did his wife)!!!! Talk about rude! That's like Diplomatic Protocol 101, I mean, that's common sense, basic education, whatever you want to call it...Oh well, I guess it's not worth getting excited about either...

my nerd score 8-)

This is Now

Jonathan Harris (ckeck out his other projects) has created a really cool way of reading news. 10x10 takes a 100 of the most frequent words from recent headlines of many news servers (BBC, CNN, etc.), assigns pictures to them and creates a "news table". It's an awesome and simple idea, I'm already using it instead of google news....

www.tenbyten.org

Terrorist Threat

Out of pure recession, I've recently installed a Homeland Security Terrorist Threat Level Indicator for Firefox. The current level is "Elevated". :-D
In the process, I found a great site, cleverly designed to keep American's "ready" for a terrorist attack, to create portable terrorist-attack kits etc..."Terrorism forces us to make a choice. Don't be Afraid...be READY!", "Preparing makes sense!" and a whole lot more propaganda.
So let's everybody call 1-800-BE-READY, to get a free survival brochure!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Become a certified disaster action kid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vatican Exorcist

Vatican offers exorcism lessons in Athenaeum Pontificium Regina Apostolorum. Anybody interested...?
;-)

Ego Machine

I stumbled upon this interesting article today on Wired. This artist, David Sullivan, created the Ego Machine for the Hydriotaphia: New Orleans Artists Design Their Own Funeral Urns contest. It displays an image of himself growing older or younger according to the number of references to his name on Google :-D
Here is a demo of the Ego Machine, although it doesn't seem to work, it just gave me a headache really

Road Trip

On Jan 27, after passing my last exam, we (Vierka, Ivan, me) left for Salzburg and Budapest. I have a sweet deal from work: I can spend two nights for free pretty much anywhere in a Marriott Hotel( during a certain period). I would be a fool not to take advantage of it right? So we hired a car from Bestcar. We wanted a Skoda Fabia Junior (i.e. the cheapest car), but they didn't have one so they gave us a better car (a regular Fabia 1.2 liter) for the same price (400CZK/day) :-) Nice!
First we went to Salzburg, I drove all the way, which wasn't too big of a deal since it was mostly highway. It was freezing! when we got there, and lots of snow! The Renaissance in Salzburg sucks compared to the one where I work, but hey, it was for free!;-)
We've spent two days there, walking around,having some beer and taking pictures. I met a friend from a CISV camp in 2002, so that was nice.
The last day we let Vierka drive (which was, ehm, fun:) and went south to see the Alps. We came across a typical Austrian alpine village, went for a walk and stumbled upon a beautiful frozen waterfall...Then it was "only" 6-7 hours driving to Budapest...
The capital of Hungary is well known for a complete lack of orientation signs, and a layout that defies all logic. That means you will get lost if you're driving. 100% sure. And we did too. First we thought it would be easy, we saw the Marriott sign right next to a bridge that we were crossing...but guess what, we got lost anyway:-0 So we went to a fast food place to ask for directions (I think it was Subway), but nobody seemed to speak English! Nemirtem (I don't understand) was the only response we got. But they were helpfull nevertheless, and explained the way through body language (that was a show I tell you!).
So we finally made it to the hotel, rushed to the lobby to check-in, wearing dirty jeans, weird hats, huge backpacks and plastic bags full of food...We did not fit in. There were people in fancy dresses and suits, jewellery everywhere, cameras rolling...apparently some big ball was taking place where all the Hungarian celebrities and politicians showed off the best pieces of their wardrobes. We had a laugh, along with the receptionists:-) But the Hotel was very nice, and had a great view of the Buda district. We did the mandatory sightseeing, had some goulash and beer, and the next day went to the Szechenyi Furdo. That's a pretty nice outside thermal water spa, surrounded by an old building, there are old men playing chess in the water while the snow falls, it was quite nice. After that we had to go home, but it was snowing so hard it took us almost 4 hours to get to Banska Bystrica. We also got lost in Budapest again, actually, the pic on topf of this post was taken when we were lost on the way home, ansd somehow ended up at the Millenium monument, a huge intersection without working traffic lights...fun:-)

All in all, it was a great break from life in Prague, it was starting to get on my nerves...:-)

Check out some of the pictutres we took along the way

CEMS

Last Monday I've finally obtained the results from the CEMS entry "exam". Actually, it was more of a psychological evaluation than an exam. The competition was fierce, to say the least.
But anyway, after three nervous weeks, I GOT ACCEPTED!!!! I'm quite excited! It seems I'll be sent to HEC in Paris next summer semester...But the timing is not 100% sure yet, there is a meeting of those who got accepted today at 14:00, so I'll have more details then...

www.cems.org