Images having ALT tags is a good thing — this allows those dinosaurs who still use lynx to get a description of an image, assuming the content provider has decided to provide an accurate description of the image’s contents. But a picture is worth a thousand words, and ALT tag contents are often woefully inadequate and suffer from the oft-humorous ambiguity of our human languages. Consider this picture from the front page of the BBC site, pointing to their story Bush accused of anti-gay Stance. When it was loading in Firefox, I got to see the ALT tag briefly. The full tag reads: “Gay couple smell flowers prior to their planned wedding in San Francisco.” The only thing that displayed in the small space taken up by the image was “Gay couple smell.”
Author Archives: Anand Sarwate
imminent risk to civil order
My distinguished governor has decreed that the gay marriage licenses in San Francisco represent “an imminent risk to civil order.” He’s right on the money. Once those gay people get married, they’re going to start rioting, smashing windows of shops, looting, burning cars. They’ll be worse than Patriots fans in Kenmore Square after the Superbowl. Unless we stop them right now, San Francisco might have to get put under martial law. I’m just waiting for him to say he wants to “terminate” the licenses.
sitanaya
My brother pointed me to an animation by an alum of my high school, Nina Paley, who has made a pretty hilarious little short called The Sitayana. I love this kind of short animated film, although I have no idea how well it would translate into a larger presentation medium. Other animations I come back to time and time again are Strindberg + Helium and the lovely Muffin Films. Watching a few is a great way to wind up day, wind down a day, or just wind in place while taking a break.
As I’m always fond of saying, animation is a beautiful art form which seeks to explain the complexities of human existence in an artistic and sometimes nonrepresentational manner. The art of animation is not just about cartoon violence and high tech gadgetry, but rather…
ROBOTS!!!!!!
freedom of information
The entire editorial board of the Elsevier-published Journal of Algorithms resigned to protest price gouging by the publisher. The overblown cost of journal publications is a real problem, especially given the recent budget crunches at universities. There has been a lot of consolidation in the academic publishing business, and publishers force libraries to buy packages of journals, fobbing off several lower-tier journals for each well-regarded one. The American Library Association has identified the reform of scholarly communication as a major issue facing libraries today, and other library groups have issued stronger broadsides against commercial academic publishers. Things are especially bad in the sciences, which has sparked the formation of the Public Library of Science, which has a new biology journal and plans for other disciplines as well.
Right now, one sixth of the entire U.C. library budget is spent on Elsevier’s “Science Direct Online.” In 2003… Elsevier wanted a 37% increase in the fee paid for Science Direct Online, phased in over the next 5 years… the way Elsevier has these journals “bundled” the library would have to cut 40% of the journals before it realizes a penny of savings. So, the librarians may get tough and drop Science Direct Online altogether.
The above is from a rant by John Baez, but it drives the point home. The reputation of a journal is made by its editorial board and reviewers. Why should they work for a pittance on a journal, only to have the publisher turn around and sell it back to them for a huge profit? I doubt that the value added in printing and running a batch script to convert .ps to .pdf is that much.
But the news is good — hopefully others will follow and the dissemination of information will be helped, not hindered, by new technologies.
betting on hamlet
The Times Literary Supplement has a funny discussion (via MeFi) on how to analyze the odds on the Laertes-Hamlet dueling matchup. A little close reading plus some probabilistic analysis can only lead to the conclusion that one shouldn’t take chances on definitive interpretations of Shakespearean texts.
EOS
At Carl and Cole. Ann said this place should be called “Asian tapas,” and I would agree, except that it’s not all that Asian. We had an appetizer and two small plates, and split a sweet wine flight, totaling out at “pretty expensive.” All in all, I wouldn’t go here again — the food didn’t knock my socks off at all, but Ann assures me other times she’s gone it has been better.
We started with spicy fingerling potatoes with a garlic-scallion aioli with what looked like black sesame seeds in it. The potatoes were just right in terms of moistness, but the aioli was a bit languid and didn’t do much else than cut the spiciness. The black soy-sauce chicken in clay pot with caramelized onions was also tasty — the soy sauce was simmered down until it was thicker, and the sweetness of the onions gave it that sweet and salty that is oh-so-tasty. The pan roasted prawns were crunchy goodness with a very sticky black pepper sauce on them, sitting next to a small mound of soba noodles made with green tea, and were probably the best part of the meal.
Normally I’m a big fan of small plates, and these were certainly tasty, but for some reason EOS didn’t do it for me. But it might do it for you. You can check out their website for the menu.
Reverie Cafe
This is a cute little coffeehouse about 3 doors from the corner of Carl and Cole, which claims to make “artisanal espresso drinks,” whatever that means. It was some of the best espresso I’ve ever had, though, and if it wasn’t for the BART and MUNI fare to get out there, this would be a cool place to hang out. It’s a bit more upscale than I’m used to, but no more expensive than the next coffeeshop. If you want something grungier, try Muddy Waters, but if you want to play scrabble over a latte, Reverie’s your place.
more reasons not to fly american
Apart from their abysmal food (or lack thereof), aging fleet, and poor track record of getting me places on time, American Airlines also proselytizes. Too bad they are almost the only way for me to get Urbana.
But now Jet Blue flies Oakland-Boston, for around $69 each way. If only they would add a route to Chicago…
feasting
I made quite the vegetarian feast last night, with help from Robin, Emily, and Chris. There were two amazing things about this meal which set it apart from other cooking adventures were that the food came out at the right time, so we weren’t waiting around too long for the next course, and things didn’t get cold. The other thing was that there were almost no leftovers, except for some blanched asparagus that will make a good late-night snack tonight.
To start off, we had a stracciatella, which is an Italian soup. Mine had vegetable broth and garlic simmered for a little while, to which you add fresh spinach and then shortly thereafter beaten eggs, parmesan, and bread crumbs with some salt and pepper. Once the eggs bind it’s ready to serve.
Robin took charge of the funghi arrosto con pignoli (mushrooms roasted with pine nuts) to which Emily added a generous helping of red pepper flakes. The next time we make this I’ll have to get a slotted baking dish so that the juices from the mushrooms drain out. I didn’t want to spring for the porcini mushrooms, but the Berkeley Bowl had some lovely large brown mushrooms that were plenty flavorful. This is a much easier dish than the rice-stuffed crimini/baby bella/porcini that I usually make.
For the main course I turned to How To Cook Everything, one of the best purchases I’ve made in the last year and a half (thanks, Winnie!). Simple food is often good food. Take the asparagus baked with parmesan for example. Emily said it was the best asparagus she’s ever had. Part of that has to go to the quality produce out here, but the cheese and asparagus together were pretty killer. The pasta was fettucine with spinach and cream sauce, which was also super-easy to make but very tasty, probably because of the butter and heavy cream. Fat is good.
The dessert was my favorite though — I found it in a book called The Vegetarian Feast that I picked up in a used bookstore. Bananas with dried raisins and apples, poached in white wine with vanilla. And some fresh whipped cream (with the rest of the heavy cream) on the side. I am going to devote my life to studying desserts made with bananas I think — they are so yummy!
For wine, there was a zinfandel from D Cubed (Napa Valley) and a pinot noir from Greenstone Point (Australia). The total cost per person was probably around $10, thanks to the Berkeley Bowl’s cheap (and delicious) produce.
66.180.236.228
I was checking the stats for this blog the other day (muwahaha stalking), and noted that 66.180.236.228 hits quite frequently. However, I have no idea who that is. Going to that location was uninformative, and a quick Google search told me 66.180.236.228 reads many blogs. So to 66.180.236.228, thanks for reading my blog, and feel free to identify yourself…
An Ergodic Walk 
