21 Mar 2001	 
 
Friendly to the visually impaired.... 
 
=achoo= 
 
Ok, I'm still rather unwell.  I don't know if I should attribute this to my 
overindulgence of alcohol and good food, underindulgence of sleep, or just plain 
indulgence of friends in No.Va. or to the unhealthy miasma that is the atmosphere 
surrounding NYC.  Perhaps I caught this bug while traveling on the "brand-new" Acela 
(a.k.a. Northeast Direct...  the only difference is higher prices and, okay, I admit 
it, roomier seating areas all around).  I hope not.  I like the train. 
 
So, I've been hanging on to consciousness ... for what reason, I'm not quite sure.  In 
this foggy state of mind, I really can't get anything done; with a tissue stuck up my 
right nostril, I'm not really fit to be seen in public.  I've been trying to learn 
some more Perl, which is such a lovely scripting language, I could just pinch its cute 
little cheeks.  I note in passing that Taco Bell has dropped a 40 ft. by 40 
ft. plastic inflatable target in the South Pacific, which reads "Free Taco Here!" (in 
"small" letters in the corner, it says "Valid for U.S. Residents only.")  That has 
got to be one of the stranger promotional campaigns I have ever heard of.  Even if the 
Mir should hit the target (extremely unlikely), I think whatever marketing genius 
thought of this should get one of those doorstop-looking awards.  And maybe a dinner.   
 
I've been having a little email exchange of late with one of the editors of Scientific 
American magazine.  My favorite magazine for, lo, these 10 (or so) years, often my 
first source from which I receive interesting scientific developments, has taken a 
dramatic turn for the worse (okay, so I'm exaggerating).  All the regular columns were 
dropped, except for Anti-Gravity -- yes, the hallowed "Mathematical Recreations", 
home of the unsurpassable Martin Gardner, has left the building.  To make up for this 
and other losses, what do we get?  More content?  Well, unless pretty full page 
pictures are more content, not really.  What's really sad is that I've got issues from 
1996 and 1997 on hand, one of which I've been reading today, and the drop-off in the 
density of information is all too evident when comparing April 2001 to August 
1996.  The SciAm web site actually has some very interesting stuff, so I may just have 
to go there for my info.  I've been thinking of getting a subscription to The 
Economist, which has been the source of lots of interesting science news (mostly 
psychology, I think, but that's a science as well). 
 
I've been looking through my search logs again, and I really must build a good Markov 
chain tutorial.  Most mathematician-type people have plenty of sources already, but 
for high school students, or non-math-types who want to learn about markov chains or 
hidden Markov models, I don't the the full, robust, "mathematically 
correct" definition is a great place to start.  Actually, it's not a great place for 
mathematicians to start either, but you didn't hear it from me.  
 
=drip= 
=drip= 
=ache= 
 
Okay, I give up.  My head feels like it's being squeezed into the size of an 
orange.  ugh.