• Holy Fire, by Bruce Sterling (in progress)
• Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques, Second Edition, by Ian H. Witten and Eibe Frank ****
• Specimen Days : A Novel by Michael Cunningham ***1/2
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy ****
• Reality and Rationality by Wesley C. Salmon *****
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz ****1/2

January

• Letters to a Young Mathematician by Ian Stewart ***1/2
• The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture by Andrew Keen **
• My California: Journeys By Great Writers by Donna Wares (Editor), Mark Arax (Editor) ***1/2
• Brasyl by Ian McDonald *****
• The Absolute Sandman, Vol. 1 by Neil Gaiman ****
• Assassin's Quest (The Farseer Trilogy, Book 3) by Robin Hobb ****
• Royal Assassin (The Farseer Trilogy, Book 2) by Robin Hobb ****

December

• Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy, Book 1) by Robin Hobb ****
• The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon ****
• The Annotated Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien and Douglas A. Anderson *****
• The Road to Middle-earth: Revised and Expanded Edition, by Tom Shippey ***1/2
• Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem****
• A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4) by George R.R. Martin ****
• A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3) by George R.R. Martin ****

November

• A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 2) by George R.R. Martin ****
• A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) by George R.R. Martin ****
• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath ****
• American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China by Matthew Polly ***
• History of the Sierra Nevada by Francis P. Farquhar ****
• Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides ****
• Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose ****

October

• The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson*****
• The Android's Dream by John Scalzi****
• Soon I Will Be Invincible: A Novel by Austin Grossman ***1/2
• Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories by Chuck Palahniuk ***1/2
• Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart by Ian Ayres ****
• Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge by Cass R. Sunstein ***1/2
• Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean by Douglas Wolk ***1/2

• Transaction cost economics and Stiglitz's information economics as crucial modifications of Walrasian markets.
• The relationship between mathematical notions of invariance, symmetry and periodicity and their relationship (if any) with notions of inductive complexity outlined by Kevin Kelly (Point-set topology and all).
• How throwaway was my idea about Goodman-esque entrenchment as efficient coding (Huffman, maybe)?
• How to construct an optimal model for capital expenditures with limited reliability data, and how I may be able to leverage the DODs work on Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM).
• Whether or not to install Weka and MySQL on my laptop for some data mining practice (and/or R)

Please comment if (and this is a big if) you find any of these admittedly fragmentary ideas/questions intelligible.]]> http://www.johnnylogic.org/2008/02/fragments.html http://www.johnnylogic.org/2008/02/fragments.html Fragments Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:24:25 -0800 friend's father, I have submitted my curriculum vitae to the Dean of Arts and Sciences at the local junior college in the hope of doing some adjunct teaching in addition to my current job. Though the wages are ridiculously low once you factor in prep time and grading, I look forward to the possibility of sharing my enthusiasm for learning and reengaging in academic life. In particular, I am would enjoy teaching two courses that appear in the college catalog, but have (to my knowledge) never been offered:

CMPSC 54 Data Mining This course is designed to familiarize individuals with current and emerging data mining technologies using the Internet, database software, and other application software packages as needed for project completion. Data mining knowledge topics will include the process of model building. Students will create a representative model based on an existing dataset to help understand trends, patterns, and correlations, as well as forming predictions based on historical outcomes. Students will be introduced to the tools and technologies needed to research and analyze data, resulting in a strategic decision making, marketing plan development, goal setting and identifying business opportunities. (CSU) PHILO 5 Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Science An introduction to the ideas, processes and consequences of science through history. The historical development of philosophies of science will be central throughout. Critical reasoning and extensive writing will be required. Contextual cultural analysis is expected. Credit may be earned for only one of the following: HIST 5 or PHILO 5. (UC/CSU).

Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. (No cheating!) Find Page 123. Find the first 5 sentences. Post the next 3 sentences. Tag 5 people.

Now let us substitute my error statistical construal of probable success (for some specified measure of "successful outcome"). Evaluating H's probable success (or H's reliability) means evaluating the relative frequency with which applications of H would yield results in accordance with(i.e., specifiably close to) what H asserts. As complex as this task sounds, it is just the kind of information afforded by experimental knowledge of H.

Cleveland, OH.— Social networking site, MySpace.com, panders to religious intolerants by deleting atheist users, groups and content. Early this month, MySpace again deleted the Atheist and Agnostic Group (35,000 members). This deletion, due largely to complaints from people who find atheism offensive, marks the second time MySpace has cancelled the group since November 2007. What’s unique in this case is that the Atheist and Agnostic Group was the largest collection of organized atheists in the world. The group had its own Wikipedia entry, and in April won the Excellence in Humanist Communication Award (2007) from the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University and the Secular Student Alliance. “MySpace refuses to undelete the group, although it never violated any terms of service,” said Bryan Pesta, Ph.D., the group’s moderator. “When the largest Christian group was hacked, MySpace’s Founder, Tom Anderson, personally restored the group, and promised to protect it from future deletions.” “It is an outrage if Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and the world’s largest social networking site tolerate discrimination against atheists and agnostics-- and if this situation goes unresolved I’ll have little choice but to believe they do,” said Greg Epstein, humanist chaplain of Harvard University. News Corporation, Murdoch’s global media corporation which also includes Fox News, purchased MySpace in 2005. “My personal profile was deleted as well, and despite weeks of emails to customer service, plus a petition signed by 500 group members, MySpace won’t budge. I think these actions send a clear message to the 30 million godless people in America (and to businesses whose money was spent displaying ads on our group) that we are not welcome on MySpace,” said Pesta.

• The SciPhi Show: A blog devoted to science fiction and philosophy.
• SciPhi Journal Sci Phi is the journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy. Each quarterly issue contains science fiction short stories with a philosophical theme and popular level philosophy articles with a science fiction theme. The editor of the magazine is long time Sci Phi Show host Jason Rennie. (from the ‘About’ page)
• Science Fiction and Philosophy: a book (to be released in ‘09) on the intersection between science fiction and philosophy, featuring some big names in contemporary philosophy (Brian Weatherson and David Chalmers, etc).