Chatter
goodmath | November 25, 2006As you may have noticed, lately, I've been fascinated by Haskell. I haven't done anything much in it until quite recently; it's been sitting in my to-do queue for a long time. This weekend, I was hacking away on a Haskell implementation of an interesting (but currently unimplemented) language from the Esolang wiki. For the most part, it went astonishingly smoothly, until I got to the point of putting things together, when I ran into a problem combining two monads, which is one of the typically difficult problems in real Haskell programming.
What surprised me a bit when I hit this is how hard…
tfk | November 23, 2006Over the last two years Thoughts from Kansas went from a blip on the side of the infotainment highway, to a privileged place in the political and scientific blogosphere. We started writing occasional complaints about the political abuse of scientists and comments on the culture wars.
Then we tangled with a Christian Reconstructionist who wanted a seat in Congress. And we beat him.
We took on creationists on the Board of Education to defend quality science standards, and this August, we won. We took on the Republican Congress and its excesses, especially as represented by Jim Ryun. And…
goodmath | November 23, 2006One year ago on Thanksgiving day, my friend John Vlissides died.
I'm sure that many of you have heard of John. He was one of the so-called "Gang of Four" who wrote the "Design Patterns" book that set off a huge fad in software engineering (and quite typically for John, he always insisted on pointing out that the reason he was the *fourth* of the GoF was *not* alphabetical). John was also a major contributor to InterViews, one of the early object-oriented GUI frameworks; and a major influence on the recently demonstrated Jazz system from IBM.
John and I didn't agree on much. He was a…
tfk | November 21, 2006The Kansas Guild of Bloggers has busted down John's door with the best Kansasish blogging of the week. Next Monday it returns to Thoughts from Kansas, so be sure to pass your best blogging on.
tfk | November 11, 2006Woodrow Wilson's last speech to the nation, delivered on November 10, 1923.
The anniversary of Armistice Day should stir us to great exaltation of spirit because of the proud recollection that it was our day, a day above those early days of that never-to-be-forgotten November which lifted the world to the high levels of vision and achievement upon which the great war for democracy and right was fought and won; although the stimulating memories of that happy time of triumph are forever marred and embittered for us by the shameful fact that when the victory was won-won, be it remembered-chiefly…
tfk | November 6, 2006Every week, the Kansas Guild of Bloggers gathers to highlight the finest of Kansasish blogging.
This week, we are not surprisingly heavy on the politics.
New blogger Howls from Kansas reviews the events that led to this Kansas election becoming interesting. "I LIVE IN A NOISY STATE where the wind is wont to blow at gale force from any compass point of the globe," he begins.
EmawKC is undecided on the Johnson County soccer initiative. Will ...JustCara's argument or Tony's win out? I guess we won't know until tomorrow night.
Red State Rabble charts the DeKline and Phall of Phill Kline.…
tfk | October 23, 2006
HowManyOfMe.com
There are:3people with my namein the U.S.A.
How many have your name?
tfk | October 18, 2006I don't know why, but readers who rely on the RSS feed will be getting truncated material. We're all hoping it's fixed soon.
goodmath | October 18, 2006Chad, over at [Uncertain Principles](http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2006/10/cranky_book_meme_voted_off_t…) found an interesting meme, which I thought would be fun to take a stab at:
>What authors have you given up on for good? And why?
Darn good question, that is. I'm often fascinated by comparing an authors earliest stories/books to their later ones, to see how they changed. And there are definitely a few authors who's work I really enjoyed at one time, but who have deteriorated to the point where I'll never read them again. I'll tell you about three of mine - feel free to add your…
tfk | October 16, 2006Every week, the Kansas Guild of Bloggers gathers to share the finest craftsmanship in the bloggish arts. This week brought us 5 submissions, plus a few posts that I snagged on my own.
In Kalimba-bel's Canon?, John of Blog Meridian:
cannot help but be seduced, at least for this morning, by the fancy that a non-Western culture built an instrument designed specifically to play one of the most-recognizable Western melodies ever composed
Fire up your Konono Number 1 and read on.
The KU chapter of Kansas Citizens for Science is writing about Art and Science.
Meanwhile, Joel of Cup o' Joel says Let…
tfk | October 13, 2006Kansans or those who sympathize with Kansas are encouraged to submit to the next Kansas Guild of Bloggers, hosted here next Monday. Submit your entries using the Blogcarnival link, or just send me your best Kansas-ish blogging.
tfk | October 12, 2006Thoughts from Kansas won "Best History Post" and "Best Find" in the latest Carnival of the Vanities.
There's also a super new edition of the Carnival of the Liberals, and a podcast edition of the Skeptics' Circle.
tfk | October 9, 2006My first paid gig is up at Seed online.
It's a retread of a post from a month or so ago.
tfk | October 8, 2006Buck O'Neil, Negro League baseball great, dies at 94:
Buck O'Neil, a batting champion in the Negro Leagues before becoming the first black to serve as a major league coach, has died. He was 94.
The beloved national figure as the unofficial goodwill spokesman for the Negro Leagues died Friday night in a Kansas City hospital, eight months after he fell one vote short of the Hall of Fame.
As a Cubs fan, I have to point out that he was the first black coach in the major leagues, a bench coach for the Cubs. It remains obscure why the Hall of Fame didn't select him, a barrier breaker, a pennant…
tfk | October 7, 2006Our regular Friday Find feature was delayed by a day due to technical issues.
On receiving the Emerson-Thoreau Award, Robert Frost told the crowd:
You may be interested to know that I have right here in my pocket a little first edition of Emerson's poetry. His very first was published in England, just as was mine. His book was given me on account of that connection by Fred Melcher, who takes so much pleasure in bringing books and things together like that.
Among the most precious gifts I ever got is a first edition of North of Boston by Robert Frost. It is precious to me because a good…
tfk | October 6, 2006It appears that my iPod hard drive is dead. This is deeply distressing news. Anyone who has tried fixing the drive in an iPod is welcome to offer advice.
I have also added it to the very top of my Amazon.com wishlist, so interested parties should feel free to support the vital work of TfK that way.
tfk | October 6, 2006You Belong in Soho
Although you may not be a professional artist, you do dabble in one form of art or another.
And you indie culture of all kinds - from little botiques to art house films.
Where Should Your Inner New Yorker Live?
In honor of Grrrrrlscientist.
tfk | October 4, 2006R. W. Apple has passed away, apparently after having planned out the menu for his funeral. Any discussion of Apple has to deal with a huge volume of material, in some cases, quite literally. In a 2003 profile of Johnny Apple, Calvin Trillin writes that Apple would start his day's work "in one of the brightly striped nightshirts made for him by Harvie & Hudson, of Jermyn Street, … so that a house guest not yet fully recovered from a late night at the Apple table can be startled by the impression that a particularly festive party tent has somehow found its way indoors."
Apple lived large…