"He Thinks the Lavatory in his Cell is Fantastic"

Or so swoon Somali pirates about Dutch toilets.

I think civilized people have a different opinion.

Let's Really Be Equal Here

Insurance companies claim that women, especially child-bearing ones, use more health care than men, and hence pay higher premiums. Of course some people think this reason is non-sense, among them some law-makers introducing legislation to equalize the payments:

Senator John Kerry today introduced legislation that would improve health care benefits for women in the individual market by preventing insurers from charging them more, denying or limiting coverage based on their pregnancy status or delivery method, and ensuring comprehensive maternity coverage.

In related news, it was noticed that women live longer than men. Senator Kerry plans to fix this with a bill which would kill off specific women, equalizing the average lifetimes. He hasn't talked about his plans to equalize the "unmentionable parts of the human body."

Feeling Good About Being Stupid

I wish I had some people's tolerance for their own ignorance:

Second, we don't do a good enough job of teaching our students how to be productively stupid – that is, if we don't feel stupid it means we're not really trying...Focusing on important questions puts us in the awkward position of being ignorant.

Aside from the isolating nature of graduate school, constantly feeling stupid is probably the hardest thing to adapt to. I still haven't found a good way to focus in the face of infinite possibilities.

Oh, right, I read reddit to help me focus. Nevermind.

The Best Game on Graph Theory This Year

Sneeze!

Children are your future. Via NYTimes.

Quotes

I've been staring at colored polygons for the past month, so I don't have anything interesting to say. You know the stress is getting to you when you run across random quotes on the internet and they bounce around inside your head. Enjoy the memes...or, rather, let the memes enjoy you.




Since its foundation nearly two decades earlier, Nato had had its headquarters in France. Now Nato would have to move. Furthermore, de Gaulle added, it was his intention that all American service personnel should be removed from French soil. "Does that include," [Lyndon B] Johnson is said to have replied, "those buried in it?"

When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.

My father told me I had three career options. I could be a doctor, an engineer or a failure.

...any competent programmer, if given a chance to learn on the job, can become productive in a new software technology within a few weeks... [FYI I strongly disagree with the spirit of this quote, though the meaning is a bit truthful]

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Life is good, everyone just overreacts. Even me.