deletia (tm): it's always about me.

I'm pretty smart, but sometimes I think I'm the wrong kind of smart. Further evidence in the "Jocelyn is the wrong kind of smart" column: I did this Monty Hall problem game a bunch of times, I read the explanation, and I don't get it. At all. It seems like insane troll logic. Sometimes I get the feeling that people who are good at science and math are just messing with me, as in, "Today let's do a feature in the New York Times that will emphasize Jocelyn's lack of understanding! Today let's invent something called symbolic logic and then make her take a class on it so she can get her BA!"

Bastards.

...And world peace

I'm not one to make fun of people for being dumb, but... oh wait. Yes, I totally am. So on that note, Miss South Carolina suggests that Americans need more maps. At least I think that's what she's saying.

It's for your own good.

Anna Quindlen writes in Newsweek: How much jail time for women who have abortions? Quindlen raises an interesting point, that even the most adamant pro-lifers (or abortion-should-be-illegalers) have trouble advocating jail time for women who've had abortions (if abortion were illegal).

"Is the message that women are not to be held responsible for their actions? Or is it merely that those writing the laws understand that if women were going to jail, the vast majority of Americans would violently object? Watch the demonstrators in Libertyville try to worm their way out of the hypocrisy: It's murder, but she'll get her punishment from God. It's murder, but it depends on her state of mind. It's murder, but the penalty should be ... counseling?"

An interesting article about human brains and computing, from Wired: For Certain Tasks, the Cortex Still Beats the CPU. It's about Luis von Ahn, the guy who invented the captcha, among other things. One of the developments mentioned in the article is this esp game, which (aside from being fun) uses human intelligence to label images on the web. I played it for awhile, but I kept getting frustrated with the people I was playing with, as in, are they stupid? Are they some kind of tagging moron? Now that I am almost graduated from library school, I have trouble giving other people the emotional support and space needed to assign quality metadata.

Promiscuous girl...

metaspy: refreshes every 15 seconds with searches being performed by other internet users. Fewer people than I expected are searching for porn. More are searching for casinos, tennessee real estate, and "medieval times."

Someone who goes not understand how to use quotation marks in searches (aka phrase searching) is also searching for something like "great travel deals www.cheaptravel.com". Hmm. I wonder if any sites contain that exact text. It seems unlikely, does it not? Moron.

In my web design for usability class today we were debating whether it is always the web designer's obligation to build sites that meet users' needs and expectations to the greatest degree possible. I mean, there are a lot of morons around. I fear living in a world that has to be idiot-proofed because 5% of the population can't figure out how to use travel mugs (warning: contents may be hot), pedestrian crosswalks, and snack food packaging (To open: tear open). I am not calling for the return of eugenics or anything, but if these people can't figure life out, maybe it's for the best. I value the viability of the gene pool.

On another note, I am so crushing on the new Nelly Furtado album right now. Lame? Maybe. I care not. As I type this, I am doing a little bum-dance in my chair. Inspired by her, I am trying to be a "maneater," except other than wearing high heels I am not sure what that involves. I would hazard that blogging probably has nothing to do with it.

A very interesting article from New York Magazine about kids and praise

How Not To Talk To Your Kids. This article describes the research of psychologist Carol Dweck, who suggests that emphasizing children's intelligence over other qualities may actually hinder their learning.

It didn't cross my mind until half-way through the article, but as a former Smart Kid, I was paralyzed by the experience of trying something new and failing at it. There are all kinds of things that normal people learn to do--skate, drive, play video games--that I have never learned because I tried them, didn't take to them immediately, and gave up on them. I wonder now if being constantly told what a bright kid I was had something to do with it--you forget that a big part of getting better at things is just trying, failing, and still working at it.

The question, I guess, is whether education and parenting can survive what could be perceived as an attack on the cult of self-esteem.

Note to self: when I have kids of my own, emphasize in this order (a) physical beauty ("Try to lose some weight so boys will like you more") (b) proficiency at sports ("remember, you're not going to have friends unless you know how to play hockey") (c) obedience ("good boy, you did exactly as I said in a timely fashion") (d) intelligence ("Well, I guess being book-smart could have advantages... maybe.")