FLW Hotel

Early morning view from a room at FLW's Price Tower. The copper sheeting on the outside prevented us from picking up free WiFi.

Momo!

Saw this at Surfas yesterday.

Fruit Smack

If you ask me, "Fruit Smack" is a better name than "Kool Aid".

My Dad and I saw this at the Hastings Museum earlier this summer.

Los Angeles (Summer 2010)

Here are some of the highlights from my summer in LA. I've left out the repeat offenders, such as Last Remaining Seats and the Neon Cruise, as well as the duds.

Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook

'Big Lebowski' outside at Exposition Park with the Dude

Dear John's

Film Noir at the Academy

Gjelina

Grand Moving Mirror of California

Great Wall of Los Angeles

Hog Dog Parties

Hotel Erwin Rooftop

LAPD Museum

LA-themed Movie Nights

Lubitsch at LACMA

Lucha VaVoom

Mapo

Newport Tan Cang

Norton Sales

Paradigm Shift Party

'Pee Wee's Big Adventure' at the Orpheum with Paul Reubens

Samson Tire Works

Sorcerer's Apprentice Premier

Statue of Liberty of Los Angeles

Vin Loi Tofu

'Withnail and I' at the Silent Cinema with Zach Galifianakis

Hot Dog Shack Redux

I re-opened my hot dog shack again this summer. It's been dormant for ten years. Here are the hot dog recipes I made for peeps:

1. El Capitan Crunch: with spicy mustard (from Philippe's), pineapple salsa, and crushed potato chips.

2. The Kim Jong-il: with sweet German mustard, cabbage kimchi, and Sriracha sauce.

3. The Buffalo Dog: Buffalo wings hot sauce, crumbled blue cheese, and chopped celery.

4. The Nutty Professor: Hoisan sauce, peanuts, and steamed spinach.

5. The Currywurst: curry ketchup and curry powder.

6. Mac & Please: mac & cheese, Kraft EZ cheddar, and Sriracha sauce.

7. Chicago Style.

8. Lincoln Log: cream cheese, sauerkraut, and spicy brown mustard.

9. The Hot Chiuaua: black beans, cotija cheese, pico de gayo, and green hot sauce.

Chickenboy

This is my new favorite t-shirt.

Quick Summary of Problems for Spectrum Inversion Thought Experiments

For spectrum inversion thought experiments to be philosophically interesting, the variations in color experience that they wonder about have to be behaviorally indetectable. Here's a quick summary of some of the asymmetries of color space that would make variation detectable:

1. The most saturated yellows are lighter than the most saturated reds and blues.
2. There are more distinguishable hues between blue and red than there are between yellow and green.
3. Dark yellow is a qualitatively different color than yellow (it appears brown), whereas dark blue is still blue.
4. Desaturated bluish-red is a qualitatively different color than saturated bluish-red (it appears pink), whereas desaturated greenish-yellow is qualitatively similar to saturated greenish-yellow.

(All of these asymmetries are taken from Alex Byrne's excellent Stanford Encyclopedia article on the topic. I'm merely summarizing them for your convenience.)

Jimmie Rodgers' Influence in East Africa

From Nolan Porterfield's Jimmie Rodgers: The Life and Times of America's Blue Yodeler (p. 200).

Here's what Chemirocha sounds like.