![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.conversiondiary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/7_quick_takes_sm1.jpg\" "\\"7_quick_takes_sm\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u2014 1 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n Yesterday, the big controversy on the blog was Tau Day, not the Supreme Court ruling. But I\u2019d be lying if I didn\u2019t admit I spent the day glued to SCOTUSblog<\/a>, and, when I got home, I had to celebrate. So I made broccoli<\/em> parmesan fritters<\/a>, using the recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Fellow Patheos blogger Eve recently posted her own variation<\/a> on this recipe, but I kept it simple (except for doubling the garlic).<\/p>\n This was my second cooking project for the week, as I had my first Spawn of Sourdough Starter in the form of small sourdough pretzels<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/a>\u2014 2 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n But that wasn\u2019t the only fun legal story this week! \u00a0Law and the Multiverse<\/a> (a blog that analyzes law through the lens of comic books and superhero movies) got military lawyers to weigh in on whether a certain plot development near the end of Avengers<\/em> is a war crime, and how much license a soldier has to follow her conscience and shoot down a fellow soldier engaged in an ambiguously illegal act.<\/p>\n <\/a>\u2014 3 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s practically a crime that The New Yorker<\/em>\u2018s<\/em> article on the University of Chicago\u00a0Scavenger\u00a0Hunt<\/a> is restricted to subscribers. \u00a0But I guess it\u2019s kind of appropriate that after you read this excerpt, you\u2019ll be compelled to quest for a copy online?<\/p>\n Christopher Straus, University of Chicago class of \u201988, created the school\u2019s first scavenger hunt, in 1987, envisioning a modest diversion, limited to his dorm, whose purpose was to instill a sense of camaraderie. These days, many of the items on that first list seem like easy pickings\u2014a hula hoop (10 points), a training bra (25 points), a painting on velvet (20 points). Each year, the Hunt begins long before its official start date. \u201cOne kid on our team has been growing his beard for weeks in case there was a beard-related item,\u201d said Erin Simpson, a member of the MacPierce team\u2014two dorms playing together. This year\u2019s list, the longest in the twenty-six-year history of the Hunt, consisted of three hundred and fifty-one items. It filled nineteen pages and contained such challenges as: Build a ten-foot bridge across Botany Pond using nothing but balsa wood and glue (60 points). Revamp a Xerox machine for office warfare (12 points). Secure a meeting with the mayor of Chicago (25 points). Produce a scale model of the Great Lakes out of fire (15 points).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/a>\u2014 4 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n This week I got CPR certified (the heel of my hand is still sore from practice!), and that all the excuse I need to repose this hilarious British primer on the technique.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ILxjxfB4zNk<\/a>\n <\/a>\u2014 5 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n Now I know how to deal with heart attacks, but I am no match for the spectre of Death in his more dapper guises, as in these anti-tippling PSAs from the early 1900s (via io9<\/a>).<\/p>\n <\/a>\u2014 6 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n Turns out there were more interesting Turing posts than I linked on his birthday<\/a>:<\/p>\n 11<\/strong> \u2013 Gizmodo has a first person account of judging a conventional Turing Test<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhat are your favourite Sci Fi movies?\u201d \u201cI like Star Wars and The Matrix,\u201d comes the typed reply.<\/p>\n \u201cCan we agree that the prequels sucked?\u201d I continue. \u201cAbsolutely! Lucas should be shot!\u201d<\/p>\n That settled it \u2013 only a flesh-and-blood movie buff could be so enraged by The Phantom Menace.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 10<\/strong> \u2013 Bruce Sterling gave a speech on Turing (Wired has the transcript)<\/a><\/p>\n In the original Turing imitation game, you\u2019ve got three entities: a judge, a woman, and a machine pretending to be a woman. Alan Turing says he can\u2019t answer the question \u201ccan machines think\u201d because he doesn\u2019t want to waste time with the popular definitions of \u201cmachinery\u201d and \u201cthinking.\u201d He wants a simpler, more rigorous test that\u2019s more objective and reliable. So what he actually comes up with is a test for a machine with a woman\u2019s sensibility\u2026<\/p>\n I really wish this aspect of Turing\u2019s puzzle had been relentlessly played up from the very beginning. It\u2019s just like Turing says: it\u2019s useless to ask the indefinite question \u201ccan a machine think.\u201d Why not ask the specific and weird question, \u201ccan a computational system be a woman?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 01<\/strong> \u2013 Charles Q Choi on modern day implementations of the Turing Test (we got a shout-out)<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/a>\u2014 7 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n Finally: omg revolving crossbow!!!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n