Archive for January, 2006

DeYoung Museum - SF

Tuesday, January 31st, 2006

Deyoung_040The museum recently reopened after a complete reconstruction.  It’s sheathed in copper.  The 9 story tower has excellent views of much of the city.  Works in the American Art wing Deyoung_051_1are particularly good.  Only a few days left for the impressive Hatshetsut exhibit.

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Mysterious Skin (2004)

Thursday, January 26th, 2006

Gordon-Levitt gives an inspired performance as the main character Neil who is a rent boy, slacker, heart-breaker, and sort-of twink — the guy is so thin.

King Kong (2005)

Sunday, January 8th, 2006

Visually amazing, though the story is a bit too simple to stress the brain any significant amount.

“Prisoner’s Dilemma” by William Poundstone

Friday, January 6th, 2006

Extremely interesting book about Game Theory.  Explains very clearly what the Prisoner’s Dilemma, Volunteer’s dilemma, and other ‘games’ are.  It even sheds light on the psychology of politics in terms of those who tend to cooperate (liberals) versus those who tend to defect (conservatives).  Aside from psychology and politics, it even has implications to biology.  It even describes how "tit-for-tat" is very commonly used and stable way to maximize cooperative returns, and how "discriminatory-tit-for-tat" hurts a minority group.  Also, discusses the conundrum of common good and one way of escaping dilemma’s is never to ‘defect’ and to remind oneself: "what if everyone did that?"

Rumor has it (2005)

Friday, January 6th, 2006

The recent Jennifer Aniston film isn’t a complete flop.  Some funny parts.  The blond guy from ‘Latter Days’ has a small role.  Mark Ruffalo is surprisingly good.