Chronosynclastic Infundibulum » funny

Truth Values… a play

Semantic Overload — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 20:43:08 +0000

I had an enjoyable evening yesterday all thanks to a fabulous performance by Gioia De Cari Truth Values: One Girl’s Romp Through M.I.T.’s Male Math Maze. It is an autobiographical account of Gioia’s years as a doctoral student in the Math department at MIT. The performance was a part of MIT’s 150th anniversary celebration.

Gioia De Cari in "Truth Values"

Gioia is a self described “recovering mathematician” who has a great gift for writing, acting, and singing. (Oh, did I happen to mention she is a soprano?) Her play was unexpectedly funny and enjoyable. When I first received an email about it, I expected a litany of complaints about how hard it is for a woman to make it in math and science (largely male-dominated fields). But it wasn’t and yet it was, at the same time. It is said, “there is no story so good that it can’t be spoiled in the telling”. With Gioia, she had a fantastic story and told in the best manner possible, as a monologue/mono-act by the author/actress herself. It was funny, and it was sad, and best of all, no matter who you are, you couldn’t help but empathize with her. It offered a scathing and insightful look at an academic (sub)culture that was born out of the incidental male-dominance in mathematics (and sciences) and continues to serve as a deterrent for women to succeed in these fields. But Gioia wasn’t complaining, she was just holding up a mirror; and to ensure that the walls of prejudice do not block the message, she gift wrapped it with some irrepressible humor which was a treat to watch.

Incidentally, Gioia wrote the play as a response to former Harvard President Lawrence Summers’ (yes, the same Larry Summers who Obama said “did a heckuva job” on the Daily Show) statement that women are less represented than men in the sciences because there is a ”greater variance in intelligence among men than women, and that this difference in variance might be intrinsic.” [source] Not surprisingly, that controversy contributed to his resignation the following year.

The performance schedule for Truth Values is available here. If you get a chance to attend it, then do not miss out! I promise you that you will not be disappointed.

I close this post with a video by Gioia discussing her play:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwt7KZHfKKc

It’s Inglis; English is so last year…

Semantic Overload — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:55:59 +0000

The post by Patrix on (an linking to a post on) Marathi English reminded me of a flyer that a good friend of mine (who now lives in Gurgaon, India) had emailed to me for my amusement. The text of her email said, “Folks, here in Haryana, we are accustomed to language of the finest quality. Here’s your first lesson in ‘Elegant English’… see attached.”

And here is the attached flyer [transcript follows]:

Transcript of the solicitation text:

Dear Sir, Madam
We understanding that your esteemed concern has a considerable requirement of travel service during your office/VIPS visit of Delhi and other places. We are pleased to introduce our selves to you as renowned tourist travel Agent. We have a fleet of brand new tourist/A/C cars and already handing Travel business of various reputed commercial houses and hotels from all over India. We are anxious to enlist your esteemed concern along honored [sic]¹ clients. We are sending our rates as under, which are sute [sic]² you would find as reasonable & acceptable.

So, did you figure out what exactly is being offered and how? :)

Footnotes:

^[1] I wonder if this was a typo or they are well-versed with American English.

^[2] I assume they meant “suit”.

Pat Robertson, Explained

Semantic Overload — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:13:26 +0000

Pat Robertson is no stranger to controversies, and uncomfortably so. He has been called everything from ‘loathsome’ to ‘philanthropist’. The latest in his never ending list of quivering diatribe is his assertion is the people of Haiti are ‘cursed’ because they made a ‘pact with the devil’. His previous such statements include concurring that 9/11 happened because of ACLU, the abortionists, the pagans, the feminists and the LGBT community, and that hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for America’s sins. Of course, The Onion has been generous enough to have its own additions it this!

One is forced to wonder: why is Pat Robertson saying such things knowing fully well that he is hurting people through his statements and hate? There has to be a logical explanation for it, and I think I have found one. My explanation is based on three important assumptions: (a) Pat Robertson believes that Jesus died for everyone’s sins, (b) he believes that the end times is near ^[1], and (c) he is a capitalist^[2].

Now, given that Pat Robertson is a capitalist, he must believe that the capitalist economic principles can be applied everything in life, including sin. So according to him, there must be some smallest unit of sin (arguably the smallest unit corresponds to the quality of sin in the ‘original sin‘), and also that Jesus’s death is worth only so many (finite) units of sin. Given that the end times are around the corner — being a shrewd capitalist one needs to get the best ‘bang for the buck’, so to speak — Pat Robertson probably wants to make Jesus’s death more worthwhile by sinning as much as he can so that the quota of sins for which Jesus died may be used up.

After all, every ‘true’ Christian’s goal is to make Jesus’s death worthwhile (in that Jesus’s death should not be in vain). So, it turns out that Pat Robertson is actually out sinning to make Jesus’s death count for something! Now he also knows that you sin then you will probably go to hell, and yet he pursues this path of validate Jesus’s crucifixion. Could there possibly be a greater sacrifice?

^[1]In fact, in the 70s Pat Robertson has predicted that the world would end in 1982!

^[2]This is more of an inference, than an assumption, based on the fact that Pat Robertson is a businessman, owns a broadcasting station, and sells books for money.

Pakistani office mate

Semantic Overload — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:09:42 +0000

So I have a new office mate, and she is Pakistani. Sometimes things just fall in place so beautifully that you cant resist but make up a story. This would be one of those times. We both have the same academic adviser, and she’s American. I also have a Russian in my PhD committee. You see where this is going? :-)
As luck would have it, we have three desks in the office. One for me, one for my office mate, and a third unassigned desk. Now this got my mind racing. This could be the perfect setting for a mini south Asian international politics! Ok, stay with me on this one.
What if I drew a line across the office and said, “Hey this side is mine, and is India. The other side is yours and is Pakistan.” Of course, each of our desks would be in our ‘country’, but there is the matter of the third desk. No that’s got to be Kashmir! Draw a line across the third desk and say, “This side is Pakistan controlled Kashmir, and my side is India controlled Kashmir.” Wait, this gets better.
Now that we have established our sovereign regions, we should have the right to defend it. If my office mate steps into ‘India’ without my permission, then it shall be considered as aggression, and act of war, and I will have the right to defend my ‘nation’. I will do so by attacking her with spitballs (kinda like this game).

My office mate does have the right to complain, and most likely the issue will be taken up with our adviser, the American, and of course she’ll side with my office mate (Since they are both members of NATO, and war on terror on what not). Since Pakistan got the F-16s from the US, my office mate will get better equipment for research. Now its my turn to go crying to someone else. And who would that be? The Russian in my committee of course! Russia and India go way back! He’ll back me up by giving me some of this equipment for my research.

This is almost too perfect :-) I think we are going to have loads of fun this year. Oh, and there’s research too… eh… kinda. ;-)