Synaptic Sugar

And so it begins. New job, new city, new everything, now very very soon. It’s the result of quite some time spent in preparations, and that partly explains the lack of posts here in recent times. A whole new world opens now, and I believe in cases like this it’s customary to do the following:

• thank the people who made this possible: check;
• toast to the future: check;
• post about the news: in progress.

I’m aware I’m not disclosing many details, but that is part of my habit. I hope to return to this blog more often in the near future though, to get closer to the frequency and variety of posts that it had before, and maybe soon offer a broader vision of what’s going on. Come visit me again and maybe we can chat over some coffee.

Though posts have become scarce around here lately, there’s always time for my roughly bi-seasonal column of reading recommendations. On this occasion I will expose what I’m currently reading or planning on reading this Summer; either way, the quality of the following books is apparent even before getting any close to the final chapters. Without further ado:

Death by black hole and other cosmic quandaries, by Neil deGrasse Tyson, 384 pages, published by W. W. Norton - ISBN-13: 978-0-393-06224-3 - this book is a collection of essays on the cosmos written by an astrophysicist who has the gift of being able to render complex concepts, such as the inner workings of black holes (or what is currently understood about them) or the Doppler effect, very clear without trivializing them in the process. And, as the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, he also knows what he’s talking about. I find his presentations always enlightening and at the same time very user-friendly.

3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development, by Fletcher Dunn and Ian Parberry, 476 pages, published by Wordware Publishing - ISBN-13: 978-1-55622-911-4 - for some reason I did not have a specific, introductory book on 3D mathematics, and although I have managed to live without one by studying information in other books and/or the Net, I’ve been wanting for some time to find all such information neatly collected in one spot. This book may be what I was looking for, as it spans from the basics of coordinate systems up to and including space partitioning techniques, and contrary to similar books on 3D math it explains the concepts rather than just presenting results. Moreover it intermixes formulas, figures and code samples (rather than relegating code to a CD for example) in a way that I find useful for keeping the focus on the matter that is being read at any given time.

More Effective C++: 35 New Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs, by Scott Meyers, 336 pages, published by Addison-Wesley Professional - ISBN-13: 978-0-201-63371-9 - there is not much to say about this book than is not already known. If you really want to learn C++ (much beyond simply syntax), and you’ve liked the previous book by Meyers on the subject (”Effective C++: 55 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs” - wait, if you really want to learn C++, then you must have read that one and loved it by now), then this is for you, too. Covering more advanced techniques than the first in the series, it will be a useful addition to your library.

It’s hot outside, stay home and read a book. Unless it’s Winter where you live, in that case you can start over with my wintry recommendations ("Books for the Fall of Winter").

This post and additional consideration are brought to you by the number 1.

Actress Isabella Rossellini recently wrote, directed and starred in a number of shorts for Sundance Channel describing mating processes in insects and various invertebrates. The series is called “Green Porno”; here’s a trailer. On first impression one might comment with “WTF?”, but if one has the patience to watch the trailer multiple times, his or her opinion is likely to change to “Huh?”.

We went to our usual Target store today and bought, among other things, a bottle of margarita lite mix that appears to be part of a new Target designer collection called “Whim by Cynthia Rowley” (label pictured). It further appears that Ms. Cynthia Rowley, fashion designer defined on the Target website as a “busy mom”, has placed her name on a variety of summer-inspired products such as picnicware, partyware and beachware, that will be available for a limited time only. All good so far; what we didn’t notice, when we first picked the bottle up, was the little warning stamped on the lower left corner of the label. If you can’t make it out in the picture to the left, here’s a magnified version that should help.

“WARNING: This product contains bromate, known to the state of California to cause cancer.” Ahhh, sounds delicious, doesn’t it? Must be a boon to sales and a real killer at parties (or a few years after drinking it at those parties). First of all let me say I’m thankful for Californian laws that force the disclosure of such “details” (hence the warning), or I doubt we would even know at this point. A quick search on Wikipedia shows that a bromate is, in fact, a chemical compound that is a suspected carcinogen whose mere presence induced Coca Cola to recall its Dasani water products from the UK in 2004, and further pushed the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to discard 600 million gallons of water from the Silver Lake and Elysian reservoirs between 2007 and 2008.

I don’t know if Ms. Rowley was aware of the issue before she decided to endorse these products, but I don’t really care; I’m sure, on the other hand, that Target must be quite aware of this, as they’ve happily put their brand on this new collection and distribute it on their own (as the label clearly specifies). This strikes me as odd in itself, as I was under the impression that Target products were at least a little better than this; it also makes me wonder how many other food products, whether in this collection or not, contain similar tasty treats. Either way, Target generally allows customers 90 days to return products they’re dissatisfied with, and it definitely won’t take us that long to return this party margarita mix. Cancer may be fashionable, but over here we’re simple people, nostalgic and attached to long-time classics such as trying to stay alive and healthy.

Edited on May 26 at 3:50 PM to add: After we e-mailed Target about our dissatisfaction with the product, they promptly apologized and sent us two $3.00 coupons as a reimbursement. While that’s appreciated, it is as of yet unclear whether they’re going to re-examine the product in question or not.