recursion

I subscribe to Salon Premium. Salon probably used to be better, but I think it's still worth it to support independent journalism, especially since you also get free magazine subscriptions (I get Mother Jones and Utne Reader because of Salon). It's $30 a year, but the price is going up at the end of the month. If you're interested in getting Salon, now's the time, because current subscribers won't ever have to pay increased prices.

I don't get anything for this, it's just a public service annoucement.

Robotic Nation. I saw this article about robots taking over half the jobs in America on Slashdot today (there are some good comments...I love the guy who quotes Russel and Norvig).

I thought the article was ridiculous. Not because I think robots won't take over US jobs (how should I know?), but because of the fundamental mistakes that the author makes.

1. Equates processor speed with intelligence. These are not related. Today's processors are really fast, but they're no smarter than the 4004. The programs we run on them have not made any fundamental breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.
2. Assumes Moore's Law will continue to hold true, without any evidence.
3. Worst of all, he thinks that humaniod robots will be the most useful. I strongly disagree. For controlling any sort of machine, a computer with sensors (sonar, radar, laser rangefinders, and computer vision) would be far more effective than a humanoid robot. For flipping burgers, a self contained food-unit would probably be easier to design and program than programming a humaniod robot to operate machinery.

Last weekend, Jenny and I went on an overnight canoe trip down the St. Croix river through Wild River Outfitters. It was a lot of fun. My friend Louis has pictures of the trip and Ry4an has GPS output of the route we took.

I didn't bring a camera or a GPS, so I'll just have to write about it. The 7 of us (me, Jenny, Ry4an, Cari, Natz, Letta, and Louis) left from the boat launch at about noon on Saturday and canoed about 15 miles downstream. It rained a little, but while miserable, didn't last long.

Oh man, were my arms sore. I think they've finally gone back to normal 5 days later.

We found a camp site after passing a couple occupied ones. It later turned out to be apparently the crapiest one on the whole river: small, bug infested (I got bites in places I don't really want to talk about), with no easy way to get the canoes out of the water. There was even a yellowjacket nest under the firepit.

It was really hot, but the bugs were unbearable, so we started a fire. While we were in the brush and woods surrounding the campsite looking for wood, I found a bunch of potatoes. I quickly became obsessed with the potatoes -- how often do you find potatoes sitting in the woods? -- and decided to eat them. Weird as it may seem, but after a long day of paddling, those potatoes turned out really tasty with just a little salt and pepper.

The bugs were so bad and we were so tired that nobody was really in the mood to sit around the campfire. We pretty much just went to bed.

The next day, everyone (except Natz and Letta, who had an air mattress) was incredibly sore. And the bugs were still there. Letta took charge by gathering wood to get a fire going. I thought it was silly to start a fire when we were only going to be a the campsite for a few more hours, but the smoke really did help with the bugs!

After breakfast, we packed up and headed out. Paddling was easier the second day, because we'd lost a lot of weight in water, ice, beer, and food. Still, we kept getting stuck on rocks. Nobody tipped over, but there were a few close calls.

I got to try out the kyack the second day. It's fun (you look and feel like a water bug), but the upper arm workout is pretty intense. Its cool being able to go places no canoe can because you're so much higher in the water.

I think the coolest part of the trip was near the end, when we stopped at the sandstone cliffs. There was a sidechannel that was shaded and perfect for splashing about in. When we climbed up the cliff (there's a staircase, we didn't scale it!) there was a family up there...and no one else was on the river. I asked them, "How did you get up here?" Turns out there's a parking lot not 75 yards away from the cliff!

We also learned some valuable lessons:

1. 15 miles is too long if you want to relax that evening
2. kyacks are fun
3. no amount of bug spray is too much
4. leave some dry clothes in the car
5. bring more long-sleved shirts

I think next time we do it, we'll canoe (or kyack) the part of the river we took the second day and stay overnight at one of the nice, large campsites we found.