Text Editors
In case you didn’t notice, it’s a graph on a graph. Distances may vary from reality as the graph had  to be planar.

The Catch-22 of Academic Ecosystems
Either : You have a horrible boss, who doesn’t like you and whom you don’t like, and thus he won’t give you a recommendation to apply elsewhere. You spend years fruitlessly, unhappily, and can’t get away either. Or : You have a lovely boss, whom you like, and who likes you. He wants you to stay with him for another project, but he’s such a nice guy he’s even willing to write you a good reco. just because he’s willing to take a hit to advance your career. A true mentor. And this makes him so much of a Jesus-Christ figure that you don’t feel like applying anyway, and you’d rather stay with him, rather for

SSH

Old Erasers

Cities as Transient Structures
I just saw a TED talk by Paul Romer, who spoke about what he called ‘charter cities’. His entire talk had this vague neo-con subtext, and it was all about ‘us’ bringing things to ‘them’. He has many good points, but I think most of them will not see the light of reality because of the evil capitalist world we live in. But he did make several interesting points about cities. Here’s a brief, transformed summary : In complex systems like nations, cities are nuclei of rapid change. And villages and de-centralised habitations have a lot of inertia, and are extremely resistant to change. He advocates moving everyone from the