Closing Off Our Borders

In rather sad news last week, Borders Bookstore announced that it was filing for bankruptcy.  They plan to close 275 stores, including the only store close to our house.  In some ways, I suppose hipsters might be rejoicing that a national brand, mainstream bookstore is shuttering itself, except that this is just continuing a trend of bookstores closing.  For example, the main shopping mall in Fargo has been functionally illiterate since B Daltons closed down several years ago---it's depressing when a small bookstore can't survive among the rows of prefab clothing stores.

It turns out that the Borders closest to our house is one of those targeted for closing and they had a going-out-of-business sale this Saturday. All merchandise 20% off!  So we decided to head over there and just check it out---partly out of guilt, since we actually never really shopped there (we've become faithful library patrons), but also partly for the spectacle.

It was like watching vultures circling an animal in its final death throes.  I don't think that particular Borders had ever had so many people in there at the same time.  I wonder if we were close to violating the fire code.  People were everywhere, scavenging for books and calendars, CDs and DVDs, and the line to checkout stretched around the store and the wait was well over an hour.  I had no idea so many people liked to read, and to be honest, I'm not sure if they will actually read everything they stood in line to get.  The family behind us sent their kids scurrying to find any deal possible to stock up.

Was it the sale?  Maybe, but Borders had frequent sales of 20% or even more in the past and they never had a crowd like this.  In terms of savings, despite the 20% off sale, almost everything is still cheaper obtained online through Amazon.  If people were looking to save money, they were doing it the wrong way.

Maybe people were treating it kind of like a game, almost like a push-your-luck contest of brinksmanship.  Sure, if you come back next week the sale might be even bigger.  But this is the final sale of the store---this is it, there's no turning back.  Will your item still be there next week?  Can you afford to do that?  I think people can get tricked into thinking it's an all or nothing gamble, when in fact if you miss out on the sale next week, you haven't really lost anything.

On the other hand, physical stores do lend themselves to impulse purchases.  It's hard, at least for me, to make an impulse buy on Amazon.  You spend more time researching your different options, reading reviews, scouting for the best prices and fastest shipping, and by the end you better be pretty sure you want to spend money on it.  With a physical store, you just go in to do some window shopping and the next thing you know, you're walking out with half a dozen shopping bags.  You need it now and you can't wait for Amazon to ship it to you.  Mobile networking is changing this dynamic, since you can use your smart phone to look up cheaper prices elsewhere, but it still doesn't solve the impulsive "gotta get it now" feeling.

But I think it was also an insight into human psychology---I think that part of the appeal was coming to watch the spectacle of the downfall of the company, and perhaps not just watch but also participate in.  It's a once in a lifetime event.  When will Borders ever close another store in your city again?  You better not miss out! 

We weren't innocent either.  What did we do?  We ended up buying a pile of books to stock up for this year.

Coincidentally or not, this was also the same week that the New York times started publishing a bestseller list for e-books.  Certainly online stores are making things difficult for physical stores to compete in terms of sheer price, but I can only imagine what will happen when electronic books start taking off....

Artificial/Natural Intelligence

Since my wife and I are nerds, the cool thing this week wasn't Valentine's Day (although I did cook her a nice candlelit dinner), but the heavily hyped Jeopardy match pitting human heavyweights Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter against Watson, the computer system built by IBM.  After two games, Watson pretty much wiped the floor with the human competition, although the second day was much closer.  It was a little shocking how easily it could beat them, although to be fair both humans were also competing against each other so it may not be a true mano-a-mano contest.

Still, this is much more impressive than the Deep Blue victory over Kasparov.  Chess is amenable to brute force, algorithmic strategy.  Even Go, a game renowned for its intuition and positional play, is slowly succumbing to computational play.  In this case, it's impressive that Watson is able to parse and understand human language, particularly English with all of its idiosyncrasies and all of the puns and wordplay in Jeopardy.  You can start imagining a future where you can simply talk to a computer instead of interfacing with it through less than intuitive commands.

One nice thing about the episodes is that they showed the top three answers that Watson is considering, along with the confidence levels it has for each, which itself is pretty innovative.  It's a nice insight into how Watson "thinks" about the answers.  I'm also impressed that IBM still has such a strong research division and enough funding and management support to pursue this types of projects.  It's only a company that believes in research that can really kick start innovation like this.

On the other hand, I think claims about artificial intelligence and worries about Skynet are overblown---Watson is essentially a sophisticated database lookup.  I just don't see real "intelligence" in computers yet.  I've always thought predictions of artificial intelligence are exaggerated.  It's similar to claims about nanotechnology.  I've started doing some more work in the nanotechnology field, so I've started seeing some of the actual science close up.  Although I'm not a computer scientist, I am a chemist and I find that the people making the most predictions about nanotechnology tend to not be chemists.  People like Ray Kurzweil are notorious for this, with claims of the technological singularity approaching or dreams of space elevators.  Having worked with nanotubes and nanoparticles, there is no way we're making a space elevator any time during our lifetime.  I also have similar reservations about true artificial intelligence or predictions of uploading our consciousness to the internet.  Despite all of the huge scientific leaps we've covered, I think people just don't realize just how crude our tools still are.

In any case, Watson isn't completely omniscient.  At the end of the first game, the Final Jeopardy category was US cities.  Watson answered "Toronto".  I can imagine everyone at IBM smacking their heads at that moment.

Anyway, some cool links:

You can play a simulated game of Jeopardy youself at the New York Times.  I beat Watson 40-10!

You can also watch an episode of Nova that gives a behind-the-scenes look at Watson.

Food: Valentine's Day Dinner

I guess that we don't go overboard celebrating Valentine's Day.  In fact, my wife vehemently forbid me from buying her any flowers, candy, jewelry, or cards.  Luckily for me, she just prefers a good meal, although she does have some high standards.  So I came home early to make her a nice candlelit meal---her favorite spicy Italian sausage soup with a homemade loaf of bread, steamed crab legs, and the perfect steak.

Public/Private Speaking

We had a global scientific meeting at work last week and I was lucky enough to have been selected to give one of the scientific presentations.  It was a good opportunity to get up on stage in front of several hundred fellow scientists and present some of the research that I've been involved in.

I'm always a little surprised at how much some people fear public speaking.  There's the old Seinfeld quip: “According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death.  Death is number two.  Does that sound right?  This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”

I guess I'm the opposite of most people.  I feel more comfortable speaking or presenting in front of large groups.  A lot of this stems from my experiences in high school.  I was part of the speech and debate team which helped train me to speak in public.  In debate, you have to prepare and give a speech arguing against your opponents with only a very short amount of time.  One of the most rigorous competitions was Extemporaneous Speaking, where you have to prepare a short timed speech after being given a topic only thirty minutes advance.  This really forces you to minimize the two biggest speech problems---you have to be clear and fluid in our language as you don't have time for umms and errs.  You also don't have time to fully memorize a prepared speech (which in my opinion is the worst type of public speaking as it sounds robotic and unnatural).

Another aspect is that giving a speech in front of a large audience almost feels like a performance to me.  I was a first chair violinist in our school symphony, so I became used to performing in front of large audiences.  I think that a lot of this comes from the fact that I enjoyed playing the violin---when you enjoy performing and speaking, then I think you naturally become less nervous.

As a result of that experience, I don't get too nervous speaking in public.  I think that I do give a pretty good speech.  That's not to say that I'm a perfect speaker---due to my debate training, I sometimes talk to fast (gotta cram all those points in time!) and I have been told that I do tend to over-gesticulate with my hands.  Still, after my presentation, I was mixing with the crowd and met with a person who was a member of local Toastmasters organization.  He complimented me on my presentation and speaking skills and even thought that my hand gestures were good, so I felt validated.  However, he did mention that I midway through my presentation, I apparently unconsciously started doing a slight kick back and forth with my foot.  I remember this and it was probably just me getting into a rhythm, showing how I treated this more like a performance.

All of this is not to brag and say that I'm better than other people---in fact, probably completely opposite to most people, I feel more comfortable talking to larger groups rather than smaller ones.  Deep down, I am clearly on the introvert side of the scale and I do think that I am inherently shy.  With larger groups, it becomes easy for the audience to just become an anonymous wall, but with smaller groups it's harder to hide and become impersonal.  I don't think I will ever be the social butterfly or the schmoozer, although arguably those skills are more important than scientific skills for long term success---history is littered with examples of brilliant but isolated scientists who were never able to achieve their true potential.  All of the standard cliches about networking are all true.  It doesn't matter how smart you are if no one knows who you are.  And if you don't know anyone.

As a tangent, this is a problem that I've seen with many professors in academia.  Many of them have a strictly scientific background.  The problem is that managing a research group or a class requires strong management and communication skills---in a word, strong business skills.  I have worked with many professors who had extremely poor social and management skills and it can have dramatic consequences in group happiness and success.  One of the things that I appreciate from my work is the opportunity to take extracurricular training classes in leadership, communication, and project management.  There is a real emphasis on developing both your scientific talent as well as your management talent, and in fact there are two equivalent tracks for promotion with a managerial and scientific ladder.  After attending some of these leadership training classes, I asked the speaker if any professors ever attended their classes---not surprisingly, very few did.

My current position requires extensive collaboration and teamwork.  You have to build your network to advance, so I've been working on improving those types of personal skills, but it is an area that I have to focus on developing.  It's too bad that there was no high school club for this, although in hindsight I suppose all of high school was training for this...

Food: The Perfect Steak

I pride myself on my steaks and I've slowly been refining my steak technique to get even better.  Early on, I used to be a big grill advocate, but I've since learned to love the cast iron skillet.  For one thing, it's available year round and you don't have to worry about preparing the charcoal on the grill (while gas works, I'm not sure it really gets hot enough to get a good sear).  You can really heat cast iron amazingly hot and it has a high heat capacity, so it doesn't lose that heat once you put the meat on.  It's a direct heat contact, so you get a really nice sear on the meat without worrying about flare-ups, and you can then finish it in the oven under the broiler.

This time, we decided to try out a new technique, following this technique.  It still uses cast iron to sear the meat initially, but you then add garlic and loads of butter to the mix.  The butter browns almost immediately, giving a nutty flavor.  While the steak is searing, you then slightly tilt the pan and continuously baste the melted butter over the steak, letting it run down.  What happens is that the milk solids in the butter (the tasty part) stick to the meat, aiding the Maillard reaction and forming a nice, thick brown crust.  The rest of the liquid fat actually streams off the steak, so the result is not as horrifyingly fatty as you would think.  You can then finish the steak in an oven at 350 degrees to get the desired degree of done-ness.  

We tried this on a ribeye (really, the only kind of steak) and it turned out pretty good!  The butter solids gave a nice flavor to the meat.  I think I left the steak in the oven a tad too long, so it came out more medium than medium-rare.  But it was quite tasty and I think the experiment was a success.  There is actually a school of thought that advocates low heat with butter to prepare your steaks with even better, more robust flavor without the charred burnt parts.  I'm going to have to try that next.

I'm pretty much a cast iron convert now.  The great thing is that anyone can easily pick up a cast iron skillet for cheap and make some great steaks.  And, to be honest, I think the results are much better than using a grill.  We haven't rolled out the grill in quite a while.  Mmmm...I'm getting hungry again...

Searing a ribeye (the only steak!) seasoned with salt, pepper, and thyme

Adding butter and garlic cloves to the mix.  The steak was basted with the butter until a nice brown crust formed.  This was finished in the oven at 350 degrees for several minutes.

The finished product having a well-deserved rest

The final product, a little over-done, but still tasty!

Singing and Spelling

Last week we had a rare night out and attended a production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Paper Mill Playhouse.  We actually used a Groupon to get a good deal on tickets and we thought it would be a nice way to feel cultured.  Spelling bees have been somewhat fascinating for us and we found the documentary Spellbound to be equally dramatic and hilarious, so we had high hopes for this.

The Paper Mill Playhouse itself was a cute little place.  There are signs for it on the interstate, so we've always been curious about it.  It's apparently the state theater of New Jersey, which may not sound like much especially with New York City so close, but it had a cozy, intimate feel.  The The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a relatively short, one act musical, although they did include a short intermission.  One of the gimmicks is that for the first part of the production, select audience members are called up to actually participate in the spelling contest.  The cast uses this as an opportunity for some impromptu jokes, making up fictitious biographies of the new contestants and selecting outrageous words.  In fact, the entire first half was sharp comedy as the other contestant cast members are introduced, each with their weird little quirks and personality disorders.

However, the show began to fall a little flat after the good start.  After the intermission, the audience contestants had all been booted and the mood shifted from the comical to the dramatic.  I'm not sure the transition was handled that well---since the show is relatively short and there are quite a few contestants, you  never really get enough time to fully empathize with the troubles and hardships hiding behind each little quirk.  I think they were trying to split the difference, but difference in tone was a little jarring and the second half lacked the impact it deserved.  The moral of the story, as the ex-convict doing his community service as a "comfort counseler"  tries to tell the kids, there are more important things than spelling.

Still, it was a nice show and it was good to get out of the house and pretend to be real adults for once.  This production in particular was unique since one of the actresses is physically disabled and confined to a wheelchair.  The choreography had to be rewritten to accommodate her, but it was very smoothly done and we didn't even realize that her disability was not an aspect of the original character.  In fact, this made her story a little more poignant.

My wife is not the biggest fan of musicals, but I think we both enjoyed it.  The next production at the Paper Mill is A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which is a classic that I loved as a Classics major (no pun intended).  I'll have to convince her to see it...

The cast at the Paper Mill Playhouse

Photography: Ice Days

We got hit with the remnants of the Snowpocalypse that hit the Midwest this week.  However, instead of blanketing us with snow, the temperatures had risen enough that we got coated with ice.  The forecast predicted the risk of severe to catastrophic ice overnight, with the risk of trees and powerlines falling over from the weight of the ice.

In the end, though, it didn't turn out to be that bad, and definitely not catastrophic.  In the early morning, everything was enrobed in a sheath of ice.  However, by mid-morning, the temperature was almost in the 40s (a heat wave!) and most of the ice had already melted away.  I had to drive down to Pennsylvania for a business meeting and it wasn't too bad at all.  In fact, driving was better than most days since most people were off the road.  The biggest danger was from ice falling from tree branches overhead and from lazy people who didn't scrape all the ice off their car---flying down the highway, big sheets of ice would fly off the roof of their car, so you had to keep a pretty safe distance.

We're not out of the woods yet.  We're supposed to get hit with some more nasty weather this weekend and again the middle of next week.  Apparently Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow on Groundhog's Day, so spring is near, although I'm a little skeptical.  This winter feels more like the other Groundhog's Day to me...