Author Archive: Paul Epps

Politicians Making Things Happen

by Paul Epps on 6 Nov 2012

Now, if we want people to do certain things and if we are indifferent as to why they do them, then no affective appeals need be excluded. Some political candidates want us to vote for them regardless of our reasons for doing so. Therefore, if we hate the rich, they will snarl at the rich for us; if we dislike strikers, they will snarl at the strikers; if we like clambakes, they will throw clambakes; if the majority of us like hillbilly music, they may say nothing about the problems of government, but travel among their constituencies with hillbilly bands. — S.I. Hayakawa, Language in Thought and Action Read more →

Mencken on Politicians

by Paul Epps on 5 Nov 2012

The one aim of all such persons is to butter their own parsnips. They have no concept of the public good that can be differentiated from their concept of their own good. They get into office by making all sorts of fantastic promises, few of which they ever try to keep, and they maintain themselves there by fooling the people further. They are supported in their business by the factitious importance which goes with high public position. The great majority of folk are far too stupid to see through a politician’s tinsel. Because he is talked of in the newspapers all the time, and applauded when he appears in public, they mistake him for a really eminent man. But he is seldom anything of the sort. — H.L. Mencken Read more →

Summary of Campaign Spending on California Ballot Propositions

by Paul Epps on 4 Nov 2012

I found this table from Ballotpedia rather interesting. It shows how much money has been donated to each side of the California ballot propositions. Proposition Donations in favor Donations against Proposition 30 $67,100,000 $53,400,000 Proposition 31 $4,400,000 $573,700 Proposition 32 $60,500,000 $73,300,000 Proposition 33 $17,100,000 $275,700 Proposition 34 $7,400,000 $391,900 Proposition 35 $3,700,000 $0 Proposition 36 $2,700,000 $119,900 Proposition 37 $8,700,000 $45,600,000 Proposition 38 $47,800,000 $42,300 Proposition 39 $31,400,000 $45,000 Proposition 40 $601,100 $2,300,000 Read more →

Worst Case Scenarios on Demand

by Paul Epps on 3 Nov 2012

If you’re in the market for a worst case scenario, you need to talk to my wife . . . I got an Amazon Local deal via email — a one-hour horseback riding lesson for $35. “Do you want to take a horseback riding lesson?” I asked her. “No,” she said. “It’s dangerous. I’m not going to do it and you’re not going to do it. Remember that guy . . . what’s his name? Christopher Reeve.” Read more →

EppsNet Restaurant Reviews: Gulliver’s

by Paul Epps on 3 Nov 2012

The smoked salmon appetizer was superb, as was the prime rib entree. Attentive service is provided by busty waitresses in the Brobdingnagian tradition. “Did you notice all the waitresses had big tits?” my wife asked. Highly recommended! Read more →

At the Dentist

by Paul Epps on 30 Oct 2012

Favorite Poem of the Week

by Paul Epps on 28 Oct 2012

My favorite poem of the week — again from Modern & Contemporary American Poetry — was “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” by Bernadette Mayer, especially the final image of the stressed-out new mother reading The Wild Boy of Aveyron, about a feral child raised by wolves. Read more →

Overheard

by Paul Epps on 27 Oct 2012

“We’ve got to stop kicking ourselves in the foot.” Read more →

Visualizing Social Networks

by Paul Epps on 27 Oct 2012

I’m taking a Social Network Analysis class on Coursera. These weren’t assignments for the class (well, the Facebook one sort of was), just some experiments I wanted to share. Facebook You can use netvizz to download a gdf file of your Facebook network, i.e., all of your Facebook friends and all of the connections between them. You can then use your favorite graph analysis software (I used Gephi, which is open-source and free) to look for patterns. My Facebook network is in the image below. Of the four main clusters, two consist of co-workers, one is family and one is people I know from roller hockey. Twitter This is the network of people I follow on Twitter. I used NodeXL (a free, open-source template for Excel) to download and lay out the data. I labeled the nodes in this one. With a few exceptions, the light blue nodes are people… Read more →

Sleeping Pugs

by Paul Epps on 20 Oct 2012

Poems I’ve Read Recently and Liked

by Paul Epps on 19 Oct 2012

I’ve been reading a lot of poetry as part of the Modern & Contemporary American Poetry class on Coursera. One of the things I like about the class is that the video lessons are done a little differently than other Coursera classes I’ve taken. Rather than recorded lectures, the videos consist of the instructor, Al Filreis, leading a small group of Penn students in close readings of selected poems. Anyway, here are a few of my favorites so far: I dwell in Possibility by Emily Dickinson Tell all the Truth but tell it slant by Emily Dickinson The Brain within its Groove by Emily Dickinson Danse Russe by William Carlos Williams This Is Just To Say by Willim Carlos Williams A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsburg Lines for an Abortionist’s Office by Ruth Lechlitner Incident by Countee Cullen These next two, both by Richard Wilbur, I want to single out as being particularly… Read more →

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Paul Epps