Summertime in the SLC, part 2

Theme: Statisticians volunteer!
Talks: 4
Bureaucratic turf wars: 2
Actively painful talks: 1: like listening to Coach Z mangle vowels for 25 mins. Yes, I'm a horrible person for making fun of non-native speakers of English.

• You'd think a talk about potentially starting a Masters in Statistics programme in Vietnam would mention Vietnam a little more often. Speaker got called by an audience member for basically copying a US masters course; speaker blew this off, because US masters courses are so good!
• Don't all these programmes inspiring schoolkids to statistise sound too much like Troy McClure educational videos?
• Can't help but note that the potential for future cheap labour is a strong motivator for all this.
• One reason non-statisticians do such bad stat is the right theory doesn't yet exist for them. Everyone knows that if your data isn't experimental, there are corrections you can make, but you're probably screwed. At some point in the future, a number of very smart people may remedy this, but until then...

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Made my first purchase from McDonald's in four years. Bought a Coke. God didn't strike me down.

Tony Caputo's Market & Deli

Had the Caputo sandwich, which contains prosciutto! salami! mortadella! provolone! The Italian bread was charmingly chewy, but I'm biased towards a less busy sandwich. Coffee was acceptable. Best feature might be the range of under-a-buck chocolates. My 69c Urbani Tartufi was scrumptious, even if I couln't taste the truffle.

Chanon Thai Cafe

(reconstruction)
Me: I'll have the gang panang with chicken, and make it spicy.
Server: OK. We have a spice scale from 1 to 5. We'll make yours a 1.
Me: Well then, can I have it extra spicy?
Server: OK, I'll make it a 2.
Me: Extra extra spicy?
Server: You sure?
Me: Yeah.
Server: OK, a 3.

I didn't try to talk him any higher, which was for the best. After the initial hot shock wore off, I was able to enjoy an exquisite curry, in which you could still make out the lime, just. Some of the best Thai food I've had, with the "some of" qualifier only because the chicken was a little dry; shoulda had beef. Shiitake filled spring rolls were also good, though Cocaine found his unspiced pad thai too sweet. Can't wait to go back.

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RIP Ingmar B.