BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

The Effect of Narcissism's Twisted Thinking on the Mind by Kathy Krajco Ideas don't just enter the mind and sit there, isolated. Information is an interesting word. It was a verb long before it acquired a noun form. "To inform" people meant to "in-form" their minds. To form, shape their minds with the ideas you fed them. Information does that. That's because the brain is essentially a biological computer. It's tremendously more sophisticated than any human-made computers we yet have, because it can learn and because it isn't limited to making a random choice whenever no other criteria direct the choice to be made. But we already have software that can learn, too. And the science of artificial intelligence is well on the road to doing astonishing things in the development of artificial "mind." No, you aren't going to see R2D2 rolling around the corner anytime soon, but something like that day is indeed coming. Yes, we are going to b...

AM I MY BROTHER'S SWEEPER? Ah, the joys & horrors of home ownership in New York City! I feel this woman's pain. When litterbugs attack, N.Y.C. makes homeowners pay By DOLORES PRIDA The day I closed on the purchase of a beautiful, if somewhat rundown, brownstone in East Harlem 16 years ago was a special occasion for me. Not only had I had finally achieved the pinnacle of the American Dream, but also become the first member of my immigrant family to ever own a home. Little did I know that from that day on, I would become my brother's sweeper - and my sense of pride would get a, well ...trashing. Nobody had bothered to tell me that homeowners are punished for the debris passersby leave in front of their homes - both on the sidewalk and on the street, up to 18 inches from the curb. When, a few weeks after moving in, the first pink slip charging me with a violation for "failing to sweep" my sidewalk was left at my door, I was astounded. Not only because I had indee...