March 2013
21 posts
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“Roast me a wren to start with.
Then, Brisket of Basilisk Treat.
My breakfast...”
– Nancy Willard, The King of Cats Orders An Early Breakfast, via Maria Popova on BrainPickings
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“The woman on the road then ceases to be human, as with many on the margins, and...”
– Vanessa Veselka, The Lack of Female Road Narratives and Why It Matters, TheAmericanReader.com, via Rookie Mag
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USA: Leading Language Spoken at Home other than... →
At first I thought the beige color was “none,” but of course it’s actually “Spanish.” Does this make it more or less ridiculous to force immigrants to learn English in order to be eligible for citizenship?
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The Rhetoric in Our Two-Party System is Broken →
Everything is a War, and we are at an impasse.
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“How pessimistic the participants revealed themselves to be, through the survey,...”
– Lindsay Abrams, A Case for Pessimism, The Atlantic
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6th-Grader Hands Out Wads of Cash to Friends from... →
School administrators confiscated the backpack and the money the student had already given away.
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Principles for Living in the 21st Century →
Resilience over strength
Pull over push
Risk over safety
Systems over objects
Compasses over maps
Practice over theory
Disobedience over compliance
Emergence over authority
Learning over education
The page includes a little description/explanation of each principle.
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Predictive Policing Technology Uses Crime Data To... →
Predictive Policing technology, developed in LA, is about analyzing data from previous crimes in order to direct where and when to send police officers, and what types of crimes they should look for when they get there.
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DNA is Flame-Retardant →
The current study was conducting with DNA extracted from herring sperm, but that might be a difficult crop to harvest. Where could we get a bunch of unused sperm to extract DNA from and coat things with? I have no idea. I just have no idea.
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The Reason Behind The Name For Game Companies →
“The name Nintendo are three Japanese characters that roughly translates to ‘leave fate to the heavens.’”
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Facebook 'likes' predict personal characteristics... →
“Curly fries correlated with high intelligence and people who liked the Dark Knight tended to have fewer Facebook friends,” said research author David Stillwell.
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Michigan Added 17 New Craft Breweries Last Year →
“Growth is also being driven by ‘extremists,’ or beer drinkers looking for ever more unique and flavorful beers.”
I think I might fall into that category. Green tea beer? Chipotle beer? Mint beer? Hibiscus beer? Yes, I’ve had all of those.
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A Massive Database of Food Label Information to... →
Use their huge crowd-sourced database of information to build APIs based on nutrition/food labeling information. Sounds pretty cool.
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New Etiquette for the Digital Age →
It’s now considered old-fashioned to greet and fare thee well on electronic communication; no one listens to voice messages anymore; never ask someone a question you could find on Google in under 5 minutes.
How to disrupt the new etiquette? Use noisy, time-consuming forms of communication and ask people for lots of information.
That sounds about right.
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Federally Funded Research Results To Be Openly... →
This is a positive development for laypersons, researchers, and SCIENCE!
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The poetic results of Google's autofill response... →
Women who code
Women who run with the wolves
Women who love too much
Women who kill
Women who age well
Women who are players
Women who act like men
Women who ask for money
Women who attract gay men
Women who are amazing in bed
… and more
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Adventure Time Pancakes [PG-13?!] →
This is my dream job. I want to be the person who eats these pancakes.
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Creative Ads Inspired by Fairy Tales →
Little Red Riding Hood is prominent, but most of them have a unique spin that makes it fun to spot the tale and how they’re using it. My favorite might have been the Wolf standing with his arms outstretched while Little Red Riding Hoods rained down from the sky. I also liked the mash-ups, like where the teen pulls out a cable to jump-start Sleeping Beauty.
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Short story based on "Dermatologists Hate Me For... →
If you’ve ever seen an advertisement, you’ve seen this advertisement. And now you, too, can experience the wrath of the irate dermatologist who is losing his business to a simple civilian’s one weird trick.
January 2013
2 posts
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Interview with Aaron Sorkin, Writer of The... →
Get some insight into his writing process, then and now, as he talks about his show The Newsroom.
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New Years Resolutions Ideas →
Great lists of resolutions by the likes of Jonathan Swift, Marilyn Monroe, and Woody Guthrie. My favorite: “Wash teeth if any”.
October 2012
1 post
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Photographs of The Transcience of Circles →
Beautiful images of circles distorted by gravity, movement, change, time. Circles made of ink, milk, paint, smoke.
September 2012
1 post
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Why Psychology Matters In Technology Adoption →
Why do you think successful businessmen didn’t want a $20,000, 11-pound laptop in their office in 1982?
May 2012
4 posts
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Which grew faster: Shanghai or the North Pacific... →
Check out these before-and-after charts on the amount of plastic debris floating in the Pacific Ocean. The first chart is from 1972-1989 and the second is from 1999-2010.
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Shanghai: 1990 vs. 2010 →
It’s awe-inspiring to imagine that this has all happened in my lifetime. I can’t imagine how much more boggling it would be to have actually lived there while this was happening.
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Ubuntu According to Mark Shuttleworth →
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Most Delicious Volcano Eruption Ever →
Reading about volcanoes erupting has never made me so hungry.
April 2012
22 posts
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Are Colloquial Titles for Legislation Ethical? →
This article is an attempt to provide two points of view on the question, heavily leaning in support of colloquial titles. To me, such titles are intentionally manipulative and are meant to play on public ignorance and mob mentality. Even if a politician reads a bill, their reelection depends on the public’s understanding of the bill. But the public is not likely to read a 500-page document...
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“We can see success or we can see failure. We can choose. The right choice is to...”
– Penelope Trunk, Savor Success, Forget Failure | Penelope Trunk Blog
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“Since any text in the placeholder attribute is only available to the user when...”
– The HTML5 Placeholder Element Is Not A Substitute For The Label Element | 456 Berea St.
NOTE: Are you reading this, tumblr log-in form?
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White Board Wall Clock →
This is what I need! There are no numbers at all, and you can write whatever you want around the edges. Because it still has traditional hour and minute hands, you can only put in 12 hours, but they can be called things like, “Eat something!” and “Work out, you lazy nothing.” Despite this freedom, there is no reason that it should cost over $100.
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Is NIMBYism Democratic? →
The Prime Minister of Italy and the European Commission are eager to put a high-speed rail between Lyon, France and Susa, Italy; but Susa citizens feel taken for granted and disrespected. Protests against the project have turned violent and dangerous. Protesters say that the technocrats are not listening to their constituents, and so their only realistic recourse is popular revolt. But the...
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Push To Switch To Public Transportation →
Leipzig, Germany is giving free public transportation to individuals and families who have driver’s licenses for one week in an effort to cut down on traffic congestion. They hope that the week will encourage commuters to make a permanent switch.
Germans complain about commute time, petrol prices, and traffic jams.
What would you recommend to help this city’s transportation woes?
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“Bottlenose dolphins and sea lions lack working copies of the gene encoding...”
– No Sweetness for Meat-eaters | Nature
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Hacker School in NY →
I just found out about Hacker School because of their partnership with Etsy. I’m pleased with their active interest in encouraging women in technology. It would also be the perfect solution for those months when I’m in the USA between school years…
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The Guide to Sleeping in Airports →
It’s the Yelp of taking naps in airports. Seriously funny. And helpful!
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Ender's Game: November 1, 2011 →
Roberto Orci announced the release date for Ender’s Game: November 1, 2013. I wonder when it will come out in Spain?
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Who Owns The Past? →
The article is titled Who Owns The Past? and purportedly discusses the controversy over giving 10,000-year-old bones that have been kept for research at University of California - San Diego to a local tribe. Who does own things that are 10,000 years old? Is this the same as a nation requesting items from museums that were taken during war? Is there a time period after which it’s no longer...
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“Definitions, to me, are useful purely for communication and not end-all Truth...”
– Mattie Brice, An Apology For RPGs | Alternate Ending
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Digital Books Are Clearly Taking Over Traditional... →
“Adult book sales also grew from 66.6 million e-books sold in January 2011 to 99.5 million sold in January 2012.”
This is just 1 of 9 sourced observations on the growing trend of e-book reading and specialized e-book device ownership.
So now that we’ve sold 66.6 million e-books in one year, can we stop hyphenating e-book?
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“I do not mind that you are a girl, but the main thing is that you yourself do...”
– Einstein, according to Maria Popova, Women in Science: Einstein’s Advice to a Little Girl Who Wants To Be A Scientist | Brain Pickings
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The New Yorker tries CouchSurfing →
Patricia Marx tries CouchSurfing for The New Yorker. Although her overall experience didn’t seem negative, she doesn’t end her piece eager to try again. While she remains skeptical, her anecdotes sound realistically adventurous and enticing to me.
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9-year-old Boy Builds Cardboard Arcade -> Flash... →
A 9-year-old boy builds an imitation arcade out of cardboard one summer in the spare garage of his father’s auto shop. His first customer happens to be a filmmaker. Impressed, the filmmaker coordinates a flash mob to surprise Caine with even more business. Now, there’s a short film about the event, and you can donate to Caine’s college fund at the website. Impressive little...
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“‘It’s definitely been a purposeful decision and it means a lot to...”
– Zak Stone, How One Design Festival Made Itself Less of a Bro Fest | GOOD 