July 2011
Goes around and comes around
Harry Potter vs. Twilight
There are many differences between the successes of the Harry Potter series and the successes of the Twilight series. However, I think Stephen King point out, most succinctly, the difference in their themes.
Find the SPF for you
Why there are so many competing standards. (via xkcd: Standards )
Why there are so many competing standards. (via xkcd: Standards)
Soccer and volleyball are too easy for these athletes. Kung Fu Volleyball or…
Soccer and volleyball are too easy for these athletes.
Kung Fu Volleyball or Kung Fu Soccer? (by DailyEpicVideos)
Pixelated animals. bifanoland : 3/10 in my pixel animal series. The age old…
The frame is not big enough to hold the painting . Via Super Punch
Live Your Dream manifesto via HOLSTEE .
Live Your Dream manifesto via HOLSTEE.
Extreme pointillism
by Graphic Nothing @ Some Prints.
This reminds me of an ultra pixellated version I posted in May. Again, it’s an incredible example of how the brain is able to recognize and reconstruct images in the imagination just from a few simple suggestions and component parts.
STATES UNITED LETTERPRESS by beauchamping on Etsy )
Believe in yourself
Synchronized sky diving inside a Prague wind funnel. Just think of the Ok Go…
Synchronized sky diving inside a Prague wind funnel. Just think of the Ok Go video where they’re all on the treadmills, but instead of treadmills they’re flying.
Praha Opening (by RaphCoudray)
Newspeak (via reddit )
Newspeak (via reddit)
Ninja via Dilbert.com
Ninja via Dilbert.com
No, economists are not psychic
Below is a quote from John Gray’s review of David Brooks’ book, The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement. He’s talking about how the recent economic crisis was supposed to be impossible because of the psychic ability of quantitative models to predict the future of the economy.
[M]any economists refused to accept that such a crisis was possible—captivated as they were by the belief that quantitative models could predict the future, sheltering the field from messy reality. Economists were thus incapable of perceiving the dangers that were mounting around them. The attempt to domesticate the uncertainties of the future by turning them into calculable risks was discredited by the crash. A mode of thinking that was supposed to be supremely rational has proved in practice to be little more than an exercise in harebrained cleverness.
How to deactivate a cat. aka, putting a cat in admin mode. A veterinarian…
How to deactivate a cat. aka, putting a cat in admin mode.
A veterinarian put standby a cat with a plier. (by fckjulien1000)
Grains of sand magnified to 250 times real size via Lost At E Minor: For…
Angry Birds Coffee Art, via Foodbeast
John Adams
“It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, "whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,” and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.“
“You Can’t Cross a Chasm in Two Small Steps”
You Can’t Cross a Chasm in Two Small Steps
(via Lifehacker)
Previously, on 24 (by le nompourflickr )
Previously, on 24 (by le nompourflickr)
The Purpose of Universities
Tim Black write in the Sp!ked Review of Books about how universities are deviating from their primary purpose: the pursuit of knowledge. However, universities now have the expectation to be economic engines, churning out smarter workers and economic producers.
An increase in the quantity of graduates will neither create a dynamic, wealth-producing economy nor will it create the conditions for the emergence of lots of dynamic, wealth-producing individuals. Universities are not what they are currently being cracked up to be. But that leads to another problem. So deeply entrenched is the belief that, to use the words of the 1998 Dearing report, ‘Higher education has become central to the economic wellbeing of nations and individuals’, that it is becoming increasingly difficult to recall what the purpose of institutions of higher education might be. Their autonomy as academic bodies, in which one ought to be free to pursue an interest in a subject area to a higher level, has been effaced by their thoroughgoing instrumentalisation as drivers of economic growth and social mobility.
Body Hackers
Can applying the principles of computer hacking to the human body make for a better life?
Much as an engineer will analyse data and tweak specifications in order to optimise a software program, people are collecting and correlating data on the “inputs and outputs” of their bodies to optimize physical and mental performance. “We like to hack hardware and software, why not hack our bodies?” says Tim Chang, a self-quantifier and Silicon Valley investor who is backing the development of several self-tracking gadgets. Indeed, why not give yourself an “upgrade”, says Dave Asprey, a “bio-hacker” who takes self-quantification to the extreme of self-experimentation. He claims to have shaved 20 years off his biochemistry and increased his IQ by as much as 40 points through “smart pills”, diet andbiology-enhancing gadgets. “I’ve rewired my brain,” he says.
Books vs the Internet
Will the internet ever replace books? Only if they’re able to replace a key and unique factor that up until now only books have successfuly been able to supply – linear concentration. Johann Hari has an article about the function of the book and how it will continue to persist in an age of distraction:
And here’s the function that the book – the paper book that doesn’t beep or flash or link or let you watch a thousand videos all at once – does for you that nothing else will. It gives you the capacity for deep, linear concentration. As Ulin puts it: “Reading is an act of resistance in a landscape of distraction…. It requires us to pace ourselves. It returns us to a reckoning with time. In the midst of a book, we have no choice but to be patient, to take each thing in its moment, to let the narrative prevail. We regain the world by withdrawing from it just a little, by stepping back from the noise.”
Hunch vs. Gut Feeling
This passage from the David Means’ story “Tree Line, Kansas, 1934” has a fun explanation of the difference between a hunch and a gut feeling.
A gut feeling finally becomes a hunch when it is transmuted into the form of clear, precise, verbal statements uttered aloud to a receptive listener—internal or external—who responds in kind. A hunch twists inside the sinews and bones, integrating itself into the physicality of the moment, whereas a gut feeling can only struggle to become a hunch, and, once it does, is recognized in retrospect as a gut feeling.
zoomar : This makes me very happy. Especially the wigs. archiemcphee :…
This is what happens when Youtube announces a 10 hour video limit. (via…
This is what happens when Youtube announces a 10 hour video limit.
(via YouTube ups the video limit to 10 hours. The Internet responds)
River Shiver - Pomplamoose (by PomplamooseMusic )
River Shiver - Pomplamoose (by PomplamooseMusic)
The Very, Very Many Varieties of Beer, via Pop Chart Lab
“If You Don’t Have Time to Do It Right, When Will You Have Time to Do It…
“If You Don’t Have Time to Do It Right, When Will You Have Time to Do It Over?” (via Lifehacker)
Butterfly Man - The Dark Net (by evangelistjfox ) I saw this video at the…
Butterfly Man - The Dark Net (by evangelistjfox)
I saw this video at the Ave Maria youth conference this weekend, and am amazed it hasn’t gotten more attention. It is a very well done parody of Batman, re-imagined as if he were attacked as a child by butterflies instead of bats.
Penguins are bad at logic (via Funny Penguin - Fanpop )
[](http://gusto1.com )
Similarities between the Godfather and Arrested Development
The World Map of Useless Stereotypes - via NYTimes.com
Harry Potter Comic. This is the whole harry pottery series in comic form.…
Harry Potter Comic.
This is the whole harry pottery series in comic form. Click through the see it close up. (via Lucy Knisley - OMGRYFFINDOR.)
Feedback Loops Are Changing What People Do
Wired Magazine’s article on Feedback loops explore what they are and how we can harness them to modify and improve our behavior.
[T]he simplicity of feedback loops is deceptive. They are in fact powerful tools that can help people change bad behavior patterns, even those that seem intractable. Just as important, they can be used to encourage good habits, turning progress itself into a reward. In other words, feedback loops change human behavior. And thanks to an explosion of new technology, the opportunity to put them into action in nearly every part of our lives is quickly becoming a reality.
Woody Allen as Toy Story’s Woddy ilovedoodle : Woody Allen on Flickr. Doodle…
Tumblr
“ Leonardo’s rediscovered Salvator Mundi , before restoration.” Possible…
“Leonardo’s rediscovered Salvator Mundi , before restoration.”
Possible long lost work by Leonardo da Vinci (via ARTnews)
The Rocketeer 20th anniversary (by John Banana ) Imagine if Pixar made an…
The Rocketeer 20th anniversary (by John Banana)
Imagine if Pixar made an animated version of the Rocketeer…I have fond memories of the Rocketeer from my childhood but am afraid I would find it very cheesy if I watched it again now. So this will have to do.
Splitscreen: A Love Story by JW Griffiths , shot on a Nokia N8 Phone.
Splitscreen: A Love Story by JW Griffiths, shot on a Nokia N8 Phone.
Twitter Whom to follow - Chrome Web Store
Org charts at major tech companies: arainert : teradome : Organizational…
Seth’s Blog: When is it due?
You don’t work on an assembly line any more. You work in project world, and more projects mean more chances to screw up, to learn, to make a reputation and to have more impact. When it’s you against the boss, the goal is to do less work. When it’s you against the project, the goal is to do more work.
The Office before before it was good
This is a video of the Office re-imagined as a 1980-1990’s sitcom.
(by benny2700)
Why to join Google+ (via xkcd: Google )
Why to join Google+ (via xkcd: Google)
CASSINI MISSION: pro-tip, watch in full screen with headphones and prepare…
CASSINI MISSION: pro-tip, watch in full screen with headphones and prepare to be blown away by the beauty of this video made from footage of NASA’s Cassini Mission to Saturn. (by Chris Abbas)
Claiming clairvoyance. (via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal )
Claiming clairvoyance. (via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal)
The World's Best Commercials, 2010-11 - Adweek
Reading Highlights: Meltdown
Here are a few of my reading highlights from the Foreign Policy article Meltdown, by Gennady Burbulis and Michele A. Berdy, an exciting account of the August coup in Russia, and the fall of the former Soviet Union in 1991.
We began to work together on a new union treaty that would transform the Soviet Union into a confederation of sovereign states with a limited central government. Yeltsin planned to sign the controversial pact on Aug. 20. As we miled about Yeltsin’s living room on the morning of Aug. 19, it was instantly clear to us that the coup was an eleventh-hour attempt to prevent the treaty from being signed the next day. But that was the only thing that was clear. Americans watching the events unfold live on CNN knew more about what was going on in Russia than we Russians did; the news anchors in Moscow simply read a formal statement issued by the coup plotters’ hastily appointed “Emergency Committee.” Information arrived at the dacha in bits and pieces, by phone from friends and colleagues in Moscow and around Russia.
Hidden cameo in Indiana Jones: C-3PO & R2-D2??!? cepankus :…
Broccoli House brockdavis : Broccoli House I couldn’t build a tree house for…
The first weapon made from code. Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus (by…
The first weapon made from code.
Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus (by Patrick Clair)
An infographic dissecting the nature and ramifications of Stuxnet, the first weapon made entirely out of code. This was produced for Australian TV program HungryBeast on Australia’s ABC1
How travel writing becomes literature
William Zinsser on what it takes for travel writing to move from a personal narrative into the realm of literature.
The worlds that those restless hermits wrote about were often interior worlds, tinged with mysticism, and it could hardly be otherwise; they achieved their destiny by following trails that weren’t on any map. But what raises travel writing to literature is not what the writer brings to a place, but what the place draws out of the writer.
Hang on Woody! (by nplus1 )
Hang on Woody! (by nplus1)
The Easiest Way to Succeed as an Entrepreneur Altucher Confidential
Some people don’t mind starting a company without any customers. I’m too conservative for this. I’m happy to even give up equity to get that first customer. 50% of a profitable company is better than 100% of a company that will probably quickly go out of business.
— The Easiest Way to Succeed as an Entrepreneur Altucher Confidential
This map is drawn using data of the connections of 10 million Facebook…
This map is drawn using data of the connections of 10 million Facebook users. (via Map of the World Drawn Entirely Using Facebook Connections: Geekosystem)
Finding Celopatra
National Geographic has an interesting article about some recent findings in the search for the real Cleopatra.
[M]aybe finding her tomb would diminish what Shakespeare called “her infinite variety.” Disembodied, at large in the realm of myth, more context than text, Cleopatra is free to be of different character to different times, which may be the very wellspring of her vitality. No other figure from antiquity seems so versatile in her ambiguities, so modern in her contradictions.
