Posts – page 55 of 74

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.

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.”

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.

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)

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 Over?” (via Lifehacker)

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)

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. Click through the see it close up. (via Lucy Knisley - OMGRYFFINDOR.)

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:

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“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 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.