- Dropbox: sync your files among multiple machines seamlessly
- Openoffice.org: A free version of Word. Feels a wee bit sluggish, and I prefer Iwork.
- Terminal: learning a few simple commands, like how to kill hung programs, or copy everything on your desktop into a folder, has saved me hours and hours of tedium.
- VLC: watch any video format
- HandBrake: convert dvds to Ipod format
- Jomic: comic viewer
- Jumpcut: Copy something. Copy something else. Go back and paste the first thing you copied. Awesome.
- KompoZer:
Free web page creation tool. I use this instead of Dreamweaver because I hate how Adobe products install extra gunk all over your machine and eat up resources. It has some minor bugs but no dealbreakers. - MacTheRipper: Copies DVDs to your hard drive for later viewing on the plane.
- Tex-Edit Plus 4.9.8: I've been using this for over a decade. Great for cleaning up mangled email and other texts. Has a great command called "copy lines containing" so you can copy every line with a particular phrase in it, for example.
- Textwrangler: snappier than Tex-edit, better with large files, but a little harder to use.
- Gimp: Basically, it's photoshop, and it's free.
- Audacity audio editor and mixer
- Colloquy: Irc client. I've heard you can use #bookz to find e-text versions of books you own for the aforementioned plane flight.
- Cyberduck: ftp client. Honestly, I just use the command line in Terminal.
- Notational Velocity: Nifty, no frills note-taking app with lots of keystroke commands. Syncs with the Iphone app simplenote.
- RapidWeaver: Relatively cheap alternative to Dreamweaver. Bazillions of templates and plugins.
- Zoom: For playing those old text adventure games.
- Vitamin-R: Task reminder tool. You may not need this. I do. Slightly buggy.
- Amazon MP3 Downloader: Amazon throws up free music all the time, and some of it is good.
- FreeMind: One of many mind mapping tools. I like Graphviz too, but haven't used it lately.
- Anki is an intelligent flash card system that quizzes you on content that you are on the verge of forgetting. Basically a free version of the popular Supermemo.
Wednesday, September 22
I put my list of applications in a spreadsheet and rated each one on usefulness. I didn't include the stock apps like Iphoto, which are indispensable, or Microsoft Office, a necessary evil. Here is the list, with a few comments.
Thursday, September 16
March to Keep Fear Alive
March to Keep Fear Alive: "America, the Greatest Country God ever gave Man, was built on three bedrock principles: Freedom. Liberty. And Fear -- that someone might take our Freedom and Liberty. But now, there are dark, optimistic forces trying to take away our Fear -- forces with salt and pepper hair and way more Emmys than they need. They want to replace our Fear with reason. But never forget -- 'Reason' is just one letter away from 'Treason.' Coincidence? Reasonable people would say it is, but America can't afford to take that chance."
Rally to Restore Sanity
Rally to Restore Sanity: "Think of our event as Woodstock, but with the nudity and drugs replaced by respectful disagreement; the Million Man March, only a lot smaller, and a bit less of a sausage fest; or the Gathering of the Juggalos, but instead of throwing our feces at Tila Tequila, we'll be actively *not* throwing our feces at Tila Tequila. Join us in the shadow of the Washington Monument. And bring your indoor voice. Or don't. If you'd rather stay home, go to work, or drive your kids to soccer practice... Actually, please come anyway. Ask the sitter if she can stay a few extra hours, just this once. We'll make it worth your while."
I am able to move small objects with my mind.
I am able to move small objects with my mind.: "Also, if you happen to see Seb eating anything over the next few weeks, please remove the food from him immediately. He forgot to feed his turtle last week and I feel a month without food will help him understand both the importance of being a responsible pet owner and the effects of malnutrition.
Regards, David."
Regards, David."
In Professor-Dominatrix Scandal, U. of New Mexico Feels the Pain - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education
In Professor-Dominatrix Scandal, U. of New Mexico Feels the Pain - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education: "Life has become extremely complex in the University of New Mexico's English department in the three years since Lisa D. Ch�vez, a tenured associate professor, was discovered moonlighting as the phone-sex dominatrix 'Mistress Jade,' and posing in promotional pictures sexually dominating one of her own graduate students."
Court Papers: Biederman Told J&J Study Results Would Be Positive - Health Blog - WSJ
Court Papers: Biederman Told J&J Study Results Would Be Positive - Health Blog - WSJ: "According to court documents, Biederman made a presentation to J&J execs in which he displayed a slide that referred to a proposed study of the company’s antipsychotic Risperdal, known generically as risperidone, in preschool children, the New York Times reports. The trial “will support the safety and effectiveness of risperidone in this age group,” as NYT quotes the slide."
Joseph Biederman News - The New York Times
Joseph Biederman News - The New York Times: "He is in the middle of two controversies: one involves the use of antipsychotic drugs in children, and the other relates to conflicts of interest in medicine.
An inquiry by Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, revealed last year that Dr. Biederman earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007 but failed to report all but about $200,000 of this income to university officials, according to information given Congressional investigators."
An inquiry by Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, revealed last year that Dr. Biederman earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007 but failed to report all but about $200,000 of this income to university officials, according to information given Congressional investigators."
Wednesday, September 15
Sugata Mitra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sugata Mitra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Prof. Sugata Mitra is currently, as of 2009, Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, UK. He is also Chief Scientist, Emeritus, at NIIT. He is the instigator of the Hole in the Wall (HIW) experiment, where in the year 1999 a computer was placed in a kiosk created within a wall in an Indian slum at Kalkaji, Delhi and children were allowed to freely use it [1]. The experiment aimed at proving that kids could be taught by computers very easily without any formal training. Sugata termed this as Minimally Invasive Education (MIE). The experiment has since been repeated at many places, HIW has more than 23 kiosks in rural India. In 2004 the experiment was also carried on in Cambodia[2]. His interests include Education, Remote Presence, Self-organising systems, Cognitive Systems, Physics and Consciousness."
Tuesday, September 14
I just received my 4th generation Ipod Touch after using an Ipad for about a month, and I've had to remind myself how to use a small device again--it's great having something with me all the time for notes, music and the occasional game of Samurai. I really like the experience of *not* having to pull the Ipad out of a backpack, but just reaching into my shirt pocket. I know that sounds trivial, but it seems to make a difference, just like having the "blog this!" bookmarklet in my browser changed the frequency and manner in which I bookmarked and sometimes wrote about websites. I never listened to music on the Ipad, even though it was relatively easy to do so.
On-the-Go RPGs: Hike, Ramble, Game - Treasure Tables
On-the-Go RPGs: Hike, Ramble, Game - Treasure Tables: "In the comments to Have You Ever Run a Game Outdoors, Frank Filz and Scott M. linked up two RPGs with a twist.
Sherpa (by Stephan O’Sullivan, creator of Bunnies & Burrows) is designed to be played while hiking. In Stephan’s words, it “uses a digital watch with a stopwatch feature as a randomizer and a character sheet fits on the back of a business card.” Cooool."
Sherpa (by Stephan O’Sullivan, creator of Bunnies & Burrows) is designed to be played while hiking. In Stephan’s words, it “uses a digital watch with a stopwatch feature as a randomizer and a character sheet fits on the back of a business card.” Cooool."
Monday, September 13
John McPhee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John McPhee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "While being interviewed on the 27 August 2009 edition of Radio West (KUER, Salt Lake City, Utah), writer Christopher Cokinos said that he has a sign above his desk which says Too tired to write? John McPhee isn't."
Princeton Ignores Strauss, Makes Sensible Decisions | Freedom to Tinker
Princeton Ignores Strauss, Makes Sensible Decisions | Freedom to Tinker: "The Office of Information Technology (OIT) here at Princeton has taken the unusual step of issuing a statement distancing itself from the views expressed by one of its employees, Howard Strauss, in a column in Syllabus magazine."
Princeton University - Strauss earns EDUCAUSE leadership award
Princeton University - Strauss earns EDUCAUSE leadership award: "The late Howard Strauss, former manager of academic outreach in Princeton's Office of Information Technology, has been named the recipient of an EDUCAUSE Leadership Award for Distinguished Performance and Outstanding Service.
Strauss, who worked at the University from 1971 to 2005, died in September 2005 at age 62. The award is the highest individual recognition offered by EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. It recognizes prominent professionals whose work has had significant positive impact on the contributions of information technology to higher education."
Strauss, who worked at the University from 1971 to 2005, died in September 2005 at age 62. The award is the highest individual recognition offered by EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. It recognizes prominent professionals whose work has had significant positive impact on the contributions of information technology to higher education."
Wired 7.01: The Wired Diaries
Wired 7.01: The Wired Diaries: "John McPhee: I don't use WordPerfect or Word. I have Howard. Howard Strauss. He wrote a program - an editor, created for IBM mainframe programmers to use at home on their PCs - to imitate what I do when organizing my work. And if Howard Strauss leaves Princeton, I do too. I used to type up my notes, and I'd have 150 pages of notes and the only organization they'd have is the order through time in which I scribbled them. I would make a Xerox of the whole set, code them all, then assign each note to one or more sections in the structure of my story. I would then literally cut the notes apart with scissors and put the whole thing in 36 separate manila folders. Then when I'd pick up envelope number one, I could forget the other 35. The purpose of all this mechanistic monkeying around was that it freed me to write. Now, I still type up my notes myself. But what Howard did was write a program where the machine chews it all up and reassembles it automatically. One file becomes 36 files, each with its own new name."
The Pocket Notebooks of 20 Famous Men | The Art of Manliness
The Pocket Notebooks of 20 Famous Men | The Art of Manliness: "“I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, ‘Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence that you know.’ So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say.”"
Sunday, September 12
Wired 11.11: The Two Faces of Takashi Murakami
Wired 11.11: The Two Faces of Takashi Murakami: "Each creation begins as a sketch in one of numerous pocket-sized notebooks. Full-size drawings are then scanned into the computer. From there, Murakami 'paints' his works in Adobe Illustrator, tweaking the composition and cycling through thousands of colors until at last he hands the finished versions off to his assistants. His staff then prints out the work on paper, silk-screens the outline onto canvas, and commences painting. Without this embrace of technology, Murakami says, 'I could have never produced this many works this efficiently, and the work wouldn't be as intense.'"
Just Asking - Magazine - The Atlantic
Just Asking - Magazine - The Atlantic: "What are the effects on the American idea of Guant�namo, Abu Ghraib, PATRIOT Acts I and II, warrantless surveillance, Executive Order 13233, corporate contractors performing military functions, the Military Commissions Act, NSPD 51, etc., etc.? Assume for a moment that some of these measures really have helped make our persons and property safer—are they worth it? Where and when was the public debate on whether they’re worth it? Was there no such debate because we’re not capable of having or demanding one? Why not? Have we actually become so selfish and scared that we don’t even want to consider whether some things trump safety? What kind of future does that augur?"
Just Asking - Magazine - The Atlantic
Just Asking - Magazine - The Atlantic: "Are some things still worth dying for? Is the American idea* one such thing? Are you up for a thought experiment? What if we chose to regard the 2,973 innocents killed in the atrocities of 9/11 not as victims but as democratic martyrs, “sacrifices on the altar of freedom”?* In other words, what if we decided that a certain baseline vulnerability to terrorism is part of the price of the American idea? And, thus, that ours is a generation of Americans called to make great sacrifices in order to preserve our democratic way of life—sacrifices not just of our soldiers and money but of our personal safety and comfort?"
Saturday, September 11
The Last Story of F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre - NYTimes.com
The Last Story of F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre - NYTimes.com: "In a dramatic farewell that could have come from Froggy’s pen, Mr. MacIntyre, according to fire officials, methodically set ablaze the contents of the apartment in Bensonhurst where he had lived for a quarter-century. First the flames consumed a lifetime of possessions; then they feasted on his weary flesh, ending his painful 59-year earthly existence. Born in Scotland, raised in Australia — or so he said, in his impeccable British regional accent — he now lies unclaimed in a Brooklyn morgue."
Friday, September 10
Thursday, September 9
FarmVillains - Page 1 - News - San Francisco - SF Weekly
FarmVillains - Page 1 - News - San Francisco - SF Weekly: "'Zynga's motto is 'Do Evil,'' he says. 'I would venture to say it is one of the most evil places I've run into, from a culture perspective and in its business approach. I've tried my best to make sure that friends don't let friends work at Zynga.'"
Wednesday, September 8
XP: Limit Login Access to Specific Times and Days | Windows security | Tech-Recipes
XP: Limit Login Access to Specific Times and Days | Windows security | Tech-Recipes
this will make my kids sad, but ultimately happier.
this will make my kids sad, but ultimately happier.
Good Night, Sleep Tight, Don't Let The Bedbugs ... : NPR
Good Night, Sleep Tight, Don't Let The Bedbugs ... : NPR: "On how Potter inspects his hotel rooms before spending a night
'First thing I do before I unpack is I remove the bed sheets and the blankets and I examine the upper and lower seams of the mattress at the two corners by the pillow area and along the seam that runs along the headboard. The reason I look there first is because bedbugs tend to be drawn to heat and carbon dioxide as a person sleeps so if they're on the mattress, you're more likely to see them in that location. ... If I can see the upper seam of the box spring, I'll take a look at that as well, looking for the little brown bugs themselves as well as the black speckling which are the droppings of the bedbugs.'"
'First thing I do before I unpack is I remove the bed sheets and the blankets and I examine the upper and lower seams of the mattress at the two corners by the pillow area and along the seam that runs along the headboard. The reason I look there first is because bedbugs tend to be drawn to heat and carbon dioxide as a person sleeps so if they're on the mattress, you're more likely to see them in that location. ... If I can see the upper seam of the box spring, I'll take a look at that as well, looking for the little brown bugs themselves as well as the black speckling which are the droppings of the bedbugs.'"
Scooter safety vs. motorcycles | Ask MetaFilter
Scooter safety vs. motorcycles | Ask MetaFilter: "It's pretty hard to resist winding out a bike, no matter 15hp or 150hp, and the more HP, the faster you're going to get to 100KpH. As for the thrill, I know of at least a couple of riders that gave up crotch rockets for 100cc 2-stroke vespas because they provided a similar flowing feeling without the insane power. Within the city, that means you hit maybe 60Kph (instead of 100 ) between lights when you're having fun winding it up."
Tuesday, September 7
Monday, September 6
Choose Your Own Adventure with Choice of Games' Library of Interactive Fiction | Touch Arcade
Choose Your Own Adventure with Choice of Games' Library of Interactive Fiction | Touch Arcade
Choose Your Own Adventure Stories that can be sold as Ipod Touch apps.
Choose Your Own Adventure Stories that can be sold as Ipod Touch apps.
Saturday, September 4
Wired 1.03: Battletech's New Beachheads
Wired 1.03: Battletech's New Beachheads: "The affable dreamer Jordan and the analytical Ross created the 'BattleTech' storyline about a futuristic military zone. In Chicago, after leaving the Academy, the two 19-year-olds founded Environmental Simulation Projects (ESP) to create a BattleTech simulation game system. They tried to raise money, failed repeatedly, and so decided to get rich and build BattleTech themselves. With $150, they launched another company, FASA (for Fredonian Aeronautics & Space Administration, a name meaningful to Marx Brothers' Duck Soup fans). FASA published BattleTech as a board game. By 1987 FASA was the world's second largest role- playing game company."
Top 1 Percent of Americans Reaped Two-Thirds of Income Gains in Last Economic Expansion — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Top 1 Percent of Americans Reaped Two-Thirds of Income Gains in Last Economic Expansion — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: "Two-thirds of the nation’s total income gains from 2002 to 2007 flowed to the top 1 percent of U.S. households, and that top 1 percent held a larger share of income in 2007 than at any time since 1928, according to an analysis of newly released IRS data by economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez.[1]"
Op-Ed Contributor - How to End the Great Recession - NYTimes.com
Op-Ed Contributor - How to End the Great Recession - NYTimes.com: "Eventually, of course, the debt bubble burst — and with it, the last coping mechanism. Now we’re left to deal with the underlying problem that we’ve avoided for decades. Even if nearly everyone was employed, the vast middle class still wouldn’t have enough money to buy what the economy is capable of producing.
Where have all the economic gains gone? Mostly to the top. The economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty examined tax returns from 1913 to 2008. They discovered an interesting pattern. In the late 1970s, the richest 1 percent of American families took in about 9 percent of the nation’s total income; by 2007, the top 1 percent took in 23.5 percent of total income."
Where have all the economic gains gone? Mostly to the top. The economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty examined tax returns from 1913 to 2008. They discovered an interesting pattern. In the late 1970s, the richest 1 percent of American families took in about 9 percent of the nation’s total income; by 2007, the top 1 percent took in 23.5 percent of total income."
Op-Ed Contributor - How to End the Great Recession - NYTimes.com
Op-Ed Contributor - How to End the Great Recession - NYTimes.com: "But for years American families kept spending as if their incomes were keeping pace with overall economic growth. And their spending fueled continued growth. How did families manage this trick? First, women streamed into the paid work force. By the late 1990s, more than 60 percent of mothers with young children worked outside the home (in 1966, only 24 percent did).
Second, everyone put in more hours. What families didn’t receive in wage increases they made up for in work increases. By the mid-2000s, the typical male worker was putting in roughly 100 hours more each year than two decades before, and the typical female worker about 200 hours more."
Second, everyone put in more hours. What families didn’t receive in wage increases they made up for in work increases. By the mid-2000s, the typical male worker was putting in roughly 100 hours more each year than two decades before, and the typical female worker about 200 hours more."
Daily fish oils could save lives of 10,000 heart patients | The Vigilant Citizen
Daily fish oils could save lives of 10,000 heart patients | The Vigilant Citizen: "Prof Martin Cowie, of Imperial College London and the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, reviewed the study of almost 7,000 people with chronic heart failure and randomly assigned them to take 1 gram of fish oil capsules per day on top of their usual medication or a dummy pill.
There was a nine per cent reduction in deaths among those taking the fish oil after two years. There was also a cut in hospital admissions for the condition."
There was a nine per cent reduction in deaths among those taking the fish oil after two years. There was also a cut in hospital admissions for the condition."
Game Design, Psychology, Flow, and Mastery - Blog - MIGS: Brenda�Brathwaite
Game Design, Psychology, Flow, and Mastery - Blog - MIGS: Brenda�Brathwaite: "Brenda devised some simple rules about making the ocean journey. It takes 10 turns to get to the other side, there are some certain number of food-units, each person needs X food units or they die, there was some dice mechanic somewhere in there to make it less deterministic and a bit harder to figure out.
Half-way through, the daughter said, 'Mom, we aren't going to make it.' Brenda said that maybe it would be possible to make if farther if we 'put some of them in the water' (so there's more food for the rest). Brenda reports that her daughter had a look of understanding on her face, the same look she should have had when talking about the Middle Passage earlier. Her daughter cried, and Brenda did not continue the game any further. Brenda cried too."
Half-way through, the daughter said, 'Mom, we aren't going to make it.' Brenda said that maybe it would be possible to make if farther if we 'put some of them in the water' (so there's more food for the rest). Brenda reports that her daughter had a look of understanding on her face, the same look she should have had when talking about the Middle Passage earlier. Her daughter cried, and Brenda did not continue the game any further. Brenda cried too."
Friday, September 3
Dietary Advice for Patients with Nasal Polyps
Dietary Advice for Patients with Nasal Polyps: "What got me onto food was reading The Complete Guide to Hayfever by Professor Jonathan Brostoff and Linda Gamlin and Asthma Epidemic by Dr John Mansfield (these titles are available from many public libraries). The most methodical way to identify food intolerance is by using an elimination diet - go on to a restricted diet for a period and then introduce one food at a time. Unfortunately the restricted diet in Hayfever includes soya to which I am highly allergic. Brostoff states that patients with asthma and nasal polyps are often allergic to yeast and dairy products and in my case this was true, but including soya in the restricted diet could cause a worsening of symptoms."
Microsoft Compiled HTML Help - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Microsoft Compiled HTML Help - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "In 2002, Microsoft announced some security risks associated with the .CHM format, as well as some security bulletins and patches.[4] They have since announced their intentions not to develop the .CHM format further[5], and will be moving to a new generation of Windows Help called Microsoft Assistance Markup Language in the Windows Vista operating system."
Amazon.com: DR McKenzie's review of Epson Perfection v600 Photo Color Scanner ...
Amazon.com: DR McKenzie's review of Epson Perfection v600 Photo Color Scanner ...: "After some frustration, I hit on method for using the Epson software effectively:
1) Don't use 'Unsharp mask' when scanning. Use Photoshop's version later.
2) Select all the pictures and apply 'Auto Exposure'. This fixes the colors, but does a lot of high and low clipping.
3) The images will now look much more like real pictures, but need a bit of work."
1) Don't use 'Unsharp mask' when scanning. Use Photoshop's version later.
2) Select all the pictures and apply 'Auto Exposure'. This fixes the colors, but does a lot of high and low clipping.
3) The images will now look much more like real pictures, but need a bit of work."
Tea Party Rocks Primaries -- RollingStone.com
Tea Party Rocks Primaries -- RollingStone.com: "In fact if you follow Fox News and the Limbaugh/Hannity afternoon radio crew, this summer’s blowout has almost seemed like an intentional echo of the notorious Radio Rwanda broadcasts “warning” Hutus that they were about to be attacked and killed by conspiring Tutsis, broadcasts that led to massacres of Tutsis by Hutus acting in “self-defense.” A sample of some of the stuff we’ve seen and heard on the air this year:"
Thursday, September 2
Tea Party Rocks Primaries -- RollingStone.com
Tea Party Rocks Primaries -- RollingStone.com: "A lot of Tea Party anger is driven by real local issues -- where I live in central Jersey, for instance, there are a lot of pissed-off white people crowing over a nutty state supreme court case in which a Central American drunk driver got off because cops didn't explain the consequences of refusing a breathalyzer in his native Spanish. But without the constant reinforcement of national 24-hour media, which has taken these isolated cases and presented them as a coast-to-coast massive conspiracy, the rage over stories like this would never reach the levels we're seeing."
share individual posts on facebook - Blogger Help
share individual posts on facebook - Blogger Help: "I;m not sure if this is your problem, but hope it helps.
WRONG WAY TO DO IT: When I publish my blog of the day, I was going to the “View Blog” link at the top of the page next to the tabs Posting, Settings, Layout, and Monetize. In doing this, I was viewing my entire blog with all the postings. So when I shared with Facebook, no individual post title was selected.
RIGHT WAY TO DO IT: When you are done writing, click on publish post. On the page that says “your blog post published successfully” click on the “view post” link underneath the “your blog post published successfully” statement. This will open the blog you just published. From there you can select the “Share” link and select Facebook or whatever other choice you want. I am so happy I figured out what I was doing wrong as it was driving me crazy. Hope this helps someone else."
WRONG WAY TO DO IT: When I publish my blog of the day, I was going to the “View Blog” link at the top of the page next to the tabs Posting, Settings, Layout, and Monetize. In doing this, I was viewing my entire blog with all the postings. So when I shared with Facebook, no individual post title was selected.
RIGHT WAY TO DO IT: When you are done writing, click on publish post. On the page that says “your blog post published successfully” click on the “view post” link underneath the “your blog post published successfully” statement. This will open the blog you just published. From there you can select the “Share” link and select Facebook or whatever other choice you want. I am so happy I figured out what I was doing wrong as it was driving me crazy. Hope this helps someone else."
Could a Peanut Paste Called Plumpy'nut End Malnutrition? - NYTimes.com: "Elsewhere, local producers are simply ignoring the patent. In Haiti, two manufacturers are making products similar to Plumpy’nut independently of Nutriset: one is Partners in Health, the charity co-founded by the prominent global-health activist Paul Farmer. Partners in Health harvests peanuts from a 30-acre farm or buys them from a cooperative of 200 smallholders. It’s planning to build a larger factory, but for now the nuts are taken to the main hospital in Cange, where women sort them in straw baskets, roast them over an outside gas burner, run them through a hand grinder and mix all the ingredients into a paste that is poured into reusable plastic canisters. Peanuts in Haiti and throughout the developing world have a high incidence of aflatoxin, a fungus that can sicken children, especially fragile ones. But Partners in Health says the product, which it calls Nourimanba, is safe."
How do you patent fortified peanut butter?
How do you patent fortified peanut butter?
Wednesday, September 1
Phys Ed: Does Stretching Before Running Prevent Injuries? - NYTimes.com
Phys Ed: Does Stretching Before Running Prevent Injuries? - NYTimes.com: "Predictably, since running, as a sport, has a high injury rate, quite a few became injured during the three months. About 16 percent of the group that didn’t stretch were hobbled badly enough to miss training for at least three days (the researchers’ definition of a running injury), while about 16 percent of the group that did stretch were laid up for the same amount of time. The percentages, in other words, were virtually identical. Static stretching had proved to be a wash in terms of protecting against injury. It “neither prevented nor induced injury when compared with not stretching before running,” the study’s authors concluded, raising the obvious corollary, so why in the world do so many of us still stretch?"
Op-Ed Contributor - Google’s Earth - NYTimes.com
Op-Ed Contributor - Google’s Earth - NYTimes.com: "We have yet to take Google’s measure. We’ve seen nothing like it before, and we already perceive much of our world through it. We would all very much like to be sagely and reliably advised by our own private genie; we would like the genie to make the world more transparent, more easily navigable. Google does that for us: it makes everything in the world accessible to everyone, and everyone accessible to the world. But we see everyone looking in, and blame Google."
Monday, August 30
User:Ikip/Craniac - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
User:Ikip/Craniac - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The Craniacs are a sinister race of robots living in the ChalkZone, from the Nickelodeon animated television series ChalkZone.
The Craniacs' hobby is collecting futuristic devices that were drawn in chalk but erased because they didn't work (no one ever erases good ideas). They take the devices to their laboratory hideout in the Dome of the Future, which resembles a giant cereal bowl. The entrance to the laboratory is a giant thermometer powered by a super-hot flame, which makes any non-robots inside the Dome break out in a sweat."
The Craniacs' hobby is collecting futuristic devices that were drawn in chalk but erased because they didn't work (no one ever erases good ideas). They take the devices to their laboratory hideout in the Dome of the Future, which resembles a giant cereal bowl. The entrance to the laboratory is a giant thermometer powered by a super-hot flame, which makes any non-robots inside the Dome break out in a sweat."
Guitars - Gatton article
Guitars - Gatton article: "'he was so talented you'd think his whole life would revolve around guitar, but it
didnt,' says Dave Elliot. 'he was more of a person than a musician. danny's whole
approach didnt have anything to do with being a star--he played for his soul and his
guitar. i guess being a regular guy and a musician just doesnt work.'"
didnt,' says Dave Elliot. 'he was more of a person than a musician. danny's whole
approach didnt have anything to do with being a star--he played for his soul and his
guitar. i guess being a regular guy and a musician just doesnt work.'"
Sunday, August 29
Does Your Language Shape How You Think? - NYTimes.com
Does Your Language Shape How You Think? - NYTimes.com: "Eventually, Whorf’s theory crash-landed on hard facts and solid common sense, when it transpired that there had never actually been any evidence to support his fantastic claims. The reaction was so severe that for decades, any attempts to explore the influence of the mother tongue on our thoughts were relegated to the loony fringes of disrepute. But 70 years on, it is surely time to put the trauma of Whorf behind us. And in the last few years, new research has revealed that when we learn our mother tongue, we do after all acquire certain habits of thought that shape our experience in significant and often surprising ways."
Saturday, August 28
Principles for Organizing Print Material [Organizing Content #21] | I'd Rather Be Writing
Principles for Organizing Print Material [Organizing Content #21] | I'd Rather Be Writing: "Long printed manuals are becoming museum relics. If you’re delivering a 200 page printed manual for your software, expecting that users will read it cover to cover to learn the application, you’re kidding yourself. Reproducing �the entire online help in printed form for those one or two users who request a whole handbook does a disservice to the majority of users who prefer just a light print reading experience to get started. If your experience has been different from what I described above, please share your perspective with me."
7 Essential iPad Productivity Apps
7 Essential iPad Productivity Apps: "When I got my iPad, I gave myself a mandate: Don’t lug a 5-pound�MacBook around; instead, try to make do with the iPad.�For the most part, I’ve been successful. My MacBook hasn’t left the house since April 3, and for what I do (writing, reading, video watching), I don’t really need the horsepower all that much. I wouldn’t want to do a day’s work on it, but it’s great for getting work done on the train, on my lunch break, etc."
Thursday, August 26
Gmail Phone Calls Are All About Facebook, Not Skype | Epicenter�| Wired.com
Gmail Phone Calls Are All About Facebook, Not Skype | Epicenter�| Wired.com: "the new service is intended to play to Google’s current successes, namely Android phones — which integrate closely with Gmail and Google Voice — as well as set the stage for Google’s rumored fall launch of a social networking service to compete with Facebook."
An Un-'Common' Take On Copyright Law : NPR
An Un-'Common' Take On Copyright Law : NPR: "Hyde advocates for a return to a 'cultural commons' and quotes, approvingly, Thomas Jefferson, who believed that 'ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man.'"
Wednesday, August 25
The iPad and the Future of Computer Innovation | What Digital Revolution?
The iPad and the Future of Computer Innovation | What Digital Revolution?: "Google’s services have virtually eliminated the need for money, education, and technical capacity, the traditional barriers to accessing and manipulating information, as effectively as Apple’s products have made training, aptitude, and prowess irrelevant when using a computer.�"
Inside the secret world of Trader Joe's - Aug. 23, 2010
Inside the secret world of Trader Joe's - Aug. 23, 2010: "strip-mall operators and consumers alike aggressively lobby the chain, based in Monrovia, Calif., to come to their towns. A Trader Joe's brings with it good jobs, and its presence in your community is like an affirmation that you and your neighbors are worldly and smart."
Steve Jobs Is Watching You: Apple Seeking to Patent Spyware | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Steve Jobs Is Watching You: Apple Seeking to Patent Spyware | Electronic Frontier Foundation: "Essentially, Apple's patent provides for a device to investigate a user's identity, ostensibly to determine if and when that user is 'unauthorized,' or, in other words, stolen. More specifically, the technology would allow Apple to record the voice of the device's user, take a photo of the device's user's current location or even detect and record the heartbeat of the device's user. Once an unauthorized user is identified, Apple could wipe the device and remotely store the user's 'sensitive data.' Apple's patent application suggests it may use the technology not just to limit 'unauthorized' uses of its phones but also shut down the phone if and when it has been stolen."
Books - ‘Deliverance,’ by James Dickey, Turns 40 - NYTimes.com
Books - ‘Deliverance,’ by James Dickey, Turns 40 - NYTimes.com: "These days our culture takes these kinds of narratives, about masculine midlife longing and regret, and de-fangs them, turning them into films like “Wild Hogs,” the benign John Travolta motorcycle trip movie. The novelists who take us into the woods and wilds, Jim Harrison and Thomas McGuane invaluably among them, bring along slapstick and irony as critical mosquito repellent. (Was it Robert Bly, in his “Iron John” phase, who made it impossible for American men to walk purposefully into a forest without feeling as if drums and self-awareness needed to be involved?)"
Tuesday, August 24
120 days in the hole | MetaFilter
120 days in the hole | MetaFilter: "These guys are in for a rough few months, but they have a good shot. They've got water and oxygen, which are the critical things. They have access to the outside world, which means they can get food and stay sane. They have enough space to move around and stay fit, and to keep their waste away from where they eat. It's a dark and scary place down there, but you get used to it. These guys are as used to being underground as you are to being in your office. Also, there's quite a strong fraternity among miners - they can be rough as guts, but they take care of each other. I'm heading underground as soon as I finish writing this, and I know that if this were to happen here, people would stick together."
Your Brain on Computers - Overuse of Digital Devices May Lead to Brain Fatigue - NYTimes.com
Your Brain on Computers - Overuse of Digital Devices May Lead to Brain Fatigue - NYTimes.com: "“Almost certainly, downtime lets the brain go over experiences it’s had, solidify them and turn them into permanent long-term memories,” said Loren Frank, assistant professor in the department of physiology at the university, where he specializes in learning and memory. He said he believed that when the brain was constantly stimulated, “you prevent this learning process.”"
Who the *** is Eminem, anyway? | Ask MetaFilter
Who the *** is Eminem, anyway? | Ask MetaFilter: "Yeah, Public Enemy is a great starter. Some rock critic a documentary about them summed it up by saying that when he first heard them, he was like, 'This...isn't...supposed...to...be...possible!' It helps if you've ever had a taste for jazz, industrial, or both.
posted by Beardman at 7:46 AM on August 20 [ ] [!]"
posted by Beardman at 7:46 AM on August 20 [ ] [!]"
Board games and boring food out as Chilean miners await rescue - The Globe and Mail
Board games and boring food out as Chilean miners await rescue - The Globe and Mail: "Both psychologists say it’s critical that emergency workers provide the trapped miners with something to keep them “meaningfully engaged” while they wait, including music, reading material and journals to write in.
Board games, however, don’t qualify.
“That exacerbates the potential hostility,” Dr. Suedfeld said. “You don’t want to give them anything that raises antagonism.”
What the miners should be given, both doctors said, is good food."
Board games, however, don’t qualify.
“That exacerbates the potential hostility,” Dr. Suedfeld said. “You don’t want to give them anything that raises antagonism.”
What the miners should be given, both doctors said, is good food."
College Dropout Factories by Ben Miller and Phuong Ly | Washington Monthly
College Dropout Factories by Ben Miller and Phuong Ly | Washington Monthly: "As it happens, Nestor’s impressions are supported by hard numbers. Chicago State has the worst graduation rate of any public four-year university in Illinois and one of the worst in the nation, with just 13 percent of students finishing in six years. For stronger students like Nestor, the statistics are only somewhat better than that. According to a study from the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR), which looked at twenty different colleges in the Chicago area, kids who graduate from a Chicago public high school with a grade point average of 3.5 have a 37 percent chance of graduating from Chicago State. Those with the same grades who attend UIC have a much better chance of graduating—56 percent. And for those with a 3.5 GPA who attend Northwestern, just north in Evanston, the completion rate is 89 percent. Even schools all around the country with student profiles as challenging as that of Chicago State—that is, schools with mostly African American and Latino students from low-income backgrounds—have overall graduation rates that are many times higher."
Grading on the curves - The Boston Globe
Grading on the curves - The Boston Globe: "When my sons applied to college, I begged them to choose a school according to the most important criterion imaginable: ample free parking. Grinnell, Carleton, and Kenyon were at the top of my list. Not atop theirs, alas. One of my sons went to Columbia. If Columbia grad Paul Auster hasn’t written a bleak, soul-harrowing short story about trying to move furniture in and out of Morningside Heights, with its filthy sidewalks and malfunctioning dormitory elevators, he should have."
Your Mind at Middle Age: A Review of The Grown-Up Brain - ProfHacker - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Your Mind at Middle Age: A Review of The Grown-Up Brain - ProfHacker - The Chronicle of Higher Education: "Developmentally, it turns out that, while we might not be growing tons of new neurons as we age, our brains do gain more myelin, the fatty substance that facilitates connections between neurons, for many decades. Also, it turns out that the brain compensates for aging by getting its hemispheres to work together. This 'bilateralization' allows the brain to work more efficiently than it does at earlier times of life. Education helps facilitate this process."
Monday, August 23
Avoid Foot Injuries at Runner's World
Avoid Foot Injuries at Runner's World: "The Warning: Plantar Fasciitis
Plantar fasciitis, which causes pain in the heel or arch, occurs when the connective fibers that run along the bottom of the foot become inflamed at the spot where they attach to the heel bone. The pain most often occurs in one foot, not both, says Dr. Pribut, because of a leg–length discrepancy or strength imbalance.
Runners who suffer from plantar fasciitis often have weak muscles in their feet. So try this exercise to strengthen your toes and feet: Keeping your heel on the floor, curl your toes down against a towel and try to drag it closer to you. Plantar fasciitis can also signal tight calf muscles, so Pribut recommends gentle stretching of those muscles to ease the pain and to prevent a recurrence."
Plantar fasciitis, which causes pain in the heel or arch, occurs when the connective fibers that run along the bottom of the foot become inflamed at the spot where they attach to the heel bone. The pain most often occurs in one foot, not both, says Dr. Pribut, because of a leg–length discrepancy or strength imbalance.
Runners who suffer from plantar fasciitis often have weak muscles in their feet. So try this exercise to strengthen your toes and feet: Keeping your heel on the floor, curl your toes down against a towel and try to drag it closer to you. Plantar fasciitis can also signal tight calf muscles, so Pribut recommends gentle stretching of those muscles to ease the pain and to prevent a recurrence."
The billionaire Koch brothers’ war against Obama : The New Yorker
The billionaire Koch brothers’ war against Obama : The New Yorker: "The anti-government fervor infusing the 2010 elections represents a political triumph for the Kochs. By giving money to “educate,” fund, and organize Tea Party protesters, they have helped turn their private agenda into a mass movement. Bruce Bartlett, a conservative economist and a historian, who once worked at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a Dallas-based think tank that the Kochs fund, said, “The problem with the whole libertarian movement is that it’s been all chiefs and no Indians. There haven’t been any actual people, like voters, who give a crap about it. So the problem for the Kochs has been trying to create a movement.” With the emergence of the Tea Party, he said, “everyone suddenly sees that for the first time there are Indians out there—people who can provide real ideological power.” The Kochs, he said, are “trying to shape and control and channel the populist uprising into their own policies.”"
Benchmade Mini Pika II Knife from Backcountry.com
Benchmade Mini Pika II Knife from Backcountry.com
Tiny knives are incredibly useful, if only for manually sharpening pencils and opening packages.
Tiny knives are incredibly useful, if only for manually sharpening pencils and opening packages.
James Patterson Inc. - NYTimes.com
James Patterson Inc. - NYTimes.com: "Patterson considers himself as an entertainer, not a man of letters. Still, he bristles when he hears one of his books described as a guilty pleasure: “Why should anyone feel guilty about reading a book?” Patterson said that what he does — coming up with stories that will resonate with a lot of people and rendering them in a readable style — is no different from what King, Grisham and other popular authors do. “I have a saying,” Patterson told me. “If you want to write for yourself, get a diary. If you want to write for a few friends, get a blog. But if you want to write for a lot of people, think about them a little bit. What do they like? What are their needs? A lot of people in this country go through their days numb. They need to be entertained. They need to feel something.”"
James Patterson Inc. - NYTimes.com
James Patterson Inc. - NYTimes.com: "At first, Patterson’s literary taste ran toward the highbrow — Jerzy Kosinski, Jean Genet, Evan S. Connell. “I was a snob,” he says. After graduating from Manhattan College in 1969, Patterson was given a free ride to Vanderbilt University’s graduate program in English literature but dropped out after just one year. “I had found two things that I loved, reading and writing,” he told me. “If I became a college professor, I knew I was going to wind up killing them both off.”"
Sunday, August 22
What Is It About 20-Somethings? - NYTimes.com
What Is It About 20-Somethings? - NYTimes.com: "The 20s are a black box, and there is a lot of churning in there. One-third of people in their 20s move to a new residence every year. Forty percent move back home with their parents at least once. They go through an average of seven jobs in their 20s, more job changes than in any other stretch. Two-thirds spend at least some time living with a romantic partner without being married. And marriage occurs later than ever. The median age at first marriage in the early 1970s, when the baby boomers were young, was 21 for women and 23 for men; by 2009 it had climbed to 26 for women and 28 for men, five years in a little more than a generation."
What Is It About 20-Somethings? - NYTimes.com
What Is It About 20-Somethings? - NYTimes.com: "A cover of The New Yorker last spring picked up on the zeitgeist: a young man hangs up his new Ph.D. in his boyhood bedroom, the cardboard box at his feet signaling his plans to move back home now that he’s officially overqualified for a job. In the doorway stand his parents, their expressions a mix of resignation, worry, annoyance and perplexity: how exactly did this happen?"
Experiencing Teen Drama Overload? Blame Biology : NPR
Experiencing Teen Drama Overload? Blame Biology : NPR: "It's All In The Brain
Over the past decade, researchers have found it's not just a case of raging hormones. Teens may actually not be able to help their reactions due to dramatic changes in their rapidly developing brains.
James Chattra — a pediatrician practicing in Redmond, Wash. — says that at about age 12, the brain begins a massive shift in the prefrontal cortex, or the 'thinking' part of the brain.
'It's going through this amazing pruning and rewiring and shift. But because of that, sometimes the prefrontal cortex that allows us to take a break, stop and think, is not working as well,' Chattra says.
About half of the 'thinking' neurons in certain regions of the brain, Chattra says, are literally 'wiped out.'"
This explains so much.
Over the past decade, researchers have found it's not just a case of raging hormones. Teens may actually not be able to help their reactions due to dramatic changes in their rapidly developing brains.
James Chattra — a pediatrician practicing in Redmond, Wash. — says that at about age 12, the brain begins a massive shift in the prefrontal cortex, or the 'thinking' part of the brain.
'It's going through this amazing pruning and rewiring and shift. But because of that, sometimes the prefrontal cortex that allows us to take a break, stop and think, is not working as well,' Chattra says.
About half of the 'thinking' neurons in certain regions of the brain, Chattra says, are literally 'wiped out.'"
This explains so much.
Saturday, August 21
Maturity for Modern Kids - The Barnes & Noble Review
Maturity for Modern Kids - The Barnes & Noble Review: "When Win Butler calls the Arcade Fire's music 'art-rock,' first you chuckle at his candor. Then you wonder whether he has anything artier than Electric Light Orchestra in mind.
�"
�"
The Littlest Schoolhouse - Magazine - The Atlantic
The Littlest Schoolhouse - Magazine - The Atlantic: "Here’s how it works: first, the student and his parents and teachers are surveyed about his classroom habits. Then the student takes a diagnostic test to see how well he understands basic math. Those data are then sent to the New York Department of Education’s headquarters in Lower Manhattan, where School of One’s algorithm produces a tentative lesson plan. That lesson plan is then e-mailed to the student’s teachers, who revise it as they see fit. At the end of every day, the student takes another short diagnostic, which is used to create another tentative lesson plan that appears in the teachers’ inboxes by eight o’clock that evening.
The result is that one student might learn to add fractions at a dry-erase board with a small group, while another student uses the Internet to practice calculating the area of a circle with a tutor in Kentucky, while still another student learns about factoring through a game on his laptop."
The result is that one student might learn to add fractions at a dry-erase board with a small group, while another student uses the Internet to practice calculating the area of a circle with a tutor in Kentucky, while still another student learns about factoring through a game on his laptop."
Done w/ Sam's Club fish oil - Mind and Muscle Forums
Done w/ Sam's Club fish oil - Mind and Muscle Forums: "My wife and I both noticed a difference switching from the Walmart brand, pretty much balanced EPA/DHA, to Jarrow's EPActive which is 400mg EPA and 24mg DHA per two, tiny softgels. I wanted to try EPA Brite, but *** that stuff ain't cheap, and EPActive isn't too bad at BulkNutrition."
Friday, August 20
Charlie's Diary: How long does it take to produce a novel?
Charlie's Diary: How long does it take to produce a novel?: "How long does it take to produce a novel?"
Career U. - Making College ‘Relevant’ - NYTimes.com
Career U. - Making College ‘Relevant’ - NYTimes.com The death of philosophy departments.
Robert Lanza, M.D.: Does the Past Exist Yet? Evidence Suggests Your Past Isn't Set in Stone
Robert Lanza, M.D.: Does the Past Exist Yet? Evidence Suggests Your Past Isn't Set in Stone: "In 2002, scientists carried out an amazing experiment, which showed that particles of light 'photons' knew -- in advance −- what their distant twins would do in the future. They tested the communication between pairs of photons -- whether to be either a wave or a particle. Researchers stretched the distance one of the photons had to take to reach its detector, so that the other photon would hit its own detector first. The photons taking this path already finished their journeys -− they either collapse into a particle or don't before their twin encounters a scrambling device. Somehow, the particles acted on this information before it happened, and across distances instantaneously as if there was no space or time between them."
"Anyway, Hyde talks about irony after a
while becoming the sound of prisoners who enjoy their confinement.
The song of a bird who enjoys being in the cage. For instance, if
I'm uncomfortable with how commercial the culture is and how
everybody seems to be out for a buck, I decide so I'll do it too,
but I'll kind of make fun of myself and say, 'I'm a whore, just
like you're a whore,' and now we all get an uneasy laugh out of
it."
while becoming the sound of prisoners who enjoy their confinement.
The song of a bird who enjoys being in the cage. For instance, if
I'm uncomfortable with how commercial the culture is and how
everybody seems to be out for a buck, I decide so I'll do it too,
but I'll kind of make fun of myself and say, 'I'm a whore, just
like you're a whore,' and now we all get an uneasy laugh out of
it."
"The damaged-infant trope is perfect because it captures the mix of repulsion and love the fiction-writer feels for something he's working on. The fiction always comes out so horrifically defective, so hideous a betrayal of all your hopes for it -- a cruel and repellent caricature of the perfection of its conception -- yes, understand: grotesque because imperfect. And yet it's yours, the infant is, it's you, and you love it and dandle it and wipe the cerebro-spinal fluid off its slack chin with the cuff of the only clean shirt you have left"
Thursday, August 19
Sharpie Liquid Pencil, the aftermath: it's 'permanent,' not permanent -- Engadget
Sharpie Liquid Pencil, the aftermath: it's 'permanent,' not permanent -- Engadget: "Yes, we are being told that while the Sharpie Liquid Pencil meets the international standard for 'permanency,' it may still almost completely erase -- and of course, a clarification containing many caveats will issue. Looking back on the entire affair, it's hard to see how it could have ended any differently: a fresh-faced newcomer grasping tightly at the Dream, only to fall apart amid broken promises, appeals to international law, and the dull sense that one day each of us will in turn be erased. Good-bye, Sharpie Liquid Pencil -- and good-bye, innocence."
Monday, August 16
Sunday, August 15
Saturday, August 14
Friday, August 13
3rd Global Conference Digital Memories
Monday 14th March – Wednesday 16th March 2011
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers
This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference aims
to examine, explore and critically engage with the
issues and implications created by the
massive exploitation of digital technologies for
inter-human communication and examine how on-line
users form, archive and de-/code their memories in
cybermedia environments, and how the systems used
for production influence the way the users
perceive and work with the memory. In particular
the conference will encourage equally theoretical
and practical debates which surround the cultural
contexts of memory co-/production, re-/mediation,
en-/decoding, dissemination, personal/mass
interpretation and preservation.
Papers, presentations, workshops and reports are
invited on any of the following themes:
1. Digital Personal and Community Memory
Theories and Concepts of Memory. The Digitisation
of Individual and Community Memory. Identifying
Key Features and Issues.
2. Externalization and Mediation of Memories
Memory Metaphors in the Digital Age. Web 2.0
Services as a Medium for Production/Dissemination
of Memory. Representational Principles for
Memory Recording.
3. Memory in Cybercultures and Arts
Social Networking and Fan Cultures. New Media Arts
and Memory. The Spatialization of memories in New
Media and Virtual Worlds. Digital
Media Archeology and Cyber-Arts history. Music,
History and Cultural memory.
4. Memory and Technology
The Memory of Digital Media and Systems. The
Recording Device and the User Response. Mobile
Systems. Prototyping Tools. Archeology of
Interfaces. Cloud Intelligence. Information
Architecture.
5. Archiving and Dissemination of memory Data
Digital Data Recording. Memory Restoring and
Preservation Strategies. Digital Libraries and
Archives. Database Design, Data Retrieval and
Usage. User Response and Modelling. Political,
Judicial and Social Problems with Data Ownership.
6. Uses of new media for Production of Historical
Knowledge National Identity and memory in the
Digital Age. Political uses of cybermedia for
Historical revisionism.
7. Specific Research on Community Memory
Social Issues Research. Online Ethnographic
Research. Privacy and Legal Issues in Community
Informatics. Folksonomies as Anthropological
Archives. Digital Life and Digital Death.
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the
submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 300 word
abstracts should be submitted by Friday 1st
October 2010. All submissions are minimally double
blind peer reviewed where appropriate. If an
abstract is accepted for the conference, a full
draft paper should be submitted by Friday 4th
February 2011. Abstracts should be submitted
simultaneously to the Organising Chairs; abstracts
may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with
the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d)
title of abstract, e) body of abstract
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain
from using footnotes and any special formatting,
characters or emphasis (such as bold,
italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and
answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do
not receive a reply from us in a week you
should assume we did not receive your proposal; it
might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to
look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Daniel Riha
Cyber Hub Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net and
Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
E-mail: rihad@inter-disciplinary.net
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire, UK
E-mail: digmem3@inter-disciplinary.net
The conference is part of the 'At the Interface'
programme of research projects. It aims to bring
together people from different areas and
interests to share ideas and explore various
discussions which are innovative and exciting.
All papers accepted for and presented at this
conference will be eligible for publication in an
ISBN eBook. Selected papers maybe invited
for development for publication in a themed hard
copy volume(s) or for inclusion in a new Cyber
journal (launching 2011).
For further details about the project please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/cyber/digital-memories/
For further details about the conference please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/cyber/digital-memories/call-for-papers/
----------------------------------------------------------------
This announcement is distributed via Conference Alerts.
We aim to provide correct and reliable information about
upcoming events, but cannot accept responsibility for the text
of announcements or for the bona fides of event organizers.
Please feel free to contact us if you notice incorrect or
misleading information and we will attempt to correct it.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Monday 14th March – Wednesday 16th March 2011
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers
This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference aims
to examine, explore and critically engage with the
issues and implications created by the
massive exploitation of digital technologies for
inter-human communication and examine how on-line
users form, archive and de-/code their memories in
cybermedia environments, and how the systems used
for production influence the way the users
perceive and work with the memory. In particular
the conference will encourage equally theoretical
and practical debates which surround the cultural
contexts of memory co-/production, re-/mediation,
en-/decoding, dissemination, personal/mass
interpretation and preservation.
Papers, presentations, workshops and reports are
invited on any of the following themes:
1. Digital Personal and Community Memory
Theories and Concepts of Memory. The Digitisation
of Individual and Community Memory. Identifying
Key Features and Issues.
2. Externalization and Mediation of Memories
Memory Metaphors in the Digital Age. Web 2.0
Services as a Medium for Production/Dissemination
of Memory. Representational Principles for
Memory Recording.
3. Memory in Cybercultures and Arts
Social Networking and Fan Cultures. New Media Arts
and Memory. The Spatialization of memories in New
Media and Virtual Worlds. Digital
Media Archeology and Cyber-Arts history. Music,
History and Cultural memory.
4. Memory and Technology
The Memory of Digital Media and Systems. The
Recording Device and the User Response. Mobile
Systems. Prototyping Tools. Archeology of
Interfaces. Cloud Intelligence. Information
Architecture.
5. Archiving and Dissemination of memory Data
Digital Data Recording. Memory Restoring and
Preservation Strategies. Digital Libraries and
Archives. Database Design, Data Retrieval and
Usage. User Response and Modelling. Political,
Judicial and Social Problems with Data Ownership.
6. Uses of new media for Production of Historical
Knowledge National Identity and memory in the
Digital Age. Political uses of cybermedia for
Historical revisionism.
7. Specific Research on Community Memory
Social Issues Research. Online Ethnographic
Research. Privacy and Legal Issues in Community
Informatics. Folksonomies as Anthropological
Archives. Digital Life and Digital Death.
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the
submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 300 word
abstracts should be submitted by Friday 1st
October 2010. All submissions are minimally double
blind peer reviewed where appropriate. If an
abstract is accepted for the conference, a full
draft paper should be submitted by Friday 4th
February 2011. Abstracts should be submitted
simultaneously to the Organising Chairs; abstracts
may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with
the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d)
title of abstract, e) body of abstract
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain
from using footnotes and any special formatting,
characters or emphasis (such as bold,
italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and
answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do
not receive a reply from us in a week you
should assume we did not receive your proposal; it
might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to
look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Daniel Riha
Cyber Hub Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net and
Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
E-mail: rihad@inter-disciplinary.net
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire, UK
E-mail: digmem3@inter-disciplinary.net
The conference is part of the 'At the Interface'
programme of research projects. It aims to bring
together people from different areas and
interests to share ideas and explore various
discussions which are innovative and exciting.
All papers accepted for and presented at this
conference will be eligible for publication in an
ISBN eBook. Selected papers maybe invited
for development for publication in a themed hard
copy volume(s) or for inclusion in a new Cyber
journal (launching 2011).
For further details about the project please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.
For further details about the conference please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.
------------------------------
This announcement is distributed via Conference Alerts.
We aim to provide correct and reliable information about
upcoming events, but cannot accept responsibility for the text
of announcements or for the bona fides of event organizers.
Please feel free to contact us if you notice incorrect or
misleading information and we will attempt to correct it.
------------------------------
Wednesday, August 11
Tuesday, August 10
The glorious, ludicrous feud between Pel�and Diego Maradona. - By Brian Phillips - Slate Magazine
The glorious, ludicrous feud between Pel�and Diego Maradona. - By Brian Phillips - Slate Magazine: "Pel�, always the classier of the two, restricted himself to taunting Maradona from the stage while comparing himself to Beethoven."
Fed-Up Flight Attendant for Jet Blue Lets Curses Fly, Then Makes Sliding Exit - NYTimes.com
Fed-Up Flight Attendant for Jet Blue Lets Curses Fly, Then Makes Sliding Exit - NYTimes.com: "One passenger stood up to retrieve belongings from the overhead compartment before the crew had given permission. Mr. Slater instructed the person to remain seated. The passenger defied him. Mr. Slater reached the passenger just as the person was pulling down the luggage, which struck Mr. Slater in the head.
Mr. Slater asked for an apology. The passenger instead cursed at him. Mr. Slater got on the plane’s public-address system and cursed out the passenger for all to hear. Then, after declaring that 20 years in the airline industry was enough, he blurted out, “It’s been great!” He activated the inflatable evacuation slide at a service exit and left the world of flight attending behind."
Mr. Slater asked for an apology. The passenger instead cursed at him. Mr. Slater got on the plane’s public-address system and cursed out the passenger for all to hear. Then, after declaring that 20 years in the airline industry was enough, he blurted out, “It’s been great!” He activated the inflatable evacuation slide at a service exit and left the world of flight attending behind."
Fed-Up Flight Attendant for Jet Blue Lets Curses Fly, Then Makes Sliding Exit - NYTimes.com
Fed-Up Flight Attendant for Jet Blue Lets Curses Fly, Then Makes Sliding Exit - NYTimes.com: "Then, the authorities said, he pulled the lever that activates the emergency-evacuation chute and slid down, making a dramatic exit not only from the plane but, one imagines, also from his airline career."
Saturday, August 7
Rockstar, Blizzard and Quantic Dream Lead the Pack - NYTimes.com
Rockstar, Blizzard and Quantic Dream Lead the Pack - NYTimes.com: "PLAYER EMPATHY This is almost impossible to isolate, but when you play a Blizzard or Rockstar game, or most titles from other elite developers like Bungie, Epic, Valve, Id or Popcap, you are immersed in a feeling that they were made by people who actually like to play games. To them, it seems, the overall entertainment experience comes first, and the path to making a lot of money is paved by smiles, which is as it should be.
In the end, what these games convey is their creators’ unmistakable culture of excellence: a clear, rational, stubborn refusal to be anything less than the best at what they do. It is an incredibly powerful sensation when you get to experience it."
In the end, what these games convey is their creators’ unmistakable culture of excellence: a clear, rational, stubborn refusal to be anything less than the best at what they do. It is an incredibly powerful sensation when you get to experience it."
Consumers Find Ways to Spend Less and Find Happiness - NYTimes.com
Consumers Find Ways to Spend Less and Find Happiness - NYTimes.com: "Inspired by books and blog entries about living simply, Ms. Strobel and her husband, Logan Smith, both 31, began donating some of their belongings to charity. As the months passed, out went stacks of sweaters, shoes, books, pots and pans, even the television after a trial separation during which it was relegated to a closet. Eventually, they got rid of their cars, too. Emboldened by a Web site that challenges consumers to live with just 100 personal items, Ms. Strobel winnowed down her wardrobe and toiletries to precisely that number."
A Man With Muffin Secrets, but No Way to Cash Them In - NYTimes.com
A Man With Muffin Secrets, but No Way to Cash Them In - NYTimes.com: "According to Bimbo’s filings, the secret of the nooks and crannies was split into several pieces to make it more secure, and to protect the approximately $500 million in yearly muffin sales. They included the basic recipe, the moisture level of the muffin mixture, the equipment used and the way the product was baked. While many Bimbo employees may have known one or more pieces of the puzzle, only seven knew every step."
Massive Right-Wing Censorship Of Digg Uncovered | MetaFilter
Massive Right-Wing Censorship Of Digg Uncovered | MetaFilter: "You can't parody them any more. They're so far gone that you if you try to make fun of a Tea Partier, you turn around and they're saying something so crazy that it outstrips your parody by factors. It's like you show up to a party with a couple of buckets of crazy saying 'Look at me! I'm a Tea Partier! Nobama! Nobama!' and then you realize that there's a guy at the party that has brought a whole kiddy pool of crazy and he's splashing around in it in the middle of the room, just flailing around in his gallons and gallons of batshit-insane, totally serious about the whole thing, not at all aware of the shocked silence and embarassment of everyone else in the room, and you realize that no matter how hard you try, you can never compete."
Plutonomy | MetaFilter
Plutonomy | MetaFilter: "I thought of that Amway distributor analysis results screen -- the 'starry field' -- when I read the article. Because that's the way it is. That's the way it always is. There's always a few guys at the top driving the motorhomes, and they get everyone else to support them by pushing down a steady diet of fear or hope."
Another casualty of war | The Salt Lake Tribune
Another casualty of war | The Salt Lake Tribune: "But the count is incomplete. The Department of Veterans Affairs believes that more than 6,000 veterans — including many who have served in the nation’s ongoing conflicts — will commit suicide this year. VA officials say many of these deaths are as much a consequence of combat as those resulting immediately from bombs or bullets.
In the long run, the National Institute of Mental Health has estimated, suicide will eclipse roadside bombings as the leading cause of death among those who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan."
In the long run, the National Institute of Mental Health has estimated, suicide will eclipse roadside bombings as the leading cause of death among those who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Provo police officer fired after sex-abuse allegations | The Salt Lake Tribune
Provo police officer fired after sex-abuse allegations | The Salt Lake Tribune: "Detectives reviewed surveillance footage from the scene that was consistent with the victim’s report, Brower said. Westerman later made false statements to investigators in the case, Brower said."
Horrible that this guy did what he did. Scary that we are being observed constantly.
Friday, August 6
Israeli Ruger 10/22 Suppressed Sniper Rifle
Israeli Ruger 10/22 Suppressed Sniper Rifle: "In 1987, the Intifada - the Palestinian uprising against the Israeli regime in the Occupied Territories - broke out, and involved mass violent clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians protestors. As a result, the Israeli security forces needed a weapon with a more potent firepower then the standard riot control metal covered rubber round, but at the same time less lethal then the standard issue 5.56 mm round of the M16/Galil assault rifles. So the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) searched for a 0.22 caliber accurate rifle that will be used to take out the key protest leaders by shooting them in the legs.
The Ruger 10/22, fitted with a X4 day optic, a full length suppressor and a Harris bipod was selected for this role and was due to be issued to all infantry oriented units, including both special and conventional forces. However, as often happens in the shoestring budget IDF, financial problems prevented the weapon's mass distribution, and it was mainly issued to Special Forces (SF) units. Moreover, instead of using the rifle as a riot control weapon, as originally intended, the Israeli SF deployed the Ruger 10/22 more as a 'Hush Puppy' weapon used to silently and effectively eliminate disturbing dogs prior to operations."
The Ruger 10/22, fitted with a X4 day optic, a full length suppressor and a Harris bipod was selected for this role and was due to be issued to all infantry oriented units, including both special and conventional forces. However, as often happens in the shoestring budget IDF, financial problems prevented the weapon's mass distribution, and it was mainly issued to Special Forces (SF) units. Moreover, instead of using the rifle as a riot control weapon, as originally intended, the Israeli SF deployed the Ruger 10/22 more as a 'Hush Puppy' weapon used to silently and effectively eliminate disturbing dogs prior to operations."
Thursday, August 5
KUER: 8/3/10: The Genius in All of Us (2010-08-03)
KUER: 8/3/10: The Genius in All of Us (2010-08-03): "Journalist David Shenk says that everything we believe about intelligence and 'giftedness' comes from early-20th century guesswork and that it's all wrong. He's written a new book that looks at talent from a variety of scientific fields and it turns out that DNA isn't the blueprint of who we will become. Shenk joins Doug to talk about the interplay between genes and environment and about 'The Genius in All of Us.'"
Solid grips and pump handle on 1377c
Solid grips and pump handle on 1377c: "On Airgunartisan Websight, I copied these picture links.� The author says he used 'Krylon Stone Look Paint'.
� I went out and purchased 'Plasti-Kote' brand 'projekt paint' 'Stone Touch' P/N #11444 (Manhattan Mist) which is thick spray, highly textured Mostly Grey with Black and White Specs.�"
� I went out and purchased 'Plasti-Kote' brand 'projekt paint' 'Stone Touch' P/N #11444 (Manhattan Mist) which is thick spray, highly textured Mostly Grey with Black and White Specs.�"
Tuesday, August 3
NYT: $200 Textbook vs. Free. You Do the Math.
Two founders of Sun Microsystems have created two nonprofits to bring open-source textbooks to kindergarten through high school classes.
http://nyti.ms/bmYKfl
I'm trying to figure out what the advantage is of creating a large foundation to produce and distribute free textbooks when there are already so many out there. I suppose there's the possibility of editorial shaping of the text, or of perhaps meeting standards set by California or Texas, and thereby ensuring widespread adoption. Still, the top down model (and help me find a better name for this) reminds me of Mitch Kapor's attempt at a free version of Lotus Agenda [wait--there's actually a downloadable version!], or even Ted Nelson's "failed" attempts to instantiate Xanadu.
I have an anti-authoritarian streak and am always drawn to these hopeless attempts to blow up various deathstars, while Nick keeps patiently reminding me that we have a ways to go yet. Does that make Nick Obiwan Kenobi or Grand Moff Tarkin?
From the article:
“We are spending $8 billion to $15 billion per year on textbooks” in the United States, Mr. McNealy says. “It seems to me we could put that all online for free.”
The nonprofit Curriki fits into an ever-expanding list of organizations that seek to bring the blunt force of Internet economics to bear on the education market. Even the traditional textbook publishers agree that the days of tweaking a few pages in a book just to sell a new edition are coming to an end.
I suppose there's some advantage to a central clearinghouse of free textbooks. It might make books like Steve Krause's or Charlie Lowe's Writing Spaces project more visible. Anyway, I'm rehashing old arguments. Move along.
Chandler project: http://chandlerproject.org/
Krause: http://stevendkrause.com/tprw/
Charles Lowe textbook project: http://bit.ly/ciJVEF
Two founders of Sun Microsystems have created two nonprofits to bring open-source textbooks to kindergarten through high school classes.
http://nyti.ms/bmYKfl
I'm trying to figure out what the advantage is of creating a large foundation to produce and distribute free textbooks when there are already so many out there. I suppose there's the possibility of editorial shaping of the text, or of perhaps meeting standards set by California or Texas, and thereby ensuring widespread adoption. Still, the top down model (and help me find a better name for this) reminds me of Mitch Kapor's attempt at a free version of Lotus Agenda [wait--there's actually a downloadable version!], or even Ted Nelson's "failed" attempts to instantiate Xanadu.
I have an anti-authoritarian streak and am always drawn to these hopeless attempts to blow up various deathstars, while Nick keeps patiently reminding me that we have a ways to go yet. Does that make Nick Obiwan Kenobi or Grand Moff Tarkin?
From the article:
“We are spending $8 billion to $15 billion per year on textbooks” in the United States, Mr. McNealy says. “It seems to me we could put that all online for free.”
The nonprofit Curriki fits into an ever-expanding list of organizations that seek to bring the blunt force of Internet economics to bear on the education market. Even the traditional textbook publishers agree that the days of tweaking a few pages in a book just to sell a new edition are coming to an end.
I suppose there's some advantage to a central clearinghouse of free textbooks. It might make books like Steve Krause's or Charlie Lowe's Writing Spaces project more visible. Anyway, I'm rehashing old arguments. Move along.
Chandler project: http://chandlerproject.org/
Krause: http://stevendkrause.com/tprw/
Charles Lowe textbook project: http://bit.ly/ciJVEF
Monday, August 2
Adventure Playgrounds - Issue 012 - GOOD
Adventure Playgrounds - Issue 012 - GOOD: "Berkeley’s Adventure Playground is one of a handful of playgrounds in the United States based on a concept that grew in popularity after World War II. During the Nazi occupation of Denmark, the landscape architect C. Th. S�rensen created a new playground with whatever junk was available. It turned out, that’s exactly what kids like. “The simplicity of the concept is still startling,” writes Susan Solomon. “This idea—that kids are more interested in playing with what they find lying around than with what we think they should be playing—is the bedrock idea of all new play areas. Kids, whose lives are becoming increasingly structured by school, sports, music lessons, need time to do anything they want, and if it’s not given to them, they will just take it.”"
The SF Site: A Conversation With Ted Chiang
The SF Site: A Conversation With Ted Chiang: "In the recent book The Botany of Desire, author Michael Pollan describes how the advent of cheap sugar changed what we mean by 'sweet.' Before sugar was widely available, 'sweetness' described an unalloyed good, even a noble quality. Nowadays, it has far more mixed connotations, having been cheapened, almost debased, by sugar's ubiquity. It occurs to me that the same thing that happened to taste may be happening to appearance."
The Postmodern Condition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Postmodern Condition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The Postmodern Condition was written as a report on the influence of technology on the notion of knowledge in exact sciences, commissioned by the Qu�bec government. Lyotard later admitted that he had a 'less than limited' knowledge of the science he was to write about, and to compensate for this knowledge, he 'made stories up' and referred to a number of books that he hadn't actually read. In retrospect, he called it 'a parody' and 'simply the worst of all my books'.[3] Despite this, and much to Lyotard's regret, it came to be seen as his most important piece of writing."
All Creative Work Is Derivative (Minute Meme #2) | QuestionCopyright.org
All Creative Work Is Derivative (Minute Meme #2) | QuestionCopyright.org: "I was very affected by a South Asian sculpture exhibit I saw at the Met years ago (I was early in producing 'Sita' and still seeking Ramayana art) which made it very clear how ancient Greece and India were cross-pollinating each other. There was one period in which Greek and Indian sculpture were almost indistinguishable. This is especially striking since we're taught 'Western' and 'Eastern' history are separate; when the British colonized India centuries later, it was like a lost exotic land to them."
Sunday, August 1
Goings On: Shouts & Murmurs: Christopher Nolan’s “Implementation” : The New Yorker
Goings On: Shouts & Murmurs: Christopher Nolan’s “Implementation” : The New Yorker: "Cobb believes her. The project milestone is hit, the tangibles are delivered, and DiCaprio and Watanabe are back on a helipad in Manhattan. DiCaprio takes the subway to Park Slope and walks into his old tapenade shop, where he can finally read the list of local, organic ingredients on the label. He takes out his corporate badge and spins it on the table. Cut to black."
AFP: Palin to reporter-next-door: 'Get a life'
AFP: Palin to reporter-next-door: 'Get a life': "The Palins also put up a 14-foot fence between the homes."
Bill Murray on Ghostbusters 3, Get Low, Ron Howard, and Kung Fu Hustle: Celebrities: GQ
Bill Murray on Ghostbusters 3, Get Low, Ron Howard, and Kung Fu Hustle: Celebrities: GQ: "I'm always interested in how you pick your projects, because that's one damned random filmography. For Get Low, I dimly suspect that it came down to the line 'One thing about Chicago, people know how to die.'
[laughs] Well, that was appealing. No, [producer] Dean Zanuck and I had the nicest phone conversation, and I thought, Hmm… And then I saw the making-of DVD of his last movie. This really should be kept secret, but you can learn a lot by watching the making-of DVDs. Every actor should do it. You figure out what you're dealing with. And I thought, You know, this guy is all right. And it turned out beautifully. Where the hell did we take it? That's right. Poland. There's kind of a famous cinematography festival, in a place called Lodz, and God, they went nuts for it. These cinematographers were all, [deadpan Eastern European accent] 'Oh yeah, dis good.'"
[laughs] Well, that was appealing. No, [producer] Dean Zanuck and I had the nicest phone conversation, and I thought, Hmm… And then I saw the making-of DVD of his last movie. This really should be kept secret, but you can learn a lot by watching the making-of DVDs. Every actor should do it. You figure out what you're dealing with. And I thought, You know, this guy is all right. And it turned out beautifully. Where the hell did we take it? That's right. Poland. There's kind of a famous cinematography festival, in a place called Lodz, and God, they went nuts for it. These cinematographers were all, [deadpan Eastern European accent] 'Oh yeah, dis good.'"
Get Low | Rolling Stone Movies | News and Reviews
Get Low | Rolling Stone Movies | News and Reviews: "All you need to know is that Get Low puts Duvall and Murray in the same movie. Only a fool would want to miss that."
Master Planner: Fred Brooks Shows How to Design Anything | Magazine
Master Planner: Fred Brooks Shows How to Design Anything | Magazine: "Brooks: You can learn more from failure than success. In failure you’re forced to find out what part did not work. But in success you can believe everything you did was great, when in fact some parts may not have worked at all. Failure forces you to face reality."
2009 June � Game Design Concepts
2009 June � Game Design Concepts: "What is a game?
Those of you who have read a little into the Challenges text may think this is obvious. My preferred definition is a play activity with rules that involves conflict. But the question “what is a game?” is actually more complicated than that:"
Those of you who have read a little into the Challenges text may think this is obvious. My preferred definition is a play activity with rules that involves conflict. But the question “what is a game?” is actually more complicated than that:"
Sovereign Citizen Movement -- Extremism in America
Sovereign Citizen Movement -- Extremism in America: "beginning in the late 1960s, a number of right-wing fringe groups formed that questioned the authority and nature of the federal government. Most grew out of a recently emergent right-wing tax-protest movement: arguments about the illegitimacy of income tax laws were easily expanded or altered to challenge the legitimacy of the government itself. The most important of these groups was the Posse Comitatus,1 which originated in Oregon and California around 1970."
Exposed: The Last Roll Of Kodachrome : NPR
Exposed: The Last Roll Of Kodachrome : NPR: "The film, known for its rich saturation and archival durability of its slides, was discontinued last year to the dismay of photographers worldwide. But Kodak gave the last roll ever produced to McCurry. He has just processed that coveted roll at Dwayne's Photo Service in Parsons, Kan. — the last remaining location that processes the once-popular slide film."
Friday, July 30
Thursday, July 29
Watching the Corners: On Future-Proofing Your Passion | 43 Folders
Watching the Corners: On Future-Proofing Your Passion | 43 Folders: "By starting adult life with an autistically explicit “goal” that’s never been tested against any kind of real-world experience or reality-in-context, we can paradoxically miss a thousand more useful, lucrative, or organic opportunities that just…what?…pop up. Often these are one-time chances to do amazing and even unique things—opportunities that many of us continue to reject out of hand because it’s “not what we do.”"
Lower Rectus Abdominis
Lower Rectus Abdominis: "Listed below are exercises that focus on the lower rectus abdominis muscle.
Reverse Crunch
Beginner: Lie on your back with knees pulled into your chest. Hands are behind your head and belly button is pulled in tightly. Exhale and contract your lower abs so that your hips and buns lift off the floor. Inhale as you slowly lower to the starting position."
Reverse Crunch
Beginner: Lie on your back with knees pulled into your chest. Hands are behind your head and belly button is pulled in tightly. Exhale and contract your lower abs so that your hips and buns lift off the floor. Inhale as you slowly lower to the starting position."
ATPM 16.05 - Review: TaskPaper
ATPM 16.05 - Review: TaskPaper: "TaskPaper is a magical text editor. It presents a familiar digital blank sheet, as you would see in Microsoft Word or in Apple Pages. You can have multiple documents. The developer lives up to his advertising copy: you just type. Everything you need to do, you can do with the keyboard.
There are four types of items: projects, which end with a colon; tasks, which start with a dash; contexts, which are prefixed with the “@” symbol; and notes, which are everything else (and appear in gray). They are arrayed in an outline hierarchy, so you can nest projects and tasks. That’s it. You can cut and paste, drag and drop, and mark both projects and tasks as done, shown with a strike-through. You can archive done projects and tasks. A menu command sends done items to the archive at the bottom, including children of done items."
Possible alternative to Mobile Org
There are four types of items: projects, which end with a colon; tasks, which start with a dash; contexts, which are prefixed with the “@” symbol; and notes, which are everything else (and appear in gray). They are arrayed in an outline hierarchy, so you can nest projects and tasks. That’s it. You can cut and paste, drag and drop, and mark both projects and tasks as done, shown with a strike-through. You can archive done projects and tasks. A menu command sends done items to the archive at the bottom, including children of done items."
Possible alternative to Mobile Org
Tuesday, July 27
Will Zynga Become the Google of Games? - NYTimes.com
Will Zynga Become the Google of Games? - NYTimes.com: "At a recent gathering of media and technology moguls, Jeffrey Katzenberg, the C.E.O. of DreamWorks Animation, was asked what he would do if he were to start his career over. “I said I would like to be Mark Pincus,” he recalled in an interview. “He has nailed the next killer app, the next compelling thing that’s going to happen” in media."
LDS.org - Ensign Article - Divorce
LDS.org - Ensign Article - Divorce: "Richard E. Lucas, “Adaptation and the Set-Point Model of Subjective Well-Being: Does Happiness Change after Major Life Events?” Current Directions in Psychological Science, Apr. 2007, available at www.psychologicalscience.org."
Tenure Protects Freedom and Students' Learning - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com
Tenure Protects Freedom and Students' Learning - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com: "Among the widespread myths about tenure is that it enables faculty members to avoid teaching and pursue their research instead. Yet out of more than 3,500 colleges and universities in the United States, only about 10 percent have significant numbers of faculty members heavily devoted to research. The overwhelming majority of American teachers only teach. Yet they rely on the minority of faculty members doing research to keep disciplines and student textbooks up-to-date. America’s ongoing research thus helps sustain the quality of our teaching."
Monday, July 26
WikiLeaks and Julian Paul Assange : The New Yorker
WikiLeaks and Julian Paul Assange : The New Yorker: "WikiLeaks is a finalist for a Knight Foundation grant of more than half a million dollars. The intended project would set up a way for sources to pass documents to newspaper reporters securely; WikiLeaks would serve as a kind of numbered Swiss bank account, where information could be anonymously exchanged. (The system would allow the source to impose a deadline on the reporter, after which the document would automatically appear on WikiLeaks.) Assange has been experimenting with other ideas, too."
Saturday, July 24
IPad Goes Under The Gauntlet At Universities This Fall | Epicenter�| Wired.com
IPad Goes Under The Gauntlet At Universities This Fall | Epicenter�| Wired.com
I love Ipads, but they are not that great of a collaborative tool and don't manipulate documents with the fluidity of other platforms.
I love Ipads, but they are not that great of a collaborative tool and don't manipulate documents with the fluidity of other platforms.
Sen. Sam Ervin, Key Figure In Watergate Probe, Dies
Sen. Sam Ervin, Key Figure In Watergate Probe, Dies: "'If the many allegations made to this date are true, then the burglars who broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate were in effect breaking into the home of every citizen of the United States,' Ervin said. 'And if these allegations prove to be true, what they were seeking to steal was not the jewels, money or other precious property of American citizens, but something much more valuable - their most precious heritage: the right to vote in a free election.'
He said that Watergate 'for the first time undertook to destroy the integrity of the process' and said its perpetrators showed 'the same mentality as the Gestapo.'"
He said that Watergate 'for the first time undertook to destroy the integrity of the process' and said its perpetrators showed 'the same mentality as the Gestapo.'"
Thursday, July 22
I find your lack of faith disturbing
I find your lack of faith disturbing: "Says Dorothy Parker in the Norman book: 'I want nothing from Hollywood but money and anyone who tells you that he came here for anything else or tries to make beautiful words out of it lies in the teeth.'"
Wednesday, July 21
The Good Machine No-Budget Commandments | Truly Free Film
The Good Machine No-Budget Commandments | Truly Free Film: "1. Write to direct. A screenplay, especially a no-budget screenplay is a very loose blueprint for a film – ultimately every choice you make will compromise something else.
2. Write for what you know and for what you can obtain. This goes for actors, locations, animals, and major propping or set dressing. If your friend owns something, anything, write it into the film."
2. Write for what you know and for what you can obtain. This goes for actors, locations, animals, and major propping or set dressing. If your friend owns something, anything, write it into the film."
Whose Literacy Is It Anyway?
Whose Literacy Is It Anyway?: "Writing and Gaming: 'Literacy becomes a hydra-headed sort of thing'
From the very beginning of the FIP sequences, students recognize that they will be composing in a variety of genres and modalities, and that textual literacies, while important, are only a component of studying gaming.� Certainly, students wrote some traditional academic papers.� Dan Frost notes that students early on engaged in two different kinds of writing.� First, they documented and summarized basic principles of game design and how those principles were used in the development of games—a basic kind of analytical writing with a concrete object of study.� But students also spent time writing game design documents, the kind of documents that would be generated in the “pre-implementation” phase of the development of a game that are intended to document progress toward delivery of a collaboratively and iteratively generated product.�"
From the very beginning of the FIP sequences, students recognize that they will be composing in a variety of genres and modalities, and that textual literacies, while important, are only a component of studying gaming.� Certainly, students wrote some traditional academic papers.� Dan Frost notes that students early on engaged in two different kinds of writing.� First, they documented and summarized basic principles of game design and how those principles were used in the development of games—a basic kind of analytical writing with a concrete object of study.� But students also spent time writing game design documents, the kind of documents that would be generated in the “pre-implementation” phase of the development of a game that are intended to document progress toward delivery of a collaboratively and iteratively generated product.�"
Whose Literacy Is It Anyway?
Whose Literacy Is It Anyway?: "At the same time, a number of designers and critics of interactive experiences have turned to more sophisticated theories about rhetorical awareness or written expression than Gee’s simple talking points to interpret what they call the complex “operational logics” at work in computer games.� Among those who describe themselves as part of the 'software studies' movement, Ian Bogost was the first literally to write the book on “procedural rhetoric” in Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames, which interrogated some of Gee's assumptions."
Monday, July 19
Blanding man sentenced in relics case | The Salt Lake Tribune
Blanding man sentenced in relics case | The Salt Lake Tribune: "Indicted along with five co-defendants, Laws is the sixth of 26 Utah, Colorado and New Mexico residents the FBI and U.S. Bureau of Land Management netted in the sting. Two of the defendants committed suicide, as did the civilian undercover operative, Salt Lake County businessman and antiquities dealer Ted Gardiner, who did the buying and selling with the defendants."
Saturday, July 17
WikiAnswers - How do you fix a punctured basketball
WikiAnswers - How do you fix a punctured basketball: "BE VERY CAREFUL HANDLING THE SYRINGE. DO NOT ACCIDENTALLY INJECT YOURSELF OR ANYONE ELSE WITH THE SUPER GLUE AS THE CONSEQUENCES COULD BE LETHAL. IF YOU CHOOSE TO PERFORM THIS OPERATION MAKE SURE YOU DO IT IN THE PRESENCE OF ANOTHER ADULT, AS A PRECAUTIONARY MEASURE, WHO IS IN A POSITION TO FETCH HELP IN CASE OF ANY EMERGENCY."
Monday, July 12
Digital Domain - Computers at Home - Educational Hope vs. Teenage Reality - NYTimes.com
Digital Domain - Computers at Home - Educational Hope vs. Teenage Reality - NYTimes.com: "Ofer Malamud, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago, is the co-author of a study that investigated educational outcomes after low-income families received vouchers to help them buy computers.
“We found a negative effect on academic achievement,” he said. “I was surprised, but as we presented our findings at various seminars, people in the audience said they weren’t surprised, given their own experiences with their school-age children.”"
“We found a negative effect on academic achievement,” he said. “I was surprised, but as we presented our findings at various seminars, people in the audience said they weren’t surprised, given their own experiences with their school-age children.”"
Saturday, July 10
The Rock Salt :: WiFi Repeaters :: Anyone have any experience with 'em?
The Rock Salt :: WiFi Repeaters :: Anyone have any experience with 'em?: "With my Linksys router you can assign static IPs to specific MAC addresses, so that it always gives out the same IP to that device. Or on the computer side, you can set your network config to DHCP w/Manual IP and get the same effect.
On a mac, it's in Sys Preferences -> Network -> Airport -> Advanced -> TCP/IP
Though, I kinda doubt it's an IP conflict issue. Routers have hundreds of IPs to choose from and are pretty smart about not trying to assign recently used addresses to new devices. When your device goes to sleep, it's going to request a new IP via DHCP when it awakens."
On a mac, it's in Sys Preferences -> Network -> Airport -> Advanced -> TCP/IP
Though, I kinda doubt it's an IP conflict issue. Routers have hundreds of IPs to choose from and are pretty smart about not trying to assign recently used addresses to new devices. When your device goes to sleep, it's going to request a new IP via DHCP when it awakens."
Friday, July 9
Intrigue and Ambiguity in Cases of 4 Russians Sent to West in Spy Swap - NYTimes.com
Intrigue and Ambiguity in Cases of 4 Russians Sent to West in Spy Swap - NYTimes.com: "in 2001, confident that his C.I.A. link was unsuspected, Mr. Zaporozhsky was lured back to Moscow by his former colleagues for what they promised would be a festive K.G.B. anniversary party. He was arrested at the airport, convicted of espionage and sentenced to 18 years in prison."
Phys Ed: Your Brain on Exercise - Well Blog - NYTimes.com
Phys Ed: Your Brain on Exercise - Well Blog - NYTimes.com: "Whether exercise directly reduces BMP activity or increases production of Noggin isn’t yet known and may not matter. The results speak for themselves. “If ever exercise enthusiasts wanted a rationale for what they’re doing, this should be it,” Dr. Kessler says. Exercise, he says, through a complex interplay with Noggin and BMP, helps to ensure that neuronal stem cells stay lively and new brain cells are born."
Tuesday, July 6
Achilles Tendonitis [Archive] - Seattle Triathlon Club
Achilles Tendonitis [Archive] - Seattle Triathlon Club: "Stair-step heel raises (working the calf); Stand on a stair-step on the balls of your feet, slowly lower heel below step, then raise heel as high as you can.
- Work in entire range of motion of the ankle.
- Use a slow and controlled motion, pausing for 2 seconds at the top and bottom of the motion.
- Start by using both feet at the same time."
- Work in entire range of motion of the ankle.
- Use a slow and controlled motion, pausing for 2 seconds at the top and bottom of the motion.
- Start by using both feet at the same time."
Gamasutra - News - In-Depth: Character Creation, Gender And Fallout 3
Gamasutra - News - In-Depth: Character Creation, Gender And Fallout 3: "The thing I admired most about the storytelling in Fallout 3 was the generous way it lets the player decide the pace of the main story, by offering both a clearly demarcated major quest line and a near-inexhaustible supply of subordinate quest material." --by Emily Short
Monday, July 5
UltRunR - Achilles Tendinitis
UltRunR - Achilles Tendinitis: "There were two 'breakthroughs' in my recovery.
I stopped icing and ibuprofen, and applied a heat pad a couple of times a day. This helped, but the pain still lingered.
Around late February, I followed Karl's advice and took the following supplements: L-lysine, L-glycine, and glucosamine sulfate. I also added a couple of my own, L-carnatine and vitamin E. Within a month I was back to nearly perfect. Now I have no pain at all, and consider it healed."
I stopped icing and ibuprofen, and applied a heat pad a couple of times a day. This helped, but the pain still lingered.
Around late February, I followed Karl's advice and took the following supplements: L-lysine, L-glycine, and glucosamine sulfate. I also added a couple of my own, L-carnatine and vitamin E. Within a month I was back to nearly perfect. Now I have no pain at all, and consider it healed."
Ex Fat Loss Fat Loss Maintain
Monday 1840 2299 2874
Tuesday 1840 1840 2299
Wednesday 2208 2759 3448
Thursday 1840 2299 2874
Friday 1840 2069 2586
Saturday 2025 2529 3161
Sunday 1840 2299 2874
*Calorie cycling provides same amount of calories per week, but 'tricks' your body by constantly changing daily calories. This helps to prevent or break plateaus. Guideline only.
Monday 1840 2299 2874
Tuesday 1840 1840 2299
Wednesday 2208 2759 3448
Thursday 1840 2299 2874
Friday 1840 2069 2586
Saturday 2025 2529 3161
Sunday 1840 2299 2874
*Calorie cycling provides same amount of calories per week, but 'tricks' your body by constantly changing daily calories. This helps to prevent or break plateaus. Guideline only.
Sunday, July 4
Saturday, July 3
In Suburban vs. City Living, the City Costs Less - NYTimes.com
In Suburban vs. City Living, the City Costs Less - NYTimes.com: "So we set out to do the math, based on an apartment and a house in the New York metropolitan area. Here’s what we found: a suburban lifestyle costs about 18 percent more than living in the city. Even a house in the suburbs with a price tag substantially lower than an urban apartment will, on a monthly basis, often cost more to keep running. And then there’s the higher cost of commuting from the suburbs, or the expense of buying a car (or two) and paying the insurance."
Friday, July 2
William Gibson. Neuromancer
William Gibson. Neuromancer: "A dark wave of rubble rose against a colorless sky, beyond its crest
the bleached, half-melted skeletons of city towers. The rubble wave was
textured like a net, rusting steel rods twisted gracefully as fine string,
vast slabs of concrete still clinging there. The foreground might once have
been a city square; there was a sort of stump, something that suggested a
fountain. At its base, the children and the soldier were frozen. The tableau
was confusing at first. Molly must have read it correctly before Case had
quite assimilated it, because he felt her tense. She spat, then stood.
Children. Feral, in rags. Teeth glittering like knives. Sores on their
contorted faces. The soldier on his back, mouth and throat open to the sky.
They were feeding."
the bleached, half-melted skeletons of city towers. The rubble wave was
textured like a net, rusting steel rods twisted gracefully as fine string,
vast slabs of concrete still clinging there. The foreground might once have
been a city square; there was a sort of stump, something that suggested a
fountain. At its base, the children and the soldier were frozen. The tableau
was confusing at first. Molly must have read it correctly before Case had
quite assimilated it, because he felt her tense. She spat, then stood.
Children. Feral, in rags. Teeth glittering like knives. Sores on their
contorted faces. The soldier on his back, mouth and throat open to the sky.
They were feeding."
Apple's Crazy Open Letter Doesn't Even Address The Real Issue - Yahoo! Finance
Apple's Crazy Open Letter Doesn't Even Address The Real Issue - Yahoo! Finance: "Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.
Whoever crafted this train wreck of a sentence is probably going to lose his or her job. Leave aside the fact that this isn't English. Granted that signal strength is often being over reported, why does that particular grip cause the reported signal strength to go down?"
Whoever crafted this train wreck of a sentence is probably going to lose his or her job. Leave aside the fact that this isn't English. Granted that signal strength is often being over reported, why does that particular grip cause the reported signal strength to go down?"
The Associated Press: Prosecutors: NY suspect spilled Russia spy details
The Associated Press: Prosecutors: NY suspect spilled Russia spy details: "Earlier in the day, the lawyer for another suspect, Donald Heathfield, told a judge the case against his client was 'extremely thin.'
'It essentially suggests that they successfully infiltrated neighborhoods, cocktail parties and the PTA,' attorney Peter Krupp said."
'It essentially suggests that they successfully infiltrated neighborhoods, cocktail parties and the PTA,' attorney Peter Krupp said."
The Associated Press: Prosecutors: NY suspect spilled Russia spy details
The Associated Press: Prosecutors: NY suspect spilled Russia spy details: "Their cover was so deep, 'there is no inkling at all that their children who they live with have any idea their parents are Russian agents,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Farbiarz told U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis."
The “Thriller” Diaries | Vanity Fair
The “Thriller” Diaries | Vanity Fair: "About two weeks before the premiere, Jackson called Branca and, hyperventilating and speaking in a halting voice, ordered him to destroy the negative of “Thriller.” After much cajoling he revealed the reason for his decision. “He said the Jehovah’s Witnesses heard he was doing a werewolf video,” Branca recalls. “They told him that it promoted demonology and they were going to excommunicate him.” Branca conferred with Folsey and Landis, and all agreed that the “Thriller” negative had to be safeguarded. Landis immediately removed the film canisters from the lab and delivered them to Branca’s office, where they were locked up."
Thursday, July 1
William Gibson
William Gibson: "Q I'm picking up on a thread that seems to pervade several of your previous responses, in so much as your writing gift comes at a heavy price. It's almost a suffering ...something you can't and wouldn't want to live without, yet a beast that requires a great deal of time and effort to harness? A living hell for the duration of the work, no?
A Yikes! I must've sounded awfully whiny. Nothing quite as dramatic as that. Every job has its costs, some of which aren't so evident to people who haven't done it. But my intention was more to convey, to people who might want to write fiction, that the process they arrive at may not quite line up with our cultural paradigm of what writing fiction is, and that the blisters may form in places other than expected. When I started trying to write fiction, I read writers-on-writing collections, and very little of that, in retrospect, sounded much like what I've wound up having to do to make it happen.
When Bruce Sterling and I were writing The Difference Engine, I'd moan sometimes about the labor required (as much fun as that was, and often it was lots of fun, but I'm basically lazy). He always had the same response: 'Yeah, but it beats loading concrete blocks.' Which is so obviously true, and has since become a mantra of mine.
I don't always like writing, but I very much like having written."
A Yikes! I must've sounded awfully whiny. Nothing quite as dramatic as that. Every job has its costs, some of which aren't so evident to people who haven't done it. But my intention was more to convey, to people who might want to write fiction, that the process they arrive at may not quite line up with our cultural paradigm of what writing fiction is, and that the blisters may form in places other than expected. When I started trying to write fiction, I read writers-on-writing collections, and very little of that, in retrospect, sounded much like what I've wound up having to do to make it happen.
When Bruce Sterling and I were writing The Difference Engine, I'd moan sometimes about the labor required (as much fun as that was, and often it was lots of fun, but I'm basically lazy). He always had the same response: 'Yeah, but it beats loading concrete blocks.' Which is so obviously true, and has since become a mantra of mine.
I don't always like writing, but I very much like having written."
William Gibson
William Gibson: "Then Bruce Sterling's father gave him an Apple II. I guess he'd moved up to the first Mac. So there's Bruce on the phone from Austin: 'This is *serious*, man. This thing *automates* the process.' So I went down to Eaton's and bought a IIC and a dot-matrix printer, marked way down because the new Mac was the thing. So I never got the Selectric that had been the pro writer's awesomest tool when I'd started trying to write. I saw one of those for $29.95 in a charity shop, last year."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
