February 2012
1 post
January 2012
4 posts
November 2011
6 posts
Change Your Thinking
Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end.
They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in...
“A drop of water:
If it falls in a lake loses it’s identity.
If it falls onto a...”
– Author Unknown
The Green Thing
The Green Thing Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.”The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care...
October 2011
9 posts
“When human beings acquired language, we learned not just how to listen but how...”
– Douglas Rushkoff
Stevey's Google Platforms Rant
Steve Yegge originally shared this post:Stevey’s Google Platforms Rant I was at Amazon for about six and a half years, and now I’ve been at Google for that long. One thing that struck me immediately about the two companies — an impression that has been reinforced almost daily — is that Amazon does everything wrong, and Google does everything right. Sure, it’s a...
Why Do We Sleep →
Sizing Up Consciousness by Its Bits →
Film Grenade: A Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera
The camera “captures an image at the highest point of flight—when it is hardly moving.” It “takes full spherical panoramas, requires no preparation and images are taken instantaneously. It can capture scenes with many moving objects without producing ghosting artifacts and creates unique images.”
Checkout the video in the following link:...
DEAR AMERICA: It's Time To Say A Big 'Thank You'... →
Amazon is doing what many more American corporations could and should do: Balance the near-term “profit motive” with a more holistic mission of focusing on the long-term and serving customers, employees, shareholders, and the community at large
The Egg, by Andy Weir
You were on your way home when you died. It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me. And that’s when you met me. “What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?” “You died,” I...
“Yesterday, I got chastized in the street by one of those sidewalk fundraisers...”
– Charlie O’Donnell (via arcktip)
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the...”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery (via bluepojo)
September 2011
3 posts
9/11 and us (from Meetup.com)
Fellow Meetuppers, I don’t write to our whole community often, but this week is special because it’s the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and many people don’t know that Meetup is a 9/11 baby. Let me tell you the Meetup story. I was living a couple miles from the Twin Towers, and I was the kind of person who thought local community doesn’t matter much if we’ve got the...
August 2011
5 posts
Making the Cut →
From someone who stumbled on my blog the other day:
One day a florist went to a barber for a haircut. After the cut, he asked about his bill, and the barber replied, “I cannot accept money from you; I’m doing community service this week.” The florist was pleased and left the shop. When the barber went to open his shop the next morning, there was a ‘thank you’ card and a dozen roses waiting for...
July 2011
8 posts
Are States an Anachronism? →
Today and Thursday I’ll give a point-counterpoint on the relevancy and importance of states in the modern era. (Note: Part two is now online as “Why States Matter” ).
Obviously states aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, but a number of folks have suggested that state’s aren’t just obsolete, they are downright pernicious in their effects on local economies.
Read the points…
“[I]gnorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those...”
– Charles Darwin (via bluepojo)
June 2011
1 post
May 2011
7 posts
Peter Thiel: We’re in a Bubble and It’s Not the... →
Instead, for Thiel, the bubble that has taken the place of housing is the higher education bubble. “A true bubble is when something is overvalued and intensely believed,” he says. “Education may be the only thing people still believe in in the United States. To question education is really dangerous. It is the absolute taboo. It’s like telling the world there’s no Santa Claus.”
Where Have The Good Men Gone? [WSJ] →
Kay S. Hymowitz argues that too many men in their 20s are living in a new kind of extended adolescence.
After all, popular culture has been crowded with pre-adults for almost two decades. Hollywood started the affair in the early 1990s with movies like “Singles,” “Reality Bites,” “Single White Female” and “Swingers.” Television soon deepened the...
April 2011
8 posts
WatchI love smart animals.
Man is alone before the cosmos →
In all disciplines, from medicine to engineering, when young people finish their studies, as specialists they can only talk about their idea of architecture, or more in general their job. They haven’t yet thought about or taken much notice of all the rest, of life itself, which is more important than architecture.
…
Here in Rio, people who live in the luxury apartments overlooking...
Places that Work: Holland, Michigan’s Sidewalks →
diverted waste heat from its power plant into pipes that run under streets and sidewalks in the central business district. … no matter how cold it gets, the sidewalks stay clear and dry, all because someone was thoughtful enough to use an industrial by-product that other towns blithely discarded. … kept downtown Holland alive, even as towns of similar size have been decimated, with...
My transportation gets 670 MPG: Bicycling →
From Wikipedia:
As a relatively light and slow vehicle, with low-friction tires, and an efficient chain-driven drivetrain, the bicycle can be an efficient form of transport. A 140 lb (64 kg) cyclist riding at 16 km/h requires about half the energy per unit distance of walking: 43kcal/mi.[3] This figure depends on the speed and mass of the rider: greater speeds give higher air drag and heavier...
“Administrators are ones who direct others in the pursuit of ends by the use of...”
– Turning Learning Right Side Up by Russell Ackoff and Daniel Greenberg