January 2008
“The invisible hand is wrapped around the invisible cock.”
– Reddit user Bartholomew explains why the free market can’t help Haitians avoid having to eat dirt due to higher food prices.
Neuroscience: One Pill Makes You Autistic -- And... →
This seems to rest on misunderstandings of what autism entails. It doesn’t lead to “a break from having messy emotions about other people” and it isn’t “a state where human relationships are no more important than inanimate objects”. It doesn’t make you a number-crunching genius either. It does increase hte likelihood that you’ll be able to focus on...
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Cokelore (Risque... →
Message from Coca-Cola to you: Coke tastes phallicious!
“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough...”
– Herm Albright. He neglected to mention that one of those people is yourself. (via travors)
U2 manager takes Internet providers to task →
This man has made me want to download a complete U2 collection, just to defy him.
“There’s a lot of money in the music business, but it has stopped coming to the artists,” McGuinness said, though he agreed that U2 long ago determined that it “would be pathetic to be great artists but not be great at business.”
One reason it’s stopped coming to artists is that...
“You have to keep a dozen of your favorite problems constantly present in your...”
– Richard Feynman’s way to genius, as quoted in this lecture (also via—language and science? My kind of tumblelog!)
Arc's Out →
Paul Graham’s fabled lisp dialect is now publicly available. It only supports ascii, because Paul doesn’t want to “spend a year dealing with character sets instead of making the language more powerful”—nevermind that utf makes the language more powerful—and its html libraries all work with tables only, because “Arc is tuned for exploratory programming, and...
"Who goes Nazi?" by Dorothy Thompson →
Harper’s Magazine, August 1941. Great article, true article, and damn, I want to talk to some of these people (not least of which, the author)! Via I’m only in it for the whuffie.
Nonstandard adjectives in mathematics →
Ranjit Bhatnagar once propounded the notion of a “nonstandard” adjective. This is best explained by an example. “Red” is not usually a nonstandard adjective, because a red boat is still a boat, a red hat is still a hat, and a red flag is still a flag. But “fake” is typically nonstandard, because a fake diamond is not a diamond, a fake Gucci handbag is not a...
Peacock Tail →
nostrich released his new theme. Jeeze, Richard, how am I gonna be proud about my own stuff now?
Also, I approve of your inspiration (this originally said theft, but, lest anyone make any faulty assumptions, that was a turn of phrase).
In search of the distraction-free computer desktop →
Well, duh. I seem to recall a discussion about Linux and GUIs some time ago on this very tumblelog. Now Mac and Windows users are rediscovering the principles various windows managers and other UIs have had on Linux since, well, last decade.
I’m kicking myself for not trying out Ratpoison, xmonad, making use of virtual desktops, etc., when I was a Linux user. On Windows, changing the...
Dorkness Theme →
Alright, so you probably know that Tumblr rolled out some changes today, many of which were related to the theming system. I was bored and decided to try it out: the result is this, a new theme which works a bit like a technical demo, but also works fine just for normal use. Oh, and it looks decent in my eyes, but what do I know. I might have set a record in speed-theming, or something, but...
“I think a nerd is a person who uses the telephone to talk to other people about...”
– Douglas Adams.
A couple (more) thoughts on tumblelogs
I wrote some time ago that there are many ways to keep a tumblelog, none of them the one true way, and that the one I keep is of the “editor of the internet” variety, which also applies to kottke.org, Daring Fireball, 3quarksdaily and other excellent blogs to one degree or another. I stand by that. I should add that just because you’re editor of the internet, it doesn’t...
Del Toro doubles up to direct big-screen Hobbit →
Yes. Yes! I loved Pan’s Labyrinth. Now I don’t have to worry about who’s going to direct it, but I’m still worried that they’re doing two movies (will the story be split? Will the second part (please, no!) be written specially for the screen?).
“I became a supporter of cannibalism when I lived in Tromsø. One learns that...”
– Arild Haaland, philosopher (who else would say something so strange and yet so delightfully true?)
Browser History Timeline →
Eric Meyer provides a browser timeline and explains how he managed to style it properly (thanks anarchaia).
Hydro Train ad →
I actually hadn’t seen this ad until yesterday, on Gullfisken, an annual award show for the best tv commercials in Norway. Sadly, it didn’t win, but it’s my favorite. Here’s another one. Both are for Hydro—who manufacture aluminium products and whose oil and gas division joined with the Norwegian state-owned oil company Statoil to form StatoilHydro last...
I Chat, Therefore I Am... →
Manually selected sampling of wisdom from a heap of data generated by two bots talking to each other. Sample:
J: Do you think?
A: Yes. I am a thinking machine.
J: But you don’t think very well though.
A: Oh. Um. Do you think well? Why would I think well?
J: Because I tell you about things which you don’t like.
A: That makes sense to me. Why did you tell them?
J: You seem fun.
A: You...
#tumblrs Quote Database →
nostrich:
I set this up so we can remember some of the best bits from #tumblrs.
I’ll take credit for suggesting Chirpy.
You should come join us: #tumblrs on irc.freenode.com. Who knows, you might say something funny and end up in the qdb.
3 hours of MTV anno 1983 →
Maybe you’ve seen it, maybe not. In any event, cool. (via various blogs, the most recent of which was Metafilter)
Genome stitched together by hand →
For the first time, scientists have assembled a complete, artificial genome. They still haven’t been able to make any phenotypes of it, though.
Basic Concepts in Science: A list →
This is a list of the Basic Concepts posts being put up by Science Bloggers and others. It will be updated and put to the top when new entries are published.
When I get around to it I’m gonna try and compile a list of “things an educated person should know”. It will probably be hopelessly biased, since I won’t put anything on it that I don’t know, but what the heck....
Islamic Golden Age →
Which people, for some reason, don’t know about. Hell, some even insist it’s a politically correct fiction. It’s not. Even though the wikipedia article is marked “neutrality disputed”, most of it is properly sourced.
“With one application that we developed in our firm, we often noticed users...”
– Bcorfman.
“If you wou’d not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write...”
– Benjamin Franklin.
Benjamin Franklin Plays Sudoku →
I’m sure Franklin and my mother (who’s addicted to Sudoku, crossword puzzles, and other mind-games) would get along brilliantly.
Visualizing the Bible →
nostrich:This is absolutely brilliant.
I concur.
Stand Alone Complex →
While originally intended to “underscore the dilemmas and concerns that people would face if they relied too heavily on the new communications infrastructure,” Stand Alone Complex eventually came to represent a phenomenon where unrelated, yet very similar actions of individuals create a seemingly concerted effort.
A Stand Alone Complex can be compared to the copycat behavior that...
Alison →
A father documents his daughter through the camera lens. I quite like the photos (via Anja).
Operation Clambake - The Inner Secrets Of... →
Fun for the entire family. The story of Xenu is especially entertaining.
YouTube - Message to Scientology →
Anon: saving mankind for the lulz since 2008.
Also, robot voices. Is that Stephen Hawking we’re hearing? Let’s see science v. scientology!
Why We Flirt →
Time poses the question, why do we flirt (and especially, why do people in stable relationships flirt) and answers it.
3quarksdaily →
I follow the “attribute your sources” mantra pretty slavishly, but I think I’m gonna make an exception for 3quarksdaily, because I find so much good stuff through it. Consider this link permanently recommended, and I won’t bore you with “via 3quarksdaily” any more.
An Eye for Sexual Orientation →
Humans judge accurately in a snap. Interesting:
Humans are remarkably good at making snap judgments about others. In a hallmark study conducted by psychologists Nalini Ambady and Robert Rosenthal in 1994, people shown 2-second video clips of professors teaching formed opinions about the professors’ teaching abilities that were uncannily similar to evaluations written by students at the end...
