It’s this: every day take a photo using Instagram, tag it with #photoadaychallenge, and share it with others. In addition, the photo should be based on the list below (e.g day 1 and 31 should be a photo of you). Sounds like fun!

Found here: Instagram Photo a Day Challenge | whoorl

The truth about Facebook is that lots of young people use it as their default media for communication. It’s not simply a waste of time (though it can be that too), but if you think that is all it is and that it has a major drag on the grades of students, you might want to relax.To see what I mean, check out this infographic from OnlineEducation.net (bigger version here: Facebook and Grades)

Of the times we miss those we love, that’s the time we miss them most of all.

Chris Botti (trumpet) and Sting (vocal) “In The Wee Small Hours” – YouTube

I am a big fan of the sweater vest. It provides warmth and let’s you bridge the gap between formal and casual well. Sadly it turns out that political consultants have latched onto this and are using it to humanize right wing politicians that are seen as something other than that. Sound overly dramatic? Well, here’s Rick Santorum rocking the sweater vest and here is Stephen Harper

My take is that if they wore these vests all the time, then there is nothing wrong with it. But everything tells me that they are doing it based on image consultants. Ironically they make change the association one has of sweater vest to a cynical one, and people will see them as a mask. That would be a shame.

For more on this, see Santorum’s Tressel Gambit — Daily Intel and Wearing sweater vests. – Things Stephen Harper Does To Seem Human

As Mark Bittman demonstrates, baked eggs are The Simplest Egg, Yet the Most Elegant.
You just need an egg and practically anything else for a superb dish. For example, here’s his recipe: Recipe: Baked Egg With Prosciutto and Tomato – New York Times. Here’s another one with bacon: Stacey Snacks: Baked Eggs in Bacon Baskets. This morning I lined muffin tins with cold cuts (turkey slices) and then followed Stacey’s examples.

If you want eggs sunnyside up for dipping in, you can substitute baked eggs and cook them for around 10 minutes and you will get a perfectly running york with cooked whites that look much nicer than those in the pan. Plus there is the added treat of whatever you lined the pan with.

You can also saute anything you like and then serve it topped with such an egg and you have a wonderful dish.

Best of all, it’s so easy: even people who hate to cook can bake an egg. I did mine in a toaster oven and it comes out well.

You may want to experiment first before you make this for others. 375 is a good temperature to cook the eggs in, and with my toaster oven, 10 minutes yielded a very runny egg. Next time I will aim for 12 minutes. Eggs require attention for best results, but the results are worth it.

This is an odd resolution in a number of ways. First of all, you might say, isn’t the point of resolutions to be better at life, not suck at it? And how can you suck and excel at the same time?

As I get older, I find I am less inclined to do new things and tend to stick with what I do well. When I try new things, I suck at them, and I give up on doing them. I find it uncomfortable sucking at things at my age. Unlike my kids, I am self conscious and uncomfortable about doing poorly at things in public. I try them, I hope they will go well, and when they don’t, I put them away. When I was younger, I would rationalize this by thinking: I have work/kids/&c to contend with….I will get to that later. That rationalization is not working so well anymore. Futhermore, there are things that I would like/love to do, but I don’t.

The things I think I suck at but would love to do and do better at are filmmaking, drawing, painting, photography, programming and running (and fitness generally). All of those things I love and I would love to be able to do well, but I know if they take them up again, I will do them poorly. My resolution is to try to keep working on them all year, even when the outcome is terrible. If at the end of the year, I still suck, then I will reconsider if I am going to keep doing them. What I resolve not to do is give up right away.

I was planning only to focus on the things I suck at for my New Year’s Resolution, but there are alot of things that I do that I don’t suck at, but I would like to improve at doing or even excel in doing. Those things include being a dad, a cook (or bottlewasher!) or an IT architect/consultant.  I don’t want to just focus on the things that I suck at: I still want to improve on those areas, because they are most important to me.

I wrote it in the hope of (a) proding me to stick to this resolution and (b) inspire others to make unusual resolutions that would inspire others.

Thanks for reading this.

 

 

 

 

 

ADESTE FIDELES – THE THREE TENORS

 

It may seem silly, but it is a debate I have been in a number of times myself, and based on this article, I am not alone: Colored vs. White Is a Christmas Light Debate – NYTimes.com. Personally I lean towards colored lights on the Christmas tree and white or monochrome outside, though not the blinking kind (they drive me crazy). However I have been overruled in my house and we have gone with white lights in and out. That’s fine by me, because in winter, any additional light is welcome. Even more so when it is festive and comforting.

Merry Christmas!

 

 

This is the response I received from a link to YouTube today. 500 Internal Server Error:

500 Internal Server Error

Sorry, something went wrong.

A team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched to deal with this situation.

Either (a) they don’t think much of their staff, or (b) they have some really smart monkeys working there!

There are lots of great tributes and warm stories by many writers on Christopher Hitchens. One that I particularly liked was this one:
My Take: An evangelical remembers his friend Hitchens – CNN Belief Blog .

Well worth a read, especially for people who have a simple and limited view of Hitchens, for good or bad.

This is a beautiful rendition, and a strikingly beautiful video to go with it. (Remember, this was made in the 80s, making this relatively subdued for the time.)

Sting – Gabriel’s Message – YouTube

Here he is in 2011, Staking a Life – Lapham’s Quarterly, on capital punishment. And here is is in Slate in 2006, Don’t hang Saddam. – By Christopher Hitchens – Slate Magazine.

I am not sure if he changed his opinion or not, but I found it interesting how he refers to Saddam with regards to capital punishment and whether or not he deserved it.

I love bowties, but I avoid them because of how closely associated they are with looking like a dweeb. That’s a shame, because they are a great accessory. I could never figure out how to avoid that look, but I think this photo has given me a hint. Aaron Young (pictured here) knows how to wear a bow tie. His suit, shirt and boots are cool and subdued — nothing dweebish there — and his hat is striking. So much so that the bowtie doesn’t get all the attention. I think this is the best way to wear a bowtie: always have one other item of clothing that diminishes it, while keeping the rest of your look cool. Smart.

And not just Battle and Marsalis. The whole ensemble is Battle, Marsalis, Leonard Slatkin, The Boys Choir of Harlem and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. See/hear:

Greatness.

Silent Night – Kathleen Battle, Wynton Marsalis – YouTube

Now you may be in the mood for one of his books, and they have a list of those too. But if you want to read a sample of some of his many great works online, see this article: Christopher Hitchens: A Reading List : The New Yorker.

R.I.P.

 

I posted this last year, and I am happy to say there is a 2011 version too: Longform’s Best of 2011. Of course don’t wait until December: Longform.org has good long reads all year long. Bonus, now it is integrated with readability.com. Two great things that go great together.

While I am hesitant to make any claims for or against the subject matter in this photo spread, Black Americana – Vogue.it, I do think that the photos by themselves are great. I love this one in particular:

As fashion photographs, they are wonderful. In the context of social statements, their value is debatable. (I use that word in a neutral way, for I think there is room for a good debate over whenever or not these photos that attempt to portray the life of black Americans in the 1960s is a good thing or not.)

Take a look and decide for yourself, here Black Americana – Vogue.it

Because according to this, Why Sugar Makes Us Sleepy (And Protein Wakes Us Up) | Wired Science | Wired.com, if you are eating pastries and cookies and other sweet things, you are likely feeling tired afterwards as a result. You then compensate by drinking too much coffee and hence get on a vicious circle. If you are going to be snacking on anything, make it proteins like nuts or low fat yogurt or a bean salad.

Snack smart. See the wired.com article for more of the details.

Prince is still selling out big concerts, and he has become refined in many ways. So what I love about this video is that it reminds me of how raw and exciting he was back in the early 80s. Here he is doing “Uptown”, the great track from his breakout LP, “Dirty Mind”

As it says in wikipedia,

“Uptown” is the album’s (Dirty Mind) high point, with Prince singing about a utopian paradise where everyone is free to express themselves regardless of age, gender and skin color. This album was to set the scene emphatically for Prince’s chart domination later in the 1980s. It fused black and white musical styles in a seamless fashion and showed that Prince was not afraid to push boundaries. Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times described the music from the album as “confident and highly danceable blend of post-disco funk and tasty, hard-line rock”.^[19]

We take Prince and his music almost for granted now, but he and he music was anything but at the time. It was fresh and original and raunchy and set to accomplish something unique in the world of the popular music.

The incomparable John Coltrane on tenor with a cast of great musicians performing the classic Billy Strayhorn song.

Hear, here: John Coltrane – Lush Life – YouTube

A beautiful song by the late, great Dobie Gray.

R.I.P.

Dobie Gray. Drift away – YouTube

Yes, if you signup before January 15th for this year’s Sporting Life 10K that will be held in May, it will cost you $40. But you will get a $50 gift card for Sporting Life. You will also get a great race T shirt. Much more importantly, you will help Camp Oochigeas, a summer camp for kids with cancer.

Hey, if you are going to be making New Year’s Resolutions to get fit, save money, and help others, this offer helps you hit the sweet spot.

 

So that it will look like this:

Scaffolding is a necessary part of city streets, and if you can’t hide it, why not feature it? For more on this, see: Coming Soon to the Sidewalks: A New Look for Scaffolding – NYTimes.com

 

I was excited to see three of my favourite things come together: the writer Adam Gopnik giving the Massey Lectures on the topic of Winter (all rolled up into this book). I haven’t started to read it yet, but I am looking forward too.

While not in the same league as Gopnik, last winter I was inspired to write about winter as well. If you can’t get enough about writing on the joy and beauty of winter, you can read some of what I wrote here:

Some thoughts on memory and winter

The quality of darkness and the luminosity of winter nights

One of my favourite weeks: the mild weather week in February

The joy of the cold and the dark (some thoughts)

On light at night (some thoughts, random)

If on a winter’s day you board the wrong train…

I love this. It reminds me of classic Stax, though Omawumi is Nigerian. Supremely catchy: it’s been stuck in my head all weekend.

Omawumi – If you ask me (follow link for lyrics) – YouTube

The above is by Donwood, found here, Thought You Should See This, where you can see a much better representation of it, as well as find out more about it.

 

Here’s Fairey’s, remixing his classic HOPE poster:

 

Found here: Occupy HOPE – OBEY GIANT

Here’s a taste of the visualization:

But if you want to see the original, go here: The Top 0.01% and Top 1%’s Income Share: 2008 — Visualizing Economics

It’s 2008, but if anything, it is still relevant (although the top 1% are even richer, relatively speaking, to the rest.)

Here’s Tenere Taqhim Tossam (Official Video)

and

Groove In G as part of Playing For Change

 

Every year, the Toronto gallery, art interiors, holds their annual event whereby they sell small pieces of their artists’ work for very reasonable prices. (For example, this great painting by Peter Andrew, from his Highway Series). I highly recommend that anyone interested in wonderful works of art check out their web site and pay them a visit here: Affordable Artwork / Canadian Art / Gallery / Framing / Canvas / Art Interiors – Toronto, ON

Paintings are going from $55 to $250. You can’t go wrong. Canadiana at its best. (And Peter Andrew’s paintings are fine examples of 21st century Canadiana.)

Are clearly not urban legends, based on this photo:

 

From Sachin’s Space. Sachin Agarwar parked next to Steve Jobs’ car on the day he went for an interview at Apple, years ago, and he took this photo.

 

His sculpture remind me of Tim Burton, with their sinister and gothic look. They’re quite remarkable, as you can see from this example:

 

 

You can find more examples and links to other work from him on the always great blog, Colossal.

I just bought this Phillipe Starck watch. I’ve been a big fan of his for years, and this is my second watch I’ve owned that was designed by him. While I love the look, I hate setting the thing. The best tutorial I found on how to set the time is here: Gadgets Page » Ask Laura: How to Set a Phillipe Starck Watch. I am going to extract the key point from her post, because I am half afraid it will get dropped and I won’t be able to find it again.

The button on the bottom left controls the mode. When you push this button one of the four modes will flash (TIM 1, TMR, ALM 1, or CHRO). Push the mode button until TIM 1 flashes. Now, you are in Time 1 Mode. You should be able to see the time, seconds and date on the face of the watch.

Hold down the mode button until the hour starts flashing. You can now set your time. The top right hand button will move you from hours to minutes to date, etc. The bottom right hand button will change the digits. When you have set it correctly, you can press the mode button (bottom left hand button) and it will start acting like a normal watch again.

In normal time mode, you can switch to TIM 2 by pressing and holding the bottom right hand button and set the dual time in the same manner.

Thanks, Laura!

P.S. If you have this site worthwhile and you’d like to buy me a coffee, you can do so here. Thanks! That’s awesome!

Through the blog Cup of Jo I found this blog, Color Me Katie. It’s filled with lots of warm and wonderful blog posts.

This one in particular, lalalala love, has a series of photos of people being photographed. Except the photos we see are like this:

As she says:

The next time you see a bunch of people getting ready to take a group picture…stand behind them. That’s where all the love is!

There are lots of good posts on her blog. Go to Color Me Katie and see.

The ING New York City Marathon is this weekend! I ran it years ago and it was one of the best things I have ever done. The organization was superb, and the New Yorkers that came out to cheer were exceptionally good. If you want to run a great race and have a great experience, I highly recommend trying to enter it.

This race in particular will be interesting because Deba Could Be the First New Yorker to Win the City’s Marathon.

She is originally from Ethopia, but she now calls New York home. If she were to win, this would be a huge boost for running in the United States. I hope she does — it’s always great for the home town representative to win — but it will be tough, for the NYC Marathon is very competitive. Let’s see! Go Deba!

There’s been alot of buzz around the work being done at Boston Dynamics on robots. Previously there was their video of BigDog

And recently this clip has been getting alot of attention, of PETMAN:

I was alarmed when I first saw this video. I don’t imagine the scientists at Boston Dynamics are blind, and they can likely see a lot of uses for PETMAN besides testing clothing. (Watch the way the man pushes the robot to show stability, for example.) If anything, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it doing a similar support role that BigDog with the U.S. military. The first “man” into a fire fight would be PETMAN.

After being alarmed, my second thought was to think of the funders of this, namely DARPA. DARPA also was instrumental in the creation of the Internet, and needless to say, the first purpose of the Internet as DARPA saw it was not to be able to exchange cute pictures of cats on Facebook. But that is where we ended up. Likewise, I could see a similar thing happening with robots, and they could end up being domesticated, just like the Internet is. The robots will become appliances, just like all the other smart devices will be in our homes. (And very soon everything will be “smart”, be it your fridge, oven, washer, etc.) They will be an appliance that moves. They’ll carry in groceries. They’ll paint things. They’ll even vacuum. (Wait, we have that.).  We’ll end up complaining that our robots are too old and can’t do the cleaning tasks that the brand new robots can.

Will robots be used in war? Of course. But if one soldier is accompanied by a PETMAN and his enemy is accompanied by heavy artillery, my money is on the enemy. They will still be effective in many ways, but like any weaponry, armies will adapt to meet the challenge.

Before I close, I want to add that this is a really under-reported story. There are lots of stories out about the latest mobile device or the latest laptop, but the rapid advancement of robotics in the 21st century is going to be a big deal.

I used to use cURL to interface with the Twitter API, but after they changed/restricted it, that became harder. However, with a bit of investigation, I can show you how to use them together still, at least for queries. (If anyone knows a simple way of doing updates, please comment below).

For example, if you want to get my timeline, you can use

curl http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/blm849.rss

If you want to get 200 entries, you can use:

curl http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/blm849.rss?count=200

If you want to get 200 entries and use JSON instead of RSS, you can use:

curl http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/blm849.json?count=200

If you want to play around, replace “blm849” with your twitter handle or someone else’s that isn’t protected.

For more on various formats and parameters, see GET statuses/user_timeline | Twitter Developers. Also make sure you check it for limits.

Here’s another option. If you want to get the statuses for the entries in my FAVS lists, you can use:

curl http://api.twitter.com/1/blm849/lists/favs/statuses.atom

If you go to the REST API Resources for Twitter Developers page, you can see other options.

Essentially you need to play around to take a command you send to the REST API (e.g. GET lists/statuses) and learn how to turn it around to a commend you can pass to twitter.com/api.twitter.com.

If you say: hmmmm, some of this is inconsistent, etc., I confess I have just started experimenting. But I wanted to get something down before I forgot about it, and I will build on it later.

Good luck!

Not to study, but to talk to students at the University of Washington. You can find highlights of the talk here: Ask Bill Gates Anything: Being a Billionaire is Strange, Microsoft Co-Founder Tells Students in Xconomy.

It’s a good read. And I suspect being a billionaire is strange. I like what he has to say about books and statistics, too.

The folks that came up with this are brilliant: ZOMBIES, RUN! (A running game & audio adventure for iOS/Android by Six to Start and Naomi Alderman). As they say:

Zombies, Run! is an ultra-immersive game for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android where you help rebuild civilisation after a zombie apocalypse. By going out and running in the real world, you can collect medicine, ammo, batteries, and spare parts that you can use to build up and expand your base – all while getting orders, clues, and story through your headphones.

If you find your running routine is getting stale, this could be the perfect way to reinvigorate it. I haven’t tried this yet, but I am thinking about it, especially for winter, when running becomes that much more challenging.