I was surprised reading this, A CUP OF JO: First day of fall, that the first day of fall is actually tomorrow, the 23rd. I thought it always fell on the 21st! According to this, the date moves around quite a bit. Usually Fall/Autumn starts on September 22, but in 2011, 2014 and 2015, it falls 🙂 on the 23rd.
Good to know.
(Image linked to from A Cup of Jo.)
While new and exotic diseases are frightening, the ones to worry about are the ones we already well know, based on this article (Global health: Developing diseases | The Economist) and this chart:
I suspect as the developing world gets richer, mortality due to non-communicable diseases (NCD) will grow to become a greater cause of death. And yet this is a partially a good thing, because when it comes to NCDs, each of us can take action to delay or deflect or prevent some of them. Much more so than poor people in developing countries struggling with communicable diseases, I suspect.
(Found via Andrew Sullivan’s blog. Thanks!)
There’s a great story over at TPM Idea Lab about how an AIDS Puzzle Solved By Computer Gamers. That may seem far fetched, but
As fanciful as it may sound at first, gamers on Foldit, a crowdsourced, online protein folding simulator from the University of Washington, actually managed to solve a longstanding problem in AIDS research that has vexed scientists for more than a decade. And they did so in about 10 days.
Three players in particular were able to build upon each other to establish the most accurate model to date of an elusive protease enzyme in the AIDS-like Mason-Pfizer monkey virus.
I think alot of credit has to go not only to the impressive gaming skills of the players, but the scientists that came up with the game. I would love to see more instances of this.
For more on the story, with links to those wanting more detail, click through to TPM.
Matt Yglesias has a good post over at ThinkProgress on Paul Volcker Denouncing the Return To Volcker-Era Inflation. It’s worth a read, but it misses the bigger picture. Indeed, if I were younger, like Yglesias, I would agree that an inflation rate of 3% is a good thing. It boosts the economy, decreases unemployment, and potentially lifts up your salary. But I am not younger, and furthermore, a big part of the world demographic is older than him or me (i.e., baby boomers) and they hate inflation. If you are a baby boomer, you likely have a limited income based on a pension or savings. You likely already have paid for your house and many of your other major expenditures. You are not all that worried about high unemployment because you are retired. What you are worried about is inflation. You want prices to be stable or even dip if possible. Any politician that supports a policy that drives up inflation is going to suffer. Add that to alot of central bankers that also hate inflation, and what you have is a formula for very low inflation for years, if not decades to come.
Inflationary spikes can come from other sources (e.g. fuel), but core inflation is going to stay low as long as you have a population dominated by older people.
Here’s inflation/CPI for the last 30 years in the US
Volcker and other central bankers in the West broke the back of inflation in the early 80s. Since then, demographics and shifts in manufacturing from the developed to the developing world (i.e. offshoring) have worked together to keep it down. In 20 years there will be a dying off of most of the baby boomers combined with wage increases in the developing world that will work together to drive up inflation. (Also, global warming will affect the CPI). But until then, inflation will stay low for some time to come.
As this article in The Economist shows, blogging and tweeting can get your in trouble with either the criminals or the state. And not just minor trouble: some people were tortured to death, while others were threatened with 30 years in jail.
According to Buzzblog: the Blue Screen of Death gets a new look in Windows 8. It will look like this, apparently:
Where one time the BSoD assumed minimal screen quality and therefore came only in text form, Windows 8 must assume a screen resolution high enough to handle something “fancier”. Here’s hoping you won’t see too many of this screen (though I secretly enjoy seeing ad display systems sporting it whenever I am out and about in the city.)
For more on the history of the BSoD (which has been around since OS/2), click through to Buzzblog.
Gerhard Richter painted this in 2005.
It epitomizes much of both his work and the day.
For more on this painting, see September – A History Painting by Gerhard Richter – The Ticket – TV & Entertainment – Mirror.co.uk
As a winter runner, I totally agree.
(Ok, I agree to around -25 degrees Celsius. :))
Image from http://www.polarnopyretusa.com/outerwear, linked here: OUTERWEAR.
Thanks to Cup of Jo for this.
There’s a good article here (Germany moves fast to ease ECB tension – The Globe and Mail) highlighting the dramatic story unfolding in European finance. Nothing comes across as straightforward. Juergen Stark was likely pushed or felt compelled to resign in order for the ECB to push forward with shoring up some of the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain). However, it also looks like one of those countries, Greece, is going to get pushed out of the Euro. The trick now will be if all this can calm down the bond markets and allow Spain and even Italy to recover. Otherwise it could be a catastrophe that damages the economies of a number of European countries and wipes out the the financial system there as it now exists.
I remember when the B-52s first came out: they were unique in some ways, yet they were this bizarre twisted version of the 50s nostalgia that the 70s was awash with. There was nothing like them before, and I’d say there hasn’t been anything like them since.
Surprisingly, this video of their act before their first album shows that they already had their act down cold before they became famous. They got better clothes and makeup, but their performances were already worked out.
There’s a number of videos of them at the Downtown Cafe in Atlanta in 1978. Here’s Dance This Mess Around:
But “52 Girls” and “Rock Lobster” is there as well.
As Yahoo! News reports, this photo was
Taken by NASA’s Cassini robotic orbiter, (and) the shot was captured from the dark side of Saturn as the Sun’s bright rays illuminated every piece of dust and debris circling the planet.
And the The Globe and Mail has an Q&A with him and it’s really good.
If you don’t know much about Lagerfeld, you might have this impression:
Some might expect Karl Lagerfeld, creative director for Chanel and Fendi, to be intimidating. The Paris-based designer, with his signature black gloves, skin-tight pants and sunglasses, is considered one of the most influential people in fashion as a designer, craftsman and general tastemaker
Instead, he’s more like this:
he laughs often during interviews, doesn’t take himself too seriously and jokes as he shows off his iPhone case, which features a sketch of himself on the back.
And now he has a new line out with Macy’s in the $50-$170 price range. You might think it’s just something he tossed off, but like everything he does, there is attention to detail. Speaking of detail, there is alot in the Globe’s interview. He continues to be impressive, not just for his fashion, but the effort and drive he continues to put into the high quality work that he does.
The Economist has a good rundown on what is happening with the book business these days. It starts off with this:
TO SEE how profoundly the book business is changing, watch the shelves. Next month IKEA will introduce a new, deeper version of its ubiquitous “BILLY” bookcase. The flat-pack furniture giant is already promoting glass doors for its bookshelves. The firm reckons customers will increasingly use them for ornaments, tchotchkes and the odd coffee-table tome—anything, that is, except books that are actually read.
From there it goes through all the changes going on, and how this is transforming the business. Well worth reading. I know here in Canada the big book seller Indigo has been transforming their stores and their business by moving away from books and selling more home furnishings. Just one more example of how things are playing out.
Here’s the synopsis of his new film:
PINA is a film for Pina Bausch by Wim Wenders. The feature-length dance film was shot in 3D with the ensemble of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch and shows the exhilarating and inimitable art of the great German choreographer who died in the summer of 2009, inviting the viewer on a sensual, visually stunning journey of discovery into a new dimension: right onto the stage of the legendary ensemble and together with the dancers beyond the theater, into the city and the surrounding industrial landscape of Wuppertal – the place that was the home and center of Pina Bausch’s creative life for more than 35 years.
It’s 3D for grown-ups! Also, great dancing. You can see the trailer in 2D below:
I haven’t checked this book out yet, but right now, it’s free. If you suck at math, but you still want to help your child, you owe it to yourself to check this out: It’s Back to School for Everyone with “MATH FOR GROWNUPS” – get the ebook FREE today through 9/10! | Adams Media.
And hey, you likely suck at math alot less than you think. Ignore what people told you way back when.
I was annoyed when I first read this article by Beppi Crosariol (Surprise! One of Canada’s best wines is from Nova Scotia – The Globe and Mail). I normally like him, and I don’t think he is a snob, but what annoyed me was the tone of the article, as if to say “can you believe Nova Scotia of all places is making great wine”. Actually I can, and if you are someone who wants to find a place to start your own winery, you should be smart and consider buying land and starting in Nova Scotia. Here’s why:
I expect there to be a boom in wine making in Nova Scotia in the next 10-20 years. It may be a drop in the bucket compared to the volume of wine places like Australia turn out, but it will be a dramatic increase from what Nova Scotia currently produces. And it will be great.
(Image above links to the Wines of Nova Scotia web site).
Actually, how to deal with the urge to procrastinate, is here: » Best Procrastination Tip Ever :zenhabits.
I think procrastination works at a subconscious level, and that is a hard thing to overcome. This tip helps. Highly recommended.
This video of two chatbots talking to each other has been getting alot of attention on the Internet, for good reason. See for yourself:
Kevin Kelly interviewed the creators of it and has more background on it here: The Technium: Theological Chatbots. Well worth reading.
Bonus! One of the better lines from the video is now on T-shirts! See here
So says Parentcentral.ca. For those of you that don’t know:
For Happy Meals, U.S. customers can already choose between apples or fries. But only about 11 per cent of customers were ordering apples, the restaurant said.
So by the beginning of next year, McDonald’s will instead include a half-order of apples and a half-order of fries. Customers can get all fries or all apples if they ask.
This is an improvement, but I think a better option would be to include apples by default and only provide fries if the customer asks for them. Also, I would like to see McDonald’s making healthier meals for kids in general, and aim to have a certain percentage of the adult meals be healthy, too. I think the chain could do this and still be very successful.
Then head over to here: Amazon.com: Free – Songs: MP3 Downloads. Amazon has over 3000 songs that might cost you $1 elsewhere. Ahem. Why not get them for free and from a reputable location. 🙂 More good music than you can shake a stick at.
Here on
Bre Pettis’ Blog is The Cult of Done Manifesto. It’s a must read manifesto. Here’s one of my favourite items:
Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
Read the rest here. Then get things done!
Here’s some recent links on eating well and eating for less.
Lisa Johnson has a smart interact graph here that shows this: How Many Calories Can One Dollar Buy? A Lot More if It’s Junk Food!.
I agree with this, but I also think this is a matter of education and cultural changes in North America.
Here’s one way to change this: Take the $5 Challenge. SlowFoodUSA is having a challenge even on September 17th, 2011. Their challenge?
“On Sept. 17, I pledge to share a fresh, healthy meal that costs less than $5 — because slow food shouldn’t have to cost more than fast food.”
I think this is a great idea. Not only should you do it, but you should promote it as well. It should be easy if you have a vegetarian meal, and even if you decide to include meat, there’s lots of ways of doing that for low cost. See the challenge site.
If you are not sure what to make, I recommend taking some ideas from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters cookbook. You can find references to recipes in it here, and I wrote about it here.
Open Culture has a great clip that was used to promote the movie in the early 1980s before it was released as a feature film. Open Culture also has some background on that clip that is well worth the read. Meanwhile, here’s the clip, a must see for Blade Runner fans like myself
One thing I thought watching it is how it also the end of an era. While I am guessing some companies still use matte and large scale models like they did for Blade Runner, I suspect most now use computer generated images (CGI). Blade Runner was likely one of the last of the big SF films to use this for its special effects.
If Scott does make a Blade Runner II, I am willing to bet it will be with CGI, not what is used here.
This is a great history of email in some ways, but flawed due to omissions. While alot of the dates are true, email has been around longer than 29 years. And the number of email accounts is underrepresented.
A better history of email is here, Email – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Still that article, Today is the 29th anniversary of email, as copyrighted by this man – Shareables, has this great infographic that is definitely worth sharing for the highlights it does mention.
This phrase, Nothing Worth Doing is Easy, and many others can be seen much better at The Phraseology Project. A great site.
J.C. Penney was selling this T shirt online this morning to girls:
This made alot of people none too happy. They responded negatively and fast. J.C. Penney was also very responsive and pulled the shirt and apologized. All this happened in one day. My understanding is that J.C. Penney monitors response on the Internet and responds to it quickly. Very smart to do that, and very smart to pull this shirt, I think. The message on the T shirt is a bad one, but how everyone responded afterwards is good.
For more on it, see: this story in the New York News
This is a rough collection of ideas I put together after a chat with Jaime Woo (@jaimewoo) on Twitter. It’s also based on the work David Byrne did with playing a building, though of course it is not as sophisticated as that.
Essentially I was considering the challenge ofhow to turn a city into a musical instrument. To do this, you’d need inputs (your keys, so to speak) and outputs (the sound). The trick is how to get inputs from the city such that your output is something most people would think is worthwhile to listen to, somethingmusical and not just noise or random sounds.
To do this, I am going to model my first idea on the Mozart Magic Cube toy and we can go from there. (This is the Magic Cube here: http://www.amazon.com/Munchkin-3106-Mozart-Magic-Cube/dp/B00004TFLB.)The cube can play 8 different Mozart pieces, and there is a switch to make it go from one piece to another. (It’s a kid toy: I think if you bang it against something, it changes the composition that it’s playing). There are also five buttons (inputs) associated with a musical instrument: pressing one turns the instrument on or off. It’s great for kids, of course, but it could also be the start of a way to turn the city into a music device.
Let’s imagine putting five kiosks in the city. One kiosk represents the drum, another the flute, etc. All kiosks are ON by default. Each kiosk has a computer with speakers, a browser, and a mouse. Each kiosk computer is hooked up to central web server that is running on Google’s app engine or a low cost shared site. The server sends down the song for the kiosk to play vis the browser, and the kiosk plays it. If someone on the drum kiosk clicks the mouse to turn the drum OFF, then this is sent to the central kiosk, and the other servers tells all the kiosks to turn the drum sound off.
Essentially what we have done here is deconstruct the Mozart Magic cube and spread it’s buttons all over the city, and people in different parts of the city are playing the cube together. You have five groups of people around these kiosks, playing simple music with the click of a mouse.
So far, we have something simple, but not too interesting. Five buttons, five instruments. We can make it more interesting by changing the interface and having more things to switch on and off.. For example, you could have it so that you have many many instruments to turn on and off. Instead of a mouse click, you could have people vote up or down the intensity of each sound. For example, if more people send a twitter message to turn the kettle drums off and the tubas on (using a special hash tag), then the drums will go off and the tubas will go on. In essence, the population is conducting the city. You could even have a real orchestra or band playing while watching a dashboard to change the way they play.
It doesn’t have to be classical music, either. It could be jazz or rock or anything with enough instruments in it to make it interesting to interact with. However you do it, you have a social interaction set to music.
It also doesn’t have to be a twitter feed or a mouse click. You could use QR codes so that people could use their mobile phones to take photos of QR codes, that would take them to the central server and allow their vote to be registered that way. Anything suitable for a crowd of people and kiosks would work.
The more time you have, the more interactive and dynamic you can make it. For example, you could break the music down even further so that various inputs could be chords or notes from different instruments, and the input that different parts of the city provide can come up with an original composition. Mind you, it could be a terrible composition as well! For that, you would need someone with enough musical knowledge to put together a range of sounds that would sound well together regardless of how they were played. But if you see tools like Audiotool and other such sites, you see how people can turn things on and off and have the music change in a way that it is still interesting. And you can even add music visualization to that!
There are lots of ways to gather input from people across the city and map it to sounds that will output music. You need to make sure the input is “good”, and by good it has to result in interesting output. That means it has to vary sufficiently, for one thing. But you also need to guard against malicious input. Boring input or malicious input will make bad music. You need some form of moderation that makes it into something interesting.
Anyway, this is some rough ideas on how to turn the city into a musical device using social media as input.
If you are lucky in life, you will get to be at a club or venue and be in the presence of greatness. It doesn’t happen often, and it is captured in photography even less. Fortunately here’s one such moment, captured by Herman Leonard, of Ella singing while Duke
Ellington and Benny Goodman are in the audience, soaking it up with delight.
Such a great moment, captured by a great photographer.
I found this on the blog Iconic Photos, where you can find more on Leonard, as well as a link to alot of his great images. Enjoy!
This looks awesome:
Kiefer is one of the world’s greatest living artists, and now there is a film of him and his work. It is coming out Oct 15th, apparently, but it is also showing before then at film festivals like the Toronto International Film Festival, this September.
I can’t wait to see it. I am a big fan of his work.
If you are travelling this long weekend, you might feel the need for speed at some point, and if you do (or have other problems with your vehicle), you may rightly be pulled over by the police. What’s the best way to deal with this? Yahoo! provides some good advice.
I am a big fan of the blog Mrs. Easton. It’s a feast of things you don’t find elsewhere. The blog’s latest find is these Little Wood Stoves that come from the company Morso.
I think they’re fantastic. This one seems quiet traditional, but they have a wide range of designs, including some very streamlined and contemporary. Check out Mrs. Easton’s blog first, then head over to Morso for more information.
Just seeing them makes me look forward to roaring fires in the midwinter!
This is perfect, and a perfect matchup. One of my all time favorite mashup, featuring two of my favorite “people”: Tom Waits and the Cookie Monster.
See for yourself:
Tom Waits/Cookie Monster mashup – God’s Away On Business – YouTube
Really. This is the start of it, here, in Ethiopia:
As this BBC News – Africa ‘witnessing birth of a new ocean’ article states, it will continue to open and fill in with water, resulting in a very different Africa and an entirely new ocean. Now, it will take 10 million years to occur, but it starts now, in this century.
While there has been alot of talk about 3D printers, this takes it to the next level. As this article (Design, Download And Print Your House With WikiHouse — The Pop-Up City) shows, WikiHouse
t enables anybody, including non-design professionals, to design houses with Google’s free 3D design software SketchUp and instantly print and build them. Design your own dream house with the help of the crowd and a plywood printer.
I think this is fascinating. It could make building construction evolve at speeds closer to software. In the 21st century, everything will accelerate the way IT accelerated in the 20th century.
Jack Layton died today. He wrote this just before he died.While you can find the entire letter here (CBC.ca News – Jack Layton’s last letter to Canadians) I thought this passage in particular was great, and one I strongly endorse:
Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one – a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world’s environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change. In the months and years to come, New Democrats will put a compelling new alternative to you. My colleagues in our party are an impressive, committed team. Give them a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done.
My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.
Rest in peace, Jack.
Is likely found in this article: Five tricks workers use to visit blocked Web sites. Anyone thinking of blocking web sites and spending alot of resources to do so would be advised to read this article before proceeding.
I love this site: The Spoon Sisters. They have lots of brilliant and low cost gifts you can get. For example, this:
It turns a tap into a drinking fountain! Simple, nicely designed, and at $9.95, well priced. Kids would love using this, although I like it too!
(Found via SwissMiss)
There’s a really good interview of Harrison Ford here, ‘I’ve had my time’ – The Irish Times – Fri, Aug 19, 2011, that covers alot of ground, from his current role in Cowboys & Aliens to all the way back when he first started. Anyone interested in Ford can get his biography in this interview, as well as other places. While the article is good just for the bio, what I also liked and what also comes across in it is how matter of fact and modest he is. Given all his success, it would be easy to imagine him being pompous or vain or holding any of the other faults of many big name Hollywood stars. He seems to be the opposite of all that. Well worth a read.
The image and the article is from The Irish Times web site, which is a good publication and well worth a read as well.
Smart People I Know 