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- [+545] Dilbert's Scott Adams on investing in BPPublished: June 5, 2010Source: Digg / toplinks / todayWhen I heard that BP was destroying a big portion of Earth, with no serious discussion of cutting their dividend, I had two thoughts: 1) I hate them, and 2) This would be an excellent time to buy their stock. And so I did. Although I should have waited a week. People ask me how it feels to take the side of moral bankruptcy. Answer: Pretty good!
- Smooth jazz version of Enter SandmanPublished: April 5, 2010Source: kottke.org
- The neuroscience of CostcoPublished: April 1, 2010Source: kottke.orgJonah Lehrer on what our brains are up to when we're shopping at Costco.
As I note in How We Decide, this data directly contradicts the rational models of microeconomics. Consumers aren't always driven by careful considerations of price and expected utility. We don't look at the electric grill or box of chocolates and perform an explicit cost-benefit analysis. Instead, we outsource much of this calculation to our emotional brain, and rely on relative amounts of pleasure versus pain to tell us what to purchase.
Tags: brain Costco economics Jonah Lehrer neuroscience science - Why Portland should get Google fiber (hint: Linus Torvalds)Published: March 30, 2010Source: Ars TechnicaThe City of Portland, Oregon says it's ready to be one of Google's test run fiber-to-the-home projects, and how: "No city in the USA is as ready as Portland to launch a citywide or scaled test bed for ultra high speed open platform broadband," its response to Google's Request for Proposals proudly declares. "Portland has the history, broad community support, willing businesses, committed local government, and cost-effective, year-round construction metrics." As we've reported, Google says it's planning to roll out and test "ultra-high speed broadband networks" in various trial areas around the United States. And they sound pretty darned ultra: one gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections "at a competitive price" to cities and regions of 50,000 to ten times that many people. Portland says if you build it, we will download. But beyond that, why should Google choose that rainy northwestern city where people prefer to rust rather than tan? Here are some answers the RFP gives. First, hardcore telecommuters, Portlanders like to work at home, or "over Wi-Fi in coffee shops, or in co-working spaces," the RFP notes. In fact, "nine Portlanders telecommute for every one who commutes by light rail." Plus it's a small business city—within Multnomah County, three out of four businesses have ten employees or less. Next, Portlanders are huge long-term planners of the green variety. This was the first city to embrace a plan for global warming, the document adds. Its emissions levels have dropped 14 percent while national emissions continue to go up. The town already serves as a test site for sensor nets, telemedicine, and advanced geolocation services. And Portland "was the first government in the nation to endorse 'open access' requirement to then-emerging broadband Internet platforms," doing so back in December of 1998. Google's project, it should be noted, will be open access—letting users choose from a variety of ISPs. Finally, Mr. Linux himself, Linus Torvalds, lives in Portland, as does wiki inventor Ward Cunningham. This all sounds pretty competitive to us (we, of course, aren't making the decision). Applicants had until March 26 to make their move; as cities now reveal their applications, everyone else can see what they are up against. Google may take until the end of this year to make its decision. Read the comments on this post
- Dharma Initiative food labelsPublished: March 30, 2010Source: kottke.orgFor your Lost party tonight: dozens and dozens of Dharma Initiative food labels that you can print out and affix to bottles and jars. Includes steak sauce, cake mix, tuna, sake, and guacamole dip. Tags: design Lost TV
- Film: The Dude Plumbs His Weary SoulPublished: February 25, 2010Source: NYT > Home Page
- Electric Bicycles Surging In PopularityPublished: February 1, 2010Source: Slashdotgollum123 writes "An accidental transportation upheaval began in China, where an estimated 120 million electric bicycles now hum along the roads, up from a few thousand in the 1990s. They are replacing traditional bikes and motorcycles at a rapid clip and, in many cases, allowing people to put off the switch to cars. The booming Chinese electric-bike industry is spurring worldwide interest and impressive sales in India, Europe, and the US. China is exporting many bikes, and Western manufacturers are also copying the Chinese trend to produce models of their own. From virtually nothing a decade ago, electric bikes have become an $11 billion global industry. In the Netherlands, a third of the money spent on bicycles last year went to electric-powered models. Industry experts predict similar growth elsewhere in Europe, especially in Germany, France, and Italy, as rising interest in cycling coincides with an aging population. India had virtually no sales until two years ago, but its nascent market is fast expanding and could eclipse Europe's in the next year. In China, electric bicycles have evolved into bigger machines that resemble Vespa scooters. These larger models are causing headaches for global transportation planners. They cannot decide whether to embrace them as a green form of transportation, or ban them as a safety hazard. Some cities are studying the halfway measure of banning them from bicycle lanes while permitting them on streets."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- NASA Designs All-Electric Personal Flight VehiclePublished: January 20, 2010Source: SlashdotMikeChino writes "NASA is currently working on a personal aircraft that will put jet packs to shame. The Puffin is an all-electric one-man airplane that could be the start of some new and amazing air travel technology. With two prop electric engines, lithium phosphate batteries and a top speed of almost 300 mph, the vertical take off and landing vehicle was originally designed for covert military insertions because it has a lower heat signature than combustion engines. The Puffin would also be super quiet – 10 times quieter than current low-noise helicopters, and since the engine is electric it has no flight ceiling and can fly up to 9,150 meters high, uninhibited by thin air."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Two Gentlemen of LebowskiPublished: January 7, 2010Source: JesusRanch.netby scott (Posted Fri Jan 08, 2010 7:48 pm)
What if William Shakespeare wrote The Big Lebowski? We need not wonder any longer:
http://www.runleiarun.com/lebowski/
Verily, I present thee with Act 1, Scene 2:[The bowling green. Enter THE KNAVE, WALTER and DONALD, to play at ninepins]
WALTER
In sooth, then, faithful friend, this was a rug of value? Thou wouldst call it not a rug among ordinary rugs, but a rug of purpose? A star in a firmament, in step with the fashion alike to the Whitsun morris-dance? A worthy rug, a rug of consequence, sir?
THE KNAVE
It was of consequence, I should think; verily, it tied the room together, gather’d its qualities as the sweet lovers’ spring grass doth the morning dew or the rough scythe the first of autumn harvests. It sat between the four sides of the room, making substance of a square, respecting each wall in equal harmony, in geometer’s cap; a great reckoning in a little room. Verily, it transform’d the room from the space between four walls presented, to the harbour of a man’s monarchy.
WALTER
Indeed, a rug of value; an estimable rug, an honour’d rug; O unhappy rug, that should live to cover such days!
DONALD
Of what dost thou speak, that tied the room together, Knave? Take pains, for I would well hear of that which tied the room together.
WALTER
Didst thou attend the Knave’s tragic history, Sir Donald?
DONALD
Nay, good Sir Walter, I was a-bowling.
WALTER
Thou attend’st not; and so thou hast no frame of reference. Thou art as a child, wandering and strutting amidst the groundlings as a play is in session, heeding not the poor players, their exits and their entrances, and, wanting to know the subject of the story, asking which is the lover and which the tyrant.
THE KNAVE
Come to the point, Sir Walter.
WALTER
My point, then, Knave; there be no reason, if sweet reason doth permit, in enlightenment’s bower—and reason says thou art the worthier man—
DONALD
Yes, Sir Walter, pray, merrily state the fulcrum of thy argument.
THE KNAVE
My colleague, although unfram’d and unreferenc’d, speaks plain and true. That these toughs are those at fault, we are agreed; that I stand wounded, unrevenged, we likewise are agreed; yet you circle the meanings unconstantly, like blunted burrs, unstuck where they are thrown.
WALTER
I speak of aggression uncheck’d, as crowned heads of state once spoke of Arabia—
DONALD
Arabia! Then we have put a girdle round the earth. Of what does Sir Walter speak?
WALTER
Cast it from thy sievelike books of memory, Sir Donald; thou art out of thy element.
DONALD
Mine element?
WALTER
Wherefore was I curs’d only to minister
To congregations held in deafen’d pits?
I must hobble my speech; of elements, sir,
A doctor of physic did once explain
That all the earth is province elemental,
Sure and steady as the stone-wall foursome
A-holding up the Knave’s roof, tied together
By power that we spake on, our traffic
Unmarred by thy rough and idle chatter.
And the complexion of the element
In favour’s like the rug that ties the room.
O, a muse of fire the first element,
Airy breath the second; though this wind
May well be yours for all you flap your tongue,
O ill-dispersing wind of misery!
Thou hast no wings, and, liable to plunge,
You fit not fowl; yet foul your interruption,
Fished for facts, yet fish you cannot be;
So water, elemental third, you’re not,
How much salt water thrown away in waste.
Of earth, no woman left on earth will have thee,
No man of middle earth will tend thy land,
So walk the plains like to a lonely dragon;
I care not.
THE KNAVE
Good sir, speak plain. I know not these villains, surely would I ne’er traffic with this man of Orient birth who so abused my rug. I have not the facility to present him with the rate of usance and demand money in kind for that which he has spent upon’t; so I entreat you, speak plain.
WALTER
I speak the truth; my words are straight and true.
The man of Orient birth is not the issue.
DONALD
The Orient, Sir Walter?
WALTER
I speak, old friend, of truths in desert land.
The hour is nigh to draw line in the sand.
THE KNAVE
Deserts? I had made it plain that he was Orient-man.
WALTER
Though words in haste be only human nature,
‘Orient-man’ is not preferr’d nomenclature.
THE KNAVE
Give me no further counsel; my griefs cry softer than advertisement.
WALTER
I speak of this other man, Sir Geoffrey of Lebowski. Is not thy name, sir, Geoffrey of Lebowski? To be or not Lebowski, that is the question; I see we still did meet each other’s man. Shall we not make amends? A gentleman of high sentence ought to be of unsequestered location, possessed of resources fit to restore a thousand rugs from vile offence. He’s not well married that lets his wife a borrower be, such that men gravely offended bespoil another man’s rug. Be I wrong?
THE KNAVE
No, but verily—
WALTER
Be I wrong?
THE KNAVE
Yea, but verily—
WALTER
That rug, in faith, tied the room together, did it not?
THE KNAVE
By my heart, a goodly rug.
DONALD
And in most miserable tide did this rogue besmirch it.
WALTER
Prithee, Donald! Thou too eagerly hold’st the mirror up to nature.
THE KNAVE
My mind races; I might endeavour to seek this gentleman Lebowski.
DONALD
His name is Lebowski? Verily, ope thine ear; that is thy name, Knave!
THE KNAVE
On good authority; and his nobleness must oblige. His wife taketh up quarrel and borrows, and they bespoil my rug.
WALTER
Marry, sir, my heartstrings do you tug;
They urinate upon thy damnèd rug.
[Exeunt severally]
Kudos to Adam Bertocci for writing this. He has truly achieved at the not-so-modest task that was his charge.
Read Main Topic - The Known UniversePublished: December 16, 2009Source: kottke.orgThe Known Universe zooms out from Tibet to the limits of the observable universe. Dim the lights, full-screen it in HD, and you're in for a treat. Like Powers of Ten, except astronomically accurate. It's not a dramatization, it's a map; the positioning data was pulled from Hayden Planetarium's Digital Universe Atlas, which is available for free download.
Since 1998, the American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium have engaged in the three-dimensional mapping of the Universe. This cosmic cartography brings a new perspective to our place in the Universe and will redefine your sense of home. The Digital Universe Atlas is distributed to you via packages that contain our data products, like the Milky Way Atlas and the Extragalactic Atlas, and requires free software allowing you to explore the atlas by flying through it on your computer.
Tags: long zoom maps space video - Plugin by C. Murray Consulting