February 2011
25 posts
Sharon Begley: Why Almost Everything You Hear... →
Frighteningly enough, this is not an exaggeratory title.
(Via Richard Dunlop-Walters.)
U.S. Government's Dietary Advice: 'Eat Less' →
In the words of Bruce Lee:
It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.
(Via Slatest.)
January 2011
29 posts
We Need People Who Want to Do the Right Thing →
Barry Schwartz, in his latest TED Talk:
Rules and incentives don’t tell you how to be a good friend, how to be a good parent, how to be a good spouse, or how to be a good doctor or a good lawyer or a good teacher. Rules and incentives are no substitutes for wisdom. Indeed, we argue, there is no substitute for wisdom.
1 tag
Hail to The King, Baby →
Duke Nukem’s back and is still very much NSFW.
1 tag
Case Study #241: The Sistine Chapel →
“How do you get more people interacting with the brand?” the Vatican wondered. And so a radical idea was proposed: don’t just create works of art, turn the Catholic Church into one.
(Via Aaron Moy.)
1 tag
TED Books →
Doing to books the same thing TED Talks did to academic lectures. Three debut titles on the Kindle Store, only $2.99 each:
The Happiness Manifesto: How Nations and People Can Nurture Well-Being by Nic Marks
Homo Evolutis: Please Meet the Next Human Species by Juan Enriquez and Steve Gullans
Beware Dangerism! Why We Worry About the Wrong Things, and What It’s Doing to Our Kids by Gever Tulley
1 tag
Why We Need a Christian Dictator →
BRB. Bleaching brain.
(Via Joseph Gordon-Levitt.)
1 tag
Game Over? →
Long story short: Ayn Rand enrolled in Social Security and Medicare under a pseudonym.
Quoth the Rand, “I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”
(Via Boing Boing.)
2 tags
Would-Be Suicide Bomber Killed by Unexpected SMS... →
Ryan Singel:
If true, the SMS might be the only time that a wireless carrier’s SMS message has ever been useful.
2 tags
A 12-Year-Old Explains the Information Age's Facts... →
All hail McSweeney’s.
1 tag
'Victor Borge — Phonetic Pronunciation' →
Classic comedy. Does this exist at all today?
(Via Stephen Fry.)
1 tag
Derek Sivers: Delegate Or Die →
Derek Sivers:
I hit my breaking point. I stopped going to the office and shut off my phone. Then I realized I was running from my problems instead of solving them. I had to fix this, or I’d be ruined.
After a long introspective night of thinking and writing, I got myself into the delegation mindset.
I had to make myself un-necessary to the running of my company.
Good, simple advice.
1 tag
An Epiphany
Primarily, blogging for me is just a longer way of saying “Here is proof for for everything I believe.”
Feels like the final piece to this epiphanic puzzle was just time itself.
2 tags
What If Tunisia Had a Revolution, But Nobody... →
The answer is clear: look at the last ten days of your life. That’s how.
Also: relevant Hacker News conversation, including Ethan Zuckerman’s and Josh Shahryar’s follow-ups.
(Via Elizabeth Stark.)
3 tags
10-Year Apple vs. Microsoft Market Cap →
You can guess where this is going.
1 tag
Infographic: Why Do Marriages Fall Apart? →
1960: 66% of women age 15+ were married. Today: 51%.
Cliff Kuang elaborates:
But the fact is that being educated, making more money, waiting on kids, getting married late, and being religious are the most reliable indicators that your marriage will last.
1 tag
Top 20 Passwords of All Time →
In order:
123456
12345
123456789
Password
iloveyou
princess
rockyou
1234567
12345678
abc123
Nicole
Daniel
babygirl
monkey
Jessica
Lovely
michael
Ashley
654321
Qwerty
Notable no-shows: love, sex, secret, and… god.
(Via Erik Spiekermann.)
1 tag
Penn Jillette: Reading the Bible (Or the Koran, Or... →
Sound, simple logic: try reading the Bible cover-to-cover and not be incredibly turned off of religion. This would make a great competition.
1 tag
Infographic: How Horoscopes Hustle You →
Read: astrology is bullshit. Still not convinced? Carl Sagan. Bill Nye.
4 tags
Unofficial, Awesomely Inspiring NASA Ad →
Would you rather watch this ad with your children or a military recruitment ad?
1 tag
George Carlin on 'Stuff' →
Defining.
2 tags
Time to Legalize Everything →
Slatest:
The Economist chimes in with a note on Amsterdam, where the government didn’t just legalize heroin, it started giving it away (but only at state-run “safe injection points”). The result? Safer shooting up for addicts, and a complete destruction of heroin’s mystique for young people, who now find hard drugs “pathetic.”
1 tag
'Love' Trailer →
Excited.
23andme's Top 10 Most Interesting Genetic Findings... →
I’m not a huge fan of annual recaps, but I’m not sure people realize just huge this really is:
4. Understanding Alzheimer’s disease
Also, surprise!
5. One size doesn’t fit all — personalizing treatment
Illuminate →
One of the projects I backed on Kickstarter last year, ILLUMINATE, just won Best Dance Project in 2010. Kudos to the Indelible team!
1 tag
Wikipedia, Compared →
PewInternet:
In the scope of general online activities, using Wikipedia is more popular than sending instant messages (done by 47% of internet users) or rating a product, service, or person (32%), but is less popular than using social network sites (61%) or watching videos on sites like YouTube (66%).
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Tumblr's Downfall →
For all you Tumblr fans.
(Via David Cramer.)
1 tag
Barack Obama: 'My Job Is to Make Sure We Have a... →
Journalist Jonathan Weisman asked President Obama, “Where is your line in the sand?” Another great Vital Speeches of the Day entry.
1 tag
'No-Nonsense Personal Development Advice At Its... →
Spencer Thompson on Eric Thomas:
Here is a guy that was homeless at the age of 17 for two and a half years on the streets of Detroit. He had dropped out of high school after his mom kicked him out of the house. So what did he do? He woke up one day after being on the street, straightened himself out, and got his GED. From there, he made it his goal to complete college. Nobody in his family had...