2012 June❮❮prevnext❯❯

playlist: season_2012 1 spring

playlist
(3 comments)
2012.06.01
So by my idiosyncratic, school-year based way of reckoning, Summer is here, and so I can write up the three-star-plus music I added to my collection over the 3 months of Spring.

I kind of bunched these by genre, figuring that's the best chance of making this list useful to folks looking for stuff they like, but a really coherent categorization system is elusive. "Retro" is just "old", but not 90s old, which is a certain time when I was aware of music but not always going out and buying CDs. "Pop" tends to be a bit more polished and/or electronic than "Alt", but, well, you know.

4- and 5-star songs are marked in red.

One five star song: Completely Random. Hiphop Funny Retro 90s Pop Alt Chiptunes
The GOP Sees Dead People--Voting Voter fraud happens retail (if that) and Conservatives are purging voter registrations wholesale. This is not justice.
People who are brutally honest get more satisfaction out of the brutality than out of the honesty.
Richard J. Needham

emma is one sassy cat

photos
(1 comment)
2012.06.02

nicolas cage does john cage

2012.06.03

--John Cage's 4'33" (that length of time of silence, or rather of the ambient noise of a performance) recreated as assembled Nicolas Cage film clips.
http://www.r2-d2.de/ - a man and his (replica) droid... still looking for information on R2D2's distinctive industrial design, the "stripes"

how to open beer bottles if you've already opened quite a few and drunk them

2012.06.04

--via Man, I am generally helpless without a bottle opener.
Some things I know and some things I don't.
John from Cincinnati

a brief history of video games

(1 comment)
2012.06.05

--Sounds Good!
Sex life getting boring? Try a trail of rose petals that leads toward your bed but veers into walls and over some marbles, because ahahaha.
I took a nap and dreamt I was sleepy. Really, brain?
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0605/Transit-of-Venus-What-to-expect Judging by previous transits, Venus is pretty crap at making eclipses.

heavy boots

(2 comments)
2012.06.06

Heavy Boots

by John Blanton

The North Texas Skeptics is an organization devoted to the promotion of science and rational thinking in the study and understanding of the world around us. So we occasionally need to talk about science and the public's perceptions of science. John Sigler has forwarded this to me from the Internet because he considers it a remarkable indication of the state of science education in this country, and I have to agree. If all of this is strictly true (I'm a skeptic to the end), then things are much worse than we thought. As John said in his note: "[It's] kinda long and depressing, but the point is made quickly ..."

We don't have the original author's permission to reprint this entirely. In fact I have not been able to discover the name of the original author. How's that for a friend-of-friend story. So I will just relate what was said and quote where necessary. If you want to follow up, here is some information from the mail header:

From: BDEMPSEY.ENG-MAIL@SMTP.INTECOM.COM (Dempsey, Bill)
Date: Thu, 15 Dec 1994 14:53 CDT
"About 6-7 years ago, I was in a philosophy class at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (good science/engineering school) and the teaching assistant was explaining Descartes. He was trying to show how things don't always happen the way we think they will and explained that, while a pen always falls when you drop it on Earth, it would just float away if you let go of it on the Moon.

"My jaw dropped a little. I blurted 'What?!' Looking around the room, I saw that only my friend Mark and one other student looked confused by the TA's statement. The other 17 people just looked at me like 'What's your problem?'

"`But a pen would fall if you dropped it on the Moon, just more slowly.' I protested. `No it wouldn't,' the TA explained calmly, `because you're too far away from the Earth's gravity.'

"Think. Think. Aha! `You saw the APOLLO astronauts walking round on the Moon, didn't you?' I countered, `Why didn't they float away?' `Because they were wearing heavy boots,' he responded, as if this made perfect sense (remember, this is a Philosophy TA who's had plenty of logic classes).

By now the two heroes of our story were really charged up. Remarking on the stupidity of philosophy majors they went back to their dorm and conducted an unscientific, nearly random phone survey. They selected 30 respondents and asked this question:

1. "If you're standing on the Moon holding a pen, and you let go, will it a) float away, b) float where it is, or c) fall to the ground?
Encouragingly, they report that 47 percent answered correctly (answers at the end of this article). Next they asked the remaining 53 percent (16 people):
2. "You've seen films of the APOLLO astronauts walking around on the Moon, why didn't they fall off?
"About 20 percent of the people changed their answer to the first question when they heard this one!" The others? You guessed it! "Heavy boots."

Undaunted, our heroes plugged on. One of them (Wally) was teaching a physical science class, and he gave his class the heavy boots quiz, asking what would happen to the pen and the astronauts. Here are the results:

8 people thought the pen would float away
5 thought it would float where it is
5 said it would drop to the ground
"Of those in the first two catagories [sic], several said that the gravitational pull of the moon kept the astronauts from floating away. And some said they were wearing heavy suits. And one said they were wearing lead-weighted boots."

The Internet note listed several of the actual responses to the class quiz, but I'm only going to give you a couple of the more interesting ones:


1. Float where it is 2. They don't fall off the moon because they were anchored to their hip with a rope. The rope was tied to the atronaught (sic) on one end and the ship on the other.

1. Fall to the ground 2. The reason that the astronauts fall to the ground is because the moon has a certain amount of atmosphere. This atmosphere is not half as powerful as the earth's but is (sic) still produces a minute gravitational effect.

The saga goes on: "So a bunch of us TAs got together and gave our physics classes quizzes asking this question. Out of 168 people taking the quiz, 48 missed the question." Again, here are two interesting responses:

From a class in Physics 324 - Modern Physics for Engineers:

The gravity of the moon can be said to be negligible, and also the moon's a vacuum, there is no external force on the pen. Therefore it will float where it is.
From a class in Physics 221 - First Semester Calculus-based Introductory Physics:
External forces that are present on the moon will attract the pen. There isn't gravity on the moon as there is on earth so the pen won't drop.
The original mailer included pages of responses from the students, all indicating a lack of understanding of some fairly basic science concepts. It's no good saying, "Wait! These were undergraduates. What do you expect?" This is the kind of material that should be picked up in grades four through six. By all students. My guess is that this was presented, and maybe the students did learn it then. However, we live in a society that so relies on received knowledge from entertainment and from authority figures that at a young age we quit thinking for ourselves. What should be simple problems of logic such as these are not attacked rigorously unless circumstances absolutely require it. The usual approach is to pick the most convenient answer and go with that.

I have recently gotten involved in the Science-by-Mail program, which incorporates mentors from science and industry into science projects at local schools. So far, I am finding it an interesting experience, and I believe both the students and the mentors can benefit. I know that one of the benefits I will gain from this is a better understanding of science teaching in the public schools today, and I encourage others to check out the program. Information will generally be available at our meetings.

All right, for you philosophy majors who found this issue of The Skeptic on the bus, here are the answers to the quiz:

1. The correct answer is (c) - The pen would fall to the ground (the surface of the Moon, that is).
2. I don't know. If they didn't fall off, how did the astronauts get back to the Earth?
-LAN3 seemed to be sad that it was harder and harder to find copies of this, and it's worth retelling...
http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-features/63829-mobile-tactile-tech-gets-physical WOW -- touch screens w/ a gel that actually forms physical tactical buttons over the virtual ones? #thefutureishere

droid gulliver

2012.06.07

--via Cracked's 5 Light-Hearted Movies With Dark Moral Implications. I just thought it was a pretty cool, cross-iconic image...
Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.
Albert Einstein
http://yourbrainonecon.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/am-i-a-horrible-and-repulsive-person/ Interesting musing on political leanings and cosmopolitanism. I think most folk's political leanings are instinctive, and not as well thought out as this guy's... but also that the gut feelings of lefties tend to come for a more compassionate and empathetic place.
http://runningastartup.tumblr.com livin' the vida startup. Good use of reaction GIFs.
Man. Tank! Tank! Tank! -- I have been looking for a tank game for a long while.

i just met you, and this is kazoo-y

2012.06.08
Despite my usual commitment to rationality, I have some magical thinking about sports, as if my watching a live game can change Boston sports outcomes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC8VJ9aeB_g - my sadness that "Django Unchained" is not about Django Reinhardt is tempered by that AMAZING remix of "The Payback"
The people you are sure are wrong are just as sure that you are wrong. The only difference is they're wrong.

getting rid of t-shirts

shirts
2012.06.09
Time to clear out my T-shirts. Some were just getting old and dingy, others just didn't work.

Let me know if there's anything you want...

Open Photo Gallery

Loved but worn out


Ahh the Adventures of Alfredo... an obscure corner of PC stick figure theater legacy.


I'll miss this custom-T but it was a little dark.


These are all getting worn out, except for one I'm saving.


By my buddy Miller... I loved the idea of a turtle pondering death.


Had this made at a cool custom T-store at the Navy Pier in Chicago.

From Japan

From my trip to Japan... kinda cool, but they all run a little snug, surprise surprise.





Too Plastick-y and Sweaty


This was gonna be cooler when it said "Pedroia the Destroya" but a trademark claim screwed it.


Loved the defense and the Bruins championship, dislike most everything else about Tim Thomas.


Shepard Fairy.

Others




These 2 were like $2 or $3 each at Rodney's Bookstore, but they make me look like I'm trying too hard.


I love this HARVEYJAMES shirt but I hardly ever have the cajones to wear it.


Sigh -- I like the idea of this shirt by Auntie Pixelante but really I just don't like black T-shirts all that much.


And this recent arrival is black, and actually a bit TOO glow-in-the-dark.


A gorilla riding an ostrich. Better in theory than in practice.


Build-an-iPhone.


Some weird art piece about jersey barriers, from the Cordova. Too minimalist to be fun.


Too orange.


Too touristy.


Too sincere. Or green. Or something.


Dup.


Kinda cool, a little touristy.


A bit too simple.


From startup weekend, but it was the wrong year, and it's an odd fit.

It's the remix to Ignition / hot and fresh out the kitchen / no we can't make you an omelet / our chef only does remixes

not minute

2012.06.10

click for larger

Manute Bol playing defense in 1984. I think about this in comparison to the "world's heaviest person" photos from a while back, and man. The human phenotype is kind of nuts! via
I love what foreign travel guides have to say about my country. It's a good way of getting a more objective view.
Idea: Term Limits for the Supreme Term Limits for the Supreme Court... we need this.
sexy singles in your area... 20 meters... 10 meters... 5 meters... oh god they're in the ventilation ducts!
Outta ~2200 songs in iTunes I consider listenable (that's out of 8500 songs total), around 50 I rank 5 stars. I'm gonna use This Is My Jam for 'em this year, starting from the top: Groove is in the Heart by Deee-lite.

amazin' skatin'

2012.06.11
"You down wit OCD?"
Yes, you know me.
"You down wit OCD?"
Yes, you know me.
"You down wit OCD?"
Yes, you know me.
"Who's down wit OCD?"
Every homie, without exception.
After a weekend jaunt to Pittsburgh Amber noted a surprising lack of river- and harbor-side dining options...

guess who's gettin' hitched??

history
(5 comments)
2012.06.12

THIS GUY

kiss kiss

2012.06.13
In "Driving With Plato", Robert Rowland Smith begins the chapter "Having Your First Kiss" with a bit of Shakespeare:
ROMEO [To JULIET.]
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

JULIET
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

ROMEO
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

JULIET
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

ROMEO
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray -- grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

JULIET
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.

ROMEO
Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
[KISSES HER]
...A kiss is a matter of delight, of play, of a delicious hide-and-seek, as light as a feather and as solemn as the prayers to which Shakespeare's lovers allude. It hovers like a net to catch all their fluttering feelings: hope, expectation, anxiety, curiosity, relief, abandon. It waits for them teasingly at the end of the sonnet, to bless the miracle of love at first sight. Listening to Romeo and Juliet, one wants to say that above all kissing proves there are more mysterious and wonderful things in the world than are dreamed of by science.

But what's interesting is that this romantic wondrous-ness finds itself enhanced rather than diminished by the formal elements, the scientific structure, of the verse, and that the young lovers themselves seem more than a little aware of it. That repeated s, for example, makes the lines sound like the kissing they describe, especially because the  s often combines with a p, not only in the words lips itself, but also palmers, prayers and pilgrims. Each time Romeo or Juliet speaks, he or she repeats at least one key word that the other has just enunciated, as if their fates were becoming laced together through each letter of that word. The final two lines create not only a couplet but a couple: they demonstrate the union and symmetry between the love-birds.
"Driving with Plato" is a pretty good book! I need to check out his earlier work "Breakfast with Socrates" (which is about what philosophy has to say about every day events, vs "Driving"'s emphasis on major life milestones, like a first kiss...

zefrank on chasing that happy

2012.06.14
You become yourself with another self: you make a pair, and in doing so you see the future in each other's eyes.
Robert Rowland Smith on "Falling in Love"
Indeed recognizing that with death the relationship must end gives marriage much of its human pathos. The vows say 'I'll love you for as long as I possibly can. I can't love you after I'm dead, because I'll be dead.' Marriage begins from death, as it were, and work backward to fill the intervening period with love.
Robert Rowland Smith on "Tying the Knot"
You know, I like Dubstep-ish Bass Drops as much as the next guy, but it's odd it's the only way to tell current from 10-15 yr old things.

whoa

2012.06.15

I posted some examples from this earlier (one of the stills is now the lock screen for my iPad, though I don't see it much with the smart cover) but man... the motion of these extremely-windblown faces is CRAZY -- I didn't know skin could move like that!

manyinvaders

game
(2 comments)
2012.06.16

manyinvaders- source
A simple (but fun (to me)) invaders game for the 5th Anniversary Klik of the Month Klub. Invader bodies are toxic whether or alive or dead! How far can you get?

stamps

2012.06.17

Most of my arts and crafts tend to be virtual, but encouraged by zefrank's episode on finishing stamps and the followup project, I made my own physical rubber stamp! A process not unlike printmaking. (I've since cut down the rear fist so it looks like Alien Bill is bowling...)
http://www.thisismyjam.com/kirkjerk/_22c971i -- It's Your Thing (The Isley Brothers) In my top three. A little too blase lyrically, but man-- ideal blend of bass, piano, drum + horns.

BASS

2012.06.18

-Two weekends ago my friend and I installed a new stereo in my car. Last weekend, Amber's brother Brendan showed me this video.

Maybe I should have added a subwoofer, too?
I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job...Because, he will find an easy way to do it.
Bill Gates

flowchart puns

2012.06.19

from I Love Charts tumblr.
It's on thing to be a real fan, but people who wear fashion Yankees wear remind me of Ayn Rand and her dollar sign broach.

they say it's gonna be hot one

2012.06.20

--via Scott Richards on facebook... (it's from Sculpture by the Sea in Sydney, AU -- some more info)
Not sure if the novel "36 Arguments for the Existence of God" is heavy handed Ayn Rand for Atheists or if I'm just jealous of the characters
Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember.
Oscar Levant
America used to be run by checks and balances. Today, it's run entirely by checks.
Why do Staples and Office Depot smell the same? Is it paper, glue, or despair?

robert rowland smith on first love

2012.06.21
from Robert Rowland Smith's "Driving with Plato":
What's so odd today is that this sense of the unique experience of love coincides with the common knowledge that love can indeed befall you more than once in a lifetime. In this sense Anna Karenina heralds the modern age, and "first love" is precisely that: first but not last. As people live longer, become more affluent, and are aware of increased choice, there's a much more developed sense of love being a pleasure to be refreshed periodically, like buying a new house. And yet first love is special, an exercise of the soul that both recalls the munificence and warmth of being a child and introduces the sense of oneself as a grown-up, as someone who might make a journey through life with someone you didn't start life with. You become yourself with another self: you make a pair, and in doing so you see the future in each other's eyes.

winnah winnah chicken dinnah!

coolfav
2012.06.22

The trophy I won as the captaoin of the "People's Choice" team "Team Typing + Textbook Topic Targetting" at my company's 2 1/2 day hackathon, "Alleyoop Ignite"

For event T-shirts, Lauren made an awesome design:
Seriously, best corprorate shwag design ever.

star tok

2012.06.23

Nice mashup, I like how it makes Old Trek seem like a drunken spectacle.

stone zoo, spectacle island

photos
(2 comments)
2012.06.24
Yesterday my friend EB invited us to join them at the Stone Zoo in Stoneham, and after we went on a trip to Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor.

Open Photo Gallery


Stone Zoo is smallish, but the Flamingo Flock is fun, especially now since they have all these baby flamingos!


EB taking photos on Spectacle Island.


EBB1 offering up some clover.


EBB2 got a little tired.


You can see the rainstorm we were heading into as the boat returned to Long Wharf...


View of the statehouse.
Yesterday when I was hiking a bit in the Boston Harbor islands, none of the guide or rangers knew why it has an area called "Hypocrite Channel".
http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/pictures-that-will-restore-your-faith-in-humanity - I admit I got a little misty at some of these "restore your faith in humanity" photos...
My "actionfigurefighter" was the featured screenshot on this Penny Arcade report about Pirate Kart gems.
Indeed recognizing that with death the relationship must end gives marriage much of its human pathos. The vows say 'I'll love you for as long as I possibly can. I can't love you after I'm dead, because I'll be dead.' Marriage begins from death, as it were, and work backward to fill the intervening period with love.
Robert Rowland Smith on "Tying the Knot"

on aging

2012.06.25
From Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal:
http://www.noisemademedoit.com/dial-up-modem-slowed/ -- horror show sound track by slowing down the modem noise.

what, no love for doctor mccoy?

2012.06.26
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/bbj_research_alert/2012/06/outdoor-patio.html every outdoor patio area in Greater Boston.
They don't think it be like it is, but it do.
Oscar Gamble.
I actually like this formation very much- standard English is lacking, tense-wise.

oofdah!

2012.06.27
As 22 words puts it (get it?), this is Kurt Roberts displaying "the grace and poise of shot put":

Along the same lines, their collection of 15 Pole Vaulters celebrating just before they land is worth checking out.
The Texas GOP is against the teaching of "critical thinking skills". Wow.
What's mistake but a kind of take?
What's nausea but a kind of -usea?
William James on Nitrous Oxide (literally)
http://boingboing.net/2012/06/27/ataris-40th-anniversary.html Happy 40th Birthday Atari!

making the rounds...

(4 comments)
2012.06.28
Whoa, supreme court!



Personally I think the weirdest thing right now is how health insurance is the default employment perk -- it's bundled with its costs oddly masked. No matter where you are on single payer healthcare thinking, don't you think the status quo is a bit weird?
http://whatwoulddondraperdo.tumblr.com What Would Don Draper Do. Old but somehow inspiring even if the man is not the complete role model.

meet smokey

photos
2012.06.29

This is Smokey, a recent addition to our extended family. He is a Russian Blue with that terrific two-tone fur of the breed. His tail is enormously long.

i feel happy of myself!!!

2012.06.30


And then, the TED talk, 20 years later...


--via


2012 June❮❮prevnext❯❯