Someone created a Space Quest prequel!: Space Quest 0: Replicated. Brings back memories...
On June 21, 2003, Mark Frauenfelder and Carla Sinclair will move from Los Angeles to the South Pacific. Our first stop is Rarotonga, a tiny island in the South Pacific. We're brining our two young daughters with us.This is our story, one photograph at a time.
The National "Do Not Call" list is now available. Sign up here: National Do Not Call Registry
From dangerousmeta!:
you know those little stickers on fruits and vegetables, that you must peel off before eating? ever wonder what the numbers mean? besides price, it also tells how the item was grown. a "9" means organic ["94133"], an 8 means genetically-modified ["84133"]; conventionally grown seems drop the first # [they use "4133" as an example].Also here, and here.
'Mediterranean Diet' Cuts Heart Attack, Cancer Risk
A study of more than 22,000 Greeks provided further evidence on Wednesday that the "Mediterranean diet" rich in cheese, nuts and olive oil can protect against heart disease and cancer.The study found that people who ate a Mediterranean-style diet had a 33 percent reduction in the risk of death from heart disease and a cancer death rate that was 24 percent lower compared to volunteers who ate other foods.
The diet, which varies from country to country, often includes monthly servings of meat and weekly meals of poultry, eggs and sweets.
Vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, unrefined cereals, olive oil, cheese and yogurt are eaten most days, as is fish. Wine is consumed in moderation.
Assam tea is best, but pour milk in first for perfect cuppa: scientists
The "perfect cup of tea," according to Britain's Royal Society of Chemistry is made with loose-leaf Assam tea, with one rounded teaspoon per cup, no extra for the pot.Hah! This is exactly my favorite kind of tea! I win! :)
So once more: ''A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.'' He makes me repeat it five or six times, slowing me down until he has me reading each word with aching slowness.Fascinating.Then he switches on the machine. He is trying to suppress those parts of my brain responsible for thinking contextually, for making connections. Without them, I will be able to see things more as an autistic might.
After five minutes of electric pulses, I read the card again. Only then do I see -- instantly -- that the card contains an extra ''the.''
On my own, I had been looking for patterns, trying to coax the words on the page into a coherent, familiar whole. But ''on the machine,'' he says, ''you start seeing what's actually there, not what you think is there.''
Snyder's theories are bolstered by the documented cases in which sudden brain damage has produced savant abilities almost overnight. He cites the case of Orlando Serrell, a 10-year-old street kid who was hit on the head and immediately began doing calendrical calculations of baffling complexity. Snyder argues that we all have Serrell's powers. ''We remember virtually everything, but we recall very little,'' Snyder explains. ''Now isn't that strange? Everything is in there'' -- he taps the side of his head. ''Buried deep in all our brains are phenomenal abilities, which we lose for some reason as we develop into 'normal' conceptual creatures. But what if we could reawaken them?''
We will have two rooms available for sublet in July and August. The location is Somerville, MA, very close to Cambridge. Walking distance to Porter Square, Davis Square, Harvard Square. Hardwood floors, two decks, beautiful views, new kitchen. One of the rooms has a private adjoining bathroom. We're asking $550/mo per room, but it's negotiable. Contact me at bill@teamtechno.com. Thanks!
Update: Found someone!
An interesting collection of polls (Americans, 18+)
Some highlights:
56% think in war, the media should support the government over questioning itScary.34% think Rock and Roll has had an overall negative impact on America
33% believe a wife should "submit herself graciously" to a husband
30% say the Bible is the "actual word of God" to be taken literally
28% disapprove of labor unions on principle
28% say the government should have the right to control news reports
26% thought various disasters in 1999 might "foreshadow the wrath of God"
26% think grade-school teachers should be allowed to spank their kids
24% describe themselves as interested in what celebrities think
6% say Garth Brooks is the best male singer of the 20th century
5% would be "more likely" to buy food labeled as genetically modified
Four years ago, Bhutan, the fabled Himalayan Shangri-la, became the last nation on earth to introduce television. Suddenly a culture, barely changed in centuries, was bombarded by 46 cable channels. And all too soon came Bhutan's first crime wave - murder, fraud, drug offences. Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy report from a country crash-landing in the 21st century.
"The construction of who we believe we are, what the world is like, and how we should behave is an ongoing exercise that we are undertaking all the time. We are not spectators who have simply been thrown into a world that is pre-made or pre-given. We are participants in a continuous project of constructing and reconstructing the world in which we live."
--Traleg Rinpoche
(via synthetic zero)
I'd love to have a set of these:
In 1975, Peter Schmidt and Brian Eno created the original pack of Oblique Strategies cards, through thinking about approaches to their own work as artist and musician.(gift idea, hint, hint)The Oblique Strategies constitute a set of over 100 cards, each of which is a suggestion of a course of action or thinking to assist in creative situations.
These famous cards have been used by many artists and creative people all over the world since their initial publication in 1975.
Our goals for Block Jam are:* To create a collaborative musical interface.
* To explore the idea that simple interface elements such as a block, can allow an inexperienced user to create a complex musical experience that is engaging for both the musical novice and the musically adept.
* Exploration and creativity where music is not first composed and then listened to, but interactively arranged and re-arranged from the elements at hand to blur the boundaries between the performer, composer and audience.
Best analysis of the Matrix movies I have seen thus far: Matrix Reloaded Explained
The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race by Jared Diamond
To science we owe dramatic changes in our smug self-image. Astronomy taught us that our earth isn’t the center of the universe but merely one of billions of heavenly bodies. From biology we learned that we weren’t specially created by God but evolved along with millions of other species. Now archaeology is demolishing another sacred belief: that human history over the past million years has been a long tale of progress. In particular, recent discoveries suggest that the adoption of agriculture, supposedly our most decisive step toward a better life, was in many ways a catastrophe from which we have never recovered. With agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism, that curse our existence.
A reminder for those in the Delaware area, electronic music every Monday night: EIDE
It's no answer to say that Saddam was a murderous tyrant. I could point out that many of the neoconservatives who fomented this war were nonchalant, or worse, about mass murders by Central American death squads in the 1980's. But the important point is that this isn't about Saddam: it's about us. The public was told that Saddam posed an imminent threat. If that claim was fraudulent, the selling of the war is arguably the worst scandal in American political history — worse than Watergate, worse than Iran-contra. Indeed, the idea that we were deceived into war makes many commentators so uncomfortable that they refuse to admit the possibility.But here's the thought that should make those commentators really uncomfortable. Suppose that this administration did con us into war. And suppose that it is not held accountable for its deceptions, so Mr. Bush can fight what Mr. Hastings calls a "khaki election" next year. In that case, our political system has become utterly, and perhaps irrevocably, corrupted.
WMD just a convenient excuse for war, admits Wolfowitz
The Bush administration focused on alleged weapons of mass destruction as the primary justification for toppling Saddam Hussein by force because it was politically convenient, a top-level official at the Pentagon has acknowledged.