Craig's Vision

Just thought I'd share what may well be a paradigm-buster for non-profits. Or, it could just be a bust. Time will tell, I suppose. Still, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark sets his sights on bringing together non-profit organizations in much the same way Craigslist brought together buyers, sellers, missed connections, and "escort" services.

Retired subway cars given new life

Worth clicking through to the original link: Dramatic Photos of Retired Subway Cars Being Tossed Into Ocean

I wonder what the environmental implications are. It's a cool photo series, though, regardless.

Late, but interesting

I wonder where all the naysayers are who thought Apple could never achieve 3m ipad unit sales. I'd love to know how much salt is needed to eat one's words.

Apple's 3rd-quarter results.

really neat portable wi-fi hotspot

if I didn't have several housemates and 2700sf to think about, I'd ditch the cable internet in favor of this thing.

Back to life, back to reality

I realize I forgot to explain my short posting hiatus in advance. I spent a week down in Florida with a close friend. Included in the week were stop-offs in Myrtle Beach, Charleston, St. Augustine, and Beaufort (the SC one, pronounced BYOO-fert). Highlights of the week:
: a week of great hair (oh, sand and salt water, what excellent hair product you are)
: manatee cove (my first in-person manatees! at least a dozen of them making their Darth Vader noises.)
: a pre-storm rainbow (whaaaa?)
: too many dolphins to count
: a kitten chasing a bug
: midday naps every single day
: delicious black tip shark kebabs
: the best grouper sandwich I've had (fresh, local seafood, yum.)
: watching the meteor shower through a gap in the palms while lying on the grass
: water glinting like diamonds
: assembling bookshelves (yes, I found this exciting. yes, I am so like my dad.)
: exaggeration and fable-telling galore!
: going to the beach for sunrise, only to be surprise witness to a space launch
: no, seriously, I watched a vessel leave Earth's atmosphere. its smoke trail glinted gold in the rising sun. I was in the Atlantic Ocean, waves splashing against me, surrounded by surfers lying on boards and watching. yes, you may now commence eating your heart out.
: happening across the elusive suburban Central Florida gay in the wild
: souvenir shopping for my house family
: so many different types of mango!
: the smallest church in America
: the nicest convenience store operator in Florida, by far. with the most strangely gay-friendly souvenir selection, and a wealth of amazingly fabulous tacky souvenirs
: a stop-off for a psychic reading from a spiritual advisor
: time with my bestie, duh!

Anyway, speaking of amusing internet video reviews:

Canon 7D vs. Barbie Video Girl from Brandon Bloch on Vimeo.

(yeah, I know. I made that segue up completely.)

Avast, there be pirates in these here waters!

This is by far one of the coolest (if not necessarily all that useful) things I have ever, ever seen. I wonder how one might pirate a vinyl inclusive of both sides (without having to make two separate vinyls), and whether it would be possible to repair scratches on the pirated copy.

They can't take that away from me

Noooo! Yet another thing scientists have taken away from me. First the Brontosaurus, then Pluto as a planet, and now the Triceratops?!

I don't know if I can handle this. My childhood is slowly crumbling around me, like so many stale cookies. Maybe I'll just refuse to believe it.

I love the smell of old books

but this is pretty stinkin' awesome.

"Uncanny" is perhaps an understatement

A Canadian filmmaker has replaced his eye with a video camera. I'm kind of creeped out that I think it's awesome. So, so awesome. And yet, a shining example of what exactly roboticists mean when they discuss the "Uncanny Valley."

*shudder*

making up for lost blogging

Okay, I'll post this and shut up for a while.

RSA animations are pretty great. They're ultimately 10-minute talks by subject matter experts with white board visualization to accompany the talk. This one by Barbara Ehrenreich seemed interesting to me, but maybe that's because I'm not a naturally sunny person, and eye-bulging optimism makes my face muscles hurt.

Thoughts?

more political than I usually prefer to get

...which is ironic, considering my undergraduate education.

1. A handy map of states in which it's legal to marry your first cousin. Note that in general, these states don't overlap with states where you can legally marry your same-sex partner. I think it's clear to see these states have their priorities fixed.

2. An article on why we should worry more about America becoming a kleptocracy than a commie regime. While I wouldn't necessarily go as far as calling this country a kleptocracy, I'd say greed and misinformation are definitely two of our greatest national threats.

3. Bill Moyers on Net Neutrality.

4. For feel-good value, a friend shared this with me. Ay, ayayay! Canta, no llores!

always vigilant

A handy guide to facial hair and its relative level of trustworthiness.

.......

So. nerdy.

Han Solo in carbonite. Envisioned as soap.

WANT.

a letter to the internet, in the shadow of Health Care Reform

Dear Internet (Blogosphere, especially):

I'm not sure how to feel about this whole Health Care Reform thing. I mean, the progressive in me thinks that a step forward is a good step, but the humanist in me thinks it's kind of hollow without at least a public option. Then there's the businessperson who's, well... kind of miffed that it doesn't include any substantial efforts to actually curb costs in a meaningful way.

Look, I know I'm supposed to feel violently one way or another (that's how everyone else seems to be responding), but I'm just sort of... torn.

Then there's all this attention being given to the pundits and politicians, and how this will affect their careers. Frankly, they have insurance coverage for life that's pretty pimp, and they're pretty much guaranteed a job even if they don't get re-elected (someone somewhere is always looking for a big mouth) and so I don't really see how it matters one way or another to them. ...But to me?

Internet, I think you're ignoring me. You're feeding me all these stories, and they're contradictory, and angry or defensive, and it doesn't even seem like you're being sincere or thoughtful about it. Like, maybe just some thoughtful, levelheaded discussion would help our relationship a lot.

I want to work it out. Like Al Green said, let's stay together.

Please?

<3,

-SLN-

I may have nightmares now.

Watch as a tree branch that has fallen on power lines screeches, gradually glows, and bursts into flame. A reminder to stay the hell away from power lines.

one last amalgam of links

1.

(future poli sci majors, many illustrious housing options await you!)
Stop Asking Me My Major
Stanford Poli Sci grad complains that people asking what practical use a degree has only causes stress, isn't productive. As a poli sci undergrad myself, I can't help but say that yes, there's value to all degrees, but it would be nice if there were more guidance on career trajectory in high school and college. I *loved* my poli sci courses, but I didn't realize poli sci majors were expected to a) go to law school, b) get PhD'd in poli sci and teach, c) work as an unpaid lackey for some sleazy politician's campaign, or d) bag groceries. English majors may get into med school, but not without med school in mind, or there's no way they'd have all the prerequisite courses and grades. Also, someone from the comments (a liberal arts career counselor) posted this juicy nugget as evidence that liberal arts degrees are useful. My takeaway: further evidence that liberal arts degrees without PhDs land you a job serving tables. Another eyebrow-raiser: the author's friend ditched 'high-paying' medicine for a more populist engineering degree. Wait, what?

2.

Free is Not a Marketing Tool
A thought-provoking article that I think is ultimately a bit foolishly idealistic. While it's true that giving things away for free doesn't always--or even generally--create loyal customers, it can be an invaluable marketing tool in some instances. And it definitely shouldn't be discounted as a tool for startups and creative-class workers to generate interest in what they're selling. Suggesting that "free" as a marketing tool is somehow wrong is also pretty offensive to small businesses and self-employed workers relying on buzz and word of mouth. There's an aphorism in economics: you can't make money off something that's public knowledge. Which is to say, you can't create long-term competitive advantage when everyone's doing the same thing. To argue with this is to argue with the foundation of a capitalist system of exchange, which I won't do in this forum.

3.

The mole was a fake?*
30 Awesome Rare Celeb Photos
I'm particularly struck by #9.
*(I may be the last person on earth to know it, but it was news to me.)

4.

1930s Atlas Lust!
*drool* ...except, page 95 disturbs me. A lot.

Do not adjust your TV set

We control the horizontal.

We control the vertical.

We control your heart.

[ UPDATE: (in best attempt at He-Man voice) By the power of Google, I HAVE THE POWER! ]

Can't you see I'm white and nerdy?

Thought I'd share a few design-centric things that made me happy over the past couple of days in my cruisings of the internet (not necessarily in any particular order). It's nice to see such quant-based representation. Yay, numbers nerds!

1.


The State of the Internet - lovely visuals to demonstrate what's up with the internet, who's using it, how often, and how. Things learned from this:
(a) It's important to think about where data come from, since this visual repeatedly switches from a US to global data set
(b) The arrow for Netherlands should point to Netherlands, not Denmark. It really erodes your credibility
(c) Pick your visual carefully. People see pie charts and assume all things should go on one pie chart, forgetting that not all things are mutually exclusive

2.


We feel fine. - nice set of visuals from a several years' worth of phrase-mining on blogs. The project has sought any mention in blogs of "I feel" or "I'm feeling" phrases, aggregated them (at a rate of 15-20k per diem), and apparently--as a whole--the blogosphere feels fine.

3.


Annual Reports are Awesome. - a collection of stunning print items combining two of my favorite things to nerd out about--design and finance. I'm so glad OKgreat understands the lustful appreciation some of us have for both design and numbers.

4.


Design--nature trumps humanity. - Brainless slime molds manage to replicate the work of hundreds of engineers, nearly replicating the layout of the Tokyo rail system in a matter of hours.

5.

(apologies to Avatar Pocahontas for using an image from the movie)
Colors of the Wind? - An LED array attached to mini wind turbines helps visualize wind patterns. Seems like it could be tremendously useful for plotting out wind farms or alternative wind capture devices.

6.


Physical Color Picker - the coolest concepts will never see the light of day. *sigh*

Building trust by shutting down communications

Iran says it's shutting down gmail in favor of an in-house developed email. The government says it's to foster trust and to develop its own tech infrastructure.

...suuure. Let me know how that goes, fellas.

(link via DET)

thoughts for when I ought to be studying for my finance exam

Sea change beginning? I hope so. (link courtesy of Awesome Ian)

Hideously disturbing. Sometimes wish there were some way to control who reproduced and/or raised kids that was more effective than DSS/CPS.

Really rather hilarious (and, I suppose, also practical) patent issuance. Please check out the images. You'll be so happy you did.

Via Make, a really awesome mini-documentary about how vinyl records are made.

Now, I go to sleep. Two hours too late. Stupid mid-evening nap.