April 2008
59 posts
“Life consists of what a man is thinking of all day.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Associated Press: Bush rhetoric on energy... →
You know you’re wrong (or you should) when a news agency is refuting your speech point-by-point.
Ask H&FJ | Hoefler & Frere-Jones →
Who knew (other than the OED) that the likeliest explanation for why & is called the ampersand is because it was listed as ‘&: per se, and’ (pronounced “and, per se and”)?
Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich | The A.V. Club →
Interview with the hosts of NPR’s Radio Lab, a show about science and culture that’s also available as a free podcast.
Too much, too soon: 20 respectable rock and rap... →
Gin, Television, and Social Surplus - Here Comes... →
Clay Shirky on the attention surplus we’re just starting to recover from television. Favorite point: the total amount of hours put into Wikipedia is roughly the same as the number of hours Americans…
Things I have learned in my life so far →
Mothers & Other Monsters (paperback) by Maureen F.... →
Annals of Anthropology: Vengeance Is Ours:... →
Essay from Jared Diamond about what the quest for vengeance in tribal societies can teach us about our own.
101 Great Computer Programming Quotes →
New Car Parts
For the first time since I’ve been in charge of it, Baby Blue has some new parts. When I took it in for it’s oil change, the mechanics noticed some problems with the muffler, the fuel filter and the serpentine belt. $650 later, I have parts that are not broken, but a lighter checking account. Also it’ll probably need new rear shocks by the end of the summer before it starts...
Illustrated Quixote →
“These guys once had their fields — Victorian literature, tropical botany, the...”
– Sam Pulsifier, in Brock Clarke’s An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England
“1st. Live as well as you dare.
2nd. Go into the shower-bath with a small...”
– Sydney Smith (via simply stated)
The Valley Advocate: 2008 Valley Advocate Best Of... →
Every year the Valley Advocate (the free weekly here in Western MA) does a poll about what the best places are around town. I was glad to see that some of my favorite places (the Noho Brewery,…
“The richest and fullest lives balance work, play and love. All three must be...”
– Doris Kearns Goodwin, talking about Lincoln and Johnson. One of my new favorite quotes. (via Boing Boing)
RulesofThumb.org - Homepage →
Flashback Charts →
The song that was #1 on the Billboard chart when I was born: Phill Collins - One More Night
The New Cult Canon: Primer | The A.V. Club →
A nice appreciation of one of my favorite movies
Damn Interesting » The Martian Express →
quick read about Buzz Aldrin’s idea for a ship that would use gravity to cycle between Earth and Mars
WatchA good overview of how you can support indie media on the intarwebs (via What You Ought to Know)
Asimov - The Relativity of Wrong →
nihilogic: Super Mario in 14kB Javascript →
Tumblr to LiveJournal script →
For anyone who cares, I uploaded the script I hacked up to cross-post my posts on Tumblr to my LiveJournal account.
About fixing my sleeping problem
Mike: double your water intake and increase your protein and complex carb intake by 30% each
Me: so two beers instead of one beer?
Fonts with better curly braces?
The font that’s the default on GNU Emacs on Windows XP barely distinguishes between parens and curly braces. I think it’s a 2 pixel difference or something equally tiny. Are there better choices out there?
Perceptive Travel - Saving Coral Reefs in... →
apparently they’re doing better than anyone hoped, at least in Indonesia
Happy Planet Index
My personal Happy Planet Index (HPI) is 50.5, which is similar to that of Jamaica. Not bad. This is above the world average of 46, but still below the target value of 83, so there is more I can do to improve my health and well-being, or reduce my environmental impact. My score is above that of my country, 28.8. [Adjusted for person – Ed.]
The Beautiful Suit by H.G. Wells - from the Short... →
EMT Bootcamp / Ultimate
Last night was Bootcamp for Hampshire EMS and I went back to help out as dispatch. All that really means is that I sat around in Public Safety and told the EMTs where to go, but it was nice to see the new EMTs and see most of my friends at Hampshire. Yesterday was also the Smith home tournament, so I wandered over to watch the Red Scare ladies play a bit of disc. It was suppsoed to be warm-ish...
“The world is a tough place. You’re never going to get out of it alive.”
– Charlton Heston, 1923-2008
Legendary Actor Charlton Heston Dead at 84 - New... →
Wow.
WatchStart Wearing Purple by GOGOL BORDELLO (one of my favorite colors, via BB)
Sun or Moon Rise/Set Table for One Year →
My sunrise/sunset times for the year
AP Language, Computer Courses Cut -... →
I took the Computer Science BC exam a long time ago now, but I’m not that surprised that CS is one of the exams with low enrollment.