Saturday, January 26, 2013

Think like a man of action.

My Brian Eno fan bus rolls on. Here's Another Green World, a 2010 documentary about him.

"Quotation marks" are an essential tool in writing. But "unnecessary quotation marks" can be annoying. So annoying that someone created a blog to preserve instances of UQM in the wild.

The editors of New American Paintings blogged about 13 painters to watch in 2013. This work by Scott Olson was the one I was most drawn to.
I don't think it's too much of a surprise that the USA is the top destination for immigrants worldwide. But I was surprised that Russia was second. What countries are the most people leaving? Mexico, India, and Russia. (Hey Russia, what's with the churn?) You can see all this and more (including cool visualization of where emigrants from any particular country go) at peoplemov.in.

The 20 most influential beers of all time. Guinness? Certainly. Anchor Steam? OK. But generic lager?
Beer consumption by country. We're #6! We're #6!
Anyone using Snapchat yet? They say it's the next big mobile app.

Engineers will like this list of the top college majors sorted by average starting salary.

Enjoy a complete set of lecture notes for linear algebra.


When you need a placeholder image, look no further than lorempixel (formerly lorempixum). Above is a 400x300 randomly chosen abstract image.

Back when scientific visualization was an "emerging field" (1988), Pixar released this video of their capabilities.

The periodic table of shoes. (Hope you can read German.)

After cursing the blue screen, do you ever wonder why Windows crashes? Here's a list of 10 reasons why Windows crashes including incorrect drivers and overheating.

Artist Cheryl Sorg can create your cultural thumbprint.
DNA, double helix, high school science, blah, blah, blah. Not so fast. Science has found that sometimes DNA appears as a quadruple helix.

Like a child, once IBM's Watson computer learned to swear they couldn't make it stop.

If you can't tell the difference between an eye bolt and an eye lag, an oval and a truss head, or a cap and an acorn head, this visual guide to nuts and bolts will be an invaluable reference.

As my mother told me, if you're forcing it you're doing it wrong. source
Death Valley Dreamlapse is a cool time-lapse video of the night sky over Death Valley. The good stuff starts about half way in.

I've only read 22 of Radcliffe's 100 best novels of the 20th century. (I could've scored a little higher if I had counted watching the movie.) But that's better than the 4/100 I scored on the most influential albums quiz (on Facebook).

source
Just odd: walama.

Act like a man of thought. ~Henri Louis Bergson

4 comments:

Jim said...

I didn't even try the album quiz -- I've been paring down my physical collection for years as I hate rebuying (vinyl -> cassette -> cd -> mp3).


THe lorempixel link abstract image link is nice. Thanks

John said...

I cannot give up the tangible for the virtual. I prefer dead tree books over e-books and CDs over mp3s. A friend is even advocating that I get my turntable fixed to buy my old vinyl. Fortunately, Amazon.com is starting to think like me and is providing free digital downloads of any CD I buy.

Francis Shivone said...

All good stuff, as usual.

Shamefully, I have read only 4 of the novels, and that is no junk list. I should do better.

The emigration info and chart is fascinating and could be a source of hours of discussion. My wife and I were just discussing the effects of Spain's 27% unemployment on their migration. It appears that two groups leave, if you'll allow for the generalization: the poor who have nothing to lose and much to gain and the wealthy who want to preserve their wealth. The large percentage in the middle can't afford the risk.

In my opinion America gains much by the immigrants, rich or poor.

Loved Billy Mays, may he rest in peace.

John said...

Immigration is good. I can say that as the grandson of immigrants. My wife is also the granddaughter of an immigrant. Rich or poor. But legal immigrants.

There's always one more book to read, one more album to listen to.