December 2009
76 posts
Treating tinnitus with an individually tailored... →
A treatment for tinnitis — find out the main frequency of the ringing sound that the patient hears — ask the patient to select their favorite piece of music and digitally cut out the frequencies one octave on either side of this target
“At GitHub we hire “The Girl or Guy Who Wrote X,” where X is an...”
– Who We Hire
Star Trek is Liberal Propaganda! : Dispatches from... →
This could easily also be a dumbass quote of the day, but since I already have several of those saved up we’ll give it its own title. From a post by Mike Potemra at National Review Online:
Coincidentally, I have over the past couple of months been watching DVDs of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a show I missed completely in its run of 1987 to 1994; and I confess myself amazed that so many...
Difficult languages: Tongue twisters | The... →
German has three genders, seemingly so random that Mark Twain wondered why “a young lady has no sex, but a turnip has”.
English spelling may be the most idiosyncratic, although French gives it a run for the money with 13 ways to spell the sound “o”. […] “Ghoti,” as wordsmiths have noted, could be pronounced “fish”: gh as in “cough”, o as in “women” and ti as in “motion”. But spelling is ancillary...
Teller (magician) - Wikipedia, the free... →
Teller (born February 14, 1948) is an American magician, illusionist, comedian, writer, and the silent half of the comedy magic duo known as Penn & Teller, along with Penn Jillette. […] He legally changed his name from Raymond Joseph Teller to just “Teller”. He possesses one of the few United States passports issued in a single name.
Mononyms rock.
Word of the day: Escutcheon
escutcheon (heraldry): a shield displaying a coat of arms.
escutcheon (furniture): an architectural item of door furniture that surrounds a keyhole or lock cylinder.
(in medicine) the distribution of pubic hair.
a plate on the stern of a ship inscribed with the ship’s name.
a decorative and/or protective plate or bezel to cover a gap between a switch, pipe, valve, control knob, etc. and...
Shopping styles of men and women all down to... →
Shared by Lloyd
Differing roles in prehistoric times have evolved into differing shopping styles, the researchers believe. While women spent their days gathering food often with children, men…
Let pedestrians define the walkways | Derek Sivers →
As time goes on, we get smarter. We learn more about our customers and what they really want. Therefore, we’re at our dumbest at the beginning, and at our smartest at the end. So when should you make business decisions? When you have the most information, when you’re at your smartest: as late as possible. Resist the urge to figure it all out in advance. Realize this is when you know...
Advertising - 'Up in the Air,' a Bonanza for an... →
An article discussing the business ‘non-sponsorship’ deals for Up in the Air—George Clooney’s latest movie.
Set mostly in American Airlines planes, terminals and lounges and Hilton hotels, the firms didn’t pay for sponsorship… but they did provide planes, air terminals and hotels to film in and use for free.
Now they’re promoting the movie.
Sharon Waxman lauded the...
Home Costs Keep Going Up - WSJ.com →
“the biggest mistake buyers make is underestimating the costs” of buying a house and maintaining it over time.
Homeowners should have 1% of the purchase price of their home in savings for…
CocoVivo →
CocoVivo is place for people like you. Smart and creative people - software developers, designers, writers. Think of it as coworking with attached accommodation. Set up by an adventurous SF bay area engineer who wanted to live in paradise and take a small part of his favorite community with him. Come visit for a week or more, and share our lifestyle. Stay longer and become an anchor, shaping the...
“[Your] goal should not be to get a job; it should be to create jobs for other...”
– Kevin Cherrick, taking the lead from Sir Ken Robinson
LED traffic lights don't melt snow, do cause... →
A number of cold weather American states are reporting their dismay at finding out that LED traffic lights are so energy efficient that they do not produce enough excess heat to dissipate…
3 tags
2009: The Important Bits
Want to know what has happened this year? The only links you really need:
The World This Year (The Economist)
2009 in Photos: Part One, Two and Three (The Big Picture, The Boston Globe)
Everything else is fluff.
The Known Universe →
The Known Universe zooms out from Tibet to the limits of the observable universe. Dim the lights, full-screen it in HD, and you’re in for a treat. Like Powers of Ten, except…
“It is disastrous to have a cafeteria on anything but the ground floor.”
– Elevator consultant James Fortune
Elevator Space Psychology
Passengers seem to know instinctively how to arrange themselves in an elevator. Two strangers will gravitate to the back corners, a third will stand by the door, at an isosceles remove, until a fourth comes in, at which point passengers three and four will spread toward the front corners, making room, in the center, for a fifth, and so on, like the dots on a die. With each additional passenger,...
“‘You broke up with her on MSN?’ ‘Yeah’ ‘Was she...”
– @myrmalca
“Well, it wasn’t “carpeted” per se. But it wasn’t...”
– @secretsquirrel
“What the project spec called for: Eggs Benedict on elegant china. What we are...”
– @PenLlawen
“The scientific name for the bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) makes me think of them...”
– @MintyVanilla
“The challenge of writing is learning how to read as a reader, and not as the...”
– @jonahlehrer
The Best English-Language TV Shows Ever →
I’m producing a list of the best English-language TV shows for my Dutch girlfriend. I am indebted to each and every one of you for your contributions. You rock! Please sign your suggestions (or existing suggestions you concur with) using your Twitter ID (or with a URL) and please, please, please: share widely (http://bit.ly/8Jrlwv). (Any and all submissions are welcome. Bonus points for...
Google - Internet Stats →
This Google resource brings together the latest industry facts and insights. These have been collected from a number of third party sources covering a range of topics from macroscopic economic and media trends to how consumer behaviour and technology are changing over time.
4 8 15 16 23 42 →
photo by virginhoney
The chance of such a sandwich lasting longer than 5 seconds in my presence is about equal to the chance of Lost coming to a satisfying conclusion in 2010. Yum.
Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009 | Bad Astronomy... →
The enormity of Zimbabwe's inflation →
There are at least 2 crazy passages in this article about the amount of inflation in Zimbabwe over the past 30 years. Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe, the former Rhodesia, was a quadrillion times…
Wiki's fundraising ads send wrong message →
Unfortunate banner-ad placement can happen on any site, but Wikipedia seems to be asking for trouble with its new fund-raising campaign. The massive ads across the top of each Wikipedia…
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/3305/hausr.jpg →
Household Leverage in the US and UK →
Yay! The UK beats the US!
Oh. Wait. Hold on.
Sushi Etiquette →
Shared by Lloyd
Most of these seem legit. Must check.
(thanks Toby!)
A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods →
Mouse-over each ‘element’ for further info/an example.
