Archive for April, 2009
Piaget’s Preoperational Stage
April 30th, 2009
In Jean Piaget’s analysis of child cognition, a child goes through four stages of development: 1) sensorimotor, 2) preoperational, 3) concrete operational, and 4) formal operational. Children in the second stage have difficulties with conservation; that is, they can’t accurately differentiate shape, number, and volume. As the video below demonstrates, the preoperational stage is also the most adorable.
P.S.: Apparently I didn’t have a post prepared yesterday! Sorry about that, loyal readers. I am bad at queuing.
The Best Fort Ever
April 26th, 2009
How cool does this thing look? The rest of her blog looks pretty neat, too. I wish I spoke French.
Twistori
April 23rd, 2009
If you ever wanted to know what the Internet’s collective consciousness is thinking, look no further than Twistori. It takes a stream of Twitter posts, filters them for phrases like “I believe” or “I love,” and delivers them to you.
Interestingness: A surprising number of the “I hate” tweets* are complaints about feeling obligated to update the poster’s status.
* This word bothers me. I have an odd attitude toward the evolution of language. Linguistic changes that occurred in the past are fascinating, but current changes are annoying and vaguely threatening. I am an old man. Hey you kids, get off my web log.
Hitting Reset
April 21st, 2009
Emily Haines is a vocalist/keyboardist/songwriter who performs both independently and with the [extremely talented] bands Metric, Broken Social Scene, and occasionally Stars. In this video she talks about songwriting and living in Buenos Aires.
Metric’s new album, Fantasies, came out a couple weeks ago. It’s pretty good!
Chronotebook
April 16th, 2009
I can’t imagine a more aesthetically pleasing way to schedule my day than with this little notebook. If only I had more things to schedule.
On an incredibly related note, Muji finally opened an online store for the US. They could be likened to a slightly more expensive Japanese Ikea.
Ball Droppings
April 14th, 2009
This game will make you happy. Make sure your speakers are on.
Expert mode: use this to compose a melody.
The International Fainting Goat Association
April 12th, 2009
Everyone who reads this blog probably already knows about fainting goats, but if you don’t, here’s a good video explaining this fantastic/ridiculous breed:
Apparently there’s an International Fainting Goat Association. They have a code of ethics and a quarterly newsletter, the Myotonic Messenger. My favorite part, though, is that their site uses Joomla.
Also I guess I’ll join everyone else on the blogotubes by stating that the new Röyksopp album is pretty great. JEPH JACQUES I HEAR AND OBEY
Sprachraum
April 9th, 2009
A Sprachraum is the area in which a certain language is spoken. So, for example, the German Sprachraum would include the countries of Germany, Austria, and most of Switzerland. I’m so glad there’s a word for this!