Archive for May, 2009
King Neptune
May 31st, 2009
A pig named King Neptune was repeatedly auctioned off to benefit the US Navy in WWII. He raised nearly $19,000,000 and was given a full military burial. The world is strange and wonderful.
Superstition in the Pigeon, and rambling about education
May 28th, 2009
I just finished B.F. Skinner’s Walden Two, the influential psychologist’s fictional account of a behaviorist utopia. Since I have the (bad?) habit of only reading a book’s associated Wikipedia page after reading the work itself, I only just now learned about Skinner’s experimentation with pigeons. Minds are awesome!
On a totally different topic, reading Walden Two also got me thinking about education. Much like Randall Munroe’s treehouse, there’s a process running in the background of my mind that’s constantly thinking about the perfect college. Self-directed learning and intentional communities seem like ideas that would positively reinforce each other. The needs of a small community would constantly provide practical problems which would both necessitate and reward innovation, while hopefully the constant injection of new ideas would help the community to thoughtfully grow in useful directions. So I guess I’m describing a secular, progressive monastery? Except with a good broadband connection and an easy commute to a major cultural center. Independence -/-> isolation.
On a related note, Deep Springs College. I’d love to visit there someday and see how it operates. Or, you know, teach there in a decade or so. I’d also like to visit Twin Oaks. And I can’t very well write a post about self-directed education without mentioning Sphere College, which I understand is coming together beautifully.
animals, books, old dead white guys, science | No Comments »
Noriko Ambe
May 26th, 2009
Noriko Ambe is an artist who does the most incredible things with layers of paper.
Command-line-fu
May 24th, 2009
Commandlinefu.com is a terrific site for Linux users. My favorite was using
$ python -m SimpleHTTPServer
to launch a basic web server serving the current directory tree. I cannot tell you how many times I could have used this. And now will.
Almost Everyone Poops
May 21st, 2009
According to 2nd-century gnostic theologian Valentinus‘ epistle to Agathapous:
“He was continent, enduring all things. Jesus digested divinity; he ate and drank in a special way, without excreting his solids. He had such a great capacity for continence that the nourishment within him was not corrupted, for he did not experience corruption.”
I just love the world so much.
Snaiad
May 19th, 2009
I hope you like speculative zoology, because the good folks at Snaiad sure do.
As a Borges fan, of course, I would have named it Tlön…
Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 Gallon, 128 fl oz
May 17th, 2009
Judging by the 1,043 reviews on Amazon, Tuscan Whole Milk is serious business.
Wolfram Alpha’s Launching Tonight
May 15th, 2009
At 8 PM Eastern time, Wolfram Alpha is going live. If you haven’t yet seen the screencast, you should, because it looks terrific. I doubt it will be more than a few weeks until Google comes up with an equally incredible product, but still, pretty neat.
See above for a totally authentic screenshot of the new software. IT KNOWS EVERYTHING
computer science, language, math, science, video | No Comments »
The Tao of Programming
May 14th, 2009
OK, I admit that the Tao of Programming is probably older than I am, but it’s still mostly relevant.
Real-Time Dracula
May 12th, 2009
Bram Stoker’s 1897 classic Dracula is one of the defining pieces of Gothic literature. Anyone who misspent their high school years may recall that the novel is written as a series of letters and journal entries. This means that it can be readily presented in blog form. Bookbinder-cum-blogger Whitney Sorrow has done exactly this, and is posting the whole story in real time.