Talking politics
From my friend Jerry:
I read recently that the United States is more politically divided today than it has been at any time in it’s history since the civil war. I read that many friends and families can’t even sit down to a decent meal and have a civil discussion about the politics of the day without someone storming off before dessert.
Today via numerous outlets all of us can get our current views and prejudices reinforced daily by seeking out like minded media and conversation.
…
How about we all try a little listening. How about we all, just one time every day or so, engage someone who we know has a different perspective from ours and listen to what they have to say.
No seriously, really listen.
Coming Out in Sports: Brendan Burke’s Story
“I hope the day comes, and soon, when this is not a story.” — Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke
Imagine this.
Well before you are born, your dad plays college hockey at Providence College and wears the “C” for Friars coach and Hockey Hall of Famer Lou Lamoriello. Your dad is then a member of the Calder Cup-winning Maine Mariners AHL team. He admits to having little skill, but contributes rough and tough qualities. You know, like pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence. He’s a man, baby.
…
You eventually attend Xaverian Brothers High School, a prep school in Westwood, Mass., and make the competitive varsity hockey team as a senior, but choose not to play. You say it is because you don’t think you would get enough playing time and you are upset at the coach. But you actually don’t play because you don’t think you can go another season without someone finding out your secret.
Your hockey career is over.
I missed this story when it first hit ESPN, but someone sent me the link today. It’s this kind of acceptance of homosexual people in all walks of life that I hope makes “coming out” a term of the past.
Indie+Relief
Tomorrow, January 20th, a group of 135 independent Mac and iPhone developers will be donating the sales for the day to assist Haiti in their recovery from last week’s earthquake. Each company is listed with their main application and what charity they will be donating to. My company, BitBQ, will be participating and donating to Doctors Without Borders.
There’s a lot of great software on that page, as well as great charities. If you’re the in market for any of it, tomorrow would be a great day to buy it. You get software, Haitians get help.
Alma: Pixar can be creepy
Alma from Pixar animator Rodrigo Blaas
Dear Clusterflock
What keeps you where you are, instead of pursuing what you are truly passionate about?
Galactic Junkyard
Great T-shirt designed by my friend M@ McCray available for today only at RIPT Apparel.
If you would indulge me
Today I announced that my new company BitBQ has launched with the acquisition of two iPhone applications: FitnessTrack and Emergency Information.
While this is not going to replace my day job anytime soon, I’m very excited about having products on the App Store and I’m looking forward to adding features and supporting both applications.
If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, please check them out and let me know what you think!
Say No To Socialism
I saw a link to this image capture on Twitter. It made me laugh.
The Sheboygan
Never Gonna Give Your Teen Spirit Up
Amazon remotely deletes books from Kindles
This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for—thought they owned.
The payoff is finding out who the author and the books in question are. I don’t want to spoil it.
Key/Keyring
via Twitter
Fox News: Fair and Balanced and Non-Discriminatory
Kilmeade and two colleagues were discussing a study that, based on research done in Finland and Sweden, showed people who stay married are less likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s. Kilmeade questioned the results, though, saying, “We are — we keep marrying other species and other ethnics and other …”
Go watch the video at salon for the full effect.
July 4th Brings Out the Stupid
Michael Jackson Dead at 50
This is according to TMZ. He was rushed to the hospital under cardiac arrest and apparently was never revived. RIP King of Pop.
Beautiful Dollar Bills
Michael Tyznik has come up with some beautiful re-imagining of the US Bills, check them out. Part of the Dollar Design Project.
Ronaldo scores from way out
Amazing goal.
The Formula That Killed Wall Street
A year ago, it was hardly unthinkable that a math wizard like David X. Li might someday earn a Nobel Prize. After all, financial economists—even Wall Street quants—have received the Nobel in economics before, and Li’s work on measuring risk has had more impact, more quickly, than previous Nobel Prize-winning contributions to the field. Today, though, as dazed bankers, politicians, regulators, and investors survey the wreckage of the biggest financial meltdown since the Great Depression, Li is probably thankful he still has a job in finance at all. Not that his achievement should be dismissed. He took a notoriously tough nut—determining correlation, or how seemingly disparate events are related—and cracked it wide open with a simple and elegant mathematical formula, one that would become ubiquitous in finance worldwide.
Unskilled and Unaware of It
When asked, most individuals will describe themselves as better-than-average in areas such as leadership, social skills, written expression, or just about any flavor of savvy where the individual has an interest. This tendency of the average person to believe he or she is better-than-average is known as the “above-average effect,” and it flies in the face of logic… by definition, descriptive statistics says that it is impossible absurdly improbable for a majority of people to be above average. It follows, therefore, that a large number of the self-described “above average” individuals are in fact below average in those areas, and they are simply unaware of their incompetence.
The post is from 2006, but I found it fascinating. (via Twitter)
What the crash computer saw
In a car crash involving a modern vehicle, everything happens before the occupant is even aware of the collision.
1 ms – The car’s door pressure sensor detects a pressure wave.
5 ms – Car’s crash computer checks for insignificant crash events, such as a shopping trolley impact or incidental contact. It is still working out the severity of the crash. Door intrusion structure begins to absorb energy.
20 ms – Door and B-pillar begin to push on front seat. Airbag begins to push occupant’s chest away from the impact.
70 ms – Airbag continues to deflate. Occupant moves back towards middle of car.
Engineers classify crash as ‘complete’.
150-300 ms – Occupant becomes aware of collision.
(Via kottke.org.)
Penn and Teller Explain Sleight of Hand
via gruber
Christian Bale Goes Balistic With a Remix
I hate celebrity gossip, but I love this audio clip from the set of Terminator 4 where Christian Bale looses it on the Director of Photography. For some background, you can read about it here and here. Seriously NSFW.
Oh, the remix. A guy put together a nice techno remix using audio from the rant. It’s awesome ( equally NSFW ):
Please welcome Emily Grace Burleson
Born at 3:58 PM on 1/5/2009. 9 lbs 12.3 oz and 19 in long.
My personal blog entry is here.
Photo from 6 month exposure
Not to bum anybody out or anything
But damn, I find some sad stories:
Siran Stacy looked up at the somber faces that surrounded his hospital bed and asked in a shallow voice, “Where is Ellen?” It was Thanksgiving 2007, and he was in and out of consciousness, his body wrapped in bandages and buried beneath a profusion of tubes. He looked from face to face, but no one answered him. None of them knew what to say. It was the moment they had been dreading. They had hoped to delay it a few days more, if only to give Siran time to regain a degree of strength. But he had become increasingly insistent with the nurses who hovered over him, and the doctors finally agreed that he should be told.
He asked again, “Where is she? Where is my wife?”
Standing at his bedside were his parents, Ellis and Marie; three brothers, Bruce, Rodrick and Patrick; and his two sisters, Angela and Latasha. They held hands. Some uncles and aunts also were in the room, along with two clergymen engaged in prayer. Three days earlier, the van Siran was driving was struck by a pickup truck that was traveling at a high rate of speed on the wrong side of the highway. The other driver was intoxicated.
Ellis stepped forward, held Siran by the hand and said finally, “Ellen is gone.”
Siran locked eyes with him and said, “I figured it was something.”
A tear spilled down one side of his face.
Ellis squeezed his hand.
And he told him what no man should ever hear: Four of his five children also were dead.
Stories like these make me reflect on my own life and realize my personal tragedies pale in comparison.
link (via The Big Lead)