Quick Hitters

Mar 1

“If at all possible, dodging complexity is far better than cleverly responding to complexity.” Ian Bicking: a blog :: Throw out your frameworks! (forms included)

Feb 26

“Let’s suppose that back in the 1980s,” Lanier remarks, “I had said, ‘In a quarter century, when the digital revolution has made great progress and computer chips are millions of times faster than they are now, humanity will finally win the prize of being able to write a new encyclopedia and a new version of UNIX!’ It would have sounded utterly pathetic.” assertTrue( ): You are not a gadget, progress is not a widget

Feb 21

This is a picture taken about a block from where I live of a policeman enforcing the curfews put into effect shortly after Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968.

Feb 17

“Despite the fact that the four Bushmen come from neighbouring parts of the Kalahari, their genetic diversity is astounding. Pick any two and peer into their genomes and you’d see more variety than you would between a European and an Asian.”

Africa’s genetic diversity revealed by full genomes of a Bushman and a Tutu : Not Exactly Rocket Science

Neat stuff.

Feb 11

“The whole American food system, from farm to fork, accounts for about 10% of the energy we use in this country. Of that, the largest single portion, 32%, is the energy involved in household food storage and cooking. Put it another way: If we reduced agricultural energy use by 5%, nationwide, we’d save about 20 trillion British Thermal Units of energy a year. Them’s no small potatoes. But if just 5% of American households got a more efficient refrigerator, we’d save 54 trillion BTU.”

Energy use and your food Boing Boing

Doing the big things are more important, well, because they are bigger.

“[Sarah Palin]’s playing exactly the same game she’s been playing since her big debut at the Republican National Convention: Making herself an irresistible target of “elite” scorn so that everyone who identifies with her feels equally attacked. This is not exactly a subtle strategy, but for some reason, high-level Dems who are supposed to be deeply media savvy keep getting suckered.”

Please Don’t Throw Me in the Briar Patch!

So she’s either a genius or a moron. I’m not convinced it’s not the latter.

Feb 1

“One smart person is a useful open-source library. Ten smart people is a successful startup. Twenty thousand smart people is Google.” Hacker News | Things I’ve learned at Google so far

Jan 30

I think Durham needs a fire festival.

Fiery European Festivals - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Jan 29

“At Google, when it comes to web analytics, we believe in the 10/90 rule. This means, that for every $10 invested in a web analytics package, you should invest a further $90 in the people that deliver the insight. Google Analytics is free so that our users can invest more in deriving business insight and leverage our partners if they need help.”

Google Analytics | Official Website

I agree!

Members of Willie Nelson's band cited for moonshine, drugs :: WRAL.com

Doing it Big Willie Style.