Sunday, August 28, 2011
guy fawkes mask article in nyt
for those who don't know what this is about, teen heartthrob damian mcginty, recently of celtic thunder, wasone of the winners of the glee project,a reality show following the casting process, and will be a new member of glee. glee is a popular tv show (on fox?) about a high school glee club.
I've been a big fan of both damian and glee for a few years now,so it'snice to see them coming together.
Friday, August 26, 2011
In a recent post on his Weather Underground blog, meteorologist Dr. Jeff Masters takes readers on a tour of the “top twenty most remarkable weather events of 2010”:
Earth’s hottest year on record
Most extreme winter Arctic atmospheric circulation on record: “Snowmageddon” results
Arctic sea ice: lowest volume on record, 3rd lowest extent
Record melting in Greenland, and a massive calving event
Second most extreme shift from El Niño to La Niña
Second worst coral bleaching year
Wettest year over land
Amazon rainforest experiences its 2nd 100-year drought in 5 years
Global tropical cyclone activity lowest on record
A hyperactive Atlantic hurricane season: 3rd busiest on record
A rare tropical storm in the South Atlantic
Strongest storm in Southwestern U.S. history
Strongest non-coastal storm in U.S. history
Weakest and latest-ending East Asian monsoon on record
No monsoon depressions in India’s Southwest Monsoon for 2nd time in 134 years
The Pakistani flood: most expensive natural disaster in Pakistan’s history
The Russian heat wave and drought: deadliest heat wave in human history
Record rains trigger Australia’s most expensive natural disaster in history
Heaviest rains on record trigger Colombia’s worst flooding disaster in history
Tennessee’s 1-in 1000 year flood kills 30, does $2.4 billion in damage
Earth’s hottest year on record
Most extreme winter Arctic atmospheric circulation on record: “Snowmageddon” results
Arctic sea ice: lowest volume on record, 3rd lowest extent
Record melting in Greenland, and a massive calving event
Second most extreme shift from El Niño to La Niña
Second worst coral bleaching year
Wettest year over land
Amazon rainforest experiences its 2nd 100-year drought in 5 years
Global tropical cyclone activity lowest on record
A hyperactive Atlantic hurricane season: 3rd busiest on record
A rare tropical storm in the South Atlantic
Strongest storm in Southwestern U.S. history
Strongest non-coastal storm in U.S. history
Weakest and latest-ending East Asian monsoon on record
No monsoon depressions in India’s Southwest Monsoon for 2nd time in 134 years
The Pakistani flood: most expensive natural disaster in Pakistan’s history
The Russian heat wave and drought: deadliest heat wave in human history
Record rains trigger Australia’s most expensive natural disaster in history
Heaviest rains on record trigger Colombia’s worst flooding disaster in history
Tennessee’s 1-in 1000 year flood kills 30, does $2.4 billion in damage
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
a friend of mine was having a settlement conference on the 14th floor of a building downtown when the earthquake hit,and felt it, here in indianapolis. might have imagined it, since everybody's texts and twitters and phones were going off at the time. i personally didnt feel anything, but i'm on the second floor of my home.
a shorter version of the previous post:
instapundit glenn reynolds has been covering the higher education bubble.
today he posts about the high cost of college textbooks.
two simple solutions, one easy, one a little less so but more worth doing.
1. teach the previous edition, which students can pick up for around $25.
a ten page summary written by a TA would let them know what's in the new edition.
2. open source textbooks. every first year law student takes property contracts torts and crim law. those would probably be the place to start. have a seminar where the object of the class is to produce an open source textbook, one per semester.
not only is this project worth doing in and of itself, it gives leverage when negotiating prices with textbook manufacturers. it's like when a walmart opens in town,
prices at the other stores drop 10%. The case law is already open source,and each student in the seminar could write a chapter of commentary,and people online could suggest improvements, in a wiki-type process. I know there are some efforts in that direction already, so one wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel.
For example, here is a free open source torts text.
(he's never linked to one of my posts and won't link to this one either, but gotta keep trying.)
instapundit glenn reynolds has been covering the higher education bubble.
today he posts about the high cost of college textbooks.
two simple solutions, one easy, one a little less so but more worth doing.
1. teach the previous edition, which students can pick up for around $25.
a ten page summary written by a TA would let them know what's in the new edition.
2. open source textbooks. every first year law student takes property contracts torts and crim law. those would probably be the place to start. have a seminar where the object of the class is to produce an open source textbook, one per semester.
not only is this project worth doing in and of itself, it gives leverage when negotiating prices with textbook manufacturers. it's like when a walmart opens in town,
prices at the other stores drop 10%. The case law is already open source,and each student in the seminar could write a chapter of commentary,and people online could suggest improvements, in a wiki-type process. I know there are some efforts in that direction already, so one wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel.
For example, here is a free open source torts text.
(he's never linked to one of my posts and won't link to this one either, but gotta keep trying.)
instapundit glenn reynolds has been covering the higher education bubble.
today he posts about the high cost of college textxbooks.
two simple solutions, one easy, one a little less so but more worth doing.
1. teach the previous edition, which students can pick up for around $25.
a ten page summary written by a TA would let them know what's in the new edition.
2. open source textbooks. every first year law student takes property contracts torts and crim law. those would probably be the place to start. have a seminar where the object of the class is to produce an open source textbook, one per semester.
not only is this project worth doing in and of itself, it gives leverage when negotiating prices with textbook manufacturers.it's like when a walmart opens in town,
prices at the other stores drop 10%.
When I was an undergrad, back in the dim ages when computers were mainframes and we were just starting to port our stuff over to the Apple II, I worked at the OCBI, office of computer-based instruction. We had the technology then to replace most of what colleges and public schools do with online instruction that once programmed can be replicated for free. Somehow it never caught on, although the networking concepts we were using, email, chat rooms, online interactive journals, and so forth, migrated over to the internet. I know there are online high schools now, but I don't know if they are actually computer-based instruction, or just stuff like you-tubed lectures and emailed homework. 95% of mass education can be automated and replicated,and teachers can spend the 5% of the time having higher quality interactions with students, to mutual benefit, while solving the fiscal crisis most local governments are caught up in, when they are spending $9K per year to mis-educate each of the three kids of a worker who is making $10K/yr at minimum wage. With computer-based instruction and competition from school choice, the costs can be brought down to more like $3000/yr per kid. Which still takes all of that worker's earnings if the poor were taxed 100%, but it's better than what we have now.
While at OCBI, I had a hot tip to invest in the Apple IPO,and my dad had the money to invest, which he was putting into IBM options, but my dad and I weren't on speaking terms at the time so I never brought it up. It's one of the many many opportunities to "make money fast" on the internet that I missed out on, like not registering beer.com when I could have. I finally at one of my other blogs am getting 1000 hits a day (this one, my main blog, gets about 40 hits a day lately) which I should try to monetize for some occasional lunch money. Maybe project wonderful, if those can run on a wordpress blog.
today he posts about the high cost of college textxbooks.
two simple solutions, one easy, one a little less so but more worth doing.
1. teach the previous edition, which students can pick up for around $25.
a ten page summary written by a TA would let them know what's in the new edition.
2. open source textbooks. every first year law student takes property contracts torts and crim law. those would probably be the place to start. have a seminar where the object of the class is to produce an open source textbook, one per semester.
not only is this project worth doing in and of itself, it gives leverage when negotiating prices with textbook manufacturers.it's like when a walmart opens in town,
prices at the other stores drop 10%.
When I was an undergrad, back in the dim ages when computers were mainframes and we were just starting to port our stuff over to the Apple II, I worked at the OCBI, office of computer-based instruction. We had the technology then to replace most of what colleges and public schools do with online instruction that once programmed can be replicated for free. Somehow it never caught on, although the networking concepts we were using, email, chat rooms, online interactive journals, and so forth, migrated over to the internet. I know there are online high schools now, but I don't know if they are actually computer-based instruction, or just stuff like you-tubed lectures and emailed homework. 95% of mass education can be automated and replicated,and teachers can spend the 5% of the time having higher quality interactions with students, to mutual benefit, while solving the fiscal crisis most local governments are caught up in, when they are spending $9K per year to mis-educate each of the three kids of a worker who is making $10K/yr at minimum wage. With computer-based instruction and competition from school choice, the costs can be brought down to more like $3000/yr per kid. Which still takes all of that worker's earnings if the poor were taxed 100%, but it's better than what we have now.
While at OCBI, I had a hot tip to invest in the Apple IPO,and my dad had the money to invest, which he was putting into IBM options, but my dad and I weren't on speaking terms at the time so I never brought it up. It's one of the many many opportunities to "make money fast" on the internet that I missed out on, like not registering beer.com when I could have. I finally at one of my other blogs am getting 1000 hits a day (this one, my main blog, gets about 40 hits a day lately) which I should try to monetize for some occasional lunch money. Maybe project wonderful, if those can run on a wordpress blog.
obama closes washington monument, statue of liberty. what's next?
Monday, August 22, 2011
word for the day ambigram.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
bumped with update
Boing boing had strong praise for Ready Player One: the best science fiction novel I’ve read in a decade, comparing it to Philip Jose Farmer’s To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971). William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984). Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash (1992). Cory Doctorow’s Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003). The Farmer is dreck; I've read it, but the other three are among my favorite books,and widely influential.
So I grabbed the pdf of the first three chapters and it's ok so far:
People rarely used their real names online. Anonymity was one of the
major perks of the OASIS. Inside the simulation, no one knew who you
really were, unless you wanted them to. Much of the OASIS’s popularity
and culture were built around this fact. Your real name, fi ngerprints,
and retinal patterns were stored in your OASIS account, but Gregarious
Simulation Systems kept that information encrypted and confi dential.
Even GSS’s own employees couldn’t look up an avatar’s true identity. Back
when Halliday was still running the company, GSS had won the right to
keep every OASIS user’s identity private in a landmark Supreme Court
ruling.
just that the 3 chapters werre too short, i want more.
Can't just read all night because i have stuff to do downtown, where by stuff I mean yet another attempt at some awkward social interaction, at a bar downtown i know with some people i'm connected to online. we'll see how it goes. i'm 90% otaku and rarely leave the house, but i make an effort now and then.
update bonus: wil wheaton does the audiobook.
update: scalzi points me to the author's blog, where i learn about the book tour, in a delorean with a flux capacitor. the book is going to be a movie at some point.
strangely the website for the book is down right now. maybe he got slashdotted by being in the wall street journal today.
Boing boing had strong praise for Ready Player One: the best science fiction novel I’ve read in a decade, comparing it to Philip Jose Farmer’s To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971). William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984). Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash (1992). Cory Doctorow’s Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003). The Farmer is dreck; I've read it, but the other three are among my favorite books,and widely influential.
So I grabbed the pdf of the first three chapters and it's ok so far:
People rarely used their real names online. Anonymity was one of the
major perks of the OASIS. Inside the simulation, no one knew who you
really were, unless you wanted them to. Much of the OASIS’s popularity
and culture were built around this fact. Your real name, fi ngerprints,
and retinal patterns were stored in your OASIS account, but Gregarious
Simulation Systems kept that information encrypted and confi dential.
Even GSS’s own employees couldn’t look up an avatar’s true identity. Back
when Halliday was still running the company, GSS had won the right to
keep every OASIS user’s identity private in a landmark Supreme Court
ruling.
just that the 3 chapters werre too short, i want more.
Can't just read all night because i have stuff to do downtown, where by stuff I mean yet another attempt at some awkward social interaction, at a bar downtown i know with some people i'm connected to online. we'll see how it goes. i'm 90% otaku and rarely leave the house, but i make an effort now and then.
update bonus: wil wheaton does the audiobook.
update: scalzi points me to the author's blog, where i learn about the book tour, in a delorean with a flux capacitor. the book is going to be a movie at some point.
strangely the website for the book is down right now. maybe he got slashdotted by being in the wall street journal today.
mad scientist at work, wilhelm roentgen
drops next month. amazon. “Stephenson’s REAMDE: perfectly executed, mammoth, ambitious technothriller...a triumph, all 980 pages of it.” (Cory Doctorow, boingboing.com ) Friday, August 19, 2011
ron paul's birthday. he's what, 112?
jamestown, earthworms, a history lesson from natgeo.
TIL that the spanish settled virginia in 1570, 38 years before my family got there.
TIL that the spanish settled virginia in 1570, 38 years before my family got there.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
larry and steve,early family guy pilot.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
the day of the dragon by guy endor. i read this in a ray bradbury anthology in the 1970s,and it came up in a discussion on slashdot the other day,and redditt helped me find it.
http://www.scribbleandshutter.com/2007/writing/daybeaver/daydragon01.htm
No, in those days no one ever thought of such a peril to the existence of the human race. I was young then, but I recall the times distinctly. Scientists at their annual meetings used to discus the probability of the termination of the triumphant progress of the human race, but that it should come about in this fashion - this terrible and at the same time ridiculous fashion - that , no one ever imagined.
http://www.scribbleandshutter.com/2007/writing/daybeaver/daydragon01.htm
No, in those days no one ever thought of such a peril to the existence of the human race. I was young then, but I recall the times distinctly. Scientists at their annual meetings used to discus the probability of the termination of the triumphant progress of the human race, but that it should come about in this fashion - this terrible and at the same time ridiculous fashion - that , no one ever imagined.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
correct horse battery staple. if you know what this means, you know what this means.
we went to the state fair today. My roommate went to the correct horse battery stable. I went to see the elephant instead.
http://abstrusegoose.com/385
this cartoon is about how we are all of us descended from a long line of winners, those who survived and had offspring. ancestry.com is a lot of fun in working out the details.
however, that's only part of the picture. in each generation, there were, usually, more offspring that didn't make it, that died young, or died old and childless. it took me a long time to figure out that i'm one of those. my brother is a winner, but he never had kids. my sisters each had 2, so our family's genes will continue.i'm 51 today, no kids yet, don't know if i ever will.
we went to the state fair today. My roommate went to the correct horse battery stable. I went to see the elephant instead.
http://abstrusegoose.com/385
this cartoon is about how we are all of us descended from a long line of winners, those who survived and had offspring. ancestry.com is a lot of fun in working out the details.
however, that's only part of the picture. in each generation, there were, usually, more offspring that didn't make it, that died young, or died old and childless. it took me a long time to figure out that i'm one of those. my brother is a winner, but he never had kids. my sisters each had 2, so our family's genes will continue.i'm 51 today, no kids yet, don't know if i ever will.
Thursday, August 04, 2011
ventus
http://www.kschroeder.com/my-books/ventus/free-ebook-version
something to read later. stross likes it.
also a backyardiagans song
http://backyardiganslyrics.blogspot.com/2009/12/mysterious-very-mysterious.html
http://www.kschroeder.com/archive/Ventus/
i'm finished now.
http://www.kschroeder.com/my-books/ventus/free-ebook-version
something to read later. stross likes it.
also a backyardiagans song
http://backyardiganslyrics.blogspot.com/2009/12/mysterious-very-mysterious.html
http://www.kschroeder.com/archive/Ventus/
i'm finished now.
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
http://kukuklok.com/
a basic online alarm clock.not as fully functional as i would want, but it's a start.
to do: add http://gasbuddy.com to blog roll.
a basic online alarm clock.not as fully functional as i would want, but it's a start.
to do: add http://gasbuddy.com to blog roll.
