div, grad, curl, repeat

The End of Music - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:30:18 -0500

The End of Music - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com:

Scary thought. But I don’t buy it.

I pledge allegiance to The Saints and to the great city of New Orleans and to The Super Bowl, for...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:28:00 -0500

I pledge allegiance to The Saints

and to the great city of New Orleans

and to The Super Bowl, for which we will win

one city, below sea level, under God; indivisible

with Mardi Gras & alcohol for all. AMEN!

Who Dat!

(thanks, Mum)

christineyu: patrickmoberg: Internet Vices

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:43:15 -0500

christineyu:

patrickmoberg:

Internet Vices

Lady Gaga before she was Lady Gaga… wasn’t actually...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:53:32 -0500

Lady Gaga before she was Lady Gaga… wasn’t actually that bad. What happened?!

Large Hadron Collider ready to restart - The Big Picture -...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:48:09 -0500

Large Hadron Collider ready to restart - The Big Picture - Boston.com

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) says it expects to restart the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) by this weekend after more than a year of repairs. The 27 km (17 mi) particle accelerator was launched last year, but suffered a failure from a faulty electrical connection, damaging 53 of the smasher’s 9,300 superconducting magnets. Repairs are now completed, and the plan is to begin injecting protons into the LHC this weekend, on the path to search for particles such as predicted-yet-unobserved Higgs Boson.

FINALLY! End of the world fiesta, anyone?

(thanks, HJV)

"In a groundbreaking decision, a federal judge ruled late Wednesday that the Army Corps of..."

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:35:55 -0500

“

In a groundbreaking decision, a federal judge ruled late Wednesday that the Army Corps of Engineers’ mismanagement of maintenance at the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet was directly responsible for flood damage in St. Bernard Parish and the Lower 9th Ward after Hurricane Katrina.

The failure of the Corps to recognize the destruction that the MRGO had caused and the potential hazard that it created is clearly negligent on the part of the Corps,” said U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. in his ruling. “Furthermore, the Corps not only knew, but admitted by 1988, that the MRGO threatened human life … and yet it did not act in time to prevent the catastrophic disaster that ensued with the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina.”

“The Corps’ lassitude and failure to fulfill its duties resulted in a catastrophic loss of human life and property in unprecedented proportions,” Duval wrote. “The Corps’ negligence resulted in the wasting of millions of dollars in flood protection measures and billions of dollars in Congressional outlays to help this region recover from such a catastrophe. Certainly, Congress would never have meant to protect this kind of nonfeasance on the part of the very agency that is tasked with the protection of life and property.”

Duval’s 156-page decision could result in the federal government paying $700,000 in damages to three people and a business in those areas, but also sets the stage for judgments worth billions of dollars against the government for damages suffered by as many as 100,000 other residents, businesses and local governments in those areas who filed claims with the corps after Katrina.

”

- Corps’ operation of MR-GO doomed homes in St. Bernard, Lower 9th Ward, judge rules | Hurricane News and Storm Tracking - - NOLA.com

Epic epic win on so many levels.

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:16:39 -0500

Epic epic win on so many levels.

Andy Grove’s Prescription for Health Care - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:04:20 -0500

Andy Grove’s Prescription for Health Care - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com:

Interesting.

(thanks, Mum)

Awww.

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:33:57 -0500

Awww.

Say, I'm 21!

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:46:16 -0500

kari-shma: Will you give me a hug? (via { scarlet })

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:48:52 -0500

kari-shma:

Will you give me a hug? (via { scarlet })

Lcross Mission Finds Water on Moon, NASA Scientists Say - NYTimes.com

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:46:41 -0500

Lcross Mission Finds Water on Moon, NASA Scientists Say - NYTimes.com:

Hay agua en la luna! Woo!

kari-shma: Beauty in Everything - Photography Jump, little...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:47:59 -0500

kari-shma:

Beauty in Everything - Photography

Jump, little doggie, jump!

Rumor Has It - A ‘Gossip Girl’ Whose Hairstyle Is in Demand - NYTimes.com

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:48:00 -0500

Rumor Has It - A ‘Gossip Girl’ Whose Hairstyle Is in Demand - NYTimes.com:

In the 1990s, there was the “Rachel,” named after Jennifer Aniston’s character on the TV show “Friends.” Before the Rachel it was the “Farrah” — the flipped out, flouncy hairstyle worn by Farrah Fawcett.

Now, it’s Ms. Lively, the 22-year-old actress who plays Serena van der Woodsen on “Gossip Girl,” whose tresses are coveted: extra long, ultra-shiny blond with a mussed-up tussle frolicking through the ends.

Hey, it’s my hair also! (Sort of… well, almost. My hair is a few inches short, but it’s heading in that direction). Finally I’m living in an age in which I don’t have to do anything with my hair for it to look “good.”

Basics - In Pig Cognition Studies, Reflections on Parallels With Humans - NYTimes.com

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:39:18 -0500

Basics - In Pig Cognition Studies, Reflections on Parallels With Humans - NYTimes.com:

Animal Farm, anyone?

United Tastes - Preserving New Orleans Culture One Po’ Boy Sandwich at a Time - Series - NYTimes.com

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:32:46 -0500

United Tastes - Preserving New Orleans Culture One Po’ Boy Sandwich at a Time - Series - NYTimes.com:

Of course I won’t be in town for this. But it looks so glorious and delicious. To anyone in NOLA, please go to this and pig out for me!

(via mch)

"At first glance, this idea, which I’ll call the orchid hypothesis, may seem a simple amendment..."

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:45:00 -0500

“

At first glance, this idea, which I’ll call the orchid hypothesis, may seem a simple amendment to the vulnerability hypothesis. It merely adds that environment and experience can steer a person up instead of down. Yet it’s actually a completely new way to think about genetics and human behavior. Risk becomes possibility; vulnerability becomes plasticity and responsiveness. It’s one of those simple ideas with big, spreading implications. Gene variants generally considered misfortunes (poor Jim, he got the “bad” gene) can instead now be understood as highly leveraged evolutionary bets, with both high risks and high potential rewards: gambles that help create a diversified-portfolio approach to survival, with selection favoring parents who happen to invest in both dandelions and orchids.

In this view, having both dandelion and orchid kids greatly raises a family’s (and a species’) chance of succeeding, over time and in any given environment. The behavioral diversity provided by these two different types of temperament also supplies precisely what a smart, strong species needs if it is to spread across and dominate a changing world. The many dandelions in a population provide an underlying stability. The less-numerous orchids, meanwhile, may falter in some environments but can excel in those that suit them. And even when they lead troubled early lives, some of the resulting heightened responses to adversity that can be problematic in everyday life—increased novelty-seeking, restlessness of attention, elevated risk-taking, or aggression—can prove advantageous in certain challenging situations: wars, tribal or modern; social strife of many kinds; and migrations to new environments. Together, the steady dandelions and the mercurial orchids offer an adaptive flexibility that neither can provide alone. Together, they open a path to otherwise unreachable individual and collective achievements.

This orchid hypothesis also answers a fundamental evolutionary question that the vulnerability hypothesis cannot. If variants of certain genes create mainly dysfunction and trouble, how have they survived natural selection? Genes so maladaptive should have been selected out. Yet about a quarter of all human beings carry the best-documented gene variant for depression, while more than a fifth carry the variant that Bakermans-Kranenburg studied, which is associated with externalizing, antisocial, and violent behaviors, as well as ADHD, anxiety, and depression. The vulnerability hypothesis can’t account for this. The orchid hypothesis can.

This is a transformative, even startling view of human frailty and strength. For more than a decade, proponents of the vulnerability hypothesis have argued that certain gene variants underlie some of humankind’s most grievous problems: despair, alienation, cruelties both petty and epic. The orchid hypothesis accepts that proposition. But it adds, tantalizingly, that these same troublesome genes play a critical role in our species’ astounding success.

The orchid hypothesis—sometimes called the plasticity hypothesis, the sensitivity hypothesis, or the differential-susceptibility hypothesis—is too new to have been tested widely. Many researchers, even those in behavioral science, know little or nothing of the idea. A few—chiefly those with broad reservations about ever tying specific genes to specific behaviors—express concerns. But as more supporting evidence emerges, the most common reaction to the idea among researchers and clinicians is excitement. A growing number of psychologists, psychiatrists, child-development experts, geneticists, ethologists, and others are beginning to believe that, as Karlen Lyons-Ruth, a developmental psychologist at Harvard Medical School, puts it, “It’s time to take this seriously.”

”

- The Science of Success - The Atlantic (December 2009)

Bingo.

I think that’s been my problem with behavioral and some social “sciences,” that every “fact” or “law” or statement about human behavior has come off as so deterministic. Someone had X upbringing or Y gene or Z experience and is therefore ABC person/product/personality forever. There’s nothing there about plasticity, about change, about… free will, that maybe the person can, with the right circumstances or mindset or will power or just guidance/help (ok, maybe another form of determinism but not as “absolute”), can turn into DEF, into something & someone different. The orchid hypothesis, however, does take that into account and seems to provide a much more holistic and understanding theory. I really hope it gains more support.

Brilliant! (via CMZ)

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:12:25 -0500

Brilliant!

(via CMZ)

Showcase: Falling Into Place - Lens Blog - NYTimes.com

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:06:02 -0500

Showcase: Falling Into Place - Lens Blog - NYTimes.com:

Beautiful.

"For 28 years the wall in Berlin was one of the world’s most frightening and impermeable borders. Few..."

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:52:27 -0500

“

For 28 years the wall in Berlin was one of the world’s most frightening and impermeable borders. Few made it to the other side; most who tried were captured and thrown into prison, and many were killed in the attempt. Today, there are only a very few places where the wall still exists. Instead, a twin row of cobblestones is laid into the streets of Berlin, indicating where the wall once stood.

Every time I ride my bike across this artificial scar, I quickly close my eyes and appreciate the small, humbling bump.

”

- Over the Wall - Abstract City Blog - NYTimes.com