div, grad, curl, repeat

Dinosaur Comics - June 14th, 2007 - awesome fun times!

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:38:04 -0500

Dinosaur Comics - June 14th, 2007 - awesome fun times!

"You just lost the game. Everyone loses the game. As Dostoevsky observed in Winter Notes on Summer..."

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:40:58 -0500

“

You just lost the game. Everyone loses the game. As Dostoevsky observed in Winter Notes on Summer Impressions: “Try to avoid thinking of a white bear, and you will see that the cursed thing will come to mind every minute.” In fact, whenever we try not to think about something that something gets trapped in the mind, stuck in the recursive loop of self-consciousness. Our attempt at repression turns into an odd fixation.

This human frailty has profound consequences. Dan Wegner, a psychologist at Harvard, refers to the failure as an “ironic” mental process. Whenever we establish a mental goal — such as trying not to think about white bears — the goal is accompanied by an inevitable follow-up thought, as the brain checks to see if we’re making progress. The end result, of course, is that we obsess over the one thing we’re trying to avoid.

”

- Sleep : The Frontal Cortex

Thought habits are mad difficult to break.

What One Word Best Describes How You Feel a Year After President Obama's Election? - NYTimes.com

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:45:35 -0500

What One Word Best Describes How You Feel a Year After President Obama's Election? - NYTimes.com:

This is both nifty and very powerful. I wrote “hopeful,” because… well, what else can one really feel?

I firmly believe that we’re in a new era, one that has no need for disappointment or cynicism in our government, our nation, and in mankind in general. Even if Obama fails to meet up to expectations, the mere fact that we, as a country, at arguably one of our lowest periods ever, were able to get him elected shows that there will always be hope for us. We’re living history.

skysignal: Dancing Neil Patrick Harris and Elmo just made my day. Had to attach this GIF to a text...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:31:21 -0500

skysignal:

Dancing Neil Patrick Harris and Elmo just made my day.

Had to attach this GIF to a text post because Tumblr still fails at GIF photo posts.

Newspapers aren't doing as badly as you think. - By Daniel Gross - Slate Magazine

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:42:30 -0500

Newspapers aren't doing as badly as you think. - By Daniel Gross - Slate Magazine:

At some point in the future, newspapers may disappear. But count me in the later rather than sooner camp. And I can’t help but think that many newspaper-doomsayers are conflating hope with analysis. According to many of the digerati, newspapers and other printed matter that people pay for through clunky old distribution systems (the mail, kids on bicycles, vans) can never make money and are bound to fail, while publications distributed online for free are destined to rule the world. (Of course, I could be guilty of the same impulse. I have feet in both worlds and could no more choose between print and the Web than I could choose between my two children.) But I also think this might be a case of making too much of a few numbers and ignoring some important ones.

THANK YOU. Obnoxious newspaper fatalists (especially the bandwagon types) are very quickly approaching #1 on my pet peeve list.

You AUGHT To Remember

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:40:35 -0500

You AUGHT To Remember:

The first decade is over? Whaaaat?

Being a Woman is Not a Pre-Existing Condition

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:41:06 -0400

Being a Woman is Not a Pre-Existing Condition :

ferrrn:

My post and petition on one of the most appalling aspects of the pre-existing condition bullshit in the health insurance industry:

Health insurance companies take advantage of the American public simply because they can. Government needs to tell them to cease and desist with discriminatory practices like denying women coverage because of pregnancy, rape, domestic abuse or HIV medication .

The current effort to overhaul the healthcare industry must not neglect this institutionalized sexism, and you can help by calling on Congress to investigate these cases. Please contact your elected reps and ask them to consider these abuses and demand their redress as Congress continues to craft and debate new healthcare legislation for the American public.

Amen. Thank you, Fern!

Seven questions that keep physicists up at night - space - 23 October 2009 - New Scientist

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:22:24 -0400

Seven questions that keep physicists up at night - space - 23 October 2009 - New Scientist:

What is reality really?

The material world may, at some level, lie beyond comprehension, but Anton Zeilinger, professor of physics at the University of Vienna, is profoundly hopeful that physicists have merely scratched the surface of something much bigger. Zeilinger specialises in quantum experiments that demonstrate the apparent influence of observers in the shaping of reality. “Maybe the real breakthrough will come when we start to realise the connections between reality, knowledge and our actions,” he says. The concept is mind-bending, but it is well established in practice. Zeilinger and others have shown that particles that are widely separated can somehow have quantum states that are linked, so that observing one affects the outcome of the other. No one has yet fathomed how the universe seems to know when it is being watched.

The world's best pancake recipe

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:12:05 -0400

The world's best pancake recipe:

MUST try this soon, especially since I’ve been binging on pancakes as of late

Loafing around during midterms leads to A+ pumpkin bread

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:04:14 -0400

Loafing around during midterms leads to A+ pumpkin bread:

Tried some of this bread today (Devin brought a loaf to the office), and it was delicious. Must try this recipe soon.

harrypotterismylife: The Weasley family tree drawn by J.K....

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:26:55 -0400

harrypotterismylife:

The Weasley family tree drawn by J.K. Rowling herself.

thedailywhat: Chess Set of the Day: Linda and John Meyers’ Type...

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:04:30 -0400

thedailywhat:

Chess Set of the Day: Linda and John Meyers’ Type Chess Set, created using, among other things, an old type tray the couple found at a garage sale.

[via.]

Chess-playing design geeks unite!

In Which Nothing Will Cut New York But A Diamond - Home - This Recording

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:14:00 -0400

In Which Nothing Will Cut New York But A Diamond - Home - This Recording:

Beautiful article about New York City.

One passage that struck home:

Once you get out of the game, it’s hard to get back in, and for some people this is reason not to play at all. Even those like Powell, who love the hustle, or are addicted to it, know a world exists across the river. Powell always retained an image of herself as outsider.

In the autobiographical short story “What Are You Doing In My Dreams?” she envisioned a split self, half of which lived by day in New York and “the other half by night with the dead in long-ago Ohio.” Edmund Wilson described Powell’s real theme as “the provincial in New York who has come on from the Middle West and acclimatized himself (or herself) to the city and made himself a permanent place there, without ever, however, losing his fascinated sense of an alien and anarchic society.

(via)

Reggie Bush, Football, New Orleans Saints - 11.01.09 - SI...

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:59:14 -0400

Reggie Bush, Football, New Orleans Saints - 11.01.09 - SI Vault

Most spectacular Sports Illustrated cover ever.

thedailywhat: [photo via.]

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:56:24 -0400

thedailywhat:

[photo via.]

livesophia: Even heroes need to be saved every once in...

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:01:01 -0400

livesophia:

Even heroes need to be saved every once in awhile.

For all of my skepticism of Disney movies, I do think this is a...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:12:25 -0400

For all of my skepticism of Disney movies, I do think this is a bit much.

(see, SEH? I am no longer a bitter black melon duck.)

"The caricature of dopamine as the chemical of hedonism and pleasure - it’s what drives us to..."

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:16:33 -0400

“The caricature of dopamine as the chemical of hedonism and pleasure - it’s what drives us to enjoy sex, drugs and rock and roll - was always mostly misleading. While dopamine does predict the arrival of rewards, the neurotransmitter is much more important that. Many dopamine researchers, for instance, refer to the chemical as our “neural currency,” since it allows us to quickly assign a value to the multitudes of things and ideas in the outside world. (In other words, dopamine is the price tag of sensory information.) When we see something we want - and it doesn’t matter if it’s a chocolate cupcake or a glass of water - the mere sight of the object triggers a wave of emotional desire, which motivates us to act. (Emotion and motivation share the same Latin root, movere, which means “to move.”) The world is full of possibilities, and it is our dopaminergic feelings that help us choose between them.”

- Dopaminergic Aesthetics : The Frontal Cortex

Dry Erase Paint for Work, School and Home White Boards| IdeaPaint

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:49:05 -0400

Dry Erase Paint for Work, School and Home White Boards| IdeaPaint:

This = amazing! The possibilities are endless!

(thanks, LN)

Well - The Human Body Is Built for Distance - NYTimes.com

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:51:43 -0400

Well - The Human Body Is Built for Distance - NYTimes.com:

Most mammals can sprint faster than humans — having four legs gives them the advantage. But when it comes to long distances, humans can outrun almost any animal. Because we cool by sweating rather than panting, we can stay cool at speeds and distances that would overheat other animals. On a hot day, the two scientists wrote, a human could even outrun a horse in a 26.2-mile marathon.

Why would evolution favor the distance runner? The prevailing theory is that endurance running allowed primitive humans to incorporate meat into their diet. They may have watched the sky for scavenging birds and then run long distances to reach a fresh kill and steal the meat from whatever animal was there first.

Other research suggests that before the development of slingshots or bows, early hunters engaged in persistence hunting, chasing an animal for hours until it overheated, making it easy to kill at close range. A 2006 report in the journal Current Anthropology documents persistence hunting among modern hunter-gatherers, including the Bushmen in Africa.

“Ancient humans exploited the fact that humans are good runners in the heat,” Dr. Bramble said. “We have such a great cooling system” — many sweat glands, little body