This reads like a spoof but it’s on the Charles Mingus website and, hell, he wasn’t just a musician. We all try crazy shit like trying to get your cat to use the human toilet.
One day, cut a small hole in the very center of his box, less than an apple-about the size of a plum-and leave some paper in the box around the hole. Right away he will start aiming for the hole and possibly even try to make it bigger. Leave the paper for awhile to absorb the waste. When he jumps up he will not be afraid of the hole because he expects it. At this point you will realize that you have won. The most difficult part is over.
via Anna / bibliogrrl
Ostensibly an article encouraging technology geeks to look outside their disciplines, this makes a strong argument for why children shouldn’t simply be taught skills for the workplace but should be taught how to think. Philosophy, or at least critical reasoning, should be taught on an equal footing with English and Maths.
I see a humanities degree as nothing less than a rite of passage to intellectual adulthood. A way of evolving from a sophomoric wonderer and critic into a rounded, open, and engaged intellectual citizen. When you are no longer engaged only in optimizing your products—and you let go of the technotopian view—your world becomes larger, richer, more mysterious, more inviting. More human.
Using the Automator app in Lion you can open web pages in little (or big) floating windows on your mac.
I have no idea what this might be useful for, but I can think of a few things it might be interesting to do with. Maybe.
via DF
The first thing to mention is that the phone hacking episode has nothing at all to do with actual ‘phone’ hacking. It is actually illicit voicemail access. Access can be gained by using some technical knowledge and or tools, but on the whole it is through system and process weaknesses.
It occurs to me I have no idea how to access my voicemail remotely and it never really occurred to me that I could. Thankfully (because I hate it as a way of storing information) I rarely get voicemail.
via DF
Feuilleton abounds with discussion of every genus of fantastic art, with many luscious images that few visitors will have seen.
Deserved praise indeed. You should subscribe.
A few weeks back I announced that if I were to own a shipping container I’d like it to be a MAERSK branded one for purely aesthetic reasons. I thought no more of it until this toot from David drawing one’s attention to the LEGO MAERSK line, so far consisting of a container ship and goods train. Sadly the container itself appears not to be available separately and the sets are characteristically highly priced, but still, one can dream…
Update: Found one on eBay! Bidding now…
Update 2: Ah well…
After Lion there’s nowhere else to go. This is Maru. via Bounder
Trust BLDGBLOG to find something amazing and make it even more amazing by talking about it. This is a fantastic article starting with the above video taken by a pigeon in flight with a video camera attached and seeing where the notion goes.
I can find no explanation why the footage is so “shuttery” – whether it’s a technical issue with the presumably ultra-light camera, an effect of the wind or flapping or just the way pigeons move in the air. But I like it. A lot.
This is a bit of a perfect storm for me. The artist, Gerco de Ruijter, is exploring things in a way I would love to emulate while the blogger is writing about them in a manner I would aspire to. I am humbled and hungry to improve.
∞ If your website’s full of assholes, it’s your fault
One for the ASH-10 blog really, but of interest to anyone who’s decided to stop accepting that toxic comments on newspaper websites are just the way it is and want to know why “a company like Google thinks it’s okay to sell video ads on YouTube above conversations that are filled with vile, anonymous comments.” Anil Dash loads all his experience into a hammer and nails it.
I’ve noticed in the past that certain websites, usually of the “this is a free space with no censorship” type, bring out my inner asshole and I’ve made a decision to stay away from them. When I (sadly only occasionally) engage on Clusterflock I feel the weight of social norms and implicit rules on me and it feels good.
(Note: my inner asshole is way worse than Grumpy Pete, let me tell you.)
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