February 2009
January 2009
Taleb's top life tips
via Times Online
1 Scepticism is effortful and costly. It is better to be sceptical about matters of large consequences, and be imperfect, foolish and human in the small and the aesthetic.
2 Go to parties. You can’t even start to know what you may find on the envelope of serendipity. If you suffer from agoraphobia, send colleagues.
3 It’s not a good idea to take a forecast from someone...
“This is why our problem is not just economic; it’s spiritual. We have mistaken...”
– Andrew Sullivan (via blakeley:lilyb spiegelman) (via asie)
1 tag
Coeur de Pirate - Ensemble
“Even as he is sober about these challenges, I have never seen him happier,” Mr....”
– White House Unbuttons Formal Dress Code - NYTimes.com (via adamiss) (via asie)
“Immortal” Jellyfish Ages Backwards →
gregbrown:
robot-heart:
Scientists have just identified a 5mm-long jellyfish they call Turritopsis Nutricula…which has the ability to “return to a juvenile state” after multiplying. According to the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute, this is the only known animal which is capable of quite literally reverting to its younger self, through a cell process called transdifferentiation....
“Favorite John Updike memory: he wrote to complain when the Boston Globe pulled...”
– Dan Moren, on John Updike, who passed away today at the age of 76. (via 43folders) (via obsessivecompulsive) RIP (via peterwknox)
Good Will Hunting
Terry, Head Custodian: Well, if something was stolen, I should know about it.
Prof. Gerald Lambeau: No, no. Nothing like that. I just need his name.
Terry, Head Custodian: I can’t give you his name unless you have a complaint.
Tom, Lambeau's Ass't: This is Professor Lambeau.
Terry, Head Custodian: And this is Professor Hayes.
Science's Rightful Place →
Dennis Overbye:
Arguably science is the most successful human activity of all time. Which is not to say that life within it is always utopian, as several of my colleagues have pointed out in articles about pharmaceutical industry payments to medical researchers.
But nobody was ever sent to prison for espousing the wrong value for the Hubble constant.
Joe Biden, Advisor in Chief →
givemesomethingtoread:
And you may say that Joe Biden’s moment has passed, that he is not the one to help us unfurl our wings. But there is one thing that he knows:
He is who he is, and he likes this shirt.
“The shirt is a statement, and the statement is: I like this shirt.” Not quite the sentiment of the striped-shirt guy—not that at all. But they are sartorial...
Funny thing, but no--the badge is not actually a... →
What you do at home is your own business. (If this warrants any applause, Mr. Updike, I believe the slow-clap is in order.)
“No act is so private it does not seek applause.”
– John Updike / Dead at 76 (via nevver)
Good Dog. →
via dlittlegarden
My neighbors
are having sex. Either that or it’s a contractor doing some aggressive spackling. And getting overtime. In either case, someone’s workin hard.
Rockaway
I laze, lusting for legs as the water wears the rock away. Sand on newsprint, and everywhere else. Print beneath, print overhead in the winding tale of a biplane and I print more still. With Rockaway just a ride away I’ve left little behind. But that little behind is more than I’ll see in the shade of that urban canopy. I’ll rock away, ride the waves away, until the whistle blows, beckons, a...
