Staying Foolish.

thedailyfeed: In the wake of 9/11, photographer Joe McNally...

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 21:25:16 -0400

In the wake of 9/11, photographer Joe McNally sought to capture the faces of heroes. Now, a new exhibition at the Time Warner Center in New York City, “Faces of Ground Zero — 10 Years Later,” marks the anniversary of 9/11 with a tribute to the everyday people affected by the attacks.

Using the world’s largest instant camera with a U-2 spy-plane lens, McNally highlights firefighters, victims’ families and survivors to show the impact that fateful day had on their lives.

“These photos are simply a collection of some very good, brave and decent people who picked all of us up on their shoulders and carried us through an incredibly difficult period in our nation’s history,” McNally told The Daily.

awesomepeoplehangingouttogether: The cast of the original Star...

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 21:23:57 -0400

awesomepeoplehangingouttogether:

The cast of the original Star Wars trilogy

buzzfeed: Doing math. (Via Reddit)

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:48:33 -0400

buzzfeed:

Doing math.

(Via Reddit)

Video

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:47:03 -0400

All career issues are religious issues. Maybe.

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:26:00 -0400

All career issues are religious issues. Maybe.:

Personal responsibility is the most important trait of a successful career.

People who think their lives are within their control can overcome obstacles more effectively. And this is personal responsibility.

A shark swims in the streets after Irene hits Puerto Rico. EDIT:...

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:14:00 -0400

A shark swims in the streets after Irene hits Puerto Rico.

EDIT: Damn. It looks like a hoax.

http://www.nowpublic.com/strange/shark-street-after-hurricane-irene-hits-puerto-rico-video-2829520.html

The Interconnected World of Tech Companies [INFOGRAPHIC]

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:13:24 -0400

The Interconnected World of Tech Companies [INFOGRAPHIC]

I agree but with a proviso: if you can answer...

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:19:14 -0400

I agree but with a proviso: if you can answer “What’s the point?” in a way that still inspires you, you’re really onto something.

hinternetz:

i’d add “wander” and “read everything you see” and “talk to strangers”

what else would you add?

Women 2.0 » Agile Productivity Tips for Entrepreneurs & Developers

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 21:54:00 -0400

Women 2.0 » Agile Productivity Tips for Entrepreneurs & Developers:

Having trouble getting work done? I think this is brilliant:

Different Computers For Different Contexts

Sleep experts recommend that you use your bed only for sleeping. Why not apply the same principle to computers? You’d never pick up your Xbox and think of work. Why would you pick up your Facebook machine and expect to get some programming done? If you have the resources, a second computer just for work can be indispensible.

A Different Profile For Your Computer

Having 2 computers can be expensive and unrealistic for many. Setting up profiles, on the other hand, is free and easy. I recently set up new profile on my laptop using parental controls. In my profile I blocked a bunch of websites as well as certain applications. I can still use my computer for fun stuff but when I log into my new account my computer goes into workstation only mode. I can pretend it has nothing in common with the YouTube player I just closed.

Journalism Warning Labels

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:19:07 -0400

Journalism Warning Labels:

Tom Scott:

It seems a bit strange to me that the media carefully warn about and label any content that involves sex, violence or strong language — but there’s no similar labelling system for, say, sloppy journalism and other questionable content.

I figured it was time to fix that, so I made some stickers. I’ve been putting them on copies of the free papers that I find on the London Underground. You might want to as well.

Kanye’s 2 for 2 so far. famoussoundingwords: Kanye West -...

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:33:00 -0400

Kanye’s 2 for 2 so far.

famoussoundingwords:

Kanye West - “See Me Now” (feat. Beyonce and Charlie Wilson) download

“Some of you will want to know my advice to young writers...

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:15:38 -0400

“Some of you will want to know my advice to young writers and, uh, this is it: Don’t use semicolons. They stand for absolutely nothing. They are transvestite hermaphrodites. They are just a way of showing off. To show that you have been to college.”

sagatrope:

This is the first part of five from a lecture Kurt Vonnegut gave at Albion College entitled “How To Get A Job Like Mine.”

The Proposition 8 Ruling (in simple language)

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:35:00 -0400

I’m fascinated with this ruling, mainly because well-reasoned arguments have become so novel.

squashed:

On August 4, 2010, Federal Judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled that California’s Proposition 8, which prohibits California from recognizing same-sex marriage, is unconstitutional. The ruling was stayed pending appeal—which means that nothing will happen until a Federal Appeals court reviews it. As you might imagine, it will be appealed. The ruling itself is 138 pages long. I’ll summarize.

The previous lawsuit challenged Proposition 8 on procedural grounds. My post on that case is here. The California Supreme Court disagreed with me. Since the California Supreme Court gets the final say on the California Constitution, it got the last word.

The new suit was brought by two same-sex couples on different grounds. And, since it was brought in Federal court, the California Supreme Court doesn’t get a say at all. Something strange happened. California’s government was sued. The Attorney General said, essentially, “I agree that this thing is unconstitutional.” The other government groups said, “I’m not going to bother defending this.” So did a number of other people, including “ProtectMarriage.com - Yes on 8.”

The people who brought the lawsuit (“the Plaintiffs”) claimed two things. First, they claimed that marriage is a fundamental right under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. (There is some decent precedent on this—the only question is whether the protected marriage is the one man/one woman kind of marriage). If the 14th Amendment protects same-sex marriage, the court reviews the case using “strict scrutiny” which I’ll discuss below.

Read More

James Franco

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:36:54 -0400

New York Magazine is killin it right now. This might be even better than their Lady Gaga piece:

Which is, of course, basically a description of Franco’s current career: He’s systematically challenging mass-cultural norms. Franco, you might say, is queering celebrity: erasing the border not just between gay and straight but between actor and artist, heartthrob and intellectual, junk TV and art museum. His obvious relish for gay roles challenges the default heterosexuality of Hollywood leading men like Clooney or Pitt. He seems more interested in fluidity, in every sense, than in a fixed identity. As a commenter on the website Queerty put it: “He’s the World’s Gayest Heterosexual!” But he’s also the world’s most heterosexual gay, the world’s highest lowbrow, and the world’s most ironic earnest guy. It is also possible that he’s just engaged in the world’s most public, and confused, coming-out process.

I bet you didn’t know he loves school:

As soon as Franco finished at UCLA, he moved to New York and enrolled in four of them: NYU for filmmaking, Columbia for fiction writing, Brooklyn College for fiction writing, and—just for good measure—a low-residency poetry program at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. This fall, at 32, before he’s even done with all of these, he’ll be starting at Yale, for a Ph.D. in English, and also at the Rhode Island School of Design. After which, obviously, he will become president of the United Nations, train a flock of African gray parrots to perform free colonoscopies in the developing world, and launch himself into space in order to explain the human heart to aliens living at the pulsing core of interstellar quasars.

Blog note

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:48:04 -0400

I changed from wordpress to tumblr.

All the old posts and pictures are missing.

I’m working on bringing them back.

The End of Men

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:26:00 -0400

I know I’m late on this but, I can’t stop thinking about this article.

From the abstract:

EARLIER THIS YEAR, WOMEN BECAME THE MAJORITY OF THE WORKFORCE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN U.S. HISTORY. MOST MANAGERS ARE NOW WOMEN TOO. AND FOR EVERY TWO MEN WHO GET A COLLEGE DEGREE THIS YEAR, THREE WOMEN WILL DO THE SAME. FOR YEARS, WOMEN’S PROGRESS HAS BEEN CAST AS A STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY. BUT WHAT IF EQUALITY ISN’T THE END POINT? WHAT IF MODERN, POSTINDUSTRIAL SOCIETY IS SIMPLY BETTER SUITED TO WOMEN?

The entire article is worth the time but it’s these two sentences that really stuck with me:

Mothers going back to school described themselves as good role models for their children. Fathers worried that they were abrogating their responsibilities as breadwinner.

Even after thinking about this for nearly a month, I can’t comprehend what this means for the workplace in the future.

N.B. I don’t mean to imply that this is “good” or “bad” - I don’t think those words have a place in this discussion. I do know that things are and have been changing. I hope I can adapt.

"Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but..."

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:59:13 -0400

““Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations. You have to pay attention to money, but it shouldn’t be about the money.” — Tim O’Reilly via Ben Casnocha”

Mariano Rivera

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 15:45:36 -0400

One of the only athletes I truly, truly admire:

“What do you do to throw that one pitch where you want it all the time when the situation is heavy — say, 3-1 count, bases loaded, big hitter up?”

“I don’t ever second-guess myself. I don’t say, ‘I can’ or ‘I should’ or ‘I must.’ I will throw the ball where I want to.”

Ted Leo

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 18:25:39 -0400

8000 words on elevators

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 11:44:31 -0400

Elevators are strange:

“In most elevators, at least in any built or installed since the early nineties, the door-close button doesn’t work. It is there mainly to make you think it works. (It does work if, say, a fireman needs to take control. But you need a key, and a fire, to do that.) Once you know this, it can be illuminating to watch people compulsively press the door-close button. That the door eventually closes reinforces their belief in the button’s power. It’s a little like prayer. Elevator design is rooted in deception—to disguise not only the bare fact of the box hanging by ropes but also the tethering of tenants to a system over which they have no command.”

“Passengers seem to know instinctively how to arrange themselves in an elevator. Two strangers will gravitate to the back corners, a third will stand by the door, at an isosceles remove, until a fourth comes in, at which point passengers three and four will spread toward the front corners, making room, in the center, for a fifth, and so on, like the dots on a die. With each additional passenger, the bodies shift, slotting into the open spaces. The goal, of course, is to maintain (but not too conspicuously) maximum distance and to counteract unwanted intimacies—a code familiar (to half the population) from the urinal bank and (to them and all the rest) from the subway. One should face front. Look up, down, or, if you must, straight ahead. Mirrors compound the unease. Generally, no one should speak a word to anyone else in an elevator. Most people make allowances for the continuation of generic small talk already under way, or, in residential buildings, for neighborly amenities.”