15 April 2009

 

Links of interest (2009-04-15):

Most of these come via Jason Kottke or John Gruber:

  • Nine science words that came from science fiction. See the (inevitably snipey) comments for some others, like robot, cyberspace, waldo, grok, avatar, and the delightful thagomizer.
  • "I can’t think of a way that the entire [computer] desktop metaphor can be overhauled without either everyone in the world switching over at once (which won’t happen), or becoming a 'data island' like the Newton or Classic Mac OS."
  • The MythBusters have a regular column in Popular Mechanics.
  • "If you're married to page views, never assume that I am. If you're angling for 1,000,000 Twitter followers whom you pretend to read, never assume that I am. And, if your project is based on generating compulsory year-over-year growth vis-a-vis market domination and fiduciary responsibility, never assume that I am."
  • Rush Limbaugh's 10 dumbest remarks.
  • Stephen Colbert won't get a space station module named after himself, but he will get a space treadmill instead.
  • Our pal Kris Krug takes great photographs of people, and is enormously prolific in publishing them online, and Miranda and Reilly Lievers make amazing wedding pictures. But when my other friend Alastair Bird, who's made his living as a photographer for many years, publishes the occasional portrait online, there's something about his shallow-focus work with a medium-format camera that I find just astounding.
  • A nice summary by "Bad Astronomer" Phil Plait of Jerry Coyne's book Why Evolution is True.
  • I am a photic sneezer, and it runs in my family (my grandmother did it, I think my dad does it, and one of my daughters does too). I'm glad to read an explanation.

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Comments:

Yeah, Rush makes a lot of ridiculous remarks. His one about Michael J. Fox still really pisses me off, though, because I have a family member with Parkinsons and the shaking is really a minor symptom of everything he's experiencing. How dare anyone accuse a Parkinsons sufferer of faking it.
 
I knew even before hitting the comment link that only the rush limbaugh link would generate discussion here. Rush is a lightning rod for controversy, which is probably why he is paid so much. He's also pretty smart, too. Everyone says dumb things, and I don't care for his polotics, but there's little doubt the man is a shrewd genius.
 
Why thank you. Funny - those three images you posted to - one was shot with a medium-format digital, one medium-format film, one large-format film. I wonder if this means that I have too many cameras? Probably not.
 
Uh, too many cameras? I don't think I heard you properly -- that's not possible.