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Re-Link from the Past

4 Jul

Browsing through my old posts, I came across one called “Blogging and Meta-Blogging“. Evidently I could actually write in 2009.

While the Smidgin has been a useful endeavor, helping me form my opinion on numerous topics, I fully admit that my writing skill in the early days was not fully developed (as if it is today). Some of the early posts are particularly bad.

But, “Blogging and Meta-Blogging” actually works. The observations are spot-on and the jokes are good. At least, I think so. So if I may indulge in self-flattery in this post, since I didn’t in that post, I’ll tell you to go read it.

Interesting Use of Data Visualization

23 Jun

At least, for a news organization. It’s not an interactive graphic, it’s a part of the article itself. To get to the conclusion, you have to scroll through the graphic. And it makes its point.

Or lack of a point.

Precisely.

BBC News – Go Figure: Do we understand risk of mobile phone use?.

Venemous Catfish

17 Dec

As the owner of two very beautiful pictus catfish (Pimelodus pictus), this article captured my interest. From National Geographic:

Some catfish species have been known to be venomous—including a few dangerous enough to kill a human. But scientists knew little about how common venomous catfish are or how the fish produce and deliver their venom.

Turns out, the ability is more widespread than anyone realized—extending to about half of the more than 3,000 known catfish species, according to a new report.

First Invertebrate Documented Using Tools

17 Dec

BBC News, Octopus snatches coconut and runs:

Tool use was once thought to be an exclusively human skill, but this behaviour has now been observed in a growing list of primates, mammals and birds.

The researchers say their study suggests that these coconut-grabbing octopuses should now be added to these ranks.

Professor Tom Tregenza, an evolutionary ecologist from the University of Exeter, UK, and another author of the paper, said: “A tool is something an animal carries around and then uses on a particular occasion for a particular purpose.

Prompting my sister-in-law to comment:

It’s funny, isn’t it, how some Christians want to think stuff like this diminishes us or God… I think it just makes him seem even more awesome.

As for me: “Honestly, thinking we were the only animals to use tools was extremely presumptuous.”

Similar Images

26 Apr

Google never ceases to amaze me.  Have you ever found yourself trying to find a picture via Google Image Search and you just can’t get what you want?  You may see one picture that’s pretty close to what you want, but not quite there.

Google Similar Images to the rescue!  It allows you to choose an image from your search and find similar images based on it.  Seems to work quite well.  Have fun!

Two Links To Finish

9 Nov

The long campaign season is finally over, for better or worse, depending on who you ask. Hopefully we can now return to the happy posts of yestermonth.  I enjoyed exploring my own political thoughts and logic, but too much discussion on any subject is draining.

To end my “coverage” of the issues, I thought I’d recommend two articles I came across today.  The first is by Desmond Tutu and ran in the Washington Post today.  Tutu speaks of what it means to the world that Obama will be President of the United States. (more…)

TED Talk on Moral Values: Liberals and Conservatives

21 Oct

Over at TED, there’s a talk by Jonathan Haidt on “The real difference between liberals and conservatives.”  It’s well worth watching, especially with the election-heightened tensions between the two groups.  Haidt examines five “moral values” that define humans and explains which ones each group tends to favor.  But more than just explaining how liberals and conservatives think, he also examines why each side is necessary and encourages us to step outside of the “moral matrix” and, at least for a moment, be neither for or against either side.

I found the talk intriguing, and similar to my own views.  Part of what makes America amazing is that we have been able to do just that.  As I wrote to a friend this week:

It’s probable that I will never be able to give any reason that some people will think is good enough to justify voting for Obama.  If this is the case, let’s at least agree to respect each others views; to recognize that their is intelligence, wisdom, patriotism, and goodness on both sides of the aisle; and refuse to demonize the other party as insane baby-killers or torture-happy maniacs.  This country has come through two hundred and fifty years with people having deep disagreements over issues, and it is better for that.  But that is only because we have always been able to recognize that we are all Americans and we all bring something to the table.

So watch Haidt’s talk over at TED and think, briefly, outside of the traditional liberal-conservative framework.

The Worst Kind of Bug

4 Oct

When writing code, one is always bound to run across bugs.  Some bugs are nice and easy, they always occur and that makes them fairly easy to troubelshoot.  Other bugs are reported but you can’t seem to duplicate them.  While annoying, at least those can potentially be attributed to faulty reporting or the user not knowing what they’re talking about.  (Not saying that is a good thing to do, but it’s nice to have some way of explaining it.)

The worst kind of bug, however, is the kind that happens intermittently.  You write your program or website and it seems to work fine.  Then it doesn’t work, but you didn’t change anything.  Then it works again.  Then it doesn’t.  Then it does.  You’re going mad.

There’s an interesting post over on Ridiculous Fish there’s an interesting post on this sort of bug and how they can be a serious problem.  (For those of you not of the computer geek type, I’ll give you a prize if you make it all the way through that treatise.)  Luckily mine wasn’t quite as bad as all that, but it was still annoying.

I just had a picture on a webpage that would randomly disappear in Internet Explorer.  I didn’t have to change anything.  It would just disappear, poof!, when I refreshed the web page.  Then it would come wandering back the next time.  Luckily, thanks to Google, I found the answer on Make it Mobile.  Turns out that an absolutely positioned element next to a floated element will randomly not show up in Internet Explorer.  Isn’t that nice?

Literary Technobabble

27 Sep

Upon first finding Stephen Fry’s blog and corresponding “Dork Talk” column, I remarked to a friend who is of a much more literary bent than I am, that our worlds had collided.  His latest post is a wonderful example of the delightful interplay of words and technobable that can arise from that collision.  Whether you are into poetry or prebinding, you’ll enjoy Stephen Fry on URC: Universal Remote Control or Useless Rotten Crud.

Re: Obama and Keeping Tires Inflated

3 Aug

In response the anti-Obama sentiments expressed after his “inflate your tires” statement (see here) I was going to crunch a few numbers and see what it came out to.  It turns out, however, that Jake Tapper already did that.  Find his intelligent and calm response on his blog on ABC News.

Update (8/8/8): And another good article from Time on the subject.

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