April 2008
74 posts
“Sugar, like most goods, has a declining marginal utility. One teaspoon takes...”
– Yale economist Barry Nalebuff, quoted in
This Blog Sits at the: Just-enough, a new trend in the works (or, why Paul Allen’s Octopus is really an Albatross)
Got Medieval: What is a King's Ransom? →
“the prizes offered in the contest […] for a fabulous package that includes:
A $50,000 King’s Ransom
An Authentic English Title such as Lord or Lady
[…] our King’s Ransom of $50,000 is worth around 55 16th-century British pounds. By contrast, King John II of France was ransomed just a century and a half earlier for 700,000 14th-century British pounds.
...
Curating Miscellany
Compare the loose taxonomy of the car-boot sale or junk shop to that of a museum. The museum may be carrying very similar items, but with an ostensibly stricter categorisation. The junk-shop has no taxonomy other than the proprietor’s likes and what is likely to make money. Museums can display completetly valueless items.
Either a) take valueless items and display them with museum labelling...
“arrival immediate prediction lantern,” in the vulgate of vertical transportation”
– Our Local Correspondents: Up and Then Down: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
WatchTrapped: Online Only Video: The New Yorker
“This week in the magazine, Nick Paumgarten writes about the lives of elevators, and tells the story of Nicholas White, who was trapped in an elevator in New York City’s McGraw-Hill building for forty-one hours. Here is a condensed look at White’s ordeal, as captured by the building’s security cameras.”
“The Shearing layers concept views buildings as a set of components that evolve...”
– Shearing layers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Komar and Melamid Chronology →
“having two breast-bulges on a solid breastplate would create a concave channel...”
– l_clausewitz: Why female breastplates don’t need breast-bulges
“Raising awareness is also awesome because once you raise awareness to an...”
– Stuff White People Like
Internet Archive Search: Books from the University... →
“reCAPTCHA improves the process of digitizing books by sending words that cannot...”
– What is reCAPTCHA?
Would You be Willing to Enter the Matrix? |... →
“Long before Hollywood gave us the Matrix, philosophers were wondering whether it would be right to choose a life of illusion if one could thereby have a more pleasurable existence.”
“My body is located in a currently experienced environment; and, since I am...”
– The neuroscience delusion TLS
Raymond Tallis
“Everything, from the faintest twinge of sensation to the most elaborately...”
– The neuroscience delusion TLS
WatchBox of Men, 2007
Kenneth Feingold Computer, Software, Realtime Digital Animation and Audio on Plasma Display Dimensions Variable Ace Gallery
“Many of the broken flipflops, lost plastic bags, abandoned waterbottles, and so...”
– North Pacific Gyre Trash heap « The Oyster’s Garter
“Dreams of explaining or even overthrowing Western capitalism by unmasking its...”
– The neuroscience delusion TLS
“Studies by Rozin and colleagues show that people have a strong aversion to...”
– Psychology Today: Magical Thinking
“Tallis takes Byatt to task for using neuroscience as little more than window...”
– Mind Hacks: Neuroaesthetics my arse
“Apophenia or pareidolia describe the effect where we see meaningful information...”
– Mind Hacks: The psychology of magical thoughts
Internet Sex Photos →
P0rnography, with the people removed.
Jon Haddock
“Post-Industrial Romanticism”
– For about $800, you can operate CAT excavators for a day
Pruned: Training Ground for Future Terraformers
“In the context of online social networking, surveillance is something...”
– Online social networking as participatory surveillance, by Anders Albrechtslund | First Monday Journal 3 March 2008
“Societies that evolved in places with an abundance of pathogens, they argue, had...”
– The difference between Western and Asian thought is down to defence from infection.
Begley: Blame the Bugs | Newsweek Voices - Sharon Begley | Newsweek.com
“the same topic kept coming up, over and over. This emerging area doesn’t have a...”
– .CSV » group think
“No other organisms invest more body mass purely for the purpose of flight than...”
– Science Journal — Spring 2001 — Extreme Adaptation and Development
“Argyria (ISV from Greek: ἄργυρος argyros silver + -ia) is a condition caused by...”
– Argyria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“So I kept on going. I found press citations and argued for keeping the Jitterbug...”
– Author Nicholson Baker on his advanced Wikipedia dependency | Technology | The Guardian