A fascinating video on how different cultures perceive time.
Misc
Of Weblog software and twitters
This is the 500th post on that blog! There have been more but various bloggy housekeeping deleted a bunch some time ago..
It is only fitting that 500th blog post is actually a “twitter link.”:http://twitter.com/ko. This weblog runs Movabletype, which died a while back and now I’m sick of the rotting smell. So until I get around to modernizing it, that thar twitter feed below is the new microblog…
In case you missed it, here it is again: “http://twitter.com/ko”:http://twitter.com/ko
Interesting interview with Tachi Yamada on life
Interesting interview with Tachi Yamada, M.D., president of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation‘s Global Health Program:
That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stranger
So, the old rule of thumb that “you’re never as tired as you think you are is true:”:http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/sports/playmagazine/05robicpm.html?_r=3&pagewanted=print
bq. A spate of recent studies has contributed to growing support for the notion that the origins and controls of fatigue lie partly, if not mostly, within the brain and the central nervous system. The new research puts fresh weight to the hoary coaching cliché: you only think you’re tired.
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
bq.. That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy.
I hate to give the game away right here at the beginning of a whole book devoted to the subject, and I’m tempted to complicate matters in the interest of keeping things going for a couple hundred more pages or so. I’ll try to resist, but will go ahead and add a few more details to flesh out the recommendations. Like, eating a little meat isn’t going to kill you, though it might be better approached as a side dish than as a main. And you’re better off eating whole fresh foods rather than processed food products. That’s what I mean by the recommendation to “eat food,” which is not quite as simple as it sounds. For while it used to be that food was all you could eat, today there are thousands of other edible foodlikesubstances in the supermarket. These novel products of food science often come in packages elaborately festooned with health claims, which brings me to another, somewhat counterintuitive, piece of advice: If you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a strong indication it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat.
You can see how quickly things can get complicated.
p. The above is from the introduction of a new book by Micheal Pollan, “In Defense of Food”:http://www.michaelpollan.com/indefense.php. Read the “whole introduction to the book here”:http://changethis.com/pdf/43.01.EatersManifesto.pdf. It’s the single best, most concise food advise I’ve ever read.
His last book was, “The Omnivores Dilemma”:http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/2007/04/the_omnivores_dilemma_a_natural_his.html was eye opening, and this book is now on my list of must read books. The “Google page on the new books has some reviews”:http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=FmAVGQAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:Michael+inauthor:Pollan.
Windsurfing sail size guide
!(big)http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/images/2007/windsurfsailsize160.jpg 485×384!
Chart from this “brilliant windsurf sail size calculator”:http://www.vims.edu/general/sailpaddle/SailCalculator.xls, found over at “the rec.windsurfing group”:http://groups.google.com/group/rec.windsurfing/browse_thread/thread/6baff8bc311ce24b/10a3de4885fae60e?hl=en#10a3de4885fae60e.
On Censorship
Scott Adams on “censorship”:http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/01/chinese_search_.html:
bq.. One of the things I love about China is that they set high goals, as in “Let’s build a wall around the entire country” and more recently “Let’s have Internet access but without the part where people can access the Internet.”
*If you know the history of the Great Wall, it was highly successful in keeping out animals. But invading armies just bribed the guards and walked through the gate.* I’m guessing that your smarter animals, say porpoises, could have found a way in also. But porpoises had no interest in conquering China, so we’ll never know. *Something tells me that blocking all the unacceptable content on the Internet will be about as effective as the Great Wall.*
Idiocy
bq. Mr Madison, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I’ve ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response was there anything that could even be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and … Read moreIdiocy
Boring
bq. if you’re bored, it’s because you’re boring.
Where do people go for news?
Where do people go for news? In the good old days this was a simple answer. You had your local newspapers and a few news channels, and not much else. These days, it’s an entirely different ball game. Old media required a massive investment in time and money to reach an audience. The Internet changed everything. It lowered the bar for publishing by such an extent that everyone can maintain their own website on an equal footing with much larger corporations.