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cats rule
nogutsnoglory blog-
If, during the long course of ages and under varying conditions of life, organic beings vary at all in the several parts of their organization, and I think this cannot be disputed; if there be, owing to the high geometric powers of increase of each species, at some age, season or year, a severe struggle for life, and this certainly cannot be disputed; then, considering the infinite complexity of the relations of all organic beings to each other and to their conditions of existence, causing an infinite variety in structure, constitution, and habits, to be advantageous to them, I think it would be a most extraordinary fact if no variation ever had occurred useful to each being’s own welfare, in the same way as so many variations have occurred useful to man. But if variations useful to any organic being do occur, assuredly individuals thus characterized will have the best chance of being preserved in the struggle for life; and from the strong principle of inheritance they will tend to produce offspring similarly characterized. This principle of preservation, I have called, for the sake of brevity, Natural Selection. [Charles Darwin (1859) On the Origin of Species]
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“It is essential to such a government, that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable proportion, or a favored class of it; otherwise a handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising their oppressions by a delegation of their powers, might aspire to the rank of republicans, and claim for their government the honorable title of republic.” James Madison -
All the property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it. -Benjamin Franklin - IO9
- Balloon sculpture is the least deadly stage in the Xenomorph lifecycle May 19, 2013Michael Abrahamson creates whimsical balloon sculptures of pop culture characters. This Xenomorph might look deadly, but outlast it for a few days, and it will simply deflate.Read more... […]
- This century-old abandoned ship now hosts a floating forest May 18, 2013Sydney's Homebush Bay is home to many a broken and forgotten ship, but at least one of those derelict boats still houses a bit of life. The SS Ayrfield, long decommissioned, has a mangrove forest growing from its corpse.Read more... […]
- Pistol Cams, the Mammoth Camera, and Other Odd Vintage Cameras May 18, 2013While many of us today use our cell phones as cameras, "point and shoot" had a very different effect when your camera was shaped like a handgun. Here are some of the weirdest vintages cameras, from cameras shaped like pistols and watches to one that could photograph an entire train at once.Read more... […]
- A heartbreaking short about a mother's loss, set in a lunar mine May 18, 2013Shona has spent two tours working a dangerous lunar mine so she can pay for her daughter's expensive medical treatments. But the ultimate loss comes while she's still on the job, and Shona isn't sure she can return to Earth.Read more... […]
- The ram-skulled god is ready to invade your nightmares May 18, 2013Jeff Christensen paints oil portraits from a more macabre dimension, spotlighting fearsome gods, tortured monsters, and animals engaged in vicious magic. They would serve as fabulous concept art for a surreal horror fantasy film.Read more... […]
- Balloon sculpture is the least deadly stage in the Xenomorph lifecycle May 19, 2013
- Make Blog
- More Wheeled Wonders at Maker Faire May 19, 2013
- Tall Bike Bobby: From Vancouver to LA on a Hand-Made Bicyle May 19, 2013
- Radio Shack Unveils the New Delta Series Mini PC Board at Maker Faire May 18, 2013
- Arduino Announces New Wireless Linux Board May 18, 2013
- A Photo Tour of Maker Faire May 18, 2013
- Weird Universe
Category Archives: web 2.0+
The Adolescence of the Tubes
Posted in cats, web 2.0+
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Bing It on Fail
Yes, I took the Bing-It-On challenge. Here are the results.
It wasn’t as close as the 4-1 score depicted here indicates. It did strike me that now every time I see the TV commercial I will be reminded of how fugly Bing’s search results ended up. In turn, this will remind me of how predictably crappy are Microsoft’s products; as if I needed a reminder.
Curation and Its Hoped For Contents
Andrew Sullivan
I subscribed to Andrew Sullivan’s Dish. The cost was $19.95 for a year’s worth of being able to scrape a bit below the surface the Dish’s content of news and culture captures.
Sullivan’s project was previously a part of The Daily Beast. There were three reasons I paid out money, something I normally am–and by my nature–resistant to doing.
One–to support Andrew’s experiment centered on a mild paywall helping to support a small and independent staff
Two–to reward him for escaping the clutches of The Beast, and so this reason also fits in with my finding the Beast and HuffPo, in their different ways, to be partly appalling, and, predictably dumb and dumber instances of “lefty” new media. ..especially The Huffington Post with its lifestyle pages littered withnew age hokum.
Three–The Dish’s curation is excellent, and, right up my alley.
I’m interested in the business model working out to demonstrate the viability of a 10 person staff let loose to delight a devoted audience, and, the employees still getting to participate in the old school middle class in the role of, as Robert Reich long ago put it, symbolic analysts. Yup symbolic analysts with health insurance and a retirement fund.
CIA Goes Social
I much prefer the international party / creep show by design that is Google Plus (G+) over both The Facebook and The Twitter. Alas, hardly anyone I know shares this view as of the end of 2012.
Posted in humor, speculations, web 2.0+
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GooglePlutz
(Purloined from The Joy of Tech)
I refuse to watch the Google+ introductory video until that point far in the future I receive a usable invite. However, I’ve gleaned enough info to wonder if the G+ platform might be a more attractive medium for reconstituting several of the conversational loci come to be degraded over the years. I’m speaking here of email discussion lists.
This can’t be discussed on the Netdynam2.0 blog. It became moribund this year due to technical problems that aren’t in my portfolio there, even if I’m one of the administrator/authors. Yet, it’s the old Netdynam(ics) email I have in mind when I ponder whether an interdisciplinary discussion is even possible nowadays.
Although such a discussion could be started up on Facebook, basically, I don’t like Facebook. A handy term we used all the time on Netdynam is “affordances.” Facebook’s affordances exists on two levels: accessible, and, sucky.
(click for large image via hubspot)
As for Google, it’s focused on sucking up the universe’s information. I do not check into Facebook every day. Google+ is enticing. A brief discussion with a colleague revealed that, in comparison with my naive anticipation, her anticipation was inflected by trepidation. I’m probably putting her sentiment too mildly.
Meanwhile, Google+ remains in beta with more than 20,000,000 testers. Google isn’t saying when the Facebook killer goes public. I have read recently ‘sometime in 2012.’ I decided not to expend too much energy rooting around scoop city for inside reports. Google, is, as is usually, arrogant times a zillion, so it/they, aren’t providing a flow of information at all about the current status of the test.
Google+ has evoked a forum. Scoop.IT has one of the best Google+ news streams.
Walking Around In Circles: As Google+ Opens Up Will People Start Using It Correctly? (MG Siegler, Techcrunch)
Our Take On Google+ (Involver)
Tinywrld
A mosaic of the world made out of tilt-shifted videos of cities around the world.
Hayaku: A Time Lapse Journey Through Japan from Brad Kremer on Vimeo.
Crazy good public art. Maybe somebody in the ‘wood will get on it.
Periodic Table of Visualization, and more
click to enlarge
Visit the following link to access the pop-up examples for each of the Periodic Table of Visualizations‘ cells.
I’m fond of graphical ways of showing relationships between concepts and domains.
Here’s a few more depictions from my own archive of helpful visuals.
Scales on pseudo-symmetrical 'U'
Arthur S. Young's two fundamental developmental 'turns'
Fourfold (Anthony Judge)
click to enlarge
Spiral Dynamics-AQAL Collage
Warren Matrix
Posted in web 2.0+
Tagged experiential learning, Periodic Table of Visualization, Visualization, web 2.0+
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Play Ethic
Head’s up to a very deep resource: Pat Kane’s The Play Ethic. Kane web site lists a ton of outward bound resources on play and experiential learning. On the Wikipedia page about him, it is written,
As co-director (with partner Indra Adnan) of the human potential consultancy New Integrity, Kane is developing a comprehensive “play audit” for organisations, institutions and enterprises, based on his research into the past, present and future of ludic culture.
He writes about his services.
To realise the power and potential of play for your organization/enterprise requires a range of learning experiences and techniques – one of which is certainly the experience of playing itself, in all its different modes (from physical to intellectual, from emotional to cultural).
This got me to imagining what one might do were one to execute an “exploration audit” of an organization. Hmmm. Beside, play, both an ethic and aesthetic I share with Pat, I’m interested in how groups, teams, organizations, intentionally deploy exploratory capabilities.
Play Ethic has an audio-video page.
EVOMEDIATION
Gordon Knox, director of the global initiatives project at Stanford University’s Humanities Lab could be considered an instigator of the “post-professional” meme as it applies to the commons and articulations of knowledge and experience on the internet.
article: If Corporations Could Paint (Forbes)
Over on our, (being the Netdynam email discussion group,) new group project blog, Netdynam 2.0, I’ve posted Knox’s video, Darwin, web 2.0 and the Role of the Amateur.
