Found via Incredimazing
Archive for July, 2009
This 2006 TED talk is a fascinating, perspective changing presentation from Hans Rosling, with the most interesting and understandable statistics I’ve ever seen.
Hans Rosling is an entertaining and passionate speaker and the statistics are beautiful.
Even the most worldly and well-traveled among us will have their perspectives shifted by Hans Rosling. A professor of global health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, his current work focuses on dispelling common myths about the so-called developing world, which (he points out) is no longer worlds away from the west. In fact, most of the third world is on the same trajectory toward health and prosperity, and many countries are moving twice as fast as the west did.
What sets Rosling apart isn’t just his apt observations of broad social and economic trends, but the stunning way he presents them. Guaranteed: You’ve never seen data presented like this. By any logic, a presentation that tracks global health and poverty trends should be, in a word: boring. But in Rosling’s hands, data sings. Trends come to life. And the big picture — usually hazy at best — snaps into sharp focus.
The fun these people are having in this video is infectious. If a wedding can’t be fun, why bother getting married?
I came across some instructions for baking biscuits (or cookies for the North Americans) in a car.
Car-Baked Chocolate Chip Cookies
These would be so easy to make in a Queensland summer, but reading further, two comments caught my eye:
- What about the chemicals that are released inside a car when it’s very hot?
- Afterwards, how long does the car smell like baking for?
I’ve been thinking about these for a while and I’ve come to the conclusion that:
- In an old car the amount of chemicals released would be less than a new car (because old cars don’t have that ‘new car smell’), and as long as you don’t eat the biscuits all the time you should be OK.
- For the coolness/awesomeness/fun of baking in a car, I can put up with the lingering smell.
Now I just have to wait for summer so I can try this!
Awesome!
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
from Time Enough For Love, a novel by Robert A Heinlein
Here is a larger, more readable, version of the Periodic Table of Awesoments.
Pretty much the only things I would alter are the brown (food) icons, because they are mostly North American orientated and don’t translate well to other countries. (Or maybe they’re just not my junk food of choice – where’s the Coke? And a distinct lack of marshmallows can be observed as well.)
Thanks to Dinosaur Comics, I found this short story:
Let Us Now Praise Awesome Dinosaurs by Leonard Richardson
“I want to buy a gun,” said the Thymomenoraptor. He moved his foreclaw along the glass case of pistols, counting them off: one, two, three, four. “That one.” He tapped the case; the glass squeaked.
“Why would a dinosaur need a gun?” asked the shop owner.
“Self-defense.”
The owner’s gaze dropped to the three-inch claw that had chipped his display case.
“These are killing claws,” said the dinosaur, whose name was Tark. “For sheep, or cows. I merely want to disable an attacker with a precision shot to the leg or other uh, limbal region.”
“Uh-huh,” the owner said. “Or maybe you figure humans shoot each other all the time, but if someone turns up ripped in half the cops are gonna start lookin’ for dinosaurs.”
Tark carefully pounded the counter. “There used to be a time,” he said, “when gun dealers would actually sell people guns! A time . . . called America. I miss that time.”
Other things that are awesome: balloon animals (there may have been a busker making balloon animals when I went into the city today, and I may have had to get an elephant of my own)
There can never be enough awesomeness in the world.
Items of Interest 