February 2010
30 posts
1 tag
WatchDan Meyer’s 2009 Annual Report
Dan’s my biggest teacher role model… and now he releases an annual report that’s near-Feltron levels of awesome. I’m in awe.
January 2010
52 posts
Steven Frank on New World computing →
marco:
Apple is calling the iPad a “third category” between phones and laptops. I am increasingly convinced that this is just to make it palatable to you while everything shifts to New World ideology over the next 10-20 years.
I’d bet on Steven being right about the benefits of New World computing, despite the occasional kicking and screaming from geeks like us. It’s the next logical step...
Why 30.1% of numbers start with 1 →
mollybierman:
kevintwohy:
Since there are nine possible digits, you would expect that one-ninth (11.11%) of the numbers would have 1 in the leading digit position. However, this is not what you will find– about 30.1% of the numbers will start with 1. It gets even stranger from here.
(via hn)
One way of telling if a vote has been rigged (although maybe, by now, the vote-riggers have...
asymmetric fashion choices, real and imagined
ragbag:
a long time ago, evolution found a way to cut a few corners when it stumbled across bilateral symmetry. now, evolution had only to make half a frog (or whatever) and then could mirror it and move on to the next thing—a half giraffe or something.
there are a whole bunch of ramifications to this shortcut though really, the most important one is that you and i and all of our fellow...
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“If you write your best papers the night before they are due, don’t let...”
– MIT Admissions Blog - 50 Things
This is old, and not at all topical, but it’s a fantastic list of 50 nuggets of advice about college that I just discovered. I miss being in school.
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“A spot on your arm is sending signals to your brain. There is an upset area of...”
– Neven Mrgan’s tumbl: Scratching
Neven would make an excellent evolutionary biologist/psychologist.
His argument (scratching is a non-adaptive extension of an adaptive “touch is good” urge) raises the important points in a thoughtful way (i.e. identifying the difference between...
New She & Him Single →
ohh, zooey…
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“This is the most exciting piece of excrement I’ve ever seen. In its own...”
– Paleoscatologist Andrew Jones on the Lloyds Bank coprolite.
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Zucker vs. Conan = Crimson vs. Lampoon? →
Amusing article by Vanity Fair (and be sure to read the 1953 Crimson account of the stolen Lampoon ibis).
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Flyertalk: Things that annoy me when I travel →
Best post in the thread below:
Man oh man, have I been waiting a long time for a thread like this. Here are the air travel things that drive me crazy:
The jerks who recline their seats right back into me. Where am I supposed to put my knees?
The bozos who complain when I recline my seat back. I mean, I paid for a seat that reclines, so what am I supposed to do, stay all scrunched up just...
How the AOL-Time Warner Merger Went So Wrong →
givemesomethingtoread:
A decade ago, America Online merged with Time Warner in a deal valued at a stunning $350 billion. It was then, and is now, the largest merger in American business history. The Internet, it was believed, was soon to vaporize mainstream media business models on the spot. America Online’s frothy stock price made it worth twice as much as Time Warner’s with less than half...
here's the thing re: conan-leno
pablog:
i’m a huge conan o’brien fan. i genuinely think he’s brilliant. the entire internet, it seems, agrees. but here’s the thing: what we living in cyberspace tend to forget is that there is a whole rest-of-the-country out there, often filled with old(er) people. and those old(er) people actually turn on their television and watch it. it’s not really a question about whether conan is “better”...
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9/10th of a man is not good enough.
kathychoi:
According to the Census Bureau’s recently released 2005 American Community Survey, the District has the lowest — read, worst — ratio of single men to single women in the nation. For every 100 single women in Washington, there are only 93.4 men. That’s just over nine-tenths of a man for every woman. Now, if you’ve been single for as long as I have in this town, nine-tenths of a man...
2 tags
“I lost 80 percent of my worth and subsequently lost my job. We looked it up to...”
– Ted Turner in the excellent NYTimes retrospective on the AOL-Time Warner merger/disaster
Felipe's Now Takes Credit Cards →
(via steller)
Remarkable.
Why zippers all have YKK on them →
(via flandrea)
I had a case interview question on “apparel fasteners.” I think I got bonus points for being able to tell my interviewer why zippers have “YKK” on them.
(also, welcome to tumblr, fang!)
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What Makes a Good Teacher? →
One of the best descriptions of the Teach for America philosophy I’ve seen.
3 tags
jj x lil’ wayne - ecstasy/lollipop (neo...
Learning to Smoke →
givemesomethingtoread:
It’s not permitted. It pisses people off. It makes you puke. It confuses you, and it brings clarity. It makes you an outcast, and it helps you meet wonderful strangers. Lessons from a man who did the unthinkable.
(Thanks, Indefensible)
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Vampire Weekend - Contra: Full album streaming at... →
Let’s see if my prediction holds true.
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“AT 4 O’CLOCK each morning, Laura J. Sloate begins her daily reading. She...”
– From an excellent NYTimes story on decreased Braille literacy among the blind.