Monthly Archive for May, 2008

Sat
May
31
2008

Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine 0 cmts

[Richard Feynman] must have noticed my mood, because he suddenly stopped the story and asked, “Hey, what’s the matter?”

I hesitated. “I’m sad because you’re going to die.”

“Yeah,” he sighed, “that bugs me sometimes too. But not so much as you think.” And after a few more steps, “When you get as old as I am, you start to realize that you’ve told most of the good stuff you know to other people anyway.”

Danny Hillis writes about Richard Feynman's time at Thinking Machines, working with him on some of the first massively parallel computer systems.
Fri
May
30
2008

Corporate executives forced pro-Bush, pro-war narrative 0 cmts

As people like Jessica Yellin, Katie Couric, Phil Donahue and Scott McClellan are making clear, these media outlets are controlled propaganda arms of the Government, of the political establishment generally. For many people, that isn’t a new revelation, but the fact that it’s becoming clearer by the day — from unimpeachable sources on the inside — is nonetheless quite significant.

Glenn Greenwald on how Scott McClellan's new book is forcing the media to confront accusations of corruption that they have long ignored
Wed
May
28
2008

You Are Now Leaving Indiana 0 cmts

Even if you haven’t seen the movie by now, you’ve probably seen the pointy-headed crystal skull, and in this movie we all learn exactly where that skull came from: outer space. (Or another dimension, but same thing, right?) Unfortunately, every Indiana Jones movie so far has been about the power of religious artifacts. Not only are the skull’s powers nebulous (it stops ants? It makes you go crazy if you look at it? It’s a magnet?), thereby making it a terrible MacGuffin, it calls into question the God-given power of every artifact Indy’s ever seen in action. Were the Shankara stones space rocks? Was the Ark radioactive? Was the Holy Grail a life-extending alien beverage container? Everything we know has been cast into doubt — now imagine how Indy feels, after spending a lifetime chasing this stuff.

"You Are Now Leaving Indiana" from Television Without Pity

Post-Katrina FEMA trailers may have poisoned thousands of young children 0 cmts

Children who lived in the temporary shelters are at higher risk of severe breathing problems and cancer, thanks to unsafe levels of formaldehyde. FEMA knew about the problem in 2006 but did not begin to move people out of the contaminated trailers until three months ago. Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice. Be it incompetence or malice, people should go to jail.

Tue
May
27
2008

The wet dog look 0 cmts

I went for a run and nothing hurt, perhaps because I was too distracted by the pelting, blinding rainfall. Remarkably, there were 14 people playing Ultimate out there. Not playing it well, mind you…

Mon
May
26
2008

Wake jumping 1 cmts

Skiing in a wetsuit in Mashpee, because the water is still really freakin’ cold!

This Is Funny Only if You Know Unix 0 cmts

Wow, xkcd gets New York Times exposure!

Wed
May
21
2008

He Took a Polaroid Every Day, Until the Day He Died 0 cmts

What’s the Boy Scout motto? 0 cmts

For those who say I never write about work anymore…
The first time I met the CIO of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences was a hastily convened meeting on the day that we were moving Berkman from Baker House to 23 Everett. I was dirty, smelly, wearing a t-shirt and shorts, and I didn’t even know what we were meeting about.

Today, with no deadlines or meetings or people to bug, I spent the morning working from home. I knew I had to go in at 1pm for a training in the new version of our helpdesk software. Since it was just a two hour training and I wasn’t technically in the office, I threw on a t-shirt, khakis, and Tevas, and biked my unshaved, unshowered self over to the Science Center.

Who should plop down in the seat beside me but, of all people, our CIO, who had decided to drop in on the class. Unfortunate.

Tue
May
20
2008

Senator Kennedy Has Malignant Brain Tumor 0 cmts

Senator Edward M. Kennedy has a malignant tumor in his brain, his doctors said Tuesday.

NY Times. Gruber said it best: Damn it all.

Your Proprietor

I'm Danny Silverman, a guy in Cambridge, MA with an interest in law, culture, media, and using technology to bring people together even as we work ever harder to push ourselves apart.

My day job is maintaining computer systems. I like exploring the outdoors. I catch and throw flying discs for sport. My cat is fuzzy.

To contact me: zeno@ this site.

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