Merry Christmas

A decade or so from now, when, say, we're waiting for the kids to come home from college for their winter breaks, and, when they do, they want to spend their time going out with their friends — how much will we be willing to pay then to be able to go back in time, for one day, to now, when they're ten and five years old, they want to go to movies and play games and build Lego kits with us, and they believe in magic?

How much then, for one day with what our family has right now?

How much?

Everything.

All I want for Christmas is what I have right here.


paraphrased from a Christmas post by John Gruber at Daring Fireball.

Quote of the Day - Donald Knuth

The purpose of a liberal education is to learn something about everything, and everything about something.

from a video about his advice to young people.

Study Hacks » Advice on Getting Better from an Accomplished Piano Player

http://calnewport.com/blog/2011/12/23/flow-is-the-opiate-of-the-medicore-advice-on-getting-better-from-an-accomplished-piano-player/

It looks like Middle Earth: Guy Laramee's Books

via Boing Boing.

Ансамбль "Берёзка - "Прялица"

I love the way they walk, and I really love the whole stage and backdrop at the end.

How Chicken Wire is Made

I'm not sure which is better -- this video about making chicken wire, or the fact that there is a website devoted to different kinds of fencing.  Both make me happy to be living in the year 2011.

I was always a little worried about Facebook

While this is something of an exaggeration, I do worry about this from time to time.  I don't know whether it actually showed up somewhere or whether it's a fabrication, but, as the old reporters used to say, it's "too good to check."

Happy Holidays

This came from my Uncle, but I don't know where he saw it first.

Bene Gesserit Litany

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene_Gesserit

Scooby-Doo and Secular Humanism

An interesting post on the hidden subversiveness in Scooby-Doo.

Ketchupbot + 20th Century Fox Theme on a Flute

Quote of the day -- Tim Minchin

 “Do you know what they call alternative medicine that's been proved to work? Medicine.”


-- Tim Minchin (start at 2:50)

Follow-up: Jetman versus Jetteam

Now he's flying with real jets. Granted -- they have their flaps down. Still.

Article about Reading David Foster Wallace's Syllabus

The Extraordinary Syllabus of David Foster Wallace
What his lesson plans teach us about how to live
by
Katie Rophie

Here are two of his syllabi.

Two good quotes:

"Even in a seminar class it seems a little silly to require participation.  Some students who are cripplingly shy, or who can't always formulate their  best thoughts and questions in the rapid back-and-forth of a group discussion, are nevertheless good and serious students. On the other hand, as Prof --- points out supra, our class can't really function if there isn't student participation—it will become just me giving a half-assed ad-lib lecture for 90 minutes, which (trust me) will be horrible in all kinds of ways."

"If you are used to whipping off papers the night before they're due, running them quickly through the computer's Spellchecker, handing them in full of high-school errors and sentences that make no sense and having the professor accept them 'because the ideas are good' or something, please be informed that I draw no distinction between the quality of one's ideas and the quality of those ideas' verbal expression, and I will not accept sloppy, rough-draftish, or semiliterate college writing. Again, I am absolutely not kidding."

Doing A Job by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover

http://bebekim.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/doing-a-job-by-admiral-hyman-g-rickover-u-s-navy-retired/

Zapruder HD Stable Pan

The image stabilization highlights the violence of JFK's head jerking back, and to the left.

Quote of the day -- Andy Inhatko

You know how your barbershop has six cutters, and there’s one that always does a spectacularly good job, there are two who are just competent, and the others can only be properly addressed as “barbers” when they’re being named in some sort of civil lawsuit?

-- Andy Inhatko in his review of Apple's new voice interface named Siri.

August 23, 2011 Earthquake in Simsbury

From the Maryland Geological Survey

John Gruber Talk

John Gruber - Çingleton 2011 from Çingleton on Vimeo.

Quote of the day -- Derek Silvers

To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.

-- Derek Silvers