Happy Memorial Day to everyone. Monday Links are a little late today, but nobody is at work to read them anyway, so enjoy these on Tuesday Morning:
In case you didn’t know, geeks rule. David Brooks offers definitive proof in an NY Times Op-Ed published on…wait for it…my birthday:
Among adults, the words “geek” and “nerd” exchanged status positions. A nerd was still socially tainted, but geekdom acquired its own cool counterculture. A geek possessed a certain passion for specialized knowledge, but also a high degree of cultural awareness and poise that a nerd lacked. [...]
So, in a relatively short period of time, the social structure has flipped. For as it is written, the last shall be first and the geek shall inherit the earth.
Via Grist and Ezra Klein, here’s an advertisement for wind power that won an award at Cannes. It’s brilliant:
I really enjoyed a provocative post from Brazen Careerist on “10 Ways Generation Y Will Change the Workplace.” A few of these made me want to shout out an ‘amen,’ like: “We’ll Promote Based on Emotional Intelligence,” and “We’ll Hold Only Productive Meetings.”
Here’s a gem of a story from Mental Floss: haunting, sad, curious, and beautiful. Coming across things like this makes me love the internet. I encourage you to read the whole thing, but here’s a tease:
Yesterday I came across a slightly mysterious website — a collection of Polaroids, one per day, from March 31, 1979 through October 25, 1997. There’s no author listed, no contact info, and no other indication as to where these came from. So, naturally, I started looking through the photos. I was stunned by what I found.
One more video: this one, from TreeHugger, is a Greenpeace ad illustrating the ocean’s role in producing oxygen and absorbing CO2. Simple, effective, and beautifully edited. Watch it with sound but beware: the heavy breathing might be a bit awkward if you share an office.
In “come on people…why!?” news this week: some crazy frenchman has decided that skydiving from 25 miles in the air is a good idea. Just for a bit of context, that’s 131,200 feet; transatlantic flights fly at about 42,000 feet. He’s expected to break the sound barrier during his dive. Good God.
Enjoy! Check back this week for more regular bloggin’ (thanks for your patience last week).
As always, your Monday Links (I’m off to a slow start this morning, so they’re a little late):
This article from the NY Times Technology section describes a really neat idea for an online marketplace that links inventors with corporate purchasers more efficiently:
The marketplace is an online registry that will have descriptions of inventions for browsing by prospective buyers. But it will have an unusual twist: before inventions are listed, the registry will provide in-person or online workshops to help inventors recast their often technical prose in jargon-free descriptions for the business and industrial customers that are expected to shop at the site
[...] Company software will [also] evaluate the invention’s probable cost to the buyer before the first sale as well as other business angles, and add the information to the capsule description.
How, [the article's author] asks, is this any different than steroids? Well, assuming we had the long term data, and could prove the safety conclusively, you could also ask how it’s different than college, or preschool. It’s something you pay for that makes you smarter and more cognitively efficient. If I felt sure that it would never harm me, I’d probably pop them like candy. Enough people doing that, of course, and you create a collective action problem in which everyone needs to use them to keep up. It could be a problem. Or, in the future, it could just be the norm.
TreeHugger highlights these gorgeous photos of the “rainbow iceberg” (photo at right): “The different layers are formed by algae (green) and sediments (yellow, brown), or by a rapid melting and freezing (dark blue).”
Though the airships are small by blimp standards, only 20 m long, they can house about 120 square meters of CIGS solar cells, producing up to 125 kWh / day. That’s enough energy to power 25 shallow water pumps, providing clean water for up to 12,000 people. Or enough to power 400 medical refrigerators.
Since I was so focused on philanthropy blogging last week, I have a backlog of environmental and web 2.0 news to share. This could be a long list of links, but it should keep you busy for a while.
Social networking? Despite all of the attention paid to it in (occasionally breathless) media coverage . . . Facebook, MySpace, et al have not proven to be terribly effective tools for campaigns. Does anyone really think that the fact that Obama has five times as many Facebook friends as Hillary Clinton has turned out to be significant? Demographically interesting and revealing, sure, but actually relevant to how the Democratic primary process has gone so far?
Treehugger highlights a really simple, useful, accurate biofuels comparison chart from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. I don’t mean to be a constant cheerleader for algae but…geewillikers, Batman, switch grass and algae look like the best possibilities in that graphic.
[Obama's] response to Clinton’s gas tax proposal was to reject it as a Washington gimmick that would . . . do nothing to address long-term energy issues. That rejection was coupled with a principled energy platform that would address those issues.
Why not try the same thing in WV and KY? Start by telling the truth: as president, he would stop the expansion of dirty coal. [...]
Of course, it’s crucial to couple this with a positive message . . . that means “green jobs,” but more than just that. It means stimulating the development of other industries and revenue sources by spending on infrastructure, education, public works programs, and a decent social safety net. An Obama administration will try to pay these areas back for the sacrifices they’ve made in the name of providing the country with cheap electricity.
It probably wouldn’t help him win WV or KY . . . [but] [m]aybe he could defy conventional wisdom by treating rural white voters like adults, helping them plan a real path to economic health and sustainability rather than telling them fairy tales about the continuing viability of earth’s dirtiest fuel.
The Library of Congress has a Flickr account. From what I can tell, there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the photos (relatively modest in number) that they post. Case in point, “Auto Polo.” Like polo only using early automobiles in place of horses…Jesus.
After the auto polo photo, I don’t really have anything else to say. Happy Monday.
Another week closer to Spring…or so we hope. This week’s links are very heavy on environmental stories. I apologize for the one-dimensionality, but Jarred has some Web 2.0 stuff planned for this week to even things out a bit. Links:
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. offers three major environmental policies for the next president: a carbon cap-and-trade system (wisely endorsed by Senators Obama, Clinton, and McCain); smart grids and modernizing energy delivery infrastructure; and drastic improvements in energy efficiency for buildings and machines. Sounds like a start [Hat Tip: Grist].
Treehugger features stories on space debris (click through to see the image…pretty unbelievable) and the “Pacific trash vortex“–an area twice the size of Texas in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that’s entirely covered in garbage (more here). Further proof of the attitude that out of sight is out of mind…until our children grow up, anyway.
The latest version of Google Earth includes a feature that shows users when a satellite image was taken; this is enormously important for conservation efforts aimed at tracking land and water conditions over time. Also helpful for spies.
If I managed to freak you out with my post on the need to specialize in your career, Monica (of Twenty Set) follows her original post with helpful tips to take inventory of your current job in terms of skill focus. One sign that your current job is too unfocused:
You could train a recent college graduate to do your job well in a few days or less – This demonstrates you do not need any experience or knowledge learned over time to complete your tasks, which implies busy work or menial duties.
The New Yorker featured a really fascinating article on something I rarely give a second thought: elevators. The story includes an account of the horrific experience of a guy trapped in an elevator for 41 hours. The time-lapse video of his ordeal makes me think I’ll be taking the stairs for a few weeks.
I keep procrastinating on a green architecture post; in the meantime, this is one of the coolest green building concepts I’ve seen recently: urban skyscraper farming, courtesy of the Dwell Magazine blog. Check out this design, and follow the link for details:
I’m giving Jarred this raw meat themed iPod case for his birthday, just to send Ashish (and Steve Jobs, for that matter) over the edge. Fortunately for you, Ashish, it’s way too expensive for a gag gift.
Happy Monday. I decided to start the week (sharing with coworkers, naturally) with Whole Wheat Apple Muffins, following this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Del.icio.us. (nerd joke!). Enjoy a few links as you consider how good an apple muffin would taste right now (answer: unbelievably good).
Could Google benefit from asking users to input their race before searching? The NY Times reports on Rushmore Drive, a new search engine that delivers search results catered to specific racial groups. The company behind Rushmore Drive started with an African-American focus, but plans on expanding to other races; from the article:
[The site] offers search results that, at first glance, border on stereotypes. A search query for “Thanksgiving recipes,” for instance, yields sites featuring recipes for sweet potato pie and collard greens. But according to Johnny Taylor, the chief executive of Rushmore Drive, the results are based on years of search data from IAC’s Ask division.
Rushmore Drive analyzed search results for 3,000 of the most popular search terms in areas with large black populations and found that when people in those areas searched for recipes, they were much more likely to click on pages with soul food. Those searching for hair products, dance, cars, fraternities and sororities also ended up on vastly different Web sites than people who lived in areas with smaller black populations.
Here’s a quick Fast Company featurette on the new D.C. Nationals ballpark. It’s the first professional ballpark to receive LEED certification. Can’t wait to catch a game (or 3) there in May
This is old news, but in case you missed it (or didn’t understand the details), here’s a Washington Post article describing the new partnership between Google and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The U.N. will use Google Earth to draw attention to the plight of refugees around the globe and to illustrate their forced emigration.
[slaps head for not thinking of this]: Here’s a simple idea for storing your ever-growing list of frequent flier/hotel reward program/valued shopper numbers…file them away in your cell phone under a specific heading. Brilliant…the Internet is a beautiful thing.
RT @Jason: Logged into Facebook for the first time in two months to see the Questions product (it's ok). Leaving FB changed nothing in m ... 2010/07/30
Subscribe by feed
Subscribe by email
Follow on Facebook
