Monday, September 5, 2016
Saturday, October 27, 2012
this entry is cross-posted from Eleven Point Two.
I've read a lot of articles lately (or at least I've seen their headlines) lamenting the fragmented way many people now consume information. It seems everyone who is "connected" via social media splinters their time so much that they are unable to do a deep dive on anything, failing to learn something beyond a soundbite of information.
I have personal experience with this problem. A few years ago, I discovered RSS, and began constructing an intimidating list of bloggers and journalists that I wanted to follow. Like everyone else, I was unable to keep up. The number of back-logged readings grew to the point that I was incapable of clicking on my favorite feeds because I knew I could not possibly read through even a small fraction of the hundreds of articles still marked as "unread."
More recently, I created a twitter account and began following three or four hundred astronomers, space program writers, and space enthusiasts. Of course, unless you sit with a Twitter window open and continuously scan these tasty morsels, you're gonna miss something. And when I do follow a link to an interesting bit of longer-form writing, I don't have the time to read it. Off it goes to my Instapaper account, where it sits forever unread (for much the same reason).
There was a time when I blogged. And I mean I really did blog-- my weekly recaps of my lunches with George were long, painstakingly researched, and always fun to return to later. I also blogged about my journey as an archaeology student, and these were sometimes pretty lengthy posts.
What is the state of my writing now? The metaphorical fields of my blogs lie fallow, and all I make time for is tweeting (or re-tweeting) interesting original work by others, much of which I have not read in its entirety (see earlier remarks). Not only am I no longer capable of dedicating time to reading longer works, I'm also unable to dedicate time to creating anything exceeding a sentence in length.
The internet and social media have created attention-deficit symptoms that I never experienced before, a malady I've come to believe might only be cured by a 28-day program that excludes all information sources, save possibly a daily newspaper.
I feel I might also benefit from a similar approach with regard to writing: Allow myself to only create written work that exceeds some arbitrary word count significantly longer than a tweet or a Facebook post. Naturally I want to be clever about it, so I set about picking a number that tied to some familiar idea, and that was very Mama Bear-like in size. The very familiar adage "a picture is worth a thousand words" appealed to me, but 1000 seemed too long... so I decided to name my series of writings "Worth half a picture."
There's no way I can write 500 words every day (certainly not on topics that are interesting to anyone), so these will be a weekly effort. Let's see where it goes.
I've read a lot of articles lately (or at least I've seen their headlines) lamenting the fragmented way many people now consume information. It seems everyone who is "connected" via social media splinters their time so much that they are unable to do a deep dive on anything, failing to learn something beyond a soundbite of information.
I have personal experience with this problem. A few years ago, I discovered RSS, and began constructing an intimidating list of bloggers and journalists that I wanted to follow. Like everyone else, I was unable to keep up. The number of back-logged readings grew to the point that I was incapable of clicking on my favorite feeds because I knew I could not possibly read through even a small fraction of the hundreds of articles still marked as "unread."
More recently, I created a twitter account and began following three or four hundred astronomers, space program writers, and space enthusiasts. Of course, unless you sit with a Twitter window open and continuously scan these tasty morsels, you're gonna miss something. And when I do follow a link to an interesting bit of longer-form writing, I don't have the time to read it. Off it goes to my Instapaper account, where it sits forever unread (for much the same reason).
There was a time when I blogged. And I mean I really did blog-- my weekly recaps of my lunches with George were long, painstakingly researched, and always fun to return to later. I also blogged about my journey as an archaeology student, and these were sometimes pretty lengthy posts.
What is the state of my writing now? The metaphorical fields of my blogs lie fallow, and all I make time for is tweeting (or re-tweeting) interesting original work by others, much of which I have not read in its entirety (see earlier remarks). Not only am I no longer capable of dedicating time to reading longer works, I'm also unable to dedicate time to creating anything exceeding a sentence in length.
The internet and social media have created attention-deficit symptoms that I never experienced before, a malady I've come to believe might only be cured by a 28-day program that excludes all information sources, save possibly a daily newspaper.
I feel I might also benefit from a similar approach with regard to writing: Allow myself to only create written work that exceeds some arbitrary word count significantly longer than a tweet or a Facebook post. Naturally I want to be clever about it, so I set about picking a number that tied to some familiar idea, and that was very Mama Bear-like in size. The very familiar adage "a picture is worth a thousand words" appealed to me, but 1000 seemed too long... so I decided to name my series of writings "Worth half a picture."
There's no way I can write 500 words every day (certainly not on topics that are interesting to anyone), so these will be a weekly effort. Let's see where it goes.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Inspiriation!
Amateur Rocket QU8K Reaches 100,000
Here's a short video of the launch:
Thursday, January 5, 2012
The Jones Boys
Check out Jones Boys' Rocketry, where they "poke holes in the sky one rocket at a time."
Follow them on Twitter at @JonesBoysRoktry
They Have Arrived
George and I will try to launch both of these beauties this weekend, Wind and equipment willing. Naturally, we'll be adhering to the NAR's Safety Code at all times!
We'll be sure to take some video at the launch area.
Video Camera Experiment on a small rocket
Video Camera On Model Rocket
Here are the exhaustive reviews of these 808 keychain DVRs mentioned in the post.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Amateur Rocketry Links
- Tripoli Rocket Association - dedicated to high-powered rocketry
- Rick McKee's Arizona Rocket Consortium
- Superstition Spacemodeling Society (awesome project: Upscaled Estes Cherokee-D)
- Arizona High-Power Rocket Association (Tripoli) launches large Estes to M's monthly
- Experimental Rocket Association of Arizona (Serious shit)
Reference Info
- Rocket Motor Classification at Wikipedia
- FAQ on Amateur Rocketry at Rocketry.org
- Good introductory reference at Fly Rockets (includes legal issues, certification, where to buy)
Instrumentation
- Winged Shadow Systems provides altimeters, airspeed, and other instrumentation designed primarily for R/C aircraft.
- Apogee Rockets carries the AltimeterOne and other cool stuff.
- Adept Rocketry sells instruments, including a $20 altimeter!
Buy Rockets
- DynaStar official site - makers of Mid-Power Model Rockets (D, E, F)
- High-Q Rocket by Quest (higher power rocket)
- Other sellers of larger rockets at FlyRockets.com
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Lunch at Five Guys - May 11, 2011
Did we really go to Five Guys again? It must be good!
George was telling me about a new film about Temple Grandin (the autistic cattle expert we talked about at World Noodles back in 2002), starring Claire Danes. Watch the trailer.
Teri and I went to a new comedy club in Scottsdale called StandUp Scottsdale. The headliner was Andrew Norelli, and you can see pretty much the same act we saw in this clip from the Jimmy Kimmel show.
I also was telling George about the new low-res game called Minecraft, that a lot of my friends are playing. People in Minecraft do some crazy stuff, such as this one guy who built a TNT-powered cannon to shoot animals into space.
George told me about Leafsnap, an amazing site from Columbia University (and others) that is an electronic field guide to leaves and blossoms, fruit, and bark from New York City and Washington, D.C.
George also sent me a link to a Japanese Kodo drum video. Crank it uo!
Let's wrap with a great parody of the death of Osama bin Laden: The Empire finally brings Kenobi to justice.
George was telling me about a new film about Temple Grandin (the autistic cattle expert we talked about at World Noodles back in 2002), starring Claire Danes. Watch the trailer.
Teri and I went to a new comedy club in Scottsdale called StandUp Scottsdale. The headliner was Andrew Norelli, and you can see pretty much the same act we saw in this clip from the Jimmy Kimmel show.
I also was telling George about the new low-res game called Minecraft, that a lot of my friends are playing. People in Minecraft do some crazy stuff, such as this one guy who built a TNT-powered cannon to shoot animals into space.
George told me about Leafsnap, an amazing site from Columbia University (and others) that is an electronic field guide to leaves and blossoms, fruit, and bark from New York City and Washington, D.C.
George also sent me a link to a Japanese Kodo drum video. Crank it uo!
Let's wrap with a great parody of the death of Osama bin Laden: The Empire finally brings Kenobi to justice.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Lunch at Five Guys - April 28, 2011
Bedtime Stories
George pointed me to a new children's book: Go the Fuck To Sleep. I also found a reading of it by one of my favorite orators: Samuel L. Jackson. The video shows the pages of the book as he reads (here's one of his speeches in Pulp Fiction (FF to 2:20).
George also noted: "Motherless Brooklyn, whose author is quoted at the top of the cover, is the book I've mentioned before about the detective with Tourette's."
If Animals Could Speak
And you really should watch the best talking dog video of all time: Ultimate Dog Tease
George pointed me to a new children's book: Go the Fuck To Sleep. I also found a reading of it by one of my favorite orators: Samuel L. Jackson. The video shows the pages of the book as he reads (here's one of his speeches in Pulp Fiction (FF to 2:20).
George also noted: "Motherless Brooklyn, whose author is quoted at the top of the cover, is the book I've mentioned before about the detective with Tourette's."
If Animals Could Speak
And you really should watch the best talking dog video of all time: Ultimate Dog Tease
Thursday, April 21, 2011
April 21, 2011 - el Pollo Loco
Total immersion swimming (George got the book from the library and the dvd from amazon):
critique of Lustig's 'bitter truth' video and summary of subsequent debate:
2 alarm chili:
How do they cool the seats in cars I can't afford? Paul found this quote on the internet: "Thermoelectric Peltier effect device manufactured for GM by Amerigon"
- http://www.amazon.com/Total-
Immersion-Revolutionary- Better-Faster/dp/0743253434/ ref=sr_1_1 - http://www.amazon.com/Total-
Immersion-Swimming-Perpetual- Freestyle/dp/B003X2O79W/ref= sr_1_1
critique of Lustig's 'bitter truth' video and summary of subsequent debate:
- http://www.alanaragonblog.com/
2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth- about-fructose-alarmism/ - http://www.alanaragonblog.com/
2010/02/19/a-retrospective-of- the-fructose-alarmism-debate/
2 alarm chili:
How do they cool the seats in cars I can't afford? Paul found this quote on the internet: "Thermoelectric Peltier effect device manufactured for GM by Amerigon"
Thursday, April 14, 2011
April 13 - Five Guys Burgers and Fries
- George talked about The Chive. He finds many random and funny posts there.
- George mentioned the fruit stand founded in 1959 by six-year-old Robert: Robert is Here.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Lunch at Five Guys -- April 6, 2011
The Jott service is shutting down May 3. they were bought by Nuance, the makers of Dragon Dictation software, who does not seem to be replacing it with anything equivalent. I found a possible replacement: Dial2Do.
George checked and found that coal burger is now open, and they've removed the phony testimonials from their home page. "I'm happy to see they use grass fed beef, and pictures of the burgers and shakes sure look good:"
George also remembered that he ran across The Queen's Gambit after reading a really good review by Jesse Kornbluth of The Art of Racing in the Rain. "I was looking at some of his other reviews and after reading his review of The Queen's Gambit ("Rocky for smart people") decided I had to give it a try:"
Here's the rock climbing deal George mentioned:
And here's the juggling quadrocopter video:
Here's the link again for the Kenji hamburger video, and the link for his french fry article (probably too long to read, but definitely worth a scan through the photos):
George's sister sent the following photo showing the line outside The Shake Shack:
George checked and found that coal burger is now open, and they've removed the phony testimonials from their home page. "I'm happy to see they use grass fed beef, and pictures of the burgers and shakes sure look good:"
George also remembered that he ran across The Queen's Gambit after reading a really good review by Jesse Kornbluth of The Art of Racing in the Rain. "I was looking at some of his other reviews and after reading his review of The Queen's Gambit ("Rocky for smart people") decided I had to give it a try:"
Here's the rock climbing deal George mentioned:
And here's the juggling quadrocopter video:
Here's the link again for the Kenji hamburger video, and the link for his french fry article (probably too long to read, but definitely worth a scan through the photos):
George's sister sent the following photo showing the line outside The Shake Shack:
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Lunch at El Pollo Loco - March 31, 2011
Hi Paul -
Here's the Dilbert strip we talked about: http://dilbert.com/strips/
And here's another one I found that I call Life at Amex (top line anyway): http://dilbert.com/strips/
Here's an article on the artificial cloud (with animated video) (I want a personal-size version of this, to follow me around in the summertime): http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/
And how much energy *does* it take to fire a pound of bacon into the asteroid belt?: http://boards.straightdope.
Remember, today is April Fools day. Keep your guard up!
Here's the Dilbert strip we talked about: http://dilbert.com/strips/
And here's another one I found that I call Life at Amex (top line anyway): http://dilbert.com/strips/
Here's an article on the artificial cloud (with animated video) (I want a personal-size version of this, to follow me around in the summertime): http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/
And how much energy *does* it take to fire a pound of bacon into the asteroid belt?: http://boards.straightdope.
Remember, today is April Fools day. Keep your guard up!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Lunch at Paradise Bakery - March 23, 2011
The Art of Racing in the Rain (check out the top review on the page, by Jesse Kornbluth): http://www.amazon.
Faster than the wind article (still have yet to read): http://www.wired.com/
Laser cat bowling (18 seconds): http://www.youtube.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Lunch at Five Guys - March 16, 2011
Links from today's episode:
But it turns out other people have developed them, and according to this guy the EverPaper app works great.
- John Scalzi's thread on best Sci Fi novel of the decade:
- The instapaper site says he won't be doing an android app:
At the moment, there are no plans for native apps on other mobile platforms. I simply don’t have enough time to develop and maintain more native clients, especially for devices that I don’t own.
But it turns out other people have developed them, and according to this guy the EverPaper app works great.
- Dan Benjamin's awesome online network of talk shows. Dan's weekly show with Marco Arment (Instapaper dude!): http://5by5.tv/buildanalyze/16
- Paul got an S107 Helicopter!
- Roger Ebert's Review of the film Monsters.
- The novel Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Lunch at Five Guys - February 24, 2011
Links from today's episode:
- Global Buckets: http://www.globalbuckets.org/
- The Confidence Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=fUmXHFS28pM
- Sociopaths, Clueless, and Losers: http://www.ribbonfarm.com/
2009/10/07/the-gervais- principle-or-the-office- according-to-the-office/
- Kanye and Taylor Swift: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=1z8gCZ7zpsQ
- Kanye Meme Extreme: http://imaletyoufinish.com/
- Christian Bale weighs in on Kanye: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=8r8xTkbKtEs
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Lunch at Pork on a Fork - February 9, 2011
Links from George:
Links from Paul:
- superheated water: http://www.bookofjoe.com/2011/
01/helpful-hints-from-joeeze- water-can-explode-in-your- microwave.html
- I remembered another "didn't make much difference" experience -- the Shangri La diet, where you're supposed to get an appetite suppressant effect from consuming flavorless cooking oil. And I remembered one thing that did, finally, seem to have a positive effect -- the Pain Free exercises. Thank heavens.
Links from Paul:
- Possible privatization of Shuttle Fleet? http://dvice.com/archives/
2011/02/space-shuttles.php George's response: Here's the link to the photos of the Russian space shuttle today (link to it said "for fans of industrial decay"): http://drugoi.livejournal.com/ 3259344.html
- Humans better runners, Neandertals better walkers:http://www.physorg.com/news/
2011-02-early-humans-won- neandertals.html
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Grains Were Significant Part of Human Diet 30,000 Years Ago
George and I have both dabbled in the "Paleo" diet, so it is interesting to me that I ran across this article through my Anthropology sources:
Grinding Flour in the Upper Paleolithic
Multiple academic papers are cited, and the predominant grain seems to be cattails.
Grinding Flour in the Upper Paleolithic
Multiple academic papers are cited, and the predominant grain seems to be cattails.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
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