I received a package today containing a “card sorting” exercise designed to help a person learn what kinds of things he likes to do. The card sorting exercise grouped tasks into four categories: ideas, things, people and data. I played one game of solitaire, with the following results: My interests are focused 70% on ideas, […]
I recently read Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut, which featured a dangerous form of solid dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO) known as “ice-nine.” I thought ice-nine was a fictional substance (and Vonnegut’s ice-nine is), but I was surprised yesterday to read this article that talks about “ice-seven.” According to Wikipedia, there is also a substance known as […]
I have experienced several “KSoD” episodes with my Sony Vaio notebook computer. In my case, it seems to be related to the video card and has required at least switching from the external monitor to the computer’s monitor to see what I’m doing while trying to close applications, or hard booting the computer up to three […]
Please congratulate those Blake High School students who participated in the “Innocence for the Innocent” project. Students created drawings, paintings, and photographs expressing the theme of innocence. The artwork will hang in the Child Abuse offices at the Tampa Police Headquarters to help transform that office into a space that is kid friendly and that […]
Perhaps you are already aware of this … LibriVox is an online digital library of free, public domain audiobooks, read by volunteers. In October 2009, it had a catalog of 2,700 unabridged books and shorter works available to download. About 90 percent of the collection is in English, although LibriVox recordings are available in 26 […]
One of these shapes is named “Bouba” and one is named “Kiki.” Do you know which is which?
I came across two lists—the top 100 novels of the 20th century, first as selected by the editors of Modern Library ( a division of Random House) and then as selected by an online poll of readers. I have read ten of the novels on the editors’ list and 13 on the readers’ list. Amazingly, there are […]
Pay for Popsicle Stick Writers My children asked me how much money is earned by the people who write jokes for popsicle sticks. Here is some info I collected off the internets in 2004: Comedy writing for night club entertainers: Gags only, $5-25 each. Routines, $100-1,000 per minute. Some new comics may try to get […]
One Square Inch of Twilight My daughter is reading (and re-reading) the Twilight novels and I am reading One Square Inch of Silence, a book by Emmy Award-winning acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton. Coincidence? You decide. Forks, Washington, the setting for the Twilight novels, is only 31 miles from “One Square Inch of Silence,” the quietest place in […]
The Idaho Stop Law is a traffic provision that basically allows bicycles to proceed at a slow speed through stop signs if the coast is clear. As cycling for transportation becomes more organized and popular, many cycling advocates across the country are hoping for similar changes to the traffic code in their state. The basic […]