The Evolution of Lego Sorting →
15. You begin to develop strong opinions on Plano vs. Stak-On and Rubbermaid vs. Sterilite.
I’m glad I don’t have this many legos…
Cheese mites? →
From Wikipedia:
The mites burrow tiny holes in the surface of the cheese and are sometimes intentionally introduced to flavor cheeses like Milbenkäse and aged Mimolette. Cheese that is infested with the mites can have a sweet, minty odor and will appear to be covered in a fine gray dust of the mites, their dander and excrement.
Remind me not to try this kind of cheese. Ever.
Bizarro Peace Prize Awarded to Obama →
From AntiWar.com:
Let’s say you’re the President of the United States — okay? And you’re on the brink of escalating what promises to be a wider, more intense war than that which George W. Bush launched in Iraq. You’ve already sent in reinforcements, but you’re undecided about just how many more troops you’re going to send to Afghanistan – could be 20,000, could be 40,000, or even 60,000. But, in any case, you’ve ruled out withdrawal and diplomacy: the only option you have left is more war.
It's not a tax, it's just the government taking your money →
From Reason Magazine:
“I don’t think I’m making it up,” Mr. Stephanopoulos said […] He cited the dictionary’s definition of “tax”—”a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.”
Mr. Obama: “George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now…”
Because only the dishonest or clinically insane believe that “words” have a “real meaning”.
I’m sorry, I have to go read that again, because I still can’t believe he actually said that.
Post-medium publishing →
Publishers of all types, from news to music, are unhappy that consumers won’t pay for content anymore. At least, that’s how they see it.
In fact consumers never really were paying for content, and publishers weren’t really selling it either. If the content was what they were selling, why has the price of books or music or movies always depended mostly on the format? Why didn’t better content cost more?
You can’t sell content.
Wikipedia Genome Article →
I think it’s pretty crazy that the creature with the most DNA is a single-celled organism. No joke: Amoeba dubia has 670 billion base pairs. For comparison, humans only have about 3.2 billion base pairs.
Helveticons →
Very clever design. The icons themselves are really nice, despite the hefty price tag.
Why I’m Quitting Social Media →
When you watch Television to kill time and distract yourself because you’re bored, it is easier to realize it. Most TV junkies are aware that they are TV junkies. But the web is constantly shifting your attention and it makes it harder to realize that you’re distracting yourself.
Yes, it is ironic that I am posting this on Tumblr. (Link via James Britt)
Flattening the Earth →
As it turns out, people in the middle ages weren’t that stupid after all.
It’s been a standard conclusion of all mainstream historians of the Middle Ages, for at least the past sixty years, that “[essentially] no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed that the earth was flat.”
What’s really amazing is that this author, if he had stopped to think about this for a moment, would have realized that the Copernican model of the solar system had to defeat… the Ptolemaic model, in which the earth was at the center of a series of concentric spheres.
So how did this idea of the flat earth model get started? It turns out that it was almost entirely an invention of 18th and 19th century rationalists, eager to portray an inherent conflict between religion and science.
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt →
The whole of economics can be reduced to a single lesson, and that lesson can be reduced to a single sentence. The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.
Originally published in 1946, this book is still incredibly relevant. I know, I know, it’s about economics, but it’s fascinating. Really.
You can also download a PDF version.
