The Age of (Un)natural Inventions

Ho, luckily I'm not there yet. So, still exciting. Referring to the 'supposebly' Douglas Adams' three human reactions to new technologies (image below, got it from a tweet, here).

In the spirit of the post, here's my selection of the best inventions I recall from only the last 5 years.
Have you seen:

1. The awesome self-inflatible biking helmet, Hovding? A collection of links, info, here.
2. An all-year-round beer/drinks cooler, that also looks cool. Oh, it doesn't need any electricity, once installed. See link here.
3. A keyring that calls out for your keys, Chipolo (Slovenia) crowdfunded here.
4. A toy that talks and teaches your kid, and responds to him or her, Ubooly, here.
5. Copenhagen wheel - attachable wheel that powers up while you cycle, and helps you (up hill) faster, here. And same same but different (yet, Slovenian) version, FlyKly here.
6. Because I've tried it and it works (to reasonable physical limits of bending), Sugru with magnets!
7. Solar powered flash light: BoGo light: Buy one, Give one, a nice concept* with a useful product.
   (*Can't find it, but the idea of a pink flashlight in Africa (so that men wouldn't steal it from women) is touched upon here.)
8. One laptop (that can be winded-up) per child [empower the world's poorest children through education], here OLPC project, here: XO laptop (and tablet?). TED talk here.
9.  ? (tell me of more you know of)

 

So, I'm glad to be looking at another 7 years or so of wonder and amazement in tech world. (Though I'll strive for like, 77 years, just to be on the safe side of Wonder.)

The passing of time, marked by the changes in (written) language

See, for example older novels, like the ones of John Carter from Mars - excerpt below.

John Carter:
Adventures on Mars book cover

Ascending to the roof of the building I watched her for hours, until finally she was lost in the dim vistas of the distance. The sight was awe-inspiring in the extreme as one contemplated this mighty floating funeral pyre, drifting unguided and unmanned through the lonely wastes of the Martian heavens; a derelict of death and destruction, typifying the life story of these strange and ferocious creatures into whose unfriendly hands fate had carried it.

Edgar Rice Burroughs: John Carter of Mars, Chapter VIII, p. 38

Nice, huh? I think it's more diverse words than your reg'lar newspaper article. Or even a paragraph from your average book, nowadays. This is a guess.

Some time ago, I wanted to research, how words and language in Disney songs changed through the years. (Or search the web first, in case someone dunnit before.)

My proposition is that the level has dumbified and dropped dramatically. What's your take?

BMX - a kid in the eighties and nineties

It's nice to know I was definitely a kid in the 90s.

"BMX Bike: The amount of cool that you were is in direct correlation with the number of speeds on your bike.

"Nintendo: This was the greatest Christmas gift I’ve ever received and as soon as my parent’s got it for me I knew I would let them live with me when they got older and couldn’t take care of themselves."

From: The 40 Christmas Presents That Every Kid In The 90s Absolutely Had To Have. Nov. 21, 2013, By Rob Fee.

The trouble with trolls, nowadays

Dman, I like Terry Pratchett's style.

She was impressed, despite herself. You didn't often see proper dwarf halls these days. Most dwarfs were off earning big money in the cities down in the lowlands, where it was much easier to be a dwarf - for one thing, you didn't have to spend most of your time underground hitting your thumb with a hammer and worrying about fluctuations in the international metal markets. Lack of respect for tradition, that was the trouble these days. And take trolls. There were more trolls in Ankh-Morpork now than in the whole mountain range. Granny Weatherwax had nothing against trolls but she felt instinctively that if more trolls stopped wearing suits and walking upright, and went back to living under bridges and jumping out and eating people as nature intended, then the world would be a happier place.

From: Witches Abroad, page 67.

Bennedict Cumberbitch err ... Cumberbatch. You know, Sherlock.

Let's get it on: Bennedict Cumberbatch (link here)
:D Quietly, you'll thank me, ladies.

Cumberbatch talked for a long time about the tragedy of Turing’s life and about what has been a series of very intense roles, heavy on iconic fictional characters and real people. “I am so ready to play a really dumb character,” he said.

I like this two excerpts below:

'As good a sport as Cumberbatch is, he sometimes finds it a bit too much.

Filming “Sherlock” last year in Cardiff, Wales, he had an awkward interlude when he had to walk from his trailer to his car wearing a costume that, had anyone seen it, might have become a major plot spoiler. When he failed in his efforts to get a particularly persistent paparazzo not to photograph him, Cumberbatch shrouded himself in a hoodie (“I looked like Kenny in ‘South Park’”) and held up a sign he had hastily fashioned that said: “Go photograph Egypt and show the world something important.”

The move was lampooned by the British newspapers, particularly when, to the delight of hundreds of fans massed on the street in London for another shoot, Cumberbatch did it again, this time with signs printed with provocative questions about democracy, government intrusion, journalism and the battle between liberty and security in the war on terror.

“These are very complex questions and very difficult arguments to be very clear about, so to ask the questions is to stimulate the debate,” he explained. He has not done it since, though, he said, “I felt really strongly about it at the time.” '

This sounds positively like Ms. Granny Weatherwax* of Terry Pratchett's Discworld!

For a moment, he sounded positively Sherlockian. “There is a way of just shadowing through,” he continued. “The higher the walls, the more dark the windows, the bigger the sunglasses — the more people are going to look. The greatest disguise is learning how to be invisible in plain sight.”

*She has the ability to fade into the background of a room, see Powers, here.

Enough is enough, Sir David Attenborough!

Sometimes, even the most steadfast intellectuals "lose" it.

This is David Attenborough, the face of modern naturalist documentaries, such as Life on Earth series, Planet Earth and Life (you could consider watching the Secret Life of Plants, it's really fascinating) saying that he's had it with denial in US:

[it is] extraordinary that one of the wealthiest, materially advanced societies in the world can support irrational myths in that way,” he said. “That they should do it privately is up to them but since what they do effects that whole world it’s pretty serious that they should not accept that humanity has been responsible for these changes that are absolutely evident to everyone else.”

From: Sir David Attenborough: Enough With the Creationists and Climate Change Deniers! | The Daily Beast, 11.2.2014, link here.

Now, I'll just quote the same source: 'Attenborough has made a career of resisting controversy, often describing himself as “a reporter” with no views of his own.'

Though to be honest, one thing is for sure: changes can be seen (or is part of it also the Baader-Meinhof effect as we talk about them more?), but the causes and the extent of those drivers is still debated. And debate is generally good.
  But if the debate is potentially artificially generated by those who stand to lose the most, or when the "debate" and the controversies encourage the stalemate, then well, you do need a change.

Because, you see, it's not about the butterflies anymore. It's about us. All of sentient and non-sentient (?) beings on this planet that were "raised" in a certain climate, with certain food sources and certain living environments. When all of these what used to be certainties change ... you've got yourselves a problem humanity.
  And I am saying humanity, as 'life [on Earth] will find a way'. It just may be that the Earth of tomorrow will be w/o the human species.
Meh. I'll just go eat my sandwich, pray excuse me.

[Addendum] {funny}
Sir David Attenborough's describes Olympic curling, in his signature voice & approach. This is golden.

Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=777_1392789840#OwKmCtFhm93oPcPl.99

Google Glasshole at a Glance

From the interwebs:

Oh, gods. "...is Google Glass sexy? /.../ Enter 'Glance,' a new app that lets users record and watch sex from all angles."
"/.../ I count on sex being the one time of day when I don't have to be holding in my stomach: please, Glass, don't take that small comfort away from me.

"The app's terminology, as well, is particularly ham-handed. You start the app by telling Glass 'it's time,' and end it by telling Glass to 'pull out.' Ugh. Who on earth did they consult for their market research, Ron Burgundy?"


Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/10591948/Google-Glass-sex-tape-app-is-the-most-appalling-use-of-technology.html

Retarded tweet - and the response

Just wow. The response from John Franklin Stephens, I mean.

After Ann Coulter referred to President Obama as a retard in a tweet during a 2012 presidential debate, Special Olympics athlete and global messenger John Franklin Stephens wrote this open letter:

Dear Ann Coulter,

Come on Ms. Coulter, you aren't dumb and you aren't shallow. So why are you continually using a word like the R-word as an insult? ...

I'm a 30 year old man with Down syndrome who has struggled with the public's perception that an intellectual disability means that I am dumb and shallow. I am not either of those things, but I do process information more slowly than the rest of you. In fact it has taken me all day to figure out how to respond to your use of the R-word last night.

I thought first of asking whether you meant to describe the President as someone who was bullied as a child by people like you, but rose above it to find a way to succeed in life as many of my fellow Special Olympians have.

Then I wondered if you meant to describe him as someone who has to struggle to be thoughtful about everything he says, as everyone else races from one snarkey sound bite to the next.

Finally, I wondered if you meant to degrade him as someone who is likely to receive bad health care, live in low grade housing with very little income and still manages to see life as a wonderful gift.

Because, Ms. Coulter, that is who we are – and much, much more.

After I saw your tweet, I realized you just wanted to belittle the President by linking him to people like me. You assumed that people would understand and accept that being linked to someone like me is an insult and you assumed you could get away with it and still appear on TV.

I have to wonder if you considered other hateful words but recoiled from the backlash.

Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor.

No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much.

Come join us someday at Special Olympics. See if you can walk away with your heart unchanged.

A friend you haven't made yet,
John Franklin Stephens
Global Messenger & Special Olympics Virginia

 

 Got the text from "Sue Fitzmaurice, Author", here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=694488930572050&set=a.509153389105606.112928.508972909123654&type=1.

There is some sense in what she is saying in a response - that some words enter the language and start to mean something similar as the original ... though it seems to me this is still a very, very touchy subject.

  Plus, words have power. Power to change. (This is the first thing motivational/self-development guru's will tell you.) If we refer to specific sub-culture or minority or group of people in a particular way, we label them. Put them in box. Nobody wants to be labelled, ladies and gents. Nobody wants to be in a box. Because it's hard to get out of it again. And - as an extreme example - a lot of killing was justified by labelling.

  That's the oldest trick in the book, for turtle's sake! First, you make a group "invalid", un-normal, thereby dehumanising them to some extent. Then you trample some more of their rights. Then you go for other groups who oppose you or who people could hate (and thereby support your action against them). Yes? No? I mean, it's all there in the history books, if they haven't changed them yet.

I posted another entry on the matter of able-ism (a word I've never heard prior to that), here.

Date a girl who travels

Date a girls who travels is a response from "stephabroad" to someone else posting something under a title Don’t date a girl who travels ... look, it doesn't matter, really.

What matters is that this is a short, beautiful read. I for one like it. Cheerio.

See here: http://stephabroad.com/date-girl-travels/

It's possible. Les Brown on Roger Bannister

It's possible.
Saying that to yourself everyday will change your belief system.

“Most people operate out of their personal history, out of their memory,
things they’ve done, things they’ve experienced, things they’ve seen, things that they have observed.

What I’m suggesting is that you operate out of a larger vision of yourself, I want you to see yourself doing what you want to do, experiencing what you want to experience, having what you want to have, doing what it is that gives your life some meaning and value, operate out of your imagination not your memory.”

From the speech of Les Brown - It's possible.

Operate out of your imagination, not your memory.

Before April 8th 1954 [It seems it was 6th of May], the common belief, the universal belief, (because it had been tried, again and again and again and again, and people had failed), the belief was that man was physically not capable of breaking the 4 minute barrier, that he could not run a mile in less than 4 minutes. That was the belief. On the planet. It had never been done...

But here's what happened, ladies and gentlemen: Roger Bannister came along. And he broke the 4 minute barrier. Now here's what's significant about that. Since that time, up to this day, over 20.000 people have done it, including high-school kids! What changed?
  Here's what happened when they got on the track: they knew it had been done! And because they knew it had been done, there was a new belief about this barrier, about this goal that was "unreachable". And those 20.000 people got in the race believing, knowing in their hart that someone had done it, that IT'S POSSIBLE, that they could do it.

And I'm saying that if you know anybody that had some goals, some dreams, something they wanted to do ... and they did it, then I'm saying that you know it in your heart that if someone has done it, than you can do it. It's possible.
  And that if someone can make their dream become a reality, that it's possible; that you can make your dream become a reality.

And so as you begin to look at where you want to go, beginning to embrace that it's possible.
/.../ I got a lot going for me, I got some good stuff in me. And it's possible that I can get my greatness out here in the universe. That I can do what I want to do, it's possible:
I can write my own book,
I can have my own business,
I ... I can take the trip and travel around the world: it's possible!
I can bounce back from adversity and re-invent my life: it's possible!
Regardless of where I am: that things can get better for me: ... it's possible!

Again from the speech: Les Brown - It's possible.

(Funny story: someone also copied this text (I copied some of it from there), but wrote: "be able to run faster than 4 minutes in a 100 mile run". I don't know whether 100 miles is synonymous with 1 mile, but I am guessing this person was not an experienced runner.)

So remember Roger Bannister. What changed? Belief that it is possible.

... Until one day in 1952 after Sir Roger Bannister had beat the current mark, but was still 4 seconds longer then breaking the 4 minute barrier. However, something clearly changed in his mind, “This race made me realize that the four-minute mile was not out of reach,”. Sir Roger Bannister’s new belief had given birth to the fastest 100 mile run on the planet. To elaborate on the subject, people had called it the “miracle mile” and Bannister remarked on the event stating that “No longer conscious of my movement, I discovered a new unity with nature. I had found a new source of power and beauty, a source I never dreamt existed.” 

From: here.

P.S.:  Bannister's record was broken in just 46 days by John Landy, now known as the Miracle Mile.
P.P.S.: He reclaimed the world record again in 3 years.
PPPS- Before Bannister, the record apparently held for 9 years. The current record (in men's category) is held since 1999 by a guy from Morocco, with a 3:43 on the clock. (Yeah, don't forget the women, eh.)

It's possible. Eyesight vs Mindsight.

This is an excerpt from a Story of two men, looking for a job. Here, told by Les Brown, who's made some really nice speeches (and quite some of them are available on youtube).

What was the difference between the two men? Eyesight and mindsight.

Eyesight is judging on what you see. Judging according to appearances.
But mind-sight is how you interpret what you see.
One guy said: it's not possible, it's over, I'm finished. I can't do it, I can't make it. He surrendered. I've faced rejection again and again, I'm not going anymore. There are no jobs out there.
But this other guy.. He felt that inspite of the NOs and rejection, in spite of how bad the economy is, in spite of what the newspapers are saying,
that it's possible.
That SOMEbody, SOMEWHERE will give me a job. He just kept going, thinking it was possible.
And guess what, ladies and gentleman, that's what we have to do with our dreams.

From: Les Brown's speech: It's possible.


Another really nice story is a parabole of the WORLD's opinion about whether or not it is possible to run one mile under 4 minutes. I blogged it here.

Also, you can check this out:
'Mindsight is the difference between saying “I am sad” and “I feel sad.” Similar as those two statements may seem, they are profoundly different. ...' From a page of Dan Siegel.

They are all different.

From a blog I recently read due to its environmental outset, I re-post a part that I've found holds time and time and time again. I just say: human. We're all human. (And the bunch of stuff that comes with it.)

"Trying to determine the impact on the indigenous people reminded me of when I lived in Germany, and people would ask “What are Germans like?” That’s sort of like asking “What’s an American like?” Well, are we talking about someone living in Texas, New York, or Minnesota? Is the person rich or poor? Are they religious? What is their political affiliation? It turns out that Germans, Australians, South Africans – and every nation in the world – has people that shouldn’t be stereotyped. So I would say “Germans are like everyone else. They are all different.”"

I tell that story because that’s the impression I developed after trying to determine the impact of oil sands development on First Nations groups. Some hate it. Some love it. Many work for the companies we visited. Development has brought wealth to some. On the other hand, some don’t like the infringement on their historical lands, and they don’t like the environmental implications. Certain tribes would favor development, and certain tribes wouldn’t. And within those tribes will be individuals who feel differently about it. Some of that will come down to whether there is a sufficient financial benefit relative to the downside. It is not that different from other energy projects. There are always people on both sides of the issue. And if you are being impacted negatively but not compensated financially, you are going to be against.

My point is that it isn’t a black and white issue.

From: Energy Trends Insider

Have you hugged an "introvert" today?

Watch out, they might hiss.

But, leave them a bit, make them feel comfortable, and they'll be in a state of bliss.

Read more here, on a post titled How to interact with the introverted.

Obviously, the need creates a design. What if your clothing could keep your personal space?

"Spike Away vest" keeps people out of your personal space. A designer's spiky vest makes your personal space an unwelcome zone for other people.: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57614531-1/spike-away-vest-keeps-people-out-of-your-personal-space/

NEW! Organic and fairtrade Tibetan Salt, straight from the Himalayas!

NEW! Organic and fairtrade Tibetan Salt, straight from the Himalayas!

It was piled and carried by organic life forms, so it's partly organic.
The salt-miners were paid the fair value for the local circumstances, so .50 € per day.
Comes from Tibet. Really. Has a stamp and all. So it must be true.
Did make its way across the globe, to your local store, so It didn't actually come straight from Himalayas, but it was more like a curvy-road.
And to be honest, the environmental impact of the transport far outweighs any fair-, eco- and "organic" components of its production.
May contain actual grains of salt (Sodium Chloride).And traces of other elements and impurities.

Get it at your local organic shop ThrivaViva now and buy some yummy bioekoorganicfairtrade chocolate as well! For only 10 € per 100 g.

We let you pay, because you care.

 

 

 

Just a rant, nothing to worry about. Pointing to sense-less-ness often seen in the shops (yes, even organic ones). And complaining about the costs. Both the costs in the market (too high compared to everything else (which is, in turn actually too low, compared to the environmental impact it has)), as well as the environmental externalities. Oh, and also pointing to silly stuff people - due to past lawsuits - need to put on packaging. You buy a pack of nuts and it may contain nuts, that's nuts.

What's Your Story?

The following I re-post in full, as it almost totally reflects my own thoughts. Stories fuel the world. Source below; read the rest, it's kinda cool.

 

What's your story?

Most people who build presentations forget that they are actually (or should be) telling a story. I like to think of business presentations as just story's for grown ups. Even though we are all very mature professional people (myself excluded) we do still love a good story. It's why we spend Billions on movies and cinema tickets every year. We love to be engaged with a story, and have done so since the stone age. This is something that in my opinion will never change for human beings. But the way in which we tell our stories will get more and more advanced.........Prezi, 3D movies, Holographics, and so on. This is extremely exciting, BUT no matter how advanced things get there will always need to be a good written story behind everything.

  Remember 'Content is and always will be king'.

 From: Prepping for Prezi Day - Part 2
 

wait but why | 7 Ways To Be Insufferable On Facebook

Have you ever read those posts on Facebook that made no sense ("Off to feed the hamster") or induced some jealousy ("Off to Philippines with my sweetheart!")?

Here's a blog post about it, with some nice diagrams.
Exhibit A:

The thing that Daniel and most others haven't internalized is the fact that if they have 800 Facebook friends, only about 10 or 15 love them. For an especially lovable person, maybe it’s as high as 30. Between 1 and 4%. That means that between 96 and 99% of your Facebook friends DO NOT LOVE YOU.

 
  7 Ways To Be Insufferable on Facebook:
1) The Brag,
2) The Cryptic Cliffhanger,
3) The Literal Status Update,
4) The Inexplicably-Public Private Message,

5) The Out-Of-Nowhere Oscar Acceptance Speech,

6) The Incredibly Obvious Opinion,

7) The Step Toward Enlightenment.

While it does go on for quite some time, the post actually has some sense in it. I like the parts that hit me personally like an arrow and I just may be more respective of what I post on FB. (Though posting Dalai Lama quotes I might never do without.)
 
The best message I found in the whole excerpt was the following one:

Secondly—you know what inspires people? You achieving something incredible and letting it be an example and inspiration to others. 

For your words alone to be inspirational, you need to be a gifted speaker or writer who really has something original to say—and we both know that’s not you. So for you to consider yourself an inspirational character by simply posting trite quotes is, well, flagrantly narcissistic. You’re assuming that you, just by being you, are inspirational.

 

All found here - link.

 

Are you a Lucy, a GYPSY or something else?

A curious page attracted my attention today: link here.

 

Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy

Say hi to Lucy.

 

Lucy is part of Generation Y, the generation born between the late 1970s and the mid 1990s. She's also part of a yuppie culture that makes up a large portion of Gen Y. 

 

Only issue is this one thing:

Lucy's kind of unhappy.

To get to the bottom of why, we need to define what makes someone happy or unhappy in the first place. It comes down to a simple formula:

Happiness= Reality - Expectations

 It's pretty straightforward—when the reality of someone's life is better than they had expected, they're happy. When reality turns out to be worse than the expectations, they're unhappy.

To provide some context, let's start by bringing Lucy's parents into the discussion: /.../

 

Read more, here.

 

So that's why Lucy is unhappy, or at the least, feeling a bit frustrated and inadequate.  In fact, she's probably started off her career perfectly well, but to her, it feels very disappointing.


Here's my advice for Lucy:

1) Stay wildly ambitious.  The current world is bubbling with opportunity for an ambitious person to find flowery, fulfilling success.  The specific direction may be unclear, but it'll work itself out—just dive in somewhere.

2) Stop thinking that you're special.  The fact is, right now, you're not special.  You're another completely inexperienced young person who doesn't have all that much to offer yet.  You can become special by working really hard for a long time. 

3) Ignore everyone else. Other people's grass seeming greener is no new concept, but in today's image crafting world, other people's grass looks like a glorious meadow. The truth is that everyone else is just as indecisive, self-doubting, and frustrated as you are, and if you just do your thing, you'll never have any reason to envy others.

Read the whole thing with nice unicorn graphs and flowers and siht, here.

--- UPDATE:
Here's another, rather more succint graphic to point out the matter (though from a different angle): http://maxcdn.zenpencils.com/comics/2012-11-13-chrisg.jpg
(See pic on the right. > Bigger version on the link above.)

America is not the greatest country in the world (Jeff Daniels, in Newsroom)

I ... quite adore this speech.
However, it's just one little flap, flapping away in the eddies of otherwise consumer-prone, -happy, -obsessed and otherwise saturated media. In the world and in US&A.

Want additional comment? Fine, check out Times magazine covers (and their titles, the themes they promote) just here. It's fascinating to see what a) the world is "struggling" with and what Americans are have to struggle with. Curious. I wonder, who writes the media agenda. (Whoops.)

 

Will McAvoy’s Epic America Speech (a.k.a. Jeff Daniels in HBO's "Newsroom")

Anti-gay is anti-traditional

I don't know. I seriously don't know how to respond to such ideologies and their manifestations. In a time when its supposed to be more and more accepted. Putin, you suck.

Please, how do you define 'nontraditional'? As in .. not existing ... before or simultaneously with 'tradition'? So, you're saying gay didn't always co-exist with "traditional"? Oh, boy. I seriously hope some of the best athletes of the world will cancel their participation in "The Games" like, 1 day before the event. Or hold hands and kiss. Being incarcerated just AFTER you've won a medal. Mmmm, that'd raise the media and world's attention.

"People of nontraditional sexual orientations can take part in the competitions and all other events at the Games unhindered, without any fear for their safety whatsoever."

From: http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130812/182723811/Russia-Confirms-Anti-Gay-Law-Will-Be-Enforced-at-Olympics.html

Crappy blockbusters and Bechdel Test

An interesting read.
If nought for else, for the reference to the Bechdel Test Movie List. (See also below.)

The MPAA estimates roughly 600 movies will be released in 2013. At last week’s screening, while I sat eating GMO popcorn and sipping high-fructose lemonade, watching a $100 million, cliché-riddled exercise that glorified guns and explosive violence, I thought to myself: We are doomed.  Source.

Bechdel Test [link]

1. It has to have at least two [named] women in it

2. Who talk to each other

3. About something besides a man

Nice. And horrifying in a way. But nothing we didna already kno', right?
Also gives a nice list for movie suggestions, when a person would actually like to see something other than gunfire.