I first became aware of the New Guineans’ attitude toward risk on a trip into a forest when I proposed pitching our tents under a tall and beautiful tree. To my surprise, my New Guinea friends absolutely refused. They explained that the tree was dead and might fall on us.
Yes, I had to agree, it was indeed dead. But I objected that it was so solid that it would be standing for many years. The New Guineans were unswayed, opting instead to sleep in the open without a tent.
I thought that their fears were greatly exaggerated, verging on paranoia. In the following years, though, I came to realize that every night that I camped in a New Guinea forest, I heard a tree falling. And when I did a frequency/risk calculation, I understood their point of view.
Category Archives: Links
Try to keep up as the lyrics for popular songs go by. The only one I could do was Creep by Radiohead.
We Only Think We Know the Truth About Salt – NYTimes.com
I think this article might lower my regular tension (rather than hypertension, har har) just by reading it.
Name another late-night talk show host that could pull this off other than Jimmy Fallon.
Two spaces after a period: Why you should never, ever do it. – Slate Magazine
If you type two spaces after a period, you’re doing it wrong.
I’m not always a fan of Farhad Manjoo’s writing (often it veers too far into “link-bait” territory for my taste), but this article is so spot on. Well done, Farhad.
New Views of Endeavour’s Launch from Booster Cameras – YouTube
NASATelevision:
A camera mounted on each of space shuttle Endeavour’s solid rocket boosters capture the launch of the orbiter on STS-134 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on May 16, and documents the SRBs’ separation and subsequent landing in the Atlantic Ocean.
5-Year-Old Girl Makes Video Game
Ryan Chreighton:
I really hope you enjoy Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure. In all of this, our goal as parents is to give our kids the kind of childhood we would KILL to have had. I can’t imagine how different my life would have been if I had made a real working video game with my father at age 5. In fact, I can’t imagine how different my life would have been if he hadn’t left when I was eight months old.
But no matter. Some day, the ponycorns will get him.
Click on the title image at the top of the post if you’d like to play Cassie’s game.
What’s your business case for not owning an app phone?
Eddie Smith on how it’s now harder to justify not owning an smartphone than it is to justify owning one:
Add to this the value your app phone will bring when
- Freeing up time on vacations that you’d otherwise spend fumbling with a map, or worse, lost
- Price comparing products in stores by simply scanning bar codes
- Having more options for staying in touch with family
- Running your business more efficiently by triaging email on your phone before sitting down at a full keyboard to do better things . . . to name only a few.
They’re not just toys anymore, and honestly, it’s getting harder to cost-justify not owning one anymore.