Month: September 2008
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Web Design: Obama vs. McCain
I feel the political commentary is contrived and unnecessary, but this comparison of the McCain and Obama campaign websites is worth a look; if only to see how not to design a website. The now-retired web designer inside me loved every minute of it. via Link Banana
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The Convenience of File Sharing
Following on from Wired’s revelation that less than 24 hours after the season première of Prison Break its torrent was downloaded almost one million times, Lifehacker asks its readers, is file sharing just more convenient? Prison Break fans didn’t have to download the show illegally. The show is readily available to stream legitimately on both…
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Self-Recognition in Magpies
News from ScienceBlogs on magpies and self-recognition: Self-recognition, previously thought to be found only in a small number of mammals, including humans, chimps, dolphins and elephants, has now been observed in birds as well. Psychologists at Goethe University in Germany watched five magpies remove colored stickers from their feathers after viewing their own reflections in…
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LHC First Beam
“If people don’t have an understanding of what science is and what scientists do, then they can tend to think that global warming, for example, is just a matter of opinion.” Brian Cox As I’m sure you are all aware—and don’t need reminding—CERN’s LHC is commencing its operations this morning with the first beam injection…
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The Correlation Between Swearing and Violence
Can it be that swearing is a signal of a ‘civilised’ society? In Seed, Steven Pinker suggests that it may be so. What does [the increasing incidence of swearing] have to do with violence? Contrary to the popular belief that we are living in horrifically violent times, rates of homicide in the West have plummeted…
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Animals Dealing With Death: Just Like Us or Unaware?
New York Times science journalist, Natalie Angier, tackles the question of how various animals deal with death. Among the social insects, the need for prompt corpse management is considered so pressing that there are dedicated undertakers, workers that within a few minutes of a death will pick up the body and hoist or fly it…
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On Business Books, Self-Education, and Mental Models
I mentioned the Personal MBA Book List last week, and today have come across this interview between Josh Kaufman and Ben Casnocha, author of My Start-Up Life. Josh runs the Personal MBA Recommended Reading List — a list of the best business books one would need to read for a comprehensive business education. It’s a…
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Global Catastrophic Risks
The University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute recently held a conference on Global Catastrophic Risks. There’s an upcoming book which might be worth a read but what I’m more excited about is that soon all of the conference’s lectures will be made available for free. Global catastrophes have occurred many times in history, even…
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10 Speech Writing Tips from Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is arguably one of the most quoted, and one of the most famous, speeches in history. This two-minute, ten-sentence speech can teach us a lot about how to write a great speech. Keep it short Abandon the formalities Have purpose Connect to your audience’s hearts Speak to larger truths Speak to…
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Polish (and Russian) Film Posters
Web design blog wellmedicated has uncovered some great Polish film posters. These conceptual masterpieces put the original American posters to shame every time; they are truly beautiful works of art. Trimming this list down to a mere 50 posters that I absolutely love was surprisingly difficult. I find it difficult to choose stand-out candidates from…