Wired’s How-To Wiki has a short and sweet article on Producing Terrific Black & White Photos. There’s a good tip for those who feel the need to go photographing on an overcast day:
Most photographers will tell you that gloomy, overcast days are perfect for shooting in black and white. So the next time the fog rolls in or the clouds hang a little too low, take it as your cue to get creative with the shades of gray.
via Lifehacker (the comments are interesting here)
Established in 01996 […] The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide counterpoint to today’s “faster/cheaper” mind set and promote “slower/better” thinking.
A very admirable goal and one I’m inclined to embrace wholeheartedly. You may have heard of one of their projects, Long Bets. The current featured bet was placed by Warren Buffett with a $1,000,000 stake:
“Over a ten-year period commencing on January 1, 2008, and ending on December 31, 2017, the S&P 500 will outperform a portfolio of funds of hedge funds, when performance is measured on a basis net of fees, costs and expenses.”
I mentioned the foundation previously – when I first found out they produced a series of podcasts/seminars: Seminars About Long Term Thinking (SALT).
No, it’s not the new checkout lane at the supermarket, but Dave Bruno’s purging goal (summary):
And honestly, it is difficult to purge. What goes? That is a hard decision. But I have an idea. A spontaneous idea that might change my life forever. I’m calling it the 100 Thing Challenge. And I’m taking it.
“Things are to be used. People are to be loved.” The crazy thing about our consumer culture is that we so often reverse it. We use people to get the things we think we’ll love. How stupid.
Time recently ran an article on the challenge:
That’s not the only dilemma faced by this new wave of goal-oriented minimalists. One of the trickier questions is what counts as an item. Bruno considers a pair of shoes to be a single entity, which seems sensible but still pretty hard-core when you’re trying to jettison all but 100 personal possessions.
via kottke
Yesterday I bumped into a Google Street View car while it was capturing images in Cardiff Bay (UK).
Unfortunately I was initially confused at the strange vehicle, only realising the obvious when I saw the big ‘Google’ sign on the side of it. If it was actually capturing data as it passed me I’m going to look like a gormless buffoon.
Update: I was standing here. Bloody brilliant!
Update 2: It appears that the Street View car has been ’round again and my image is no longer available.
Are the Pranks of Improv Everywhere Mean Enough for Prime Time? is a New York magazine article profiling the quasi-group and its leader. An interesting introduction for the uninitiated and a look at what’s in store for the future for those who are fans.
To date, they’ve staged more than 70 “missions,” as Todd calls them, including the annual No-Pants subway ride that last year attracted 900 people, the Food Court Musical, which is just what it sounds like, and Frozen Grand Central, in which 207 people froze in place in the Main Concourse and held their poses for five minutes.
Last spring, Improv Everywhere filmed an NBC pilot, descending on a Little League game in Hermosa Beach, California, along with screaming fans, NBC sportscasters, and the Goodyear blimp. It didn’t get picked up. […] Recently, Todd sold a book to Harper Entertainment, half an account of his past missions, half a how-to guide.
Can Improv Everywhere have mainstream success?
I’ve said before that Stocks and Shares ISAs are a crucial item in your investment armoury, and with Plonkee’s comprehensive introduction to them, they were demystified. Now Plonkee has done it again by giving us a guide to some basic investment funds. It’s posts like this that save me hours of research.
In terms of asset allocation, the only major difference that you might want to consider between the UK and US, is that the UK makes up a smaller part of the world economy. This means that it’s arguable that you should diversify overseas more than Americans.
Combining this knowledge with David Swensen’s investment strategy, you can match my investments pretty closely*.
* Well, on paper at least! I don’t have enough invested right now to make this kind of diversification efficient and there will be some major differences when/if I do.
A couple of speeches currently getting rave reviews:
Stanford always seem to nail that commencement speech.
via Ramit’s del.icio.us links and 37signals’ Signal vs. Noise
For those of you who are interested, Firefox 3 has now been released and you have until 18:16 UTC to get it for your download to count towards the record.
There’s a rather fetching and oh-so-meaningful ‘certificate‘ that you can get too!
A great marketing ploy, and one that’s obviously working its magic with 5,045,577 downloads at 08:03 UTC.
A conference on gambling addiction, run by the National Center for Responsible Gaming, is to be held in Las Vegas later this year. Put aside the irony for a moment, there are more sinister events afoot.
Salon’s article Gambling with Science notes that the NCRG is funded by the gambling industry and may have a vested interest in directing research towards certain theories of addiction. Specifically that gambling addiction is not the fault of the casinos.
The industry has successfully defined the terms of gambling addiction; it’s telling that we speak about problem gamblers but not problem machines, problem environments, or problem business practices.
Mind Hacks’ in-depth round-up continues:
The piece is interesting because it shows the significant ambiguity and disagreement at the heart of gambling addiction, the ‘crown jewels’ of the behavioural addiction field.
This is important because there is an increasing drive to reframe existing disorders and medicalise problems of excess as addictions.
Because the legal system determines responsibility, it’s in the industry’s interest to promote theories which say that problem lies largely in the neurobiology of the individual, rather than in their business practices.
