Vaillant says his hopeful temperament is best summed up by the story of a father who on Christmas Eve puts into one son’s stocking a fine gold watch, and into another son’s, a pile of horse manure. The next morning, the first boy comes to his father and says glumly, “Dad, I just don’t know what I’ll do with this watch. It’s so fragile. It could break.” The other boy runs to him and says, “Daddy! Daddy! Santa left me a pony, if only I can just find it!
zadi:
Proof that some people are born ahead of their time: Twitter robot from 1935! (via Charlie Gower @mashable)
Plastiki on Vimeo (via Vimeo)
Absolutely fascinating video of what these guys can do with entirely recycled plastics.
It’s not the infographics on the page that interest me, rather it’s the trend of emphasizing a user’s popularity on the network. Lamentably, I think this metric will come to define the experience for the next generation of social networks. The internet’s utility for many people will equate to constant awareness of one’s value, and the play of meaningless games to increase the sum. This in turn will render many networks impersonal and irrelevant. Like a candidate’s bid speech for high school class presidency, I fear my Tumblr dashboard will become padded with ‘popular stuff’ sure to garner votes rather than the intimate, vulnerable and quirky bits that I’ve enjoyed, and define Tumblr’s personality.
I’m disappointed by Tumblarity, and Ashton’s follower count for the same reasons. I liked the Internet better when it was nebulous, and now I’m depressed that it shaping up to be a social pyramid.
There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance.
— Joseph Addison
Vaccine Nation (Trailer) (via TheGaryNull)
A traveler from a large city was surprised to encounter the plague a few miles from the town. He asked the plague “where are you going” and the plague responded “I am
going to the big city to kill 5000 people”. At that the traveler continued on his way.Upon his return the traveller once again met the plague as after it had left the town, and he said to the plague “I thought you said you were only going to kill 5000 people, I heard that 50,000 have died”. The plague responded “I did only kill 5000 people, the other 45000 died out of fear”.
— I wish everybody would quit freaking out about swine flu.
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