found_drama

• Google To End Support For IE6
  at Slashdot Technology:
  

  [Rajen Sheth, Google Apps senior product manager] suggested that customers upgrade their browsers to pretty much anything else.

  (tagged: IE6 Google obsolescence )
• Preparing for the IPv6 Transition
  at Comcast Voices (via Slashdot)
  (tagged: comcast ipv6 todo )
• What colours were dinosaur feathers?
  at Not Exactly Rocket Science (via Slashdot) — short version: looks like the "thunder lizards" were basically big color birds.
  (tagged: science biology evolution dinosaurs news )
• stevenf.com – I need to talk to you about computers. I’ve been…
  At stevenf.com (via DF) — some thoughtful remarks about the iPad and computing more generally:
  

  For a species so famous for being adaptable to its environment, we certainly abhor change. Especially a change that involves any amount of money being spent.

  For the record: my own jury is still out about this whole iPad thing; and/but for what it's worth, any praise and/or criticism from anyone that hasn't actually yet used the thing… Well, there's this little thing called credibility.

  (tagged: IPad ui ux computing future )
• The Pinnacle of Web Design
  (tagged: graphics design humor system:filetype:jpg system:media:image )
• ‘Catcher in the Rye’ author J.D. Salinger dies
  at Yahoo! News:
  

  Salinger's other books don't equal the influence or sales of "Catcher," but they are still read, again and again, with great affection and intensity. Critics, at least briefly, rated Salinger as a more accomplished and daring short story writer than John Cheever.

  …makes me want to read the rest of his werks.

  (tagged: lliterature obituary JDSalinger Salinger news )

• Super Dress Up Morgan Freeman
  at Jay is Games (via woot.com) — w? t? f…?
  (tagged: illustration surreal games blog )
• Poor, Poor Child. You have no idea.
  "It's OK to suck at math; you won't be using much anyway."
  (tagged: blog software humor programming coding essay )
• A Form of Madness
  at Dive Into HTML5
  (tagged: forms html5 usability ui ux javascript webdev todo )
• Observations: Prion evolution takes lessons on diversification from viruses
  via /.
  (tagged: prion science biology evolution health )
• Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them All
  via /.
  (tagged: stats math dev science essay humor )

• Attackers Buying Own Data Centers for Botnets, Spam
  at threatpost (via B² (via /.))
  (tagged: spam hacking crime politics security research )
• The Physics of Space Battles – Space battle
  at Gizmodo (via A.L.)
  (tagged: writing scifi science research physics todo )
• Life on Mars theory boosted by new methane study
  at International Space Fellowship (via /.)
  (tagged: science evolution research exobiology )
• First super-Earths discovered orbiting Sun-like stars
  at sciencedaily.com (via /.)
  (tagged: research science astronomy exoplanets )
• Functional Javascript
  via GB
  (tagged: work javascript dev interesting todo )

• The Technium: 1,000 True Fans
  via John
  (tagged: interesting future art writing creativity culture business essay todo longtail )
• Some Biologists Find an Urge in Human Nature to Help
  at NYTimes.com:
  

  As children grow older, they become more selective in their helpfulness. Starting around age 3, they will share more generously with a child who was previously nice to them. Another behavior that emerges at the same age is a sense of social norms.

  (tagged: evolution science biology anthropology helping psychology neuroscience research essay todo )
• How I Hire Programmers (Aaron Swartz’s Raw Thought)
  via DF — worth the read, even if only for this line:
  

  I constantly make judgments about whether people I meet are smart, just like I constantly make judgments about whether people I see are attractive.

  (tagged: essay work management interview )
• The Billion-Year Technology Gap: Could One Exist?
  at dailygalaxy.com
  (tagged: research science evolution astronomy essay todo )
• The myth of the starship
  at Charlie's Diary — "…we'd be more realistic if we just ditched the word "ship" entirely from discussions of interstellar travel."
  (tagged: science scifi research essay )

• Rashomon
  at rogerebert.com (via DF)
  (tagged: film cinema culture Rashomon Kurosawa essay )
• Observations: Evolution details revealed through 21-year E. coli experiment
  via /. — E. coli evolution FTW!
  (tagged: evolution news )
• Wall Street Smarts
  Another one via DF (at NYTimes.com):
  

  “Did you ever hear the word ‘derivatives’?” he said. “Do you think our guys could have invented, say, credit default swaps? Give me a break! They couldn’t have done the math.”

  Fucking smart guys…

  (tagged: finance WallStreet essay )
• Petulance and the Prize
  at NYTimes.com by Garrison Keillor (via DF):
  

  …and here sit the 28 percent of the American people who still thought Mr. Bush was doing a heckuva job at the end, gnashing their teeth, hoping and praying for something horrible to happen such as an infestation of locusts or the disappearance of the sun, something to make the president look bad, which is not a good place for a political party to be, hoping for the country to slide into chaos. When you bet against America, you are choosing long odds.

  (tagged: politics America )
• Dungeons & Dragons Limited Edition Spellcasting Soda
  via John — just frickin' awesome (but still doesn't beat "CAN I HAVE A MOUNTAIN DEEEEEEEEW?")
  (tagged: nerd geek DnD gaming food art entertainment humour )

• Bizarre animals that are new to science
  at New Scientist
  (tagged: via:ozgallagher biology weird science evolution )
• The Git Parable
  (tagged: git essay )
• Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party
  on Vimeo — pretty frickin' cool!
  (tagged: video astronomy )
• In Search of Microformats
  (tagged: via:kapowee microformats hcard webdev todo work )
• Top 10 Programming Fonts
  at Hivelogic (via CK) — this is the first I've heard of "Inconsolata" (looks promising)
  (tagged: typography fonts monospace todo )

I am dutifully reporting that I am swiping and re-posting this as it appears here in Precious Roy’s Flickr photostream:

The description that appears under the photo on Flickr:

The title was: “What happened to the dinosaurs?”

(bonus points for the elephant humping the dino/reptile, though)

Keith and I were two of the judges at the science fair at the elementary school today.

Wow. Just… Wow!

• IE Float model and the reality
  at CSS Class
  (tagged: webdev css IE floats essay todo )
• When can I use…
  "Conclusion: Not Ready" — hope you like font tags!
  (tagged: webdev reference css )
• Diagramming the Obama Sentence
  at The Millions (via B²): It was funny when the proverbial They did this for Palin's sentences; interesting to see it here for Obama's.
  (tagged: writing visualization politics language linguistics )
• Wanted: Layout System
  Uh… What he said?
  

  Why do we use floats for layout, anyway? clear. That’s pretty much the whole answer. The unique in-flow/out-of-flow nature of floats means they interact with each other and with the normal flow, which means they can be cleared, which makes them useful.

  (tagged: via:fogus css floats webdev html essay )
• The Golden Grid
  at Carrer Blog
  (tagged: via:fogus design css framework webdev )
• Recovery.gov
  "Your money at work." (Let's make every penny count, people.)
  (tagged: reference politics economy taxes money news todo )
• A Splash of color from Colorsplash
  at TUAW
  (tagged: photography iPhone todo )
• AFP: Earth-like planets in our galactic neighborhood
  via /.
  (tagged: astronomy seti todo news )
• Does Earth harbour a ’shadow biosphere’ of alien life?
  at COSMOS magazine (via /.)
  (tagged: science biology evolution essay todo )
• The Hunt for E.T. Comes Home to Earth
  at Wired Science
  (tagged: blog science biology evolution weird genetics essay todo )
• The Role of Experts In Wikipedia
  via Slashdot (via lawnczar, others)
  (tagged: tech wikipedia authority essay todo )

First and foremost: an uncritical read of this book will leave you feeling cynical and a bit cheated. It ranks up there with E.O. Wilson’s Sociobiology and Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene¹. It would be very easy to find yourself getting defensive about the material presented in here; especially if you believe humans to be some special exception among animals. 

Meanwhile, with a more critical approach, you will find that you cannot get Robert Wright’s The Moral Animal out of your head: it is insightful, intellectually rigorous, even-handed, and at times palpably funny. Plus, you will find that it informs a great many (all?) of the human discourse (verbal or otherwise) that you encounter daily — how certain traits and behaviors came to be and the functions they serve. 

Don’t ask about their intentions though; we need to remember that evolution is goal-less, after all. Put most succinctly: 

We are built to be effective animals, not happy ones.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Though I will readily admit that I know these two texts primarily by reputation, having only read excerpts and not their entireties. [↩]

• Evolution is a double-edged sword

  via Futurismic: (1) no shit! (2) let us reflect on Tom Robbins’ and Another Roadside Attraction’s assertion that human bodies are little more than a way for water to move itself around anyway.

  (tags: evolution research)

• 10 Great Traits to Look for in Managers and Clients

  via lifehack.org

  (tags: leadership)