There’s kind of either-or here. There’s an either you become a respected journalist by working your head off, or you go and start a family, and what I’m saying is we have to start thinking about combining those two, because I found myself in a situation where I worried that my advanced maternal age was endangering my children and even threatening my chances of having any, which is what drove me to the fertility doctor. … If [having children younger] had been something other people were doing, I might have started to think about it and if it had been something that my bosses would have thought was fine, then I might »
Baby Steps in Data Journalism: Learn to code: 27 links for you
Baby Steps in Data Journalism: Learn to code: 27 links for you
I just found this TNW article from October 2012:
So you want to be a programmer, huh? Here are 27 ways to learn online
While you might have heard of most of the resources in this list, I think it’s likely that you’ll see some new stuff too. Some are free, and some require payment.
You know…
Upstream Color (Editor’s note: Can’t wait for this. He’s distributing the movie himself! Primer is one of my favorite movies of all time.)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
From @elonmusk, “What it feels like to ride a rocket.”
SpaceX’s Grasshopper takes a 12-story leap towards full and rapid rocket reusability in a test flight conducted December 17, 2012 at SpaceX’s rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas. Grasshopper, a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (VTVL), rose 131 feet (40 meters), hovered and landed safely on the pad using closed loop thrust vector and throttle control. The total test duration was 29 seconds. Grasshopper stands 10 stories tall and consists of a Falcon 9 rocket first stage, Merlin 1D engine, four steel landing legs with hydraulic dampers, and a steel support structure.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
I Love my Office
The bartender below our office so consistently plays 90s era music it’s downright impressive. Today’s chart topper is Alice in Chains – Man in the Box.
Nope, this is not a still from Blade Runner. It’s smog in Beijing.
RIP Aaron Swartz
Depression strikes so many of us. I’ve struggled with it, been so low I couldn’t see the sky, and found my way back again, though I never thought I would. Talking to people, doing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, seeking out a counsellor or a Samaritan – all of these have a chance of bringing you back from those depths. Where there’s life, there’s hope. Living people can change things, dead people cannot.
I’m so sorry for Aaron, and sorry about Aaron. My sincere condolences to his parents, whom I never met, but who loved their brilliant, magnificently weird son and made sure he always had chaperonage when he went abroad on his adventures. My condolences to his friends, especially Quinn and Lisa, and the ones I know and the ones I don’t, and to his comrades at DemandProgress. To the world: we »
As we think about what happened to Aaron, we need to recognize that it was not just prosecutorial overreach that killed him. That’s too easy, because that implies it’s one bad apple. We know that’s not true. What killed him was corruption. Corruption isn’t just people profiting from betraying the public interest. It’s also people being punished for upholding the public interest. In our institutions of power, when you do the right thing and challenge abusive power, you end up destroying a job prospect, an economic opportunity, a political or social connection, or an opportunity for media. Or if you are truly dangerous and brilliantly subversive, as Aaron was, you are bankrupted and destroyed. There’s a reason whistleblowers get fired. There’s a reason Bradley Manning is in jail. There’s a reason the only CIA official who has gone to jail »
History on the original source of Nipper
The original painting was by Francis Barraud in 1893, as a memorial to his deceased brother, a London photographer, who willed him his estate including his DC-powered Edison-Bell cylinder Phonograph with a case of cylinders—some home-recorded—and his dog Nipper. Barraud noticed that whenever he played a cylinder recorded by his brother, the little dog would run to the horn, cock his ear and listen intently. Barraud’s original depicts Nipper staring intently into the horn of an Edison-Bell while both sit on polished wooden surface. There is some controversy amongst historians as to whether this surface is the top of a table or the lid of the deceased master’s coffin. This dispute originated long after Barraud’s death and he made no comment during his life as to what the polished wooden surface is supposed »
Whereas The Big Bang Theory sees nerd culture as an object of ridicule, Community celebrates it. Community’s laughing with you whereas Big Bang is giving you a wedgie and laughing at you. When TBBT makes a pop culture reference it uses it as a punchline, it names a show like Firefly and asks you to laugh at it. When Community makes a pop culture reference it commits. Community makes a whole episode based on a trope or a genre, it doesn’t just use paintball as a plot device it takes paintball seriously and bases two season finales around epic battles of paint. Community doesn’t laugh at the idea of playing D&D it bases an episode on it.
Community positions us, its audience, as Abed. It knows that we are knowledgeable about the things we love, it knows that we understand tropes »
Elusive giant squid caught on video for the first time – NHK showed footage of the silver-coloured creature, which had huge black eyes, as it swam against the current, holding a bait squid in its arms against the backdrop of dark oceanic depths.
The creature was about three metres long, but “estimated to be as long as eight metres if its two long arms had not been chopped off”, Kubodera told AFP.
“The submarine with three people on board, including Tsunemi Kubodera from the museum, followed the enormous mollusc to a depth of 900 metres as it swam into the ocean abyss.
That is almost 3,000 feet deep. The ocean is so cool.
Starting Fresh with a new iTunes library
I’ve managed to keep almost all of my music for the last 15 years of procuring music online. I’ve stuck to keeping it organized myself just with folders. Due to a combination of actually liking iTunes version 11 and getting an airport express, I’ve decided it’s time to move my music into a proper iTunes library.
This is not to be taken lightly though. I’m digging deep and going through all 100 GB of my music library folder by folder, cleaning up track info and artwork. Now I know I have 5 different versions of 99 Luftballons.
Sadly we see too many potentially amazing designers stuck by the glass ceiling of time. So they settle on the first solution that looks viable and are never allowed to sweat the details. They are forced to rely on 1% of inspiration without the benefit of perspiration. So this is the dirty little secret in our industry. The best designers and developers rarely have more talent. They simply have more time.
The Pastry Box Project | 7 January 2013, Baked by Andy Budd
- Does your job title have “design” somewhere?
- How many uninterrupted hours a day do you get for doing “design” work?
- When was the last time you produced the best work you know you are capable of with that number of hours and that level of focus?
(via soxiam)
“No? Nobody? None… the word would be?”
Samuel takes a potentially awkward question and flips it on Hamilton, producing a moment that sheds light on what’s going on in our culture better than I could ever explain.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)