November 2011
“Don’t become a well-rounded person. Well rounded people are smooth and dull....”
– Bruce Sterling. The Wonderful Power of Storytelling (via thisway
)
“Using Palantir technology, the FBI can now instantly compile thorough dossiers...”
– I’ve been wondering for two years when Palantir would migrate to a headline, and how, exactly. This is a shame, they’re a much more interesting company than this suggests.
Palantir, the War on Terror’s Secret Weapon - BusinessWeek (via chrislindsay)
The New Aesthetic: TO satisfy our ever-growing... →
new-aesthetic:
TO satisfy our ever-growing need for computing power, many technology companies have moved their work to data centers with tens of thousands of power-gobbling servers. Concentrated in one place, the servers produce enormous heat. The additional power needed for cooling them — up to half of…
davegreer:
Mr. Cole was seized by Swiss police after CERN security guards spotted him rooting around in bins. He explained that he was looking for fuel for his ‘time machine power unit’, a device that resembled a kitchen blender.
Mr. Cole was taken to a secure mental health facility in Geneva but later disappeared from his cell. Police are baffled, but not that bothered.
(via CNET)
“Lovelock would say that Earth is an organism. I disagree with this phraseology....”
– With endless respect to Lynn Margulis what she was articulating is the problem with science as it has been understood culturally for way too long. It’s been the opposite of religion. If scientists are going to transmit information — and that’s what they should be trying to do...
“The board at Cooper Union, a 153-year-old college located right across the...”
– Cooper Union Financial Meltdown Questioned By Faculty - New York News - Runnin’ Scared
“3. Money is like a child—rarely unaccompanied. When it disappears, look to those...”
“9. People gathering in the streets feeling wronged tend to be loud, as it is...”
“10. It is not always the job of people shouting outside impressive buildings to...”
“11. Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or...”
“12. If you have a large crowd shouting outside your building, there might not be...”
– From Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance by Lemony Snicket – OccupyWriters.com
“The scavengers, in other words, lived in a world of excrement and death. Dickens...”
– I was trying to figure out how to transition the Systems as Subject class from unit II (Genetics) to unit III (Urbanism). Then, sitting with students at Genspace, learning about CCR-5 mutation, I remembered Steven Johnson’s Ghost Map. (excerpt above) Rereading it now reminds me: this is...
BRYCE DOT VC: Our Incredible Shrinking World →
Had been thinking the same things today but didn’t find these words. These are the words in particular, from Bryce:
Today, on Thanksgiving, I enjoyed spending time with AMR, my kids and my parents. But, via Instagram, I also got to share in the festivities of friends and family members scattered all around the country. I was a fly on the wall in their kitchens and had a seat at their...
