Month: May 2014

The Puttermans

nightmares, you’re welcome.

Automating mindless humans

Excellent example why most jobs can and will soon be fully automated. Mindless humans lower the bar dramatically:

“I didn’t know what to say,” said Dan Greding about getting a ticket for being parked longer than 75 minutes, which according to the signs he was installing at the time was the maximum time limit for that block.

SF upgraded to Manhattan

turns out you can preserve the suburbia character of sf while also making it affordable. or you can turn it into tokyo, which would be a big improvement.

1 ultra-dense option, at 100K people per km2, included high-rises like you might see in Hong Kong or New York. But it turns out it’s possible to reach Manhattan-level densities with lower buildings that match the city’s existing character. “When we realized that you could actually house 40K people per km2, we wanted to show that” With some additional 6-story buildings in a neighborhood, suddenly it would be possible to accommodate the number of people who want to live in the city.

Atmospheric CO2 over time

this is the most depressing thing i have seen in a long time.

Spurious correlations

Divorce rate in Maine correlates with Per capita consumption of margarine

Correlation: 0.992558

Shanghai Metro

What a competent subway looks like

meanwhile in NYC the MTA doesn’t want to add these barriers to the “new” second ave subway line (to be completed in 2050) because it would make the rest of the system look bad.

The Emerging Global Web

this a very interesting look into what is going on in emerging markets. the name is so apt because they far surpass the rate of change in the west. while we dork around with qr codes / rfid / nfc / ble, these countries are getting massive things done.

Jesus AntiVirus

Jesus AntiVirus doesn’t posses any kind of malware, anti theft or online exploitation protection coded in it, nor any other form of protection. It works with the belief that Jesus exists, and by having Jesus AntiVirus installed in your device Jesus will use it’s divine powers to protect you and your device.

Concept cars

Hey, remember that time Isuzu made a mid-engined sports car concept with a 350-horsepower V8, suspension tuning by Lotus, seating for 2 adults and 2 kids, AND a fax machine? No? Well, they did.

Learning languages via chat

i wrote about this ages ago. there is still huge, untapped potential to make the retired feel valued again, while continuing to build out wikipedia, teach the next generation, etc etc etc.

It’s such a great, simple idea: Young Brazilians want to learn English. Elderly Americans living in retirement homes just want someone to talk to. Why not connect them? FCB Brazil did just that with its “Speaking Exchange” project for CNA language schools. As seen in the touching case study below, the young Brazilians and older Americans connect via Web chats, and they not only begin to share a language—they develop relationships that enrich both sides culturally and emotionally. The differences in age and background combine to make the interactions remarkable to watch. And the participants clearly grow close to one another, to the point where they end up speaking from the heart in a more universal language than English.