links for 2008-06-12
June 12, 2008-
world’s funniest man
The Future, Conan?
June 9, 2008In 1992, I was on vacation with some friends, and I remember thinking how perfect it would be if I could hear a specific song from my music collection as I walked down a street in England. The song was on a CD back in Los Angeles, so no luck.
Last night, as I was sitting in the living room, I thought about that story, and the song got caught in my head. I could have walked into the computer room & listened to it, but just as easily, I launched the Soulseek client on my iphone, grabbed a copy of the song & played it.
It’s been 16 years since the England trip, but in that time we’ve seen the rise of the following technologies specific to this story:
- The internet as a consumer service
- DSL/High speed connections
- MP3’s
- ipods
- The iphone
- Peer to Peer file sharing networks
- WiFi
16 years. Think about the technology developed between 1950 & 1966. I think they made a slightly faster electric typewriter & a way to make cigarettes taste minty, and that was it as far as inventing shit goes. The pace of new inventions is so rapid now that between starting to write this entry & completing it a bunch of new inventions have probably come out that I need to learn how to use.
How our are kids going to be able to keep up with the burden of learning to use all this crap when they grow up? When you grew up in the 16th century, you basically had to know how to tan leather or make shoes for horses or joust or be an idiot. You picked one skill, mastered it, and you were good. Each village had a leather tanner, a horseshoe maker, a jouster, a village idiot etc.
These days, to even get a crappy job you have to know about computers & the internet & word processing software, etc. By the time the cupcake is of employable age, she’ll probably need to know how to control nano fibers with her brain & realign the dilithium crystals in the jeffries tube in order to avoid purging the warp core. And that’s for a fucking entry-level secretary job. God help her if she goes into engineering.
The World’s Biggest Tree
June 7, 2008
I’m very prone to hyperbole & exaggeration. It’s a side effect of enthusiasm; if I like a restaurant, it might be THE BEST RESTAURANT IN LOS ANGELES, or if I went to a good concert it’s because the band is THE GREATEST LIVE BAND EVER.
About a year ago, some friends were staying at the Fairmont Mirarmar in Santa Monica, and I mentioned to them that there was a really impressive tree out in front of the hotel. And while that sounds super lame, you have to admit from looking at it that it IS a pretty cool tree. A 100 year old tree with at least six different trunks all melting together, etc.
But of course, when I tell my friends about it, I referred to it as “possibly the biggest tree in California,” to which one responded, “really? Bigger than the redwoods?” “Well no, not bigger than the redwoods. But certainly bigger than any trees not known for how big they are.”
I’ve said a lot of lame things, but that may be in the top 10. Stupid tree, making me look dumb!
Making a Valentine for Daddy
June 2, 2008Let’s just say it’s a good thing she doesn’t know how to ask for ponies, because this video weakens my “anti-pony purchasing” stance.
Tough Luck, Midgets
June 2, 2008This article by the National Bureau of Economic Research (which is apparently a real organization and not just something I made up) says, in summary:
It has long been recognized that taller adults hold jobs of higher status and, on average, earn more than other workers. A large number of hypotheses have been put forward to explain the association between height and earnings. In developed countries, researchers have emphasized factors such as self esteem, social dominance, and discrimination. In this paper, we offer a simpler explanation: On average, taller people earn more because they are smarter.
The earning part doesn’t concern me, as I’m doing alright in that department. The intelligence news, on the other hand, is somewhat troubling for me, as I am of low to medium stature, as far as dudes go. When I went to see Rage Against the Machine, I remember thinking that everyone there was WAY bigger than me, but I consoled myself that I was way smarter than them. This recent study has me re-evaluting my position on this issue.
However, it is delightful ammunition in the ongoing war of household chores between me & the missus. Let’s just say that someone is suddenly going to be “far too smart to do the dishes.”
