Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational, uses classic visual illusions and his own counterintuitive (and sometimes shocking) research findings to show how we’re not as rational as we think when we make decisions.

Video here: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html

1. YOU CAN ONLY WORK FOR PEOPLE THAT YOU LIKE.
2. IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE NEVER HAVE A JOB.
3. SOME PEOPLE ARE TOXIC AVOID THEM.
4. PROFESSIONALISM IS NOT ENOUGH or THE GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF THE GREAT
5. LESS IS NOT NECESSARILY MORE.
6. STYLE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.
7. HOW YOU LIVE CHANGES YOUR BRAIN.
8. DOUBT IS BETTER THAN CERTAINTY.
9. ON AGING.
10. TELL THE TRUTH.

Very cool indeed – check it out here: http://singularityu.org/

• WSJ BP Infographic
• Nytimes Gulf Oil Spill Topic

Look at this simply AWFUL graphic, from a NY Times article on Powerpoint – “When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war,” General McChrystal dryly remarked, one of his advisers recalled, as the room erupted in laughter.

Check it out here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html?src=me&ref=general

Powerpoint, oh how I hate thee…

My question is, “Why is Over Government Capacity” to the left and above “Infrastructure Services & Economy”?  What does that really mean?

maps.google.com is the vocabulary for Niemann – some nifty stuff here: http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/my-way/

NPR shares our frustration.

And I quote, since I live in LA, “West-coast residents have been particularly incensed that they wait an additional three hours after the East coast gets whatever “live” coverage there actually is in prime time, even though they are in the time zone where the Olympics actually are. What this means is that even if NBC is showing “live” coverage of its big events in New York, which is across the continent from Vancouver, it delays them three hours for Seattle, which is less than three hours south of Vancouver.”

UGH, Not that I wanted to watch curling, but trying to find the USA/CANADA hockey game, if I actually knew it was on, and when it might be “aired”, and on “what channel”. What a mess.

Read more here:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2010/02/nbcs_olympic_coverage_manages.html

http://www.openendedgroup.com/field/

Field is a development environment for experimental code and digital art in the broadest of possible senses. While there are a great many development environments and digital art tools out there today, this one has been constructed with two key principles in mind:

• Embrace and extend — rather than make a personal, private and pristine code utopia, Field tries to bridge to as many libraries, programming languages, and ways of doing things as possible. The world doesn’t necessarily need another programming language or serial port library, nor do we have to pick and choose between data-flow systems, graphical user interfaces or purely textual programming — we can have it all in the right environment and we can both leverage the work of others and take control of our own tools and methods.

• Live code makes anything possible — Field tries to replace as many “features” with editable code as it can. Its programming language of choice is Python — a world class, highly respected and incredibly flexible language. As such, Field is intensely customizable, with the glue between interface objects and data modifiable inside Field itself. Field takes seriously the idea that its user — you — are a programmer / artist doing serious work and that you should be able to reconfigure your tools to suit your domain and style as closely as possible.

http://speckyboy.com/2009/12/21/the-top-50-web-development-icon-sets-from-2009/

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings
• http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/156
• http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/poets/a_f/cummings/cummings.htm