James Clark's Random ThoughtsA new weblog! If you have any interest in XML then this will likely be worth watching.
Roll over! Fetch! Don't Grow Up!
What’s the difference between a tiny Chihuahua and an enormous Great Dane? When it comes to their size, the answer begins with a single gene. A gene hunt involving thousands of dogs reveals that small dogs all share a line in their DNA code that says “be tiny.”
ScienceNOW
Why You Have To Work As A Consultant
Actually, he’s right. You do have to work for a startup, at least once. But he’s also wrong. You have to do other things as well. One of those things is working for a consulting firm, or going into business as a consultant yourself, or both.
You will learn…
Giles Bowkett
Good Behavior, Religiousness May Be Genetic
A new study in Journal of Personality shows that selfless and social behavior is not purely a product of environment, specifically religious environment. After studying the behavior of adult twins, researchers found that, while altruistic behavior and religiousness tended to appear together, the correlation was due to both environmental and genetic factors.
ScienceDaily — This is going to be ignored and potentially abused. How will it play on certain people’s views of, say, atheists? What about criminals, and the children of criminals? How does this play against what Pinker was talking about, are we selecting for good behaviour?
Innovative Sunrise Browser aids Mac Web developers
Sunrise Browser is an open source Web browser for Mac OS X intended for use as a Web developer’s tool. It is not a groundbreaking achievement in that regard, but it is worth checking out due to its innovative and often unusual user interface choices.
NewsForge — A very unconventional browser — nothing wrong with that — and handy for developers. I’ve been using it off and on for years it seems. It is getting better and better.
The link is to a review of the browser.
Gonzales and Dowd Agonistes: Reacting to the Human Drama
Recent reports about Alberto Gonzales paint the portrait of a man in genuine pain. … We’ve also seen a tormented-sounding apologia from Matthew Dowd, a man whose tactics (along with Karl Rove’s) have shattered our body politic. … This may sound like a frivolous question, but it’s been on my mind: What’s a fair and just reaction to these unfolding dramas?
RJ Eskow on Night Light
Surprisingly enough, even in the face of historical evidence, the success of free markets, and the poor performance of government services, most people actually want the government to provide critical services like health care and education! Why?
Graham Glass — Graham writes…
First, there are very good reasons to maintain major infrastructure in public hands. … second - it is claimed that public enterprise has no incentive to keep costs down, and that private enterprise will accomplish this. Where is the evidence of this? … And third, there is much more to consider than the cost of the system.
Stephen Downes on Half an Hour — and Stephen responds… in detail. This could be fun! And I mean that in a good way. Graham is a reasonable and smart guy. On this issue, I’m starting pretty much where Stephen is.
Dieting Does Not Work, Researchers Report
Will you lose weight and keep it off if you diet? No, probably not, UCLA researchers report in the April issue of American Psychologist, the journal of the American Psychological Association.
ScienceDaily — Worse than ‘probably not’ — the best indicator of future weight gain? Having lost weight in the last couple of years. Great!
Slovenian Ends Amazon Swim After 65 Days
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL — After 3,272 miles of exhaustion, sunburn, delirium and piranhas, a 52-year-old Slovenian successfully completed a swim down the Amazon river Saturday that could set a new world record for distance — one he’s broken three times already. After nine weeks, Martin Strel arrived near the city of Belem, the capital of the jungle state of Para, ending a swim almost as long as the drive from Miami to Seattle. Strel averaged about 50 miles a day since beginning his odyssey at the source of the world’s second-longest river in Peru on Feb. 1.
Newsvine — Wow!
Which way is the bus travelling
Look carefully at the picture.
Mofomon's Blog — Heh.
The Heliocentric Pantheon: An Interview with Walter Murch
But it is due only in part to Murch’s stellar career in film that I wanted to talk to him for BLDGBLOG. As it happens, Murch’s interests go far beyond the reach of cinema, encompassing architecture, astronomy, music theory, and mathematics – among an almost impossibly broad range of other subjects. When a friend of mine casually mentioned that Walter had “discovered” something about the Pantheon, in Rome, and that this discovery had something to do with Nicolaus Copernicus and the origins of heliocentrism in Western astronomy, I was determined to write about it for BLDGBLOG.
BLDGBLOG — A nicely done interview.
WINDING ROAD In Pictures: Our Favorite 25 Images Of The Last Year (Or So)Winding Road — Fabulous photographs (of cars) from Winding Road. Winding Road is, I think, an excellent downloadable (pdf) car magazine that compares favourably with some of the high-end European car magazines — where photography matters. I’ve been a subscriber for a couple of years I think.
Leonard Cohen Tribute: Escape From the Museum
Some tribute concerts, even those with great performers, feel like art museum tours for the blind. You know there’s something beautiful there, and somebody’s telling you it’s beautiful - but you just can’t appreciate it. That was my fear about the tribute to Leonard Cohen at UCLA’s Royce Hall, despite its great lineup. But I couldn’t pass up the chance to hear Howard Tate - the long-lost, legendary, near-mythical soul singer Howard Tate - sing the songs of Leonard Cohen.
I’m glad I went.
RJ Eskow on Night Light — Nice review. If you are unfamiliar with Leonard Cohen (hard to imagine not ever having heard something by him), do yourself a favour.
No one belongs here more than you. Stories by Miranda Julyvia 37signals — Ha! This is an ingenious site, have a look. It is the website for the book mentioned in the title.
