Fitting right in with topics I’m often posting about, psychology, religion, and what makes us think the way that we do comes: THE VAGARIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE by Daniel Gilbert.
Evolution Vs. Intelligent Design Redux
I discovered another pummelling essay destroying Intelligent Design. This one is good because it not only lays out the “evolution” of the Intelligent Design camp, but also explains the science behind evolution in a way that any astute reader would be able to understand.
It’s nice and thorough with about six long but fascinating pages – so set aside some time if you’re going to read it.
Google’s Calendar
Soon to be found at calendar.google.com is Google’s new online Calendar. I’ve read it’s supposed to do to calendars what Gmail did to email.
Most of all I just hope it will work with my iPod.
The United States National Debt
I went to Medicine Hat yesterday to visit with my parents. One of the things I love to do is chat with my dad about science, religion, and current affairs. A topic we often cover is the US National debt and how out of control it has gotten.
Today I found a fascinating and perhaps terrifying graph of the United States national debt and the presidents responsible for it.
I’ll leave it up to you to extrapolate your own conclusions.
Napolean Dynamite and the Utah State Fair
Everyday I get tons of people visiting my site looking for an image of a liger. You know, liger – as in half lion have tiger. I can only assume these people are fans of Napolean Dynamite and perhaps they will enjoy these clever ads for the Utah State Fair featuring Napolean and Pedro.
The $100 Laptop
A research project at the MIT Media Lab has a plan for getting $100 laptops in the hands of millions of people around the world.
The laptops will have a 500 Mhz CPU, 1 gig of RAM, run on Linux, and will be optionally powered by a hand-crank or traditional power sources.
The goal of the project is to make the low-cost PC idea a grassroots movement that will spread in popularity. Nicholas Negroponte, the co-founder of the Media Lab at MIT, said the idea is that governments will pay roughly $100 for the laptops and will distribute them for free to students.
“This is the most important thing I have ever done in my life,” Negroponte said on Wednesday during a presentation at Technology Review’s Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT. “Reception has been incredible. The idea is simple. It’s an education project, not a laptop project. If we can make education better–particularly primary and secondary schools–it will be a better world.”
(via News.com article)
Cool CG Animation
I saw this last week but thinking about it again today, I just have to share it. Watch it here. Some information on the music and the creators behind the animation here at CG Society.
Also check out these other demos: smallreel_3.mov and smallreel_4.mov.
There are all really cool but that first one is amazing.
Roy Disney Buys Globetrotters
This is kind of strange. Apparently Roy Disney (Walt’s Nephew) has purchased 80% of the Harlem Globetrotters.
There used to be a Harlem Globetrotters animated cartoon back in the 70’s. I wonder if Roy can bring it back — stranger things have happened.
From The LA Times:
An investment fund led by Roy E. Disney has purchased an 80% stake in the Harlem Globetrotters, the parties said Tuesday.
Shamrock Holdings’ Capital Growth Fund, based in Burbank, said it hoped to develop merchandising and other new revenue sources for the Globetrotters, who have blended basketball and entertainment for nearly 80 years.
Manny Jackson, a former corporate executive who acquired the Globetrotters in 1993 and nursed it back from near bankruptcy, will retain a 20% ownership stake and stay on as the Phoenix-based company’s chairman and chief executive.
The purchase includes the New York Nationals, the squad that has served as the Globetrotters’ opponent and comedic foils since 1995 when the Washington Generals were retired.
From the Associated Press:
AP
BURBANK, Calif. – An investment company controlled by Roy E. Disney has bought 80 percent of the Harlem Globetrotters and will help expand the basketball team’s merchandising and licensing activities worldwide.The Shamrock Capital Growth Fund bought the controlling interest from Mannie Jackson, the team’s chief executive, who will continue to own 20 percent of the team. Jackson will continue to serve as the team’s chairman and CEO.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Shamrock manages the investments for the family of Roy Disney who is the son of Roy O. Disney and nephew of Walt Disney. The company, managed by president and CEO Stanley Gold, has invested more than $550 million in media, entertainment and communications businesses in the United States.
Jackson bought the team in 1993.
The closely held Globetrotters will celebrate their 80th anniversary next year.
The Outfit
While the part I had in making it was minor, it still looks pretty cool: The Outfit game trailer.
WikiEsquire
This is pretty interesting: Wikipedia users edit a meta article for Esquire.
This week, an Esquire editor invited Wikipedia users to edit an article that will appear in the magazine. Wikipedia users reacted strongly, with over 500 edits to WP:ITAAW before the article was frozen.
Editor A.J. Jacobs wrote the original article, which was riddled with deliberate errors. These errors were quickly corrected by users, who rewrote many sections from scratch. Jacobs said of the massive edits made by Wikipedians,
I just wanted to thank you all so much for participating in this experiment. It was absolutely fascinating. I was riveted to my computer, pressing refresh every 45 seconds to see the next iteration. And the next and the next.
The article will presumably run in the November 2005 issue.