beyond the far corner

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 23:03:29 -0400

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

- Martin Luther King Jr. - January 15th 1929 - April 4th 1968 (via ikenbot)

“Science keeps religion from sinking into the valley of crippling irrationalism and paralyzing obscurantism. Religion prevents science from falling into the marsh of obsolete materialism and moral nihilism.” — MLK, a scibro if I ever seen one.

(via scinerds)

Fitting for so many reasons.

Roman Opalka - The Finite Defined by the Nonfinite,...

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 03:01:53 -0400

Roman Opalka - The Finite Defined by the Nonfinite, 1965-2011

Numerous canvases covered in mathematical sequences organized in narrow horizontal rows with acrylic paint and size 0 brushes, painted by hand and using no rulers. The first number on each new canvas follows the last number of the previous one.

“All my work is a single thing, the description from number one to infinity. A single thing, a single life.”

The last number Opalka painted before his death on August 6, 2011, was 5,607,249.

wow.

beholdtiny: behold, the world’s tiniest digital storage device:...

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 00:03:45 -0400

beholdtiny:

behold, the world’s tiniest digital storage device: DNA.

Scientists at Harvard have figured out how to store 700 terabytes of information in a single gram of DNA. Read the article here because this concept is far too big and complicated for this tiny blog.

How Not to Steal People's Content on the Web

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 13:08:58 -0400

How Not to Steal People's Content on the Web:

Corey Eridon gives a good overview on how to cite back to the original for web sources.

sciencenote: Dendritic cell and lymphocyte, coloured scanning...

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:11:56 -0400

sciencenote:

Dendritic cell and lymphocyte, coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM). Interaction between a dendritic cell (blue) and a T lymphocyte (pink), two components of the body’s immune system. Both are types of white blood cell. T lymphocytes recognise a specific site on the surface of pathogens or foreign objects (antigens), bind to it, and produce antibodies or cells to eliminate that antigen. Dendritic cells are antigen- presenting cells (APCs), they present antigens to T lymphocytes, which can only recognise antigens when they are presented by APCs. Magnification: x3750 when printed 10cm wide.

Reminds me of the Sistine Chapel: The Creation of Adam.

Such and awesome image.

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 19:35:47 -0400

Such and awesome image.

bisikleta: (by Lay-Luh)

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 02:07:44 -0400

bisikleta:

(by Lay-Luh)

triviumetquadrivium: :)

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 00:48:37 -0400

triviumetquadrivium:

:)

audacityisgenius: Sycamore Trail by Lee Sie on...

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 22:50:57 -0400

audacityisgenius:

Sycamore Trail by Lee Sie on Flickr.

Awesome photo.

joshbyard: Fetus’ Genome Can Be Sequenced From Mother’s...

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:43:02 -0400

joshbyard:

Fetus’ Genome Can Be Sequenced From Mother’s Blood

For the first time, scientists have deciphered the genome of a fetus using only DNA from the unborn child’s parents.

The advance represents a significant step forward in the effort to create noninvasive genetic tests that could assess a wide array of genetic diseases.

A small percentage of the DNA in a pregnant woman’s blood comes from her fetus, a fact that scientists have begun exploiting to create prenatal genetic tests that don’t require invasive sampling of fluid from the uterus.

So far, tests have been limited to specific measures such as the genetic aberration that leads to Down syndrome; but the ability to sequence the entire fetal genome suggests that parents could someday get a much broader picture of their baby’s disease risk before birth.

(via Using Parents’ Blood to Decode the Genome of a Fetus - Technology Review)

Tumblr eats things

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:07:39 -0400

I just finished posting a rebuttal of sorts to a political post* only to see that Tumblr ate everything I just typed (a good 10-15 minutes of well meaning and gentle ranting) and just reposted the previous blog…which made it seem that I was in support of a position rather than in opposition to it. This is not the first time and now I am going to have to search out some third party tools that will let me compose in a bit more of a safe environment (one where I can at least save my ~~rants~~ work in case it posts incorrectly).

Sigh.

* I so want to stay away from all of it, but it sucks me in.

blackmamba112: thebicyclesblog: Wall Ride Holy shit like a...

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 21:11:05 -0400

blackmamba112:

thebicyclesblog:

Wall Ride

Holy shit like a BOSS

Wow…want the video.

"Here are the two most shattering facts about classical music today: First, Americans are writing,..."

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 03:25:25 -0400

“

Here are the two most shattering facts about classical music today: First, Americans are writing, playing, recording and listening to more orchestra music today than they ever have before in history — mostly in the form of film music and video game soundtracks. So we know they like the general sound.

They just don’t like listening to it with us, at concert halls. And that is the second fact.

”

- Richard Dare, CEO and Managing Director Brooklyn Philharmonic, in The Awfulness of Classical Music Explained

Why Women Prefer Geeky Guys

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 00:41:00 -0400

Empirical evidence seems to contradict for me. Your results may vary.

Still, decent article. Link here.

"200 years ago when you heard Beethoven’s 5th in a concert hall, it was probably the only time..."

Thu, 31 May 2012 16:18:00 -0400

“200 years ago when you heard Beethoven’s 5th in a concert hall, it was probably the only time in your life you heard it.”

- jvonneumann ‏@jvonneumann [retweeted by William Gibson @GreatDismal]

wilwheaton: inothernews: Besides the hype, besides the...

Wed, 30 May 2012 17:55:15 -0400

wilwheaton:

inothernews:

Besides the hype, besides the technical fuckups of NASDAQ, besides the overvaluation and offering too many shares during their IPO, I think the reason Facebook’s stock is failing as much as it is right now is that people have come to realize that Everybody’s Favorite Social Network is just too obnoxious, intrusive, and data-scrapingly assholish in the way it treats everyone from its most ardent users to, sadly, people on third-party platforms like, I dunno, TUMBLR, that perhaps want nothing at all to do with the privacy black hole that is Mark Zuckerberg’s dickishness incarnate but wake up and log on to find THIS UTTER BULLSHIT.

I go on Tumblr to be on Tumblr, Tumblr. Please leave the shitty Facebook tactics to Facebook.

Cosigned.

Ditto.

These look like fun.

Wed, 30 May 2012 03:04:10 -0400

These look like fun.

"Oh, if a man tried To take his time on Earth And prove before he died What one man’s life..."

Wed, 30 May 2012 02:12:10 -0400

“Oh, if a man tried
To take his time on Earth
And prove before he died
What one man’s life could be worth
I wonder what would happen
to this world.”

- From Harry Chapin’s Tombstone

Lyrics from his song I Wonder What Would Happen To This World

"I read commenters who say, since cars are bigger, we should just keep our little bikes on bike..."

Tue, 29 May 2012 17:43:54 -0400

“I read commenters who say, since cars are bigger, we should just keep our little bikes on bike trails and away from the roads. By that reasoning, when I’m driving my Dakota, all of those sports cars should just pull into the nearest parking lot.”

- - kenhiatt, paraphrased in the beginning. We could go further and argue that semis should always have right-of-way! (via ideasandquotes)

Wonder if there is anyway a civilian can buy an Abrams MBT? -K.

Commentary Physics and the War between Cars and Bicycles

Mon, 28 May 2012 04:27:42 -0400

On Facebook I follow the posts of Bob Mionske’s Bicycle Law. His feed consists primarily of links to articles that relate to bicycle law and/or folks getting hurt on bicycles, usually as the result of a bike-car incident. Quite a few of these links catch my attention enough for me to take a look at the article. Occasionally, I’ll ignore my better angels and start reading the comments.

I’ll start reading through the comments and then I’m having to resist the urge to click on “reply”…I have to do a lot of resisting. The one that always gets me is the guy with the doctorate in physics that has to quote “F = M * A” and inform us small massing bikers that it doesn’t really matter what the law is, the car is going to win. Usually this comment is surrounded by indications that we should just keep our little (or should I say, small mass) bikes on bike trails and away from the roads. By that reasoning, when I’m driving my Dakota, all of those sports cars should just pull into the nearest parking lot.

What really gets me though is not the lack of thought about how laws (or even polite society) work to help even the playing field, it’s the rage expressed in these comments. People on both sides of the argument are full of rage over something as simple as sharing the road. At various times I both drive and ride along the same roads. I pass bicycles in my truck and I’m passed by cars when I’m on my bike. No biggie.

I’ve had drivers honk or even scream in rage at me…and in every case not only was I following the law, but I was not impeding their progress in the least. In most of the cases, I was riding in the lane as opposed to the shoulder, usually because the shoulder was not safe (debris, cracks, small shoulder with bad edge, etc). Maybe I was representing some biker that did something wrong to them. I hope their yelling at me gave them some solace…would hate to think the stress they caused me was wasted.

If you are driver that doesn’t care for bicyclists reading this, thank you for taking the time to hear me vent on this subject. A bit of food for thought since you’ve hung in this far: all those riding bicycles on the roads are very aware of the F = M * A equation. If a car hits us, we are likely going to the hospital with broken bones. We are often traveling at speeds well in excess of 25 mph. I realize this doesn’t sound like much, but if something goes wrong, we get to hit the pavement at that speed. T-boning a car at 25 mph is not pretty. Throwing yourself in a ditch because you think a car is about to hit you generally doesn’t end well. All we need to do is be respectful to each other.