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Old Books Vs. New Books

2010-08-21T21:28:00.001-04:00

In round #856 of the Print vs. Web saga, Newsweek has come up with the above infographic/artifact. At least they didn't call it "Old Books Vs. New Books."

While Nicholas Negroponte earlier this month claimed that the physical book would be dead in five years, the more generous folks at Newsweek still think that the book has some fight left.

Putting forth such vague statements such as "quality hardcover books (in direct light) are still easiest on the eye," and the frightening because it's true "$249.2 million vs. $29.3 million in publishers sales totals," the infographic seems really unsure about the future.

Let me help you out here Newsweek. No matter what the numbers say right now, in 2010, I can pretty much guarantee that in 2020 the advantage will lean heavy towards the E-book side of the graph.

Well maybe not the Jane Austen part.

Image: Newsweek

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Blast from the past: Mr. Stupids First Rule of Life

2010-08-21T20:57:00.000-04:00

Blast from the past: Mr. Stupids First Rule of Life

It originally appeared here on January 10, 2006.

Since then, time has passed but not much else has changed.

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Mr. Stupid's First Rule of Life

That would be me — one of my many identities. The rule: "Anytime anything that's supposed to do something doesn't, check to make sure it's plugged in." The First Corollary: "If it's battery–powered, put in new batteries." These two seemingly for–the–brain–dead–only statements will suffice to solve about 80% of equipment–related problems. The corollary certainly fixed my Bluetooth mouse just now; it's been losing contact and intermittently not working for days but it shaped right up once I changed the batteries.

Other useful principles and sayings:

• 80% of success in business is a result of returning all phone calls the same day. You don't have to talk to anyone; in fact, I often wait till after business hours to return a call I might've responded to earlier simply because for one reason or another I don't want to talk to that person just then. I leave a voice message saying I returned their call of earlier today; that's sufficient to buy a delay until tomorrow or later. Obviously, this rule is a specialized case of the Woody Allen 80% rule re: life.

• When someone tells you that you must do something immediately that requires some of your money, and if you don't do it now you'll lose the chance to take part, always, Always, ALWAYS say "no thank you." You will never see your money again with 99+% of such investment "opportunities."

• People who ask you to give them a break on price always cause more trouble than those who pay full freight without quibbling.

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Indian Pole Gymnastics

2010-08-20T11:39:00.001-04:00

Indian Pole Gymnastics:

Indian Pole Gymnastics, impressive!..(Read...)

Pencil Tip Sculpture

2010-08-15T22:24:00.001-04:00

Pencil Tip Sculpture

49-year-old Dalton Ghetti, a carpenter in Connecticut by profession, has been creating his tiny graphite sculptures for some 25 years.

He uses three tools — a razor blade, sewing needle and sculpting knife — to create his pieces.

He has never used a magnifying glass and has never sold a single work, preferring to give them away to his friends.

In an interview with Odd Stuff Magazine, he said, "I use the sewing needle to make holes or dig into the graphite.

I scratch and create lines and turn the graphite around slowly in my hand."

More: "The longest Dalton has spent on one piece was two and half years on a pencil with interlinking chains.

A standard figure will take several months.

He said: 'The interlinking chains took the most effort and I was really pleased with it because it's so intricate people think it must be two pencils.'"

And: "When Dalton, from Connecticut, USA, first started he would become frustrated when a piece would break before being finished after he had spent months working on it.

He said: 'It would drive me mad when I would be just a bit too heavy handed and the pencil's tip would break.

I would get very nervous sometimes, particularly when the piece was almost finished, and then I would make a mistake.

I decided to change the way I thought about the work – when I started a new piece my attitude would be 'well this will break eventually but let's see how far I get.

It helped me break fewer pencils, and although I still do break them, it's not as often.'"

Finally: "Dalton, who is originally from Brazil, has a box full of more than 100 sculptures that have broken while working on them that he affectionately calls 'the cemetery collection [below].'

He said: 'I have quite a few broken pieces so I decided to glue them on pins and into styrofoam for a display case. People might think it's weird I keep them but they're still interesting. I worked on them for months so they might be dead now but at one point I gave them life.'"

[via Milena]

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Face distorting jewelry

2010-08-09T17:32:00.001-04:00

Face distorting jewelry:

This is pretty weird jewelry, called Face distorting jewelry, designed by Burcu Büyük..(Read...)

Sharpie Liquid Pencil With Liquid Graphite

2010-08-09T17:29:00.001-04:00

Sharpie Liquid Pencil With Liquid Graphite:

Sharpie the pen makers have created a Liquid Pencil that contains an “ink” made from liq..(Read...)

mini cannon

2010-08-09T13:40:00.001-04:00

We have seen part1, this time is the part2 of Mini cannon, the cannon has added a gunsight and..(Read...)

Tamsin van Essens "Contamination"series

2010-08-02T17:13:00.001-04:00

Tamsin van Essens "Contamination"series

The British designer , currently based in Prague, combines ceramics with the medical world to create "A set of cups that appear to have been infected and colonized by bacteria."

At the top, Staphlococcus, followed by E. coli (just above).

Cholera:

Campylobacter:

Shigella:

Streptococcus:

Salmonella:

[via Muuuz]

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Art of the Serpent

2010-07-29T18:53:00.001-04:00

Art of the Serpent:

Art of the Serpent by Parisian artist Guido Mocafico."doesn’t use paint, clay or a chisel..(Read...)

PoopSenders

2010-07-19T16:25:00.001-04:00

PoopSenders

bookofjoe

In your face on Monday morning.

What can I say?

From the website:

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Each package contains the following business card

right in the poop! When they see the front of the card they will have to open the bag, releasing the nasty aroma, then dig it out of the poop only to find this

on the back.

Q. Can I send a custom message in the poop?

A. No, for legal reasons we do not allow customer-created notes to be sent in the packages.

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More information here.

Testimonials here.

From $12.95, depending on type and amount.

[via Milena]

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Geriatric Park: Where the old ones are

2010-07-18T22:19:00.001-04:00

Geriatric Park: Where the old ones are:

Above, the world mapped by percentage of people in each country 64 and over.

Planetwide, 7.84% of the population is in that group.

[via ChartsBin]

Nesting Knives by Mia Schmallenbach

2010-07-18T00:12:00.001-04:00

Nesting Knives by Mia Schmallenbach:

Bright Future Fail

2010-07-18T00:03:00.001-04:00

Bright Future Fail:

Picture by: dunno source Submitted by: dunno source via Fail Uploader

Where Americans Are Moving

2010-07-17T19:48:00.001-04:00

Where Americans Are Moving:

Via Todd Sniffin who wrote, "Interesting interactive map on the Forbes website with data provided by the IRS. The map allows the user to see movement to/from any county in the U.S."

It would appear that people leaving my Podunk county mostly head for Seattle, the Bay Area and Texas, while immigrants hail from the Sun Belt.

Interesting.

For the person who loves you

2010-07-15T19:43:00.001-04:00

The person who loves you:

"The person who loves you has picked you out of the great mass of uncreated clay which is humanity to make something out of, and the poor lumpish clay which is you wants to find out what it has been made into. But at the same time, you, in the act of loving somebody, become real, cease to be a part of the continuum of the uncreated clay and get the breath of life in you and rise up. So you create yourself by creating another person...." — Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989); "All The King's Men" (1946)

Piano for the bedridden

2010-07-14T11:37:00.001-04:00

Piano for the bedridden:

Long before Jim Levine perfected the treadmill workspace, some anonymous genius created the formidable apparatus pictured above.

[via Milena, Autour d'un Cafe and Nationaal Archief]

Ekranoplan — Once upon a time in the U.S.S.R.

2010-07-12T23:46:00.001-04:00

Ekranoplan — Once upon a time in the U.S.S.R.:

From English Russia:

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1987 was the year when the first-350 ton ground effect "ship" in a series of Soviet battle missile carriers was produced.

It was called "Lun" after the Russian name for a bird of prey, the hen harrier.

Another name for this vehicle was Project 903.

It carried 6 Moskit cruise missiles (SS-N-22 Sunburn in NATO classification).

Being hit by four of them causes inevitable sinking of a vessel of any known type and size.

The second Lun-class battle aircraft was supposed to be produced in several years, but due to the end of Cold War and partial disarmament, the project was changed to a rescue aircraft and it was never finished.

This type of vehicle is called in Russian "ekranoplan," it uses so-called "ground effects" — extra lift of large wings in proximity to the surface.

For this reason they have been designed to travel at a maximum of three meters above the sea but at the same time provide take-off, stable "flight" and safe landing in conditions of up to 5-meter waves.

These craft were originally developed by the Soviet Union as high-speed military transports, and were based mostly on the shores of the Caspian Sea and Black Sea.

In 2005 craft of this type have been classified by the International Marine Organization so they probably should be considered flying ships rather than swimming planes.

It is also interesting to note that this aircraft is one of the largest ever built, with a length of 73.8 meters (comparing with 73 of Airbus A380).

When origami meets rocket science

2010-07-12T23:38:00.001-04:00

'When origami meets rocket science':

Origami master Robert J. Lang, 49, was a laser physicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory before moving to a private technology firm in Silicon Valley.

In 2001 he threw it all overboard in favor of origami.

Rachel Saslow's May 11, 2010 Washington Post Health & Science section front page story about Lang's remarkable journey follows.

Photos of Lang's work appear above and below.

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Robert J. Lang had a good career as a laser physicist. He worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, researching semiconductor lasers used in fiber-optic communications, before switching to a private technology firm in Silicon Valley, where he held positions such as chief scientist and vice president of research and development.

Then in 2001, he gave it all up. To fold paper.

Lang, 49, is an origami master. Paper cranes? Pshaw. Try a rattlesnake with 1,500 scales, a life-size replica of comedian Drew Carey or an American flag that was photographed for the New York Times magazine. Lang is pushing the limits of what one can make by folding paper, but he's also a leader in an emerging field of study called computational origami, which he boils down to this question: "How do you use rules and math to create an object of art?"

"In both origami and science, you're discovering patterns and relationships that, in a sense, already existed before we discovered them," Lang says. "There's a joy of discovery and of being the first explorer in this little nook."

He and others are using the Japanese art form to solve scientific problems. About 10 years ago, for instance, Lang collaborated with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to design a telescope lens that could go to space. Origami principles were ideal for the task because the lens, called the Eyeglass, needed to be big -- about the size of a football field -- once in space but also small enough to be shot into orbit by a rocket. A prototype demonstrated that hinged panes of glass could be used to compact the lens down to dimensions of no more than about 13 feet without degrading the optical performance. But the Eyeglass was never sent into space for lack of funding.

Lang has also worked on computer models for folding car air bags. Simulating air-bag deployment is important because otherwise auto manufacturers would have to crash a lot of cars to determine which ones are safe -- an expensive prospect.

Oxford University researchers have used origami techniques to design stents, which must be small enough for doctors to thread through a blood vessel but then pop open big enough to hold the artery or vein open.

"The things we do for fun and pleasure turn out to have practical applications, and in the case of origami, it might save a life," Lang says.

An updated tradition

Art historians aren't sure when origami started, but traditional designs such as cranes and boats existed in the 1700s. The craft didn't change much until the middle of the 20th century, when Akira Yoshizawa inspired a renaissance in paper folding.

Yoshizawa, who died in 2005, developed a language of arrows and lines to show people how to fold different designs. Yoshizawa's instructions included no words, so anyone could understand them.

In the 1990s, the craze for origami morphed into what origamists refer to as "The Bug Wars." After figuring out that it was possible to fold paper into the shape of an insect, origamists began to one-up one another. Someone would fold a beetle with six legs, someone else would create one with eight legs and two antennae, and so on. The Bug Wars have "never really ended," says Lang. In the past few years, he has folded a flying katydid and two praying mantises mating.

There are different genres of origami so there are no "rules," per se, but Lang mostly creates single-sheet origami without any cutting, taping or gluing.

In 2003, Lang published "Origami Design Secrets: Mathematical Methods for an Ancient Art," a book that has become the bible for complex origami designers; he calls it his magnum opus. (He has also published seven books of folding instructions.) The most recent addition to his oeuvre is Opus 571, a surfer on a surfboard folded from a dollar bill, a design he created for an advertising campaign for The Post. Lang's very first origami model was a variation on the traditional boat, which he designed at age 10.

While it might seem that a career as a Silicon Valley physicist would be more profitable than full-time origamist, Lang has no trouble making ends meet, with a full schedule of lectures plus book royalties, scientific commissions, art sales and commercial advertising projects, including origami creations for McDonald's, Mitsubishi and Toyota.

The wonk factor

Lang isn't the only math and science wonk enchanted by paper folding.

"I remember being 10 years old and unfolding an origami crane and looking at the crease pattern and thinking, 'There are all these nice geometric lines and points. There's got to be math here,' " recalls Tom Hull, an associate professor of mathematics at Western New England College in Springfield, Mass. "But I had no clue what it was, because I was 10."

Today, Hull uses origami when he teaches, finding ways to tie it into to concepts in calculus, number theory, geometry and algebra. He says it's a quick way to engage his students and to help them understand vague concepts in a visual way. In 2006, he published "Project Origami," a book filled with activities that teachers can use in math classes.

"Kids are so afraid of math. The world is so afraid of math," Hull says. "But with origami, they're not thinking, 'I'm doing this scary math thing,' they're just folding paper. It's a neat way to break the barriers down."

While most advanced origamists turn to math to fold bigger and better models, Massachusetts Institute of Technology associate professor Erik Demaine turned to origami to find more difficult geometric problems to solve. In 1996, Demaine was starting a PhD in computer science at the University of Waterloo in Ontario (he was 15 at the time) and stumbled upon Lang's work. "I thought, 'Oh, that sounds cool. Maybe we can do something new.' "

Now, Lang and Demaine are working together on a mathematical proof of the tree method of origami design. (Their paper is so long now that they might end up publishing it as a book.) The tree method is the idea that origami models can be thought of as stick figures; for instance, an origami beetle's body is the trunk, and each leg is a branch. The proof would rule out the possibility that any origami figure could not be made using this method. Lang has released five versions of TreeMaker, a software program that allows origami artists to sketch stick figures and have their computer spit out a crease pattern that they can follow.

Separately, Demaine is researching the microbiological applications of origami. He suspects that the principles that govern origami might also dictate how protein molecules fold in our bodies -- a process that, when it goes wrong, has been linked to illnesses such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

"That would be the endpoint, to predict what nature is doing," Demaine says.

Demaine has three paper sculptures in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, works that he created with his father, visual artist Martin Demaine. In 2003, he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" for computational origami. The $500,000 award cited him for "tackling and solving difficult problems related to folding and bending -- moving readily between the theoretical and the playful, with a keen eye to revealing the former in the latter."

"It was more the recognition and acceptance that were meaningful," Demaine says. "Computational origami was initially a very crazy idea, and yet it has so many practical applications."

Lang, meanwhile, continues to spread the origami way. At a recent lecture at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Lang showed photos of his Black Forest Cuckoo Clock, a tree frog, a Roosevelt elk and more. Fittingly, the Walters partnered with Baltimore's Space Telescope Science Institute to bring him to the area.

BehindTheMedspeak: Foreign Accent Syndrome

2010-07-05T17:40:00.001-04:00

http://www.bookofjoe.com/2010/07/behindthemedspeak-foreign-accent-syndrome.html

Long story short: Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) is a condition in which a foreign-sounding accent suddenly and unexpectedly appears after brain damage, such that native English speaking individuals when speaking English are perceived as non-native English speakers.

Often caused by a stroke, it can also follow traumatic brain injury.

It's so rare that fewer than 60 cases have been reported in the world medical literature since it was first described by neurologist G.H. Monrad-Krohn in a detailed 1947 case report published in the journal Brain.

Brigid Schulte's May 30, 2010 Washington Post story about a northern Virginia woman who acquired the syndrome illustrates just how problematic existence can be once fate plays out.

The article follows.

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Fairfax woman developed Russian accent after head injury

Some people fall on their heads and wake up with their memory wiped out. A few revive with their personality totally changed. Others die. Robin Jenks Vanderlip fell down a stairwell, smacked her head and woke up speaking with a Russian accent.

Vanderlip has never been to Russia. She doesn't remember ever hearing a Russian accent. She lives in Fairfax County, was born in Pennsylvania and went to college on the Eastern Shore. Yet since that fall in May 2007, the first question she gets from strangers is: "Where are you from?"

"They say your life can change in an instant," she said in what sounds like a thick Russian accent. "Mine did."

For 42 years, Vanderlip, whose case is being studied at the National Institutes of Health and the University of Maryland, spoke with what NIH neurologist Allen R. Braun called a typical mid-Atlantic American accent.

But since the fall, her clipped way with consonants -- dropping the final "s" from some plural words, saying "dis" and "dat" for "this" and "that," or "wiz" instead of "with" -- and her formation of vowels -- "home" sounds more like "herm," "well" sounds like "wuhl" -- identify her more like a transplant from Moscow. The more fatigued she becomes, the thicker her accent grows.

What she has, Braun and other doctors say, is Foreign Accent Syndrome -- a rare and little-understood medical condition that can follow a serious brain injury. "It does sound strange," Braun said. "It certainly does sound like someone has a foreign accent."

The syndrome was first described by a neurologist in the closing days of World War II. A Norwegian woman hit in the head by shrapnel fell into a coma and woke up speaking with a German accent. Fellow Norwegians ostracized her as a result, according to the medical literature.

Fewer than 60 cases have since been reported worldwide. Puzzled doctors have studied a Louisiana woman who, after a brain injury, suddenly began speaking with a Cajun dialect; a woman from the Newcastle region of England who speaks like a Jamaican; and a Boston man who developed what sounded like a Scottish burr. There are Americans who have developed British-sounding accents, Britons who sound French, a Japanese stroke patient with a Korean accent, and a Spanish-speaker who acquired a thick Hungarian accent.

'Somebody's joke'

"The first time I heard about Foreign Accent Syndrome, I thought, 'This is not true; this is somebody's joke,' " said Julius Fridriksson, who has studied brain images of patients suffering from the malady at the University of South Carolina and who, as a native of Iceland, speaks English with a slight accent.

Then he began working with a patient who had spoken with a Southern U.S. accent all his life but woke from a stroke sounding like a proper British gent. "This was an accent he could not control."

Scientists are quick to point out that these are not bona-fide accents. (And none of the patients has spontaneously learned a foreign language.) Rather, in a way no one quite understands, the damage to the brain disrupts speech formation.

Shelia Blumstein, a Brown University linguist who has written extensively on Foreign Accent Syndrome, said sufferers typically produce grammatically correct language, unlike many stroke or brain-injury victims. But subtle changes in intonation and melody make syndrome sufferers sound foreign. No amount of therapy, she said, seems to reverse that.

"I did have one patient who had a stroke and developed Foreign Accent Syndrome, then had another stroke and it disappeared. Do dee do do. Do dee do doo," she said, imitating the "Twilight Zone" theme song. "There is still so much we don't know."

Two days after her fall, Vanderlip awoke unable to speak. A friend called 911, and Vanderlip was rushed to Fair Oaks Hospital, where an MRI showed she'd had a stroke. Working with a speech therapist, she could make rudimentary sounds and slowly relearn how to speak -- but with a Russian-sounding accent. When the accent remained even after Vanderlip regained speaking ability, a neurologist diagnosed Foreign Accent Syndrome.

Other changes

Since the fall, it's not only Vanderlip's accent that has changed. She has become forgetful and tires easily. Formerly loquacious and eloquent, even, friends say, she has become introverted, can't speak coherently for more than 35 minutes at a time and has lost her job as a regional manager for the nonprofit Operation Hope. A single mother of two, she lives off savings and disability payments.

Andrew Uscher, a longtime friend, said many of Vanderlip's friends have drifted away as she has struggled with her injury, financial issues and depression.

"When we go out, people just assume she's from another country," he said. "It bothers her -- not that people think she's foreign instead of American, but that it doesn't sound like her. It's not her normal speech pattern. And we all like to be true to who we are."

Nearly three years after she slipped on stairs at the National 4-H Council building in Chevy Chase, grabbed for a handrail, hurtled backward, hit her head and screamed for help, Vanderlip filed suit in Montgomery County Circuit Court against the 4-H, alleging that the stairs were unsafe and seeking at least $1 million in damages. The 4-H Council did not respond to a request to comment.

On her home answering machine, Vanderlip has preserved her old voice as a greeting. "Please leave your message and we'll get back to you as soon as we can." She sounds confident, articulate. And American. Her eyes redden when she hears it.

"When I sound different, people think that I'm different," she said. "To this day, my daughter is nervous about me going on field trips or working in the classroom, because she's a little embarrassed about how I sound." Vanderlip, who is studying brain-injury education George Washington University, said the incredulous looks she gets when she explains that she's a native-born American can get wearing.

She said she was devastated as she watched a Fox News Channel report on her lawsuit, with anchor Megyn Kelly repeatedly referring to her as "Inga from Sveden" and commentator Lis Wiehl saying: "She says she's going to be damaged because now some people think she has this nice, sexy Danish accent? I don't think so!"

Since she began speaking like a foreigner, Vanderlip sometimes wants to be anywhere but here. She and her children have started taking vacations abroad, where she can lose herself in a polyglot of accents. "I feel there's no one to judge me in a foreign country," she said. "I don't feel so out of place."

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A 2005 story in the Kansas City Star documented another case.

The University of Texas at Dallas has created a website to serve as a support and resource for those with FAS and those close to them.

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The iPhone 4 and the growing art of self-photography

2010-07-03T18:15:00.000-04:00

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/07/03/the-iphone-4-and-the-growing-art-of-self-photography/

Filed under: iPhone

This little piece over on the New York Times Fashion and Style page is only tangentially related to our subject at hand, which is that the onset of the iPhone 4 and its front-facing camera has put a spotlight on the growing art of self-photography and the casually narcissistic tendencies that drive it. I still found it very interesting, both as a series of tips on how to make some fascinating self-photographs, as well as a little meditation on what it means to learn that cameras are slowly turning around on their owners. When cameras were first created, the photographer was almost removed from the equation -- viewers of photographs were given direct views of subjects.

As time has gone on, the photographer has become more instrumental and important in the camera's life. At this point, in 2010, most of the pictures taken today are taken specifically to be shared on Facebook or Flickr -- here's me at the club, here's my new shirt, here's my and my girlfriend, and so on. Instead of looking through the photographer's eyes at the world, the iPhone 4's camera looks through the photographer's eyes ... back at the photographer.

Maybe that's too serious for the Fourth of July weekend (and if nothing else, the NYT piece offers a great bit of advice for being on camera anywhere: "smile"). But it is interesting that, as front-facing cameras become more popular (and even technology like Microsoft's Kinect, which is basically a camera watching you, the player), the art of photography itself is changing. Going out and "taking pictures" may eventually come to mean "taking pictures of me."

TUAW The iPhone 4 and the growing art of self-photography originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 03 Jul 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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