Obituary: Henry M.

H. M., an Unforgettable Amnesiac, Dies at 82

We studied this guy relentlessly in MIT BCS. Suzanne Corkin was my UROP supervisor.

Rest in peace, Mr. Molaison.

Music and the Developing Brain

Ooh! Ooh! The Developing Brain: Birth to Age Eight by Marilee B. Sprenger. Whole book available free. Looks like a good one. Very important. I want to come back here and read more of it.

The Developing Brain: Nurture And Nature by philosopher Martin LeFevre. I like how he reminds scientists not to get too hung up on the "nature" side.

"A happy friend is worth about $20,000"

Don't know how I feel about that... Happy, I guess?

Happiness is contagious, study finds

Don't Try This at Home! Self-Directed Investing

This guy pretty much kills it. Awesome video, awesome quote.

"No one in his right mind would walk into the cockpit of an airplane and try to fly it, or into an operating theater and open a belly. And yet they think nothing of managing their retirement assets. I’ve done all three, and I’m here to tell you that managing money is, in its most critical elements (the quota of emotional discipline and quantitative ability required) even more demanding than the first two." - William Bernstein

Playing for Change

Mark Johnson's beautiful international versions of Stand By Me and One Love. Go Mark go!

(He went all around the world recording street musicians performing these songs, then mixed them together so they're all playing in harmony. I cry every time I watch these things.)

Stand By Me:



One Love (song starts in the last two minutes):

Lisa Ann McCall

Where can I go for massage education in Austin?

Lisa Gold recommends Lisa Ann McCall in Dallas, 3.5 hours away.

To be continued/researched.

Pandiculation

Word of the day!

Definition: the act of stretching and yawning.

The image, from baillement.com.

Thanks, Lisa.

Scott MacLeod's Anthropology of Information Technology & Counterculture

A kindred spirit with ties to Harbin Hot Springs: Scott MacLeod.

I'm particularly interested in his guidelines for practicing loving bliss vis-à-vis practicing a musical instrument.

Memories May Be Stored on Your DNA

Oh God, that's beautiful.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026845.000-memories-may-be-stored-on-your-dna.html

Humanizing the Management Profession

I am in luuuuuurve!

The Social Science Research Network presents free abstracts of papers from the IESE 1st Conference on "Humanizing the Firm & the Management Profession" 2008.

The titles alone are enough to make me very happy.

A word I like:

SCANDALOCIOUS!!!!!!!

Although I'm not necessarily gung ho on the concept it represents.

The Latest from Paul Graham

On the fall of large organizations and the rise of startups.

http://www.paulgraham.com/highres.html

Makes me ask myself, why do I want to start my own business? What is "my own business"? When I try to picture it, I see a combination of two things:

1. Chellie Campbell's "dolphin" idea, based on Douglas Adams: muck about in the water having a good time. Being surrounded by "my people," the "dolphins." Those who propel and inspire me, whose energy I enjoy, who are generally smart, helpful, competent, and productive.
   
2. The "handler" idea: if you want something done, give it to a busy person, and they will handle it. Relates to the OHIO principle, Only Handle It Once.
   

I like the idea of handling things productively and being in fluid, bouncy, mucking-about-in-the-waves-like communication with people I love. That's all I've got so far.

One for the Hire List: Imagistic

The best business advice Michael Weiss ever received: Get More Business Than You Can Handle. Based only on brief phone contact with Michael, I would definitely hire him (a.k.a. do business with his company) given the opportunity.

Today's Farmers' Market Haul

Fruit:

• Red supersweet watermelon
• Mutsu and Granny Smith apples
• Thompson seedless grapes
• Persimmons

For dinner:

• Rocky Canyon Farm bratwurst
• Sauerkraut
• Brussels sprouts, potatoes, and torpedo onions (to be roasted together)
• Mizuna greens (to be added to these: cheese from Whole Foods, maybe a goat cheddar)
• Whole wheat rye bread from teh Bezian (to be served with raw butter from OPDC)

Why Poor Countries Are Poor

Corruption and an astonishing series of negative feedback loops, it turns out.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/33258.html

The system dynamics folks over at PA Consulting would have a field day with this one. Too bad Cameroon can't afford them... maybe that's where the World Bank should step in.

(thanks, globalchange.umich.edu, for the spaghetti diagram image)

Work That Doesn't Feel Like Work

I decided that's going to be my attitude today (and indefinitely). Just because I am at work doesn't mean it has to feel bad.

Things for my Someday List

Learn to identify constellations in the night sky:

http://www.quietbay.net/Science/astronomy/nightsky/

Figure out how to be a Twitter power user (is that pathetic?):

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=770&tag=nl.e101

Most Generous Philanthropists

BusinessWeek's Top 50 list. David & Suzanne Booth come in at #34.

Henry Jenkins Is Moving to USC

Here's his goodbye letter to the MIT community.

http://henryjenkins.org/2008/11/professor_jenkins_goes_to_holl.html

Explaining Austin to a Frenchman

"As long as you don't buy a ranch and play around with guns," says my Parisian former colleague.

Cute. Provincial. Earthy. Vibrant. All words I've used, or heard used, to describe Austin.

Part of me wants to say, "What's wrong with ranches and guns? Bang! Bang!"

Part of me wants to send him some links as counterexamples, but all I've got right now are Austin del Sur, Mary Street, Willie Nelson's bio page, and Austin Live Music dot com.

Sooner or later I am going to cry. But first, I will go read up on SXSW.

"The music that we make will heal all our mistakes and lead us.
The music that we hear is always standing near to feed us." - Morcheeba

So, yeah. I think I am going to move to Austin.