Unlikely Twins, Part XIX
By Brian | September 13, 2010
Both of these men probably received something chocolate for their September 13th birthdays, but only one of them really knew where the chocolate was made…
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| Roald Dahl, Charlie’s Chocolate Factory |
Milton Hershey, His OWN Chocolate Factory |
Categories: Unlikely Twins | Comments Off on Unlikely Twins, Part XIX
September 11, 2010
By Brian | September 11, 2010
It’s become a bit of a personal, annual tradition for me to write something on the anniversary of September 11, 2001. Each one, quite obviously, is a little different, and reading through them all now (2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009), provide an interesting (at least to me) perspective on how one processes a traumatic event like this one over the years.
This year, I once again note the degree to which we are moving on. There will be memorial services of course, but the President’s remarks at his most recent press conference show the shift in emphasis:
I
Categories: New York, New York, Political Rantings | 1 Comment »
Unlikely Twins, Part XVIII
By Brian | September 7, 2010
September 7th – birthday of two men who grew to know a lot about crashes…
Buddy Holly,
Killed in a Plane CrashJ.P. Morgan,
Survived a Market CrashCategories: Unlikely Twins | Comments Off on Unlikely Twins, Part XVIII
The Best of TED: Why are we happy?
By Brian | September 3, 2010
Here’s another installment of my Best of TED series, in which I share talks from the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference that have struck me over the years as particularly insightful or fascinating.
Today’s installment represents the only time I’ve found two videos from the same presenter that struck me as worth discussing. Harvard psychologist, Dan Gilbert, discusses the concept of happiness, and uses the scientific method to examine how it is created and how long it lasts. Here’s a good way to summarize the talk:
We believe that synthetic happiness is not of the same quality as what we might call natural happiness. What are these terms? Natural happiness is what we get when we get what we wanted, and synthetic happiness is what we make when we don’t get what we wanted. And in our society, we have a strong belief that synthetic happiness is of an inferior kind.
He goes on to present situations where people don’t get what they want, but legitimately come away from the experience happier than they otherwise would have. And he proves that it’s real by testing the same theories on amnesiacs, and through the more traditional control groups.
If you feel like you’re constantly searching for happiness, give this a watch . . . and then go make some happiness of your own!
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A tale of two bridges…
By Brian | August 31, 2010
Someone at work pointed this out to me the other day.
Here is the world-famous Sydney Harbor bridge in Sydney, Australia, which people travel from all over the world to see, climb, and photograph the surrounding scenery from, particularly the famous opera house:
And here is the not-at-all famous Bayonne Bridge in Bayonne, New Jersey, which people typically only think about if it’s mentioned on the local traffic report, and wouldn’t climb it unless they worked for the State of New Jersey and were being paid to paint or repair it:
Odd how differently we treat these two structures, given that they are almost identical bridges.
Just goes to show: context is EVERYTHING…
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | 2 Comments »
Unlikely Twins, Part XVII
By Brian | August 29, 2010
It’s hard to think of two more different personalities, and both were born on August 29th…
John McCain,
Successfully Became Known as One of the Whitest Men in AmericaMichael Jackson,
Tried and Failed at the Very Same TaskCategories: Unlikely Twins | 2 Comments »
New York City Sights – The Times Square Kiss
By Brian | August 28, 2010
Walking through Times Square the other day, I came across this giant statue, appropriately standing right near the famous U.S. Army Recruiting Station where the famous VJ-Day Kiss took place back in 1945:
A couple of days later, it was gone. I have no idea from where it came, nor where it went. I’m just glad I took a picture of it so I know I didn’t dream it…
Categories: New York, New York | 4 Comments »
ISBS Review: The Apple iPad
By Brian | August 26, 2010
When Apple’s iPad first came out, I wrote this:
As things stand today, if someone were to buy me one as a gift, I
Categories: Tech Talk | 13 Comments »
Unlikely Twins, Part XVI
By Brian | August 24, 2010
One of these men became the leader of his country, the other became a FOX News television host. In any case, had things turned out differently, summit meetings on August 24th could have involved birthday cake:
Mike Huckabee,
Conservative American PoliticianYasser Arafat,
Former PLO Leader, Terrorist and Headwear Trend SetterCategories: Unlikely Twins | Comments Off on Unlikely Twins, Part XVI
By Popular Demand: The Mickey Mouse Watch
By Brian | August 20, 2010
In my (almost) annual post about Beloit College’s Mindset List, I called attention to an item suggesting that today’s college freshmen don’t have an instinct to look at their wrist to tell time in the same way that, er…, those of us “of a certain age” still do. This prompted my blogging buddy, Jason Bennion, and I to start a small discussion about cool wristwatches, in which I mentioned my custom-made Mickey Mouse watch. Jason said the story sounded “intriguing,” and well, as anyone who’s ever read this blog knows, I don’t need too much of an incentive to tell a story.
So, here goes: the story of my watch. First, let us take a moment to pray that the copyright gods are dealing with something much more important (like whether or not Wikipedia can display the FBI’s seal?) OK, let’s go…
Categories: Family Matters, The Disneyverse | 8 Comments »
