On Hannibal, and (re)defining success and failure

Andreas Kluth on how Hannibal's life helped him get out of a stifling job.

PS: this is not about Dr. Lecter.

The Parent Trap: on $800 strollers, Baby Einstein and Gymboree

It's easy, as new parents (and maybe not so new parents, too), to fall into the trap of thinking, well, if I don't do xyz for my child, then I'm denying them something essential or I'm not a good parent or many variations on the theme.

I agree with most of the author's conclusions. What do you think?

An interview with Norton Juster, author of Phantom Tollbooth

“Today, one of the great aims of education is that you should always have something to do, and it should always be very meaningful,” Juster said, looking as dispirited as his young protagonist. “Kids now are all about technology. They’re very busy, very regimented.” 

“I don’t know how I would write ‘The Phantom Tollbooth’ today,” he says. “Or even if I would.”

I've been saying this for years. As parents we feel that we have to constantly enrich our children's lives by sending them for various classes and activities. My view is that kids need time to daydream, to process everything they've seen and experienced that day, and from that processing comes wondrous things.

Without it, it's like they're spectators of their own lives. Too much is happening, too quickly, for them to make sense of it, to learn enough from it that they can incorporate it into themselves.

"Juster’s “The Phantom Tollbooth” broke open the mold of anodyne kids’ books like “Dick and Jane.” Publishers said that kids would never go for a book whose vocabulary stretched to include such choice morsels as “macabre,” “dissonance” and “dodecahedron.” They were wrong." 

This is something else I've said for years: we don't give kids credit for the intelligence they possess. We dumb things down to "their level" for various reasons, but we're doing them a huge disservice. Kids are much brighter than we think they are, but they don't know it, and even if they do, they'll believe you because you're the parent, the teacher, the grown up.

School Lunch Proposals Set Off a Dispute

For the first time in 15 years, changes are being proposed to the federally financed school lunch program. A quarter-cup of tomato paste on pizza will no longer be considered a vegetable, but potatoes apparently will continue to be


The proposals are predictably being blocked by makers of frozen pizza and French fries, saying kids won't eat their food if they are implements.  


The National Potato Council, not surprisingly, agreed. They said the proposal to offer fewer weekly servings of potatoes in favor of other vegetables and fruits was overly restrictive. John Keeling, the council’s CEO says “... 90 percent of the potatoes served in schools are baked, boiled or mashed.” 


I doubt that's true, but even if it is, a Harvard study says that even boiled potatoes contribute to weight gain and other problems, like obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. 


Lawmakers from agricultural states are also against the new proposals.

The House has passed a bill directing the Agriculture Department to basically start over with a new proposal while the Senate has restricted the department from cutting back on potatoes.

“This whole fight obscures the fact that the U.S.D.A.’s proposal is about helping kids eat a wide variety of vegetable and make lunches overall healthier,” said Margo G. Wootan, at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit research group. “It’s about our children’s health. I think that point has long since been lost."

Good point.

Hilarious public exchange between Oracle and Autonomy CEO

This is something I almost never say, but this is an exception: you have to read this - it's very, very funny.


Autonomy is a technology company that former HP CEO Leo Apotheker bought recently (it was also partly responsible for his "former" CEO status, but that is another story, that is almost as funny). 


Oracle, in response to the acquisition, said that Autonomy had been offered to them as well, but they declined because they felt that the valuation was too high. Autonomy's CEO Mike Lynch issued a statement denying that this ever happened and that they weren't responsible if some investment bank shopped them around.


Oracle then issues their statement, which unlike 99.999% of all such statements bluntly described when Mike Lynch came to Oracle, who he met with, what they talked about (hint: buy my company). Mike responds by saying, "Well, come to think of it, I did meet with Oracle, but it was a very casual, brief meeting that was purely technical."


Oracle issues another statement, titled Another Whopper from Autonomy and uploaded the presentation that Autonomy used to woo them. The link to the presentation is called Please Buy Autonomy. Courtesy of John Gruber at Daring Fireball.

Michael Dell's tweets on HP's strategy

He once said he’d manage Apple Inc. differently if he were in charge, saying, “I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.”

The comment was made in 1997, shortly after Steve Jobs returned to the company he founded. Fourteen years later, Apple is the most highly valued technology company in the world.

That wasn’t lost on some of Mr. Dell’s followers on Thursday.

One wrote: “Last time u made fun of another co. (AAPL) they ended up being worth 13 times as much as yours so I guess HPQ will be ok.  ”

The Rise of the Five-Year Four-Year Degree

How long does it take to earn a four-year degree?

Stretching out a four-year degree means extra years of tuition costs, and additional years of labor market earnings and experience forgone.

How to land your kids in therapy

Tremendous food for thought

Van Halen's No Brown M&Ms clause

Van Halen had a clause in their concert contracts that stipulated that the band would “be provided with one large bowl of M&M candies, with all brown candies removed”.


At the heart of any major concert is the contract. Most contracts involving large venue concerts are jam-packed with riders, most of which involve technical details specific to the band’s stage design.


For instance, a rider might say “Article 148: There will be fifteen amperage voltage sockets at twenty-foot spaces, spaced evenly, providing nineteen amperes total, on beams suspended from the ceiling of the venue, which shall be able to support a total gross weight of 5,600 pounds each, and be suspended no less than 30 feet, but no more than 37.5 feet, above the stage surface”.


Van Halen’s concert contracts would have several hundred such demands. The band needed a way to know that their contract had been read fully and that's where the no brown M&Ms clause came in! 


Love it! And everyone thought they were being big babies.

Subconscious Information Processing

"He explained that once your brain starts working on a problem, it doesn't stop. If you get your mind wrapped around a problem with a fair bit of time left to solve it, the brain will solve the problem subconsciously over time and one day you'll sit down to do some more work on it and the answer will be right in front of you."

Mass State Lottery - a sure shot?

"a secret about the Massachusetts State Lottery: For a few days about every three months, Cash WinFall may be the most reliably lucrative lottery game in the country."

A Google Earth puzzle from The Atlantic

Beautiful images, up to 5.5 miles (9 kms) wide. Guess where they are

Got Harrison Ford?

Got Villains?

Great write up of website response to a dramatic increase in traffic

What is the Visual Thesaurus?

"The Visual Thesaurus is an interactive dictionary and thesaurus which creates word maps that blossom with meanings and branch to related words."

For all you aspiring (and closet) DJsmjn km.

"Mixxx is free, open source DJ software that gives you everything you need to perform live mixes."

MySpace and Lady Gaga

According to the Beeb, MySpace lost 10 million users last month (for anyone still interested). In related news, Lady Gaga becomes the first person to cross 9 million followers on Twitter.

It's not really related, but I found it interesting, not to mention unfathomable - 9 million?!

Great deal from MacUpdate

11 apps that are worth $381.00 now available for $49.00. Seems like a good deal to me.

Groupon valued at "at least" 15 billion

Actually, Groupon thinks they're worth closer to 25 billion. Are you kidding me?

The End of Free News?

The Times announced it will start charging readers who read more than 20 stories online. There's already there's a workaround, if they have even a bit of success others are going to want to jump on the bandwagon.

How to Get Good at Making Money, by Jason Fried of 37signals

37signals makes a suite of collaboration tools that are easy to use and intuitive. Like all great software they just work. You don't have to spend hours figuring out how to use it. You can just use it to make your job easier.

Jason Fried, it's co-founder, has been an entrepreneur since he was 14. He's always believed in being profitable from Day 1 and here he shares his ideas on making money.

Lost city of Atlantis might be found, thanks to tsunami

I'm not into the whole lost cities thing, but even I'm interested in knowing if Atlantis existed. This research team thinks they've found it - in Spain.

Should Plant-Based Plastics be Recycled?

I always thought the answer was yes. Turns out the answer is no. Econundrum: Recycle Plant-Based Plastics? | Mother Jones

Amazon Video Streaming Now Free for Prime Subscribers

Get Amazon's video streaming service for free if you're already a Prime member. Or get 2 day delivery and video streaming for $79.00 a year http://goo.gl/AW1kU

Either way it's a great deal, especially if you use Amazon a lot, which I do.

Interesting take on LinkedIn

This article is about the author's struggle to close his account, but what I found interesting is his POV on the value of LinkedIn http://goo.gl/k28o3

Should an employer be allowed to ask for your Facebook login?

For most of us this is a rhetorical question, but the Maryland Department of Corrections forced a man to give them his Facebook password when he was interviewing for a job with them
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/02/should-employers-be-allowed-to-ask-for-your-facebook-login/71480/

Mini iPhone Coming

The Journal and Bloomberg both reliable sources of recent iPhone news are reporting that a new, smaller iPhone is expected to be released this summer and will be less than half the price of the current version.

Also expected is that Mobile Me may soon be a free service. It currently costs 99.00 pa

Want popcorn that's tastier, healthier and cheaper? Make your own!

There are concerns about eating microwaveable popcorn, so I decided to make my own this weekend. It was surprisingly easy, plus you get to use your own ingredients, so you know what's in it, not to mention all the chemicals and preservatives.

I made mine with extra virgin organic coconut oil (Nutiva is the best), sea salt and butter. I added garlic powder for the second batch.

My son loved it and so did I. And I'm not a huge fan of popcorn.

Is anyone using Runkeeper? Let me know so we can connect...

... and hold each other accountable! Runkeeper Pro is now free, btw. It used to be 10 bucks! I just started using it, but it has good reviews

Keeping your credit clean if you're getting a mortgage

As of Feb 1st, banks are required to check your credit history for 120 days prior and right up to your closing day - so avoid any large credit card purchases till you close! More stringent screening means borrowers must watch credit until closing day

Video: Uncontacted Tribe in Brazilian Jungle

An amazing video of an "uncontacted tribe" taken from a plane. An uncontacted tribe is exactly that: a group of people that has not been in contact with the outside world. And getting in contact can be deadly for them because they have no immunity to even things like the common cold.

Unfortunately, these tribes tend to live in resource rich areas and there's a lot of pressure to pretend they don't exist. This video proves that they do exist and also provides a link for you to show your support.

Video: Uncontacted Tribe in Brazilian Jungle | Wired Science | Wired.com