“We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.”
–Ray Bradbury

I took in Apocalypto last night, and woke up thinking about it this morning. It’s probably the most thought-provoking film I’ve seen in years. Loved it. The ending had the hair standing up on the back of my neck, with a reveal that was so profound it bordered on comedy. Brilliant. You’ll get it when you see it. [click to continue…]

The Traveler’s Dilemma

When playing this simple game, people consistently reject the rational choice. In fact, by acting illogically, they end up reaping a larger reward — an outcome that demands a new kind of formal reasoning

By Kaushik Basu

Lucy and Pete, returning from a remote Pacific island, find that the airline has damaged the identical antiques that each had purchased. An airline manager says that he is happy to compensate them but is handicapped by being clueless about the value of these strange objects. Simply asking the travelers for the price is hopeless, he figures, for they will inflate it. Instead he devises a more complicated scheme. He asks each of them to write down the price of the antique as any dollar integer between 2 and 100 without conferring together. If both write the same number, he will take that to be the true price, and he will pay each of them that amount. But if they write different numbers, he will assume that the lower one is the actual price and that the person writing the higher number is cheating. In that case, he will pay both of them the lower number along with a bonus and a penalty–the person who wrote the lower number will get $2 more as a reward for honesty and the one who wrote the higher number will get $2 less as a punishment. For instance, if Lucy writes 46 and Pete writes 100, Lucy will get $48 and Pete will get $44.

What numbers will Lucy and Pete write? What number would you write? [click to continue…]

There he is as he looks this morning. The big man. Turns two years old today, which officially puts him in the plurals.

My, how he’s grown since his introduction to the blogosphere. It’s hard to believe it’s already been two years, while at the same time, it’s hard to believe it’s only been two years.

Happy birthday, brother!

Source: Thomas Lang

A cool interview of Plant and Bonzo conducted just after the Beatles disbanded.

Get a kick out of the way these guys keep referring to them as “The” Led Zeppelin. They’re apparently under the impression that every rock band begins with “The”, as in the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who…

“This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.”
— Douglas Adams

“Ay-oh!”
Uncle Jon Lane, a camera, and Photoshop
2007

“An artist’s first responsibility is to himself.”
— Miles Davis

So it seems the new $800,000 logo for the London 2012 Olympic Games is causing quite a stir, ranging from negative comments on the web to fears for epileptics to a full blown petition to redesign it.

I personally dislike it for the simple reason that it reminds me of work I hate. To quote a hilariously accurate comment I read earlier, “It looks like an eighties heart attack.”

There have been several alternative logos suggested. I particularly love this one: [click to continue…]