YouTubeTime.com makes it easy to link to a specific time in a YouTube video.
To link to 2 minutes & 14 seconds into this video of dancing in a Microsoft store, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSAXEVXvNz8, add #t=2m14s to the end of the url:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSAXEVXvNz8#t=2m14s.
Did you catch the shoplifting? (via @codinghorror)
What’s a spurious relationship?
Here’s one: People who eat ice cream are more likely to drown. Both incidence of ice cream eating and rates of drowning are related to summertime. The relationship between ice cream and drowning is spurious. That is, there is no relationship. Yet they appear related because they are both related to a third variable.
(Image via the amazing Superdickery)
The Principle of Uncertainty is a bad name. In science or outside of it we are not uncertain; our knowledge is merely confined, within a certain tolerance. We should call it the Principle of Tolerance.
And I propose that name in two senses: First, in the engineering sense, science has progressed, step by step, the most successful enterprise in the ascent of man, because it has understood that the exchange of information between man and nature, and man and man, can only take place with a certain tolerance.
But second, I also use the word, passionately, about the real world. All knowledge, all information between human beings, can only be exchanged within a play of tolerance. And that is true whether the exchange is in science, or in literature, or in religion, or in politics, or in any form of thought that aspires to dogma.
It’s a major tragedy of my lifetime and yours that scientists were refining, to the most exquisite precision, the Principle of Tolerance, and turning their backs on the fact that all around them, tolerance was crashing to the ground beyond repair.
The Principle of Uncertainty or, in my phrase, the Principle of Tolerance, fixed once for all the realization that all knowledge is limited. It is an irony of history that at the very time when this was being worked out there should rise, under Hitler in Germany and other tyrants elsewhere, a counter-conception: a principle of monstrous certainty.
When the future looks back on the 1930s, it will think of them as a crucial confrontation of culture as I have been expounding it, the ascent of man, against the throwback to the despots’ belief that they have absolute certainty.
It is said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers.
That is false: tragically false. Look for yourself.
This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers.
Into this pond were flushed the ashes of four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance. It was done by dogma. It was done by ignorance.
When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.
Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known; we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error, and is personal.
Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. In the end, the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: ‘I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ: Think it possible you may be mistaken.’ We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to touch people.
–Jacob Bronowski, “Knowledge or Certainty” episode of the 1973 BBC series The Ascent of Man
(Transcription source, formatting and emphasis mine).
I sometimes shave with a straight razor, and always use an old-fashioned brush and mug of soap.
I try to review every shaving soap I try. So far I have short reviews for over a two dozen shaving soaps. (Those reviews are totally affiliate-free and self-funded, by the way.)
The biggest thing I’ve learned doing this (besides the unfortunate fact that most soaps irritate my skin) is to always, always, always date anything you write. Tastes change with time. Soap formulations change with time. Availability and price change with time. Dates are hugely helpful at deciding if a bit of information is still relevant. Sadly, I learned this the hard way — most of my reviews are undated. When I claim that two soaps are both the “best” there’s no way to know which is the more informed superlative.
Here’s the short list of soaps I always try to have on hand (most-preferred first):
Today the FTC ruled that bloggers must disclose “material connections” to products they review. More complex regulations are a pain, but I’m in favor of increased transparency.
So, in solidarity with the ruling, I’d like to disclose that I use AmazonAssociates program when I link to stuff on Amazon.com.
Here’s how the program works. I make my links to Amazon products, “affiliate links”. If you click one then buy the item, I get a kickback (usually 4% the purchase price). I do not get paid if you click the links, only if you click the links and buy the item. I do not get paid just for showing the links on my blog. I don’t get paid if you decide the buy the item a few days later, and navigate to it without clicking a link on my blog.
To date I’ve “made” $1.73 over about 3 years; but Amazon won’t disburse payments under $10, so I’ve yet to see a single cent.
There are books and items that I think are worth linking to. Whoever I link to gets a (microscopic) boost from my blog. I like that Amazon gives me something in return — at least in theory. And that’s why I take the time to use affiliate links, even though I’ve gotten a $0 return for 3 years of work.
Yeah, I guess there’s some unbridled optimism in there too. If I could only be one of the top 100 technology blogs, I’d have enough readers to actually make money.
I also generally feel comfortable linking to Amazon.com. Their prices aren’t always the best, but they’re competitive on the whole. Their service is the standard for online resellers. I figure readers have a very good idea of what they’re getting if they buy from them. And yes, sometimes I do direct people to buy somewhere else.
And to be absolutely clear, everything I’ve reviewed or recommended to date was purchased with my money. If I’m lucky enough to get gifts from some amazing company (hint!), I’ll disclose it in my review.
If any link on my blog points to amazon.com (like this), I get a small (usually 4%) commission off the item iff you buy it immediately after clicking the link.
The past few rainy days here in Austin have been a welcome respite from the drought, but it means mosquitoes. The best remedy I know for a mosquito bite is Thayer’s Superhazel,
Most importantly, it numbs mosquito bites quickly, and seems to help reduce swelling. It’s most effective for me when I use a little spray bottle to apply it; then blow on the bite or put it under a fan. Airflow + menthol = instant relief.
What do you think works best for treating mosquito bites?
You can’t send a message over AIM that has a JavaScript event handler name, followed by = in it. The message seems to be blocked on the server, not in the client, as this behavior was observed in different AIM clients (iChat, Adium, and meebo.)
The following messages can’t be sent over AIM:
onclick=
onclick =
Yo dawg, I heard you liked onclick= in your JavaScript…
Interestingly, using a newline, instead of space, between the handler name and = allows the message to be sent, even though it is still valid HTML/JavaScript. For example, you can send,
onclick =x(); /*this is fine*/
I suspect there is an interesting security story behind all of this. If you know how and why this filtering came to pass, I please leave a comment.
Thanks to Dustin Silverman for helping me investigate this. In case you were wondering how I stumbled onto this behavior — I was sending snippets of HTML from twitterglyphs.com/ over AIM.
My first iPhone app is in the iTunes App Store!
There are many apps for reading Wikipedia. Prometheus is different. It’s an editor for the Simple English Wikipedia
Simple English Wikipedia is like regular English Wikipedia, but it’s written with simple words and grammar, so kids and non-native speakers can easily grasp it.
Simple Wikipedia makes a complex world comprehensible. Use it to teach what you know to someone who wants to know it.
As I’ve said before, I sometimes shave with a straight razor. Honestly, straight razors are worse than safety razors by just about any metric you pick1 — except the most important one: fun.
They turn a 40 second routine into a 40 minute ritual. It takes more work, to get a slightly coarser cut, but when I’m done I feel pampered yet accomplished. Kind of like if I went to an invigorating spa, but actually made something instead of relaxing.
If you are thinking about trying straight razor shaving, here’s my advice on what razor to try first.
The Hess EZY Shave Razor is the best all-around razor to see if straight-razor shaving is for you.
It’s easy to maintain, because it takes disposable blades. No sharpening or stropping required.
It has exactly the same size and ergonomics as a real straight razor.
Of course, the blade is different. But the long and stiff hair shaper blades it takes aren’t too far off.
It’s affordable, and not just the sticker price. Because, it takes easy-to-find “injector” blades as well as hair shaper blades, it’s affordable to keep using. (Tip: to find cheap injector blades, look for “mini shaper blades“, they are the same thing, but without the “key” for loading into an injector razor).
I’ve been throughly satisfied with my EZY Shave, and I still use it today. It’s handy for trimming places like the upper lip, that are difficult to reach with a safety razor.
Actually, this is the cheap.
FROMM Hair Shapers can be had for $3 to $7. Check your local beauty supply store first, so you don’t pay more in shipping than the razor itself costs!
LIke the EZY Shave, it uses disposable hair shaper blades, so it’s easy to maintain.
This little fellow isn’t made for shaving, and it feels cheap, but when you take the guard off, it works … well enough. I’ve gotten descent shaves from one. The ergonomics aren’t exactly like a real straight razor, but they are close enough to give you a feel for what using one is like.
The bottom line is that it’s such a small investment that there’s very little risk in trying the FROMM. If all else fails, it’s still a perfectly good hair shaper. I still use mine to trim my sideburns.
Another good option is to ask around on forums like Straight Razor Place, and see if an old-timer will sell you a no-frills shave-ready razor on the cheap ($10-$30).
The disadvantage of starting with the real thing, is that it adds more variables, and you’ll need to get a strop to prepare the razor for each shave. (Sorry, I don’t know any good deals on strops, try a local knife shop.)
In other words, you’ll have to learn how to shave and maintain a straight razor. Bad stropping technique will dull a blade, or make it uncomfortable to use. That means more to go wrong. It also means one more thing to rule out as the cause of a bad shave, making it harder to evaluate the experience.
This is how I learned to use a straight razor. In retrospect, I don’t think it was the wisest way to go. But for many people, you haven’t tried something, unless you’ve really tried it.
1Some folks really believe a straight razor gives the closest (and yes, most nick free) shaves of their lives. I’m not one of them. I don’t think most people who’ve tried a straight razor are. That’s not to say true believers are wrong — preparing and using a bare blade give you ultimate control of every aspect of the shave. But machines still make sharper blades, while people inevitably make mistakes. And in my experience, some nooks and curves (eg. bottom of chin) can be reached better with a safety razor.
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