[Nita]'s diary

1065425  Link to this entry 
Written about Tuesday 2009-02-03
Written: (5531 days ago)
Next in thread: 1065660, 1065726

Flash games are not supposed to be this pretty:
http://www.gettheglass.com/index2.html

1063059  Link to this entry 
Written about Friday 2009-01-16
Written: (5549 days ago)
Next in thread: 1063075

How Not to Talk to Your Kids
http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/index4.html

Five Reasons to Stop Saying "Good Job!"
http://www.alfiekohn.org/parenting/gj.htm

1062922  Link to this entry 
Written about Thursday 2009-01-15
Written: (5550 days ago)
1062727  Link to this entry 
Written about Tuesday 2009-01-13
Written: (5552 days ago)
Next in thread: 1062776, 1062961

Just The Facts About Online Youth Victimization

http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2007/05/11/just_the_facts.html

1057530  Link to this entry 
Written about Friday 2008-12-05
Written: (5592 days ago)
Previous in thread: 1057522 In Linderel's diary
Next in thread: 1057551

A book meme, via [Linderel]:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next three sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't dig for your favourite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.




Таким образом, вы иеете, к примеру, три объединенных раздела (каждый из которых построен из группы абзацев, а те - из предложений), и все они выражают единую мысль служебной записки, которая, в свою очередь, обобщает их.
Так вы можете группировать и обобщать до тех пор, пока не исчерпаете все возможные взаимосвязи. Но в любом случае документ должен быть направлен на представление одной-единственной мысли - той, которая представлена на самом высоком уровне.

Thus you have, for instance, three unified sections (each of which is constructed as a group of paragraphs, which are made out of sentences), and they all express the overall idea of the memo, which, in its turn, summarizes them.
You can group and summarize in this manner until all possible connections {between ideas} have been covered. But in any case, the document should be geared towards expressing the single idea represented at the topmost level.


- from The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking and Problem Solving by Barbara Minto, in Russian
1056953  Link to this entry 
Written about Monday 2008-12-01
Written: (5595 days ago)
Next in thread: 1057185

Neat thingies from The Economist

The background of the problems in Congo (the big one with the ongoing atrocities), a short infographic video:
http://audiovideo.economist.com/?fr_story=6123320a39d80ad56bc0157aa1e36988db01fa9f&rf=bm

A comparison of views and values of the people in the USA and the UK:
http://media.economist.com/images/20080329/CBR077.gif
http://media.economist.com/images/20080329/CBR072.gif

1053854  Link to this entry 
Written about Thursday 2008-11-06
Written: (5620 days ago)
1053674  Link to this entry 
Written about Wednesday 2008-11-05
Written: (5621 days ago)
Next in thread: 1053680

A short classic by George Orwell, which is, IMO, more honest and thus better than "1984":
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm

1052957  Link to this entry 
Written about Friday 2008-10-31
Written: (5626 days ago)

And now, for something completely different...

Some of you might know that I've been engaging in stereotyping people from the Netherlands (mostly Elftowners), but I haven't been able to find a single adjective for the job. Until now. It's "thorough". Dutchies are thorough.

Awesome case in point: http://pythonide.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-to-make-money-with-free-software.html

P.S. Clever, too ;)

1052953  Link to this entry 
Written about Friday 2008-10-31
Written: (5626 days ago)
Next in thread: 1053055
1052707  Link to this entry 
Written about Wednesday 2008-10-29
Written: (5628 days ago)
Next in thread: 1052717

And now, a bit of pick-up artist wisdom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMQFWed41SY

:D

1051772  Link to this entry 
Written about Thursday 2008-10-23
Written: (5634 days ago)

Five things said or written by Richard Feynman:



When a scientist doesn’t know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty damn sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress, we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt.



I have a friend who's an artist, and he sometimes takes a view which I don't agree with. He'll hold up a flower and say, "Look how beautiful it is," and I'll agree. But then he'll say, "I, as an artist, can see how beautiful a flower is. But you, as a scientist, take it all apart and it becomes dull." I think he's kind of nutty.



Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars — mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is "mere". I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination — stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one-million-year-old light. A vast pattern — of which I am a part... What is the pattern or the meaning or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little more about it. For far more marvellous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?



You say you are a nameless man. You are not to your wife and to your child. You will not long remain so to your immediate colleagues if you can answer their simple questions when they come into your office. You are not nameless to me. Do not remain nameless to yourself — it is too sad a way to be. Know your place in the world and evaluate yourself fairly, not in terms of the naïve ideals of your own youth, nor in terms of what you erroneously imagine your teacher's ideals are.



Looking back at the worst times, it always seems that they were times in which there were people who believed with absolute faith and absolute dogmatism in something. And they were so serious in this matter that they insisted that the rest of the world agree with them. And then they would do things that were directly inconsistent with their own beliefs in order to maintain that what they said was true.
1050679  Link to this entry 
Written about Friday 2008-10-17
Written: (5640 days ago)
1049819  Link to this entry 
Written about Sunday 2008-10-12
Written: (5645 days ago)

A couple of essays on power and privilege:

"People can be a bit like water" http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=565 (featuring Neville Longbottom)

"On Flavors of Privilege" http://www.existenceiswonderful.com/2008/09/on-flavors-of-privilege.html (shorter)

1049727  Link to this entry 
Written about Sunday 2008-10-12
Written: (5645 days ago)

And in cultural news...

I saw John Singleton's "Baby Boy" on TV last night. It's a movie with no white characters, which was refreshing. It was fairly simple and romantic, and there was one bad guy, but I liked it because it felt warm compassionate towards the characters despite all the dysfunctional shit going on.

And [Levoton] has introduced me to the love that is
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=flight+of+the+conchords
Thanks! :)

1049709  Link to this entry 
Written about Sunday 2008-10-12
Written: (5645 days ago)

Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception

"Participants who lacked control were more likely to perceive a variety of illusory patterns, including seeing images in noise, forming illusory correlations in stock market information, perceiving conspiracies, and developing superstitions. Additionally, we demonstrated that increased pattern perception has a motivational basis by measuring the need for structure directly and showing that the causal link between lack of control and illusory pattern perception is reduced by affirming the self."

Science article abstract: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/322/5898/115
A few details on ScienceNOW: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sciencenow;2008/1002/2
BBC coverage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7649970.stm

Mmmm. It feels good to have my intuitive conclusions supported by science.

In other words, if you're feeling chronically stressed, overwhelmed or helpless, get that sorted ASAP, because it's impairing your judgement.

1049380  Link to this entry 
Written about Friday 2008-10-10
Written: (5647 days ago)

And now, a quote from [Serwa]'s description (yes, the whole thing is a quote, including the picture :P):



<img:http://elftown.eu/img/drawing/389_1220645408.jpg> I have a broad taste when it comes to art.


I ROFL'd.

P.S. I went to take a look at his house because he had been being a dick in the Mainstreet poll comments, but then apologized. Good PR in action, I suppose ;D
1049215  Link to this entry 
Written about Thursday 2008-10-09
Written: (5648 days ago)
1048922  Link to this entry 
Written about Wednesday 2008-10-08
Written: (5650 days ago)
Next in thread: 1048924
1046683  Link to this entry 
Written about Tuesday 2008-09-23
Written: (5665 days ago)
Next in thread: 1046804

Today, for the first time in my life since I hit puberty, I was able to look in the mirror and see my real face. Not the cute!me, not the ugly!me - just me.

P.S. The face in my photo is a bit of a pretty-face, though. It's for you ;)

1044773  Link to this entry 
Written about Tuesday 2008-09-09
Written: (5678 days ago)
Next in thread: 1044831

<rant>
See, this is why I prefer to read slash (as in, fanfiction with gay sex) rather than het (same with straight sex):


I could never have forced her.

I … I truly care for her.




This, in an otherwise decent fic. Straight drama/romance/smut, without any inclination towards touching the more dysfunctional aspects of life (which I do enjoy in fiction, in case you're wondering). And here I was, with my naive belief that not raping someone was a part of basic human decency. Silly me! Obviously, it's a sign of True Love. *sighs* How romantic.
</rant>
 The logged in version 

News about Elftown
Help - How does Elftown work?
Get $10 worth of Bitcoin/Ethereum for free (you have to buy cryptos for $100 to get it) and support Elftown!
 
Elftown – the social site made for fans of scifi and fantasy

Visit our facebook page