There is no good or bad - just what you make of it

From a post by Leo at ZenHabits,

Hamlet said, ‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.’
He was right. Without the human mind, things just happen, and they are not good or bad. It’s only when we apply the filter of our judgment that they become good or bad, beautiful or ugly.
A weed is only a weed when we don’t like it. Children are only naughty if we don’t like their actions. Life only sucks if you judge it as bad.
But what about truly horrible tragedies, like a plague or tsunami or the Holocaust? Surely those are bad? Sure, through the lens of the judgment we’ve been raised to make, they are terrible. But then again, remove the judgment, and then … they simply happened. Death and cruelty will probably always make us sad, but they’ve always happened and always will, whether we like them or hate them.

Full post.

So the lesson to take from this is to acknowledge that everything just is. Life happens and your interpretation of it and judgment based on that interpretation is what makes it good or bad.

I'm not suggesting to not interpret events around - that's too passive and hippy for me.  Just realize what you are doing, you might learn something about yourself when you understand why you are reacting the way you are.  And when your reaction is intentional, that's when you are in a powerful position.

History of M&M's

After Forrest Mars, Sr. witnessed soldiers eating bite-sized chocolates covered in a sugar coating during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s, he brought the idea back to the United States and started manufacturing his own version, called M&M's. In 1941, M&M's were included in U.S. soldiers' rations during World War II because they "melt in your mouth, not in your hands" (the tagline didn't actually appear until 1954). Good in nearly any environment, including hot summers, M&M's became very popular. The little candies were sold in cardboard tubes until 1948, when the packaging changed to the brown bag that we still see today. The imprint of an "M" on the candies first occurred in 1950 first in black, but later changed to white.

But why call them M&M's?
In 1941, Forrest Mars Sr., of the Mars candy company, struck a deal with Bruce Murrie, son of famed Hershey president William Murrie, to develop a hard shelled candy with chocolate at the center. Mars needed Hershey’s chocolate because he anticipated there would be a chocolate shortage in the pending war, which turned out to be correct.

As such, the deal gave Murrie a 20% stake in the newly developed M&M; this stake was later bought out by Mars when chocolate rationing ended at the end of the war, in 1948.

The name thus stood for “Mars & Murrie” the co-creators of the candy. Tada!


Bonus trivia:
At the time of his death at age 95 in 1999, Forrest Mars, Sr. had grown his father’s company to the point where he now had amassed a fortune for himself of over 4 billion dollars. At that time, he ranked 30th on the list of richest Americans, with his sons Forrest Jr and John ranking 29th and 31st. He left the company to his children who still exclusively own it today (it is not a publicly traded company).

I want to do this! - Water Cup Prank

As I don't live in a dorm I need to find a place to work where I can perform the prank outlined on Instructables.

Funny, (mostly) harmless, funny, and just a damn good prank.  Below is an embedded version:

The Official Not-It Rules

The Definition:
· "Not it" exempts a person from performing a deed provided he or she is not the last person to call "not it"
· The last person to call not it must perform the deed at hand, provided he or she lies in the realm of responsibility

The Realm of Responsibility
· Any person who is present and falls into the realm of responsibility must call not it or perform the deed
· The realm of responsibility applies to anyone who might reasonably be expected to perform the deed in question (parents do not usually fall under the realm of responsibility, e.g.)

The Extent of the Game:
· Once one person has called "not it" for a specific deed, the game comes into effect
· Once the game is in effect, all must play or perform the deed
· Once and only once, each person may claim not to understand the concept of "not it." That person will then read the rules or have them explained to him or her, and upon the next invocation of "not it" he or she must participate or perform the deed.

The Call:
· A person must say aloud the phrase "not it" and touch his or her nose before all others present have also done so after it has been announced that the deed in question must be done.

The Situation:
· "Not it" may be called in group-settings with more than two people (for two people settings, a best of three game ofrock, paper, scissors is employed)
· The call for a task does not exempt one from having to call "not it" (see exceptions)

The Announcement:
· In sibling situations, the announcement is made by a parent/guardian (see exceptions)
· Anyone may announce the deed, however, unless he or she is an exception, he or she must also call "not it"

Exceptions
· Parents, when calling, are usually exempt from the realm of responsibility


Courtesy of everything2.com

Worldmapper - squishing the world 1,395+ different ways

You:

What would the world look like if it was mapped according to the relative populations?

Me:

Glad you asked that! Here it is:

This is the result of WORLDMAPPER: The world as you've never seen it before.  Where there are literally hundreds of different maps that display the world geography as a relative measure of something.  There's everything from % of population making <$1/day to internet usage. This is an awesome way to display a helluva lot of information so it can be easily processed and understood by a viewer.

As far as I can tell all this does is assigns a grid to a standard map and then each vertex of the grid is given a value relative to a neutral position.  Example: a geographic point which is known to have $2/year income is going to be 2 pixels away from any neighbouring pixels.  The coloured map just stretches or pinches as the grid moves, kinda like stretching a blanket.

If only this could be setup to display on a digital picture frame.  Each image would have to be a picture of the map with a description explaining the relationship it's adjusted for.  Who's up for making images of each and adding the label so I can use it in iPhoto?
Not it!

OK fine.  We'll just all use it as a total time waster at work like everybody else.

Water going uphill? Cool!

CrunchGear is reporting on research just published by some scientists from the University of Rochester.  They've been able to get water to naturally go UPHILL.  Yup, no extra power or assistance required.

How'd they do it?  Well basically they made a silicon surface more attractive to water molecules than to themselves.  So each molecule is basically fighting to get closer to the silicon than the others.  The result is speeds of up to 3.5 per second.

The best part is that they used lasers to do it! Hell yeah, more lasers is always a good thing.
Oh, don't expect this to be commercialized any time soon. But that means we can dream!


From CrunchGear.

Cool T-Shirt - SublimI'mAwesomeinal

I'd totally wear this.  It's just low-key enough to not get noticed by most. But funny because it only makes fun of me.

From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - So Far this is the oldest I've ever been.

From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - Spoilt

Don't you just hate spoilers?

From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - Now Panic and Freak out

AHHHHH!

ok - I'm done, now what?


From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - Haikus are easy ...

This cracked me right up.

From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - Sea Saw

Get it?  Har Har Har!

It's a total groaner of a visual joke.  I like it!


From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - Homework Evidence

See Principle Belding, I have proof!

From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - Imagine me, a Ninja Pirate, riding atop a zombie unicorn...

I think I just had my life goal explained in a simple t-shirt.

From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - Rock is dead and paper killed it.

Just esoteric enough to get past the cool kids yet keep your geekyness intact.

From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - Stick Figures in Peril

Next challenge: Determine what each one is trying to explain ("how not to die" is not an acceptable answer)

Bonus: find real-life examples of each sign.

From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - Scare List

Funny AND Educational.  Wow, I didn't know such a thing existed, let alone is wearable.

From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - It's just safer to assume I know Karate

This is worth wearing just to see the reactions of passerby's as they read it. Just stay away from the crazies, they'll probably call you on it.

From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - A Unicorn for Boys

Hell yeah this is my kinda Unicorn.

From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - Meat is Murder. Tasty, tasty murder.

The slogan is funny, almost offensive in a "yes, but ..." kind of way.

From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - Heaven and Earth

OK, this one just looked cool to me.

From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - The War Against Work"

At first glance you will look like a military geek.  But then you'll be a socially commenting geek.  Brilliant on multiple levels.

From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - Arcade Expressionism

Those who get it will crack right up.  Those who don't will still like the impressionistic quality of the art (yeah, I don't know what that means either).

From threadless

Cool T-Shirt - Forget Youth. What this World could use is a Fountain of Smart.

It's funny because it's true.
It's a bit cheeky without going too far.  And those that would probably be offended wouldn't take the time to read the whole thing ... or fully understand it if they did.

From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - A Simple Plan

Now if only life had such a straight forward strategy.

From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - Stop Animal Testing

 From threadless.

Cool T-Shirt - This Game Sucks From

From threadless.

SyFy wants a Battlestar Galactica Spinoff

Umm, didn't they already do that?  It's called Caprica. Oh wait, the report states that they're happy with how Caprica's performing in the all-important 18-49 year olds market.  So is it Stargate Universe that they're trying to replace?  Or are they just attempting expand their presence and control of all original content that is considered Sci-Fi (sorry, read that 'Space Opera').

According to these reports, SyFy executives and producers are looking to position this Battlestar Galactica -verse based series as  "a return to the franchise's space-opera roots".


From The Hollywood Reporter via AOLtv

Paralympic Opening Ceremony - Review

Overall I liked the ceremony - it had a lot of heart, even if it wasn't as big or showy as the Olympic one.  It's purpose and tone was entirely different than the Olympic Opening Ceremony.  I suppose that makes sense.  The goal of the Olympics was to showcase Vancouver, and Canada and how well the organizing committee can put on a successful games - it's a huge commercial really. Whereas the Paralympics are focused solely on the athletes and the fact they are participating.

And really, while obviously Canadian examples of Terry Fox and Rick Hansen were profiled, the theme of "One Inspires Many" fits very well with the International Paralympic Committee's vision and mission.

Interestingly, before the Olympic Opening Ceremony most interest surrounded the probability of Rick Hansen or Terry Fox's parents being the final torch bearer who was to light the cauldron.  As it turned out, all were involved on the final day's run (Rick Hansen making it into the stadium).  And at no time did I ever hear anyone make any Olympic vs. Paralympic arguments.  It was all about how to best represent Vancouver, Canada, athletic endeavour and the human spirit. Kinda makes you warm and fuzzy inside, doesn't it?

Paralympics broadcast live on CTV

Cudos to CTV for broadcasting the Opening Ceremonies for Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games live.  They weren't going to do it (as it had never been broadcast live before).  Kinda a nice touch eh?

They've upload a great video overview of the ceremony (don't worry, it's short).

Interestingly, just as in the Olympic Opening ceremony the colour commentator quietly left the host (the venerable Brian Williams) half way through in order to participate in the lighting of the torch.  It seems that CTV and VANOC think alike in terms of who Canadians want to be involved.

Some official photos have been uploaded VANOC already. And if you missed it or just don't like the talking commentators, ParalympicSport.tv has a stream of the official IPC broadcast feed. Go Internet!

Everyone in Canada was Watching the Olympic Men's Gold Medal Game - Here's Proof!

The water utility in Edmonton, EPCOR, published the most incredible graph of water consumption last week. By now you’ve probably heard that up to 80% of Canadians were watching last Sunday’s gold medal Olympic hockey game. So I guess it stands to reason that they’d all go pee between periods.
But still—the degree to which the water consumption matches with the key breaks in the hockey game is stunning.

EPCOR regularly tracks water consumption during major sporting events, and saw a similar milestone pattern in the 2006 Stanley Cup final with the Edmonton Oilers, Mr. Gibbs says.

Similar surges were seen across the country during Vancouver's Olympic Men's gold medal hockey game. Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator reported a 300 megawatt increase in power use just before the game started as people fired up their TVs.

I'd be really interested to see Vancouver's consumption from Metro Vancouver and BC Hydro.  But the real question is: what would have happened if they all flushed at once?

Courtesy: Pat's Papers & Globe & Mail

Study: traffic jam with no cause ... except the drivers.

As a non-driver living in the urban lifestyle in the concrete jungle, traffic always interests me.  NewScientist has a short video on a study performed in Japan that looks at the cause of traffic jams that seemingly have no cause.  The study proves that there is indeed a cause, but it's not an accident; it's a result of the drivers simply driving.



The lesson: There is no traffic jam and yet you ARE the traffic jam.   ooOOoo!

Experiencing Selves vs. Remembering Selves from TED.com

OK, this is cool.

How does one measure happiness? (no, I don't mean Happyness, although that was a good movie).  In the embedded TEDtalk below, Nobel laureate and founder of behavioural economics Daniel Kahneman reveals how our "experiencing selves" and "remembering selves" perceive happiness differently.  This new insight has profound implications for economics, public policy and our own self-awareness.

[ted id=779]

Interesting eh? I found the final example to be most interesting.  Specifically the results of the Gallop poll which looked at the correlation between happiness and financial income.  The result was that, in the USA, a threshold of $60,000.00 exists.  Below $60,000.00 income is highly correlated to happiness, but beyond that value, it's flat.  BUT that only holds true for the experiencing self.  The remembering self likes money, and wants to have lots of it.

So, to quote Daniel:

Below 60,000 dollars a year, people are unhappy, and they get progressively unhappier the poorer thy get.  Above that, we get an absolutely flat line.  I mean I've rarely seen lines so flat.  Clearly what is happening is money does not buy you experiential happiness, but lack of money certainly buys you misery, and we can measure that misery very, very clearly.  In terms of the other self, the remembering self, you get a different story.  The more money you earn the more satisfied you are.  That does not hold for emotions.

So then the question becomes, how can I get $60,000 to experience right now?!  :P