synapse collapse

January 26th, 2012

justinmezzell:

Beer + God = Great story for RELEVANT.

This made me think of a Guinness and Ireland, which made me happy.

Reblogged from thnk Gd its ftl.

January 23rd, 2012

Zoom

Fabulous. Alan Sailer splits a bullet (and many, many other items.) Only click through to his work if you have some time to kill.

January 12th, 2012

Zoom

zenhabits:

(via The Problem With America’s Economic System | Prose Before Hos)

Why we’re all idiots for not being Members of The Party. (That’s what I’m going to call Republicans now … Members of The Party.)

Reblogged from Aaron's Hotlinks

January 12th, 2012

Zoom

inky:

quotevadis:

“You get up early in the morning and you work all day. That’s the only secret.”

— Philip Glass, an American composer. One of the highest profile composers writing “classical” music today, he is often said to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. His music is also often (controversially) described as minimalist, along with the work of the other “major minimalists” La Monte Young, Terry Riley and Steve Reich.

This caught my eye because I’ve had his music on heavy rotation lately, but check this out: the source of the image is a blog named Giraffes Drawn By People Who Should Not Be Drawing Giraffes, which bills itself as “the only website dedicated exclusively to giraffes drawn by people who should not be drawing giraffes.” There is indeed a giraffe drawn by Philip Glass, who most certainly should not be drawing giraffes.

My faith in the internet is restored.

And Drawings… Is run by a fellow Minnesotan! I’m honored to be geographically near the creator of such a wonderful project!

(Source: prettyawfulgiraffes.files.wordpress.com)

Reblogged from Driveby Blogging

January 12th, 2012

s4xton:

emm-in-sem:

labocat:

Taken from the Honest Girl Scouts campaign. For a campaign trying to get people /not/ to buy cookies and /not/ support the GSUSA, this is doing an awful lot to suddenly make me want /to/ support the GSUSA. (and I’m saying this a a former Girl Scout of about 6 years who hasn’t bought cookies in years because they’re too expensive).

I see so much acceptance here, and especially in a time in children’s lives where acceptance is so important, taking that away from them is just cruel.

BUY ALL THE COOKIES!

And now I’m more interested in Girl Scout Cookies.

This is exactly the kind of dangerous activity that we all knew the girl scouts were engaged in: trying to incentivize each of us to further fatten ourselves for a number of very, very good reasons. I’ll be buying every damn box of thin mints I can get my hands on.

Reblogged from Aaron's Hotlinks

January 3rd, 2012

Zoom

underpaidgenius:

- Tim De Chent, If the world’s population lived in one city… via Per Square Mile

So, if we can move past the haphazard historical, cultural, and biological reasons that people live where they currently are, we could pick a few hundred places in the world where there are good reasons to live, and move all the people to those places. Places with reliable water, equitable climates, available farmland. And then we can rewild the rest of the world.

Fascinating

Reblogged from Utne Reader

December 28th, 2011

Zoom

December 17th, 2011

wreckandsalvage:

The Alchemist / Ninkasi / Stone More Brown Than Black IPA (by stonebrew)

There is a lot to say about good branded content.

There is even more to say for a booming brewer like Stone, who can make you fart rainbows after one of their brews, but still keeps in touch and works with the relative nobodies to keep things fresh and real. Their whole collaboration series this year has been good stuff.

Reblogged from WRECK & SALVAGE

December 3rd, 2011

Cargo Cult Security

Oh my, but I am glad that I work with some sharp folks. Mike Janke over at Last In - First Out wrote a post on Cargo Cult System Administration, or the practice of taking action without understanding why in hope that things will get better.

Following a security recipe without understanding the risks you are addressing. If you don’t understand how hackers infiltrate your systems and ex-filtrate your data, then your DLP, Firewalls, IDS, SEIM, etc. are cargo cult. You’ve built the superficial exterior of a system without understanding the underlying substance.

I believe that cargo cult security has long been the de facto standard in IT operations. Whether installing an intrusion detection system after an intrusion or installing anti-malware software after a malware infestation, throwing appliances in your network or installing

If you do understand how your systems get infiltrated, then you’ll probably consider simple controls like database and file system permissions and auditing as important as expensive, complex packaged products.

December 3rd, 2011

Forbes on the Affordable Care Act

If you believe that the end of private, for-profit health insurance is some type of nefarious step towards a socialist society, then you might want to attend church this Sunday to mourn the loss of health insurers being able to worm out of covering the bills of a cancer patient because she forgot to write down on her application that she had skin acne for three months when she was a teenager.

Of course, those of you who fear the inevitable arrival of universal health care really shouldn’t be too fretful. There will always be a for-profit health insurance industry for those who want to pay for it. The only difference will be that those who cannot afford private coverage will also have an opportunity to get their families the medical care that they need

Everyone wins-except the for-profit health insurers.

I can live with that.