Treehugger: Plant Me Pets

“If and when you get tired of looking at your Plant-Me Pet on your desk or shelf, you can literally bury the sculpture in a pot of soil (head-first, so as to cover the seeds), water it and place it in the sun, and — voilá! — the rubber will decompose and a plant will sprout.”

I like the look of them too

fantastic very much worth watching,

Short film on Richard Feynman’s famous quip about fundamental physics as seen via quantum mechanics. Touches upon Einstein’s E=MC2, Newton’s law of gravity and the motion of planets, and the future of science”

R
p.s would gladly have embedded – but there seems to be an issue with embedding google video…   

Darragh over at RGB Goodness, has taken another great shot, fair play, getting the hang of it for sure!

R

tomorrow, I am going to try this Mindfulness exercise: The catch-and-release distraction program!

Spend one workday hour today or tomorrow self-consciously aware of each single task you’re working on at a given time (try it: I’ll bet it’s a lot harder for you than it sounds).

it does sound hard, but could also prove interesting. this distraction thing seems to be a common facet of the IT industry nowadays, and other industries too. i see two tangents springing from it, loss of proper creative and technical work due to distractions imposed by the environment and the processes involved.

hallowell:…If you don’t allow yourself to stop and think, you’re not getting the best of your brain. What your brain is best equipped to do is to think, to analyze, to dissect and create. And if you’re simply responding to bits of stimulation, you won’t ever go deep.

the second would be in the loss of the apprecication of the things in life that are worthy of more time than a simple momentary glimpse, or quick feel (for want of a better expression!).

the warnings we could take from that, are for me summed in this

hallowell: … It’s the great seduction of the information age. You can create the illusion of doing work and of being productive and creative when you’re not. You’re just treading water.

there are links for further information on the 43 folders site.

R

the article – This is the girl band you can buy – Sunday Times – Times Online (via Danger at tcal.net, is scaring me on so many levels.

the music industry has found ways and means of promoting their latest wonder hit in many ways over the years, but this is something new – and not to put too fine a word on it – insidious. perhaps I am being cynical, correction, I am intentionally being cynical, as this is what is happening. the bands they seem intent on promoting, are in too many cases devoid of talent, and seem to want to portray an idealistic world whereby all is good if you are faithful to this band and their promotional tours, merchandise and trite music. not being into this band/group makes you odd and you feel left out, until you get in on it. incidentally, this is not only endemic to the music industry, but that is a whole other story and not for this post.

music is a business, big business. as in any business, making your product the be-all and end-all, is the aim of the game. sadly in the case of the music industry, this makes for a wholelotta painful listening. in fairness, its not only the music. it is also the imagery and lifestyle that is portrayed. when popular girl bands, whose fan base includes young children under a certain age say, 13 (not being in a family way, it is hard to judge when the protective instinct really kicks in…), why must they insist on wearing clothes and behaving in a manner that is way above the targets audience’s range of experiences and stage in life. this must sound like I am an old prude, but I think it is part of the symptom of a greater ill.

our way of life is evolving, and part of that evolution has meant that we are now at a stage, when having the latest and greatest is a must. ways of life are leading to an overly excessive lifestyle, in food, drink, health, social inequalities. so many of these are interlinked, in a such a pervasive manner. we all fall into the trap, one way or another.

here is an amusing quote from the article,

Any resemblance to existing brands in the stage names of the girls — Mercedes, S-Jay, Rockwell and Chanel — is said to be entirely coincidental.

hmm….

it really makes me wonder at times, where we are headed. all the items i mentioned above have such deeper significance than they might appear at first glance. at times I pause and take a look at each thing mentioned, and I ponder about them, and a lot of what I see troubles me. I have just had a great weekend, plenty of outdoors for me, and it was good, really good, I’d hate to loose it.

R

An interesting read, which makes sense in a number of ways

The Development Abstraction Layer – Joel on Software

Your first priority as the manager of a software team is building the development abstraction layer.

R

talk about mouth watering, the peoples involved at deliciousdays do it again!

R

for the most part, I am not a fan of pop-up windows…

whats wrong with this picture?

nicely done M

Life on a Screen : Introduction

this is a very experimental comic about 320*240 pixels living on a screen, YOUR screen! It will be updated on mondays, wednesdays and fridays. Don’t expect high quality drawings here (actually don’t expect drawings at all), but some strange thoughts about life, pixels and everything…

R