“Almost. Remember, while there are mysteries abounding with GRBs, we do have a decent understanding of how they work. We’re clever, we humans.”
—Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2008 | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine
December 2008
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“Other photographers ship their cameras in coolers marked “Human fecal samples. Do not contaminate.”
—CAMERA BAGS
“If you didn’t get what you thought you wanted for Christmas, remember that “Jesus is the Gift”
—Philip Greenspun’s Weblog » Jesus is the Gift
“OCL, to me, is the Latin of specification languages. The only people who speak it are people who teach it, on the whole. Out here in the real world, OCL is a dead language.”
—
i spent two fucking years dabbling in all this uml-mda nonsense…
“TIP 5. Subject Matter Yes, it does. Dont take photos of girls leaving the high school from your car as the fine is $360.00 and a years probation.”
—Professional Photography Tips
“Seems like perhaps “Convention over Configuration” might be (eventually?) replaced by a new catch phrase: Annotation over confusion.”
—crazybob.org: Gavin King on ActiveRecord
“Thud test: A measure of the completeness of one’s documentation. The Thud test is preformed by taking a printed copy of the document and dropping it onto the floor. If it doesn’t make an impressive “thud” then it’s not complete and needs to be added to.”
—The top five reasons companies adopt scrum « Kane Mar
“Financial experts knew that making loans to hobos had never been a good idea in the past. On the other hand, past performance is no indication of future returns. Maybe this time would be different. Then history repeated and asshats stole your money. As a bonus, they even stole each other’s money this time. You have to admire their thoroughness.”
—Scott Adams Blog: Financial Markets Explained 12/15/2008
“Headline: ‘Avoid Internet Explorer Until Flaw Fixed.’ There’s three words too many in there.”
—Michele Catalano (via livejamie)
Vending Machine for Crows →
nytimes.com
The Binghamton crows quickly learned that dropping nickels and dimes into the slot produced peanuts, and the most resourceful members of the flock began looking for more coins. Within a month, Klein had a flock of crows scouring the ground for loose change.
(via petras)
“U.S. and Afghan soldiers in Zabul Province give high marks to the Lithuanian Special Forces, who like to ride these captured Taliban motorbikes to sneak up on, and chase Taliban fighters. The “LithSof” are on their way to becoming living legends: Both Afghans and Americans report that the Taliban are afraid of the Lithuanians. Stories about them are filled with dangerous escapades and humor.
Americans say that the Lithuanians are sort of a weaponized version of Borat, who think nothing of sauntering around a base in nothing but flip-flops and underwear. “They look like mountain men. They never shave, sometimes don’t bathe, and often roll out the gate wearing nothing but body armor and weapons. Not even a t-shirt,” an American soldier told me. The Lithuanians may be a little bit nuts, but the Americans love to have them around because Lithuanians love to fight, and when you need backup, you can count on them. That contrasts starkly with many of the NATO “partners.” Maybe when your country spends almost a half-century with the Soviet boot on its neck, its first generation of free soldiers know what freedom is worth — and that you sometimes have to fight for it.” —Pajamas Media » On the Front Lines in Afghanistan, Part Two
Americans say that the Lithuanians are sort of a weaponized version of Borat, who think nothing of sauntering around a base in nothing but flip-flops and underwear. “They look like mountain men. They never shave, sometimes don’t bathe, and often roll out the gate wearing nothing but body armor and weapons. Not even a t-shirt,” an American soldier told me. The Lithuanians may be a little bit nuts, but the Americans love to have them around because Lithuanians love to fight, and when you need backup, you can count on them. That contrasts starkly with many of the NATO “partners.” Maybe when your country spends almost a half-century with the Soviet boot on its neck, its first generation of free soldiers know what freedom is worth — and that you sometimes have to fight for it.” —Pajamas Media » On the Front Lines in Afghanistan, Part Two
“Why is this so INTERESTING to me? Again: probably because I do not understand his overwhelming passion (I don’t mean that in a judgmental way - I just mean that I do not share his passion) - and I am always interested in hearing passionate people describe their interior thought processes. That’s why Into Thin Air is such a good book. I have no desire to climb to Mount Everest - but I LOVE to listen to people who have THAT as their guiding passion. What can I say. I love freaks. I love people who are nutty, who are not like the majority of other people, who take risks - even if it means losing thier lives. I love people who, for whatever reason, NEED to … oh … surf down a wall of water. If they didn’t surf down that wall of water?? They’d be sociopathic messes. And maybe they are anyway, but still: it doesn’t matter. They MUST surf down that wall of water. Love it.”
—The Sheila Variations: Following the pathway to Teahupoo
“God-given skills” i was expecting sperm and egg donor tips.”
—Tip #25: Earn more money using your God-given skills | I Will Teach You To Be Rich
“you should definitely look at Craigslist since (1) there’s an incredible amount of buyers and (2) everyone else is so horrible that if you can write a half-decent sentence and restrain yourself from including a picture of your penis, you can almost certainly get a freelance gig.”
—Tip #25: Earn more money using your God-given skills | I Will Teach You To Be Rich
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