Discover Churchill, Canada, also known as the Polar Bear capital of the world. Where folks leave their cars & homes unlocked, apparently, to allow pedestrians an easy escape from the polar bears that may accost them on the streets. Interesting tidbit about a place I’ll probably avoid visiting! 🙂
Introducing Boubacar Traore [Musician]
Fall in love with Boubacar Traore, a Mali-born musician, now 65, whose music I discovered this morning thanks to Jesse Kornbluth. Begin with Mondeou, and follow it up with Kar Kar Madison, Traore’s nickname. Incredible music that touches the soul – put those headphones on, turn off the lights & turn up the volume. The entire playlist of his music is here
Big problems with Big Data [Article]
Stephen Few cautions us against falling for the marketing hype of Big Data. He highlights the horror stories of Americans whose credit ratings have been irreparably damaged by credit card companies, by opaque algorithms that churn out credit assessments, with countless errors, & no recourse for those impacted by such mistakes to have the errors corrected!
Ultra- ever dry [Video/ article]
Next Time Your Mom Says Don’t Go Out in The Rain, Spray Yourself With This says NPR’s Krulwich. Jaw dropping video, certainly! Nano-technology marvel.
Surfer falls off his board, under a giant wave [Video]
Yeah, you watched Garett McNamara surf the 100 foot wave in Portugal a few days ago. But I’m sure you didn’t watch this other guy fall off the surf board just as another giant wave the size of a building was about to crash on top of him. Have a look.
Spoonfed guitar [Video]
Watch Hannes Coetzee impovise using a spoon, his neck & a guitar. The tune’s catchy as well!
Blast from the past: The kitchen of 2001 viewed from 1967 [Video]
Scott Adams on Technology & Etiquette [Article]
A hundred years ago, if two people were in the same room they would be . . . in the same room. That seems straightforward.
Fast-forward to 2013. Now if you put two people in the same room, at least one of them will be texting someone who is not in the room. The mind of the person doing the texting will be, for all practical purposes, somewhere else. That person has smeared space. His mind and body are in two completely different places.
Scott Adams wonders whether our behaviour is changing how humans are evolving.
Happy Birthday, Rosa Parks [Article]
Rosa Parks would have turned 100 on Monday the 4th of February. Gwen Ifills corrects some misconceptions about her, & throws some more light on the spirited person who lit the fuse of the Civil Rights movement.
The Spy Novelist who knows too much [Article]
Imagine churning out 200 spy novels over a period of 50 years. You have to have either a very lucid & vivid imagination, or a great source of ideas, or both. You also are pretty old. Gerad de Villiers, a 83 year old French spy novelist was recently featured on the NYTimes as the Spy Novelist who knows too much. Discover the extent of his connections, & why he’s never become famous in the other parts of the spy novel loving world.