If you have a smartphone, the chances are about 8 in 10 that it is either running Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android. You may have a BlackberryOS or Nokia/Microsoft. But as the MIT Tech Review points out, there are at least three others lurking in the background as alternatives that both carriers & hardware manufacturers are quite interested in – expect Tizen, Firefox OS & Ubuntu to become viable alternatives, if not all too common in the near future.
Nature inspires much, & often [Article]
The MIT Technology Review has this article about how researchers have taken inspiration from the abdomens of fireflies to boost the brightness of LED lamps.
Sometimes I do feel this like [Video]
Schoolkids perform “Feels like we only go backwards“. Awesome 2 min video!
How does documenting 1 second of every day of your life for a year look like? [Video
Cesar Kuriyama recorded all this almost entirely on his iPhone. This is what he says on his video’s commentary: “I spent a couple of years saving enough money to be able to take a frugal year off from work my entire 30th year of life… I spent it doing all the important things I never had enough time for… travel, my own creative projects, & family.”
A craftsman at work – Calligraphy [Video]
The art of the written word…. Calligraphy penmanship like (maybe) you’ve never seen before
How to give a great presentation [Book]
Maria Popova (@brainpicker) discovers some timeless advice by ad-man Joel Raphaelson on How to Give a Great Presentation
My name is Sidney Poitier [Letters of note]
A homesick Sidney Poitier writes to FDRoosevelt to borrow $100 to return home to Nassau. My name is Sidney Poitier
Mr. Botibol [Short Story]
Petals & Sepals, in Time [Video]
Take a minute to appreciate this breathtaking time-lapse compilation of yawning petals, stamens and pistils, created by Czech photographer Kate Pruskova. … . All the flowers in the video were picked from either Pruskova’s garden or her mother’s. The footage comprises over 7,100 images and took over 730 hours to photographs, says Robert T Gonzales
2012 in short phrases [Aphorisms]
Poet Charles Simic explores 2012 in fragments through the words he read/ heard. Here’s a couple of samples:
“Are there more idiots in the world today percentagewise than in some earlier ages?” asks Teofil Pancic, a columnist for Belgrade’s weekly Vreme. His answer is that it only seems so, because today they are more visible, more audible, and, of course, connected by the Internet. In the past, he wittily observes, everyone was his own idiot, isolated not only from the rest of mankind, but also from his fellow idiots, so that when something stupid occurred to him, there was no chance of it instantly becoming known to idiots in Tasmania and Uzbekistan.
***************************************
A long night of tossing and turning in a hotel bed, unable to fall asleep. Meanwhile, in the next room, a couple who had come in late couldn’t stop laughing about something for what seemed like hours. Every now and then, I wanted to get up, bang on the wall and make them stop, but was afraid they’d fall silent and leave me alone with my thoughts.
******************************************