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Sweep anyone? Congrats to my first baseball love.. the Boston Red Sox!

From Snore & Guzzle

Inspired by a common Japanese tradition (uncommon to westerners), described in Chris Marker’s film Sans Soleil. As a form of meditation, or therapy, it is common to prepare a “list of 10 things that quicken the heart.” The list is supposed to describe the small things in life that make one happy, and which makes existence slightly more tolerable.

10 Things that Quicken my Heart

10. Fresh laundry
9. The blast of cold air when the vintage motorycle leaves the garage
8. Hacking late at night
7. Dark and peaceful in the morning
6. Smelling the pages of a new book
5. Staring at the sea from a beach
4. A homemade sandwich
3. Finding nirvana by listening to electronic music
2. Being outside during Autumn
1. Things my father made

Post yours in the comments.

Bwhahaha!

An act of pure genius! We are so safety conscious with all the wall mounted boxes for fire alarms, heart attacks, police boxes, etc. but somehow nobody is concerned about zombies!?

Link

The Swiss and modern politics

The crime rate in cases of bodily harm, serious injury, and rape has risen by multiples over the past two decades. At the end of 2005, in which 29,952 convictions were made, only 48.8% of convictions were of Swiss nationals while the rest were foreign residents or illegal aliens, despite comprising only 20% of the population. And by the end of 2006, with 5888 people being interned in Swiss prisons, a whopping 69% were foreigners, mostly young males. Yet I have not seen these figures cited by such institutions of credibility like Reuters, unless used in a quote by an official who they’ve spent an entire article actively trying to discredit.

Terror networks are like the hydra

The place to begin is with the structure of al-Qaeda itself. Al-Qaeda’s cellular structure is a classic example of what is called a Small World Network. .That’s a fancy term to describe an organization where most members know only their immediate neighbors (or cell members) but can reach any other cluster of members by sending messages over a number of “hops” through members who are super-connected — that is members of more than one cell. The link-men make it possible for any given member to reach another through a very small number of “hops”, typically less than six. That’s why it’s called a Small World Network.. We call these super-connected members “hubs”. The diagram below represents this situation. It’s clear from the diagram that random members can communicate with the wider organization only through members who belong to two or more cells. With them they can communicate efficiently. Without the link-men they are cut off.

I always felt the axiom “If you haven’t made your scientific breakthrough by 40, you never will” rang true. Well this super fantastic article entitled Age and the entrepreneur, part 1: Some data, covers this very topic. The focus of the article is a University paper which conducted a rigorous study of creative individuals throughout history and made some interesting discoveries.

For centuries, thinkers have speculated about the association between a person’s age and exceptional accomplishment: Is there an optimal age for a person to make a lasting contribution to human culture or society? When during the life span can we expect an individual to be most prolific or influential?

Link

..brought to you by the Cthulhu article on Wikipedia.

For all you non-rugger fans out there, the BBC has taken time out of their schedule to explain to you how this very fine gentleman’s sport is played. Hopefully this helps you understand the sport just in time for the upcoming England vs South Africa world cup game!

The story goes that rugby was born in 1823 at Rugby School when William Webb Ellis disregarded the rules of football, took the ball in his arms and ran with it. It has evolved a long way since, into a very technical sport, but you only need to know the basics to enjoy a match.

RULES OF RUGBY EXPLAINED

Who’s who in a rugby team


How to score points at rugby


The strategy of rugby kicking


Restarting a game with a scrum


The offside law


Ruck and maul rules


The rules of a line-out

Enough said.