SelfUnfocused

Coming to terms with being human.

5.30.2008

Interest Trinity

This week's three links, sans comments, include a piece on poetry and synesthesia, China's coming effect on food prices, and some tunes.

Tarzan as Poet

Pork Fried Rice

A Beautiful Voice

5.29.2008

Roots: Like LeVar Burton

Here is the video that is taking Holland by storm. Apparently, I am a Dutch speaking savant. Who knew?

5.28.2008

My new little buddy


My new little buddy
Originally uploaded by selfunfocused

I have my Asus eee pc 900, Linux version. It is tiny and awesome like a young Joe Pesci.

Bring Out Your Dead

New York City is working on plans to have a specialized vehicle collect the recently dead and get them to the hospital quickly. I mean, STAT!
New York City is working on a plan to deploy a special ambulance to collect the bodies of people who have died suddenly from heart attacks, accidents and other emergencies and try to preserve their organs. If the "rapid-organ-recovery ambulance" succeeds, officials would like to expand the unique pilot program citywide with a fleet of ambulances and eventually duplicate it in other cities.
I think I like this idea. I do understand the argument against viewing a dying patient as a minty fresh organ bank, but I think those sort of moral pitfalls could be avoided. In any case, I'm betting that this idea will stimulate some real meaty conversations about medical ethics, which is a good thing.

5.22.2008

It Seems I'm a Hit in the Netherlands

A few weeks back I was hanging out with two lovely girls who were visiting from Holland. They noticed that I own a book on speaking Dutch, one which I have neglected to use. The video camera came out and film of my attempts to speak Dutch now exist.
Oh, you didn't see the video? Maybe Greg has it. He
copied some pictures from our cameras. If he doesn't
have it, I will try to send it to you.
It's so funny. especially for people who speak dutch.
I'm a good laugh in the Motherland.

In other news...
Bruce Schneier of Wired has issued a call for a Data Privacy Bill of Rights. I think the idea has some merit. This is the sort of thing that interests me and an active campaign to bring a concept like this to fruition would get my attention. I'm going to have to formulate a stronger opinion over the summer so I'm ready for the revolution.

I've also noticed that Naomi Klein, who I'll always love for No Logo, has written an article about the high tech end of the Chinese police state. I haven't made it all the way through yet, but it looks like a worthwhile read. It has implications for the States, since the contractors that have developed the various technologies of oppression are from the U.S.

5.18.2008

Mushy Bananas Get Trashed

The New York Times has an interesting piece on food waste in the U.S. It seems we throw 27% of our food in the trash, in the midst of a global food crisis. Now, I doubt that all the food we are trashing could be distributed to those in need but still, that's a significant amount of waste. I know I've been trying to not waste food, mainly as a budgetary move. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find single guy portions, so things like bread tend to go bad before I've used it all.Maybe I'll try a bit harder though. I'm not supposed to ingest so many carbs anyway.

5.08.2008

Things That Are Interesting.

Ok. I've been quite busy escorting pretty women from around the world. I haven't had time to think of something to post. So instead, I'm going to link to the articles I wanted to write about and you can draw your own conclusions. It's all the fun of my links, with none of the crap I tend to throw at you!

Cell Phone Mind Control!

The Art of Lying.

Hiroshima Pictures.