I have a T-amp and was pleased with it, but I was quickly lured by the increased power and reasonable price of Charlize.
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 12:19 PM on September 13, 2008

Great execution. As with any ongoing series, it would be great to have an RSS feed for updates.
posted to Projects by FissionChips at 11:07 AM on September 4, 2008

That was mildly disappointing. I was expecting the zoom effect and fade transitions of Apple fame, and what I got was a screensaver worthy of Windows 95.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 8:54 PM on June 24, 2008

As mentioned above, neuroscience seems to be the ripest candidate for a grand scale revolution. For supporting evidence see this talk: Toward the First Revolution in the Mind Sciences.
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 8:45 PM on May 6, 2008

You mention a couple books in the field of positive psychology. There was a recent post about the now-famous Harvard positive psychology course with a link to the lecture videos. I've watched the lectures, and while they don't talk much about experimental methods they're well worth a view.
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 6:15 PM on April 17, 2008

At what point do sentiments such as these degenerate into morbid misanthropy?

As a message of voluntary non-reproduction this parody is hardly misanthropic. Since about 1980 (for the whole of my lifetime) we have been in ecological overshoot. The attendant consequences have only begun to be felt.

Why not have a global discussion about humane population control. I think it's high time to stop making it a taboo subject.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 11:54 PM on April 15, 2008

And they say natural selection is dead.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 5:39 PM on April 15, 2008

When did this style of conversationalist journalism become widespread? I'm not asking rhetorically, I'm actually curious. It seems like an awfully wasteful format in terms of wordcount and the reader's time.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 1:00 AM on March 12, 2008

MITWorld has an impressively broad collection of talks, most of which are intended for a public audience. I think you'll find the quality of the speakers to be unparalleled.
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 9:02 PM on February 25, 2008

His main point seems to be that QM doesn't map well onto the English language. Not exactly a groundbreaking revelation.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 3:29 PM on February 25, 2008

Your efforts are much appreciated cascando. I think I'll be able to make it.
posted to MetaTalk by FissionChips at 3:08 PM on January 31, 2008

It was fun meeting everyone. Big thanks to the organizers and the photographers.

I mentioned that I would throw up a couple Vancouver-centric links:
Buildering.net - Run by a guy called Ardarvin. Randomly updated with buildering & parkour content.
Liveable region - Very active transit / local politics blog.
Weather and sunset webcam - Find out if it's raining without cracking the blinds.

Also, if anyone... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by FissionChips at 2:14 PM on February 10, 2008

A rare level-based flash game that is both challenging and playable to the finish. The last level takes a certain finesse, to be sure.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 1:19 AM on February 8, 2008

synaesthetichaze, that reminds me of a riddle: What's the one transplant where you would rather be the donor and not the recipient? answer
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 1:08 PM on February 1, 2008

Second link crashed firefox for me. Otherwise, neat post and rather surrealistic.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 8:20 PM on January 31, 2008

...Tired of video sites that are 99% cats running into walls?
Please provide links.

www.wallhackcats.com

On preview: Oh, sorry, that's not what you wanted.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 4:40 PM on January 23, 2008

I thoroughly enjoyed Bill Mckibben's 'floating head'* talk as a counterpoint to the rampant speculation of the other speakers.
"The more things change, the more they stay the same" is a saying that (I predict) will never get old.

*His talk was recorded and projected on a transparent screen.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 10:37 PM on January 21, 2008

By specifying minimal human moderation, do you mean that the balance of moderation is carried out by the users rather than the administrators? Systems that rely wholly on user moderation seem to scale poorly.

If you're aiming for the level of discourse of the MeFamily, I'd offer that you've already hit on one of the most sustainable discussion models on the web.
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 8:59 PM on January 21, 2008

One wonders how much credence we can place in GDP as a meaningful (let alone tangable) measure of anything.

That said, I've been wondering what percentage of GDP ends up as assets of people involved in the financial sector. It would be nice to know how much money is being used to feed the system, particularly if we consider the market as a means to an end. Like the derivative-to-GDP ratio, it wouldn't be a useful number so much as an interesting statistic.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 2:57 PM on January 2, 2008

The point was made that while religion may not breed conflict, it often becomes the dividing line in conflicts. Atheists have one less identifier at hand to separates them from other people.

This, in my mind is what makes the work of these four worthwhile; their arguments are relevant because there are still roadblocks on the path to a secularized society.

I also found it interesting that they dwell on the taboo of criticizing religion without... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 11:36 PM on December 23, 2007

I think that we will create a sustainable form of economics within the next 20-30 years. To echo kliuless, it need not be zero-growth (a better descriptor than zero-sum, imho) thanks to technological development, aka human ingenuity.

The only visible solution is to account for our social and environmental values alongside the value we derive from economics. How we will implement this new form of accounting is the most exciting question of our time.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 2:50 PM on December 19, 2007

There's an ongoing thread at Something Awful with some fantastic documentary and educational video suggestions.
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 8:36 PM on December 8, 2007 marked best answer

The video raises all kinds of questions.
When did the Sasquatch become our national symbol? What are those two humongous green bears doing in Stanley park? Exactly how much money did VanOC spend trying to cross-breed a kermode bear with an orca whale, and what happened to the failed experiments? Does the radioactive glow coming from the whale have something to do with its transgenic metamorphosis?

I also noticed that most of the skyscrapers downtown are... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 3:20 PM on November 27, 2007

argybarg, I think that economics gets a bad rap not because it's bullshit, but because practicing economists segregate themselves from the other social sciences. This practice is bizarre to those of us outside of the field, because economics is itself a social science with ideological underpinnings. It can be incredibly difficult to get at the ideologies and assumptions of mainstream economists, because they tend to treat them as irrelevant. This breeds mistrust and to me seems remarkably... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 1:54 PM on November 25, 2007

TED's format makes a lot of sense when you consider the average income of the conference goers. From that perspective what they do is brilliant.

For people with slightly longer attention spans, I'm hoping that TED will be a gateway drug to the sustainability talks I've collected.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 3:46 PM on November 11, 2007

¡Fantastic post!
Orquesta Nova plays a hauntingly beautiful choro on this album, highly recommended. Their music blends an incredible range of modern classical genres.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 10:59 AM on October 3, 2007

I'm surprised that the Climate Crisis calculator hasn't been mentioned yet. It's more accurate than any other 'impact calculator' I've seen, and allows you to compare your results to people near you.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 8:09 PM on September 26, 2007

You can mix all the ingredients for masala chai ahead of time. Grind the spices and add them to the loose tea. Grate some ginger, dry it out, and add it too.

A rounded teaspoon of this mixture makes for a nice strong brew.
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 9:14 PM on August 27, 2007

The simple, clean, and lightweight design ethic works well for research groups. I made this site for a physics research group.
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 12:15 AM on August 23, 2007

I've recently been using xplorer² lite, which manages folder views manually. The reason I mention it is because it streamlines MANY other functions. It has tabbed browsing and dual panes for moving files around. It remembers the last selected file in each folder.

These and other features save so much time if you find yourself clicking through the same folder trees repeatedly.
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 12:51 PM on August 17, 2007

I had no idea that these projects were the brainchildren of one man. I plan on checking back later to find out what the contents of the DVD are.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 4:38 PM on August 13, 2007

Two rather unconventional sodas are favourites of mine:
Rivella is made in Switzerland from milk protein. It resembles ginger ale, and has an indescribable taste.
Malta is a malted beverage made by Guinness, brewed in Nigeria of all places. It can be commonly found in Malaysia as well.
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 1:25 AM on July 31, 2007

For the bleeding edge in music management you might try Songbird. It's the latest project from the creators of winamp.

There's already an add-on for iPod support. Songbird is based on the mozilla platform, so add-ons are just as easy to use as in firefox.
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 10:28 PM on July 14, 2007

I've been wondering what the name of this symbol is for years. It's often used as a section divider in literature. Like the pointy finger, it seems to be a timeless piece of graphic design.

Maddeningly, amtho's link to P22 offers another example but no reference!

(Apologies if it's not kosher to add a question within a thread, I couldn't tell from reading the posting guidelines.)... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 11:14 PM on July 11, 2007

It looks like you're in good company here, I'm really impressed with by the response so far.

I can add a few ideas specific to Vancouver:
-participate in the city's EcoDensity planning meetings (ongoing)
-become involved with APEG (not just for civil engineers!) and bring about change in the organization
-help organize events such as the recent sustainability cafes
-BCSEA is very active in public policy and in developing... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 10:53 AM on July 4, 2007

Consider releasing portions of your research in a blog or some other bite-size media. This strategy forces you to add context to your notes and edit them for readability, which could be helpful when you go back to them six months later.
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 3:01 AM on June 23, 2007

Doerr has done something that we are all capable of doing. He found changes to make in his own life, and he is helping others to make changes for themselves.

There is no reason for a dialog on sustainability to be sidetracked by speculation about population control. To be clear, the population issue is very important, but there are no direct ways to control population that are palatable, or in my opinion even realistic. Delmoi described the lower birthrate that occurs... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 12:40 AM on June 3, 2007

I enjoyed Should Google Go Nuclear?, and Toward the First Revolution in the Mind Sciences.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 11:22 AM on January 5, 2007

Aha! Your link explains so much. I mistakenly thought that the sword was used to cleave the bottle neck below the cork, which seemed implausible.

Apparently sabreage is more about showmanship than skill with a sword. Another mystery solved by the internets.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 1:36 PM on December 30, 2006

My favourite quote regarding the Dalai Lama's celebrity:
"It's just due to the corporate nature of our world that Buddhists are trying to monopolize [the contemplative traditions of humanity], to some degree." The Venerable Tenzin LS Priyadarshi
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 5:14 PM on December 28, 2006

Also offered on Google Video.

I watched this recently and found it lacking in substance. The only remarkable fact I took away from the program was that Exxon-Mobil funded hired a scientist spokesperson who was also part of the cigarette lobby.

Denial Machine didn't quite make the cut for the 'climate awareness' section of my work-in-progress video catalogue.

To answer b1tr0t, no it's not of the same... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 12:16 AM on December 10, 2006

"How many people have internet burnout?"

I get it regularly. Each time, the site that gets me hooked again is MetaFilter. I'm not sure what that says about my pattern of addiction.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 1:04 PM on December 4, 2006

I chose 37 of course, because this is statistically the most likely number to be picked and because I am a sheep.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 6:48 PM on August 28, 2006

I find it hard to believe that a NASA scientist would predict a collision between ball and station. If both objects are in free orbit then they will be travelling at a relative speed equal to the initial drive, ie. not very fast by debris standards. Not to mention that having the ball achieve a trajectory level with the station is mind-bogglingly unlikely.
/grumble-grumble
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 10:18 PM on May 24, 2006

In a feat of engineering the hotel was constructed using only rebarred concrete, as opposed to a steel frame. One consequence is that the building's elevator shafts are significantly curved!
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 12:02 PM on April 27, 2006

Jimmy Eat World's The Middle. I feel like this song could make me feel positive about any situation.
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 10:59 AM on March 25, 2006

Wings 3D is relatively simple to learn and free to use. It would require some proficiency to model biological shapes, but this is true of most modelling software.

Z-brush employs a very different building process, letting you 'paint' objects. It is likely going to be the most intuitive starting point for a beginner, but it carries a $500 price tag.

Both of these programs are available for Mac and Windows.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 11:41 AM on March 10, 2006

I'll be watching for the final date and location, all the suggestions so far sound ok to me.
posted to MetaTalk by FissionChips at 10:20 AM on January 24, 2006

According to this thread, the video came from a DVD called Video Victim. I'm really curious as to what else is on the DVD.
posted to MetaFilter by FissionChips at 9:43 AM on December 13, 2005

Oops, it priemered in Zurich, not in Germany.
posted to Ask Metafilter by FissionChips at 10:39 PM on December 1, 2005