Gioiosa
  • Featured Content

  • June6th

    No Comments

    toLearn Roundup: days 91-97

    Posted in: toLearn

    Apologies for the delay. Life got in the way.

    toLearn updates for this week!

    Sunday, May 30th – Day 91: Darth Vader – 3 men, 1 villian

    Monday, May 31st – Day 92: Chili – Homemade chili recipe

    Tuesday, June 1st – Day 93: to the center of the Earth – Massive sinkhole in Guatemala

    Wednesday, June 2nd – Day 94: youTube x1000 – Interesting take on compression

    Thursday, June 3rd – Day 95: AP Stylebook Socialized – Odd changes to the stylebook

    Friday, June 4th – Day 96: VHS FTW – the birth and death of VHS

    Saturday, June 5th – Day 97: Oil Disaster – Snippets about the BP Oil Spill

  • June5th

    No Comments

    toLearn day 97: Oil Disaster

    Posted in: News, World, toLearn

    In all of these posts I figured I’d better post about the BP oil disaster in the Gulf. It’s nothing any of us want to hear, especially if it’s the continuing news that they still haven’t fixed it.

    According to BP, their latest containment dome effort has successfully siphoned 250,000 gallons of oil to the surface, but it’s only a third of the 798,000 gallons spilling daily. Hence the successfully.

    According to BP’s senior VP Boy Fryar, “that operation has gone extremely well.” Well? Well? They finally managed to place the cap so I suppose that went well (after how many tries?), but considering how much oil is continuing to spill into the ocean, I doubt the word is well.

    BP says that when the pressure inside the cap lessens, valves on the cap can be closed, allowing the apparatus to siphon up to 630,000 gallons to the surface a day. That’s a good number, but still not enough to divert all the oil.

    Around the internet, there’s no shortage of places to find information on what’s happening in the Gulf (or opinions on how BP’s attempting to handle it) but here are a few particular powerful items that are making the rounds:

    • Oilaholic is a new aggregator for all-things-oil-disaster, packing a live UStream, Flickr photos, and Twitter updates on one page.

    • Boston.com’s Big Picture blog delivered some of the most powerful imagery of the saga yet with “Caught in the oil,” a disturbing collection of photographs showing oil-covered wildlife.

    • And Robert Reich, Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, posted a disheartening item on his blog entitled “Closing the Hole in the Gulf: A Petroleum Engineer Responds.” Take Reich’s anonymous source with a grain of salt, but it makes BP look even worse than they already do.

    So what’d we learn? A guess at how much oil is spilling into the ocean. That this is having a huge impact (and I’m guessing a much bigger one than we’re expecting right now.)

    To get an idea of how big the spill is, check out this site that allows you to place it over any location. Goodbye Northern Utah. Goodbye Bay Area. Wowzers.

  • June4th

    1 Comment

    toLearn day 96: VHS FTW

    Posted in: Geek, Technology, toLearn

    Alright kiddos, let’s take you back to the old days and celebrate: the day VHS made it’s way to America.

    This is long before the Blu-ray and DVD debates, and back when it was VHS vs. Betamax (SAY WHAT?!).

    The VHS videocassette was introduced in North America at a press conference before the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago.

    VHS, or Video Home System (clever, right?), was based on an open standard developed by JVC in 1976. The format allowed longer playtime and faster rewinding and fast-forwarding. JVC showed a two-hour tape that was so compact, Popular Science called it “smaller, in fact, than some audio cassette decks.”

    The original system used to play VHS tapes cost $1,280 (about $4,600 in inflation-adjusted dollars). Blank tapes were $20 ($72 adjusted).

    Although Betamax debuted by Sony earlier than VHS, there were some big differences that ultimately led to VHS winning out. The VHS could record for two hours — enough to record a full-length movie — while Betamax had a recording capability of only an hour. VHS-based players were cheaper than their Betamax counterparts.

    In just its first year, the VHS format took 40 percent of the business away from Sony. By 1987, about 90 percent of the $5.25 billion market of VCRs sold in the United States were based on the VHS format.

    JVC introduced VHS HQ (for High Quality) in 1985. It promised greater noise reduction and improved sharpness in picture quality. Two years later, Super VHS made its debut. By then Betamax had started to fade.

    I know, this is SUPER interesting, right?

    The VHS VCR’s decline started as tape-based systems were replaced by hard-drive–based digital video recorders such as TiVo. The DVD format changed the game for prerecorded movies in March 1997 and ended up entirely replacing VHS.

    Hollywood studios stopped offering movies on VHS. The VCR, though, refused to die quickly. As of 2005, some 94.5 million Americans still owned VHS-format VCRs. (I do! And my family has a TON of VHS tapes still. If they get rid of them I will have a problem… yes, family, I’m speaking to you.)

    The last standalone JVC VHS VCR was produced Oct. 28, 2008. The company still makes combo DVD-VCR units.

    Stay tuned for the death of the DVD, coming you way over this next decade.

  • June3rd

    1 Comment

    toLearn day 95: AP Stylebook Socialized

    Posted in: Geek, Journalism, News, Technology, toLearn

    When I was in high school and into college I was into journalism. I was an editor, a writer/reporter, and I loved it. One of the books always in my bag was in the AP Stylebook. Yes, I was a different kind of geek then, but I had that book pretty well read over and I could tell you the right usage of most terms. (Nowadays…no way.)

    For those who don’t know, the AP Stylebook is like the journalist’s bible. (Oooh, I bet that I’m supposed to capitalize “bible”!) Everything has to be written a certain way in the journalism world — it’s quite intense!

    So when I read this week about some of the additions they’ve added to the AP Stylebook I had to laugh.

    One big change was it’s no longer “Web site”, but instead “website.” Altogether there are 41 new and changed definitions, use cases and rules for journalists to follow.

    Among the more interesting changes are separating out “smart phone” as two words, hyphenating “e-reader,” and allowing fan, friend and follow to be used both as nouns and verbs.

    AP has also decided to recognize a number of acronyms that are commonly used in texting and instant messaging. Most of them are fairly well-known to regular web and mobile phone users (ROFL, BRB and G2G among them), along with the odd “POS“. (Sorry folks, it’s not that POS.)

    According to the AP, POS stands for “parent over shoulder” and is used by “teens and children to indicate, in an IM conversation, that a parent is approaching.”

    Other terms making the cut include “trending,” “retweet” and “unfriend” (“defriend” is also acceptable, though the AP concludes it’s less common).

    Finally, the AP also offers some basic rules of thumb for how social media should and shouldn’t be used by journalists, with a focus on making sure they continue to confirm sources and information they find on blogs, tweets and other forms of social media.

    Really, how reliable is information found on tweets and Facebook? Blogs, but of course. I will say that the journalist in me has been dying knowing that I’ve been writing without sourcing most of what I write!

  • June2nd

    No Comments

    toLearn day 94: youTube X1000

    Posted in: Geek, Technology, toLearn

    So here’s something random for the day: a guy decided to test the image and sound degradation that happens when you upload a video to YouTube, download it from YouTube, upload it again to YouTube, and on and on. And here’s the kicker: he did it 1,000 times.

    Even more odd is the psychadelic (oh yes, I just used that word…) result:

    Crazy, right?

    A lot of sites have been explaining it in detail, which I’ll sum up, but it seems to me the best explanation is by Michael Keaton in Multiplicity. You remember that movie, right? He makes copies of himself and the copies progressively become less intelligent. (Pizza Steve!)

    What really happens is that every time you upload a video to YouTube it gets encoded again by their servers. (Yes AMers, much like your work each week is encoded on the site!) When a video is encoded it gets compressed which takes out small details from the image and audio, leaving behind some artifacts. Done again, the missing details and added artifacts become a bit more noticeable.

    This works for us as viewers as our brains are great at filling in the missing parts — so much so that we don’t notice most of the time. So compressing a video once is fine as our brain makes up for the missing pieces.

    The problem you run into is when you continue to strip the video of details and continue to add artifacts. However one may argue that the end result is more interesting to watch than the original:

  • June1st

    No Comments

    toLearn day 93: to the center of the Earth

    Posted in: News, World, toLearn

    The first headline I read was something about a hole to the center of the Earth. Then I looked at the photos and thought they had to have been photoshopped. Turns out, they’re definitely not.

    This sinkhole happened over the weekend in a street intersection of Ciudad de Guatemala. And it seems like you can really see to the center of the Earth…

    It really is quite bizarre — a hole 100s of feet deep just suddenly appearing. So what is it? What causes it?

    Sinkholes are natural depressions in the Earth caused by water removing soil. It usually happens when the ground is formed by limestone, carbonate rock, salt beds or any other rock that is easily eroded by water streams. Sometimes the process can be slow, but sometimes the land just cracks open without notice. In this case, it happened suddenly, swallowing an entire house. Tropical storm Agatha is to blame as it caused massive underground water torrents.

    Sinkholes’ size ranges from low terrain depressions to hundreds of feet. I think last I read they were estimating this sinkhole to be almost 200 feet deep! Luckily there haven’t been any deaths or injuries reported, and the sinkhole’s only victim is a clothing factory.

  • May31st

    1 Comment

    toLearn day 92: Chili

    Posted in: Homemade, Recipe, toLearn

    This week’s recipe is for Chili! I have a tendency to have a recipe and then just toss in whatever I want, so here’s the recipe I ended up with:

    - 1 T. canola oil
    - 1 large onion, chopped
    - 3 cloves garlic, minced
    - 2 1/2 t. cumin
    - 1 1/2 t. oregano
    - 1/4 c. chili powder
    - 1/2 t. cinnamon
    - 2 bay leaves
    - 1 lb. ground turkey
    - 12 oz. tomato paste
    - 1 T. cocoa powder
    - 1 c. orange juice
    - 3 chipotle peppers, chopped
    - 3 jalapeno peppers, chopped
    - 1 can (15 oz.) diced tomatos
    - 1 can (15 oz.) black beans
    - 1 can (15 oz.) pinto beans
    - 1 can (32 oz.) kidney beans
    - 3/4 c. water
    - Salt and Pepper to taste

    Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the cumin, oregano, chili powder, cinnamon, and bay leaves. Cook for another 3 minutes.

    Add the turkey and tomato paste, cooking until the turkey is fully cooked. Add the chocolate, orange juice, chipotle peppers (I love using the canned chipotles in adobo sauce — hot!), jalapeno peppers, tomatos, and water. Simmer for 45 minutes.

    Add the beans and season to your tastes. If you want it hotter, add a few pinches of cayenne pepper. Serve topped with cheese, chopped scallions, lime wedge, sour cream…whatever you want!

  • May30th

    No Comments

    toLearn day 91: Darth Vader

    Posted in: Film, Geek, Star Wars, toLearn

    A random tidbit: In 1983’s Return of the Jedi, three different actors portrayed Darth Vader. The man in the costume was David Prowse, the voice was that of James Earl Jones, and the revealed face was that of Sebastian Shaw.

  • May30th

    No Comments

    toLearn Roundup: days 84-90

    Posted in: Geek, Technology, toLearn

    toLearn updates for this week!

    Sunday, May 23rd – Day 84: RAW – RAW is the new JPG

    Monday, May 24th – Day 85: Brain Rewiring – How the Internet is rewiring our brains

    Tuesday, May 25th – Day 86: What motivates us – An interesting way to discuss motivation

    Wednesday, May 26th – Day 87: Influence Objects – Maya geekery

    Thursday, May 27th – Day 88: World of Color – A new show coming to Disneyland!

    Friday, May 28th – Day 89: Human Computer Virus – A real Weekly World News story

    Saturday, May 29th – Day 90: Creative Minds & Schizophrenia –

  • May29th

    No Comments

    toLearn day 90: Creative Minds & Schizophrenia

    Posted in: Creative, Science, toLearn

    Reported in a recent BBC article, a group of scientists who are studying how the brain works have reported that brain scans of highly creative people as well as schizophrenics show strong similarities in thought pathways.

    As it turns out, each lack receptors that are important in filtering and directing thought. This lack is what some consider to be what allows creative people to think outside of the box, according to experts at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute.

    Unfortunately, for some this leads to mental illness. There isn’t a clear division however, and some exhibit psychotic traits with few negative symptoms.

    Thinking back to great creative people of the past, many of them had mental illnesses: Vincent van Gogh, Salvador Dali, and John Nash for example.

    Research in the past has shown that creativity is associated with an increased risk of depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Likewise, those with mental illness in their family history have an increased chance of being creative.

    So where is the science behind all of this? In the study, they analyzed the dopamine (D2) receptor genes (believed to govern divergent thought) and found that highly creative people who did well with test involving divergent thought had a lower than expected density of D2 receptors — just like people with schizophrenia.

    The D2 receptors are within the thalamus which is the area of the brain that filters information before it goes on to areas of the cortex that are responsible for cognition and reasoning.

    “Fewer D2 receptors in the thalamus probably means a lower degree of signal filtering, and thus a higher flow of information from the thalamus,” said Associate Professor Fredrik Ullen.

    So because uncensored information, it is believed that highly creative people are thereby able to see unusual connections in problem solving that others miss. Likewise, schizophrenics, sharing this same ability, still make novel associations, but instead they result in bizarre and disturbing thoughts.

    From chartered psychologist Gary Fitzgibbon:

    “When you suspend disbelief you are prepared to believe anything and this opens up the scope for seeing more possibilities.

    “Creativity is certainly about not being constrained by rules or accepting the restrictions that society places on us. Of course the more people break the rules, the more likely they are to be perceived as ‘mentally ill’.”

« Previous Entries
Return to the Homepage

Switch to our mobile site