Archive for September, 2010

The New Big Tobacco

Part of a 5 part series from the National Post, Inside Canada's Underground Tobacco Industry:

They're surrounded by high fences, security guards and a general air of secrecy; rarely is there any identifying sign. The factories at the heart of Canada's surprising underground tobacco industry are scattered secretively through four Ontario and Quebec aboriginal communities, operating with virtual impunity and churning out so many cheap, tax-free cigarettes, some critics believe they have brought to a halt a decades-long decline in smoking rates. Yet those plants have also given an entrepreneurial, free-market jolt to depressed native economies, creating boom towns and cigarette mansions. Starting on Saturday, a five-part National Post series will take readers inside the Mohawk-dominated contraband business and its spinoffs, and through the prickly politics that has allowed it to flourish for almost a decade.

.:news.nationalpost.com->

Possibilianism does not suggest free rein to believe whatever strikes one’s fancy. It is not tantamount to "anything goes". We know a great deal, not only about the cosmos and molecules, but also about human yearning, fallibilities, poor memories and our extraordinary ability to fabricate any variety of fantastic but utterly untrue stories. Within the realm of what is addressable, we profitably apply logic to further knowledge. Possibilianism is "anything goes at first" - but we then use science to rule out parts of the possibility space, and often to rule in new parts.

"We just finished building SpaceShipTwo. We are 18 months away from taking people into space," Branson told a business conference in Kuala Lumpur, adding that the fare will start at 200,000 dollars.

Virgin Galactic, which aims to become the world’s first commercial company to promote space tourism, has already collected 45 million dollars in deposits from more than 330 people who have reserved seats aboard the six-person craft.

Make Art Every (Week)day

To artists, making art is second nature. At the same time, making art is hard.

Worse still, on a bad day (or week, or maybe even a bad month), a great artist's work degenerates to that of any regular practitioner. Human energy, motivation and inspiration has this fickle way of rewarding those who serve it. Hence, an artist gets more inconsistent results the more experienced they become.

All great artists however, find a way around this and continue to perform to schedule. There are many techniques out there, but I the universal one has got to be periodisation. ie: Work as hard as possible when inspired, enjoy the silence while it lasts.

There are some artists (like Scott Adams and Dilbert's Daily Strip) that seem to be relentless content-production machines, but never make the mistake of comparing someones outside to your inside; there is likely some method of periodisation going on behind the scenes.

However, artists always find ways to up the ante. They get better at producing, and better at taking breaks, leading to major fluctuations in creative activity. This also leads to the (outside) perception that the artist is working non-stop.

If you're still think you're unfamiliar with your creative process, then the best advice is to stay conservative, and submaximally push your limits. If you stick to it (for years), you'll get to the level of the greats.

By then, you would have evolved your own philosophy of how to work wonders. But until then, make art every week day.

.:scrivle.com->

Consider our insatiability: As we have seen, our evolutionary ancestors benefited from wanting more of everything, which is why we today have this tendency. But our insatiability, if we do not take steps to bridle it, will disrupt our tranquility; instead of enjoying what we already have, we will spend our life working hard to gain things we don’t have, in the sadly mistaken belief that once we have them, we will enjoy them and search no further. What we must do, again, is misuse our intellect. Instead of using it to devise clever strategies to get more of everything, we must use it to overcome our tendency toward insatiability.

Get Schooled : Gizmodo University

OK, we’re calling it: Computers are more than a passing fad. We’re so convinced of this, that we’ve teamed up with Sparkle Labs to teach you about electricity and electronics prototyping with series of interactive video classes.

Every Saturday at noon, from October 23rd to November 13th, we’ll post a video lesson that teaches you the basics of what goes on inside a computer chip. From breadboard basics to sophisticated circuits, you’ll gain a greater understanding of how your machines work. And the certified geniuses over at Sparkle Labs will hang around for a while in the comments to answer any questions you might have.

To take part in all the activities you’ll see on the videos, you should probably pick up Sparkle’s Discover Electronics Kit. We’ve convinced them to drop the price to $40 for Giz readers. You’re welcome. And we’ll see you in class!

.:gizmodo.com->

100 Best First Lines from Novels

1. Call me Ishmael. aHerman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)

2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. aJane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

3. A screaming comes across the sky. aThomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow (1973)

4. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. aGabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967; trans. Gregory Rabassa)

5. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. aVladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)

6. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. aLeo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett)

7. riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. aJames Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939)

8. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. aGeorge Orwell, 1984 (1949)

9. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. aCharles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

10. I am an invisible man. aRalph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952

.:americanbookreview.org->

Intellectual Hipsters and Meta-Contrarianism

WARNING: Beware of things that are fun to argue — Eliezer Yudkowsky

Science has inexplicably failed to come up with a precise definition of "hipster", but from my limited understanding a hipster is a person who deliberately uses unpopular, obsolete, or obscure styles and preferences in an attempt to be "cooler" than the mainstream. But why would being deliberately uncool be cooler than being cool?

.:lesswrong.com->

Cameron has been in the public eye for his oil spill work and comments throughout the summer. An expert on deep-sea robotics and underwater filming from his work on Titanic, Cameron convened a panel of scientists and government officials to come up with a solution for the gusher in June.