Archive for the '2. read' Category

Apple

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

My most significant discovery so far in my life was the result of one single decision, my decision to join Apple […] the best decision that I ever made […] I listened to my intuition, not the left side of my brain […]
I am where I am in life because my parents sacrificed more than they should have, because of teachers, professors, friends and mentors who cared more than they had to, and because of Steve Jobs and Apple.

Tim Cook

Mr Commons

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

David Commons

Not Just Sheep

Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011

One sheep who got a reward every time she recognized a human face correctly on a video screen scored a perfect 50 out of 50.

[…]

And it’s not just sheep.

Hamlet the pig is a computer wiz. He gets a reward every time he uses a joystick designed for a chimp to move a cursor into a blue area on a computer monitor. A Jack Russell terrier couldn’t achieve such a task after a year of trying.
In other words, pigs are smarter than dogs.
“They’re very curious, and they’ll charge off on their own,” said John Webster, a professor at the University of Bristol in England. “They will investigate the world with their noses down and batter through like a small boy.”

New research shows that chickens can be taught to run the thermostat of the chicken coop, and that even the lowly cow has a surprising inner life.

Cows have been known to form lifelong friendships, and one recent study found that they actually show excitement when they’ve learned something new “as if they’re saying, ‘Eureka, I found out how to solve the problem,’” said Donald Broom, a professor at the University of Cambridge.

David Wright

Skills

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

If England’s youth don’t have jobs, it’s because both the private and public sectors have put too much emphasis on higher education and not enough on teaching skills and creating an environment where people can perform those tasks with a sense of pride and dignity.

Tyler Brûlé

Wrong

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

Cowboys & Aliens, meanwhile, opened in fourth place behind Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, a not-particularly-hyped blockbuster in its second week of release, and – this has got to hurt – The Smurfs 3D.
It’s a fascinating, watershed moment, from which the film industry will naturally learn all of the wrong lessons.

Robbie Collin

Rather

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

I was still DJing, but what we were trying to do was create dance music for the head, rather than the feet.

Daddy G

Goodnight

Sunday, August 21st, 2011

Though I lay on this gurney, seconds away from my death, I am at total peace. Hate is going on in this world and it has to stop. Hate causes a lifetime of pain. I feel it; I am going to sleep now. Goodnight, one, two, three, there it goes.

Mark Stroman

Music And Living

Sunday, August 21st, 2011

“How would you explain it, Pooh?”
“With a song,” he said. “A little something I just made up.”
“Go ahead.”
“Certainly … (cough).”

How can you get very far,
If you don’t know Who You Are?
How can you do what you ought,
If you don’t know What You’ve Got?
And if you don’t know Which To Do
Of all the things in front of you,
Then what you’ll have when you are through
Is just a mess without a clue
Of all the best that can come true
If you know What and Which and Who.

“That’s it,” he said, leaning back and closing his eyes.
“A Masterpiece.”
“Well, better than average, maybe.”

Sooner or later, we are bound to discover some things about ourselves that we don’t like. But once we see they’re there, we can decide what we want to do with them. Do we want to get rid of them completely, change them into other things, or use them in beneficial ways? The last two approaches are often especially Useful, since they avoid head-on conflict, and therefore minimize struggle. Also, they allow those transformed characteristics to be added to the list of things we have that help us out.

In a similar manner, instead of struggling to erase what are referred to as negative emotions, we can learn to use them in positive ways. We could describe the principle like this: while pounding on the piano keys may produce noise, removing them doesn’t exactly further the creation of music. The principles of Music and Living aren’t all that different, we think.

“Wouldn’t you say, Pooh?”
“Say what?” asked Pooh, opening his eyes.
“Music and Living —”
“The same thing,” said Pooh.

The Tao of Pooh

Four

Friday, August 19th, 2011

Judge: So, young oaf. You are accused of getting a bit drunk and setting up a Facebook group to start trouble. How do you plead?

Wannabe looter: Guilty, m’lud. Though I’d like to point out that me and my mates were so pissed that we fell asleep, so none of us turned up for the ruck.

Judge: That only makes it worse. You are typical of the work-shy youth of today who is unable to stick to his promises. In my day, if you said you were going to do something, you did it. Four years.

John Crace

Cat

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

First date ended with him running to a bus stop shouting “I have to go to my friend’s cat in Tottenham”. We were outside his flat.

celialikesbooks