Mind Mapping
I’ve got some new favorite software. My current job demands lots of creativity and strategic thinking, which is great–I am by nature both creative and strategic. My main problem is that I’m not always the most organized. I wonder sometimes if my greatest ideas have floated away because I forgot to write them down, of if I did write them down the paper got hopelessly lost in an unorganized mass of crumpled papers. Well, I think I may have found a solution: FreeMind. FreeMind is an opensource Mind Map tool written in Java (which means it’s available for all platforms). FreeMind makes its case: So you want to write a completely new metaphysics? Why don’t you use FreeMind? You have a tool at hand that remarkably resembles the...
Sibling Rivalry
If you have siblings you know what it is, those fierce fights for supremacy in all shared interests. Brotherhood is like a primordial food chain–you want to be on top. Basketball, soccer, wrestling, best-paying summer jobs, prettiest girl friend–you name it, if there’s a shared interest there’s usually a competition. Of course it doesn’t HAVE to be like that, and in all likelyhood such a paradigm isn’t very healthy. I think in many respects I’ve grown out of such competition–I’m too good for it… Of course, I can’t say that a satisfied smile failed to cross my face when I heard that what I had guessed at all along has actually been established as objective scientific truth, that...
The Rule of 72
My Wife just emailed me this note (just after asking if I minded whether she purchased a pitcher for an upcoming dinner party), and it’s clear that she understands me completely: Hypothetical conversation with your hypothetical future daughter: ————— ‘Hey dad…can I borrow six dollars allowance?’ ‘Why?’ ‘Umm…because’ ‘Honey, why? You can tell me.’ ‘I want to get a pitcher.’ ‘Six dollars? Honey isn’t that a lot of money? Think of what you could put that money towards. You could invest early and be a billonaire by the time you were thirty and then you would have the financial freedom to travel the world like mommy and daddy have always talked about...
New Tolkien Available Today
Christopher Tolkien, the third son of JRR Tolkien, has been working for thirty years on an unfinished manuscript left by his father. J.R.R Tolkien began “The Children of Hurin” in 1918 but never finished it. His third son, Christopher, has spent nearly 30 years piecing together drafts to turn them a single story, written entirely in his father’s words. “After a long study of the manuscripts, I tried to build a coherent narrative without editorial invention,” Christopher Tolkien told the Internet site dedicated to his father’s work. The Children of Hurin is set in Tolkien’s imaginary world of Middle-Earth but takes place long before the events in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Children of Hurin hits the shelves...
Fat Chance
Apparently dieting doesn’t work at all. Categorically, the practice has been slammed by overwhelming evidence from the most thorough and comprehensive study on the subject ever. Here are some snippets from an article on the findings: Last night, the US scientists behind the latest research – the most thorough and comprehensive analysis of its kind – said dieting simply did not work. Pooling the results of the various studies clearly showed that, while people do lose weight initially, most quickly put all the weight back on. In fact, most people end up weighing more than they did to begin with. Dr Mann’s research showed that up to two-thirds of dieters put on all the weight they lost – and more – over a four to five-year...
Terrifying Speed: Down the Tracks in a TGV
I love to go fast; it can be scary at times, but to know that you are on the verge of disaster and that one wrong move, however minute, may push you over the verge is a feeling of delicious lucid headiness. Yesterday in France, a TGV train set a new ceiling for speed: 357 mph, a new rail-speed record! The world speed record for a train is 361 mph, but that was set in a maglev train that doesn’t have to deal with the bumps and friction of rails. British journalist Ben Webster reports: As the only British journalist on board, I was determined not to show how frightened I was. The assembled French media, politicians and rail bosses seemed to love every second and showed no trace of fear. But then they have absolute faith in the safety of their...