Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:35:50 GMT

The Multitude

When I speak to others about the multitude of wonderful qualities at Roundrock, my little bit of forest on the edge of the Missouri Ozarks, they always come around to the same question.

Aren’t there bugs there?

Well, of course there are. A little careful planning and preparation, though, and they needn’t be a problem.

Yes, we have ticks in the Ozarks. They’re worst between May and September. I usually find one or two that have made my personal acquaintance each year, but most of the ticks I encounter never get past my clothing defenses.

August is horsefly month in the Ozarks. The females can be a real pest because they bite! They need a blood meal to produce eggs, and any mammal will do, including talking mammals. A few swings of my cap can generally send them away for a while.

Chiggers are the worst. They come in the late spring and last well into August. These beasts are almost microscopic, but if they can get to your skin, they will leave you with an itch that can last for days. They don’t drink your blood. Rather, they liquify your skin and then slurp it up. The best things to do to avoid chigger problems are to keep your pants tucked in your socks, stay out of the scrub, and shower vigorously as soon as you get home from the woods.

Really, the bugs are manageable. That’s what I tell all of my squeamish friends. They don’t generally believe me, and that’s why I don’t share this kind of picture with them:

That’s my pants leg. I found this multitude crawling up my pants on a recent visit to Roundrock. #1 Son and I had just tromped through the forest and were falling into a pre-lunch stupor in the comfy chairs under the tarp. I had sent the boy to the truck to fetch our lunch buckets and happened to look down at my leg. Yikes! I had thought chigger season was about over. We haven’t had any rain down that way in a while, though, and I think that helps them get out. (I think the rain washes them from the scrub and to the ground.)

Chiggers are fragile critters. The act of brushing them off my pants crushes most of them. If any of them got past my defenses, though, I should know in a couple of days.

Missouri calendar:

• Salamander larvae are transforming into adults.

Today in Missouri history:

• Meriwether Lewis was born on this date in 1774. Co-captain of the Voyage of Discovery and governor of the Territory of Louisiana brought him fame, but he died alone under mysterious circumstances. Whether he was murdered or committed suicide in a lonely cabin along the Natchez Trace no one has ever been able to determine.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:23:32 GMT

Twitter Buys Summize

This was bound to happen sooner or later, that's my take on it. Summize is a social search engine created soley to search Twitter, why wouldn't Twitter want it. It's a great buy for Twitter, added to their site this is a great asset. Twitter needed a good search engine for their site.

"The one thing that remains a mystery is the acquisition price. Twitter hasn't raised a huge amount of money and Summize had almost a million dollars in funds raised itself. What percentage of its coffers did Twitter just spend on all the Summize technology and five employees?" ~Marshall Kirkpatrick, ReadWriteWeb

Does anyone know what the cost was? It would sure be interesting to find out.

Twitter immediately changed the name of Summize to Twitter Search, no imagination, and they changed the URL too. I'm not seeing a link to Twitter Search from my Twitter page though. Odd, you'd think they would do that right away too. Posted by: Linda Roeder      Read more     Source

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:49:24 GMT

10 Facts You Didn't Know About Houdini

Harry Houdini was the most influential magician of the 20th century. His specialty was escapes: slipping out of ropes, chains and handcuffs while locked in trunks and milk cans or submerged underwater. His skills and showmanship made the single name ''Houdini'' synonymous with entertaining magic.

His life has been well-documented by various histories and biographies, but a lot of public misconceptions remain. How well do you know Houdini? Chances are that only true magicians or advanced historians will know all of the facts.

(thanks Tony) Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 07:50:58 GMT

Jourdan Dunn Hearts Topshop For AW08

Model of the moment, Jourdan Dunn features in Topshop’s ad campaign for AW08. Alongside Karlie Kloss, Dunn works her trademark smouldering looks all while making London’s buses look super cool! Posted by: Vanessa Lee      Read more     Source

July 17, 2008, 9:27 PM CT

Too Much of A Good Thing?

The Internet gives researchers and scientists instant access to an astonishing number of academic journals. So what is the impact of having such a wealth of information at their fingertips? The answer, as per new research released recently in the journal Science, is surprising--scholars are actually citing fewer papers in their own work, and the papers they do cite tend to be more recent publications. This trend may be limiting the creation of new ideas and theories.

James Evans is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, who focuses on the nature of scholarly research. During a lecture on the influence of private industry money on research, a student instead asked how the growth of the Internet has shaped science. "I didn't have an immediate answer," Evans said in an interview last week.

When he evaluated the research on the Internet and science, Evans discovered that most of it focused on much faster and broader the Internet allows scholars to search for information, but not how the medium itself was impacting their work. "That's where this idea came from. I wanted to know how electronic provision changed science, not how much better it made it," he said.

After receiving support from the National Science Foundation to pursue this question, Evans analyzed a database of over 34 million articles and compared their online availability from 1998 to 2005 to the number of times they were cited from1945 to 2005. The results showed that as more journal issues came online, few articles were cited, and the ones that were cited tended to be more recent publications. Scholars also seemed to concentrate their citations more on specific journals and articles. "More is available," Evans said, "but less is sampled, and what is sampled is more recent and located in the most prominent journals"......... Posted by: Ethen      Read more         Source

July 16, 2008, 7:16 PM CT

Categories help us make happier choices

Most of us have stood in a supermarket aisle, overwhelmed with the array of choices. Making those choices is easier if the options are categorized, as per new research in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Authors Cassie Mogilner (Stanford University), Tamar Rudnick, and Sheena S. Iyengar (both Columbia University) demonstrate a surprising phenomenon called the "mere categorization effect," where consumers are happier with their choices if their options are categorized, even if the categories are meaningless.

"People confronted with highly categorized large selections are happier with their decisions because they experience a sense of self-determination as a result of perceiving differences among the available options," write the authors.

In one study, participants chose magazines from different displays, some that were categorized and some that were not. Those who were asked to choose a magazine they weren't familiar with tended to be more satisfied with their choices if they came from categorized selections.

In another study, people at a food court were randomly selected to choose coffee from several menus. The coffee options were either categorized or uncategorized. "Consumers who chose a coffee flavor from a menu divided into seemingly meaningless categories such as Categories A, B, and C were just as happy as those who chose from meaningful categories such as 'Mild,' 'Dark Roast,' and 'Nutty,'" write the authors......... Posted by: Ethen      Read more         Source

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:58:08 GMT

Founders at work

My last flight over the Pacific gave me ample time to read through Jessica Livingstons collection of interviews.

It's good stuff and Jessica certainly got to the famous people. The interviews usually cover the founders insight on why and how they started their company. Most entrepreneurs give a humble account of their own success. Many recognize that thing could have turned out otherwise and each startup had their hard times and was bankrupt several times (with the exception of Flickr maybe :).

Nothing unexpected but striking in its magnitude is how different some business evolved. Paypal raised money on being a PalmPilot application to become the biggest online payment processors aided by a fraud detection mechanism nobody incl. the founders and investors knew they even needed.

For me the best interviews are Mark Levchin's honest and down to earth account on how Paypal made it work and Paul Bucheit's account of building Gmail and Adsense as an entrepreneur inside giant Google.

Some interviews are strangely boring or unreadable (i.e Steve Wozniak) or shine with self parading. However it's good stuff and if you are interested in setting out as an entrepreneurs it surely helps. Posted by: tj      Read more     Source

June 26, 2008, 9:20 PM CT

Why Do People Vote?

A groundbreaking new study finds that genes significantly affect variation in voter turnout, shedding new light on the reasons why people vote and participate in the political system.

This research, which was conducted by political researchers James H. Fowler, Christopher T. Dawes (of UC San Diego) and psychology expert Laura A. Baker (of University of Southern California), appears in the recent issue of the American Political Science Review, a journal of the American Political Science Association (APSA). The article is available online at: www.apsanet.org/imgtest/APSRMay08Fowler_etal.pdf.

"Eventhough we are not the first to suggest a link between genes and political participation," note the authors, "this study is the first attempt to test the idea empirically." They do so by conducting three tests of the claim that part of the variation in political participation can be attributed to genetic factors. The results suggest that individual genetic differences make up a large and significant portion of the variation in political participation, even after taking socialization and other environmental factors into account. They also suggest that, contrary to decades of conventional wisdom, family upbringing may have little or no effect on children's future participatory behavior......... Posted by: Ethen      Read more         Source

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:44:01 GMT

Absinthe Lollipops

The US Government recently approved the sale of absinthe within certain guidelines, namely that there is less than 10ppm of thujone. Absinthe Lollipops contain an amount of thujone that is within the legal limits set by the US regulatory authorities and of the European Union.

Our Absinthe Lollipops are really freaking awesome. And we say that without even an ounce of hubris. People go crazy (not like, cut-your-ear-off crazy, tho) for them. We''re pretty sure they''re the ultimate party favor. The combination of absinthe''s mystique and the inherent sexiness of lollipops is a pretty explosive one. Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source

Mon, 19 May 2008 00:09:24 GMT

Sinatra

"Comes a report that Martin Scorsese might be doing a film about Frank Sinatra - and not a documentary but an honest-to-God biopic," notes Shawn Levy. "I''ve written a book about Sinatra, so I know that there''s more than a ton of material there for a movie."

"The life and work of Frank Sinatra, who passed away 10 years ago tomorrow, will be celebrated in film, television, radio, and even a commemorative 42-cent Sinatra postage stamp, which will be issued today," notes Charlotte Cowles. Two DVD sets are out today, too, the Early Years and the Golden Years. "His film work is often remembered as an adjunct to a musician''s career," writes Gary Giddins:

Updated through 5/14. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source