This is a sign that one passes on the way from State College to
Pittsburgh. Every time I pass it, I have to fight to resist the
urge to drive off the highway and run it over, for using the wrong
slash and doing it in such a large typeface.
Once or twice a year I see a new article about passive house design, and wonder why I don’t hear more about the idea. It seems like such an obvious and simple concept:
There are no drafts, no cold tile floors, no snuggling under blankets until the furnace kicks in. There is, in fact, no furnace. [...]
The concept of the passive house [...] approaches the challenge from a different angle. Using ultrathick insulation and complex doors and windows, the architect engineers a home encased in an airtight shell, so that barely any heat escapes and barely any cold seeps in. That means a passive house can be warmed not only by the sun, but also by the heat from appliances and even from occupants’ bodies.
And in Germany, passive houses cost only about 5 to 7 percent more to build than conventional houses. [...]
But the sophisticated windows and heat-exchange ventilation systems needed to make passive houses work properly are not readily available in the United States. So the construction of passive houses in the United States, at least initially, is likely to entail a higher price differential.
I guess it can’t help already-built homes, though, so it’s not much good for most people.
In a recent TED Talk (I
forget which one), the speaker told the story of 3 kids playing the 3
wise men in the nativity story. The first kid said, "I bring you
a gift of gold." The second one said, "I bring you a gift of
myrrh." And the third kid said "Frank sent this."
Somehow I came across this page about AOL "Hometown" being shut down a couple months ago. Apparently it was a blog provider, and people are now upset that their blogs are gone.
No doubt that sucks for anyone who used the service. I feel bad for them. But... the comments on this post are pure comedy gold:
Is there not a way to obtain the blogs anymore.
So proper... reminds me of this.
FORTUNATELY I SAVED MY WEBPAGE & TRANSFERRED IT TO GEOCITIES.
Link Here: http://geocities.yahoo.com/v/gcp_choose/
Real easy to do a simple webpage. With more time I think this could be better than aol.
Better than AOL! That’ll be the day.
I honestly can’t decide whether AOL or GeoCities is worse...
WHERE IS THE HOME PAGE IT TOOK MONTHS FOR ME TO BILL. I DID NOT RECEIVE ANY NOTICE VIA THE MAIL OR E-MAIL.
PLEASE HELP ME FIND MY WEB PAGE SO I CAN COPY IT AND MOVE IT SOME WHERE ELSE.
I SUGGEST YOU PUT THE HOME PAGE BACK OR YOU WILL LOOSE A LOT OF CUSTOMERS.
I WILL SEE TO THAT.
Gotta love the threats. I’m sure they don’t want to "loose" any customers.
It like stealing our hearts and souls without our knowledge...I WANT MY WEBPAGE INFO BACK I never gave you permission to destroy it..we should all file one big lawsuit against you for this. ANY LAWYERS OUT THERE THAT CAN HELP..EMAIL US ALL
This is very frustrating and angishly wrong for AOL not to at least had the decency to emailed their hometown members of this closing of "hometown.aol.com.html" so we could have been MORE AWARE of this closing. If anyone starts a liable law suit on AOL for this outrage action, please put my name down as a victim of this hanious action
PLEASE PROVIDE ME ACCESS TO MY HOMETOWN WEB PAGE.
IF I CAN GET IT I MIGHT STAY A CUSTOMER. IF NOT ME AND MY FRIENDS ARE AS GOOD AS GONE.
Where is my homey page?
Nary a day goes by that I don’t hear someone mention the book Outliers in a blog post, podcast, or tweet. The bit that’s most often mentioned is the idea that to truly master a skill requires about 10,000 hours of practice. That works out to about 5 years of full-time work.
That sounds like a lot, but I think it seems reasonable. I’ve always believed that be good at something, you have to do it at least every other day, and to be great it’s more like every day.
The easiest way to get really good or great at something is to start when you’re a kid. Of course you don’t realize this when you’re a kid, sadly. But when you’re a teenager you have lots of free time, so if you’re dedicated enough (or your parents are) then you can totally master a skill, like say playing a musical instrument, by the time you’re 20 or so.
It’s not always fun, especially when you’re first starting out, to
practice something for hours on end week after week. But the
better you get, the more fun it gets, and the more opportunities it
opens up for you. And once you’re a working adult, it becomes
much harder to find even one hour per day to practice any given thing,
whereas kids often have multiple hours per day where they’re just
sitting around being bored.
Scott Adams posted a story about a former executive at his company who believed that people are either "good bears" or "bad bears." He asks his readers whether they buy into that philosophy. The readers proceed to make comments like this:
I don’t know whether they’re good or bad but I do believe people are basically bears.
