Favorites from JohnnyGunn
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Corporate fraud / Benford's law
One way to measure corporate fraud is look at reported numbers and see if they follow Benford's law - number sets that are manipulated usually deviate from Benford's law. A recent analysis of all public companies over the past 50 years has shown a steady upward deviation, strongly suggesting there is more corporate fraud now than ever before (peaked in 2008).
Help me with a specific kind of window-shopping.
What are some online shops with a smallish number of interesting, simple, classic items?
The Code Challenge - a maths treasure hunt by the BBC
I helped make the games and treasure hunt for a BBC Two series called The Code, a fantastic three-part series about maths in the world around us presented by Prof. Marcus du Sautoy. While it's just finished, you can still watch clips; play games about tessellation, prime numbers, symmetry (this one is awesome), and physics; and tackle our beautiful, free 84 page book of puzzles. Then there's the treasure...
Lift and separate
Initially the conventional wisdom was that spacesuits “would be like rockets: adamantine, metallic, armored and smooth.” But in practice, rigid spacesuits repeatedly failed under testing. So when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon they were protected from the vacuum of space by flexible spacesuits crafted from twenty-one layers of fabric, “each with a distinct yet interrelated function, custom-sewn for them by seamstresses whose usual work was fashioning bras and girdles” for the Playtex Corporation.
The Spirit of the Spacesuit , Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo
Diary of a Summer League Ballplayer
70 games in 75 days in the Northwoods League.
Andrew Barna, a varsity baseball player at Davidson College during the school year, is spending the summer playing first base for the Madison Mallards. The Mallards are currently a half game back of the Eau Claire Express in the Northwoods League, a summer developmental league where NCAA athletes play for room, board, the adulation of devoted Upper Midwest fans, and the slim hope of making it to the bigs. (Northwoods alums in the majors include Ian Kinsler (Mallards), Ben Zobrist (Wisconsin Woodchucks), and Juan Pierre (Manitowoc Skunks.) Barna's blog offers a look inside the real life of very-minor-league baseball: The best way to sleep on the team bus. Getting caught picking your nose on the field. Welcome back Jumpy Garcia. Signing your first breast.
Organizational Skills like the Military - Without the Military.
Military envy: How to get that military focus, time & project management skills, excellent organization and self-discipline without the actual military experience? (From a book or a simple way of thinking about it?) Advice from military men and women much appreciated, as well as any self-discipline guru.
Northern Exposure
Alone In The Wilderness "Documentary tells the story of Dick Proenneke who, in the late 1960s, built his own cabin in the wilderness at the base of the Aleutian Peninsula, in what is now Lake Clark National Park. Using color footage he shot himself, Proenneke traces how he came to this remote area, selected a homestead site and built his log cabin completely by himself. The documentary covers his first year in-country, showing his day-to-day activities and the passing of the seasons as he sought to scratch out a living alone in the wilderness." (Color, 57mins)
What's the easiest/cheapest way to set up a home surveillance camera that will notify me and stream video for remote viewing/recording if somebody enters my home while I'm gone?
What is the easiest, cheapest, most effective way for me to set up a single motion-triggered surveillance camera at home to verify whether I have a creepy situation going on while I'm gone? If triggered, I want it to alert me remotely, stream video for remote live viewing, and ideally record to the cloud rather than locally for later viewing. I'd like an easy web/desktop interface to control it all. Have you tried one of those kits from X10 for this and did it work well for you?
You probably don't even know what you like
Choice blindness
occurs when subjects are unaware that the choice they made is opposite their previously stated preferences. In this recent paper, subject preferences were reversed between tastes of jam and scents of tea. Overall, only a third of all the manipulated trials were detected by subjects whose preferences had been switched by the experimenters.
Questions about correcting forward head posture
What's the process of correcting forward head posture like?
Please help me learn to organize my stuff
Please give me advice/books/websites/etc that will teach me how to organize my stuff.
Clothes for Cheeep
There's a store in Florida that resells catalog and in-store returns from Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People and J. Crew at a HUGE discount (because they've been used, although gently or not at all in most cases).
A thousand cuts
We've talked about Mariano Rivera's cutter before. Now you can see why batters find this pitch is so devastating through the magic of a video based on Pitch f/x data.
Eating Well On $1 A Day
Jeffrey believed that with couponing, he could live on $1 a day for food and have plenty to eat.
"Respect the elders. Embrace the new. Encourage the impractical and improbable, without bias."
The days of the legendary late-night FM DJ are pretty much behind us...with one notable exception. Vin Scelsa, whose radio career spans 43 years on six different New York City FM stations, has developed a uniquely passionate following through his free-form show Idiot's Delight, which blends an idiosyncratic array of music new and old, commentary, and book recommendations. For decades, Vin has used his on-air time to read entire chapters of books, wax philosophical, and add to his remarkable roster of guests. Faithful fans chronicle every aspect of the show, archive past playlists and articles, and even create works like this very homemade but very informative and worthwhile Unofficial Documentary: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
What's my VORP?
Inspired by just learning about the MIT Sports Analytics Conference, what sites are on the cutting edge of the basketball stats/sabermetrics revolution?
Teaching and caring are inextricably linked. But: only one of them is difficult.
Dan Meyer is a high school math teacher with a clever idea: make math about the real world. On his blog, he writes about classroom management, the real skills of teaching, labels, information design, and assessment.
The Joy of Engine Repair
The Joy of Engine Repair
- this very effectively sums up why I like building things.
Create Hotspot Forced Homepage
How do I create a forced splash-page or homepage for people using my WiFi hotspot?
How Should I Go About Learning [Small?] Engine Repair?
How do I go about learning [small?] engine repair on my own?
The Grateful Dead's influence on the business world
The Grateful Dead is officially history: they're the subject of a new exhibit at the New York Historical Society. Ironically, though, it's the Dead’s influence on the business world that may turn out to be one of the most significant parts of its legacy. Without intending to—while intending, in fact, to do just the opposite—the band pioneered ideas and practices that were subsequently embraced by corporate America. Management Secrets of the Grateful Dead.
like Logic Grid Puzzles Only... Better
I'm looking for logic puzzles/games/systems similar to logic grid puzzles that are mostly deductive, pure logic, but that are more "realistic" or at least tell a more tangible story. Do such things exist? Also, how to construct your own and use them in a narrative structure?
How to improve my posture?
So after watching a video of myself, I've realized that I have terrible posture. I slouch a lot. I've always known this, and periodically I'll try to stand up straighter, but after a few days I just go back to normal. Does anyone have any experience with beating the slouch for good?
A man of means by no means
One hot June morning in 1953, a retired couple from western Missouri packed their Chrysler New Yorker with 11 suitcases and started driving east. A few hours later, they stopped at a diner in Hannibal, Mo., and ordered fruit plates and iced tea.
“We thought we were getting by big as an unknown traveling couple until we went to the counter to pay the bill,” Harry Truman later wrote of that lunch. “Just as we arose from the table some county judges came in and the incog was off.”
And thus began an excellent adventure of a type that happened once and will never happen again: The Harry and Bess Truman Ex-Presidential Road Trip.
Iron and the Soul by Henry Rollins
"The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds."
Cheap Talk - Econ and game theory from Jeff Ely and Sandeep Baliga
On pinball's downfall; draft Scrabble; strategies for choosing a seat; visiting our old friend, swoopo.com; and meatball theory: various and sundry economical, game theoretical, and miscellaneous morsels from the folks at Cheap Talk.
How to simultaneously exchange information?
How to simultaneously exchange information?
"He takes a $1.98 tape into Folsom Prison and comes out with an album."
"Hello, I'm Johnny Cash."
On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash played two concerts at Folsom State Prison with June Carter, Carl Perkins, the Statler Brothers, and his band, the Tennessee Three. At Folsom Prison, drawn mainly from the first show, is often ranked as one of the best albums of all time and turned Cash's career around. Reporter Gene Beley covered the concert and recorded some songs from the audience.
Share your confidence game stories
Have you been conned? Would you share your story?
How to start your life over from scratch?
If you had to walk away from your life in a split second, how would you start over?
How can I make my house into a home fit for a spy?
I've always been interested in spies, secret passages, and gadgets. How can I transform my home to incorporate these things?
Froogal Livin'
What are your favorite links for frugal living/frugality websites?
Is there a cheap, easy way to put a custom welcome page on a home wifi network?
Is there a cheap, easy way to put a custom welcome page on a home wifi network? I'm leaving the connection unsecured, and would like anyone who comes on to see a custom home page telling them about the area and why it's an open network.
Ghost Pepper
Take the world's hottest peppers, rub them in your eyes and then eat 51 of them in world record attempt. Mere mortals blanch at one or two (language in this last link unsurprisingly NSFW).
You'll put your eye out!
You'll put your eye out!
My childhood was fraught with peril. I rode bikes without a helmet. My friends made flashpowder bombs. I brought knives and lasers to school. I survived. Blogger Tim Blair did too, and asks "What insane risks did you take as kids that would now induce rage and fear if repeated by your children?"
Google domain owns YOU!
I recently bought a domain through Google's Apps for Your Domain/GoDaddy partnership. How do I add my own content?
Can arterial damage be undone?
Is it possible to undo any of the damage I've done to my arteries in 43 years of eating badly?
Long weigh to go
Have you, or anyone you know personally, every lost more than 20kg in weight – and kept it off for five years or longer? And what was your / their key to long term maintenance of the new healthy weight?
"You weren't meant to have a boss." - Paul Graham
I'm terrible at having a job, and it's making my life unlivable. Help.
living blues in postwar Chicago
Wayne Miller's compelling B&W photos of Chicago 1946-1948 set to Muddy Water's "I feel like going home." (flash alert; via bifurcated rivets)
What are the world's most useful dead-tree catalogs?
What is the iconic (or just "your favorite") dead-tree product catalog (listing of merchandise for mail-order sale) for your hobby, industry, or trade?
"A case of unusual autobiographical remembering."
51-year-old Brad Williams, a radio anchor in La Crosse, Wisconsin, can “recall the most trifling dates and details about his life….[n]ame a date from the last 40 years and, after a few moments, he can typically tell you what he did that day and what was in the news.” Brad has Hyperthymesia, a condition where the affected person has incredible recall of the most trivial events in his/her life. Neuroscientist James McGaugh and others at the University of California, Irvine, are studying Williams for clues as to his remarkable abilities [video]. Williams (aka 'Google Man' | video) vs. The Internet [video]. His brother, Eric, is working on a documentary about Brad – Unforgettable [trailer].
Women who live unconventional lives and the books that depict them
Women loners, recluses, survivalists, they lived alone and liked it that way. Which books details their lives?
Paint By Numbers Kit From Photo?
Is there a service where I can upload a photograph and have a painting-by-numbers kit mailed in return?
"My father was one of the finest sportswriters of his generation. But his legacy is more complicated than that."
Forgive Some Sinner. "With age 70 bearing down hard upon him, Dad had by then written for better than 40 years, during which he had become celebrated, later disgraced, and I would like to think ultimately redeemed... Good as some of his old stories are, it always seemed to me that his own was better than any of them; I only wish he had written it himself." Mark Kram Jr. examines his late father's complicated legacy.
ha ha= >1:00.00, <2:30:00
I need jokes that take more than one minute to tell, but no longer than two-and-a-half minutes.