Jonathan Recommends

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 9 months ago

Everything you ever wanted to know about beaches (almost): from how they're made to their fate when the sea level rises. If you like beaches and have something of a scientific bent, this book is really fun.

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 10 months ago

Sheila Bair was the head of the FDIC during the financial crisis, and one of the few government figures who saw the mass mortgage foreclosures coming. Unfortunately, nobody listened to her. An interesting article about the internal workings of the government struggling with the crisis.

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 10 months ago

I've posted about quadrotors (also called quadrocopters) before, but here's the good news: they make mistakes, too. There may still be hope to avoid robot dominance!

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 10 months ago

These are kind of like TED talks, except all focused on long-term thinking (the Long Now Foundation tries to encourage people to think about a 10,000-year time frame). Audio is available for free, including via iTunes; for video, unfortunately, you have to be a Long Now Foundation member.

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 10 months ago

A brilliant cover. This is not new, but it's appropriate for our holiday this week.

gleitz recommended this 1 year, 10 months ago

Everything about this vintage North Carolina v. Maryland matchup reads like a hall of fame recap. Jordan, Len Bias, Sam Perkins, Kenny Smith, Brad Daugherty and more battle it out in the Cole Field House.

Protip: skip to 10:30 for a monster dunk at the buzzer.

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 10 months ago

Because it's Independence Day!

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 10 months ago

Perhaps not quite as good as The Absent-Minded Professor, but this sequel still provides plenty of laughs. I just wish Disney would release a DVD in the original wide-screen format...

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 10 months ago

Fred MacMurray is a professor so absent minded that he forgot to go to his own wedding--three times. He did, however, invent a material which bounces higher than it fell, with hilarious results. This classic film is approximately a thousand times better than the modern remake (Flubber)--I highly recommend it even if you hated that.

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 10 months ago

The second part of the plan for robotic dominance: unbelievably maneuverable flying robots. I suggest we halt all AI research, so as to avert certain doom.

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 10 months ago

There is no case in which omitting the Oxford comma increases clarity; there are cases in which omitting it decreases clarity. I was raised on it, and I'll use it to my dying day!

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 11 months ago

Some pretty awesome "weightless" tricks in a wind tunnel ("sky diving arena"). I imagine that if I could fly, I would want to do this.

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 11 months ago

Really fun (and addictive!) web game, if you like puzzle games. The rules are simple, but the randomly generated tiles make the game extremely complicated.

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 11 months ago

Delorme has partnered with SPOT to bring satellite "text messaging" to the masses--the masses who can afford a few hundred dollars for a GPS and a monthly subscription fee. Delorme has also announced a transmitter that will pair with Android phones to provide the same capability.

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 11 months ago

This robot hand from Ishikawa Komuro Labs bounces balls, ties knots, spins pens, and throws and catches things--all faster than your eye can see--fortunately, slow-motion videos are provided. I, for one, welcome our new robot-hand overlords.

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 11 months ago

The commercial that launched the Macinstosh and redefined creative advertising. Still one of the most beautiful commericials every aired.

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 11 months ago

I'll be honest with you: this book, unabridged, is huge. I read it because I'm a little bit stubborn about not liking to read abridgments, but that might be the wiser way to go for most people. You can cut 200 pages and lose nothing important; after that you have to start compromising. Abridged or unabridged, though, it's Victor Hugo's masterpiece and one of the greatest books ever written.

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 11 months ago

This was my introduction to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien--I remember my father reading it to me and my siblings when I was probably 5 years old. I read the Lord of the Rings books when I was in high school, but The Hobbit still has a special place in my heart, and I expect I'll read it to my own kids some day, too.

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 11 months ago

If you've read Homer, pick up the next part of the story with Virgil's classic telling of the story of Aeneas, who fled Troy as the Greeks sacked it and became the founder of Rome. If you haven't read Homer, go ahead and read Virgil anyway (I like it better). My favorite translation, by Frederick Ahl, maintains the poetry of the original more than most English translations do.

dzhonatan recommended this 1 year, 11 months ago

Read Franklin's story of his own life in his own words, and remember that before he was a Founding Father, he was a printer and a writer. Some of his wry observations on contemporary society seem surprisingly astute more than two hundred years later...