Homo Sum:
humani nil a me alienum puto

What you’re looking at there is a list of the 32 most common passwords from among the set of more than 32 million users of RockYou. The top item, ’123456′ was used by more than 300,000 users. We don’t normally get to look at actual user data in sets this large, but one benefit of [...]

I have an amateur interest in economics that I indulge from time to time, primarily by reading economics-focused blogs. While I was doing that this week I was interested to see Brad DeLong (whose blog is definitely worth following) point to a discussion from the Economist about compensation for bankers and the relation between that [...]

Let’s see if we can close some of the myriad tabs I’ve opened in the process of trying to catch up with everything that happened in the non-work world while I was off spending time at the Melbourne office: I’m quite impressed at the 16-year old (from the city where I did my university days) [...]

I will have more to say about this when I’m not about to start a 24-hour flight around more than half the world, but I just want to nail down this quote from Clay Shirky talking about Iran/Twitter/etc: Absolutely. I’ve been saying this for a while — as a medium gets faster, it gets more [...]

We have very nearly succeeded in turning reading–that most active of cultural activities–into a passive extension of mass media. Alex Irvine takes a quick swing at the kind of literature produced when about half of potential writers don’t read for pleasure. I actually wanted to quote the whole second paragraph, but since the post was [...]

I knew he had potential when, instead of being creeped out, he was fascinated by the antique glass eye I carry around in my purse. One sentence stories. All the potential of PostSecret, but less bathos. Although drunken ideas rarely come to fruition, we found ourselves on Pearl Street the next morning serving syrupy handfuls [...]

“Books are not Hollywood, to the general astonishment of agents and corporate suits. They are intimate, unpredictable agents of delicious rebellion.” I’m not sure I buy the thesis in Osborne’s piece, but I really would like the believe I live in the world that this quote from it describes.

How fast does the average electron move through a copper wire? If you thought “at the speed of light” or “something close to the speed of light, but varying with the conduction medium” you are so wrong that’s it’s almost immeasurable. What’s the temperature in a complete vacuum? If you answered “near absolute zero” or [...]

A few years back I made this statement on the blog: I have read everything Graham Joyce has ever published, and none of them have been less than excellent. Well, in the intervening years, a few more books have been published, but the statement remains true. In fact, if anything it’s more true for the [...]

And now, from the “dumbest thing I’ve read today” file: Bournemouth Council, which has the Latin motto Pulchritudo et Salubritas – beauty and health – has listed 19 terms it no longer considers acceptable for use. They include ad hoc, bona fide, status quo, vice versa and even via. Its list of alternatives includes ‘for [...]

I am so disappointed in you. Especially you Ontario, and you B.C. I had steeled myself for 134 seats, but this… this is horrible. OK, it’s not quite as bad as a majority, but this is still terrible. And if this voter turnout thing is true–that the right-winger got out a lot more of their [...]

My goal is to redefine the whole history of rhyme ‘Cause the only way to free the soul is to free the mind And no wisdom as old as this should be confined To total mystery, so we’ll just read the signs And DaVinci codes, and try to see the science In this linguistically-composed pristine [...]