Hooray for the bleeding edge

A strike by the MiskElectroTrans Company, as a result of which no trolleybuses and trams operated today in Kharkiv, is a one-day action that could be stepped up in the near future, union officials have said.

Saw it yesterday - it was nuts. Rumor is that it is continuing today.

Much more important than working hard is knowing how to find the right thing to work on. Paying attention to what is going on in the world. Seeing patterns. Seeing things as they are rather than how you want them to be. Being able to read what people want. Putting yourself in the right place where information is flowing freely and interesting new juxtapositions can be seen. But you can save yourself a lot of time by working on the right thing.

Word. Work softly and carry a big bag of tricks.

Cheeky sunday fun!

Because the Soviets subsidized the game. Chess has long been popular in Russia—Czar Ivan IV is thought to have died while playing a match in 1584. After the Bolsheviks took power in 1917, it became a national pastime.

the title, translated from Russian: "One step forward, two steps back"

Kiss, ABBA, Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Stooges. Ohhhh yeahhhh. PS - where the hell is Rush? And did the Police already get the nod?

Behold, a visualization of the contiguous United States, colored by distance to the nearest domestic McDonald’s!

Data. Visualization. Awesomeness.

Cheeky Sunday Fun!

Twenty years ago, I graduated from high school. More importantly, twenty years ago I turned 18 and left Texas for the first time. In August of 1989, I arrived at Bard College in upstate New York, and started college.

It was a wild ride. Looking back now, after all that time, I see it was also a short ride. Among my Bard College experiences was my first trip to Russia, studying in St Petersburg's Herzen Institute. I also had the fortune to meet a lot of different, interesting, dynamic people along the way.

Five years later, I would graduate, but not from Bard. I got my BA from the University of Texas, and while that was a fine place to study, it wasn't my first choice. I voluntarily left Bard, because I got tired of what I called "small college bullshit", but it is a decision that I think about every once in a blue moon. I don't regret it, but I think about it.

If you ever get a chance to find yourself near Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, take a tour of Bard College. Its campus is prettier than most. The architecture is eclectic, but if you look at one of the many different places, you will be able to see a certain charm to it. At least that's the way I remember it.

(CC licensed photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelbd/2484391412/in/photostream/)

(The above pic is from Blithewood, which used to be a all-girls dorm but then became an economics institute. Rumor was that the nearby mansion was haunted. FYI.)

Very flashy. But I would take issue with some of the numbers that are getting thrown up there.