Tuesday, March 10

The Future of Media

This is a great video. There's two versions, I like this one better though:


The Machine is Us

Very well done video...



Evolution of the Printed Word

Charlemagne and an English monk named Alcuin reformed the entire writing system of Europe in the 8th century. Prior to this reform, all of Europe followed the ancient Roman system. The Roman system used all capitals (this word is derived from capitulus, meaning chapter), and no spacing or punctuation. On a quick side note, lower case and upper-case comes from the position of the casings that housed printing blocks for press.

One of the reasons to introduce a lower-case was that papyrus or vellum was very expensive and they needed a way to fit more text on a page. They also introduced spacing between words and punctuation to seperate pieces of text. Punctuation had been used to signify pauses for meditation while reading Psalms.

Interesting Logo Design

Finally, a Mixer for Baijiu


I've been in China for three and a half years now and I always ask myself how the Chinese stomach their drink of choice, Baijiu. It's an excessively fruity, yet strong alcoholic beverage distilled from rice.

I've drank it on several occasions, usually regretting every time. I've tried various combinations because I'm a firm believer that every flavor has an opposite, something that can cut it, and why not? Soundwaves behave similarly, you have your noise cancelling headphones.

For Baijiu, I've tried almost every fruit juice, Sprite and Coke, all with disappointing results. The fruitiness of the juices couldn't cancel the strong alcohol flavor, and the sweetness of the sodas couldn't cover the nasty fruitiness. Today, I took a different approach and tried some sickeningly sweet iced tea that I do not like to drink, and it was a miracle of mixology. An iced tea goes well with some fruit, and the sweetnesss of it complimented, not enhanced the Baijiu flavor.

Best Recipe for Depression


I've been doing this for the past couple of weeks and I'm sure that I'm on to something. The best way to lift your spirits throughout the day is to start the day off right, and for me that means grabbing getting up early, hitting the gym, taking a refreshing shower, and then getting a big breakfast. Now you don't need a healthy breakfast, just a really satisfying one. You can eat healthy later on.

Now maybe it's not a cure for any serious bouts of clinical depression, but I'm confident that it will help in all but the more extreme cases. Enjoy!