Some Very Interesting People with Good Things to Say

Feynman on How to think Like a Scientist--- about thinking and investigating how you think and what you know




Ira Glass on how to create meaningful creative work -- failing a lot, setting aside just as much time for looking for interesting things, and waiting to get lucky -- never settling for mediocrity.




Malcolm Gladwell on why there is no perfect _________ there are only perfect _________'s




Hans Rosling's poignant (and beautiful information aesthetics) on how the world is as flat as ever.



Jennifer Lee on "Chinese" food in America



Secret History of Silicon Valley -- Basically: Terman (of Terman Engineering) is the man: some of the core ideas of silicon valley -- IP Protection, Entrepreneurial Stanford Engineering Students, Venture Capital Models, Education and Startup Cooperation were a brainchild of him --- oh yeah and it all goes back to weapons




Daniel Suarez on our bot mediated reality.




Will Wright and Brian Eno on Generative Systems



Jonathan Haidt on the difference between liberals and conservatives




Randy Pausch on really achieving your childhood dreams -- a little self helpy but this is very good



Steve Jobs's three stories on life


Dieter Rams on revolutionizing the design of objects



Vint Cerf on the future of the interwebs


A.J. Jacobs on living his life following all biblical rules ( of the outsourced life fame)


Marilyn Manson Pwning Bill O'Reilly -- and talks about presentation and the veneer of self


Stephen Hawking on finding good challenges for the mind


Salvador Dali on what's my line (hilarious and absurd)


XKCD guy at Google


Ben Huh on the history of Icanhascheezburger


Seth Godin on Purple Cows


Michael Welsch on the internet



John Cage performs



Milton Friedman on Societies that run on Greed -- the only cases where the masses escape grinding poverty is through capitalism



Stewart Brand on the importance of squatter cities



Steve Levitt on why incentives don't work


Speaking of Carrots -- Ali G's literal interpretation of carrots


Tim Hartford on the Logic of Life


Steven Pinker on reverse engineering Romance


Richard Buckland on hidden messages


Dan Dennet on the power of memes



Stephen Hawking on asking big questions about the universe


Ramachandran on intersection of physical and real


Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on creativity and flow

late night

a cup of coffee that I drank at 9 pm today is the reason why I am still awake, and i thought it was time again for another journal entry. since my last entry, i have found some more interesting activities on seventh and folsom.

first, the mysterious fleet of tiny, middle aged chinese women that peddle what seems like commissioned state food items on bryant and seventh, right in front of the newly opened subway. everyday, it's the same (or perhaps different) chinese lady with several one-off food items laid out over a piece of cloth on the ground. the specific items vary per day, sometimes there will be a small box of cereal, or some canned peaches, or sometimes , mysteriously, a few packets of active dry yeast. each time i always look furtively to scan her items, and get a momentary desire to photograph her. she always looks me in the eye, wondering if perhaps the packets of active dry yeast have caught my interest. it must be a lucrative endeavor if its worth doing everyday. a few weeks ago, when i was running a little bit late to work, i saw that there are a fleet of them, and not just one. i wonder what street intersections these other chinese ladies are stationed, and where they will be going to after they've done their peddling.

moving on to another mysterious phenomenon on seventh street, is the always frothing sea of soap foam that emerges at about 6 pm everyday. my best guess is that it is there to counter the ever pervasive tenderloin city scent (aka pee and poo). I wonder though who is the secret benefactor of this "sea of foam" that washes a stream of frothy, bubbly, springy freshness through the entire alleyway in front of the seventh street bar. I am grateful for this, but then saddened to realize that soon this pristine frothy bubble will eventually merge with the neverending supply of urine from the happy folk that love loitering in this particular street.

orzo is such a delightful food. i made something with orzo, shrimp and basil last weekend. mangoes are also in season which makes me happy. i've been snapping it up by the dozen.

Some really great stop motion videos

GMAIL VIRAL VIDEO
peeps paint a larger than life gmail interface


SHISEIDO
guy paints something in large scale, people come in to form the head's hair



POST-IT VALENTINE
just simple animation + simple story + post its




SCISSORS SINGING MUSIC VIDEO
campy animations of singing scissors has a crafty feel


TIME LAPSE -- DRAWING + ANIMATED PARTS (2 million views)


LEGO MILLENIUM FALCON BUILDING ITSELF


SPEED PAINTING WITH FRENCH FRIES




INTERESTING REFRAMING OF MOVING IMAGE (not really stop motion combo of video )


MOTION GRAPHICS + DRAWING (effects I wanted for the shirt going into person)


HOW TO MAKE A PANCAKE (the pancake makes itself)



SONY ADVERT WITH CLAY and huge BUNNIES IN NYC


LIVE PAINTING (Interesting this one only has 8K views, which might be in the artist masturbatory mode...i.e. impressing only the artists)



BOOK OF SPAM





15 MILLION VIEWS ON JUST HANDS


KELLOGS STOP MOTION with CEREAL



KID AND BALLOON (not stop motion but good)



RINPA ESHIDAN (drawing on walls amazing)



MANUFACTURED BEAUTY ( photoshop tells a really good story)


DAFT PUNK (shirts )