Best Short Novels Springtime can make even the most devoted of readers a little bit antsy. After all, there are flowers to smell, puddles to jump in, fresh love to kindle. You still want to have a novel in your pocket — just maybe one that doesn’t require quite so epic an attention span. Never fear: after the jump, you will find 50 incredible novels under 200 pages (editions vary, of course, so there’s a little leeway) that are suitable for this or any season. For simplicity’s sake, the list makes no distinction between novel and novella, excludes children’s books, and only allows one novel per author. Read on to find a book to divert your springtime attentions, and since there are way more than 50 incredible short novels out there in the world, add any favorites missing here in the comments. Train Dreams, Denis Johnson Johnson’s novella is a shimmering masterpiece that takes you from the railroad to the woods of Prohibition-era Idaho with a sort of manic grace.
Clear Off the Table | Darkhorse Analytics Blog We received a lot of attention for our Data Looks Better Naked post. People got bored on Christmas Eve and some interesting searches for Star Trek somehow landed them on our page. Now their charts look better. The principles outlined in that article aren’t just for charts, though. In the gif below we start with a table formatted similar to one of Excel’s many styling options which, much like the chart styles, do nothing to improve the table. As with charts, rather than dressing up our data we should be stripping it down. The slide deck for viewing at your own pace: 9 Super Simple Apps That Will Make Your Life Easier You've got a busy life. Work, school, social gatherings, family time — there's a lot to pack into one day. Technology is here to save you. While unwinding can sometimes mean putting away the gadgets, there are plenty of ways that a few apps can actually simplify your life. Here are nine free, quick-step apps to make your life less complicated. 1. Sometimes we forget how to stop and breathe. Available for iOS. Here's the 30/30 rule: For any task you want to accomplish, focus on it intently for 30 minutes, and then take a 30-minute break. 3. If you rely heavily on your smartphone, your calendar is probably chock-full of items. Available for iOS and Android. 4. The weather isn't always beautiful, but this app is. 5. iRecycle If you want to step up your recycling game, check out this app. 6. This is an Instagram user's best friend. 7. Romance — there's an app for that. 8. RedLaser is a bargain-hunting app. Available for iOS, Android and Windows Phones. 9. Have something to add to this story?
Bir kez daha: İnternet yasakları ile mücadele kılavuzu #Bilaleanlatırgibi :) BilimsoL ekibi, dün Twitter'ın hukuksuzca yasaklanmasının ardından, tüm ayrıntıları bulabileceğiniz, internet yasakları ile mücadele kılavuzu hazırladı. İnternet yasakları Haziran’dan beri gündemimizde. İktidar partisi bu süreçte ne zaman sıkışsa, yolsuzluklarını, hukuksuzluklarını kapatma telaşıyla halkı yeni bir yasakla tehdit etti ve yakın zamanda hazırlanan internet yasasıyla da buna hukuksal zemin hazırlamaya çalıştı. Ancak Erdoğan’ın dün Bursa mitinginde sarf ettiği “Twitter’in kökünü kazıyacağız” sözlerinin hemen ertesinde, gece yarısı gelen engelleme kararı kendi siyasi ortaklarını bile şok etti. Peki bundan sonra ne olacak? Bilimsol ekibi olarak yapılan ve yapılabilecek olan her türlü engellemeye karşı interneti özgürce kullanabilmeniz için Haziran direnişinden gelen tecrübelerimizle bir kılavuz hazırladık. Yasakların olmadığı eşit ve özgür bir dünya dileğiyle, halkımıza armağanımızdır.. 1. Adres Çözümleme Twitter Yasağı DNS Temelli Mi? Evet. “DNS Değiştirmek” Ne Anlama Geliyor? 4.
Slide Show: Yevgeny Khaldei Photographs Second World War Soviet soldiers storm the shore while attacking Sevastopol on April 1, 1944. On May 12th, the Soviets defeated the remaining German troops in Crimea. On December 1, 1944, a plane crashed into the roof of a residential building in Budapest. Soviet soldiers in Hungary, February, 1945. Two civilians outside a burning house in Vienna, April, 1945. U.S. military policemen guard Hermann Göring during the Nuremberg trials, in 1946. The Soviet photographer Yevgeny Khaldei worked for the Tass news agency between 1935 and 1948, and for Pravda from 1959 to 1976. Although Khaldei’s photographs are now seen as embodying a crucial perspective on the Second World War, his most famous image, “Raising a Flag Over the Reichstag,” was uncredited for many years. All photographs by Yevgeny Khaldei/Corbis.
IBM's Next Big Thing: Psychic Twitter Bots Using some of the same technologies that allowed the Watson natural language supercomputer to conquer Jeopardy, IBM's next step: Psychic artificial intelligences that read your Twitter feed and can tell when you're about to have a baby, get married, buy a house, or move across the country, and even tell you how these major life events make you feel, then approach you about them accordingly. Last week, IBM announced a new consulting practice called IBM Interactive Experience dedicated to better fusing business strategy, data, and design. As part of the announcement, IBM revealed that the company had been working on perfecting a couple of tools that are offshoots of the same computer research into natural language that led to Watson. Those tools? For example, let's say that you tweet that you've gotten a job offer to move to San Francisco. A company using IBM's tools wouldn't even need to already know your Twitter handle to figure out how to approach you. And it doesn't stop there.
The daily battles of life, cut from paper and animated in 3D Béatrice Coron doesn’t so much tell stories, as cut them. Béatrice Coron: Stories cut from paperAt TED2011, the French-born artist shared how she creates intricate, fantastical worlds by slashing paper into beautiful silhouettes. During a party at TED, held in the rotunda of Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific, Coron ran into James Stewart, the Canadian film director who pioneered digital 3D technology. Earlier that day, he’d given a talk at TED University about the art of 3D storytelling. “I’d seen her talk and she had seen mine,” Stewart tells the TED Blog. “I said to her, ‘I love your work. Today, Coron and Stewart are premiering their collaboration — which has shown at 15 festivals and events, including TED2013, and which is being submitted for Oscar consideration in the Animated Short Film category – online. Daily Battles conjures up images of castles and fire-breathing dragons. The full papercut of Daily Battles, which has been rendered in 3D in the short film above.
How to Block a Surveillance Camera: A DIY Art Tutorial from Ai Weiwei by Maria Popova A wine opener usage George Orwell would approve of. “When things get tough,” Neil Gaiman advised on in his fantastic commencement address on the creative life, “this is what you should do: Make good art. CCTV SPRAYHow to make a spray device to block a surveillance camera:Do you feel uncomfortable, confused, disgusted, or even irate because of a surveillance camera fixed at the wrong place? He goes on to list the materials needed — a spray bottle, a wine bottle opener, a bike bottle cage, a bike brake bar, a screw, and a stick — with the instruction to “choose materials that are as practical and reliable as possible” and are also “cheap and easy to obtain.” First find a long stick of suitable height. Under “Usage,” he instructs: First fix the wine bottle opener at the top of the tree pruner (a.01). Complement this exercise in creative civic disobedience with BBC’s excellent Ai Weiwei: Without Fear or Favour. Donating = Loving Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter.
100 Websites You Should Know and Use (updated!) In the spring of 2007, Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH, gave a legendary TED University talk: an ultra-fast-moving ride through the “100 websites you should know and use.” Six years later, it remains one of the most viewed TED blog posts ever. Time for an update? We think so. Below, the 2013 edition of the 100 websites to put on your radar and in your browser. To see the original list, click here. And now, the original list from 2007, created by Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH.
The so-called “startle reflex” is probably the Coursekit is now Lore. What’s the Story? The so-called “startle reflex” is probably the fastest response you can have. The science of why certain sounds scare us – another great illuminator from Joe Hanson. This might explain why Dickens and Babbage waged a war on noise… Pair with Alfred Hitchcock on the fright complex and Vi Hart’s animated explanation of the science of noise. #scinece and technology#science#Halloween#biology 641 notes