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photo It must suck to be the middle-man today. Everywhere they turn, it’s bad news. Democratization this. Circumventing that. There was a point not that long ago that the middle-man provided great value. The record companies brought music to the masses. The media created channels for the news to get through. The Blockbusters of the world housed thousands of movies for people to rent. Telephone companies laid the lines for us to connect with one another around the world.
But now these middle-men are our modern villains – using every desperate trick in the book to hold onto customers while we find creative ways to go around them, go straight to the source and sometimes just do it ourselves. There is a mass disintermediation going on and every company that occupies the mediator position is at risk. Now it’s the media, the labels and the distributors of what has become digital content, but I doubt this will be the last frontier of democratization. I’m sorry to say it, but they are bringing it on themselves.
via The Disintermediation Era | HPC

It must suck to be the middle-man today. Everywhere they turn, it’s bad news. Democratization this. Circumventing that. There was a point not that long ago that the middle-man provided great value. The record companies brought music to the masses. The media created channels for the news to get through. The Blockbusters of the world housed thousands of movies for people to rent. Telephone companies laid the lines for us to connect with one another around the world.

But now these middle-men are our modern villains – using every desperate trick in the book to hold onto customers while we find creative ways to go around them, go straight to the source and sometimes just do it ourselves. There is a mass disintermediation going on and every company that occupies the mediator position is at risk. Now it’s the media, the labels and the distributors of what has become digital content, but I doubt this will be the last frontier of democratization. I’m sorry to say it, but they are bringing it on themselves.

via The Disintermediation Era | HPC

8 hours ago

November 7, 2009
video

8 hours ago

November 7, 2009
photo A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families (via The Morning News)
It’s a scene that is replayed by kids and parents everywhere. And it’s the starting point for a unique quirk of language: Lego nomenclature.Every family, it seems, has its own set of words for describing particular Lego pieces. No one uses the official names. “Dad, please could you pass me that Brick 2x2?” No. In our house, it’ll always be: “Dad, please could you pass me that four-er?”And I’ll pass it, because I know exactly which piece he means. Lego nomenclature is essential for family Lego building.
click through to view the whole list.

A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families (via The Morning News)

It’s a scene that is replayed by kids and parents everywhere. And it’s the starting point for a unique quirk of language: Lego nomenclature.

Every family, it seems, has its own set of words for describing particular Lego pieces. No one uses the official names. “Dad, please could you pass me that Brick 2x2?” No. In our house, it’ll always be: “Dad, please could you pass me that four-er?”

And I’ll pass it, because I know exactly which piece he means. Lego nomenclature is essential for family Lego building.

click through to view the whole list.

9 hours ago

November 7, 2009
photo (via chrbutler)

(via chrbutler)

9 hours ago

November 7, 2009
reblogged via chrbutler
photo mary1in:

mauvais:

SEA CAMPAIGN : KLAS ERNFLO (via ivovaladares)

10 hours ago

November 7, 2009
reblogged via mary1in
text

"making mathematics with needlework"

giantrobotlasers:

10 hours ago

November 7, 2009
reblogged via giantrobotlasers
quote
Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until [you] have accomplished a purpose - not the one you began with perhaps, but one you’ll be glad to remember.

Anne Sullivan

via A Blog Around The Clock

12 hours ago

November 7, 2009
text

Signature Of Antimatter Detected In Lightning

During two recent lightning storms, Fermi recorded gamma-ray emissions of a particular energy that could have been produced only by the decay of energetic positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons. The observations are the first of their kind for lightning storms. Michael Briggs of the University of Alabama in Huntsville announced the puzzling findings November 5 at the 2009 Fermi Symposium.

[…]

During lightning storms previously observed by other spacecraft, energetic electrons moving toward the craft slowed down and produced gamma rays. The unusual positron signature seen by Fermi suggests that the normal orientation for an electric field associated with a lightning storm somehow reversed, Briggs said. Modelers are now working to figure out how the field reversal could have occurred. But for now, he said, the answer is up in the air.

via Science News

13 hours ago

November 7, 2009
text

Carl Sagan Day

today. there’s a live stream to celebrate here.

14 hours ago

November 7, 2009
quote
The will to blog is a complicated thing, somewhere between inspiration and compulsion. It can feel almost like a biological impulse. You see something, or an idea occurs to you, and you have to share it with the Internet as soon as possible. What I didn’t realize was that those ideas and that urgency — and the sense of self-importance that made me think anyone would be interested in hearing what went on in my head — could just disappear.

14 hours ago

November 7, 2009
reblogged via somethingchanged