A [rare] mid-morning filter pass...

Pondering Jevons paradox: the proposition that technological progress that increases the efficiency with which a resource is used, tends to increase (rather than decrease) the rate of consumption of that resource.  As in for example, energy conservation decreases the price of fuel (more efficiency, more supply, less demand) which increases usage of the fuel.  Hmmm... 

Once again, truth is stranger than Onion: Zimbabwe introduces $100,000,000,000,000 note.  That my friends is what inflation looks like.  Sure, laugh, but don't laugh too hard, people who live in glass houses... 

I posted this the other day, but I need you to look at it again.  Go ahead, look at it (click through to enbiggen).  What we have here is a Yak, in the middle of a cliff.  It is unclear how the Yak got there in the first place, or why, or where it is going, but it is clearly amazing. 

Everything old is new again: Mr. Edison's Kindle.  A compendium of ideas slightly ahead of their time... 

If you're like me, you love RSS.  (And in this, we are unlike most others; for reasons I have not completely grasped, RSS has failed to take the world by storm, despite being massively useful.)  Anyway if you love RSS you will occasionally or not so occasionally happen across website which don't have feeds.  Gasp!  And if you're exactly like me, you'll make a homemade feed for it, but if you're not, you might check out Google's "follow changes on any website" capability.  In which they make a feed for just about anything.  Cool. 

So... how much is a good idea worth?  Jeff Atwood considers the question.  "The value of my advice is debatable.  But you would do well to heed the advice of Mr. Sivers and Mr. Catmull.  If you want to be successful, stop worrying about the great ideas, and concentrate on cultivating great teams."  Amen. 

Today I came across a great new book from Steve Krug: Rocket Surgery Made Easy.  I was already a fan; Don't Make Me Think was great.  And so I decided to give everyone in my team a copy, via Kindle, since I know they all have Kindles :)  But guess what?  There is no way to give a specific book to someone on their Kindle!  I guess that must be Amazonian rocket surgery.  So I ended up giving everyone a gift card instead. 

This is awesome: Landis wins Bahamian time trial.  "Floyd Landis won the timetrial in the three-stage Tour of Bahamas this week-end.  The former OUCH-Maxxis rider reportedly beat the course record set by David Zabriskie in 2008."  And check out that bike - nice TT bars :) 

Do you know how much football is actually played in a typical 60-minute game?  Eleven minutes.  "So what do the networks do with the other 174 minutes in a typical broadcast?  ...commercials take up about an hour...  75 minutes...is spent on shots of players huddling, standing at the line of scrimmage or just generally milling about between snaps."  Action packed!  (No wonder I love my Tivo :) 

Today's ZooBorn: A baby Dik-Dik!  A miniature version of a miniature deer :)