Note: This post contains an embedded survey which may not appear in your RSS reader. Click here to view the full post.
Request(Updated 2010-06-11)
In the past The Metaist had Feedback Friday as a routine way to get feedback from you (dear reader). Over time (7 months), this became less of way to solicit for ideas and more of a way to fill space without providing content, so it was abandoned.
Nonetheless, getting feedback from the readership is important and following a suggestion by reader Jeff Klein, I'm providing a small (4 question) survey to assess our status. It should take less than 3 minutes to complete and will be open until June 4th, 2010.
Please take this anonymous survey at your earliest convenience.
Thanks,
The Metaist
Update 2010-06-11:
The survey is now closed. Thank you for your participation.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Reader Story: Circular Learning Management System
This post is based on a submission by reader Jeff Klein. Please submit suggestions for posts to metaist.blog@gmail.com.
Summary
A learning management system is a system for organizing electronic delivery of courses. Some are so complicated you need a special course to learn how to use them.
It's about 750 pages of dense single-spaced 12pt text. Reading is so easy!
(Image: Created using txt2pic)
Story
Imagine you are told you have to use a new internal learning management system to complete your workplace training. Sounds simple enough. Yet, what if the system was so complicated and hard to use that you needed to take a course to learn how to use the system? Moreover, what happens when the course that teaches you how to use the system is managed by the very same system? A logical implosion.
Meta
Circular reasoning works because circular reasoning works. What experiences have you had with trying to explain the issues with circular reasoning?
Story text written by The Metaist with permission and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Summary
A learning management system is a system for organizing electronic delivery of courses. Some are so complicated you need a special course to learn how to use them.
It's about 750 pages of dense single-spaced 12pt text. Reading is so easy!
(Image: Created using txt2pic)
Story
Imagine you are told you have to use a new internal learning management system to complete your workplace training. Sounds simple enough. Yet, what if the system was so complicated and hard to use that you needed to take a course to learn how to use the system? Moreover, what happens when the course that teaches you how to use the system is managed by the very same system? A logical implosion.
Meta
Circular reasoning works because circular reasoning works. What experiences have you had with trying to explain the issues with circular reasoning?
Story text written by The Metaist with permission and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Reader Question: How is yogurt made?
This post is a response to a reader question. Please submit suggestions for posts to metaist.blog@gmail.com. Not all questions will be answered.
Question
An anonymous six-year-old child of a reader asks: How is yogurt made?
If you look carefully, you can see an ear, nose, and beard in the Rorschach ink blot.
(Photo: Wikimedia)
Summary (for an average six-year-old)
(Based on: Peanut Butter and Jelly)
First you take the milk and you heat it. (You heat it.)
Then you take the milk and you cool it. (You cool it.)
Then you take the bacteria and you add it. (You add it.)
Then it gets fermented. (Fermented.)
For your yogurt... white yogurt... and berries.
Explanation (for a smarter six-year-old)
Yogurt is based on the Turkish words for knead and thick although in some regions (e.g., Bulgaria) it is more like sour milk (which ambiguously refers to both milk that has soured and buttermilk).
The bacteria used in the fermentation process are Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus salivarius subsp. thermophilus which convert the lactose into lactic acid (which is what builds up on your muscles when you exercise, but doesn't degrade performance as previously thought).
Aside from the that the first summary captures the essence of the process.
See Also
Question
An anonymous six-year-old child of a reader asks: How is yogurt made?
If you look carefully, you can see an ear, nose, and beard in the Rorschach ink blot.
(Photo: Wikimedia)
Summary (for an average six-year-old)
(Based on: Peanut Butter and Jelly)
First you take the milk and you heat it. (You heat it.)
Then you take the milk and you cool it. (You cool it.)
Then you take the bacteria and you add it. (You add it.)
Then it gets fermented. (Fermented.)
For your yogurt... white yogurt... and berries.
Explanation (for a smarter six-year-old)
Yogurt is based on the Turkish words for knead and thick although in some regions (e.g., Bulgaria) it is more like sour milk (which ambiguously refers to both milk that has soured and buttermilk).
The bacteria used in the fermentation process are Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus salivarius subsp. thermophilus which convert the lactose into lactic acid (which is what builds up on your muscles when you exercise, but doesn't degrade performance as previously thought).
Aside from the that the first summary captures the essence of the process.
See Also
- Yogurt at Wikipedia for more information.
- On Yogurt and Jiu-Jitsu at Hulu for a discussion of the relationship between yogurt and spying.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Cold War Continues in North Korea
Note: This post contains embedded video which may not appear in your RSS reader. Click here to view the full post.
Summary
North Korea is an interesting country that is largely (socially) isolated from the rest of the world. VBS Co-Founder Shane Smith managed to get into the country during their increased allowance for tourists to watch the Mass Games (the latest one was called "Arirang").
The videos are long, but fascinating.
Enjoy.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Summary
North Korea is an interesting country that is largely (socially) isolated from the rest of the world. VBS Co-Founder Shane Smith managed to get into the country during their increased allowance for tourists to watch the Mass Games (the latest one was called "Arirang").
The videos are long, but fascinating.
Enjoy.
Part 1
(Video: VBS)
Part 2
(Video: VBS)
Part 3
(Video: VBS)
Monday, May 24, 2010
Reader Review: The Checklist Manifesto
This review was submitted by reader Josh Vogel. Please submit book reviews to metaist.blog@gmail.com.
Review
The Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande, is a manager's guide to making the professionals under his charge play at the top of their game. Throughout the book, Gawande stresses that checklists have a place in every business sector, from aviation, to finance, and, his main emphasis, in the operating room of a hospital. He goes to great lengths to show the successes checklist implementation has accomplished in often short periods of time.
Perhaps the most appealing part of this book is the points Gawande makes about how a checklist is for everyone at every stage of their career. The need for checklists, Gawande says, is especially true for those who have excelled in their positions and feel that they are infallible and do not need to rely on such checks during their normal work routines. The book further stress the point that checklists are an inexpensive tool to implement that can result in large rewards both physical and financial. Gawande also does an excellent job of detailing how to correctly implement a checklist in a corporate/hospital setting, promoting top-down support of the project and placing the responsibility for its use in the hands of those least involved, (i.e. nurses, etc).
Towards the end of the book, Gawande does become a little redundant in his message. While he does cover it somewhat, more time could have been spent reviewing the need for checklists in today's world, bringing more evidence for failures that occur as a direct result of not having a checklist in place. Nevertheless, Gawandes writing style is easy to read and eloquent, wasting no words and making his points clear. Gawande is on to something and using his ideas can produce dramatic results with little cost involved.
Josh Vogel is a Candidate for the Master of Public Health at Boston University School of Public Health.
Review text licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Additional editing by The Metaist.
Review
The Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande, is a manager's guide to making the professionals under his charge play at the top of their game. Throughout the book, Gawande stresses that checklists have a place in every business sector, from aviation, to finance, and, his main emphasis, in the operating room of a hospital. He goes to great lengths to show the successes checklist implementation has accomplished in often short periods of time.
Perhaps the most appealing part of this book is the points Gawande makes about how a checklist is for everyone at every stage of their career. The need for checklists, Gawande says, is especially true for those who have excelled in their positions and feel that they are infallible and do not need to rely on such checks during their normal work routines. The book further stress the point that checklists are an inexpensive tool to implement that can result in large rewards both physical and financial. Gawande also does an excellent job of detailing how to correctly implement a checklist in a corporate/hospital setting, promoting top-down support of the project and placing the responsibility for its use in the hands of those least involved, (i.e. nurses, etc).
Towards the end of the book, Gawande does become a little redundant in his message. While he does cover it somewhat, more time could have been spent reviewing the need for checklists in today's world, bringing more evidence for failures that occur as a direct result of not having a checklist in place. Nevertheless, Gawandes writing style is easy to read and eloquent, wasting no words and making his points clear. Gawande is on to something and using his ideas can produce dramatic results with little cost involved.
Josh Vogel is a Candidate for the Master of Public Health at Boston University School of Public Health.
Review text licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Additional editing by The Metaist.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Google Chrome is Fast
Summary
Google has a nice video demonstrating the speed of the Google Chrome web browser.
Enjoy.
And here's how they made that commercial...
Google has a nice video demonstrating the speed of the Google Chrome web browser.
Enjoy.
(Video: YouTube)
And here's how they made that commercial...
(Video: YouTube)
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Origin: Drink From a Fire Hose
Summary
In 1991, a group of MIT students attached a fire hose to a water fountain thus fulfilling former MIT President Jerome Wiesner's notion that getting an education from MIT was comparable to getting a drink from a fire hose.
"Getting an education from MIT is like trying to get a drink from a firehose [sic]."
(Photo: MIT Hacks)
See Also
In 1991, a group of MIT students attached a fire hose to a water fountain thus fulfilling former MIT President Jerome Wiesner's notion that getting an education from MIT was comparable to getting a drink from a fire hose.
"Getting an education from MIT is like trying to get a drink from a firehose [sic]."
(Photo: MIT Hacks)
See Also
- Fire Hose Drinking Fountain at MIT's Interesting Hacks To Fascinate People Gallery for more details.
- Firehose at YouTube for a famous scene in the 1989 film UHF during which Michael Richards provides a drink from a fire hose as a prize on a television show.
- Fire hose at Wikipedia for a description of the history and types of fire hoses.
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