Facebook’s most shared articles of 2011 – thought provoking and with no pop stars

Amazing that all our sharing in Facebook resulted in some really interesting articles. Compare this to the yearly top search terms and it shows that we are a bit more sophisticated with our friends.

Of course, it turns out that I’ve only read two of the 40 most popular. Here are the top 10 with a link at bottom for the full list:

1. Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami (New York Times)

2. What teachers really want to tell parents (CNN)

3. No, your zodiac sign hasn’t changed (CNN)

4. Parents, don’t dress your girls like tramps (CNN)

5. (video) – Father Daughter Dance Medley (Yahoo)

6. At funeral, dog mourns the death of Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan (Yahoo)

7. You’ll freak when you see the new Facebook (CNN)

8. Dog in Japan stays by the side of ailing friend in the rubble (Yahoo)

9. Giant crocodile captured alive in Philippines (Yahoo)

10. New Zodiac Sign Dates: Ophiuchus The 13th Sign? (The Huffington Post)

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Find all 40 at – Most Shared Articles on Facebook in 2011

Facebook's most shared articles of 2011 – thought provoking and with no pop stars

Amazing that all our sharing in Facebook resulted in some really interesting articles. Compare this to the yearly top search terms and it shows that we are a bit more sophisticated with our friends.

Of course, it turns out that I’ve only read two of the 40 most popular. Here are the top 10 with a link at bottom for the full list:

1. Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami (New York Times)

2. What teachers really want to tell parents (CNN)

3. No, your zodiac sign hasn’t changed (CNN)

4. Parents, don’t dress your girls like tramps (CNN)

5. (video) – Father Daughter Dance Medley (Yahoo)

6. At funeral, dog mourns the death of Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan (Yahoo)

7. You’ll freak when you see the new Facebook (CNN)

8. Dog in Japan stays by the side of ailing friend in the rubble (Yahoo)

9. Giant crocodile captured alive in Philippines (Yahoo)

10. New Zodiac Sign Dates: Ophiuchus The 13th Sign? (The Huffington Post)

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Find all 40 at – Most Shared Articles on Facebook in 2011

1493: Columbus created China’s population boom and the Little Ice Age (book review)

I’ve found a fascinating new book along the lines of Guns, Germs, and Steel. This one called 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann.

For some insight into what it’s all about, here are some excerpts from the author.

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Via the Bloomberg Presents Podcast

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Introduction

The Eastern and Western Hemispheres had been separated for 10s of millions of years, Pangaea. Columbus brought them together again causing an ecological convulsion, effectively creating Pangaea again.

On these European ships were passengers, beyond people, like plants, animals and micro-organisms. The most well-known were the diseases that wiped out some 90% of the population. Going the other way, you get foods, particularly the potato in Ireland.

Also, there is sweet potato and corn, particularly in China, where it has an equally large impact.

Columbus created China’s Population Boom

China, if you look at it on a map, one of the striking things is that it doesn’t have any big lakes or big bodies of water only these two major rivers, the Yellow and Yangtze. Other than that most of China is dry hills. So China has 20% of the world’s people and about 7% of the worlds fresh water.

Beyond that it gets even more out of whack because the main crop of China is rice which has to be grown in big fresh-water swimming pools. This creates a real tension and has been a major problem for every Chinese ruler to the present day.

In about 1600, corn and sweet potato come into China and they resulted in a huge harvest.  It was very, very productive and able to grown in dry land. Those dry hills turned into productive land and the Chinese fanned out into Western China to start planting corn and sweet potato.

The result was big boom in food supply, one historian put it at a 50% increase. As a result the population boomed and led to the crowded China that we know today.

The Little Ice Age – Global Cooling

When the native people died in massive numbers due to European diseases, they stopped impacting their environment. Doing things like burning fields, planting crops. All these open areas across both continents began filling in with trees. The result was that it drew carbon dioxide out of the air. An increasing number of studies show the carbon dioxide levels dropping with the arrival of Columbus.

This caused the Earth to get colder and caused what histories call the Little Ice Age.

Continue reading “1493: Columbus created China’s population boom and the Little Ice Age (book review)”

1493: Columbus created China's population boom and the Little Ice Age (book review)

I’ve found a fascinating new book along the lines of Guns, Germs, and Steel. This one called 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann.

For some insight into what it’s all about, here are some excerpts from the author.

—

Via the Bloomberg Presents Podcast

—

Introduction

The Eastern and Western Hemispheres had been separated for 10s of millions of years, Pangaea. Columbus brought them together again causing an ecological convulsion, effectively creating Pangaea again.

On these European ships were passengers, beyond people, like plants, animals and micro-organisms. The most well-known were the diseases that wiped out some 90% of the population. Going the other way, you get foods, particularly the potato in Ireland.

Also, there is sweet potato and corn, particularly in China, where it has an equally large impact.

Columbus created China’s Population Boom

China, if you look at it on a map, one of the striking things is that it doesn’t have any big lakes or big bodies of water only these two major rivers, the Yellow and Yangtze. Other than that most of China is dry hills. So China has 20% of the world’s people and about 7% of the worlds fresh water.

Beyond that it gets even more out of whack because the main crop of China is rice which has to be grown in big fresh-water swimming pools. This creates a real tension and has been a major problem for every Chinese ruler to the present day.

In about 1600, corn and sweet potato come into China and they resulted in a huge harvest.  It was very, very productive and able to grown in dry land. Those dry hills turned into productive land and the Chinese fanned out into Western China to start planting corn and sweet potato.

The result was big boom in food supply, one historian put it at a 50% increase. As a result the population boomed and led to the crowded China that we know today.

The Little Ice Age – Global Cooling

When the native people died in massive numbers due to European diseases, they stopped impacting their environment. Doing things like burning fields, planting crops. All these open areas across both continents began filling in with trees. The result was that it drew carbon dioxide out of the air. An increasing number of studies show the carbon dioxide levels dropping with the arrival of Columbus.

This caused the Earth to get colder and caused what histories call the Little Ice Age.

Continue reading “1493: Columbus created China's population boom and the Little Ice Age (book review)”

Own a piece of the Packers – stock on sale now!

The team has put 250,000 shares up for sale at $250 apiece, plus a $25 handling charge per order. Murphy said the team hopes to generate at least $22 million to help defray the cost of a $143 million renovation project at Lambeau Field. Plans call for adding 6,700 additional seats, new high-definition video screens and a new entrance by 2013.

The sale marks the fifth time in the Packers’ 92-year history that the publicly-owned team has offered stock, though it’s really not an investment in the traditional sense. The value doesn’t increase, there are no dividends and it has virtually no resale value. But it does qualify the buyer as a team owner and conveys voting rights. It also qualifies the holder to attend the annual stockholder meeting at Lambeau each summer before training camp begins. They also get access to a special line of shareholder apparel.

via Yahoo! Sports

The sale will continue until February 29, 2012, and can be purchased at packersowner.com.

I’m not even a fan of the Packers but I think this is so cool that I want to buy one..

Continue reading “Own a piece of the Packers – stock on sale now!”

“Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again” – Steve Jobs

When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money.

That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.

via Brain Pickings

"Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again" – Steve Jobs

When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money.

That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.

via Brain Pickings

British Newspaper Archive – treasure trove of 3 million newspapers going back to the 1700s

I love these newspaper archives coming online. It’s like having a library in your home. The articles and pictures, the classifieds and political diatribes, it’s too fun.

When it comes to the British we have to separate our living memory from our British memory. We tend to think that American culture dominates the world but for 150 years it was the British. Think of Bram Stoker (Irish) and his Dracula, or Mary Shelley (British) and Frankenstein.

I’ve had some fun looking them up in the old newspapers as well as search terms like “tea time” and “British East India”. What did you come up with?

British Newspaper Archive

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The one I found was from June 30, 1838, on the day of Queen Victoria’s coronation. You know the one played by Emily Blunt in the awesome movie, Young Victoria, and the person behind the “Victorian Era.”

“Her reign of 63 years and 7 months, which is longer than that of any other British monarch and the longest of any female monarch in history, is known as the Victorian era.

“It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire.”

From Wikipedia

Download the entire front page

Some screenshots from the newspaper:

Continue reading “British Newspaper Archive – treasure trove of 3 million newspapers going back to the 1700s”

SpaceX manifesto: transparency, low prices, and worldwide dominance for the future of space travel

I recognize that our prices shatter the historical cost models of government-led developments, but these prices are not arbitrary, premised on capturing a dominant share of the market, or “teaser” rates meant to lure in an eager market only to be increased later. These prices are based on known costs and a demonstrated track record, and they exemplify the potential of America’s commercial space industry.

– Elon Musk, The facts about SpaceX costs

SpaceX, the private space transport company founded by Elon Musk, is riding high from their latest slate of successful launches and taking it to the rest of the industry. This includes the traditional American space companies and the entire international system.

Mr. Musk is even boasting that the Chinese cannot compete with SpaceX, or as he puts it, “this is a clear case of American innovation trumping lower overseas labor rates.”

In case you didn’t know, Elon Musk does this all the time. As the power player behind Tesla and Solar City, the country’s largest solar company, he has an impressive resume. Add to that his famous Iron Man chops, where Robert Downey Jr. has based his super hero character on him.

By itself, SpaceX is pretty impressive. The launch manifest shows 36 flights with twelve from NASA, eight from Iridium (private company, satellite phones), three from Europe, and more from five other countries. Not to mention an undisclosed contract with the U.S. Air Force.

The company has been profitable since 2007 and has grown from 160 employees in 2005 to 1,500 in 2011.

The next step is a manned space flight and all signs are a go. The demand to get astronauts into space, and just about everything else in space travel, is so strong that they are winning contracts before they launch vehicles and sometimes before the designs have been drawn up.

Keep an eye on this company because it may just be the next big thing.

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Oh, and they are hiring, over 100 positions..

130 years of news for the L.A. Times, my favorite newspaper’s birthday

1937, the Times Building, beautiful right, gives Batman's Gotham a run for its money.

 

The Los Angeles Times has the best newspaper website in the world. Their online presence is the fastest growing in the U.S., and for a technologist, like me, that is awesome.

I have their iPhone and iPad apps, including the LA Times Magazine app which is the best magazine app I’ve seen yet. I love their spinoff websites, like Hero Complex that talks all about super hero movies, science fiction, fantasy, and more.

Most importantly, the taste of the newspaper suits me. From the art and architecture to sports and business, I feel a kinship with the writing and focus. It’s really cool to find something like that.

Especially, when the gray lady is putting up paywalls and messing around with commenters. The New York Times is supposed to be our newspaper of record, and they do have some great journalists, but when it comes to winning over technologists they are far, far behind. I say that until they fully embrace the online world we avoid their site and make them earn that number one spot.

Anyway, back to the special paper of the day. Happy Birthday Los Angeles Times!

Keep up the good work and here’s to another 130 years.

Capturing history as it was made – The Times celebrates its birthday with a look back at some memorable photos and front pages

Continue reading “130 years of news for the L.A. Times, my favorite newspaper’s birthday”