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Mementos of my wanders on the web

Kerri Brewster
Wolfville, NS
Canada

Email:
kerri dot brewster
at gmail dot com

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Fri, Jul 3rd
2009
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Geek Moment: Balanced Ternary ~ Donald Knuth said “Perhaps the prettiest number system of all is balanced ternary”, and I agree wholeheartedly. It’s pretty, delightful, and just might express the Meaning of Life far better than the number 42. If you’re intrigued, take a look at the post at Daily Meh through which I discovered it.
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(via onherway)
(via onherway)
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Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object.
— Herman Hesse (via aquabooks)
Thu, Jul 2nd
2009
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How to Hollow a Book in 80 Easy Steps: Heather Rivers, creator of the awesome Tumblr tag cloud, is a woman of many talents: here she’s put together an interesting and entertaining guide to hollowing out books for gift-giving or surreptitious storage.
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The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
— James Nicoll (via srsly)
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Chimpanzees learn from video demo

This is very cool.

During a study, the animals were shown footage of a trained chimp combining two components to construct a tool that enabled it to reach a food reward.

When given the same two components, the chimps made their own tools and used them to drag over a tasty treat.

What I find even more interesting is that chimps who only saw part of the demo improvised solutions —- far more effectively than those who saw the entire demo:

Rather than faithfully copy the demonstration, these animals switched between using the unmodified tube or rod, and using the combined tool, depending on how far away the grape was.

“Those that had been shown the full demonstration, and had socially learned to make the longer tool, continued to make it even when the grape was so close that it was more awkward to use,” said Dr Price.
(from BBC News, via shadowfirebird)
Wed, Jul 1st
2009
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Fruit-shaped sticky notes from D-BROS. You can buy them individually, or in crates of six. Want. (via Inspire me, now)
Fruit-shaped sticky notes from D-BROS. You can buy them individually, or in crates of six. Want. (via Inspire me, now)
Tue, Jun 30th
2009
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My skin tends to scar very visibly if you even look at it funny, so I’m really loving the “alligator wrestling” explanation. (from Surviving the World, via 12minds)
My skin tends to scar very visibly if you even look at it funny, so I’m really loving the “alligator wrestling” explanation. (from Surviving the World, via 12minds)
Fri, Jun 26th
2009
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The Internet is a giant international network of intelligent, informed computer enthusiasts, by which I mean, ‘people without lives.’ We don’t care. We have each other.
— Dave Barry (via amplequotes)
Sun, Jun 21st
2009
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He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.
— Clarence Budington Kelland
Happy Fathers Day.