“[...] here sane and sanguine people are showing there is a different way to neutralize the bile, largely with sheer wit. It is a model that many might choose to follow.”

1. 10 most fulfilling relationships
2. 10 favorite albums and movies
3. 10 qualities you strive to possess
4. 10 longest-lasting childhood memories
5. 10 places you feel a special connection to
6. 10 activities that would, in your eyes, improve you as a person

#2. Embrace the mundane.
The next breakthroughs will be when these rich paradigms are applied to increasingly quotidian and pervasive areas of our daily experience and extended into the physical infrastructure around us. At this point, it is much more interesting to see mobile feedback and data visualization applied to mass transit than to sharing playlists. It is in areas like energy and health care where these interaction models will have the most pull, exposing at the surface level much more fundamental transformations in our basic, physical infrastructure that are sorely needed.

#4. Look past the screen.
As we switch to a more service-oriented ecosystem, interaction design must extend its reach beyond the screen, beyond interactive media and digital information. One of the most interesting submissions was a set of printed instructions for a personal medical device that was beautifully designed and thoroughly tested with end users. A number of the judges questioned the relevance of this work to interaction design. But in an environment as heavily regulated as glucose meters, the most powerful and meaningful opportunities to improve interaction might not involve any pixels. Instead these opportunities reside in call centers, bank statements, or explanations of benefits.

The following is an excerpt from 8 Reasons To Start Meditating at The Daily Zen.

#6) Brain power: Not only have studies revealed meditation’s benefits on focus; brain power might improve, too.  People who meditate frequently tend to have a thicker cortex in certain parts of their brain.

#7) Creativity: The most interesting example here that I’m aware of is legendary film director David Lynch’s wonderful book, Catching the Big Fish:  Meditation, Consciousness and Creativity.  In it, Lynch discusses how his meditation has influenced his filmmaking style and artistic philosophy.  [...]  I’m currently reading Steve Jobs’ biography, and it’s cool to see how many of the ideas he had for designs and business models came from his Zen meditation and Eastern-inspired personal philosophy of minimalism.

[...] Another Forrester report proved that China and other Asia-Pacific countries led the pack in mobile adoption, including mobile social usage and work usage. They were also more likely to own multiple devices. This report showed that in metropolitan China, 33% accessed social networks via mobile, whereas only 25% of U.S. users and 11% of European users did the same… More >>

Source: ReadWriteWeb

This is the first time that scientists have succeeded in masking an event, though research teams have in recent years made remarkable strides in cloaking objects. Researchers at the University of Texas, Dallas, last year harnessed the mirage effect to make objects vanish. And in 2010, physicists at the University of St. Andrews made leaps towards using metamaterials to trick human eyes into not seeing what was right in front of them…” Continue reading @ WIRED

These findings are part of a recent comScore report, It’s a Social World: Top 10 Need-to-Knows About Social Networking and Where It’s Headed. To download the report, please click here.

For the month of January, ‘The Comic Bug’ will match the price of any item on Amazon.com

To give you an idea of the power of Flow, last week I used the application to order a new Xbox game rather than purchase it from Target, where I was at the time. In the store, the game cost $59.99. (It costs the same at GameStop.) But it was listed at half that on Amazon.com and since I have an Amazon Prime account, shipping was free. The entire experience lasted about a minute and a half, and I saved $25.

To my defense, I like a bargain. I also visit my local comic book shop regularly, and continue to mail order series from my hometown shop which winds up costing me in shipping when I can easily download them to my iPad (which I sometimes do).

I’d say we’re even. Though it sure has stirred up a debate.

30 WAYS TO GIVE YOUR APPEARANCE A BOOST

An Australian study found that people who ate a diet high in protein and lower in carbs had twice the decrease in pimples. “Antioxidants are also great for the skin because they combat free radical damage,” Gohara says. Two of the best antioxidant sources? Kale and spinach. Read more >>

30 WAYS TO COOK LIKE A PRO

“To ensure creamy, soft—but not runny—scrambled eggs, enlist the aid of a double boiler.” Don’t have one? A large, non-stick pan set over low to medium-low heat is a good stand-in. Read more >>

30 WAYS TO GET RID OF EXTRA WEIGHT

An 11-minute workout can help you burn more fat all day long, say researchers from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. In the study, people who lifted weights for that duration three times a week increased their metabolic rate even as they slept. What’s more, the participants were able to fit their workouts into their schedules 96 percent of the time. Read more >>

BONUS: EARN THAT PROMOTION

The personality traits employers most want to see are extroversion or conscientiousness, according to a 2009 study in Personnel Psychology. Being warm and friendly instead of cold and competitive yields noticeable benefits. Read more >>

Happy New You.

“5. The Rise of the Journo-Programmer. An ambitious hybrid of journalist and computer scientist is what some have in mind as part of the future of journalism. As Columbia was launching its dual-degree masters in journalism and computer science (more), Northwestern last winter announced a $4.2 million Knight News Innovation Lab run by the journalism and engineering schools (more). Other schools are focusing on just making student journalists smarter about doing data within their journalism courses, becoming adept at everything from simple programs like spreadsheets and web-based visualization tools to more sophisticated software like Flash. Influential online journalism educator Mindy McAdams proposes all J-schools have a full-fledged data journalism course, something a few schools appear to be doing (Columbia is one; CUNY is another). Meanwhile, the explosion of smartphones and tablets – the latter are starting to show up more in classrooms, though not without debate over best practices - has encouraged some schools to explore app development, whether through simple thought exercises or by actually building apps from the ground up in dedicated courses.”

Out of all those players grappling for the second screen, Twitter has one of the best chances to scale. It already dominates the real-time conversation around TV, and it’s bending over backwards to get its tweets on TV — and it’s working. At the same time, Twitter is moving to become more of a media destination. That’s why it’s safe to predict that Twitter will step up its second-screen efforts. How? [Twitter] could add audio-identification software (which is becoming a staple of second-screen apps) that would enable a Twitter app to identify what show is on the air. Then Twitter could focus conversations by suggesting corresponding hashtags, curate content people are sharing in context of the show, serve promoted tweets in a co-viewing experience and gather precious data around it.

Read the other 11 at Lost Remote

1. You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and thrown into a blender. Your mass is reduced so that your density is the same as usual. The blades start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?
2. If you could be any superhero, who would it be?
3. What color best represents your personality?
4. What animal are you?
5. Describe your perfect ‘last meal.’
6. If you could go camping anywhere, where would you put your tent?
7. On a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you?

According to the author, the best answers to many of the questions begin with, “It depends.” For more Google questions, including some quirky answers to the ‘blender question,’ check out the article. And of course, please share any curve balls you’ve faced in the comments below.

UPDATE: I just discovered the Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions Of 2011 from GlassDoor.com.

• Sample: How many people are using Facebook in San Francisco at 2:30pm on a Friday? :)

OK, that aside (;/) — Since when is forgetting to tell you I policed your social stream, deemed your photo unsuitable for mankind and deleted it on your behalf the main issue?

Surprisingly enough, wikipedia has Google’s back on this, where I also learned the gesture dates back to ancient Greece. Though the TC gang had the last laugh with this snappy comeback.

Gotta love ‘em. And Google for ensuring my social experience is sanitized. They really get it.

According to a report from Visiongain, 25% of all app downloads will feature some sort of augmented reality. Though adoption hinges on more powerful, high-speed and camera-ready mobile devices. [...] Micro-payments will allow online merchants to hawk your wares for next to nothing, manage the distribution and collect payment. RedBubble, Lulu (self-publish books), and YouTube are a few examples of platforms offering this service now.

• Hyper-local mobile: Apps and services will take advantage of the river of information that’s now available from a variety of sources about where we tend to go, what we tend to buy and what we want to do.
• Voice-control integration will explode.
• Look for NFC to be weaved also into social networking and contact exchange apps next year.
• More niche app stores will emerge as a result of the Android market’s clutter.

Source: GigaOM

“The North Ko­rean cen­sor­ship ap­proach runs all the way down to the level of hard­ware,” Srini­vasan said — an ap­proach made eas­ier by the coun­try’s size. The smaller the coun­try, the eas­ier it is to con­trol who has ac­cess to re­sources, rang­ing from food and water to tech­nol­ogy.

But with Kim Jong Il’s death, there is an op­por­tu­nity, how­ever small, for cracks to emerge in the regime, giv­ing peo­ple greater op­por­tu­nity to gain ac­cess to pre­vi­ously banned tech­nolo­gies. “Often, when par­tic­u­larly strong lead­ers col­lapse,” Srini­vasan said, “there’s a mo­ment of tran­si­tion or pause where the new regime has to es­tab­lish it­self.””

Continue reading >> The Washington Post