Pixar's Blockbuster Secrets

Facinating article from the Harvard Business Review. I had no idea that Pixar was on such a roll:

Wall-E is the studio’s ninth consecutive number-one movie since the release of Toy Story in 1995, an unparalleled record of creative and commercial success.

Turns out they have a very different business model from the rest of Hollywood. Link

Impossible to watch without flinching at the end

This is one big snake. Link

Elivis isn't dead, he just time-travelled back to Rome!

Link

Inside the Lego Factory

Automation that makes my knees weak. Link
And there's a very cute vid link called "Galactic Empire Cloning Stormtroopers in Lego Factory". Link

This would cause me to poo the bed

Montreal woman awakens to find python under her bed
Link

Tattoos that will make you feel dumb

Another post on tattoos. We've all seen sites that show bad tattoos, even laser (ouch) tattoos, but this one shows tattoos that require explanations, explanations I often can't understand anyway. The one for the tattoo pictured is:

"Now, for the explanation. This is a formula called the Y Combinator. It is a fixed-point combinator in the lambda calculus and was discovered by Haskell Curry, a rather prolific mathematician and logician whose work helped start Computer Science.

"What this formula does is calculates the fixed point of a function, which in turn allows for recursion by calling on that fixed point; recursion is perhaps the single most important concept in Computer Science. Being a computer scientist and a mathematician, this formula is very important to me and represents the innate beauty of computer science and mathematical logic."


Or this one:
"It is an approximation of the locus of connectedness for the Julia sets of the family of functions f(z) = z^2 + lambda/(z^2) (rotated by pi/2). This is analogous to the standard Mandelbrot set (which applies to the family f(z) = z^2 + c), but holds additional fascination because for lambda values which are in the interior of one of the subdomains of the connectedness locus, the Julia set is a Universal Curve. To me this represents the structure unifying chaos (since Julia sets are chaotic) and order (since Universal Curves act as a sort of catalog of all planar curves)."


Link

Literary Tattoos

The title says it all, over at Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos are a very cool collection of tats. Must be the geek in me but a lit tattoo is something I might ink, some meaningful quote that sums up my worldview. Maybe "Beware, simple, easy to understand wrong answers to complex questions", which I guess is not the point as the quote is not from literature. Probably more to the point would be one of the following from who else but Oscar Wilde; (source)

Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes.

Whenever cannibals are on the brink of starvation, Heaven, in its infinite mercy, sends them a fat missionary.

Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

My problem would be choosing, I'd want a bullet list with about five or six. The Braille one is fascinating. I'd love to hear examples of what you'd consider. Link

How to make everyone happy

From Seth Godin's blog

Greg sent me an article about a bridge in Folsom. $117 million spent, it needs a name.

How about "Johnny Cash"? He's famous, he made Folsom famous, he's dead, his daughter said yes, he has fans, they need tourists... you get the idea.

City Council votes 4 to 1 against.

The two key money quotes:

“Why would we promote a prison? We are known for a lot more things than the prison.”

and my favorite:

In regards to the Folsom Lake Crossing name, King said “just about everybody I’ve talked to is happy.”

Here's the takeaway: If you are willing to satisfy people with good enough, you can make just about everybody happy. If you delight people and create change that lasts, you're going to offend those that hate change in all its forms. Your choice.