innovation and Estelle Getty

Harvard Business Review: Breakthrough Ideas for 2009 (thanks to Hugh McGrory for sending this to me) - A lot of good stuff here. I'm especially looking forward to the printable solar cells, plus I always enjoy learning new ways to manipulate-- er, interact with my peers.

On a completely unrelated note, because that's how I like my notes: I was watching "Golden Girls" earlier today (shuddup, I was waiting for a beast of an NIH grant proposal to load), and when Bea Arthur asked Estelle Getty about being paid in cash, Getty said "No! In pistachio nuts!" Needless to say, this totally made my afternoon. Ms. Getty, you made sassiness look easy and will forever remain an icon for me; RIP.

Because it's wreckable, alright? [a YouTube essay]

Are we ruled by an oligarchy of banks? Is our government too close to the banks to properly regulate them? Do we need to chop up a few of the companies which were "too big to fail?" Bill Moyers & Simon Johnson have a very interesting chat about this.

Which tangentially reminds me of this:



But more importantly, there's this:



And this:



What will be the future of our awesome republic?



Do I really want Kevin Costner to be my mailman?

cheese, cheese, that's what I love

Here we are, already into February, and this is my first blog entry for 2009. Why, you ask? Because I have been too busy having adventures to bother writing about them. Someday, I will write about those adventures. Right now, however, I need you to listen to this song about cheese.



(NB: I hate ReverbNation's blog widgets, since I can't figure out how to embed one song alone, but Jenn Beast is totally worth the agony.)










I really like "Wish" too, but seriously, I'm all about the cheese.



[Thanks to Paynie at breadbuttercheesevictory for the tip.]

Name that computer game!

So, there was this game. I played it in computer class on an Apple IIe, around 1989 or so, and it took place in the future. I was America's first child president, and I had three choices for veep: another kid, a robot, or a dolphin (we had learned to communicate with dolphins by then). There were various problems I had to solve in the course of my administration; for example, I do believe that the robot population wanted their leader's face carved into Mr. Rushmore, which got the humans all sorts of teed off, and it was up to me to figure out the best solution.

Name this computer game! Please! Because I will go batcrap crazy if I can't figure this one out!

I've already canvassed most of the computer geeks here at work, and they don't know what the eff I'm talking about. Helphelphelp. Thank you.

In the meantime, here's another totally fab game for you to play which I adore:

http://robotfindskitten.net/

Enjoy...but not so much that you forget to leave a comment for me about this mysterious kid-President game thingie.

Are you an Astrid Phillips, too?

It's happened again. Twice more:

17 Sep 2008

Hi Astrid !!
Checking to see if this is Astrid Phillips who attended Holy Angels in Aurora, IL ? I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn !! A second reason for my note, we are planning a grade school reunion and need your email address ... Looking forward to connecting ...

01 Dec 2008

Hello Astrid

Did you grow up in port washington?

Just a qwick hello, it has been a long time I hope all is well

Nope, not I. Wrong Astrid. I think I may have to take matters into my own hands -- contact every Astrid Phillips in the U.S., and document each of ourselves in some sort of "Your Guide to Your Local Astrid Phillips" online gallery. That way, if you're ever looking for an Astrid Phillips, you'll be sure not to pick the wrong one.

it was the best of times, it was the blurst of times

The staggering, history-making, windpipe transplant breakthrough

and

the Easyjet flight that nearly effed up everything.

that CNN so-called-'hologram' thingie really frosts my shorts, too

Giz Explains 3D Technologies

This is easily the best lowdown on 3D tech I've seen in a while.