"Excuse me, sir, would you mind taking our photo?"

-- http://blog.pluckytree.org/2011/10/last-time-i-saw-steve-jobs.html

From a review of a soft-science book appeared recently on the New York Times:

Though the authors occasionally lapse into jargon (their barnacles cling to “substrate” until the animals die and their six-plate shells “become disarticulated”)

Substrate and disarticulated jargon? Maybe I've been away too long, but it seems to …

INTERVIEWER

What kind of paper do you use, what kind of pen and ink?

CRUMB

Well, I use the old Strathmore vellum surface paper, which is the best paper you can get in the Western world for ink line drawing. It has a good, hard surface. I have it mailed …

"I felt a sense of relief at his unshaven face and scruffy clothes. I have rarely seen a more disreputable bunch."

-- Ed Hillary (the Everest guy) about Eric Shipton (another great mountaineer and explorer), as reported in the fantastic 2-part history of Everest written by Ed Webster (Alpinist issues 26 …

"Being packed onto a subway or a bus or even stuck in your car in traffic makes you feel like cattle, and that's an awful way to feel. If you never want to feel like a cow again start riding your bike."

-- Bike Snob.

"They don't appear to enjoy what they're doing. […] One does not ride, one trains."

-- Bike Snob, about road cyclists and triathletes.

"I am known for the legendary length of my blog posts and e-mails. This stems from the engineer’s mindset of exploring every possible nook and cranny of an argument to make sure one has not overlooked anything."

-- http://blog.tabini.ca/2011/04/writing-less-to-write-more/

From "Secrets of a Mind-Gamer", a fascinating article on a normal guy who becomes a memory champion:

In his 1869 book Hereditary Genius Sir Francis Galton argued that a person could improve at mental and physical activities until he hit a wall, which “he cannot by any education or exertion …

"In 2007, when he was at the State Department, Jared Cohen wrote with tragic wrongheadedness that “the Internet is a place where Iranian youth can … say anything they want as they operate free from the grips of the police-state apparatus.” Thanks to the exciting new technology, many of those freely …

150 friends (Dunbar's number)

I have deleted my Facebook account a long time ago and I can confirm that I can live very happily with no Facebook around.

This article by Robin Dunbar (did you know about "Dunbar's number" ?) is very interesting however. It does say that Facebook can be …

In this previous post I linked to an article that upset me.

It tells a story about these incredibly smart kids that waste their time and energy (and considerable amounts of brain, apparently) to build yet another 'social' things; Internet services that basically allow the user to shut their minds …

"DailyBooth appeals to people who want even less friction than Twitter: Here, you don’t need to think of something witty or informative to say in 140 characters or fewer. All you have to do is take a picture of yourself."

-- The Viral Me (via Instapaper)

Somehow (twitter maybe ?) I've found the transcript of an interview to Bob Dylan which appeared on Playboy in 1966.

So¹, I don't know if Bob Dylan was totally out of his mind or if he was just playing crazy, but this 1966 interview is brilliant stuff.

For example, the …

"It moves along at a vigorously restless pace, with the energy of a Labrador retriever off the leash, racing up to each person it encounters, pawing and sniffing and barking at every fragrant thing, plunging into icy waters only to dash off again, invigorated."

-- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10 …

Avevo da tempo in casa una versione di Alice in Wonderland annotata da Martin Gardner, famoso editor della colonna di giochi matematici di Scientific American.

Sono al capitolo VI ("Pig and Pepper"), dove Alice chiede al Cheshire Cat:

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from …