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Posts Tagged ‘#365Ways’

Christmas Eve, when Santa is racing around the world distributing presents, seems like an excellent time to think back to the experience of the holiday as a young child. If Christmas was part of your family tradition, do you remember what it was like to believe in Santa Claus? 

I do, and despite the ever-present pressures of reality, that sense of wonder is part of why I write.

Making Sense of Santa, as a Science Reporter and a Parent ‹ Literary Hub

“When I was a kid, did you try to get me to believe in Santa?” I recently asked my parents. My father, a mathematician, scoffed. “Of course not,” he said. “We told you he was a mythological being that represented generosity and good cheer.”

Still, every December, my mother hung stockings above the chimney with care. And every Christmas Eve, she made sure cookies were left on a festively decorated plate, as though she truly believed St. Nick would soon be there.

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Photo by LuAnn Hunt on Unsplash

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Life Skills

I spent a lot of time as a kid learning skills that were technically unnecessary for me, but would have been essential to my ancestors. Skills like weaving, making cough syrup or dyeing wool using local herbs, flint knapping, bow making, that sort of thing (yes, my parents were very tolerant!). One of the skills I never did manage (and I bet the local fire department was grateful) was making a fire using only friction.

If you’ve seen Tom Hanks try this in Castaway, you’ll know that it isn’t as easy as it looks. 

If this is the sort of thing that catches your attention, as it does mine, this article might interest you.

Lighting a fire using friction requires an understanding of some physics principles − but there are ways to make the process easier

Fire by friction is a testament to human ingenuity, contributing to the development of early technology and a later understanding of physics, chemistry and heat transfer.

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Photo by Benjamin DeYoung on Unsplash

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“My response to anything that happens, good or bad, is to keep making things. Keep making art.”

— Taylor Swift

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Photo by Keith Hardy on Unsplash

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“You need to drop glass on the floor, get the burns, all those things. The real practice is in all the pieces that didn’t make it, the cliched blood, sweat and tears. You can’t know the limits of something unless you’ve failed.”

— Will Shakspeare, artisan glassblower

And you can still make something beautiful along the way.

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Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash

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If you’ve ever wondered what it was like to be someone else, either because you need background for a character or because some days, daydreaming about a different life is all that’s standing between you and a very impolitic email to your boss, this podcast may interest you!

What It’s Like To Be…

Curious what it would be like to walk in someone else’s (work) shoes? Join New York Times bestselling author Dan Heath as he explores the world of work, one profession at a time, and interviews people who love what they do. What does a couples therapist think when a friend asks for relationship advice? What happens if a welder fails to wear safety glasses? What can get a stadium beer vendor fired? If you’ve ever met someone whose work you were curious about, and you had 100 nosy questions but were too polite to ask … well, this is the show for you. 

Today’s episode? What it’s like to be A Professional Santa Claus.

You know you want to know!

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Photo by Thomas Park on Unsplash

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Purr-fect

Oh look, NASA just sent the first Ultra-HD video through deep space using a laser communications system.

NASA’s Tech Demo Streams First Video From Deep Space via Laser

Me: Cool cool cool. It’s a test, right? 

Other Me: That’s right. 

Me: So this experiment marks the progress humanity has made in reaching out to the stars. I wonder which video NASA used?

Other Me: This one. I think it perfectly encapsulates the usefulness of laser technology in general, and where we are as a species right now in particular.

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Not So Serious

Taking your responsibilities seriously should never stand in the way of taking your ego lightly.

— Adam Grant

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Photo by Keith Jonson on Unsplash

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Ken Liu is one of our modern masters of speculative fiction. The first story of his that I read was “The Paper Menagerie,” “the first piece of fiction to win three genre literary awards: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the World Fantasy Award.”

So he’s pretty good.

He’s also been thinking about art, AI and the evolving relationship between them. Here’s his new story:

Future Science Fiction Digest – Good Stories

Clara’s favorite part of the workday is the very beginning.

She likes flipping the switches on the wall right inside the office entrance, all sixteen of them, different colors and laid out in two neat columns, like the console from an old NASA space capsule that she got to sit inside once on a school trip to DC. As she takes a sip of her latte, her right hand running up the wall, click-click-click, flipping one switch after another, she imagines herself turning on rocket engines, initiating a docking maneuver, venting some dangerous alien spores out the airlock.

The story is one of the many interesting pieces in The Digital Aesthete: Human Musings on the Intersection of Art and AI, edited by Alex Shvartsman with an impressive roster of authors.

Today’s software can only imitate art, but what about tomorrow?

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Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

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Today we are experiencing some non-minor technical difficulties. I am attempting to handle the situation with aplomb.

“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.”

― Kurt Vonnegut

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Photo by Street Og’ on Unsplash

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The other day I ran across a recipe for something called English Milk Punch. Primary ingredients? Rum and curdled milk.

Say what now?

How to Make English Milk Punch

Essentially, English milk punch is made up of two distinct parts that are combined. The first part is a rum, sugar, and citrus juice mixture. Then, hot milk and spices are added and allowed to infuse until the milk curdles.

Wait a minute—did he just say something about curdled milk? Seriously? And you want me to drink it and serve it to my guests?

Now, I don’t drink a lot of alcohol but it is the warm and cozy spiced beverage season (™) and this recipe sounded just weird enough to be wonderful. I had to try it.

It took a bit of time but was, in the end, both fun and delicious.

Verdict? Worth it. And if you happened to leave a glass of this out for a certain big bearded, red-clad gentleman come Christmas Eve, I don’t think he’d mind at all.

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Photo by Monika Borys on Unsplash

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