Steve Fischer's Random Blog

Author: fish1964

  • tronc

    One of Daring Fireball’s better brief blog posts:

    Somebody launched a major re-branding after a four-martini lunch. Jiminy.

  • How Old Is That World Map?

    From XKCD a completely brilliant flow chart helping you determine how old a map is. There are amusing references to Narnia and radioactive spiders mixed in with accurate historical changes (What’s the capital of Micronesia? Kolonia or Palikir?).

    Click it to get the big version, and really look at it.

    My favorite real question is:

    (Number of Yemens) + (Number of Germanys)= ? (possible answers are 2-4).

    Seriously, read the whole thing.

  • Row, Row, Row Your Boat

    Our company, Origami Risk, is sponsoring a rather unusual endeavor. Last summer we had a few interns from the University of Georgia. Some are now working for us full time.

    One of them is planning to row from California to Hawaii.

    Jacob Pope is a rower on the UGA rowing team. He’s also a hemophiliac. With his best friend and fellow rower Chris Lee, he is raising money and awareness for hemophilia by rowing for a month or so. Straight.

    This is a real thing. The Great Pacific Race brings teams from around the world to row 2,400 miles. It takes from 30-80 days depending on the crew and the weather. You live in your boat. And these boats aren’t big.

    If they pull it off, they will be the youngest team to do it, and Jacob will be the first hemophiliac to complete the journey. Of course, they don’t just want to finish, they want to win.

    It’s crazy, dangerous, inspiring, all of the above. If you want to contribute, you can do so here. Origami Risk is in for $25K.

    The race starts on June 4th. I wish them strength and luck, they’ll need both.

  • Happy Belated Birthday

    The Brooklyn Bridge turned 133 years old yesterday.

    “Babylon had her hanging gardens, Egypt her pyramid, Athens her Acropolis, Rome her Athenaeum; so Brooklyn has her bridge,” read a sign in a Brooklyn shop window on the day of the Brooklyn Bridge’s opening to the public on on May 24, 1883

    The link has some great old photos and even a video (well, film) from Thomas Edison in 1899. This picture has always been a classic:

  • Darth Trump

    This tweet is from one of the judges Trump has on his Supreme Court list:

    https://twitter.com/JusticeWillett/status/718280241752510465

  • Paparazzi Dogs

    As clarified in the comments, the dog statues are Paparazzi Dogs which have apparently travelled the world. They just arrived in Dumbo:

    A cheeky play on the ever-present photographers shooting the iconic and picturesque streets of DUMBO and the equally present population of neighborhood dogs, DUMBO makes for an ideal location for this playful art.

    PaparazziDogs-PearlSteetTriangle-1

    They are for sale, $30K each…

  • I Miss Dumbo

    Well, not really. I’m actually sitting in Dumbo typing this. But I did move my office out of Dumbo. My office is now in Brooklyn Heights, almost a mile closer to my home. It’s in the middle of much better lunch options and right by my daughter’s school and my gym. So a good thing all around.

    But there is something about Dumbo. I love living in Brooklyn because it’s endlessly fascinating. Dumbo takes that to another level. My daughter still takes art classes in Dumbo so I get here a couple times a week. Where else do you see this:

    20160510_182734

    Those seem to be scattered around Dumbo right now. No clue why.

  • Conservatives Having a Rough Month

    Regular readers know I’m pretty liberal politically, but I read all kinds of blogs. Red State has been holding the line on their principles and committing to vote for neither Trump nor Clinton. The site was largely for Cruz, so none of the bloggers are happy right now.

    Still, this article by Leon Wolf amused me. Titled “The Trump Fans are Totally Not a Cult” it has the great line:

    My working theory on Coulter … is that she’s just been drunk tweeting for nine solid months

    If I were snarky I’d ask how you could tell, but a great line regardless.

  • Turtle Injures Ray Charles

    No joke (from the WSJ):

    You don’t get to be 500 pounds,” says aquarist Jackie Cooper, “without stealing the other kids’ lunch once in a while.

    Yellow, a loggerhead at the New York Aquarium, once pinned a keeper at a tank’s bottom and is lead suspect in injuries to Ray Charles the stingray. PHOTO: JULIE LARSEN MAHER/WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY

  • SpaceX Sticks the Landing II

    It was going twice as fast as the first one (higher orbit needed for the satellite) so they weren’t expecting success. Makes the audio in this video even more fun to listen to. Go to minute 29…