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Why I cycled a hundred miles to meet my first customer | CycleLove

16 Nov 2012Why I cycled a hundred miles to meet my first customerWhen I started selling CycleLove t-shirts, I made myself a quiet promise: that I would deliver my first order in person, and by bike.It seemed like a simple way of celebrating this small but important milestone in my new venture.CycleL...

Click to view the original at cyclelove.net

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When the Nerds Go Marching In

President Obama's reelection campaign brought 40 engineers into their ranks to build the technology they needed to get the president reelected. This is the very human story of how they helped out, even if they never fit in.

Click to view the original at theatlantic.com

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AIM Report: Did Mueller Know Hoover’s Dark Secret?

It may be the worst scandal in FBI history: Joseph Salvati spent three decades in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He was put there by u

Click to view the original at aim.org

Hasnain says:

The FBI helped frame four men for a 1965 murder in order to protect an informant. Two died in prison; the other two served more than 30 years before being exonerated.

Posted on 2012-11-15T21:14:37+0000

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westiseast.co.uk - Taobao's absolutely gigantic day of sales

Two days ago, taobao.com (one of my favourite success stories in China) racked up an unbelievable 19bn RMB of sales.... in a single day.

Click to view the original at westiseast.co.uk

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HENRY DAVID THOREAU: On happiness

Henry David Thoreau(1817-1862) was an American writer, poet, philosopher and one of the leading figures of thetranscendentalismmovement. Besides writingCivil Disobedience, which inspired such revolutionaries as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jnr, Thoreau is most well-known for his bookWalden, in whic...

Click to view the original at zenpencils.com

Hasnain says:

Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.

The image illustrates it beautifully.

Posted on 2012-11-13T05:50:07+0000

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An Amazon Engineer Had a Little Idea That Turned Into a Billion-Dollar Business

Ten years ago, if asked what company would revolutionize computing, a book merchant with a tech edge probably did not come to mind

Click to view the original at theatlantic.com

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The birthday paradox in action: calculating the probability of a hash collision

If you haven't seen this before then I urge you to have a guess now. Is it 180 people? More than that? Fewer than that? What do you think?

Click to view the original at solipsys.co.uk

Hasnain says:

In the above calculations there were at least three occasions where I recognised things because I was familiar with them, had used them, had played with them, and they were, in a sense, my "friends."

People often ask "Why did you make that approximation?" or "How did you know that would work?" The short answer is often "I didn't, but it felt right."

People often ask why they need to memorise formulas, or why they need to practice solving equations, when they can simply look stuff up whenever they need it, and on-line computer algebra systems can solve equations faster than they can, and more reliably.

But this is an example of why the ability simply to look stuff up is near useless on its own. Searches are deep and wide, and you need intuition to guide you. You need to recognise what might work, things you've seen before, directions to take that are more likely to be fruitful.

Or profitable.

The day probably will come when computers can do all of that better that we can, but that day isn't here yet. We still need human intuition, built from experience and practice, to guide the computer searches, to know what is more likely to work.

If you already know how to do this sort of calculation then you're probably nodding. If you don't, and you can't see how someone can possibly do this kind of stuff, this comment is for you. Practice and experience.

Play.

Once you play with things, the ability to invent and improvise is unleashed.

Posted on 2012-11-07T20:04:42+0000

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Why are people so mean to single people?

In a world that celebrates romance and finding The One, people can be rather rude to single people, writes James Friel.

Click to view the original at bbc.co.uk