Henry Cow - Beautiful as the Moon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfpq11-sRVQ

From http://morfablog.com/2009/10/09/harrir-fuwch/

Translation by google "Ever seen the film of Henry Cow before, so it was small surprise to find this clip while browsing Last.fm - clip of the band improfeiddio around a couple of tracks from the album In Praise of Learning. Not only is the music is great, but the film is very good quality (gwylier in "high quality"). Have seen the odd picture of Henry Cow on stage, and all sit nhwthau play, I had to imagine that they are relatively non-flash to watch, but to the contrary, they're great, electrical, especially Chris Cutler, who played dryms as anyone else I've seen."

The Final OOXML Update: Part I

"This is essentially how Microsoft hacked ISO. Now that the flaw has been demonstrated, any large international corporation with sufficient funds and interest can exploit it as well. So long as the rules remain as they are, ISO is vulnerable. ISO defends this criticism by pointing out what good work they've done in the past, and how they rarely have problems of this kind before. But this shows little appreciation for the nature of the problem which have been demonstrated. It is like arguing that a newly discovered (though long latent) security flaw in an operating system is insignificant because you've never had an attack before now. Of course, this misses the point entirely. Once the vulnerability is known and publicly exploited, you're living on borrowed time until you can secure the system. Today ISO is living on borrowed time and is very close to becoming a Microsoft-infested zombie committee."

http://www.robweir.com/blog/2009/10/final-ooxml-update-part-i.html

PhotoSketch

"What if you could draw some stick figures on a screen and somehow magically create a beautiful image montage?"

http://blogs.zdnet.com/weblife/?p=965


http://cg.cs.tsinghua.edu.cn/montage/main.htm

Tibetan Songs & Music

"Tibetan music truly symbolizes the cultural diversity of the trans-Himalayan region. Tibetan music is based in Tibet but it is played wherever ethnic Tibetan groups have shifted base in India, Nepal, Bhutan, and other western countries. "

http://www.indianchild.com/Music/download_tibetan_songs_music.htm

Employee Performance Reviews Do More Harm Than Good

"The worst part of performance reviews is the message you send overall — that work is an employee vs. employee competition. I can think of countless senior managers who lament how their employees don’t work well together and don’t collaborate. I can think of countless line employees (and senior managers) who complain about the brutal and vicious politics in their workplace. How surprising that people don’t work as a team when their personal compensation (and more importantly, their sense of self-worth) is impacted so directly by a system of employee vs. employee competition."

http://www.jacksonfish.com/blog/2009/05/21/employee-performance-reviews-do-more-harm-than-good/

Schneier on Security - Security, Group Size, and the Human Brain

"If the size of your company grows past 150 people, it's time to get name badges. It's not that larger groups are somehow less secure, it's just that 150 is the cognitive limit to the number of people a human brain can maintain a coherent social relationship with.

Primatologist Robin Dunbar derived this number by comparing neocortex -- the "thinking" part of the mammalian brain -- volume with the size of primate social groups. By analyzing data from 38 primate genera and extrapolating to the human neocortex size, he predicted a human "mean group size" of roughly 150."

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/07/security_group.html

Organ Donation and (Im)Permanence?

"Nevertheless, the question remains if the consciousness of the dying person could be adversely affected by organ transplant, since the surgery must take place immediately upon the cessation of the breath. According to Tibetan Buddhism, the consciousness may remain in the body for hours or occasionally days after the breath has stopped. During the time between the cessation of the breath and the departure of the subtlest consciousness from the body – which is the actual moment of death – it is important for the body to be undisturbed so that the consciousness can naturally absorb into subtler states. If the body is operated upon, the consciousness may be disturbed and this could adversely affect the person’s next rebirth.

On the other hand, some people have very powerful compassion and wish to donate their organs even if it could disturb their consciousness at the time of death. Such compassion for others who could use the organs is certainly admirable. "

http://preciousmetal.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/organ-donation-and-impermanence/