Sunday Reading – April 22nd, 2012
A little bit of everything
In honour of 4/20 that passed on Friday:
Marijuana has not been de facto legalized, and the war on drugs is not just about cocaine and heroin. In fact, today, when we don’t have enough jail cells for murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals, there may be more people in federal and state prisons for marijuana offenses than at any other time in U.S. history
The Atlantic, “Reefer Madness – August 1994”
And quite the opposite of that culture:
Where Amish Snowbirds Find a Nest
Matt Gemmell – Augmented Paper – on app development for the iPad:
Design an experience. Make it as beautiful – and as emotionally resonant – as it can possibly be. Then adorn the core experience and content with only as much functionality as is absolutely necessary. Functionality – and software-based thinking in general – is like seasoning. A little is an enhancement; any more destroys the flavour, subsumes the artistry of the chef, and may well be bad for you.
So I inverted the 5 regrets, yielding a list of 5 commands:
Don’t ignore your dreams; don’t work too much; say what you think; cultivate friendships; be happy.
which I then put at the top of the file I use as a todo list.
Twitter introduced the Innovator’s Patent Agreement this past week which puts control of the patents they file back into the hands of their developers and engineers. I thought Marco Arment had an interesting take on what the IPA means to developers in his post titled simply Twitter’s “Innovator’s Patent Agreement”.
Longterm readers of this blog will know I follow a mainly paleo-based diet. Over at Free the Animal there is a discussion about what is the next step for the paleo movement as more people follow it, books become published and it goes mainstream. Richard Nikoley shares his thoughts:
And Paleo, if it means anything at all, is about a little more effort, a little more care, a little more involvement, a little more time and attention. It’s about the sanctity of something fundamental about not only our physical health, but our mental and social health. Think families going out and sourcing their food with care, collaboratively coming up with menu plans, all hands on deck for the preparation, and enjoyment mutually…sitting around the table talking to one another.
Richard Nikoley, Is Paleo a Sacred Grassfed Cow?
And, finally, Ze Frank is producing some of the best YouTube videos available that are entertaining with a purpose. His latest, Robot Future starts off with a bang and concludes with a few articles that are worth looking at: Jesse Schell’s Visions of the Gamepocalypse and Geoffrey Miller’s “Why We Haven’t Met Any Aliens”
