Noise Between Stations

Kitchen Table

The phrase comes from Owen, who once compared the conversation among blogs to chatting around the kitchen table.

  • How to Strength Train Anywhere

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    3 min read

    Strength training is associated with muscle heads, but it’s smart for everyone. We know that muscle tissue burns calories, so strength training not only makes you stronger and look better, it helps you avoid weight gain when you’re not exercising. In general: Do total-body workouts 3 days a week, resting one day between workout days.…

  • How to Run

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    1 min read

    One thing blogging has given me is a place to put summaries of good stuff. I find books increasingly too long and boring to read through, I crave the gist. Much of what we know about fitness can be boiled down into relatively simple processes. Here’s the common formula for increasing your running endurance: Run…

  • Talking vs. Doing and My New Project

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    1 min read

    If there’s still anyone out there who follows this blog I’m sure you’re wondering why the post frequency has dropped off and why it consists mostly of quoting the New York Times. I’ve been busy slowly creating my latest passion, a school of continuing education called Smart Experience. I could write a lot about it,…

  • Seeing the Real Difference Between Art and Design

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    1 min read

    The Sartorialist blog has been a big hit, with each post getting dozens of comments. Why? On the surface it’s the usual blogger story: an individual with insight on a particular topic publishes quickly and honestly sans organizational overhead. To me, the Sartorialist does something else important. He delineates the difference between art and design.…

  • Happy Birthday NBS

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    1 min read

    This blog turned 8-years old on Saturday, which in person years is about 61.

  • Need Help Providing Internet Education to the Disadvantaged

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    3 min read

    The skinny here is that I’d like to work on correcting the uneven access to Internet jobs (great jobs, btw) by providing education to the disadvantaged. By disadvantaged I mean — here in New York City — mainly blacks and Hispanics, but generally those with lower income. I’m not sure how organizations who provide such…

  • Jews-With-Trees

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    1 min read

    A fun story of one couple embracing the secular side of Christmas… So as I browsed past velvet monogrammed stockings and quilted tree skirts and pine wreaths and silver-plated picture frames that doubled as stocking holders (genius!), I said to myself, as much as to my husband: “This is why I sometimes wish I celebrated…

  • Do Customer Communities Pay Off?

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    1 min read

    In HBR this month is a rare, methodical (and free) look at the financial effect of online communities via a study of eBay Germany… Over the course of a year, we compared the behavior of community enthusiasts and lurkers with that of the control group. The differences were astonishing. Lurkers and community enthusiasts bid twice…

  • Why Smart Guys Play Frisbee

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    1 min read

    Dr. Michael J. Norden, a University of Washington professor of psychiatry, found a correlation between playing ultimate frisbee and success in university. He explains: Students not known for athletic prowess “can show up at college having never played” and be good at it by year’s end. The game calls for “spatial aptitude” (“to ‘read’ the…

  • City Planet

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    3 min read

    In City Planet, Stewart Brand describes the current massive migration to the world’s cities and the reality of squatter cities. The piece changed the way I understand cities and how the world population is evolving. Here’s some quotes… The growth of cities has led to demographic trends exactly the opposite of what many experts have…

  • IDEA 2006

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    1 min read

    Registration is open for the Information: Design, Experience, Access conference happening at the Seattle Public Library, October 23-24, 2006. It looks to be a fun, thought-provoking event.

  • Curing the pattern disease

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    1 min read

    Do you walk down the street and notice patterns all around you? If so, you might suffer from apophenia — a serious malady that goes undiagnosed for years in most people. Talk to your doctor to see if Metavor is right for you. Satire courtesy of Chris Baum.

  • Homogeneous Architecture

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    1 min read

    My business partner Jim just returned from doing a presentation in Turkey. Notable comment: “Istanbul looks more like San Jose than Constantinople.”

  • In Vancouver

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    1 min read

    I’m in lovely tho’ rainy Vancouver to co-teach our seminar. If you’re in the area do come by and say hello.

  • Four Things

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    1 min read

    I usually don’t participate is such folly, but I’m feeling frivolous… Four jobs I’ve had: painting playgrounds building houses administering computer networks writing about music Four movies albums I can watch listen to over and over: Steely Dan’s Aja Death Cab For Cutie’s We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes Mahler’s Tenth Symphony Led…