Life of Alan

An algorithm is presented to calculate the point on the surface of a sphere maximising the great-circle distance to a given spherical polygon. This is used to calculate the spots furthest from the sea in major land masses, also known as Poles of Inaccessibility, a concept that has raised the interest of explorers. For the Eurasian pole of inaccessibility (EPIA), the results reveal a misplacement in previous calculations ranging from 156 to 435 km. Although in general there is only one pole for a given coastline, the present calculations show that, within the error inherent to the definition of the coastline, two locations are candidates for EPIA, one equidistant from Gulf of Ob, Gulf of Bengal and Arabian Sea, and the other equidistant from Gulf of Ob, Gulf of Bengal and Gulf of Bohai, both poles being located in the north westernmost Chinese province of Xinjiang. The distance to the sea at these locations is 2510 and 2514 km respectively, about 120 km closer than generally thought.

(tags: Geography)

On a recent Sunday, Minnie Mortimer was at a dinner in Montauk to celebrate the fall collection of her clothing line. Kelly Bensimon, an editor at large for Gotham and Hamptons, was also present. Ms. Mortimer proclaimed the two society magazines her favorite. “Cristina grew up here so she really knows everybody and not just like studied them and knows who they are,” she said. “She’s friends with so many people that she really understands the vibe and the feeling of being out here.”

(tags: Magazines)

(tags: Internet_Phenomena)

You and 472 other people have the chance to recreate Star Wars: A New Hope. Below is the entire movie split up into 15 second clips. Click on one of the scenes to claim it, film it, and upload it. You can have up to three scenes! When we're all done, we'll stitch it all together and watch the magic happen.

(tags: Star_Wars)

(tags: Peru)

Lobbying expenditures have increased in the second quarter of this year, and health care lobbyists appear to be the ones raking in the dough, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Around $262m has been spent on health care related lobbying so far this year. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce continues to be the biggest individual spender. Each of the three biggest issues on Capitol Hill this year - the stimulus, climate change and health care - have been of significant concern to the Chamber's member companies, so they've been lobbying hard, doubling the spending of the next largest lobby. Almost every organization in the top ten graph below has a significant stake in either health care or environment. It's a departure from previous years, where ordinarily Northrop Grumman or Lockheed Martin would appear high on the list. (It's also a big change from say 1998, where the two biggest spenders were British American Tobacco and Phillip Morris.)

(tags: Lobbying)

(tags: NYC:Media)

Temporal construal effects on abstract and concrete thinking: Consequences for insight and creative cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 177–189] has identified temporal distance as a situational moderator of creativity. According to Construal Level Theory [Liberman, N., Trope, Y., & Stephan, E. (2007). Psychological Distance. In E. T. Higgins & A. W. Kruglanski (Eds.), Social psychology: A handbook of basic principles (pp. 353–381). New York: Guilford Press], temporal distance is just one case of the broader construct of psychological distance. In the present research, we investigated the effect of another dimension of psychological distance, namely, spatial distance, on creative cognition and insight problem solving. In two studies, we demonstrate that when the creative task is portrayed as originating from a far rather than close location, participants provide more creative responses (Study 1) and perform better on a problem solving…

(tags: Psychology)

Unlike almost every other country in the West, Norway remains relatively unscathed by the worst financial crisis in decades. While most nations spent during boom years, Norway saved. Today, housing prices and consumption are rising, interest rates are low, and frugal management of income from Norway's huge oil and natural gas reserves have helped the country build one of the world's biggest investment funds. The sailing ship tattoos on Capt. Knut Jansen's forearms flex as he steers the boat Patricia through a narrow channel, past quaint vacation homes in the calm waters outside Kristiansand in southern Norway. He's smiling — and why shouldn't he be? The tour boat business is good, the sun is shining and Johnny Cash is on the radio. Jansen chuckles when asked how his nation has fared so well financially when most of the rest of the world has seen only economic pain and stress. "Isn't it lucky that Norway has plenty of money? A big, big oil fortune," he says.

(tags: Norway)

Here's a surprise: Wild crows can recognize individual people. They can pick a person out of a crowd, follow them, and remember them — apparently for years. But people — even people who love crows — usually can't tell them apart. So what we have for you are two experiments that tell this story.

(tags: Biology)

(tags: Science)

(tags: Energy)

(tags: Chicago)

(tags: Small_Arms)

Supercomputers pitted against one another in a high-stakes battle of attack and counterattack over a global network where predatory algorithms trawl the information stream, competing every millisecond to gain an informational advantage over rivals. It sounds like Hollywood fiction, but it's just an average trading day on the stock market.

(tags: Capital_Markets)

Our mission is to ensure the reliability of the bulk power system in North America. To achieve that, we develop and enforce reliability standards; assess reliability annually via 10-year and seasonal forecasts; monitor the bulk power system; and educate, train, and certify industry personnel. NERC is a self-regulatory organization, subject to oversight by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and governmental authorities in Canada.

(tags: Energy)

(tags: Internet_Phenomena)

(tags: NYC Architecture)

In 1996, an investor named Henry de Kwiatkowski sued Bear Stearns for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty. De Kwiatkowski had made—and then lost—hundreds of millions of dollars by betting on the direction of the dollar, and he blamed his bankers for his reversals. The district court ruled in de Kwiatkowski’s favor, ultimately awarding him $164.5 million in damages. But Bear Stearns appealed—successfully—and in William D. Cohan’s engrossing account of the fall of Bear Stearns, “House of Cards,” the firm’s former chairman and C.E.O. Jimmy Cayne tells the story of what happened on the day of the hearing:

(tags: Psychology)

The first thing that struck us was the distance between the watchtowers. We had just cycled a strenuous mile uphill above the medieval village of Geisa, along the Iron Curtain Trail that follows the old Warsaw Pact-NATO divide in central Germany. Now, in the tranquillity of the early evening, we emerged at the top of the hill onto a verdant field adorned with European Union and German flags — and two sinister-looking structures that faced off against each other no more than 70 yards apart.

(tags: Cycling)

Photo: Dan Winters

The rules changed all the time—sometimes day to day, sometimes hour to hour—and whenever he tried to recite them, people thought, "This guy is nuts." The rules dictated when and where Scott Adams, the chief engineer of the Dilbert comic empire, was allowed to speak. He could neither control them nor predict exactly when they'd go into effect. All he knew was that he'd woken up one morning and found that his voice had turned against him, imposing a set of bizarre restrictions.

(tags: Comics)

(tags: Rhetoric)

When an authoritarian regime approaches its final crisis, but before its actual collapse, a mysterious rupture often takes place. All of a sudden, people know the game is up: they simply cease to be afraid. It isn’t just that the regime loses its legitimacy: its exercise of power is now perceived as a panic reaction, a gesture of impotence. Ryszard Kapu?ci?ski, in Shah of Shahs, his account of the Khomeini revolution, located the precise moment of this rupture: at a Tehran crossroad, a single demonstrator refused to budge when a policeman shouted at him to move, and the embarrassed policeman withdrew. Within a couple of hours, all Tehran had heard about the incident, and although the streetfighting carried on for weeks, everyone somehow knew it was all over. Is something similar happening now?

(tags: Italy)

At the Last Supper, Jesus knew that it would be the last, and that he would be dead by the next day. Each of the Evangelists tells the story differently, but, according to John, Jesus spent the time he had left re-stating to the disciples the lessons he had taught them and trying to prop up their courage. At a certain point, however, he lost heart. “Very truly,” he said to his men, “one of you will betray me.” Who? they asked. And he answered, “It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” He then dipped a piece of bread into a dish and handed it to Judas Iscariot, a disciple whom the Gospels barely mention before the scene of the Last Supper but who now becomes very important. Once Judas takes the bread, Satan “entered into” him, John says. Is that a metaphor, meaning that Jesus’ prediction enables Judas to betray him? Maybe so, maybe not, but Jesus soon urges him directly. “Do quickly what you are going to do,” he says.

(tags: Christianity)

Joel McHale and John Keister parody a popular beer commercial. Stay cool, everyone!

(tags: Almost_Live)

(tags: Almost_Live)

Ed Wyatt is having a microwave pizza dinner, alone. But that can change.

(tags: Almost_Live)

Why shop in a barn when somebody's foreclosing on the palace? In this case, it is the Oak Palace, and everything must go! Just show your 'Platinum Card' at the door…

(tags: Almost_Live)

Let everybody know just what a BMOC you were back in the glory days while retaining that professional look at the office. Order today, and be cool again tomorrow!

(tags: Almost_Live)