Ruchira S. Datta

"I'm the CEO and co-founder of Yelp and this is my personal blog." - Michael via Bookmarklet

Jeremy just joined the blogosphere, give him a round of applause :). - Michael

"Sirens sounded across Venice yesterday as flooding submerged 95 per cent of the city and left tourists in St Mark’s Square thigh-deep in water....Driven by strong winds and heavy rain, the water rose to just over 5ft above sea level, the highest acqua alta since the 5ft 2in (1.6m) of 1986. The tide monitoring centre gave warning that the levels could yet reach a 30-year high.The water reached 6ft 4in above sea level in 1966, causing devastation to homes, shops and historic monuments and artworks. " - bob via Bookmarklet

We were there last weekend and had a wonderful dinner at Da Fiore near Campo S. Polo - http://bit.ly/D2C0. Recommend chef's menu with 6 or 7 items. - Paola

The Dow lost 679.95 points to close at about 8,149. There have only been three days in market history with bigger point losses for the Dow - the Monday after the Sept. 11 attacks, and Sept. 29 and Oct. 15 of this year. - Mitchell Tsai

Gregory: 2012, huh? Isn't that the year the Mayan calendar ends? - Paul Denlinger

mayans, maybe were reading the same flow of time as the tibetans, yogis, mystics, etc ... either way, paradigm shift, and it seems important to put attention onto the new, don't you think? - Gregory Lent

This document tells what the formats of the index files are. Priceless. - Michael via Bookmarklet

The most important lucene doc I've found that's not linked anywhere. - Michael

"Bill LeMaster, a 44-year-old retired Air Force technician living in Montgomery, Ala., enjoys a great many hobbies, ranging from arts to electronics. He also enjoys his family, his most beloved passion. Although, if you ask his wife, she'd probably say collecting hobbies is his biggest passion. Last Halloween, when he heard his grandkids were dressing up as Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm from the Flintstones, LeMaster volunteered to build them the Flintstone car to perfectly complete the look (and to make sure he got to join in the fun). "I just wanted my grandkids to have the most awesome costume in Montgomery," he recalls. He started the build six weeks before Halloween, allowing himself plenty of time to get the project rock solid. Once the car was done, the kids were all set to shuffle their feet down the street -- Yabba-Dabba-Doo! His grandkids were happy, the neighbors were amazed, and LeMaster was satisfied with the outcome of the project." - Rachel Lea Fox via Bookmarklet

That foolish man! Has he even considered how this vehicle will hold up in an accident? I bet this car wasn't even crash tested before handing the wheel over to underage, unlicensed drivers. Just look at the flimsy construction and those so-called safety belts!! - April Buchheit

April *LOL* - Rachel Lea Fox

I just finished reading Dean Simonton's _Origins of Genius_ and this advice is very well-supported. - Ruchira S. Datta

from Richard Russell: continues. "... like they tax alcohol and cigarettes. Of course we would also save the unbelievable amounts of money we throw away trying to stop people from engaging in these vices, usually making the activity more dangerous in the process. - Thomas Hawk

I disagree jamelle and +10 eric. how "bad" it is depends very much on the circumstances and conditions surrounding the prostitute in question. - tiffany

Now that's what I'm talking about!!! There's only one way to deal with a depression....have a massive friggin party. - Toby Graham

I really could have used this a month ago - but only if each were connected to their typeface names. - Erin

"The only way to avert a food crisis resulting from oil and natural gas price hikes and supply disruptions while also reversing agriculture’s contribution to climate change is to proactively and methodically remove fossil fuels from the food system. The removal of fossil fuels from the food system is inevitable: maintenance of the current system is simply not an option over the long term. Only the amount of time available for the transition process, and the strategies for pursuing it, can be matters for controversy. Given the degree to which the modern food system has become dependent on fossil fuels, many proposals for de-linking food and fuels are likely to appear radical. However, efforts toward this end must be judged not by the degree to which they preserve the status quo, but by their likely ability to solve the fundamental challenge that will face us: the need to feed a global population of 7 billion with a diminishing supply of fuels available to fertilize, plow, and irrigate fields and to harves" - Jason Wehmhoener via Bookmarklet

Welcome back! - Ruchira S. Datta

"How much neuroticism anyone gets is determined largely by genetics. But it is also within our control. Psychiatrists and psychologists talk about emotional regulation — the ability to manage neuroticism so that even the most nervous of people can go through life appearing and feeling more in control than those genetically predisposed to calmness. “What studies have shown us is that there’s great plasticity, even though people are genetically built in ways that make them respond anxiously or not,” said James J. Gross, a professor of psychology at Stanford University and director of its psychophysiology laboratory. “Genetically identical people can give very different outward impressions because they think differently, they regulate their emotions differently.” It’s relatively easy to say how outgoing someone is, or how verbal. Those who study personality caution that it’s harder to know how calm someone really is under the hood — several noted that President-elect Barack Obama has had trouble kicking smo" - RAPatton via Bookmarklet

"But many researchers argue for two ways to think about calmness: you are calm, or you learn how to be. Imagine two people with equally high measures of neuroticism dealing with the same irascible boss. One gets yelled at and leaves the boss’s office perfectly composed; the other gets yelled at and flees to the bathroom in tears or storms out and kicks the wall. The difference is that the first person has learned to regulate the neuroticism. People tend to think that the confrontation produces the reaction; if you’re faced with an irrational rant, who can blame you for falling apart? But researchers in emotional regulation tease out a factor in between: how we think. Between the “a” of the antecedent and the “c” of the consequence, they argue, is the crucial “b,” for belief, which in the case of the person melting down might sound something like: my boss hates me, everyone hates me, I’m a total failure. That is the opportunity for emotional regulation." - RAPatton

"“Even if you’re someone who is initially anxious, you can develop tricks and strategies, so someone on the outside would say: ‘Her, anxious? She’s awesome at cocktail parties, she’s great at public speaking,’ ” Professor Gross said. “They wouldn’t understand that if you didn’t have those strategies, you wouldn’t be able to do those things.” This may be easier for some than others." - RAPatton

The Aurora shots are something - RAPatton

Wow. Insanely amazing. <bookmark> - possible248

Arthur Laffer is a schmuck. - Nathan Naze

He is a senior graduate student at the Tulane Center for Gene Therapy. His dissertation is entitled "Investigating the Role of Human Mult... ipotent Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in the Repair of Bone", in which he developed a model of multiple myeloma in immunodeficient mice and used it to test small molecule inhibitors of the interaction between multiple myeloma and bone precursor cells. - Robert Scoble

Robert, they're not actually over your head, they just involve a lot of vocabulary you don't know. Don't be shy about dipping into the fun! - Ruchira S. Datta

@Sally - I'll see if I can make a case for it. Money's a little tight right now as you know, but I'm really excited about the screening aspect, and I have a proposal for cancer proteomics using our instrument(which is fairly similar to the drug screening application), we just need to get that Series A already. - Mr. Gunn

This works in the web 2.0 world, where a reliability failure (like twitter's frequent outages) has no real consequences. I would not want my bank to take this attitude to its accounting software, nor would I want the medical X-ray manufacturer to take this attitude --- "oh yeah, the worst that happens is we kill a couple of folks while we push a new release." For good reason, you don't see car owners lobbying for an elimination of crash test standards and other expensive checks. - Piaw Na

When downside costs a lot (Google.com, VISA, etc.) you should have enough process. When lack of success costs a lot (most startups) you should do whatever works! The intersection (early-stage product at big company) is where a lot of problems happen. - Michael Herf

It seems like most folks are really bad at assessing the costs (and opportunity-costs) of intangibles. This may be one reason why most people are overly risk-averse. In any case, creativity and innovation increasingly suffer as these checks against adverse outcomes grow and their hidden costs multiply. - Gordon Vaughan

I kinda like this one too : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/top... - Pedro Beltrao

Awesome. I think I'm going to get some PEACE as well as the transcription christmas tree! - Shirley Wu

This t-shirt could be a reason for trying to have twins! :) - Olcayto Cengiz

Those shirts are hilarious! - Tony

No twins for me (yet). Wondering if i just get a "cut" and "paste" shirt combo - put "paste" on my kid and leave "cut" lying on the floor unworn. - David Bisset (sn)

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To you too! - Abby Martin

So many funny friendfeed logos ! - thomas via twhirl

Well done... the cool logo's... - Aad 't Hart

books. mmm. :D - pea♥ fierce as a woozle