There was a link to this video in my links list the other day, but it’s worth a separate post. I don’t know anything about the Dutch show “Kinderen voor Kinderen”, but it seems like it could be fairly mainstream and have a sizeable audience. I also don’t know what, if any, reactions the Two Fathers video received, but it’s a good example of how you can socialize kids to be inclusive and understanding of diverse family arrangements. It’s interesting (and sad) to ponder how differently people would react in various places.

I didn’t have the opportunity to post these individually last week so here’s a batch of seven photos from Project 365.

Taken: November 24, 2006

#31: The perfect bite from leftovers after Thanksgiving.

Taken: November 25, 2006

#32: Andrei got me a Titeuf book from France. Titeuf is my favorite cartoon so this was a welcomed addition to my small collection.

Taken: November 26, 2006

#33: Dark chocolate is good for your health so I finally decided to open this gift I’d gotten a while back and start eating the little pieces included within.

Taken: November 27, 2006

#34: I went to a very interesting presentation by Pandora co-founder Tim Westergren and picked up some cool swag.

Taken: November 28, 2006

#35: Spotted this curious “installation” on Stanford’s campus. I think it was a countdown to the Stanford-Cal big rivarly football game.

Taken: November 29, 2006

#36: I went for a drive in the area and found a beautiful road. There were several infrequent signs on it, this Chicken Xing caught my eye in particular. The little chicks look as though they were droppings, which I found amusing.

Taken: November 30, 2006

#37: I was at Trader Joe’s on Thursday and noticed these red boxes near the check-out counter. They looked very familiar so I picked one up to look for some sign that they were from Hungary. I flipped the box over looking for some Hungarian text, but found nothing. However, upon flipping it back over I noticed the big words on the front: Product of Hungary. Excellent! This stuff is great and how fun to be able to get it locally. The bon-bons are each made of a cherry soaked in liquor and then covered with chocolate. You have to eat it carefully as there is liquid inside. Yum!

• I Have Two Fathers
  kid sings about his two fathers on Dutch TV
  (tags: video gayrights)
• Do you need a Web publicist?
  managing information about oneself online
  (tags: privacy skill frbk)
• Yahoo Quietly Launches Mobile Social-Networking Service
  Mixd is for group texting and photo/video sharing; reminds me of MSR’s Slam
  (tags: social mobile yahoo mixd slam)
• Mixd
  Yahoo’s new social service for people to text groups of others and send photos/videos
  (tags: mixd yahoo social mobile)
• CBS YouTube partnership pays off with increased audiences
  (tags: tv youtube audiences videos)

• The Clicker
  “November marks the 50th anniversary of the remote control.”
  (tags: history tv)
• Adieu to Google Answers
  no online service is safe, even Google closes some products
  (tags: google social answers)
• Yahoo! Answers celebrates its first birthday by giving members gifts
  get yours by signing up
  (tags: yanswers bday gifts)
• Credit agencies target Habitat for Humanity owners
  scams
  (tags: money)
• A Primer on Electronic Communication
  my article at Inside Higher Ed on how to send strangers email inquiries to maximize response (and minimize embarrassment)
  (tags: article hargittai howto email netiquette)
• Franklin misquoted on 40K plus Web pages
  Correct version: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
  (tags: history quotes skill frbk)
• Erasing Divide, College Leaders Take to Blogging
  (tags: blogging college administration)

.. or they might just need to reconsider what is appropriate for prime time.

For years I have been using Yahoo! TV for getting TV schedule listings. Today, I changed my bookmark. Yahoo! TV seems to be experimenting with a new format that, like their Mail Beta, takes forever to load even when you are already on the page. I am not interested in seeing the little thinking bar when I just want to see the schedule and am already on the page, just scrolling down.

I’m trying out AOL’s TV listings. Anybody use anything else that works? I’m just looking for something simple that gives me the listings without annoying wait times.

At least Yahoo! Mail lets you switch back to the old version (I’m assuming due to user protest over the new version). I didn’t see this switch-back option on the TV portal.

UPDATE: One point I forgot to note is that Yahoo! also made the mistake of switching the system in a way that I got a 404 error when I clicked on my old bookmark. That’s not smart. If you’re going to change things, at least do so in a way that people aren’t channeled toward an error page.

An important aspect of scientific research is that others should be able to reproduce the work. This is significant partly, because it serves as a check on the system, but also, because it allows others to build on previous achievements. Replication is not trivial to achieve, however, given that studies often rely on complex methodologies. There is rarely enough room in journal articles or books to devote sufficiently detailed descriptions of how data were collected and procedures administered. Moreover, even with adequate space for text, many actions are hard to explain without visuals.

This is where recently launched JoVE comes to the rescue. The Journal of Visual Experiments publishes short videos of procedures used in biology labs. Former Princeton graduate student Moshe Pritsker created the peer-reviewed online journal with Nikita Bernstein. The inspiration came back in his graduate school days when he had often been frustrated in the lab while trying to conduct experiments based on others’ descriptions of the necessary methods. The goal of the journal is to assist others with such tasks. The publication has an editorial board and submissions are reviewed before a decision is made about publication.

What a great use of the Web for dissemination of material that would otherwise be difficult to get to relevant parties. [Thanks to Mark Brady for pointing me to the Nature article – that is now behind subscription wall – about JoVE. That piece served as the source for some of the above.]

• Yahoo! Answers Party RSVP
  Yahoo! Answers turns one and celebrates
  (tags: yahoo yanswers events)
• Never enough tabs…
  .. spelled out with favicons in tabs (have to be pretty geeky to appreciate this)
  (tags: funny geek)