The Binary Circumstance

Joe Beda’s EightyPercent.net gives a fascinating look at how projects get done at Google.  Totally different from any other IS environments that I’ve worked in.

For example:

The intranet in Google is super transparent.  Teams are actively encouraged to share the most intimate details of their projects with the rest of the company.  This happens through tech talks, design docs, lunch table conversations, etc.  When two teams are doing similar things, people start with the assumption that they must have their reasons and that the situation will be worked out in time.  There isn’t a huge push to over optimize and have only one solution for each problem.  This means that there isn’t an adversarial relationship between teams that can lead to long standing animosities and information hiding.

There is an excellent article in TIME Magazine that explains in easy-to-understand language exactly what is wrong with Terri Schiavo and why she cannot recover.

It also includes a comparison of Terri Schiavo’s CAT scan with the CAT scan of a normal brain.  The quality of this picture is better than the one I linked to previously in Terri Schiavo’s CAT Scan.

WHAT IS A PERSISTENT VEGETATIVE STATE? People who suffer enough brain damage that they are unaware of themselves or their surroundings, but still demonstrate certain reflexes and are able to breathe and pump blood on their own, are in what doctors call a vegetative state. If that condition lasts for at least a month without any sign of improvement, the diagnosis may be changed to persistent vegetative state (PVS).

[...]

WHY DOES TERRI SCHIAVO OPEN HER EYES, BLINK AND APPEAR TO SMILE IN THE VIDEO HER PARENTS MADE? The most difficult thing to understand about a vegetative state is that it allows one to be awake but not aware. (In a coma, you are unresponsive and your eyes are closed.) Because the sleep-wake cycle and certain eye movements are not controlled by the cortex or the thalamus, they can continue without conscious awareness. Even acts of crying and smiling may be reflexive events that do not occur in response to specific stimuli.

There’s a lot more information in the article.  Read the whole thing.

A Czech tractor driver suffocated under huge pile of poop.

On Easter, as we contemplate the meaning of this event, we must ask God "what were you thinking?"

After a week of politicians and religious leaders exploiting Terri Schiavo to lecture us about the "value of human life," we must take note of the value that the universe assigned to this man’s life.

Let us pray that there’s a shower somewhere between here and heaven.

I Heart Huckabees is a film that tries so hard to be funny and profound that it fails at both.

The premise is an clever one but the story quickly becomes pretentious and painful to watch.

It made my eyelashes hurt.