Faxes From the Far Side • Damn Interesting

by philrw
184 words - 1 min read
Miscellaneous
Fascinating; I did not know this: Billions of years ago, the moon rotated around its axis faster than it does today. But early in the moon’s history, the drag of Earth’s gravity caused the moon’s rotation to slow to what appears to be a halt from an Earth perspective. One hemisphere of the moon always faces the Earth, and the other always faces away, with Earth’s gravity acting as a tether. In other words, the moon revolves once around the Earth in the same time it takes to rotate on its own axis—a phenomenon known as tidal locking.
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2015 Likely to Be Hottest Year Ever Recorded

by philrw
155 words - 1 min read
Personal Rants and Raves
Okay, folks, here’s what it boils down to (pun intended): the next few decades will see more intense and frequent droughts, flooding, crop failures, food insecurity, mass migrations (Europe’s current refugee “crisis” is mild by comparison), severe weather, and conflicts over ever-dwindling natural resources as our home planet’s climate change forcibly changes our behaviors. Humans generally suck at nonviolent conflict resolution, so there will probably be much violence. The world will be divided between the nations as “haves” and “have-nots” even more so than today as our humanitarian relief effort resources are reallocated to deal with domestic crises.
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'Into the Woods' and the Dumbing Down of the Movie Musical | David Toussaint

by philrw
92 words - 1 min read
Film/TV/Theater

So we started watching the film adaptation of Into the Woods. Before we could finish, we read this article, both poignant and amusing.

As much as I love Meryl, I’m never going to buy her records, and I haven’t been this uncomfortable watching her in a film since, what do you know, Mama Mia! If we’re living in any sort of movie musical cinema revival, it’s time to start asking ourselves what we sacrificed to get there.

Source: ‘Into the Woods’ and the Dumbing Down of the Movie Musical | David Toussaint

What are common problems of gifted people in the workplace? - Quora

by philrw
75 words - 1 min read
Rants and Raves

This is how you (should) manage incredibly high performers who do good work that you don’t understand:

The only way to manage them is get out of their way. Startups love them, big companies hate them for this reason. Startups want miracles, big companies say they do. But big companies really have one desire: to make your supervisor look competent and necessary.

Source: What are common problems of gifted people in the workplace? - Quora