Kappa's Lair v3.0

There are many reasons people give public talks. The term is very broad so for the sake of this small essay I would like to narrow it down to public talks at conferences -- which means they are usually prepared and performed in front of an interested audience. Sometimes giving such talks may be a full-time job. Imagine either a corporate evangelist or a professional trainer or guru. Still, it is more interesting to talk about casual speakers who do it for free.

Spreading ideas or memes is one of the basic needs of an intelligent being. It is very satisfying to see other people "infected" by your own thoughts, developing them, using them as a foundation for new theories and implementing them into projects. It is almost like being a father who sees his own features in his children.

Another reason, probably more rational, is using talks to invite people to reflect on a subject, to solicit feedback. In this case the wider and more targeted the audience, the better. Such speakers usually prefer more dialogue during their talks, they love questions and even more -- advice or critical opinions. They do not strive for perfection but may even intentionally leave holes or controversy in their talks to hook audience and make them give at least some feedback.

Some people really enjoy being a center of public interest and attention. They may regard their talks as shows, as works of art to be admired and applauded. Everyone needs his 15 minutes of fame and, to be honest, speaking at a conference is the rare chance for a lot of knowledge workers to become rock stars for a short moment. Ending a good talk to an ovation is an unforgettable moment. Speakers who aim for this effect usually include many jokes and funny pictures in their slides and sit long nights polishing every single word.

A rare type of speakers actually wants to share their knowledge and to enrich listeners. These people deserve most respect and may be distinguished by choosing the most hard subjects, sharing a lot of details and tailoring the talk at the time to better suit the audience's needs and demands.

These days "innovation" seems to be the buzzword of choice among russian politicians led by the President Medvedev. As it often happens with politically charged words few people really understand the original meaning of "innovation" and just accept it as a general term for any kind of "sciency" stuff. The confusion grows when more words like "nano-technology" get thrown into the mix.

Science is the most well-defined concept. It is a method of gaining new knowledge about the world in its entirety. The simplest description of the scientific method reads as follows: one makes a prediction which is called "conjecture", then plans and performs experiments to either prove of disprove the conjecture. Proven conjectures are established as facts and form the body of knowledge.

Doing science requires a creative and industious mind to first come up with ideas and then thoroughly pursue the proving process. People who create knowledge with science are called scientists and this profession is of course one of the most respected since the dawn of civilization.

We usually distinguish between fundamental and applied science, the former being more about abstact concepts that are of no use to anyone except other scientists that in their turn apply fundamental theories to the real life problems. That is how technologies are born which are methods to solve problems by using scientifically obtained knowledge. If science is knowing that sugar is sweet then technology is a method of creating delicious morning beverage by adding some sugar to hot tea and stirring with a tea spoon.

But in modern complex world coming up with technologies is not enough. We do not only want to have methods of solving problems, we also want to actually solve as many problems as possible using as few resources and time as possible. And that is where innovation happens. It takes knowledge one step further and applies technologies to business trying to create a sustainable cycle of solving many problems effectively.

Innovation requires less scientists and more entrepreneurs and managers. It is the deploying step when the work of scientists and technologists starts helping people. Innovation is also a process as opposed to technology. You may start and stop innovation and you can measure its results. Which means that innovations are also projects with goals and budgets. Many talented scientists won't be happy and productive doing innovation instead of scientific research.

We should understand the actual meaning of science, technology and innovation if want to talk about them.

Central Asia is a region to the south of Russia which consists of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. All five countries are former Soviet republics with different although related languages and mostly unfortunate post-Soviet histories. They were thoroughly integrated into the USSR economy and some people think independence brought them more grief than joy.
Only kazakhs as the largest and the most northern country of the five enjoy a relatively high level of life. The rest consist mostly of desert or mountains which are very expensive to develop. For example Uzbekistan was once blessed with Aral Sea — a huge salty lake rich with fish — which is all but vanished nowadays because of the irrigation efforts needed to grow cotton for the whole USSR.

Weak economy is probably the main reason people try to move to Russia from Central Asia. But not the only. There is a very important language factor. The CIS is a region where a Russian feels like an Englishman or American man in Europe. Central Asia is not an exception. Most people speak Russian in these countries to at least some degree and that allows them to easily communicate in Russia. It is interesting that sometimes the Russian language as spoken by those immigrants is more proper than the one spoken by native Russians. During Soviet times the language and culture were literally exported to the republics by highly intelligent and educated teachers that were sent there to help create schools and the whole educational systems. We now see the results of those efforts reading about Alisher Usmanov, a famous Russian oligarch, one of the richest people on Earth. He was born in rural Uzbekistan.

There were a lot of russian people who moved to the frontier of the warm sunny Central Asia both by and against their own will during Soviet period. There were times when Russians were a dominant nation in capitals of Tashkent and Alma-Ata. Most of these people or their descendants returned to their historical motherland of Russia since 1990s. This is another reason for the immigration — repatriation.

Most of the central asian countries have not developed any form of modern democracy. And while Russia is far from perfect in this particular aspect, many Uzbeks, Tajiks and Turkmens enjoy much more freedom here than in there native countries. Central Asia is infamous for its long-ruling presidents — most have been in office since the USSR demise and been re-elected time after time by changing laws. They even use such titles as the National Leader (Nursultan Nazarbaev) or the Father of All Turkmens (Saparmurat Niyazov, died in 2006). Such atmosphere forces the most educated and knowledgable people to flee their countries to search for a place more suitable for living and raising children.

The stream of Central Asian immigrants is probably the largest source of population increase now in Russia (but the population on the whole is nevertheless on the decline) rivaled only by Chinese immigration in Southern Siberia.

We are what we eat. Human beings as biological entities grow their bodies from elements mostly acquired by eating food. Food is raw material which transforms through complex chemical reactions into muscles, bones, blood and all other kinds of human tissue. Since human organism is so sophisticated acquiring good food is essential to have healthy body and mind. That is why thinking about food is an important part of our culture from the very beginning of civilization.

Another concept that is traditionally connected to food is joy. We are happy when we eat delicious tasty food. We thoroughly enjoy well-prepared meals. Science tells us that taste is nature's way of "marking" rich and valuable food to encourage humans to search for it.

Modern applied food science has a business side which is about finding cheaper ways to mass-produce delicious food but also another side which is about health and well-being. In general, science is a way of obtaining knowledge by making experiments to prove or disprove assumptions and nothing more. Researching food gives us knowledge about what we are built of and what gives us pleasure and how to better control our health and happiness.

There are proponents of traditional food who are fighting againt nutrition science. They think we should rely on what our ancestors have been eating for a long time. It is fascinating that the very same people are often quite happy to use modern medicine instead of prayer and watching weather forecasts instead of believing fortune-tellers.

Here are some important examples of scientific advances in food that are in common use nowadays.

Measuring nutritional value and basic nutrients allows us to control the amount of actual raw elements and energy we consume. It is required by law to print this information on all food on sale in Russia.

Food rations for special professions like soldiers or cosmonauts were created to let people be efficient in unnatural conditions.

Diets are particular food regimes that allow us to better adopt our organisms to changing world. Biologically we are still very close to our ancestors who lived in scarcity. Our natural affection for delicacies and rich food leads to obesity and diets correct nature's way. Diets take into account that we are now living in abundancy and staffing oneself with cakes is no more a good method of getting evolutionary advantage.

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Корейский оригинальный звук, английские субтитры.

Действительно похожий на Леонтьева Жарр толкнул речь на 20 минут о том, как он любит Россию, похвастался терменвоксом, а потом заявил, что будет играть по-старперски, в живую.

Рассказал, что сегодня на сцене его старые, практически допотопные синтезаторы. Извинился за возможные глюки (которых кстати не было), а затем взял, да и сыграл Oxygene целиком :) Можно ли представить бОльшее счастье для его давнего поклонника? :)

В середине концерта с потолка над сценой спустилось огромное зеркало. Оно зависло под углом в 45 градусов прямо над кучей жарровских железяк так, что из зала можно было смотреть на всё его шаманство сверху. Было реально кайфово. Я насчитал у него 6 клавиатур, 2 из них были трёхэтажными и ещё около пяти ящиков с пультами. Вся эта радость стояла кругом, внутри которого размахивая патлами и носился JMJ, тиская разные кнопки, крутя тумблеры и периодически с усердием сумасшедшего профессора запуская руку куда-то в недра очерередной коробки и извергая тем самым в зал свои фирменные какофонии.

В общем, было здорово.

I walk through the trees with my love beside
She looks at me and there´s love in her eyes
With my sword up high I defend her home
Then off in the distance I will roam

My suit´s too tight and my tie´s too long
I walk to the bus and I sing this song
I don´t have a love I can sing this to
I sit all alone and I sing to you

hey, reality comes to stay
hey, beating my dreams away

hey, reality comes to stay
hey, beating my dreams away

Баба Яга - Beating My Dreams Away (10 МБ, 256kbps)

1997 - Прозвониться на BBS. Прочесть новую почту в Telemate. Если её нет, повторить.
1998 - Запустить UUPC. Прочесть новую почту в dmail. Если её нет, повторить.
1999 - Запустить /usr/bin/uucp. Прочесть новую почту в pine. Если её нет, повторить.
2000 - Запустить ppp и fetchmail. Прочесть новую почту в mutt. Если её нет, повторить.
2001 - Дойти до Интернет-кафе. Прочесть новую почту в браузере. Если её нет, повторить.
2002 - Открыть френдленту в ЖЖ. Прочесть новые записи. Если их нет, повторить.
2005 - Открыть Bloglines. Прочесть новые записи в блогах. Если их нет, повторить.
2006 - Открыть Google Reader. Прочесть новые записи в блогах. Если их нет, повторить.
2008 - Открыть FriendFeed. Прочесть новые записи и комментарии. Если их нет, повторить.

Невидоме Задоволення - Весна (4,6 МБ, 128kbps)

Ссылки по теме:
http://gavrosh-nz.narod.ru/music/NevidomeZadovolennya.html
http://music.lib.ru/n/nevidomezadovolennya/

С сотрудниками регионального избиркома их непосредственное руководство проводит разъяснительную работу: они, оказывается, материально заинтересованы в том, чтобы выборы прошли в один тур.

Средства, полученные нижегородским облизбиркомом из федерального бюджета на проведение второго тура выборов, если такового не будет, направят на премии сотрудникам территориальных избирательных комиссий, сообщил председатель облизбиркома Станислав Бисин на заседании комиссии: это норма, установленная на федеральном уровне.

Офигительно. Отсюда.

По прикидкам, есть ещё несколько месяцев для того, чтобы это был отъезд, а не чёрт-те что.

Ъ пишет о новой форме для военных.

Министр обороны Анатолий Сердюков с энтузиазмом водил президента по коридору:

В его устах это прозвучало грязным ругательством.

Онлайн-тренинг "Как создать ИТ бизнес с нуля"

Группа КаппА. Шмальни себя с волыны, гад. (c)

Сайт братьев Капрановых и Закон братьев Капрановых.

А вот что про них пишет Википедия. Чудеса.

Как там жизнь, в Иране этом?

А иранская современная наука знаменита физиками-теоретиками.

В общем, классический социализм СССР-ного типа, но в качестве идеологии вместо коммунизма выступает ислам.

Надо съездить.

Магазин мужских носков с доставкой.

Прикольно.

Она позвонила в конце ноября.
Она позвонила в начале второго.
Она прошептала: "Антоша, бля..."
Она услышала: "Маш, какого?.."

"Унылое время. Усталый век", -
Напишет позже она в тетради.
За окнами будет кружиться снег. -
"А все программисты - говно и бляди".

Новая модель калькулятора Электроника.

План Путина работает!

России уже нет в списке 200 лучших университетов мира

Как собеседуют программистов. Я пока так не умею, но в принципе дело только в опыте :)

Простите меня все, пожалуйста.