Entity Type: Egyptian God Historical Context: Ancient Egypt, at least 1500 BC, +/- 1500 years Representation: either a dog-headed baboon, or an ibis (it’s a funny looking bird that bears no resemblance to a dog or a baboon) Origin: Emerged as a god from the Nile River Delta, but became popular in Middle Egypt (Eshmunen […]
Let me start with the story of Osiris and Isis. In Egyptian mythology, Osiris was the god ruler of Egypt. After returning home after a business trip, his brother Set (also brother to Osiris’s wife, Isis; don’t worry too much about familial relations) had a plan to take over: he built a chest the exact […]
This past weekend, 3 friends and I met up to play Dungeons & Dragons in the early morning, mid-afternoon, and late night, in California, Washington, the UK, and Korea. Simultaneously. And we could all see each other and share notes and drawings with each other. Technology just works when we can easily do things we […]
Sadly, a lot of my work at Zanbato is behind closed doors, but recently, I have been working on a widget that is definitely not proprietary and is available for all of you to use, extend, or even just look at: chronoline.js. chronoline.js is a library for making a chronology timeline out of events on […]
In general, I don’t think I’m very good at making desserts. I have had many disasters with oven temperatures that cause burned cookies, tough cupcakes, liquid-y banana bread, and more. Fortunately, most things turn out well enough when enough sugar is added, and because I’m usually willing to stomach my own mistakes, food usually gets […]
Story 1 A few weeks ago, I was a little hungry late in the afternoon at work. I wasn’t hungry enough to even eat a granola bar, but definitely needed something to nibble on. While wandering through the mini-kitchen, I spotted a single fortune cookie sitting on the counter, left over from lunch a day […]
Hopefully those of you who also spent years in Diablo 2 didn’t miss the big news last weekend that Diablo 3 was in open beta for stress testing. The servers were up and down as Blizzard presumably was testing various capacities and training staff responses, but it was a tremendous opportunity for many fans of […]
My friends and I have a lot of potlucks. We haven’t had as many recently, but last summer, we had them weekly on Friday nights, and I thought it was a great way to hang out. It’s cheaper than going to a restaurant, exposes you to interesting creations, and hopefully gives you something to be […]
(Update 07/31/12: I just heard that Jonah Lehrer fabricated Bob Dylan quotes for “Imagine”, the book that inspired this post. Although I didn’t really rely on his work for this post, it seems prudent for you to keep that fact in mind while reading this. Let this be a reminder that science writing can sometimes […]
(Note: post was started last weekend, so the dates are a little off) As of a week and a half ago, I’m done with school. I took my last final, graded a ton of exams, and promptly got on with all of the things that I didn’t do because of classes. The most concrete of […]