stuff nathan likes: 2011

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is an American business magnate and inventor. He is co-founder,[11] chairman, and former chief executive officer of Apple Inc.[12][13] Jobs also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. He was credited in the 1995 movie Toy Story as an executive producer.[14]

In the late 1970s, Jobs, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula,[11] and others, designed, developed, and marketed one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface which led to the creation of the Macintosh.[15][16] After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1984,[17][18] Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher education and business markets. Apple's subsequent 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he served as its CEO from 1997 until 2011. In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios.[19] He remained CEO and majority shareholder at 50.1% until its acquisition by The Walt Disney company in 2006.[3] Consequently Jobs became Disney's largest individual shareholder at 7% and a member of Disney's Board of Directors.[20][21][22][23]

Jobs' history in business has contributed much to the symbolic image of the idiosyncratic, individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur, emphasizing the importance of design and understanding the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal. His work driving forward the development of products that are both functional and elegant has earned him a devoted following.[24]

On August 24, 2011, Jobs announced his resignation from his role as Apple's CEO. In his letter of resignation, Jobs strongly recommended that the Apple executive succession plan be followed and Tim Cook be named as his successor. Per his request, Jobs was appointed chairman of Apple's board of directors.
(Wikipedia)

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Belgian Blue

Belgian Blue cattle are a beef breed from Belgium, known in French as Race de la Moyenne et Haute Belgique. Alternative names include Belgian Blue-White, Belgian White and Blue Pied, Belgian White Blue, Blue and Blue Belgian.[1] The sculpted, heavily muscled appearance is known as "double muscling", and is a trait shared by the Piedmontese breed. They are named for their typically blue-grey mottled hair colour, although it can vary from white to black.

The Belgian Blue has a natural mutation of the gene that codes for myostatin, a protein that counteracts muscle growth. The truncated myostatin is unable to function in this capacity, resulting in accelerated lean muscle growth, due primarily to hyperplasia rather than hypertrophy. The defect in the breed's myostatin gene is maintained through linebreeding. This mutation also interferes with fat deposition, resulting in very lean meat. The neonatal calf is so large that Caesarean sections are routinely done.[2] Double-muscled cows also can experience dystocia, even when bred to normal beef bulls or dairy bulls, because of narrowing of the birth canal.

The breed originated in central and upper Belgium in the nineteenth century, from crossing local cattle with Shorthorn cattle from the United Kingdom and probably with Charolais cattle. At first there were milking strains and beef strains of the breed. The modern beef breed was developed in the 1950s by Professor Hanset, working at an artificial insemination centre in Liege province.

Critics call Belgian blues "monster cows" and some countries' governments, including Denmark, have advocated eliminating the strain. (Wikipedia)

Friday, August 19, 2011

Sergey Gorshkov

Sunday, August 14, 2011

NOLS

The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoor skills, safety and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions. The NOLS mission is to be the leading source and teacher of wilderness skills and leadership that serve people and the environment. NOLS runs courses on five continents, and has courses for almost all wilderness environments and for almost any age group. Skills taught on NOLS courses include backpacking, canoeing, whitewater kayaking, packrafting, caving, rock climbing, fly fishing, horse-packing, sea kayaking, mountaineering, rafting, sailing, skiing, and snowboarding. NOLS has trained more than 120,000 students. College credit is available for most courses, through either the University of Utah, the University of Wyoming or Central Wyoming College. NOLS also has direct credit agreements with many colleges and universities. (wikipedia.com)

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Le Corbusier

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier (French pronunciation: [lə kɔʁbyzje]; October 6, 1887 – August 27, 1965), was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930. His career spanned five decades, with his buildings constructed throughout central Europe, India, Russia, one in North and several in South America.

He was a pioneer in studies of modern high design and was dedicated to providing better living conditions for the residents of crowded cities.

Le Corbusier adopted his pseudonym in the 1920s, allegedly deriving it in part from the name of a distant ancestor, "Lecorbésier." However, it appears to have been an earlier (and somewhat unkind) nickname, which he simply decided to keep.

(wikipedia)