Vin Crosbie's Personal Blog

For his business blog, visit http://www.digitaldeliverance.com

Meet Ahmet Merabet, The Muslim French Policeman Who Gave His Life Defending Freedom of Speech

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Meet 49-year old Ahmet Merabet, a Muslim policeman from the 11th Arrondissement of Paris, who on Wednesday (7 January 2015) gave his life defending the right of free speech. He and 49-year-old policemen Franck Brinsolaro, a French Christian, where guarding the offices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo when three Islamicist terrorists attacked with assault weapons, killing Merabet and Brinsolaro then 12 members of the newspaper’s editorial staff. It was Merabet’s death that was pictured in a spectator’s mobile phone video.

Roque de la Bonanza in Late Springtime

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roque-bonanza Roque de la Bonanza offshore Isla El Hierro, Canary Islands. June 2013[/caption]

When photographing a black volcanic rock in bright sunlight, it extremely difficult to get details in the shadowy areas. It’s when a state-of-the-art, handheld light meter is worth its weight in digital cameras. Good postcard shot.

Dusk of One Year, Dawn of Another

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stresa-dusk Lago Maggiore dusk from Stresa, Italy. June 1973[/caption]

Data Visualizations of Vital Statistics

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vital statistics visualization

Here are two well done data visualizations by mathematician and software design Brad Lyon and graphic designer Bill Snebold.

The first depicts real-time information about births and deaths in the United States. Whenever and wherever one of those events occurs, the map shows it.

The second depicts the same real-time information worldwide. (Click ‘Restart Simulation’ if either data visualization doesn’t automatically start when you visit it).

The Atlantic monthly magazine explains more background about these data visualizations.

Efficient Days

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Beethoven’s Days

A story in the Huffington Post  features a chart from the book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey and RJ Andrews how famously creative people spend their average days. Besides Ludwig von Beethoven, it features people such as Victor Hugo, Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin, et. a. Besides showing who was a ‘morning’ and who an ‘evening’ person, it’s helped me realize that my most productive working hours aren’t that eccentric.

What else I’m reading today:

For the first time in the history of the United States, the majority of member of its Congress are millionaires (as is President Obama and six of the nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court). So, is the United States governed by rich people? Quite literally, it is: the majority are people in the top one-percent of incomes.

Lucy Crosbie and Kevin Crosbie

Mother’s and Brother’s Induction into the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame

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Lucy Crosbie and Kevin Crosbie
2014 New England Newspaper Hall of Fame Inductees

I am proud that the New England Newspaper & Press Association has inducted my late mother and my late brother into the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame.

Please click this link to see photos of the induction dinner and event, which was held in the Park Plaza Hotel, in Boston, Massachusetts. Besides my surviving family, many people from the New England newspaper were there. Charles Ryan, editor of the daily Chronicle in Willimantic, Connecticut, gave the nomination speech. Patrice Crosbie, Kevin’s widow and his successor as Publisher of the Chronicle, accepted the award, which was given by Gary Ferrugia, publisher of The Day, of New London, Connecticut.

Is Mass Nudity Art?

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Are nude photographs art? Does nudity still shock you? If you’ve been perplexed by those questions, take a look at New York photographer Spencer Tunick’s ‘human art‘. During the past 20 years, thousands of people en masse have volunteered to disrobe and pose for him. I think his work is certainly art and nudity has ‘paint’ (even when his nudes are wearing paint!)

May my Robot Mix a Drink for You?

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httpv://youtu.be/8zP7yP8hdLE

This amazing documentary from the Japanese TV network NHK (which someone on YouTube mistakenly labelled as from the BBC) details  how advanced technologies about humanioid robots have become. Because I think NHK erred by starting the documentary with an artist’s robot, rather than with something more interesting, feel free to start this video as 4 minutes 15 seconds.  This clips ends unexpectedly after 48 minutes, but continues (with a bit of overlap) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrBWsSFgNsM

Expect to see these robotic being around town in 2020. I’ll then be asking you if my home robot recognize who you are, greet you at the door, escort you to me, then get us some tea, coffee, or some other beverage?