Wild cabbage is the original gangster - Kale, broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts all share a common parent

Wild cabbage was the original gangster of the vegetable world, spawning many of our favorite vegetables!

Early farmers cultivated many popular vegetables from the Brassica oleracea (wild cabbage) by artificially selecting for certain attributes. Common vegetables such as cabbage,kale, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi and Brussels sprouts are all descendants of the wild cabbage plant. Brussels sprouts were created by artificially selecting for large bud size. Broccoli was bred by selecting for large flower stalks. Cabbage was created by selecting for short petioles. Kale was bred by selecting for large leaves.

 It was cultivated throughout Roman times, and is a native to western Europe, which is probably why these vegetables figure so prominently in western cuisine. 

via wikipedia

Barriers are self imposed. You don't need millions of dollars. —John Carmack

"In the information age, the barriers [to entry into programming] just aren't there. The barriers are self imposed. If you want to set off and go develop some grand new thing, you don't need millions of dollars of capitalization. You need enough pizza and Diet Coke to stick in your refrigerator, a cheap PC to work on, and the dedication to go through with it. We slept on floors. We waded across rivers."

—John Carmack, id software

Malibu homeowners who hide access to beautiful beaches foiled by $30K Kickstarter campaign

Can you believe it? Malibu homeowners intentionally obscure public beach access areas with fake signs and hidden access. This is not only ridiculously selfish, it is illegal.

Enter this Kickstarter campaign that just reached its goal of raising $30,000! 

We've made an app that'll show you exactly where each public access point is up and down the Malibu Coast. It helps you park – ID those fake cones and fake garages. It tells you which signs you can smile at and ignore.

It even walks you down each beach – house-by-house – to show you where on each beach you hang all day on the dry sand.

Cuz even though the courts have ruled over and over and over and over to allow public access, finding and using these beaches is still really tough. 

The Internet FTW!

We think we're all heroes of our own stories, but really we're just people.

Poignant piece in the NY Times by writer Tim Kreider about overhearing what people really say about you, behind your back. I particularly liked these parts: 

Hearing other people’s uncensored opinions of you is an unpleasant reminder that you’re just another person in the world, and everyone else does not always view you in the forgiving light that you hope they do, making all allowances, always on your side. There’s something existentially alarming about finding out how little room we occupy, and how little allegiance we command, in other people’s heads.

...

Another friend once shared with me one of the aphorisms of 12-step recovery programs: “What other people think of you is none of your business.” Like a lot of wisdom, this sounds at first suspiciously similar to idiotic nonsense; obviously what other people think of you is your business, it’s your main job in life to try to control it, to do tireless P.R. and spin control for yourself. Every woman who ever went out with you must pine for you forever. Those who rejected you must regret it. You must be loved, respected — above all, taken seriously! They who mocked you will rue the day! The problem is that this is insane — the psychology of dictators who regard all dissent as treason, and periodically order purges to ensure unquestioning loyalty. It’s no way to run a country.

THE operative fallacy here is that we believe that unconditional love means not seeing anything negative about someone, when it really means pretty much the opposite: loving someone despite their infuriating flaws and essential absurdity.