Octopodial Chrome

David Carkeet delivers some notes on how to survive freefall. Of course, it’s all a joke—if you follow its advice and die, don’t blame me...

Steve Pavlina wrote a quick little guide to getting better sleep and less, then wrote an addendum a short time later. Worth reading.

I saw this on Slashdot of all places!

But though our present account is of this nature we must give what help we can. First, then, let us consider this, that it is the nature of such things to be destroyed by defect and excess, as we see in the case of strength and of health (for to gain light on things imperceptible we must use the evidence of sensible things); both excessive and defective exercise destroys the strength, and similarly drink or food which is above or below a certain amount destroys the health, while that which is proportionate both produces and increases and preserves it. So too is it, then, in the case of temperance and courage and the other virtues. For the man who flies from and fears everything and dœs not stand his ground against anything becomes a coward, and the man who fears nothing at all but gœs to meet every danger becomes rash; and similarly the man who indulges in every pleasure and abstains from none becomes self-indulgent, while the man who shuns every pleasure, as boors do, becomes in a way insensible; temperance and courage, then, are destroyed by excess and defect, and preserved by the mean.

—Aristotle, the Nicomachean Ethics.

In other words, everything in moderation.