Apparently, it’s the coldest summer in 40 years here in San Francisco.

Weather forecasters are calling this the coldest summer in San Francisco in 40 years.

People who have lived in the Bay Area and particularly San Francisco are used to seeing out-of-towners shiver in their shorts and t-shirts.

But even by San Francisco standards, this has been a cold, gray summer.

Heh! The average temperature in San Francisco for July 2010? 60 degrees fahrenheit!

It’s a beautiful day at Yerba Buena Gardens.

It’s also kind of hard to believe this is the same spot that some jerk tried to mug me at about 3.5 years ago.

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dan Ariely writes in a pretty simple and straightforward manner about how ridiculous we act when it comes to economic decisions. It’s full of many examples and experiments (you get the feeling that students at MIT are unwittingly subjected to sociology experiments every single day) on how people will act regarding certain conditions (e.g., giving away something free vs. something cheap, paying for labor from friends vs. giving gifts).

In the short time since I’ve read it, I’ve already thought about many of the habits I do every day — should I really be purchasing this coffee and bagel every day? And why do I do that in the first place.

Anyway, it’s a pretty enlightening read into why we humans make certain decisions and how we can try to change things for the better.

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How to quit Civilization, that is. Probably my favorite game of all time, and the fifth iteration is coming this September.

Here is a helpful guide on how one can quit their addition to Civ.

[Via Ryan]

(Yes, at this point I’m just plundering my Google Reader shared items feed… but I’ve been sick!)

If only my habitual tardiness could produce something equally as great.

One day in 1939, Berkeley doctoral candidate George Dantzig arrived late for a statistics class taught by Jerzy Neyman. He copied down the two problems on the blackboard and turned them in a few days later, apologizing for the delay — he’d found them unusually difficult. Distracted, Neyman told him to leave his homework on the desk.

On a Sunday morning six weeks later, Neyman banged on Dantzig’s door. The problems that Dantzig had assumed were homework were actually unproved statistical theorems that Neyman had been discussing with the class — and Dantzig had proved both of them. Both were eventually published, with Dantzig as coauthor.

“When I began to worry about a thesis topic,” he recalled later, “Neyman just shrugged and told me to wrap the two problems in a binder and he would accept them as my thesis.”

[Via]

I’m sure Corona’s marketing department is thrilled about this.

[H]e returned to his residence in Kabul to find it had been burgled. The intruder took money from a drawer and left behind a bottle of Corona beer. The Corona bottle sat on his counter for the next two weeks Yeager says, because Corona is one of his least favorite beers. He finally opened it during a going away party as the other drinks began to run low.

“I pulled it out and when I popped it there was no fizz and the cap was loose,” says Yeager. “Because this one didn’t have fizz you wonder if it went rancid or not, and I just kind of sniffed it and I went ‘Oh, that doesn’t smell like beer.’ “

Yeager, a geochemist familiar with acids, realized it smelled like sulfuric acid – otherwise known as battery acid. He called a friend over who had the same reaction to the smell. Yeager poured the “beer” into the toilet and it foamed and fizzed, leaving “no question” in his mind it was sulfuric acid.

Down and out for nearly two weeks! It’s been frustrating. But I’m finally out and about.

Man!

Apparently, the pneumonia is going around though. Another friend just came down with it. What?!

This sickness swooped in out of nowhere! I’ve been out of action for 7 days and counting now!

Outside of The Wire, Mad Men, and Lost, this is one of my favorite television events.

Nothing like watching the World Cup final with friends on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.