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Friday, December 23, 2011
Hobbit Home
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
MSM
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(That's chicken parts by the way.) Kind of Gross. ... maybe...
Snopes has a nice write up on how it's made, and the truths and (not) that is being told about it.
Best part is that Jamie Oliver (a TV Sheff) did a great show for kids on how it's made.
More hype from this topic, as it's now got the better label of "Pink Slime". (Why would you ever call it MSM when you could call it pink slime?!?!)
Monday, December 12, 2011
Media Consolidation
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Note the following sites that are attempting to fix this:
Thursday, December 8, 2011
VI Hart
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Monday, December 5, 2011
Cool Lego
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When folks with legos go nuts. (to be continued...)
- Crawler Town (by DeGobbi)
- Seven foot long Serenity Model (by Jeff Stevens)
- Lego Mindstorms model of the Mars Curiosity Rover (by Doug Moran and Will Gorman)
- Star Blazers Yamato
- Great Ball Contraption: Also see some of the details of the pieces at his website.
- WW2 Tanks: And Stijn Oom's other fantastic creations!
- HMS Hood: What a ship!
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Can You Crack It?
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Conflict History Map
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Printrbot
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Sunday, November 27, 2011
The Periodic Table of Videos
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Each QR is basically a link to a video in the PToV from Nottingham Uni’s chemistry department. Point and shoot and up pops the appropriate Youtube clip.(BTW, here's the direct link to the image you need to download and print out )
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
HOW THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE WAS DEVELOPED
First we learned the difference between United Kingdom, Great Britain and England, and now this!
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Lightning Foundry
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Its a cool idea, and what could go wrong?!?!!!
Moon Unit Zappa
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Actually, this would make a lot more sense for NASA to take this on, and jumpstart a new industry, but the idea is fantastic. Currently "all" the cost of getting something in space is in the launch vehicle, and many of the times it doesn't work. Once the basic infrastructure and rail gun launch system is in place, building systems on the moon could be less costly, and simple to get in space.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Grading the Teachers
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Slashdot notes:
"Bill and Melinda Gates write that in the field of education, we really don't know very much at all about what makes someone an effective teacher. 'We have all known terrific teachers,' write the Gates. 'But nobody has been able to identify what, precisely, makes them so outstanding.' For the last several years, the Gates Foundation has been working with more than 3,000 teachers on a large research project called Measures of Effective Teaching to get a better sense of what makes teaching work (PDF) so that school districts can start to hire, train and promote based on meaningful standards. 'Once the MET research is completed, we hope that school districts will work with teachers and their unions to create fair and reliable evaluations that reward teachers who are effective and identify and help those who need to improve. When that happens, we believe that districts will be on the cusp of providing every student with an effective teacher, in every class, every year.'"
The 147 Corporations Controlling Most of the Global Economy
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An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.
and that
"In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network," says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group.
Though,
Yaneer Bar-Yam, head of the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI), warns that the analysis assumes ownership equates to control, which is not always true. Most company shares are held by fund managers who may or may not control what the companies they part-own actually do. The impact of this on the system's behaviour, he says, requires more analysis.This ties in -sort of- with the book by John Perkins, titled Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Which explains (among other things) how USAID and the World Bank are used by the US to gain votes in the UN, and how that does not always end up being so popular.
more lego goodness
Lego CD/DVD Ripper: See Engadget (Nov 1, 2011)
Robot CubeStormer II record breaking 5.66 second Rubix's Cube Solver! (See slashdot Oct 19, 2011)
Robot CubeStormer II record breaking 5.66 second Rubix's Cube Solver! (See slashdot Oct 19, 2011)
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Nest Learning Thermostat
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According to Nest, the thermostat takes about a week to start picking up on your routine, at which point it adjusts the temperature accordingly. It knows, for instance, that the whole family's out of the house by 9am, and that people start trickling back in around four in the afternoon. That's all thanks to a collection of six sensors, which keep tabs on metrics like temperature, ambient light, humidity and motion -- whether it's fingers about to touch the display or people passing in and out of the room.Uses wifi, works with your pc or iphone/pad, priced around $250, very slick!
Update:
It is COOL (I got one!)
Unfortunately, it's so cool that Honeywell wants to sue it out of existence.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Derek Deville's Qu8k
Derek Deville, built a 8" diameter, ~14 foot rocket, that went 121,000 feet (~23 miles) up into space to capture Carmack's $5k "100kft Micro Prize".
Top speed of the rocket was 3,200ft/s (2,181 mph) and it's all on video:
(BTW, it landed only 3 miles from the launch site.) More on this at HuffPo and Gizmo.
Top speed of the rocket was 3,200ft/s (2,181 mph) and it's all on video:
(BTW, it landed only 3 miles from the launch site.) More on this at HuffPo and Gizmo.
Monday, October 10, 2011
FoldIt!
As NPR's On the Media points out about Foldit, a "new online game [that] helps solve medical mysteries".
On the heals of this is phylo, a crowd sourcing game to solve multiple sequence alignment issues with RNA/DNA. Slashdot points out how "gamers playing Phylo have beaten a state-of-the-art program at aligning regions of 521 disease-associated genes form different species"
Using a game available to anyone online called Foldit, gamers successfully built a model of an enzyme crucial to understanding how many diseases, such as AIDS, do their damage. Solving the crystal structure of the M-PMV retroviral protease has stumped scientists for more than ten years.Foldit is available for MAC, Windows and Linux. (no phone apps yet.) See more at their wiki. ...Funny, it wasn't even a full year after Jane McGonigal lectured at TED that "Gaming can make a better world", and sure enough, here's proof of that!
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Monday, October 3, 2011
Portlands Voodoo Donuts!
No.. Ive never been there, but I gotsta go!
A local Portland Organ donuts shop is getting really good reviews for their speciality creations. You name it, they got it! (and I'm betting they have others you never thought of....
A local Portland Organ donuts shop is getting really good reviews for their speciality creations. You name it, they got it! (and I'm betting they have others you never thought of....
In other related news, Scientific American, with the help of thevisualMD has a very interesting spread on "A Graphic Look at Obesity--Inside and Out".
Monday, September 26, 2011
Eyeborg
BBC has a piece on Rob Spence, a Canadian documentary maker (and blogger) who lost his eye, and replaced it with a small camera.
He has a 12 min documentary about his new "eye" and other "cyborgs" (folks with prosthetic body parts). Wonder if he would get thrown in jail if he got pulled over in Boston?
He has a 12 min documentary about his new "eye" and other "cyborgs" (folks with prosthetic body parts). Wonder if he would get thrown in jail if he got pulled over in Boston?
National Ignition Facility to go online
The Guardian notes that the very coolly named "National Ignition Facility" will be bringing online their Laser fusion power test facility.
.... Now how could I rig a way to mount this on a sharks head....
The $3.5bn National Ignition Facility (NIF) sits in a 10-storey building covering three football fields and will harness the power of lasers to turn tiny pellets of hydrogen into thermonuclear energy. If the machine works as planned, it will become the first to generate more energy than it consumes, a feat that could pave the way for commercial laser fusion power stations and an end to the world's energy security problems.NIF's explanation on how it works is very interesting.
.... Now how could I rig a way to mount this on a sharks head....
Electric Tron Motorcycle
A custom motorcycle company in Florida called Parker Brothers Choppers made a very cool electric TRON Light Cycle. (see in Slashdot and gizmag)
Hire the Hackers!
A Threat Post posting by, Paul Roberts notes that in a TED Talk,
Misha Glenny makes the argument that most hackers are brilliant folks with a high chance of Aspergers, that were just easily misguided. He says that rather then putting them in prison, we should hire them and leverage their talents.
Misha Glenny makes the argument that most hackers are brilliant folks with a high chance of Aspergers, that were just easily misguided. He says that rather then putting them in prison, we should hire them and leverage their talents.
Time Lapse Video From ISS
Fraser Cain at Universe Today on Sep 18 posts a short note about
Science educator James Drake built this amazing timelapse video from the perspective of the International Space Station as it flew over North and South America.Night scene with the lights below, and the lightening storms are very cool.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Space Junk
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Saturday, September 10, 2011
Smart Grid might make you late
The Federal Government has mandated (years and years ago) that all US electrical power run on average (over 24hours) at 60Hz. This has been useful for clocks to keep time. This seems to be a bit (by multiple factors) of a cost challenge when building out smarter, and more robust power systems through out the country.
So the thought is to test the effects of phasing out the strict 60Hz rule which The North American Electric Reliability Corp, who manages the countries electrical power systems, will be doing.
Results to your oven clock (per year):
So the thought is to test the effects of phasing out the strict 60Hz rule which The North American Electric Reliability Corp, who manages the countries electrical power systems, will be doing.
Results to your oven clock (per year):
- East Coast: +20 min/year
- West Coast: +8 min/year
- Texas: +2 min/year
- Quebec: 0 min/year
Human IQ
Christopher Eppig, a grad student in New Mexico posts on Sep6 2011 in SciAm "Why Is Average IQ Higher in Some Places". His research finds:
"[...] we not only found a very strong relationship between levels of infectious disease and IQ, but controlling for the effects of education, national wealth, temperature, and distance from sub-Saharan Africa, infectious disease emerged as the best predictor of the bunch."The gist of this is because of lack of fuel for the developing brain:
"One study found that newborn humans spend close to 90 percent of their calories on building and running their brains. (Even as adults, our brains consume as much as a quarter of our energy.) If, during childhood, when the brain is being built, some unexpected energy cost comes along, the brain will suffer."
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Michael Shermer’s Baloney Detection Kit
Michael Shermer from Skeptic Magazine (and columnist in SciAm) took Carl Sagan’s idea that we need a Boloney Detection Kit to sift through all the boloney out there, and proposed this solution.
The summary of it is as follows:
The summary of it is as follows:
- How reliable is the source of the claim?
- Does the source make similar claims?
- Have the claims been verified by somebody else?
- Does this fit with the way the world works?
- Has anyone tried to disprove the claim?
- Where does the preponderance of evidence point?
- Is the claimant playing by the rules of science?
- Is the claimant providing positive evidence?
- Does the new theory account for as many phenomena as the old theory?
- Are personal beliefs driving their claim?
Friday, August 26, 2011
Google ponies up $1/2 BILLION fine to DOJ
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"Google is facing a $500 million dollar fine “in connection with a potential resolution of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into the use of Google advertising by certain advertisers,” they disclosed in their 10-Q last week."HuffPosts August 24th article points out that google chose to settle paying the full half billion so that they would not face criminal charges.
"It sends a clear message to both Google and to others that contribute to America's pill problem that they will be held to account for endangering the health and safety of the residents of this district and to persons all across the United States," said Neronha, who described the forfeiture as one of the largest in U.S. history.It will be interesting to see how this will change how you get your adds included in Googles AdSense.
As a (Jan 24, 2012) followup, slashdot notes that
PC Magazine reports that the U.S. government used convicted con artist David Whitaker, owner of an online business selling steroids and human growth hormone to U.S. consumers, to help federal agents in a sting operation against Google when he began advertising with Google with advertisements that included the statement 'no prescription needed,' clearly violating U.S. laws.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
War Flying
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Thursday, August 4, 2011
The "World's Largest" Stop Motion Animation Was Created With A Nokia N8
Known as the best phone in the world with the worst UI, here's a cute video made with the Nokia N8. (and a short writeup of it in FastCompany.)
Gulp. The world's largest stop-motion animation shot on a Nokia N8. from Nokia HD on Vimeo.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Carrier (PBS Show)
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Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Undersea Cable Map
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Also note TeleGeography's Submarine Cable Map (more underwater net/network diagrams)
Akamai 2011 Q1 Report
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Monday, July 11, 2011
Kevin Mitnick shows how easy it is to hack a phone
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Tuesday, June 28, 2011
How bad is our decisions making? Just ask the monkeys!
Good TED talk on by Dr. Laurie Santos about how monkeys make similar financial decisions making mistakes as humans.
Well, as Rowan Hooper from the New Scientist points out, this has now inspired the The first advertising campaign for non-human primates. (of monkeys shaking their booty, to advertise specific kinds of Jello.)
Well, as Rowan Hooper from the New Scientist points out, this has now inspired the The first advertising campaign for non-human primates. (of monkeys shaking their booty, to advertise specific kinds of Jello.)
Friday, June 17, 2011
Reich's 6 points on the economy
From Pragmatic Capitalism, I found Robert Reich's 2.5 min, six bullet skinny on the economy:
The bullet points:
- Economy doubles since 1980, but wages flat. Where did the money go?
- All gains from the economy go to the super rich. and...
- With money comes political power. Taxes on Super rich slashed, revenues evaporate. this leads to...
- Huge budget deficits. Middle class agitated, fight for scraps
- Middle class divided. Buying and borrowing slow. Resulting in:
- Anemic recovery.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Apples new Pad
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- increase employee seating by 40% (up to 13k)
- increase space by 20% (3.1M sq ft.)
- increase external landscape by 350% (5.9M sq.ft.)
- increase trees by 60% (6k)
- reduce surface parking, and all that assfault by 90% (-8600 sq.ft.)
- reduce the building foot print by 30% (-400k sq.ft.)
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To:
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Evil Cisco?
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Monday, June 6, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
You spent how much on that degree?!?!?
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Fun things to do in a coffee shop...
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education
I've mentioned free online learning before, but here's a great TED talk with Salman Khan, about a brilliant method for integrating technology and learning.
Monday, May 16, 2011
VoIP != Secure
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Gaming...
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Caterpillar has a series of training games to help teach folks how to use their heavy equipment. It's not just he computer games (which seem cool enough), but it also includes these serious seating platforms. (few more monitors, and would be perfect for my new office!)
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Check out the youtube video.. not sure about needing to ware a hardhat to play a video game..
Night Sky (photographed)
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Notes from his website skysurvey.org:
The Photopic Sky Survey is a 5,000 megapixel photograph of the entire night sky stitched together from 37,440 exposures.
[...]
On a journey that covered 45,000 miles by air and 15,000 by land—the equivalent of nearly 2½ passes around the equator—I toured much of the American west and twice visited the western Cape of South Africa. Through it I was able to enjoy not only the wonders of the natural world but also the company of my retired father whom I was able to convince had nothing better to do
Saturday, April 23, 2011
United Kingdom, Great Britain and England
Why does our 51st state still have the Queen on it's money? What's up with Ireland? (Are they part of UK or not?) Finally, someone explains what the difference between Great Britain and UK, and all the places that still worship the queen.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Hand writing makes you smarter?
Need more links for this one.. but:
- How writing by hand makes kids smarter. The Week, Oct 2010
- How Handwriting Trains the Brain: Wall Street Journal, Oct 2010
Monday, April 4, 2011
RIAA/MPAA
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GPS Jamming
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“The cost of setting [LORAN] up again would be a fraction of the cost of one GPS satellite, and there’s a total of 31 of them in orbit at the moment. So just for a, a very small extra expenditure it could make sure that that kind of catastrophe could be avoided.” [David Hambling]
Elsewhere:
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Every year, there is a competition at the Stanford Mall showing off some cool playhouses. SFGate has a couple of picts of them . Also on ...
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I've always been keen on the open-office layout, new study's are showing that privacy is best for creativity (with quick access to g...