90% of Enviro Skeptic Books Have Think Tank Roots - where do all these reality-denying books come from? Conservative think tanks in the US seem to have a big hand in it. And as the study so nicely puts it: "Thus, the notion that environmental skeptics are unbiased analysts exposing the myths and scare tactics employed by those they label as practitioners of 'junk science' lacks credibility. Similarly, the self-portrayal of skeptics as marginalized 'Davids' battling the powerful 'Goliath' of environmentalists and environmental scientists is a charade, as skeptics are supported by politically powerful CTTs funded by wealthy foundations and corporations."
wissen - 22.5.2007 - 9.6.2008
Algorithmic Botany: Publications - "The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants" as download!
Fractured YEARFRAC and Discounted DISC - interesting summary of the disaster called Excel and OOXML. The standard that is not one, because it is not standardized. But Microsoft presents it as a standard, so it fits perfectly into the times when no one knows how to spell "standard" correctly anymore ... (and anyone who does financial calculations with Excel deserves to be slapped and whipped)
"An Exotic Matter" - funny variation on the topic "Singularity".
Best. Image. Ever. - Never, ever forget: we did this. This is what we can do.
Questionable Risk Assessment: Is Genetically Modified Feed Dangerous? - "So everything is fine with green genetic engineering? Not at all. Because the safety tests of genetically modified plants are paid for by the very companies that want to make money with genetically modified plants. Is objective risk assessment possible in this way? A rascal who thinks evil of it ..." (it's old and possibly I already had it, but because I just searched for it ...)
Injection against paralysis - wow.
Programming Languages: Application and Interpretation by Shriram Krishnamurthi - download and read offline. You won't get dumber from it.
Latest Advance in Artificial Intelligence: Computer Wins a Game Against a Go Master - "During the Go Tournament in Paris, staged between 22 and 24 March 2008 by the French Go Federation (FFG), the MoGo artificial intelligence (IA) engine developed by INRIA - the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control - running on a Bull NovaScale supercomputer, won a 9x9 game of Go against professional 5th DAN Catalin Taranu. This was the first ever officially sanctioned 'non blitz' victory of a 'machine' over a Go Master."
Unicode 5.1 contains Ăź as a capital letter - because, it's important.
The Diaries of John Quincy Adams: A Digital Collection - a posthumous blogger, so to speak ...
TDD Proven Effective! Or is it? - a study on the efficiency of test-driven development is dissected here and examined for its actual content and statistical statements. The result is then less positive for TDD ...
Spirit may continue to explore Mars - good. It would also be quite stupid to shut it down.
Mars-Roboter Spirit wird stillgelegt? - to shut down one of the most successful space projects of recent times would be highly stupid. But the NASA has experience with stupid decisions ...
Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight (video) - "Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another."
Hacking implanted defibrillators: shockingly easy - "But, more disturbingly, they could also shut off the device's ability to respond to cardiac events. The pinnacle of their hacking was to send the device into test mode, in which a carefully-timed current would trigger an arrhythmic event, something that's normally done under controlled conditions to determine if the device responds successfully. In effect, they hacked the device in a way that could stop a heart."
The Limits of Knowledge We Against Greed - in memory of Joseph Weizenbaum the link to his last published article. Hopefully his hard-earned knowledge will be preserved and not swept aside in the technological frenzy.
Abramowitz and Stegun: Handbook of Mathematical Functions - certainly interesting for all number crunchers. And since it's online, sometimes faster than a dead-tree version.
The world's rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan - "The original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic garbage that you could almost walk on. It is not quite like that. It is almost like a plastic soup. It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as continental United States."
Elephants Evolve Smaller Tusks Due to Poaching - "The largest male African elephants have the largest tusks. These tusks are extremely important in elephant behavior, with the largest tusks usually resulting in more successful intimidation of smaller males or winning fights for female elephants. But when the largest animals are killed, it changes the breeding patterns of the animals. In short, without the largest males for competition, the smaller males with their smaller tusks will breed more successfully, and their offspring will have smaller tusks." (ja, die Galapagos Finken waren wohl eher, aber Elefanten sind auffälliger ... )
The Unburdened Mind - "The majority of these individuals are not violent criminals; indeed, those that turn to crime are generally considered “unsuccessful psychopaths” due to their failure to blend into society. Those who do succeed can do so spectacularly. For instance, while it may sound like a cynical joke, it’s a fact that psychopaths have a clear advantage in fields such as law, business, and politics." - der Psychopath als evolutionäre Entwicklungsnische in der Zivilisation.
Why Crunch Mode Doesn't Work - also the reference to the 40-hour week and Henry Ford. But of course, our proletarians know everything better and therefore advocate the 42-hour week ...
Scratch Home imagine, program, share - a fun project to introduce children to programming in a graphical way. For my taste, it's too much based on the old Structogram technique, but still quite nice to look at. Additionally, it's nice that a Mac version is also available.
Psychology Today: Dreams: Night School - interesting article about dreams and why we dream at all. The idea is that dreams are a training ground for the brain, where threats are recapitulated and the correct reactions to them are practiced. Dreams as a VR training ground for the real world.
Colds - Alcohol - Medicine and Health - "But drinking 8 to 14 glasses of wine per week, particularly red wine, was linked to as much as a 60 percent reduction in the risk of developing a cold. The scientists suspected this had something to do with the antioxidant properties of wine." - I guess I should start a red wine stockpile ... (currently battling another typical annoying cold)
Skeptical Science and Technology Quotes - “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” - Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
Anti-Grain Geometry - Texts Rasterization Exposures - everything you never wanted to know about fonts, hinting, and anti-aliasing, but you get told anyway.
Antique engines inspire nano chip - nano-computer inspired by Babbage's Differential Engine.
…free your imagination… - a website that reports on newly discovered species.
Played through - Draw.
Face Blindness (Prosopagnosia) and stones - anyone who wants to know how the world looks to a face-blind person, a rather interesting article.
Gulf Stream threatens to die by 2100 at the latest - well then it will be fun. Please then add a proper asteroid impact, okay? I mean, I want to see something for my money!
"Code kennt keine Fairness" - Larry Lessig on democracy in virtual worlds. And perhaps worth considering for the advocates of the eternal "Code is Law" approach on the net.
The contact lenses that could restore 20/20 vision - sounds interesting. Although I have been wearing my glasses for decades and they don't really bother me. Could I sleep with contact lenses?
Pistol Shrimp - wow. 100km/h fast water, at 5000°C temperature (for a brief moment).
TV Ad Sound Levels - why some ads sound louder than the program, even though they are not.
Personal History: How I Spent the War - GĂĽnther Grass on his time in the Waffen SS.
20 Ways to Use Gmail Filters - nothing groundbreaking, but a series of nice tricks for Google's webmailer.
Study: Nuclear power - neither cheap nor good for the climate - because uranium mining is conveniently ignored by the nuclear lobby. Combined heat and power plants, on the other hand, are more efficient and better - but they don't require the monstrous equipment that energy monopolists would need.
Ornithopters to Revolutionize Aircraft Design - so far I have mostly associated ornithopters with steampunk and sci-fi.
Inside the Monkeysphere - interesting.
The Birth Control of Yesteryear - in ancient Greece. Fascinating.