I’m not sure if anyone posted this yet, they might have a while ago:
http://labs.systemone.at/retrievr/
Its a pretty neat little thing. You make a sketch and it goes through every indexed image in flicker and displays ones that match the sketch parameters. For instance if you make the bottom half like blue you get lots of water pics.
Holy Crap, just saw this:
http://wbztv.com/local/worcester.apartment.fire.2.951420.html
I’m actually not all that surprised, the crackheads on the second floor nearly set the place on fire twice while I lived there.
That place was a fire hazard waiting to go, bu damn 4 alarms. That place is done.
I tried adding this in a comment, but it didn’t like it.
Anyway good to see that the public infrastructure is prepared for the zombie apocalypse.
At JD’s request I made this into a post rather than just a comment.
I was 3am a few days ago and I was bored out of my mind at my parents place watching TV.
Spike has some dumb show called “mansers” where they answer manly questions.
One question I found interesting was about how beer can make a chick’s breasts larger over time.
Turns out its the Hops (or more accurately a chemical that forms by digesting the hops that is an estrogen anolog). Apparently you can get pills to do the same.
Anyway here is a link to the episode on their website, its fairly mindless but if you have 20 minutes its in there someplace:
So yeah remember that ant colony dental cast.
Well this shit trumps it hands down. Its an investigation of an African leaf cutter colony:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/11/excavation-of-an-ant.html
I always love ways of visualizing data. These guys put together a book of maps representing all sorts of things from deforestation to primary schooling rates. They have an associated website with a bunch of the maps on it.
All of the maps are as related to hectares of land. So for instance the map below is total expenditures.
You’ll see how some countries totally disappear. A country will appear “normal” in size if its expenditures as compared to the rest of the globe are approximately the same as their land area in relation to the rest of the world. There are a few hundred of these on the website.
Also CNN did a story on the book/site and they cover a little of the back story on the guys who made the book/site
Or Hustler does anyway.
To commemorate the significance of the upcoming election, the wheelchaired man of free speech commissioned a Sarah Palin inspired porno:
I hate linking to gossip sites but this was too damn funny:
http://thesuperficial.com/2008/10/sarah_paylin_makes_a_porno.php
Apparently creativity and mental health issues might be linked.
Not really a total shock, but interesting that they are trying to test the linkage and relations:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/10/07/creativity.depression/index.html
Was reading this article that discusses social traits as associated with where you live in the country and what factors can be strongly correlated to those traits/regions.
It had colored maps so I was all about it. Stuff like this can be particularly important I think if used in population behavioral modeling. Thinks like election tendencies, etc could be inferred more accurately.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122211987961064719.html?mod=yhoofront
I’m not sure why I didn’t post this a month ago when I first saw it. Its an interesting little tidbit about a study done by some Cornell students. I was reminded of it today when a political article on Yahoo made reference to it.
The original concept is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning-Kruger_effect) In essence they found that the less adept a person is at something the more likely they are to overestimate their own ability, and similarly people who are very skilled often underestimate themselves. While logic seems to play out that that would be the case, the interesting part of the study came in how people’s notions self reinforced their arguments when presented with evidence to the contrary.
Then today I see this article on Yahoo that discusses how once people have their mind around “their candidate” even a staggering mountain of evidence is unlikely to sway them, since their connection with one side convinces them that the evidence is false, simply because it is contrary to what they believe to begin with. Its the dunning-krugger effect in essence that makes them over estimate the correctness of their initial choice.
The socio-political implications of something like this are fairly staggering. Truly the unwashed mindless masses in action.
So apparently RAtM had a legal show going up against the RNC. Eventually police cut the power and they kept at it anyway.
Boing Boing has the video clips, etc: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/03/rage-against-the-mac.html
…Does it get any better?
I didn’t read up on where they were giving this presentation, but its a decent analogy.
That being said, its damn fucking cool.
So this isn’t a link to an article, but rather a discussion topic. I was driving a bunch this weekend and sorta watching roads as I drove. It got me thinking of the “far fetched” idea that gets mention every few years of the turnpike authority wanting to use the air rights to the Masspike to open a monorail/train line.
While I cringe at the thought of them maintaining a train, it did get me thinking about the lack of quality intercity train travel in the US, and with gas prices, etc if there’s potential investment opportunities. (my planned cross country train trip added to my pondering)
So anyway, here is the thought. What would the socio-economic impact be on MA, if they ran a highspeed line (200+mph) from Boston to Worcester, and then on to Springfield? (no stops, or maybe 1 stop in between each of those cities). With speed up/slow down times, you could probably do the trip in 20-30 minutes from Worcester to Boston. With a station right in downtown, you could get from Worcester to park street faster than you could from riverside, BC or even Braintree. Suddenly Worcester would be a part of metro Boston in a sense and Springfield would be a long, but manageable commute into Boston.
Obviously it would be massively expensive to build and then would cost a bunch to maintain, but if you develop the property immediately around the stations and use the profits to offset the cost it might be more reasonable. The challenges I believe would be in A) running enough trains to support the volume and b) setting a price for the tickets that makes it appealing, but accessible, while remaining cost effective? Currently it costs about $10 to drive from Worcester to Boston in a decent car, and takes an hour plus. Would people pay $10/ride for a 20-30 minute trip into the city?
Obviously the MBTA would oppose the idea because they would think they’d lose ridership on the commuter rail, but the commuter rails new bread and butter could be the north/south service, and the people from framingham inward toward the city. They could save money on the fringe lines out past Worcester.
Obviously there are a billion other challenges I haven’t touched on, but I did think it was in interesting topic to discuss. I marvel at what Worcester could turn into with that sort of access. The benefits to WPI, etc. The work force shift, the real estate market, and on and on.
Discuss….
So this year is NASA’s 50th anniversary.
Today specifically is its 50th bday. I saw this posting over on slashdot that mentions the milestone and has some discussion:
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/29/2120225
Also was talking to my brother about the date (he works at JPL), and he sent me this article which is a pretty good look back I think on what the space program has brought us:
And one final point. NASA currently gets 0.7% of the federal budget and I’m astounded by all the projects they do. It would be truely mindblowing to see what they could do with 1% or more.
We went to the moon at 4% (which seems a bit extreme, but not like that 15% or whatever in Iraq is doing us much good as a species).
I’m pretty certain someone posted this before, but if not, here it is:
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