October 31, 2006
Two interesting stories involving automated search: the first involves a satellite called EO-1, that can collaborate with other satellites to focus in on changes in weather or another phenomenon such as forest fires. Upon detection, it can then track and assist scientists without the need for manual reprogrammation (sic).
The other is a new mesh-network of sorts being rolled out throughout the commercial airline industry. When an airplane is equipped with this system called TAMDAR, it can continually beam updated meteorological and climate changes to a central weather station via satellite. From there, air traffic can be diverted based upon storms and what not — thus, you can only imagine the volume and accuracy of data when thousands of aircraft worldwide adopt the system.
October 28, 2006
TechFreep recently pointed to a company called Infinia which is combining parabolic solar dishes with Sterling motors to convert light into energy more efficiently than conventional photovoltaic cells.
Now, if you use these Solar Sterling engines as solar power satellites and combine this with a superstructure that uses space elevators to raise water from the ocean (which thereby can be broken down into hydrogen/oxygen), you could potentially design a reversed Niven ring that floats in geosynchronous orbit around the earth.
One of these days I’ll put together an illustration of what I have conjured up, I’m sure someone has thought it up before.
October 23, 2006
I’m sure Sir Mix-A-Lot took this alot better than when Weird Al spoofed Coolio with Amish Paradise.
See also Weird Al versus Chamillionaire
October 18, 2006
The Stalwart has a smallish write-up of the SOA industry through the eyes of IBM.
Specifically, these new videos: 1 2 3
Turns out IBM is seeking to educate their potential customer base through viral ads [insert quote from Seth Godin here].
If nothing else, they are concise and gratis. You might just learn something (or maybe you can use them in a presentation).
October 17, 2006
Oliver Curry is an evolutionary theorist at the London School of Economics who has gone on record saying that in “the future” humanity will fork into two species: one that is hot, and one that is not.
He basically envisions a genetically altered world comprised along the lines of the critically acclaimed film: Twins, starring that Arnold guy. The plot of the film is pretty simple: ol’ Arnold is engineered in a laboratory to be the √úbermensch. Statuesque. Chiseled. Perfecto. And his twin brother, played by Danny De Vito, is all the crap left over.
And that’s the bleak, distopic vision Curry sees an unrestrained humanity running towards [Oh, and his new race of super humans would of course, have genius-level intelligence too].
Well, fortunately for mankind, Mike Judge has come to the rescue, kiinda (he ends up bashing affluent yuppies for the sake of their affluency). He was the director behind the classic movie: Office Space. He released a new film this year called Idiocracy, starring Luke Wilson.
The gist of the film is this: Luke Wilson plays a supremely average guy from the year 2005, who is used as a guinea pig for a government project which places him in hibernation for 500 years. Upon waking up in the year 2505, he discovers that society has become so incredibly dumbed down, he is now by far the most intelligent person in the world.
While one could argue that millions of people are actually participating in this government project today (e.g. public education), that is a topic for another time and place.
One of the premises in the plot is that smart people stop breeding altogether. And just as bad money runs good money out of town (Gresham’s Law), invariably, the “dumb-ass” gene ends up dominating the gene pool.
While I have not had a chance to see the new film or even peer into the future, the fact of the matter is “artificial” breeding has taken place for thousands of years. In the past, various peoples in ancient civilizations would only “mix blood” with certain persons (Jewish tribes come to mind, as do the nobility starting with the Pharaoh and on through Ceasar, etc.).
Today, many families plan, save, and design a system in which their offspring are able to live healthier lives. Lives filled with more chances to innovate. Chances that are comprised of better educational and training tools.
Thus, there is nothing heinous or unethical about providing a better world for ones posterity, and this includes screening and selecting genes that could enable your posterity to live a fuller, more productive life.
See also: Genes and jeans, do you own both?, as well as the artificial selection of the Heikegani crab. And here is a review of Idiocracy from The Onion.
October 15, 2006
Back in junior high, I was in a leadership program whose director felt compelled to distribute Apple Newton’s to all its participants.
So, early on I had a chance to toy around with relatively premature handwriting recognition software.
Earlier today, my younger brother sent me a link to this video presentation of a new sensitive, yet smart sketching system developed at MIT — for a whiteboard no less. It is called ASSIST.
I wonder if his graduate assistants spend all their free time playing “The Incredible Machine” on it.
By accident and by chance you have probably seen one of those nature shows that are narrated by an intellectual sounding Briton.
And with this erudite accent they can make just about any type of loathsome activity sound interesting — or at the very least, leave you with the impression that you have learned something.
Among other edutainment lessons, you have no doubt seen a pregnant female eat her male counterpart. Crunch, slurp, and burp. This cannibalistic act of course, is poo-pooed by you and I, however no lawsuit is filed or law is passed to upend this violent “cycle”… because it is “natural.”
On a personal note, I always think of black widow spiders, and how the male gets the shaft — head first — however, this is neither here nor there.
And while breeding patterns like those above occur across the animal kingdom, a paper published last year in Nature reconfirmed a decades-earlier hypothesis: that man and chimpanzee are separated by a mere 1.23%, “and that the most striking divergence between them occurs, intriguingly, in the Y chromosome, present only in males.” (original emphasis included).
In a recent article in The American Spectator, this finding is discussed at length. However, what starts as a stoic science lesson, ends with some very dubious conclusions (e.g. humans didn’t evolve from chimps, we share a common ancestor, and are both branches along the same grouping, however generalizing and projecting habits and manners of one species onto another is a non sequitur).
And no accent can change that.
See also: David Attenborough’s, The Trials of Life.  Via ehmunro.
I can’t say that I’m much of a fan of guitar soloists, except of course, for Jimmy Hendrix.
Earlier today a friend sent me a comical parody of guitar legend: John Petrucci.
Note: my air guitar is about as intimidating as his world domination mode.
See also: Metallica sues Canadian Band for use of E,F chords.
October 14, 2006
High school back scores 10 TDs, team still loses
Check out the final score. Talk about a heart breaker.
October 11, 2006
In comparing the auto mechanic industry with organ treatment centers which perform very few transplants each year (less than a dozen), one specialist noted:
“I wouldn’t take my car to be serviced by someone who repaired nine cars over the past three years. Would anyone do that?”
Yet, the organ industry is not the only market that is socialized and therefore suffers from economic shortages. As Russell Roberts points out, so too is the market for vaccines.
