Everything isn't Under Control

Thursday, April 7, 2005

Altruism predates everything. A recent fossil find shows that man's non-human ancestors cared for the elderly. Which should be pretty obvious, as we see family-bond altruism everywhere, even in the most primitive animals today. I guess its something of a shocker to those raised on the idea that there cannot be love, care, and justice without codified altruism (law, religion, etc) and that homo sapiens (and those who came before) are some kind of ruthless monsters without the state or the church telling them what to do.

@ 07:12 AM CST [Link]

Decent space.com article on the state of the Space Shuttle. The International Space Station could be used as a lifeboat if the Shuttle gets damaged again during launch.

@ 07:04 AM CST [Link]

Politics. A GOP Senator's office wrote the crass and shameless Shiavo memo which gave out the talking points for Republicans to use and claimed the case would be good to engage the base for the 2006 elections. Previously, the right-wing blogs and mainstream media have been denying this fact and have been suggesting it came from some overzealous nobody staffer or an evil plot by the Democrats. Heh, like the Democrats have it in them to do anything Machivallian. They've been keeping a seriously low and moderate profile since 9/11 and the ensuing Bush love-fest, which seems to be fading. Big story, shame it doesn't have legs like Rather and his memo because it criticizes the GOP.

@ 06:58 AM CST [Link]

Half-bakery: Pimp my stroller. Oh my, this isn't half-baked at all. Its probably marketable. Expect to see these in stores soon.

pimp-my-stoller (30k image)
Flames and the cup of beer in the background? That kid is never leaving the trailer park.

@ 06:51 AM CST [Link]

Michael Shermer has a new book. Science Friction, a collection of his essays. Looks excellent. Shermer is definitely an important figure and thinker akin to Dawkins or Sagan. He just needs a TV show or something to propel him into the mainstream. With programming like Mythbusters and the various science-based networks, there should be a place for skeptical voices like his, not to mention his brand of humor which kinda kills the "boring stuffed-shirt skeptic" stereotype. From the jacket:

A scientist pretends to be a psychic for a day--and fools everyone. An athlete discovers that good-luck rituals and getting into "the zone" may, or may not, improve his performance. A historian decides to analyze the data to see who was truly responsible for the Bounty mutiny. A son explores the possibilities of alternative and experimental medicine for his cancer-ravaged mother. And a skeptic realizes that it is time to turn the skeptical lens onto science itself. In each of the fourteen essays in Science Friction, psychologist and science historian Michael Shermer explores the very personal barriers and biases that plague and propel science, especially when scientists push against the unknown. What do we know and what do we not know? How does science respond to controversy, attack, and uncertainty? When does theory become accepted fact? As always, Shermer delivers a thought-provoking, fascinating, and entertaining view of life in the scientific age.

On a related note, I'm about *this* close to starting a "rapid-response" skeptic blog, something which addresses issues in the media on weekly or even a daily basis and gives a skeptical POV.

@ 06:45 AM CST [Link]

Bionic eye test doing better than expected. I've been seeing a lot of articles about bionic vision, say, in the past 2 or 3 years. I wonder if this is going to be regarded as a very hot field soon.

Schuchard said: "We found that visual function improves not just in the area of the chip, but in the macular area too. We have no way of explaining this: there is no observable change in the macular area."
Patients also reported stretched contrast perception: from being able to see only a kind of greyish blur, one patient could see darker and lighter areas, post operation. Other patients reported restored or improved colour perception. One man said he was able to see blue for the first time in 20 years.
"We don't have good control ways of testing for these things," Schuchard told delegates. "We believe that the implant is not directly helping, but possibly causing a neurotropic effect. We believe it is to do with a recovery of photoreceptors that hadn't completely died off. Researchers are going after the mechanism, so guess what you'll be hearing about very soon."
The volunteers' vision before the implants ranged from bare light perception to being able to read fewer than ten letters on a sight chart at half a meter's distance. After the chip was implanted, the volunteers were re-tested and every single one showed a significant improvement: some patients could read 25 letters on the sight chart, post operation.

@ 06:35 AM CST [Link]

US asks Israel to get rid of its nukes. via technocrat Well, South Africa and the Ukraine have done it, but this seems like nothing more than diplomatic noise than anything else. I'd love to see a WMD-free Mideast, and that includes Israel. Israel doesnt even admit to having nuclear weapons, but its arsenal is a good size, something like 300 weapons. It may not be a theocracy, but its close enough and the religious tensions in the area are more than enough to expect that part of the world to "go glass" before any other. Unfortunately, I think things are going in the opposite direction - MAD and nuclear parity. Iran et al are going to follow Israel's lead in starting a secret nuclear program, if they haven't already. Meanwhile, Pakistan enjoys her nukes too, although no where near Israel's 300 or so nukes.

See also: The IAEA to make a nuke-free Mideast an issue in May. Hopefully, the press and the noosphere will pick this up as an important issue.

Also, a part of me wonders why technocrat.net even exists. They're trying to be a grown-up version of slashdot. I don't think Perens understands people go to slashdot because of its kiddie-esque water-cooler conversations and slacker attitude toward, well, everything except evangelizing for open source software. Its like trying to start a a more-adult oriented hippie movement in '69. Kinda misses the boat on why people are there to begin with.

@ 06:29 AM CST [Link]

Wednesday, April 6, 2005

The "bionic dolphin." A dolphin shaped sub which supposedly "flies" underwater. Interesting. I'm not at all familiar with the concept of water flight. I'm guessing its engineered to mimick a plane. Afterall, its all fluid dynamics, even in the air.

@ 04:57 AM CST [Link]

Tuesday, April 5, 2005

Photoshop great art using just MS paint. Some of these are pretty impressive, assuming they really did use MS paint.

starrynight (48k image)

@ 10:19 AM CST [Link]

Halfbakery: Lowifi. Neat idea, but cordless phones have their own RF/Modulation issues and with wifi everywhere, it would be hard to justify the added expense of overcoming the technical issues and getting a clean POTS connection out of them. Probably a good idea 3-4 years ago.

@ 09:32 AM CST [Link]

BBC piece on the EU and space.

@ 09:23 AM CST [Link]

Funny little gamers comic today. also new Mr Wiggles and Cat and Girl.

@ 09:11 AM CST [Link]

Dracula vs. King arthur comic. I can't tell if this is going to be very good or very bad. At the very least, the premise is pretty silly. But where would we be without silly comics? Gotta love this page.

NRAMA: If Arthur was armed with the sword Excalibur, what is Dracula's weapon?
AB: In the beginning, Dracula has just been transformed into a vampire. Lucifer grants him these powers so that he can raise an army to destroy King Arthur and Camelot. By spreading his gift to others through blood, he can try to build an immortal army that could rival the power of Excalibur.
CB: Dracula's main weapon is fear. It is how he keeps is people in line. We'll expand upon that more in Issue 2.
NRAMA: What kind of a world do they live in?
AB: The confrontation will take place in the days of Camelot during the Holy Grail quest. Sorcery and mystical elements are all present in this land. Camelot is at its height of greatness and chivalry is at its finest.
CB: Dracula's world is destroyed when we first find him in 1476. He is sent back to corrupt Arthur's perfect society. As he takes Camelot apart piece by piece he finds out that things weren't so perfect after all.

@ 08:58 AM CST [Link]

Its 1995 in the blogosphere today. Boingboing discovers a government conspiracy! Actually its just the finger protocol. You know, back when we had unix shell accounts (some of us still do) you could just "finger username@host" and get some info about the person. Meanwhile, Wired discovers google's tracking cookie five years too late.

See also: My piece on how to protect your privacy using firefox. Just setting Firefox to do a "session" cookie with google, meaning the cookie gets erased when you close the browser, keeps them from tracking you.

Also, what is the deal with wired.com's ads? They have a lot of misleading "You got mail" boxes jumping around. Nothing screams lack of tech/market/culture savvy like "punch the monkey" type banner ads.

@ 08:54 AM CST [Link]

Sunday, April 3, 2005

Not one, but two boingboing.net parodies. Here and here Don't miss the parodies of the ads.

@ 05:26 AM CST [Link]

A truly international currency. I think Robert Anton Wilson once called money "food tickets" in one of his books. Afterall, if you can't turn money into food, you ain't got much on your hands. This idea from the half-bakery is just standardizing this concept with the world's largest fast food franchise.

@ 05:18 AM CST [Link]

How not to beat a breathalyzer.

@ 04:55 AM CST [Link]