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Friday, June 3, 2005 The simulation argument page now has a FAQ. This argument made the rounds a little while ago. Simply, it suggests that if a computer simulation of consciousness is possible then it might be likely that you are in such a simulation. This is a good place where Occam's razor comes in handy. Interesting to see even the professor who came up and publicised this doesn't think its likely, but its definitely food for thought if you haven't read it before. I don't even see the code. All I see is galaxies, quasars, systems... See also: Astrophysicists running a massive computer simulation of the universe. The simulated universe represents a cube of creation with sides that measure 2bn light years. It is home to 20m galaxies, large and small. It has been designed to answer questions about the past, but it offers the tantalising opportunity to fast-forward in time to the slow death of the galaxies, billions of years from now. @ 07:11 PM CST [Link] Photoshopped rejected software. A fairly geeky gallery of hit or miss gags. Someone should tell this guy they do make VirtualPC for windows. Its for when you want to run a different version of windows on your installation for software testing, compatibility, etc. Hell, you can run Linux on it. I've gotten Knoppix to work. Now if only our customers weren't broke to begin with. See also: Filing for bankrupcy will be much more difficult. Evidently, our Republican congressional leadership along with the credit industry don't believe people get sick or lose their jobs. Or just don't care. See also: Great worth1000 gallery of "plantimals" @ 06:33 PM CST [Link] The onion: Local Self-Storage Facility A Museum Of Personal Failure. Take that crappy bucktown musicians! Of particular interest is the musical wing, holding hundreds of long-deserted instruments. "Nothing evokes dashed hopes like music," Garcia said. "In addition to the usual drums, guitars, and amplifiers abandoned after going-nowhere bands broke up, we have several trombones that came to us following the ska period." "Oh, this is interesting," added Garcia, gesturing to 14 small boxes. "This is one of our most recent acquisitions. The boxes contain 495 copies of the first CD by a musician called Moldy Dick. All but three CDs are still in their shrink-wrap, and the three unwrapped ones were actually signed by the artist. It's heart-wrenching." @ 06:14 PM CST [Link] Girl who lost half her brain in 1995 due to Rasmussen's encephalitis graduates from High School. with honors no less. Insert half a brain jokes here. Also: Older background piece when she was a freshman. I wonder if she still loves 'N Sync. Also: What is Rasmussen's encephalitis? They say you only use 10% of it anyway... @ 05:31 PM CST [Link] Thursday, June 2, 2005 Stealth bomber found on google maps. Sure, its not top secret anymore, but its a cool find. Easily one of the strangest looking planes (if not things in general). See also: How stealth bombers work. Also: Chopper lands on top of Everest for the first time ever. @ 04:38 PM CST [Link] Wednesday, June 1, 2005 Interesting New Scientist speculation on the future of animals. PICTURE the Earth 200 years from now. For mile after mile the fields are a vibrant green, the trees covered in spring bloom and the streams are sparkling clean. But something is wrong. Where are all the animals? The sheep, the lambs, the cows? Why is no one out walking their dog? What happened to all those anglers who used to sit for hours on the river bank? And who got rid of the zoos, the race tracks? Welcome to life on Earth after the animal revolution. A glass dome over the humans separates us from what are now all officially "wild" animals. Beef steaks are grown from cell cultures, and robotic pets are good at everything from minding the kids to caring for the elderly. And we have supercomputers to simulate all the drugs and medical advances anyone could ever dream of. So what happened? The "Animals have Intrinsic Worth" lobby won out, that's what happened. After a century of gently running down the stock, all animals were left outside the glass dome to find their own level: survive, evolve or die. @ 05:56 PM CST [Link] Great ASIMO evolution site. I didn't know the project was this old. The middle stage looks straight out of star wars, and the third to last iteration has a Robby the robot feel to it. "I was such an awkward teenager." @ 05:18 PM CST [Link] Die-hards insist tasmanian tiger is not extinct. I'm curious as to how any "small, isolated" population could survive. They would need x amount of males, females, and genetic diversity to survive. Reminds me of the isolated sightings of mythological creatures like bigfoot. There would have to be a pretty large community of these things just to remain viable through the ages. If there was a large community then finding tracks, droppings, corpses, etc would be trivial. See also: The difficulties of cloning the tasmanian tiger from a preserved pup. To sum up: You might be able to clone it, but you would have to borrow quite a bit of DNA and the resulting animal will not be exactly pure. See also: Site with video and photos. Look at that jaw! See also: Wikipedia entry on Cryptozoology. I dare you to stick your hand in there. Double dog dare you! @ 04:51 PM CST [Link] Monday, May 30, 2005 Synths..in...space.... Excellent Music Thing post about a synth aboard the ISS, with a quicktime video clip of an astronaut playing the Charlie Brown song (or whatever its called). This is not a photoshop. Seriously. See also: Tiny music makers. Don't miss this. Remember that old Microsoft startup sound from Win95? That's uber-producer Brian Eno's handiwork. @ 06:07 PM CST [Link] Great little gallery of last supper spoofs. via rivets No, that's Thomas! No, that's her there! @ 05:11 PM CST [Link] So what can I do? .blogspot.com is an interesting activism blog. There's very little editorializing, just a laundry list of things you could do right now to bring about political, social, and economic change. I found some items I didn't knew existed there, like a non-profit pharmaceutical company. Or the Geekcorps. @ 04:57 PM CST [Link] [Archives] Search entries: