November 2007
182 posts
‘Futurama’ — The Geekiest Show on TV →
Wired story on the return of Futurama, and producer David X. Cohen: In a 1995 Simpsons episode, Cohen devised an equation that appears briefly behind Homer Simpson: 178212 + 184112 = 192212 The equation appears to be a counterexample to a famous mathematical statement, Fermat’s Last Theorem. Pierre de Fermat had proposed the theorem in 1637, and a proof had only recently been discovered when the...
geographical brainland map →
a geographical 3D terrain map of the human brain created from a reference photo. a real digital elevation model was then used to create contour line data, relief shading & to plan where the roads and features should be placed for map compilation. real-life New Zealand public domain data was then added for the surrounding islands. [link: unitseven.co.nz]
tryst
tryst (trĭst) n.
An agreement, as between lovers, to meet at a certain time and place.
A meeting or meeting place that has been agreed on. See synonyms at engagement.
intr.v., tryst·ed, tryst·ing, trysts. To keep a tryst. [Middle English trist, from Old French triste, a waiting place (in hunting).]
In the name of God: the Saudi rape victim's tale →
A young woman has been sentenced to 200 lashes after being gang-raped. The Western world has expressed outrage – which has, in turn, provoked anger among the Saudi establishment.
Overcome multimedia hurdles in Linux →
Darwin’s Surprise →
“Viruses may well be the unseen creator that most likely did contribute to making us human.”
The Last Question →
Asimov thought that The Last Question, first copyrighted in 1956, was his best short story ever.
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Getting an S/MIME certificate →
It's not exponential, it's sigmoidal →
While any particular technology will approximate a sigmoidal curve, multiple technologies overlapping in time produce an exponential curve for the underlying measure
simulate a window. →
Simulate a window where none exists. The Bright Blind, designed by Makoto Hirahara, is made of a plain window blind over a lighting fixture. Simply turn the blinds, and filter the light as needed, just like you’d do with a window.
Junkfood Science: Even gold can be tarnished →
The ENHANCE trial appears to be a worse case scenario of how pharmaceutical company sponsors can manipulate and control the design, completion, data analysis and reporting of a clinical trial of its products, blurring the lines between scientific research and marketing.
Monotheism was a con from the beginning →
Meet Akhenaten
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A Case of the Mondays: List of Most Overrated... →
I wrote this note on Facebook while feeling somewhat contrarian. My rule here is that everything has to have a large number of defenders, and as small as possible a number of detractors. Of course everything here is culture-dependent; when a category makes sense only within a specific culture, I went with the West, or the United States. Literature: Shakespeare. If they read Dan Brown in four...
hoisin
[HOY-sihn; hoy-SIHN] Also called Peking sauce, this thick, reddish-brown sauce is sweet and spicy, and widely used in Chinese cooking.
It’s a mixture of soybeans, garlic, chile peppers and various spices. Hoisin is mainly used as a table condiment and as a flavoring agent for many meat, poultry and shellfish dishes.
Once opened, canned hoisin should be transferred to a nonmetal container,...
More on Why Pigs Don’t Have Wings →
In the LRB, Jerry Fodor responds to his critics:
Jerry Coyne and Philip Kitcher make the usual mistake. In fact, I am not worrying about whether we can tell if ‘polar bears were selected for being white or for matching their environment’. I repeat: I don’t do epistemology. Nor do I deny that we can often focus on different aspects of the causal history underlying an episode of selection. The...
What are you optimistic about? Why? →
the 2007 Edge Annual Question
The populist moment →
It is perverse but true that, in the current epoch, European elites secretly dream of a system that will deprive irresponsible voters of the power to undermine rational politics, and that they are more than ready to use the European Union to realize this dream. At the same time, most citizens are convinced that they have the right to vote but not the right to influence decision-making, which is...
Junkfood Science: What’s the evidence cancers are... →
This Report may have impressed or frightened some because of its size, the numbers of experts involved, and the bold assertive claims that it was “the most comprehensive review ever published on the evidence linking cancer risk to diet, physical activity and weight.” But wade through the 517 pages and you will discover that not one of the key recommendations were supported in clinical studies. In...
WatchParacetamol - Visual Medical Dictionary
Oui-da
In French, “Da” means both oui and nenni, as Oui-da (ay marry), Nenni-da (no forsooth)
oui-da adv
Familier et vieux. Oui, certainement ; vraiment !, en vérité ! (pour marquer l’ironie ou l’étonnement).nenni adv (ancien français nen, non, et il, pronom de la 3e personne, « il n’est pas cela »)
Vieux. Équivaut à non.
“I chose this life. I know what I’m doing. And on any given day, I could...”
– Bruce Wayne, Identity Crisis #3
John Isaacs →
John Isaacs
Cosma Shalizi takes down William Saletan and Slate →
First, the Saletan piece from Slate:
Last month, James Watson, the legendary biologist, was condemned and forced into retirement after claiming that African intelligence wasn’t “the same as ours.” “Racist, vicious and unsupported by science,” said the Federation of American Scientists. “Utterly unsupported by scientific evidence,” declared the U.S....
“Therefore my success as a man of science, whatever this may have amounted to,...”
– Charles Darwin
“If a man says something in the woods and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?”
Pressure on Alistair Darling over records →
The discs contained personal details including names, address, dates of birth, National Insurance numbers and, where relevant, bank details of 25 million people.
Is it just me, or do I all the sudden have more...
aximbigfan: Ever since they let people buy one of those OLPC things, and give one to a poverty ridden country, my spam rate has gone through the frigging roof
aximbigfan: It's really just plain annoying because maybe people should focus on give those people food and water that is actually safe to drink. Not a computer
aximbigfan: IMO, the people who the buy one, give one program is suppose to benefit are not responsible enough to all the sudden have a computer with an internet connection
aximbigfan: I'm not trying to be racist or anything, but it's really starting to make life hard for me. And, it happened _right_ after they announced the program, so I don't think it is something else
aximbigfan: It's also really nerve racking, because, I'm a mod for a yahoo group, and I have to approve messages sent by new users. If I accidentally delete one of the notices that says that I need to approve, than the users message gets suspended until the other mod approves it, which could take hours or more
Ken S: I really doubt that that was the cause of your sudden rise in spam, more likely your email got picked up by a spammer or got on a list somewhere
unitedxempire: WOW you should get spamed! I wish you do, you racist
CodeBubba: I highly doubt, ABF, that your level of spam has ANYTHING to do with this. How in the heck do you correlate the two?
aximbigfan: I haven't given me email out for a long long time, and the addresses are all from Africa
aximbigfan: Also, OP fixed
WatchHow to sell computers to orthodox monks
Half A Man →
Laws and public policies must be based not on religion but on society’s collective secular reason.
Myth-busters have the odds against them
Persistence of Myths Could Alter Public Policy Approach
Contrary to the conventional notion that people absorb information in a deliberate manner, the studies show that the brain uses subconscious “rules of thumb” that can bias it into thinking that false information is true. Clever manipulators can take advantage of this tendency.
Why Public Denials May Only Fuel Conspiracy...