Monday, August 13, 2007
Texty -- dead simple content creation and editing
No need to know HTML or any programming for your website. Just use this web service with a WYSIWYG editor and an embed code. Add RSS, comment functionality. Can't float images, though.
Better prediction of swarm transition from disorder to order
They found that in terms of error rate their "mutual information" based technique was four times better than traditional methods in understanding how and when these systems moved from disorder to order. The new tool has obvious benefits in opening up new understandings of plasmas, crowds and flocking birds and insects but the University of Warwick research team think it could also be used for stock market analysis.
Zarafina Tea Maker Suite: a consistent cup every time
The temperature of the water, ratio of tea leaves to water volume and time allowed for the flavour to infuse are all subject to change. The Zarafina Tea Maker Suite allows the user to keep all these variables consistent for each lot of tea brewed, so you can have tea the way you like it every single time.
100 free software apps to go completely online
Certainly some overlap with previous posts. Lot of mindmapping stuff for some reason.
Is TV good for Indian women?
Get this:
We also find increases in female school enrollment and decreases in fertility (primarily via increased birth spacing).The effects are large, equivalent in some cases to about five years of education in the cross section, and move gender attitudes of individuals in rural areas much closer to those in urban areas.Pulling out of poverty, educating women ends up promoting fewer children.
Bookshelf in your hands
A roundup of ways to read on portable electronic devices. Dedicated readers are still expensive, but how comfortable is reading on your phone?
So what's up with suicide terrorists?
It's about turf:
... not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland.The linked Steve Levitt article incisively notes how there are plenty of cheap and easy ways to disrupt people's lives, like highway sniping. Absence of a spate of these would seem to point to the relative smallness of the problem. Of course, if I'm that one out of a million, then it's not that small.
Top 10 history's most overlooked mysteries
Including the Voynich Manuscript, written in a completely indecipherable language, and the abrupt disappearance of the Indus Valley civilization with its sophisticated sewage drainage system and immaculately constructed baths. Strangely,
there is no archaeological evidence of armies, kings, slaves, social conflicts, or vices prevalent in ancient societies.
Ex-Bay Street lawyer on how lawyers became unprincipled enablers of the rich
Sure it's the money, but the culture of rule manipulation can be traced back to law school.
Hong Kong-based Megavideo -- YouTube and then some
- Video publishers can earn money through a rewards program
- Publishers can also earn money through AdBrite in-video advertisements
- Users can move the playback position to anywhere in the video
- The website supports twenty languages
- The video player can be customized to match the designs of websites where you want to embed
- There is no maximum playtime for video uploads
- Video conversion takes no more than 30 minutes
- Videos can be uploaded in batch
- Original video files can be downloaded
The persistence of poverty
One's efforts have to look like they can turn into something:
The more the poor regard themselves as lagging the rich (rather than doing better than, say, their peers back home in Gujarat), the more stupid risks they will take. That's why poor immigrants are more value-maximizing than the poor that have lived in America a long time and adapted to American norms and expectations. The immigrants don't regard their burdens as insuperable and they are on standard downward-sloping marginal utility curves.
Stem cells stimulate neurogenesis in aging rats
For neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's:
Two types of cells were harvested from the spinal cords of rats and then grafted into the aging rat hippocampus. After three weeks researchers saw an increase in neurogenesis in the rats that received the cell implants ...
Reluctance to pull the trigger in WWII
From interviews soon after combat, it was determined that only 15-20% of American rifleman actually aim and shoot to kill. The author believes that changes in the psychological conditioning process brought a 55% rate in Korea, and 90-95% rate in Vietnam. The negative is the persistent desensitization.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt defines Web 3.0 at Seoul Digital Forum
Summary of Schmidt's response from Read/WriteWeb: Web 3.0 will be "applications that are pieced together" - with the characteristics that the apps are relatively small, the data is in the cloud, the apps can run on any device (PC or mobile), the apps are very fast and very customizable, and are distributed virally (social networks, email, etc).
Toyota delaying plug-in hybrids by up to two years
There is apparently nothing in the pipeline for better battery technology at Toyota. This actually gives other companies a chance to catch up. It could be the chance for GM to get back into the game.
GM is counting on a different type of lithium-ion technology based on iron phosphates, which company spokespeople say, is more chemically stable. GM's plans for rolling out its first plug-in hybrid with lithium-ion batteries, the Saturn VUE Green Line, are currently still on track. The car could hit showrooms by late 2009, roughly the time that Toyota hopes to have its next-generation Prius ready to go.
Nauseating flashlight
A nonlethal made for the Dept. of Homeland Security. Colored LEDs pulse and make you nauseous.
Downside of diversity
Civic engagement -- volunteering, social reform agitation, voting -- goes down as cultural diversity goes up.
In more diverse communities, he says, there were neither great bonds formed across group lines nor heightened ethnic tensions, but a general civic malaise. And in perhaps the most surprising result of all, levels of trust were not only lower between groups in more diverse settings, but even among members of the same group.
Having more children a status symbol for more affluent?
Well, that's silly. Having more kids, i.e. DNA copies, is the end goal of signalling status. If we could imagine how displaying status this way could garner more resources per child, or possibly attract yet another mate, then we would have a theory.
The blogger is confident that longer term, there will be no population crash since there will only be children happy people left passing on their children happy genes.
The blogger is confident that longer term, there will be no population crash since there will only be children happy people left passing on their children happy genes.
Spock people search engine has opened to the public
A search just for people. Sure, it crawls the web for results, but you can also manage your own identity.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Power strip space saver
Like a mini-extension for when an AC adapter is blocking up a socket on your power bar. Three bucks.
230+ tools for running a business online
Managing all your HR, marketing, payroll, snailmail, etc. needs.
Drawing gallery of furoshiki: Japanese wrapping techniques
With larger square wrapping cloths. To carry boxes, bottles, something long, something flat, and watermelons.
Drugs affecting spider web patterns: photo gallery
Back in the sixties, they got various drugs into spiders and checked out the webs they weaved.This is caffeine vs. LSD.
Genes strongly influence choice of friends
Studied 1800 males twins and how deviant their friends were. The influence gets stronger over time as one gains more power over one's life choices.
Rok It Science's Boom Borda motorized skateboard
A skateboard with a 400W motor controlled by a handheld radio remote. Range of 15 miles.
Data visualization: modern approaches
Some wild graphs and ways to see a database. Also see TED video below.
TED talk: Hans Rosling on generalizations about developing regions
This was initially posted elsewhere to highlight the stat presentation software that animates graphs through time. However, the content itself is interesting in pointing out how our view of the developing world is not granular/specific enough -- affects policy.
10 foods you may not be eating, but should
Including less conventional stuff like guava and pomegranate juice.
Reduce sunlight heat with water inside window
The innovation? A 1cm slot through which the water circulates on the inside to absorb the heat of the sunbeams. May save up to 70% on air conditioning.
PostSecret - anonymous submission of postcard
Saw an interview with the guy who runs the blog. Sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, people submit a homemade postcard with some secret observation or confession.
Direct link for this particular card. The site doesn't seem to provide archive access.
Direct link for this particular card. The site doesn't seem to provide archive access.Aerogel - now for pollution control and carrying energy
... they had created a new form of aerogel capable of sopping up heavy metals, particularly mercury. It could eventually be used to purify contaminated water. There are efforts to make all sorts of new products from the stuff: rocket fuels, catalytic converters for cars, cell-phone batteries.Another article noting its insulating and armor capabilities.
Microsoft Works to become a free, ad-funded product
Free online productivity services like Zoho, Open Office and Google have forced Microsoft to respond. I don't know whether it can read Word, Excel or PowerPoint files.
Subconscious running the show
Yeah, you think you control yourself. How behavior is influenced subconsciously by external forces (deliberately for science in this case). First line from article:
In a recent experiment, psychologists at Yale altered people’s judgments of a stranger by handing them a cup of coffee [iced or hot].