Many, many open source applications
Does not include security stuff, though.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Nuclear annihilation did not happen because of Lt. Col. Petrov
After all the tension from the shootdown of Flight 007, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov took the supposed missile launches from the U.S. to be a computer malfunction. It's not that unique a story, but Soviet command eventually punished him for not following protocol.
Neuroreceptor recycling plant considered to be memory unit
Sounds a little freaky, but
... it appears that in animal models of the early phases of Alzheimer's disease, often before any symptoms become apparent, the dendritic spines gradually lose their ability to transport and recycle the receptors.
Self-destructing, recallable, erasable, non-forwardable, non-printable, non-savable email
These are included with the free level.
The curse of knowledge: Mistaking your beliefs for those of others
Happens not only to three-year-olds, but adults as well.
From ad exec to Starbucks barista
From $160k per year to $10.50 an hour, and loving it, apparently. Grew up in privilege, then got fired and found a different way to see life.
Brain atrophy in elderly leads to unintended racism, depression and problem gambling
The older adults seemed to know the social rules but failed to follow them, which is consistent with diminished frontal lobe functioning.
Cake Financial -- trading wisdom of anonymous crowd
Only Cake lets investors securely tap into the power of actual portfolios from leading online brokerage firms, providing unprecedented transparency without revealing any private information. And only at Cake can investors automatically track all of their online brokerage accounts, letting them see up to 10 years of historical activity to provide context into how their portfolio is actually performing.
Hand-drawn map of Zork world
Text-only game Zork is available for play online somewhere. If multiplayer is more your style, MUDs are still around, I think.
Population trend will turn back up
Simple premise: People who really want to have children have genes that make them want it that much. By having offspring, these genes flourish. The individuals with genes that don't care for children so much? Well, those genes are selected out of the gene pool, they die off.
Mr. PotatoMash
Different Mr. Potatohead mashups with various pop culture figures. This is Alex from A Clockwork Orange.
Hobbit species was human
Three feet tall. Has something to do with the wrist bones being the same as apes.
Cool New York Times archive stuff (no more subscription)
The New York Times no longer charges subscription. There's still some archive stuff that's charged per article, but as far back as 1851, there's the free stuff too. Kottke put together links to some interesting articles like those on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Titanic sinking, Custer's Last Stand.
Caring.com
In beta for now. A website devoted to helping people care for aging parents and other loved ones.
Best way to praise your child? Be specific
A recent post of the same thing mailed out before.
Do not praise identity ("You're a smart girl, Diana!"). They'll lie and cheat if necessary to preserve a good identity.
Accounts of living with Asperger's
Kottke's post has a link to a not-too-long New Yorker piece. There's also a blog link from someone who responded to the NYer piece.
Paul Krugman starts blog at NYT -- politics and economics of inequality
The name was somewhat familiar and had a vague, good feeling about it. He seems to hold policy mostly accountable for economic inequality. The graph tracks the 10% richest Americans' percentage share of total income. That bottom trough is the lower 30s% when there was a middle class and much less inequality. It lasted from about 1942 to 1982.
Counter and questions at Marginal here.
Excessive enthusiasm for Tasers
Accidental transport of nuke warheads
The Washington Post story here.
The more conspiracy side here -- considers the possibility of missing nuke.
Then there's the story of six loading airmen and pilots working at the relevant air force base all having died last week. Back and forth on the conspiracy angle in the comments. The extreme conclusion is prepping to nuke Iran, or even using one on American soil to justify nuking Iran.
Can get lost in this, so did not read thoroughly.
Waking up speaking a foreign language perfectly, or at least upgrading an accent
In the yeah, maybe category: There's the Czech teenager who had just begun studying English and woke up in an ambulance post-auto accident not knowing he was Czech and speaking perfect English with a clear English accent. It did not last.
Then, there's this 10-year-old from York who got a more upper class accent after neurosurgery for meningitis. He couldn't understand why he was being stared at when he first spoke in this manner. Initially, he had lost his ability to read, write and recognize different objects. Eventually, he recovered.
Animated knots
There's a fast button, a slow button, or you can hover your mouse above a step number.
Lee Kuan Yew still fretting over Singapore
Yes, from 1965, it's been quite a turnaround. He credits ideas like this to its success:
... the government must protect the less affluent, less educated people from information that might upset or confuse them. These are people “who are not finding it so comfortable to suddenly find the world changed, their world, their sense of place, their sense of position in society.”Well, if you're less educated, how does being denied information help? I recall not being able to get certain news periodicals because they were banned for unwelcome views.
Asian temples
Some really incredible-looking stuff. This one is known as Wat Rong Khun, the White Temple, and is found in Thailand. It's actually modern and still under construction.
Completely replacing Windows with Linux
We follow some guy delving in trying to do everything in a Linux environment.
Reasons for getting into Linux here.
How to lose the client from hell
Divided into ten different types of client, from the bargain shopper to the one with 100 lawyers.
Interview with John Bowe, author of Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy
There is a very real cost to our comfort that we don't see.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Some Hitler facts
To excite the masses, he also uses American College football-style music during his speeches. His rallying cry - "Sieg Heil!" - was even modeled after the cheering techniques used by American football cheerleaders.
Speech-impaired woman hallucinates speech-impaired voices
A few months later she developed signs of epilepsy and started hearing voices that weren't there – at first the voices sounded like her own but from the outside, then she heard the voices of hospital staff. In both cases, these hallucinatory voices spoke in very simple and short sentences mirroring her own real-life speech deficit.
Renters getting squeezed
Overall, advocacy groups say there are 9 million low-income renter households and only 6.2 million units they can reasonably afford.
Indian doc engineers enzyme that can eradicate HIV
... Tre, the enzyme that Indrani constructed after a year and its 126 "cycles of mutation" totally deplete HIV in the human genome in three months in laboratory conditions.
Philip K. Dick's kids work to preserve legacy
It is surprising how Hollywood has taken so avidly to Dick's work. The family was not so happy with a couple of treatments, so they started the production company Electric Shepherd to be more involved in future projects.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut -- Ridley's intended version -- is due out 5 October 2007 in limited NY/LA release with the disc out 18 December.
Here is a Wired interview with Ridley Scott regarding this release.
Protocol with the police
Some Syracuse, NY guy's take on how to handle police who approach your home. Mostly, it seems like treating them as Jehovah's Witnesses, but with the firm line "I have nothing to say."
Tesla's tower of power
Just couldn't maintain funding in the end, but Tesla had visions of large-scale, wireless power transmission.
Marking to market getting creative
Then there's Level 3. Under Statement 157, this means fair value is measured using "unobservable inputs." While companies can't actually see the changes in the fair values of their assets and liabilities, they're allowed to book them through earnings anyway, based on their own subjective assumptions.
Children with autism are immune to contagious yawning
Past research has found that seeing the eye region of someone yawn is key to the yawn's contagious effects. So perhaps the fact that people with autism are known to focus more on the mouth region of people's faces, rather than the eyes, could partly explain the current findings.
Hewlett-Packard's inkjet tech seeks to replace hypodermic needles
HP is licensing a medical patch it has developed to Ireland's Crospon that potentially can replace hypodermic needles or pills for delivering vaccines or other types of medication to patients. The patch contains up to 90,000 microneedles per square inch, microprocessors and a thermal unit.
Life Saver bottle filters viruses
It's finally been done. Down to 15 nanometres. Military interested.
Playing the nature markets
Catastrophe bonds -- insuring insurers? Black swan stuff involving arcane pricing of unlikely events like Hurricane Katrina. Too long for me at the moment.
Marine general says no to American coup plot
The U.S. is no stranger to fascistic tendencies: American industrialists plotted to rid of FDR with WWI veterans, using the very decorated and respected Major General Smedley Butler to lead. The Quaker general, long tired of helping big business use the military as a thug, spilled the beans. Echoes of Andrew Jackson's claim of bankers being behind his assassination attempt.
Scholars link success of firms to lives of CEOs
A continuation of that supermansion phenomenon logic.
Cult of bespoke
Tailoring is necessary for those who simply don't have a stock enough physique, but there are also the status-crazed:
Another area of obsession is the stitching. On the front buttonholes and the flower loop, it shouldn’t be too even; on the lapels, staggered “pick stitching” is a big plus. When laymen claim they can smell bespoke from a mile away, most tend to mean these little signatures.
Canterbury's ionic garments
Ionisation improves the flow of oxygen-enriched blood to bring more energy to the muscles, which increases your average power output, improving speed and strength.
Jitters over HPV vaccine
Very small rate for the serious side effects, and causation tough to determine, but bear in mind that a new tech is a new tech. There's also this article that skims over the money side of the push to mandate vaccination.
Slim speakers
To the left is Altec Lansing's wireless SoundBlade for any Bluetooth device, including mobile phones.
On the right is 5.1 sound from the Individual Sound Projector from Loewe's. The thing is, you never see the speaker alone; it's always on this stand in any photos.
Sleeptracker watch
I guess it has an accelerometer or something to gauge your point in the sleep cycle and wakes you up in the lighter stages, provided the time range that you indicate coincides.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Is there a point to Belgium?
The Economist looks at how an entrenched biculturalism is never transcended. It's always the butt of European jokes for it's not-really-anything-to-speak-of status, isn't it?
Vitamin D increases life expectancy
From a metastudy:
We had a reduction in all-cause mortality after a follow-up of about six years. So it means that may represent something like an increase of two to three years of your life expectancy...From what I remember, vit D is fat soluble, so that damage from overdosing is a real possibility. The studies covered went up to 2000 IUs.
Monday, September 17, 2007
UNEP bringing solar power into India's rural mainstream
Well, rather than burning all that kerosene for indoor lighting microfinancing is allowing for photovoltaic kits to be installed.
OQO model 2 gets a solid-state harddrive
Remember, this UMPC has the power of a laptop, but fits in a jacket pocket. The big deal about an SSD, which is only 32GB at this point, is the lower power consumption. The battery on this thing doesn't last too long, so this should help some. Also, CPU specs are being bumped up and price is being brought down.
I would imagine that if they could get something like Intel's ultralow voltage chip, the battery would perform more respectably. But maybe that's negligible against the screen.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apologizes for massacre 150 years ago
The official apology for the Mountain Meadows massacre of Arkansas immigrants on their way to California.
Previous post of trailer for September Dawn here.
Writing, sharing and protecting your life's story
Create timelines with milestones to note significant events in your and your family's life story.
Photonic laser thruster may shorten trip to Mars down to 1 week from 6 months
Still just proof of concept.
"For decades, rocket scientists have tried to overcome the inefficiency of photon thrusters by amplification based on optical cavities separated from laser sources, but failed," the institute said. "In contrast, Bae’s PLT (patent pending) places the laser medium within a resonant optical cavity between two platforms to produce a very stable and reliable thrust that is unaffected by mirror movement and vibration -- ideal for spacecraft control or propulsion."
Fading superpower? -- LA Times
Becoming mainstream now.
Empires have come and then most certainly gone. Why not America? That doesn't mean it has to completely disappear; some wisdom will guarantee at least some kind of decent place among the other nations.
More parallels here, like Athens pushing its democracy on others.
Residential and commercial hydrogen generation from electrolysis for heating fuel
In the U.K.
... the ITM electrolyser is designed to utilize off-peak or renewable electricity sources to create its own hydrogen fuel which can then be stored and used as a conventional gas to burn in central heating boilers as well as a fuel for cooking.
Stored hydrogen can also be reconverted to electricity using domestic fuel cells or generators to power lighting or other electrical appliances...
Antidepressant as good as antipsychotic for aggressive behavior in those with dementia
For Alzheimer's patients:
The researchers were surprised to find that the two drugs had similar efficacy in reducing psychosis (hallucinations, delusions, suspicious thoughts) and agitation. Overall, there was a 32 per cent reduction of symptoms with citalopram [the antidepressant] and a 35 per cent reduction with risperidone.
But citalopram was associated with significantly fewer side effects, such as sedation, tension and apathy. Total side effect burden scores increased 19 per cent for risperidone and decreased by four per cent with citalopram.
Bubbles in space
The floating blob of water goes wild when the antacid tablet is placed in it.
via videosift.com
Russian armor-piercing grenade proving very effective in Iraq
Links to a CBS video on the weapon. It has a parachute to get it vertical, allowing the blast to go down.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Buildersite -- tradesmen and contractors put up profiles and get feedback
This one is just for the U.K., but it's certainly a fine idea for anywhere.
Hospital cutting deadly infection rate
Pre-admission screening ends up being cost-effective. Too many hospitals believe infections at hospitals just come with the territory.
OrbitzTLC Traveler Update -- real-time travel conditions provided by real travelers
U.S. only for major airports.
An internet romance gone loopy
A rather extreme variation on a theme. Speaks to general issues of cognition and epistemology. I am quite tired of hearing of falling in love as having to do with some intuited essence, soulmates and such.
Yakuza Moon -- memoirs of a Japanese gangster's daughter
Apparently, displaying your gang's name in a sign on your storefront window is old school and just not done anymore. Times are getting more desperate with public officials in the mood for crackdown. Ergo, the assassination of the mayor of Nagasaki.
Russian scientists discover radiation-absorbing material
They just call it 27-4, and it extracts radioactive substances from any water-based solution. Only a few grams so far. We need tonnes of the stuff, so they're hoping to chemically reproduce it to that scale.
13-step method for buying a car
You need to know exactly what you want, have already decided what you're going to pay and walk in essentially with an ultimatum. Be prepared to actually walk away.
The suicides and mysterious accidents of British SDI (Star Wars) scientists
Who knew that working on the Strategic Defense Initiative through the '80s would have been so dangerous?
Fence Defence for construction site security
So it seems that 75% of theft from residential and commercial building sites occurs at night or on weekends. The system presented here goes beyond fencing:
Additional zone boxes can be purchased to monitor inputs other than fencing, these include temporary house alarms; smoke detectors; site plant alarms; tilt alarms; and laser trip wire. For added protection each zone box incorporates an anti-tamper mechanism that guards against unauthorized interference.These are the same people who sell the system that drives teenagers away with the 18-20kHz that only they can hear.
Cognitive therapy for mild cog impairment and pain
With the right stimuli and feedback (computer-mediated in these cases), use the brain's plasticity to heal itself.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
SNL's TV Funhouse take on GE not being so nice
Shown only once. GE is the parent corp of NBC, SNL's network.
Monday, September 10, 2007
White supremacists pwned by clowns
A rally in Knoxville, TN falls for some choreographed ridicule. I always thought Anti Racist Action was a militant, violent group that eventually disbanded.
List of conversion resources
Not only video and document formats, but also drafting docs, scripts, clothing sizes, and Gregorian to Julian calendar.
Fusion with lasers
The extremely high temperatures at which the reaction takes place cost large amounts of energy to generate, and require magnetic containment facilities, as terrestrial materials would melt in contact with the reaction. Lasers can be used to create these temperatures efficiently, at the point of fusion, so that containment of the reaction becomes less of a problem.
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