Rokia Traore sings the moving “M’Bifo,” accompanied on guitar and on the n’goni, a lute-like Malian stringed instrument with a soulful tone. A quietly mesmerizing performance.
Monthly Archives: April 2008
This is Hug an Atheist Day
I’m home sick, so I’m not going to be able to hug very many atheists… But you’all go hug each other now, ya hear?Here is the facebook link to the event.
Unsinkable Olympic-Class Passenger Liner Sinks
On April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic. In less than three hours, the unsinkable ship sank to the bottom of the sea. A total of more than 1,500 lives were lost.
The events surrounding the sinking of the Titanic may be more of a reflection of human social ineptitude (to put it kindly) than technological hubris.
Of a total of 2,223 people, only 706 survived; 1,517 perished.[8] The majority of deaths were caused by victims succumbing to hypothermia in the 28 °F (â??2 °C) water. Only two of the 18 launched lifeboats rescued people out of the water after the ship sank. Lifeboat 4 was close by and picked up five people, two of whom later died. Close to an hour later Lifeboat 14 went back and rescued four people one of which died afterwards. Other people managed to climb onto the lifeboats that floated off the deck. There were some arguments in some of the other lifeboats about going back, but many survivors were afraid of being swamped by people trying to climb into the lifeboat or getting pulled down by the suction from the sinking Titanic, though it turned out that there had been very little suction. *
Why did the titanic sink? Turns out it was a bad rivet. Oh, and an iceberg… Continue reading Unsinkable Olympic-Class Passenger Liner Sinks
PC (Bloated) vs. Mac
State of the Wild 2008-2009
State of the Wild 2008-2009: A Global Portrait of Wildlife, Wildlands, and Oceans (State of the Wild)
…State of the Wild is a collection of evocative essays featuring emerging issues in the conservation of wildlife and wild places. The book brings together international conservation experts and writers to analyze our time’s most pressing environmental topics. Seeking to broaden awareness of major trends that are affecting the state of the wild across all continents, it also includes a catalog of the year’s research, rulings, and events.
Just thought you might like to know about it.
Ode To Ben Stein: A Poem
Do you know that this is National Poetry Month?Inspired by national poetry month, I’ve gone ahead and written a poem. I call it “Ode to Ben Stein” … but really, it is only a limerick. Continue reading Ode To Ben Stein: A Poem
Robot Rebellion Put Down by US Military …. This time…
The Robots have been very quiet lately, have you noticed?This is probably because they have been chagrined by recent events only now being made public.Kevin Fahey, US Army program executive officer for ground forces … said there had been chilling incidents in which the [Combat Robots] had … attempted to train … 5.56mm M249 light machine-gun on its human comrades.”The gun started moving when it was not intended to move,” he said.Apparently, alert American troops managed to quell the traitorous would-be droid assassins before the inevitable orgy of mechanised slaughter began. Fahey didn’t say just how, but conceivably the rogue robots may have been suppressed with help from more trustworthy airborne kill machines, or perhaps prototype electropulse zap bombs.No humans were hurt, but it seems that the struggle was sufficiently terrifying that it may be some time before American troops are ready to fight alongside robots again.As Fahey pointed out, “once you’ve done something that’s really bad, it can take 10 or 20 years to try it again”. That said, it seems he expects to deploy a new and more trustworthy armed ground automaton within a year – perhaps the MAARS, an upgraded SWORDS (Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Direct-action System) packing a heavier 7.62mm machine-gun and featuring improved safety features.MAARS is also said by its makers to have “Transformer-like” abilities akin to those of Optimus Prime. Rather than being able to disguise itself as, say, a mobility scooter or a dessert trolley, the MAARS is actually only able to transform – with help from human allies – into a slightly different robot.[source]
Siegfried Woldhek: The true face of Leonardo Da Vinci?
Leonardo Da Vinci’s life and work is well known — but his own face is not. Illustrator and activist Siegfried Woldhek used some thoughtful image-analysis techniques to find what he believes is the true face of Leonardo. Here, he walks viewers through exactly how he did it.
Continue reading Siegfried Woldhek: The true face of Leonardo Da Vinci?
Technology News
Shouldda kept the guy with the hooker…..New New York Governor David Paterson will likely sign a bill now working its way through the final legislative steps that will add a sales tax to items purchases on the internet by New Yorkers.
The controversial bill ends what for many New Yorkers had been tax-free online shopping, and experts predict that other states could follow suit with similar provisions. Consumers are required to report purchases they make online from out-of-state companies on their tax returns and remit a use tax, but many people are either unaware of that obligation or ignore it. Collecting those taxes from individuals has been an administrative impossibility.[source]
(Only kidding about the hooker-guy … Spitzer actually introduced the bill.)
PC vs. Mac: Games
NASA Science Web Site
The Open Source content management system PLONE runs the newly released NASA Science web site.The site has something for everyone (researchers, educators, kids, and “citizen scientists”). The Plone seems to be working quite nicely.Some of it is still a little rough. The Space Calendar link seems to be broken, and the email to the “responsible government official” for the site (who, by the way, is Greg Williams) gets you an email to “noone@nasa.gov” …There appears to be a number of distinctly different ways to navigate on this site, including a main in-your-face graphical orientation to four main topics (Earth, Heliophysics, Planets, Astrophysics) each of which leads to a page with a “Big Questions/FocusAreas/Missions” dynamic side bar menu. (These sub-sub topics, big questions, missions, etc., are re-grouped on thier own pages accessible from the top menue as well)Many of the links seem to lead to fairly specific questions or NASA programs enveloping lists of missions that address those questions or are run by those programs, or to the missions themselves with a sidebar indicating what the “related big questions” are.The site has actually done a pretty good job of assembling, correlating, and cross-indexing the myriad components of NASA.So what about the NASA.gov site? This looks to me like an eventual replacement.
David Hoffman: Catch Sputnik mania!
Filmmaker David Hoffman shares footage from his feature-length documentary Sputnik Mania, which shows how the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik in 1957 led to both the space race and the arms race — and jump-started science and math education around the world.
Paul Koontz: Tourist snapshots from North Korea
While in Asia in 2007, TEDster Paul Koontz got the priceless chance to spend a few days in North Korea. He brought his two kids — and his camera, capturing both quotidian detail (like the military bearing of a lonely traffic warden) and the grand spectacle leading up to the Mass Games. It’s a rare perspective on a culture we know far too little about.
Continue reading Paul Koontz: Tourist snapshots from North Korea
Earthwide Shakedown
Is the earth falling apart? Have they started using the Hadron Colider early and not mentioned it to anyone? Are we experiencing a Global Coincidence? Have science reporters suddenly gotten interested in earthquakes? There must be some explanation for the nearly simutaneious occurrence of a powerful 7.1 earthquake in the southern ocean, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano Exploding, an earthquake hitting near Rome, and unusual earthquakes off the coast Oregon all within one blogging cycle….Details: Continue reading Earthwide Shakedown
Johnny Lee is TechnoMan (The world’s newest super hero).
You’ve already seen Johnny’s Wii Remote Hacks … and if you have not go and look. This is not about Wii, or video game, or anything like that. This is about transforming the relationship between technology and society. So if you missed Johnny Lee: Wii Remote hacks please go have a look. It is the TED Talk with a record number of interruptions and the largest standing ovation.Then, com back here and have a look at this other video from my new hero, Johnny Lee:Tracking Your Fingers with the Wiimote Continue reading Johnny Lee is TechnoMan (The world’s newest super hero).