I have no clue. But I hope to work it out by Friday when Desiree Schell, Omar Mouallem and I talk about this on Skeptically Speaking.

Continue reading How does science get noticed? →

Let’s look at open source software using a real-world example. To me, the FreeDOS Project will always be the first example I look to, so I’ll use that. It should speak to the commitment of the open source software community that FreeDOS continues under active (if slow) development 15 years after it was conceived. How has FreeDOS held the interest of its users? Because FreeDOS embodies the important qualities that an open source project must possess in order for it to succeed.

Jim Hall’s second installment…

Certainly not Tim Pawlenty, because he (thinks he) is going to be President of the United States. So, it has to be one of these people.

source

And he gets squid in the deal!!!

Is that an iPod they’re looking at just under 3 minutes.

I think I want to eat a banana now.

Go here, learn more, and give them your money. Seriously.

In 1968, and the few years before and after, American commercial aircraft were hijacked to Cuba on a regular basis. It became part of our day to day culture…

The latest essay us up at Collective Imagination.

A repost

This is obviously true, and i’ve been saying this for a long time. And I’m not talking about the butt-slaps and sharing chewing tobacco and stuff.

To a certain extent, digit ratios seem to be a reasonable indicator of the kinds of hormonal environment in which a person develops in utero. It turns out that the indicator of homosexuality is the same as the indicator of athleticism, only turned up even more. In other words, a certain kind of hormonal environment in which a male fetuses develops can result in a higher likelihood of that person growing up to be an athlete. But if that hormonal “conditioning” is turned up a bit more, you get a higher likelihood of that person being gay. How strong is this effect? Well, it’s statistically significant but not large. Is it genetic? That is not at all clear. How does this work with women? That’s not clear either.

Anyway, from this we can speculate that there should be a higher percentage of gay-osity among athletes than among other men. And now there is some new information that supports this model.

A study of former high-school American Football players has found that more than a third said they had had sexual relations with other men.

In his study of homosexuality among sportsmen in the US, sociologist Dr Eric Anderson found that 19 in a sample of 47 had taken part in acts intended to sexually arouse other men, ranging from kissing to mutual masturbation and oral sex.

There is, as always a twist:

The 47 men, aged 18-23, were all American Football players who previously played at the high school (secondary school) level but had failed to be picked for their university’s team and were now cheerleaders instead.

Like George Bush, right?

[source]

1975, winter, somewhere in the American Southwest. I am driving across a state border and there is a sign that reads “do not transport citrus fruit across state lines.” There on the side of the road is a check point with uniformed federal agents, a place to pull off, some garbage cans. I look at the oranges sitting on the floor over on the passenger side and figure … “better pull off and dump this contraband.” But then something surprising happened.

Continue reading Borderline Freedom →

Cleaning Up the Orbital Neighborhood

Space debris of the man-made variety has been around ever since the first rocket launches in the late 1950s, but it was not until the end of the Cold War that the major space-faring nations began to see the growing number of leftover objects still in orbit from previous space missions as a concern.

Read it here

Automation may .. provide the mechanism needed to balance the needs between privacy and policy. Video cameras are everywhere – this genie is out of its bottle. But for many computer vision applications, raw imagery can be analyzed on the fly and need never be directly viewed by human observers.

Peter Tu’s latest post. Please check it out.

Funktionide Part II from eltopo on Vimeo.

Get your own blob here.

Hat Tip: Desiree

This makes Elinor Ostrom of Indian University the first woman to win this prize.

Ostrom won “for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons” and Williamson, of Berkeley, won “for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm.”

details

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B: