6 Oct 2010 - permalink
The automated computer systems that trade stocks at high speed is a disaster waiting to happen. New York Times now has an article about how a 600 point drop of Dow Jones in minutes back in May was the result of these programs.
The mutual fund started a program at about 2:32 p.m. on May 6 to sell $4.1 billion of futures contracts, using a computer sell algorithm that over the next 20 minutes dumped 75,000 contracts onto the market, even automatically accelerating its selling as prices plunged.
I still don’t get how this is legal.
7 Sep 2010 - permalink
Lovely piece by Frank Chimero on not noticing the wonders around us
Can horses type? Probably not. But, you know, that clip-clop sound that their hooves make sounds an awful lot like the clip-clop sound my fingers make when I’m writing. I like that sound: it denotes progress. I wish we would still ride horses, because then we could have a sound we associate with progress and getting closer to somewhere we want to be. I didn’t know where I wanted to be, but I was glad I was here. Because there is a horse in the Apple Store.
3 Aug 2010 - permalink
New Scientist reports that we might wrongly be classifying young and fully grown dinosaurs as separate species.
Paleontologists John Scanella and Horner propose that some dinosaurs underwent remarkable morphological changes during their growth and that we are confusing these differences between juvenile and adult with distinct species, specifically that
… Triceratops is merely the juvenile form of Torosaurus. As the animal aged, its horns changed shape and orientation and its frill became longer, thinner and less jagged. Finally it became fenestrated, producing the classic Torosaurus form
ScienceDaily has a similar story about the Pachycephalosaurus:
Many paleontologists now realize that the elaborate head ornaments of dinosaurs, from the huge bony shield and three horns of Triceratops to the coxcomb-like head gear of some hadrosaurs, were not for combat, but served the same purpose as feathers in birds: to distinguish between species and indicate sexual maturity.
“Dinosaurs, like birds and many mammals, retain neoteny, that is, they retain their juvenile characteristics for a long period of growth,” Horner said, “which is a strong indicator that they were very social animals, grouping in flocks or herds with long periods of parental care.”
2 Aug 2010 - permalink
Color cycling is an effect used widely in games of the 90s to create the illusion of animating backgrounds by changing only the colors used in a single image. The backgrounds for the classic LucasArts games are masterly done using color cycling.
Joe Huckaby has created an HTML5 implementation of color cycling using a few of Mark Ferrari’s fabulous images. Ah, the memories…
1 Jul 2010 - permalink
Talking at RSA, Philip Zimbardo explains some absolutely amazing correlations between how we perceive time and how we interact with others and the world. Discoveries like this ought to have profound implications on how we structure our society.
There’s a 10 minute animated extract for those with short attention spans :)
30 Jun 2010 - permalink
What would you do if you could travel back in time? Assassinate Marilyn Monroe? Go on a date with Hitler? Obviously. But here’s what I’d do after that: grab all the modern technology I could find, take it to the late 70’s, superficially redesign it all to blend in, start a consumer electronics company to unleash it upon the world, then sit back as I rake in billions, trillions, or even millions of dollars.
Seriously cool!
30 Jun 2010 - permalink
Interview with Gail Dines about her new book Pornland:
Pornography, like all images, tells stories about the world. It tells stories about women, men, sexuality, and intimacy. In pornography, intimacy is something to be avoided, and—as I say in the book—“In pornography nobody makes love. They all make hate.” The man makes hate to the woman’s body. It’s about the destruction of intimacy.