4 Jan 2010 - permalink
The Economist on the idea of progress:
The idea of progress forms the backdrop to a society. In the extreme, without the possibility of progress of any sort, your gain is someone else’s loss. If human behaviour is unreformable, social policy can only ever be about trying to cage the ape within. Society must in principle be able to move towards its ideals, such as equality and freedom, or they are no more than cant and self-delusion. So it matters if people lose their faith in progress. And it is worth thinking about how to restore it.
31 Dec 2009 - permalink
Interesting graph by the National Geographic depicting the cost of medical care per person for several OECD countries. The US spends more money than any other country. Not surprising, it seems there is little or no correlation between health care spendings and life expectancy.
22 Dec 2009 - permalink
The American Museum of Natural History has made a fantastic video showing the known universe, from the mountains of Himalaya to the deepest of space through astronomical observations. It is truly awe inspiring and a humbling reminder of just how small a space we occupy.
17 Dec 2009 - permalink
A nice look back over the year in stunning photos by the always great The Big Picture.
16 Dec 2009 - permalink
The unbelievably beautiful renderings of the Mandelbrot set is known the world over. Now, mathematicians with particular interest have attempted creating a three-dimensional version, called the Mandelbulb. Though I haven’t read through the mathematical background, the images themselves are impressive illustrations of the complex self-similarities so characteristic of fractals but with an entirely new dimension to them.
It is a marvel that the simple formula zn+1 = zn2 + c is the foundation and perhaps one of the best examples of why math is so fascinating.
Many more images and a thorough explanation in the unravelling of the real 3d mandelbulb
3 Dec 2009 - permalink
I only recently discovered Aaron Swartz blog and he seems to be doing some very interesting pieces. This one is about John Maynard Keynes and the current financial situation. I like this bit on investment:
It used to be, Keynes says, that wealthy men just thought investing was the manly thing to do. They weren’t going to sit around and calculate what kind of bonds yielded the greatest expected return. Bonds are for wusses. They were real men. They were going to take their money and build a railroad.
The stock market is, in many ways, a ridiculously abstracted concept, removed from the actual goods that we need.
The scary thing is that the more open our markets get, the faster people can move their money around and the more trading is based on this kind of speculation instead of serious analysis.
Go read Keynes, Explained Briefly by Aaron Swartz.
25 Nov 2009 - permalink
Today marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species”, one of the most influential scientific publications in modern time. Modified from its original form through advances in fields like chemistry, archaeology, biology and, particularly, genetics, the basic concept of blind selection through survival remains.
Though it is disputed in some parts of the world, the fact remains that our combined knowledge of life on Earth overwhelmingly supports the foundation of his thoughts; From fossils and genetic analysis to modern medical research and modifications of foods and animals through breeding and genetic engineering.
To celebrate this milestone in modern science, the National Science Foundation has released a special interactive report on the influence of Darwin. There’s the always educating Wikipedia entry on Evolution and PBS has an Evolution page too.
11 Nov 2009 - permalink
An extraordinary visionary, Steve Jobs was recently named CEO of the Century by Fortune.
The difference between me and Steve is that I’m willing to live with the best the world can provide. With Steve that’s not always good enough.
A quote from Larry Ellison, that’s a remarkable goal!
6 Nov 2009 - permalink
Canadian filmmakers David and Ian Purchase has made a remarkable sci-fi short film set in the Half-life 2 universe. It is a testament to what can be done with personal computers these days and a tribute to the brilliant game that Half-Life 2 is.
Combining objects from the game with hand-held video, it is yet another example of the creative mashups that are possible when not stopped by unimaginative copyright holders.
31 Oct 2009 - permalink
Thomas Worall sums up an important change in the way we think about windows and the content within:
In the user’s terms, it used to be that the window was the document. The two were equivalent. Now, in a trend that started with the World Wide Web and has now moved into the rest of the operating system, a window is merely a container for one or more documents. That’s a fundamental change in the user’s concept of what a window is.