A paper by Sir Francis Galton first published in the March 7, 1907 issue of the scientific journal, NATURE. The paper provides what appears to be the first solid explanation for why Google’s ranking algorithm, not to mention the form of government we've come to know as “democracy”, are so capable.
If it is ever discovered, we would have known about it a long time ago.
“… the implications of many of the scientific ideas and theories, whether mine or otherwise, are indeed immoral, ugly, contrary to our ideals, or offensive either to men or women (or some other groups of people). I simply do not care. If what I say is wrong (because it is illogical or lacks credible scientific evidence), then it is my problem. If what I say offends you, it is your problem.”
One of the better pieces on Feynman I've seen. First aired February 2, 1975 on NOVA. I know what I'll be watching on the Muni for the next few days :)
Reading xkcd has become one of my last regular forms of physical exercise. My abs are burning right now from violent guttural reactions to this one.
“Coincidentally, Pi Day is also the birthday of Albert Einstein, who no doubt knew more than a little about pi.”
“He said he had a mandate from the president and Congress and he was not going to consider other options. It’s going to have to change. They don’t have the money to do it.”
Contact based HUDs are coming: “Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle have developed a prototype contact lens that incorporates an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.”
The problem of simply detecting which squares are or are not mines is NP-complete, and that means, for Minesweeper fans, that their favourite game can be seen as being right at the cutting edge of mathematical research.
“The Algorithm’s coming-of-age as the new language of science promises to be the most disruptive scientific development since quantum mechanics.”
“Like with unix, cells are not ‘spawned’ – they are forked. All cells started out from your ovum which has forked itself many times since. Both halves of the fork() are identical to begin with, but they may from then on decide to do different things.”
… the primary activity depicted here is standards development, particularly the historically mandated procedure for determining the linear measurement known as the “rood”, related to the English “rod”, the German “rute” and the Danish “rode”.
“Clearly, after inspecting r guys, the expected utility of inspecting one more an continuing optimally is 1/(r+1) the sum of b = 1 to r + 1 of U(b, r+1). Call this expression Z.”
I'm in the middle of Newton infatuation having just finished the first leg of Stephenson’s Quicksilver. Did you know they're publishing the Baroque Cycle in three smaller trilogies now? The first is worth reading without any further committment.
WTF is going on here? Neil Stephenson, Martha Stewart, The Dyson Family (as in vacuums), The President of The Royal Society, Sergey Brin, Nat, and Aaron kicking it on Google campus? This is apparently actually happening right now.
“So there you have it — lack of units in programming languages and the war in Iraq have a common cause: the lack of correct philosophy on numbers taught in schools.”
“It’s easy to make, unpatented and could be added to drinking water. Imagine, Gatorade with cancer control.”
Everything is made from oil. It’s crazy.
“… let me try one last time to say why I wrote this book, what it is about, and what its principal thesis is.”
This is my favorite episode of WNYC’s RadioLab and maybe my favorite piece of radio, period. The segment, “The Invisible Hand” is outstanding. The show is now in podcast and the last five eps are available in mp3. “Emergence” is only available as a RealAu
Nice little Feynman short on google video. Feynman talking, Feynman painting, Feynman being the complete bad-ass that only Feynman can be… I can’t get enough of him.
Evolution is at work. We leave them to themselves and we'll stick to ourselves, and in another 250,000 years we can eat them as either game or domesticated farm animals. God knows we don’t have to selectively breed them for size.
It’s impossible for diffuse flames (jet fuel, paper, office stuff) to reach temperatures needed to melt steel. This guy thinks there were thermite charges in the buildings.
Tesla’s wikipedia entry. I've been wanting to read up on him for some time now.
Audio excerpts from recent PBS/NOVA program celebrating “E = mc2”
Godel looks scrappy – I think he could kick Einstein’s ass if he got a sucker punch in to start…
“We are willing to pay any individual $250,0000 if they can produce empirical evidence which proves that Jesus is not the son of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.”
Some interesting thoughts on Gödel’s Proof and its implications on nonstandard numbers.
Holy crap a new Feynman book! Published by his daughter.
More great stuff from IT Conversations. This time a look at Von Neuman’s impact on math, science, computing, etc.
And the hits just keep on comin' – IT Conversations / Tech Nation has an interview with the author of a Godel biography.
This book is excellent. B&N and Borders keep telling me it’s out of print.
This guy is living the dream. I wonder if there’s room in his cave for me and my powerbook. Does he get wifi in there?
Newton: I'd eat a mile of his shit just to kiss his ass. (via slashdot.org)
Wired’s five page look into the “intelligent design” vs. darwinist evolution debate. Ohio seems to be the battleground.