a travelogue
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08/24/08
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Brain will be battlefield of future, warns report
Very creepy stuff: The human brain could become a battlefield in future wars, a new report predicts, including ‘pharmacological land mines’ and drones directed by mind controlcontinue reading »
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05/09/08
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Gin, Television, and Social Surplus
Transcript of Clay Shirky’s recent talk at the Web 2.0 conference. Fascinating read. I was recently reminded of some reading I did in college, way back in the last century, by a British historian arguing that the critical technology, for …continue reading »
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02/26/08
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Debunking ‘Third-World’ Myths
A fantastic talk by Hans Rosling from the TED conference archives. Rosling does a nice job of debunks some myths about the so-called “developing world.” But really what carries the point home is the stunning animation software developed by Rosling’s …continue reading »
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02/20/08
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Tom Coates on the One Laptop Per Child Project
By far the best piece of writing on the One Laptop Per Child project that I’ve run across (my own included). I’ve been following this project for over a year now (partly because of my job at Wired, but also …continue reading »
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09/18/07
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Candid Camera: The Cult of Leica.
The New Yorker on the genius and beauty of the Leica camera: “To non-photographers, Leica, more than any other manufacturer, is a legend with a hint of scam: suckers paying through the nose for a name, in a doomed attempt …continue reading »
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07/27/07
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Pentagon’s Psychic Vision Revisited
Great Interview with the former head of the Pentagon’s “Remote Viewing” project on Wired’s Danger Room blog. From Sharon Weinberger’s intro: “John Alexander, a former Green Beret, earned a reputation in the 1990s as a vocal advocate of nonlethal weapons …continue reading »
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07/07/07
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Music Is Not a Loaf of Bread
I was cleaning out some old notes and ran across this link, a bit old, but definitely worth a read if you haven’t before: By conventional industry logic, file sharing hurts the odds for commercial success. Wilco front man Jeff …continue reading »
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06/25/07
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Obsidian Knives Sharper Than Surgical Scalpels.
The folks over at Neatorama have a nice reminder that sometimes technology really doesn’t have any room to improve what it tries to replace. Yes, it’s true obsidian blade can be much sharper than surgical scalps: “A scientific study showed …continue reading »
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04/21/07
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Predictions From The Learned, 1900 As Told To The Ladies Home Journal
The Ladies Home Journal from December 1900, which contained a fascinating article by John Elfreth Watkins, Jr. “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years”. Mr. Watkins wrote: “These prophecies will seem strange, almost impossible. Yet, they have come from …continue reading »
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02/05/07
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Wireless Internet for All, Without the Towers
“Sending Wi-Fi signals from the inside out, for better service.” Here’s hoping.continue reading »
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02/03/07
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Wifi Liberator
Wifi Liberator is an open-source toolkit for a laptop computer that enables its user to “liberate” pay-per-use wireless networks and create a free, open node that anyone can connect to for Internet access. The project is presented as a challenge …continue reading »
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02/02/07
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Windows that become mirrors at the flip of a switch
A fancy new glass has been developed in Japan, one that promises to cut down on the energy usage of buildings everywhere. It looks like a normal window regularly, but at the flip of a switch it turn to a …continue reading »
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01/09/07
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Save a Snowflake for Decades - Popular Science
“Ever wanted to catch a snowflake and keep it forever? You can. This is a photograph of a snowflake that fell in January 1979, but it isn?t a 27-year-old photo. It is a recent shot of a snowflake that?s been …continue reading »
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11/30/06
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An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists - New York Times
The Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the world?s first computer, has now been examined with the latest in high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography. A team of British, Greek and American researchers was able to decipher many inscriptions and reconstruct …continue reading »
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11/19/06
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Introducing the nano battery, as thick as a strand of hair
A team of university scientists developed the technology for fast charge/discharge batteries that eliminates fire hazards of lithium-based batteries and could mark an alternative source of power for mobile devices.continue reading »