Total Solar Eclipse 1998, Venezuela
Total Solar Eclipse 1998, Venezuela A wonderful collection of solar eclipse photography.
Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature – Psychology Today
Psychology Today From the page: “The history of western civilization aside, humans are naturally polygamous.”
Daniel Tammet – The Boy With The Incredible Brain
This is an amazing story of a young man who is gifted with a facility for mathematics problems, sequence memory, and natural language learning. (Wikipedia) The following clip is just part one of 5 of the Brittish documentary. Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five
APOD: 2002 July 9 – Analemma
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020709.html From the page: If you took a picture of the Sun at the same time each day, would it remain in the same position? The answer is no, and the shape traced out by the Sun over the course of a year is called an analemma. The Sun’s apparent shift is caused by the Earth’s motion around the Sun
Johnny Got His Gun
Below is a movie in two parts, Johnny Got His Gun, based on the book by the same title by Dalton Trumbo. The book was previously banned in the US, but it is definitely a mandatory read (or watch) in this day and age. This classic movie is a chilling, haunting, yet thought-provoking tale of a young man who goes
Ceiling height alters how you think
via Yahoo! News From the page: “A recent study at the University of Minnesota suggests that ceiling height affects problem-solving skills and behavior by priming concepts that encourage certain kinds of brain processing. “Priming means a concept gets activated in a person’s head,” researcher Joan Meyers-Levy told LiveScience. “When people are in a room with a high ceiling, they activate
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
http://www.singinst.org/ Can’t wait to watch all of these videos!
Star explosion rocks astronomers
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2007-05-07-supernova_N.htm “NASA astronomers Monday reported the biggest and brightest star explosion ever recorded, a blast whose light began reaching Earth in the past year from 240 million light years away.”
SIGGRAPH 2007 – The 34th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques
http://www.siggraph.org/s2007/ From the site: “Digital innovators, creative researchers, award-winning producers, provocative artists, energetic executives, and adventurous engineers. The worldwide SIGGRAPH community gathers in San Diego to explore the products, systems, techniques, ideas, and inspiration that are creating the next three generations of computer graphics and interactive techniques.”
Fractal flightpaths: how flies find their way
http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2007/04/04/fractal-flightpaths-how-flies-find-their-way From the page: The research, from a pair of scientists at Rothamsted Research in the UK and UCLA, have examined and mapped the behavior of fruit flies (drosophila melanogaster) as they search for food. Their findings are interesting; the flies utilize a scale-free flightpath; this is similar to a snowflake, or a coastline, or one of those fractals…
A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder
A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder RP Bentall Department of Clinical Psychology, Liverpool University. It is proposed that happiness be classified as a psychiatric disorder and be included in future editions of the major diagnostic manuals under the new name: major affective disorder, pleasant type. In a review of the relevant literature it is shown that happiness
Fractured Universe
Fractured Universe From the page: Lahav contends that the Universe, though undeniably clumpy on the small scale, becomes smooth on the largest scales. “I like to think of it as an ocean, which looks choppy on the scale of individual waves but from far above, on scale of tens of kilometres, is perfectly smooth,” he says.
Scientists concoct a “living interface” — Engadget
http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/29/scientists-concoct-a-living-interface/ From the page: “Recently cooked up by a team of German researchers, this interface enlists the services of a tiny critter called a Daphnia, which gets placed under a microscope that tracks its movement as it reacts to various stimuli. That then gets translated into a farily impressive light show (as seen in the video after the break), with