Difference between revisions of "Interesting Things"

 
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[[Older Interesting Things]]
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My blog on idiosyncratically interesting things...
 
My blog on idiosyncratically interesting things...
 
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==== plop ====
+
==== psychological and neurological influence on R&D management style? ====
[[image:oil.jpg|320 px]]
+
 
more beautiful images [http://www.sciam.com/includes/gallery_pop.cfm?file=721D7D3A-E7F2-99DF-34810694D5886C2A here].
+
over the last 10+ years there's been a growing body of evidence related to political, economic, and religious conservatism and brain structures or cognitive behavior related to sensitivity to perceived negative, uncertain, or ambiguous information.
==== Perl versus Life ====
+
 
[http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/06/176226 Craig Venter] has announced that his team have created, for the first time, a synthetic chromosome from lab chemicals. To quote Ventor, "We are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it." commenting on that quote, someone at slashdot wrote, "at least it is easier to read than Perl."
+
for example, there's the 2014 study [http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(14)01213-5 Nonpolitical Images Evoke Neural Predictors of Political Ideology] published in Cell-Current Biology. To quote the researchers, "This is the first fMRI study revealing multivariate patterns of brain activity that differ between liberals and conservatives during emotional processing of sensory stimuli. A single disgusting image was sufficient to predict each subject's political orientation" with 94% accuracy, Montague told Cell Press. I haven't seen such clean predictive results in any other functional imaging experiments in our lab or others."
 +
 
 +
in other words, apparent 'conscious' and 'deliberative' decisions about political ideology are connected strongly to very primitive parts of the brain involved in aversion or fear responses.
 +
 
 +
another study: [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9292100&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S0140525X13001192 a 2014 study] shows that self-reported conservatives respond with fear much more rapidly to what they perceive as aversive or threatening stimuli.
 +
 
 +
linking to neurology, [http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(11)00289-2 a report] in Current Biology shows evidence that young adults that self-describe as politically liberal or conservative have different brain structures. the self-described conservatives have a larger amygdala (related to fear responses) and "respond to threatening situations with more aggression than do liberals and are more sensitive to threatening facial expressions." the liberals have larger anterior cingulate cortexes, that "monitor(s) uncertainty and conflicts." to quote: "Thus, it is conceivable that individuals with a larger ACC have a higher capacity to tolerate uncertainty and conflicts, allowing them to accept more liberal views."
 +
 
 +
linking back to psychology research is a [http://faculty.virginia.edu/haidtlab/jost.glaser.political-conservatism-as-motivated-social-cog.pdf published synthesis] of existing psychological studies on ideology, shows a pattern of evidence that conservatives are characterized by traits such as a need for certainty and an intolerance of ambiguity.
 +
 
 +
and there's related research on the [http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02686907 lack of tolerance of ambiguity] and [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781444344073.ch1/summary the need for certainty] being stronger amongst self-reported conservatives.
 +
 
 +
as mentioned in another blog post, in my product development management consulting work, i observe managers have widely differing ability to accept the inherent high level uncertainty and variability of research and development product creation. some really want R&D to be "predictable manufacturing" and have ''psychological'' discomfort with a domain of uncertainty that requires feedback loops, learning, and revision of prior information (estimates, requirements, ...). perhaps there is a correlation to this research.
 +
 
 +
==== a fast way to stem-cell-based regeneration ====
 +
[http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/pdf/S1934-5909(14)00151-9.pdf Research] published in ''Cell Stem Cell'' that a minimum 48-hour fast helps "regenerate" the immune system, and a minimum 72-hour fast helped recovery during chemotherapy. Rinse & repeat every 6 months.
 +
 
 +
==== how to survive a plane crash & cognitive bias ====
 +
most people will be drawn to read this article on [http://www.livescience.com/38015-how-to-survive-a-plane-crash-ntsb.html surviving a plane crash] as an example of ''cognitive bias'', even though they are more likely to die in a car crash.
 +
 
 +
this cognitive bias is an example of a larger set:
 +
* Confirmation Bias
 +
* Ingroup Bias
 +
* Gambler's Fallacy
 +
* Positive expectation bias
 +
* Post-Purchase Rationalization
 +
* Neglecting Probability
 +
* Observational Selection Bias
 +
* Status-Quo Bias
 +
* Negativity Bias
 +
* Bandwagon Effect
 +
* Projection Bias
 +
* The Current Moment Bias
 +
* Anchoring Effect
 +
 
 +
and wikipedia has a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases wonderful list] of over *SIXTY* kinds of cognitive bias.
 +
 
 +
related are the insights of charlie munger, the partner of warren buffet ("the greatest investor") in his 1995 harvard talk [http://boingboing.net/2013/03/02/twenty-four-standard-causes-of.html Twenty Four Standard Causes of Human Misjudgement]
 +
 
 +
==== could be big (meaning, little) ====
 +
University of Illinois researchers have created a breakthrough battery technology orders of magnitude smaller and more powerful. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22191650 here's the story].
 +
 
 +
==== 30 gram micro-drone with camera; bionic dragonfly  ====
 +
not hard to see the trajectory of this technology. even the first generation micro-drone with 30 minutes of flying time with real-time transmission of video is a mere 30 grams. imagine in 10 years. these have now been issued to british soldiers in combat zones. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBxmck16FhA video here]
 +
 
 +
and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nj1yhz5io20 here is a bionic dragonfly], which will be commercialized soon. amazing
 +
 
 +
==== hard data on dominant cause of unhappiness: wandering mind ====
 +
for his phd research at harvard in 2012, matt killingsworth used mobile app and big data tools to identify a dominant ''cause'' (not just correlate) of unhappiness: a wandering mind not focussed in the sensations of the present moment. [http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_killingsworth_want_to_be_happier_stay_in_the_moment.html watch the TED talk here.] he did not discuss therapies or mental tools, but there are several. for example, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Selver charlotte selver] was a music educator who founded and promoted ''sensory awareness'' training, that led to variants such as ''body awareness therapy'' and ''somatic therapy'', and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness-based_stress_reduction mindfulness-based stress reduction] (coming from the university of massachusetts medical school).
 +
 
 +
going farther back, "mindfulness of physical sensations" (such as breathing, touch pressure, etc.) is a buddhist practice in the theravada school (the oldest branch of the doctrine) and practiced in 'mindfulness' retreats.
 +
 
 +
==== scientific evidence of absence of free will ====
 +
if you choose to [http://io9.com/5975778/scientific-evidence-that-you-probably-dont-have-free-will click this link] and read the evidence, who made that choice?
 +
 
 +
==== cheating with 'undetectable' chess computer aid ====
 +
in bulgaria in dec 2012 a chess tournament was held in which a player displayed a leap of improved playing that was so suspicious that organizers suspect aid from a computer. but it was not possible to detect anything on the player in question. people speculate about an under-the-skin implant that transmits information, but there is no proof. what is interesting about this story is that it is the first harbinger of things to come, more broadly in the area of bionics and neuro-prosthetics. one analyst presents an interesting study on how to evaluate if the cheater was using a computer, with statistics. [https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/the-crown-game-affair/ read here.]
 +
 
 +
==== causation vs. correlation ====
 +
'''convergent cross mapping'''. a research result that might not sound a milestone, but probably is: finally, a solid mathematical model to answer the question, "Is there a causal relationship between 2 factors?". And that answer can now be provided (for biological and eco systems), even without knowing the details of the underlying mechanisms. summarized in the paper [http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/scripps_led_team_takes_on_centuries_old_cause_and_effect_problem Detecting Causality in Complex Ecosystems].
 +
 
 +
==== is it real -- or Memorex? ====
 +
perhaps if you read the original ''Nature Neuroscience'' title, ''Mnemonic representations of transient stimuli and temporal sequences in the rodent hippocampus in vitro'', the fact and implications may not be clear. how about this summary? [http://gizmodo.com/5942291/scientists-invent-method-to-create-memories-in-brains Scientists Invent Method to Create Memories in Brains]. wow.
 +
 
 +
==== MIT people see more clearly ====
 +
could be big: to [http://www.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/glare-dust-and-fog-free-glass-0426.html quote], "''MIT researchers find a way to make glass that’s anti-fogging, self-cleaning and free of glare''."
 +
 
 +
==== the advanced british spy service ====
 +
hard to resist a [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/ headline] that reads "''Sadomasochism interest no barrier to dead spy joining MI6''". how do they do the interviews?
 +
 
 +
==== bionic eye patient tests planned for 2013 ====
 +
link [http://www.techworld.com.au/article/422918/bionic_eye_patient_tests_planned_2013/ here]. what more to say? we live in amazing times.
 +
 
 +
==== discovered? the mechanism of memory encoding ====
 +
 
 +
this [http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002421 research] could be a profound milestone in science; it hints at the real core, subtle mechanism of memory encoding. it involves interaction of calcium-calmodulin dependent kinase complex II and tubulin protein compounds, which occupy the interiors of brain neurons.
 +
 
 +
==== cancer "cure" ignored due to no profit? ====
 +
interesting story out of the University of Alberta, regarding [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichloroacetic_acid dichloroacetic acid]. Here'a related [http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/05/18/big-pharma-ignoring-potential-cancer-cure/ news story] on the profit motive and lack of follow-up research.
 +
 
 +
==== influenza A antibody ====
 +
one vaccine for all forms of influenza A is a long-sought goal. researchers [http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/general/news/jul2911antibody.html now report] the discovery of FI6 antibody that binds to and neutralizes all subtypes. to find a potential antibody, they used a "wide search" strategy single-cell culture method to screen 100,000 plasma cells from eight human donors. Four of those 100,000 cells "from one donor yielded an antibody that reacted with H1, H5, and H7 viruses."
 +
 
 +
==== who can resist reading a news items titled... ====
 +
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8670520/Harry-Potter-dwarf-spared-jail-over-jugglers-hat-sex-act.html Harry Potter dwarf spared jail over juggler's hat sex act]
 +
 
 +
==== brain on a plate ====
 +
researchers at the university of pittsburgh have grown an active "living" partial rat brain in a [http://scienceblogs.com/deanscorner/2011/05/growing_a_brain_in_a_dish.php dish].
 +
 
 +
==== big ====
 +
prediction: within 20 years, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZCiqkWCLqw something like this] is going to be huge. this is an entire mobile phone based on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl-qygUEE2c this important trend]. this will revolutionize the form factor of devices. probably in tube or scroll-style -- check out seconds 42-49 in the first video.
 +
 
 +
longer term? probably the ability to replace the biological lens of the eyeball with artificial lens that display (via wireless signals) images.
 +
 
 +
==== nobiletin ====
 +
nobiletin, found in the skin of tangerines, is a citrus flavonoid [http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2011/04/04/db10-0589.abstract recently shown] in mice studies to have strongly attenuated atherosclerosis and VLDL overproduction, and reduced obesity.
 +
 
 +
==== 800 lumens, 20 years, 8 watts ====
 +
there is some [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8462626/Energy-saving-light-bulbs-contain-cancer-causing-chemicals.html very tentative research] that CFL lights may have carcinogenic issues, but fortunately, LED home lighting is [http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20016005-54.html now emerging].
 +
 
 +
==== no, no, no ====
 +
the youtube commenter probably said it best, ''"if he fell he would probably land on his gigantic balls and survive.''" this is just a little out of my comfort [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-dPjDYVKUY zone].
 +
 
 +
==== the magician ====
 +
the wonderful, colorful physicist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_feynman richard feynman] gave a series of lectures on physics, that have long been famous for their approach. they are now online, and well worth [http://research.microsoft.com/apps/tools/tuva/#data=2%7C6b89dded-3eb8-4fa4-bbcd-7c69fe78ed0c%7C%7C watching].
 +
 
 +
at los alamos, during the a-bomb project, the science leader oppenheimer said of feynman (and consider the competition there!), ''"He is by all odds the most brilliant young physicist here, and everyone knows this"''.
 +
 
 +
==== online documentaries ====
 +
while surfing for the Watson AI video, stumbled across a nice streaming documentary site, that organizes videos mostly from youtube: [http://documentarystorm.com/ DocumentaryStorm]
 +
 
 +
==== an AI milestone ====
 +
the "AI" system [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watson_(artificial_intelligence_software) Watson] created by researchers at IBM and several universities, that won the [http://documentarystorm.com/science-tech/smartest-machine-on-earth ''Jeopardy!'' TV game show], is the first example seen (observing since the 1970s) of a computer system that made me go, "wow, finally getting somewhere interesting with AI research." will be fascinating to see how the "deep QA" ideas applied in Watson are put to practical use; for example, IBM is now implementing [http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gUcOBLoEFR1Zl012vgqM1puTRq9Q?docId=538a2d727d2448bda056fc5ab2ffd4e9 "medical Watson"] for commercialization.
 +
 
 +
==== never too old ====
 +
good for [http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/02/i-am-a-90-year-old-bodybuilder him]! and good for [http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/ernestine-shepherd-in-shape-at-age-74/2011/05/24/AGWRuqCH_gallery.html her]
 +
 
 +
==== coach potato marathon mouse ====
 +
slim, healthy, super fit endurance athlete body -- not by exercising, but by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AICA_ribonucleotide AICAR]?
 +
 
 +
salk institute researchers discovered that a key dynamic of slow-twitch muscle endurance exercise (e.g., jogging) is that it triggers the development of more mitochondria that burn fat. and AICAR stimulates this same biochemical process, stimulating the creation of more slow-twitch muscles and fat-burning mitochondria. they did an experiment with mice that were sedentary for months, but fed AICAR daily. the first noteworthy thing was that the coach-potato mice remained slim and healthy looking. and then, without any prior exercise or training, the coach potato mice were put in a high-endurance marathon tread mill run -- and were immediately a champion "marathon mice" that could exercise for a long.
 +
 
 +
as the researchers point out, this drug could be useful for old people or others who are temporarily bed ridden and quickly losing muscle tone.
 +
 
 +
==== where did i leave my walking shoes? ====
 +
a recent study published in [http://www.pnas.org/content/108/7/3017 PNAS] showed that 40 minutes 3 times per week (for 1 year) of brisk walking (an aerobic activity) for a group of (prior-sedentary) seniors increased hippocampal and medial temporal lobe volumes by 2%, and was concomitantly associated with improved cognitive/memory function. OTOH, a matched group that only did stretching exercises degraded.
 +
 
 +
==== e-eyes ====
 +
interesting for bifocal or progressive glass lens wearers: the introduction of dynamic electronic focusing lens, [http://www.pixeloptics.com/index.html emPower]. the technology is described as "the single most significant advancement in prescription eyewear in the last 50 years" -- that might be true.
 +
 
 +
==== fists of fury? ====
 +
a [http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-10-clenching-muscles-willpower.html study] published in ''journal of consumer research'' showed that clenching muscles (such as a fist) was associated with increased self-control, such as resisting your third helping of chocolate mousse. To quote: ''Participants who were instructed to tighten their muscles, regardless of which muscles they tightened—hand, finger, calf, or biceps—while trying to exert self-control demonstrated greater ability to withstand the pain, consume the unpleasant medicine, attend to the immediately disturbing but essential information, or overcome tempting foods.''
 +
 
 +
==== Thacker -- Turing award ====
 +
another PARC alumni (in addition to Alan Kay and Butler Lampson) has won the Turing award. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_P._Thacker Charles Thacker] has won for the creation of the modern vision of the personal computer (the Xerox Alto) plus Ethernet and the laser printer.
 +
 
 +
==== that can't be fake ====
 +
when i first saw [http://www.vimeo.com/7809605 this] CGI video, i had trouble believing it was all pure CGI. but it is, created with [http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?siteID=123112&id=13567410 3dsmax], [http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/index.html Vray], [http://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects/ AfterEffects], and [http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/ Premiere]. [http://vimeo.com/8200251 here is] a related video of the underlying compositing breakdown.
  
==== skycar ====
+
==== Lamarck was actually (sort of) right ====
[[image:Moller-skycar.jpg|320 px]]
+
important trend in inheritance and genetics science...  [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics#Epigenetic_effects_in_humans transgenerational epigenetics] and genomic imprinting. The upshot is that DNA is not the only factor in genetics and inheritance. ''Genomic imprinting is an inheritance process independent of the classical Mendelian inheritance''. Briefly, without changing the content of the DNA, the on/off expression of genes can be altered by a wide variety of environmental factors. The two major factors that control that gene expression are DNA methylation and histone modifications (think of them as surface control switches on the outside of the DNA, in the critically important mis-named "junk DNA" regions, although that is not literally true). This modification of gene expression in response to environmental factors (such as toxin exposure or starving) has been known for quite some time. BUT it was assumed that these modifications were NOT inherited to children. Wrong.
  
i guess like a lot of kids, the idea of a flying car caught my imagination. [http://www.moller.com/skyc.htm the moller skycar] is getting us close.
+
Now, a slew of solid data shows that the genomic imprinting in a parent in response to an environmental factor can be inherited on to the children -- the imprinting survives DNA replication (transcription).  
  
==== man of plastic ====
+
For example, to quote Wikipedia in one of the most well-known studies:
[http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6084 Plastic as strong as steel] based on nanotech. Interesting implications for vehicles, protection. To quote: "The scientists solved a problem that has confounded engineers and scientists for decades: Individual nano-size building blocks such as nanotubes, nanosheets and nanorods are ultrastrong. But larger materials made out of bonded nano-size building blocks were comparatively weak. Until now.
 
  
'When you tried to build something you can hold in your arms, scientists had difficulties transferring the strength of individual nanosheets or nanotubes to the entire material," Kotov said. "We've demonstrated that one can achieve almost ideal transfer of stress between nanosheets and a polymer matrix.'
+
''Marcus Pembrey and colleagues also observed that the paternal (but not maternal) grandsons of Swedish boys who were exposed during preadolescence to famine in the 19th century were less likely to die of cardiovascular disease; if food was plentiful then diabetes mortality in the grandchildren increased, suggesting that this was a transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. The opposite effect was observed for females -- the paternal (but not maternal) granddaughters of women who experienced famine while in the womb (and their eggs were being formed) lived shorter lives on average.''
  
The researchers created this new composite plastic with a machine they developed that builds materials one nanoscale layer after another.
+
When does a potential parent create the conditions to pass on environmentally imprinted epigenetics?
  
The robotic machine consists of an arm that hovers over a wheel of vials of different liquids. In this case, the arm held a piece of glass about the size of a stick of gum on which it built the new material. The arm dipped the glass into the glue-like polymer solution and then into a liquid that was a dispersion of clay nanosheets. After those layers dried, the process repeated. It took 300 layers of each the glue-like polymer and the clay nanosheets to create a piece of this material as thick as a piece of plastic wrap."
+
In the case of human females, it is when they are themselves in utero and their eggs are forming. If pregnant mom ''Jill'' is starving, this can cause imprinting onto the surface of the DNA of newly-forming eggs in her female in utero baby ''Jane''. When Jane grows up and gets pregnant, her egg's DNA still has the imprinting. When her child Bob is born, his DNA carries this imprinting.  
  
==== pimp my mac and e-macs ====
+
In the case of human males, the environmental factor must happen to the male shortly before puberty, just before the onset of spermatogenesis.
i switched to a macbook in Dec 2006. i don't think i could go back to a Win laptop. this is my first Apple product and i like their attention to good design--both in the physical and the software. os/x and the apps are good. i'm an emacs guy (vi is evil), and one of the improvements i discovered was the ability to update a keybindings file to create emacs bindings that influences all UI apps (that use the common Cocoa framework): ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict. For example:
 
  
<code><pre>
+
Lamarck was wrong in the sense that the causal factor of imprinting (e.g., famine) does not mean successors are skinny (or whatever). A successor may have a higher incidence of bladder cancer (or whatever).  
{
 
  "~f"="moveWordForward:";
 
  "~b"="moveWordBackward:";
 
  /* etc. */
 
}
 
</pre></code>
 
  
See [http://www.gnufoo.org/macosx/ here] for details, for example.  
+
But, nevertheless, we now know that Lamarck's idea carried a germ of truth, and this is perhaps a paradigm shift in our thinking about personal behavior, the quality of our environment, and our future generations: ''We are guardians of our genetics for successors. By our actions or environment there is a chance our future generations will experience some consequence.''
  
For Windows folks, an easier and more powerful solution is the installable XKeymacs app [http://www.cam.hi-ho.ne.jp/oishi/indexen.html here].
+
==== plop ====
 +
[[image:oil.jpg|320 px]]
 +
more beautiful images [http://www.sciam.com/includes/gallery_pop.cfm?file=721D7D3A-E7F2-99DF-34810694D5886C2A here].
  
 
==== bird brains ====
 
==== bird brains ====
Line 50: Line 183:
  
 
==== don quixote ====
 
==== don quixote ====
i've been reading Cervantes' Don Quixote, downloaded to my laptop from the [http://www.gutenberg.org Project Gutenberg] site of many free older books. The translator's notes are a fascinating insight into the historical context of his critical parody. Translated with skill, Cervantes is revealed as an exquisitely gifted writer. He can shape a character rich with implication in few sentences. Don't miss this wonderful classic story.
+
i've been reading Cervantes' Don Quixote, downloaded from the [http://www.gutenberg.org Project Gutenberg] site of many free older books. The translator's notes are a fascinating insight into the historical context of his critical parody. Translated with skill, Cervantes is revealed as an exquisitely gifted writer. He can shape a character rich with implication in few sentences. Don't miss this wonderful classic story.
 
 
==== ratbots. boyfriends next? ====
 
The [http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1961000/1961798.stm RatBots] are here. Are husbands and boyfriends next?
 
           
 
==== toast and tcp/ip ====           
 
Finally, the intelligent convergence of [http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1264000/1264205.stm toast, Java, and TCP]. I knew computers were useful for something.
 
  
[[image:toast.jpg|320 px]]
 
           
 
 
==== wave particles ====             
 
==== wave particles ====             
 
Even after all these years, the strange nature of reality and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave-particle_duality wave-particle duality],
 
Even after all these years, the strange nature of reality and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave-particle_duality wave-particle duality],
Line 78: Line 203:
 
it suggests links between a women's perception of the environment and
 
it suggests links between a women's perception of the environment and
 
sex selection.
 
sex selection.
           
+
            
==== biofeedback girlfriends ====            
 
I wonder what will happen if they attach a biofeedback system to men's
 
performance with their lovers using [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4111360.stm this] device?
 
 
 
==== cold fusion ====           
 
From the cold fusion department: [http://www.blacklightpower.com/ Hydrinos]. The botton line
 
is that it is claimed to be a way to generate energy based on a
 
different theory of quantum mechanics, in which electrons are like
 
bubble clouds that can be shrunk, releasing energy in the extreme
 
ultraviolet (black light) spectrum. You may think this is hockum, but
 
the scientist Randell Mills publishes in peer-reviewed journals, and
 
NASA recently completed a [http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0250/baard.php  hands-on]
 
investigation of his work and repeated his experiments--and NASA
 
sees an energy effect as well.
 
                       
 
==== ignoble ====         
 
Why do shower curtains billow inwards? A PhD thesis on the sociology of
 
Canadian donut shops? All this and more honored by the [http://improbable.com/ Ignoble Awards]. Very
 
fun reading.
 
                       
 
==== darwin ====           
 
The  [http://www.darwinawards.com/ Darwin Awards]
 
commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from
 
it in really stupid ways, like the Houston guy who played Russian
 
Roulette with a semiautomatic pistol.
 
 
 
==== pots ====           
 
I recently visited an Egyptian exhibit at the museum and learned
 
something fascinating: they really really liked pottery back then.
 
           
 
 
==== green ====           
 
==== green ====           
Green tea seems to be ridiculously good for you. A [http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7776384%255E1702,00.html recent] study showed strong results that drinking it reduced the risk of prostate
+
Green tea good. A [http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7776384%255E1702,00.html recent] study showed strong results that drinking it reduced the risk of prostate
 
cancer in men by 2/3! That is an extraordinarily strong effect. A key
 
cancer in men by 2/3! That is an extraordinarily strong effect. A key
 
active chemical is Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG) and there is now [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3257237.stm evidence] EGCG
 
active chemical is Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG) and there is now [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3257237.stm evidence] EGCG
Line 122: Line 217:
 
shows that the protein creatine (used by body builders) is associated
 
shows that the protein creatine (used by body builders) is associated
 
with improved memory and intelligence.  
 
with improved memory and intelligence.  
 +
           
 +
| style="padding-left:1em;" |
 +
==== mark my eyes ====
 +
[http://www.technologyreview.com/news/529196/what-else-could-smart-contact-lenses-do/ smart contact lenses] are coming within 20 years that will provide computer displays, night vision, etc. google glass -> google eyeball
 +
 +
==== a new DROP BOX ====
 +
amazon is doing the R&D to provide delivery of small packages using ''autonomous drones'', within 30 minutes of order. damn, that's interesting. see [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qOBm3Iwlzo here]
 +
 +
==== Better Pies Through Science ====
 +
Amy Rowat, a biophysicist at UCLA, reveals how to apply the insights of science to bake a better apple pie, [http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/07/03/dining/science-builds-a-better-pie.html?ref=dining&_r=1& here]
 +
 +
==== sweet research ====
 +
to quote from the [http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2013/june/diabetes.html#sthash.FrF22uZy.dpuf article]: DNA ‘reverse’ vaccine reduces levels of immune cells believed responsible for type-1 diabetes. that could lead a breakthrough in type-1.
 +
 +
==== "I was swallowed by a Hippo..." ====
 +
who can resist a [http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/may/04/i-was-swallowed-by-a-hippo true news story] that starts with those words?
 +
 +
==== retched booze ====
 +
scientists in chile are developing a vaccine that makes a person feel strong nausea when they drink alcohol; could be a revolution in solving alcoholism.
 +
[http://www.fastcoexist.com/1681344/a-new-vaccine-for-drinking-could-keep-alcoholics-sober see here]
 +
 +
==== geek sex ====
 +
in keith richards' [http://www.amazon.com/Life-Keith-Richards/dp/B007F7QG0Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359352115&sr=8-1&keywords=keith+richards autobiography Life], he says he doesn't know how to proposition a woman because he's never had to. a geek is a person who finds the statistical part of that as interesting as the sexual.
 +
 +
==== "FTL" travel within general relativity ====
 +
just recently became aware of an extraordinary theoretical physics proposal: in 1994 mexican physicist [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Alcubierre Miguel Alcubierre] published the milestone idea [http://iopscience.iop.org/0264-9381/11/5/001 The Warp Drive: Hyper-Fast Travel Within General Relativity].
 +
 +
''It is shown how, within the framework of general relativity and without the introduction of wormholes, it is possible to modify a spacetime in a way that allows a spaceship to travel with an arbitrarily large speed. By a purely local expansion of spacetime behind the spaceship and an opposite contraction in front of it, motion faster than the speed of light as seen by observers outside the disturbed region is possible. The resulting distortion is reminiscent of the `warp drive' of science fiction.''
 +
 +
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJZXDEUOao0 this video] illustrates the idea.
 +
 +
but the idea was not seriously followed up, because original calculations of the amount of energy needed to create a "space bubble" with surrounding expansion and contraction of space-time indicated energies on the order of the mass-energy of jupiter.
 +
 +
yet, harold white recently published the paper [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20110015936_2011016932.pdf Warp Field Mechanics 101] with a simpler summary [http://io9.com/5963263/how-nasa-will-build-its-very-first-warp-drive here]. it indicates that in fact with a modification of the energy ring, the energy needs can be dramatically reduced to the levels within the scope of human engineering.
 +
 +
dr. white is now starting experiments (with lasers and interferometers) to determine the viability to perturb space-time at certain energy levels.
 +
 +
==== let it be ====
 +
got prostate cancer? thinking of surgery? perhaps the longest [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9233089/Prostate-cancer-surgery-has-no-significant-survival-benefit-study-suggests.html study] (started in 1993, with 731 men) showed that surgery "has no significant survival benefit" over simply "watchful waiting."
 +
 +
==== robots invent their own language to interact ====
 +
[http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/artificial-intelligence/lingodroid-robots-invent-their-own-spoken-language what more needs to be said?]
 +
 +
==== increase in ions and infrared emissions over earthquake epicenter days before quake ====
 +
hard facts from researchers about earthquake [http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26773/ precursors].
 +
 +
the causal-chain hypothesis is that
 +
# stresses in a fault release large amounts of radon, whose radioactivity ionises the air.
 +
# water molecules are attracted to ions in the air, which triggers condensation of water.
 +
# condensation releases heat.
 +
 +
 +
==== the tomato cure ====
 +
<html>
 +
<img src="http://www.aplnhouston.org/documents/images/pomodorr_timer.jpg" width="70" height="70" />
 +
</html>
 +
 +
[http://us.lifehacker.com/5798202/the-cognitive-cost-of-doing-things interesting summary] of cognitive cost of mental activity, and related stresses and sources of enervation.
 +
 +
partial cure? apply the [http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/ Pomodoro Technique] from my friend [http://www.francescocirillo.com/fc.html Francesco Cirilio]. useful for email work, programming, writing, taxes, ...
  
==== influential ====  
+
==== political pre-determinism ====
[http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8158 This] is arguably going to one of the top five most widespread influential technologies over the next 20 years.  
+
[http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(11)00289-2 a report in Current Biology] shows evidence that young adults that self-describe as politically liberal or conservative have different brain structures.
  
==== beauty ====
+
the self-described conservatives have a larger amygdala (related to fear responses) and ''"respond to threatening situations with more aggression than do liberals and are more sensitive to threatening facial expressions."''
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/sci_nat_visions_of_science_/html/1.stm Visions] of our world.
 
  
[[image:paperclip.jpg|320 px]]
+
the liberals have larger anterior cingulate cortexes, that ''"monitor(s) uncertainty and conflicts."''
  
==== prostrate ====
+
to quote: ''"Thus, it is conceivable that individuals with a larger ACC have a higher capacity to tolerate uncertainty and conflicts, allowing them to accept more liberal views."''
If you care about prostate cancer, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4284382.stm new research] suggests you should drink pomegranate juice or eat the fruit.  
 
  
==== legacy code ====
+
in my product development management consulting work, i observe managers have widely differing ability to accept the inherent high level uncertainty and variability of research and development product creation. perhaps there is a correlation to this research.
Lots of my clients have masses of legacy code (usually C), with questions about how to apply test-driven development with it, refactor it, and so forth. I recommend [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0131177052/qid=1128077868/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-3875534-8020161?v=glance&amp;s=books Working Effectively with Legacy Code] by Michael Feathers.  
 
  
==== Kay gets Turing ====
+
==== left gazing face bias -- humans ''and dogs'' ====
In the 1980s I used to develop in Smalltalk (Ruby folks -- nothing really new in Ruby). I've always been a huge fan of [http://www.smalltalk.org/alankay.html Alan Kay], a seminal
+
did you know that when people look at a face their eyes tend to shift left, viewing the person's right side of face? this left-gaze bias only exists when viewing human faces, not any other object. scientists speculate that the right side of the face (fact: faces are asymmetrical) is better at transparently expressing emotional state.
figure in computer science, and along with [http://www.squeakland.org/community/biography/ingalls.html Dan Ingalls], the creator of Smalltalk, which influenced me deeply. Kay
 
won the highest award in computer science, the [http://www.acm.org/awards/taward.html Turing Award] in 2003 (and the Kyoto prize); here's a [http://www.cs.uni.edu/%7Ewallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2004-11.html#e2004-11-06T21_03_42.htm summary] of his speech. If you don't know his contributions and vision for computing, please take a look. These days he's involved in [http://www.opencroquet.org OpenCroquet] an OSS visionary next-generation 3D immersive networked collaborative computing platform. I only wish it was built with Java rather than [http://www.squeak.org Squeak] (a Smalltalk dialect),
 
because putting aside all technical and religious language arguments, i bet it would simply get more interest and support.
 
  
==== d ====
+
now, researchers at [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/3354028/Dogs-can-read-emotion-in-human-faces.html the University of Lincoln] have discovered that ''dogs'' do this too -- and only when looking at humans. there is a growing body of research that dogs have evolved specific behaviors only for successful interaction with humans, essentially unique among the animal world.  
[http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&amp;article=UPI-1-20050831-19535800-bc-us-prostategrowth.xml Researchers]
 
say low doses of activated vitamin D and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (e.g., Vioxx), taken together, can slow the
 
growth of prostate cancer cells.
 
  
==== hydrogen ====
+
the pbs science show nova has an interesting show, [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/dogs-decoded.html Dogs Decoded], that explores this. one can purchase it at Apple iTunes store.
If you predict an hydrogen economy boom, it might be [http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&amp;articleID=000EE96B-C0B8-1314-80B883414B7F0000 time]
 
to invest in rhenium stocks. And if you didn't know, the [http://www.hydrogen.gov USA govt] is investing strategically
 
for a hydrogen economy, and the USA stands to be a major technology provider-winner.  
 
  
==== olive oil ====
+
==== 25 jazz greats ====
Yet [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4204076.stm another]
+
an interesting list of [http://matadornetwork.com/nights/25-essential-jazz-albums/ 25 essential jazz albums], with commentary. includes great works such as coltrane's ''a love supreme'', and a personal favorite from 1963, ''getz/gilberto''.  
reason to eat uncooked olive oil.
 
  
==== priceline ====
+
==== Simple Suppers on the Tor network and cross-platform UIs ====
I've never had the time or location-flexibility to try [http://travel.priceline.com priceline.com]. Recently i
+
if you like cooking, and want good *fast* recipes, the UK's "channel 4" maintains a [http://www.channel4.com/4food great collection] (and associated cooking TV or online videos shows) of quick and simple recipes from Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall. also, check out nigel slater's [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vt10m Simple Suppers] at BBC.
thought
 
i'd try and started with (i thought) an unlikely extreme experiment: I
 
asked for a
 
4-star hotel in London for a week at $75 a night. Got it! Hilton
 
Kensington--good location an hotel.
 
Normal rates start at $200/night. I'm impressed. I've also rented a car
 
at 1/2 normal rate using  [http://www.wheelsabroad.com/ wheelsabroad.com].
 
  
==== organic ====         
+
if not in the UK and the video content is blocked online, look at [https://www.torproject.org/projects/vidalia.html.en vidalia] and [https://www.torproject.org/ the tor network] to get around the blocks. btw, the UI of vidalia is done with the open-source cross-platform [http://qt.nokia.com/ Qt framework] originally created by two creative norwegian developers, Haavard Nord and Eirik Chambe-Eng (Trolltech); Qt is also used for Skype, Google Earth, and many other applications.
For 30 years, I've bought organic produce when it's relatively
 
affordable. Not for my own health (though a study of pesticides and
 
antibiotics in traditional farming should give pause for thought), but
 
rather to support organic farmers, as I've felt (without strong
 
evidence) that it's just a better, sustainable approach. Now a
 
recent study from Oxford indicates it's also better for biodiversity.
 
To  [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4740609.stm quote]: "The
 
organic farms were found to contain 85% more plant species, 33% more
 
bats, 17% more spiders and 5% more birds."
 
  
==== what did you say? ====          
+
==== sweet for heat ====
Senility finally kicking in? Eat Indian food. Here’s [http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1668000/1668932.stm why]. Dont forget.
+
not merely a folk remedy belief, there is solid evidence that treating non-major burns with honey is indeed effective. a [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/health/19real.html meta-study] looked at over 12 previous studies, and concluded that burns healed faster (on average) when treated with honey and gauze, than those treated with antibiotic creams and other dressings
  
==== wonderful ====
+
==== the social implications of age reversal ====
This is a  [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4511511.stm wonderful]
+
harvard medical school [http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/nov/28/scientists-reverse-ageing-mice-humans announced] a study not just slowing ageing in mice, but... ''"What we saw in these animals was not a slowing down or stabilisation of the ageing process. We saw a dramatic reversal – and that was unexpected,"'' said Ronald DePinho, who led the study. the work involved an old (no pun intended), well-known mechanism in ageing: telomere shortening over time. it brings a difficult question one step closer: what if old people didn't die?
story.
+
 
           
+
==== mimic octopus ====
==== java pathfinder ====          
+
well beyond interesting, this is the most fascinating animal in the world; you will be delighted to [http://youtu.be/ygh1-ul6E94 watch].
Are you involved with a Java-based multithreaded highly-concurrent
+
 
application (e.g., servers, telecomm switches)? If so, you know that
+
==== glycemic load of foods ====
testing for bugs related to concurrency (e.g., deadlock) is HARD. NASA
+
recently heard that large rolled oats are ''much'' healthier in terms of glycemic load than small, cut oats, for oatmeal (which i like). that got me curious as to the hard data on glycemic load of different foods. here's some credible data, from university of sydney research: http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm
has a solution. They have just released as OSS a cool and sophisticated
+
 
testing tool,  [http://javapathfinder.sourceforge.net Java Pathfinder], that they have built and used for years (yes, NASA uses
+
==== the decay of decay ====
Java, including on the Mars rovers). Pathfinder is special JVM that
+
 
systematically explores all potential execution paths of a program to
+
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7914009/Gel-for-decayed-teeth-could-spell-end-to-fillings.html research] on a gel, perhaps available within 5 years, that stimulates growth of tooth cells, to replace cavities.  
find violations of properties like deadlocks or unhandled exceptions.
+
 
This is difficult, powerful testing, so tell your friends.
+
==== influenza ====
           
+
 
==== cold fusion ====
+
influenza virus is notoriously mutable on key surface elements, making a universal vaccine tough. but researchers, reporting in [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7893553/Vaccine-that-will-protect-against-every-type-of-flu.html ''Science''] , may have solution. Rather than targeting the lollipop head of the surface protein called haemagglutinin (HA), the new vaccine, to quote,  ''generates “universal” antibodies that aim for the “stick” of the HA lollipop, which varies little from strain to strain''.
[http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/83/i18/8318notw6.html Cold fusion strikes again]! This time it's almost certainly real, and has
 
passed close scrutiny. Bad news? Probably only good enough to generate
 
neutrons, not to power a house.  
 
           
 
==== babies ====          
 
Earlier I wrote about the interesting fact that women after WW I gave
 
birth to more females than males, but scientists didn't if it occured
 
at conception or by miscarriages. Now we have more clues. After the
 
9/11 attack, a similar pattern arose in the USA, and researchers have
 
discovered that the difference is not in sex variations at conception,
 
but a greater rate of miscarriages of males when the mother is in a
 
stressed environment, presumably because males are worse best for the
 
tribe.  
 
           
 
==== acupuncture ====           
 
An example of well-crafted careful experiments to show if an
 
alternative medical
 
therapy works, in this case accupuncture. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4493011.stm Is it] just a
 
placebo effect, or something more?
 
  
==== exploding toads ====           
+
==== engines of democracy ====
Some stories just beg to be read: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4486247.stm Mystery] of German
 
exploding toads. ... (update) News flash: [http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_30-4-2005_pg9_3 Mystery] solved.
 
           
 
==== suspended mice ====           
 
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4469793.stm This] story didn't get major attention, but I predict it will if it works on
 
humans: Scientists have, for the first time, achieved a state of near
 
suspended animation in mice, using air laced with 80 parts per million
 
of hydrogen sulphide. Huge implications for space travel, medical
 
delays, parents of teenagers, ...
 
           
 
==== savant ====           
 
Some things really inspire my sense of wonder and beauty and mystery in
 
this universe: wave-particule duality in quantum physics, high heels,
 
and extraordinary
 
savant mental abilities, as in the case of  [http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,1409903,00.html Daniel Tammet].  Like some other autistic savants, he can do amazing
 
feats: recall Pi to 22,514 digits, multiply ridiculously large numbers
 
in an instant, speak 7 languages... What is unique about Mr. Tammet is
 
that he is the only autistic that can clearly describe his inner mental
 
processes, and this gives us a window onto other dimensions of mind.
 
There are several fascinating aspects of his story. One is that his
 
powers arose after a head injury and then the onset of epilepsy.
 
Obviously it suggests that different parts of the brain had to become
 
engaged in "math" for example, but in ways most of us can't fathom. To
 
quote: “Since his epileptic fit, he
 
has been able to see numbers as shapes, colours and textures. The
 
number two, for instance, is a motion, and five is a clap of thunder.
 
"When I multiply numbers together, I see two shapes. The image starts
 
to change and evolve, and a third shape emerges. That's the answer.
 
It's mental imagery. It's like maths without having to think.” I
 
think his injury+change story suggests we all have potential for such
 
radically different mental behaviors. But more deeply, the wonder for
 
me is that it's so "outside of the box" compared to how i do math and
 
hints at profound wonders in our minds. It is not impossible to imagine
 
that scientists will someday unlock a way to such
 
transformations--without having to hit our heads against the wall.
 
           
 
==== dbc ====           
 
[http://archive.eiffel.com/doc/manuals/technology/contract/ Design-by-contract]
 
(DBC) is worth knowing, especially for safety-critical and
 
fault-tolerant applications. Although commonly associated with the
 
Eiffel OO language and Bertrand Meyer, the roots are much older. They
 
start with another Bertrand--Bertrand Russells “Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy”,
 
which introduced the great [http://research.microsoft.com/%7Ethoare/ Dr. Tony Hoare] to the idea of axiomatic theory and assertions (pre- and post-conditions)
 
while he was developing an ALGOL-60 compiler in the 1960s. In 1974 at
 
the IBM Lab in Vienna a PL/1 compiler was being developed, and the
 
researchers desired an unambiguous formal specification of the
 
language. Out of this need VD, the Vienna Definition Language, was born
 
by Peter Lucas. VDL borrowed the pre- and post-condition assertion form
 
earlier explored by Hoare and Russel. Various solutions have been
 
created for Java, and i'm intrigued by a recent, elegant OSS solution: [http://www.contract4j.org/ Contract4J], that uses Java 5
 
attributes and AspectJ behind the scenes.
 
           
 
==== dbc and dry ====
 
Speaking of DBC, unit tests that are testing DBC assertions should
 
avoid their own duplicating "assertTrue" assertions. No point in
 
duplicating a test! Which reminds me of my favoriate basic SW
 
engineering principle, from Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas: Remain [http://www.artima.com/intv/dry.html DRY]. So much pain and
 
suffering in software can be traced to not remaining DRY at every level.
 
           
 
==== mad scientists ====           
 
The USA military is moving seriously closer
 
to using [http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/10930585.htm fighting]
 
robots. And of course, in what could be a quote straight out of a
 
science-fiction movie on robots-gone-mad: “They dont get hungry,” said Gordon
 
Johnson of the Pentagons Joint Forces Command. “Theyre not afraid.
 
They dont forget their orders. They dont care if the guy next to them
 
has just been shot. Will they do a better job than humans? Yes.” The first generation are just remote-controlled, but surely it is only
 
a matter of time before autonomous robots
 
are used. I feel that when  [http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/051297weber.html Deep] Blue beat Kasparov in 1997, it was a computing milestone; and when
 
the first autonomous robot kills a human, it will be another (sad)
 
milestone. Mark my words: We will then see police robots somewhere in
 
the world.
 
           
 
==== crud ====         
 
In the 1970s we built CRUD apps with 4GLs such as [http://www.informationbuilders.com/products/index.html Focus],
 
a popular mainframe 4GL. The speed of development was faster than using
 
imperative
 
3GLs, even OO imperative 3GLs such as Java or Smalltalk. The essence of
 
the difference is <span style="font-style: italic; declarative vs.
 
imperative programming (what vs. how). I believe iterative and
 
agile methods
 
are the right solution for the human/social dimension of development
 
efficiency, but that the next order-of-magnitude efficiency must come
 
from the technical solution of 4GLs--declarative programming and
 
specialized domain languages. I know there are some Java-based OSS
 
declarative 4GL languages for CRUD web apps, but don't have a good
 
sense of the best of breed, or where the momentum is. If you know,
 
please  [mailto:craig@craiglarman.com contact me].
 
  
==== grey matter in women ====           
+
scrum and other agile methods include the principle of self-organizing teams (the 11th agile principle). here is another related story from [http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/28/ge.html Fast Company]
Interesting [http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050121100142.htm story]:
 
Research shows that men have 6.5 times more grey matter (we can call it
 
'processing' matter) in the brain than women related to general
 
intelligence, while women have 10 times more 'white' matter
 
(connections and networking of the grey matter) than men. Both sexes
 
have equal general intelligence levels, showing that alternate
 
architectures can lead to similar capacity. Of course, the parallel to
 
electronic computing is clear.
 
  
==== statistical diets ====           
+
==== vaccine for breast cancer? ====
Recent diet [http://www.pcrm.org/news/archive050105.html study]: Four
 
popular diets were tested/comparied with four random groups over two
 
years: Ornish (a relatively low-fat vegetarian diet), Atkins (a
 
relatively high-fat, high-protein diet), Weight Watchers, and the
 
Zone diet. Conclusions? One key conclusion was relevant to software
 
practices: More influential in losing weight than the particular diet
 
was simply sticking to it. Diet
 
results? Ornish dieters had the best results in terms of
 
losing weight (3.3kg), and Atkins the worst (2.1kg); Likewise for
 
lowering "bad" LDL cholesteral: Ornish dropped 12.6%, but Atkins 7.1%.
 
But another conclusion was also important to software: Some diets were
 
more followed than others. The "stickiness" of a development practice
 
is VERY important. For example, test-driven development has caught on
 
largely because developers really see a quick, useful payoff.
 
           
 
==== suspicious ====           
 
This following science news item did not make a big splash, but I
 
wonder if it might eventually have a profound social effect? Scientists
 
at Temple University have discovered some relatively simple [http://www.voanews.com/english/2004-12-02-voa61.cfm brain]
 
activity patterns in lying versus truth telling, using functional
 
MRI. Five activated areas of the brain were found to be unique to the "lie" condition, and
 
two areas were unique to the "truth" condition. If a larger study
 
corroborates this, consider the implications for law enforcement and
 
suspicious girlfriends!
 
  
| style="padding-left:1em;" |
+
could be [http://www.more.com/8717/22615-a-vaccine-against-breast-cancer interesting]
==== Kindle ignites e-paper interest ====
 
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FI73MA/ref=amb_link_5438222_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=browse&pf_rd_r=1A9P7QG5KPGYAMJCA4NH&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=331432401&pf_rd_i=133141011 Kindle] is the new e-book reader from Amazon. Uses e-paper, can read in the sun, wireless connection to the mobile phone network (for free) to download books, newspapers and magazines (in less than 1 minute), easy book buying via the Kindle device via Amazon (wirelessly), no need to connect it to a computer, ...
 
  
i think this could be a commercial success, and milestone towards the end of paper.
+
==== synthetic life - venter and team ====
  
==== System Weinberg ====
+
most likely all readers heard this, but it is still worth noting: a milestone in synthetic life. Craig Venter and team have [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10132762.stm created] the DNA for a bacterium completely bottom-up from chemicals, injected the synthetic DNA into a cell, which then started to replicate (over a billion times) using, as usual, the DNA for its replication instructions.  
Systems thinking emphasizes learning to see the dynamics of systems interactions and the subtle, multiple indirect causes of things, and focusing on systems-level global optimization rather than local sub-optimizations. It has long been part of my system of thought and i encourage folks to read seminal books such as [http://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Discipline-Peter-M-Senge/dp/0385260954 The Fifth Discipline]. In the software world, [http://www.geraldmweinberg.com/ Gerry Weinberg] has long been a favorite author and "consultant's consultant." Some know about systems thinking but don't know that he wrote (in 1991) [http://www.amazon.com/Quality-Software-Management-Systems-Thinking/dp/0932633226 Systems Thinking], a great education on how to think more clearly from a systems perspective, understand the causal loops we see in the software domain and organizational patterns. Recommended.
 
  
==== he's radio - active ====
+
the long-term implications are extraordinary, as scientists learn to master creating more complex DNA. Exxon is funding the research ($600 million usd) to see if they can create a bug that will create oil.  
an ex-radio engineer has invented a device based on radio waves to fight cancer. some researchers are very impressed. the operational mechanism is not stated, but on looking at a picture, i see the words "therm med" labelled on the device, so i'm guessing the radio waves heat the cancer area. [http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/CancerPreventionAndTreatment/story?id=3810892&page=1 see here].
 
  
==== google robot in your cerebellum ====
+
==== alcohol/etc addiction reduction with Baclofen ====
Only 11% of USA [http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1378 survey] respondents said they would be willing to implant a proven safe device that enabled them to use their mind to access the Internet. That's probably a good thing, [http://geosurvey.nationalgeographic.com/roper2006/findings.html given that] 63% of young adult americans can't find Iraq on a map, and 74% think english is the most widely spoken language in the world.
 
  
==== but can you use it to clean windows? ====
+
there is some evidence that the muscle relaxant Baclofen (created in the 1920s) can significantly reduce cravings for alcohol -- and perhaps other addictive drugs. Read the fascinating story of [http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/may/09/alcoholism-health-doctor-addiction-drug Dr. Ameisen] that has a happy ending.  
Something [http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20071022/140990/ like this] is going to eventually revolutionary our display, visualization, and printing practices.
 
  
[[image:Epaper1.jpg|320 px]]
+
==== it sucks ====
  
==== frames, self, javascript, ruby, smalltalk, and slots ====
+
doctors have discovered that negative pressure (suction) on a wound speeds healing. the cause is not known, but may be due to removal of fluid buildup. there is an existing device for this therapy, costing over $100, but  an mit student has created a [http://inhabitat.com/2010/04/15/3-healing-device-speeds-up-wound-treatment/ $3 device] that achieves the same goal.
some folks newer to programming assume that the programming constructs and concepts found in languages such as ruby or javascript are newish. in fact, the majority of inspiration for ruby comes from smalltalk, and any smalltalk programmer since 1974 (or even earlier) will see lots of familiar constructs in ruby (i started working in smalltalk in the mid 80s). for example, here's a ruby construct:
 
  
<code><pre>
+
==== coma -> german ====
array = [1, 'hi', 3.14]
 
array.each { | item | puts item}
 
</pre></code>
 
  
and here's the similar construct in smalltalk, circa 1970-74:
+
another intriguing example of the mysteries of the human brain: to quote [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/croatia/7583971/Croatian-teenager-wakes-from-coma-speaking-fluent-German.html the story]... ''A 13-year-old Croatian girl who fell into a coma woke up speaking fluent German. The girl, from the southern town of Knin, had only just started studying German at school and had been reading German books and watching German TV to become better, but was by no means fluent, according to her parents. Since waking up from her 24 hour coma however, she has been unable to speak Croatian, but is able to communicate perfectly in German.''
  
<code><pre>
+
==== random matrix theory ====
array := #(1, 'hi', 3.14).
 
array do: [ :item | Transcript show: item]
 
</pre></code>
 
  
 +
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_matrix_theory random matrix theory], first proposed by the physicist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Wigner Eugene Wigner] to help determine the probability of a particle moving between discrete energy level states, has been shown to apply, as a model, to a broad range of systems, including the mathematics of certain games of solitaire, the clumping of buses in traffic, and the path traced by molecules moving in a gas. and perhaps most importantly as we enter the age of easy access to massive sets of data (think, Google's collection of statistics), random matrix theory can help distinguish meaningful causal relationships from those that are not, in the case when traditional statistical methods showed "false positives" regarding meaningful correlation. to quote a [http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627550.200-enter-the-matrix-the-deep-law-that-shapes-our-reality.html?DCMP=OTC-rss recent story]:
  
similarly, there are influential AI programming constructs from the mid-1970s (from the great Marvin Minsky) found in wider use today. for example, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_language ''frame'' representation systems] (implemented usually in lisp, prolog, or smalltalk) were an OO system that contained "prototypical" objects blurring the lines of class and instance (i was able to start using frames in the 1980s on lisp machines, in the KEE environment for AI systems), and that contained ''slots'' with pre- and post- action method handlers. these concepts found their way into the [http://research.sun.com/self/papers/papers.html ''Self'' language ] (and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_%28programming_language%29 see]) from dave ungar and randy smith in the mid 1980s, which then inspired the creation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript javascript] and its prototype elements.
+
'''Bouchaud's team has now shown how [the idea that larger data sets leads to better predictions] throws doubt on the trustworthiness of many economic predictions, especially those claiming to look many months ahead. Such predictions are, of course, the bread and butter of economic institutions. But can we believe them?''
  
==== altered carbon ====
+
''To find out, Bouchaud and his colleagues looked at how well US inflation rates could be explained by a wide range of economic indicators, such as industrial production, retail sales, consumer and producer confidence, interest rates and oil prices.''
i sometimes enjoy SciFi. ''Altered Carbon'' by Richard Morgan was excellent -- winner of Phillip K. Dick best novel award 2003. recommended.
 
  
==== why don't they just fly first class? ====
+
''Using figures from 1983 to 2005, they first calculated all the possible correlations among the data. They found [using traditional statistical validity tests] what seem to be significant results - apparent patterns showing how changes in economic indicators at one moment lead to changes in inflation the next. To the unwary observer, this makes it look as if inflation can be predicted with confidence.''
the 2007 [http://www.improbable.com/ig/ ignoble awards] are out, including:
 
  
* The US Air Force Wright Laboratory for instigating research and development on a chemical weapon that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among enemy troops.
+
''But when Bouchaud's team applied Marcenko's and Pastur's mathematics [influenced by random matrix theory], they got a surprise. They found that only a few of these apparent correlations can be considered real, in the sense that they really stood out from what would be expected by chance alone. Their results show that inflation is predictable only one month in advance. Look ahead two months and the mathematics shows no predictability at all. '''Adding more data just doesn't lead to more predictability as some economists would hope''', says Bouchaud.''
  
* A National University of Quilmes, Argentina, team for discovering that impotency drugs can help hamsters to recover from jet lag.
+
==== a breathless discovery ====
  
==== explain to me how you forget your leg? ====
+
in a discovery further opening the possibilties of extra-terrestrial life, researchers have [http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/anoxic-animals/ found], in the deep Mediterranean seafloor, the first multicellular animals capable of surviving in an entirely oxygen-free environment. the Loricifera species have hydrogenosomes, which require no oxygen to produce chemical energy. they have no mitochondria, the mechanism of other animal cell, that converts oxygen (and other stuff) into energy.
any [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7024124.stm story] that begins "A US man who stored his amputated leg in a barbecue smoker..." just sort of begs to be read.
 
  
==== the scottish language ====
+
==== quantum teleportation of energy ====
i was recently working in glasgow (at a client adopting agile methods). when leaving the client office one evening, i heard one person (who was cleaning) say something to another person. i swear i thought she was speaking NORWEGIAN -- and didn't understand a word. i had no idea that was english. wonderful!
 
  
==== APL ====
+
teleportation of information is a fascinating subject, based on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement quantum entanglement]. Now, a scientist has [http://www.physorg.com/news184597481.html proposed] a model of teleportation of energy; the implications are interesting. to quote:
My first job as a developer was in the extraordinary language [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_(programming_language) APL], for which Iverson won the Turing award.
 
  
We used special keyboards (this was on IBM mainframes) with the APL character set. It was a dynamically typed language that had a virtual machine, essentially infinite memory space, and automatic garbage collection. The essential paradigm was of N-dimensional array objects, and all operators could operate on any object. To give you a feel of how powerful and fast it was to program in APL, here's code to calculate the next generation in the "Game of Life." In the 1970s I used to spend 7 hours a day writing this stuff... life was simple then.
+
''There is a growing sense that the properties of the universe are best described not by the laws that govern matter but by the laws that govern information. This appears to be true for the quantum world, is certainly true for special relativity, and is currently being explored for general relativity.''
  
[[image:Apl.gif|320 px]]
+
==== light boom ====
  
==== the OLD web ====
+
2012 could be a milestone year in fusion: the year that the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Ignition_Facility National Ignition Facility] hopes to achieve ''controlled fusion with a net energy gain'' by firing many lasers at a small target of deuterium and tritium.  
did you know that many versions of most of the pages on the web are archived and retrievable at the [http://www.archive.org/index.php Internet Archive]. Fancy to see the original Google page? Playboy.com?
 
  
==== now, that's just plain weird ====
+
==== internal mental activity by a BBD? ====
i find something strangely fascinating about [http://www.subservientchicken.com/ this].  
+
is [http://vesicle.nsi.edu/users/izhikevich/publications/large-scale_model_of_human_brain.htm this] the first example of independent "mental" activity by an artificial brain-based device? don't be put off by the academic dry title; read carefully the second-to-last sentence in the abstract to grasp the implications of what is really being reported. the author Gerald M. Edelman is the winner of a 1972 Nobel prize. afaik, it is also the largest neural simulation created.
 +
 +
==== Thru You ====
 +
read [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/the-future-begins-thru-yo_b_174483.html this], and then see the linked "thru you" [http://www.thru-you.com/# music videos] (my favourites are tracks 1, 5, and 7) . the musician has composed new music by only mixing stuff from youtube. that might sound "simple," but when i saw it, it seemed to me he has raised this mixing to a new level of creative art.
  
==== reinforcing ice loops ====
+
==== computational intelligence deduces a law of physics ====
Melting [http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070927090341.htm Arctic] sea ice has shrunk to a 29-year low, significantly below the minimum set in 2005.
+
my grad degree was in AI-related subjects (having little of my own), so this research and video struck me as quite interesting. the algorithm identified several laws of physics (without prior information about the domains) by analyzing data of objects in motion. See [http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/apr/02/eureka-laws-nature-artificial-intelligence-ai here].
  
==== what did you say? ====
+
==== transparency ====
scientific evidence that you should drink more [http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=439863EB-E7F2-99DF-3FE0A7665EBFA7A3&chanID=sa017 beer].
+
[[image:ButterflyGlasswing.jpg|320 px]]
 +
i just discovered the existence of Glass Wing Butterflies. lovely.
  
==== censored ====          
+
==== fun ====
Check out  [http://www.projectcensored.org/ Project Censored],
+
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmZyB_ghpa0 this] is striking.
run by
 
Sonoma State University, that each year publishes the "the top news
 
stories underreported by the mass media."
 
  
==== readability ====
+
==== why don't they just fly first class? ====
Why have narrow reading columns? [http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/pages/typography2.html See here.] At normal reading distance, the eye's span of movement is (only) 8 cm. For the average person, this layout supports faster reading.
+
the 2007 [http://www.improbable.com/ig/ ignoble awards] are out, including:
  
==== iter fusion ====           
+
* The US Air Force Wright Laboratory for instigating research and development on a chemical weapon that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among enemy troops.
If possible, fusion power solves many problems. Massive electric power
 
from essentially a cup of seawater, with no meaningful radiation.
 
Consider a future with limitless and very cheap electricity, almost
 
free, everywhere. The next major milestone in this quest is the [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4044895.stm ITER]
 
reactor project, which is due to start construction soon and will
 
be the first fusion reactor to achieve significant sustained power
 
generation.
 
  
[[image:iter.jpg|320 px]]
+
* A National University of Quilmes, Argentina, team for discovering that impotency drugs can help hamsters to recover from jet lag.
           
 
==== vacation in greenland? ====           
 
The recently released [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3975805.stm Arctic]
 
Climate Impact Assessment is the result of a study by 300
 
scientists, with peer review. It endorses the prediction that
 
all artic ocean ice may disappear during summers starting by 2060-2100,
 
with an ocean rise btween 0.5 and 1.0 meter. It's a
 
fact that warming is happening faster in the Artic than elsewhere. I
 
believe changes in this region will have an impact because of a change
 
in sunlight reflectivity (less white reflective snow/ice), a rise in
 
sea levels as the Greenland and Artic ice sheets
 
accelerate their melting, and because of disruptions to the
 
thermo-haline
 
cycle in the Gulf Stream.
 
           
 
==== light stop ====           
 
What would you think if you saw a press release that said that
 
physicists had some evidence that the speed of light was actually
 
significantly different than they originally thought? Something similar
 
has happened in the world of biology and genetics: The rate of change
 
of genetic mutation from generation to generation (which is applied to
 
many estimates) [http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3816881 appears] to
 
be faster.
 
           
 
==== the best uml tool? ====
 
There's nothing inherently wrong with a UML CASE tool, and they have
 
some excellent uses (especially for reverse-engineering code to
 
diagrams,
 
to help learning) but for almost 20 years I've encouraged developers to
 
start visual OO modeling with lots (10, not 2) of
 
whiteboards and marker pens (and now, digital cameras), and focus on
 
just a little (e.g., a few hours every few weeks) lightweight
 
exploratory sketching before programming--a key part of what is now
 
called  [http://www.agilemodeling.com/ Agile Modeling].
 
View the sketches as exploration, not documentation. It's a shame when
 
developers blame the UML because of an unpleasant tool experience
 
(fighting with fussy, low-ROI drawing in CASE tools in tiny computer
 
windows). But if you try a "low-tech high-touch" approach to the UML,
 
focusing on "UML as sketch" (Martin Fowler's term), working on giant
 
whiteboard spaces and ignoring unimportant design and notation details,
 
and use it with a partner to quickly sketch and explore some OO design
 
alternatives for the hard, creative parts, then applying light UML can
 
be a fun and useful creative experience. I shared this pratice in the
 
1st and 2nd editions of [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0130925691/qid%3D1023878103/sr%3D1-1/ref%3Dsr%5F1%5F1/103-8172189-4604639 Applying UML and Pattens], but didn't emphasize it, and I suspect most
 
readers didn't notice my point because all the UML drawings were drawn
 
neatly with a tool (for legibility). So, in the 3rd edition, which I'm
 
writing now, I'm adding a second case study, and showing all the UML
 
for it as digital photos from whiteboard sketches, to promote more "UML
 
as sketch" as useful.
 
           
 
==== uml on the wall ====         
 
Speaking of giant whiteboard spaces for Agile Modeling and "UML as
 
sketch," another great solution that I first learned about when I was
 
working at ObjectSpace in the 1990s is whiteboard-like static cling
 
plastic sheets. These sheets cling to walls and glass and allow you to
 
wallpaper a room, transforming it into one big whiteboard. Great stuff!
 
In North America, the common product is [http://www.epinions.com/offc-Supplies-All-Avery_Write-On_Cling_Sheets_35_White_Sheets_27_x_34_Pad Avery]
 
Write-On Cling Sheets. In Europe, it is [http://www.legamaster.com/798_DEU_HTML.htm Legamaster]
 
Magic-Chart. I like the Legamaster product better, as it comes in a
 
roll, making it easy to roll out and cover the walls. One last tip:
 
There is a good side and a bad side to this stuff; the good side erases
 
more easily.
 
           
 
==== ides and uml ====           
 
If you are going to use a UML tool (other than lots of whiteboards), I
 
suggesting choosing one that is integrated into your favorite
 
text-strong IDE, rather than a stand-alone tool; developers usually
 
find this more useful.
 
                       
 
==== vegetarian statistics ====           
 
Eat what you want, and i’m not even a vegetarian, but it has always struck me as odd when someone says a vegetarian diet is unhealthy--that one needs to eat meat. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/50plus/older_facts.shtml Research] shows that vegetarians visit hospital 22% less often, and spend a
 
shorter time there. More important: To quote a
 
major British Medical Association study (BMA Report, 4.11, 1986)
 
conducted over 10 years with thousands of matched people in veg and
 
non-veg groups: "Vegetarians have lower rates of obesity, coronary
 
heart disease, high blood pressure, large bowel disorders, cancers and
 
gall stones."And the more recent Oxford study of 11,000 people over 13
 
years (Brit. Med. Journal, 1994, 308); conclusion: "lower rates of
 
cancer and heart disease amongst vegetarians and 20 per cent lower
 
premature mortality."(i.e., they live longer).
 
           
 
==== antioxidants statistics ====           
 
Eating antioxidant foods (or supplements) to reduce oxidation (heck,
 
let's just admit we're rusting to death) is
 
associated with lower rates of cancers, heart disease, and Alzheimer's.
 
A recent [http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/06/040617080908.htm USDA]
 
study clarifies the most effective foods. Among fruits, cranberries
 
and blueberries are highest (drinking juice from also works).
 
Among vegetables (including legumes), beans are highest (lentils, etc.,
 
which are staples of protein in a vegetarian diet), and Russet
 
potatoes. Among spices, ground cloves, ground cinnamon and oregano.
 
           
 
==== quantum teleportation ====
 
June 16, 2004 is a milestone date: Report that deterministic [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3811785.stm teleportation]
 
of quantum states of two separated atoms was achieved, in two
 
experiments. Has implications for future-generation quantum computing
 
that will make today's supercomputers look like an abacus. As
 
demonstrated in these teleportation experiments (known theoretically
 
since Einstein and [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qt-entangle/ Schrodinger),
 
you can create two entangled quantum systems (e.g.,
 
two atoms), send them to opposite ends of the universe -- 100,000,000
 
trillion trillion light years apart -- and if you read or manipulate
 
one of these atoms, the other atom
 
at the other end of the universe will immediately be changed as
 
well. How is this wonderfully bizarre fact explained by
 
physicists? The most common is the [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-manyworlds/ many-worlds] interpretation: that there are an infinite (or near-infinite) set
 
of co-existing similar universes which exist in parallel at the same
 
space and time. I sometimes think high-school science
 
should start with this stuff, rather than the usual drill, to help
 
inspire young people to how wondrous and bizarre the universe is -- and
 
that science can be.
 
           
 
==== burt flies ====           
 
Another milestone: On June 21, 2004 the great Burt
 
Rutan's first private-enterprise manned flight into space happened on [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3746313.stm SpaceShipOne].
 
The software connection? Financed by Paul Allen, co-founder of
 
Microsoft.
 
           
 
==== rule-based programming ====         
 
My background in the early 1980s focused on AI and
 
expert systems development (which led me to general OO development).
 
Out of this area comes the technique of [http://www.webreference.com/programming/rule/ rule-based]
 
programming -- practical in a subsystem for many software
 
applications where complex rules or constraints must be met. I think
 
developers should be aware of RBP ideas and options. There are a
 
variety of Java-related components worth checking out: [http://herzberg.ca.sandia.gov/jess/index.shtml Jess], [http://mandarax.sourceforge.net/ Mandarax], [http://drools.org/ Drools], [http://www.pst.com/opsj.htm OPSJ], and this long [http://www.manageability.org/blog/stuff/rule_engines/view list].
 
  
==== subservient chicken ====           
+
==== explain to me how you forget your leg? ====
Make the  [http://www.subservientchicken.com/ Subservient Chicken] submit to your command!
+
any [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7024124.stm story] that begins "A US man who stored his amputated leg in a barbecue smoker..." just sort of begs to be read.
           
 
==== java on mars ====         
 
Did you know that [http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/01/16/space.mars.java.reut/ Java] was used on the NASA Mars Opportunity and Spirit robot rovers?
 
           
 
==== boston and rome ====           
 
Fact: Boston is around the same latitude as Rome. Same for
 
Toronto, Canada and Turin, Italy. It's interesting to explore why
 
the difference in warmth, and the impact of climate change. Will there
 
be an explosion in popularity of [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/040126/26wool.div.htm wool] lingerie in France?
 
           
 
==== tipping god ====           
 
The [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0316346624/104-0254642-6212768?v=glance Tipping]
 
Point has many good stories. One of my favorites (I like
 
irony) is about religion students at a famous Divinity School
 
who, in a secret experiment, were asked to write a Bible sermon on "The
 
Good Samaritan." Then they were told to present it in Building X in
 
15 minutes time, which required them to rush across the grounds
 
of the campus. An actor played the role of a sick man lying on the
 
ground, in distress, on their path to deliver their sermon. None of the
 
busy "divinity" students bothered to stop to help him!
 
           
 
==== broken windows ====           
 
Another story from the Tipping Point of relevance to software
 
developers is the [http://abcnews.go.com/sections/business/TheStreet/hottopics_000803.html no]
 
broken windows" story of how crime rates dramatically dropped in
 
New York City. This led to naming the excellent [http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/ppbook/extracts/no_broken_windows.html Don't]
 
Live with Broken Windows software engineering principle, promoted
 
by the Pragmatic Programmers, that I encourage myself and others to
 
follow.
 
       
 
==== e-paper ====           
 
Electronic paper (AKA digital paper or digital ink) is going to be huge
 
someday, a revolution in how we read. The ability to roll or fold up
 
arbitrarily large sheets of thin, robust display "paper" (with wireless Internet)
 
that you can stick in your pocket will spell the beginning of the end
 
for paper newspapers and magazines, and eventually, books. Perhaps
 
within 20-40 years. Therefore, although this [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3568505.stm particular] product from E-Ink may or may not succeed, I consider it a milestone.
 
           
 
==== We serve Mice ====           
 
Mice consistently fed [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3557899.stm  less]
 
calories than average have lower cancer rates, and a 25% increase
 
in lifespan (normal avg. is 24 mo.). According to the [http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/0345391802.html Hitchhikers]
 
Guide to the Galaxy, mice are the smartest creatures on our planet,
 
being hyperdimensional geniuses who leak into our dimensions. Mice have
 
manipulated medical science to focus on curing
 
them of diseases and make them [http://www.charitywire.com/charity131/04147.html even] smarter!
 
           
 
==== c and e ====         
 
A recent  [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3409221.stm study]
 
of about 5,000 people showed that those taking a combination of both
 
vitamins C and E (e.g., 1000mg of C, 1000 IU of E) were 78% less likely
 
to show signs of Alzheimer's than those not taking the combination.
 
There was no improvement if only one was taken; the combination was
 
important. That's a very significant effect, easily applied.  
 
  
==== domain driven ====         
 
One of my favorite recent OO modeling and design books is [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321125215/qid=1068652080/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/102-3930710-8858540 Domain-Driven Design] by Eric Evans. Eric has a wealth of experience in creating OO domain
 
layers, and an especially clear view of object-oriented thinking often associated with old Smalltalk developers.
 
                     
 
==== willows ====     
 
The amazing Willow bark drug that Hippocrates used. You probably know
 
that regular low doses (81 mg) of  [http://www.aspirin.org acetylsalicylic]
 
acid (aspirin) reduces stroke and heart disease risk. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2816375.stm New research]
 
in a large study shows it reduces by 2/3 (which is miracle-level) the
 
risk of mouth and throat cancer if taken just once a week. Ditto in
 
another  [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2825065.stm "landmark" discovery]
 
that it's been shown to significantly reduce the risk of colon and
 
rectal cancer, the 2nd leading cause of cancer death. Interestingly,
 
the low 81 mg dose was more effective than a 325 mg dose.
 
           
 
==== popfile ====
 
[http://popfile.sourceforge.net/ POPFile] is a great open-source spam and sorting e-mail front-end tool. Once set up and trained, it will work in the background of your computer, scanning mail as it arrives and filing it as you wish.
 
           
 
==== bayesian ====         
 
Speaking of POPFile, it uses [http://www.niedermayer.ca/papers/bayesian/ Bayesian analysis].
 
This is a useful decision support method software developers will
 
benefit from knowing to create adaptive, learning systems. It captures
 
the idea of degree of belief, and updating that degree based on new
 
evidence.           
 
           
 
==== body clock ====
 
Fact: the body has an internal clock. Not just the 24-hour-ish cycle,
 
but shorter growth/rest cycles too. Until this year, scientists did not
 
know the mechanism. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2636029.stm Now they do].
 
There is a special protein in every cell whose two ends are different
 
shapes. Every 12 minutes it flips over, and the reorientation of the
 
ends causes new effects. A husband and wife research team made the
 
discovery after 40 years of investigation, and proved it by lengthening
 
the 12-minute cycle, and consequently altering all other cycles in the
 
test organisms. This is really basic stuff, and has implications for
 
many treatments: jet-lag, ...
 
           
 
==== aop ====         
 
[http://www.aspectj.org AspectJ], and [http://www.aosd.net/ Aspect-Oriented Programming] by Gregor
 
Kiczales and the AspectJ team at Xerox PARC. AOP as a relatively
 
fundamental paradigm of programming and design, akin to object-oriented
 
or function-oriented programming and design. One dimension of AOP that
 
is not often stressed is that we can look at it as a meta-programming
 
technology (programs that manipulate /modify programs). Viewed in
 
this light, we can appreciate ways to use AspectJ that are not
 
cross-cutting architectural concerns (like injecting logging support in
 
many places) but still useful, such as writing interceptors or
 
decorators for single points. Check out [http://www.aosd.net here]
 
for the big picture.
 
                       
 
==== ward wikis ====           
 
Wikis are now popular. Did you know that wikis come from the fertile mind
 
of  [http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WardCunningham Ward Cunningham], a very thoughtful and influential figure in the object-oriented and design patterns world, though not so well known as
 
his old buddy Kent Beck. He and Kent used to work together at Tektronix doing Smalltalk development back in the mid 80s.
 
  
 
|}
 
|}
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[[wiki help]]
 
[[wiki help]]
 
[[MediaWiki:Sidebar]]
 
[[MediaWiki:Sidebar]]
[[Temp Video]]
 

Latest revision as of 14:49, 31 January 2019

Older Interesting Things

My blog on idiosyncratically interesting things...

psychological and neurological influence on R&D management style?

over the last 10+ years there's been a growing body of evidence related to political, economic, and religious conservatism and brain structures or cognitive behavior related to sensitivity to perceived negative, uncertain, or ambiguous information.

for example, there's the 2014 study Nonpolitical Images Evoke Neural Predictors of Political Ideology published in Cell-Current Biology. To quote the researchers, "This is the first fMRI study revealing multivariate patterns of brain activity that differ between liberals and conservatives during emotional processing of sensory stimuli. A single disgusting image was sufficient to predict each subject's political orientation" with 94% accuracy, Montague told Cell Press. I haven't seen such clean predictive results in any other functional imaging experiments in our lab or others."

in other words, apparent 'conscious' and 'deliberative' decisions about political ideology are connected strongly to very primitive parts of the brain involved in aversion or fear responses.

another study: a 2014 study shows that self-reported conservatives respond with fear much more rapidly to what they perceive as aversive or threatening stimuli.

linking to neurology, a report in Current Biology shows evidence that young adults that self-describe as politically liberal or conservative have different brain structures. the self-described conservatives have a larger amygdala (related to fear responses) and "respond to threatening situations with more aggression than do liberals and are more sensitive to threatening facial expressions." the liberals have larger anterior cingulate cortexes, that "monitor(s) uncertainty and conflicts." to quote: "Thus, it is conceivable that individuals with a larger ACC have a higher capacity to tolerate uncertainty and conflicts, allowing them to accept more liberal views."

linking back to psychology research is a published synthesis of existing psychological studies on ideology, shows a pattern of evidence that conservatives are characterized by traits such as a need for certainty and an intolerance of ambiguity.

and there's related research on the lack of tolerance of ambiguity and the need for certainty being stronger amongst self-reported conservatives.

as mentioned in another blog post, in my product development management consulting work, i observe managers have widely differing ability to accept the inherent high level uncertainty and variability of research and development product creation. some really want R&D to be "predictable manufacturing" and have psychological discomfort with a domain of uncertainty that requires feedback loops, learning, and revision of prior information (estimates, requirements, ...). perhaps there is a correlation to this research.

a fast way to stem-cell-based regeneration

Research published in Cell Stem Cell that a minimum 48-hour fast helps "regenerate" the immune system, and a minimum 72-hour fast helped recovery during chemotherapy. Rinse & repeat every 6 months.

how to survive a plane crash & cognitive bias

most people will be drawn to read this article on surviving a plane crash as an example of cognitive bias, even though they are more likely to die in a car crash.

this cognitive bias is an example of a larger set:

  • Confirmation Bias
  • Ingroup Bias
  • Gambler's Fallacy
  • Positive expectation bias
  • Post-Purchase Rationalization
  • Neglecting Probability
  • Observational Selection Bias
  • Status-Quo Bias
  • Negativity Bias
  • Bandwagon Effect
  • Projection Bias
  • The Current Moment Bias
  • Anchoring Effect

and wikipedia has a wonderful list of over *SIXTY* kinds of cognitive bias.

related are the insights of charlie munger, the partner of warren buffet ("the greatest investor") in his 1995 harvard talk Twenty Four Standard Causes of Human Misjudgement

could be big (meaning, little)

University of Illinois researchers have created a breakthrough battery technology orders of magnitude smaller and more powerful. here's the story.

30 gram micro-drone with camera; bionic dragonfly

not hard to see the trajectory of this technology. even the first generation micro-drone with 30 minutes of flying time with real-time transmission of video is a mere 30 grams. imagine in 10 years. these have now been issued to british soldiers in combat zones. video here

and here is a bionic dragonfly, which will be commercialized soon. amazing

hard data on dominant cause of unhappiness: wandering mind

for his phd research at harvard in 2012, matt killingsworth used mobile app and big data tools to identify a dominant cause (not just correlate) of unhappiness: a wandering mind not focussed in the sensations of the present moment. watch the TED talk here. he did not discuss therapies or mental tools, but there are several. for example, charlotte selver was a music educator who founded and promoted sensory awareness training, that led to variants such as body awareness therapy and somatic therapy, and mindfulness-based stress reduction (coming from the university of massachusetts medical school).

going farther back, "mindfulness of physical sensations" (such as breathing, touch pressure, etc.) is a buddhist practice in the theravada school (the oldest branch of the doctrine) and practiced in 'mindfulness' retreats.

scientific evidence of absence of free will

if you choose to click this link and read the evidence, who made that choice?

cheating with 'undetectable' chess computer aid

in bulgaria in dec 2012 a chess tournament was held in which a player displayed a leap of improved playing that was so suspicious that organizers suspect aid from a computer. but it was not possible to detect anything on the player in question. people speculate about an under-the-skin implant that transmits information, but there is no proof. what is interesting about this story is that it is the first harbinger of things to come, more broadly in the area of bionics and neuro-prosthetics. one analyst presents an interesting study on how to evaluate if the cheater was using a computer, with statistics. read here.

causation vs. correlation

convergent cross mapping. a research result that might not sound a milestone, but probably is: finally, a solid mathematical model to answer the question, "Is there a causal relationship between 2 factors?". And that answer can now be provided (for biological and eco systems), even without knowing the details of the underlying mechanisms. summarized in the paper Detecting Causality in Complex Ecosystems.

is it real -- or Memorex?

perhaps if you read the original Nature Neuroscience title, Mnemonic representations of transient stimuli and temporal sequences in the rodent hippocampus in vitro, the fact and implications may not be clear. how about this summary? Scientists Invent Method to Create Memories in Brains. wow.

MIT people see more clearly

could be big: to quote, "MIT researchers find a way to make glass that’s anti-fogging, self-cleaning and free of glare."

the advanced british spy service

hard to resist a headline that reads "Sadomasochism interest no barrier to dead spy joining MI6". how do they do the interviews?

bionic eye patient tests planned for 2013

link here. what more to say? we live in amazing times.

discovered? the mechanism of memory encoding

this research could be a profound milestone in science; it hints at the real core, subtle mechanism of memory encoding. it involves interaction of calcium-calmodulin dependent kinase complex II and tubulin protein compounds, which occupy the interiors of brain neurons.

cancer "cure" ignored due to no profit?

interesting story out of the University of Alberta, regarding dichloroacetic acid. Here'a related news story on the profit motive and lack of follow-up research.

influenza A antibody

one vaccine for all forms of influenza A is a long-sought goal. researchers now report the discovery of FI6 antibody that binds to and neutralizes all subtypes. to find a potential antibody, they used a "wide search" strategy single-cell culture method to screen 100,000 plasma cells from eight human donors. Four of those 100,000 cells "from one donor yielded an antibody that reacted with H1, H5, and H7 viruses."

who can resist reading a news items titled...

Harry Potter dwarf spared jail over juggler's hat sex act

brain on a plate

researchers at the university of pittsburgh have grown an active "living" partial rat brain in a dish.

big

prediction: within 20 years, something like this is going to be huge. this is an entire mobile phone based on this important trend. this will revolutionize the form factor of devices. probably in tube or scroll-style -- check out seconds 42-49 in the first video.

longer term? probably the ability to replace the biological lens of the eyeball with artificial lens that display (via wireless signals) images.

nobiletin

nobiletin, found in the skin of tangerines, is a citrus flavonoid recently shown in mice studies to have strongly attenuated atherosclerosis and VLDL overproduction, and reduced obesity.

800 lumens, 20 years, 8 watts

there is some very tentative research that CFL lights may have carcinogenic issues, but fortunately, LED home lighting is now emerging.

no, no, no

the youtube commenter probably said it best, "if he fell he would probably land on his gigantic balls and survive." this is just a little out of my comfort zone.

the magician

the wonderful, colorful physicist richard feynman gave a series of lectures on physics, that have long been famous for their approach. they are now online, and well worth watching.

at los alamos, during the a-bomb project, the science leader oppenheimer said of feynman (and consider the competition there!), "He is by all odds the most brilliant young physicist here, and everyone knows this".

online documentaries

while surfing for the Watson AI video, stumbled across a nice streaming documentary site, that organizes videos mostly from youtube: DocumentaryStorm

an AI milestone

the "AI" system Watson created by researchers at IBM and several universities, that won the Jeopardy! TV game show, is the first example seen (observing since the 1970s) of a computer system that made me go, "wow, finally getting somewhere interesting with AI research." will be fascinating to see how the "deep QA" ideas applied in Watson are put to practical use; for example, IBM is now implementing "medical Watson" for commercialization.

never too old

good for him! and good for her

coach potato marathon mouse

slim, healthy, super fit endurance athlete body -- not by exercising, but by AICAR?

salk institute researchers discovered that a key dynamic of slow-twitch muscle endurance exercise (e.g., jogging) is that it triggers the development of more mitochondria that burn fat. and AICAR stimulates this same biochemical process, stimulating the creation of more slow-twitch muscles and fat-burning mitochondria. they did an experiment with mice that were sedentary for months, but fed AICAR daily. the first noteworthy thing was that the coach-potato mice remained slim and healthy looking. and then, without any prior exercise or training, the coach potato mice were put in a high-endurance marathon tread mill run -- and were immediately a champion "marathon mice" that could exercise for a long.

as the researchers point out, this drug could be useful for old people or others who are temporarily bed ridden and quickly losing muscle tone.

where did i leave my walking shoes?

a recent study published in PNAS showed that 40 minutes 3 times per week (for 1 year) of brisk walking (an aerobic activity) for a group of (prior-sedentary) seniors increased hippocampal and medial temporal lobe volumes by 2%, and was concomitantly associated with improved cognitive/memory function. OTOH, a matched group that only did stretching exercises degraded.

e-eyes

interesting for bifocal or progressive glass lens wearers: the introduction of dynamic electronic focusing lens, emPower. the technology is described as "the single most significant advancement in prescription eyewear in the last 50 years" -- that might be true.

fists of fury?

a study published in journal of consumer research showed that clenching muscles (such as a fist) was associated with increased self-control, such as resisting your third helping of chocolate mousse. To quote: Participants who were instructed to tighten their muscles, regardless of which muscles they tightened—hand, finger, calf, or biceps—while trying to exert self-control demonstrated greater ability to withstand the pain, consume the unpleasant medicine, attend to the immediately disturbing but essential information, or overcome tempting foods.

Thacker -- Turing award

another PARC alumni (in addition to Alan Kay and Butler Lampson) has won the Turing award. Charles Thacker has won for the creation of the modern vision of the personal computer (the Xerox Alto) plus Ethernet and the laser printer.

that can't be fake

when i first saw this CGI video, i had trouble believing it was all pure CGI. but it is, created with 3dsmax, Vray, AfterEffects, and Premiere. here is a related video of the underlying compositing breakdown.

Lamarck was actually (sort of) right

important trend in inheritance and genetics science... transgenerational epigenetics and genomic imprinting. The upshot is that DNA is not the only factor in genetics and inheritance. Genomic imprinting is an inheritance process independent of the classical Mendelian inheritance. Briefly, without changing the content of the DNA, the on/off expression of genes can be altered by a wide variety of environmental factors. The two major factors that control that gene expression are DNA methylation and histone modifications (think of them as surface control switches on the outside of the DNA, in the critically important mis-named "junk DNA" regions, although that is not literally true). This modification of gene expression in response to environmental factors (such as toxin exposure or starving) has been known for quite some time. BUT it was assumed that these modifications were NOT inherited to children. Wrong.

Now, a slew of solid data shows that the genomic imprinting in a parent in response to an environmental factor can be inherited on to the children -- the imprinting survives DNA replication (transcription).

For example, to quote Wikipedia in one of the most well-known studies:

Marcus Pembrey and colleagues also observed that the paternal (but not maternal) grandsons of Swedish boys who were exposed during preadolescence to famine in the 19th century were less likely to die of cardiovascular disease; if food was plentiful then diabetes mortality in the grandchildren increased, suggesting that this was a transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. The opposite effect was observed for females -- the paternal (but not maternal) granddaughters of women who experienced famine while in the womb (and their eggs were being formed) lived shorter lives on average.

When does a potential parent create the conditions to pass on environmentally imprinted epigenetics?

In the case of human females, it is when they are themselves in utero and their eggs are forming. If pregnant mom Jill is starving, this can cause imprinting onto the surface of the DNA of newly-forming eggs in her female in utero baby Jane. When Jane grows up and gets pregnant, her egg's DNA still has the imprinting. When her child Bob is born, his DNA carries this imprinting.

In the case of human males, the environmental factor must happen to the male shortly before puberty, just before the onset of spermatogenesis.

Lamarck was wrong in the sense that the causal factor of imprinting (e.g., famine) does not mean successors are skinny (or whatever). A successor may have a higher incidence of bladder cancer (or whatever).

But, nevertheless, we now know that Lamarck's idea carried a germ of truth, and this is perhaps a paradigm shift in our thinking about personal behavior, the quality of our environment, and our future generations: We are guardians of our genetics for successors. By our actions or environment there is a chance our future generations will experience some consequence.

plop

Oil.jpg more beautiful images here.

bird brains

Recent research suggests that birds 'see' magnetic fields. Studies investigating what parts of a migratory bird´s brain are active when the birds use their magnetic compass showed that the cryptochrome-containing neurons in the eye and a forebrain region are highly active during processing of magnetic compass information in migratory birds.

causal loops and systems dynamics

Many of the groups I serve with don't have a concrete tool to explore and discuss what's going on in their organizations, in terms of the dynamics of the system. Most of us have been well-trained in details analysis and management, but not dynamics analysis. Getting together at a whiteboard and sketching causal loop diagrams can help. see.

Causal-loop-1.jpg

don quixote

i've been reading Cervantes' Don Quixote, downloaded from the Project Gutenberg site of many free older books. The translator's notes are a fascinating insight into the historical context of his critical parody. Translated with skill, Cervantes is revealed as an exquisitely gifted writer. He can shape a character rich with implication in few sentences. Don't miss this wonderful classic story.

wave particles

Even after all these years, the strange nature of reality and wave-particle duality, as illustrated in the 2-slit experiment, remains amazing. Its not really “particles” down there... both "waves" and "particles" are just metaphors for a quantum micro-level reality that doesn't conform to our intuitions of how the macro-level world works.

baby boys

I found this fascinating: Did you know that after World War I, after so many million males had been killed, that for some time women in the related countries gave birth to significantly more males than females? As though nature had a way to re-balance. How could that work? Recent research (I can't find the link now...) shows that women are less likely to give birth to males when there is stress, probably because males were more of an evolutionary risk (more likely to get killed). The relationship to the WWI story doesn't make sense yet, but broadly it suggests links between a women's perception of the environment and sex selection.

green

Green tea good. A recent study showed strong results that drinking it reduced the risk of prostate cancer in men by 2/3! That is an extraordinarily strong effect. A key active chemical is Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG) and there is now evidence EGCG stops HIV binding to cells. A variety of studies show it is correlated with lower rates of various cancers, reduces the risk of rheumatoid arthritis and lowers cholesterol levels.

alpha-lipoic acid

In addition to research showing that taking acetyl-L-carnitine and alpha-lipoic acid is associated with improved cognitive function, new research shows that the protein creatine (used by body builders) is associated with improved memory and intelligence.

mark my eyes

smart contact lenses are coming within 20 years that will provide computer displays, night vision, etc. google glass -> google eyeball

a new DROP BOX

amazon is doing the R&D to provide delivery of small packages using autonomous drones, within 30 minutes of order. damn, that's interesting. see here

Better Pies Through Science

Amy Rowat, a biophysicist at UCLA, reveals how to apply the insights of science to bake a better apple pie, here

sweet research

to quote from the article: DNA ‘reverse’ vaccine reduces levels of immune cells believed responsible for type-1 diabetes. that could lead a breakthrough in type-1.

"I was swallowed by a Hippo..."

who can resist a true news story that starts with those words?

retched booze

scientists in chile are developing a vaccine that makes a person feel strong nausea when they drink alcohol; could be a revolution in solving alcoholism. see here

geek sex

in keith richards' autobiography Life, he says he doesn't know how to proposition a woman because he's never had to. a geek is a person who finds the statistical part of that as interesting as the sexual.

"FTL" travel within general relativity

just recently became aware of an extraordinary theoretical physics proposal: in 1994 mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre published the milestone idea The Warp Drive: Hyper-Fast Travel Within General Relativity.

It is shown how, within the framework of general relativity and without the introduction of wormholes, it is possible to modify a spacetime in a way that allows a spaceship to travel with an arbitrarily large speed. By a purely local expansion of spacetime behind the spaceship and an opposite contraction in front of it, motion faster than the speed of light as seen by observers outside the disturbed region is possible. The resulting distortion is reminiscent of the `warp drive' of science fiction.

this video illustrates the idea.

but the idea was not seriously followed up, because original calculations of the amount of energy needed to create a "space bubble" with surrounding expansion and contraction of space-time indicated energies on the order of the mass-energy of jupiter.

yet, harold white recently published the paper Warp Field Mechanics 101 with a simpler summary here. it indicates that in fact with a modification of the energy ring, the energy needs can be dramatically reduced to the levels within the scope of human engineering.

dr. white is now starting experiments (with lasers and interferometers) to determine the viability to perturb space-time at certain energy levels.

let it be

got prostate cancer? thinking of surgery? perhaps the longest study (started in 1993, with 731 men) showed that surgery "has no significant survival benefit" over simply "watchful waiting."

robots invent their own language to interact

what more needs to be said?

increase in ions and infrared emissions over earthquake epicenter days before quake

hard facts from researchers about earthquake precursors.

the causal-chain hypothesis is that

  1. stresses in a fault release large amounts of radon, whose radioactivity ionises the air.
  2. water molecules are attracted to ions in the air, which triggers condensation of water.
  3. condensation releases heat.


the tomato cure

<html> <img src="http://www.aplnhouston.org/documents/images/pomodorr_timer.jpg" width="70" height="70" /> </html>

interesting summary of cognitive cost of mental activity, and related stresses and sources of enervation.

partial cure? apply the Pomodoro Technique from my friend Francesco Cirilio. useful for email work, programming, writing, taxes, ...

political pre-determinism

a report in Current Biology shows evidence that young adults that self-describe as politically liberal or conservative have different brain structures.

the self-described conservatives have a larger amygdala (related to fear responses) and "respond to threatening situations with more aggression than do liberals and are more sensitive to threatening facial expressions."

the liberals have larger anterior cingulate cortexes, that "monitor(s) uncertainty and conflicts."

to quote: "Thus, it is conceivable that individuals with a larger ACC have a higher capacity to tolerate uncertainty and conflicts, allowing them to accept more liberal views."

in my product development management consulting work, i observe managers have widely differing ability to accept the inherent high level uncertainty and variability of research and development product creation. perhaps there is a correlation to this research.

left gazing face bias -- humans and dogs

did you know that when people look at a face their eyes tend to shift left, viewing the person's right side of face? this left-gaze bias only exists when viewing human faces, not any other object. scientists speculate that the right side of the face (fact: faces are asymmetrical) is better at transparently expressing emotional state.

now, researchers at the University of Lincoln have discovered that dogs do this too -- and only when looking at humans. there is a growing body of research that dogs have evolved specific behaviors only for successful interaction with humans, essentially unique among the animal world.

the pbs science show nova has an interesting show, Dogs Decoded, that explores this. one can purchase it at Apple iTunes store.

25 jazz greats

an interesting list of 25 essential jazz albums, with commentary. includes great works such as coltrane's a love supreme, and a personal favorite from 1963, getz/gilberto.

Simple Suppers on the Tor network and cross-platform UIs

if you like cooking, and want good *fast* recipes, the UK's "channel 4" maintains a great collection (and associated cooking TV or online videos shows) of quick and simple recipes from Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall. also, check out nigel slater's Simple Suppers at BBC.

if not in the UK and the video content is blocked online, look at vidalia and the tor network to get around the blocks. btw, the UI of vidalia is done with the open-source cross-platform Qt framework originally created by two creative norwegian developers, Haavard Nord and Eirik Chambe-Eng (Trolltech); Qt is also used for Skype, Google Earth, and many other applications.

sweet for heat

not merely a folk remedy belief, there is solid evidence that treating non-major burns with honey is indeed effective. a meta-study looked at over 12 previous studies, and concluded that burns healed faster (on average) when treated with honey and gauze, than those treated with antibiotic creams and other dressings

the social implications of age reversal

harvard medical school announced a study not just slowing ageing in mice, but... "What we saw in these animals was not a slowing down or stabilisation of the ageing process. We saw a dramatic reversal – and that was unexpected," said Ronald DePinho, who led the study. the work involved an old (no pun intended), well-known mechanism in ageing: telomere shortening over time. it brings a difficult question one step closer: what if old people didn't die?

mimic octopus

well beyond interesting, this is the most fascinating animal in the world; you will be delighted to watch.

glycemic load of foods

recently heard that large rolled oats are much healthier in terms of glycemic load than small, cut oats, for oatmeal (which i like). that got me curious as to the hard data on glycemic load of different foods. here's some credible data, from university of sydney research: http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

the decay of decay

research on a gel, perhaps available within 5 years, that stimulates growth of tooth cells, to replace cavities.

influenza

influenza virus is notoriously mutable on key surface elements, making a universal vaccine tough. but researchers, reporting in Science , may have solution. Rather than targeting the lollipop head of the surface protein called haemagglutinin (HA), the new vaccine, to quote, generates “universal” antibodies that aim for the “stick” of the HA lollipop, which varies little from strain to strain.

engines of democracy

scrum and other agile methods include the principle of self-organizing teams (the 11th agile principle). here is another related story from Fast Company

vaccine for breast cancer?

could be interesting

synthetic life - venter and team

most likely all readers heard this, but it is still worth noting: a milestone in synthetic life. Craig Venter and team have created the DNA for a bacterium completely bottom-up from chemicals, injected the synthetic DNA into a cell, which then started to replicate (over a billion times) using, as usual, the DNA for its replication instructions.

the long-term implications are extraordinary, as scientists learn to master creating more complex DNA. Exxon is funding the research ($600 million usd) to see if they can create a bug that will create oil.

alcohol/etc addiction reduction with Baclofen

there is some evidence that the muscle relaxant Baclofen (created in the 1920s) can significantly reduce cravings for alcohol -- and perhaps other addictive drugs. Read the fascinating story of Dr. Ameisen that has a happy ending.

it sucks

doctors have discovered that negative pressure (suction) on a wound speeds healing. the cause is not known, but may be due to removal of fluid buildup. there is an existing device for this therapy, costing over $100, but an mit student has created a $3 device that achieves the same goal.

coma -> german

another intriguing example of the mysteries of the human brain: to quote the story... A 13-year-old Croatian girl who fell into a coma woke up speaking fluent German. The girl, from the southern town of Knin, had only just started studying German at school and had been reading German books and watching German TV to become better, but was by no means fluent, according to her parents. Since waking up from her 24 hour coma however, she has been unable to speak Croatian, but is able to communicate perfectly in German.

random matrix theory

random matrix theory, first proposed by the physicist Eugene Wigner to help determine the probability of a particle moving between discrete energy level states, has been shown to apply, as a model, to a broad range of systems, including the mathematics of certain games of solitaire, the clumping of buses in traffic, and the path traced by molecules moving in a gas. and perhaps most importantly as we enter the age of easy access to massive sets of data (think, Google's collection of statistics), random matrix theory can help distinguish meaningful causal relationships from those that are not, in the case when traditional statistical methods showed "false positives" regarding meaningful correlation. to quote a recent story:

'Bouchaud's team has now shown how [the idea that larger data sets leads to better predictions] throws doubt on the trustworthiness of many economic predictions, especially those claiming to look many months ahead. Such predictions are, of course, the bread and butter of economic institutions. But can we believe them?

To find out, Bouchaud and his colleagues looked at how well US inflation rates could be explained by a wide range of economic indicators, such as industrial production, retail sales, consumer and producer confidence, interest rates and oil prices.

Using figures from 1983 to 2005, they first calculated all the possible correlations among the data. They found [using traditional statistical validity tests] what seem to be significant results - apparent patterns showing how changes in economic indicators at one moment lead to changes in inflation the next. To the unwary observer, this makes it look as if inflation can be predicted with confidence.

But when Bouchaud's team applied Marcenko's and Pastur's mathematics [influenced by random matrix theory], they got a surprise. They found that only a few of these apparent correlations can be considered real, in the sense that they really stood out from what would be expected by chance alone. Their results show that inflation is predictable only one month in advance. Look ahead two months and the mathematics shows no predictability at all. Adding more data just doesn't lead to more predictability as some economists would hope, says Bouchaud.

a breathless discovery

in a discovery further opening the possibilties of extra-terrestrial life, researchers have found, in the deep Mediterranean seafloor, the first multicellular animals capable of surviving in an entirely oxygen-free environment. the Loricifera species have hydrogenosomes, which require no oxygen to produce chemical energy. they have no mitochondria, the mechanism of other animal cell, that converts oxygen (and other stuff) into energy.

quantum teleportation of energy

teleportation of information is a fascinating subject, based on quantum entanglement. Now, a scientist has proposed a model of teleportation of energy; the implications are interesting. to quote:

There is a growing sense that the properties of the universe are best described not by the laws that govern matter but by the laws that govern information. This appears to be true for the quantum world, is certainly true for special relativity, and is currently being explored for general relativity.

light boom

2012 could be a milestone year in fusion: the year that the National Ignition Facility hopes to achieve controlled fusion with a net energy gain by firing many lasers at a small target of deuterium and tritium.

internal mental activity by a BBD?

is this the first example of independent "mental" activity by an artificial brain-based device? don't be put off by the academic dry title; read carefully the second-to-last sentence in the abstract to grasp the implications of what is really being reported. the author Gerald M. Edelman is the winner of a 1972 Nobel prize. afaik, it is also the largest neural simulation created.

Thru You

read this, and then see the linked "thru you" music videos (my favourites are tracks 1, 5, and 7) . the musician has composed new music by only mixing stuff from youtube. that might sound "simple," but when i saw it, it seemed to me he has raised this mixing to a new level of creative art.

computational intelligence deduces a law of physics

my grad degree was in AI-related subjects (having little of my own), so this research and video struck me as quite interesting. the algorithm identified several laws of physics (without prior information about the domains) by analyzing data of objects in motion. See here.

transparency

ButterflyGlasswing.jpg i just discovered the existence of Glass Wing Butterflies. lovely.

fun

this is striking.

why don't they just fly first class?

the 2007 ignoble awards are out, including:

  • The US Air Force Wright Laboratory for instigating research and development on a chemical weapon that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among enemy troops.
  • A National University of Quilmes, Argentina, team for discovering that impotency drugs can help hamsters to recover from jet lag.

explain to me how you forget your leg?

any story that begins "A US man who stored his amputated leg in a barbecue smoker..." just sort of begs to be read.


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