November 2008
32 posts
US Housing Stats
A NYTimes article writes about the depressed housing market in the US. One interesting stat in the article reported that “just 1.9%” out of the Conference Board’s 5,000 surveyed respondents said they thought it was a good time to buy a home in the next 6 months (Nov 2008 to Apr 2009..?). This is down from 2.6% in November 2007. I’m curious what “normal”...
How To Demonstrate Human Evolution In A Lab
Slashdot points out an interesting Slate article on the ethical questions surrounding human and non-human cloning. Scientists may be able to clone a mammoth using an elephant, so cloning a Neanderthal might also be next up. But you could do it in a couple ways: 1) prepare the DNA and have a human give birth to it, 2) prepare the DNA and have a primate bring the embryo to term. Using option 2...
A Sandwich Patent Application
Mobile Q&A in the UK
Here’s a nifty website that lists all the Q&A’s from 118118’s SMS service in the UK.
Is Being A Celebrity A Business Model?
The NYTimes has written this piece on Angelina Jolie and how she manages to control her media-identity. I’m more interested in how she’s managed to earn millions of dollars for her photographs by creating artificial scarcity. Obviously, Jolie’s strategy won’t work for any celebrity. No one wants to bid on photos of randomly famous B-list celebrities. But are there ways...
Computation Kicks
Computation developments seems to be catching my eye today. Mathematicians are working on programs to check proofs, and apparently the programs are getting better. This is interesting to me, because I always seem to feel like automation needs to have several layers of automation for error checking.
IBM To Mimic Brains With Supercomputers
So IBM is trying to promote its R&D skillz by saying they’re working on supercomputers that simulate animal brain function. The more interesting tidbit to me is that they mention that supercomputers have cognitive skills similar to a “rat’s brain” — and that the new goal would be something like the brain of a cat. I have no idea how they measure cognitives...
The Netflix Prize
The NYTimes has a nifty video briefly interviewing three teams that are working on the Netflix prize. Two years after the contest was launched, the best entry is at 9% improvement. The goal is 10% in order to get the $1 million prize, but no one really knows if that goal is even possible.
Huge Single-Cell Organisms Found
Usually, single-cell organisms are too small to be seen with the naked eye. But Gromia sphaerica seems to be a nifty exception to the rule. These suckers can get to the size of a grape?! They were discovered on the ocean floor near the Bahamas. (via mefi) Apparently these are not the only giant protists (see Xenophyophores)
Etherpad is cool
Etherpad is a real-time collaborative text editor. I created one here: http://bit.ly/kbH3. (via /.)
More Legged Robots...
I watch a show called ‘Prototype This’ every so often, and it had an episode on building a 6-legged vehicle. Sorta randomly, I was reminded of this 4-legged robot from Boston Dynamics on Youtube. Walking robots really seem to be maturing, but I wonder what they’ll be useful for? Honda’s leg-assist device seems like the obvious application (and this 4-legger is aimed at...
How could I forget to mention 'Ghost In The Shell'...
Another example of a 4-legged robot is in the animated show, Ghost In The Shell.
Awesome Etch-A-Sketch Variant
Randomly found this artist’s rendition of an r-theta etch-a-sketch toy on HalfBakery. This would really freak out kids trying to play with it, I think.
The EU-Funded Search Engine, Europeana
The EU has launched its publicly-funded search engine in Europe, and it was so popular at launch that it went offline for a bit. The interesting thing about this is that the EU has been worried that Google is making the internet too US-centric, so European governments proposed this EU search engine product to combat that trend. But this Europeana search engine isn’t copying what Google...
Online Teaching
There’s a Facebook app that seems to be promoting user-generated lessons. There are plenty of other examples of this kind of thing online, but this one seems to be attached to Facebook, for the traffic boost. I like these educational efforts, but the interesting problem for these projects is how to maintain quality. Also, how do they encourage submissions?
Do The Japanese Have A Designated-Hitter Rule?
I’m not actually a fan of baseball, but I thought it was interesting that a teenage girl in Japan, Eri Yoshida, will be able to play in a professional league with men. Hmm. In a somewhat unrelated question… I wonder if there are any female F1 drivers?
Gladwellian Talks
Malcolm Gladwell is making the rounds to promote his new book. So far, I gleen that his basic assertion in his book is that ‘Genius’ should be viewed as something everyone might aspire to — given at least 10,000 hours of dedicated practice. Obviously, not everyone can be a famous genius, but it’s certainly inspirational to think that anyone might be if everyone were just...
The Upcoming Diamond Age
Looks like more researchers are figuring out ways to produce artificial diamonds of arbitrary size. CVD isn’t a new technique, but a new (cheaper/better) annealing process has been developed that can make artificial diamonds more optically transparent.
HAL Won't Read Lips ... He'll Read Minds!
Some Dutch researchers have devised a way to decode brain scans of people listening to spoken words. This isn’t exactly the most efficient way to accomplish automated speech recognition, but it seems to work pretty well. Maybe there will be some way to use this technique on other animals that have some rudimentary understanding of human language, and we’ll find out if cats actually...
A New Beatles "Track"....
The Beatles are my all-time favorite band, but I’m a bit non-plussed about Paul McCartney announcing that he’s planning on releasing a new Beatles track. Not a song. A track. A track that lasts 14 minutes and probably makes the end of A Day In The Life on Sgt. Pepper’s sound like rational dialogue. The track is called Carnival of Light, and McCartney says it was inspired by...
Embedding Video In Video
Some Stanford researchers have created a way to add video feeds into other video feeds in a realistic way. Objects can pass in front of the embedded video, and shadows are retained… it’s hard to explain, so they made a video example.
Google Flu Correlates Its Flu Data With CDC...
Google.org is about to publish its methodology for monitoring flu seasons for the US in the journal, Nature. This is a really interesting use of search data, but I wonder what happens when the method is published? When the method is known, then anyone (who has a large enough incentive) might try to game the system. So how resistant is the method to attack? I assume the method can be altered to...
Chrome on Linux... What about OS X?
Looks like Google’s browser has been almost ported to Linux. I assume that means that an OS X version is on its way, but I’m not too optimistic that I’ll see a version of Chrome for Macs anytime soon. I’ve tried out Chrome on XP, and it’s kinda nice — it lacks all the nifty extensions that Firefox offers, but it seems a lot more uncluttered to me.
Will Gladwellian Become an SAT Word?
I haven’t read thru this whole article, this is one of those things that I’ll save for later (and then prolly won’t get around to reading, anyway).. But here’s a link to a New York Magazine piece (“Geek Pop Star”) on Malcolm Gladwell.
Another Personal Transportation Development
I think Segways share some technology with some advanced wheelchairs, but I think Honda really has an interesting device with its leg assist prototype that augments able-bodied people to walk.
This device doesn’t exactly look that comfortable — and it reminds me of The Wrong Trousers which is a great Wallace & Gromit movie. But it looks like this walking assist device...
Look Out, Segway. Motorized Bikes And More.
I actually think the Segway is a pretty cool toy — if it didn’t cost $5,000 to own. Also, I highly recommend taking a Segway tour in Washington, DC. But if you do, make sure you make a reservation well in advance because there are only 2 really good Segway tour companies in DC (and a lot of resellers and knock-off tours that aren’t so great).
Segways are two-wheeled scooters,...
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Biofuels From Simple Organisms
I’ve been interested in energy production for a long time, so I occasionally collect tidbits of information related to the topic of generating power. A bunch of folks have been working on getting algae to produce biodiesel fuels for quite some time, so it’s not too surprising to find out a naturally-occurring fungus can also produce hydrocarbons that could be used as fuel as well. It...
In My Honest Opinion
Instead of customizing mikeho.com, Tumblr’s blogging platform seems really easy to use, so I’ll just start blogging somewhat randomly here. We’ll see how this goes, and I may simply add more and more sub-domains to mikeho.com.
The big news now is… Barack Obama is the new President-Elect. Change we can believe in is upon us. I voted a couple weeks ago by absentee ballot,...