brainwhirl

How to map a cat

2009-11-04T09:44:00.003Z

Richard Feynman on venturing outside physics. Support for the most horrific totalitarian regime in history; how intellectuals were blinded into applauding Soviet Russia. Creepy urban legends that happen to be true. The use of robots in engaging with autistic children and patients recovering from strokes. Mark Zuckerberg on building Facebook. Thousands of people a day pumping out how-to videos on every possible subject.

What do cyborgs eat?

2009-01-25T12:50:00.003Z

Hallucinating without psychedelics. Rise of the cyborgs: human speciation continued. And a look at the neural prosthetics which will bring us there. More on neuroprosthetics and more on human speciation. Helping yourself be disciplined enough to sit down and write. Fill in the ingredients you have and get recipe suggestions. Or do it here.

Free passes to see the giraffes

2009-01-10T22:06:00.003Z

Who decides what you buy? On the forefront of coastal defence; the Netherlands are preparing for rising sea levels. What is the real story behind the Somalian pirates? Will we be seeing buckypaper in everyday life? Two small German children set off to Africa to get married. Video lectures from top universities.

Fitting the numbers

2008-12-15T08:03:00.004Z

The exhilarating world of underwhelming theme parks. The meeting of two idiots savants, Daniel Tammet and Kim Peek. Multiple Personality Syndrome or is it hysteria? What a simple checklist did for a world of highly trained professionals. “I will start with meats, fish, eggs, soups and sauces, sandwiches, vegetables, desserts, and also what to do in case of a hydrogen or cobalt bomb attack." Interviews with animator Don Hertzfeldt. Can video games mature beyond mere entertainment?

The brain and the void

2008-11-02T17:50:00.003Z

Messing with Wikipedia. Experiences change the physical make-up of your brain. A bit of fools and idiocy. The very real developments in laser weaponry.

Geniuses born from the nightclub

2008-11-01T09:01:00.004Z

How to bring out the genius in children. Regular people who inadvertently changed (many images) the world. Ugly American elections are not a new phenomenon (many images). Fish as a currency in prisons. An incredible (geek) story on real life Tron emerging in a simple program. Interview with Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, etc.) about technology and more. A letter supposedly written by Jack the Ripper. Down with the degree. Nightclubs are pure hell.

Urban planning and technological singularity

2008-10-07T19:46:00.005+01:00

In the unlikely event that we manage to program machines to improve themselves, they will cumulatively reinforce their own ability to improve themselves. A bird that impales insects on branches for later snacking. Urban planning for a better world. A solution to the many evils of sprawl. Making museums more appealing by immersing people in the reality of history.

The normalisation of horror

2008-10-07T18:54:00.004+01:00

Fun-filled distraction for concentration camp staff (pdf). Far-reaching influence of breakfast cereal. "We need to consider that [Osama] bin Laden in launching 9/11, he and his compatriots may have anticipated, and indeed invited American intervention, wishing to draw them into their territory and defeat them like they did with the Soviets", says Afghanistan expert Dan Plasch. Which is exactly what Bin Laden said in 1996 in an interview with then-journalist Abdul Bari Atwan (video).

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

2008-09-23T21:56:00.003+01:00

Jill Tarter (astrobiologist) and Will Wright (the Sims, Spore) discussing human evolution and extraterrestrial life. David Foster Wallace gives a commencement speech that talks about everyday drudgery. Some people are using pranks to wake themselves and others from the routine. Were bad weather and economy the real reason for witch lynchings? Crowdsourcing works. Counterproductive: repression in a free country.

The nature of mirrors

2008-09-16T19:44:00.003+01:00

Story of the two schoolboys who spent seven years remaking Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. View from the ground; a journalist in Iraq. The technological revolution that is changing the nature of war. The irrationality of deciding whom to vote for. The hidden legacy of Nikola Tesla. Brain cell versus (image) the universe. That is not how you do it, you fail.

I am your computer

2008-08-29T03:49:00.004+01:00

How to write a sestina. Getting a computer to write about it itself. Full text of The Policeman's Beard was Half Constructed, written (sort of) by AI bot Racter. The terror of sleep paralysis. More on sleep paralysis. Some information on decision trees and machine learning. Great anecdote on neural networks.

Porcelain porcupines

2008-08-27T03:39:00.003+01:00

Interview with Jason Fortuny, 'professional internet troll. Proprioception, the internal sense. There is a name for the almost-black you see in absence of light. There is an actual condition called the Exploding Head Syndrome, but it's not what you might think. Disruption of the sleeping cycle, deliberate sleep deprivation, and taming sleep permanently. The dissimilarity in birthrates. Cover designers of famous writers. Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. Satirical WWI (images) maps of Europe. The urgent issue of national security that the US didn't deal with.

A bit of brain before the weekend

2008-08-08T18:33:00.005+01:00

WWII bombing run based on travel guide to Britain. The British accidentally sink ships with 7,000 concentration camp victims. More than you should ever know about the serial comma. Enjoy the short popularity of intelligent music. Euphemisms used to talk about Iraq policy. The online traces of the alleged anthrax killer. "Neither the campaigners nor the police would comment, because they’re made of Lego and therefore can’t talk."

The lugubrious, absurd and brilliant

2008-08-07T19:49:00.004+01:00

Terribly awful journalism. The joy of pursuing the absurd, people who read dictionaries. What is the role of character in society? Life at the bottom of the ocean. Amazing photos of the still virgin Large Hadron Collider. A quest to getting one's head around memory. More on memory palaces. A discourse between Benjamin Franklin and... the gout. Review (with pop-up ad) of a new book about Kafka. Article on the moral opposites of Dostoyevski and the Marquis de Sade. Geniuses aren't necessarily born that way. The lugubrious way of life of behaviour-modifying parasites. Mind Muphry's Law and think twice before you correct someone's spelling. The deceit of Amazon reviews. A dedicated pastry chef if there ever was one. Who really were the 'responsible' parties of the Love Canal disaster? Britain, like any country, has hordes of deeply befuddled people.

Better than dried clementines

2008-08-03T23:07:00.004+01:00

Some of these quotes are brilliantly funny. Redesign package for Gmail. The psychology of the Sims. Patterns arising from simple interactions, and its role in games. Something to wrap your head around. Loteries are used primarily by those who cannot afford it. The end of humanity? A small mistake can mess things up right good, as demonstrated over and over (images) again. We saw the heavy metal monk, but how rockin' is the Middle East? The historical mistakes of a great film. Interesting new research (obtrusive heading) on autism. Perception influenced by 'random' brain activity? Unsettling new military development.

Distant changes

2008-08-01T20:05:00.004+01:00

Today is exactly 4 years since the Paraguay supermarket fire, killing 374. Silly interview with the creator of Solitaire/Patience. Simple rules leading to complex behaviour: Langton's Ant, more Langton's Ant, and Paterson's Worms. Langton's lambda parameter, from randomness (too chaotic) to complete order (too predictable), to the Edge of Chaos. Very interesting article on removing the clutter of traffic signs. The ancient history of humour, a review of two books on the subject. The calendar computer of the old Greeks. A read on lifts/elevators that will keep you occupied for a while. The security video (youtube) of the unfortunate man mentioned in the story. What is it like to lose one's sense of smell? It's good to know some phrases in a foreign language, especially these.

Save the Tree Octopus (from Sasquatch)

2008-07-30T18:21:00.007+01:00

Coleridge poem about Kublai Khan, and an exhaustive analysis of that poem. When Marco Polo (allegedly) visited China, he met Kublai Kahn. Very smart and simple architectural solutions to green building (image). Passive solar design versus thorough insulation. Chinese booklet for dealing with English tourists at the Olympics. Students insist Tree Octopus exists because it says so on an internet page. More on this here and here. The external links on this page lead to various online experiments you can participate in. A group of Google employees have started their own search engine to rival Google. It's very promising, but with obvious flaws. And now I shall shamelessly promote the British quiz Quite Interesting. Ten ways to make user comments stir up less contempt for your fellow man.

Pork knuckles in beer batter

2008-07-28T17:47:00.006+01:00

All the rage: stealth advertising. It's popping up everywhere. Evolutionary biologist Richard Lenski elegantly responds (warning: conservapedia) to a creationist questioning his research. More about this here. A hundred years later some are still talking about this boozefest. Alcohol is not the reason why we have forgotten how to read. Have you noticed how the use of soundtracks has changed? The psychology of mirrors. If you didn't already have certain ideas about the American South, here's some food for thought. More brain food here and here, if you can stomach it. An interesting but impractical contact lens. Someone collected some precious (occasional profanity) moments of sleep talk.

I like my DNA with mayo

2008-07-27T14:22:00.003+01:00

This article about suboptimisation provides a clear explanation of the tragedy of the commons and the role of the greater good in evolutionary ethics. The concept also relates to business. Is suboptimisation a factor in the rise of eusociality in insects (pdf)? Another possible way that eusociality might have evolved is the genetic trick used by bdelloid rotifers in their asexual reproduction. More on self-organisation in stigmergy, the beautiful psychology of indirectly elicited collaboration. A wikipedia article on swarm intelligence, with a wealth of further concepts to explore. An animation of the Meselson-Stahl experiment that confirmed semi-conservative DNA replication. The subtle nudges of our subconsciousness. Lucid and fun animation of the interesting Benford's Law (video). Tired of science? Try extreme rock-paper-scissors (image). Less subtle (video) is how this Museum of Natural History attracts the attention of kids. A ruthless j'accuse from Orscon Scott Card aimed at J.K. Rowling. And finally, see how the computer 'thinks' in a game of chess (game).