"Eye On The World"
Complexity
Mystery of 1908 Siberian Explosion Solved
Jan 12th
Smaller asteroids may pose greater danger than previously believed
The Sandia National Laboratories has run 3-D Supercomputer simulations that explain that the asteroid which struck the Tunguska region of Siberia in 1908 with the force of a 20 megaton atomic blast, leveling more than 80,000 trees over 830 square miles, was much smaller than previously thought. According to Mark Boslough, Sandia principal investigator of the 1908 impact:
The asteroid that caused the extensive damage was much smaller than we had thought. That such a small object can do this kind of destruction suggests that smaller asteroids are something to consider. Their smaller size More >
Endeavour – Undocked
Nov 28th
On November 28, 2008, Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-126) undocked from the International Space Station after spending 11 days, 16 hours and 46 minutes of cooperative work onboard the shuttle and space station. This photo was taken by an Expedition 18 crewmember aboard the ISS after Endeavour undocked at 08:47 (CST.)
via: Space and Astronautics News – Endeavour Undocked
Tweet received via Twitter from STS_126
7:30 a.m. CST Friday, Nov. 28, 2008 Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
STS-126 Mission Control Center Status Report #28
It’s undocking day. The space shuttle Endeavour and its seven-astronaut crew are scheduled to leave the International Space Station at 8:47 a.m. CST.
Endeavour crew members, More >
Spatial Operating Environment: g-speak
Nov 25th
Catch a glimpse of your future:
free-hand, three-space gestural input:
Forget GUI, and this isn’t even SUI (Spatial User Interface.) g-speak is a spatial operating environment – it understands space, geometry, your hands and what they are doing, and a huge amount of real time data. This SOE combines gestural i/o, recombinant networking and real-world pixels to achieve the first major step in computer interface since 1984. g-speak will fundamentally change the way people use computers.
One of Oblong’s founders served as a science advisor to the movie – Minority Report.
View FULL SCREEN – click the four arrows
g-speak from oblong industries
Oblong More >
Losing a National Treasure
Oct 23rd
Many of those who fought for us in WWII are gone, most of those still with us are in their eighties. In this era of self-indulgence and expectation of entitlement along with an increasing lack of respect for the commitments and contributions of those who came before us the stories of those men and women who left hearth and home and went into harm’s way to protect their way of life for themselves, their families and all Americans need to be told. Of those who went, many did not return. Those who came home have carried their experiences and their stories More >
Where Science Meets Culture
Oct 12th
Phylotaxis is an exploration of the space where science meets culture done by Jonathan Harris for Seed Magazine. Select a position on the bar and then click on one of the stories.
From Number27.org (The Work of Jonathan Harris):
Web 2.0, Web 3.0 and Now The Infinite Web
Oct 11th
An article by Scott Loganbill in the monkey_bites section of webmonkey reports that “As our economy sours more and more technologists are writing off Web 2.0 as dead.” Then he goes on to say, “We believe … the web is evolving. In fact, there’s no sign it will ever stop.” He also states that “Luckily for all of us, web technology is still in it’s infancy…”
I side with Scott on this. Whoever the “nervous technologists” are, they are wrong. Human beings are all about connections and relationships. The World Wide Web, that Tim Berners-Lee so un-selfishly gave us, is all about connections. The web is still More >
Singularity – Exponential Computing
Oct 4th
Do you hear it? That whooshing sound? Sure you do. Just listen:
It is there – the future rushing toward us ever faster!
I am fascinated by potential. In this case the potential of “computing” to increase from the equivalent of a mouse brain to that of a human brain in about 12 years from now, then that of many human brains, then all human brains, and past that we can only speculate.
The term “Singularity” was mentioned in the 1950s by John Von Neumann, then solidified by Vernor Vinge in a 1983 article in Omni magazine when he coined the term “technological More >
CERN Black Hole – The Big Rewind
Sep 16th
View this FULL SCREEN for best effect!
CERN’s massive particle collider (Large Hadron Collider or LHC) is a 17 mile ring of supercooled magnets buried 330 feet underground on the Swiss/French border. LHC’s computational and data infrastructure is made up of tens of thousands of computers around the world. The first particle collisions will occur in October 2008. The collisions will be recorded on LHC’s detectors – huge digital cameras that weigh thousands of tons and capable of taking millions of snapshots per second. The LHC experiments could reveal more about dark matter/anti-matter and hidden dimensions of time and space.
from Discovery News:
Particle Smasher’s More >
SearchMe.com – Awesome New Search Engine
Sep 12th
This innovative – new search engine - lets you search the web visually and get an idea of where you are going. Type the object of your desire in the search bar and you are presented with a list of categories. Click a category OR click ALL and you are then presented with:
This is GREAT!!! – screenshots of pages before you visit them
If a picture is worth a thousand words then one screenshot is worth much more!
You’ve got to see this!What a concept – Searchme Stacks are visual bookmarks that let you collect items from your search (pages, photos, graphics, videos, documents etc.) and More >
Google at 10
Sep 7th
Remember 10 years ago how weird the word “google” sounded? Especially for the name of a search engine?
Google is a play on the word “googol” which refers to the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros – a number useful for describing the the number of sub-atomics particles in the visible universe. Larry & Sergey (then graduate students at Stanford) were surely thinking of the vast amount of information that could be searched with their new engine when they coined the word.
They had been developing their search engine for about three years but “officially” started Google More >
Perceptive Pixel – Visual Computing
Sep 1st
Nvision 08
– Visual Wonderment from the Visual Revolution
- the conference was held in San Jose, CA, Aug 25 – 2, 08.
Perceptive Pixel Multi-Touch Demo Reel from Yoo Wonsuc on Vimeo.
Perceptive Pixel develops and markets the most advanced multi-touch system (compute without conventional input devices) in the world.Visual Computing is coming!
Individuating – Word of the Day
Aug 30th
1 : to give individuality to
2 : to form into a distinct entity
Do we seek to find ourselves or to repeat dysfunctional patterns?
Autonomy – “…self-governance through free volition, not separation or independence from others.”
Two types: individuating autonomy and relating autonomy. “…two distinct of autonomy—individuating and relating—each with superior function in a specific domain of individual functioning. Individuating autonomy represents a volitional capacity to act against social constraints and offers a route to achieve an independent self-identity by expressing individualistic attributes and distinctions.” – from: “A cross-cultural comparison of the coexistence and domain superiority of individuating and relating autonomy” at InformaWorld.com
“I More >
Popular Global Social Networks
Aug 26th
We connect, relate, group and network:
Facebook is Number 1 Globally but MySpace is still most popular in the United States. Pingdom.com used Google Insights for Search to compare search volume comparisons across global regions and thereby assess Social Network popularity. They looked at the google data to see where the 12 top social networks are most popular. The social networks in this survey were MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, Friendster, LinkedIn, Orkut, Last.fm, LiveJournal, Xanga, Bebo, Imeem and Twitter. Social networking is obviously global. Interestingly, certain social networks are popular in some countries but not in others. Is this due to marketing, demographics, cultural preferences?
