Last week I started a Twitter wrap-up feature that I intended to be published weekly. But, frankly, I’ve got plenty already for a huge update.
Follow me on Twitter at @stephentgo
- Everything bad is good for you: the cognitve benefits of playing video games (in moderation). link
It turns out that video games, like watching television, or surfing the web, can be good for you… if you don’t overdo it.
Much more on the subject here.
- Meet the team that knows who is REALLY influential on Twitter (Klout)
These guys are experts at quantifying the value of a network.
- Summer’s here! Photo=summer solstice sunrise this morning at Stonehenge.
- Private space industry maturing: 2 year deal valued at $492 mil is largest single commercial launch agreement ever made. link
Space becomes real for our civilization when we can go there to make money.
- New air conditioning system uses 50 to 90 percent less energy than the best available units. link
The development of the air conditioner increased productivity here in the South tremendously. Air Condition is the reason that places like Los Angeles, Houston, and Atlanta can compete with Chicago and New York.
Now, imagine the impact of cutting the energy consumption for air conditioning by 50% percent.
- bengoertzel: 3rd H+ Summit: Live Long and Prosper … Nov. 5-7 in LA … link
Heh. “Live Long and Prosper.” Quoting Spock here is a good example of knowing your audience.
- Using carbon nanotubes for battery electrode produced increase — up to tenfold — in the amount of power it could deliver. link
This could give us laptops that run for days on a charge. EV’s that can compete with gasoline vehicles on range and speed.
- Did other species of hominids spark wild man legends? link
The linked writer doubts it. He thinks its much more likely that cultural and racial differences were magnified to create these legends. Imagine an agricultural culture coming into contact with hunter-gatherers.
On the other hand, it seems likely that Neanderthals persisted some time after the last fossil evidence of their existence some 40,000 years ago. If a few pockets survived up until 15,000 years ago… maybe.
- British quite relaxed about synthetic life – and seemed to see it as a natural extension of biological knowledge link
Relaxed or not, this development is huge. It’s on par with the invention of the computer. It’s more important than walking on the Moon.
- I love old pulp short stories. Here’s “Castle of Terror” and “Merchants of Venus” link, and link
- The lunar far-side is probably the best site for radio astronomy anywhere in the inner Solar System. link
The darkside of the Moon is permanently blocked from our radio interference.
- Lifeboat Fndtn on Internet, “if collective intelligence enhances the chance of survival, then we need as much as possible” link
It seems an obvious truth that the more heads working on a problem, the better the likelihood that an acceptable solution will be found – whatever the problem. This rationale lies behind our freedom of speech. If an idea has merit, it can stand on its own without having to censor competing points of view.
- Sure, robotics makes us more productive, but add jobs? I’m doubting it. link
In the latest Willy Wonka movie, Charlie’s father had a job screwing lids on toothpaste tubes. The family’s fortunes suffered when he was replaced by a robot. Later he got a job as a repairman for the toothpaste lid robot. This heart-warming solution has a problem – the robot replaced many workers but needed only one repairman. You multiply the effects of automation throughout the economy many times and there is a net loss of jobs and a concentration of wealth within the company that automated.
The upside is an increase in efficiency – toothpaste, and everything else, will cost less.
- 706 new possible exoplanets. Another exponential trend. link
We’re discovering planets outside our solar system in groups of hundreds now.
- DOE to fund geothermal energy development in Nevada and Oregon. link
…a huge potential source of green energy.
- Winston Churchill gave his “finest hour” speech 70 years ago this week. link
Has there ever been a greater wartime orator?
- BoingBoing: Tiny art museum on the moon?
This is one of those things that just ought be true.
- BoingBoing: Violinist plays Mario soundtrack in real time.
I’m not sure it gets any geekier than this.
- singularityu: Andrew Hessel – Introduction to Synthetic Biology.
A science that everyone needs a primer on because… well, it didn’t exist a few months ago.
- Seems we could learn some things from these immortal jellyfish
This animal is quite possibly the only immortal multicellular organism on the planet. It actually ages and then reverses back to youth repeatedly.
- NY City hotel… Beautiful and abandoned. Glad it’s going to be restored right.
This is a fascinating look at some really old and long-neglected architecture in New York.
- NYTimes: What Is I.B.M.’s Watson? [Deep Blue for Jeopardy, it seems!] link
I know this doesn’t mean that Watson could pass the Turing Test. Being able to answer questions is still far-removed from having a conversation. Still, this is an exciting milestone for A.I.