Thursday, May 31, 2007
Harry Potter theme park coming
Warner Bros Entertainment and Universal Orlando Resort are teming up to bring "The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter" to Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park in late 2009. The pair of studios are partnering to "create the world’s first fully immersive Harry Potter themed environment" envisioned as a "theme park within a theme park".
Worse Than Failure programming contest
Last month, I announced The Olympiad of Misguided Geeks at Worse Than Failure Programming Contest and challenged you to solve a simple problem (build a four-function calculator) using the most obscenely convoluted way imaginable.
In the three weeks that followed, readers submitted all sorts of incredibly creative calculators. In the three weeks that followed that, we went through all 350+ entries. Each entry was individually configured, compiled, and tested (thanks Intern Boyd!). Afterwards, Jake, Intern Boyd, and I sat around the conference table for nearly three full days while we ran each valid calculator on the projector, reviewed the code, and tried to narrow down the entries to five finalists. We did not succeed: there was simply no way to narrow it down to five finalists.
Next week I will present these finalists in a twelve-article series. Raymond, Joel, and Jeremy (the Judges): good luck trying to pick out the winning entry!
Geek Convergence
Sci-Fi writers consult government on national security
The Homeland Security Department has called up their special team of science fiction authors, a group called Sigma, to help them imagine various terror scenarios and ways to fight the "war" on terror. Sigma members Jerry Pournelle, Arlan Andrews, greg Bear, Larry Niven, and Sage Walker, all attended a Homeland Security conference in Washington this month about science and technology. Andrews formed the group fifteen years ago and apparently the last time they met was to envision a post-nuclear age. From USA Today:Niven and Pournelle used the group in their book, Footfall, with sci-fi writers brought in to consult during an alien invasion.The group's motto is "Science Fiction in the National Interest." To join the group, Andrews says, you have to have at least one technical doctorate degree.
"We're well-qualified nuts," says Jerry Pournelle, co-author of the best sellers Footfall and Lucifer's Hammer and dozens of other books.
Pournelle and others say that science-fiction writers have spent their lives studying the kinds of technologies and scenarios Homeland Security officials have been tackling since the department began operating in 2003.
"We talk to a lot of strange people and read a lot of weird things," Bear says.
A fool and his money are soon parted...
"Why?!"
I keep asking myself the same question.
I've had to sell more than my fair share of extra gadgets around here (and believe you me, I have plenty more gizmos to go). So, it's not like I'm spending that amount of money outright! They're not sending it to me as a review unit, believe you me. Oh, and if anybody wants to buy any of my older tech crap (hardware, software, etc.), let me know. I'll have to put together a "Keyboard Fund Shopping List" soon, eh?
Okay, even if you don't wanna buy my stuff, there's always Craigslist.
Yes, Ponzi knows what I'm doing. Yes, I'm crazy for doing it. Yes, I'm going to have the coolest keyboard on my block (if not city). Yes, I'll show it off at every given opportunity. Yes, I'm hoping it'll be nicer than my aluminum keyboard. Yes, I'm hoping that it'll last forever (but I'm not holding my breath). Yes, I'll be keeping everybody posted with progress reports and updates from Artlebedev.com. Yes, I'll take photos. Yes, I'll use it on my live video stream. Yes, I really need to sell old software and hardware (legitimately purchased) to help cover the costs for this keyboard.
Yes, I can't wait.
Why the Golden Age Rocked
1. A barrel-chested hero in tiny pants and what appears to be a plastic racecar helmet from the dollar store, fighting to save…
2. A tied-up blonde in what appears to be a solid gold bra from the menace of…
3. A small army of communist midgets.
Conclusion: This Story Is Awesome.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Offline browser apps
1. A new version of Google Reader (shipping now) that is built with Gears that will enable that reader to work offline. To make use of the new offline capabilities you’ll need to load the Google Gears plugin first (also available now).
2. A new mashup editor that is aimed at developers familiar with HTML and JavaScript. The Google Mashup Editor offers a simpler way to deploy AJAX user interface components atop existing feeds and Google Web Services. This competes pretty headon with Microsoft’s PopFly that was shipped about a week ago. Unfortunately this is going to be a limited beta, so you’ll have to sign up for it and wait.
3. Google Web Toolkit has passed a million users and they just shipped a new version of that.
New RPG battlemat from Microsoft
Microsoft Surface
How it works
Not so cheap and skip prone as a CD player
The VPI HR-X from TEAC features a belt driven, 50-mm thick acrylic platter which floats on an air suspension system at 33.3 or 45rpm. Packing a pair of 24 pole, 300rpm AC synchronous motors, this pup weighs in at 52.5-kg or 116-pounds. Oh, and It'll set you back ¥2,310,000 or about $19,000 when these go on sale in Japan in mid-June.
I'm not entirely sure what you play on it. Who actually has vinyl anymore?
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
More Global Warming from Dilbert
1. The earth is getting warmer, and human activity is an important part of it. I base this conclusion on the lack of credible peer reviewed work to the contrary and the mountain of work that confirms human-induced warming. While individual studies might be wrong, it’s extremely unlikely the entire field has been so thoroughly duped.
2. There is plenty of bullshit on both sides of the issue. The people arguing that humans are not causing relatively rapid rises in temperatures are under-informed, misinformed, or suffering from bad thinking and bad analogies.
3. The people who are well-informed about global warming are overstating the case by conflating the well-studied fact of human-created warming with the less-than-certain predictions of what happens because of the extra warming. And there’s a tendency to leave out the “why I might be wrong” parts of the argument. I call that bullshit.
4. The people who say global warming is irrelevant because we should all be recycling and using less fossil fuel for other reasons anyway don’t understand the size of the problem. Ordinary conservation in the industrialized nations won’t put a dent in it.
5. The people predicting likely doom because of global warming have not made their case. Humans are incredibly adaptive. And technological breakthroughs happen in steps, not predictable straight lines. Every other predicted type of global doom hasn’t happened because of human resourcefulness. No climate model can predict human resourcefulness.
6. Some say that even a small chance of worldwide catastrophe is worth the “insurance” of working to reduce the risk to zero, even at astronomical expense. But how small is a “small” risk? And how does the risk of global warming stack up to the other global risks for which we could use our limited resources? That’s where I hit the wall on my understanding of the issue.
My best guess for the future is that global warming continues, conservation doesn’t take hold in the less developed countries because of simple economics and corruption, and something “big” has to be done by the richest players. I think that something “big” will be mammoth carbon dioxide “scrubbers” to clean the atmosphere. It’s technically possible, but not economical. The economical part will either be solved or become a moot point if the alternative is global annihilation.
The Y2K scenario is a bad analogy to global warming but it’s instructive in one minor way. When there’s a certain deadline, humans can meet it more effectively than you might think. Global warming hasn’t given us the two-minute warning yet. When it does, I like our odds.
Star Wars for laughs
Family patriarch Peter Griffin will play the role of Han Solo, while mom Lois will appear as Princess Leia. Evil baby Stewie will be Darth Vader, natch.Brian the family dog will serve as Chewbacca, while son Chris is Luke. Robots R2-D2 and C-3PO will be handled by Cleveland and Quagmire, respectively, while creepy old guy Herbert plays Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Plus, Adult Swim's Robot Chicken is doing a Star Wars special:
Monday, May 28, 2007
Dr. Grordbort's Infallible Aether Oscillators
Buggywhip makers deny auto makers use of their product
Google is supposed to make it easier for newspaper readers to find content online. But some in the industry are questioning whether it makes business sense to allow Google to use their material for free.
"If all of the newspapers in America did not allow Google to steal their content, how profitable would Google be?" Sam Zell, the new owner of the Tribune Company, asked reporters during a speech at Stanford University last month. The Tribune Company operates the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune.
Zell didn't wait for the reporters to reply, according to The Washington Post. "Not very," he said.
Newspapers want Google to pay for the privilege of linking to them.
Google's position about paying newspapers to index headlines has never wavered. "We don't pay to index news content," said a Google spokesman in an e-mail.Some newspapers have sued over Google linking to them.
But not everyone agrees Google News is legal. A Belgium court ruled against Google last year after a newspaper association there sued the search engine. The newspaper group asserted that by offering snippets and headlines from their publications, Google violated copyright law.
Google immediately stopped indexing stories belonging to the association's members. This month, however, links to the Belgium newspapers reappeared. Google and the newspapers said they settled their differences on some issues and were trying to resolve others. Last month, Paris-based news agency Agence France-Presse reached a licensing agreement to settle its copyright lawsuit against Google that allows Google to post AFP content, including news stories and photographs, on Google News, as well as on other Google services.
Last August, Google announced an agreement with the Associated Press that allows it to use AP news and photos, but not in Google News. The content will be part of an undisclosed service under development.
While some in newspaper circles point to the Belgium court ruling and the content deals with AP and AFP as a sign Google may be willing to pay for content, Google fans and bloggers interpreted the news quite differently. To them, it was obvious that the Belgium group had agreed to settle--even after winning its court case--because they discovered that they needed Google's traffic more than the fees that could be generated from news snippets.
Observers note that with newspapers receiving about 25 percent of their traffic from search engines, losing Google's traffic had to sting.
Ziggurat Con Update
KIT 1
1. pencils
2. folder
3. blank paper
4. character sheets
5. tote bag
6. dice
7. D&D players handbook, DM guide, and monster manual
KIT 2
1. pencils
2. folder
3. blank paper
4. character sheets
5. tote bag
6. dice
7. D&D players handbook, DM guide, and monster manual
KIT 3
1. pencils
2. folder
3. blank paper
4. character sheets
5. tote bag
6. dice
7. camera
8. Mongoose rulebook
9. Munchkin box set
KIT 4
1. pencils
2. folder
3. blank paper
4. tote bag
5. dice
6. Rifts Ultimate
7. camera
KIT 5
1. pencils
2. folder
3. blank paper
4. character sheets
5. tote bag
6. dice
7. D&D players handbook, DM guide, and monster manual
KIT 6
1. pencils
2. folder
3. blank paper
4. character sheets
5. tote bag
6. dice
7. d20 Star Wars with some miscellaneous supplements
KIT 7
1. pencils
2. folder
3. blank paper
4. character sheets
5. tote bag
6. dice
7. camera
8. Savage Worlds rulebook
KIT 8
1. pencils
2. folder
3. blank paper
4. character sheets
5. tote bag
6. dice
7. Call of Cthulu
KIT 9
1. pencils
2. folder
3. blank paper
4. character sheets
5. tote bag
6. dice
7. Shadowrun
KIT 10
1. pencils
2. folder
3. blank paper
4. character sheets
5. tote bag
6. dice
7. World of Darkness and Vampire
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Clone Wars Trailer
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Shuttle Ride opeing at Kennedy Space Center
the Kennedy Space Center will open the Shuttle Launch Experience, an amusement-ride-cum-astronaut-flight-simulator designed to mimic the 17,500-mph liftoff of a NASA shuttle orbiter.The 44,000-square-foot attraction isn't just a ride; it's a flight simulator on par with what astronauts in training experience, says Bob Rogers, CEO of BRC Imagination Arts, which built it.
"This isn't an imaginary flight," says Rogers. "This is real."
The $60 million project employs seat rumblers and shakers that rattle riders through the turbulent main engine start, the firing of the solid rocket boosters and then their separation.
Air bags in each seat sink and rise to capture the sensation of extreme acceleration. The shuttle's windshield, an 84-inch high-def screen, is enveloped in fire when the external tanks separate.
Inside the capsule, riders are subject to an onslaught of 13-channel sound, from the roar of the engines to the commander barking instructions. Low-frequency sound vibrates the riders' chests, evoking the feeling of being unable to breathe.
To get the sensations, sights and sounds absolutely accurate, creators spent three years interviewing more than two dozen shuttle astronauts, who weighed in on everything from the whitish-yellow debris that spatters across the shuttle's windshield when the rocket boosters separate to the creaking of the cabin and other ambient sounds astronauts hear during a launch.
According to Rogers, some astronauts who have experienced the exhibit have reported it to be more realistic than some of NASA's and the military's own training simulators.
Friday, May 25, 2007
The James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope is the successor to the Hubble and will be NASA's prime space observatory when it is launched in 2013.
JWST will deploy a tennis court-sized sunshield that will maintain the telescope's temperature at approximately -370°F, allowing its powerful infrared sensors to see the most distant galaxies and earliest stars. Watch an animation of the space observatory as it unfurls the largest deployable telescope ever launched.
FBI network security lacking
Dilbert on Global Warming
People keep asking me to blog about global warming. I have so far avoided the topic for four reasons:
1. My profound ignorance on the topic.
2. My inability to evaluate the claims on both sides.
3. My preference of not being scared shitless about drowning.
4. My observation that scary predictions about the future rarely happen.This is one of the many, many cases where ignorance has utility. I can’t do much to stop global warming, but I can do plenty to ignore it and not worry myself into a coma before I drown in melted glacier water.
Armadillo Aerospace lunar lander Pixel
The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, a NASA-backed contest, aims to spur the development of the required technologies. The competition has two levels. Level 1 requires two 90-second flights, and Level 2 requires two flights of 180 seconds each.
Armadillo Aerospace, co-founded by Doom video game creator John Carmack, made three attempts to win the shorter, Level 1 contest in 2006, but ultimately did not walk away with the top prize, worth $350,000 prize.
But on Saturday, the company flew its Pixel lander for 192 seconds at the Grayson County Airport in Denison, Texas, US. This is its longest flight so far – and crucially, makes it a serious contender for the lander contest's $1.5 million Level 2 prize. Watch a video of the tethered flight (.mpg), where heated concrete appears to pop off the launch pad at times.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Finales
Heroes recap.
Lost recap.
Lost Screencaps and Easter Eggs. This is a really cool site. Lots of hi-res screencaps and commentary.
Really looking forward to the next season of both.
New series coming up over the summer to watch: The 4400 and Eureka. Both very good and well worth watching.
Comics Day
The Birds vs the Secret Six. A great showdown. Gail Simone is one of my favorite writers. It's pretty much six one on one fights, with everyone on both sides getting a chance to shine. It also features the apparent return of someone not seen in years, and she's angry.
Best line: "That's it, that's what your brilliant strategist mind comes up with, take out the gun guy?"
Captain America 26
Captain America is still dead. This issue mostly jumps throughout the supporting cast to see what everyone is doing, and how they're coping, or not with his death. There are two wakes, a bar fight, and the first hints of how Steve will be coming back, all as part of the Red Skull's plan. (I have no doubt Steve Rogers will be back. He _IS_ Captain America, anyone else is posturing.)
Best line: "To Steve Rogers, The best of us."
Countdown 49
Jimmy Olsen is elastic, something he hasn't been since the Silver Age, I think. One of the Monitors is going rogue, almost an ... Anti-Monitor. Karate Kid is in custody of the JLA. The Trickster and the Pied Piper have to prove they're really rogues. Mary Marvel goes to Gotham City, against advice to the contrary and runs into Black Adam. There is a backup feature, History of the Multiverse that actually makes sense. Not a whole lot of plot yet, mostly just moving pieces on the board into position.
Best line: "Wax off."
Fantastic Four 546
T'Challa and Ororo continue to sub for Reed and Sue. The team is in space trying to recover the exhumed and stolen body of dead hero Gravity. Ego, the living planet stole hime to become a guardian of the universe. The position is open as Quasar, the former guardian, was killed during Annihilation. Unfortunately, Galactus is hungry and decides to eat the nearest planet, which is Ego. There's a fight and Gravity is now back from the dead, but turns down the job. T'Challa has the same super power Batman has: Super-Contingency Planning.
Best line: "You're going to beat Galactus with the stuff in here? Actually, as conceived, the plan requires the entire Wakandan air force, a shape-shifter, and the cooperation of the Hulk. Obviously, these are less than optimal conditions."
NewUniversal 6
Star Brand is still an emotional wreck. Justice kills a bunch more people. The President is brought up to speed on superhumans, and the need to take them out before they take us out. Project Spitfire gets turned on.
Best line: "In 1959, I shot the first superhuman baby to death."
Robin 162
Robin continues fighting superpowered gang members that are being poisoned and dying by the drugs they've been given. The pharmaceutical company that illegally provided the drugs, has sent mercenaries to eliminate any connections to them. Robin gets to be spooky, and Cassandra Cain is still evil.
Best line: "The question is, what's your next move? Dangle me over a roof ledge like your friend Batman, hope I confess and implicate my entire company?"
Shadowpact 13
Kid Karnevil, sociopathic opponent of the Shadowpact escapes from his captivity, and swears vengeance. Doctor Gotham performs a sacrifice that advances his plans. Former angel Zauriel, is given a job by his former superior: kill Blue Devil.
Best line: "Apes of mercy! What's with all the flaming skulls?"
She-Hulk 18
She-Hulk has found out that her boss, Tony Stark, director of Shield, was responsible for exiling the Hulk off Earth. She is understandably angry. A spirited discussion ensues, along with fisticuffs. Tony takes her powers away, forgetting that a lawyer may be more dangerous than a left hook.
Best line: "A tin-plated tyrant who thinks he knows more than everyone else. Remaking the world in his own image. You know who that is? That's not Iron Man, Tony! That's Doctor Doom!"
It's easy to deny it if it's not taught
The report said teachers feared confronting 'anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils'.
It added: "In another department, the Holocaust was taught despite anti-Semitic sentiment among some pupils.
"But the same department deliberately avoided teaching the Crusades at Key Stage 3 (11- to 14-year-olds) because their balanced treatment of the topic would have challenged what was taught in some local mosques."
A third school found itself 'strongly challenged by some Christian parents for their treatment of the Arab-Israeli conflict-and the history of the state of Israel that did not accord with the teachings of their denomination'.
The report concluded: "In particular settings, teachers of history are unwilling to challenge highly contentious or charged versions of history in which pupils are steeped at home, in their community or in a place of worship."
How do you get rid of antisemitism if you can't teach the truth?
Terraforming
The researchers sailing aboard Weatherbird II aren't studying global warming — they're trying to end it. The ship's three-year mission, funded by for-profit ecorenewal firm Planktos, is to seed oceans with iron-rich dust, which should trigger plankton blooms. More plankton means more carbon dioxide can be pulled out of the atmosphere and trapped in the seas. The project is the first large-scale effort in a controversial field, known as geoengineering, that aims to actively combat global warming. Despite the risk of unintended environmental side effects, the Weatherbird II is already spreading iron in its wake. And it is only one of several extreme geoengineering attack plans on the table.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Don't underestimate the power of the Steam Side
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Lego Plane
You can't go home again
Islamic fundamentalism makes the worst Christian fundamentalists, like Fred Phelps look friendly. Fred and his ilk talk a good game, but they are a tiny minority, roundly condemned by pretty much everyone else. Plus, it is only talk; when was the last time a Christian killed someone for religious reasons? Pretty damn rare. The Islamic fundamentalists, on the other hand, are killing people or talking about killing people all around the world.They say that the past is another country, but let me tell you that it's much more unsettling to find that the present has become another country, too. In my lost youth I lived in Finsbury Park, a shabby area of North London, roughly between the old Arsenal football ground and the Seven Sisters Road. It was a working-class neighborhood, with a good number of Irish and Cypriot immigrants. Your food choices were the inevitable fish-and-chips, plus the curry joint, plus a strong pitch from the Greek and Turkish kebab sellers. There was never much "bother," as the British say, in Finsbury Park. Greeks and Turks might be fighting in Cyprus, but they never lifted a hand to one another in London. Many of the Irish had republican allegiances, but they didn't take that out on the local Protestants. And, even though both Cyprus and Ireland had all the grievances of partitioned former British colonies, it would have seemed inconceivable—unimaginable—that any of their sons would put a bomb on the bus their neighbors used.
Returning to the old place after a long absence, I found that it was the scent of Algeria that now predominated along the main thoroughfare of Blackstock Road. This had had a good effect on the quality of the coffee and the spiciness of the grocery stores. But it felt odd, under the gray skies of London, to see women wearing the veil, and even swathed in the chador or the all-enveloping burka. Many of these Algerians, Bangladeshis, and others are also refugees from conflict in their own country. Indeed, they have often been the losers in battles against Middle Eastern and Asian regimes which they regard as insufficiently Islamic. Quite unlike the Irish and the Cypriots, they bring these far-off quarrels along with them. And they also bring a religion which is not ashamed to speak of conquest and violence.
Anyway, you can't be multicultural and preach murderous loathing of Jews, Britain's oldest and most successful (and most consistently anti-racist) minority. And you can't be multicultural and preach equally homicidal hatred of India, Britain's most important ally and friend after the United States. My colleague Henry Porter sat me down in his West London home and made me watch a documentary that he thought had received far too little attention when shown on Britain's Channel 4. It is entitled Undercover Mosque, and it shows film shot in quite mainstream Islamic centers in Birmingham and London (you can now find it easily on the Internet). And there it all is: foaming, bearded preachers calling for crucifixion of unbelievers, for homosexuals to be thrown off mountaintops, for disobedient and "deficient" women to be beaten into submission, and for Jewish and Indian property and life to be destroyed. "You have to bomb the Indian businesses, and as for the Jews, you kill them physically," as one sermonizer, calling himself Sheikh al-Faisal, so prettily puts it. This stuff is being inculcated in small children—who are also informed that the age of consent should be nine years old, in honor of the prophet Muhammad's youngest spouse. Again, these were not tin-roof storefront mosques but well-appointed and well-attended places of worship, often the beneficiaries of Saudi Arabian largesse. It's not just the mosques, either. In West London there is a school named for Prince Charles's friend King Fahd, with 650 pupils, funded and run by the government of Saudi Arabia. According to Colin Cook, a British convert to Islam (initially inspired by the former crooner Cat Stevens) who taught there for 19 years, teaching materials said that Jews "engage in witchcraft and sorcery and obey Satan," and incited pupils to list the defects of worthless heresies such as Judaism and Christianity.
Monday, May 21, 2007
More proof for water on Mars
Members of the rover science team heard from a colleague during a recent teleconference that the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, a chemical analyzer at the end of Spirit's arm, had measured a composition of about 90 percent pure silica for this soil.
"You could hear people gasp in astonishment," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the Mars rovers' science instruments. "This is a remarkable discovery. And the fact that we found something this new and different after nearly 1,200 days on Mars makes it even more remarkable. It makes you wonder what else is still out there."
The Best of Intentions
It is being used again in the Third World, now with spraying on indoor walls, instead of in fields.A Maryland Congressman (evil Republican, of course ... wink, wink) is quoted as saying that malaria deaths might have been prevented had DDT not been banned.
That happens to be true. DDT kills mosquitoes, which carry malaria, which was all but eradicated before DDT was banned.
Buried in paragraph 27, and paraphrasing the Congressman, The Washington Post concedes that "numerous" deaths might have been prevented by DDT.
Let's stop here. Any curious reader would ask, Just how "numerous" is numerous? Wouldn't you ask that question? The Post never asks that question. Why?
Because the answer devastates Rachel Carson and her followers. According to these CDC figures, malaria kills more than 800,000 children under age five every year.
Mazes and Mouses
We saw costuming and a set of rooms where all the animatronics and audio for the park are controlled. When we went, the audio was being changed out from the original 8-track tapes to solid state memory. The Hall of the Presidents didn't use 8-track, it used 35mm film as audio in a huge continuous loop you could see. Then, at the end of the tour we were supposed to leave and pay to get in at the gate. The club's adviser didn't like that. Instead, we snuck into the park and met up later when the park was closing.
The Five Second Rule - Proven
Working under the supervision of assistant professor Anne Bernhard, the two cell-and-molecular biology students experimented with samples of wet food (apple slices) and dry food (Skittles candy); food samples were left on the floor for various intervals, then analyzed for contamination, the college said.According to Goettsche and Moin, the results of their research showed that people can wait as long as 30 seconds to pick up wet foods and even longer for dry foods.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
My Emeny, My Ally
Once they got to know each other, they were no longer enemies; yes, they were opponents, but they could agree to disagree. They could respect each other. I think our current political climate could be improved by a healthy dose of this.
Winston Churchill had this as well, giving the Eulogy at Neville Chamberlain's funeral. He was magnanimous. There isn't enough of that. No acknowledgment that the other side may be sincere, not evil or stupid.
This is the Flight 93 memorial?
Five and a half years on, the only good news on the 9/11 memorials is that they're not (yet) Islamic Education Centers funded by Saudi princes. Nonetheless, Jonathan V Last's account of the Flight 93 memorial's "progress" makes very sobering reading. A combination of bureaucratic process and our contemporary culture's default mode of tasteful passivity has brought about something that's more or less the precise opposite of what Flight 93 embodies:
Part of the Bowl is designated "Wetlands": "The area will be its own kind of healing landscape, as it will be a habitat full of life. . . . Here visitors will be most aware of continuously connected living systems as the circular path literally bridges the hydrology of the Bowl."
The architects proclaimed that their plan was for a "living memorial" that "offers the visitor space for reflection, learning, social interaction, and healing."
All that plus wind chimes. A true Flight 93 memorial would honor courage, action and improvisation, but reflection, healing and wetlands are the best we can manage. Go to any Civil War memorial on any New England common, and marvel at how they managed to honor their dead without wetlands and wind chimes.
That's just wrong.
AI and reworking Asimovs Laws
...by setting the initial conditions for AI carefully, we can expect certain invariants to persist after the roughly human-equivalent stage, even if we have no control over the AI directly. For instance, an AI with a fundamentally unselfish goal system would not suddenly transform into a selfish dictator AI, because future states of the AI are contingent upon specific self-modification choices continuous with the initial AI. So, if the second AI is not the type of person the first AI wants to be, then it will ensure that it never becomes it, even if it reprograms itself a bajillion times over....
...Now, granted, folks like Michael and Eliezer and others promoting the SingInst view would be the first to tell us that the Three Laws are (take your pick) risible, unworkable, pretty much a relic of a less tech-savvy era. Here's a typical critique.
I'm thinking that the whole problem with the Three Laws might just have to do with how they're phrased. Asimov essentially gave us three (ultimately four; we'll get to that in a minute) commandments for robots. And like the original ten commandments, they are primarily set up in the negative. Thou shalt not this; thou shalt not that.
But if the trick is to create a positive goal system for AI's, the Three Laws might provide a good starting point.
So I propose the following Three Goals of Artificial Intelligence:
Will they work? If not, what goals would work better?1. Ensure the survival of life and intelligence.
2. Ensure the safety of individual sentient beings.
3. Maximize the happiness, freedom, and well-being of individual sentient beings.
If the Singularity is possible, we need to make sure that we don't create our destroyer. If we give them goals that coincide with ours, hopefully they will not turn Skynet or Forbin Project on us.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Friday, May 18, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Bluetooth headset for pilots
Developed by LoPresti, the device is said to automatically prioritize communications between four simultaneously connected devices: 1) ATC/Radios (highest priority), 2) Intercom, 3) Cellphone (is that even legal?), and 4) the iPod. Apparently, the system will be ready later this year and is designed to work with LoPresti's Fury aircraft which uses the iPod as both an in-flight entertainment system and -- get this -- the flight data recorder.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Comics Day
Grant Morrison continues to write a cool Batman book. His son, Damien, looks to have an important role in next issue, Batman 666.
Countdown 50
Not bad. It's not hooking me as much as 52 did, but I am enjoying it. One thing I do like is how certain elements from other books are being referenced here, such as Batman vs Karate Kid from Justice League of America. It looks like this is going to be the backbone of the DC universe.
Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America 3
Tony Stark tries to convince someone thought dead, (then alive, then dead again, and now alive) to take up the role of Captain America. I am so waiting for Stark to get his comeuppance.
Justice League of America 9
The Lightning Saga continues. This is my Legion. the one I grew up with. More Legionnaires are assembled. Villains plot from the future while the Legion has it's mission in the past.
The Mighty Avengers 3
Ultron is back and replaced or rebuilt Tony Stark to make her body. She and Sentry go at it, while the world's weather patterns are disrupted. The return of the thought balloon is having mixed results. Sometimes it works great, others... Bendis needs to use it a bit more sparingly.
Moon Knight 10
Moon Knight and Punisher. I'm thinking of dropping this.
Supergirl 17
Finally, we're finishing up the whole, "I've been sent to kill you, cousin" storyline which has been in the background since the beginning. I think we're also moving towards the split Supergirl story, which is how she is in Legion of Superheroes and the present with such different dispositions.
The Ultimates 2 13
Finally finished. The team goes independent finally, which is a much needed change. Hawkeye has the last word with Natasha. Looking forward to the Ultimates 3.
X-Factor 19
Many things are happening, and moving towards a head. Pietro is tangling Rictor up in his scheme to restore powers to former mutants.
Don't get arrested in Japan
“Traditionally in Japan, confessions have been known as the king of evidence,” said Kenzo Akiyama, a lawyer who is a former judge. “Especially if it’s a big case, even if the accused hasn’t done anything, the authorities will seek a confession through psychological torture.”And the spin
The law allows the police to detain suspects for up to 23 days without an indictment. Suspects have almost no contact with the outside world and are subject to constant interrogation, a practice that has long drawn criticism from organizations like the United Nations Human Rights Committee and Amnesty International.
Suspects are strongly pressed to plead guilty, on the premise that confession is the first step toward rehabilitation.
In Tokyo, the National Police Agency acknowledged mistakes in the vote-buying case here in Shibushi but defended the system. “We do not think that this is the kind of thing that happens all the time,” said Yasuhiro Shirakawa of the agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau.
“It is not only about confessions,” he added. “We always inspect whether there is corroborating evidence and whether what the suspects said is true or not.”
In Shibushi, the authorities have gone unpunished, as have those in the two other cases. In a written reply, the police said they had followed the law in their investigation but seriously took the verdict to heart.
Bionic Woman trailer
Looks good. Plus, Katee Sackhoff is in it for the pilot as a bad Bionic Woman and Miguel Ferrer is in as well.
Vaporware keyboard Optimus Maximus ready for pre-pre-order
Engadget link
Art Lebedev link
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Vintage Computers as Art
From Boing Boing: Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers
Looks pretty cool.For example, the CDC-6600 was cooled by pumping Freon through the
chassis. Most of the machines were sold to nuclear weapons facilities,
where they were commonly used to play Spacewars. Another military
machine included in the book, SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment,
1954-1963), analyzed radar data and featured a built-in cigarette
lighter and ashtray. Alderman's text supports Mark Richards's
magnificent portraits of the machines' pretty faces and equally
beautiful guts, a stunning series of "glamour shots" for nerds.
Amazon link
Monday, May 14, 2007
Shaping the Future
I'm a science fiction writer by trade, and people often think that means I spend a lot of time trying to predict possible futures. Actually, that's not the job of the SF writer at all — we're not professional futurologists, and we probably get things wrong as often as anybody else. But because we're not tied to a specific technical field we are at least supposed to keep our eyes open for surprises.As a famous blogger says, read the whole thing.
So I'm going to ignore the temptation to talk about a whole lot of subjects — global warming, bioengineering, the green revolution, the intellectual property wars — and explain why, sooner or later, everyone in this room is going to end up in Wikipedia. And I'm going to get us there the long way round ...
Heroes: Origins
The new series will center on new characters that haven't yet been introduced on the original show, and will feature an interactive element. Viewers will have a chance to vote for their favorite character, who will later cross over to the regular Heroes.I'm wondering how cheesy this is going to be.
The women of Mercury 13
The University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh awarded honorary doctorates to eight of the remaining Mercury 13 – thirteen of America's finest female pilots who trained secretly to become astronauts at the dawn of the space race.
"We were ready to lay our lives on the line to be an astronaut," 75-year-old Jerrie Cobb said.
But when NASA said "manned space flight," it meant just that. Sexism and prejudice scrubbed their mission and their dreams.
"I finally got to talk with Vice President Johnson and he said, 'Jerrie if we let you or other women into the space program, we have to let blacks in, we'd have to let Mexican-Americans in, we have to let every minority in and we just can't do it'."
Jerrie Cobb was the first of what NASA called the "First Lady Astronaut Trainees." She had set records as a pilot and logged twice as many flight hours as John Glenn.
All of the Mercury 13 were accomplished. All aced the same rigorous training as the Mercury 7 men, and sometimes outperformed them.
"The women took part in much more strenuous tests," said Martha Ackmann, who wrote the book that introduced these trailblazers to the world. She also gave Saturday's key note address.
While the Mercury 13 women were grounded, the Russians launched the first woman into space in 1963.
It would take the U.S. two more decades to send up astronaut Sally Ride, and another 12 years before Eileen Collins would pilot a space mission.
"I'm just sorry that it took our government so long," Cobb said. "We wanted to go. We were qualified and we were ready."
The glass ceiling remains in aviation. Only a quarter of the nation's 154 astronauts are women. The numbers are even smaller for female pilots. They account for just 2.5 percent of pilots flying military jets and 3.5 percent of pilots of commercial aircraft.
The men who made up the Mercury 7 got fame and glory, and many believe it's time the Mercury 13 got their due.
"I think something like a congressional gold medal would be an honor," Ackmann said. "I think their names should be in the Smithsonian."
It's a great story. Unfortunately, it isn't quite true. The Mercury 13: setting the story straight
The university’s “Mercury 13” program page was clearly the source of the news media accounts. “In the early days of the Space Race, 25 women were asked to train in secret as astronauts,” the page stated. “In summer of 1961, just before leaving for the next phase of training at the Naval Aviation Center in Pensacola, Fla., the women received telegrams telling them not to come. Due to the prejudices of the times, the project was cancelled.”The story was too good to check. It fit the narrative.
A reality check is needed here, because none was provided in any of the press coverage or at the university’s website. The subject is actually rather well documented, as a diligent Internet search quickly reveals.
Truth #1: However impressive may have been the flight experience of the women undergoing the medical testing in 1960–1961, no white male with similar qualifications would ever have gotten a second glance by the NASA astronaut screening process. UW-Oshkosh and the press reports conceal this by equating all “flight experience” as of equivalent value for future astronaut candidates—small aircraft, commercial transport, jet transport, and even supersonic single-seat jet fighter—all are counted as of equal value.
Truth #2: There was no NASA program to even investigate whether women could pass the preliminary screening processes for astronaut selection. The activity was a private one sponsored by a doctor who was an independent consultant to NASA on astronaut selection.
Truth #3: There never was any training: all the activities involved medical screening.
Truth #4: The project ended after the investigator, Dr. Lovelace, had scheduled some screening time at the US Navy’s Pensacola flight training center and the Navy asked him for a charge number from the government sponsor of the project. He stalled all he could—there was no such sponsor—and the frustrated but still willing naval doctors finally called NASA to find out what was going on. When they found out that neither NASA nor any other government customer was sponsoring the tests, they told Lovelace that he had to pay or cancel. He cancelled his reservation. But there was no “program” that got “cancelled”, because there never had been any program to begin with.
Truth #5: There was no significant secrecy attached to any of activities, and no secrecy at all within a few months. The women’s activities were described in depth in contemporary press accounts and then in Congressional testimony.
All of these historical facts are easy to document and verify, but not a single journalist or academic shows any signs of ever doing so. Instead, they just accepted all of the assertions and cultural and social accusations of the university’s website and one particular book.
We have women astronauts now, but not as many as we should. I'm not sure what should be done about it, but twisting the facts to get the story you want isn't the solution.
Fake gunman attack on 6th graders "learning experience"
During the last night of the trip, staff members convinced the 69 students that there was a gunman on the loose. They were told to lie on the floor or hide underneath tables and stay quiet. A teacher, disguised in a hooded sweat shirt, even pulled on a locked door.
After the lights went out, about 20 kids started to cry, 11-year-old Shay Naylor said.
"I was like, 'Oh My God,' " she said. "At first I thought I was going to die. We flipped out."
Principal Catherine Stephens declined to say whether the staff members involved would face disciplinary action, but said the situation "involved poor judgment."
50 most influential visual effects films
THE VES 50
1. Star Wars (1977)
2. Blade Runner (1982)
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) tie
3. The Matrix (1999) tie
5. Jurassic Park (1993)
6. Tron (1982)
7. King Kong (1933)
8. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
9. Alien (1979)
10. The Abyss (1989)
11. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
12. Metropolis (1927)
13. A Trip to the Moon (1902)
14. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
15. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
16. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
17. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
18. Titanic (1997)
19. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
20. Jason and the Argonauts (1963) tie
20. E.T. the Extraterrestrial (1982) tie
22. Toy Story (1995)
23. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
24. The Ten Commandments (1956)
25. The War of the Worlds (1953) tie
25. Forrest Gump (1994) tie
25. Citizen Kane (1941) tie
25. The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) tie
25. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) tie
30. The Terminator (1984)
31. Aliens (1986)
32. Mary Poppins (1964)
33. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
34. Forbidden Planet (1956)
35. Babe (1995)
36. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) tie
36. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) tie
38. King Kong (2005)
39. Planet of the Apes (1968)
40. Fantastic Voyage (1966)
41. Jaws (1975) (tie)
41. Ghostbusters (1984) (tie)
43. Sin City (2005)
44. Superman: The Movie (1978)
45. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
46. The Lost World (1925) tie
46. Return of the Jedi (1983) tie
48. What Dreams May Come (1998)
49. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
50. Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1958) tie
50. The Fifth Element (1997) tie
My only quibble is where is The Last Starfighter? It was the first film to have scenes that were entirely CGI.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Better criteria for selecting a President
Can we just get someone who is not a Bush OR a Clinton. America should not by ruled by dynastic families.Personally, if I wanted to choose a President based on his or her fluency with pop culture (which is about the dumbest criteria I've ever seen anyway), I'd look for somebody who:
Can effortlessly segue from paying homage to Merlot Clone #3 to saying how much The Matrix has always meant to him. Conjure up a contender who could unashamedly admit that if owning every Bruce Springsteen record makes him a left-leaning pinko, so be it, and then quickly pivot to the many times tears welled in his eyes during the second quarter of Super Bowl XLI.
Conversation while Driving
- Adama, Apollo and Starbuck are wacky, yet sometimes serious surgeons at a mobile hospital during the Cylon War.
- Adama adopts two cyclon children proving different strokes for different toasters.
- Apollo, Starbuck and Dualla are roommates, renting from Col. Tigh, but Apollo has to pretend he's gay to placate Tigh's sense of propriety.
- Starbuck moves to Hawaii and becomes a private detective, butting heads with Col. Tigh and driving a borrowed, red Viper.
- Starbuck, Sharon and Six are detectives working for an unseen Gaius Baltar as his Angels.
- Adama, Apollo, Starbuck and Baltar in a white Stetson are a Texas oil family in Dallas.
- Apollo is pursuing his career as a stand-up, while wacky neighbor Col. Tigh is always bursting in unexpectedly. Nothing ever actually happens however.
- Apollo, Helo, Starbuck, Sharon, Six, Tirol, and Anders have absurdly large apartments in New York City and are friends.
- Apollo, Helo, Starbuck, Sharon, Six, Tirol, and Anders go to high school in Beverly Hills.
- Apollo, Helo, Starbuck, Sharon, Six, Tirol, and Anders live in an apartment complex in Melrose.
- After the war, Galactica was recommissioned as a cruise ship, helping people and cylons to find love.
- Starbuck moves to Sunnydale and becomes Starbuck the Vampire Slayer.
Wikipedia and Science
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Life in Space!
Humidity collects behind access panels because of air circulation and the temperature there is perfect for growth.
To help find contamination, a biological tricorder has been developed. It's not actually called that, it has the much easier to remember acronym LOCAD-PTS.
Naming Controversies
I won't ask about whether you call Linux Linux or GNU\Linux. the only person who does so is Richard Stallman.
Hoagie, Grinder, or submarine sandwich. I say sub.
Istanbul or Constantinople? Nobody's business but the turks.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Hubble Successor
A model of the James Webb Space Telescope has been unveiled at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
It's mission:
- Search for the first galaxies or luminous objects formed after the Big Bang
- Determine how galaxies evolved from their formation until now
- Observe the formation of stars from the first stages to the formation of planetary systems
- Measure the physical and chemical properties of planetary systems and investigate the potential for life in those systems
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Star Maps
Star maps from Sci-Fi at Project Rho.
Atlas of the Universe provides maps at different scales from a few light years from earth to the observable universe.
Ziggurat Con
One of the gaming podcasts I listen to, Fear The Boot, is building a care package of games to ship over there for the con. they have a PayPal link for donations, with Saturday being the deadline to insure that the games make it in time for the con.
Dangerous books
Kids are protected, but is that always for the best? I don't want anyone to get hurt, but pain can be a definite learning experience.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Test you connection speed
Here's mine:
| Download: | 1,392,088 bps |
| Upload: | 422,624 bps |
| QOS: | 46% |
| RTT: | 98 ms |
| MaxPause: | 196 ms |
Not bad, not as good as when I had a cable modem, but the DSL has been good enough so far.
Comics Day
Back in Black continues as Spider-Man continues to search for who shot Aunt May and who hired the gunman.
Black Panther 27
This continues from Fantastic Four with them returning to Earth with the newly resurrected Gravity, only recently dead from the Beyond! miniseries. An invader from the Negative Zone runs rampant in the Baxter Building and the solution to the creature is worse than the problem with the Four on a Skrull world with the monster and the Marvel Zombies gating in. Finally, an intermediate link between 616 and the Ultimate universe.
Countdown 51
Continuing in the weekly format pioneered by 52, Countdown is not quite as tied to real-time as 52 was, thus allowing for more common storytelling. Darkseid is back, planning to rearchitect the universe(s), the Monitors are back and there is dissension in the ranks as to how to deal with "world jumpers, the death-cheaters and the other criminals who defile the multiverse". Mary Batson, Mary Marvel has finally woken up from her coma, but with no powers and the brush-off from Freddie Freeman, and no word from her cousin Billy Batson, formerly Captain Marvel. I loved 52, and I'm looking forward to what this is counting down to, perhaps a Zero Hour?
Green Lantern Corps 12
Guy Gardner is framed for the murder of two corpsmen, and Mogo, the Green Lantern planet is being corrupted by the yellow motes from the Sinestro Corps. I'm really looking forward to the coming showdown between the GLC and Sinestro's Corps.
The New Avengers 30
We find out who Ronin is, Clint Barton, formerly Hawkeye, also, fairly recently returned from the dead from House of M. Another appearance by the Mighty Avengers looking for the team, lots of Ninjas, an in dialog recap of the past few years/events and how they might be tied together with a puppet master pulling everyone's strings, and Doctor Strange gets stabbed. I'm not sure I like the artwork, it's a little rough for my tastes, I prefer a more realistic to slightly cartoony look.
Nova 2
Nova returns to Earth, he freaks out his family, Tony Stark tries to sell him on joining the Initiative, and the Thunderbolts show up for the Penance(Speedball) and Nova meeting. I'm only disappointed that he and Iron Man didn't fight. I find I hope that Iron Man gets his ass kicked in every appearance now. I suppose that's what World War Hulk is for.
Outsiders 47
Checkout continues from Checkmate, as the team has been captured by checkmate and then are given a briefing on their mission to take out Oolong Island, recently seen in 52. I'm probably going to be dropping this, it just isn't as enjoyable to me as I was hoping.
Ultimate Power 5
The Ultimates, Fantastic Three, X-Men, Nick Fury, a helicarrier and Spider-Man cross over from the Ultimate universe to the Ultimate Powers universe searching for Reed Richards. the alien infestation continues, Thor, Human Torch and the Invisible Girl go up against Hyperion, poorly. News is quietly spreading among the heroes that Fury is hiding something about what happened. I'm curious which heroes are switching universes when this over.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
World building with internet community map
The newest, last phone Corsair will ever own
Thumbprints on CDs
I don't buy a whole lot of CDs, but when I do, I like to buy used. This just seems tailor made to put second hand sales out of business because the record company gets none of the money.
Why would any record store want to put up with this? I do understand the desire to prevent easy disposal of stolen goods, but this seems a bit much.
Trying Again...
This will probably be more of a link blog than anything else. I read a number of feeds that are interesting to me. We'll see if that is true for others as well.