Clipmarks | Silkweaver's clips

12 Steampunk Gadgets and Designs

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:14:34 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: www.toxel.com

Steampunk PS3

Steampunk Segway (Legway)

Steampunk Computer Mouse

Steampunk iPod Mini

Steampunk Laptop

Steampunk Headphones

Steampunk Watch

Steampunk USB Flash Drive

Steampunk Computer Keyboard

Steampunk Guitar

Steampunk LCD Monitor

Steampunk Goggles

Tags: steampunk, design

Forever Young (It seems)

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:27:56 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: This is really a strange syndrom.

Clip Source: io9.com

Brooke Greenberg looks like a toddler, but she is actually sixteen years old. She is only 30 inches high. Now scientists are studying her genome to figure out whether she possesses a mutation that prevents her body from aging.

Greenberg also possesses the mental capacity of an infant, and has never learned to speak or eat on her own.

She has also suffered from several strange maladies, including burst ulcers, a stroke and a brain tumor, which healed after Greenberg appeared on the verge of death.

It's unclear whether her capacity to heal is related to her agelessness, but researchers hope to find out.

Greenberg sleeps in a crib, and attends school. Her teachers and family aren't sure how much she understands, but they say she recognizes people familiar to her and likes to play and laugh.

Currently geneticists are trying to isolate the gene or set of genes responsible for her bizarre aging process.

Tags: aging, genetics

Sex is the ultimate absurdity

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:47:32 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Isn't it ironic that we all suffer today the consequences of how single celled organisms that lived a billion years ago choose to procreate?

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

SEX is the ultimate absurdity. Forget the hormonal rushes, the sweat and the contorted posturing. Forget about the heartache, the flowers, the bad poems and the costly divorce, just think about the biology. It's nuts. Cloning makes far more sense.

A clone, after all, just quietly gets on with copying itself. And since every clone can produce more clones, cloning produces far more offspring. There is no need for males - a waste of space, as hard-line feminists and evolutionists agree.

All this made sex the "queen of evolutionary problems" in the 20th century, taxing some of the finest minds in biology. The issue isn't just explaining why almost all plants and animals engage in sex. It is also explaining why the life forms that ruled the planet for billions of years and remain by far the most abundant - the bacteria - manage fine without it.

Tags: sex, biology, evolution

Gaia's evil twin: Is life its own worst enemy?

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:31:41 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Recent interesting research shows that life on earth may have distinct suicidal inclinations. Human destruction of the environment is but the most recent episode. If true it has interesting implication on forming of exobiological theories, and the evolution of civilizations outside our precious planet.

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

their research arose one of the most influential, ground-breaking scientific ideas of the 20th century - the Gaia hypothesis, named after the ancient Greek goddess of the Earth, a nurturing "mother" of life. But is it correct? New scientific findings suggest that the nature of life on Earth is not at all like Gaia. If we were to choose a mythical mother figure to characterise the biosphere, it would more accurately be Medea, the murderous wife of Jason of the Argonauts. She was a sorceress, a princess - and a killer of her own children.

Sarah Howell)" />

"The Gaia theory says that the temperature, oxidation state, acidity and certain aspects of the rocks and waters are kept constant, and that this homeostasis is maintained by active feedback processes operated automatically and unconsciously by the biota."

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

A number of recent discoveries have cast serious doubt on the Gaia hypotheses.

Both overturn key Gaian predictions and suggest that life on Earth has repeatedly endured "Medean" events

Tags: biology, ecology, gaia, life, nature

The coming singularity

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:58:59 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: machineslikeus.com

Authors Robert Anton Wilson and Terence McKenna discuss the near-future implications of today's rapid technological progress.

[Video]

Tags: singularity, acceleration

'Men Live Better Where Women Are In Charge'

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:03:28 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

How does a matriarchy really work? Argentinian writer Ricardo Coler decided to find out and spent two months with the Mosuo in southern China. "Women have a different way of dominating," the researcher told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Men live better where women are in charge: you are responsible for almost nothing, you work much less and you spend the whole day with your friends. You're with a different woman every night. And on top of that, you can always live at your mother's house.

it simply doesn't make sense to the Mosuo women to solve conflicts with violence. Because they are in charge, nobody fights. They don't know feelings of guilt or vengeance -- it is simply shameful to fight.

Does the concept of marriage exist for the Mosuo?

Yes, the children are even threatened with it: "If you aren't good, then we will marry you off." The children understand marriage as a horror story.

For the Mosuo, women are simply the more effective and reliable gender.

Tags: gender, society

How to Use Pulsars for Interstellar Navigation

Thu, 28 May 2009 16:56:52 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Now we just need the spaceship, to travel among the stars...

Clip Source: www.technologyreview.com

The signals from pulsars form a natural GPS system that could locate any object in the galaxy to within a meter.

The Global Position System has revolutionised navigation on Earth.

Today, Bertolomé Coll at the Observatoire de Paris in France and a friend propose an interstellar GPS system that has the ability to determine the position of any point in the galaxy to within a metre.

Their idea is to tune in to the signals from four pulsars

Why four pulsars? Coll points out that on these scales relativity has to be taken into account when processing the signals and to do this, the protocol has to specify a position in space-time, which requires four signals.

With the co-ordinate system established, any interplanetary spacecraft could then use the signals from these pulsars to determine its position in this co-ordinate system to within a few nanoseconds, which corresponds to about a metre.

Handy, and cheap too.

Tags: astronomy, navigation, interstaller travel

The most important telescopes in history

Mon, 18 May 2009 16:39:49 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, New Scientist takes you on an armchair tour of some of the most important telescopes ever built. For more information on these and other pioneering telescopes, read Eyes on the Skies: 400 Years of Telescopic Discovery by Govert Schilling and Lars Lindberg Christensen (Wiley-VCH, 2009).

More interesting stuff on site

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Galileo's refractor (1609)

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Newton's reflecting telescope (1668)

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Herschel's telescopes

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Yerkes refractor (1895).

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Mount Wilson 60-inch telescope (1908).

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Hooker 100-inch telescope (1917).

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Hale 200-inch telescope (1948).

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Horn Antenna (1959).

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Very Large Array (1980).

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Hubble Space Telescope (1990).

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Keck telescopes (1993 and 1996).

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Sloan 2.5-m telescope (1998).

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

WMAP (2001).

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Swift (2004).

Tags: astronomy, technology, telescopes

Listening to Madness

Mon, 18 May 2009 16:28:33 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Interesting article

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

We don't want to be normal," Will Hall tells me. The 43-year-old has been diagnosed as schizophrenic, and doctors have prescribed antipsychotic medication for him.

But Hall would rather value his mentally extreme states than try to suppress them, so he doesn't take his meds.

I met Hall one night at the offices of the Icarus Project in Manhattan. He became a leader of the group—a "mad pride" collective—in 2005 as a way to promote the idea that mental-health diagnoses like bipolar disorder are "dangerous gifts" rather than illnesses.

Hall and Icarus are not alone in asking these questions. They are part of a new generation of activists trying to change the treatment and stigma attached to mental illness. Welcome to Mad Pride, a budding grassroots movement, where people who have been defined as mentally ill reframe their conditions and celebrate unusual (some call them "spectacular") ways of processing information and emotion.

Tags: culture, psychology, mental health

Augmented Reality

Sat, 16 May 2009 11:42:07 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: This is a really fun application with huge potential

Clip Source: singularityhub.com

Somewhere between the harshness of reality and the fantasy of virtual reality lies the domain of Augmented Reality (AR).

The French company Total Immersion’s AR technology uses camera capture and 3D imaging techniques to blend surrounding and simulated environments in real-time.

ou’ve probably seen the videos floating around You Tube — people hold simple pieces of paper up to their web cameras and suddenly cool cars or a baseball player appear on the screen, seemingly right on top of the paper. The mash of real and virtual gives the illusion that both are occurring in the same space.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Clip Source: singularityhub.com

AR videos have been making the rounds on the Internet recently in part due to their nearly seamless blending of the captured and constructed images.

In the short term, AR will primarily be seen in two venues: interactive marketing and extended-content media.

Tags: augmented reality

WolframAlph is online !

Sat, 16 May 2009 11:22:24 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Go and try ! A new web experience

Clip Source: www.wolframalpha.com

Wolfram|Alpha's long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone. We aim to collect and curate all objective data; implement every known model, method, and algorithm; and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything. Our goal is to build on the achievements of science and other systematizations of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries.

Wolfram|Alpha aims to bring expert-level knowledge and capabilities to the broadest possible range of people—spanning all professions and education levels. Our goal is to accept completely free-form input, and to serve as a knowledge engine that generates powerful results and presents them with maximum clarity.

Tags: knowledge, search engines

Bid To Have Your Whole Genome Sequenced On Ebay

Sat, 16 May 2009 11:19:20 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: still a bit expensive, but we are getting there.

Clip Source: singularityhub.com

Genome sequencing company Knome, in partnership with the Xprize Foundation, has launched an auction on Ebay that will allow you to bid to have your whole genome sequenced. As an added bonus the winner will have a private dinner with genetics pioneer George Church. Bidding ends today, so you’d better get moving…bring your deep pockets though: the starting bid is $68,000!

Tags: genome, ebay, genetics

This Is Your Brain on Architecture

Sat, 09 May 2009 14:01:22 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Interesting article about architecture, design and the brain.

Clip Source: www.fastcompany.com

The neuroscience of design is still in its infancy, but it has its own organization, The Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture in San Diego, and some architecture schools now include some basic neuroscience in their curriculum. Are we on the verge of a new field of emotionally intelligent design? Here are few early findings:

A study by neuroscientists at Harvard Medical School found that faced with photographs of everyday objects--sofas, watches, etc.--subjects instinctively preferred items with rounded edges over those with sharp angles.

A study published earlier this year in the journal Science found that we remember words and other details better when surrounded by red, and that we're more creative and imaginative in the presence of blue.

High-ceilinged rooms encourage you to think more freely and abstractly, she reported, and low-ceilinged rooms leads to more attention to detail.

clutter increases the "memorability" of a room and establishes a reassuring sense of place.

Tags: architecture, design, neuroscience, neuroaesthetics

Electrical stimulation produces feelings of free will

Fri, 08 May 2009 14:47:36 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

When it comes to the human brain, even the simplest of acts can be counter-intuitive and deceptively complicated. For example, try stretching your arm.

Nerves in the limb send messages back to your brain, but the subjective experience you have of stretching isn't due to these signals.

The feeling that you willed your arm into motion, and the realisation that you moved it at all, are both the result of an area at the back of your brain called the posterior parietal cortex.

Dualist philosophers like Descartes believed that the mind and consciousness exist outside the physical world, producing our actions by interacting with the physical meat of our brains. The idea has become commonplace, but it's challenged by neuroscientific studies like this one, which show that the conscious intention to move emerges from electrical activity in neurons, tangible objects that are all too real.

Tags: brain, free will

Pleo creator Ugobe files for bankruptcy

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:42:55 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Sad

Clip Source: www.crunchgear.com

[Video]

The first real casualty of the economic crisis has emerged, and it’s a lovable robotic dinosaur. Decreased demand for expensive toys has left Pleo’s creator, Ugobe, wallowing in debt. As a last ditch effort to remain solvent, they’re going to try to auction off the rights to Pleo, but there’s no guarantee that the poor critter will ever be made again.

Pleo has always been a favorite over here at CrunchGear, so we put together a little goodbye tribute video in case the adorable robosaurus is indeed extinct.

Tags: ai, toys, robotics