- Tarot Cards | Complex Networks
Tarot for understanding the 21st century.
- How Many Decimals of Pi Do We Really Need?
A NASA engineer explains the errors introduced by rounding Pi at various scales. More interesting than you think.
Tag: space
Bookmarks for August 18, 2011
- Scripting Languages: PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby – Hyperpolyglot
Likely of no interest to non-webdev-nerds, but potentially of enormous value to me, in terms of learning new languages. I sort of vaguely know Ruby, but this direct translation from PHP to Ruby would speed what little ruby hacking I do.
- It's Sexy A-Levels!
A blog exploring the hypothesis that UK newspapers believe that only attractive girls in low cut tops do A-Levels.
- fleet street fox: More pictures like this, please.
A counter-argument: it is excellent that at A-level results time, the papers fill up with photos of attractive young women. Less sexist that you think.
- Tetrapharmakos – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I stumbled across this set of 4 simple maxims for a happy life, and really like it.
- Up, up and away into near-space in a beautiful bloon
Statement of intent: I will do this before I die.
- Special ed student raped by classmate, forced by school to apologize to him, then raped again, lawsuit claims (UPDATED) – Boing Boing
I wanted to link to this not because it's directly relevant to me (other than, y'know, as a human being with an ounce of compassion somewhere under a rock in here), or even because it's an exceptionally horrible story (it is, but the plain truth is that worse things happen every day, and I don't link to news about them), but just because it strikes me as a very, very stark reminder of how, even in the "developed" world, we still have such a very very long way to go before we can call ourselves civilised.
Bookmarks for December 1, 2010
- Spacelog
The stories of early space exploration from the original NASA transcripts. Now open to the public in a searchable, linkable format. Well, this will eat chunks of my time…
- The Foundation
There's a short film competition happening here. Prize is a grand, and, well, it's a bit thin on the ground for entries. I'm just sayin' that if anyone fancied making a short film, they'd stand a decent chance of winning cash.
Bookmarks for September 30, 2010
- Murray 4 Mayor
Because Toronto deserves something nice. There are a number of Torontonians around these parts. I urge you all to vote Murray, in the strongest, tenderest possible terms.
- Newly discovered planet may be first truly habitable exoplanet – UC Santa Cruz
And yet we're still not funding space travel properly. What's up with that?
- 50 years of cyborgs: I have not the words. | Quinn Said
This ones doing the rounds, and with excellent reason. A bit of writing on posthumanity that encompasses all the usual stuff and cyborgs and tool using and modern infrastructure, and goes to some fascinating and non-generally considered places beyond that. For example: "a cyborg revolution was happening the same year Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline coined the term. A hostile environment was being tamed by a newly and artificially capable people. It escaped notice and critique though, because the modified weren’t men, and then environment wasn’t space. The modified were women, and the environment was men. The women of the 60s were the first to modify and control their uteruses."
- The ecstasy of influence: A plagiarism, By Jonathan Lethem (Harper's Magazine)
An absolutely superb essay on influence, creativity, and copyright. The absolute best writing I have read on this subject, anywhere. And with a truly superb sting in the tail…
- Subtraction.com: The Only Thing a Router Is Good For
This is one of those "so simple it's obvious" things, that clearly, no-one has ever thought of. I have one (semi-)regular physical interaction with my internet router, and I bet it's the same one you do. I turn it off and on again. That's the only thing I ever do with it. And yet, the switch to do that is hidden at the back, and there is absolutely no reason why this should be so. No reason at all.
Bookmarks for January 29, 2010
- Adria: elBulli Restaurant to Close for Two Years – TIME
Bugger. Eating at ElBulli was pretty much the top spot on the "things to do before I die" list, and yeah, he's going to re-open, but it's still an experience I'm unlikely to ever get to have, in it's current form. I shall revise it to "Eat Ferran Adria's food", but it's still saddening.
- stevenf.com – I need to talk to you about computers.
Excellent article on the place for an iPad in the history of computing, and the generation shift that is occurring. For myself, I am having to keep reminding myself that I don't need one as a priority, that version 2.0 will be much better, and so on and so forth. I really do want a decent ebook/magazine reader…
- xkcd: Spirit
I found today's XKCD near-heartbreaking on a number of levels. Why aren't we trying to get it home, for fuck's sake? I know it's not alive, but it's out there, and we're not even trying to go after it…
Bookmarks for July 20, 2009
- Difford's guide
The best cocktail guide in the world is now available in searchable on-line form. Result!
- Quote For The Day
"Memory, being a phenomenon of emotion and magic, accommodates only those facts that suit it…"
- Amazon's Orwellian deletion of Kindle books – Boing Boing
And this, right here, is why I will not buy a kindle, or purchase ebooks in a DRMed format. I would be incandescent if something like that happened to music I own, but the thought of it happening to a *book* I owned would give me an aneurysm. I mean, it's a *book*.
- BBC Confirm Steven Moffat/Mark Gatiss Sherlock Holmes Drama | Bleeding Cool Comic News & Rumors
I await this with some interest. The words "dynamic superhero" to describe Holmes aren't totally out of keeping with the character, assuming it's handled right, and I loved Moffat's Jekyll, and well, it's Sherlock fucking Holmes.
- E-merl.com – Four Derangements
Daniel Merlin Goodbrey was my collaborator on Rust, the Eagle award nominated webcomic I wrote some time around 2000. Rust was never finished, and he has since gone on to much bigger and better things, which is fitting, because he possesses far more talent and discipline than I do. He remains one of the only people I know with an genuine interest in webcomics as *web* comics, works that truly use the full toolset afforded by the possibilities of the web, instead of just treating the web as the distribution medium for a print comic – his webcomics are genuine hyperfictions that could not exist offline. He has produced a new webcomic here, and it is as good as ever. Go. Look. Learn.
- Charlie's Diary: What have the Romans done for us …?
I know some people who are ambivalent about the space program. This concerns me slightly, as they give the outward signs of being normal human beings, and then they indicate that their brains are a bit strange by holding views like that. Well, here is a link explaining why basically, without the space program, we'd be living in a very different world.
Bookmarks for July 16, 2009
- Remembering Apollo 11 – The Big Picture – Boston.com
By the time this is posted, I am sure you'll all have seen this link everywhere on the internet today. Don't care. Go look at these photos again. They're a record of the single grandest achievement in the history of our species. I take the piss out of people who keep asking "where's my flying car?", but secretly, I won't consider it the future until I go on holiday to a moon base.
Bookmarks for July 15, 2008
- Rare ‘Star-Making Machine’ Found In Distant Universe
Just read that headline a few times. Go on. Now: that’s not science-fiction. It’s, y’know, a real thing. Tell me that’s not enough awesome for a week, right there. That’s cheered me right up, that has.