Excellent critical parody of Dan Brown. (Better than this attempt.) (Hat tip also to BifRiv)
Unnecessarily Repetitive Tautology
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May 20, 2013 at 4:46pm
by Psybertron
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Keeping Humans in the Loop
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May 20, 2013 at 4:32pm
by Psybertron
Interesting analysis of Google’s enduring strength in finding what you’re looking for. The magic ingredient is the (intelligent) human selecting the words for the search string. No need, or diminished future need, for the likes of AI or NLP etc. (Hat tip to BifRiv)
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Interesting take on Houston
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May 20, 2013 at 3:42pm
by Psybertron
WSJ interview with the current mayor of Houston. Hat tip to Matt.
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Governance not Mob Rule, Please
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May 20, 2013 at 11:20am
by Psybertron
In response to this Herald Scotland piece on EU and UK Constitutional  difficulties being posted on Facebook Smiffy posted this: I can’t even decide which way I would vote on our membership of the EU. I see that there are apparently valid arguments on both sides, both sides use economic and social arguments for their [...]
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Bigger Moral Fish to Fry
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May 20, 2013 at 10:44am
by Psybertron
Yet again politics is getting tied in knots over trivial waste-of-time issues – I last mentioned sexual orientation and same sex marriages here, but really it’s the same as Scottish / UK / EU independence debates, and the abolish the lords / bishops in the second chamber debates. Thank god for the lords, as one [...]
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Quantum in “Scare Quotes”
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May 16, 2013 at 2:10pm
by Psybertron
Good job this story has “Quantum Computing” in scare quotes because it’s nothing to do with quantum computing – computing using quantum information in qubits. It’s a computer that uses quantum effects, like every computer – in fact like every device, and indeed everything in the cosmos, you and me included. What it is using specifically [...]
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WordPress Attacks, Who Cares?
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May 16, 2013 at 11:21am
by Psybertron
There’s been a spate of attacks against WordPress highlighted last month by WordPress (Matt Mullenweg) and continuing to affect hosts this month (DreamHost in my case, May 11, 12, 13, 14 etc.). Bringing down services and sites. Brute force attacks by robot agents attempting automated logins to hack into WordPress accounts and their hosts. I [...]
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More on Left/Right Brain
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May 16, 2013 at 9:55am
by Psybertron
Suspect this effect is as old as Orpheus, but interesting that the study suggest a hormonal right-brain effect different between the sexes . One for the growing collection on brain hemispheres. (Hat tip to Johan on Facebook)
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Easy to knock @gapingvoid
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May 16, 2013 at 8:00am
by Psybertron
Several levels of hypocrisy in this Slate report on Google CEO Larry Page’s keynote and in Larry’s thoughts themselves of course. Google are in big business to make big money, and that involves competing “against” their competitors for sure. That’s the world which they (and we, and journo’s) inhabit. (Hat tip to Hugh McLeod @gapingvoid) But [...]
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There’s a name for it @DavidGurteen
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May 15, 2013 at 4:23pm
by Psybertron
Remote working is all well and good, but as I’ve always said, unless the work is trivially straightforward, you need a pre-established good working relationship with the team; those you need to collaborate with remotely. And you need to top up that relationship, get re-aligned, back on the same page, etc with regular periodic face-to-face [...]
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I’ve Never Seen Star Wars @tiffanyjenkins
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May 14, 2013 at 10:32am
by Psybertron
I count myself as one of those who has never seen Star Wars. OK, I’ve obviously seen plenty of clips, and experienced the memes, Â and maybe even accidentally seen large chunks of the original as “Christmas TV” – but I’ve never deliberately watched any of them. Like any good vs evil soap-opera, they’re a rehash [...]
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Hell
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May 14, 2013 at 9:42am
by Psybertron
Can’t stand Dan Brown, but this BBC magazine article is somehow interesting none-the-less.
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What’s so funny ’bout … #37
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May 14, 2013 at 9:34am
by Psybertron
Feynman already was inspirational when he was alive, but “The Fantastic Mr Feynman” was an excellent science documentary for a science editor to conclude, as Feynman himself did, that love is more important than science. Ironic that they included that science-101 lecture clip where he emphasises the basic falsification rule of science, that if the experiment [...]
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Public Image by PiL
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May 13, 2013 at 9:09am
by Psybertron
Interesting, the full live Moshcam You-Tube video of PiL performing in Sydney 10th April includes Public Image amongst all the regulars from the recent tour sets. Starts riskily with the sparse and least accessible Four Enclosed Walls. The mix and visuals make a great record of a current PiL performance. Not sure what the full [...]
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Voting is Divisive
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May 3, 2013 at 4:26am
by Psybertron
One major reason why “democracy” by popular vote is the worst form of governance (apart from all the others). (Consensus vs tyranny of the majority, etc. Concensus = Parker-Follett integrationism.) Interesting review of David Graeber (Occupy Wall Street) book The Democracy Project by Dave Pollard.
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Learning How to Help
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May 2, 2013 at 9:47am
by Psybertron
Thought this was very interesting on several levels.
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Increasingly Popular with Young People
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April 26, 2013 at 3:44pm
by Psybertron
Gallipoli still seen as the day that defined Australians and New Zealanders. How in that hell that they called Suvla Bay?
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Lack of Clarity is Better
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April 26, 2013 at 10:50am
by Psybertron
Another classic example from the football world. It is right that punishments for “unacceptable” transgressions of rules are in some sense arbitrary in their severity. If there becomes a rule for the punishments against breaking the rule, then we have a game-changer where calculations based on the punishment become part of the rule-breaking decision. Pardew [...]
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Art for Art’s Sake ?
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April 24, 2013 at 9:26am
by Psybertron
Not only is science a branch of economics, so now is art. See: BBC Story and Guardian piece. In fact if you think about the current scale of funding into fundamental physics, actually science is the branch of culture being funded for it’s own sake. Mad. The world turned upside down. (Follow @TiffanyJenkins) Full transcript here.  Lees bleak [...]
Dennett Hard Talk
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April 8, 2013 at 8:02am
by Psybertron
Missed this last week on BBC World Service – Stephen Sackur interview with Daniel Dennett – introduced predictably as one of the “4 Horsemen of New Atheism“. Much confirmation of my own view that Dennett is the most considered and sophisticated thinker in this space. The four I have before ranked Dennett > Harris > [...]
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Divided Brain @dan_roam #fiatech2013
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March 26, 2013 at 7:55pm
by Psybertron
Just heard Dan Roam (Napkin Academy) speak at Fiatech2013. Great use of Ian McGilchrist’s divided brain model, … where objective analytical intellect has crowded out the more holistic visual aspect of experiencing the real world. The emissary having forgotten who is master. We need visual outlines before we express in written language. Excellent presentation by [...]
