Incoherence

Wikihistory short story

andrew — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 22:07:15 +0000

Wikihistory is a most amusing time-travel short story by Desmond Warzel, posted to the Abyss & Apex Magazine of Speculative Fiction, which I had not previously heard of, but I think I should explore it some. (The story is unrelated to wikihistory.org, which looks like it could be a really good reference.)

Campaign for Real Beauty

andrew — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:21:57 +0000

I saw another one of the Campaign for Real Beauty videos today, which reminded me of the first one I saw. The videos are from Dove, and I don’t want to endorse them in general, but I think they are pretty powerful and I’m quite sympathetic to the basic ideas being expressed, that our ideas of human physical beauty are distorted, and that affects us both as observers of beauty and in how we feel about ourselves. Especially women in our culture, and that’s who these commercial-style films portray.Here is the first film: Evolution.And here is the one I just saw today: Talk to Your Daughter Before They Do

Cool, short video on Moebius transformations

andrew — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 07:44:48 +0000

Came across a neat video tonight about Moebius transformations. It’s pretty short, and the real cool bit (to me) is the introduction of the sphere. Found here via videosift.

via videosift.com

Ants that walk on each other to get over holes

andrew — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 07:23:36 +0000

Came across an AFP article today (ok, a month or so ago, but apparently I didn’t hit the Publish button after writing this post) about army ants using their bodies to cover holes, so other ants can walk across on the backs of the first ants. This isn’t a bunch of ants being sacrificed to physically fill holes; instead, the ants stretch across the holes to let others cross on them, then they carry on their way. According to a study to be published in June, this behavior makes for significantly more efficient foraging parties.

Traveler’s Phrase Book T-shirt

andrew — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 07:22:46 +0000

Check out this Traveler’s Phrase Book T-shirt. Basically, it’s a cotton t-shirt (comes in black, red or grey) with common symbols surrounding a question mark, so if you don’t know the language where you are traveling, you can point at items on your t-shirt to get your question across.

Symbols include things like a telephone, eating utensils, an airplane and a bed (presumably intended to be interpreted as a request for a hotel; beware of misinterpretations). It even includes a number pad, should you need to convey a number. The big plus sign confused me at first, then I realized that was for medical help.

It’s $30, and I don’t have any travel planned at the moment, but I gotta say, I like the shirt and I’m thinking of getting one. (Found indirectly via a link from Blue’s News. )

Directions from New York to Paris

andrew — Sun, 13 May 2007 19:09:02 +0000

Thanks to a post on Slashdot, I discovered that Google Maps gives awesome directions from New York, NY to Paris, France.

Cueva de los Cristales - amazingly massive crystals

andrew — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 21:16:53 +0000

National Geographic has online an article about Cueva de los Cristales - a cave of huge natural crystals. The crystals were exposed by mining operations which pumped water out of the cave. It sounds like the crystals will fall apart if the water is not allowed to refill. It’s unclear how long before the crystals diminish, or if they will be preserved. Refilling the cave of course means that people wouldn’t be able to see the crystals. Maybe they could let it refill and pump it out for a few months every few years or something? The photos on that article page are amazing.

Life celebrations for the terminally ill

andrew — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 02:08:51 +0000

According to an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, it’s becoming more common for terminally ill people to participate in “celebratory sendoffs”. The article talks specifically about several people in the Seattle area who went through this within the past year.

Be careful where you hide that house key

andrew — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 17:39:15 +0000

Found an AP article on Yahoo about a woman in Charleston, West Virginia who came home to find her house cleaned, but nothing taken. Eventually it was discovered that a neighbor had recently hired a cleaning service. The neighbor had a similar house number and hid their house key in a similar location - the cleaning lady went to the wrong house by mistake, found the key where she expected it, went in and cleaned.

Face Blindness - prosopagnosia

andrew — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 20:48:31 +0000

A recent study found that 2.5% of the ~700 randomly-selected test subjects (students in Germany) suffered from prosopagnosia, or face blindness. That is, faces all look pretty much the same to them - they may not even recognize their mother without careful attention. From a NY Times article that will probably expire in a week or two.