November 2011
10 posts
4 tags
6 tags
“So what does it feel like to be an octopus? Philosopher Godfrey-Smith has given...”
– Deep Intellect: Inside the mind of the octopus by Sy Montgomery (Orion Magazine)
cross-posted to findings
8 tags
River bursts from dam for first time in 100 years
Explosive Breach of Condit Dam from Andy Maser on Vimeo.
On October 26th, a hole was blasted in the base of 125’ tall Condit Dam on the White Salmon River in Washington. In less than 2 hours, the reservoir behind the dam drained completely and the White Salmon flowed unimpeded by a dam for the first time in 100 years.
via jason kottke
3 tags
“Martin was a very, very rare and unusual person,” said former Tegic CEO...”
– Martin King, co-inventor of T9 predictive text, passes away - Recombu
This happened September 2010, FYI; I’m just learning about it now.
9 tags
I wanna be your good luck charm
“A cow keeper, who was one of the old school and originally came from Devonshire, had the misfortune to incur the intense wrath of a man of vindictive temper. He threatened to bewitch the poor man’s cows, and two of then died. The cow keeper there upon, took the heart of one of the dead animals, stuck it all over with pins and nails and hung it up in the Chimney of his house… such action is...
9 tags
"Machines in the Garden" appreciation: Fun-filled...
I’m in the midst of reading a wonderful (truly: full of wonders) essay by Jessica Riskin from Republics of Letters about automatons, self-operating machines, as they were used in the 14th through 18th centuries. (At least, that’s as far as I’ve gotten.) The first section is about mechanical objects in Christianity and how they were, alternately, embraced and rejected by the...
6 tags
The New Aesthetic - "we need to see the...
Click through for examples, and see more on the tumblr.
James Bridle:
For a while now, I’ve been collecting images and things that seem to approach a new aesthetic of the future, which sounds more portentous than I mean. What I mean is that we’ve got frustrated with the NASA extropianism space-future, the failure of jetpacks, and we need to see the technologies we actually have with a new...
10 tags
Cities and the Northern lights from space (New...
Circling the Earth from space, the inhabitants of the International Space Station (ISS) witness spectacular views as they orbit the planet every 91 minutes. Now, a series of time-lapse videos, produced from still images captured at night, reveals bright city lights and stunning auroras. The first clip begins with a view of the Aurora Borealis over Canada before sweeping over vast areas lit up...
9 tags
Listen: Carl Zimmer on parasites, science, death,... →
Do yourself a favor and take the 25 minutes to listen to this. Science writer Carl Zimmer tells a moving personal story that will break your heart - and then unite science and life’s meaning. And there are parasite stories! AND he quotes Ovid. #swoon
The story is part of Story Collider, live science stories. I had the chance to see this one live. Check the schedule and see if the crew is...
