whispers

article
and a reminder: sodium benzoate = bad news for mitochondrial DNA -> avoid soda

People are beginning to make practical body enhancements. This particular one is just a magnet in your fingertip that allows you to sense magnetic fields. (Actually, I already feel the 60Hz oscillation of plugged-in electrical equipment on the metal surface…) Just wait until people (athletes? military?) start adding ultrasonic/infrared rangefinders to the back of their […]

Here is a cool article about a talk given by Marvin Minsky at MIT.

Kurzweil’s at it again. I’m eager to read some of his books this summer. My feeling is he’s mostly correct, but also a little crazy and over-zealous.

My mom just sent me this. She’s cool, and so is the article. I’ll comment on it later.
In other news, today was the last day of classes this Winter at Carleton! I took an Algorithms II test that had me worried, but I think I did pretty well (although you can never be sure with […]

CNN Money ran an article a while ago on four possible paths Google may take. Personally, I like the last one, inspired by Ray Kurzweil, where Google becomes God. They both begin with “Go”…coincidence?

Researchers have grown a “brain” (neural network in petri dish) from rat neurons (some 25,000) that can fly a jet in a flight simulator (well, keep it from crashing).
Implications? Brain grafts that enhance memory, vision, or automize processes (such as flying - helicopters are difficult!). There are also numerous possibilities outside of our bodies: […]

but this is a start. Electrically interfering with your sense of balance in order to control your movement. Dangerous applications foreseen…but it’s kind of cool at the same time.

(article that was linked to on Slashdot - reading previously unlegible scrolls)
What a witty /.er came up with:
Archimedes helps invent modern mathematics,
Modern math (after surviving the Dark Ages) enables modern science,
Modern science gives us nifty toys like particle accelerators…
…which we’re using to read Archimedes’ writings.
I can’t help but think the guy would really get […]

Pretty cool. I’ll comment on it later…After I finish my 10 page psych paper, PageRank data mining assignment, and Math Structures homework. Gahh.