The newest installment in my ‘I get the best spam’ series is this one, featured below. From the fractured English I was able to twist from Google Translate, it appeared to be an invitation to join a google group, for the purposes of discovering my genealogy and so forth. In fact, the website to which […]
Posts for March 2012
Competition(ish): it’s not computer magic, it’s computer science
A phrase oft-uttered, in anything from a restrained growl to an infuriated scream, by my partner. Who works with those strange computery things, and the networks connecting them, every day. A phrase he uttered once again today, while we were chatting through another of our favourite phrases ‘science, bitches!’* Which led us to a wonderful […]
Earth Now - near real-time, map-based climate data from JPL
Gosh, but this is gorgeous. Admittedly, I have a jones for data. And for maps, too*. And NASA/JPL** and their work. All of which means that Earth Now, a recently-released iPhone/iPod/iPad app from JPL, is my idea of phonepr0n. It shows, on an interactive model of earth, various overlays for various types of near-real […]
Petridish - the new kid on the science crowdfunding block
Welcome, dear readers, to the most recent foray into the new, and very exciting*, world of crowdfunded science/research: Petridish. Launched in early March, the platform’s still pretty new. Currently, though, there are 9 projects up, primarily covering critter-related projects, but not exclusively. Examples include looking into preserving the culture(s) of climate refugees, helping to find […]
The sound of pi - delicious, delicious pi
Yesterday was Pi Day. It’s celebrated each year on March 14th - or 3/14, of course - with Pi Approximation Day then being held on July 22nd. And on these days, we get to appreciate this most marvellous of numbers. While many (rather funny, I’ll admit) pie/pi-related jokes, puns and slices of humour were thrown […]
Quiet! I was talking!
Because there simply aren’t enough real problems which science could tackle, Japanese scientists have unleashed the newest weapon in the war for airspace in a conversation. Yes, ladies and gentlemen: allow me to introduce the SpeechJammer. In essence, a directional mic takes a recording of what the sinning conversationalist is saying, and the plays […]
Science animation evolves another step
Well, it branches further out, at the very least. My feeds threw up a wonderful post by Carin Bondar (PsiVid) today. Animation student Tyler Rhodes wanted to produce an animation of evolution which was true to the spirit of the process itself - judging by the final product, he succeeded! Rhodes’ starting point for all […]