AI to play on jeopardy

This is a big advance in AI linguistics!

http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/27/ibms-watson-to-rival-humans-in-round-of-jeopardy/

The Methuselah Foundation

People who are trying to extend the human lifespan.

http://www.methuselahfoundation.org/

Computer/human interaction

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22393/page3/

Zephram Stark xkcd

Heh

Cardboard box oven that can boil water

Very cool, very simple invention.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/09/solar.oven.global.warming/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Electron microscope Rappit eye pics

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/multimedia/2009/04/gallery_rabbit_eye

AI discovers laws of physics on its own

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/newtonai.html

Robot makes scientific discovery on its own

A robot programmed to create and test hypotheses.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/robotscientist.html

DNA Tech speed increases

Yet another example of how technology speeds up technology.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/british-institu.html

Robotic stockroom workers

Title says it all.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-04/st_robotwarehouse

Baby Chickens Do Arithmetic

Better than human babies, apparently.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/04/01/chicks-math-smart.html

Porn being shown publically in colleges

I'm not sure if I buy this one.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/65310.html

Apparantly employees who web surf in moderation are actually more productive than those who don't at all. (I suspect an Attention Deficit Superiority link here.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090402/lf_nm_life/us_work_internet

Robots doing research on human brains

http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/multimedia/2009/03/ff_brainatlas_gallery

Another example of robots doing research faster than humans can. This is also an example of how previous advances serve to make the next advances faster.

Perfect memory may be a product of OCD

I've always said that memory is a product of attention. I have a better memory than most people I know, and I also pay attention more than most people I know. For people who aren't paying as much attention, more passes are required to give the same amount of attention to the same thing.

Here's another article that supports the idea: http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/17-04/ff_perfectmemory

800 GOOG 411 has an ulterior motive

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=852

An interesting bit about the real purpose of the free 800-GOOG-411 service, which is to train their speech to text search technology.

It also mentions the "game" they made of the image labeler where you try to match descriptions of different pictures to those of another user for the purposes of gathering metadata to evaluate their image search tools. This was a little more obvious. The free 411 has dubious, but potential proftibility on its own; the image labeling game does not.

Data source for "are we getting dumber"

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nde/

Apartment Co. offers 2 months free rent to layed off tenants

I'd like to take a look at the cost/benefit analysis of this sort of decision in the context of Nash Equilibrium.

http://content.usatoday.com/community/comments.aspx?id=34493706.story&p=2

Math LOL

It's from here:

http://xkcd.com/552/

Ooo Shiney!

From time to time I find strange and wonderful things on the web, usually when I'm supposed to be working. I've been emailing this stuff to a few hapless friends without giving them the option to opt out.

So I figured I'd put it in a blog instead, and that way reach more (or most likely less) victims.

Enjoy, suffer, or ignore, whatever pleases you.