Cheek Cells, Methylene Blue Stain
Updated on Thursday, November 12, 2015
1,920 frames taken every 45 seconds and stitched together into a single photo. It's a single frame time lapse of 24 hours.
Syria
Updated on Thursday, November 12, 2015
Debate military intervention in Syria on LikeDebate. This is a parallel debate to the Intelligence Squared US debate tomorrow.
Book reviews for July 2013
Updated on Friday, February 24, 2017
Doctor Who: Harvest of Time by Alastair Reynolds
5/5
I don't normally do SciFi series books... but this is Alastair Reynolds doing Doctor Who. Jon Pertwee era with UNIT and The Master. If the BBC had a 300 million Pound budget for a Doctor Who story line in the 70's this is what they would have made.
Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing by Po Bronson
4/5
I always enjoy Po Bronson and he's typically on form here with fascinating research and anecdotes around the topic of competition. There is a lot of new evidence on how hormones work that I'd never seen before and an interesting theory that competitive sports are a precursor to democracy. Much of this book is about how competition brings out creativity and drive. I wonder it it's missing a trick here and that the real factor is operating under constraint with competition being just one of many possible forms of constraint. In addition to the studies showing that art was better when a competition was involved I'd like to see how this worked out when one set of artists was limited to using just brown and silver... I'd bet the results would look pretty similar.
Inferno (Robert Langdon, #4) by Dan Brown
2/5
By the numbers. OK, but not great.
Die, Software Patents, Die
Updated on Thursday, November 12, 2015
Eolas invalidated (some more).
Joel on Software on Destroying Patents.
(previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously)
HOWTO: Punish Banks
Updated on Thursday, November 12, 2015
Barclays just got fined $453m for manipulating the electricity market in the US, following a £290m fine for fiddling Libor while HSBC is off money laundering with seeming impunity.
A $453m fine for Barclays is equivalent to $600 for the average US household, although if the average US household got caught manipulating markets they'd probably be in jail.
These relatively small fines aren't enough to really change behavior.
Unless we change how the fines are used. Put $453m in an incubator that funds banking startups and you can have 40 scrappy well funded companies trying to take the banks down. A handful of those will succeed and really do some damage. Every time a bank misbehaves it will be sowing the seeds of its own destruction.
Finally Gmail
Updated on Thursday, November 12, 2015
Gmail is taking the compose window out of the corner of your window.
NatureBox
Updated on Thursday, November 12, 2015
You know what's healthy? Leaving your house to get a snack.
Brexit Prize
Updated on Thursday, November 12, 2015
The Institute of Economic Affairs has announced the 'Brexit Prize', a competition for the best blueprint for a UK exit from the European Union. First prize is 100,000 Euros, so it's worth a shot.
My plan: Beat Puerto Rico to becoming the 51st state.
I was just about to send this in when I read the instructions:
"At both stages, potential entrants should ask Amelia Abplanalp on [email protected] – for an entry number, preferably at least seven days before the closing date. Entrants should create two pdfs. One of those documents should only have the entry number as an identifier. The other document should have the entry number, name and contact details of the entrant on the cover page..."
It goes on like this and sounds like some EU directive relating to banana curvature. And don't you contact someone at an email address rather than on one? Must be an early April Fools' joke...