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EPA finds ‘slightly higher’ radiation levels in US [update 3/29]

March 29, 2011 by Amara D. Angelica

RadNet-Cleveland

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found levels in filters in 12 of their radiation-monitoring stations “slightly higher” than those found by EPA monitors last week and a Department of Energy monitor the week before. But they are “still far below levels of public health concern,” the agency states.

EPA’s samples were captured by monitors in Alaska, Alabama, California, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada,
Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands and… read more

BOOK REVIEW | Radical Evolution

May 23, 2005

radical_evolution

Source: BookReporter — May 2005 | Curtis Edmonds

Joel Garreau’s provocative new book, Radical Evolution, is divided into different scenarios. One that he calls “Heaven” is largely the vision of Ray Kurzweil, one of the founders of modern assistive technology.

Kurzweil imagines a future where the positive aspects of the new technology are available freely to everyone, allowing each of us to customize our own selves to the point where immortality — or complete spiritual freedom… read more

COMIC | Spam filter

January 21, 2010

spam filter

Source: Dilbert — January 22, 2010

Know Your Meme | ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic explains Antares’ Auto-Tune technology sensation

April 27, 2011

Know Your Meme logo

Source: Know Your Meme — February 28, 2011

Know Your Meme | The Rocketboom Institute for Internet Studies examines the phenomenon of Auto-Tune with help from special guest Professor “Weird Al” Yankovic.

[ For more info on this, visit the Meme Database ]

Related:
Know Your Meme
Antares Audio Technology
More hilarious examples of Auto-Tuned music
Time | Auto-Tune: Why pop music sounds perfect

Sex and the Red Queen hypothesis

July 12, 2011 by Amara D. Angelica

Off with their heads! (Credit: Walt Disney Pictures)

Biologists at Indiana University have discovered why it takes two to tango. (Insert obligatory geeks-who-can’t-get-a-date joke here.)

The biologists claim their research shows that sex allows parents to produce offspring that are more resistant to co-evolving parasites, while self-fertilization dooms populations to extinction at the hands of their biological enemies.

It’s the Red Queen hypothesis, a reference to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland: “It takes all… read more

book review | The Hidden Brain

January 18, 2010

hidden brain

Source: The New York Times — January 14, 2010 | Susan Pinker

In The Hidden Brain, writer Shankar Vedantam explores the unconscious mind, focusing on covert influences on human behavior. Invisible forces that control our behavior have inspired our best story­tellers, from Euripides to Steven Spielberg. Whether we’re yanked around by jealous gods, Oedipal urges or poltergeists, the idea that we feel powerless to direct our own actions has… read more

Our Lady Peace album Spiritual Machines inspired by Kurzweil’s vision of the future

January 14, 2011

Our Lady Peace Spiritual Machines album

Wikipedia | Spiritual Machines is the fourth studio album by Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace, initially released by Columbia Records in December 2000. The album was a conceptual interpretation of Raymond Kurzweil’s 1999 book The Age of Spiritual Machines and featured spoken dialog from Kurzweil himself.

Album history

While touring in mid-2000, Mike Turner came across the book The Age of Spiritual Machines by… read more

Tinkerers

November 8, 2010 by Amara D. Angelica

tinkerers

What if America lost its knack for making things?

Manufacturing is the root that all other projects sprout from … even the arts, says famed author David Brin.

His TINKERERS graphic novel, set in the year 2024, combines art with history and tech, exploring where we went wrong, and how to win back the knack.

(Hardcopies will be on sale in January.)… read more

Brian Malow blog & Time | Science comedian Brian Malow’s Time video: Philip K. Dick at the movies

March 30, 2011

Source: Brian Malow blog & Time — March 15, 2011 | Brian Malow

TimeThe Adjustment Bureau is just the latest film to be based on a short story or novel by Philip K. Dick. Science Comedian Brian Malow is a Dick aficionado.

Brian Malow | My newest video for Time is about Philip K. Dick and all the movie adaptations of his books and stories, the latest of which is The Adjustment Bureau, based on the story “Adjustment Team” written in 1953. … read more

BOOK REVIEW | Warped Passages

October 24, 2005

warped_passages

Source: New York Times — Oct 23, 2005

In a new book, Warped Passages, Lisa Randall gives an engaging and remarkably clear account of how the existence of dimensions beyond the familiar three may resolve a host of cosmic quandaries.

Randall argues that without any experimental feedback, string theorists may never reach their goal. She prefers a different strategy, called model building. Rather than seeking to create an all-encompassing theory, she develops models — mini-theories that… read more

COMIC | Researcher Translation

January 23, 2010

Researcher Translation

Source: xkcd webcomics

Avatar meets rejuvenation biotech at stellar SENS event Friday night in L.A.

December 9, 2010 by Amara D. Angelica

Avatar

If you’re in Los Angeles Friday night, the happening place to be is at the SENS Foundation event at Giant Studios, where the fantastic Na’vi characters in Avatar were brought to life, along with Gollum in Lord of the Rings and thousands of other creatures, using advanced motion-capture tech.

Legendary Cambridge University scientist Dr. Aubrey de Grey, who pioneered SENS (Strategies… read more

We are Borg Pig, resistance is futile

March 19, 2010

borg pig

Source: James O'Neill — August 1, 2007

Borg Pig credited to artist James Kelsey in this blog post by James O’Neill as part of the City of Seattle’s “Pigs on Parade” public art show. Here’s a video interview with the artist.

A global viral vector: reality check

May 31, 2013 by Andrew Hessel

bio-chrime prophesy

In Dan Brown’s Inferno [see book review | Dan Brown’s Inferno], an airborne virus permanently modifies the DNA in human cells in one third of the population of the world.

We asked synthetic biologist/genomic futurist Andrew Hessel to comment on this scenario (his co-authored “The Bio-Crime Prophecy” is the cover story in the current issue of Wired UK).

Q: How realistic is Brown’sread more

BOOK REVIEW | How to Survive a Robot Uprising

October 31, 2005

how_to_survive_a_robot_uprising

Source: Post-Gazette — October 30, 2005

A guidebook for battling a robot takeover of Earth subtly educates about robots and technology while coming across as humor.

The book was written by roboticist Daniel H. Wilson, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute. Paramount has bought movie rights.

What makes the book cool — and unlike some other survival books — is that Wilson is an actual roboticist, who got his Ph.D. from… read more

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