Archive for December, 2008

Moray eels have two sets of jaws: 1) the oral ...
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“However, I’d [Brandon Keim]like to suggest another way of looking at the findings below, which range from the moray eel’s remarkable second jaw to the unexpected plumage of dinosaurs. They are, quite simply, wondrous — glimpses through an evolutionary frame of life’s incredible narrative, expanding to fill every possible nook and cranny of Earth’s biosphere.”

via 12 Elegant Examples of Evolution | Wired Science from Wired.com.

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Blue Marble composite images generated by NASA...
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“In 1948, Norbert Wiener pondered a new science in his classic book Cybernetics, one that flirted with the “boundary regions of science.” Sustainability today occupies a similar state, but the concept is used more as a policy guide and buzzword than as a true science.”

via The New Science of Sustainable Dynamics: ENN — Know Your Environment.

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29
Dec

The Great Seduction: 2009: The end of print

   Posted by: dhcsoul    in Books, Odds & Sods

Online Educa Berlin 2007 - Opening Plenary, No...
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2009: The end of print – Andrew Keen

“It promises to be the tipping point of tipping points. As I argue today on Internet Evolution, 2009 is going to be the year in which the old print media industry — newspapers, magazines, even books — collectively falls off the cliff: “

via The Great Seduction: 2009: The end of print.

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Termite Mound in Tanzania
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I got the last of my presents today… via gift card purchase at a “Boxing Day” sale. The first major collaboration by Bert Holldobler and E.O. Wilson since their Pulitzer Prize winner “The Ants”

According to the authors, “Superorganisms – colonies of individuals tightly knit by altrusitic cooperation, complex communication, and division of labor – find their highest expression in the insect world.”

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27
Dec

Itv News | Best 50 Astronomy Pictures of Year 2008

   Posted by: dhcsoul    in Odds & Sods

Perseid over Vancouver

“Astronomy is arguably the most beautiful of the sciences. I’m biased, of course, but it’s nearly impossible to gaze upon a picture of a galaxy, a moon, a nebula, and not see in it something compellingly artistic. Sometimes it’s the color, sometimes the shape, and sometimes it’s the knowledge that we can understand the subject of the picture itself.”

via Itv News | Best 50 Astronomy Pictures of Year 2008.

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24
Dec

Earthrise!

   Posted by: dhcsoul    in Odds & Sods

Taken by Apollo 8 crewmember Bill Anders on De...
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40 Years Ago today, the Astronauts of Apollo 8, the first humans to circumnavigate the moon, finally turned their eyes from the lunar surface (on their fourth orbit) to observe the “earthrise.” Writing about it in “Happy Birthday, ‘Earthrise‘  ( NY Times), Andrew C. Revkin includes a video he compiled to mark the occasion.

As Frank Borman shifted the orientation of the capsule to see the horizon Bill Anders was moved to blurt out  “Oh my God, look at that picture over there. Here’s the Earth coming up!”

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23
Dec

Oliver Selfridge: pioneer of artificial intellegence

   Posted by: dhcsoul    in cybernetics

An example artificial neural network with a hi...
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Oliver Selfridge, who has died aged 82, was a British-born pioneer of Artificial Intelligence, and was also the grandson of the founder of the Selfridges department store.

In a 1958 paper, Pandemonium: a Paradigm for Learning, he outlined a neurologically inspired system of electronic machine components, which he called “demons”, that reacted to common elements in each other.

via Oliver Selfridge – Telegraph.

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A photo of Stephen Jay Gould, by Kathy Chapman...
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“We have become, by the power of a glorious evolutionary accident called intelligence, the stewards of life’s continuity on earth. We did not ask for this role, but we cannot abjure it. We may not be suited to it, but here we are.”— Stephen Jay Gould

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22
Dec

Cafe-Shaped Business | chrisbrogan.com

   Posted by: dhcsoul    in Books

December 19, 2008

You Are Here Books

Imagine if cafe-shaped conversations translated into smaller businesses. Educational marketing expert Rachel Reuben talked about her interpretation of implementing a cafe-shaped experience for her college admissions community. I had another experience of that today, and wanted to share it.

But first, I have to tell you a bit of backstory about Carolyn Jordan.

via Cafe-Shaped Business | chrisbrogan.com.

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Norbert Wiener standing in front of a blackboard
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“The world of the future will be an even more demanding struggle against the limitations of our intelligence, not a comfortable hammock in which we can lie down to be waited upon by our robot slaves.”— Norbert Wiener

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