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Blow Your Mind: Are you smarter than an ant swarm?
by Robert Lamb | February 17, 2011
Like it or not, you’re a part of a super organism. It flows onto the train every morning. It fills factories and towers. It parades through the streets. In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Julie and I discuss emergence intelligence in swarms of bees, mobs of humans and the technology we create. What can roboticists and human culture as a whole learn from emergence? Is the ant way of doing things the better path in life? And why are mobs and movements such a threat to The Man?
Blast from the Past – The M3 Grease Gun vs. the M1A1 Tommy gun
by Marshall Brain | February 17, 2011
If you’ve watched gangster films, you’ve seen a “Tommy gun”. A Tommy gun is officially known as the M1A1 Thompson submachine gun. It is called a submachine gun because it fires pistol cartridges rather than rifle cartridges. In most cases, a Tommy gun fired .45 caliber bullets, but could also handle 9mm bullets by changing [...]
The Real Scoop on Hibernating Black Bears
by Allison Loudermilk | February 17, 2011
Have you ever wondered whether you had a slow metabolism? You probably don’t, because it’s rare, according to the Mayo Clinic folks. On the other hand, black bears in hibernation do. We know this thanks to five American black bears and a handful of intrepid researchers based out of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, who got an up-close, heavily documented look at what happens during hibernation. The research was released today in the journal Science.
Status Update: Facebook Is Stressing You Out!
by Cristen Conger | February 17, 2011
Yesterday, I had a red letter day for a number of reasons. At one point, I found myself practically bouncing up and down in my office chair with glee, trying to think of the best way to broadcast my A-plus fantastic mood to the rest of the world via Facebook. Why would anyone care that I had a chocolate cupcake kind of day? I don’t know. But after agonizing over how to communicate all of this, I finally gave up and decided to keep my good fortune to myself.
I was suffering, apparently, from Facebook-related anxiety.
Will this week’s solar flare fry your electronics?
by Jonathan Strickland | February 17, 2011
I’ve seen a few articles online that suggest the X-class solar flare event could spell doom — or at least gloom — to those of us on Earth. In some (but not all) cases, it’s due to a sensational headline. Once you get beyond the headline you realize that the writer has taken a few poetic liberties with the story, making it more dramatic. I figured I could do the same. But the short answer is that you probably won’t even notice the fallout from the solar flare.
NASA’s new manned deep space spacecraft – the Nautilus-X MMSEV
by Marshall Brain | February 17, 2011
Ever since the movie “2001: a Space Odyssey” came out (back in 1968, before humans had landed on the moon), people have been ready to head out into interplanetary space: Now NASA has drawn up a realistic ship to do this sort of interplanetary travel in real life. It’s called the Nautilus-X MMSEV (Multi-Mission Space [...]
I think everyone I know instinctively sorts movies into three categories based on their trailers: “theater,” “rental” (or maybe “Netflix”) and “oh no way.” Last night I had the privilege of seeing a movie that makes me believe the world really needs a fourth category: “RiffTrax.” The movie in question was “I Am Number Four.”
Jeopardy, IBM’s Watson Supercomputer vs. Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, Day 3
by Marshall Brain | February 17, 2011
We have witnessed Watson’s prowess on Day 1 and Day 2: A look at last night’s Jeopardy game featuring IBM’s Watson Supercomputer, Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings Jeopardy, IBM’s Watson Supercomputer vs. Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, Day 2 Last night was the final round, and Watson cleaned house: Final score on ‘Jeopardy!’: Computer 1, [...]
You might be wondering how I came up with today’s topic. Well, it’s a beautiful day. Even though it’s the middle of February, the temperature (a comfy 62 degrees F) is definitely making me think of spring. And thinking of spring makes me think of spring cleaning. So there’s one half. The other half comes from the fact that, sadly, I’m still feeling the effects of cold and flu season. And there’s nothing like going to look for some cough medicine or decongestant at midnight ‘thirty only to find that what’s in your medicine cabinet is ridiculously out of date.
Coca-Cola’s Secret Recipe Bubbles Up – “Is Coca-Cola’s highly guarded recipe no longer a secret? The Chicago-based radio show This American Life claims to have found a published copy of the recipe in a 1979 issue of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution….” ‘Facebook phone’ confirmed by HTC: ChaCha and Salsa officially unveiled – “ChaCha and Salsa will [...]
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