Month: September 2008
-
Collective Noun for Geeks
In expected atypical style, my colleagues and I had a discussion on ideas for the collective noun for (software) developers. The obvious candidates rolled in: A …geek …thread …hash …(dis)array … of developers. However, after dwelling on the issue for too long we decided the most appropriate was an embarrassment of developers, or the more…
-
Science’s 10 Most Beautiful Experiments
Interested in finding “the most beautiful physics experiment of all time”, Robert P. Crease (a member of the philosophy department at the State University of New York and the historian at Brookhaven National Laboratory) asked physicist to nominate their favourites. The New York Times duly compiled the results, but rather than visiting their un-scannable list,…
-
The Beauty of Programming
I don’t really know how to explain my fascination with programming, but I’ll try. To someone who does it, it’s the most interesting thing in the world. It’s a game much more involved than chess, a game where you can make up your own rules and where the end result is what you make of…
-
The Asexual Couple
As part of The Guardian’s First Person series, Paul Cox, 24, explains how he and his wife found love and happiness as an asexual couple, despite not being physically attracted to each other. In a fascinating post touching on many topics in her area of expertise, Dr Petra Boynton—a psychologist specialising in sex and relationships…
-
Great Diagrams in Anthropology, Linguistics and Social Theory
The Flickr group Great Diagrams in Anthropology, Linguistics and Social Theory is fairly self-explanatory: I’m looking forward to seeing the group grow. via Neuroanthropology and Mind Hacks
-
Randy Pausch Lectures
By now I’m sure everyone has watched, listened to, or at the very least heard of, Randy Pausch’s lecture Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams which he gave at Carnegie Mellon University a year ago today (the lecture is more commonly referred to as The Last Lecture). Since then I’ve watched two more speeches by Pausch…
-
Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Earth
Bad Astronomy compiles a list of ten things you don’t know about the Earth. You probably (hopefully?) know a few of these already. The Earth is smoother than a billiard ball The Earth is an oblate spheroid The Earth isn’t an oblate spheroid The Earth is not exactly aligned with its geoid Jumping into a…
-
Drugs for Optimising Morality
This month’s British Journal of Psychiatry has an interesting essay on ‘moral pharmacology’. Mind Hacks picks up the story: [Sean Spence] argues that while most attention has been focused on ‘smart drugs’ and cognitive enhancement, medication is already being subtly used to improve ethical behaviour and we should prepare for a revolution in ‘moral pharmacology’.…
-
Books to Understand the Current Economic Climate
The Washington Post recently asked a host of ‘smart people’ for recommendations on what book will help us make sense of the current economic climate. Those asked include Peter Orszag (Director, Congressional Budget Office); Greg Mankiw (professor of economics at Harvard University); and John Allen Paulos (author and mathematics professor at Temple University). However, my…
-
The Impact of Facial Disfigurement
Alison Rich works for Changing Faces, a charity supporting and representing people with facial disfigurements. In advance of her talk at London’s Wellcome Collection as part of their Welcome to my World series, she invited the BBC’s Dan Bell to follow her daily commute to witness the reactions of fellow passengers to her own disfigurement.…