Month: November 2008
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Esoteric Programming Languages
A few interesting esoteric programming languages: Shakespeare Chef Brainfuck Whitespace LOLCODE As you may be able to guess, LOLCODE is my favourite. Here’s ‘Hello World’: HAI CAN HAS STDIO? VISIBLE “HAI WORLD!” KTHXBYE
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The 23 Toughest Challenges in Mathematics
According to DARPA, that is. The Dynamics of Networks: Develop the high-dimensional mathematics needed to accurately model and predict behavior in large-scale distributed networks that evolve over time occurring in communication, biology and the social sciences. via Kottke
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The Origins of Progress
In order to find out what our world will look like in the not so distant future, Kevin Kelly questions what drives progress? What is the origin of our progress? There are several factors but chief among them is the invention of what we loosely call science. The ancient world accumulated many fabulous inventions [that]…
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All About Self-Control
The Boston Globe has an interesting article discussing the noted ‘marshmallow experiment’ of delayed gratification and the future of research in this area. A 4-year-old is left sitting at a table with a marshmallow or other treat on it and given a challenge: Wait to eat it until a grown-up comes back into the room,…
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The Age Wave: Are Retiring Baby Boomers the Recession Culprits?
Did the American economist Harry Dent correctly predict the recession, and is it really the fault of retiring baby boomers? Dent popularised the ‘age wave’ theory through his research on “the highly predictable nature of consumer spending based on a family formation pattern”. Some experts expect the worst consumer recession since 1980 to occur when…
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Books of the Left and Right
The results from Valdis Krebs’ analysis of political books bought from Amazon is fascinating. Two groups typically emerge from the data: people who read liberally oriented books and people who read conservatively oriented books with a couple of books that both groups read. He ran his analysis again a few days ago and found not…
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Green Roofs
Malcolm Gladwell chats with environmentalist Amy Norquist about the real benefits of ‘green roofs’ (what GOOD Magazine calls, “one of the most unsung and low-tech green solutions out there”). MG: So you have this technology, and there are three arguments for it: an aesthetic argument, an economic argument, and an environmental arguments. Which of those…
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10 Things About Black Holes
Even though some of these would be well-known to someone with a passing interest in astronomy, the passion Phil Plait writes with makes me love everything he produces. This time, Bad Astronomy on ten things you don’t know about black holes. It’s not their mass, it’s their size that makes them so strong They’re not…
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Attempts to Appear Racially Colour-Blind Begin at 9 Years Old
A recent study has identified the age at which children begin attempting to appear racially unprejudiced. One hundred and one children, predominantly White, half of whom were aged 8 to 9, the other half being aged 9 to 10, participated in a task reminiscent of the board game “Guess Who?” Presented with photos of 40…
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Attenborough on Creationism
I’m considering treating someone (possibly myself!) to David Attenborough’s The Life Collection: the full set of David Attenborough’s Life series, consisting of over 60 hours of some of the best nature footage in history. As is the norm when I’m intrigued by anything, I head over to Wikipedia and read all I can on a…