My reality tunnel

One of Wired’s 16 Best Science Visualizations of 2011

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:38:35 +0100

One of Wired’s 16 Best Science Visualizations of 2011

Snafu - It Ain’t Easy (by BBC4sounds)

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:26:16 +0100

Snafu - It Ain’t Easy (by BBC4sounds)

"Do not imagine that you have to know everything before you can do anything. My own best work was..."

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:43:00 +0100

“Do not imagine that you have to know everything before you can do anything. My own best work was done when I was most ignorant. Grab every opportunity to take responsibility and do things for which you are unqualified.”

- Freeman Dyson giving advice to people at the beginning of their careers.

Illustration from The Machinery of Life by David S. Goodsell

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:38:09 +0100

Illustration from The Machinery of Life by David S. Goodsell

Littlewood Dragons by Greg Egan (via John Baez’s Google+)

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 02:50:16 +0100

Littlewood Dragons by Greg Egan (via John Baez’s Google+)

"I guess giving advice is easy compared to taking it. Know your fundamentals (algorithms, data..."

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:11:06 +0100

“

I guess giving advice is easy compared to taking it. Know your fundamentals (algorithms, data structures, machine architecture, systems) and know several programming languages to the point where you can use them idiomatically.

Know some non-computer field of study well — math, biology, history, optics, whatever. Learn to communicate effectively in speech and in writing. Spend an unreasonable amount of time on some difficult topic to really master it. Try to do something that might make a difference in the world.

”

- Bjarne Stroustrup’s advice to young programmers

Setting Sun - Make You Feel (by YoungLoveRecords)

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:28:00 +0100

Setting Sun - Make You Feel (by YoungLoveRecords)

From the Wednesday 29 July 1903 edition of The Advertiser...

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:19:25 +0100

From the Wednesday 29 July 1903 edition of The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA).

Was Neville Maskelyne the first ever hacker? By the way, I must say that I love the term “scientific hooliganism.” :-)

(via Dot-dash-diss: The gentleman hacker’s 1903 lulz)

“A long exposure view of a Sikorsky S-51 helicopter on the...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:03:58 +0100

“A long exposure view of a Sikorsky S-51 helicopter on the ground at Anacostia Naval Air Station in Washington, DC in 1949. The striking “Slinky shape” is produced by light reflecting on the rotor blades and leaving a trail in the night sky.” From LIFE’s 37 Best-Ever Science Photos

curiositycounts: Robot Wars – fascinating and thought-provoking...

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:08:32 +0100

curiositycounts:

Robot Wars – fascinating and thought-provoking Al Jazeera Faultlines segment on robot ethics and war (via)

“The Swallow’s Tail — Series on Catastrophes...

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 10:45:13 +0100

“The Swallow’s Tail — Series on Catastrophes (French: La queue d’aronde — Série des catastrophes) was Salvador Dalí’s last painting. It was completed in May 1983, as the final part of a series based on René Thom’s catastrophe theory.” Link to the Wikipedia entry.

"Over the decades, airliners have been built with increasingly automated flight-control functions...."

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:42:42 +0100

“Over the decades, airliners have been built with increasingly automated flight-control functions. These have the potential to remove a great deal of uncertainty and danger from aviation. But they also remove important information from the attention of the flight crew. While the airplane’s avionics track crucial parameters such as location, speed, and heading, the human beings can pay attention to something else. But when trouble suddenly springs up and the computer decides that it can no longer cope—on a dark night, perhaps, in turbulence, far from land—the humans might find themselves with a very incomplete notion of what’s going on.”

- What Really Happened Aboard Air France 447 - Popular Mechanics (via lispmeister)

Tacoma Narrows Bridge about to collapse (by cheetah)

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:58:00 +0100

Tacoma Narrows Bridge about to collapse (by cheetah)

“All the units were connected by the maze of wires shown...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:45:00 +0100

“All the units were connected by the maze of wires shown in the photo of FitzHugh operating the computer. The wires protrude from an insulated board, underneath which they made contact with terminals connected to the various units. To change the connections on the board, for a different problem, it was disengaged from its position, exposing the terminals behind. The computer power supply delivered voltages from -100 volts to 100 volts, and if one of the terminals was accidentally touched, one might receive a nasty shock.
The first thing to do in the morning was to turn on the computer and let it warm up until the voltages from the power supply stabilized. Then computation could begin.” (via FitzHugh-Nagumo model - Scholarpedia)