Geekery Alert!
Scientist and science fiction author, Arthur C Clarke, died Wednesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was a truly amazing character. You can start by reading about Sir Clarke at Wikipedia, I promise that will prompt a further exploration.
I don't know if it's ironic, spooky, sad, or appropriate that, Dextre (that's Canadian...), the first space robot "came to life" the same day that Sir Arthur Clarke died.
The Large Hadron Collider which is being constructed across the borders of Switzerland and France is one big-ass project (known as a BAP around our house). You can follow the progress of the thousands of scientists. For a great article about it, including bunches of remarkable numbers, check out this recent piece in Scientific American. Here's just a nibble:
The nearly 100 million channels of data streaming from each of the two largest detectors would fill 100,000 CDs every second, enough to produce a stack to the moon in six months.
Hey, I warned you...
Comments (3)
don't know where else to put this but the sixth paragraph is a wonderful piece of writing. Really the whole article is.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,,2265446,00.html
More pop than geek, the latest Time Magazine features the big ass title "Ten ideas that are changing the world". Favorite is #7.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine
#1 Common Wealth
National interests aren't what they used to be. Our survival requires global solutions
#2 The End of Customer Service
With self-serve technology, you'll never have to see a clerk again
#3 The Post-Movie-Star Era
Get ready for more films in which the leading man is not "he" but "who?"
#4 Reverse Radicalism
Want to stop terrorism? Start talking to terrorists who stop themselves
#5 Kitchen Chemistry
Why the squishy art of cooking is giving way to cold, hard science
#6 Geoengineering
Messing with nature caused global warming. Messing with it more might fix it
#7 Synthetic Authenticity
Jaded buyers love 'real' products--or at least ones that fake it well
#8 The New Austerity
Get ready for something truly unheard of: an era of living within our means
#9 Mandatory Health
Bosses are trying to force their employees to live better. Yep, it's legal
#10 Re-Judaizing Jesus
Scholars are now rereading the Gospels through the eyes of a Jew: Jesus
Ah Mel! I just read a story in a business magazine where a guy was trying to find a way to make his customers feel more special so that they would, well, buy more stuff I guess. The consultant in the story told him to raise his prices so that he could then offer discounts to make customers feel special. The guy didn't really like that too much because he felt that his customers would see through it and get annoyed. So, the consultant says, OK, have them fill out a survey and give them the special price for submitting that.
Ugh.