One machine-learning technique is to pit evolving neural networks against each other in cage matches and then learn from the results. This is called Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs ( Read more... )

You're being too productive. Let me help.

The Worldbuilding blog, Universe Factory, has been publishing a nice mix of articles. (We aim to post something new every three days.) Some recent posts that my readers might be interested in:

- The latest in my "revelation for RPGs" series, in which I talk about transformations in the world and in ( Read more... )

I've been accumulating browser tabs for a while, so here's a "misc" dump. (Aside: this new LJ "choose your icon by browsing pictures, and by the way we won't put them in alphabetical order or anything nice like that" interface really stinks. Grr.)
siderea posted The Music Theory Song: Intervals (YouTube)For anyone who's trying to work on ear training ( Read more... )

siderea found this beautiful video of time-lapse photography by Terje Srgjerd of the Arctic light, just before the midnight sun but when it never quite gets dark. This is stunning, and if you click through to his Vimeo page you'll find links to two others too:

The Arctic Light from TSO Photography on Vimeo.
Today's APotD isn't ( Read more... )

The description "midnight solar eclipse" (wait, how does that work?) got me to click through on Astronomy Picture of the Day a couple days ago. Wow, gorgeous!


( Read more... )

Today's entry at Astronomy Picture of the Day introduced me to the Galaxy Garden, a detailed representation of our galaxy in foliage form (1 foot = 1000 light years). Nifty! It has some very nice touches, like the gravity well at the center. If I should ever find myself in Koma I want to go take a closer look.


( Read more... )

Neat visualization #1: the scale of the universe, showing how big (and small) things are. Link from filkerdave.
Ooh, pretty: when Planet Earth looks like art. Link from browngirl.
Overheard at work: "Every time a developer cries, a tester gets his horns".
Neat visualization #2, from a coworker: 200 counteries, 200 years, 4 minutes.
I had sometimes wondered ( Read more... )

And now for something completely different...
The husband of a member of the Debatable Choir posted video from our Pennsic performance:

Click to view

I didn't know enough chemistry to fully parse this geeky comic by ohiblather, but I still laughed out loud when I saw it.
xiphias reports research that seems to be begging for an IgNobel award. As he points out, it's ( Read more... )

I just came from an interesting demonstration called a "cosmic walk". (People who were at NHC last year might have seen this there. I saw only its after-effects then ( Read more... )

osewalrus linked to this
report of a problem on the international space station, and I have to
wonder if the astronauts desperately waiting for a plumber to make a house
call will think of Bob
Kanefsky's solution to that problem on the Enterprise.