My favorite blog post headline so far this year: Scientists to make cows fart like kangaroosIt's not as absurd as it seems, though... cow digestion produces methane, which is a significant greenhouse gas (mostly through burps, though). Methane is more detrimental to the environment than CO2, but it's also less common (and perhaps more difficult to ( Read more... )

Today at lunch, we ended up spending a fair amount of time pondering and debating Curry's Paradox. None of us were able to explain it very well even by the end of lunch, and some didn't think it was meaningful. After reading a couple of web sites, I now understand it, so I'm going to try to explain it in logical symbols ( Read more... )

Finished a couple of books I had been reading off-and-on for a while:
Real Ultimate Power: The Official Ninja Book - Girts got me this book for my birthday. It's based upon http://www.realultimatepower.net/, and is surprisingly well done. The caricature of the narrator is what makes ( Read more... )

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This (really low quality) video shows a very preliminary demonstration of Deam Kamen's robotic arm. It has incredible potential. What an amazing set of inventions he's created. It's good to see he's able to support himself with his inventions, too, unlike some great inventors of the past.


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From the things-i-shouldn't-be-surprised-are-rather-gross department: Time-Lapsed Baby Pig Decomposition (not for the faint of heart)

The Edge's 2007 question is: WHAT ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT? WHY?

Read more about the question in the link above. I don't really have a good answer right now, perhaps one of you does...

(answers should be global/societal/technological, not personal)

ideas?

A prof from UMD wrote this article a while ago: The Seven Warning Signs of Bogus Science. Definitely a good read.