CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-20 16:48:37 (9 comments, 18 reshares, 48 +1s)

Why Do We Talk?

Meet "the scientists beginning to unlock the secrets of speech - including a father who is filming every second of his son's first three years in order to discover how we learn to talk, the autistic savant who can speak more than 20 languages, and the first scientist to identify a gene that makes speech possible."

This documentary is broken up into 6 parts. Here's the rest:
Part 2 - Why do we talk? - BBC Horizon
Part 3 - Why do we talk? - BBC Horizon
Part 4 - Why do we talk? - BBC Horizon
Part 5 - Why do we talk? - BBC Horizon
Part 6 - Why do we talk? - BBC Horizon

2013-05-20 03:36:05 (7 comments, 5 reshares, 81 +1s)

Random Avatar Attack!
Hi, I'm Charlie and I draw stuff. One of the things I draw are these nifty avatar portraits. Here's one of willing participant +Liz Krane. Hope you dig it, Liz!

http://CDowd.com/avatars

2013-05-19 23:25:51 (105 comments, 561 reshares, 1450 +1s)

Just in case anyone hasn't seen this awesome little explosion at 130,000 frames per second. #ScienceSunday  / +ScienceSunday

2013-05-19 16:07:02 (42 comments, 20 reshares, 85 +1s)

This was YouTube's suggestion after I was done watching the earlier linked Abbott and Costello video.

Seriously, people? Did two-thirds of people really sleep through trigonometry class?

When not knowing Math can cost you $15,000

2013-05-18 14:49:24 (97 comments, 299 reshares, 661 +1s)

"Moran Cerf is a neuroscientist who has shown how to project patients’ thoughts onto a screen in front of their eyes by implanting electrodes deep inside their brains and reading the activity of cells. Oh, and he used to rob banks."

2013-05-18 04:37:04 (13 comments, 30 reshares, 81 +1s)

How an 11-Year-Old Uses His 3D Printer
http://www.onthemedia.org/blogs/on-the-media/2013/may/16/an-11-year-old-and-his-3d-printer/

If you had a 3D printer when you were 11, what would you have used it for?

I would've made lots and lots of bugs and dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes. :) Oh! And dragons! And robots, pirates, tigers, miniature desserts, freeform blobs, molds and stamps for my silly putty, and silly buttons.

2013-05-17 18:07:23 (4 comments, 5 reshares, 25 +1s)

Tidying Up Art

Does the messiness of abstract art ever bug you? Wish you could clean it up? That's exactly what this guy does! My favorite part is his tidying up of a Jackson Pollock painting. :D

This is his book: http://www.amazon.com/Tidying-Up-Art-Ursus-Wehrli/dp/3791330039

2013-05-17 04:10:18 (13 comments, 21 reshares, 116 +1s)

"I must say I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a good book." - Groucho Marx

Photo by Stéfan http://goo.gl/GJ7wa

2013-05-16 22:44:35 (6 comments, 10 reshares, 72 +1s)

Tomorrow, the White House is kicking off "We the Geeks," a new series of Google+ Hangouts to highlight the future of science, technology, and innovation here in the U.S.

Our first hangout includes an extraordinary panel of innovators from around the country who will discuss the elements of an "all hands on deck" effort to pursue Grand Challenges.

Tune in tomorrow at 2pm ET: http://at.wh.gov/l4lUD

#hangoutsonair   #WeTheGeeks  

2013-05-16 16:10:07 (15 comments, 14 reshares, 35 +1s)

Dictionary of Numbers - Chrome extension puts numbers in human terms

For example, 30 degrees Celsius doesn't register in my American brain, but "the melting point of butter" does. :)

"Dictionary of Numbers searches through the page for numbers it can understand, and when it finds one, adds an inline explanation for that number in human terms. "
http://www.dictionaryofnumbers.com/

2013-05-16 13:43:10 (4 comments, 8 reshares, 70 +1s)

[A bit of satiric comedy :) ]

Ever have the problem where you're trying to filter out melodramatic, close-minded, impetuous, or spoiled individuals, but combing through each circle becomes a bit tedious? Do you ever think, "Wouldn't it be great if there was a telltale psychological indicator revealing the maturity, sensibility, and poise (or lack thereof) of people in your circles?"

Us too. That's why starting today, we're happy to announce a great new feature we think you'll really enjoy. It's called the "initiative to Delete, Uncircle, Mute, and Block", or iDUMB for short.

Here's how it works:

Start by monitoring your stream very carefully. The moment a new update is rolled out, people will begin to make extremely negative, rebellious, hyperbolic, reactionary, and/or self-centered comments. (In other words, they... more »

2013-05-15 18:12:13 (26 comments, 9 reshares, 43 +1s)

Changing my gender to male on Google+ improved my What's Hot experience

Earlier today, +Kimberly Chapman told me about a little experiment she'd done. She'd opened a tab on her browser and directed it to plus.google.com/explore, a stream that enables you to see the hottest content on Google+. In another tab, Chapman changed her gender on her Google+ profile from female to male, and then loaded the Explore page into another tab.

The difference was astonishing. "As a girl, I get stupid warm-fuzzy meaningless shit," Chapman writes on a post (http://goo.gl/ZDBxT). "As a guy, I get nerdy stuff. This is not okay. I get that [What's Hot] algorithms are based on what people click, like, share, comment on, etc. Fine. But I challenge anyone to give me one good reason why there should be such a drastic difference in less than ten seconds by simply changing... more »

2013-05-15 16:39:02 (50 comments, 9 reshares, 52 +1s)

What's the fastest way to type up and organize my notes?

Like the guy in this photo, I could use some help. I have too many notes! Scraps of paper, notebooks, pages marked in books (seriously, look at these: http://goo.gl/jB9Au), napkins... You name it, I've scribbled on it!

I need a program/app/website/machine/magic wand that I can use to 1) type everything up in quick succession, 2) add tags/categories to each note with lightening speed, and 3) view them by tag/category for easier sorting, consolidating, and deleting.

Is there anything out there meant for this task? Apps like Evernote come to mind, but they're better for adding one note at a time as you find something you want to save; they're terribly slow for adding large batches of notes all at once.

Photo by Katie Weilbacher
http://www.flickr.com/photos/katiew/311380970/

2013-05-15 14:57:38 (10 comments, 20 reshares, 54 +1s)

Udacity and Georgia Tech Announce Online Masters Degree in Computer Science

All the material will be freely available to anyone! But the degree will come with a tuition fee -- which Georgia Tech says will be available "for a total cost of under $7000". Applying to the degree program will still require a formal admissions process and a Bachelor of Science degree in a related field.

Details:
http://www.omscs.gatech.edu/

2013-05-15 02:30:23 (14 comments, 3 reshares, 43 +1s)

Don't settle for being an unpaid intern

We get a lot of requests at Universe Today from starting journalists, grad students and astronomers who'd like to "intern" with us. I've never worked in a traditional media company, so I'm a little unclear on the intern tradition. But from what people are proposing, I don't think it's necessary.

There are so many outlets out there where you can showcase your writing abilities. And the only way to get better at writing is to write. And write and write and write. Start up a blog at Wordpress or Blogger, or even here on Google+ and get reporting in areas that interest you.

There are now dozens of stories a day that we just don't have time or resources to cover, and you do. The more original, underreported story you can find, the more likely you'll go viral, since you're reporting news... more »

2013-05-14 17:23:12 (7 comments, 4 reshares, 31 +1s)

Digging up my old bookmarks, I found this gem. :) Anyone else here a fan of  Dexter's Lab and Breaking Bad?

via http://www.collegehumor.com/article/6574364/5-adult-tv-shows-remade-for-children

2013-05-13 22:32:49 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 25 +1s)

All Google Play Developers Can Now Reply to User Reviews

Finally! This is a feature I've been waiting for since I got my first Android phone.

2013-05-13 15:18:36 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 33 +1s)

+Randall Munroe makes an important observation: birds aren't descended from dinosaurs -- by any reasonable definition, birds are dinosaurs. T. Rex is more closely related to a sparrow than it is to a Stegosaurus. Our world has flying dinosaurs in it that eat other dinosaurs. And that's pretty cool.

2013-05-12 21:39:09 (9 comments, 13 reshares, 54 +1s)

With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here's Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World. Space Oddity

2013-05-12 20:54:24 (12 comments, 8 reshares, 85 +1s)

Perfect Mother's Day Treat: A Nice Light Parfait

... with a cake on top. That's my kind of parfait!

Details and more photos:
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/05/11/who-needs-a-cherry-on-top-osaka-cafe-crowns-its-parfaits-with-cake/
via +Boing Boing

Happy Mother's Day!

2013-05-11 17:45:42 (5 comments, 32 reshares, 83 +1s)

Dive into HTML5 - Free online book by Mark Pilgrim
http://diveintohtml5.info/

Looks like a good resource for getting started. Plus it has a CC-BY license, so it's open to all kinds of remixing!

The intro chapter:
"Five Things You Should Know About HTML 5"
http://diveintohtml5.info/introduction.html

2013-05-11 15:21:58 (14 comments, 33 reshares, 67 +1s)

What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

Animated interview with Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.

Cute video, but it sort of makes it sound like using the internet is synonymous with multitasking and frequent interruptions. There is more than one way to use the internet! It should have made the distinction more clear. Also, no, we're not going to "be assimilated" and start "thinking like computers". =P

But I will say this: turning off notifications for email, Twitter, etc on your smartphone is definitely beneficial. Much better to set a time each day to check them all at once and then move on.

2013-05-11 04:19:14 (134 comments, 397 reshares, 827 +1s)

"Oscillate" by Daniel Sierra

"I wanted the audience to begin with the widely recognized image and sound of the sine wave, and show them how it is a building block not just for sound but also complex visual forms by changing its interpretation over the length of the piece."
http://www.dbsierra.com/Work/Oscillate/

Whatever it is, it's hypnotizing.

2013-05-10 23:30:26 (10 comments, 39 reshares, 76 +1s)

Kids Tasting Things for the First Time

=P

2013-05-10 17:52:52 (18 comments, 64 reshares, 172 +1s)

Scratch 2.0: Kids learn to program, no download required!

It works right from within the web browser now! What a great update to an already great resource for kids to learn how to program.

Brought to you by the MIT Media Lab's Lifelong Kindergarten Group. (Yes, that's a real thing! Wonderful, isn't it?)

2013-05-09 21:34:56 (10 comments, 2 reshares, 53 +1s)

Science Post of the Day
Today's Theme: #SolarEclipse

A potentially dazzling ring-shaped solar eclipse today (May 9) will be a celestial show sure to amaze for those able to view it. Weather permitting, the passage of the moon in front of the sun will make the star look like a cosmic "ring of fire" for observers in western Australia, where the best viewing areas are. Learn about the science of today's celestial show: bit.ly/130jVNN


#scienceeveryday   #sciencePOTD  
If you were notified, and would like to be removed, please let me know and I will do so immediately. If you were not notified, and would like to be, let me know here: bit.ly/sciencePOTD or of course +1, share, and let me know in the comments below!

2013-05-09 17:46:53 (10 comments, 32 reshares, 97 +1s)

Camera tricks!

Some fun demonstrations of a few simple camera tricks that go a long way.

From the Vimeo Video School (http://vimeo.com/videoschoolvideos)

2013-05-10 05:38:48 (227 comments, 465 reshares, 1078 +1s)

Learn to Read Chinese in Eight Minutes
http://chineasy.org/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2013/04/25/learn-to-read-chinese-in-eight-minutes/

The creator of Chineasy, ShaoLan Hsueh, says that "if you can learn just the top two hundred characters, it is enough to be able to read about forty percent of popular Chinese literature." The idea is to make it easy to get started using drawings and stories to learn a few characters, and then learn how to combine them.

Hmm. Maybe I could learn a little bit in eight minutes, but the real question is: would I remember it? I studied Hebrew for several years and then forgot all of it in one summer vacation!

What do you think?

2013-05-08 17:46:16 (2 comments, 13 reshares, 47 +1s)

How Much Stuff Do Our Bodies Make In A Year?

A lot.

2013-05-08 00:17:15 (10 comments, 17 reshares, 36 +1s)

Wow, the future of web publishing is... beautiful.

Awesome demo by Adobe: CSS regions, exclusions, balanced text, custom CSS filters, WebGL, and more. Check out the video, and the writeup: http://adobe.ly/16OIALQ

2013-05-07 17:01:13 (5 comments, 7 reshares, 38 +1s)

Here's a neat little video experiment. He prints out still frames from the video and plays with ways to use that frame as a transition to the rest of the video. The result is fun to watch!

2013-05-05 17:15:25 (21 comments, 72 reshares, 256 +1s)

+OpenWorm: Building the first digital life form. Open source.

http://www.openworm.org/ hopes to create a virtual C. elegans nematode (see the video below for more about the organism) for the ultimate open source, citizen science project. They're creating a model from the bottom up,  simulating its nervous system and all of its cells!

They're open to all sorts of contributors: programmers, scientists, writers, artists, and all curious citizens. And the team meets regularly using Google+ hangouts!

#ScienceSunday  | +ScienceSunday

2013-05-03 17:46:51 (4 comments, 10 reshares, 46 +1s)

A Boy and His Atom: The World's Smallest Movie

"IBM researchers used a scanning tunneling microscope to move thousands of carbon monoxide molecules (two atoms stacked on top of each other), all in pursuit of making a movie so small it can be seen only when you magnify it 100 million times."

See also:
Moving Atoms: Making The World's Smallest Movie
http://www.research.ibm.com/articles/madewithatoms.shtml

2013-05-02 00:31:58 (27 comments, 2 reshares, 78 +1s)

Sticky Rice with Mango

Two things that I used to hate: mangoes and coconuts. Then a couple years ago I had this dessert at a Thai restaurant, and I realized that sometime during the process of growing up, my taste buds decided that they love mangoes and coconuts!

Today I made a batch with black glutinous rice, which tastes like brown rice but a little nuttier. I just simmered it in light coconut milk until it looked like pudding. Best served with the rice steaming hot and the mangoes chilled. Purple and orange, hot and cold, glutinous gooeyness and fruity freshness in every bite!

2013-04-30 17:43:21 (3 comments, 14 reshares, 77 +1s)

30 April 1993 Happy twenty years of free, open web to all!

http://info.cern.ch/

2013-04-30 15:51:29 (25 comments, 21 reshares, 50 +1s)

Good morning! Here's a performance art thing based on manipulating the RAM of a Super Mario Bros game.

Why? Don't ask.

2013-04-30 00:01:40 (20 comments, 1 reshares, 84 +1s)

Stalking ducks

A few years ago, a pair of Mallard ducks landed in the pool at my dad's house and stayed for a couple days. Today they're back! Or it's just another random pair of ducks. But I'd like to think they're the same ducks. :) Mallard ducks can live for up to twenty years, after all!

Last time they visited, I tried to lure them into the house with a trail of bread crumbs. This time I just tried to take a closer photo. (It didn't work.)

#quackquack

2013-04-29 15:07:09 (15 comments, 51 reshares, 186 +1s)

I could watch this....forever.....   

2013-04-28 19:00:29 (28 comments, 102 reshares, 316 +1s)

Best animated gif...EVAR! #space  

2013-04-27 23:40:01 (101 comments, 168 reshares, 615 +1s)

Look, a 20-foot dinosaur made of balloons!

Two of my favorite childhood things: dinosaurs and balloons! This acrocanthosaurus was made by http://airgami.com/ to sit alongside real dinosaur fossils at the Virginia Museum of Natural History.

Watch the time-lapse video:
Elastic Park Acrocanthosaurus

More photos:
http://www.designboom.com/art/20-foot-dinosaur-made-from-balloons-by-airigami/ (found via Boing Boing)

2013-04-27 16:35:45 (9 comments, 19 reshares, 85 +1s)

Wringing out water... in space!

See also:
Tears in Space (Don't Fall)

2013-04-25 00:26:08 (44 comments, 6 reshares, 45 +1s)

So, I finally got f^cking sick of all the f^cking copyright infringement on Facebook's I F^cking Love Science page and blogged about it:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/compound-eye/2013/04/23/facebooks-i-fcking-love-science-does-not-fcking-love-artists/

2013-04-24 03:10:43 (15 comments, 37 reshares, 80 +1s)

The Last Bookshop

A short film that looks into the future, after the digital age has finally made books obsolete and there's only one bookshop left!

"One day, when a small boy’s holographic entertainment fails, he heads out to explore the streets of abandoned old shop fronts outside. Down a forgotten alley he discovers the last ever bookshop. And inside, an ancient shopkeeper has been waiting over 25 years for a customer…"
http://thelastbookshop.wordpress.com/

2013-04-23 03:05:49 (26 comments, 23 reshares, 146 +1s)

太巻き

Rolling thickly sushi

2013-04-22 17:58:32 (50 comments, 5 reshares, 46 +1s)

The Supertaster Test - So, does my tongue have super powers?

Yes, that is a close-up of my tongue. Isn't it pretty? lol. Yesterday I posted about supertasters (http://goo.gl/MwzHg), so I tried the at-home test myself: dye your tongue blue and count the larger bumps within a standard hole-puncher sized hole (a diameter of 7 mm). More than 30 means you're a supertaster.

But the count varies so much depending on which part of my tongue I'm counting on, and I can't quite tell where one bump ends and the next begins in some places. So the answer is... I still don't know!

A more definitive answer requires tasting a chemical called PROP, or 6-n-propylthiouracil. To supertasters, it's the most bitter vile substance you can imagine, but to regular tasters it's not so bad, and some people can't even taste it at all. So I need score me some... more »

2013-04-21 21:51:19 (18 comments, 28 reshares, 182 +1s)

Giant Ammonite Fossils

A few weeks ago Ferrebeekeeper featured a post about belemnites, extinct cephalopods from the Mesozoic which teemed in immense schools through the reptile-haunted oceans of that bygone era.  Yet belemnites were certainly not the only cephalopods which swam in the Mesozoic seas.  Numerous shelled cephalopods—the ammonites—were widespread in every sort of marine habitat.  
Ammonites are personal favorites of mine so I am not going to write a comprehensive explanation/description of the subclass.  Instead I wish to provide you with an idea of how big ammonites could get by providing a few pictures of large ammonite fossils which have been discovered.  

Imagine these monsters jetting through the water with huge tentacles and big intelligent eyes scanning for giant predatory reptiles and you will have a better idea of the MesozoicOceans!<... more »

2013-04-21 17:01:15 (13 comments, 23 reshares, 55 +1s)

Are You a Supertaster?

Supertasters are the 25% of people whose taste buds have super powers -- they experience taste much more intensely. Supertasters are less likely to be overweight, since they're satisfied with smaller amounts of sugar and fat.

On the other hand, supertasters also have their own version of kyrptonite: green, leafy vegetables. (Dun dun dunnn!) Lots of cancer-fighting compounds like flavonoids have a bitter taste, so supertasters tend to avoid them. In fact, a study on colon cancer found that "the number of cancerous polyps a patient had was directly related to their tasting ability." http://goo.gl/I1Az7

Here's a test you can try at home to see if you're a supertaster:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=super-tasting-science-find-out-if-youre-a-supertaster

Photo... more »

2013-04-20 18:29:57 (12 comments, 3 reshares, 64 +1s)

Stopping by the Festival of Books today

Books books books books books!

2013-04-20 15:13:22 (4 comments, 14 reshares, 35 +1s)

MIT's technology review had an article this week, will robots create new jobs when they take over existing ones. The answer to that question is a full on and emphatic no. The robot shown below is named Baxter, manufactured by rethink robotics. Baxter is a human safe robot that moves at slow speed so as to not injure humans. Baxter is programmable by showing him objects and what needs to be done with those objects. No programming is required.

Given the CAD files, software, hardware, and wiring diagrams of Baxter he can be redesigned so that he can manufactured copies of himself. With the ability to download and upload manufacturing processes from one robot to another, it would allow you to train a single robot, then  transfer that knowledge to robots on other assembly lines doing the same job.

See Alsomore »

2013-04-19 23:53:17 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 24 +1s)

I just supported Graphation Comics new project I Comic. I Care. - they are making a comic book character about a little girl who loves robots and lives in a junkyard - not only are they creating the comic book series, 50% of the profits from sales go directly to +LA Robotics Club , which will provide class space and components for under-served youth in Los Angeles who want to learn about Robotics and Electronics. If you love comic books and philanthropy, here's your cause!!! #IComicICare +The Tiziano Project