Universal machine: John von Neumann and his high-speed computer, circa 1952.
It’s anyone’s guess whether our digital world ends with a bang, a whimper or a singularity. One thing’s for sure: It began with a double entendre.
The digital age can be traced to a machine built circa 1951 in Princeton, N.J. That machine was given the bureaucratic-sounding name the Mathematical and Numerical Integrator and Computer, and was known by the acronym Maniac, meaning something wild and uncontrollable — which it proved to be. But the crucial double entendre was contained in the computer’s memory. For the first time, numbers could mean numbers or instructions. Data could be a noun or a verb.
That turned out to be incredibly important, as George Dyson makes clear in his latest book, “Turing’s Cathedral,” a groundbreaking history of the Princeton computer. Though the English mathematician Alan Turing gets title billing, Dyson’s true protagonist is the Hungarian-American John von Neumann, presented here as the Steve Jobs of early computers — a man who invented almost nothing, yet whose vision changed the world.
Von Neumann was no stereotypical mathematician. He was urbane, witty, wealthy and (literally) entitled. At his 1926 doctoral exam, the mathematician David Hilbert is said to have asked but one question: “Pray, who is the candidate’s tailor?” He had never seen such beautiful evening clothes.
Read more HERE.
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Library of Congress “The Library of Congress. The Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution, and it serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with more than 120 million items. The collections include books, sound recordings, motion pictures, photographs, maps, and manuscripts.”
The U.S. schools with the highest rates of students who graduate in four years are St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing in Peoria, IL (100%); Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA (94%); Davidson College in Davidson, NC (92%); College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA (92%); and Haverford College in Haverford, PA (91%). – Provided by RandomHistory.com
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Their existence was widely reported last August, but the demand for pills made from dead human babies apparently hasn’t let up: South Korean customs officials revealed today that they have confiscated more than 17,000 of the pills from smugglers over the past nine months.
Hospitals and abortion clinics in China have continued to sell dead babies to medical companies that dry them out, grind them up, and sell them in pill form as alternative remedies to increase stamina. The dead babies are “mostly abortions or stillbirths” and are being used with the mothers’ consent.
Health authorities in Asia worry that if the powdered fetus trade continues, the capsules will find their way online, where the sick and gullible will be susceptible to super-bacteria and other harmful ingredients found in the human flesh capsules.
From the: dailymail
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With well over a year before American forces pull out of Afghanistan, the conflict there drags on. Every month in The Big Picture, we feature a selection of recent images of events there, from the soldiers and insurgents at war, the people longing for peace, and daily life and culture in the country of 29 million. Afghanistan remains among the world’s poorest nations, and struggles with issues not found in other places, like an ongoing fight against polio. Afghanistan still supplies about 90% of the world’s opium, a major cash crop in a country with few viable exports. Gathered here are images from April, 2012. — Lane Turner 33 photos total
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On February 15th and 16th, Laogai Research Foundation hosted an international conference on China’s Great Famine in Washington, DC. From 1959 to 1961, the Chinese people suffered history’s largest famine, which killed an estimated 40 million people. LRF’s conference, “The World’s Greatest Famine: Witnessing, Surviving, Remembering”, brought together academics and authors from around the world to discuss the role Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party played in bringing about the starvation and unnatural deaths of millions. Keynote speakers included Yang Jisheng, author of Tombstone, a comprehensive account of the Great Chinese Famine during the Great Leap Forward; Jasper Becker, author of Hungry Ghosts: Mao’s Secret Famine; and Frank Dikotter, author of Mao’s Great Famine (participant papers can be downloaded at the bottom of the page).
On February 15th and 16th, Laogai Research Foundation hosted an international conference on China’s Great Famine in Washington, DC. From 1959 to 1961, the Chinese people suffered history’s largest famine, which killed an estimated 40 million people. LRF’s conference, “The World’s Greatest Famine: Witnessing, Surviving, Remembering”, brought together academics and authors from around the world to discuss the role Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party played in bringing about the starvation and unnatural deaths of millions. Keynote speakers included Yang Jisheng, author of Tombstone, a comprehensive account of the Great Chinese Famine during the Great Leap Forward; Jasper Becker, author of Hungry Ghosts: Mao’s Secret Famine; and Frank Dikotter, author of Mao’s Great Famine (participant papers can be downloaded at the bottom of the page).
On February 15th and 16th, Laogai Research Foundation hosted an international conference on China’s Great Famine in Washington, DC. From 1959 to 1961, the Chinese people suffered history’s largest famine, which killed an estimated 40 million people. LRF’s conference, “The World’s Greatest Famine: Witnessing, Surviving, Remembering”, brought together academics and authors from around the world to discuss the role Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party played in bringing about the starvation and unnatural deaths of millions. Keynote speakers included Yang Jisheng, author of Tombstone, a comprehensive account of the Great Chinese Famine during the Great Leap Forward; Jasper Becker, author of Hungry Ghosts: Mao’s Secret Famine; and Frank Dikotter, author of Mao’s Great Famine (participant papers can be downloaded at the bottom of the page).
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The Fountain of Youth by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1546)
Throughout time, mankind has always looked for ways to extend the longevity of life. In modern times we have organ transplants, anti-aging creams and plastic surgery to either extend our life or if we accept the futility of that premise, then at least try and make oneself look younger. We can now bathe in spas whose magical water quality are supposed to combat this disease or that disease and many who have bathed in these waters leave feeling cleansed and believe implicitly that the waters do heal them of their ailments and have rejuvenated them. In past times there was always talk about the mythical Fountain of Youth in which the waters could reverse the ageing process. Alexander the Great, who conquered most of the known world at the time, was thought to have been searching for a river that healed the ravages of age. Move forward to the 12th century and we hear of a puzzling letter sent to the Byzantine emperor Manuel I which started to circulate around Europe. It told of a magical kingdom in the East that was in danger of being overrun by infidels and barbarians. This letter was supposedly written by a king known as Prester John and talked about his kingdom which had rivers filled with gold and was the home of the Fountain of Youth. Two centuries later, in 1513, it was recorded that the explorer, Ponce de León, was searching for the Fountain of Youth when he traveled to what is now Florida. And so it goes on, this fascination with the mystical Fountain of Youth.The Fountain of Youth by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1546)
From HERE.
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Materials scientists are researching the link between metals and taste. Avoid cod with zinc, but do try copper with mango.
So you’re having friends for dinner. You’ve worked out a delicious menu, paying careful attention to the colours and flavours of the dishes. Perhaps you’ve even thought about music and lighting. But did you remember to consider the flavour of your cutlery?
Dr Zoe Laughlin and Professor Mark Miodownik, co-directors of the Institute of Making at University College London, think you should. They and their colleagues have conducted a series of scientific experiments into the way spoons coated in different metals affect the tastes of food. And recently, they held their first spoon-tasting dinner, an event attended by materials scientists, psychologists and culinary luminaries such as Heston Blumenthal and Harold McGee, who had flown over from the US for the occasion.
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There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the Great American Novel if your name is George R. R. Martin or Suzanne Collins. You guys are doing great; somebody give them genius grants. I had never before read a 1,000-page book, and now I’ve read like 5 of them. If Westeros had subways things would move along much faster, George. Think about it. (Unless it was a weekend! Then they’d have shuttle buses between King’s Landing and Riverrun like only once every few hours. Ugh!) And obviously Katniss Everdeen should have dated both those dudes in the book rather than suffer the guilt and sorrow of having to choose just one. Let’s stop living in the 20th Century, with all its bullshit morality and monogamy. Hot people can do whatever the hell they want. Those two whatstheirnames would be like, “Aw, Katniss, but I love you so much.” And she’d be like, “If you truly loved me you’d make out with each other.” And then they would and then everything would be awesome. But overall, Martin and Collins get a billion gold stars. The rest of you novelists, who knows what you’re thinking. The entire world economy depends upon the Great American novel to enrich the world with vampire and werewolf love triangles that become giant blockbuster movies that sell popcorn, tickets and movie tie-in gear. Have you ever seen a blockbuster movie based upon a French bestseller? Camus’ Stranger in IMAX 3D? No. And you never will. Only Americans possess the ability to create a breakout crossover global phenomenon. It’s a heavy burden, but there you go. Deal with it, American novelists. They don’t base movies on sonnets, otherwise Ted Berrigan would be the most famous writer of the last 50 years.
more.
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Japanese company Sou Foujimoto Architects specially designed this incredible building on the request of their clients, a young couple from Tokyo. This 85 sq.m (914 sq. ft. ) residence features 21 individual floor plates set up at different levels above the ground. The plumbing facilities are placed inside the thick wall right behind the building. As soon as the house owners wish some privacy, they just draw the curtains to hide from the outer world.
MORE.
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Legal Fake Pot: Scarier and More Available Than Illegal Drugs
For those who think marijuana and prescription pills are a parent’s biggest worry, Washington Post columnist Colbert I. King says there’s a new legal drug of choice. Called K2 or “Kush,” the drug has a risk of “anxiety attacks, convulsions, fast heart rates and raised blood pressure” and can be purchased at your local gas station.
While my gas tank was being filled at the Exxon station in the 4500 block of Benning Road NE, I asked a clerk for Kush. She reached behind her and produced a shiny, colored plastic bag with “Kush” written on it. We were separated by glass but, at my request, she turned the bag around so I could read the label on the back. Several ingredients — none of which I recognized — were listed, along with the admonition “Not to be sold to children.” She said the price was $8. I declined to buy it.
Read more HERE.
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An analysis of skeletal remains has provided new evidence that humans made it to the Western Hemisphere during the last ice age, where they lived alongside giant, now-extinct mammals, claims a new study published online Thursday in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
University of Florida researchers used rare earth element analysis in order to measure the concentration of naturally occurring metals absorbed during fossilization in human and mammal remains discovered in south Florida in the early 20th century.
The study, which was inspired by an ongoing debate amongst scientists regarding whether or not those fossils were from the same time period, discovered that modern man co-existed with mastodons, mammoths, and other massive mammals in North America about 13,000 years ago.
MORE.
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Republicans have been complaining lately that President Obama is taking credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden that is rightfully due to the Navy SEALS. But for Gregory Berns, director of the Emory University Center for Neuropolicy, the most impressive participant in the operation by far was the U.S. Navy dog who accompanied the SEALS — and that gave him an idea.
“I was amazed when I saw the pictures of what military dogs can do,” Berns says. “I realized that if dogs can be trained to jump out of helicopters and airplanes, we could certainly train them to go into an fMRI to see what they’re thinking.”
MRI studies have been done on dogs that were sedated or restrained, but Berns realized that if dogs who were awake and alert could be trained to hold perfectly still within the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner, it would be possible to find out how their brains reacted to hand signals from their owners.
Read more HERE.
Originally posted 2012-05-07 15:05:14. Republished by Blog Post Promoter