Archives for November 2007
Nature Abhors a Gradient
Published on 27 Nov 2007 at 3:54 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Biology, Climate, Energy, Evolution, Philosophy, Physics, Social Justice.
I recall back to my first days in physics class where I read the quotation “Nature abhors a vacuum”. The phrase was accompanied by an image of two teams of horses trying to pull two hollow hemispheres apart after the air was pumped out from inside.
These were called Magdeburg hemispheres and the experiment was performed by […]
Read ‘Nature Abhors a Gradient’
Why Intelligent Machines Appear Intelligent (or Not)
Published on 24 Nov 2007 at 5:58 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Computation, Exploration, Information, Intelligent Systems, Inventions, Lego, Programming, Research, Robotics, Technology.
I have been working for about 48 hours (straight with intermittent cat naps) on my robotic arm, which is equipped with a point light sensor. I have re-programmed it to characterize polygons as well as circles. However, the main purpose of this research project is to develop an inquiry engine that is generally engineered to […]
Read ‘Why Intelligent Machines Appear Intelligent (or Not)’
Origin of the Word Idiot
Published on 22 Nov 2007 at 11:55 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Blather, General, Social Justice.
I learned today that the word idiot originates from the Greek word idiwtes (idiotes), which refers to a person disinterested in participating in democracy and public life. These people were viewed as selfish, contemptable and stupid as they were more concerned with their daily personal affairs than they were of the good of the society. Later in […]
Read ‘Origin of the Word Idiot’
Four on the Floor
Published on 22 Nov 2007 at 1:53 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Fun.
My sister-in-law Becky posted her answers to a personal survey on her blog. While I usually focus on science and robots and other cool things that I want to remember here in my Online memory, why not a fun survey? Just once…
Four jobs I have had in my life (not including my current job):
Bus Boy […]
Animations
Published on 22 Nov 2007 at 12:21 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Astronomy, Climate, Fun, Green, Internet.
I have made some animated gifs that I am putting on this blog’s Animations page.
This is an animation of a rotating Earth, and was constructed from 48 images generated by Celestia. These were then stitched together and optimized using Adobe ImageReady.
Please feel free using these on your own website.
Just remember, they are not for sale […]
