It's Catching Up!

Chimps are outperforming humans at a memory test these days, before you get on your high horse, watch the video, and see if you would be defeated by a chimp as well. I certainly would be. We're slipping people!

from New Scientist

Midnite Movies: Thirteen to Centarus

A JG Ballard story adapted for a British Twilight Zone-esque show calle Out of the Unknown. Great sci-fi from a great mind.

Midnite Movies: Claude Shannon Juggline Machine

Claude Shannon, the father of Information Theory, unicycling and juggling enthusiast, demonstrating his juggling automaton.

Gallium

Gallium has a very low melting temperature as demonstrated by the cup of tea.

via periodictableru

Combination Lock Crack

A nifty tip for all you would-be forgetters of the combinations for locks you have legally purchased.


How To Crack A Combination Lock - video powered by Metacafe

Kim Peek: the Real Rainman

Circuit Friending

C'mon. You know all the cool geeky kids are doing it. You know you wanna do it. Bend that circuit.

Arachnophobia

To tie in with my post on Smart Now I have dug up some videos of the creatures of my nightmares as further illustration.

The Goliath Bird Eating Spider (chicken eater is supposed to be even larger):


And the Camel Spider, which is surrounded in controversy, but this one is clearly eating a gecko.

I was wrong!

I had never thought of it this way before. Clearly, these guys have thought of EVERYTHING.




But I guess...no, that doesn't make any sense either. I was going to try and use logic against this sort of thing, but then I was tipped of to the profoundly smoking gun of banana cultivation. Hmm, seems that bananas evolved to get to the point where we could use them as incontrovertible proof that evolution doesn't occur. Sorry science, looks like you lose again.

From the mixed up files of Nikola Tesla

I watched "the Prestige" the other night, which is not nearly as good as it is long, but nonetheless Nikola Tesla via David Bowie plays a part in the goings on of the film which got me curious about Tesla all over again. I had done some rudimentary investigations into the man in the past, but I dug up this documentary on the subject of his invention of AC power.

Cordyceps Plague

A Fascinating look at the devastating and bizarre cordyceps fungus.


Smart Now post on Cordyceps.

SRL: Weird Weapons of WWII (with a cameo by me)

This is a segment from the History Channel's "Weird Weapons of WWII" featuring Mark Pauline from SRL demonstrating the "shockwave cannon" which was a failed bit of Nazi technology that was supposed to decimate aircraft with a powerful column of air. It never quite worked, as evidenced by the fact that at the end of the clip MYSELF and two of my good friends appear getting blasted by the cannon on top of Mark's Trailer. This was filmed two summers ago when I was out in San Francisco working for RE/Search.

Resonance Effect

Here's another interesting video displaying the physical properties of sound.

Reubens Tube

Physical audio-visualization that brilliantly illustrates the movement of sine waves.

Hyperland

Excellent old Douglas Adams documentary on hypertext, tv, and the internet. Dated, but somehow still amazingly timely.

Nice Guys Finish First

Before he was the opponent of God, Ridhard Dawkins was actually a very brilliant evolutionary biologist. This is a wonderful documentary in defense of his seminal book, the Selfish Gene.

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: Rishard Feynman

Feynman was one of the most eloquent physicists/ scientist of our time. If you are unfarmilliar with him, watch this video and take pleasure in finding things out.

Artificial Stupidity

Engineering artificial neural nets that teach themselves appears to be the key to computer intelligence. Read Richard Powers' "Galatea 2.2" for an excellent book and an illustration of the concept.

Hearts and Minds

I watched the actual documentary Hearts and Minds which is on the Vietnam War. This however concerns the hearts tenuous connection to the mind. I think this might be more revealing about biology than anything else. An interesting point to ponder regardless.

By UK's Channel 4.

Evolve Artificially

At least artificial avatars cannot overrun us since they remain trapped within the framework of the program. They will just start beating us at every video game.