interweaving ideas
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Kevin Kelly Debunks Kurzweil’s Imminent Singularity
Kevin Kelly, founder of Wired Magazine, writes a convincing argument for why Ray Kurzweil needs to just relax and accept his mortality, explaining that, even if a super-AI emerged from the Google-Interwebs in 2045, simply being a supermind isn’t enough to solve all the world’s problems: No super AI can simply think about all the…
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American Natural History Museum: Primates
Shouldn’t the primates exhibit be merged with the Hall of Human Origins? Wouldn’t the recently discovered hobbit, the Alien from Earth, as PBS NOVA calls it, also properly go in both exhibits? Maybe some of the confusion and lack of appreciation for primates comes from people who forget that humans are primates. Orang-utan See the…
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The National Defense Education Act 50 Years Later
2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the National Defense Education act, a direct response to the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite into Earth orbit. The act employed one of the most brilliant strategic responses to an outside military threat ever devised: dramatically improve education for all Americans. The act’s goal was to bring “American…
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American Natural History Museum: Sanford Hall of North American Birds
Birds are perfect for the lazy-person’s appreciation of nature. Birds come to us. Set up a bird-feeder in your back yard, and they just show up. Then all you have to do is look out your window and figure out what species your seeing. Recognizing bird calls helps as well, here’s a site filled with…
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Flash Fiction: A Moment of Uninspiring Clarity
Maybe we don’t see extraterrestrials all over the night sky because they all get absorbed in the virtual worlds they create? Check it out here. Wyndallo took an unexpected breath of cold, sterile air. He opened his eyes and saw his exhale condense against the glass door to the capsule, which was smoothly lifting away…
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Taste the Evolution This Thanksgiving
YeYeah, that’s right. I’ve figured out a way to science-theme out Thanksgiving. I’ve heard cicadas taste like shrimp, which makes sense as they are arthropods like crabs and lobster. Alligator tastes like fishy chicken, which makes sense as reptiles are the bridge between fish and birds. Tyrannosaurus rex’s closest living relative is the chicken, so…
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I’m Running Behind on Researching for Post-Material
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American Natural History Museum: North American Mammals
The Smithsonian has an interactive flash family tree of mammals that allows you to zoom in on a species and generate PDF field guides for a set of similar animals. Mountain Goat See the complete flickr set here.
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SF Flash Fiction: The Watcher
Some people read the news on their lunch break, but I know the news is just the first draft of history, and my job is the final draft. I’ve read every single Marvel Comic book ever printed over three centuries worth of coffee breaks. You might think that a frivolous way to spend one’s free…
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The Dangers of Satire
In his essay A Modest Proposal Jonathan Swift suggests that the Irish could pull themselves out of poverty by selling their babies off to British dinner plates: I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most…
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Five Years of ideonexus
I have written 1022 posts since I started blogging in November 2003 (and this post on the same day) Each post written comes out to an average of one to two single-spaced typed pages, each page containing an average 500 – 1000 words. By these averages, I have written the equivalent of nine 80,000-word novels.…
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American Natural History Museum: New York State Mammals
One of the more lovable rodents, the beaver recently returned to New York City, as “Jose” the beaver set up home in the Bronx River: “This is a symbolic moment for our great city,” said Dr. Steven Sanderson, president and CEO of the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society. “New York City is the epitome of…
