Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Warning Label

Sin intención de ser sensacionalista..
Podemos ver una critica injusta a un libro santo. Pero a la vez podemos notar que hay hipocresía cuando censuran otras historias de contenido similar...

Friday, February 23, 2007

Birds plan for the future

Neurophilosophy



"Minds are what brains do" (Marvin Minsky)









:-0 Don't you just love thinking... knowledge...



Today I was talking with Carlitos about Euclid's Method, and some of the inconsistencies in his propositions.. (we learn from generation to generation)



I guess we are simply a very lucky breed of animal.. :D

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Instant Lakes and 5,000 year old Plants

Este articulo en National Geographic. "I can tell you that at Qori Kalis [in Peru], there's a lake that formed there that didn't exist until 1991. But the lake now covers 84 acres [34 hectares] and it's 200 feet [61 meters] deep." "It's too late for some of these glaciers," he said. "People will have to adapt to change. That's all." En otro articulo de la misma revista: "Dead goblin sharks are caught from time to time, but it is rarely seen alive," a park official told the AFP news agency. "We were able to document the way the shark swims. After it died, we dissected the specimen for further studies."

But the unusual find is giving scientists déjà vu.

Earlier this month another deep-sea prehistoric shark had been found in Japan—a frilled shark spotted on January 21 that, like the goblin, died quickly in captivity. ;) Bienvenidos al nuevo milenio.

OO's and BB's

Cosmic Variance has this post in their blog:
OO are Ordinary Observers, and BB's are Boltzman Brains...
Along the same lines as given enough time 1000 monkeys can rewrite Shakespeare; given enough time, Quantum Mechanics can recreate Intelligent Observers...

If and after the Universe dies out via heat-death expansion (no more stars, and such), in astronomically distinct time scales. the universe will be dominated by these BB's as OO's will die out.

WTF!!!

Don Page says, WTF too, and that these conclusions must mean the universe is 'decaying'...

All this reminds me of a short story by Asimov, (one sent to me by Ruben) The Last Question

And some of you may know my very personal and informal stance regarding the second law of thermodynamics....

Also I believe I once told Luis Jose about the 1000 monkey's problem, and its miss use. One must first demonstrate that the odds truely and unequivocally Increase through time. One can't just simply jump the gun. For example, monkeys probably won't have an appropriate lifespan and they most very likely die off before they ever finish hamlet.

In any case, I digress. And I contradict my own denial of the second law of thermodynamics. Still... I now understand Asimov's own point of view... And as ever I am awed by his foresight.



PS: My mind is just like Kurt's or my Dad's, it only just happens while discussing these subjects... please help me correct all the loose ends, and incoherent thoughts I just wrote... :/ :p

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Wow..... Que Foto!

Cosmic Variance has this post in there blog: "Archaeologists from Valdaro, Italy, have unearthed a pair of skeletons — a couple who died young, and have been hugging for the last five thousand years. Take that, Andrew Marvell!

Skeleton Hug

Commentators were unsure of many of the basic facts about the Neolithic couple — whether they died simultaneously or one followed the other, whether it was a sudden accident or a ritual sacrifice, or even whether they are man and woman or a same-sex couple.

Opinion is unanimous, however, that they are awfully cute."

Friday, February 16, 2007

Dependent personality disorder

En Wikipedia hay un articulo ahi sobre Dependent Personality Disorder... también esta Avoidant Personality Disorder... No se... me pareció curioso... la sicología es realmente un tema muy interesante... la mente humana es (para mi) una maquina muy compleja... y muy interesante... PD: A los sicólogos como que les gustan los Mnemónicos... (I wonder if it makes them feel witty). ;)

code joke

para los que programan...

Thursday, February 15, 2007

warfish.net

Visit warfish.net where you can play an online Risk game.. :p

Philosotainment

As if the world doesn't have enough false prophets.... At least Scott Adams had the decency to fess up...

"I know my readers, and some of you will start squawking that I clearly believe every word I write, as evidenced by (fill in the blank with evidence). This philosotainment thing, some will say, is just a way to cover for my long history of embarrassing stupidity. That’s probably why only someone like me could invent philosotainment; I don’t mind that people think I’m a clueless goober as long as they enjoy themselves while thinking it."

PS: All information supplied by Ruben!

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Absa Cape Epic

Esa es la competencia en la que va a participar un amigo mio en Sur África.

Galeria de Fotos

How psychopaths work

Este articulo en HowStuffWorks habla sobre el comportamiento neuronal de los psicópatas... je... sus cerebros son encapases de empatia. Por otro lado yo puedo apostar que de igual mayoría de las personas tímidas tienen una alta capacidad de empatia. O sus cerebros son mas activos cuando tienen que identificar las imágenes. De hecho hay una condición medica que tiene que ver con una tensión social... Tiene que ser el opuesto.

Este es el reportaje original.

"When the non-psychopathic subjects saw a happy face, the fusiform and extrastriate regions of the brain -- the areas primarily responsible for processing images of facial expressions -- showed increased activity compared to their response to a neutral face. The psychopathic brains also showed increased activity in response to the happy faces, although less of an increase than in the non-psychopathic group. However, whereas the non-psychopathic subjects showed a similar increase in brain activity in response to the distressed faces, the psychopathic subjects did not. In fact, when the psychopaths were shown sad or fearful faces, their brain scans actually showed less neural activity than when they were shown neutral faces."

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

NKS 2007 Wolfram Science Conference

"It's time to start making plans for the NKS 2007 Wolfram Science Conference, which will be held July 13-15 at the University of Vermont. Join us as we celebrate five years of innovative research and explore the impact of emerging NKS ideas on an impressive range of fields."

Conference Link

Putting the brakes on evolution

... "Hurst's research focused on short sequences of DNA where such a second code exists and acts as a 'splice enhancer'. After DNA is copied into a molecule of RNA, these enhancers tell a human cell how to snip out unneeded sections and splice together the remainder, so it can be used as the template for protein production." ... "In the lab, it is possible to eliminate the need for splicing. So a DNA sequence could have its splicing function removed from it completely, and researchers could introduce genetic changes to produce a faster or stronger protein. Biotechnology researchers could perhaps use this technique to create more efficient enzymes." ... (link)

... "to create more efficient enzymes" ... Los otros días Laura me dijo que quería ser endocrinóloga, y los dos quedamos en que iba a ser una carrera con muchas inovaciones en los próximos años. ;)

Dragon

Estoy aceptando dragones.

Dragón

Voy a sentarme con BamBam a diseñar un Estudio / Game Room un día de estos...

Monday, February 05, 2007

Suspected terrorist Canadian Software Engineer tortured

"Canada's government said it would pay C$11.5m ($9.8m) to Maher Arar, a Canadian software engineer who was detained by American officials and flown to Syria where he was tortured. An inquiry found that Canadian officials had falsely told their American counterparts that Mr Arar was a terrorist. "

Dominican Republic's 21st percentile regional rank in economic freedom.

Con respecto a: este artículo, Juan Matos dice:
"Aún con los datos manipulados llegamos a la posición 100... Imagínate fueran datos reales estuviéramos en la 132"

"Starting a business takes an average of 73 days, compared to the world average of 48 days."

"Customs implementation is burdensome and lacks transparency, especially for importers."

"Corruption and a lack of transparency characterize most of the trade process. Problems involving the enforcement and protection of intellectual property rights add to the cost of trade. Consequently, an additional 20 percent is deducted from the Dominican Republic's trade freedom score to account for these non-tariff barriers."

Freedom from Government - 91.5%
Esto mide que tanto el gobierno participa en el pais... Lo mas alto, lo menos participa.. :/

"The court system is inefficient, and bureaucratic red tape is common."

"Corruption is perceived as significant. The Dominican Republic ranks 85th out of 158 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for 2005."

Me sorprendio que: Labor freedom. protegemos más al empleaado que la norma.

Friday, February 02, 2007

The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush...

En cosmic variance salio un articulo que dice:

"I just found out that Molly Ivins died. I have been a huge fan of her books and columns, and enjoyed the perspective she brought to the worst administration in American history.

Ivins was known for her incisive wit and her strong liberal views, which stood out all the more given her Texas roots. If you want to understand our president’s ignominious background, the range of his business failures and bailouts, and his callous record as governor of Texas, you need do little more than read her wonderful book Shrub : The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush.

In an epoch when good journalism is hard to find and much of our most honest news comes from humorous sources, Ivins was a national treasure and will be sorely missed."

Me dan ganas de leer el libro.. no se porque, pero hay cosas a veces que coño son sorprendentes y para mi Bush es una de ellas... (El reloj del 'Fin del Mundo' esta 2 minutos mas cerca del fin...)

 "Growing global nuclear instability has led humanity to the brink of a "Second Nuclear Age," the group concluded, and the threat posed by climate change is second only to that posed by nuclear weapons."

A ver si el pesimismo de mi abuelo sera realidad.... : /

Ráptame

Ven, escápate conmigo! Por hoy, llévame donde quieras; pero hoy; regalame tu día Invitame a tus antojos Brindame tu sonrisa y Mírame a ...