Science
New way of presenting the world through more accurate maps
Dec 10th
From a scientist at the Technical University of Eindhoven comes a new way of cutting up the 3D world to create a more accurate representation through 2D maps. Using polygons, Jack van Wijk, is able to slice the surface of the globe in such a way that distortion of landmasses is minimal. What’s new about his approach is that he uses more polygons and new algorithms, creating better and more focused cuts to flatten the surface.
Information overload?
Dec 9th
An interesting report came out today, titled “How much information?”, by the Global Information Industry of the UCSD. It’s clear from their findings that the average American is taking in a tremendous amount of information each and every day. And that will only become more, with more and better access to the web through better connections and applications, at home, at work, everywhere really.
Some numbers:
- The average American consumes 34 gigabytes of data per day
- Americans consume information 12 hours per day on average
- Americans spend on average 2 hours per day on their computer
Questions that spring to mind are: How much is too much? What does the average American do with that information? Does the average American need all that information? Could the average American do something better with their time than taking in all that information? Will there be a point in time that there’s an occurrence of information overload? Hope to find some answers…
Read the report (via CrunchGear)
Large Hadron Collider sets new power world record
Nov 30th
(PhysOrg.com) — CERN’s Large Hadron Collider has today become the world’s highest energy particle accelerator, having accelerated its twin beams of protons to an energy of 1.18 TeV in the early hours of the morning. This exceeds the previous world record of 0.98 TeV, which had been held by the US Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory’s Tevatron collider since 2001. It marks another important milestone on the road to first physics at the LHC in 2010.
via Large Hadron Collider sets new power world record (Physorg.com)
The Faith Instinct by Nicholas Wade
Nov 30th
Just read this short review of “The Faith Instinct” by Nicholas Wade on the New Scientist website. I find the idea of “The Evolution of Faith” a very interesting one, a very obvious one, and it might be a great addition to the current ongoing discussion between religion and science. I wonder why no one has ever brought up this point when debating the issue of evolution vs. religion/creationism. It’s now on my reading list.
On the origin of gods – CultureLab – New Scientist
Semantic Research World Standards
Nov 27th
European researchers have created new tools for semantic technology development which are helping to set the next generation of official standards. The tools also unblock some key bottlenecks in semantic technology.
P. Z. Myers: Mild-mannered scourge of creationists
Nov 26th
P. Z. Myers has angered millions with his tirades against religion posted on his popular science blog, Pharyngula. But as Jessica Marshall finds out, the scourge of creationists turns out to be a mild-mannered man from Minnesota.