Roger Kemp's Net » Science

Google everywhere – The Google Car

Roger — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 15:51:53 +0000

Google controling your TV, your phone, your tablet and now also your car. The news of the Google car isn’t that surprising to me. I’ve been thinking about the idea of a computer driven networked car for a long time. Especially since I’ve been back in the Netherlands, which seems to grind to a halt every day during rush hour. A network of computer driven cars and networked road systems, constantly aware of all traffic would make traffic jams seem so quant. Each car would know where it and all the other cars are going (navigation systems where the first step towards this system), at what speed, and what the traffic up ahead is going to do. Merging, exiting, making turns, passing will all be known way ahead of time by all participating traffic and the network will calculate the best speed and timing of all actions to get you to your destination in the most efficient way, not only for you, but also for all the other networked travelers.

Traffic jams will be a thing of the past, as will most traffic accidents. The benefits are obvious. And with a gradual introduction, even the most staunch American driver might relinquish control over his or her vehicle.

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New way of presenting the world through more accurate maps

Roger — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:04:13 +0000

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.

New Scientist

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Information overload?

Roger — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:01:32 +0000

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)

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Good analysis of “Climate Gate”

Roger — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:44:07 +0000

I wish more people would see this.

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Large Hadron Collider sets new power world record

Roger — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:49:20 +0000

(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)

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The Faith Instinct by Nicholas Wade

Roger — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:32:28 +0000

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

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Semantic Research World Standards

Roger — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:56:25 +0000

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.

Physorg.com

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P. Z. Myers: Mild-mannered scourge of creationists

Roger — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:23:34 +0000

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.

New Scientist

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