I asked Google’s AI what it thinks Google will be in 10 years, and the answer was HAL 9000, but blue.
Category: Science
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Johnny Smith Learns the Cornet
Having learned to fly from pilots he befriended, Smith enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in the hopes of becoming a military pilot. He was invalidated from the flight programme because of imperfect vision in his left eye. Given a choice between joining the military band and being sent to mechanic’s school, Smith opted to join the military band. Smith claimed that they gave him a cornet, an Arban’s instructional book, and two weeks to meet the standard, which included being able to read music. Determined not to go to mechanic’s school, Smith spent the two weeks practicing the cornet in the latrine, as recommended by the bandleader, and passed the examination.
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Green tipping point: competition
Even my tiny Manhattan food market now sports two different brands of recycled paper products.
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Green tipping point: organic foods
Annie’s has grown from one product (organic macaroni and cheese) to 80, fueling a $34 million company. The Organic Trade Association estimates the $12.25 billion organic food market will double by 2008, assuming an 18.4% annual growth rate (WSJ, March 29, 2005). With a $20 million investment from Solera Capital, Annie’s (and others on the same growth curve) can expand exponentially.
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Green tipping point: national tv
A recent edition of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition focused on the use of sustainable building products, hybrid cars, and efficient appliances.
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Green tipping point: product cool
Nike’s Considered line eliminates waste & toxics, uses less energy to produce, and reduces waste at the end of the product’s life.
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Green tipping point: celebrity cool
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – February 18, 2005 – Joining the ranks of celebrities choosing to bring an environmental conscience to the Oscars, Leonardo DiCaprio, Charlize Theron, Robin Williams, Orlando Bloom, Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins are among those arriving at the 2005 Academy Awards in high-mileage, low emission, Prius hybrids as part of Global Green’s 3rd annual “Red Carpet—Green Stars†campaign.
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Green tipping point: business green
GE pledges to invest billions in being green:
“Ecomagination is GE’s commitment to address challenges such as the need for cleaner, more efficient sources of energy, reduced emissions and abundant sources of clean water,” Immelt said. “And we plan to make money doing it. Increasingly for business, ‘green’ is green.”
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Environment alters DNA
WSJ reports ($) that the effect of a gene depends on the environment it’s exposed to. Several studies have shown, for example, that water-fleas will only grow hard-skull defenses if they are in waters with fish, that oak-tree caterpillars grow to resemble the food they eat, and that men with the “violence gene” only act violent if they were neglected or abused as children. My favorite example:
Last summer, Michael Meaney of McGill University, Montreal, and colleagues reported that a gene that shapes how fearful, jumpy and neurotic a rat is can be altered by how regularly its mother licks and grooms it. Maternal care changes the chemistry of a “neuroticism gene,” and the rat grows up to be mellow and curious. The genetic trait for neuroticism — deemed innate because scientists had found a gene “for” it — is reversible by environment.
I wonder how different working environments interact with our genes?
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Cockroaches stage coup in Ukraine
Actually, no. But not so far off when you learn a rat brain has been taught to fly a jet.
Gibson extends: “…Thunderbolt IIs have Night Vision Imaging Systems (NVIS), rat brain compatible cockpits forward of their wings and a large bubble canopy which provides the rat brains all-around vision. The rat brains are encircled by titanium armor that also protects parts of the flight-control system…“
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How good are doctors?
Atul Gawande’s The Bell Curve in last week’s New Yorker…
It used to be assumed that differences among hospitals or doctors in a particular specialty were generally insignificant. If you plotted a graph showing the results of all the centers treating cystic fibrosis—or any other disease for that matter—people expected that the curve would look something like a shark fin, with most places clustered around the very best outcomes. But the evidence has begun to indicate otherwise. What you tend to find is a bell curve: a handful of teams with disturbingly poor outcomes for their patients, a handful with remarkably good results, and a great, undistinguished middle.
It’s an excellent look at how honestly hospitals are dealing with their patients. Also of note is Tom Peter’s reaction.
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Econ 101
I recently read Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan, a writer for The Economist. He covers many of the more interesting ideas, highlights some underappreciated thinkers, and offers a sound perspective on a field that tries to stay within the boundaries of statistics while undeniably bleeding into politics and sociology. Also see Peterme’s review for more about this.
Here’s some of the concepts he covers, all of which are useful even if you never tread into what is traditionally thought of as economics. Most of the definitions are on the Wikipedia.
Incentives
- Creative destruction
- Prisoners delimma
- Law of unintended consequences
- Principal-Agent problem
- Dead weight loss
- Progressive and regressive taxes
- Externality
Government
- Property rights
- Rule of law
- Public goods
- Supply-side
also…
- Adverse selection
- Our skills and health comprise 75% of our wealth as a nation
- Rule of 72: rate of growth divided by 72 equals how long it takes for a growing quantity to double
- Interest represented as r, the rental rate on capital
- We often receive more utility via relative than absolute wealth
- Catastrophe bonds are a way to spread risk and rewards
- The Tournament model
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All the news that fits on the head of a pin
I like that an online journal of nanotechnology has named itself Small Times.
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The challenge of the 21st century
Forty-nine countries have agreed to participate in a 10-year project to collect and share thousands of measurements of the Earth, ranging from weather to streamflow to ground tremors to air pollution with anticipated benefits ranging from weather forecasts to energy consumption estimates to predictions of disease outbreaks. As usual, it’s not the design of the system that’s the big challenge:
“We have been able to make computers work together. The challenge of the 21st century is to get people to work together… It will not be the technology that limits it, it will be the sociology,” Leavitt [head of the U.S. EPA] added, noting that the problem will be overcoming bureaucracy, politics, turf.
Link courtesy of Brett.
