A typically excellent slide show put together by Alan Taylor (formerly of the Boston Globe’s similarly excellent Big Picture feature): When We Tested Nuclear Bombs. (hat tip: Coudal Partners Blended Feed)
When We Tested Nuclear Bombs
Posted by Ben on May 9, 2011
https://www.swordbilled.com/when-we-tested-nuclear-bombs/
You say “Google Doc”, I say “Awesome”
An animation using only Google Docs.
Posted by Ben on December 19, 2010
https://www.swordbilled.com/you-say-google-doc-i-say-awesome/
Weirdest Post Ever (not really)
Things like National Geographic’s “Ten Weirdest New Animals of 2010” always seem like a mixed bag, to me. It’s definitely great to promote public awareness of new species, but any list is going to be at least somewhat biased (admittedly, this particular list doesn’t limit itself to the cute and the furry — between the […]
Posted by Ben on December 12, 2010
https://www.swordbilled.com/weirdest-post/
Return of the Rundown
Timewaster: Typewar. Think you know fonts? Try this game, which you’ll either find completely boring or riveting. Best aggregated reference word site: Wordnik. My favorite reference site right now. All about words. Maps of Disaster: Informative, curious, unnerving. View map (or maps) of the world, with icons of disaster superimposed. For added effect, project image […]
Posted by Ben on April 17, 2010
https://www.swordbilled.com/return-of-the-rundown/
Hippos
Of course there’s always debate about invasive species, but usually… Well, usually you don’t think hippopotamus, not in the same mental grouping as zebra mussel and starling. But apparently we live on a place where that can happen; where Colombian drug lords decide to create a haven (of sorts) for hippos; and where, even today, […]
Posted by Ben on October 8, 2009
https://www.swordbilled.com/hippos/
Cleaning House (Rundown)
It turns out computers can figure out what language you’re speaking without actually hearing you. In at least some controlled circumstances, anyway. (NewScientist, via Monochrom) “Astonishingly”, (1) people forget their passwords all the time, but (2) the ever-helpful “secret” “questions” are not really either — at least, not as far as security is concerned. If […]
Posted by Ben on September 17, 2009
https://www.swordbilled.com/cleaning-house-rundown/
Aliens, astronomers, or super-intelligent aardvarks?
You decide. Whatever the case, it’s kind of amazing. (via Ectoplasmosis)
Posted by Ben on August 26, 2009
https://www.swordbilled.com/aliens-astronomers-or-super-intelligent-aardvarks/
I can see your brain
Of course, movies have known for years that this was possible–it’s just taken reality a while to catch up. Yes, science can see images in your brain, although for now it’s seemingly mostly proof-of-concept, and fairly limited. (No full color perfect simulacra of your dreams, yet.) “Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed […]
Posted by Ben on June 4, 2009
https://www.swordbilled.com/i-can-see-your-brain/
A search engine that predicts the future
The future: …which is even stranger when you consider that it’s predicting the release of itself. Stay tuned. I’ve been playing around on the preview, and while I’m not as impressed as I was by the initial (guided/rehearsed) demo searches, I’m still mighty curious. As long as WolframAlpha survives, it certainly won’t get worse. And […]
Posted by Ben on May 12, 2009
https://www.swordbilled.com/a-search-engine-that-predicts-the-future/
The Future Is Now
Two tidbits from NewScientist: Robots have made their first independent scientific discovery (i.e., made its own hypotheses based on data it was given, and then tested those hypotheses); The internet might soon (or already) be self-aware.
Posted by Ben on May 6, 2009
https://www.swordbilled.com/the-future-is-now/