Open Tables

New study shows some U.S. states are happier than others

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:32:56 +0000

And the key to happiness is to have more tolerant, wealthy citizens. New study shows some U.S. states are happier than others from www.mnn.com/lifestyle/travel/stories/new-study-shows-some-us-states-are-happier-than-others

5 cranberry dishes for the holidays

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:32:53 +0000

Photo gallery: 5 ways to spice up your holiday feast using cranberries.Here are five great cranberry recipes to get you through the winter season. 5 cranberry dishes for the holidays from www.mnn.comfood/cooking-recipes/photos/5-cranberry-dishes-for-the-holidays/cant-miss-recipes

Chester Nov 09

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:30:43 +0000

from www.flickr.com/photos/franzatlantic/4096773914

Chester Nov 09

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:30:39 +0000

from www.flickr.com/photos/franzatlantic/4096011851

Thoughts on Turnitin's database

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:05:06 +0000

Image via Wikipedia I was reviewing some originality reports generated by Turnitin for some first ye

Image via Wikipedia

I was reviewing some originality reports generated by Turnitin for some first year undergraduate work today and it struck me that their database has grown to such an extent that I no longer trust it. I thought that this would never be the case. I assumed that as the database of harvested web pages and student papers grew, the accuraacy of detection would increase. Bigger is better, right? I didn’t think about noise though. There is some filtering in the Turnitin system, but increasingly it seems it isn’t good enough.

An example, one student has a list of 6 different sources all matching to small parts of student essays deposited as ‘reference material’ on courseworkinfo.com and related websites all owned byt he same company, and in likelihood sharing the same database. Do I believe that this student copied from this site? I’m not sure. Do I believe that each of the essays on the site may have originally been copied from wikipedia? more likely. Do I believe that all content on wikipedia is original? Not really.

Recycling and repurposing of text online is becoming so ubquituous that the noise is casuing a problem in the interpretation of originality reports. They used to save us time in investigating cases of plagiarism, now I’m not so sure.

Thoughts on Turnitin's database from drbadgr.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/thoughts-on-turnitins-database

Strange place to hoard scrap metal

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:05:05 +0000

Doctors in northern Peru removed almost a kilogram of nails, coins and scrap metal from a man’

Doctors in northern Peru removed almost a kilogram of nails, coins and scrap metal from a man’s stomach yesterday.

“The patient came in with severe abdominal pains. After examinations we discovered that he had hundreds of nails in his stomach,” said Carlos Delgado, a surgeon at the hospital in the town of Cajamarca.

Requelme Abanto Alvarado was admitted to hospital on Friday. During a two-hour operation doctors removed 900 grams (two pounds) of nails, coins and scrap metal from his stomach, as well as a small knife.

“I have never had a case like this,” the surgeon said. “I have operated on plenty of patients, but so many things in a stomach, it’s really extraordinary.”

Alvarado was in a stable condition following the operation, and he is to be examined by mental health specialists.

Comment: Crazy man, and what a strange place to hoard scrap metal. Surely he’d have been better off recycling it by weighing it in?

Strange place to hoard scrap metal from justrecyclingblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/strange-place-to-hoard-scrap-metal

Biopolitics of Pop Culture -- Updated

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:04:05 +0000

Lots of new speakers joining the Biopolitics of Popular Culture event on December 4. Here's the latest info: Biopolitics of Popular Culture Seminar Friday, December 4, 2009 EON Reality, Irvine, CA, USA This is your chance to learn firsthand from...

<http: www.dieselsweeties.com"="">Lots of new speakers joining the Biopolitics of Popular Culture event on December 4. Here's the latest info:

Biopolitics of Popular Culture Seminar
Friday, December 4, 2009
EON Reality, Irvine, CA, USA
This is your chance to learn firsthand from artists, writers, filmmakers, and culture critics whose work plays an important part in shaping our modern society.

Come and explore with us the biopolitics that are implicit in depictions of emerging technology in literature, film and television. Take notes, ask questions, watch video clips, and have your say in the discussion.

Speakers include:

David Brin

Jamais Cascio

Brian Cross

RJ Eskow

James Hughes

Richard Kadrey

Michael LaTorra

Alex Lightman

PJ Manney

Michael Massuci

Edward Miller

Jess Nevins

Annalee Newitz

Jeannie Novak

Matthew Patrick

Kristi Scott

Mike Treder

Natasha Vita-More

Be sure to register BEFORE November 15th and save 33% -- just $99, which includes continental breakfast and lunch. After November 15 or at the door it's $150. Get all the information at this page and mark the date on your calendar now.

I'm happy about this mix of people for a few reasons. The first is that it's not just the same "usual suspects" -- there are folks from a fairly wide array of fields with something to say on the subject. The second is that, atypical for a futures-focused event, the proportion of women on the speaker list is fairly high -- just under a third.

The agenda for the event should be posted soon. I've seen a draft, and it looks like it's truly going to rock. Hope to see you there!

(Image from Diesel Sweeties, by Richard Stevens, which you had better be reading daily.)

Biopolitics of Pop Culture -- Updated from www.openthefuture.com/2009/11/biopolitics_of_pop_culture_--.html

The Singularity, In Five Slides

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:04:04 +0000

The Singularity, in Five Slides from Jamais Cascio on Vimeo. Three minute excerpt from the New York talk. (Warning -- about halfway through, somebody bumps the camera, making a loud noise.)...<object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7557646&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1"/><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7557646&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object>

The Singularity, in Five Slides from Jamais Cascio on Vimeo.

Three minute excerpt from the New York talk.

(Warning -- about halfway through, somebody bumps the camera, making a loud noise.)

The Singularity, In Five Slides from www.openthefuture.com/2009/11/the_singularity_in_five_slides.html

The Cloud: Massive-Scale Display Monument for London Olympics

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:31:20 +0000

Architecture + Data Visualization + London Olympics 2012 = The Cloud.
The CLOUD [raisethecloud.org] is a massive display system, planned as an expo structure annex monument for the London Olympics in 2012. Think the equivalent of the Bejing Olympic "Bird's Nest", but then for data addicts. The project age proposes an entirely new form of "observation deck", one from which one can not only see the whole of London, but the whole of the world, immersed in gusts of weather and world data, live information with data and imagery from around the city and the world.

Visitors will create electronic energy (up to 20MWh over the course of a year) through their gravitational potential energy, accumulated while they rise up to the Cloud, and captured by a regenerative lift. They can also influence the Cloud by contributing to its output. The structure will contain numerous inflatable, each with its own air pump that controls air pressure level. All pumps are networked, thus forming a distributed, self-regulating system.

"The Cloud implements a radically new non-cartesian method of spatial display, as a suspended field of distributed LED signage, that enables it to be seen from all directions, including from within. It destroys the antique divide between audience and spectacle; the people become the project & projection, watching and learning from themselves, transmuted into light."

"Like all tell-tale signs of brooding weather, the Cloud is a display system. It is both screen and barometer, archive and sensor, past and future. The patterns of its animated skins offer a civic-scale smart-meter for London as a whole, sign-posting particular events, transport patterns, weather forecasts, timetables, and footage either real-time or decades old. Its movements can reveal the movement of both the crowds below and those within its structure - a space alive to the touch, an aerial ecology."

The architecture is largely by Carlo Ratti, Walter Nicolino, Atmos, SENSEable City Lab et al, with the visualizations by London-based GMJ and graphic design by Studio FM Milano. The artist Tomas Saraceno was heavily involved in the conceptual work. Structural engineering was Schaich Bergermann und Partner (of Munich Olympic stadium fame, amongst others) with numerous other engineering services by my colleagues here at Arup in Sydney and in London. Google were on board, as were landscape architects Agence Ter. The advisors included Umberto Eco, William J. Mitchell, Chris Bangle and others.