Moses.wolfenstein

Earlier this week, Mark posted a fancy Useless Machine that had all sorts of exciting behaviors when you turned it on. But I think I prefer the Useless machine advanced edition, with its many switches and prodding metal fingers, built from organs harvested from a donor printer. Looking back into the archives, I see we've made quite a habit of posting about the amazing Useless Machine phenomenon.

Useless machine advanced edition (via Beyond the Beyond)

Sierra Club magazine discusses "4 Ordinary Animals with Superhero Abilities." (Flight is not included.) My favorite tidbit is about a tiger's whiskers:

They are filled with sensitive nerve endings, which help them detect distances and changes in their surroundings. When tigers hunt, they go for the kill shot: the carotid artery located in the neck. After the tiger’s canines have pierced the artery, the whiskers move forward, encircling the prey’s neck, and determine if the prey’s pulse is gone.

"4 Ordinary Animals with Superhero Abilities"

Steve Mould, Britain's Brightest's "science guy," showed that if you put coil a 50' chain of magnets in a jar and then casually toss out one end, the whole chain goes berzerk leaps and cavorts like an innocent colt on crystal meth, defying gravity and gravitas. In this video, Earth Unplugged gets Steve to explain what's really happening.

Amazing bead chain experiment in slow motion - Slo Mo #19 - Earth Unplugged (via IO9)

Robert Shepherd says:

One cannot tell [how sophisticated the Xerox automated essay grader] is from the marketing literature, which is a concatenation of glittering vagaries. But even if one had a perfect system of this kind that almost perfectly correlated with scoring by human readers, it would still be the case that NO ONE was actually reading the student’s writing and attending to what he or she has to say and how it is said. The whole point of the enterprise of teaching kids how to write is for them to master a form of COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PERSONS, and one cannot eliminate the person who is the audience of the communication and have an authentic interchange.

via http://dianeravitch.net/2013/05/16/can-machines-grade-essays-should-they

Charles Ramsey rescued three women in Cleveland Ohio today—women who had been missing for more than a decade. The interview he gave to local news after the rescue is a thing of beauty. Beauty and lulz. I predict he'll be auto-tuned and immortalized as a meme shortly. (via guyism)

Peter Bristol created this binder clip bag in 2007 and now he's looking for manufacturing partners: "The binder icon functions so well as a bag you can almost take it seriously. Constructed of wool felt and aluminum tubing."

Clip Bag (via Super Punch)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that he would be willing to donate even more money as a way to accelerate the widening of a major north-south highway in Los Angeles, known as the 405 Freeway. So far, he’s already donated $50,000 out of a total cost that has now ballooned to $1.1 billion, but he said he’d gladly pay more to add more workers.

"[I’d pay more] as a contribution to the city and my own happiness,” Musk told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday. “If it can actually make a difference, I would gladly contribute funds and ideas. I've super had it."

On Wednesday, the city received the dubious honor of having the worst traffic in the country, according to data company Inrix.

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"I thought it would never happen to me," said Judge Raymond Voet, who is the chief judge in Ionia County, Michigan. He was referring to the fact that his cellphone made noise in court on April 13 during a trial. Like many judges, Voet hates it when cellphones ring in his courtroom, and he hates it enough that he has had signs posted outside saying that violators will be fined $25 if it happens.

Unlike some judges, perhaps, Voet was willing to impose the fine on himself when he violated his own rule.

The judge said he had recently switched from the Blackberry model he has had for years to a Windows phone with a touchscreen, and believes the phone wasn't locked when he came to the bench with the phone in his shirt pocket. Worse, this particular phone apparently comes with voice activation, which was news to the judge. He said something to trigger it, and the phone spoke up.

"I can't understand you," it said. "Say something like 'mom.'"

Say what you want about Siri, but at least she shows a little more respect.

The judge admitted it was embarrassing to be in violation of his own rule, but to his credit he did not hold himself above the law. He held himself in contempt, fined himself $25, and walked downstairs to pay the fine. "Judges are humans," he said. "They're not above the rules. I broke the rule and I have to live by it."

That is an honorable position that some would say not every judge in history has taken, not that I'm singling out anyone in particular.

Mr. Dalliard provides this handy flowchart to organize time travel movies. And yes, I immediately looked for Back to the Future and backtracked.

Data Points is in the wild. Grab a copy.

Join Mark Chen ’95, game designer & researcher—and friends—for a month-long game jam on the Reed College campus this August 1—23

Part workshop, part lab, part on-going brainstorm and creation space. During the Reed Game Jam you will:

• Gain an understanding of the game development process:
  • Idea generation;
  • Writing a game design document;
  • Testing mechanics for both digital and tabletop games.
• Learn about current state of games in academia &
• Participate in hands-on research activities.

The goal? Produce at least one Kickstarter-ready game.

The Jam (in Psy108) will be open from Tuesday—Saturday extended hours; closed on Sunday, and open 9—5 p.m. on Monday.

INTERESTED? Email Brooke Hunter (hunterb@reed.edu) for the application link.

Deadline to apply Tuesday, June 25, 2013

So, here’re my August plans! Huge thanks to Brooke Hunter at Reed for making this happen.

This is primarily for Reedies, but others are welcome to apply. It’s basically a Maker space kind of set up. A bunch of smart people dropping in when they can to collaborate on game-related projects. I’m taking donations for food, transportation, etc. :)

From IfIndustries, an (apparently?) unavailable but rather clever line of Pac-Man hoodies (one ghost shown, all ghosts in set).

Pac-man & Ghosts Hoddies (via Geeks Are Sexy)

Take that, Maslow.

Basic Human Needs Pyramid: Fixed [Pic]

Tony Newman of the Drug Policy Alliance says: "Yesterday during a nationally televised event at the National Press Club, Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske repeated the federal government’s claim that they ended the war on drugs in 2009 and are now prioritizing drug treatment and prevention over incarceration. They cite an increase for drug treatment in President Obama’s proposal for the new drug control budget as evidence of their new approach. But their rhetoric does not match the reality – more than 1.5 million people are arrested for nonviolent drug offenses every year."

When Iran nationalized its oil, this was seen as a threat, and the US needed to increase their oil prices. They fought it with their most powerful weapon: weapons.

Soma of the Brooklyn Brainery created TODOCAT, a to-do list manager based on the elegant cat meme. I fucking hate cat memes, but I love to-do lists. I love this cat meme to-do list manager.

TODOCAT (via Waxy)