Going live tomorrow, SceneTap will use creepy facial recognition technology to tell us the realtime male:female ratio at bars throughout SF, among other useful tidbits of information. Imagine how much we’ll save on cover!!
genus Hippocampus
Sincerely Causes: Stop CISPA
Electronic Frontier Foundation shared this link on Facebook just now. I found it cool on two levels.
1) Sincerely is kind of like Apple’s “Cards” functionality in glossy, postcard, be-forewarned-does-not-come-in-an-envelope-so-don’t-let-your-boyfriend-send-to-your-office form. I like what they do, and I think Sincerely Causes is an interesting extension of a fun service.
2) Also fun and interesting: keeping private info out of the hands of the government. Civil liberties just cannot be the cost of protecting intellectual property.
Getting Started With Data
Hilary Mason, Bitly’s data chief, gives advice on how to get started in data science, from finding a buddy to tutorials you can watch and books you can read.
Bonus: Why you don’t need to be a math whiz.
(via poptech)
This is exceedingly cool… mapping the distribution of 2010 U.S. Census data. Surprises? (Lack thereof?)
So many things I love about this article on Maria Klawe, President of Harvey Mudd, and her efforts to encourage women to pursue and stick with Computer Science. The subject of the article itself is great, of course. How many times have you felt the following in an introductory math or hard science course?
“Known as CS 5, the course focused on hard-core programming, appealing to a particular kind of student — young men, already seasoned programmers, who dominated the class. This only reinforced the women’s sense that computer science was for geeky know-it-alls.”
For me, that experience reinforced the feeling that, from Day 1, I was already behind. I was already useless. I’m not advocating that a class should be “dumbed down” of course. The geeky know-it-alls who have been passionate from a young age deserve intellectually-stimulating coursework. But students who truly require instruction in the basic fundamentals benefit from a supportive introduction to a difficult subject, not an alienating one. I think Harvey Mudd’s approach to CS 5 shows that a course can accommodate both.
I also love the peek into the relationship between Dr. Pippenger and Dr. Klawe (married.) I found it an encouraging depiction of a successful, supportive relationship between two exceptionally intelligent and accomplished people. Real-life Clara Clayton and Doc Brown?
Wait no, I want to be that…
A long-time fan, I’m particularly grateful now to have had the pleasure of seeing Earl Scruggs at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass this summer in Golden Gate Park. “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” is one of those soundtrack-to-your-life kind of songs.
Rest in sweet, sweet banjo twang, Earl Scruggs!
I want to build you a treehouse.
I want to haul uneven planks up into the branches.
I want to build us walls and windows and beams.
I want to hammer old shingles to the roof and hang fading curtains.
I want you to wonder where I’ve been running off to.
I want to take your hand with my splintered fingers
and guide you there, around the roots and rotting logs.
Standing on my tiptoes reaching up to your face
I want to cover your eyes with my dirty palms.
I want my arms and hands and legs and back
to ache as I swing up the ladder behind you.
I would stock an icebox with our favorite things.
Dry chicken, apple cider vinegar, bunny greens
Berries for me and beer for you and four bottles of wine.
No one would walk through our part of the woods
but even if they did, they wouldn’t think to look up here.
I want to be safe and alone and cradled by the trees
and to talk to you for ever.
I want to listen to your laugh travel through the treetops
and to listen to the birds when there’s nothing to say.
I want to fall asleep in the darkness on a too-hard mattress
to your breathing in my ear and the breeze in the leaves.
I want to wake up in the chill of the dew
your limbs stretched across my body like beams of sunlight.
I want to tie a big brown rope around a branch
and make you a tire swing.
I want to sit forehead-to-forehead
with our feet dangling through the middle
like eight-year-olds on the playground.
I want to wind us up and let us go
so you can see the world the way I do.
Just a mess of swirling colors
and your clear, smiling face.
Unbelievable. I have never been more proud of my alma mater.
Code Hero raises over $100,000 for shooter that teaches computer programming
When you ask people where to start when you’re learning to code, they usually say it’s best to think of something you want to make, and then learn to make it… but what if all you really want to do is blow stuff up??
Done, solved, thank you nerds.
Cool infographic showing the processes and parts of the brain involved in memory. Especially if yours is photographic!
In honor of my return from Africa (and return to my long-neglected blog…)
Leaping African lizards inspire design of a robot… with a tail!
Just another example of how understanding the biomechanics of creatures supposedly simpler than ourselves helps solve our ever-complex human problems. Integrative Biology is definitely heaven for the critter and robot obsessed!
When you were a munchkin, did you ever plan vacations by spinning a globe with your eyes closed and poking your finger somewhere? I may have thought New England was a state until I applied to college, but I do owe my superior knowledge of islands in the Pacific to this technique.
I think I’m going to start using this site to do that. Who’s up for tiger hunting in Boulder, CO?
“Molecular Tweezers” Unravel Mysteries of Protein Structure
This molecular manipulation technique provides a “real-time” look at the intermediate structures and states a protein undergoes while folding into its proper form. Understanding exactly what happens as a protein folds properly is imperative to solving diseases caused by proteins that have folded improperly- think Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
