Technology
Category archives for Technology
iPhone Sausage Making
Posted by Jeff on January 10, 2012 Mac Users Guide Flickr Photostream As a technophile, I do love my iPhone and iPod as portable portals to new media, the web and entertainment. But everything comes at a price. I was reminded of this, starkly, by a brilliant commentary by Mike Daisy, featured recently on NPR’s This American Life. That sausage may be…
A Free MIT Education = MITx
Posted by Jeff on December 19, 2011 Yes, earning a degree from MIT can be costly. Believe it or not, MIT has been offering free course materials for ten years now. If you’re an educator, and you’re not familiar with their extraordinary OpenCourseWare, you’re missing out. One hundred million people so far have learned from this free open source.
Social Movements’ Friend and Foe, From Wall Street to Tahrir Square
Posted by Jeff on December 9, 2011 Tahrir Square, February 9, 2011. Photo source. This article was co-authored with Jessica Wyndham, a human rights lawyer. As we mark Human Rights Day 2011 on December 10, it is impossible to ignore a clear theme that has emerged during the year — the use, misuse and abuse of technology in support and in violation…
Goodbye, Google Labs
Posted by Jeff on July 21, 2011 Google has announced that it will “wind down” Google Labs. This is disappointing given the power of these tools for teaching and research, not to mention that using these applications is just plain fun.
So Where Will Those Jobs Be?
Posted by Jeff on July 17, 2011 silverlinedwinnebago’s Flickr photostream Some of the happiest people in the world come home smelling to high heaven at the end of the day. “Bruce Almighty” (2003)
A Beetle’s Screw And Nut
Posted by Jeff on July 12, 2011 The 3D reconstruction [(A) to (E)] of coxa (green) and trochanter (yellow) of left hind leg of T. oblongus. (A) Depressed position. (B) Elevated position. (C) Coxa cut horizontally along rotation axis; dorsal aspect of trochanter while leg depressed. (D). Isolated trochanter showing external spiral thread and tendon (t). (E) Dorsal portion of coxa corresponding…
Angie Varona, Grace Kelly and Scrambling your mOFC
Posted by Jeff on July 11, 2011 Beauty can be everlasting, ephemeral {internet sensations} and above all else, in the eye of the beholder. Poets and artists have explored this mystery for centuries, but can science reveal new insights?
SpongeBob And Patrick’s Virtual Box
Posted by Jeff on July 9, 2011 Photo source. This is a guest post co-written with Nathaniel Epstein-Toney. SpongeBob and Patrick’s episode “Idiot Box” (2002) brillinatly portrayed imagination games inside a cardboard box. Could it (Did it?) inspire the 3D virtual box or the 3D virtual CAVE?
Corpses, Drugs and a $1,000 Scotch
Posted by Jeff on June 29, 2011 Wolfram Meier-Augenstein Tragic Trajectory Forensic researchers used this 14-cm lock of hair to map a dead man’s route to the U.K. Measuring isotopes has come a long way. Recent reports describe an emerging field of environmental forensics. Where did those illegal drugs come from? Is that $1,000 bottle of scotch the real deal?
How Descartes Would Design a Yacht
Posted by Jeff on June 20, 2011 Philosopher and mathematician René Descartes proposed some curious diagrams in 1644. A biologist looking at these shapes might think of living cells under a microscope: Source.