February 2012
57 posts
Why Astronauts Crave Tobasco Sauce →
discoverynews:
Part of the reason may be that after arriving in space, astronauts lose their sense of smell, which largely governs the pleasurable taste of food. An example of this is coffee. “If you hold your nose and sip your coffee, you’re getting just a bitter liquid,” says Jean Hunter, a food engineer at Cornell University.
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Voyager 1 reaches "Cosmic Purgatory:
itsfullofstars:
in 1977, NASA launched their Voyager mission. The main objective of the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes was to study Jupiter and Saturn. After each fulfilled their objectives, they kept going, out into the far reaches of our solar system. Voyage 1 is now traversing through the very outside of our solar system, in a pocket of highly condensed magnetic waves in a region of...
Get Resilient →
Get Resilient is a web-magazine dedicated to articles on the concept of resilience. It shares insights and ideas that have the potential to change the way we live and create a world that is responsive to shock and is able to rebuild and transform.
The world is facing some great challenges. Climate change, peak oil, food security, biodiversity loss, economic instability and social unrest are all...
The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories... →
This new model of memory isn’t just a theory—neuroscientists actually have a molecular explanation of how and why memories change. In fact, their definition of memory has broadened to encompass not only the cliché cinematic scenes from childhood but also the persisting mental loops of illnesses like PTSD and addiction—and even pain disorders like neuropathy. Unlike most brain research, the field...
Urgent tweet in Kenya village: Help, sheep missing →
When the administrative chief of this western Kenyan village received an urgent 4 a.m. call that thieves were invading a school teacher’s home, he sent a message on Twitter. Within minutes residents in this village of stone houses gathered outside the home, and the thugs fled.
“My wife and I were terrified,” said teacher Michael Kimotho. “But the alarm raised by the chief helped.”
The tweet...
“Children are born true scientists. They spontaneously experiment and experience...”
–
R. Buckminster Fuller, American engineer, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International (1895-1983)
“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and...”
– L.P. Jack from his Education Through Recreation, published in 1932.
Liz sent this quote to me this morning. I won’t pretend to be a “master in the art of living” (still too clumsy at life, still finding my legs), but work looks ever more like play and play more like work. The similarities create...
Action at a Distance: The no-nonsense guide for... →
guillee:
actionaad:
Scenario: you (like me, a month ago) are going to the United States for a trip. You have an unlocked iPhone you can use with any carrier world-wide — but you are confused by the lack of a “sell me an iPhone SIM card” option on AT&T’s Byzantine website. You want to make your phone work with a minimum of hassle. You’ve looked at various sites and guides but you’re still...
Thinking Fast and Slow about Climate Change →
Think fast.
What’s the first thought that comes into your mind when you see “climate change”?
What’s the first thought that comes into your mind when you see “car crash”?
If you are like me, “climate change” conjures a vague image of melting ice and perhaps an image of a forlorn polar bear on a shrinking ice floe, while “car crash” produces a vivid image of twisted metal and broken glass. I’m...
PopTech: PopTech Climate Lab Day 2 →
nedbreslin:
More fun at PopTech Climate Resilience Lab, and this time it was in the field in Machakos.
Met two people who really inspired me.
First was Daniel, a farmer who is always on the move. He has experimented with terrace walls and constructed them in such a way that all…
The End of Wall Street As They Knew It →
On Wall Street, the misery index is as high as it’s been since brokers were on window ledges back in 1929. But sentiments like that, accompanied by a full orchestra of the world’s tiniest violins, are only part of the conversation in Wall Street offices and trading desks. Along with the complaint is something that might be called soul-searching—which is, in itself, a surprising development....
The Super Power of Franz Liszt →
The bicentenary of Franz Liszt (1811–1886) follows hard upon those of Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Schumann, and he has conserved his place as one of the supreme Romantic composers. Nevertheless, his career as a composer was always cursed by the fact that he was also, it is generally agreed, the greatest pianist who ever lived. The major part of his work was for piano, much of it tailored...
“Hey, are you a dreamer? I haven’t seen too many around lately. Things have been...”
– Waking Life (2001)
Feet In Smoke: A Story About Electrified... →
On the morning of April 21, 1995, my elder brother, Worth (short for Ellsworth), put his mouth to a microphone in a garage in Lexington, Kentucky, and in the strict sense of having been “shocked to death,” was electrocuted. He and his band, the Moviegoers, had stopped for a day to rehearse on their way from Chicago to a concert in Tennessee, where I was in school. Just a couple of days earlier,...