Interesting comparison between Google and Apple maps. Particularly fascinating is the analysis of how Google seems to be generating new features (data) by algorithmically analysing and combining aerial and streetview imagery (other data).
“Pieter Kroonenberg, an emeritus professor of statistics at Leiden University in The Netherlands, was puzzled when he tried to locate a paper about academic writing and discovered the article didn’t exist. In fact, the journal—Journal of Science Communications—also didn’t exist.“
Let There Be Rock!
(via See Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses’ Live Tributes to AC/DC’s Malcolm Young, Rolling Stone 2017-11-19.)
”So, here is the irony: Toilets that are cleaned too often are more likely to be covered in fecal bacteria” (Yong, 2016, I contain multitudes).
Now that’s a dilemma!
“Every year, when Nobel Prizes are awarded in physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine, critics note that they are an absurd and anachronistic way of recognizing scientists for their work. Instead of honoring science, they distort its nature, rewrite its history, and overlook many of its important contributors.“
“Among Dutch historians we found virtually no text recycling. However, among Dutch psychologists text recycling is more elevated and among economists it is as much as one in seven publications. Text recycling also occurs more often among productive authors, in papers with fewer co-authors, and in journals that do not specify clear rules.“
“…I created a spoof manuscript about “midi-chlorians” – the fictional entities which live inside cells and give Jedi their powers in Star Wars. I filled it with other references to the galaxy far, far away, and submitted it to nine journals under the names of Dr Lucas McGeorge and Dr Annette Kin.“
Apparently, I never listen to music at 11 AM. I had no idea.
Spotify.me is a really fun complement to last.fm, which of course is a must if you are interested in your listening history.
I very rarely listen to country music but when I do it is often to hear this guy play guitar.
“In this sense, science, as physicist Steven Weinberg has emphasized, does not make it impossible to believe in God, but rather makes it possible to not believe in God. Without science, everything is a miracle. With science, there remains the possibility that nothing is. Religious belief in this case becomes less and less necessary, and also less and less relevant” (Krauss, 2012, A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing, p. 182).
I watched… No. That is not right. I skipped, like a flat stone on the surface of a calm water, through this YouTube video. Twenty-four years on US television (first on CBS, then syndicated). Amazing.
We have come a long way.
* * *
Today, GoT premieres again. As I intend to wait and binge watch the latest season, this effectively makes YouTube unusable for two months. All things considered, that is probably a good thing.
