An Æolian harp is an ancient Greek instrument played by the winds (or Æolus). At the The Æolian Interface Project researchers attempted to create a MIDI interface to such a harp. The design team discovered that wind did not move strings enough for a pickup to detect. Instead, they used sensors to detect wind speed and direction and translate that input into music. There, unfortunately, doesn't seem to be any sound clips.
Thought Communication: in which Stephen Bush and Amit Kulkarni advance the notion that emergent behavior in active networks will lay the foundation for a radical change in the amounts and types of information which can be transmitted over a network, possibly leading to the ability to move structures representing the human thought process between collaborators.
The Complexity Complex: on the study of complex systems and some of the various forms they can show up in: biological systems, exploding stars, and condensed matter.
A definition of the nature of complexity, Kadanoff says, "has been somewhat elusive." But if one were to try, "what we see is a world in which there seems to be organization built up in some rich and interesting fashion--from huge mountain ranges, to the delicate ridge on the surface of a sand dune, to the salt spray coming off a wave, to the interdependencies of financial markets, to the true ecologies formed by living things. For each kind of organization, we want to understand how it arose and whether it has any general rules associated with it."
See also:
[via evacuate & flush]
The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Starting next Wednesday, this site will have a new entry from this 17th century diary posted each day, complete with notes on the people and places mentioned by Pepys and annotations from readers. [via Leuschke]
Albert Bartlett on sustainability:
The related terms, "sustainable" and "sustainability" have become popular and are used to describe a wide variety of activities which are generally ecologically laudable. At the same time, the term "compromise" is heard more frequently because the needs of the environment often are in conflict with the needs of humans. A brief examination of the question of compromise shows that a series of ten compromises, each of which saves 70% of the remaining environment, results in the saving of only 3% of the environment.
- Marginalization of Malthus: a continuation of Reflections on Sustainability...
The language of chess is very sexual. I mean, what are you supposed to think when somebody declares that they're going to mate you in five moves so you might as well surrender now?
[via Daze Reader]
It seems the Raelian's, through their company Clonaid and Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, are set to present the first cloned child today.
See also:
- Religious Movements Homepage:Raelians
- Brigitte Boisselier's testimony to Congress during the debates on cloning last year.
- Who am I? - Severino Antinori: a tongue-in-cheek profile of the doctor who seems to have been beaten out in the race for the first clone
[via Metafilter in a round about way]
