Category: ideas

“Amazon’s reported revenues continue to rise, but the rate at which they’re going up is slowing. That slowdown makes the growth of third-party sales all the more important as a measure of Amazon’s power as a platform for selling things to the world.”

“By using satellite and cellular tags to track free-ranging animals, biologists are providing us with intimate access to the daily lives of other species, drawing us closer to the world’s wild things and making us more invested in their welfare.”

“Between the eighth and the 13th centuries, while Europe stumbled through the dark ages, science thrived in Muslim lands.” Yet despite a centuries-long stagnation and the violently reactionary views of some radical groups, “a Muslim scientific awakening is under way. And the roots of scientific backwardness lie not with religious leaders, but with secular rulers, who are as stingy with cash as they are lavish with controls over independent thought.”

“Into this fray comes the Up-Goer Five text editor, a widget created by geneticist Theo Sanderson, which restricts writers to the 1000 most commonly used words in the English language.”

“The architects have focused on a weight-bearing ‘catenary’ dome design using a cellular wall to help shield future moon astronauts from micrometeorites and provide some protection against space radiation — two of the prime dangers of living and working on the lunar surface.”

This bacterium has the Midas touch.

Or perhaps it’s time to celebrate our creativity in making things, including robots?

“Some have been very angry, and have threatened to punch me. However, the most frustrating criticism is perhaps the most common, and it goes along the lines of: ‘You weren’t there. How can you possibly know what it was like? Who are you to judge?'”

“The space-based web we currently have will gradually be replaced by a time-based worldstream. It’s already happening, and it all began with the lifestream.”

“Giving people an ability normally reserved for superheroes apparently inspires them to embody the altruism such characters typically represent.”