“Thanks to Carnegie Mellon student Billy Keyes who created SketchSynth, anyone can sketch his or her own control panels using a webcam, a piece of paper and a marker.”
Category: ideas
Machine Makes A Twitter Symphony, Or At Least A Soundtrack
“The machine is a piece of software that monitors the Twitter activity of 500 people selected from eight different fields — arts, business, education, health, politics, science, sport and technology. Whenever these people post an update, the properties of the tweet are analyzed in terms of the sound and meaning of the words, and generates music based on it.”
Virtual Reality Games Help Treat Soldiers’ PTSD
“[A recent] clinical trial compar[es] virtual reality with standard exposure therapy – which helps patients relearn their responses to stressful situations by focusing on the traumatic event in a controlled environment.” The effects of virtual reality treatment appear to last longer than those of talk therapy.
The Essence Of Science, Explained In 63 Seconds
“Here it is, in a nutshell: The logic of science boiled down to one, essential idea. It comes from Richard Feynman, one of the great scientists of the 20th century, who wrote it on the blackboard during a class at Cornell in 1964.”
And Here’s Another Definition Of Science
“Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson may well be the Richard Feynman of our day, a ‘Great Explainer’ in his own right … In this short video, Tyson contributes a beautiful addition to this omnibus of notable definitions of science and explores subjects as diverse as the nature of originality and the future of artificial intelligence.”
Unlocking The Wealth Of The World’s Wikipedias
“But have you read all there is to know about UFOs in Spanish? Or Hebrew? To unlock such strange information, Brent Hecht of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and colleagues have created Omnipedia, a software system that lets users browse topics from up to 25 Wikipedia language editions at once.”
Is Death Truly Bad For You?
Yale philosopher Shelly Kagan: “We all believe that death is bad. But why is death bad? … [If] death is my end, how can it be bad for me to die? After all, once I’m dead, I don’t exist. If I don’t exist, how can being dead be bad for me?”
Uncertainty Will Set You Free
“Religions are often built around this heartache for certainty. In the face of sickness, loss and grief, a thousand dogmas with a thousand names have risen. … [Yet the] world’s history of spiritual endeavor contains many beautiful descriptions of authentic encounters with uncertainty. Ironically these often serve as gateways to the most compassionate experience of what can be called sacred in human life.”
Study: There’s A Relationship Between Staying Thin And Consuming Culture
“This does not mean a person looking to lose 10 pounds should join a book club rather than a health club. But this data suggests you have a better chance of keeping off excess pounds if you indulge in leisure-time interests that have intellectual or emotional weight.”
Study: Self Deception Inhibits Sense Of Humor
“Participants who scored higher on a self-deception questionnaire laughed less, and reported less enjoyment, in response to a stand-up comedian than those who scored lower.”