Ninja Monkeys!

On our deathbeds, will we regret the time we spent playing games?

Vaughn Dickson — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 17:40:02 +0000

Hospice workers have released a report on the most frequently expressed regrets on actual deathbeds.

I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
I wish I had let myself be happier.
I wish I’d had the courage to express my true self.
I wish I had lived a life true to my dreams, instead of what others expected of me.

Jane McGonigal can’t help but note that games let us fulfill all five of these. Watch her TED talk:

And read the TED blog post: a game that heals. All backed by science.

Animals being dicks

Vaughn Dickson — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 05:46:21 +0000

http://animalsbeingdicks.com/

Researchers discover new alloy for generating ‘green’ electricity from waste heat

Vaughn Dickson — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:22:19 +0000

New multiferroic alloy Ni₄₅Co₅Mn₄₀Sn₁₀ goes from non-magnetic to strongly magnetic with only a small temperature rise, spontaneously producing electricity in a surrounding coil. Clean energy with no carbon emissions. Could be attached to your car exhaust, power station exhausts, etc.

Some of the heat energy is lost in a process called hysteresis, but the researchers found a way to limit that. Hysteresis just means that there’s a time lag between the material heating, turning magnetic, and inducing current in the surrounding coil so the conversion isn’t perfect. What the article doesn’t go into is whether the magnetic field is maintained with steady heat; if it isn’t, the metal would have to be cooled and heated repeatedly to keep inducing electricity in the coil…not very efficient.

More here.

How to be alone

Vaughn Dickson — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:34:38 +0000

“Our psyches are programmed by millions of years of hunter-gatherer evolution. We know what the clan is; we know how to fit into the band and the tribe. What we don’t know is how to be alone. We don’t know how to be free individuals.” — Steven Pressfield

Thus making us introverts the next stage of evolution :P

Godlike princess curbs childhood cheating

Vaughn Dickson — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:38:11 +0000

Godlike princess curbs childhood cheating – life – 19 April 2011 – New Scientist

“Religions can discourage believers from erring for fear that God is watching. Now it seems that children also avoid cheating if told they’re being watched – not by God, but by Princess Alice, an invisible person conjured up by researchers.”

The unbearable triviality of social networking

Vaughn Dickson — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 09:47:42 +0000

“Social networking is not new. Before Twitter, we had Facebook, and before that, News Corp’s MySpace, and before that, AOL, and before that, local bulletin boards like the Well, and before that, the local bar. But what began as a demonstration of “meta-reality” or making a difference in each other’s lives even when we were not actually present, has become a blather-fest, everybody talking, nobody listening.”

http://blogs.forbes.com/rogerkay/2011/04/18/the-unbearable-triviality-of-social-networking/

Adorable chipmunk in slow motion

Vaughn Dickson — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:31:08 +0000

45 seconds of slow-motion fuzzy goodness.

Melt rocks with sunshine and parabolic reflectors

Vaughn Dickson — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 14:55:49 +0000

Madness? This. Is. Sunshine!

Game of Thrones behind the scenes

Vaughn Dickson — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 09:05:18 +0000

Game of Thrones TV series coming in April 2011. It’s looking great so far!

10 Questions about the future for Ray Kurzweil

Vaughn Dickson — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 09:56:32 +0000

Will we be eating differently?

We’ll grow in vitro cloned meats in factories that are computerized and run by artificial intelligence. You can just grow the part of the animal that you’re eating. Some people say, “Oh, that sounds yucky.” I say, “Well, why don’t you go visit a factory-farming installation? You’ll find that getting meat from living animals is yucky.” But we’ll need a marketing genius to sell the idea.

Speaking of marketing, what idea about the future do you have the hardest time selling?

People are most resistant to the idea of dramatic extensions to life expectancy, because it affects every decision they make. They have this cycle of life in mind. People sort of wax philosophical–”Oh, I don’t want to live past 100.” I’d like to see them say that when they’re 100.

More at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2033076,00.html