I stumbled across a really compelling use of Flash, RSS, and the Flickr API today in the form of the Flickr Graph. It comes courtesy of (who else) Marmushi, who was also kind enough to give us other astonishing feats like Newsmap.
The Flickr Graph picks up the information from Flickr and displays it in a wobbly, undirected, interactive graph. You can try it out with my usename, ‘mullingitover’, just for kicks.
I keep meaning to stop posting about politics because it’s just too depressing, but when stuff like this pops up it’s just straight impossible not to. I owe it to my readers to report the truth, especially when it’s this funny.
Here’s a quote from a recent policy speech Bush made (or at least tried valiantly to make) on his scheme to revamp Social Security.
Because the — all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There’s a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those — changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be — or closer delivered to what has been promised.
‘Does that make any sense to you? It’s kind of muddled. Look, there’s a series of things that cause the — like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate — the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those — if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.
‘Okay, better? I’ll keep working on it.’
This fine example of Dear Leader’s steel-trap intellect brought to you by Hullabaloo.
Can anyone guess what he’s trying to say? I think it’s actually a secret code.
The Cell is looking poised to do a bit of destroying when it ships in 2006. I found Cell Architecture Explained today, which breaks down the processor’s capabilities and explains its significance in the big picture. It stands to seriously shake up Intel and Microsoft with its insane processing power. One Cell processor theoretically has processing power surpassing 5 dual-core Opterons overclocked to 3 Ghz, and the PS3 will boast 4 of them.
I’ll be watching intently.
Freeman Dyson paints an extremely interesting picture of post-darwinian evolution where once again, the lines between species get very blurry. Those against GMOs should be scared. Personally, I’m excited.
Now, after some three billion years, the Darwinian era is over. The epoch of species competition came to an end about 10 thousand years ago when a single species, Homo sapiens, began to dominate and reorganize the biosphere. Since that time, cultural evolution has replaced biological evolution as the driving force of change. Cultural evolution is not Darwinian. Cultures spread by horizontal transfer of ideas more than by genetic inheritance. Cultural evolution is running a thousand times faster than Darwinian evolution, taking us into a new era of cultural interdependence that we call globalization. And now, in the last 30 years, Homo sapiens has revived the ancient pre-Darwinian practice of horizontal gene transfer, moving genes easily from microbes to plants and animals, blurring the boundaries between species. We are moving rapidly into the post-Darwinian era, when species will no longer exist, and the evolution of life will again be communal.In the post-Darwinian era, biotechnology will be domesticated. There will be do-it-yourself kits for gardeners, who will use gene transfer to breed new varieties of roses and orchids. Also, biotech games for children, played with real eggs and seeds rather than with images on a screen. Genetic engineering, once it gets into the hands of the general public, will give us an explosion of biodiversity. Designing genomes will be a new art form, as creative as painting or sculpture. Few of the new creations will be masterpieces, but all will bring joy to their creators and diversity to our fauna and flora.