Neurofiction
Hirngesteuerte Roboter und Games sind sowas von 2010. Der neue heisse Scheiß sind Storys, die sich während des Lesens den Gehirnaktivitäten des Lesers anpassen: Neurofiction. Gibt auch bereits ein mit Open Source Neuro-Software realisiertes Beispiel.
In neurofiction, the story’s effect on the reader’s brain – electrical activity of their neurons – is captured using an electroencephalography headset. Using an algorithm that learns what themes and elements engage each reader, our neurofiction engine turns this data into a unique path through the story. The reader can be guided to one of multiple possible endings or allowed to explore a new region of the story space.
Note that neurofiction is not interactive fiction: the reader experiences the story as linear, calm and immersive, as if reading a book. But by opening themselves to be read, neurofiction readers become subconscious collaborators in the creation of a new narrative.
Neurofiction (via Waxy)
Slowmotion Duck Penis, GIF’d
Impressive, most impressive: Einmal Enten-Zeitlupen-Penis als GIF. Wer mehr über Genitalien von Federvieh wissen will, there you go:
Male ducks have elaborate corkscrew-shaped penises, the length of which correlates with the degree of forced copulation males impose on female ducks. Females are often unable to escape male coercion, but they have evolved vaginal morphology that makes it difficult for males to inseminate females close to the sites of fertilization and sperm storage. Males have counterclockwise spiraling penises, while females have clockwise spiraling vaginas and blind pockets that prevent full eversion of the male penis.
3D-Printed Kinect-Scan-Fitted Masks
Schöne Arbeit von Do The Mutation, die eine Software für individuelle Masken per Kinect-3D-Scan und 3D-Drucker entwickelt haben. Mit Collagene kann man Masken beziehungsweise dreidimensionale passgenau auf Gesichter malen.
Vimeo Direktmasks, via Designboom
This project explores the border territory between physical and virtual, connecting computer code’s abstractions with the intimate, visceral dimension of body alteration’s sense brought by the mask theme. The topographic anatomy of the face acts as input for a set of algorithms that under designer’s control generate the fibers that form the object, creating a material formation that after 3d printing perfectly fits its territory, people’s faces.
The set of objects produced represent a population of differentiated individuals, phenotypes sharing the same genotype. No matter how many masks might be produced, they all will share the same genetic code. The system is then flexible in offering possibilities of formal and diagramatic variation, in creating even highly different objects, customizable on different faces and as expression of different designers.
Für das Konzept gibt es übrigens auch eine ganz praktische, medizinische Anwendung – als Gesichtsprothese nämlich. In England haben sie grade in einem ganz ähnlichen Verfahren eine neue Gesichtshälfte produziert:
after years of having people stare and recoil at his disfigurement, surgeons have employed cutting edge three-dimensional printing technology to create a prosthetic face for Mr Moger, 60, in what is thought to be the first procedure of its kind in Britain.
By making scans of what was left of his skull and using computers to recreate what his face would look like, they were able to use a new type of printer that builds up layer upon layer of nylon plastic to produce the components they would need.
Richard Dawkins pulls a XKCD: Science works, Bitches!
Youtube Direktbitches!, via Death and Taxes
Richard Dawkins auf die Frage eines Christen bei einem Diskussionspanel im Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, der die wissenschaftliche Methode in Frage stellt: „It works, Bitches!“ Was er selbst möglicherweise – vielleicht aber hoffentlich doch – gar nicht weiß: Er hat damit einen XKCD gepullt, und zwar den hier. Randall Munroe hat dazu auch ein Wiki und ein Shirt dazu gibt’s auch.
Dawkins’s response: „It works. Planes fly, cars drive, computers compute. If you base medicine on science, you heal people. If you base the design of planes on science, they fly. If you base the design of rockets on science, they reach the moon. It works … Bitches.“
Den kompletten Vortrag gibt’s hier: Richard Dawkins, Rowan Williams, Anthony Kenny: “Human Beings & Ultimate Origin” Debate
TED-Talk about gay Duck Necrophilia
Kein Aprilscherz, passt aber wunderbar: Kees Moeliker erklärt auf der TED-Konferenz den Dead Duck Day, den sie seit dem ersten Todestag 1996 zum Gedenken einer Ente feiern, die das erste dokumentierte Opfer schwuler Enten-Nekrophilie wurde. Darüber hat Moeliker dann eine Arbeit geschrieben und den Ig-Nobelpreis gewonnen. Der Talk hat wirklich alles, von Frosch-Goldfisch-Facefuck bis Kröten-Nekrophilie in Missionarsstellung. Hilarious!
On 5 June 1995 an adult male mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) collided with the glass façade of the Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam and died. An other drake mallard ‘raped’ the corpse almost continuously for 75 minutes. Then the author disturbed the scene and secured the dead duck. Dissection showed that the rape-victim indeed was of the male sex. It is concluded that the mallards were engaged in an ‘Attempted Rape Flight’ that resulted in the first described case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard.
TED: How a dead duck changed the TED audience’s life
Kees Moeliker: The Duck
Virtual Depression-Diagnosis with Kinect-Hack
Das Institute for Creative Technologies an der University of Southern California arbeitet an virtuellen Psychotherapeuten namens SimSensei, die Depressionen anhand von Körpersprache und Mimik diagnostizieren können – mittels einem gehackten Kinect. Ein bisschen wie ein invertierter Voight-Kampff-Test.
A new program called SimSensei, still in the early stages of development, logs people’s subtle body language and fleeting facial expressions to help diagnose depression, the New Scientist reported. The program even comes with an animated avatar who asks patients questions, “Hmms” at appropriates times, and guides the conversation according to patient’s answers… all while tracking the patient’s movements using Microsoft Kinect sensors and face recognition software.
Kinect-Powered Virtual Therapist Tracks Your Body Language To Help Diagnose You
How long can you survive, eating yourself
Eine der besten Kurzgeschichten von Stephen King handelt von einem Mann, der mit dem Flugzeug abstürzt und auf einem Felsenhaufen im Meer landet. Um zu überleben muss der Mann sich langsam selbst aufessen. Und jetzt haben ein paar Leute nachgerechnet, wie lange man damit überleben könnte. Yummy!
Firstly, how much raw limb is there to harvest? According to figures collected by NASA for their average 82.5Kg crew member, the arms and legs make up approximately 40% of body mass – in this case, around 32Kg.
To work out how much energy is available from this, we need to use something as a proxy, because little is known about the calorific value of human meat. In this case, we’ll use uncooked pork chops, which, according to a well known high-street supermarket, offer 213 calories per 100g. This means that our 32Kg of limbs could provide an impressive 68,000 calories.
Sigmund Freud Script-Font
Harald Geisler aus Frankfurt finanziert sich grade eine Umsetzung von Sigmund Freuds Handschrift als digitaler Script-Font. Schönes Projekt!
To make the Sigmund Freud typeface look vivid, the font will be programmed to produce variations or ‘alternates’ during writing. Two different ‘o’ have to be drawn and stored in the font’s memory. In the next step the font is programmed‚ to replace the second ‘o’ with the alternate ‘o’.
Every language has letter combinations that occur more often than others. In English (counting the complete text of James Joyce’s Ulysses) the top three pairs are ‘he’ ‘th’ ‘in’. While in German (analyzing Goethe’s Faust I) the most found letter pairs are ‘ch’ ‘en’ and ‘er’ (French: ‘es’ ‘le’ ‘ou’, Spanish ‘ue’ ‘de’ ‘en’)
To make the Sigmund Freud font look as handwritten as possible I will include alternates for the most common letter combinations in English, Spanish, German and French as alternates into the font.
Sigmund Freud Typeface – A Letter to your Shrink (via Open Culture)
The Venn Diagram of Irrational Nonsense
The complete Bullshit, nailed in one awesome Venn Diagram:
In my gross over simplification the vast majority of the multitude of evidenced-free beliefs at large in the world can be crudely classified into four basic sets or bollocks. Namely, Religion, Quackery, Pseudoscience and the Paranormal.
However as such nonsensical beliefs continue to evolve they become more and more fanciful and eventually creep across the bollock borders. Although all the items depicted on the diagram are completely bereft of any form of scientific credibility, those that successfully intersect the sets achieve new heights of implausibility and ridiculousness. And there is one belief so completely ludicrous it successfully flirts with all forms of bollocks.
Vocal Coach trains Singing with Sex Toys
Ein Vocal Coach der Universität benutzt Vibratoren, um die Stimmbänder von Sängerinnen und Sängern zu lockern. Wenn Ihr also demnächst mal wieder heiser seit, wisster Bescheid. Und das erinnert natürlich an die ollen Dildo-Anzeigen aus den Katalogen von früher – Liebe Kinder, so hat man im vergangenen Jahrhundert Sextoys und Stimmbandlockerungsvorrichtungen beworben:
A University of Alberta voice coach has been using sex toys to massage the throats of actors and singers and is getting results. “I know it’s a bit different … I know there’s a giggle factor, but it works,” says David Ley, a professor in the school’s drama department. “It relaxes tension in the larynx … it improves range and projection.” He makes it clear he’s not a physician or therapist.
“My first advice for a person (with voice or throat issues) would be to go to a doctor,” he says. “What I’mtrying to do is to help the person hit that high note or harness their emotional energy.” He spent last fall coaching actors at the Stratford Festival with all the expected exercises and drills, but surprised everyone when he pulled out a small purple “marital aid.” “With a straight face he announced to me he wanted to use it on the actors,” says Janine Pearson, the festival’s head of voice and coaching. “Of course, he was trying to get a reaction … and he did.”
Sex toy gives singers that extra octave – Vibrator used as voice therapy at Stratford Festival.
Voyager has indeed left the Building
Im Oktober letzten Jahres legte ich mich darauf fest, dass Voyager unser Sonnensystem verlassen hat und wir seit damals als wahrscheinlich erstes Lebewesen dieses Sonnensystems den interstellaren Raum erforschen. Die Ergebnisse von damals wurden jetzt zur Publikation in den Geophysical Research Letters zugelassen. Elvis has indeed left the Building.
On August 25, 2012, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft measured drastic changes in radiation levels, more than 11 billion miles from the Sun. Anomalous cosmic rays, which are cosmic rays trapped in the outer heliosphere, all but vanished, dropping to less than 1 percent of previous amounts. At the same time, galactic cosmic rays – cosmic radiation from outside of the solar system – spiked to levels not seen since Voyager’s launch, with intensities as much as twice previous levels.
The findings have been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
“Within just a few days, the heliospheric intensity of trapped radiation decreased, and the cosmic ray intensity went up as you would expect if it exited the heliosphere,” said Bill Webber, professor emeritus of astronomy at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. He calls this transition boundary the “heliocliff.”
Voyager 1 has left the solar system, sudden changes in cosmic rays indicate
[update] Das Voyager-Team der NASA will’s immer noch nicht wahrhaben redet von „a new region called the magnetic highway“, aber ich bleib’ dabei: Voyager befindet sich im interstellaren Raum. Hier der Dings der NASA:
The Voyager team is aware of reports today that NASA’s Voyager 1 has left the solar system. It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space. In December 2012, the Voyager science team reported that Voyager 1 is within a new region called ‘the magnetic highway’ where energetic particles changed dramatically. A change in the direction of the magnetic field is the last critical indicator of reaching interstellar space and that change of direction has not yet been observed.
Kill Bill Parasite Wasp named Beatrix Kiddo
In Thailand hat man eine neue Art einer parasitären Wespenfamilie gefunden und hat sie nach Beatrix Kiddo aus Quentin Tarantinos „Kill Bill“ benannt. Originalzitat aus dem Film: „You’re not a worker bee. You’re a renegade killer bee.“ Passt nicht so ganz, aber fast.
Parasitoid wasps of the family Braconidae are known for their deadly reproductive habits. Most of the representatives of this group have their eggs developing in other insects and their larvae, eventually killing the respective host, or in some cases immobilizing it or causing its sterility. Three new species of the parasitoid wasp genus Cystomastacoides, recently described in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research, reflect this fatal behavior.
Two of the new species were discovered in Papua New Guinea, while the third one comes from Thailand. The Thai species, Cystomastacoides kiddo, was named after the character Beatrix Kiddo in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Kill Bill’ films. The deadly biology of the wasp inspired this reference to the protagonist played by Uma Thurman, where she embodies a deadly assassin and a master of the Tiger/Crane style of kung fu. She is a master of the “Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique”, a method of killing a person by quickly striking five pressure points around the heart with the fingertips. After the victim takes five steps, the heart explodes and the person falls dead.
Kill Bill character inspires the name of a new parasitoid wasp species (via Geekosystem)
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Horse Fly named after Beyoncés golden Butt
Obey Giant in Space
Shepard „Obey Giant“ Fairey hat den neuen Aufnäher der ISS-Mission Casis gestaltet. Und ich meine darin einen seiner stilisierten André the Giant-Formen zu sehen und hab’ das im Bild rechts mal zusammengeklickt. Wahrscheinlich ist das Unsinn, aber sagen wir’s mal so:
Wenn ich Fairey wäre und das hier sehr wahrscheinlich meine einzige Möglichkeit bleiben würde, in meinem Leben etwas von mir ins All zu schicken und ich hätte so ein prägnantes Markenzeichen und käme aus der Streetart, wo ein nicht unerheblicher Teil der Arbeit darin besteht, Wände zu malen und mein Tag zu verbreiten – ich würde mein Tag/Logo/Icon selbstverständlich irgendwie da unterbringen. Aber wahrscheinlich ist das Unsinn, na klar. Winkwinknudgenudge.
Jedenfalls hat Shepard „Obey Giant“ Fairey den neuen Aufnäher der ISS-Mission Casis gestaltet und ist damit wahrscheinlich der erste moderne Streetartist mit Kunst im All. Vor ihm hat allerdings jemand namens Frosty Myers ein Mini-Museum mit sechs Zeichnungen auf den Mond geschickt, unter anderem einen Pimmel von Andy Warhol.
Vimeo Direktobey, via The Verge
The most recent addition to the long history of space mission crew patches was announced this past weekend live on stage from the Engadget Expand event in San Francisco, CA with artwork designed by Shepard Fairey (Obey Giant, Studio Number One, Obama Hope). The crew patch artwork will mark the inaugural CASIS-managed flight to the International Space Station. CASIS (Center for the Advancement of Science in Space) is the non-profit entity setup by Congress to promote and broker research onboard the International Space Station, U.S. National Laboratory.
Named ARK1 (Advancing Research Knowledge), the September 2013 through March 2014 flight plans will be the the start of many CASIS managed flights to the ISS.
Next ISS Mission Crew Patch Design by Artist Shepard Fairey Revealed
The Power of Myth: Joseph Campbell and Star Wars
Bill Moyers hat seine 1988er Interview-Reihe mit Joseph Campbell über Mythologie und Storytelling als Podcasts online gestellt. Die Interviews wurden auf der Skywalker-Ranch gedreht und behandelt die Heldenreise nach Campbell in Star Wars, die Folge findet man (neben zwei weiteren Episoden) komplett bei Vimeo.
12 Jahre nach der Dokureihe hat sich Bill Moyers nochmal mit George Lucas getroffen und mit ihm über Campbells Mythologie-Theorien und Star Wars geredet, auch das Interview findet man komplett online: The Mythology of Star Wars with George Lucas and Bill Moyers.
For the first time, you can listen to all six episodes of The Power of Myth, the beloved 1988 PBS series featuring mythologist and storyteller Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers. In these playable and downloadable conversations, Moyers and Campbell explore the powerful influence of enduring myths on the choices we make and the ways we live. […]
In the first interview, filmed at George Lucas’ “Skywalker Ranch”, Moyers and Campbell discuss the relationship between Campbell’s theories and Lucas’s creative work. Twelve years after the making of The Power of Myth, Moyers and Lucas met again for the 1999 interview, the Mythology of Star Wars with George Lucas & Bill Moyers, to further discuss the impact of Campbell’s work on Lucas’s films.
Download Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth Audio
Zu genau diesem Thema hatte ich neulich auch einen Podcast vom BR im Linkdump, der war allerdings ein bisschen plump für meinen Geschmack: „Star Wars, eine Heldenreise: Als Regisseur George Lucas seinen “Krieg der Sterne” erstmals vorführt, sind sich alle einig: ein albernes, dummes Märchen. Dann wird das Epos einer der erfolgreichsten Filme überhaupt. Das Drehbuch orientiert sich an einem Patentrezept – an der sogenannten Heldenreise.“
Happy π-Day, everyone!
Happy Pi-Day, everyone! 3.14159265359 FTW! Video oben: Das 2006er Video zu „Pi“ von Hard’n'Phirm.
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
The π-Apocalypse in the Year 4646
Google does Business with Pi
Rubiks Cube + Books + Pi + 42 = Win!
