Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan, 2009 - 2010 איך החיידקים שולטים בנו ברוס גרמן, פרופסור לכימיה מאוניברסיטת קליפורניה דיוויס, חוקר זה יותר מעשור את אחת החידות הגדולות ביותר הקשורות בחלב האם: ההרכב המשונה שלו. 21% מהסוכר בחלב אם עשוי מחומר שאף תינוק אנושי אינו מסוגל לעכל. "במשך שנים האמינו שזו טעות אבולוציונית", אומר גרמן בראיון ל"מוסף כלכליסט". "אבל זה לא ייתכן. חלב אם עוצב על ידי 200 מיליון שנות אבולוציה, תחת אילוצים אדירים. הוא חייב להיות חסכוני מאוד, כי הוא עולה לאם באנרגיות אדירות, וכל רכיב בו אמור להיות מדויק על שבריר האחוז, משום שכל מחסור עלול להזיק לתינוק. 21% מבוזבזים פשוט לא מסתדרים עם זה". לגרמן היה רעיון. כמה שאלות נותרו פתוחות: האם החיידק הזה אכן נמצא בגופם של תינוקות? ד"ר ג'רמי קוניג, ביולוג מולקולרי מאוניברסיטת קורנל, הוא האיש היחיד בעולם שחקר באופן מדוקדק איך קהילת חיידקים צומחת מאפס לטריליון בגופם של תינוקות. עתה לגרמן נותר רק לגלות למה דווקא ביפידו. קצת אחרי שגילינו את האופטיקה, גילינו את החיידקים. מאז ועד לעשורים האחרונים ממש, המדע ראה בחיידקים את הביטוי הפרימיטיבי ביותר לחיים. בעשורים האחרונים התבררה גודלה של הטעות. אז מה עושים?
The Power of Twitter in Information Discovery It surprises me how many really smart people I meet still doubt the power of Twitter. It seems the urge to be a naysayer of Twitter is really strong for some. I think some of this stems from the early days of Twitter when it was presumed that it was a technology to tell people what you ate for lunch. Twitter never seemed to really take the offense in PR and marketing. I guess it wasn’t in their DNA. Right now the most important role to hire in Twitter would be a seasoned marketing professional who could proactively change the conversation about Twitter and educate people about its significance as an information sharing tool. I’ve written extensively about Twitter’s use cases, but it’s biggest power is in information sharing. 1. When we found stuff we liked we “bookmarked” it so that we could come back to the website later. And the company that helped websites publish RSS? But this issue of “how to consistently find the good stuff” is such a hard problem. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
How it Works | X-Worlds Submit Ideas Getting started on X-Worlds is as simple as sketching a doodle on a scrap piece of paper. You can use our Creature Creator or you can upload a drawing you've already created. When you create a creature, you have the option of donating Donuts or submitting it for free. There are no quality restrictions of any kind, so you never have to worry about trying to be perfect. Vote for Favorites Voting for your favorite creatures earns them popularity and earns you points you can use to collect more of your favorites. Voting is just one facet that makes up a creature's popularity: Tweeting the creature and liking them on Facebook is easy, it counts as part of their popularity matrix and earns you more points! Points Points are the default currency on X-Worlds. Game Playing We're currently developing a number of online games for Explorers to play. Keep an eye out on our Arcade section – we're almost ready to launch our first games, and there will be a lot more coming in the months ahead.
World Economic Forum - Visualization Challenge - Jan Willem Tulp What am I looking at? This is a visual representation of data derived from a survey of experts from 72 Global Agenda Councils of the World Economic Forum. The experts were asked to answer three survey questions: Please select a maximum of 5 Global Agenda Councils that your Council would benefit from interacting with by order of priority. Using data derived from a survey of these experts, interactive designers are asked to create a data visualization that will help elucidate the interconnectedness among issues, highlight the emerging clusters and catalyse dialogue at the Summit between the Councils. Explanation General Each Council consists of one or more organizations. Lines The width of a line represents the number of organizations a respondent Councils want to interact with a linked Council. Bars Selecting Agenda and Rank To select a different agenda or rank, click on one of the boxes. Showing one Council only Data The original data set contains the following entities: Resources Disclaimer
The Best Tools for Visualization Visualization is a technique to graphically represent sets of data. When data is large or abstract, visualization can help make the data easier to read or understand. There are visualization tools for search, music, networks, online communities, and almost anything else you can think of. Visualize Social Networks Last.Forward: Thanks to Last.fm's new widget gallery, you can now explore a wide selection of extras to extend your Last.fm experience. Last Forward Friends Sociomap: Friends Sociomap is another Last.fm tools that generates a map of the music compatibility between you and your Last.fm friends. Fidg't: Fidg't is a desktop application that gives you a way to view your networks tagging habits. Fidg't The Digg Tools: Digg.com has some of the best web-based visualization tools on the net, so they're a must for any visualization list. One more: Digg Radar. YouTube: You can discover related videos using YouTube's visualizations. Visualize Music Musicovery Last.fm music visual tools: Amazon Data
Getting Started: Social Media for Academics Twitter has a definite image problem. It first penetrated the public consciousness in a way which has left it defined by celebrities and, particularly for academics, this is unattractive. If you want to persuade academics to use it, it’s important to illustrate that the academic twittersphere (I hate the term but have yet to come across a better one) has some quite specific characteristics. Perhaps by demonstrating some of the varied kinds of high-quality interaction you get on there e.g. It’s difficult to convey the point of Twitter. Therefore it’s important to convey that you really do have to try it properly (i.e. fill out your profile, add a picture, find relevant people to follow, have some conversations, explore a hashtag and do some retweeting) before you’re in a position to make an informed decision. The steep learning curve isn’t a very attractive proposition to academics. Unless people quickly get tied into some sort of network on Twitter they’re unlikely to persist with it.
Google Begins Testing Its Augmented-Reality Glasses Photos via GoogleGoogle showed off its first venture into wearable computing, called Project Glass. If you venture into a coffee shop in the coming months and see someone with a pair of futuristic glasses that look like a prop from “Star Trek,” don’t worry. It’s probably just a Google employee testing the company’s new augmented-reality glasses. On Wednesday, Google gave people a clearer picture of its secret initiative called Project Glass. The glasses are the company’s first venture into wearable computing. The glasses are not yet for sale. In a post shared on Google Plus, employees in the company laboratory known as Google X, including Babak Parviz, Steve Lee and Sebastian Thrun, asked people for input about the prototype of Project Glass. “We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input,” the three employees wrote. A video released by Google on Wednesday, which can be seen below, showed potential uses for Project Glass.