No Pressure

thisistheverge: ‘Fast & Furious 6’ review: all roads lead...

Fri, 24 May 2013 20:30:46 +0100

‘Fast & Furious 6’ review: all roads lead to explosions

Why does everyone suddenly have grappling hooks?

Luv! Can’t wait to see it.

highway62: 1988, and ‘Cyberpunk’ was the word on every AD’s...

Fri, 24 May 2013 08:32:33 +0100

1988, and ‘Cyberpunk’ was the word on every AD’s lips. Every AD desperate to grab an eyeball or find a way to get the client off their back. Cyberpunk, the magic anodyne. A little new wave, but sleeker. A little spiky but more refined.

Cyberpunk, the heartbeat of a generation.

Source: SPIN Dec, 1988 Via Michael Daddino.

wildcat2030: Yahoo just laid down a $1.1 billion cash bet it...

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:53:13 +0100

wildcat2030:

Yahoo just laid down a $1.1 billion cash bet it can make Tumblr, the indie blogging-and-arguing platform, a profitable part of its advertising business.

Here are some back-of-the-envelope calculations of what has to happen for that bet to pay off.

Sell out 60 percent of the current “Radar” section: Tumblr says it delivers more than 120 million impressions per day through its “Radar,” a showcase of interesting Tumblr posts that appears to the right of the Tumblr “Dashboard,” the content stream consumed by users that contains posts from Tumblr blogs they follow. Sponsors can buy their way into Radar at a rate of $4.16 per thousand impression, according to one published report. If Tumblr were able and willing to sell out its entire inventory of Radar impressions, it would have a nice annual revenue stream worth upwards of $182.5 million.

Now, Yahoo needs to make around $108 million per year off Tumblr to cover its opportunity cost, former Google and NBC exec John Saroff figures (in an analysis I heartily recommend). So it “only” needs to sell around 60 percent of Radar capacity.

Trouble is, selling all or even a majority of Radar’s inventory isn’t really possible as Radar is now configured, with one content slot to the right of the main content stream. The whole reason Tumblr can demand a $4 CPM for ads in this slot is that users have been trained to look there for organic, unpaid content, and it’s a standalone showcase for a single piece of content. To sell around 60 percent of current capacity, Tumblr would need to add slots so it would show two or three pieces of content at a time. This would probably reduce clickthrough rates and bring down the CPM – hopefully not too much to erase the doubling or tripling of inventory. (via How Yahoo Will Wring $1.1B Out of Tumblr | Wired Business | Wired.com)

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Still not certain how I feel about this..

sunlightcities: Yet another guess-the-place game caught by...

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:50:26 +0100

sunlightcities:

Yet another guess-the-place game caught by Atlantic Cities: LocateStreet gives players multiple choice and several play options.

-Read more at Atlantic Cities

A Momentary Flow: Google and NASA launch Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab | KurzweilAI

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:06:19 +0100

A Momentary Flow: Google and NASA launch Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab | KurzweilAI:

wildcat2030:

See on Scoop.it - Knowmads, Infocology of the future

Google, in partnership with NASA and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), has launched an initiative to investigate how quantum computing might lead to breakthroughs in machine learning, a branch of AI that focuses on…

"Then there is a more threatening issue: robots are improving in performance far faster than humans...."

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:05:59 +0100

“Then there is a more threatening issue: robots are improving in performance far faster than humans. We are stuck with an evolutionary timetable that is glacial, whereas computer vision is rapidly moving from amoeba to insect. We face a future in which robots will be better than humans in entire job categories—that is simply a matter of time. The Atlantic’s Adam Davidson writes about a uniquely specific example of robo-specialization in “Making It in America.” The question is, as this frontier collides with the reality of massive employment numbers in particular categories, do we justify machine replacement and presume to conduct a great deal of retraining? The frontier is ever-moving, and the retraining will be never-ending. This is an even harder question of identity for our civilization: is chronic underemployment a fact that cannot be changed because robots will be demonstrably better than we are, or do we have a responsibility to influence the advance of automation for the sake of some greater good?”

- We Need to Talk about the Burgeoning Robot Middle Class | MIT Technology Review (via wildcat2030)

"One truism of robotics is that not all aspects of human ability are being copied equally. However,..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:05:16 +0100

“One truism of robotics is that not all aspects of human ability are being copied equally. However, so long as artificial intelligence is so artificial, maybe our natural intelligence provides us with a special station that robots cannot overcome. Sadly, such reasoning does not really improve the prospect of chronic underemployment. Outstanding research in telepresence promises to enable robots to act with guidance from humans. They can phone home when facing a tough decision, and humans can provide the eyes and brains while a robot wields the brute strength. As we research human-robot control systems, not least of all for robotic war-fighting drones, we learn how to patch a single person’s brains and problem-solving powers into many robots at once. A whole factory of thinking humans could be replaced by unthinking robots so long as they had that drone interface, asking for just-in-time problem-solving help from a human supervisor when needed. Give companies a great human-robot interface and a whole pallet of dumb robots, and you still have an underemployment crisis.”

- We Need to Talk about the Burgeoning Robot Middle Class | MIT Technology Review (via wildcat2030)

futurist-foresight: This algae-powered building in Hamburg is...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:04:58 +0100

futurist-foresight:

This algae-powered building in Hamburg is truely green!

futurescope:

The World’s First Algae-Powered Building Opens in Hamburg

via inhabitat:

The world’s first algae-powered building just opened in Hamburg! Dubbed the BIQ House, the project features a bio-adaptive algae facade and it will serve as a testing bed for sustainable energy production in urban areas and self-sufficient living buildings. International design firm Arup worked with Germany’s SSC Strategic Science Consultants and Austria-based Splitterwerk Architects to develop the BIQ House, which launched as part of Hamburg’s International Building Exhibition.

[read more] [IBA Hamburg] [BIQ House]

Community engagement: keep one foot in cyberspace and one in the real world

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:04:45 +0100

Community engagement: keep one foot in cyberspace and one in the real world

humanscalecities: CAMPO DE LA CEBADA (MADRID) PRIX ARS...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:04:38 +0100

humanscalecities:

CAMPO DE LA CEBADA (MADRID)

PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA 2013

GOLDEN NICA DIGITAL COMMUNITIES CATHEGORY

Digital Communities – What are they?

Digital communities – regardless of whether their background is social or artistic – give rise to group action and interaction, engender constructive contexts and social capital, and promote social innovation as well as cultural and environmental sustainability. An essential precondition for this is making the respective relevant technologies and infrastructure more widely accessible or even developing them in the first place. But access to content and information is also a core consideration. A crucial aspect to help digital communities flourish is making relevant technologies and infrastructures more broadly available and/or developing new technological approaches. Digital communities are committed to facilitate the furthering of social development. A key aspect of this effort, then, is to reconfigure the power relations between citizens and political leaders, the state and administrative bureaus as well as between financial and commercial interests. In order to achieve this, digital communities is engaged in increasing participation, strengthening the role of civil society and establishing a framework through which democracy can flourish.

Via Prototyping

theatlanticcities: “We wrote in late 2011 about some early...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:02:46 +0100

theatlanticcities:

“We wrote in late 2011 about some early research suggesting that many Twitter users in fact follow other people located within their same city, evidence, Richard Florida wrote, that the Internet is reinforcing the value of place instead of eliminating it.

But now that Twitter is a few years older – and considerably more global – Leetaru and several colleagues have conducted a massive new analysis of the site that suggests the opposite: ‘In effect,’ Leetrau says, ‘location plays a much lesser role now in terms of who we talk to, what we talk about, and where we get our information.’”

Read: How Twitter is Changing the Geography of Communication

apoplecticskeptic: colchrishadfield: Almost time to leave...

Sun, 12 May 2013 23:00:05 +0100

apoplecticskeptic:

colchrishadfield:

Almost time to leave Station. Hard to express all of my emotions, but mostly gratitude. I came here on behalf of so many people - thank you.

Simply fantastic. This whole thing with Col. Hadfield sharing so much from space… truly inspirational.

letsbuildahome-fr: “Zero impact” climber’s cabin on Mt. Blanc,...

Sun, 12 May 2013 15:49:43 +0100

letsbuildahome-fr:

“Zero impact” climber’s cabin on Mt. Blanc, Italy.

Designed and photographed by LEAPfactory.

thisistheverge: Internet of cows: technology could help track...

Sat, 11 May 2013 20:08:19 +0100

thisistheverge:

Internet of cows: technology could help track disease, but ranchers are resistant

RFID chips offer sophisticated metrics for ranchers and big data businesses

thenewenlightenmentage: Mystery of Moon’s Magnetic Field...

Fri, 10 May 2013 18:48:32 +0100

thenewenlightenmentage:

Mystery of Moon’s Magnetic Field Deepens

The moon generated a surprisingly intense magnetic field until at least 3.56 billion years ago, 160 million years longer than previously thought, a new study reports.

These findings could shed light not just on the magnetic field of the moon, which is now extremely weak, but on that of asteroids and other distant worlds, investigators added.

Continue Reading

50 anni and some di storia repubblicana.

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:02:00 +0100

http://www.repubblica.it/politica/2013/05/08/news/andreotti_ambrosoli-58295960/?ref=HREC1-4

Siamo un popolo senza memoria?
“Peggio: siamo portati a giustificare tutto, e questo conduce all’immobilismo, all’incapacità di cambiare, anche se a parole siamo bravi a dirlo. Aggiungo: troppi segreti nella storia d’Italia? Quello che sappiamo già è così tanto che, se agissimo di conseguenza, vivremmo in modo molto diverso”.

Ieri ho letto un articolo, sui popoli senza nazione. Parlava di quelle culture che crescono all’interno di quelli che sono gli stati nazionali, come delle entita’ distinte. Si riferiva alla Scozia ad esempio, o alle Fiandre, o agli esempi piu’ conosciuti del Paese Basco o della Catalunya in Spagna.

Per capire questo concetto dentro di me, ho pensato all’Austria e mi sono detta che nonostante l’Austria sia di cultura tedesca, gli austriaci si differenziano moltissimo dai tedeschi. Poi pero’ ho anche pensato certo un bavarese ed un Austriaco sono molto simili, anche come cultura, eppure uno e’ tedesco l’altro appunto austriaco.

Quali sono quindi i tratti fondamentali che distinguono un popolo ci si chiede? Cosa fa di un popolo tale, cosa gli da un’identita’?

Nel romanticismo pare che cio’ fosse molto chiaro, eppure nel tempo della globalizzazione il concetto di indentita’ diventa labile.

In Catalunya dicono che cio’ che contraddistingue un catalano e’ la ragione di essere in quanto tale. Catalano quindi. Si dice che cio’ che contraddistingue un Italiano e’ il genio, in qualche modo, l’intelligenza insomma.

Io piuttosto dico che cio’ che contraddistingue un Italiano e’ quella che noi stessi definiamo l’arte del compromesso. Per un Italiano venire a patti, scegliere la strada piu’ congeniale, cercare di non rendere nessuno troppo scontento della soluzione finale, e’ un’arte. Qualcosa che va coltivato ed imparato gia’ in fasce, per poter essere degli artisti della mediazione, un’attivita’ che lo stesso vivere in Italia richiede venga praticata a livelli eccelsi.

Un tempo mi veniva difficile spiegare l’Italia ai non Italiani. Una ragazza canadese una volta mi chiese se fosse vero che in Italia si vive coi genitori anche fino ai 40anni. Credeva fosse una leggenda.

Ultimamente la cosa che mi risulta piu’ complicata, e’ cercare di spiegare l’Italia agli Italiani. Vengo in genere investita da una carrellata di “sivabbehpero” o “ehmah” al punto di perdere esageratamente o forse a ragione la pazienza.

Negli anni delle stragi e dei delitti di mafia, si diceva che l’omerta’ e’ il prodotto della paura, del sentirsi soli e abbandonati da uno stato che dovrebbe proteggere i suoi cittadini. Adesso mi convinco che l’omerta’ e’ il prodotto dell’indifferenza, di chi non solo non vuol rivelare ma neanche vuol sapere perche’ tutto sommato si vive bene cosi’.

Siete mai stati a Londra? Avete visto l’altare riservato a Westminster per Newton?

Pensate che in Italia noi Giordano Bruno l’abbiamo bruciato vivo.

letsbuildahome-fr: Walter Gropius/The Architects Collaborative,...

Tue, 07 May 2013 16:09:05 +0100

letsbuildahome-fr:

Walter Gropius/The Architects Collaborative, Baghdad University, Baghdad, Iraq

Hola! he visto tu entrada sobre la agenda soberanista.. Me parece bien que la gente se 'preocupe' por lo que pasa en Catalunya.. Pero me gustaría que no se quedaran solo ahí; pocos temas són tratados con tanta superficialidad como el de Catalunya, y la ignorancia és muy atrevida. Dicho esto, si realmente quieres responderte las preguntas sobre la viabilidad real de un estado Catalan, hay colectivos de catedráticos de Hardvard, Prinston, London School of Economics.. que responden a ello. Petons;)

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:14:12 +0100

Hola!

Gracias por tu pregunta. Personalmente, lo que quería decir es que parece que aquí en Catalunya en lo ultimo año solo se habla de soberanismo. Vivo y trabajo en Barcelona y parece que no hay otros problemas, o parece que todos los problemas que hay se van a resolver con la independencia.

De toda forma creo que una Catalunya independiente seria en un escenario europeo, un estado pequeño de 8 millones de habitantes, también si con un GDP major que lo de otros estados europeos. Así que creo que para Catalunya, seria mejor cambiar España y intentar de resolver los problemas reales de todos que pedir completa independencia.

Creo que la situación de Catalunya es similares a la situación de otras regiones europea que están pidiendo independencia, como Flanders y Escotia o el país vascos, y personalmente creo que en Europa non necesitamos mas estados independientes si no mas política social, socialista y internacional para garantir mas derechos, especialmente donde los estados centrales nacionales no hacen nada por estos temas.

En conclusión, creo mas y una Europa unida con regiones federales, que en una Europa de 30 o 40 estados pequeños.

abraçades! :)

Agenda soberanista

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:51:33 +0100

En Catalunya solo se habla de agenda soberanista. Es como se aquí no hay crisis y no hay otros problemas social y económico. Para Catalunya, y los catalanes, solo hay la independencia y el derecho a decidir.

Entiendo que yo no soy Catalana y tampoco Española, y seguramente hay mucho que no conozco sobre de la historia, la cultura y todo que puede estar atrás de algunas ilusiones y algunos ideales de independencia catalana, pero también me pregunto si esta claro a la gente lo que realmente están pidiendo.

Tampoco entiendo esta guerra interna entre Castilla y las otra regiones de España.

En primero, a veces me parece que se olvidan, los catalanes, cuando hablan de crear un estado mejor, de todos los problemas que un nuevo estado tendrá. Problemas de energía, infraestructura, y también, si también de orden publico y fuerza militare.

De otro lado, parece que los políticos Españoles no entiende, que el proceso de unidad de una nación pasa también desde el reconocimiento de las diferencia de lengua y cultural que hay en un país. Un ejemplo: Suïssa, donde hay 4 lenguas distintas reconocidas y sin problemas.

Sin duda no hay solamente problemas de lengua y independentismo entre las diferentes regiones Españolas.

In the other news, el Gobierno de Canarias y los cabildos de Lanzarote y Fuerteventura siguen a reafirmar su lucha contra las prospecciones petroleras, considerando también que parece que hay “elementos indiciarios” sobre la posible vinculación de la autorización de prospecciones petrolíferas a Repsol cerca de las costas canarias con la presunta financiación irregular del PP reflejada en los denominados “papeles de Bárcenas”.

Los problemas de Catalunya con el gobierno central Españolo entonces no están tan lejos de los problema de Canaria, o de otras regiones de Italia por ejemplo con sus propio gobierno.

En Europa actualmente, hay 4 regiones principales. Una almena con los país nórdicos, una Ingles con Irlanda, una Francés, y una mediterránea con España, Italia, Portugal y Grecia.

La región mediterránea es la que parece tener mas problemas y menos propuestas de soluciones. Parece que no queremos entender que muchas cosas han cambiado desde los 70s. Hay mucho que tenemos que hacer y pensar en manera distinta. Primero nos han
enseñado que el pueblo unido jamás será vencido. Esto es el momento de ser juntos, de entender que las luchas de una región son las lucha de una otra.

Esto no es el momento del nacionalismo es el momento de ser internacionalistas.

Sorry for bad spanish :) I am just learning…

thisistheverge: NASA to live stream peak of Eta Aquarid meteor...

Mon, 06 May 2013 10:38:25 +0100

thisistheverge:

NASA to live stream peak of Eta Aquarid meteor shower tonight starting at 9PM EST

It’s that time of year again: the Eta Aquarid meteor shower is scheduled to peak tonight through tomorrow morning, and NASA will be live streaming the annual celestial spectacle beginning at 9PM. Astronomer Bill Cooke will be on hand taking questions from webcast viewers.