InnoCentive. "Win cash awards of up to $1,000,000 for your creative solutions to Challenges"
Flypaper. "The easiest way to create, edit and share interactive content that can be used for live presentations or over the Web"
Technology Review. "The authority on the future of technology." Published by MIT.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Match Maker, Match Maker...
2008. The year of the online match-maker wars. History will recall the tens of thousands of teary-eyed singles cut down in the cross fire. Indeed, the web rivals were a match made in HELL!
Ok, I've already discussedfat overweight people on television. So now it's on to those annoying commercials for Chemistry.com or whatever it's called. You know the ones, with the poor souls thoroughly flummoxed by the rejection of their application by E-Harmony. But I'm digressing from what I really want to say.
I would really like to conduct a research study of the success of these various match-makers. I'm curious what effect, if any, their matching/comparison algorithms have on the outcomes of paired couples. Specifically, I wonder if people convince themselves that the man or woman they get matched with are "really great" only because some computer program tells them so. Admittedly, this would be a daunting task, separating out the effects of all the variables, but surely some freakonomist out there could crunch the data. There are probably some ethical issues, too, but come on... these people are rejects anyway. The computer said so.
Ok, I've already discussed
I would really like to conduct a research study of the success of these various match-makers. I'm curious what effect, if any, their matching/comparison algorithms have on the outcomes of paired couples. Specifically, I wonder if people convince themselves that the man or woman they get matched with are "really great" only because some computer program tells them so. Admittedly, this would be a daunting task, separating out the effects of all the variables, but surely some freakonomist out there could crunch the data. There are probably some ethical issues, too, but come on... these people are rejects anyway. The computer said so.
I Love Technology
This is simply amazing. I have a special affinity for technology that fuses dispersed visual content with an interactive experience. To echo some of the comments on the TED.com web page, this guy needs to get together with this guy. I seriously wish I had even the slightest clue how to design and build software like this - I'm lucky if I can get macros to function in Excel - because these applications are just so cool.
Let's hope that Microsoft doesn't muddle Photosynth all up.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
The Scale Must be Wrong
Have you seen the National Body Challenge programming on Discovery Health yet? It's great television. One series has sets of obese twins getting fit over a period of months. You see them go from flab to fit through exercise and moderated eating. No invasive surgeries, no wacky diets. Plus, the twins all confront the psychological factors that have led to their over-eating. All this is what people really need to see - individuals taking responsibility for themselves and their behavior and achieving fitness, physically and mentally. No shortcuts, no gurus, no blame, nothing purely superficial.
I really enjoyed watching these people overcome their obesity from the comfort of my bed while eating Chinese food.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Dinosaur Mummy Eats Whole Town, Nation Helpless
From out of the vast wasteland of the Midwest it creeps... The bounds of time are meaningless to the creature... Man has never witnessed such a beast...
...it's DINO-MUMMY.
Sorry, I couldn't help using the spooky movie preview voice. This story just screams for it. Well, it does if you only read the headline; afterwards, not so much.
Anyway, paleontologists have released new details on a remarkable fossil find from 1999. What makes this find so exciting is that instead of just fossilized bones, this specimen was "mummified" by mineral deposits before the tissue could decompose, leaving fossilized muscle, ligaments, and even skin. This is the best artifact of dinosaur anatomy yet and will likely lead to new conclusions about the life of those giants of yesteryear.
I was a HUGE dinosaur fanatic when I was a little tyke. I knew all the various species and wanted to grow up to be a paleontologist. (That all lasted until I went to Sea World and fell in love with whales, dolphins, sea lions, otters, and sharks, leading to my next future career as a marine biologist. FYI - I am not now, nor have I ever been anything close to a marine biologist.)
Be that as it may, however, there are two points I'd like to make:
First, scientists have totally changed their thinking on dinosaurs in the last 20-odd years. We used to regard them as lumbering hulks of minimal intelligence who sat around in swamps because they were so damned massive. Then Michael Crichton single-handedly rewrote every paleo-history book. Alright, maybe not, but the dinos portrayed in Jurassic Park represented a new view on the extinct ones. Now we think of them as mobile, agile, and as intelligent as any mammal or reptile living today. So, the lesson to be learned is that the learning is never complete. Science - and scientists - can always add more to the story.
Second, this particular fossil was discovered by a teenager on his family's ranch in North Dakota. This find, and other digging, has led him to found a non-profit research organization dedicated to finding and preserving fossils, and to Yale, where he is currently working on his Ph.D. in paleontology. How wonderfully American dream-ish! Find some bones in your backyard, fall in love with them, and commit yourself to adding to the common understanding of our planet's past.
Oh, one more thing. Did you notice the hexagonal pattern on the skin in the picture above? Ah, the hexagon - Nature's miracle shape. Being a bit obsessive about things like efficiency myself, I admit to a secret love of the hexagon, and it's curvy cousin, the sphere. Why are you looking at me funny?
...it's DINO-MUMMY.
Sorry, I couldn't help using the spooky movie preview voice. This story just screams for it. Well, it does if you only read the headline; afterwards, not so much.
Anyway, paleontologists have released new details on a remarkable fossil find from 1999. What makes this find so exciting is that instead of just fossilized bones, this specimen was "mummified" by mineral deposits before the tissue could decompose, leaving fossilized muscle, ligaments, and even skin. This is the best artifact of dinosaur anatomy yet and will likely lead to new conclusions about the life of those giants of yesteryear.
I was a HUGE dinosaur fanatic when I was a little tyke. I knew all the various species and wanted to grow up to be a paleontologist. (That all lasted until I went to Sea World and fell in love with whales, dolphins, sea lions, otters, and sharks, leading to my next future career as a marine biologist. FYI - I am not now, nor have I ever been anything close to a marine biologist.)
Be that as it may, however, there are two points I'd like to make:
First, scientists have totally changed their thinking on dinosaurs in the last 20-odd years. We used to regard them as lumbering hulks of minimal intelligence who sat around in swamps because they were so damned massive. Then Michael Crichton single-handedly rewrote every paleo-history book. Alright, maybe not, but the dinos portrayed in Jurassic Park represented a new view on the extinct ones. Now we think of them as mobile, agile, and as intelligent as any mammal or reptile living today. So, the lesson to be learned is that the learning is never complete. Science - and scientists - can always add more to the story.
Second, this particular fossil was discovered by a teenager on his family's ranch in North Dakota. This find, and other digging, has led him to found a non-profit research organization dedicated to finding and preserving fossils, and to Yale, where he is currently working on his Ph.D. in paleontology. How wonderfully American dream-ish! Find some bones in your backyard, fall in love with them, and commit yourself to adding to the common understanding of our planet's past.
Oh, one more thing. Did you notice the hexagonal pattern on the skin in the picture above? Ah, the hexagon - Nature's miracle shape. Being a bit obsessive about things like efficiency myself, I admit to a secret love of the hexagon, and it's curvy cousin, the sphere. Why are you looking at me funny?
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Worth a Read
Being a Yankee means appreciating creative (and usually astoundingly simple) solutions to problems, be they unique or ubiquitous. Thus, I'm pirating borrowing a format from the intelligent authors of Marginal Revolution.com and presenting my own "Markets in Everything" post.
The Economist reports from Africa on the proliferation of personal banking services:
Bottom line, conditions are improving in Africa because of creative people and a little bit of risk taking. Although compared to the alternative of continued poverty, maybe the risk isn't that big.
Don't you love the irony of me blogging about innovation in a format that I effectively stole from another blogger. Ah, the glory of the Internet!
The Economist reports from Africa on the proliferation of personal banking services:
They have taken branches to the unbanked, either in prefabricated form, or in vans that make regular visits to under-served areas. Other countries are doing the same. In remote areas where delivering cash is hard, mini-machines have been installed in corner shops where customers print out a slip confirming they are in the black and present it to the shopkeeper, who provides the cash. Some rural branches and ATMs rely on solar energy and satellite phone connections.How cool is that?! Wait, it gets even more amazing.
Standard Bank supplies an isolated branch on an island in Uganda's Lake Victoria by having planes drop bags of cash from the air.Who says money doesn't fall from the sky - I'd love to know how much security that requires. Anyway, this is the type of innovation (and risk taking) that powers economic growth and freedom. Sadly, it is not all whiz-bang progress.
According to the World Bank, in 40 out of 48 countries in the region, it still takes over a year—and a long list of procedures—to enforce a contract.A year! 12 months! 365 days! I don't have any data, but I'm guessing most contract disputes in the US and other industrialized countries are resolved in a matter of weeks or months. Actually, I'd bet that most are resolved before they ever get to adjudication. This is important because contract disputes, and enforcement of contracts, can be a tremendous dead weight loss for the parties involved and for the economy and society as a whole. See this post (fourth paragraph, but read the whole thing) for a brief glimpse of what I think about the state of litigation in America .
Bottom line, conditions are improving in Africa because of creative people and a little bit of risk taking. Although compared to the alternative of continued poverty, maybe the risk isn't that big.
Don't you love the irony of me blogging about innovation in a format that I effectively stole from another blogger. Ah, the glory of the Internet!
Friday, November 16, 2007
Noooooooooooooooo!!!
Cue cheesy horror-movie music and a freaked out guy/girl huddled in a corner plaintively repeating "This isn't happening, this isn't happening."
From the AP (via FoxNews):
The story quotes the Executive Director of the Tenn. Alcoholic Beverage Commission on the prospect of dumping poor Mr. Daniels down the drain thusly, "It'd kill me."
My sentiments exactly. And I'm not a huge Jack Daniels drinker. I much prefer single malt scotch, but good liquor deserves respect dammit! Frankly, this is destroying a piece of America. It might be time for another whiskey rebellion.
Picture from Ludwig Von Mises Institute. Learn more about how Americans react to unjust treatment of their distilled spirits here.
From the AP (via FoxNews):
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Here's a sobering thought: Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel's whiskey, some of it almost 100 years old, may be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license.
...Tennessee law requires officials to destroy whiskey that cannot be sold legally in the state, such as bottles designed for sale overseas and those with broken seals.
The story quotes the Executive Director of the Tenn. Alcoholic Beverage Commission on the prospect of dumping poor Mr. Daniels down the drain thusly, "It'd kill me."
My sentiments exactly. And I'm not a huge Jack Daniels drinker. I much prefer single malt scotch, but good liquor deserves respect dammit! Frankly, this is destroying a piece of America. It might be time for another whiskey rebellion.
Picture from Ludwig Von Mises Institute. Learn more about how Americans react to unjust treatment of their distilled spirits here.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Innovations for Life
It has been a slow day for me, so for inspiration I went to my personal web archives and found this from about a month ago, which I now offer up to you...
2007 Breakthrough Awards from Popular Mechanics
Classic examples of Yankee ingenuity and creativity. And wherewithal to nurture an idea to life. We need to make better examples of these types of people in our schools and communities. They are the ones who make the leaps that make all our lives safer, more comfortable, and more efficient.
My personal favorite: The hands-on computer (seen above) wins for most cool, while I highly admire the spunk of the young chemist to find an economical fix to a world-wide problem.
2007 Breakthrough Awards from Popular Mechanics
Classic examples of Yankee ingenuity and creativity. And wherewithal to nurture an idea to life. We need to make better examples of these types of people in our schools and communities. They are the ones who make the leaps that make all our lives safer, more comfortable, and more efficient.
My personal favorite: The hands-on computer (seen above) wins for most cool, while I highly admire the spunk of the young chemist to find an economical fix to a world-wide problem.
What do you mean, "comical"?
Howdy! I have been away being a productive Yankee citizen while quietly watching the world turn. Now, I am back to proffer a quick tidbit about this blog.
This isn't a literature class, so I will not force you to consider on your own the various meanings of "comical", as in my blog sub-header A Comical Attempt at Ingenuity and Common Sense. Sometimes what I write will be intentionally funny - either sardonically, satirically, or astonishingly crudely. Other times my opinions will probably read like the drivel of the mentally-enfeebled brain from which they arose. In short, it will be comical to observe me try to communicate coherently and persuasively on the vast information network known as the world wide web.
This isn't a literature class, so I will not force you to consider on your own the various meanings of "comical", as in my blog sub-header A Comical Attempt at Ingenuity and Common Sense. Sometimes what I write will be intentionally funny - either sardonically, satirically, or astonishingly crudely. Other times my opinions will probably read like the drivel of the mentally-enfeebled brain from which they arose. In short, it will be comical to observe me try to communicate coherently and persuasively on the vast information network known as the world wide web.
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