if you have 12 minutes to spare, get ready to learn more about your perception of sound than you assumed you knew previously… well, at least for me. it’s rather fascinating to learn, though far from fully understanding, how exactly all this sound and vibrations get understood by your brain.

(via: http://thedailywh.at/2011/08/22/this-is-informative-you-should-watch-it-of-th…

one will not normally think of Vermont as a state that receives a lot of flood damage, so these images may come as a bit of a surprise. the aftermath of Irene has not been kind to Vermont and its residents. extensive flooding and roads washed out with people stranded and without power or even roads still. the damage is extremely severe and in some places, devastation as the subsequent floods after the hurricane managed to wipe out the small roads that network throughout the state.

it’s an interesting quick read diving into how people tend to analyze how one perceives actions others take vs actions you take yourself, and being able to correctly identify the basis of action and motivation of a person. we seem to be heavily geared towards introspection only when it comes to one’s self, but prefer a more superficial analysis when it comes to others.

well, not really a “vs”, but it would be nice to have both, especially after the recent east coast quake. never actually clicked how much more useful a shindo measurement is when trying to convey the magnitude of the quake *at your location* rather than just at the epicenter (magnitude). helps a lot in understanding the intensity of what was felt relative to where it struck

some spectacular timelapse videos 14 year in the making. it’s absolutely stunning to see what we only previously can see as still images come to life in motion

it’s fascinating to listen to someone be able to casually explain the very core of science and physics (and chemistry) in such explainable terms…

that mob mentality can affect anyone, from the young to the old, the affluent to the poor, the educated to the layman. it’s an interesting movement to study and to see exactly how far something can get purely on mob mentality rather than genuinely reacting to a cause (like the Arab spring/summer).

some photos from @dannychoo’s recent visit to ishinomaki to see the tsunami’s aftermath. good google street view comparisons of the before and after. as bad as the devastation is, it’s good to see recovery and progress take shape.

interesting bit about how time management perception and subsequent action differs culturally.

interesting to see something like this happen, and it looks like it’s surviving well enough. Now if can only harness this for a better cause… like for every $10 donated, $1 automatically goes to a charity, not just coffee. Maybe Starbucks can jump in. more info here: http://jonathanstark.com/card/ and the twitter account is here: http://twitter.com/#!/jonathanscard

perhaps it’s not the complexity of the password, but the sheer quantity. Assuming that the crackers are already checking for all characters, it makes no difference if the characters are within the normal alphabet or not, they dont know that so they have to check everything. And even using a rainbow hash, the longer the better in that case. Make it easy to remember, but challengingly long.

i’m getting used to using an iPhone for gaming, but I just can’t see it as a decent replacement for a dedicated handheld. the games are all just generic clones of each other with very few exceptions. the price point is a telling sign of the quality/simplicity of the games.

the touch controls are horrible for “traditional” style gaming using directional controls and button pressing. That being said, it a great control scheme for touch, swipes and haptic inputs. the motion detection and so on also offer a great means of control too. It’s just that when you need to do traditional directional control, it’s awful. There’s only a few games where I can see that this will only be possible on a touch based system and how it is a hallmark of the gaming platform. not matter what people say, that game is not represented in angry birds (as obvious as the ports should have made that). So far, try out Zombie Smash you want to experience a game that just isn’t possible on a non touch based system. Pretty neat use.

I like the fact that it offers a lot of mindless game consumption, but sometimes if you really want substance or a good 1st party title, you want to be on a real gaming machine of sorts. we’ll see if it improves, but my guess is that the ecosystem that the iPhone breeds isn’t going to lend itself to doing too much more. maybe there can be a little more creativity with the tablets.

it’s always really interesting to see math(s) work using real life examples and methods, especially physical demonstrations.

watch the video and see if you can spot the moment where Bill Nye goes from discussing science on TV to teaching a 5 year old in the basics of science…

I’ve had a few of these…