Daily Links From Glimpse From a Height
- Robot Navigation and QR Codes
Programmers won’t like the lack of an algorithmic solution, but this looks like a good idea: Interesting though these problems are, there is another way of doing things. Most robots navigate around a “built” environment and there is no reason why we can’t simply augment the environment so that the robot finds it easier to […]
- The Obama Language Wars
Tim Carney on politics and the English language: After Chait implies Hillyer is like a slaveowner, he writes something actually defensible: Critics of Obama should be careful not to use language that will come across as racially tinged…. But here’s a point for Chait: The worst possible way to cultivate racial sensitivity is by haphazardly […]
- Desert Cabin of Wood and Mirrors
In Joshua Tree, California:
- Cut-and-Fold Artwork
Like you’ve never seen it before:
- Nanotech to the Rescue Against MRSA?
Another idea for how nanotech could rescue us from our post-antibiotic future: Nanosponges that soak up a dangerous pore-forming toxin produced by MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) could serve as a safe and effective vaccine against this toxin. This “nanosponge vaccine” enabled the immune systems of mice to block the adverse effects of the alpha-haemolysin toxin from […]
- The Bombe That Beat The Enigma
From Bletchley Park, the computer that helped break the Enigma codes: The small size here doesn’t do it justice. This was truly an awesome, beautiful machine in the way that only mid-century technology can be.
- Quantum Gravity and the Proton Radius
Using quantum gravity to resolve differences in measurement? This inconsistency between proton radius values, called the “proton radius puzzle,” has gained a lot of attention lately and has led to several proposed explanations. Some of these explanations include new degrees of freedom beyond the Standard Model, as well as extra dimensions. Now in a new […]
