And if they don’t remarry that hook and eye may!
‘If you’re a cannibal, an Olympic sprinter would be considered fast food.’ –Jarod Kintz
Can computers be creative? […] The team has gathered information by downloading a large corpus of recipes that include dishes from all over the world that use a wide variety ingredients, combinations of flavours, serving suggestions and so on.
They also download related information such as descriptions of regional cuisines from Wikipedia, the concentration of flavour ingredients in different foodstuffs from the “Volatile Compounds in Food” database and Fenaroli’s Handbook of Flavor Ingredients. So big data lies at the heart of this approach—you could call it the secret sauce.
They then develop a method for combining ingredients in ways that have never been attempted using a “novelty algorithm” that determines how surprising the resulting recipe will appear to an expert observer. […] The last stage is an interface that allows a human expert to enter some starting ingredients such as pork belly or salmon fillet and perhaps a choice of cuisine such as Thai. The computer generates a number of novel dishes, explaining its reasoning for each. Of these, the expert chooses one and then makes it.
These human experts seem impressed. “Recipes created by the computational creativity system, such as a Caymanian Plantain Dessert, have been rated as more creative than existing recipes in online repositories,” say Varshney and co.
the regenerations of the incarnations of the emanations of the apparentations of Funn and Nin in Cleethabala
{ JPMorgan is taking questions from Twitter | What exactly possesses PR people into thinking it’s a wise idea to launch live “Twitter Q&As?” }
for by essentience his law, so it make all
Our brains perceive objects in everyday life of which we may never be aware, a study finds, challenging currently accepted models about how the brain processes visual information. […]
“There’s a brain signature for meaningful processing,” Sanguinetti said. A peak in the averaged brainwaves called N400 indicates that the brain has recognized an object and associated it with a particular meaning.
“It happens about 400 milliseconds after the image is shown, less than a half a second,” said Peterson. “As one looks at brainwaves, they’re undulating above a baseline axis and below that axis. The negative ones below the axis are called N and positive ones above the axis are called P, so N400 means it’s a negative waveform that happens approximately 400 milliseconds after the image is shown.”
The presence of the N400 peak indicates that subjects’ brains recognize the meaning of the shapes on the outside of the figure.
“The participants in our experiments don’t see those shapes on the outside; nonetheless, the brain signature tells us that they have processed the meaning of those shapes,” said Peterson. “But the brain rejects them as interpretations, and if it rejects the shapes from conscious perception, then you won’t have any awareness of them.”
A dark unfathom’d tide, of interminable pride
Francis Bacon’s 1969 triptych, “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” sold for $142.4 million at Christie’s, described as the highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction. […]
Sometime in the 1970s the three panels were sold separately. The right-hand panel was bought by a collector in Rome who spent 20 years trying to reunite the triptych. He bought the middle panel from a Paris dealer in the early 1980s. Then, in the late ‘80s, he bought the left and final panel from a collector in Japan. It is also one of just two full-length triptychs that Bacon painted of Freud — the other, from 1966, is missing.
previously { List of most expensive paintings }
‘First we feel. Then we fall.’ –James Joyce
Female sexual dysfunction is almost a non-experience, the opposite of an adventure that you have, then process, then write about.
{ Cris Mazza interviewed by Megan Milks | TNI | Continue reading }
art { Richard Phillips, Untitled (Smiley), 2000 }
related { Playboy erects huge neon bunny art installation near Marfa, Texas }
Every day, the same, again
New Mexico man sues over repeated anal probes by police.
Man apparently ate his dog, who saved him from a bear attack, to stay alive in woods.
World’s one hundred richest people have added $200 billion to their fortunes this year.
South Korea now has five times as many credit cards as people — and more per capita debt than anyone. But the market is not what it was.
How early do we learn to lie? And what purpose does it serve in young children?
What is the most common nightmare?
Apple said developing curved iPhone screens.
Last year, Netflix and YouTube made up 47.8 % of Internet traffic. This year, 50.3 %.
What Happens to Google Maps When Tectonic Plates Move?
In the 1960s, scientists discovered a new form of water. How did they get it so wrong?
Is there any reason to think dolphins and humans have a special relationship?
Only one planet has been proven to support life: our own. But with at least 11 billion Earth-sized words in our galaxy orbiting in their stars’ habitable zones, plus new evidence of strange kinds of life that thrive in extreme environments, the odds that we are not alone are improving.
Things con men can teach you about persuasion.
I think you’ve got the RIGHT number, if you want to know about dudes not wearing a shirt right now.
These NYC Neighborhoods Are Having The Most Sex.
Carpet made of 20,000 folded DIN A4 papers.
Google patent: THROAT TATTOO with lie-detecting mobe microphone built-in.
If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you
Long ago, stock trades were reported over ticker tape, and one type of manipulation was called “painting the tape.” Traders would enter orders to give the appearance of activity in a stock to entice others to buy shares, thus pushing the price higher.
Today, a slightly more sophisticated scheme is called “banging the close,” in which transactions are made in one market at the end of the day to benefit a trader’s positions in another market, say derivatives. Same scheme, different means. […]
The growth of high-frequency trading firms and transactions executed on alternative trading systems, called dark pools, have made it more difficult to police potential manipulative conduct. High-frequency traders buy and sell millions of financial instruments but rarely hold a position for more than a day. While such trading provides greater liquidity to the markets, helping to lower costs for all investors, it can also offer new opportunities for manipulating prices. […]
Manipulation can also involve benchmark indexes, which are incorporated into a wide variety of transactions, including mortgage interest rates. When an index relies on reports provided by rival market participants, the temptation to furnish false information to affect its value can be powerful because a small shift in value can affect billions of dollars. Several large banks have already paid billions in penalties for manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, and investigations are gaining steam into how currency prices were reported in the foreign exchange markets.
I had walled the monster up within the tomb!
The future of computing, after about 2035, is adiabatic reservable hardware. When such hardware runs at a cost-minimizing speed, half of the total budget is spent on computer hardware, and the other half is spent on energy and cooling for that hardware. Thus after 2035 or so, about as much will be spent on computer hardware and a physical space to place it as will be spent on hardware and space for systems to generate and transport energy into the computers, and to absorb and transport heat away from those computers. So if you seek a career for a futuristic world dominated by computers, note that a career making or maintaining energy or cooling systems may be just as promising as a career making or maintaining computing hardware.
‘I don’t know who’s trolling who, but Richie Incognito is NOT a real name.’ –Aaron Bady
The National Intelligence Council has just released its much anticipated forecasting report, a 140-page document that outlines major trends and technological developments we should expect in the next 20 years. Among their many predictions, the NIC foresees the end of U.S. global dominance, the rising power of individuals against states, a growing middle class that will increasingly challenge governments, and ongoing shortages in water, food and energy. But they also envision a future in which humans have been significantly modified by their technologies — what will herald the dawn of the transhuman era. […]
In the new report, the NIC describes how implants, prosthetics, and powered exoskeletons will become regular fixtures of human life — what could result in substantial improvements to innate human capacities. By 2030, the authors predict, prosthetics should reach the point where they’re just as good — or even better — than organic limbs. By this stage, the military will increasingly rely on exoskeletons to help soldiers carry heavy loads. Servicemen will also be adminstered psychostimulants to help them remain active for longer periods.
Many of these same technologies will also be used by the elderly, both as a way to maintain more youthful levels of strength and energy, and as a part of their life extension strategies.
{ io9 | Continue reading | Thanks Tim }
Every day, the same, again
Guests at Paris restaurants are seated following a strict appearance policy. Owners would tell staff “where to seat ugly people.”
Cornell University accidentally destroyed more than $200,000 worth of horse semen.
I study a new explanation grounded in the idea that altruists want to think they are helping.
‘Liking’ on Facebook may mean less giving.
Women have greater shortness of breath than men when exercising.
City birds use cigarette butts to smoke out parasites. [Thanks Tim]
Fully autonomous robots that collect human urine to power themselves could be a step closer.
The Internet killed distance. Mobile computing brought it back. Here’s why location matters again in e-commerce.
Credit Card Numbers Still Google-able.
Soon, nearly every device will be online. That is both a beautiful and a dangerous thing
How smart cities must plan for electric cars.
What makes a city a great place to live – your commute, property prices or good conversation?
Why do we hate seeing photos of ourselves?
7 Research-Backed Ways to Raise Kids Right.
What goes on in our minds when we see someone naked? The more we see of a person’s body the less intelligent they seem.
The way people move can influence the likelihood of an attack by a stranger.
Bulletproof three-piece suits.
Scissors That Cut Perfectly Straight Lines—Every Time.
Taking A Dip With Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.
Japan’s ‘Liberation Wrapper’ lets women eat burgers without violating social taboo.
Gangster Party Line. [Thanks GG]
For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo
Okay, if you want to know…
Will my date have sex on the first date?
Ask…
Do you like the taste of beer?
Because…
Among all our casual topics, whether someone likes the taste of beer is the single best predictor of if he or she has sex on the first date. No matter their gender or orientation, beer-lovers are 60% more likely to be okay with sleeping with someone they’ve just met.
photo { Maurizio Di Iorio }
‘Embracing a means so hard that it nullifies the end; a strategy against strategy.’ –Rob Horning
“Goals are for Losers” and “Passion Is Bullshit” are among the messages Dilbert creator Scott Adams shares in his new book. […]
Adams takes a very personal approach to show how he failed his way to success, but did so using a system and a strategy that increased his odds of meeting up with Lady Luck. […]
In his chapter “Goals Versus Systems,” Adams sets out why goals are for losers, but having a system can bring a lifetime of achievement and satisfaction. Adams’s system – which he lays out in detail – begins with “optimizing your personal energy” through diet and exercise, then drills down into area such as learning multiple skills, controlling your ego and sticking things out for the long haul.
You + Me = Meant to be
What makes Spinoza’s philosophy unsustainable in Goldstein’s view is the fact that “in its ruthless high-mindedness, it asks us to renounce so many passions. (Among the passions we must renounce is romantic love, which, Spinoza deduces, will almost always end badly…)” Any love that is dependent on something that must inevitably change and cannot truly be possessed — such as another person — Spinoza explains, is asking for trouble.
‘When people begin to philosophize they seem to think it necessary to make themselves artificially stupid.’ –Bertrand Russell
“Recent studies show that when a person looks similar to ourselves, we automatically believe they are trustworthy. Here we show for the first time that the reverse is also true. When a person is shown to be more trustworthy, it can lead us to perceive that person as looking more similar to ourselves,” said researcher Harry Farmer.
And then the names of things will be changed
George E. P. Box is famous for the quote: “all models are wrong, but some are useful.” […]
In my experience, most models outside of physics are heuristic models. The models are designed as caricatures of reality, and built to be wrong while emphasizing or communicating some interesting point. Nobody intends these models to be better and better approximations of reality, but a toolbox of ideas. Although sometimes people fall for their favorite heuristic models, and start to talk about them as if they are reflecting reality, I think this is usually just a short lived egomania. As such, pointing out that these models are wrong is an obvious statement: nobody intended them to be not wrong. Usually, when somebody actually calls such a model “wrong” they actually mean “it does not properly highlight the point it intended to” or “the point it is highlighting is not of interest to reality”. As such, if somebody says that your heuristic model is wrong, they usually mean that it’s not useful and Box’s defense is of no help.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are abstractions, these sort of models are rigorous mathematical statements about specific types of structures. These models are right and true of their subjects in any reasonable definition of the words. They are as right or true as the statement that there are infinite number of primes; or that in Euclidean geometry, the tree angles of a triangle sum to two right angles. When somebody says that an abstraction is wrong, they mean one of two things:
1. It is mathematically false. […]
2. Or, the structure you are applying it to does not meet the requirements of the abstraction. For example, in general relativity, space is non-Euclidean, so triangles don’t sum to 180 degrees.
{ Theory, Evolution, and Game Groups | Continue reading }
I think you are missing out on some ideas on complexity. […] What makes you think that something mathematical is comprehensible? You already invoked one simple form of incomprehension: undecidability in computing. […] As to a belief that the universe is not “mathematical”: well, what else could it possibly be? Many mathematicians define mathematics as the sum-total of all possibility; to say that something isn’t mathematical is tantamount to saying it isn’t possible. Since there is nothing else that it could be, by law of excluded middle, it must be.
{ Linas Vepstas | Continue reading }
Hmmm, no edit-button to correct my post. Some footnotes, then: […]
Box’s quote is kind-of the mirror image of Kolmogorov complexity, which states that a model is useful only if it is smaller than the thing being modelled, and, what’s more, that there are things that cannot be modeled.
Every day, the same, again
Man arrested after bringing chain saw to bar fight.
1,000 men caught trying to pay a CGI child to perform sex acts online.
Tomahawk-throwing champion who chased thief from home: ‘I hit what I aim for.’ [Thanks Tim]
China discovers that pollution makes it really hard to spy on people.
Alligator shows up at Chicago airport baggage claim.
A new study reveals how Somali piracy is financed.
Are you more likely to click headlines that are phrased as a question?
Cheerleader effect: Why people are more beautiful in groups.
The cheater’s high - how being bad feels good.
6 Psychological Effects of Washing Your Hands.
New ligament found in humans’ knees.
Japanese scientists create Rock-paper-scissors robot that wins 100% of the time.
The number of smartphones shipping with fingerprint sensors will rise from 46 million this year to 525 million by 2017, the report says. Only four companies of any scale operate in this industry.
50 Tough Books for Extreme Readers.
Overview of the New Patent Law of the United States.
The Prison Guard With a Gift for Cracking Gang Codes.
Introduction to Game Theory [PDF] [more]
Analysing the Bond movie — three approaches.
Umberto Eco, The Narrative Structure of Ian Fleming, 1969 [PDF]
Increasingly, people expect to get all their social needs met by their spouse or partner. This is a prescription for disaster.
The Widow Who Created the Champagne Industry.
Five Reasons why Mermaids Can’t Physically Exist: 4: They would be constipated.
Lost Unicorn. [Thanks Tim]
