Many of you have no doubt read Godel Escher Bach, the brilliant and entertaining treatise by Douglas Hofstadter, drawing connections between the work of the legendary mathematician, artist and musician. In today’s New York Times, a compelling — though admittedly less sweeping — essay by Arthur I. Miller explores the connections between Einstein and Mozart. […]
Scientific journals are taking measures to detect digitally manipulated images.
To continue on the movie-themed posts, I have always been enthralled by the powerful impact of sound and music in film. While a student at Stanford I took a great class entitled "The Physics of Music" which would have more appropriately been entitled "Really Cool Field Trips in Music." We visited Dolby Labs, Meyer Sound, […]
When it comes to indie films, there’s Sundance, and then there’s channel101. Billing itself as "The Unavoidable Future of Entertainment," channel101 is an example of what happens when the long tail meets a disruptive business model. Given that "good enough" video can be created these days for a few thousand bucks, anyone can make a […]
Sundance shorts area available online for the first time, with such gems as “Robin’s First Date” and “Gopher Broke.”
At TED2005 and TEDGlobal, genomics pioneer Craig Venter mentioned — casually, as always — his desire to create a fully synthetic lifeform, preferably one that will serve society’s greater needs. Venter’s work is singularly ambitious, but he’s not the only one with his eyes on that prize. The idea of designing living machines (albeit ones […]
Some of the most memorable moments at any given TED come from the hand-picked performers, who often make us feel we’ve unearthed a rare gem. We had that rush of discovery all over again when we learned three powerful chanteuses of TEDs past will appear next week at New York’s Joe’s Pub. On Monday, Susheela […]
At TEDGlobal, Carl Honore explained the motivation behind his book, In Praise of Slowness: While reading his son a “One-Minute Bedtime Story,” he suddenly saw the lunacy in his speed-obsessed life, and set out to explore the alternative: a worldwide slow movement that offered a different approach to eating, living, and being with each other. […]
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons […]
At long last, Google Earth — which has been demoed at several TEDs in different contexts — has been released for the Mac. TEDsters got an early glimpse of Google Earth at TED2002 when Dan Dubno gave a fly-through of its previous incarnation, Keyhole. And Domus editor Stefano Boeri used Google Earth to explore the […]
At TED2003, NYU Professor Noah Feldman was fresh off the publication of his first book, After Jihad: America and the struggle for Islamic democracy. Like so many TED speakers before him, he adapted his talk on the fly to better suit the occasion, and delivered a fascinating speech describing religion as a kind of technology […]
A collection of mid-century science magazines points to Flickrs potential as the museum of the future
I’ve just returned from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. CES is a veritable festival of microprocessors. There were 28 football fields worth of microprocessor-driven gadgets. As exciting as it was to see thousands upon thousands of high definition televisions, the biggest crowds formed around Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. I […]
Each year, EDGE founder John Brockman poses a question to members of the so-called Third Culture. Last year’s question (What is it you believe but cannot prove?) was translated into an utterly delightful book. This year, Brockman ups the intellectual ante, asking, “What is your dangerous idea?” The provocative answers promise a lively year ahead […]
Annual holiday hilarity from philosopher comic Ze Frank
A moving slideshow set to Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Give Up,” covered by Bono and Alicia Keys