By charting these discrete patterns of neural excitation and inhibition, Oster and Ermentrout were able to build a mathematical model for shell formation that accounts for virtually any design observed in nature, from the zigzagging lines of Natica communis to the seemingly random patterns of mottled patches on a cone snail’s shell. “A single equation is sufficient to explain this tremendous diversity of patterns,” says Alistair Boettiger, a Berkeley graduate student who developed a computational modeling program for Oster and Ermentrout based on their findings.

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/what_seashells_tell/

play it off, keyboard cat!

een mij tot op heden onbekende meme.
Keyboard cat wint veel.

http://vice.typepad.com/vice_belgium/2009/05/keyboard-cat-de-blog-van-een-tamme-kloot.html#more

AL die vids zijn puur goud ^_^

There is a 19 page pdf that describes an integrated vision for Super soldiers in 2030. Many of the pieces are being funded and developed separately. An integrated program has not been funded. However, the United states has over $50 billion per year in undisclosed/classified military projects.

This site has previously covered the $3 billion in DARPA projects to enhance soldier endurance, performance and to develop metabolically dominant soldiers or mechanical and electronic devices for enhancement.

The document is conceptual and is not U.S. Army doctrine, nor is it intended to answer every question raised about warfare in 2030. Their intent is to stir imaginations, and start a dialogue about how best to equip the Soldier.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/05/super-soldier-2030.html

Meer van de recente illustratie-bampost

Amongst the madness, I managed to put together a little experimental painting as an homage to a cartoon that both helped me appreciate the macabre and simultaneously deter me from drugs: Scooby Doo.

After I noticed a few things about Shaggy, I caught on quick and realized what Scooby Doo really was. The only REAL thing in the entire Scooby universe was Shaggy. The dude was just an aging hipster that was a little kooky and schitzophrenic and took mad LSD. Everything else in the entire cartoon, from the talking dog, the “ideal” friends who would never be his friends in reality, the ghosts, the castles, etc, they were all just figments of Shaggy’s consistently bad trips. When they would encounter other characters, ever notice how EVERY other character that the gang interacted with looked confused?? Thats cuz some Fight Club shit was going on and Shaggy was just talking in like 3 different voices and characters to these dudes.
And you would think that i would be like “holy shit, i see spacemen with skull heads and talking dogs when I do LSD? Rad!” But once again, the creators succeeded, because they made Shaggy CONSTANTLY SCARED LIKE A BITCH for 22 of the 30 minutes. No way did i want that fear. Hence, Hanna-Barbara, Casey Casem and Shaggy-whatever-the-fuck-his-last-name-is led me down the road of a drug free life.

http://eyesuckink.com/

The Physical Intelligence program aspires to understand intelligence as a physical phenomenon and to make the first demonstration of the principle in electronic and chemical systems. A central tenet is that intelligence spontaneously evolves as a consequence of thermodynamics in open systems. The program plan is organized around three interrelated task areas: (1) creating a theory (a mathematical formalism) and validating it in natural and engineered systems; (2) building the first human-engineered systems that display physical intelligence in the form of abiotic, self-organizing electronic and chemical systems; and (3) developing analytical tools to support the design and understanding of physically intelligent systems.

https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=4539dc1cc3aa10b46cbf655811648137&tab=core&_cview=0&cck=1&au=&ck=

Darpa’s latest venture, called “Physical Intelligence” (PI) is to prove, mathematically, that the human mind is nothing more than parts and energy. In other words, all brain activities — reasoning, emoting, processing sights and smells — derive from physical mechanisms at work, acting according to the principles of “thermodynamics in open systems.” Thermodynamics is founded on the conversion of energy into work and heat within a system (which could be anything from a test-tube solution to a planet). The processes can be summed up in formalized equations and laws, which are then used to describe how systems react to changes in their surroundings.

The military wants a new equation: one that explains the human mind as a thermodynamic system. Once that’s done, they’re asking for “abiotic, self-organizing electronic and chemical systems” that display the PI principles. More than just computers that think, Darpa wants to re-envision how thought works — and then design computers whose thought processes are governed by the same laws as our own.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/advancednano/~3/Rd-aKUsN4VA/darpa-trying-to-validate-new-theory-of.html

http://www.booooooom.com/2009/05/04/alex-pardee-illustrations/

vette illustraties

gsm in microwave

hoera! In elke gsm!

Visual Complexity

Allerlei datavisualisatie, van songs naar BlueBrain over proteïne-reacties,…

http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/