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• Vampire Energy

  Some household appliances cost us money while they sit around and collect dust. An original GOOD Video.
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  • 010: The China Issue
  • Date: Apr 22 2008
  • Contributors: Lindsay Utz, Morgan Currie, Rowland Holmes, Nigel Holmes, E*Rock, and Danielle Flug

• Power Plant

  With a new plant-powered personal air filter, a French industrial designer and a Harvard scientist have found a way to improve upon Mother Nature herself.
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  • 010: The China Issue
  • Date: Mar 19 2008
  • Contributors: Chris Martins

• Red River

  A network of lights floating on New York's East River inform passersby about the state of the river's health.
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  • 009: All You Can Eat
  • Date: Feb 01 2008
  • Contributors: Maywa Montenegro

• We, Robot

  From New Scientist, a modular robot that can reassemble itself when broken apart. As one commenter at YouTube points out, "this is the first step towards building a fully functional T-1000." Thanks, Craig.
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  • Date: Apr 29 2008
  • Posted by andrewprice

• Attack Of The Phones

  If you don't live in New York or don't read lower brow New York city newspapers, you probably haven't heard of a man named John Clifford. Clifford rides the Long Island Railroad every day. Clifford does not like to hear other people talking on their cell phones. This isn't really unique to Clifford, but Clifford takes it a step farther. He tells people to hang up, and when they don't he hangs up for them. Somehow, despite 8 separate cases against him ranging from assault to harassment, he has been found innocent every time. While we certainly don't condone his violent behavior and homophobic remarks, Clifford is certainly on to something: the use of cellphones in public areas really needs to be firmly regulated sooner rather than later or we're all going to be part of some mass angry conflagration that starts on a bus and slowly engulfs the whole world. On the other hand, as we learned from the Times this weekend, in some places, cell phones are a big help rather than an annoyance.
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  • Date: Apr 14 2008
  • Posted by Morgan Clendaniel

• Gained In Translation

  From the department of imaginary products: the ReTune. Small enough to fit in your pocket, the ReTune would function as a real-time translator and enhancer of your aural environment. Unpleasant sounds are filtered out, confusing business jargon is instantaneously translated into plain terms, and ambient sounds, like traffic noises and birdsong, are seamlessly incorporated into whatever music you're listening to. We're not holding our breath for this to make it to market, but it does get us thinking about how technology could become an extension, and mediator, of our senses in the coming years. An advertisement for the ReTune. Thanks Ryan.
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  • Date: Apr 08 2008
  • Posted by andrewprice

• This is an excellent video!

  I hadn't realized that vampire energy accounted for a full 1% of U.S. CO2 emissions. Is the diffusion of flat-screen TVs pushing this amount still higher?
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  • Date: Apr 22 2008
  • Posted by RFCapalino

• Do homework first.

  For all of you who are questioning Bueno de Mesquita's methods, predictions, etc., I suggest you do your homework first. It's not all that difficult to find his publications. A quick internet search will yield his curriculum vita which lists most of them. While many of you may not have access to them online, you can certainly go to any local university library and gain access to at least part of them. I would refer you first to his work entitled The War Trap (1981) which is a standard on most international relations reading lists (at least in graduate school). Then I would direct you to a follow-up piece, "The War Trap Revisited," in the American Political Science Review. Then maybe you could check out some critiques of his work such as one that appeared in the June 1984 edition of The Journal of Conflict Resolution. That piece is followed by another piece by BdM defending his work. You can also check out works such as War and Reason (1992) co-authored with David Lalman or Forecasting Policy Futures and The Logic of Political Survival (2003) co-authored with Alastair Smith, Randolph Siverson, and James Morrow (quickly becoming a stable of graduate education in political science as well). His predictions are not something conjured up as if out of a book of spells and incantations. His methods have been rigorously tested and critiqued over time by some of the top scholars in the field. His methods, as with those of any other scholar of rational choice and game theory, are based on basic assumptions about values and preferences of individuals and societies as well as their attitudes toward risk. Is he perfect in his predictions? No, of course he's not. Does he do a good job? Yes. Calculating and predicting human action, even that which many people are not sure is understandable (like that of many dictators), is something BdM seems to have been able to do well thus far. For those who are critics: Before you criticize him, I would suggest you try to find a more accurate means of prediction. Otherwise, you will not be heard, nor will your critiques.
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  • Date: Apr 17 2008
  • Posted by jboolo

• cyborg alert!

  cybernetic organism phobics beware!
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  • Date: Apr 08 2008
  • Posted by jtg2001