Monthly Archive for April, 2004

Mozart Effect

New Scientist

… The Mozart effect first came to light in a 1993 paper in Nature (vol 365, p 611), when Fran Rauscher, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, US, and colleagues showed that college students who listened to Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major for 10 minutes performed better on a spatial reasoning test than students who listened to new age music or nothing at all.

Now Rauscher and her collaborator Hong Hua Li, a geneticist at Stanford University in California, think they have found the molecular basis of the Mozart effect. Their study used rats, which, like humans, perform better on learning and memory tests after listening to the sonata.

Cool~ I should check out some Mozart CD’s from the library.
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The Tyranny of Choice

Print: The Chronicle: 1/23/2004: The Tyranny of Choice

“Logic suggests that having options allows people
to select precisely what makes them happiest. But, as studies show, abundant choice often makes for misery”

A variation of article featured in April issue of Scientific American
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Woohoo~

Wired 12.04: The 2004 Wired Rave Awards

“… Lazzo’s trademark is bringing dead toons back to life. He got his big break when he created the cult hit Space Ghost Coast to Coast in 1994 by splicing new celebrity interviews into old animated footage. Last year, Futurama and Family Guy reruns did so well that it’s likely both shows (which Fox killed in prime time) will produce new episodes.
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a9.com goes live

A9.com > Company > What’s New & Cool

Wow, this is getting interesting… a9.com (short for “algorithm”) went live today. a9.com is a new search engine invented by research lab at Amazon, who also brought “Search Inside the Book” feature (which has been mentioned in my blog)

Some interesing features I found was:

  1. short search URL (e.g. “a9.com/minwoo” will search “minwoo”)
  2. 3 adjustable columns (1. search results, 2. book search results, 3. search history)
  3. diary feature (available through A9 toolbar) which allows you to take notes of sites you visit (I think this is very useful)
  4. “siteinfo” button which is linked to their Alexa web catalog, which displays information about the site without actually visiting that site.. hmm..

You need to have Amazon account to use some of these features.

The search results are provided by google.. but I think it’s matter of time they come up w/ their search engine.
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shepherd and flock

A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of the dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Broni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the shepherd… “If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?”

The shepherd looked at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looked at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answered “sure”.

The yuppie parked his car, whipped out his IBM ThinkPad and connected it to a cell phone, then he surfed to a NASA page on the internet where he called up a GPS satellite navigation system, scanned the area, and then opened up a database and an Excel spreadsheet with complex formulas. He sent an email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, received a response. Finally, he prints out a 130-page report on his miniaturized printer then turns to the shepherd and says, “You have exactly 1586 sheep.”

“That is correct; take one of the sheep,” says the shepherd.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and bundle it into his car. Then the shepherd says: “If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my animal?”

“OK, why not?” answers the young man.

“Clearly, you are a consultant,” says the shepherd.

“That’s correct,” says the yuppie, “but how did you guess that?”

“No guessing required,” answers the shepherd. “You turned up here although nobody called you. You want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked, and you don’t know crap about my business…… Now give me back my dog.”
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The Ends of the Earth

Wired 12.04: VIEW

5 doomsday predictions from Bruce Sterling:

  1. Global dimming
  2. Unpredictable day length
  3. Interplanetary chaos (comets/asteroids)
  4. Killer supernovas (cosmic radiation)
  5. Planetary insolvency (economic instability)

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Shirt Folding, Japanese Way

Check out this cool video of how to fold shirts! :D
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Gravity Probe B

Wired News: NASA to Test Space-Time Fabric

At the spacecraft’s heart are four pingpong-sized balls of quartz, the most perfect spheres ever made. To ensure accuracy, the balls must be kept chilled to near absolute zero, in the vacuum of the largest thermos ever flown in space, and isolated from any disturbances in the quietest environment ever produced…

Hm… lots of records are being broken to test this theory :)

See a quicktime video of the experiment here
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