Photos from the International Museum of Surgical Science

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Today, Kat and I went to view the wonders on display at the International Museum of Surgical Science, here in Chicago. What an excellent way to spend an afternoon.  They have piles and piles of bonesaws.  Was everybody into amputation back in the olden days? Other highlights — a full recreation of a 19th century … Read more

Pink Floyd’s moon landing jam session

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This is kind of interesting. Back in 1969, when man was first walking on the moon, Pink Floyd were in a BBC television studio, jamming improvisationally. There exists a recording, which has been mashed with some moon landing footage. Behold: According to David Gilmour: “At the time, Pink Floyd had been doing rather well. For … Read more

Windows 7 upgrade path — if you use XP, you must wipe and reload.

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Oh, man.  This is a really, really bad idea from Microsoft.  On the other hand, it’s going to mean some easy money for me.  Let me remind you, my friend, that my computer-fixin’ rates are quite reasonable. “…Windows XP users, including the millions who have recently snapped up cheap, XP-powered netbooks, will first have to … Read more

Should investigative journalism get a public subsidy?

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Another thing that came my way via the excellent Overcoming Bias site. The author of this piece, Paul Starr, is a professor of Sociology and public affairs at Princeton University, and he floats the idea that public subsidies of investigative journalism might be one way to combat the deluge of journalists that have given up … Read more

Tweet Map mashup lets you find out what people are saying in your neighborhood

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This is a neat little mash-up. Say you want to know what people in your geographic area have to say on a particular subject. It’s trivially easy to find out with this map of tweets by subject. Or, to be more clear, choose a geographic area using the Google map, and then type in a … Read more

Yudkowsky – A Technical Explanation of Technical Explanation

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This came my way because of a thread on Less Wrong about recommended reading for new rationalists.  Eliezer Yudkowski is a very bright fellow, and this little quote comes from somewhat mathematical lesson on what constitutes a “technical explanation,” as opposed to a verbal explanation. “Remember Spock from Star Trek? Spock often says something along … Read more