Posts Tagged "us"
There are 69 results found
Pioneer Plaque: Sagan designed infographic
The Carl Sagan-designed golden record (“Pioneer Plaque”) sent on 1970s Pioneer spacecraft is today considered an infographic. (An infographic intended to be read by space aliens. Which means that, continuing our IG series on data visualization, you can’t get much more far out that this visual.) The golden-plated engraving is designed to survive a billion years in space, quite a feet given that the Earth itself will be very different in a billion years (and was extremely different 1 billion years ago). The Pioneer Plaque infographic was designed by Carl Sagan and drawn by Sagan’s then wife, an artist. It includes anatomically-correct drawings of humans (cropped-off due to IG community standards where this was originally published :). For this, Sagan was accused of sending smut into interstellar space. Most of the information in the Pioneer Plaque references the atomic timing of a hydrogen, used elsewhere as a unit of measurement (the same throughout space, so the same to space aliens).… Read the restPuzzle painting: French anagram, Voltaire, Freedom of Speech
We celebrated the end of our puzzles with photos of other puzzles. For today’s puzzle painting: a French anagram, Voltaire, and Freedom of Speech? The solution? Why is Voltaire a puzzle? Well, Voltaire is actually a pen-name that is an anagram of the author’s real name. So there is a puzzle in that name. Of course, it’s also timely, as Voltaire has rather much been in the news lately. The New York Times ran an op-ed today in which someone criticized France for double standards. (The US freedom of speech is constitutionally protected. Speech in France is also free, but there are things in France, which, unlike in the US, it is illegal to say. The Times didn’t point this out, but we should mention that the US has sedition laws that are thought to become enforceable in times of war or major crisis — and are thought to be unconstitutional during times of peace.… Read the restDolphin with wearable computer? (photo blog)
Finishing up our mirror theme, we promised one last very special animal (or animal group) that is the last of the currently known animals that can recognize themselves in a mirror. (All of the others are mammals, with the exception of magpies. We started off with extinct mammoths, who are closely related to elephants, then went through magpies and great apes, with a lot of mirror photos along the way.) The actual animal that passed the mirror test is the bottlenose dolphin (shown here), but it is believed all cetaceans can pass the test. Cetaceans include dolphins, whales, and porpoises, known to be some of the most intelligent animals out there. This particular leaping bottlenose dolphin is named K-Dog, and has been trained by the US Navy in mine-clearing operations. He’s wearing what looks like a camera, but is described as a locator beacon (and probably includes a camera and other aspects of a wearable computer.)… Read the restDemocratic Governance: Signing of Mayflower Compact
Another Thanksgiving post: Democracy & Democratic governance. This painting is Signing of Mayflower Compact, 1620 by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863-1930). Although we’re anxious to get back to the Conquistadors (and astrolabes), we’ve stopped here with the Pilgrims for Thanksgiving in the US. We can talk a little about democracy, a theme that came up earlier in the context of mathematical modeling and data in our social progress article. Navigation wasn’t the only problem facing the Mayflower. (Since we’re about data and information; that’s one of our main interests in this period: good navigation required good data, and mass-produced information first became cheaply available in the 14th century.) Issues with the ship’s design caused another problem. It was not particularly well-suited to sailing against the wind, a big problem on trans-Atlantic voyages. These issues greatly slowed the voyage, depleting provisions. The original destination was intended to be the already existing colony of Virginia It arrived late in the season after a late start (due to problems with a second ship that ultimately had to return to England), and too low on provisions.… Read the restRecent Posts
Recent Comments
- florimee on genetic disease turns you into a real-life vampire
- Acculation on Alien Pioneer plaque starmap to 3D printed jewelry transmedia: maker movement data-driven multiplatform media
- Acculation on Free Video Data Science Assessment Tool
- Acculation on Free Business Advice Chatbot Product
- Acculation on Online Consultation with Dr. Krebs (Big Data and Management Consulting)
Featured Posts
Tags
analytics
animal
art
artwork
bigdata
blue
book
business
california
careers
classic
collage
colors
cool
data
drawing
encore
famous
figure
gadget
glitch
glitched
green
historic
historical
ideas
illustration
intelligent
light
mirror
more
old
photo
pop
popart
post
red
Sagan
science
space
story
tech
us
warhol
water