notes.husk.org. scribblings by Paul Mison.

toffeemilkshake:

It’s depressing chart Friday! (from Pew research blog)

Definitions. Can a country in which 1 in 5 people can’t afford to eat really be classed as advanced?

The US is a pretty obvious outlier, as mentioned in the article:

the percentage of Americans who say they could not afford the food needed by their families at some point in the last year is three times that in Germany

but note that the UK has a higher percentage that can’t afford food than China (despite a GDP four times higher). Even equitable Germany only just equals them. Go western world.

Laurie Andersen at De Appel in Amsterdam (1977) (posted by momalibrary via notational)

(Source: momalibrary)

slavin:

algopop:

Google executive Eric Schimdt discusses Google concerns which include ongoing improvements to search algorithms to use artificial intelligence to deliver ‘truth’ rather than distorted results caused by ‘Google-Bombing’ and misleading marketing. In response other talkers suggest that perhaps the algorithms are worryingly given power to establish truths. That conversation happens around minute 30. 

I remember pitching this basic idea four years ago to Someone Prominent Who Decides What People Hear, and I remember him saying: the thing is, there is not really anyone besides you who will be interested in that.

Which is a reminder that when decisions were made entirely by humans, that wasn’t so great, either. 

If you’d rather have a copy of the file to keep, Start the Week has a podcast. (Apparently James Bridle’s Under The Shadow Of The Drone is also discussed.)

kenyatta, via slavin:

#bikeshare day 1, much use. Brand hacked already. “the street finds its own uses for things”: #BikeNYC Love, not banks. (by neotint)

Earlier today Slavin, Tricia, CW+T, and I made predictions about the unintended uses for the new NYC CitiBikes:

• Ride from New York to Boston (or Philadelphia.)

This reminds me of Ian Visits taking a London bike hire cycle to Paris:

a check of the Boris Bike T&C’s showed that while there is a limit of 24 hours for hiring a bike, and oddly a limit on letting no more than three other people use the bike, there is no geographical or mileage restrictions.

In addition, as it happens, Eurostar are quite comfortable with carrying bikes on their trains and have a procedure in place already for that – although in our case some tweaks were needed due to the way the prize tickets were arranged, and double checking that it would be OK to carry heavy Boris Bikes on board when they usually carry light touring bikes for holiday goers.

Early designs for Avatars for The New Flickr by Charis Tsevis (via migurski)

Interstate 5 bridge collapses over Skagit River at SFGate via migurski)

toffeemilkshake:

Polling when public attention is limited: Different questions, different results

via @tomewing

From the Pew Research post:

In an ideal world, understanding the impact of question wording differences on surveys is straightforward – respondents are randomly assigned to groups, each of which is asked the same question in the same context with only the language of interest modified. But in the real world, it’s rarely so simple. In the above examples, each polling organization made good-faith efforts to describe the facts of the situation as accurately as possible, but the word choices and context make it impossible to identify one particular phrase or concept that tipped the public’s thinking.

Voyager space probe diagram, posted by x-ray delta one (via balnibarbi)

scienceblogs via chrisoshea via iamdanw:

I LOVE this analogue moon landing simulator!

“This simulator was designed to provide a pilot with a detailed visual encounter with the lunar surface; the machine consisted primarily of a cockpit, a closed-circuit TV system, and four large murals or scale models representing portions of the lunar surface as seen from various altitudes. The pilot in the cockpit moved along a track past these murals which would accustom him to the visual cues for controlling a spacecraft in the vicinity of the moon. Unfortunately, such a simulation — although great fun and quite aesthetic — was not helpful because flight in lunar orbit posed no special problems other than the rendezvous with the LEM, which the device did not simulate. Not long after the end of Apollo, the expensive machine was dismantled.”