QED: Question. Explore. Discover.
” ‘QED: Question. Explore. Discover.’ proudly announces 10 of the spectacular speakers who are taking to the stage in front of 500 skeptics and fans of science in The Piccadilly Hotel, Manchester (UK) on the 5th and 6th of February, 2011.
George Hrab
Eugenie Scott
Jon Ronson
Kat Akingbade
Bruce Hood
Wendy Grossman
Chris Atkins
Colin Wright
Simon Singh
Jim Al-Khalili
The above list is enough to sate the needs of any hungry rationalist, while the bar will take care of their thirst… but this newly established feature of the skeptical and science festival calendar has one more, unique feature to introduce to the thousands of people who are already keenly following what QED has to offer: The amazing price.
Standard: £99
Students: £75
Gala Dinner with Celebrity Special Guests: £45
QED is affordable by all, easily accessible from every part of the country by road, rail or air and, even with the cost at an incredibly low level, it will raise a significant sum for two amazing causes that are much in the minds of anyone with an interest in science, rationalism and skepticism: Sense About Science and the National Autism Society.
Tickets can be purchased from the QED website from:
http://www.qedcon.org/tickets/ ”
Tiny apartment shows the value of a good fit
“WE SIT IN the “cafe area” of Steve Sauer’s minuscule apartment enjoying the view from the home’s only window, street level. Dogs on leashes and legs on humans pass by on a warm Lower Queen Anne evening.
Sauer stands up. This is to demonstrate that at 6-foot-2 he has a no-more-than-needed 2-inch clearance between his head and the ceiling.
Sauer likes this precision. Awkward spaces, wasted places annoy him. Two alarm clocks, two music sources, extra furniture. Needless, needless, needless.
“What I really wanted was one place with exactly what I needed and wanted. Quality is more important than quantity for me, and extra space only a problem,” he has written, describing his nearby too-big-for-him, one-bedroom condo.
To me he says, “I tend to like things in their place.”
And that explains it: The uber-cool, fully functional 182-square-foot home for two on the basement floor of a 102-year-old apartment building that Sauer is finishing after seven years of work. It could also have something to do with his line of work — airplane interiors engineering for Boeing. And education — a master’s degree in whole-systems design.
Sauer’s tiny Seattle home is remarkable.”
Read more at The Seattle Times (Thanks Christopher C)
Man scrawls world’s biggest message with GPS ‘pen’
“One man drove 12,238 miles across 30 states to scrawl a message that can only be viewed using Google Earth. His big shoutout: “Read Ayn Rand.”
Nick Newcomen did a road trip over 30 days that covered stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. First, he identified on a map the route he would need to drive to spell out the message. He put a GPS device in his car to trace the route he would follow. Then, he hit the road.
“The main reason I did it is because I am an Ayn Rand fan,” he says. “In my opinion if more people would read her books and take her ideas seriously, the country and world would be a better place — freer, more prosperous and we would have a more optimistic view of the future.”
Newcomen, unlike previous GPS artists, actually travelled the lines he traced on the map. He used a GPS logger (Qstarz BT-Q1000X) to “ink” the message. Starting his trip in Marshall, Texas, he turned on the device when he wanted to write a letter and turned off the device between letters. The recorded GPS data was loaded into Google Earth to produce the image above.
“The first word I wrote actually was the word ‘Rand’, then I went up North to do the word ‘Read’ and finished it with ‘Ayn,’” says Newcomen.
And for those who don’t know, Ayn Rand is a Russian-American writer whose books Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead are among the world’s best-selling novels.
Newcomen’s venture sounds pretty crazy, though he gets points for ambition.
What message would you write using a GPS?”
Read more at Wired (Thanks @XxLadyClaireXx and @UKgnome)
Brain chip break-through
“Dr. Naweed Syed has made the brain come to life on a microchip.
He and a University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine team of eight, in collaboration with the National Research Council, have developed a silicon chip that monitors the subtle signals of living individual brain cells and keeps them alive for up at least two days.
Only snail brain cells have been used, but in a couple months, Syed will target cells from epileptic patients. “We want to get the seizure-causing tissue removed in surgery, test the impact of drugs on those cells, and find a better drug for the patient,” he explained.
Once the process is fully automated hundreds of cells could be tested simultaneously.”
“Dr. Naweed Syed was the first to connect brain cells to a silicon chip, a major step in controlling artificial limbs, correcting memory loss, impaired vision and more. Now, he’s leading the U of C biomedical engineering strategy.
Dr. Naweed Syed’s “brain on a chip” discovery is a major step towards integrating computers with human brains to help people control artificial limbs, monitor people’s vital signs, correct memory loss or impaired vision. “We want to harness the innovation taking place here by putting people from different disciplines in a place where they will bump into each other on a daily basis and work together on novel ideas,” Syed says.”
Read more at Metro News and Ucalgary (Thanks Duncan)
The Intelligence² Debate – Stephen Fry (Unedited)
Stephens speech from the Intelligence Debate held last year.
Via Daily Motion (Thanks Mattis)
Incredible Miniature Sculptures Carved From Pencil Tips
“Here at Inhabitat we are often impressed by innovative new applications for everyday materials, but artist Dalton Ghetti’s tiny sculptures carved out of the fragile tips of pencils have truly knocked our socks off! From a miniature bust of Elvis Presley wearing shades to tiny hammers and old boots, his work is mind boggling. Get ready to be amazed by this unbelievable artwork!
Ghetti, who is originally from Brazil, uses his little lead canvases to explore all types of subjects. Getting familiar with Dalton’s technique makes the work even more interesting, as he refuses to work with a magnifying glass, and only uses three tools – a razor blade, sewing needle and sculpting knife. He explains his process: “I use the sewing needle to make holes or dig into the graphite. I scratch and create lines and turn the graphite around slowly in my hand” ”
See the full gallery at Inhabitat
Brian Blessed to voice TomTom SatNav systems
“Bushy-bearded bellower Brian Blessed is probably the last person you’d think of taking on a long road trip, but it turns out 25,000 people petitioned to have his dulcet tones guide them around the twisty roads of Britain.
The Yorkshire-born thespian, who cut his teeth on the BBC’s Z Cars before taking his booming personality to the stage as British and Shakespearean monarchs, is probably known more for his gigantic voice, than his acting chops.
That’s exactly what lead Stewart Gore to mock up some potential navigation phrases, and start up the Facebook group “get Brian Blessed to do a voice over for my SatNav”. TomTom said it would negotiate with Blessed if the group reached 25,000 members, which it recently achieved.
Now the voice of The Duke of Exeter, Richard IV, Captain Hook, Caesar Augustus and Henry VIII has agreed to record the lines, and is apparently “absolutely thrilled to bits.”
Blessed joins a fleet of celebrities who have already given their best “turn right here” and “you have reached your destination” speeches, including John Cleese, Homer Simpson, Knight Rider’s KITT, several Star Wars characters and, every one’s favourite, Dora the Explorer.
Brian Blessed’s booming vocals will be available for download on your TomTom from October.”
Read more at Wired (Thanks @XxLadyClaireXx)
Stephen Hawking’s Warning: Abandon Earth—Or Face Extinction
“Let’s face it: The planet is heating up, Earth’s population is expanding at an exponential rate, and the the natural resources vital to our survival are running out faster than we can replace them with sustainable alternatives. Even if the human race manages not to push itself to the brink of nuclear extinction, it is still a foregone conclusion that our aging sun will expand and swallow the Earth in roughly 7.6 billion years.
So, according to famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, it’s time to free ourselves from Mother Earth. “I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space,” Hawking tells Big Think. “It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn’t have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let’s hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load.”
Hawking says he is an optimist, but his outlook for the future of man’s existence is fairly bleak. In the recent past, humankind’s survival has been nothing short of “a question of touch and go” he says, citing the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963 as just one example of how man has narrowly escaped extinction. According to the Federation of American Scientists there are still about 22,600 stockpiled nuclear weapons scattered around the planet, 7,770 of which are still operational. In light of the inability of nuclear states to commit to a global nuclear non-proliferation treaty, the threat of a nuclear holocaust has not subsided.
In fact, “the frequency of such occasions is likely to increase in the future,” says Hawking, “We shall need great care and judgment to negotiate them all successfully.” ”
Read more at Big Think
Win Tickets to Questival
Questival is a weekend camping trip organised by The National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies and Leeds Atheist Society, inspired by Camp Quest UK, and sponsored by the British Humanist Association.
Unlike Camp Quest, which is aimed at children, Questival is for fully grown atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers and all those who are curious about the world in which we live. In addition to walks around the Dales, discussions about critical thinking and logical fallacies, scientific methods, pseudo-science, philosophy and ethics, Iszi Lawrence (www.iszi.com) and Rebecca Watson (www.skepchick.org) will be attending to speak at the event.
Questival runs from 5pm on Friday 13/08/2010 until 4pm on Sunday 15/08/2010. The event will be held at Dalesbridge Camp Site, Austwick, Near Settle, North Yorkshire, LA2 8AZ.
Tickets can be purchased from the British Humanist Association (http://www.humanism.org.uk/shop/85).
How to win two tickets
You can also enter a competition to win two tickets (worth £60 total) donated by the organisers to The Skeptic Magazine (UK). To win the tickets, email competitions@skeptic.org.uk with your answer to the following:
What activity, event or product would you like sceptical groups to hold or develop within the UK?
The tickets will be given to the individual who submits the idea judged to be the best, by staff from The Skeptic and by any other nominated judge(s). Responses should be concise and feasible. The competition will close at midnight (GMT) on Saturday 07/08/2010. By submitting ideas, you agree they may be used or developed at a future point. Details are also available at http://skeptic.org.uk/magazine/competitions
Childish thinking: Today’s TEDTalks playlist
“TED’s on its annual two-week vacation; during the break, we’re posting new playlists from the TEDTalks archive.
Today’s playlist is about kids and their brains, which hold the dreams and possibilities of our future. How can we teach them … and how can we learn from them? Adora Svitak makes the case that grownups have lots to learn from “childish” thinking — creativity, audacity, open-mindedness.”
Watch further videos in the collection over at TED Blog
