Svengali, Wales Millenium Centre, Cardiff April 6th – 9th 2012
Tickets for the Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff go on sale on June 3rd 2011.
The show will run from April 6th – 9th 2012. Tickets usually sell out fast, so get in soon.
First quantum computer just sold to Lockheed Martin but binary computers fight back
On Wednesday, D-Wave Systems made history by announcing the sale of the world’s first commercial quantum computer. The buyer was Lockheed Martin Corporation, who will use the machine to help solve some of their “most challenging computation problems.” Lockheed purchased the system, known as D-Wave One, as well as maintenance and associated professional services. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
D-Wave One uses a superconducting 128-qubit (quantum bit) chip, called Rainier, representing the first commercial implementation of a quantum processor. Built around a superconducting processor, the entire system’s footprint is approximately 100 square feet. The total wall-plug power consumed by a D-Wave One system is 15 kilowatts (a standard laptop uses about 60 watts). Unfortunately the actual speed of the computer is secret, but this is because speed isn’t actually the point of a quantum computer.
A normal computer operates on the basis of units known as bits. Each bit in a normal computer can only be one of 0 or 1 and nothing else. No matter how many bits you have, each computer at a single point in time can only occupy one combination of these bits in order for the programming to actually work.
A quantum computer is different from this because of a principle in quantum mechanics known as superposition. The sort of problem that a conventional computer is very slow at which a quantum computer would be very good at are the ones where you are trying to find one out of billions of billions of billions of combinations which produces an answer. A conventional computer has to go through all the possibilities one by one, the quantum computer can in some sense try them all out at once and can therefore do the calculation in far fewer steps. They are however extremely expensive, the DWave has been rumoured to cost a cool $10-Million.
Despite the fact traditional binary machines have started to reach their limits, new emerging concepts are showing incredible promise. Marc McAndrew is one individual who has invented a machine known as The Charity Engine. The surprising thing is it’s more of a concept than an actual computer. McAndrew has realised that the wasted processing power of machines can be collectively harnessed to make the worlds most powerful supercomputer – for nothing.
By simply running his software on your PC (when it’s idle), you’ll be part of the world’s fastest computer, helping research cures for cancer or new technologies. And the best part of this is that the money the network generates from this research goes to charity. It’s infinitely more environmentally friendly and is so revolutionary that the likes of Amnesty International, Water Aid, Oxfam and ActionAid have all created donation programs to plug in to it – they also monitor the research that takes place to make sure it’s all completely 100% ethical from head to toe. McAndrew (an already successful business owner) has also signed up to a The Giving Pledge that guarantees if he ever makes any real money from the business most of his share will go to charity too. Could you ask for more?
You can sign up to the facebook page here, find out when the Engine will be launching and do your bit for charity too. To encourage you, everyone who signs up is automatically entered in to a completely free lottery draw of $1Million.
Loom – incredible masterpiece of 3D
Loom is the work of specialist animators Polynoid. It took an entire year to construct this truly jaw dropping 5 1/2 minutes of excellence. If you’re a little squeamish and don’t like spiders, this one might give you nightmares.
Adam Curtis – All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace
Without a doubt Adam Curtis is one of the most important documentary makers alive today. His work isn’t just ground breaking in it’s messaging, the sheer volume of information and the way he delivers is food for thought itself. Using a mixture of well found retro footage and expert narration, Curtis delivers his own distinct form of sociopolitical theatre. Even if you were to completely disagree with him, it’s utterly thought-provoking and entertaining. It’s possibly the only reason to own a TV.
Curtis completed a Bachelor of Arts in Human Sciences at the University of Oxford, where he studied genetics, evolutionary biology, psychology, politics, sociology and elementary statistics. Curtis also taught Politics there for a time.
His work has received more than a few awards to date – here’s a run down of our favourites:
1992 – Pandora’s Box – examines the dangers of technocratic and political rationality – BAFTA Award for Best Factual Series.
1996 - 25 Million Pounds – study of Nick Leeson, collapse of Barings Bank – Winner at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
1997 – The Way of All Flesh – The story of Henrietta Lacks - Golden Gate award.
1999 – The Mayfair Set – the climate of the Thatcher years - BAFTA Award for Best Factual Series.
2002 – The Century of the Self - Edward Bernays’ development of public relations - Broadcast Award, Longman Award.
2004 - The Power of Nightmares - the rise of Islamism and Neoconservatism - BAFTA for Best Factual Series
2007 – The Trap – a series addressing the modern concepts of freedom.
Curtis has also provided many snippets of brilliance to the Charlie Brooker series Screenwipe in 2007 and Newswipe in 2009. What more you could ask for I do not know.
His current series All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace is now showing on BBC 2 / iPlayer and is utterly essential watching. It is a series of films about how humans have been colonised by the machines they have built. Although we don’t realise it, the way we see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the computers.
Episode one of 3 is available now – I recommend watching it 3 times at least and take notes too.
Apple causes ‘religious’ reaction in brains of fans, say neuroscientists
In a recently screened BBC documentary, UK neuroscientists suggested that the brains of Apple devotees are stimulated by Apple imagery in the same way that the brains of religious people are stimulated by religious imagery.
People have often talked about “the cult of Apple”, and if a recent BBC TV documentary is to be believed, there could be something in it.
The program, Secrets of the Superbrands, looks at why technology megabrands such as Apple, Facebook and Twitter have become so popular and such a big part of many people’s lives.
In the first episode, presenter Alex Riley decided to take a look at Apple. He wanted to discover what it is about the company that makes people so emotional. Footage of the opening of the Cupertino company’s Covent Garden store in central London last year showed hordes of Apple devotees lining up outside overnight, while the staff whipped up customers (and themselves) into something of an evangelical frenzy. This religious-like fervor got Riley thinking – he decided to take a closer look at the inside of the head of an Apple fanatic to see what on earth was going on in there.
Riley contacted the editor of World of Apple, Alex Brooks, an Apple worshipper who claims to think about Apple 24 hours a day, which is possibly 23 hours too many for most regular people. A team of neuroscientists studied Brooks’ brain while undergoing an MRI scan, to see how it reacted to images of Apple products and (heaven forbid) non-Apple products.
According to the neuroscientists, the scan revealed that there were marked differences in Brooks’ reactions to the different products. Previously, the scientists had studied the brains of those of religious faith, and they found that, as Riley puts it: “The Apple products are triggering the same bits of [Brooks'] brain as religious imagery triggers in a person of faith.”
Matt Berry – Witchazel
Fans of the IT crowd and The Mighty Boosh wil be happy to see Matt Berry (a.k.a Dixon Bainbridge and Douglas Reynholm) has released an album. Surprisingly it’s all be made entirely in Apple’s Garageband in his front room, but sounds like finely polished, melodic pop, 60′s psychadelia and folky pop.
The rather touching video above, directed and filmed by Gerard Giorgi-Coll goes to prove that in most cases, big budget, auto-tune bling can be easily undermined by a bit of good old fashioned British talent, a full beard and a pheasant.
3 Man Chess – the ultimate brain busting chess game
Finally, a Chess variant board has been developed that accommodates three players, without compromising ANY of the rules, strategies, or competitive challenges that make Chess the best board game in the world. The only changes from conventional chess are some protocol issues that must be followed to maintain order where the teams border each other, which is simple and necessary. Also, please notice that the trajectory lines orienting from the outer rank, are simply visual aids to help guide diagonal moves passing through the center.
If the path is clear, a diagonal move starting from the outer rank can pass through the center and sweep back around to where it originated. The complexities of the third player are infinite. Your threatened piece may be allowed to maintain occupancy as your position is beneficial to the threatening player. But how long can it last? This scenario may exist all over the board.
There are multiple trust and doubt situations between all players. An unexpected move might well result in a cascading massacre. Defense is crucial since a diagonal move through the center, or a horizontal move around the center can sneak up behind you. A player can be checkmated by a combination of both other players or ultimately one player can checkmate both other players at the same time.
TED Open Translation Project – Year 2
Today is the 2-year anniversary of the Open Translation Project! To date, our volunteer translators have created over 18,000 translations of TEDTalks in 81 languages. The above lecture is from the man who invented the World Wide Web, Tim Burners-Lee. He beautifully demonstrates how about how open source language and information projects are changing the world.
Added to this are Chinese subtitles by Jenny Yang who said “The year open data went worldwide is the most mindset-changing talk I’ve translated because I believe enabling and allowing people to access open data helps ordinary people see the truth”.
More brilliant examples over at TED
2011 Optical Illusion Top 10
For those of you who like optical illusions, you’ll love the finalists in the 2011 Optical Illusion of the Year (yes it’s true).
The above illusion comprises a morphing sequence between two faces. The observer has to fixate a dot superimposed on the morph. When the dot is moving, morphing can hardly be seen. However, when the dot suddenly stops, the morphing appears surprisingly strong. Subtle differences in, e.g., the shape of the eyes, the color of the skin, and even gender characteristics are ‘blown-up’ perceptually. Apparently, such differences between faces are easily overlooked when following a moving-dot, but are highly salient when our eyes rest at a single point on the morphing faces.
To see the Top 10 Finalists simply prep your eyeballs and click here.
Play the game Phylo whilst performing important research
Though it may appear to be just a game, Phylo is actually a framework for harnessing the computing power of mankind to solve a common problem — Multiple Sequence Alignments.
Phylo is a game in which participants align sequences of DNA by shifting and moving puzzle pieces. Your score depends on how you arrange these pieces. You will be competing against a computer and other players in the community.
A sequence alignment is a way of arranging the sequences of DNA, RNA or protein to identify regions of similarity. These similarities may be consequences of functional, structural, or evolutionary relationships between the sequences. From such an alignment, biologists may infer shared evolutionary origins, identify functionally important sites, and illustrate mutation events. More importantly, biologists can trace the source of certain genetic diseases.
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