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On Chomsky and the Two Cultures of Statistical Learning
Chomsky's remarks were in response to Steven Pinker's question about the success of probabilistic models trained with statistical methods. This essay is a response to Pinker and Chomsky, and will address these questions:
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Using an LCD’s poor viewing angle to your advantage
When viewing LCD monitors from an oblique angle, it is not uncommon to witness a dramatic color shift. Occasionally, this can appear as a total color inversion. This is primarily caused by a polarization asymmetry, where light rays passing through the pixel matrix at oblique angles are influenced by the relative…
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Why we are unlikely to ever leave the solar system.
Fill this in yourself.
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A shuffled deck of cards is unique in all human history
Every time you shuffle a deck of playing cards, it's probably a unique order, never before seen in human history.
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How automatic transmission almost made sperm whales extinct
It was the familiar story of human cruelty and greed: the sperm whales were hunted to the oblivion. Then, in the 1970s, the better part of humanity led by good people - ecological activists - saw the error of their ways and stopped the murder. Good triumphed over evil. Amen. The problem with such…
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We need a GitHub of Science
Publishing is central to Academia, but its publishing system is outclassed by what Open Source software developers have in GitHub
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Color wheels are wrong? How color vision actually works
Artists say all colors are a mixture of red, yellow, and blue. But physics and TV screens and printers disagree. How does color really work?
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Neutrinos Faster Than Light, or FPGA artifacts?
I spent my week-end reading comments from theoretical physicists,geodesists, and other scientists, speculating on the news of the OPERA experiment that appe...
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The Clock in the Mountain
A work crane at the Clock site in western Texas. There is a Clock ringing deep inside a mountain. It is a huge Clock, hundreds of feet tall, designed to tick for 10,000 years. Every once in a while the … Continue reading →
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Feynman's wobbling plate: how to recover from burnout
So I got this new attitude. Now that I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything, I've got this nice position at the university teaching classes which I rather enjoy, and just like I read the Arabian Nights for pleasure, I'm going to play with physics, whenever I want to, without worrying about any importance…
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Elon Musk says he will put millions of people on Mars
New Scientist – Musk declared recently that he could put a human on Mars in 10 to 20 years’ time. It is a remarkable claim, yet even more astonishingly Musk tells me that he could do it for $5 billion, and possibly as little as $2 billion – a snip when you consider that the International Space Station (ISS) has cost…
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The brain's 5-million core, 9 Hz computer
Weekly essays on biology, philosophy and other topics.
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Feynman On The Importance Of Playing
I'm reading " Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman " (very good read). What he says about burnout, playing and doing the things you love is pr...
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Human Brain Project: $1.61 billion to achieve human brain emulation by 2024
Henry Markram, a neuroscientist at the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland, has assembled a team of nine top European scientists for the research effort to build a computer model of a human brain. The Human Brain Project is in discussion with the EU for a £1billion (US$1.61 billion) grant.
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Fibonacci Flim-Flam.
physics, history of science, pseudoscience, hoaxes, writing, education, skepticisism, humor, quotes, illusions, 3d stereo photography.
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Can you see the flag on the Moon with a telescope?
The answer is basically "not a chance". No Earthbound telescope can see the flag on the Moon. Why not? For openers, the Earth's atmosphere is never steady enough to allow resolution below about one arc second for most locations. Beyond that, the telescope required to "see" the flag would need to be absolutely huge!…
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