Monthly Archives: May 2010

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Top 40 Useful Sites To Learn New Skills

gardyloo:

“The web is a powerful resource that can easily help you learn new skills.  You just have to know where to look.  Sure, you can use Google, Yahoo, or Bing to search for sites where you can learn new skills, but I figured I’d save you some time.

Here are the top 40 sites I have personally used over the last few years when I want to learn something new.”

the ones I’m familiar off here have been very useful, I still think Wolfram Alpha should be included though!

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10 Tech Concepts You Need to Know for 2010 – Popularmechanics.com

Three to do with Nanotechnology! Yahoo! (I’ll just paste those ones here to make sure you see them; you’re welcome!)


4. DNA Orgami

Scientists at Caltech have been folding microscopic strands of DNA into interesting shapes for the past few years. A cool party trick for sure, until a breakthrough last summer suggested that the folded strands could be used to create ultrasmall computer chips. That’s when the scientists teamed up with IBM researchers and showed that they could strategically position folded DNA shapes, such as triangles, along the sort of silicon wafer used in microchips. This should allow them to use pieces of the DNA strands as anchor points for tiny computer-chip components that could be built as little as 6 nanometers apart—a huge improvement over the current stand-ard of 45 nm.

9. Nanoyarn

Carbon nanotubes have been touted as the next big thing ever since their discovery in 1991. The appeal lies in their strength (they are up to 100 times stronger than steel) and their ability to conduct both heat and electricity. But, until now, they’ve been too difficult to manufacture in useful quantities. That’s finally changing: New Hampshire-based Nanocomp Technologies is weaving nanotubes into lengths of yarn that can be built into commercial applications. The company recently delivered more than 6 miles of nanoyarn to a major aerospace client, and successful bullet-stopping tests last spring have the Pentagon excited about the prospect of next-gen body armor that’s both lighter and thinner than Kevlar.

10. Ultracapacitors

The biggest challenge for electric cars is energy storage: Batteries are better than ever, but they are still expensive, slow to charge and have fairly limited life spans. The solution may be ultracapacitors, which hold less energy than batteries (at least as the technology currently stands) but have virtually none of their drawbacks. That means longer life spans, no messy chemical reactions, no issues with battery memory and far greater durability. Researchers have been trying to perfect automotive ultracapacitors for several years (MIT is working on nanotube-based ultracaps, while Argonne National Laboratory is exploring battery-ultracap hybrids), but the big move could come from the secretive Texas-based company EEStor, which announced in April that its barium-titanate design had passed a crucial test. Though the company’s claims have aroused skepticism, EEStor’s automotive partner, ZENN Motors, is hyping the release of an ultracapacitor-powered car in 2010.

(via hazelweatherfield)

I find this picture slightly disturbing for some reason.

Actually I know why.

At the beginning of last summer I went to Quebec with my French class (of 2), mother, and teacher. One art gallery we went to had beautiful, gigantic, shocking photographs of damage after natural disasters, and the aftermath of Hiroshima. In the same gallery there was a room devoted to a collection of old cribs. they were old, with the paint peeling, set up in endless rows that reminded us all of a grave yard. There was just something about the room, the stillness, the lighting, especially after we’d been viewing these photographs heavy with loss, desperation and damage. Frankly, under different display circumstances (this exhibit had also been shown out of doors on a grassy lawn, arranged more randomly) it wouldn’t have given the same feeling at all, but that’s art. Juxtaposition is powerful. So powerful the peeling white paint, and emptiness still reminds me, and I recoil a bit.

Dear Tumblr,

It really bothers me when you don’t post queued items. I also dislike that searching for tags only sort of works. Please notify me when my posts are reblogged all the time, instead of just when you feel like it. I would also like you to try extra hard to add notes to the appropriate posts when people reblog and/or like something. Despite all of your shortcoming I quite enjoy working with you, so just think of this as a friendly reminder of what will make this relationship work best.

Love,

Kamilah

I hum unconsciously while I draw 🙂

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Sleep for Success: Creativity and the Neuroscience of Slumberi

gilstoker:

azspot:

For years, scientists thought that the function of sleep was merely to rest the body and mind, but recent research suggests that sleep is essential for both learning and creativity. It’s no surprise that people who are well rested learn better and are more creative. What is new is the value of sleeping after learning something or during a break in trying to solve a problem. Studies have looked at the benefits of taking naps as well as sleeping through the night.

During sleep, rat’s brains (and yours) practice what they’re recently learned.

Researchers have discovered that your brain becomes very active when you sleep, and that during certain phases of sleep, your brain becomes even more active if you’ve just learned something new. In an early study that identified this process, rats were hooked up to measure the electrical activity of their brains while they learned a maze. Later, while the rats were sleeping, the researchers observed that their brains were emitting the same pattern of activity they had emitted during maze learning. Apparently, the rats’ brains were “re-running” the maze in their sleep and using this time to consolidate their memories of what they had learned. These rats performed better on the maze the next day than rats that were prevented from re-running the maze during sleep. 

This same phenomenon has been observed in human learning. In other words, if you learn something and then sleep on it, what you’ve learned becomes clearer just as a function of sleeping. But what’s even more interesting is that sleeping on a problem helps people find better solutions. In a study titled “Sleep Inspires Insight,” participants were given puzzles that involved finding the final number to complete a series of digits. The way they were trained to solve the puzzle was to compare every two-digit pair in the series. What they were not told was that there was a shortcut that allowed people to identify the solution after only two steps. Participants performed three trials of the puzzle and then were given an eight-hour break before returning for ten more trials. Some of them slept during the break and some did not. The people who slept between the two sessions were twice as likely as the others to discover the easier way to solve the problem. According to the researchers, sleeping on a problem apparently allows for a restructuring of the brain connections, “setting the stage for the emergence of insight.”

Well, then I’d better go sleep now. The milk should be taking its effect any minute now. I hope.

We looked into this a little in both psychology 11 and psychology 12, but this is an especially interesting study.

When I say, “I love you,” it’s not because I want you or because I can’t have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. I’ve seen your kindness and your strength. I’ve seen the best and the worst of you. And I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are. You’re a hell of a woman.

Joss Whedon (via jawipanda) (via gilstoker)