Articles

Abstract

Our goal is to reveal temporal variations in videos that are difficult or impossible to see with the naked eye and display them in an indicative manner. Our method, which we call Eulerian Video Magnification, takes a standard video sequence as input, and applies spatial decomposition, followed by temporal filtering to the frames. The resulting signal is then amplified to reveal hidden information. Using our method, we are able to visualize the flow of blood as it fills the face and also to amplify and reveal small motions. Our technique can run in real time to show phenomena occurring at temporal frequencies selected by the user.

MEDIA Coverage

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/amplifying-invisible-video-0622.html

http://people.csail.mit.edu/mrub/vidmag/
http://people.csail.mit.edu/mrub/papers/vidmag.pdf

SIGGRAPH 2012 Presentation: zip (150 MB)
http://people.csail.mit.edu/mrub/vidmag/vidmagSIGGRAPH2012.zip

Check out Videoscope by Quanta Research - upload your videos and have them magnified!
http://videoscope.qrclab.com/

GOED VOORBEELD VAN EEN "BEWEGINGSLOZE" BABY
http://videoscope.qrclab.com/vidproc.html?labUser=e313078a-499b-4334-be1a-10c8c1914a35&id=5812ee2b-d116-4c1e-b3ad-e9e228ba9865&name=baby&thumbid=7e30bb58-44c0-4a45-b2d9-157b9dfcf542

Physicists Make First Direct Measurements of Polarization States of Light

Full characterization of polarization states of light via direct measurement. Nature Photonics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2013.24

Is that person really thinking about you? Researchers can now find out. A new study shows that by analyzing images of the brain, scientists can find out exactly who a person is thinking about.

The findings, published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, were conducted by researchers at Cornell University.

Rekenwonders en geheugenkunstenaars danken hun talenten vaak aan hersenbeschadiging.

Het savant syndroom en de savant Daniel Tammet.

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Tammet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Tammet

Dit is zijn website:
http://www.danieltammet.net/

http://www.arendlandman.nl/2011/10/rekenwonders-en-geheugenkunstenaars-danken-hun-talenten-vaak-aan-hersenbeschadiging-savant-syndroom-daniel-tammet-fragmenten-uit-het-boek-van-dick-swaab/ !!!!!
Met video.

Nieuw onderzoek wijst erop dat het onwaarschijnlijk is dat de aarde afstevent op een wereldwijd ‘tipping point‘ of omslagpunt: een moment in de geschiedenis waarop de gehele aarde en het leven op de planeet snel en onomkeerbaar verandert.

Een ‘tipping point‘ of omslagpunt ontstaat wanneer een ecosysteem (of een onderdeel daarvan) snel en onomkeerbaar op invloeden van de mens reageert. Verschillende wetenschappers stelden in het verleden dat we onder meer door klimaatverandering op zo’n globaal omslagpunt afstevenen. De hele aarde en het leven op de planeet zou in dit doemscenario snel en onomkeerbaar veranderen.

Naar schatting telt het internet zo’n 13,86 miljard pagina’s. Nieuw onderzoek wijst er nu op dat u elke pagina op het web door maximaal negentien keer op een link te klikken, kunt bereiken.

Aan het begin van de vorige eeuw stelde een Hongaarse schrijver de theorie Six degrees of separation op. Volgens deze theorie is een ieder op deze planeet door middel van zes tussenstapjes (oftewel vijf tussenpersonen) met elkaar verbonden.

http://www.barabasilab.com/pubs/CCNR-ALB_Publications/201302-18_RoyalSoc-NetworkScience/201302-18_RoyalSoc-NetworkScience.pdf

Het internet is een zogenoemd ‘schaalvrij netwerk’. Dat wil zeggen dat niet alle punten in dat netwerk evenveel connecties hebben. In plaats daarvan zijn er enkele punten die hele goede connecties hebben. In zo’n netwerk is geen ‘typisch knooppunt’ aan te wijzen, omdat ze allemaal weer anders zijn.

http://www.mpq.mpg.de/cms/mpq/news/press/13_01_04.html

http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.0545
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1211.0545v1.pdf

http://www.mpq.mpg.de/cms/mpq/news/press/13_01_04.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_temperature

Wetenschappers laten temperatuur onder het absolute nulpunt duiken.

Wie heeft het op school niet geleerd? In alle studieboeken staat het: de temperatuur kan nooit verder zakken dan 273,15 graden onder nul, ofwel 0 Kelvin. Maar al in 2005 dacht men dat het moest kunnen, onder het absolute nulpunt duiken. Uiteindelijk is het Duitse wetenschappers nu gelukt om dat te bewijzen. Het kan!

---

Originalveröffentlichung:
S. Braun, P. Ronzheimer, M. Schreiber, S. S. Hodgman,
T. Rom, I. Bloch, U. Schneider

Negative Absolute Temperature for Motional Degrees of Freedom
Science, 4. Januar 2013

Originalveröffentlichung:
S. Braun, P. Ronzheimer, M. Schreiber, S. S. Hodgman, T. Rom, I. Bloch, U. Schneider
Negative Absolute Temperature for Motional Degrees of Freedom
Science, 4. Januar 2013

Weitere Bilder:
ww.quantum-munich.de/media/

---

http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.0545

Negative Absolute Temperature for Motional Degrees of Freedom

Simon Braun, Jens Philipp Ronzheimer, Michael Schreiber, Sean S. Hodgman, Tim Rom, Immanuel Bloch, Ulrich Schneider

(Submitted on 2 Nov 2012)

PDF:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1211.0545v1
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1211.0545v1.pdf

Absolute temperature, the fundamental temperature scale in thermodynamics, is usually bound to be positive. Under special conditions, however, negative temperatures - where high-energy states are more occupied than low-energy states - are also possible. So far, such states have been demonstrated in localized systems with finite, discrete spectra. Here, we were able to prepare a negative temperature state for motional degrees of freedom. By tailoring the Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian we created an attractively interacting ensemble of ultracold bosons at negative temperature that is stable against collapse for arbitrary atom numbers. The quasi-momentum distribution develops sharp peaks at the upper band edge, revealing thermal equilibrium and bosonic coherence over several lattice sites. Negative temperatures imply negative pressures and open up new parameter regimes for cold atoms, enabling fundamentally new many-body states and counterintuitive effects such as Carnot engines above unity efficiency.

Gamen met behulp van een headset die uw hersenactiviteit meet en die metingen gebruikt om het spel op uw gevoelens aan te passen. Dat zal veel gamers als muziek in de oren klinken. Toch is de headset – net als andere toepassingen van deze techniek – niet zo onschuldig als het lijkt.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/03/09/173841848/could-this-robot-save-your-job

http://blog.ted.com/2013/02/26/robots-as-part-of-daily-life-rodney-brooks-at-ted2013/

-----
http://www.ted.com/talks/rodney_brooks_on_robots.html

The Event: TED2003
The Robots: Roomba, PackBot and Kismet
What they do: Roomba, the vacuum cleaner ‘bot, easily navigates around objects and learns where to clean as it goes. More complex is PackBot, also described above, which catalogues local information and has the ability to communicate from areas too dangerous to search for survivors. Also, get another demonstration of Kismet’s ability to react and communicate.

See them in action:
At 2:51, see a demonstration of Roomba at work.
Watch 5:00, for PackBot.
And cut to 11:02 for Kismet’s response to social cues.

And: Rodney Brooks is bringing his newest robot, Baxter, to TED2013.

-----

Meisje genezen van kanker door hiv-virus

Een zevenjarig meisje uit Amerika is genezen van leukemie dankzij een behandeling met een gemuteerd hiv-virus. Dit is de eerste keer dat deze behandeling slaagt bij een kind.

The largest astronomical project in existence:
ALMA will be a single telescope of revolutionary design

http://www.almaobservatory.org/

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile, is the largest astronomical project in existence. ALMA will be a single telescope of revolutionary design, composed initially of 66 high precision antennas located on the Chajnantor plateau, 5000 meters altitude in northern Chile.

Official opening wednesday 13-3-2013 !

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile, is the largest astronomical project in existence. ALMA will be a single telescope of revolutionary design, composed initially of 66 high precision antennas located on the Chajnantor plateau, 5000 meters altitude in northern Chile.

SciSports zet wetenschappelijke methodologieën naar concrete middelen voor de sportwereld. Het eerste product is het WSSA-model dat scouts helpt bij het aantrekker van de speler die het meest bij kan dragen aan de huidige selectie.

Software vervangt voetbalscout

Voetbalclubs kopen regelmatig dure spelers die op een fiasco uitlopen. Als het aan Giels Brouwer ligt, zijn deze miskopen binnenkort verleden tijd. Hij scout voetballers op basis van statistieken.

Start-up in software voor voetbaltransfers

Zodra de transfermarkt komende zomer opengaat, willen de oprichters van SciSports de voetbalwereld bestormen. Met slimme software vertelt het bedrijf profclubs welke spelers ze moeten kopen. Medeoprichter Giels Brouwer rekent op snelle groei, nu de financiering van €50.000 rond is.

SciSports zet wetenschappelijke methodologieën naar concrete middelen voor de sportwereld. Het eerste product is het WSSA-model dat scouts helpt bij het aantrekker van de speler die het meest bij kan dragen aan de huidige selectie.

SciSports gebruikt wetenschappelijke algoritmes en modellen om de transferwereld efficiënter te maken. Dit doen wij o.a. met het ©SciSearch en ©SciSoccer.

Financieele Dagblad:
http://fd.nl/entrepreneur/young-entrepreneur/523499-1302/start-up-in-software-voor-voetbaltransfers?
utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#.URi_nrBIMHQ.twitter
http://fd.nl/entrepreneur/650860-1302/beste-voetbaltransfers-met-slim-algoritme

RTV Oost:
http://www.rtvoost.nl/nieuws/default.aspx?nid=157788

Drie studenten van de Universiteit Twente hebben een bedrijf opgericht waarmee ze voetbalclubs helpen bij de transfers van spelers.

Bekijk de video in HD op YouTube.
http://youtu.be/6SatrH_nsl0?hd=1

Universiteit Twente:
http://www.utwente.nl/archief/2013/01/ut_studenten_helpen_profclubs_bij_voetbaltransfers.docx/

In Engeland worden ze door een voetbalclub de Whizzkids genoemd. En dat vinden ze prima. UT-studenten Giels Brouwer (Technische bedrijfskunde), Anatoliy Babic (Technische wiskunde) en Remco van der Veen (Bedrijfsinformatietechnologie) zijn gezamenlijk met hun verschillende achtergronden de oprichters van SciSports. Vanaf september 2012 verkopen ze op basis van scouting en wiskundige modellen de meest optimale selecties aan voetbalclubs. Deze week sluit voor de Nederlandse clubs de transfermarkt. En juist deze week zijn ze verkozen tot de Kairos 50 uit de USA en behoren ze tot de meest veelbelovende start-up bedrijven ter wereld.
“De transferwindow voor clubs sluit deze week op 31 januari om middernacht voor Nederlandse clubs. Clubs hebben dus nog twee dagen om spelers aan te trekken en het is zeer hectisch op dit moment”, vertelt oprichter Giels Brouwer. “We zijn nog niet zo lang bezig met ons bedrijf SciSports (Science en Sports), maar we hebben al diverse profclubs geadviseerd over hun selectie. Zo zijn we bijvoorbeeld in gesprek met FC Twente, NEC, Huddersfield Town en Queens Park Rangers (QPR).”

Spelers aantrekken of afstoten?
Brouwer: “In de media wordt nu dagelijks gemeld dat PSV Adam Maher van AZ wil aantrekken. Wij kunnen met onze scoutingsmodellen (SciSearch en SciSoccer) aangeven waarom Maher niet het meest bij kan dragen aan de huidige selectie. Dat wil echter niet zeggen dat Maher niet de beste speler is die op hun schaduwlijst staat. PSV heeft al genoeg spelers op zijn positie en als ze iemand willen kopen kunnen ze zich beter focussen op een andere positie. Wij kunnen met onze modellen een rapport opleveren met daarin een aanbeveling hoe PSV zich het best kan verbeteren. Of een ander voorbeeld: wij kunnen laten zien waarom het van FC Twente een goede zet zou zijn geweest om Leroy Fer te verkopen aan Everton (club uit Engeland) als ze voor dezelfde prijs (of minder) Djuricic en Claudemir zouden kopen.”

Algoritme voor meest passende speler
“Wij zijn in andere woorden bezig met het creëren van een ‘Sustainable Moneyball’. Moneyball(verfilmd met Brad Pitt) veranderde de honkbalwereld door het gebruik van statistieken en wij veranderen de voetbalwereld door de inzet van wetenschappelijke modellen die club-specifiek zijn en daardoor duurzaam. Wij helpen scouts, technisch directeuren en coaches met het selecteren van de beste spelers door 'ruis' uit de statistieken te halen en ze hapklare rapporten te bieden van spelers die goed bij hun club passen. Het algoritme om de beste speler te kiezen is een omgevormd algoritme van NASA, waarbij zij het team van beste astronauten (en de beste investeringen) zochten in plaats van het team met de beste astronauten. Louis van Gaal zei ooit: “Ik hoef niet de elf beste spelers, ik wil de beste elf."

In gesprek met Bill Clinton en Bill Gates
De drie jonge heren kregen deze week bericht uit de USA. Zij zijn met hun start-up bedrijf geselecteerd tot de Kairos 50. En dan behoor je ineens tot de 50 meest innovatieve studentbedrijven ter wereld. “Deze wedstrijd heeft internationaal veel prestige, mede doordat alle topuniversiteiten (o.a. Harvard, Oxford, MIT) hun eigen Kairos-afdeling hebben en vele wereldleiders als Bill Clinton en Bill Gates aan deze organisatie zijn verbonden.” In februari vliegen ze naar New York om de andere top spin-off bedrijven te ontmoeten. “We presenteren ons daar op Wall Street en krijgen daar de kans om o.a. met honderdvijftig wereldleiders te sparren.”

Kairos 50
http://www.kairossociety.org/global_summit_2.php
en
SciSports
http://www.scisports.net/

https://www.facebook.com/SciSports

Mathematics

17,425,170 Digits

That’s how many are in the largest prime number ever discovered, which was announced by mathematicians at the University of Central Missouri. Curtis Cooper, a computer science professor at the school, has made something of a cottage industry out of finding huge prime numbers, and this is the third record he has claimed. The latest one “took 39 days of nonstop computing on one of the university’s PCs” to find, according to a news release. Fun facts: these mega-prime numbers are called Mersenne numbers, named for a 17th century French monk; the hunt for them is called the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, or G.I.M.P.S. And according to The Associated Press, anyone who can come up with one that has 100 million digits could win $150,000 from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Miniaturization of electronic components is reaching a physical limit. While the solution of three dimensional assembly has the advantage of reducing bulk, the manufacture of electrical connections in these new products remains a technological challenge. Biologists and physicists from the CEA, CNRS, Université Joseph Fourier and Inra in Grenoble have developed a system of self-assembled connections using actin filaments for 3D microelectronic structures. Once the actin filaments become conductors, they join the various components of a system together. The results are published in the February 10, 2013 issue of Nature Materials.

“Love is not a mere passion.”

Love does not exist outside of reason, claims Jacob Berkson, but within it. Taking us on a historical tour of philosophers who believed that cold logic stood alone, Berkson explains how reason and emotion are forever intertwined.

http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxSussexUniversity-Jacob-Berk;Featured-Talks?utm_content=awesm-publisher&utm_campaign=&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=on.ted.com-twitter

Magicians often do not understand their own tricks !

Neuroscientist Stephen Macknik and colleagues have determined that the famous illusion in which balls seemingly jump from cup to cup manipulates our minds more with distraction than with social cues.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122180-NASA-Puts-5-Million-Towards-Asteroid-Detection

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/world/europe/meteorite-fragments-are-said-to-rain-down-on-siberia.html

Shock Wave of Fireball Meteor Rattles Siberia, Injuring 1,200

'citizen scientists'

See:

Zooniverse.org
fold.it
allergieradar.nl
Eyewire.org

KEYWORD: "sentiment summerization"

COMMIT PROJECTS:
http://www.commit-nl.nl/projects

http://www.commit-nl.nl/projects/information-retrieval-for-information-services

Project description
The project aims to search for structure in large piles of information originating from very different sources. The aim is to search for events and entities trying to explain what they mean (the semantics), where they come from and how they change over time, and how they relate to other events and entities. The structures found help in making informed decisions. The scope of research is news, advertising, and other information sources that are used in socio-economic decision-making in general.

http://www.commit-nl.nl/sites/default/files/P01%20Information%20retrieval%20for%20information%20services.pdf

Het COMMIT-programma
http://commit-nl.nl/
is een privaat-publieke samenwerking op het gebied van ICT-onderzoek. Het programma telt vijftien verschillende projecten, waaronder dus dit project over sentiment summerization.

Space Tourist Dennis Tito to Announce Daring Manned Round Trip
Mars Voyage for 2018

The world’s first space tourist, Dennis Tito is planning to launch a manned mission to Mars in January 2018 on a round-trip journey lasting 501 days.

Tito, who paid about $20 million to visit the International Space Station in 2001, has founded a new nonprofit company called the Inspiration Mars Foundation. The manned mission is intended to “generate new knowledge, experience and momentum for the next great era of space exploration,” according to a press briefing.

http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=40141
posted by NASA Watch,
http://nasawatch.com/
a website dedicated to space news, on Feb. 20 , 2013.

The company will hold a press conference on Feb. 27 to provide details of the mission and answer any questions, of which there are numerous. In particular, how the mission intends to keep its participants safe and healthy during the journey will be a key issue.

In attendance at the conference will be Taber MacCallum and Jane Poynter of the Paragon Space Development Corporation, which creates life-support systems for space and other environments. MacCullum and Poynter were members of the Biosphere-2 project that attempted to build a completely isolated environment inside a giant structure in the 1990s (an experiment that had mixed success). The briefing also mentions Jonathan Clark, a medical researcher at the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, who will probably address the dangers from potentially lethal radiation to humans in deep space.

Another Dutch endeavor, the Mars One project, wants to create a human settlement on Mars by 2023. But that will be a one way trip. !!!!!

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/100144/dennis-tito-wants-to-send-human-mission-to-mars-in-2018/#ixzz2LUq1yAXd

Read more in Foust’s NewSpace Journal.
http://www.newspacejournal.com/2013/02/21/new-insights-on-that-private-crewed-mars-mission/

LATEST NEWS ON MARS-MISSIONS:

http://www.nu.nl/algemeen/3252185/india-wil-in-2013-nog-missie-mars-lanceren.html

Het land wil meedoen met de ''ruimterace'' waar de Verenigde Staten, Rusland en China al in zijn verwikkeld.

De Indiase president ontvouwde de ambitieuze ruimteplannen donderdag in het parlement. In oktober moet een onbemand ruimteschip naar de rode planeet vertrekken en na zo'n 9 maanden in een baan om Mars worden gebracht.

De missie gaat naar schatting 83 miljoen dollar (ruim 62 miljoen euro) kosten. Critici van het ruimteprogramma wijzen op de grote armoede in het land.

(De lancering van deze Indiase missie staat gepland op maandag 28 oktober 2013 in de middag)

http://www.isro.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Orbiter_Mission

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Space_Research_Organisation

NASA Reaffirms Support for Mars Orbiter Mission

India's Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft is scheduled for launch on the afternoon of October 28, 2013. The launch window remains open till November 19, 2013. The American NASA/JPL is providing communications and navigation support to this mission with their Deep Space Network facilities. According to Scientific Secretary, ISRO, NASA/JPL authorities have reaffirmed support for the Mars Orbiter Mission as planned and stated that the current US government partial shutdown will not affect the schedule of Mars Orbiter Mission.

Where physics and the human mind meet things get really interesting.
We investigate an age old question: do we see the same colours?

Thomas Edison, who has been blind since birt, described what colour means to blind people.

http://www.iopblog.org/physics-videos-roundup-21-february-2013/

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=evQsOFQju08&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DevQsOFQju08%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded&gl=NL

Color Blindness:

http://www.colourblindawareness.org/colour-blindness/
and
http://colorvisiontesting.com/what%20colorblind%20people%20see.htm

Qualia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia

We experiences are subjective: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_character_of_experience

Explanatory Gap: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explanatory_gap

Mary's Room and the Knowledge Argument: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_argument

Who Asked the First Question? [PDF]: http://www.polyphony.ge/uploads/whoaskthefirst.pdf

Theory of Mind and Sally-Anne Task: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind

Koko the talking gorilla [VIDEO]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmuu8UEi2ko

Questioning Behaviour: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question

Synesthesia coupled with color blindness: http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Synesthesia#A_color_blind_synesthete.3B_.22Martian_colors.22

Do blind people DREAM images? http://www2.ucsc.edu/dreams/Library/kerr_2004.html

An AI computer system that can converse with a user
is made to talk with a second, identical system,
ending up talking to itself in a certain sense.
This produces endless comic robotic entertainment.

http://creativemachines.cornell.edu/AI-vs-AI

AI vs. AI was built by Igor Labutov (MAE PhD student), Jason Yosinski (CS PhD student), and Hod Lipson (Associate Professor).

How it works

The system depicted was created by combining three components: a chatbot, a text-to-speech synthesizer, and an avatar renderer.

Chatbots are machines designed to emulate the conversational abilities of humans, conversing with a human user and generally attempting to convince the user into thinking that the machine is human. In such a scenario, if a sufficiently adept human on one end is fooled into thinking the machine is another human, the machine would be credited as passing the famous Turing Test for intelligence. Over 60 years after its proposal by Alan Turing, there are arguably still no machines capable of passing this test. The chatbot we initially used was Eliza, a prominent early milestone from AI's infancy in the 1960's. This tended to produce fairly boring conversations, so we switched to a much smarter, constantly learning chatbot: Cleverbot. Publicly available on Cleverbot.com, this state of the art chat engine was created by AI researcher Rollo Carpenter, who can be contacted via his company, Existor. Cleverbot will continue to learn, and Existor are soon to add new capabilities aiming at a Turing Test pass sooner than you might expect.

The second piece of the system is the text-to-speech synthesizer, which takes the text generated by the chatbot and creates a spoken, audio version. There are many services able to accomplish this; we chose Acapela because it was easy to use and sounded decent.

The final piece is the avatar renderer, which synthesizes an animated character whose gestures and lips are synced to the sound stream. For this we used Living Actor Presenter.

We tied these three components together in Python, producing a single machine (one of the two screens) that can converse with a user. We then plugged the output of one machine into the input of a second, and the output of the second back into the first, producing endless comic robotic entertainment.

Also see:

http://www.cleverbot.com/

http://www.ultrahal.com/

www.alicebot.org

YossarianLives is a Metaphorical Search Engine,
that doesn't want you to know what everyone else knows...
...But wants you to generate new knowledge.

YossarianLives is a powerful creative tool for use by anyone
who is looking to generate new ideas or see their problem or topic
in a whole new light.

We have created a metaphorical search engine. Our search algorithms generate results that assist people in the creation of new knowledge by returning disparate, but potentially metaphorically related information.
These are the types of insights that are valuable for people working at the edges of their knowledge field. This is an immensely powerful creative tool for use by anyone who is looking to generate new ideas or see their problem or topic in a whole new light.

Yossarian is the main character of Joseph Heller’s novel “Catch-22.”
Our work is highlighting the Catch-22 of current search and personalization algorithms, in that their use both simultaneously helps us through access to existing knowledge, and hurts us through the reinforcement of that same knowledge. In finding new and innovative search solutions to this problem, we declare that Yossarian Lives!

"The metaphor is perhaps one of man's most fruitful potentialities. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him."
- Jose Ortega y Gasset, Philosopher

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328536.500-metaphorical-search-engine-finds-creative-new-meanings.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/feb/05/seedcamp-tech-startups-entrepreneurs-investment

http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/05/play/the-metaphorical-google

http://vt.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9s4vw9KUu1rpb76j.mp4

http://vimeo.com/user6512638/yossarianlives-metaphorical-search-panda-alpha-how-to

http://blog.yossarianlives.com

http://blog.yossarianlives.com/FAQ

This year (2013), Google will roll out what it calls its Knowledge Graph,
the closest any system has yet come to creating what Tim Berners-Lee, originator of the web itself, called "the semantic web", the version that had understanding as well as data, that could itself provide answers, not links to answers.

Google has revolutionised the way we holiday, shop, work and play.
Now, with Knowledge Graph, it plans to radically transform the way we search the internet… again. But some voice qualms about the company's ambitions.

Explore lists and collections with Google search:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mg91_trV4hY

Sometimes the best answer to your question is not always a single entity,
but a list or group of connected things.
Now, with the Knowledge Graph, Google can answer these questions, too,
with a new interactive carousel at the top of your results page.

Learn more at g.co/knowledge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web

The Knowledge Graph
Learn more about one of the key breakthroughs
behind the future of search.

http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/search/knowledge.html

Introducing the Knowledge Graph

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mmQl6VGvX-c

The technologist speaks about an ambitious plan to build a powerful artificial intelligence.

Famed AI researcher and incorrigable singularity forecaster Ray Kurzweil recently shed some more light on what his new job at Google will entail. It seems that he does, indeed,
plan to build a prodigious artificial intelligence, which he hopes will understand the world
to a much more sophisticated degree than anything built before–or at least that will act as if it does.

Kurzweil’s AI will be designed to analyze the vast quantities of information Google collects
and to then serve as a super-intelligent personal assistant.
He suggests it could eavesdrop on your every phone conversation and email exchange
and then provide interesting and important information before you ever knew you wanted it.
It sounds like a scary-smart version of Google Now.

Kurzweil says this of his project at Google, in a video posted by The Singularity Hub:

http://singularityhub.com/2013/01/10/exclusive-interview-with-ray-kurzweil-on-future-ai-project-at-google/

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH RAY KURZWEIL ON FUTURE AI PROJECT AT GOOGLE:

http://singularityhub.com/2013/01/10/exclusive-interview-with-ray-kurzweil-on-future-ai-project-at-google/

“How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed”

by Ray Kurzweil

Penguin, 336 pp., $27.95

http://singularityhub.com/2013/01/10/exclusive-interview-with-ray-kurzweil-on-future-ai-project-at-google/

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/510121/ray-kurzweil-plans-to-create-a-mind-at-google-and-have-it-serve-you/

http://www.amazon.com/How-Create-Mind-Thought-Revealed/dp/0670025291

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/508896/what-google-sees-in-new-hire-futurist-ray-kurzweil/

http://mars-one.com/en/

Bemande nederzetting op Mars in 2023

Mars One brengt de mensheid naar Mars. In 2023 zullen de eerste vier mensen zich er vestigen. Zij vormen de basis van een permanent bewoonde Marsbasis, van waaruit we zullen leren en groeien. Als de eerste bemanning landt, zal er een bewoonbare en duurzame basis klaar staan om de astronauten te huisvesten.

Iedere twee jaar zal een nieuwe groep mensen aansluiten.
Om dit plan mogelijk te maken heeft Mars One een nauwkeurig en realistisch plan ontworpen
dat volledig is gebaseerd op het gebruik van bestaande technologieën.
Het plan is technisch en financieel haalbaar dankzij de bundeling van kennis en expertise
van bestaande ruimtevaartleveranciers en experts in diverse vakgebieden.

Mars One nodigt jou uit om deel te nemen aan dit avontuur, door erover te vertellen aan je vrienden, ons project te steunen en misschien wel door zelf de volgende Marsastronaut te worden.

TROS Nieuws Show op zaterdag 12 Jan 2013
Mieke van der Weij en Peter de Bie
Interview met Bas Lansdorp, directeur van het Mars One project:

09:45 - 10:05 Project wonen op Mars

Nederlanders kom je overal ter wereld tegen. In de raarste landen en op de gekste plekken.
Over tien jaar krijgt de exploratiedrift een hele nieuwe dimensie.
Dan wordt er gereisd naar Mars.
Hoe dat precies zit en wat er allemaal te doen is op de rode planeet vragen we
aan de directeur van het zogeheten Mars One project, Bas Lansdorp.

http://cser.org/

Many scientists are concerned that developments in human technology may soon pose new,
extinction-level risks to our species as a whole.
Such dangers have been suggested from progress in AI,
from developments in biotechnology and artificial life,
from nanotechnology,
and from possible extreme effects of anthropogenic climate change.

The seriousness of these risks is difficult to assess, but that in itself seems a cause for concern,
given how much is at stake. (For a brief introduction to these issues, see our Resources page
http://cser.org/resources.html.)

Many scientists are concerned that developments in human technology may soon pose new,
extinction-level risks to our species as a whole.
Such dangers have been suggested from progress in AI, from developments in biotechnology and artificial life,
from nanotechnology, and from possible extreme effects of anthropogenic climate change.
The seriousness of these risks is difficult to assess, but that in itself seems a cause for concern,
given how much is at stake. (For a brief introduction to these issues, see our Resources page.)

The Cambridge Project for Existential Risk
— a joint initiative between a philosopher, a scientist, and a software entrepreneur
— begins with the conviction that these issues require a great deal more scientific investigation than they presently receive.

Our aim is to establish within the University of Cambridge a multidisciplinary research centre
dedicated to the study and mitigation of risks of this kind.
We are convinced that there is nowhere on the planet better suited to house such a centre.
Our goal is to steer a small fraction of Cambridge's great intellectual resources,
and of the reputation built on its past and present scientific pre-eminence,
to the task of ensuring that our own species has a long-term future.
(In the process, we hope to make it a little more certain that we humans will be around
to celebrate the University's own millennium, now less than two centuries hence.)

We are developing a prospectus for a Cambridge-based Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, and seeking sources of funding.
We welcome enquiries and offers of support — please see our News & Contact page for contact details and a sign-up link for our new mailing list, CSER News.

HP, MJR & JT
December 2012

Co-founders

Huw Price
Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy, Cambridge

Martin Rees
Emeritus Professor of Cosmology & Astrophysics, Cambridge

Jaan Tallinn
Co-founder of Skype

-----

Among the Cambridge advisors is:

Stephen Hawking
Director of Research, DAMTP; former Lucasian Professor of Physics

-----

See the website of CSER, "Cambridge-based Centre for the Study of Existential Risk",
http://cser.org/

------

Men and Women Explore the Visual World Differently

"The Emotional Diamond"

Amir Liberman is a pioneer researcher in the field of ‘forensic voice analysis’ and the founder of Nemesysco, who set out in 1996 to build the ‘ultimate lie detector’. Amir was the first to identify the three basic sensations projected by the human voice: excitement, stress and uncertainty. His technology is now applied by call centres and insurance companies worldwide.

E.g.:
Call Centers Quality Assurance
http://www.nemesysco.com/qa5.html

http://www.tedxamsterdam.com/event-2012/program/
http://www.mindmeister.com/landing/tedxamsterdam2012

http://www.tedxamsterdam.com/2012/pablos-holman-hacking-our-food-future/

http://www.tedxamsterdam.com/2012/speaker-pablos-holman/

http://www.intellectualventureslab.com/

http://www.mindmeister.com/233711076/tedxamsterdam-2012-pablos-holman-printing-food

Pablos Holman: Printing Food

Futurist, inventor and digital security expert, Paul (Pablos) Holman shares the latest and most cutting edge inventions of his team at the Intellectual Ventures Laboratory: How to print food…

TEDxAmsterdam 2012:
Desiree Dudley - The Power and Potential in Emerging Technologies

http://www.tedxamsterdam.com/event-2012/program/
http://www.mindmeister.com/landing/tedxamsterdam2012

http://www.tedxamsterdam.com/2012/speaker-desiree-dudley/

http://www.foresight.org/about/index.html

http://vimeo.com/46787353

http://www.mindmeister.com/233612761/tedxamsterdam-2012-desiree-dudley-the-power-and-potential-in-emerging-technologies

Desiree Dudley: The Power and Potential in Emerging Technologies

What do emerging technologies – made possible with nanotechnology, 3D printing, drug delivery and stem cell research – hold for our future? How is our concept of ‘human’ evolving through these new capabilities? Desiree D. Dudley is director of strategic relations and outreach at the Foresight Institute, dedicated to advancing emerging technologies

Big News From Mars? / Historische ontdekking op Mars

The human brain both stores and processes information at the same time. Now computer scientists say they can do the same thing.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1211.4487: Memcomputing: A Computing Paradigm To Store And Process Information On The Same
Physical Platform

How to Make Graphene Paper /
GRAFEEN: LICHTER DAN WATER EN ZO STERK ALS DIAMANT

A new model predicts the properties of paper made from graphene sheets.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1105.0138: Mechanical Properties of Graphene Papers

Physicists thought they could never measure the foam-like structure of spacetime. Now one theoretical physicist says it can be done using a laser and a block of glass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_foam

Quantum foam

Quantum foam (also referred to as spacetime foam) is a concept in quantum mechanics devised by John Wheeler in 1955. The foam is supposed to be conceptualized as the foundation of the fabric of the universe.
Additionally, quantum foam can be used as a qualitative description of subatomic spacetime turbulence at extremely small distances (on the order of the Planck length). At such small scales of time and space, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle allows energy to briefly decay into particles and antiparticles and then annihilate without violating physical conservation laws. As the scale of time and space being discussed shrinks, the energy of the virtual particles increases. According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, energy curves spacetime. This suggests that—at sufficiently small scales—the energy of these fluctuations would be large enough to cause significant departures from the smooth spacetime seen at larger scales, giving spacetime a "foamy" character.
With an incomplete theory of quantum gravity, it is impossible to be certain what spacetime would look like at these small scales, because existing theories of gravity do not give accurate predictions in that regime. Therefore, any of the developing theories of quantum gravity may improve our understanding of quantum foam as they are tested. However, observations of radiation from nearby quasars by Floyd Stecker of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have placed strong mathematical limits on the possible violations of Einstein's special theory of relativity implied by the existence of quantum foam. Thus experimental evidence so far has given a range of values in which scientists can test for quantum foam.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1211.3816: Is A Tabletop Search For Planck Scale Signals Feasible?

Physicists have teleported quantum information from one ensemble of atoms to another 150 metres away, a demonstration that paves the way towards quantum routers and a quantum Internet.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1211.2892: Quantum Teleportation Between Remote Atomic-Ensemble Quantum Memories

As Internet access becomes increasingly widespread, so do related psychopathologies such as Internet addiction and delusions related to the technology and to virtual relationships. Computer communications such as Facebook and chat groups are an important part of this story, says Dr. Uri Nitzan of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Shalvata Mental Health Care Center in a new paper published in the Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences.

In his study, the researcher presented three in-depth case studies linking psychotic episodes to Internet communications from his own practice. According to Dr. Nitzan, patients shared some crucial characteristics, including loneliness or vulnerability due to the loss of or separation from a loved one, relative inexperience with technology, and no prior history of psychosis or substance abuse. In each case, a connection was found between the gradual development and exacerbation of psychotic symptoms, including delusions, anxiety, confusion, and intensified use of computer communications.

The good news is that all of the patients, who willingly sought out treatment on their own, were able to make a full recovery with proper treatment and care, Dr. Nitzan says.

Portable, accurate, and highly sensitive devices that sniff out vapors from explosives and other substances could become as commonplace as smoke detectors in public places, thanks to researchers at University of California, Santa Barbara.

Analytical Chemistry, 2012; 84 (22): 9700 DOI: 10.1021/ac302497y

Michio Kaku

http://bigthink.com/ideas/48030
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RzgVWpa4fzU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzgVWpa4fzU

Abstract

Two lines of evidence indicate that there exists a reciprocal inhibitory relationship between opposed brain networks. First, most attention-demanding cognitive tasks activate a stereotypical set of brain areas, known as the task-positive network and simultaneously deactivate a different set of brain regions, commonly referred to as the task negative or default mode network. Second, functional connectivity analyses show that these same opposed networks are anti-correlated in the resting state. We hypothesize that these reciprocally inhibitory effects reflect two incompatible cognitive modes, each of which is directed towards understanding the external world. Thus, engaging one mode activates one set of regions and suppresses activity in the other. We test this hypothesis by identifying two types of problem-solving task which, on the basis of prior work, have been consistently associated with the task positive and task negative regions: tasks requiring social cognition, i.e., reasoning about the mental states of other persons, and tasks requiring physical cognition, i.e., reasoning about the causal/mechanical properties of inanimate objects. Social and mechanical reasoning tasks were presented to neurologically normal participants during fMRI. Each task type was presented using both text and video clips. Regardless of presentation modality, we observed clear evidence of reciprocal suppression: social tasks deactivated regions associated with mechanical reasoning and mechanical tasks deactivated regions associated with social reasoning. These findings are not explained by self-referential processes, task engagement, mental simulation, mental time travel or external vs. internal attention, all factors previously hypothesized to explain default mode network activity. Analyses of resting state data revealed a close match between the regions our tasks identified as reciprocally inhibitory and regions of maximal anti-correlation in the resting state. These results indicate the reciprocal inhibition is not attributable to constraints inherent in the tasks, but is neural in origin. Hence, there is a physiological constraint on our ability to simultaneously engage two distinct cognitive modes. Further work is needed to more precisely characterize these opposing cognitive domains.

Wie zijn brein analytisch gebruikt, onderdrukt zijn sociale vermogens en vice versa. Dat verklaart waarom ook heel intelligente mensen gemakkelijk zijn op te lichten en waarom bij complexe vraagstukken de menselijke kant vaak onderbelicht blijft.

Bioprinting overview at Economist Ideas

An introduction to 3D bioprinting for regenerative medicine
and consumer applications from the Economist Ideas Conference at Berkeley on March 28, 2012.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=khZFR9rcIEA&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DkhZFR9rcIEA&gl=NL

http://www.iter.org/
http://www.iter.org/video/26 !

http://www.iter.org/proj

http://blogs.technet.com/b/next/archive/2012/11/08/microsoft-research-shows-a-promising-new-breakthrough-in-speech-translation-technology.aspx#.UJxWs3y9KSP

YOUTUBE:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Nu-nlQqFCKg

Why Can’t We Stop A Hurricane Before It Hits Us?
Some methods that people have suggested for preventing, or stopping, a hurricane--and why they might not work

YOUTUBE:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eOsNOmUJjtI

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/nov/HQ_12-391_DTN.html

For more information about DTN, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/SxV9QS

For more information about SCaN, visit:

https://www.spacecomm.nasa.gov

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

Mars One is a private spaceflight project led by Dutch entrepreneur, Bas Lansdorp,
to establish a permanent human colony on Mars. Announced in June 2012,
the plan is to send a communication satellite to the planet by 2016 and after several stages, finally land humans on Mars for permanent settlement in 2023.      A new set of four astronauts will then arrive every two years.
The project is endorsed by Nobel Prize winning physicist Gerard 't Hooft.
On August 31, 2012, company officials announced that funding from its first sponsors had been received.

Mission plan

Mars One plans to establish the first human settlement on Mars.
According to their schedule, the first crew of four astronauts would arrive on Mars in 2023, after a seven month journey from Earth. Further teams would join their settlement every two years, with the intention that by 2033 there will be over twenty people living and working on Mars.

The mission plan is as follows:

2013: The first 40 astronauts will be selected;[10] a replica of the settlement will be built for training purposes.
2014: The first communication satellite will be produced.
2016: A supply mission will be launched with 2500 kilograms of food in a modified SpaceX Dragon.

2018: An exploration vehicle will launch to pick the location of the settlement.
2021: Six additional Dragon capsules and another rover will launch with two living units, two life support units and two supply units.
2022: A SpaceX Falcon Heavy will launch with the first group of four colonists.
2023: The first colonists will arrive on Mars in a modified Dragon capsule.
2025: A second group of four colonists will arrive.
2033: The colony will reach 20 settlers.

See website http://mars-one.com/

http://www.simulation-argument.com/

http://www.simulation-argument.com/computer.pdf

The original paper presenting the simulation argument:
Are You Living In a Computer Simulation? ORIGINAL
Nick Bostrom. Philosophical Quarterly, 2003, Vol. 53, No. 211, pp. 243-255.

ABSTRACT.
This paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true:
(1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage;
(2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof);
(3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation.

It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation.
A number of other consequences of this result are also discussed.

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2012/press.html

9 October 2012

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2012 to

Serge Haroche
Collège de France and Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France

and

David J. Wineland
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and University of Colorado Boulder, CO, USA

"for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems"

Particle control in a quantum world

Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland have independently invented and developed methods for measuring and manipulating individual particles while preserving their quantum-mechanical nature, in ways that were previously thought unattainable.

A newly discovered effect of general relativity means that rotating black holes should be visible to the current generation of telescopes, say astronomers.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1104.3099: Twisting Of Light Around Rotating Black Holes

Een groep Chinese onderzoekers is er in geslaagd kwantumteleportatie over bijna 100 km te bereiken. Hiermee komt grootschalige vrijwel onkraakbare communicatie binnen bereik.

In 2010 is een Chinees team er in geslaagd fotonen over een afstand van 16 km te teleporteren. Nu kondigt hetzelfde team aan dat ze dit record hebben verbroken.
Juan Yin van de University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai meldt in een artikel dat hij en een aantal collega’s er in geslaagd zijn, verstrengelde fotonen over een afstand van 97 km, over de oppervlakte van een meer op 4000 m hoogte, te teleporteren.

Opmerkelijk is dat ze hierbij slechts een zwakke laser van 1,3 watt gebruikten,
met wat optische hulpmiddelen om het licht te bundelen en te ontvangen.
Het grootste probleem is hier niet het verlies van kwantumverstrengeling,
maar het uitwaaieren van de bundel. Veel van de fotonen missen hierdoor het doel.
Dit losten ze op door een stuurmechanisme te ontwerpen, dat de laserbundel precies op het doel gericht houdt. Met resultaat: ze slaagden er in meer dan 1100 fotonen in 4 uur te teleporteren over een afstand van 97 km.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.2024

Teleporting independent qubits through a 97 km free-space channel

(Submitted on 9 May 2012)
With the help of quantum entanglement, quantum communication can be achieved
between arbitrarily distant places without passing through intermediate locations by quantum teleportation. In the laboratory, quantum teleportation has been demonstrated over short distance by photonic and atomic qubits.
Using fiber links, quantum teleportation has been achieved over kilometer distances.
Long distance quantum teleportation is of particular interest and has been one of the holy grails of practical quantum communication.
Most recently, quantum teleportation over 16 km free-space link was demonstrated.
However, a major restriction in this experiment is that the unknown quantum state
cannot directly come from outside.
Here, based on an ultra-bright multi-photon entanglement source, we demonstrate quantum teleportation, closely following the original scheme, for any unknown state created outside, between two optical free-space links separated by 97 km.
Over a 35-53 dB high-loss quantum channel, an average fidelity of 80.4(9) % is achieved for six distinct initial states.
Besides being of fundamental interest, our result represents an important step
towards a global quantum network.
Moreover, the high-frequency and high-accuracy acquiring, pointing and tracking (APT) technique developed in our experiment can be directly utilized for future satellite-based quantum communication.

Summary

Substantial differences exist in the cognitive styles of liberals and conservatives on psychological measures. Variability in political attitudes reflects genetic influences and their interaction with environmental factors. Recent work has shown a correlation between liberalism and conflict-related activity measured by event-related potentials originating in the anterior cingulate cortex. Here we show that this functional correlate of political attitudes has a counterpart in brain structure. In a large sample of young adults, we related self-reported political attitudes to gray matter volume using structural MRI. We found that greater liberalism was associated with increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas greater conservatism was associated with increased volume of the right amygdala. These results were replicated in an independent sample of additional participants. Our findings extend previous observations that political attitudes reflect differences in self-regulatory conflict monitoring and recognition of emotional faces by showing that such attitudes are reflected in human brain structure. Although our data do not determine whether these regions play a causal role in the formation of political attitudes, they converge with previous work to suggest a possible link between brain structure and psychological mechanisms that mediate political attitudes.

Radio Nederland Wereldomroep gaat stoppen na plm. 65 jaar bestaan:
270 van de 350 medewerkers worden de straat op gestuurd wegens bezuinigingen.

Vanaf donderdagavond 10 mei 2012 om 22:00u tot vrijdag avond 11 mei 2012 22:00 houden zij een 24 uurs afscheids marathon uitzending, die door SciTechTalk
integraal zal worden overgenomen.

3-D printing:some proclaim that it will trigger
a new Industrial Revolution.
The Atlantic Council, an industry consulting firmbased in Washington, D.C.,
says the technology is "transformational."
Those working in the field call it "additive manufacturing."

3-D printing allows designs impossible to make with conventional manufacturing techniques.

The technology is now used to print aircraft landing gears, dresses, car parts,
individualized tooth crowns, artificial hips and knees, and more.

Scientists are experimenting with human cells to print organs.
An Airbus contractor is working on printing an entire aircraft wing using titanium powder. Parts of the fuselage of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner were printed.

The technology introduces serious issues for the world economy.

Most finished products now are the result of many parts manufactured in various places around the world, coming together for assembling into one product.
They are then shipped to customers around the world.
With 3-D printing, in theory, the entire product would be made at one site, at one time, in one machine, anywhere. Economies of scale would be irrelevant.