Schee.info （已停止更新）

啊，早上在例行檢閱 blogdex.net 部落格新聞索引時發現 New Scientist 上的一則消息：〈Largest prime number ever is found〉！

勾起淒慘的回憶。對，之前就是在跑他們 Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) 的 program 讓我的筆記型電腦熱當機(我知道這聽起來頗笨)。沒想到還真的有人找到了。

可惜我對花花草草的這一方面完全不行，頂多只有拿起剪子修雜草的份。
註：本文舊存於 blogathon.schee.info

另外一個結合網路使用者參與「簽名」和企業贊助植樹的有趣計劃，NEC Ecotonoha。日文和English訊息。

Our goal is more than just to grow a virtual tree. From July 14 to December 25 the growing of Ecotonoha will directly affect NEC’s tree-planting activities on Kangaroo Island, Australia in 2004, with the purpose of reducing the amount of CO2 in the environment. For every 100 signatures on Ecotonoha, NEC will plant another tree in addition to those planted during the Kangaroo Island project.

同樣是點擊，但 NEC 所提供給參與者的想像，顯然更具有創意和貫穿虛擬與實體的功夫。本則資訊得自[N]ネタフル。

最新一期 edge.org newsletter 訊息：

WHO CARES ABOUT FIREFLIES?: A TALK WITH STEVEN STROGATZ - Introduction by Alan Alda

We see fantastic examples of synchrony in the natural world all around us. To give a few examples, there were persistent reports when the first Western travelers went to southeast Asia, back to the time of Sir Francis Drake in the 1500s, of spectacular scenes along riverbanks, where thousands upon thousands of fireflies in the trees would all light up and go off simultaneously. These kinds of reports kept coming back to the West, and were published in scientific journals, and people who hadn’t seen it couldn’t believe it. Scientists said that this is a case of human misperception, that we’re seeing patterns that don’t exist, or that it’s an optical illusion. How could the fireflies, which are not very intelligent creatures, manage to coordinate their flashings in such a spectacular and vast way?

我一直在看 Mengjuei 的部落格，也在 ilya 的這篇文章讀到一些 bioinformatics 的資訊. Is it an emerging discipline or?

昨天(Feb. 14)信箱收到 Accenture 寄來的文章。這個領域(which seems critical)，我是不是應該要好好了解一下？

Bioethicist Gregory Stock on the inevitability of designer babies.
http://www.technologyreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forumid=176 “What happens when the average IQ goes to 130+?” —Tim

“Because the human species has effectively negated the force of natural selection by managing to keep nearly all of its members alive until after procreation, it seems that it’s time for another force to take its place. Why not call it ’synthetic selection’?” —Jeff

“As we create generational gaps by design, another path would be to enhance current human capabilities by the Cyborg route. Enhanced memories,enhanced senses and processing power.” —Pravin

A Technology Review says NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., is testing a program to use small jets for a public taxi service between the nation’s roughly 5,400 small, public-use airports. Sounds like we are going to have the first “airvehicle” soon.