10 non-work-related items that I found fun or interesting

Tattoo hope in patient monitoring via BBC News – Technology on 11/08/11
An “electronic tattoo” could herald a revolution in medicine and even computer gaming, say US scientists. Read more.

via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Founded in 1857 to advance the “American idea”, the Atlantic Monthly was an odd intellectual home for Henry James, a peripatetic expat who renounced his U.S. citizenship...more

The Hungary problem from Boston Review via 3quarksdaily by Morgan Meis
How is it that Hungary, Central Europe's democratic wunderkind of 1989, could find itself the European Union’s problem child two decades later, with a nationalist strongman at the helm, the economy in shambles, and a ferocious far right both in its parliament and in black uniforms patrolling its suburbs?
Find out here

via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
By the end of the 19th century, torture was “as extinct as cannibalism”. Then it came back. What happened? Guerrilla warfare...more
This is not pleasant reading.

Human Reasoning Is a Mixed Blessing via Big Think by Big Think Editors
When given a logic puzzle, individuals are more apt to arrive at the wrong answer than if they are working in a group of people. History abounds with examples: Newton dedicated himself as much to alchemy as he did to developing his physical laws; Napoleon's decision ... Read More

via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
There is a place for mystery in science, but Stephen Law wants to make something clear: Non-empirical beliefs that ignore reality aren’t mysteries, they’re bullshit ...more

How the Brain Categorizes Objects via Big Think by Big Think Editors
A study published in the 27 July issue of the journal Neuron summarises research performed on monkeys trained to assign patterns of dots into one of two categories. As the monkeys began to pick up on general traits belonging to each category, “brain activity shifted ...” Read More

via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Umberto Eco is fascinated by fallibility. His vast personal library includes the works of the errant Ptolemy, not the accurate Galileo...more

Designing and evaluating UbiBall: a ubiquitous computing game for children
an article by Douglas Easterly and Angela Blachnitzky in International Journal of Arts and Technology (Volume 4 Number 3 (2011))
Abstract
This paper provides an overview of a recent project called UbiBall – a ubiquitous exergame game developed by researchers at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. We survey the emerging field of exergaming, cover the design goals and processes and summarise the results obtained from our initial user testing. UbiBall features a ubiquitous computing ball outfitted with a microcontroller. The microcontroller emits sound and light in accordance with the various ways it is interacted with. It also data logs the play activity to a file, which then acts as a bridge between two modes of gameplay, one that is physical and active, and another that is a screen-based game. Ultimately, the game provided a fun and particularly active example of mobile exergaming for the children participants who tested the system.
Ever curious I had to go and look up exergaming in general and UbiBall in particular.
Wikipedia not only tells us that exergaming is a portmanteau of exercise and gaming (we could have guessed that bit) but tracks the history of the genre from as long ago as the late 80s (which I did not know).

via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The elimination of poverty ought to be within our grasp, and yet for hundreds of millions of people over the globe, it remains but a dream. Why can't the world's wealth be shared?...more

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