10 stories and links I think are educative, informative, entertaining, or weird

My Experience with ADD via Big Think by Big Think Editors
Freelance writer and editor Molly Oswaks first found some relief with cocaine. Instead of giving her a high, it calmed her down and helped her focus. Later, an ADD diagnosis and medication gave her more lasting clarity and attention consistency after a life mostly spent adrift.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Steve Jobs and David Gelernter seemed like natural allies: Both chided technologists for neglecting design. Instead, they fought each other... more

How does biology explain the low numbers of women in computer science? via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
Watch the video here where you can also link to more presentations from Terri Oda
A great look at math, and real vs. imaginary Bell curve distributions.
Thanks to Gideon for bringing this to my attention!

Winter Escape via How-To Geek by Asian Angel
In this week game you have been accidentally locked out of your home and must find a way to get in. Can you do it before you become ill from being out in the cold too long? Tick-tock tick-tock!
As usual you can choose to read Asian Angel’s walk-through here or take your chance and go straight to the game here.

Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Money and art. The two can't be disentangled. But some entanglements are more troubling than others. Culture is in retreat before the brute dollar. Jed Perl explains.. more

Smog-Eating Material to Wrap Buildings via Big Think by Big Think Editors
Researchers in Belgium are testing an old material in a new way, which may benefit the environment and make city dwellers healthier and happier by eating away at air pollutants. Titanium oxide, currently used in everything from toothpaste to sunscreen, can now be found coating the ceiling of a driving tunnel in Brussels, Belgium.
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What is ET Listening to Now? via Stephen's Lighthouse
An infographic (of which Stephen Abram is very fond judging by the number in his blog) which shows how far television waves (could) have reached across space. The Lone Ranger is just past Pi Mensae. Fascinating.
See for yourself here.

Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Gloria Steinem, still tiny of waist and big of hair, wants you to know that she has never gotten by on her appearance. “Who wants to be feminine?”... more

The Colossal Heads of the Olmec (Picture of the Day) via Britannica Blog by Britannica Editors

Olmec colossal basalt head in the Museo de la Venta, an outdoor museum near Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico. Credit: © Robert Frerck/Odyssey Productions

The Olmec, the “people of the rubber country”, represented the first elaborate pre-Columbian civilization of Mesoamerica. Much of what is known about them has come from archaeological excavations at sites in modern-day southern Mexico, where structures such as large earthen pyramids and giant stone carvings, including colossal heads, have been uncovered.

Fascinating – read more here

Researchers to build Babbage Analytical Engine via Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin


Over the next decade, a group of researchers in the UK will attempt to construct a working version of Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, which he dreamed up a hundred years ago, but did not complete. John Markoff has the story in the New York Times today [7 November], and here’s a related interactive feature. Cory blogged about the project recently on Boing Boing, and the legacy of Babbage, a great mathematician, philosopher, and engineer, is a favorite topic in our archives (see links below).

Babbage-esque mechanical computer chip
Comic about Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage comic
Babbage Difference Engine No. 2 Recreation Coming to Computer ...
Babbage difference engine No. 2 now operational – Boing Boing Gadgets
Lovelace met Babbage on this day in 1833