[This is important. People think the singularity sounds ridiculous, but it’s because humans have very poor intuition about exponential growth. What’s the world going to be like when every telephone is as powerful as today’s supercomputers? -egg]
One Google query = one Apollo program’s worth of computing:
Here’s a thought:

“It takes about the same amount of computing to answer one Google Search query as all the computing done — in flight and on the ground — for the entire Apollo program.”

(Quote from Seb Schmoller’s “Learning technology – a backward and forward look,” attributed to Peter Norvig and Udi Mepher of Google on hearing of the death of Neil Armstrong)

I remember hearing that the processor in a singing greeting card had more capacity than all the electronic computers on Earth at the time of Sputnik’s launch, though I can’t find a cite for it at the moment. Exponential processor improvements are pretty wild.

Learning technology – a backward and forward look
(PDF)

(via Memex 1.1)

[Not bad overall, but I really like their take on Jonathan Ive 🙂 -egg]

Parody iPhone 5 promo:

[Video Link] And it’s all true! (Via Dooby Brain)

Glaucus atlanticus: For once, the Internet is not lying to you:

This is actually a real life animal.

I know. I didn’t believe it either. When it turned up in my Facebook feed, via my Aunt Beth, I assumed that this had to be a hoax photo. Had to be. I mean, just look at it. This animal looks like it should appear in pretty photos forwarded to you by your aunt that later turn out to be the result of a photoshopping contest on Something Awful, right?

But then it was on Wikipedia, too. And I thought, “Okay, it’s still the Internet. Somebody is clearly just getting really elaborate in their trolling.”

And I suppose that’s true. If by “somebody”, what I mean to say is “natural selection”.

This is the Glaucus atlanticus. It is a type of nudibranch—shell-less mollusks known for their extravagant shapes and colors. It is venomous. And I am now almost completely convinced that it’s not a joke.

The London Natural History Museum has some good information about these creatures, including the drawing at left, which was made in the late 1700s by Sydney Parkinson, the official ship’s illustrator for Captain Cook’s second voyage to the Pacific.

You see all those pointy bits Glaucus atlanticus? According to the Natural History Museum, those are called cerata. They are the organs where G. atlanticus stores the stinging cells that it steals from the jellyfish it eats.

Because it eats jellyfish. And not just any jellyfish—but Portuguese Man o’ War jellyfish. G. atlanticus eats the jellyfish tentacles and, as part of the process of digestion, stores stinging cells from those tentacles in the tips of its cerata. Then G. atlanticus gets to be venomous, too. Fun! Sharing!

Here’s how the Smithsonian Magazine blog described the process last Spring:

A gas-filled sac in the stomach allows the small slug to float, and a muscular foot structure is used to cling to the surface. Then, if it floats by a man o’ war or other cnidarian, the blue dragon locks onto the larger creature’s tentacles and consumes the toxic nematocyst cells that the man o’ war uses to immobilize fish.

The slug is immune to the toxins and collects them in special sacs within the cerata—the finger-like branches at the end of its appendages—to deploy later on. Because the man o’ war’s venom is concentrated in the tiny fingers, blue dragons can actually have more powerful stings than the much larger creatures from which they took the poisons.

In conclusion, there are two lessons to take away from G. atlanticus.

First, the Internet isn’t always lying to you. Just sometimes.

Second, don’t touch things that look pretty. Because they will probably kill you.

More at The Encyclopedia of Life

A scientific paper documenting the presence of G. atlanticus in Andhra Pradesh.

The Sea Slug Forum has a description, photos, and sightings.

Image: Glaucus atlanticus © Taro Taylor, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

Macro Photographs of Dew-Covered Dragonflies and Other Insects by David Chambon:

Over the past few months photographer David Chambon has been working on a phenomenal series of photos featuring insects covered in morning dew. These are a few of my favorites but you can see dozens more over on 500px and Flickr. If you liked these also check out the dew-soaked macro photography of Sharon Johnston and Ondrej Pakan. (via faith is torment)

http://m.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2012/09/mitts-forty-seven-per-cent-problem.html

New Interpolated HD Video of Curiosity Mars Rover Descent Depicts Real-Time Landing:

I’ve seen several different videos of Curiosity’s descent down to the Mars, and while incredible because of what they depict, none approached the frame-rate we might normally expect from an actual film. Using footage provided by NASA, Reddit user Godd2 just spent the last four days on behalf of all humankind creating a stunning interpolated HD version of the descent. In layman’s terms interpolation involves taking a choppy video, in this case NASA’s 4 frames-per-second video, and rendering the “missing” frames in between resulting in an incredibly smooth 25 frames-per-second video. This is, I believe, the closest approximation ever of what it might feel like to land on another planet in real time using actual footage. Amazing. Here it is on YouTube.

[Oooooooh. -egg]

Unusual Long Exposure Firework Photographs by David Johnson:








While attending the International Fireworks Show in Ottawa, Canada earlier this month photographer David Johnson had his camera in hand to document the night. When Spain’s entry into the competition begin he decided to try something a little different resulting in the photos you see here which are unlike any long exposure firework shots I’ve ever seen. Via email David tells me how he accomplished the effect:

The technique I used was a simple refocus during the long exposure. Each shot was about a second long, sometimes two. I’d start out of focus, and when I heard the explosion I would quickly refocus, so the little stems on these deep sea creature lookalikes would grow into a fine point. The shapes are quite bizarre, some of them I was pleasantly surprised with.

What’s interesting is that unlike usual firework photos that seem to make long trails across the sky, Johnson’s photos look like flowers with little triangular plumes coming to a point. Pretty amazing. You can see several more photos here.

Black Cloud: Carlos Amorales Adorns Gallery Walls with Thousands of Black Paper Moths:

Black Cloud, 2009, Espacio AV

Black Cloud, 2009, Espacio AV

Black Cloud, 2009, Espacio AV

Black Cloud, 2009, Espacio AV

Black Cloud, 2007, Yvon Lambert Gallery

Black Cloud, 2007, Yvon Lambert Gallery

Black Cloud, 2007, Yvon Lambert Gallery

Black Cloud, 2007, Yvon Lambert Gallery

Black Cloud, 2007, Yvon Lambert Gallery

Black Cloud, 2007, Yvon Lambert Gallery

Black Cloud is an installation by Mexican artist Carlos Amorales involving tens of thousands of black paper months affixed to the walls of large interior spaces. The piece was first installed at Yvon Lambert in 2007 and then in a different configuration at an old baroque church in Spain that was converted to a multi-use space called Espacio AV in 2009. Gorgeous. See much more here. (via feul)