Bald eagle with 3D printed prosthetic beak

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Bald eagle with 3D printed prosthetic beak

A bald eagle named Beauty whose beak was shot off by poachers has been fitted with a 3D printed, prosthetic beak by her helpers at Birds of Prey Northwest. The prosthetic isn’t stable enough for a release back into the wild, but the bird can now feed and groom herself, rather than relying on humans.

But raptor specialist Jane Fink Cantwell, who dresses like Indiana Jones, refused to take “dead bald eagle” for an answer. She joined forces with mechanical engineer Nate Calvin of Kinetic Engineering Group, and together with other scientists, engineers, and even a dentist, they designed a nylon polymer beak that would perfectly replace Beauty’s lost upper mandible.

Calvin developed the new beak using a 3-D modeling program, then used a 3-D printer to fabricate it. After an arduous procedure to attach her prosthetic, Beauty was able to eat, drink, and preen herself on her own.

Injured bald eagle gets new 3-D printed beak

(via /.)


Tim Minchin explains evolution and genomics in an animated video

[This is pretty great 🙂 -egg]

Tim Minchin explains evolution and genomics in an animated video:

Tracy King sends us an “animated history of genetics from Nature to celebrate the release of ENCODE. Narrated by Tim Minchin and animated by the team who made Storm. Written by Adam Rutherford (Nature), Andrew Ellard (Red Dwarf, IT Crowd) and Tracy King (TAM London).

Ever since a monk called Mendel started breeding pea plants we’ve been learning about our genomes. In 1953, Watson, Crick and Franklin described the structure of the molecule that makes up our genomes: the DNA double helix. Then, in 2001, scientists wrote down the entire 3-billion letter code contained in the average human genome. Now they’re trying to interpret that code; to work out how it’s used to make different types of cells and different people. The ENCODE project, as it’s called, is the latest chapter in the story of you.

The Story of You: ENCODE and the human genome

(Thanks, Tracy!)


Magic: The Gathering is Turing complete

Magic: The Gathering is Turing complete:

Alex Churchill has posted a way to implement a Turing complete computer within a game of Magic: The Gathering (“Turing complete” is a way of classifying a calculating engine that is capable of general-purpose computation). The profound and interesting thing about the recurrence of Turing completeness in many unexpected places — such as page-layout descriptive engines — is that it suggests that there’s something foundational about the ability to do general computation. It also suggests that attempts to limit general computation will be complicated by the continued discovery of new potential computing engines. That is, even if you lock down all the PCs so that they only play restricted music formats and not Ogg, if you allow a sufficiently speedy and scriptable Magic: The Gathering program to exist, someone may implement the Ogg player using collectible card games.


A series of Ally tokens controlled by Alex represent the tape to the right of the current head: the creature one step to the right of the head is 1 toughness away from dying, the next one over is 2 toughness from dying, etc. A similar chain of Zombie tokens, also controlled by Alex, represent the tape to the left. The colour of each token represents the contents of that space on the tape.

The operation “move one step to the left” is represented in this machine by creating a new Ally token, growing all Allies by 1, and shrinking all Zombies by one. The details are as follows:

When the machine creates a new 2/2 Ally token under Alex’s control, four things trigger: Bob’s Noxious Ghoul, Cathy’s Aether Flash, Denzil’s Carnival of Souls, and Alex’s Kazuul Warlord. They go on the stack in that order, because it’s Bob’s turn; so they resolve in reverse order. The Kazuul Warlord adds +1/+1 counters to all Alex’s Allies, leaving them one step further away from dying, including making the new one 3/3. Then Carnival of Souls gives Denzil a white mana thanks to False Dawn (he doesn’t lose life because of his Platinum Emperion). Then Aether Flash deals 2 damage to the new token, leaving it 1 toughness from dying as desired. And then the Noxious Ghoul, which has been hacked with Artificial Evolution, gives all non-Allies -1/-1, which kills the smallest Zombie. Depending on whether the smallest Zombie was red, green or blue, a different event will trigger. The machine has moved one step to the left.

If the new token had been a Zombie rather than an Ally, a different Kazuul Warlord and a different Noxious Ghoul would have triggered, as well as the same Aether Flash. So the same would have happened except it would be all the Zombies that got +1/+1 and all the Allies that got -1/-1. This would effectively take us one step to the right.

Magic Turing Machine v4: Teysa / Chancellor of the Spires

(via /.)

(Image: Magic the Gathering, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from 23601773@N02’s photostream)


An accountable algorithm for running a secure random checkpoint

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An accountable algorithm for running a secure random checkpoint

Ed Felten presents and argues for the idea of “accountable algorithms” for use in public life — that is, “output produced by a particular execution of the algorithm can be verified as correct after the fact by a skeptical member of the public.”

He gives a great example of how to run a securely random TSA checkpoint where, at the end of each day, the public can open a sealed envelope and verify that the TSA was using a truly fair random selection method, and not just picking people they didn’t like the look of:

Now we can create our accountable selection method. First thing in the morning, before the security checkpoint opens, the TSA picks a random value R and commits it. Now the TSA knows R but the public doesn’t. Immediately thereafter, TSA officials roll dice, in public view, to generate another random value S. Now the TSA adds R+S and makes that sum the key K for the day.

Now, when you arrive at the checkpoint, you announce your name N, and the TSA uses the selection function to compute S(K, N). The TSA announces the result, and if it’s “yes,” then you get searched. You can’t anticipate whether you’ll be searched, because that depends on the key K, which depends on the TSA’s secret value R, which you don’t know.

At the end of the day, the TSA opens its commitment to R. Now you can verify that the TSA followed the algorithm correctly in deciding whether to search you. You can add the now-public R to the already-public S, to get the day’s (previously) secret key K. You can then evaluate the selection function S(K,N) with your name N–replicating the computation that the TSA did in deciding whether to search you. If the result you get matches the result the TSA announced earlier, then you know that the TSA did their job correctly. If it doesn’t match, you know the TSA cheated–and when you announce that they cheated, anybody can verify that your accusation is correct.

This method prevents the TSA from creating a non-random result. The reason the TSA cannot do this is that the key K is based on result of die-rolling, which is definitely random. And the TSA cannot have chosen its secret value R in a way that neutralized the effect of the random die-rolls, because the TSA had to commit to its choice of R because the dice were rolled. So citizens know that if they were chosen, it was because of randomness and not any TSA bias.

Accountable Algorithms: An Example


Peacock spider shakes it for the ladies

[I’d go home with it. -egg]

Peacock spider shakes it for the ladies:

Male peacock spiders are fuzzy, strangely adorable, and boast a brilliantly colored abdomen that they flip up and use as a prop for an elaborate (for a spider) mating dance.

In this video, the mating dance of the peacock spider has been helpfully set to music, so you can really see why his abdomen makes female spiders wanna shoop.

This particular specimen is apparently a representative of an as-yet-unnamed species of peacock spider. You can read more about this species, and what makes it different from its cousins, in this paper by Jürgen C. Otto and David E. Hill, who also made the video.

Via Bug Girl


The wonderful horror of hermit crabs migrating

The wonderful horror of hermit crabs migrating:

The hills are alive with the sound of scuttling.

This video has popped up on lots of sites already, but I kind of love it and wanted to post here. Plus, it made me curious. Where are all those crabs going? And why?

The answers, upon reflection, are rather obvious. They are going to the sea. They are going there to get laid.

Yes, it’s hermit crab spring break—set to an epic classical soundtrack—as thousands upon thousands of land-dwelling crabs travel to the ocean to meet other crabs and have sex with them.

Wondrous, isn’t it?

Read more:

Hermit crab mating habits from the book Hermit Crabs, by Sue Fox

Annual migrations and spawning of the common land hermit crab; a research paper documenting this phenomenon as it happens in Puerto Rico. Crab love looks much the same all over the world.


56 Broken Kindle Screens: book and video

56 Broken Kindle Screens: book and video:

Here’s a bit of wry gadget iconography: a book and video devoted to the sad sight of a smashed Kindle screen. Speaking as someone who broke three Kindle screens in as many months (and then gave up on carrying one), I can empathize:

“56 Broken Kindle Screens” is a print on demand paperback that consists of found photos depicting broken Kindle screens. The Kindle is Amazon’s e-reading device which is by default connected to the company’s book store.

The book takes as its starting point the peculiar aesthetic of broken E Ink displays and serves as an examination into the reading device’s materiality. As the screens break, they become collages composed of different pages, cover illustrations and interface elements.

Order the book on Lulu.

56 Broken Kindle Screens – Silvio Lorusso and Sebastian Schmieg (2012)

(via Beyond the Beyond)


Super Scratch Programming Adventure: Fun introductory programming book

[Do you know kids who might be interested in programming? Here’s a great starting place. -egg]
Super Scratch Programming Adventure: Fun introductory programming book:
NewImageScratch is a graphical programming language for kids that was designed at the MIT Media Lab. To write a program in Scratch, you connect colored code blocks together. The neat thing about not having to type in lines of code is that you don’t have to worry about spelling errors. Also, the blocks fit together only if they make computational sense, which helps beginners from making frustrating mistakes. (The inevitable bugs that do occur in Scratch end up being the interesting and educational kind). Scratch is free and available for most operating systems.

Super Scratch Programming Adventure is a comic book style introduction to Scratch that reveals the power of this deceptively simple programming language. It’s possible to write sophisticated arcade-style games on Scratch, and as you work though the chapters of Super Scratch Programming Adventure, you’ll be surprised at what the software is capable of. The book is written in the form of a story, in which cartoon characters are faced with increasingly dire predicaments that require Scratch programs to get out of. It’s a fun way to learn how to program Scratch, even for adults.

NewImageMy 9-year-old daughter loves Scratch, and she’s learned a lot about sprite animation, variables, applying sound effects, interface design, and more. As Mitchel Resnick, the director of the MIT Scratch Team writes in his introduction, “As young people create Scratch projects, they are not just learning how to write computer programs. They are learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively [people can share their Scratch creations at MIT’s Scratch site] — essential skills for success and happiness in today’s world.”

The book also has a brief introduction to the PicoBoard, a microcontroller board that interfaces with Scratch so you can write programs that respond to light, sound, and other inputs. I’m going to buy a PicoBoard, because it looks like a lot of fun!

If you have a kid who likes video games, this book is a fine way for him or her to learn how games are created. I also recommend the book for adults who want to have creative fun with their computer.

Super Scratch Programming Adventure