I’m on my second read of an extremely important and interesting paper from James Hansen (former head of NASA’s Goddard Institute) and a number of other respected climatologists. The ambitious paper argues that a previously unidentified feedback may cause the ice sheets of Antarctica to melt much faster than previously thought, leading to several meters of sea level rise, possibly in the next 50 years (depending on the details of the feedback). For those who don’t want to take on the full paper, there are interesting articles from the Washington Post and New York Times on it, and a new article on the open peer review it’s undergone. It remains to be seen whether further research will confirm Hansen et al’s hypothesis, but it’ll be interesting to follow, because the consequences are enormous if they’re correct.

So I’ve pretty much stopped posting here for the last few months. Anyone missed it?

The only thing I really miss is having a better, more searchable record of cool stuff I come across, which was half the point of this blog from the beginning.

[Charles Stross being thoughtful as usual on a subject I think is pretty important. -egg]

I don’t need to tell you about the global surveillance disclosures of 2013 to the present—it’s no exaggeration to call them the biggest secret intelligence leak in history, a monumental gaffe from the perspective of the espionage-industrial complex and a security officer’s worst nightmare.

But it occurs to me that it’s worth pointing out that the NSA set themselves up for it by preventing the early internet specifications from including transport layer encryption.

…

via The Snowden leaks; a meta-narrative – Charlie’s Diary.

Hey readers of this blog,

Sorry things have been so low-traffic lately. Partly that’s because I’ve been really insanely busy with the Geothermophone, but also I’ve been less motivated lately to post here. I hope that I’ll feel more motivated again in time, but it could be that this blog will dribble off gradually.

If you’re a reader and would like it to continue, feel free to drop me a line saying so; I’ll likely be more motivated if I get a sense that people are actually reading it.

<3

egg

[Holy heck. *Marble*. -egg]

Livio Scarpella is a contemporary Italian sculptor whose work harkens back to the incredible craftsmanship of marble sculptors from the 1700s. His series “Ghost Underground,” which depicts ghostly souls, both peaceful and in anguish, are influenced by the famous veiled sculptures that rest in the Cappella Sansevero, a chapel in the historic center of Naples, Italy. Opposite destinies (the “blessed” and “damned”) are signified through either a light quartz or dark amethyst rock placed near the heart of the sculpture. The crystals also serve an interesting contrast between the softly veiled faces, reminding us that, indeed, both are stone-hard. (via beautifuldecay)

via Veiled Souls Carved from Stone and Embedded with Crystals by Livio Scarpella | Colossal.

Möbius Ship by Tim Hawkinson

via Hit the ground punnin. – emporioefikz: Möbius Ship by Tim Hawkinson.

[So. Cool. -egg]

Tired of the dirty, grossed-out looks people give when somebody coughs in public, and the instant exclusion-factor provided by wearing a surgical mask, Andrew Kessler knew there had to be a better way. He and business partners deconstructed the ages-old “just cover your mouth” ideology and came up with an answer better than any we’ve seen since, well, ever.

Scough, a germ-fighting scarf embedded with technology called Filterwear, doesn’t look anything like the dystopian accessory one might expect, provided today’s air and health quality standards. Instead, coming in Blue Ivy tartan a subtle Beyoncé nod and checkered flannel colorways, Scough is literally the anti-Viral Style we’ve been waiting for, and a perfect accessory to check out, alongside our Make It Wearable series.

via Scough, The Germ-Fighting Scarf, Makes Preventative Healthcare Wearable | The Creators Project.

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/06/08/a-brief-history-of-the-corporation-1600-to-2100/

[O HAI I’d play this. -egg]

…EteRNA, an online game with more than 38,000 registered users. Featuring an array of clickable candy-colored pieces, EteRNA looks a little like the popular game Bejeweled. But instead of combining jewel shapes in Tetris-like levels, EteRNA players manipulate nucleotides, the fundamental building blocks of RNA, to coax molecules into shapes specified by the game. Those shapes, which typically look like haphazardly mowed crop circles or jumbled chain-link necklaces, represent how RNA appears in nature while it goes about its work as one of life’s most essential ingredients. No self-sustaining organism gets made without the involvement of RNA.

Tweaking molecular models in this fashion is surprisingly fun—and, it turns out, useful. EteRNA was developed by scientists at Stanford and Carnegie Mellon universities, who use the designs created by players to decipher how real RNA works. The game is a direct descendant of Foldit—another science crowdsourcing tool disguised as entertainment—which gets players to help figure out the folding structures of proteins. EteRNA, though, goes much further than its predecessor.

The game’s elite players compete for a unique and wondrous prize: the chance to have RNA designs of their own making brought to life. Every two weeks, four to 16 player-designed molecules are picked to be synthesized in an RNA lab at Stanford. “It’s pretty incredible to imagine that somewhere there’s a piece of RNA that I designed that never existed anywhere in nature before,” says Robert Rogoyski, a New York City patent attorney who has had 14 of his EteRNA designs selected for synthesis. “It could encode a protein that no one has ever seen, something that’s important in the discovery of the next blockbuster glaucoma or cancer drug. Or it could be the cause of the zombie apocalypse.”

via New Videogame Lets Amateur Researchers Mess With RNA – Wired Science.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has submitted written testimony [PDF] to an EU committee investigating mass surveillance. Glyn Moody’s Techdirt post gives a great tl;dr summary of the document, but you should really read it for yourself. It’s ten single-spaced pages, but Snowden turns out to be an extremely talented writer who beautifully lays out his arguments, managing the trick of being dispassionate while simultaneously conveying the import of his subject matter.

via Edward Snowden’s magnificent testimony to the EU – Boing Boing.