Dear Congress, It's No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works →
Here we are with a group of elected officials openly supporting a bill they can't explain, and having the temerity to suggest there's no need to "bring in the nerds" to suss out what's actually on it.
How Doctors Die →
It's not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don't die like the rest of us. What's unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little.
Microsoft's New Update Plan Spells the End of IE6 →
If you're still on Windows XP that means you'll be updated to IE 8. Vista and Windows 7 users will move to IE 9.
January 2012 can't come soon enough.
Higgs Boson: The Particle of Faith →
Some tell us that science is about what can be proved. The wise tell us it is really about offering the best explanations of what we see, realising that these explanations often cannot be proved, and may sometimes lie beyond proof. Science often proposes the existence of invisible (and often undetectable) entities – such as dark matter – to explain what can be seen. The reason why the Higgs boson is taken so seriously in science is not because its existence has been proved, but because it makes so much sense of observations that its existence seems assured. In other words, its power to explain is seen as an indicator of its truth.
Just like belief in God.
Opt-Out of Facebook Permissions →
Nice little Chrome plugin that modifies the permissions Facebook apps are asking for so you can opt-out.
(via The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2011)
Powerful photos from Joplin to Japan, including Occupy Wall Street, Libya, Thailand, and elsewhere.
("How To Perfectly Reheat Pizza" via Devour.com)
I'm really going to have to try this. Oh, the little things in life.
Georgia Tech Develops Speedy Software Designed to Improve Drug Development →
Symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) allows scientists to study interactions between molecules, such as those between a drug and its target. In the past, computer algorithms that study these noncovalent interactions have been very slow, limiting the types of molecules that can be studied using accurate quantum mechanical methods. A research team headed by Georgia Tech Professor of Chemistry David Sherrill has developed a computer program that can study larger molecules (more than 200 atoms) faster than any other program in existence.
The most interesting thing to me is that the algorithm will be open-sourced as part of PSI4, which I might actually still have some code in; I helped contribute to some of the new GPU hardware acceleration that will be included while I was an intern at UGA.
I Don't Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore →
I'd say that in about half of my business conversations, I have almost no idea what other people are saying to me.
Thanks, Dan. Learn to communicate, everyone else.