An afternoon flickr

Unique
Originally uploaded by Irina / Riri.

Taken in the Toronto International Airport.

Why is it that so many of my favorites were taken in airports? Apparently airport architechs know what it's all about.

Peep it, yo!

This site offers free magazine subscriptions in a variety of topics. All you have to do is fill out a form. They make their money by finding out about you and then selling advertisements to people who want you as their demographic.

Doesn't cost you anything. The link is to diggnations promotion, as that's where I heard about the site. If you haven't checked out diggnation, it's a weekly video (also offered as just audio) podcast that covers some of the week's most popular stories on digg.com

Study: Emotion rules the brain's decisions

The evidence has been piling up throughout history, and now neuroscientists have proved it's true: The brain's wiring emphatically relies on emotion over intellect in decision-making.

Really, when you think about it, who needs logic when you can get sweet emoticons? :]

read more | digg story

Dear Santa...

The latest versin of Lego Mindstorms has been released. The newest release, titled NXT has many improvements from previous versions of the kit. According to Red Herring:

Lego’s Mindstorms kit has always appealed to schoolchildren and academic researchers. They’ve been used in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics competition for kids, as well as in projects by computer science departments at Harvard and other universities.

[...]
“Outside the military and big commercial companies, hobbyists have had to [rummage around] for parts. Toolsets like this could get more and more people interested in building robots, even if it’s just people who are interested in high-tech toys,”...

At $250 the price may be too much to appeal to everyone, but the idea of building my own robots completely justifies the price to me. I mean, comon! ROBOTS!

Space Race v2.0

Russia seeks volunteers for mock Mars mission
Crew of five 'Marsanauts' will spend 520 days on simulated voyage.
Read more

Looks like Russia is pulling ahead in the race to mars. While countries like Japan have announced a moonbase by 2030, Russia is taking the first step to mars by simulating the trip, complete with mock disasters and equiptment failures.

The goals of the simulation is to study how such a deep space mission would impact the crew’s health. Along with monitoring the crew's health, they will also test capabilities for remote diagnosis and treatment via video links, organize crew activities and work to prevent any negative impacts prolonged spaceflight would have on human health.


See Also: Japan aims for manned lunar station in 2030

The Morning Flickr

I found a couple pretty interesting photosets tonight.


To right:
United Neon 3 of 3 - "The sky's the limit" - Originally uploaded by Today is a good day.
See also.

Another page of interest: How to customize the Flickr Photostream badge (see right panel).

ABC prime-time Webcasts here to stay

ABC prime-time lineup to be offered on the web permanently

Disney has announced that ABC's prime time lineup will be available permanently on an ad-supported website, after it's successful test which drew in a more web-savvy audience.

Is this the beginning of the end for traditional broadcast television?

read more | digg story