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Come to the SFWIN Party This Thursday in SF!

The next SFWIN (San Francisco Web Innovators) monthly networking event is happening this Thursday at 6PM in downtown San Francisco at the offices of Orrick, a law firm with a very nice event space overlooking the skyline. We usually have around 100 people or so and delicious food and an open bar. You can get details about the event and RSVP here. Please come, I look forward to seeing you there!

A World Without Elephants

This is so sad. Elephants are increasingly being wiped out due to encroachment by nearby human populations, and also by inept human attempts to help them -- and of course by poaching. As their species is increasingly backed into a dead-end corner, and as older elephants are separated from their herds, younger elephants are developing psychological disorders and are becoming violent. Meanwhile female elephants are not learning to rear their young properly, leading to developmental disorders and social problems that then ripple from generation to generation. All of this is adding up to a downward spiral for elephants worldwide -- and in fact, as the article illustrates, elephants in completely separate communites around the world are starting to exhibit signs of "going crazy."  I've always loved elephants and I wish there was something that could be done.

Humanity is so out of balance with the rest of planet. I'm a realist though -- I don't believe that governments, or even the majority of people in the world, will ever just sacrifice their own gain for the good of the environment or any other species. Only if it is clearly tied to their survival or personal gain, will most people and governments "feel the pain" enough to change their behavior.

The solution to the tragedy of the commons is to privatize, or to somehow connect what happens in the commons to everyone's survival and benefit. Locally, elephant survival and well-being could be assured if the local government and people were paid to maintain them as a world resource. I think that there really should be a form of global taxation whereby every government pays into a fund that is then used to pay certain local communities around endangered resources and species to protect and steward them.

If there was a way to turn their environments and endangered species into resources that earned money for them (more money than they could earn by destroying them), then they would finally be motivated to take care of them. I doubt that any other kind of solution will ultimately work. Maybe I'm too cynical or too much of a realist or a pragmatist. But I really do think this solution would work, not just for the elephants, but the rainforests, the whales, coral reefs and fisheries, etc.

A Statistical Approach for Winning Lottery -- Group Wins $13M!

A group of scientists and academics in Britain have come up with an approach for picking lottery numbers that appears to have a higher probability of success than picking randomly. After several years of playing the numbers, at a total investment of $8700, they finally just won $13M. I wonder what their method is and if they can reproduce it on a larger scale. Conceivably they shuld be able to increase their efforts using their winnings in order to win again in less time. If they can pull that off then it looks like lotteries are dead, unless someone invents a new kind of game that is immune to this solution.

Dog Addicted to Sucking on Hallucinogenic Toads

This article -- a true story -- struck me as very funny: Lady is a dog who struggles with a secret addiction to sucking on  hallucinogenic toads. Other dog owners won't let their dogs play with her anymore. Family struggles with feelings of shame, etc. See the photo's in the article of Lady staring at a toad.

Hassleware -- A New Strategy To Make Users Not Close Your Software

This post is not to be taken too seriously. I'm not actually advocating for the strategy outlined below. Just pointing out that it is taking place already, at least in iTunes.

One thing I've noticed about iTunes on Windows XP is that it is a massive resource hog -- especially when starting the application, but even worse, when exiting it. It typically takes several minutes for iTunes to quit, and during this process there are several moments where my machine freezes up because all resources are being used by iTunes. I like iTunes as a product -- don't get me wrong -- but it is the most impolite app in my system. No other app freezes my computer just to shut down.

My computer has a 2.1 gigaherz processor and more than 2 gigs of RAM, and lots of availale disk space, so it's not due to scarce resources. It's simply iTunes. The hassle factor of starting and shutting iTunes is in fact such an annoyance that I have resorted to just leaving it running in the background most of the time. In thinking about this it occurred to me that -- perhaps unwittingly -- Apple has come up with a clever way to make me keep their software open all the time. It's just too painful to close iTunes, so I leave it running.

The Sell-Off of America

This article by Germany's best-known economics writer provides a fast and high-level overview of how the American empire is losing (has lost?) its economic power. While the dollar is still the world's currency of choice, the USA no longer controls it. Furthermore, with increasing trade deficits, the outsourcing of labor, and spiraling debt, the US economy is poised on the edge of collapse. And the American middle-class has and will bear the brunt of this shift as it plays out over the next few decades.

Excellent Strategic Analysis of North Korean Crisis

This article in the Atlantic Monthly presents the best analysis I've seen of the strategic situation on the Korean penninsula, and various US options (and potential mistakes to avoid). It's really a fascinating read, and quite educational, for anyone concerned about what might happen in that arena.

Could Memory Loss Be Caused by a Virus?

New research seems to indicate that memory loss may be related to common viral infections that cross the blood-brain barrier and chip away at cognitive function. Over a person's lifetime, after two or three of these infections a year, it starts to add up to significant memory loss.

A Man in the Wrong Profession

Today I was parked in a gas station, in downtown San Francisco, filling my tank with gas when this gem occurred.

A San Francisco taxi pulls up, with 3 passengers inside.

The taxi driver gets out, and comes up to me. In a hushed tone so his passengers don't hear, he asks me for directions to the Golden Gate Bridge!

Now if there is at least one thing every taxi driver in SF ought to know, other than the where the airport is, it is where the Golden Gate Bridge is. Or at the very least -- if they don't know where it is -- they should have a MAP, don't ya think???

Needless to say I was astonished.

Playing Proteins as Songs Helps Researchers Hear Patterns

All living things are made up of proteins. Each protein is a string of amino acids. There are 20 different amino acids, and each protein can consist of dozens to thousands of them.

Scientists write down these amino acid sequences as series of text letters. Clark and her colleagues assign musical notes to the different values of the amino acids in each sequence. The result is music in the form of "protein songs."

By listening to the songs, scientists and students alike can hear the structure of a protein. And when the songs of the same protein from different species are played together, their similarities and differences are apparent to the ear.

"It's an illustration transferred into a medium people will find more accessible than just [text] sequences," Clark said. "If you look at protein sequences, if you just read those as they are written down, recorded in a database, it's hard to get a sense for the pattern."

When people look at a page full of text corresponding to protein sequences, Clark explained, they tend spot clusters of letters but fail to see the larger pattern.

"If you play [the protein song for that sequence] you get that sense of the pattern much more strongly," she said. "That's my feeling at least. You hear stuff you can't see."

From National Geographic

Steak in Red Wine Reduction

I just improvised tonight and made something pretty yummy that you might want to try sometime.

Take a cut of really good steak 

Make a marinade with a half bottle of red wine, chili spices (chili, cumin, oregano, onion powder, mesquite), copious amounts of rosemary, garlic flakes or cut garlic slices, a little bit of cayenne, and a little salt. I used a bottle of Cabernet Franc from the fridge that I opened a week ago and didn't finish; not drinkable anymore but a perfect marinade base.

Puncture the steak many times on both sides, using a fork to make a lot of holes to help soak up the marinade deeper into the steak.

Marinade the steak for half an hour to an hour, or longer if you have time.

Put a little olive oil in frying pan and dump a bunch of rosemary, garlic, chili spices (cumin, pepper, oregano, mesquite flavor if you have any), and a pinch of cayenne, into the oil. Then heat the spices and oil for a few minutes to get the pan hot.

Next put the steak into the pan and grill, with the pan partially covered, for 2 minutes on each side.

Next, pour all of the remaining marinade into the pan with the steak. It should be about a half a centimeter deep in the pan.

Keep cooking, partially covered to keep the moisture in, on 3/4 of full heat.

The marinade boils off while the steak cooks, until it creates a really thick and delicious red wine reduction, full of rosemary and other spices. 

Once almost all the water in the marinade has boiled off and the reduction gets really thick, slide the steak around in the reduction sauce to soak it all up, and use a spatula to gather the reduction and coat the steak with it until the steak is coated with the reduction and spices. The outside of the meat should appear very dark plum colored due to the wine reduction coating and sticking to the surface of the steak. There also should also be lots of rosemary and garlic pieces embedded in the reduction.

Keep cooking the steak until slightly blackened in the red wine reduction, but still medium rare on the inside.

Eat while still hot.

Mmm. Delicious. The red wine permeates deeply into the steak and the seared reduction coating gives the outside a delicious punch of flavor that really pops out. You'll also notice that the steak is extremely moist and full of red wine and rosemary and mesquite nuances because it was cooked in the marinade.

Glass CDs Promise Crystal Sound Quality

An invetor in Japan has created the world's first glass CD. Because of glass's exceptional clarity and durability it not only provides better sound quality than plastic, it lasts "forever." The catch: it costs a hefty amount yen to buy one since they are presently made by hand.

LOST: My Newest Obsession

I know, I know. I'm several years late to the party on this one, but I have become quite obsessed with the television show, Lost. It's possibly the most addictive show on TV. Ever. You have to start from the beginning though. Sign up for Netflix if you haven't already, and be prepared to not leave your house until you run out of discs to watch...

My New Tivo Series 3

I got the TiVo Series 3 box today and installed it. It takes 2 cable cards and can record simultaneously on two channels at once, in HDTV. It also connects to my wireless network instead of using regular phone lines. Nice. Unfortunately one of the cable card slots was defective -- this apparently is a pretty common defect with these boxes according to my cable guy who spent an hour trying to get it to work and has already encountered the same issue for 3 other customers of his recently. So TiVo is shipping me a replacement box. Anyway it looks like it will be worth the hassle. Prior to getting this new toy, I had a generic DVR from my cable provider and it sucked so bad by comparison I'm surprised they even bother. TiVo has a vastly superior menu system, and the recommendation features can't be beat. 

Two Other Artists I Really Like -- Aimee Mann and Sia

I've been listening to a lot of music today. Two other albums that I have that I highly recommend are the Magnolia soundtrack by Aimee Mann, and Colour the Small One by Sia. While we're on the subject, if you like these, you'll probably also like Dummy by Portishead, even though it's quite different from them.

Scrybe -- A Beautiful Ajax Organizer App

This online video preview of the upcoming Web-based organizer, Scrybe. The app has an unusually elegant and innovative AJAX interface. It's beautifully designed. Watch the video.

The Next Sexual Revolution?

This article is an over-the-top and somewhat gonzo review of an experimental nasal-spray that promises to revolutionize sex. It is currently in clinical trials. The very idea of nasal spray would seem to be one of the bigger turn-offs there is, but in this case they've found the override button. The writer gushes that it could be the next big thing and that it will make everyone want to tear of their clothes and jump each other, etc. Hilarious. I probably should buy stock in this company!

Moments of Past Geekiness: Shatner Commercial for C-64

This is a nice, VERY dated commercial for the C-64 computer starring none other than William Shatner!

Pandora is Great But...

The online music recommendation service Pandora is really cool in all ways but one. Due to what they report as a requirement of their music license the user is only allowed to skip a small number of songs per hour. This can be a problem since the whole point of Pandora is that you give it feedback as it plays songs for you and it learns what you like. If you're like me and you rate a bunch of songs and quickly skip ahead to keep rating more of them (while avoiding the songs you don't like), then Pandora's present rule is a bit frustrating. (Note: a workaround was suggested by a reader below -- but it's still kind of a pain.) (Note 2: See the extensive and informative comments added by CTO of Pandora, below, as well).

After you hit your skip-limit you have no choice but to sit through the songs you don't like because you can't skip them. Eventually the count is reset and you can start skipping again. This is an odd limitation and I can't quite understand why it makes sense for Pandora or the music companies -- it would seem that the more music a user listens to and rates the greater the chance they will buy something, which is how both Pandora and the record companies make money. So they should be encouraging all forms of use -- including skipping songs to find other songs you like. At least when users skip songs they still stay in the site -- if they are forced to sit through songs they don't like they are more likely to leave.

If it weren't for this one frustrating limitation I would really use Pandora all the time to discover and buy new music. There is one more feature of Pandora that I would like -- a way to pop the client into a small floating window, or even a desktop client so I don't have to keep my browser sitting there all the time.

I've already used Pandora to discover and buy music -- and I would use it even more if the above issues were solved in later versions. However, even with these limitations it is still one of the best and most enjoyable ways to discover new music that matches your interests. I think the potential of this app (and the Music Genome Project, that it's based on) is huge, and I can't wait for future versions.

Man Doesn't Know Who He Is

This is fascinating. A man is interviewed in this CNN video segment because he doesn't know who he is and hopes someone watching will recognize him. So strange. Here is further footage from the full story for this man. He was found in Denver with no memory except a few clues that came out under hypnosis.

UPDATE: Mystery Solved!

Great Singer -- Martin Sexton

If you haven’t heard of Martin Sexton yet, or you haven’t heard the album Black Sheep yet – go and get it as soon as you can. Click here to see it.

Martin Sexton is possibly a genius singer and songrwiter -- you have to hear him to know what I mean. It's amazing that he isn't massively famous yet. One review says he is a singer of remarkable conviction, which is a pretty accurate description. He puts his guts into it, especially the solos. I haven't heard anything like this from a contemporary artist (but if you know of anything comparable let me know).

Here is a good selection of full clips you can listen to. Check out "Glory Bound."

Click here to visit his site and hear some more free clips of some great tracks off of his different albums.

Definitely listen to "Where Did I Go Wrong?" -- this is a really cool one if you have the patience to wait for the solos where he improvs. A great example of Sexton's skills on all fronts.

The Album, Black Sheep, in particular has some great tracks and it's a good place to start. In particular, check out the tracks “Glory Bound" (one of my favorites), "Can't Stop Thinking 'Bout You," or “Candy” as well as the title track "Black Shee." You have to listen to each one for a few minutes to get the parts where he really lets loose and then you'll hear what I'm raving about. This guy just nails it on his solos like nobody you've ever heard.

The track "Angeline" gets off to a pretty bad start in my opinion, but changes into a fun gospel-inspired romp. Still, it's not the best example and doesn't really show off Sexton's improvisational skills -- so I suggest skipping it until you've heard more tracks so it doesn't influence your opinion.

The track "The Beast in Me" has some pretty impressive vocal improvisation as well but I think his band wasn't up to the challenge and couldn't match him -- their solos and improvisations were not nearly as virtuosic as Sexton's and seemed to wander and get lost. Martin on the other hand is mind-blowingly creative and stays on track as he improvises on the main theme, experimenting with surprising but extremely subtle twists and turns.

Another great track is "Love Keep Us Together" on the album, The American. This track evolves and impresses more and more as it goes, reaching some wonderfully lyrical grooves.

It's almost jazz, except it's not jazz -- it's existing mainstream genres like country, folk, R&B and soul liberated by the improvisational and structural freedom of jazz and fortified with the poetic complexity of Bob Dylan. And that's why it's quite a new sound in my opinion, or rather a new take on an old sound. Either way, it's a refreshing blast of real music.

New Viral Cure for Cancer Invented

Researchers in South Korea may have discovered a new cure for cancer -- a genetically engineered  form of a virus that causes colds. By injecting this in animals with cancer it kills 90% of all cancer cells within 60 days, with no other side-effects.

Is There Room for The Soul? - Good Article on Cognitive Science

This is a surprisingly good article on the nature of consciousness -- providing a survey of the current state-of-the-art in cognitive science research. It covers the question from a number of perspectives and interviews many of the leading current researchers.

Sign of the Times - View from the Top of World of Warcraft

This critical article by an ex-World of Warcraft player is a real sign of the times -- the kind of article that people will read in a few hundred years as a window into our particular moment in history. The author reached the highest levels of the game and found that it was ruining his life as well as the lives of other players. Eventually he left the game for good. His article details how the game ate up more and more of his time, ruined relationships, and created a false sense of accomplishment in players. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for online gaming, but it is interesting and not necessarily healthy when people start spending more of their time, and investing more of their identity, in an imaginary world rather than the real one. Generally people who spend most of their time living out fantasies in imaginary worlds are called "crazy" -- unless they are online gamers.

Why Machines Will Never be Conscious

Below is the text of my bet on Long Bets. Go there to vote.

"By 2050 no synthetic computer nor machine intelligence will have become truly self-aware (ie. will become conscious)."

Spivack's Argument:

(This summary includes my argument, a method for judging the outcome of this bet and some other thoughts on how to measure awareness...)

A. MY PERSPECTIVE...

Even if a computer passes the Turing Test it will not really be aware that it has passed the Turing Test. Even if a computer seems to be intelligent and can answer most questions as well as an intelligent, self-aware, human being, it will not really have a continuum of awareness, it will not really be aware of what it seems to "think" or "know," it will not have any experience of it's own reality or being. It will be nothing more than a fancy inanimate object, a clever machine, it will not be a truly sentient being.

Self-awareness is not the same thing as merely answering questions intelligently. Therefore even if you ask a computer if it is self-aware and it answers that it is self-aware and that it has passed the Turing Test, it will not really be self-aware or really know that it has passed the Turing Test.

As John Searle and others have pointed out, the Turing Test does not actually measure awareness, it just measures information processing---particularly the ability to follow rules or at least imitate a particular style of communication. In particular it measures the ability of a computer program to imitate humanlike dialogue, which is different than measuring awareness itself. Thus even if we succeed in creating good AI, we won't necessarily succeed in creating AA ("Artificial Awareness").

But why does this matter? Because ultimately, real awareness may be necessary to making an AI that is as intelligent as a human sentient being. However, since AA is theoretically impossible in my opinion, truly self-aware AI will never be created and thus no AI will ever be as intelligent as a human sentient being even if it manages to fool someone into thinking it is (and thus passing the Turing Test).

New Study: TV May Cause Autism

This study is strange. But plausible.

Today, Cornell University researchers are reporting what appears to be a statistically significant relationship between autism rates and television watching by children under the age of 3. The researchers studied autism incidence in California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington state. They found that as cable television became common in California and Pennsylvania beginning around 1980, childhood autism rose more in the counties that had cable than in the counties that did not. They further found that in all the Western states, the more time toddlers spent in front of the television, the more likely they were to exhibit symptoms of autism disorders.

From: Slate

Zooming Out in Time

For an interesting read -- download this wonderful presentation on zooming out in time as a way to predict the future. It's from a talk given at the Long Now Foundation. Nice visual slides illustrate how the world changes over vast timescales.

Interesting Proposal for Stopping Online Pedophiles

I came across this interesting project that aims to stop online pedophiles by setting 100,000 online honeytraps. It calls for 100,000 volunteer adults to post online profiles in various services posing as minors. They then use these a bait and wait to be contacted by pedophiles. Once contacted they basically set the hook and then do a sting operation with the help of law enforcement agents. The idea is that by doing this the odds of an online profile of a minor actually being a trap, and thus the odds of a pedophile getting caught are increased enough to scare and/or catch the majority of online sexual predators. It's kind of like a "neighborhood watch" for the Web. I don't know how legal it is, but at least it makes sense statistically.

Of course, there's an easier way to catch pedophiles these days: Just visit the US House of Representatives.

Visualizing the Tenth Dimension

One of my readers commented that they were looking for this really cool flash presentation that I blogged about a while back -- it helps you visualize higher-dimensions all the way to 10-dimensions. Check it out! After this your brain will need a rest, and possibly a hard reboot -- but worth it.

By the way, a reader named Runde has discovered that this visualization is not exactly in accord with the view of string theorists or mainstream physics. You can read the criticisms here. Oh Well, that's too bad -- but I think it's really cool anyway because it is an exploration of higher dimensions from the perspective of true metaphysics (metaphysics in the philosophical sense, as opposed to new-age metaphysics).

Check out the STIRRpedia

The folks at STIRR have launched a cool idea, it's like a wikipedia for entrepreneurs in the STIRR community -- it's called the STIRRpedia, and my blog is listed there. Congrats to the STIRR team on a cool and useful service to the startup and venture communities!

Fascinating Stat: Of the World's 100 Largest Economic Entities 51 are Corporations, 49 are Nations

Wow -- As of 2000, of the world's 100 largest economic entities, 51 are corporations and 49 are nations.

A Proposal to Make the Media (and Society) Better

I am concerned by what I'm viewing in our national media lately. Viewed from outside (and also from wihtin the USA), it would appear that our nation is obsessed with, and plagued by, an increasing spree of horrible crimes and abuses of human rights. Is this really what it is like to live in America, or is this simply the media's extremely biased reporting?

The media of any social organization, whether a small community or an entire nation, serves as the primary means by which the members of that organization understand and assess the state of the whole. As such the media serves a function to a collective that is similar to "self-awareness" in an individual person. Self-awareness is a feedback loop. It not only serves as a mirror by which an organization can view reflections of its state, it also conditions the planning and execution of further actions by its organization. When people look in the mirror of the media, they not only understand the system they are in, but they also may make choices and further actions based on what they see there.

The pivotal role of media as the central influencer of societal psychology and behavior is often underestimated. And it is through this lens that I view the recent headlines, which are primarily focused on school killing sprees and abuse of children as of late -- with sadness and concern. By sensationalizing such tragedies, and providing lurid details over and over again, the media is actually contributing to the ongoing proliferation of these same behaviors. While I'm not suggesting that censorship is a better alternative, I do think that leading mass media organizations, in their blind quest for more attention and ad dollars, are behaving irresponsibly by sensationalizing -- indeed almost celebrating -- murder, torture, sexual abuse, and other horrible acts as if they are the latest attractions in some kind of societal variety show.

These atrocities should be reported, but the style and manner in which they are reported should be the opposite of sensationalism. They should be more like funerals -- which is after all what these stories are really about. There should be an element of sadness, respect for those affected, concern for those who might read or view such images and stories, and restraint. In particular details of how various horrible crimes were planned and executed are not necessary and not beneficial in telling the story -- they only serve to inspire, trigger and teach would-be copycats to do the same thing. Furthermore by rewarding perpetrators of such crimes with massive publicity (which in many cases is what such egomaniacs are hoping to achieve by committing their crimes) the media is actually playing right into their hands.

As usual I have a radical proposal to fix this: What if the media gave exposure to stories in direct proportion to the number of people actually affected by those stories?

What if stories were evaluated on several dimensions to determine how much exposure to give them -- for example, geographic range, number of people directly impacted, political relevance, etc? The size of a story would therefore be determined by its real effect on the population. Contrast this to what the news media does today where in fact the prominence of a story is often inversely proportional to the number of people directly impacted by it. The media currently amplifies the most shocking news, regardless of how many people are directly affected or involved. A shocking crime that directly affected only 2 people is quickly amplified to the main national headline of the day for a population of 300 million. That is simply out of balance with reality.

For example, horrible as they are, the recent school killings only directly affect a relatively tiny percentage of the national population: So why should they be the main focus of the national news headlines for weeks on end? According to this proposal, such stories would be mere blips on the collective radar. They would not be headline news for the entire nation, and/or if they were they would quickly fall out of the headlines. I'm not downplaying the importance of these stories to the affected people and communities -- nor am I downplaying the broader significance of the trends they may be indicative of -- I'm simply pointing out that these stories, tragic as they may be, get disproportionately too much national media exposure compared to other stories that affect much larger segments of the population such as for example -- stories related to the economy, the environment, the war and upcoming elections, etc.