http://hicksbogan.com/2013/09/06/solomon-aschs-experiments-on-social-conformity-with-videos/
The Asch Conformity Experiments During the 1950s, Solomon Asch conducted and published a series of laboratory experiments that demonstrated the degree to which an individual’s own opinions are infl…
http://blogdramedy.wordpress.com/2013/10/02/its-enough-to-make-you-cancel-your-reservation/
A vacation is supposed to be your time away from the crazy. Remind me never to travel to any of the same vacation spots these people have booked.
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/07/douglas_engelbart_mouse/
(I missed this in July)
Douglas Engelbart — the father of the computer mouse and so many of the other basic concepts that drive our personal machines and the modern internet — has died at the age of 88.
They and their families were en route to Christmas Island. They were rescued by the Norwegian container ship the Tampa. Lawyers fought for them in the Australian court. Politicians argued to keep them out of the country.
Two weeks after their rescue, as planes crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, these faceless, nameless boat-people turned from troublesome “queue jumpers” into potential terrorists.
But New Zealand took the children and their families when Australia would not.
The Tampa affair was the start of Australia’s debate over asylum seekers arriving by boat.
For 12 years, the argument has grumbled with each new batch of boats, getting louder again as another federal election looms.
Full story at http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/the-tampa-children-reflect-on-their-rescue-12-years-on/story-fni0fiyv-1226708300676
Last Sunday (that’s Sunday the 18/8/13 for you time travellers) there was a big robot expo-thing at QUT called Robotronica, the future is now. My dad took me and my sisters to see what was going on and at 11:00am it started with a robot that walked around a hall avoiding obstacles and people whilst around the corner, with the help of some touch-screen monitors, there was a giant interactive playhouse where you could adjust gravity, make a wooden doll dance and throw building blocks around.
We then moved on to the kinect section and I discovered a glitch where if you turn 90 degrees in any direction then leant back a bit your virtual self would completely spazz out.
Then later on there were demonstrations of a new robot that can hear commands, sit, walk, get up on it’s own etc. But what made it stand out was the fact that it was commercially available for… wait for it… Only $2,300! (that’s cheap for a robot with all those functions) The assistants made them dance, walk around, have conversations with each other and the audience and 2 of them actually had a small fight. (they pushed each other over a lot)
Then one of them ran out of battery and fell flat on it’s face, causing several of the audience to laugh.
Later on there was a 3D printer skyscrapers thingy where you used 3D printed parts to make skyscrapers.
Then there was the 7-bit hero performance, which to say the least, was LOUD! it was basically an electronic rock concert but in the background there was a game that people in the crowd could join with a special I-phone app and actually interact with things whilst the music for the game was played by the guys on stage.
And Then there was the finale…
First there was a speech performed by one of the android robots (he had some funny lines like: “And to entertain the human-slaves, oops did I say that out loud?” which was pretty funny if you ask me) then there was a lazer show which I thought was pretty basic then a whole bunch of quad-copters flew up from behind some trees and made patterns, an animated kangaroo, a cat face that sang along to the music and some epilepsy-inducing flashes before hiding back behind the trees.
So that was pretty cool.
LInk: http://www.robotronica.qut.edu.au/
Oh, and all the food/drink was at rip-off prices. Well, you can’t have everything I guess :P