The numbers that control your life. You're identified by dozens of numbers. Your phone number, your driver's license number, your social security number, your zip code, your license plate, your credit card numbers. I find these numbers fascinating. Who distributes them? What can they be used for? How can you use them? How are they issued?
"Why do kids who can't master high school end up as some of the most powerful people in the world? What makes a startup succeed? Will technology create a gap between those who understand it and those who don't? Will Microsoft take over the Internet? What"
"Last night I heard that Wesson oil doesn't soak through food. Well, that's true. It's not dishonest; but the thing I'm talking about is not just a matter of not being dishonest; it's a matter of scientific integrity, which is another level."
to perpetuate the spirit and sensibilities of the late Athanasius Kircher, SJ. Our interests extend to the wondrous, the curious, the singular, the esoteric, the arcane, and the sometimes hazy frontier between the plausible and the implausible
Standard paper sizes like ISO A4 are widely used all over the world today. This text explains the ISO 216 paper size system and the ideas behind its design.
by Scott Aaronson. I have an ingenious idea for a company... My company will be the one that packages ... in 25-cent cardboard boxes, then resells the boxes for up to $300 apiece.
Adapted from a Z Media Institute talk, June 2007 - « UN Charter which says that—in Article 2—the threat or use of force in international affairs is a crime. “Threat or use of force.” »
Noam Chomsky is a noted linguist, author, and foreign policy expert. On January 15, Michael Shank interviewed him on the latest developments in U.S. policy toward Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan.
None of us can know the answers for sure until our own time comes, but the few individuals who have their brush with death interrupted by a last-minute reprieve can offer some intriguing insights.
Her sinking with the loss of almost 1,200 lives caused such outrage that it propelled the U.S. into the First World War. But now divers have revealed a dark secret about the cargo carried by the Lusitania on its final journey in May 1915. Munitions they found in the hold suggest that the Germans had been right all along in claiming the ship was carrying war materials and was a legitimate military target.
"Only one third of a search engine is devoted to fulfilling search requests. The other two thirds are divided between crawling (sending a host of single-minded digital organisms out to gather information) and indexing (building data structures from the results)." By George Dyson