I said I was in..... so now I am in.

 Between now and June 19th, I will finally be testing this concept that  mentioned ....TEN YEARS AGO.

http://pointlessyammering.blogspot.com/2014/12/

Lets see if I make it the whole way.

Fwd: Printing bricks from moondust using the sun's heat

Pretty cool. Just like a Cory Doctorow story

 

Printing bricks from moondust using the sun's heat
https://phys.org/news/2017-05-bricks-moondust-sun.html

Re: Umbo CV raises $2.8M seed to create smart security cameras that prevent crimes [feedly]

Um... Should we be leaving you alone with your computer now or are you already done?

On Mar 29, 2016 9:18 AM, "Doni Farkovits" <donifar@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes?

Thank you,

Doni Farkovits

@donifar

On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 7:52 AM, Josh Bierman <josh.bierman@gmail.com> wrote:

It's the minority report meets kickstarter.... Yay?
Or ....worrisome? Or.... What?

----
Umbo CV raises $2.8M seed to create smart security cameras that prevent crimes
// TechCrunch

 Umbo CV has raised a $2.8 million seed round for its security cameras, which use artificial intelligence to identify suspicious activity and prevent crimes before they happen. The Taipei- and San Francisco-based startup's funding was led by AppWorks Ventures, with participation from Mesh Ventures, Wistron Corporation, and Phison Electronics. Read More

----

Shared via my feedly reader

Re: Umbo CV raises $2.8M seed to create smart security cameras that prevent crimes [feedly]

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes?

Thank you,

Doni Farkovits

@donifar

On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 7:52 AM, Josh Bierman <josh.bierman@gmail.com> wrote:

It's the minority report meets kickstarter.... Yay?
Or ....worrisome? Or.... What?

----
Umbo CV raises $2.8M seed to create smart security cameras that prevent crimes
// TechCrunch

 Umbo CV has raised a $2.8 million seed round for its security cameras, which use artificial intelligence to identify suspicious activity and prevent crimes before they happen. The Taipei- and San Francisco-based startup's funding was led by AppWorks Ventures, with participation from Mesh Ventures, Wistron Corporation, and Phison Electronics. Read More

----

Shared via my feedly reader

Umbo CV raises $2.8M seed to create smart security cameras that prevent crimes [feedly]

It's the minority report meets kickstarter.... Yay?
Or ....worrisome? Or.... What?

----
Umbo CV raises $2.8M seed to create smart security cameras that prevent crimes
// TechCrunch

 Umbo CV has raised a $2.8 million seed round for its security cameras, which use artificial intelligence to identify suspicious activity and prevent crimes before they happen. The Taipei- and San Francisco-based startup's funding was led by AppWorks Ventures, with participation from Mesh Ventures, Wistron Corporation, and Phison Electronics. Read More

----

Shared via my feedly reader

Gun violence in America..... some facts and research

TLDR Version -

1) Conceal Carry laws have either no effect or very small effect deterring crime.

2) gun ownership and gun violence have high positive correlation.

3) Gun ownership and general violence have high positive correlation.

4) Florida is a sucky state to live in violence wise
5) at least we dont live in Alaska.

Detailed Info(read if you are pro gun, its more favorable to you than you expect)

(all data linked at bottom)

Lots of people have pointed to a recent study showing more deaths in summer time linking it to being social and out in the warm weather.... which does not explain Alaska which is both the most violent state overall and the state with the highest rate of gun deaths and cold and the fewest people per square mile (1.3).  As apposed to Hawaii which is both the least violent and has the lowest overall gun death rate, as well as lowest raw number of gun deaths, and is warm and reasonable densely populated (218.6/sq mile).....

OK, raw temp is not part of it.  Neither is raw density. 
What about Conceal Carry Laws?  Turns out, no one really knows (circa 2011).  The biggest proponents say it has a small but measurable impact.  The biggest detractors say it has no measurable impact.  No one has linked it to higher crime rates but all links to lower crime rates are suspect.  The best science can really say is that it does not seem to have any effect PROBABLY because the majority of CC licenses are taken out by upper class white men with little reason to draw who frequent safe neighborhoods and are rarely mugged.

Ok, moving on, guns and violent crime in general.

More interesting in that we swing the other way.  There is a clear correlation (circa 2011).  More guns correlates highly with more gun violence.  However the data is very hard to work with as information on gun ownership is sparse and considered a personal secret.  So, the "truth" in 2011 was that in any geographical area, up to the state level, high gun ownership was correlated with high gun violence.  However, there was no way to tell if that is people buying guns to feel safe in a violent area or violence was happening more often because people have access to guns.

Multiple new studies have found a more convincing link between high gun ownership and high violent crime.
"A new study, however, throws cold water on the idea that a well-armed populace deters criminals or prevents murders. Instead, higher ownership of guns in a state is linked to more firearm robberies, more firearm assaults and more homicide in general. [5 Milestones in Gun Control History]"

However even these studies admit that its correlation, not causation:
"The results do need to be interpreted with caution — this study method proves that more guns are linked to more gun crime and overall homicide, but not that access to guns directly causes this criminal uptick, said study researcher David Hemenway, the director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center."

Homicide rate in 2012 was 45.5/day or 16606 total

Gun deaths in 2014 was 91.95/day (includes homicide, accidental, suicide, other) or 33565/year.

Very interesting, those numbers

Gun related non-fatal injuries have been on the rise for years:
"There were 55,544 non-fatal injuries in 2011 resulting from assaults involving guns — up from 53,738 in 2010 and 44,466 in 2009, the CDC's database shows. Since 2001, the rate of gun injuries is the second highest in 11 years when adjusted for population."

and from the FBI website for 2014 statistics:
"Information collected regarding types of weapons used in violent crime showed that firearms were used in 67.9 percent of the nation's murders, 40.3 percent of robberies, and 22.5 percent of aggravated assaults. (Weapons data are not collected for rape.) (See Expanded Homicide Data Table 7, Robbery Table 3, and the Aggravated Assault Table)"

To be fair I found a number of opinion pieces that stated high gun ownership is correlated with low crime, however not a single one of them cited sources, used the CDC or FBI, or in fact did more than give an opinion..... I left them out.

I

I Was UNABLE to find an article that gave sources to show guns and high crime were not correlated. 

The ten states with the toughest gun laws according to a randomly chosen news site are listed here with their ranking (higher number is safer) and gun mortality rates per 100000 people.
PA      27th    11.2
MD     35th     9.7
IL       40th     8.6
CA     42nd     7.7
NJ      45th     4.7
RI       46th     5.3
CT     47th     4.4
NY     48th     4.2
MA     49th     3.1
HI       50th     2.6

Again, a nice neat and somewhat interesting correlation, not causation.

and of course Florida is #23 with 11.9 deaths per 100000.

and just for the fun of it, here is another random news website ranking the most dangerous states to live in (alaska is number one....always) and FL  come sin number 9, with a really dumb theory on why:

9. Florida
Violent crimes per 100,000: 460.0
Population: 19,552,860
Total 2013 murders: 972 (3rd highest)
Poverty rate: 17.0% (tied-14th highest)
Pct. of adults with high school diploma: 86.8% (19th lowest)

There were nearly 90,000 violent crimes reported in Florida in 2013, or 460 per 100,000 residents. Rapes and aggravated assaults largely contributed to the state's high crime rates, despite the incidence of rape falling more than 11% between 2012 and 2013. Property crimes were also high, with more than 3,100 committed per 100,000 Floridians in 2013, compared to only 2,700 nationwide. The warm climate and more densely populated areas may have contributed to the high volume of crimes committed. According to a study published by Matthew Ranson, an environmental economist at Abt Associates — a public policy research and consulting firm — warmer weather may contribute to higher crime rates: "Warm weather lets people mix socially… And it is only a matter of probability that sometimes that mixture may prove volatile."

This article is where I got a lot of pointers to good info - however it is 3 years old: http://www.factcheck.org/2012/12/gun-rhetoric-vs-gun-facts/

The newer article I referred to:
http://www.livescience.com/51446-guns-do-not-deter-crime.html

The paper that one talks about:
http://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797%2815%2900072-0/abstract

the FBI numbers:
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/violent-crime

the CDC numbers:

Firearm deaths by state: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/Firearm.htm

Florida overall mortality rate: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/states/FL_2014.pdf

Homicide mortality by state 2012:http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/states/HOMICIDE_STATE_2012.pdf

state pop density:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_population_density

---

we only WANT bad news

Recently someone asked me how I can allow my kids near wifi devices.  After all, she heard they cause cancer.

I had no idea what she was talking about, I thought this debate had died down a long time  ago. So I went looking.
The current fervor seems to have been started by a Forbes article in January (this one) that was immediately debunked by a Forbes article released three days later (this one).

Sadly, no one wants to hear the unimpressive news that everything is OK. If you look at the views on those two articles, the scary one has 300000+ views while the rebuttal has less than 10% of that number.

---

unsurprising but important

A short story on why the latest health news is rarely accurate:

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/23/8264355/research-study-hype

worth a look.  Nothing earth shattering but useful to have it written out for those of us who are not directly aware that most of what the news covers is sensationalized and not necessarily accurate..... that a single research paper does not in fact denote actual proof, but merely the need for further research and evidence.

Science is less about eureka moments and more about an overwhelming body of proof.

---

hokey but..... maybe true

According to Google (and we all know Google is always right), this three step item will make your life better at a zero cost (except the first few days when you feel stupid doing it) and a total time consumption of 105 minutes (i peg it at a five minute daily project, not 2).

• Write down three new things for which you're grateful, or
• Spend two minutes each day praising or thanking a person you know, and
• Commit to doing it for 21 days.

Thats an excerpt from this article: https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20141124163631-24454816-two-minutes-to-make-you-happier-at-work-in-life-and-over-the-holidays

posted on linkedin by the HR chief at Google.

While it smacks of new-agey bull.... its a low cost to prove it wrong.

105 minutes to happiness.... Im in.

---

FINALLY, proof that my way of life has value

fromt he ignoble awards:

High Achievement Through Procrastination

Stanford University's John Perry was the 2011 Ig Nobel literature honoree for his article about the Theory of Structured Procrastination. Perry holds that procrastinators can still become respected high achievers by working on important things as a way of avoiding spending time on even more important tasks.

Naturally Perry had something slightly less important to do than attend the Ig Nobel ceremony, but he left his theory to speak for him, as originally written in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

"If all the procrastinator had left to do was to sharpen some pencils, no force on Earth could get him to do it. However, the procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely, and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important."

WATCH THIS SPACE

IM WORKING ON IT

more for some than for others

from 43 Folders:

Links and Resources for the Chronically Disorganized

Merlin Mann | May 6 2008

N S G C D | Home

I'm still in a de-cluttering mode these days (more on that soon), so I was intrigued by this resource, which arrived this morning via Mrs. Folders.

While primarily a trade group for "professional organizers," the National Study Group on Chroic Disorganization site has some handy documents and links to help with identifying and solving pathological problems with clutter and hoarding.

If you can tolerate the site's gruesome ardor for PDFs, you'll find some informative and eye-opening stuff. From their fact sheets page:

• Are You Chronically Disorganized? - The obligatory self-test. Mmm…yeah, I am guilty of #17: "Is it difficult for you to part with things even though they have outlived their usefulness?"
• Time Management for the Chronically Disorganized - "Remember that you are procrastinating if you work on a trivial task while a more important one remains undone."
• Tips for Communicating with the Chronically Disorganized - "Avoid what does not work…Don't say: 'Just do it!'"

I really liked some of the Tips for Overcoming Procrastination for the Chronically Disorganized Individual or Household (excerpted): read more »

great amazon deal finder

http://www.junglecrazy.com

AWESOME 'toy' for the kids

probably gonna be recalled real soon for killing someone but:

http://gizmodo.com/376035/moov-is-the-lego-of-kids-vehicles-verdict-i-dont-want-to-grow-up

Moov is probably one of the most amazing toys you will see this year: a do-it-yourself 4-in-1 vehicle kit for kids aged between 5 and 12. Now it's a racer, now is a carver, now is a tricycle, now is a scooter. It's like LEGO Technics meet Duplo meet true pneumatic tyres, but with giant wood and plastic pieces, easy enough for a kid to build it and big enough to ride it at Warp 7 down the street, as you can see in the demonstration video after the jump.

Interesting online 'book'

From Cool Hunting:

"The 21 Steps" is a fast-paced, finely-tuned thriller that uses Google Maps to take the reader through the story's events. Written by British purveyor of spy thrillers, Charles Cumming, the story is told through Google's information bubbles with brief statements and images that take the reader from the streets of London to Edinburgh, Scotland with plenty of action and mini-cliffhangers along the way.

"The 21 Steps" is the first installment of the six-part "We Tell Stories" project by Penguin Books, which takes six contemporary writers and has them write a story based on a classic book. Cumming's classic was The 39 Steps by John Buchan. We spoke to Cumming about "The 21 Steps" and We Tell Stories.

http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2008/04/charles_cumming.php

Aeropress coffee review

http://inventorspot.com/articles/can_aeropress_deliver_perfect_cup_coffee_11982

Can The Aeropress Deliver The Perfect Cup Of Coffee?
by Toby, March 25, 2008

Would you believe that you can make a cup of espresso or cafe
americano in 30 seconds flat and it would be the best cup of coffee
you ever tasted? Would you believe that you only have to spend around
$30 on the coffee maker that produced the perfect cup of coffee? And
that a combination espresso/coffee maker is so portable you can take
it to your office with you? Could the perfect cup of coffee come from
such a modest-looking device as the Aeropress ®?

You may wonder what's so novel about the Aeropress, this simple
looking one-cup coffee maker that makes better coffee than a $2000
espresso machine or a $10 simple plastic cone and paper filter.

Most similar to a French press system, the Aeropress uses total
immersion and pressure, but the Aeropress has a separate filter and
plunger, and the filter is on the bottom, where ground coffee is more
evenly exposed to the pressure of the plunger. Cone shaped filter
systems tend to "burn" the ground coffee in the center of the cone tip
while under-brewing the coffee on the edges of the cone.

A truely good cup of coffee is not made with boiling water as a
temperature above about 210 degrees Fahrenheit, produces a bitter
taste. The Aeropress uses water at about 165 to 200, depending on
which coffee connoisseur you ask.

The process of coffee making is much faster using the Aeropress,
taking only 30 seconds, not counting the time it takes to heat the
water or grind the coffee. Place 2 - 3 scoops of ground coffee, pour
in water to the measured level on the filter, stir with the plunger
for 10 seconds, and then press the plunger for 10 - 20 seconds. Add
additional hot (not boiling) water for regular coffee or cafe
americano, or drink as is for espresso strength.

Grind size and type of coffee you use are to your taste. Espresso
grind is not necessary. If you don't like the taste of espresso
coffee, you don't need to use an Espresso bean. You can make a good
cup of coffee with Folger's or any store brand coffee. The Aeropress
makes it taste better.

If you choose to save the coffee for later use to make iced coffee,
cappuccino, latte, or other beverage, don't add water to what you have
made. Keep the coffee in concentrate form in the refrigerator. Because
you have not used boiling water, the taste will remain fresh for a few
days. You can also use this concentrated coffee to add to cake or ice
cream recipes.

Do I think the Aeropress makes the perfect cup of coffee? I think it
can.

Perfect coffee is in the tastebuds of the taster. The Aeropress
recognizes this and perhaps that is why the coffee maker is so lenient
with the grind and type of coffee you use.

If the taste of Folgers is what you like, you can make a perfect cup
of Folgers to your taste.

If you love French Roast, you can buy it fresh roasted, grind it
fresh, and make your perfect espresso style French Roast or French
Roast americano.

You get to experiment with different beans and different grinds. And
doing this, I believe you can make a perfect cup of coffee with the
Aeropress.

Aeropress is a product of Aeorbie® and was invented by its inventor/
engineer President, Alan Adler. Aeropress is available at coffee shops
and gourmet stores nationwide. It is also available on Amazon.com.
(Read those customer reviews!) And watch the short video on the
Aerobie website to see how easy it is to use and clean the Aeropress!

Coffee Thesis

This is a cool looking vacuum coffee maker.... I just don't see how it
is different from any other conventional vacuum coffee maker....
What makes it THESIS worthy?
oh yeah, forgot to mention it is someone's thesis work.....
And the comment of allowing it more time in contact with the
grinds.... then yo need a courser grind to avoid bitter brew....
whatever, still cool.
http://www.yankodesign.com/index.php/2008/03/25/coffee-making-magic/

An interesting take on surviving apocolypse

http://imakethings.com/DIY_Survival.pdf

the wrong way to do a glowing rug

wow... talk about the opposite of the KISS principle.... I would have used piezoelectric materials.... that would be pressure sensor, energy and light source all at once.

course I suck at execution so mine would have died at the drawing table while this one is looking for manufacturers....

FootLume Glowing Rug Solves Midnight Stubbed-Toe Problem

The FootLume carpet design is basically a high-tech rug jammed with electroluminescent lights and weight sensors. As you stroll across your bedroom in the dark on your way to, you know, get a drink of water, the rechargeable rug lights up to guide you on your way. No bright light to wake your sleeping partner, fewer stubbed toes—perhaps not if you're as bleary as I am when I wake up. Designed by two students at London South Bank University, the prototype was shown at the Ideal Homes show in the hopes of attracting a manufacturer. So it may see the light of day, um... night as a real product, hopefully without the cheesy butterfly design. [Livescience]

 

(2023 update, Footlume is now a lightup sneaker company in Europe..... )

cool house

Pritzker Architecture Prize-winner—and former Russ Meyer script writer—Rem Koolhaas created 10 years ago one of the most amazing houses on the planet: the Maison à Bordeaux. This house is a wonder of engineering with moving walls, lifting bedrooms, platforms and automated windows designed to allow complete free movements to its owner, a man who has to move on a wheelchair after an almost-fatal car accident. Now, Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine are showing their film Koolhass Houselife across America, a fascinating movie about this living home that seems taken out of a science fiction movie. We talked with Ila about the house and their work around it.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

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Located in Bordeaux, France, this house is like a space station waiting to be launched into orbit. Looking at it, you would expect the X-Men to walk by at any time. However, it also has a warm, sunny quality that makes it absolutely amazing. Koolhass Houselife is a film that captures these qualities perfectly, but adds another, more practical dimension to it by showing this high-tech home from the perspective of Guadalupe Acedo, the housekeeper and the person who actually has to take care of keeping all this amazing design alive.