Items of Interest

Knitted Sky Map

Australian software engineer Sarah Spencer hacked a 1980's knitting machine to create a massive equatorial star map, with the plan to exhibit it at the Electromagnetic Field Camp festival on Aug 31st, 2018. As a result, the star map is aligned with the night sky on the date of the festival!

The Everyday Calendar

Simone Giertz, the robotics enthusiast who initially became known for her useless robots, has launched a Kickstarter campaign for a device called the Everyday Calendar. The device allows you to touch a day on the screen to illuminate the hexagon for that day. The idea is the device aids you in keeping to habits and routines. The project has already 10x'd its goal and has 28 days to go.

Quantum > Classical

An international group of quantum computing researchers led by Robert König at the Technical University of Munich designed a set of shallow depth quantum circuits that operate in parallel. When this circuit is used to solve a particular math problem it offers conclusive proof that quantum circuits are computationally more powerful than classical ones working under the same constraints.

Dandelion Flight

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have discovered a method of flight used by dandelion seeds that has never before been observed in nature. The seed's bristles form ring shaped air bubbles above the seed as air passes through and these bubbles, called "the separated vortex ring" create resistance and act as a parachute, allowing the dandelion seed to travel on the air up to a kilometer in distance.

The Pudding

I recently re-discovered The Pudding, a fantastic datavis site that uses visual essays to explain cultural ideas, such as the proliferations of repetitive pop lyrics and hip-hop vocabulary, a visual history of every Air Jordan and gender parity in the U.S. and U.K. governments.

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