OpenProcessing is a 'flickr'ish place for the Processing community to share their sketches, comment on each other's pieces, etc.

OpenProcessing - Exhibition Space for Processing Community

If almost every species on Earth was killed some 250 million years ago, how did our ancient ancestors survive and evolve into us?

Seed: Suspending Life

Was this crisis avoidable?

George Soros: I think it was, but it would have required recognition that the system, as it currently operates, is built on false premises. Unfortunately, we have an idea of market fundamentalism, which is now the dominant ideology, holding that markets are self-correcting; and this is false because it's generally the intervention of the authorities that saves the markets when they get into trouble. Since 1980, we have had about five or six crises: the international banking crisis in 1982, the bankruptcy of Continental Illinois in 1984, and the failure of Long-Term Capital Management in 1998, to name only three.

Each time, it's the authorities that bail out the market, or organize companies to do so. So the regulators have precedents they should be aware of. But somehow this idea that markets tend to equilibrium and that deviations are random has gained acceptance and all of these fancy instruments for investment have been built on them.

There are now, for example, complex forms of investment such as credit-default swaps that make it possible for investors to bet on the possibility that companies will default on repaying loans. Such bets on credit defaults now make up a $45 trillion market that is entirely unregulated. It amounts to more than five times the total of the US government bond market. The large potential risks of such investments are not being acknowledged.

The Financial Crisis: An Interview with George Soros

Myth #1. Energy Independence Is Good

Myth #2. Ethanol Will Set Us Free

Myth #3. Conservation Is a "Personal Virtue"

Myth #4. We Can Go It Alone

Myth #5. Some Geek in Silicon Valley Will Fix the Problem

Myth #6. Cut Demand and the Rest Will Follow

Myth #7. Once Bush Is Gone, Change Will Come

The Seven Myths of Energy Independence

When the Marquis de Custine traveled around Russia in 1839, he observed in his diary: "Russia is a nation of mutes; some magician has changed sixty million men into automatons." Some Russians say that their compatriots have become once again a "nation of mutes," who sit glued to the state-dominated television absorbing the continuous propaganda glorifying their leaders. Perhaps. But as one Russian liberal commented recently, "nations are mute only for a time. Sooner or later the day of discussion arises."

The Truth About Putin and Medvedev

Geoff Huston:

So the question is: Have we gone past end-to-end? Are we heading back to a world of bewilderingly complex and expensive networks?

The End of End to End?

Medicare is in serious fiscal trouble, but no one seems to be paying attention. The Medicare trustees recently issued their annual report, and the news is not good. If current trends continue, Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund will be depleted in 2019. To make good on the health care benefits promised to Americans, future generations face a tax bill of $85 trillion (measured in today’s dollars). That makes the mortgage bailout, which is unlikely to cost more than $1 trillion, look like chicken feed. Why are we ignoring a calamity that will affect every American? What can we do to avoid fiscal disaster?

Ante up.

Medicare’s Bad News: Is Anyone Listening?

Income and net worth are two important factors in determining economic well-being in the United States. This report looks at net worth and asset ownership by various socioeconomic factors, including monthly income. The data come from the Survey of Income and Program Participation.

Net Worth and the Assets of Households: 2002

SEDUCTIVE AND intoxicating, playfully surreal and inexplicably moving, "Jellyfish" is almost impossible to pin down or even categorize. Artistic, daring, surprising, it resists fitting into words at all.

Underlying "Jellyfish's" sense that the world is a more remarkable place than we may imagine is its willingness to embrace surrealism as a story element. Working with a remarkable sureness of touch, the film's directors understand that what's imaginary and what's real can be made to look exactly the same on film, and that what makes logical sense is less important than deeper emotional truth. Yes, "Jellyfish" says, it's a wonderful life, not in that old-fashioned style we've perhaps tired of but in a surprising new and magical way all its own.

'Jellyfish'

Piotr Wozniak's quest for anonymity has been successful. Nobody along this string of little beach resorts recognizes him as the inventor of a technique to turn people into geniuses. A portion of this technique, embodied in a software program called SuperMemo, has enthusiastic users around the world. They apply it mainly to learning languages, and it's popular among people for whom fluency is a necessity — students from Poland or other poor countries aiming to score well enough on English-language exams to study abroad. A substantial number of them do not pay for it, and pirated copies are ubiquitous on software bulletin boards in China, where it competes with knockoffs like SugarMemo.

SuperMemo is based on the insight that there is an ideal moment to practice what you've learned. Practice too soon and you waste your time. Practice too late and you've forgotten the material and have to relearn it. The right time to practice is just at the moment you're about to forget. Unfortunately, this moment is different for every person and each bit of information. Imagine a pile of thousands of flash cards. Somewhere in this pile are the ones you should be practicing right now. Which are they?

Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm