What do busy busy bumblebees and sinister serial killers have in common? They both stray far from their home when doing plying their trade, according to scientists from the University of London. When foraging for nectar, a bumblebee will create a ‘buffer zone’ around its nest that it won’t drink the flowers in, so that predators and parasites don’t follow it back to its home. The researchers found that this buffer zone was very similar to the pattern created by serial killers when they kill their victims. By studying the paths of bumblebees they hope to give forensic experts better clues as to where a killer might live based on his killings. We’d better make sure we keep the bees alive then.
Category Archives: Blog
Get over it, Orson
Via pretty much everywhere on the sf grapevine comes news that Orson Scott Card is being a reactionary ass-hat again, writing a column for the Mormon Times that states – yes, states, not infers – that same-sex marriage “marks the end of democracy in America”.
WTF?
I guess I’m just lucky to have been raised by parents who taught me to value people by their actions and character rather than their gender, skin colour or sexual preference, but I just don’t understand this attitude. I mean it really makes no sense to me. Why does Card care? Really? How does gay marriage harm him, or anyone else? How does it undermine democracy?
Card’s not a homophobe, though – or so he’d have us believe. I think I’ll leave it to Yonmei at the Feminist SF blog to shred that claim:
He riffs a bit on how
Multi-touch goes “global”
Here at Futurismic, we’ve talked about multi-touch interfaces before. However, today, Microsoft researchers have revealed a development of the technology which is, well, something of a conceptual leap.
While flat-panel displays might be the current interface zeitgeist, Todd Bishop (amongst others) believes this development means “Microsoft thinks the shape of things to come might be a sphere” –
Microsoft researchers are taking the wraps off a prototype that uses an internal projection and vision system to bring a spherical computer display to life. People can touch the surface with multiple fingers and hands to manipulate photos, play games, spin a virtual globe, or watch 360-degree videos …
Sphere is a cousin of the Microsoft Surface tabletop computer, already being used in retail and hospitality settings. The underlying hardware for Sphere is sold commercially by Global Imagination of Los Gatos, Calif., but Microsoft researchers made numerous enhancements and developed specialized software.
In a broader sense, the project reflects Microsoft’s belief that many more surfaces will become computer displays, with embedded microprocessors, in the years to come.
To wrap your head around some of the potential applications of this muti-touch globe, check out the video!
For me, it’s with the omnidirectional video / surveillance applications that this technology really begins to show its value …
[story via Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog. Image by likeyesterday, via Flickr]
Virgin Galactic unveils WhiteKnightTwo space-plane
I’m guessing that if you have any interest in commercial space travel, you’ve already had a bit of a swoon over the pictures of WhiteKnightTwo, the Virgin Galactic launch vehicle unveiled yesterday by Richard “Virgin” Branson and Burt “SpaceShipOne” Rutan.
Still, no one’s gonna object to me reposting one from the Wired coverage, I assume:
Very pretty. I was disappointed to find that my press invite to the unveiling must have gotten lost in the mail*, but BoingBoing‘s own Xeni Jardin was there with a camera crew, and she’s promising video footage imminently, so I won’t miss out entirely.
In the meantime: Rutan and Branson in white shirts with no ties against a pale blue sky – could the Wired snapper have made those images any more simultaneously secular and messianic than they already are? And who does sensawunda PR work better than Branson, other than science fiction authors? Discuss.
[ * – The same thing happened to my VIP ComicCon passes and complementary Burning Man tickets, apparently. Meh. ]
Gargantuan collection of writing advice
In a brief flurry of self-aggrandisement, I’d like to point out that I’m in the habit of collecting author blog posts which contain advice on writing, and then publishing them in big batches on my own blog, Velcro City Tourist Board.
This time out, I’d waited rather longer between posts than usual. End result? One huge post, containing nearly fifty writing advice links.
Which author blogs do you find most consistently useful for advice on the actual craft and work of writing? Share your links in the comments!