john commoner is an ordinary person.

Subway systems of the world, presented on the same scale.

BLDGBLOG Book - a set on Flickr

Pirates - GOOD Magazine

Computer Program Self-Discovers Laws of Physics

Yep, it won’t be long now before we’re running from the Cylons (hell, my iPhone is already better than me).

science:

Not only are computers making new scientific discoveries on their own, they are apparently also rediscovering old ones. Wired:

In just over a day, a powerful computer program accomplished a feat that took physicists centuries to complete: extrapolating the laws of motion from a pendulum’s swings. (…)

The program started with near-random combinations of basic mathematical processes — addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and a few algebraic operators.

Initially, the equations generated by the program failed to explain the data, but some failures were slightly less wrong than others. Using a genetic algorithm, the program modified the most promising failures, tested them again, chose the best, and repeated the process until a set of equations evolved to describe the systems. Turns out, some of these equations were very familiar: the law of conservation of momentum, and Newton’s second law of motion.

Scanwiches

This dude scans sandwiches.  Nobody ever would have anticipated this use of document scanner technology.  Just when you think you understand what will happen, how something will be used, what people will do - forget it.  Deviants reign.

By the way, the sandwiches scan beautifully and are making me hungry.