Extra Future

Hi, I’m Phil Nelson, a writer, developer, and audio-visual maker of stuff. I have been making stuff online for over 25 years. I run RetroStrange and Set Side B. Good to see you.

Blog Archives

Tag: science

  • Humans May Be Able To Regrow Teeth Soon

    One less reason to avoid meth.

  • CERN Physicists May Have Discovered Higgs Boson Particle

    [I’ll just leave this here for when the universe implodes.][link]

    [link]: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/science/cern-physicists-may-have-discovered-higgs-boson-particle.html?_r=1 “CERN Physicists May Have Discovered Higgs Boson Particle – NYTimes.com”

  • How To Cure Cancer: Shoot HIV At It

    Using a modified, harmless version of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, they inserted a series of genes into the white blood cells. These were designed to make to cells target and kill the cancer cells. After growing a large batch of the genetically engineered white blood cells, the doctors injected them back into the patients.

    There are days when the world is stranger than I expected, and those are days like today.

  • Gigantic New SuperOrganism with ‘Social Intelligence’ is Devouring the Titanic

    [Not science fiction, somehow:][link]

    >Scientists believe that this strange super-organism is using a common microbial language that could be either chemical or electrical -a phenomenon called “quorum sensing” by which whole communities “sense” each other’s presence and activities aiding and abetting the organization, cooperation, and growth.

    The Titanic is being eaten by a huge, complex, distributed, monster. Sounds just peachy.

    [link]: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/04/gigantic-new-superorganism-with-social-intelligence-is-devouring-the-titanic-todays-most-popular.html “Gigantic New SuperOrganism with ‘Social Intelligence’ is Devouring the Titanic (Today’s Most Popular)”

  • iPad Who?

    >[Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organization have discovered a giant underground chamber on the moon, which they feel could be used as a base by astronauts on future manned missions to moon.][link]

    Moon base!

    [link]: http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/ISRO_finds_cave_in_moon_can_be_used_as_base_station_for_astronauts-nid-79567.html “ISRO finds cave in moon, can be used as base station for astronauts – Technology news”

  • Advice on keeping a laboratory notebook

    [This is good advice for keeping any kind of notebook][link]. Lab notebooks have to be robust, since science often requires fire, freezing, or dangerous chemicals.

    From the same article, [this handy chart compares kinds of pens][pens] and how their ink stands up to erasure, water, methanol, ethanol, acetone, and baking.

    [link]: http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/notebookadvice.htm “Advice on keeping a laboratory notebook”
    [pens]: http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/images/penexp2.jpg “Pen abuse notes”

  • Scientists build the world’s first anti-laser

    >[The device, created by a team from Yale University, is capable of absorbing an incoming laser beam entirely.][link]

    and

    >Instead they think it could be used in next-generation supercomputers which will be built with components that use light rather than electrons.

    are enough for me today. The bad news is that this only absorbs light. It will not stop you from being melted into a puddle by the heat.

    [link]: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12453893 “BBC News – Scientists build the world’s first anti-laser”

  • Creating A Personal Radio Station With iTunes Smart Playlists

    This is a recipe for using iTunes Smart Playlists to create a personal radio station from your music library, which will play old favorites, new jams, and obscure stuff in ratios which you can tune yourself. The purpose of this isn’t to tell you how to handle your music, but rather to help you get more of out it. As such, consider every single rule to be a suggestion based on what works for me. This is also slightly involved for the iTunes novice, but shouldn’t take you more than 15 minutes, and what is 15 minutes weighed against a new life of constantly rocking the fuck out?

    The first thing we have to do is create several source playlists which we’ll use to funnel the proscribed ratios of classics, newness, and weirdness into your earholes.

    ## Parts Is Parts

    These are the bits and bobs which will, when combined, make your music-listening experience much better. *I suggest making a new folder called Radio to hold these playlists, so they won’t clutter your sidebar.*

    * Radio Core
    * Match **All** of the Following
    * Media Kind: Music
    * Last Skipped is not in the last 15 days
    * Special exemptions for stuff you don’t want to show up in the radio (e.g. live shows, or your own music)
    * No limit on size

    * Radio Most Played
    * Match **All** of the Following
    * Playlist is Radio Core
    * Limited to 1 GB
    * Ordered by Most Played

    * Radio Neglected
    * Match **All** of the Following
    * Playlist is Radio Core
    * Last played is not in the last 1 month
    * Limit to 500 MB
    * Order by random

    * Radio New
    * Match **All** of the Following
    * Playlist is Radio Core
    * Date Added is in the last 1 month
    * Limit 500 MB
    * Order by random

    * Radio Top Rated
    * Match **All** of the Following
    * Playlist is Radio Core
    * Rating is Greater Than 3 stars
    * Limit 1 GB
    * Order by Random

    * Radio Sprinkler
    * Match **All** of the Following
    * Playlist is Radio Core
    * Playlist is NOT Radio New
    * Playlist is NOT Radio Neglected
    * Playlist is NOT Radio Most Played
    * Playlist is NOT Radio Top Rated
    * Limit 500 MB
    * Order by random

    The most important part of the above source playlists is the “Limit” field. We’re using it to tune just how much of each playlist gets into our overall radio playlist. Want to hear more of your favorites? Increase the limit. Now that we’ve got our source playlists set up, we can pour them into our main Radio playlist.

    ## And Finally, Your Radio Station

    This is your proper Radio playlist, the one you’ll click “play” on and listen to until it is time for bed.

    * Radio [Whatever!]
    * Match **Any** of the Following
    * Playlist is Radio New
    * Playlist is Radio Neglected
    * Playlist is Radio Most Played
    * Playlist is Radio Top Rated
    * Playlist is Sprinkler
    * No limit
    * Click the “Shuffle” button

    This is the setup we use here at EFHQ North, and it works swimmingly. My own iTunes Radio just played Just Can’t Get Enough by Yaz, followed by Arlo Guthrie’s Los Angeles and R.E.M.’s Crazy. That is awesome. Comments and suggestions go to the usual place.

  • Doctors Save Girl’s Hand By Grafting It To Her Leg For 3 Months

    [This is exciting and very future:][link]

    >In July, nine-year-old Ming Li lost her hand in a tractor accident. Her arm was too damaged to reattach it, so they grafted it to her leg instead. Three months later, her hand’s back on her arm and regaining function.

    [link]: http://gizmodo.com/5692472/doctors-save-girls-hand-by-grafting-it-to-her-leg-for-3-months “Doctors Save Girl’s Hand By Grafting It To Her Leg For 3 Months”

  • Don’t Panic. We’ve Got Time.

    >[The data that once suggested the Sun is orbited by a distant dark companion now raises even more questions.][link]

    The good news is we have about 15 million years before another one is scheduled. Personally I blame [Vogon][vogon] bureaucracy. (via [Warren Ellis][ellis])

    [link]: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/25420/ “Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: The Death of Nemesis: The Sun’s Distant, Dark Companion”
    [vogon]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogon “Vogon”
    [ellis]: http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=10056 “Warren Ellis’ post on this subject”