Adactio: Links

SpaceWarps

Zooniverse have done it again. Now you can help in the hunt for sources of gravitational lensing.

It’s informative. It’s fun. It has genuine scientific value.

The canonical smart city: A pastiche by Adam Greenfield’s Speedbird

Sorta sci-fi from Adam.

Consider this a shooting script for one of those concept videos so beloved of the big technology vendors.

Science Hack Day is coming to your city! by Ariel Waldman

Want a Science Hack Day where you live? Make it so!

Why Americans Are the Weirdest People in the World

A truly fascinating and well-written article on how changes are afoot in the worlds of psychology, economics, and just about any other field that has performed tests on American participants and extrapolated the results into universal traits.

Given the data, they concluded that social scientists could not possibly have picked a worse population from which to draw broad generalizations. Researchers had been doing the equivalent of studying penguins while believing that they were learning insights applicable to all birds.

Science Fiction Film as Design Scenario Exercise for Psychological Habitability: Production Designs 1955-2009

A white paper that looks to sci-fi films as potential prototypes for habitats for humans in space, with an emphasis on dealing with the psychological issues involved.

There Was Once a Certain Kind of Cinema

A magnificent piece of writing from Michael, examining the influence of Sergio Leone on George Lucas.

Write The Future by Tom Hunter — Kickstarter

Now this looks like my kind of event:

A new micro-conference on science, technology, communication and fiction, organised by the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Inside the Battle of Hoth: The Empire Strikes Out

A damning analysis of the Empire’s military strategy at the battle of Hoth, complete with illustrations. The comments are good too:

Guys, cut Palpatine some slack. He’s still in his first term as Emperor…

Ensia

A lovely new responsive(ish) website dedicated to science and the environment.

Brighton Science Festival Edo Wonderpark Hack Day

There’s going to be mini Science Hack Day at Lighthouse as part of this month’s Science Festival in Brighton. Come along — it’ll be fun.

The Creeping Garden

I, for one, welcome our slime mould overlords.

The slime mould is being used to explore biological-inspired design, emergence theory, unconventional computing and robot controllers, much of which borders on the world of science fiction.

Interview with Lauren Beukes about Shining Girls

Lauren talks about The Shining Girls and the tools she uses to write with.

The paradoxes of time travel by David Lewis

A well-written white paper on time travel. Alas, it relies a bit too much on semantic nitpickery to offer any real insight.

DNA molecule plush on Think Geek

Brilliant little magnetic cuddly nucleobases from Jun. You get all four bases to combine to your heart’s content: cytosine, guanine, adenine, thymine — take that, Pokémon.

Out of Eden — A Walk Through Time

I like this idea of slow journalism: taking seven years to tell a story.

Snapshot Serengeti

The latest project from Zooniverse is, as you would expect, an extremely enjoyable and useful way to spend your time: classifying animals that have captured in camera trap images.

The opening tutorial is a lesson in how to do “on-boarding” right.

The changing face of computers on screen

A look at the depiction of computer hardware and peripherals in sci-fi movies over time.

Olaf Stapledon

The out-of-copyright books of Olaf Stapledon are available to download from the University of Adelaide. Be sure to grab Starmaker and First And Last Men.

Mark Lynas » Lecture to Oxford Farming Conference, 3 January 2013

This is a superb talk by Mark Lynas who once spearheaded the anti-GM movement, and who has now completely changed his stance on genetically-modified crops. Why? Science.

You are more likely to get hit by an asteroid than to get hurt by GM food. More to the point, people have died from choosing organic, but no-one has died from eating GM.

Science Hackday Dublin

Dublin is going to play host to its second Science Hack Day at the start of March. It looks like it’s going to be a fantastic event (again!) but they need sponsors. Do you know of any?

Squaremans | Gaming Culture Blog

Ostensibly about gaming (and written by Matt Colville who works in the games industry), this blog actually has a lot of interesting observations on sci-fi cinema. I like it.

Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog

A fascinating blog documenting the secrecy around nuclear weaponry, past and present, by Alex Wellerstein of the American Institue of Physics.

ElectionBot, KineSutra and Other Mad Creations From Science Hack Day | Wired Design | Wired.com

A nice round-up of the most recent Science Hack Day in San Francisco.

Matter: A Look At A New Way To Read About Science - Download The Universe

Just a few hours after launch, here’s the first review of Matter complete with some speculation on where it might go.

Science Hack Day San Francisco 2012 - a set on Flickr

Oh My Science! It looks like the most recent Science Hack Day in San Francisco was great.

Under Tomorrow’s Sky

Design Fiction at work, imagining a possible future city.

Data Visualization Reinterpreted by VISUALIZED on Vimeo

Peter Saville talks about the enduring appeal of his cover for Unknown Pleasures.

I like to think of all the variations and mashups as not just tributes to Joy Division, but tributes to Jocelyn Bell Burnell too.

The Humble eBook Bundle (pay what you want and help charity)

This looks like an excellent deal: buy eight sci-fi books for as much money as you think is fair. Lauren Beukes, Paolo Bacigalupi, Cory Doctorow …all good stuff.

Sight on Vimeo

A well-executed sci-fi short film on augmented reality and gamification.

Your brain on pseudoscience: the rise of popular neurobollocks

I like this skewering of the cult of so-called-neuroscience; the self-help book equivalent of eye-tracking.

The Past 100 Years of the Future

This (free!) PDF looks like it could be a nice companion piece to Chris and Nathan’s recent book:

Human-computer interaction in science-fiction movies and television.

It’s a work in progress. You’ll notice a lot of placeholders where the images should be. That’s because the studios are demanding extortionate rates for screenshots.

You, A Rocket Scientist? | Fast Company

Nice! A feature on Ariel and her spacehacking ways.

Make it So | Interface Design Lessons from Sci-Fi

Chris and Nathan’s book is finally out. I’m going to enjoy reading through this.

Geeks, Swords and the Snow Crash Movie: Neal Stephenson in Conversation | Tor.com

A really enjoyable interview with Neal Stephenson.

Warren Ellis » How To See The Future

The opening keynote from Warren Ellis for this year’s Improving Reality. I’d like to walk into space with this man.

Space Elevator Science - Climb to the Sky - A Tethered Tower by Michael Laine — Kickstarter

A Kickstarter project for space elevator research? Oh, hell yes!

Sponsorfied | Science Hack Day SF

The next Science Hack Day in San Francisco will be at the start of November. It would undoubtedly be a great event …but it needs sponsorship.

Do you know anyone who could help out?

Cole Valley Cell Tower Authorization Approved By Planning Commission - Tantek

Tantek’s adventure in participatory civic governance.

The Kitschies present… Beukes, Miéville and Ness

An evening with Lauren Beukes, China Miéville and Patrick Ness in London the week after dConstruct. Sounds like fun!

A Tall Tail by Charles Stross | Tor.com

A terrific little conspiracy theory short story from Charles Stross set at last year’s (very real) 100 Year Starship gathering.

Science Hack Day Eindhoven 2012 winners compilation on Vimeo

Some of these hacks created at the Science Hack Day in Eindhoven are seriously nuts. That’s “nuts” as in “brilliant”.

Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury - Rachel Bloom - YouTube

In light of the recent death of Ray Bradbury, I think we should all honour his memory by revisiting this song (featuring some future-friendly headgear).

I’ll feed you grapes and Dandelion Wine and we’ll read a little Fahrenheit 69…

Welcome to Life: the singularity, ruined by lawyers - YouTube

A satirical parody of post-singularity existence by Tom Scott inspired by Jim Munroe’s Everyone in Silico and Rudy Rucker’s Postsingular.

Fictional magazine covers from Blade Runner - a set on Flickr

Magazine covers created by Tom Southwell for background scenes in Blade Runner.

Hull 0, Scunthorpe 3 | Christopher Priest, author

Oh, dear. Christopher Priest is being a bit of a cock.

Good writer though.

ARC 2012: The future is on its way - New Scientist

A new publication from New Scientist dedicated to future thinking. The first issue has articles and stories from Bruce Sterling, Margaret Atwood, China Miéville, and Alastair Reynolds.

2012 Shortlist | Arthur C. Clarke Award

Well, that’s my reading list sorted then.

Sci-Fi Airshow :: Home

I want to go to there!

This is what Photoshop is for. Be sure to watch the slideshow.

Galaxy Zoo and the new dawn of citizen science | Science | The Observer

A lovely piece of mainstream news reporting on Galaxy Zoo and the other Zooniverse projects, and the broader role of Citizen Science.

Thinking About Futurism | Science & Nature | Smithsonian Magazine

A collection of articles on the tricksy art of Futurism from—amongst others—Bruce Sterling, Annalee Newitz, and Matt Novak, creator of the Paleofuture blog.