The First 3-D Image of a Mandelbrot Fractal Is Stunning

Here's a video of a deep zoom into the Mandelbulb with full parallax/perspective.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDd8R0xlkNA

clipped from io9.com Behold the "Mandelbulb." This is a three-dimensional image created using the Mandelbrot set, a mathematical structure whose edges form fractals. The result is something that looks like an alien tree. Which isn't surprising, since fractals emulate patterns in nature. this is the "first true three-dimensional representations of the Mandelbrot set." It was created by computer programmer Daniel White from Bedford, UK. clipped from www.skytopia.com The original Mandelbrot is an amazing object that has captured the public's imagination for 30 years It's known as a 'fractal' - a type of shape that yields (sometimes elaborate) detail forever, no matter how far you 'zoom' into it It's found by following a relatively simple math formula. But in the end, it's still only 2D and flat - there's no depth, shadows, perspective, or light sourcing. What we have featured in this article is a potential 3D version of the same fractal. Gotta love the luminous sorbet style texture of the quadratic version of the Mandelbulb

The Top 10 Quotes by Confucius.

clipped from www.globalone.tv Confucius says: The Top 10 Quotes by Confucius clipped from api.ning.com clipped from www.globalone.tv 1. "Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself." 2. "Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance." 3. "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." 4. "Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." 5. "The Superior Man is aware of Righteousness, the inferior man is aware of advantage." 6. "Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart." 7. "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do." 8. "He who learns but does not think, is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger." 9. "He that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools." 10. "If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?"

Merry Christmas

clipped from www.gotohelltown.com

Copenhagen: Look to the Sea?

The oceans may be largely overlooked at the climate conference in Copenhagen, but they will bear the brunt of climate change.

clipped from www.scientificamerican.com The oceans control climate change. Not only do the world's waters absorb the bulk of the extra heat trapped by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, they also absorb the bulk of the extra carbon dioxide. And that means one thing: a more acid ocean.  Warmer water also takes up more space. That's led to sea level rise of 17 centimeters over the 20th century, enough to erode or submerge some 60 extra feet of beach on the U.S. East Coast.  Nothing agreed in Copenhagen or hereafter will be able to stop either this thermal expansion of the seas or the rising acidity of the waters. That would take actually reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, perhaps through devices to pull it out of the air.  Already, human impacts on the ocean are large, from spurring jellyfish to dominate to boosting algae blooms and dead zones. The Baltic Sea that Copenhagen guards is the world's largest such dead zone. With water, water everywhere, perhaps it's time to think.

14-Defining Characteristics of Fascism

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

clipped from www.commondreams.org American Fascism Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14-defining characteristics common to each: 1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays. TOP 2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

Bush Shoe Thrower -- Karma is a Size 12

clipped from www.tmz.com It was a shoe-icide mission -- an angry Iraqi broke into a press conference in Paris yesterday and fired his shoe at the same guy who threw some footwear at President George Bush last year. clipped from www.copytaste.com clipped from www.tmz.com Just like the Bush incident, the new shoe-thrower missed his target -- Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi. But moments after the shoe flew, Muntadhar's brother tried to settle the score, by taking off his own shoe and trying to smack the attacker with it. No one was injured in the shoe'ding.

Video Scenes Pulled from Peoples' Thoughts

“Some scenes decode better than others,” said Gallant. “We can decode talking heads really well. But a camera panning quickly across a scene confuses the algorithm.

clipped from www.livescience.com Dr. Gallant and his colleague Shinji Nishimoto have used fMRI to scan the brains of two patients as they watched videos. "A computer program was used to search for links between the configuration of shapes, colors and movements in the videos, and patterns of activity in the patients’ visual cortex. "It was later fed more than 200 days’ worth of YouTube internet clips and asked to predict which areas of the brain the clips would stimulate if people were watching them. "Finally, the software was used to monitor the two patients’ brains as they watched a new film and to reproduce what they were seeing based on their neural activity alone. "Remarkably, the computer program was able to display continuous footage of the films they were watching — albeit with blurred images." This appears to be the first instance in which video scenes were recovered; previous work has been done to recover spatial memories seen in the hippocampus via fMRI.

Swiss referendum 'reflects unease with Islam'

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk As a Swiss referendum backs a ban on the building of minarets, the BBC's Islamic affairs analyst Roger Hardy looks at the often uneasy relationship between Islam and Europe. But it is not just in Switzerland that the presence of growing Muslim communities has polarised opinion. Since the attacks of 9/11 in the United States, and the bombings in Madrid and London, Muslims have often been regarded as a security threat. For governments anxious to maintain social harmony at home and good relations with Muslim governments abroad, this poses a set of difficult dilemmas. And for many of the estimated 15 million Muslims in Western Europe, the Swiss vote will be seen as one more sign that - whatever governments may say - they are simply not welcome.

Remember those dreamlike images of Dubai? Guess what. You WERE dreaming

The Guardian says you were dreaming, oh well....

Dubai's fantasy skyline seems to have been built on sand

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk Monument to mammon . . . the Palm Island offshore property development in Dubai. Photograph: Jorge Ferrari/EPA I am phenomenally stupid. Stupid in every conceivable way except one: I'm dimly aware that I'm stupid. This means I spend much of my time assuming the rest of the world knows better, that everyone else effortlessly comprehends things I struggle to understand. Things like long division, or which mobile phone tariff to go for. In many ways, this is a comforting thought, as it means there's a limitless pool of people more intelligent than myself I can call on for advice. clipped from www.copytaste.com via

The Arabs Have Stopped Applauding Obama

"American arms had won a decent outcome in Iraq, but Mr. Obama would not claim it—it was his predecessor's war. Vigilance had kept the American homeland safe from terrorist attacks for seven long years under his predecessors, but he could never grant Bush policies the honor and credit they deserved. He had declared Afghanistan a war of necessity, but he seems to have his eye on the road out even as he is set to announce a troop increase in an address to be delivered tomorrow."

clipped from www.copytaste.com clipped from online.wsj.com 'He talks too much," a Saudi academic in Jeddah, who had once been smitten with Barack Obama, recently observed to me of America's 44th president. He has wearied of Mr. Obama and now does not bother with the Obama oratory. He is hardly alone, this academic. In the endless chatter of this region, and in the commentaries offered by the press, the theme is one of disappointment. In the Arab-Islamic world, Barack Obama has come down to earth. He has not made the world anew, history did not bend to his will, the Indians and Pakistanis have been told that the matter of Kashmir is theirs to resolve, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the same intractable clash of two irreconcilable nationalisms, and the theocrats in Iran have not "unclenched their fist," nor have they abandoned their nuclear quest. Mr. Obama's election has not drained the swamps of anti-Americanism. Mr. Obama has himself to blame for the disarray of his foreign policy