Hulleye Comes By!

Wired News has a series starting on internet crime. The first piece they have up covers the story of a cybercrook who specialized in credit card fraud. Caught in a sting operation in November of 2002, the man who identified himself as ‘El Mariachi’ on message boards would lead a double life for the next two years working for the FBI. As he reported on credit card scammers, dodged his former associates, and stopped criminals from defrauding the 2004 presidential campaign, he also tried to keep his life together. A fascinating tale that looks at the face of modern crime, and crime-stopping techniques. via /.

Try envisioning the tenth dimension from this fascinating flash presentation that explains everything from the first to the tenth dimension. My head started to tingle after the fifth. It’s meant to illustrate Rob Bryanton’s book Imagining the 10th Dimension, which largely concerns itself with superstring theory. However, the easy confidence Brytanton uses to explain all possible dimensions is just a completely joy. I’m particularly delighted that I understood every single concept he mentioned and I’m sure most of you can as well.

Today, British autistic savant Daniel Tammet is 10,220 days, or 245,280 hours old (that’s 28 years for you non-savants out there). He is blessed/cursed with the kind of savantism made famous by Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man (formerly known as “idiot” savantism), but Daniel manages to sustain relatively normal social interaction with others. (He credits growing up in a family of nine children, and thus being forced to socialize, for his normalcy relative to other savants, of which there are only about 50 known in the world.)

A lot of savants can do things that no normal person can do, like tell you what day of the week August 18, 1876 was without consulting an almanac, in about five seconds (it was a Friday), multiply 27 to the power of four in his head (531,441) or memorize and recite long strings of numbers with ease. But there are a few things he can do that even most savants cannot. For instance, he once learned functional Icelandic in a week, and recited pi to several thousand places from memory (without errors — it took more than five hours).

So how does he do it? As a recent profile of Daniel on 60 Minutes revealed, the answer may shed light on the abilities of all savants: he is a synesthetic. That is to say, he associates numbers with colors, just as composer Franz Liszt claimed to have associated music with color. (Hip-hop artist Pharrell Williams also claims to have synesthesia.)

Interesting note: one man who has done some crucial research in this area is Oxford professor of developmental psychopathology Simon Baron-Cohen, cousin of Borat star Sascha Baron-Cohen.

Also seems like Daniel has a blog.
via mental floss

Wordy is very addicting once you get the hang of it! This game is a cross between Boggle and Tetris, or maybe a wordfind puzzle. As the letters drop, click on adjacent letters to spell a word. You can go in any and all directions, and even change direction, as long as the letters are next to each other. Then click again on the last letter. If that word (of at least three letters) is in their dictionary, the tiles will disappear. But you have to hurry!

this is why people think americans are stupid. it’s most likely been edited to only show the stupid ones but man it is shockingly scary.

i can’t wait for this to be released. by the way, it’s been almost two months and i still haven’t been able to find a wii anywhere in this damn city. every time i go to a store, they get sold out the day before. it’s blood frustrating. eventually i’ll get my hands on one. don’t you worry. like i said, wii all love cricket.

Via The New Yorker

Every weekday, a truck pulls up to the Cecil H. Green Library, on the campus of Stanford University, and collects at least a thousand books, which are taken to an undisclosed location and scanned, page by page, into an enormous database being created by Google. The company is also retrieving books from libraries at several other leading universities, including Harvard and Oxford, as well as the New York Public Library. At the University of Michigan, Google’s original partner in Google Book Search, tens of thousands of books are processed each week on the company’s custom-made scanning equipment.

Google intends to scan every book ever published, and to make the full texts searchable, in the same way that Web sites can be searched on the company’s engine at google.com. At the books site, which is up and running in a beta (or testing) version, at books.google.com, you can enter a word or phrase—say, Ahab and whale—and the search returns a list of works in which the terms appear, in this case nearly eight hundred titles, including numerous editions of Herman Melville’s novel. Clicking on “Moby-Dick, or The Whale” calls up Chapter 28, in which Ahab is introduced. You can scroll through the chapter, search for other terms that appear in the book, and compare it with other editions. Google won’t say how many books are in its database, but the site’s value as a research tool is apparent; on it you can find a history of Urdu newspapers, an 1892 edition of Jane Austen’s letters, several guides to writing haiku, and a Harvard alumni directory from 1919.

Keep reading.

The next time you’re looking for an interesting read, pick an unusual Wikipedia article from Wikipedia’s article on Wikipedia’s Unusual Articles.

This page is for Wikipedians to list articles that seem a bit unusual. These articles are valuable contributions to the encyclopedia, but are somewhat odd, whimsical, or something you wouldn’t expect to find in Encyclopædia Britannica. We should take special care to meet the highest standards of an encyclopedia with these articles lest they make Wikipedia appear idiosyncratic. If you wish to add articles to this list, a broad consensus amongst contributors has identified two main guidelines. If the article in question meets one or both of these categories then it could possibly be deemed “unusual”:

1. The article is something you would not expect to find in a standard encyclopedia.
2. The article contains some form of juxtaposition that most people would find unusual. eg Killer Cockroach, Henry VIII in Space, edible computers.

Note that this is a broad definition. Some articles may still be considered “unusual” even if they don’t fit the guidelines above.

For unusual contributions that are not so valuable, see Wikipedia:Bad Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense.

back in 1997, one of the greatest artificial intelligence feats took place. a computer beat a human (one of the greatest players of our time, garry kasparov) at the game of chess. that day was a leap forward for computers and they have undoubtedly excelled since. since then, things have only gotten simpler with faster processing power and greater advances in artificial intelligence. who knows, one day we may even reach the level of HAL 9000.

The Economist has a great article this week on A.I., describing how, when it comes to Othello and backgammon, computers now have the upper hand. Today they are creeping up on all board games, Scrabble, poker and bridge will be theirs, as well soon enough. The only tough challenge remaining? Go.

Go was invented more than 2,500 years ago in China (Confucius considered it a waste of time). It is a strategic contest in which two players take turns to place stones on the intersections of a grid with 19 lines on each side. Each player tries to stake out territory and surround his opponent. The rules are simple but the play is extraordinarily complex. During a game, some stones will “die”, and some will appear to be dead but spring back to life at an inopportune moment. It is often difficult to say who is winning right until the end.

Check out the article for the rest of the scoop on how computer scientists are using new algorithms that “teach” the computer to play a large number of random games and make educated moves based in the outcome so that in the very near future, even Go will be gone.

There’s an interesting debate going on at the Guardian about why English-speakers use the word Allah to refer to the Muslim version of God:

There is no logical reason for this. Why use an Arabic word in English-language news reports when there is a perfectly good English word that means exactly the same thing?

Various Arabic words — jihad and sheikh, for example — have crept into everyday usage because no precise equivalent exists in English, but “Allah” is not of that type. It is simply the normal word that Arabic speakers use for “God” — whether they are Muslims or not. Arab Christians worship “Allah” too, and the first verse of the Arabic Bible informs us that “In the beginning Allah created heaven and earth.”

The young women had survived the car crash, after a fashion. In the five months since parts of her brain had been crushed, she could open her eyes but didn’t respond to sights, sounds or jabs. In the jargon of neurology, she was judged to be in a persistent vegetative state. In crueler everyday language, she was a vegetable.

So picture the astonishment of British and Belgian scientists as they scanned her brain using a kind of MRI that detects blood flow to active parts of the brain. When they recited sentences, the parts involved in language lit up. When they asked her to imagine visiting the rooms of her house, the parts involved in navigating space and recognizing places ramped up. And when they asked her to imagine playing tennis, the regions that trigger motion joined in. Indeed, her scans were barely different from those of healthy volunteers. The woman, it appears, had glimmerings of consciousness.

Keep reading. All 7 pages are worth it.

How to stay on the periodical and use your mouth. Click to listen.

snake charming is an ancient indo-subcontinental art which is now dying out. traditional snake charmers, or sapera’s as they are known, aren’t making enough money to support themselves in Pakistan and have filed and official request with the govt. of pakistan to help support them.

“We have been given the gift of living with snakes by Pirs (holy men), as snakes are believed to possess the cure for many illnesses. Yet there is no respect or encouragement for us,” said Arjun Jogi at the weekend council.

“Our ancestors told us that humans are more dangerous than snakes. We are more comfortable living with snakes who have provided for us for generations,” said Badal Jogi, while his nine-year-old grandson, Moti, played with a black serpent near the family’s hut in a village on the outskirts of Hyderabad.”We give sutti (venom) to our boys at birth, this makes them immune to snake bites,” the boy’s father, Khamisa, said as he watched his son with pride.

the bullshit generator v 2.0. via adnan

So Falak is back in the news. This time in the Toronto Star.

Falak’s 9/11 imagery, banned from MTV, draws publicity for budding rockers

January 20, 2007

Tim Lai
Entertainment Reporter
It starts off like many other hard rock videos, with a female silhouette dancing amid strobes and smoke before cutting away to the streets of New York City.

Then four words appear: Based on tragic events.

A south Asian man, looking shattered after a long night of drinking, exits a cab. And then controversy begins – flashbacks to flying lessons, farewell videos and letters, open maps, airport security screening and takeoff. Perhaps the most infamous image of this century concludes the video, when the plane punctures the second World Trade Center tower.

“It’s just a story about loss,” said Zaed Maqbool, drummer for Falak, a Pakistani hard rock outfit based in Toronto. “We’re not sympathizing with anyone.”

The imagery for the song “Yadein II,” which means “memories,” has stirred expected and unexpected commotion in their native country for Falak, which in Arabic and Islamic mythology is a great, omnipotent serpent capable of swallowing the entire universe.

While most TV stations, including internationally available ARY, are airing the video, MTV Pakistan has decided against it, deeming it too controversial. That, in turn, has helped members of Falak reap publicity and stretch its profile in Pakistan.

“Since when I first picked up a guitar, since when I first formed a band, I’ve always had this urge to come back home,” said frontman Farid Khan over the phone from Karachi, a city of 15 million people.

Politically charged Falak doesn’t shy away from contentious issues, evident in the anti-George W. Bush song, “Blood for Oil.”

“We’re a band with a cause,” said Khan. “We talk about social justice, we talk about corruption.”

What started off as a video release in Pakistan for Khan, who was visiting family after being laid off from his HR job in Toronto, has turned into numerous media interviews, two well-received gigs and a buzz bigger than the response they have had here.

Falak was supposed to open a park concert for some of Pakistan’s biggest acts in front of thousands today, but organizers abruptly cancelled the event earlier this week.

Nevertheless, Khan said the band, whose members are all in their 20s, has three labels trying to sign it, but he will sit down with the entire group back in Toronto to make the right decision.

Khan and guitarist Siddiq Mohammad, a banker temporarily based in Dubai, have been the faces and voice of Falak in Pakistan as the others couldn’t get time off from their day jobs to make the trip home.

Bassist Shibil Siddiqi is currently in Afghanistan doing development work, while keyboardist Raheel Gauba is in the U.S. working as a software developer. Maqbool is getting experience in the music industry by working for a booking agency here.

The boys hope to reconnect in Toronto in February and add to their 200-plus gigs in the city since they formed five years ago after meeting through connections in the city’s tightly knit Pakistani community.

You may have moshed to them at the Reverb and the Docks or when they opened for Junoon, one of Pakistan’s biggest rock exports.

They hope to complete their first album by the end of March, then launch it simultaneously with a second video. Khan is confident Falak will have signed with a label the next time the group heads back to Pakistan, where they fit into an untapped niche.

Khan said Pakistani acts are better known for folk and pop music, but hard rock reaches only a small percentage of the population. But with a population of more than 165 million people, a small percentage in Pakistan is more than some of Canada’s largest cities – combined.

“Coming over here, you don’t see many hard rock bands performing well on stage and we do that with a tight sound,” said Khan.

The recent barrage of two-faced (or otherwise unusually shaped) animals just won’t stop coming.

Hot on the heels of the two-faced cow and the six-legged cow comes a new entrant in the odd animal hall of fame.

But unlike the previous examples, which have been hailed by Metro (if, admittedly, not by anybody else) as a sign of the imminent apocalypse, the birth of this two-headed pig in China is being hailed as a miraculous conception by the farmers.

beautiful galleries of people writing on and vandalizing walls.

because the iPhone is too hard to use, and the market for them is too small (only 1 billion people!), why not reach a market which has no limit, please welcome yourself to the iPotty!

more on iPoop here.

Some more predictions about the year 2100. If predictions by the Oxford Hair Foundation come to pass, the number of natural redheads everywhere will continue to dwindle until there are none left by the year 2100.

The number sounds rather Orwellian. But New Scientist has come up for the expected climatological changes by the year 2100.

Think back to the hottest summer you can remember. Now imagine a summer like that every year. For those of us who are still around by the end of the 21st century, this is what we can expect, according to a new index that maps the different ways that climate change will hit different parts of the world. The map reveals how much more frequent extreme climate events, such as heatwaves and floods, will be by 2100 compared with the late 20th century. It is the first to show how global warming will combine with natural variations in the climate to affect our planet.

Again, this is primarily for Urdu speakers so I apologize in advance. Tariq Ali, has recently published a book titled The Leopard and the Fox. A compilation of three drama’s scripted in 1985 for the BBC about the politics between Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and General Zia ul Haq. Ali’s interview is a grim and honest look at Pakistan’s past as he also speaks about how the BBC did not allow him to air his drama unless it was censored from all mention of American involvement. You can read more about the interview and the book here at this Dawn article. If anyone would volunteer translating the interview for me to English, I and other readers I’m sure, would highly appreciate it. Bhutto was one of the most charismatic political leaders that Pakistan has had. He could move the masses with just one speech. His attitude towards the UN is shown clearly as he walks out on the Security Council. The parallel of Musharraf’s non-committing attitude is also clearly visible in a number of Zia clips about elections and other matters. Since we all know history is cyclical, maybe the same fate awaits the current leader. The ending climaxes with a speech of Bhutto’s. Let it be known I am neither supporting or condoning either person. Both persons were extremely corrupt and known for intimidating political opponents, nepotism, and extremely selfish and opportunistic. Enjoy. You can find the interview here.

humour at it’s best.

A startup company developing chipless RFID ink has tested its product on cattle and laboratory rats.

Somark Innovations announced this week that it successfully tested biocompatible RFID ink, which can be read through animal hairs. The passive RFID technology could be used to identify and track cows to reduce financial losses from Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy scares.

The company… plans to license the technology to secondary markets, which could include laboratory animals, dogs, cats, prime cuts of meat, and military personnel.

Co-founder Mark Pydynowski said during an interview Wednesday that the ink doesn’t contain any metals and can be either invisible or colored. He declined to say what is in the ink, but said he’s certain that it is 100% biocompatible and chemically inert. He also said it is safe for people and animals.

“It could help identify friends or foes, prevent friendly fire, and help save soldiers’ lives,” he said. “It’s a very scary proposition when you’re dealing with humans, but with military personnel, we’re talking about saving soldiers’ lives and it may be something worthwhile.”

A samurai sword wielding vigilante has come to the rescue of two Police officers when they were attacked by an armed gang in South Shields, England.

As one of them stabbed at a Policeman with his knife, a mysterious do-gooder appeared from nowhere and attacked him with a samurai sword.

One of the burglars began running away but was stopped by the stranger who struck him on the arm with the sword.

Two of the criminals were arrested, but in true hero style the samurai disappeared before police could speak to him.

when we were kings is one of the best films out there. i highly recommend you watching it. in any case, take some time out and wish muhammad ali a happy 65 years. it’s his birthday today. also take a moment to watch what is considered to be his best fight ever versus cleveland williams back in 1966. this is another short video of the same fight that you should see of his. do yourself a favour and watch it and just see the man dance like you’ll never see a boxer dance again.

‘As the plane slowly banks toward the desert mainland, you gasp at the even more improbable vision ahead. Out of a chrome forest of skyscrapers soars a new Tower of Babel. It is an impossible half-mile high: taller than the Empire State Building stacked on top of itself. You are still rubbing your eyes with wonderment as the plane lands and you are welcomed into an airport shopping emporium where seductive goods entice: Gucci bags, Cartier watches and one-kilogram bars of solid gold. The hotel driver is waiting for you in a Rolls Royce Silver Seraph. Friends had recommended the Armani Inn in the 170-storey tower, or the 7-star hotel with an atrium so huge that the Statue of Liberty would fit inside it, and service so exclusive that the rooms come with personal butlers; but instead you have opted to fulfill a childhood fantasy. You always have wanted to play Captain Nemo in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

‘Your jellyfish-shaped hotel, the Hydropolis, is, in fact, exactly 66 feet below the surface of the sea. Each of its 220 luxury suites has clear plexiglass walls that provide spectacular views of passing mermaids and of the famed ‘underwater fireworks’: a hallucinatory exhibition of ‘water bubbles, swirled sand and carefully deployed lighting’. Any initial anxiety about the safety of your sea-bottom resort is dispelled by the smiling concierge. The structure has a multi-level fail-safe security system which includes protection against terrorist submarines as well as missiles and aircraft.

Keep reading the review.

I’m not really sure how I feel about Dubai as yet. I was there recently after about fifteen years and to me it felt like I was living in a giant mall. I’m not sure whether you can buy culture and consumers. What sort of a culture are they trying to develop? Is it even possible to develop a culture over a span of ten years? Does Dubai have the consumer power to keep up with this growth that they are injecting?

From Scientific American:

Recently a number of natural compounds–such as resveratrol from red wine and omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil–have begun to receive close scrutiny because preliminary research suggests they might treat and prevent disease inexpensively with few side effects. Turmeric, an orange-yellow powder from an Asian plant, Curcuma longa, has joined this list. No longer is it just an ingredient in vindaloos and tandooris that, since ancient times, has flavored food and prevented spoilage.

A chapter in a forthcoming book, for instance, describes the biologically active components of turmeric–curcumin and related compounds called curcuminoids–as having antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal properties, with potential activity against cancer, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease and other chronic maladies. And in 2005 nearly 300 scientific and technical papers referenced curcumin in the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed database, compared with about 100 just five years earlier.

Scientists who sometimes jokingly label themselves curcuminologists are drawn to the compound both because of its many possible valuable effects in the body and its apparent low toxicity.

More here.

For Urdu speakers only unfortunately, welcome to the set of The Green Garden.