Plato Sucks

To begin ACM’s study of philosophy, let’s jump somewhere randomly in the middle.

What is philosophy?  We will get to that.
Why have you probably read Plato while possibly never having heard of Bertrand Russell?  Good question.
What does the latter think of the former?  See for yourself…

 

 

 

And presumably, it still is…

[Bertrand Russell’s Unpopular Essays via Google Books]

Conway’s Game of Life

The Game of Life is a cellular automaton where rules govern the next state of the grid based on the current configuration.

  • Underpopulation – A living cell with less than 2 neighbors dies.
  • Overpopulation – A living cell with more than 3 neighbors dies.
  • Balance – A living cell with 2 or 3 neighbors survives.
  • Reproduction – A dead cell with more than 2 neighbors comes alive.

Here’s a sample of the fun to be had…

(click to play)

The Import/Export feature allows you to load and save different setups.  Post your own in the comments!

[sixfoottallrabbit]

When the lights go down in the city?

I want to be there.

CA_city_lights_map(click for slightly larger version)

“City lights data are a mosaic of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) images.  These images were collected at night (10/1994-3/1995) and include visible light emissions from cities, towns, and industrial sites.”

[Full version available in the excellent FRAP Maps collection from the CA Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.]

Amazon.com Pricing Aid

You know we’ve come a long way as a civilization as soon as you can get this kind of information about the price of a board game.  (And you can tell a lot about that civilization by how often it changes the price of them.)

CamelCamelCamel will tell you how much of a deal you are or are not getting, historically, on every item on Amazon.  They also cover Best Buy and a few other retailers too.

[via BoingBoing’s Cool Tools]
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