Ned Gulley’s Blog. Resident buzzwords: synthetic biology, ambient displays, swarm robotics, wise crowds.
Posted in Biology on Nov 30th, 2004
If you are occasionally dragged down by the thought that religious conservatives are pushing creationism into the science curriculum of our public schools, it may provide some (mostly comic) relief to hear about religion masquerading as science in countries far away from our own. In the recent Wired News story Cattle, the Research Catalyst, we [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 24th, 2004
In the last twenty years, introductory language instruction has improved significantly through the efforts of people like Dartmouth’s John Rassias. Learning a new language is more fun, more effective, and faster than it used to be. But beyond this, technology has provided some amazing extra help in the last few years through everything from computer-based [...]
Posted in Books on Nov 23rd, 2004
Beyond Belief by Elaine Pagels is a book about vanished Christianities. The religion (and Bible) we know today took centuries to solidify and be codified into regulated Catholic practice. For a long time, there were a variety of groups, all calling themselves Christians, who believed a number of different things about this man Jesus. We [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 18th, 2004
When I go through my referral logs every now and again, I always find several searches for “dog tranquilizers” leading people to my site. My nephew Ben, famous Elkin high school graduate and salutatorian, is responsible for this. (Although now that I think about it, this post is going to draw people for the same [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 16th, 2004
I have the self discipline to keep myself from peeking in a friend’s medicine cabinet, even their liquor cabinet, but when it comes to bookshelves, I have to hover and peruse. What does this person like? Do they have books I have read? Books I want to read? Strange books? Runs on fiction by a [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 15th, 2004
Playing around with a new look for the site definitely makes clear the value of Cascading Style Sheets. With the help of some of Jesse Ruderman’s excellent web development bookmarklets like Edit Styles and Ancestors, you can find a site you like, grab (steal) some of the styles, and painlessly put them in place on [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 12th, 2004
Before the noise of the election dies away completely, you should take a look at some of these electoral maps. They’ve been showing up all over the place, but I would direct your attention in particular to the purple county-by-county map near the bottom of this page: Tim Pierce - maps maps maps maps maps. [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 11th, 2004
Helium balloons stay aloft with no effort, but they’re impossible to steer and easily buffeted by strong winds. Airplanes have marvelous control, but they run out of gas after a few hours. It would be ideal if you could combine in one vehicle the lighter-than-air benefits of a balloon and the controllable aspects of an [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 10th, 2004
Here’s an interesting tidbit from Wired News: People Are Human-Bacteria Hybrid. According to the article, there are actually more bacteria along for the ride on your body (100 trillion) than you have cells in your body (several trillion). It really doesn’t even make sense to talk about “you” without also including a massive bacterial complement. [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 8th, 2004
Competitions to spur technological innovation are much in the news these days. They seem to have the magic power to make exciting things happen quickly. In the last few days, maverick airplane designer Burt Rutan officially claimed the $10 million Ansari X Prize for building the privately funded SpaceShipOne. Ansari Prize founder Peter Diamandis credits [...]
