A chain reaction across 8 cities, 6 time zones and 3 continents

Drop a coin in a gumball machine in Palo Alto and, a while later, you receive your gumball, except this happens by way of a kicking skeleton leg in Chicago, a ball bouncing off a sub-woofer in Munich, a pouring tea-pot in Shanghai, and countless steps more, involving everything from a Tickle-Me Elmo doll to a floating pillar of bubbles.

This feat of engineering is the brainchild of global design company IDEO, ranked as one of the 10 most innovative companies of 2008 by Fast Company, and it's worth checking out.

Yes, clocking in at 14 minutes, it's a bit much to watch in one stretch, but keep it running in the background and check in on it once in a while. It's absolutely fascinating.


IDEO Global Chain Reaction from IDEO Labs on Vimeo.

For more on possibly the world's largest Rube Goldberg machine, check out the article on IDEO Labs.

Nate Silver Botches Oscars, Blames "Huge Jackass" Mickey Rourke

As it turns out, stats golden boy Nate Silver's forecasts for last night's Oscars were correct only on 4 out of 6 counts. He missed on Best Supporting Actress (Penelope Cruz won over Taraji P. Henson) and on Best Actor (Sean Penn won over Mickey Rourke). He blogs about the outcome on FiveThirtyEight.com, and delivers a few gems in the category of sour grapes:

On Mickey Rourke losing Best Actor: "It probably doesn't help to be a huge jackass (like Mickey Rourke)... But is this information helpful for model-building? Probably not. (Unless perhaps we had some way to quantify someone's jackassedness: Days spent at the Betty Ford Center?)"

Liveblogging 13 minutes after missing Best Supporting Actress: "Remember when the Oscars used to be interesting and the Super Bowl used to be boring?"

Incidentally, the categories where he failed where two that I had guessed correctly, but my thought process in coming up with those guesses had absolutely nothing to do with statistics.

This in contrast to presidential elections, which are an inherently statistical process, and where anyone's guess on who might win inevitably involves some form of probabilistic reasoning...

Along these lines, it would be interesting to know more about Nate Silver's methodology and how it compares to his electoral model, but I haven't been able to find this information. Would welcome any leads...

Microfinance as Enforced Capitalism?

A good friend of mine, who is currently working in microfinance in Nicaragua, raises an interesting question on her blog.

Is microfinance a new sort of colonialism for western capitalist systems?

It's certainly a pertinent question. As large banking institutions have betrayed our trust and fallen out of our favor, the appeal of microfinance, as the gentler, fairer, more culturally-friendly form of capitalism, has grown. However, with our very faith in capitalism shaken, it's hard not to question all means by which we spread its ideology around the world.

But that's all I'm going to say here.
Instead, check out her blog, and join the discussion there.

Nate Silver Takes on the Oscars

You may remember Nate Silver from the 2008 U.S. presidential elections, where he gained nationwide recognition, beyond baseball fans and stats geeks, by using statistics to correctly predict the electoral outcome in 49 out of the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia. The published his predictions on his website, FiveThirtyEight.com.

As his latest project, he's taken on the Oscars, airing this Sunday. And here are his results...

- Best Pic: Slumdog Millionaire (99.0%)
- Director: Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire (99.7%)
- Leading Actress: Kate Winslet (67.6%)
- Leading Actor: Mickey Rourke (71.1%)
- Supporting Actress: Taraji P. Henson (51.0%)
- Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (85.8%)

Some surprising picks... I am still betting on Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona for Best Supporting Actress, and on Sean Penn in Milk for Best Actor. We'll see who wins, me or statistics...

I will say, I'm happy not to see Benjamin "Forrest Gump The Sequel" Button in the lead for Best Film.

And, speaking of Best Films, I am still mourning over the massive and completely unfair diss of my favorite movie of the year.



Check out the article on NYMag for more on Nate Silver's Oscar picks.

The Spotless Mind

Believe it or not, Dutch scientists have conducted a research study suggesting that a common heart medicine, beta-blockers, might actually help people banish painful memories.

The researchers induced negative memories on a group of subjects by exposing them to images of spiders accompanied by mild electric shocks. The next day half of the subjects were given a dose of beta-blockers while the others received a placebo pill. When exposed once again to the same spider-shock combo, those subjects who had taken the beta-blockers showed less fear than the control group, even after the effects of the meds had worn off.

They had not forgotten the spiders or electric shocks of the previous day, but somehow the negative aspects of their memories had diminished.

How is this possible? One hypothesis rests on the intricate process by which we recall memories:

"Each time a memory is recalled it changes a little, and the new version is recorded in the long-term memory stash via brain chemical fluctuations in a process called reconsolidation. The beta-blockers could interfere with [certain other] brain chemicals, blocking reconsolidation of the emotional component of the memory, but leaving the rest of the memory intact."

So, in a sense, no memory is truly being erased -- though sensationalism sells, as do parallels to Gondry movies starring Kate Winslet. But then again, what's left when we erase the content of our memories? A bunch of empty facts that, stripped of their emotional relevance, will likely be truly forgotten soon after.

For more on these experiments, check out these articles from BBC News and Discovery Magazine.

Sci-Fi Prosthetics

A prosthetic limb that looks like it came right out of a sci-fi movie? On a girl clearly giving someone the come-hither eyes?



This may be the stuff of dreams for a certain demographic raised on fantasy books and video games. But while the urge to fill this post with thinly veiled cyber-porn allusions is great, what came to mind when I read about this is in fact the theme of this blog. This is a perfect instance of the uncanny valley phenomenon.

A whole lot of thought has gone into making prosthetic limbs look natural and lifelike, but they often remain eerily creepy. Much creepier, as it turns out, than this sci-fi inspired model, a conceptual design by Hans Alexander Huseklepp at AHO, which makes no pretense whatsoever of resembling a flesh-and-blood human limb.

The uncanny valley theory would suggest that this is because this sci-fi prosthesis is sufficiently non-humanlike, that we zero in on its human-like qualities instead. Quite the opposite occurs for traditional prostheses. Indeed, with their skin-colored plastic and fake fingernails, traditional prostheses fall right down the uncanny valley, that eerie place where making something more humanlike actually causes a distinctly more negative human response.

As of now, this design is merely conceptual, but click here to read more about the thought process behind it.

Museum of Broken Relationships

Coming to San Francisco: an exhibition from a Croatian museum dedicated to the relics of past loves lost. The Museum of Broken Relationships.

"The Museum of Broken Relationships is an art concept which proceeds from the assumption that objects possess integrated fields - ‘holograms’ of memories and emotions - and intends with its layout to create a space of ‘secure memory’ or ‘protected remembrance’ in order to preserve the material and nonmaterial heritage of broken relationships.

"Unlike the ‘destructive’ self-help instructions for recovery from failed loves, the Museum offers every individual the chance to overcome the emotional collapse through creation - by contributing to the Museum's collection."

Among the artifacts showcased: a glass horse, a pair of panties, a broken garden gnome, a prosthetic limb (really).

Check out the exhibit or donate artifacts from your own failed love stories.

Happy Valentines Day.

Astronomical Hotel

We all know the feeling... rough week, frustrating grind of a job, constant grumblings about the tumbling economy... That's when we start fantasizing about escaping to more exciting locations.

Here's a truly unique one to day-dream about for a little while: Elquidomos, a hotel made specially for star-gazing, located in Chile's Elqui Valley, which typically enjoys over 300 days of clear skies per year.

Each of the 7 rooms is set up as a 2-story geodesic dome, equipped with a telescope, astronomical literature, a terrace and a detachable roof over the upstairs bedroom for bedtime star-gazing.

Check out the layout...



You can see the stairs leading up to the bedroom on this night time view...