Temporary "gravity" on Space Station

At around 3:20 things start "falling" inside the International Space Station.

I wonder how this influences all the experiments on microgravity.

Never seen this before. via http://incaelo.wordpress.com

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From "the old box" Koopjesmolen 2004

Found this in one of my moving boxes. Picture taken just before I sold De Koopjesmolen and went to work at Het GOED/Marktplaats.

In the foreground you can see that the merchandise moved through the store on conveyors.

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"How Leadership, Loyalty, and Transparency Fuel Growth" by Sir Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco.

 Twenty years ago, Tesco was a distant third in the UK market, but after focused execution they are now clear leaders in not only the UK but also across the globe. As a driving factor behind the growth, Sir Terry related Ten Management Lessons from the experience.

1. Find the Truth -- Talk to your customers and listen to their advice.
2. Audacious Goals -- You'll be surprised what a motivated team can accomplish.
3. Vision, Value, and Culture -- These are more important than strategy and should emanate from employees.
4. Follow the Customer -- Watch customers carefully and be ready for change at a moment's notice.
5. Steering Wheel (balanced scorecard) -- Link the big goals to the smaller goals.
6. People, Process, Systems -- These must be viewed together, not in isolation.
7. Lean Thinking -- You can make things better and cheaper.
8. Competition is Good -- Learn from them before they learn from you.
9. Simple Beats Complex -- Over-engineering solutions leads to increased costs.
10. Leadership -- Takes you further than you could go alone.

Sir Terry admits none of these ideas are new, but few companies have the discipline to follow them all like Tesco.

via

Comments, questions or E-mails welcome: ajbrenninkmeijer (a) cs.com

"Islam is" just tip of Google's politically correct iceberg

I hadn't seen this last paragraph on the Google Query Suggestions site before writing this  "We try to filter out suggestions that include pornographic terms, dirty words, and hate and violence terms. If you encounter a term that should not be suggested, please let us know by posting in the Google Web Search Help Forum."


The Next Web reported a strange thing when you type in "Islam Is " on Google as opposed to "Christianity is ", no search suggestions appear like "Islam is a religion".


Most software companies say “It is a feature not a bug.” Google said "It's not a feature, it's a bug."

I don't think it's true try it yourself. 
Fill in the following in the Google.com search box.

“jews are” No search suggestion
“islamists are” None
“gays are” None
“chinese are” None

“lesbians are” None
“dutch are” Yes search suggestions (apparently the Dutch are NOT insulted easily) !
"americans are" Nothing ??
"danes are" "The happiest people in the world", among other things.
“martians are” Yes  suggestions, no martians on earth to offend

You can by now guess the results of

"whites are"

"blacks are"

"blues are"

but try it for fun.

With a short program you should be able to get a list of groups of people Google doesn’t want to insult. I am looking forward to someone publishing that list !
Did somebody at Google make it by hand or did they set up an algorithm ?


Besides nouns (groups of people), there are apparently different verbs in the filter besides "are" such as "hate" 
"I love" -> Yes we are given suggestions
"I hate" -> Don't be evil, no suggestions.
"chinese hate" Nothing
"Google hateS" Mexicans (obviously)


Comments, questions or E-mails welcome: ajbrenninkmeijer (a) cs.com

It's getting colder again, forget Copenhagen

After watching Burt Rutan on Man Made Global Warming, I decided to do (a little) research of my own and graph the raw, primary data, including 2009, of the temperature in my area: Amsterdam.

Rutan says that since 2000 it has been getting cooler, but here it seems to have heated up the past ten years.

On the other hand, the past two years have been colder than the previous three. A climate trend ? I don't think so (the title of this blog is just to get your attention), just as Nassim Taleb says it's ridiculous to look at the Dow Jones on an average day and try to explain a normal drop or increase. It's just noise. As far as climates are concerned even 10 years might be noise. The next decade will probably be a bit cooler than the last, but warmer than the average of the last century (even Rutan says the long term trend is towards more warming). I'd be willing to bet  I have bet on www.intrade.com that 2010 won't be the warmest year on record, but I wouldn't readily bet that it will be colder than than the average of the past 100 years.

See also The Climate Bet between Gore and Armstrong.

PS: I can't find any news on global average temperatures, only news like this that 2009 was colder that 2008: http://www.redding.com/news/2009/dec/31/redding-was-abnormally-warm-and-dry-in-2009/ Interesting "bias" in this article.


Comments, questions or E-mails welcome: ajbrenninkmeijer (a) cs.com