Google has created a site called How Google Works that explains how Google does what it does in very simple terms.
For example, the video below is a simple, 3 minute explanation of how Google search works.
Watch it.
OkCupid is a large online dating website. They therefore have a lot of data relating to interesting subjects.
Their blog, OkTrends, is dedicated to showing statistical analyses of various parts of their dataset. It’s fascinating reading and I highly recommend it.
The latest post is about the merits of older women and includes a lot of interesting graphs.
This graph shows the oldest and youngest women that men claim they are interested in as they get older.
This graph, by contrast, shows the ages of women that men actually try to chat up on the website.
This is the same for women.
Even more interesting are the vertical color changes. For example, as soon as women turn 20 it seems that they suddenly feel comfortable contacting much older men.
The same thing happens again when women turn 29. At 28 women send plenty of messages to young men (19 or 20) and almost none to men over 42.
But when they turn 29 women suddenly send almost no messages to men under 22 but start sending many more messages to men in their 40’s and early 50’s.
The blog then goes on to sing the praises of older women.
Older women are cheekier when it comes to sex (several more graphs on the site):
Older women are also more comfortable with themselves (again more graphs on the site):
There is a lot more information and many more graphs (including several interactive ones) on the actual blog. I recommend taking a look.
I knocked together a cartoon to quickly explain double blind tests.
Google has just released a new service. It is called Google Goggles and it runs on cell phones (not many people know that Google produces a mobile phone operating system).
Basically, you take a picture with your phone and the service gives you information about what you’re looking at. In this example the service recognizes the Golden Gate Bridge and returns information on it.
It’s a very early version of the service, but it also works on books, business cards, paintings, logos, and even wine labels! Take a look at the official site to get a better idea.
I’ve read a review of the service and it seems to work reasonably well. Amazing!
It feels a lot like magic! This could also be quite scary. Imagine a day when people can find your Facebook profile by scanning you with their phone!
One of the first things that I learned when I was a waiter in a seafood restaurant is that red wine doesn’t go with fish.
Why that was, I had no idea. It turns out that nobody else did either.
The Economist has this article detailing how some researchers were able to find the answer.
In an experiment the researchers analyzed wines tasted with seafood and found that wines with high iron content left an unpleasant taste. Generally red wines have a higher iron content and therefore don’t taste good with seafood.
In order to test the hypothesis the researchers changed the iron content in various wines and repeated the test. Sure enough iron content was strongly correlated with a foul taste.
Science is awesome. I must be honest though – I don’t mind red wine with seafood. Apparently the combination tastes very fishy and I like that taste.
Grand Theft Auto 4 is a game that was recently released and it grossed more than $500 million in its first week!
One of the things that I always enjoyed about GTA is the open gameplay style. They have created a working city complete with streets, buildings, people, cars, trains, boats, etc. Players are free to explore the city, interact with citizens, steal cars, fight gangsters, etc, etc.
The key to making that fun is to have a rich and realistic in-game world and these guys have done an amazing job modelling New York as the ‘Liberty City’ of the game.
Here are some pictures taken of the game (on the right) and the associated spot in the actual NYC (left). Awesome work.
Statue of Liberty. If you want to get there in the game you need to hijack a boat or helicopter…
Wired recently had an article on this Swiss pilot who has spend the last few years developing some rocket wings that he straps to his back. Basically he jumps out of a plane, unfolds the wings and powers up the rockets. He is able to steer pretty well (enough to do barrel rolls), build up some good speeds (over 300kph) and crucially land safely.
Very cool, but I’m sure it’s not as safe as he makes out.
This is really cool…
Today is my birthday – an event that is becoming increasingly scary! Quarter century down…
Anyway, graphs always cheer me up so here we go:
From today I am closer to 30 than 20!
But I still have 1 year to publish a paper like Einstein’s relativity or 21 years to beat Obama to a presidential nomination!
Here is a cool map showing the astronaut activity on the first lunar landing back in 1969 (yes it really happened – don’t be a daft conspiracy theorist). Produced by NASA it basically shows the activity of the astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on that first landing.
The map has been superimposed on a soccer/football pitch to give an idea of scale – these guys didn’t walk very far.
