Currently, I am dealing with the Macedonian armies and the strategies of Alexander the Great for reasons (Great Battles of History: Alexander). Apparently, excerpts from the History of the Art of War by Hans DelbrĂĽck are still one of the best first points of contact to learn more about this topic.
wissenschaft
FriCAS - an advanced CAS. I've lost track of it a bit - FriCAS is formerly Axiom, a quite extensive mathematics package like Mathematica, written in Common Lisp. Available for various systems, somewhat rough in the interface (just a command line), but very powerful. And somewhat more modern than perhaps Maxima (whereas for Maxima there are GUI options, I have no idea what FriCAS has to offer). Like every decent open source project, it is of course only a fork of a fork - under Open Axiom there is another project and under Axiom the original code is continued. Although for me, since Sage (and actually even much more since Anaconda and IPython Notebooks), all of this has become less relevant - in general, my requirements are at a much lower level and are already covered by the libraries available via IPython and Python. Of course, Mathematica and similar are still interesting - but the motivation to start the packages and to enter the rather different syntax world is rather low. Python has long since achieved the good-enough status.
Depth of field. Good explanation of what depth of field really means mathematically. Quite interesting to read if you don't yet fully understand the relationships (Hint: the primary factor is the imaging ratio, everything else is just a function of it).
Today’s belief in ineluctable certainty is the true innovation-killer of our age. In this environment, the best an audacious manager can do is to develop small improvements to existing systems—climbing the hill, as it were, toward a local maximum, trimming fat, eking out the occasional tiny innovation—like city planners painting bicycle lanes on the streets as a gesture toward solving our energy problems. Any strategy that involves crossing a valley—accepting short-term losses to reach a higher hill in the distance—will soon be brought to a halt by the demands of a system that celebrates short-term gains and tolerates stagnation, but condemns anything else as failure. In short, a world where big stuff can never get done. via Innovation Starvation - Neal Stephenson at World Policy Institute.
Killer rat daubs fur with poison-arrow plant toxins. Title says it all. Gives the term "rat poison" a whole new meaning ...
Allergology :: Allergens Allergies Allergologically Allergic. A doctor and a book he wrote and a database that is essentially the content of the book, with a search function. Often, you don't need much more than that when you want to check if, for example, the relevant fruit is known to trigger allergies or is rather unlikely.
First Demonstration of Time Cloaking. Time holes. Fascinating - I already have problems imagining what a time hole should be, I mean, undetectable for light, ok, but undetectable for time?
Journey North: Monarch Butterfly - what actually happens in the pupa from which an insect emerges? Was a question that always fascinated me as a child - the caterpillar digests itself and forms the nutrient solution for the formation of the butterfly from individual cells.
The story of the Gömböc. About strange geometric objects and self-righting turtles. There are so many things in the world ...
Bundeswehr-Dozent: Plagiator gives back his doctorate - at least he's not being as silly as the last cases (especially Koch-Mehrin with her "but everyone already knew I copied" defense). But this idea that a revoked doctorate has no effect on a lecturer's career I find quite strange ...
Honeybees Might Have Emotions | Wired Science. Pessimistic bee is pessimistic!
The Ark In Space: Manul – the Cat that Time Forgot. An early type of cat, essentially unchanged for millions of years. So something like a living fossil in plush.
BBC News - Voyager: Still dancing 17 billion km from Earth. It is often forgotten and because it is still one of the most fascinating missions - the Voyager probes are still active in service. And they are still making important contributions to research. More of that!
InformIT: Art of Computer Programming, Volume 4A, The: Combinatorial Algorithms, Part 1. Part 1 - these are 2 headings in the planned book, it almost looks like it will be more like 4-5 books. Nobody has that much space in their bookshelf! By the way, Volume 5 is planned for 2020. Only 9 years left.
App der British Library: High Literature for iOS and Android Devices. Those interested in old scripts might be interested in this. I would wish that other museums and libraries would work similarly and make works digitized available.
Denisovans Were Neanderthals’ Cousins, DNA Analysis Reveals - NYTimes.com. Wow. And parts of the Denisovan genome are found in today's inhabitants of New Guinea. As if they were all isolated.
Mono Lake bacteria build their DNA using arsenic (and no, this isn’t about aliens) | Not Exactly Rocket Science | Discover Magazine. A bit more info about our arsenic-loving newcomers. They are simply another type of extremophile, although with a truly impressive trick.
NASA’s real news: bacterium on Earth that lives off arsenic! | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine. Yo man. I welcome our arsenic-loving overlords. Or so. Life based on other building blocks is thus much more likely out there.
The surreal treehoppers « Why Evolution Is True. Insects. Very strange. Extremely strange.
Have we found the universe that existed before the Big Bang?. At first, I thought here comes another fringe physicist with crazy ideas or unproven claims. And then I read Roger Penrose in the article. Ooops.
Breaking News for sky afficionados: Apophis risk not increased - because the nonsense (originally - where else - appeared in the Blödzeitung) is now going around the world and I already have American acquaintances writing to me about the "math genius from Germany" and the impending end of the world, here is a link that tells how the whole nonsense came about. Quality journalism, of course.
NASA Extends Saturn Mission for Another 2 Years - it would be pretty stupid to end it now.
Interview: "The banking supervision has failed and is superfluous" - ah yes, because banks neglect their duties of economic risk assessment, banking supervision should be abolished. Because that will make banks think more economically. Please what kind of herb is served to today's professors for morning coffee? With such experts, we should not be surprised about the stupid actions of the prolethicians ...
Spirit may continue to explore Mars - good. It would also be quite stupid to shut it down.
Mars-Roboter Spirit wird stillgelegt? - to shut down one of the most successful space projects of recent times would be highly stupid. But the NASA has experience with stupid decisions ...
Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List - it's things like these that show the alarming extent to which creationist nonsense has taken hold in the USA.
Just How Smart Are Ravens? - about the intelligence of ravens.
Study: Heavy chatters often have mental disorders - in 61 people recruited through an outpatient clinic for internet addicts, a scientist found internet addiction and mental disorders. Wow. Likely the same scientist would also find increased alcohol consumption in alcoholics ...