Mount Sidley is Antarctica’s highest volcano, and one of the most inaccessible large mountains in the world. Only a few…

Mount Sidley is Antarctica’s highest volcano, and one of the most inaccessible large mountains in the world. Only a few scientists and adventure tourists have ever climbed it. Its huge crater, 5 km (3 mi) across, was created by a series of violent eruptions almost 5 million years ago. Many other details are still unknown: for example, its height is about 4,250 m (13,950 ft), but it has never been precisely measured with modern, GPS-based surveying techniques. A pattern of deep earthquakes has led geologists to believe that a new volcano may be building nearby to the south, although it might never reach through the ice sheet as Mount Sidley has. The ice is up to 1.5 km (1 mi) thick in this area, and covers what would be a very rugged landscape if it were exposed. Landsat 8 collected this image on the 21st. by mapbox (via http://instagram.com/p/yLi8yuTeae/)

NASA’S Voyager 1 took this picture of the planet Jupiter on Saturday, Jan. 6, the first in its three-month-long, close-up…

NASA’S Voyager 1 took this picture of the planet Jupiter on Saturday, Jan. 6, the first in its three-month-long, close-up investigation of the largest planet. The spacecraft, flying toward a March 5 closest approach, was 35.8 million miles (57.6 million kilometers) from Jupiter and 371.7 million miles (598.2 million kilometers) from Earth when the picture was taken. As the Voyager cameras begin their meteorological surveillance of Jupiter, they reveal a dynamic atmosphere with more convective structure than had previously been thought. While the smallest atmospheric features seen in this picture are still as large as 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) across, Voyager will be able to detect individual storm systems as small as 3 miles (5 kilometers) at closest approach. The Great Red Spot can be seen near the limb at the far right. Most of the other features are too small to be seen in terrestrial telescopes. This picture is really a combination of three images taken through color filters, then transmitted to Jet Propulsion Laboratory through the Deep Space Network’s antennas, and assembled by JPL’s Image Processing Lab. The Voyager Project is managed for NASA by Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

(via JPL | Space Images | First Close-up Image of Jupiter from Voyager 1)

How Anti-Vaxxers Ruined Disneyland For Themselves (And Everyone Else)

disease, epidemic, vaccination, measles, USA, anti-vax, herd immunity, unvaccinated, health, public

There are now 67 confirmed cases of measles in an ongoing outbreak centered in California. According to the California Department of Public Health, 59 of the cases are in-state. Among the 34 California patients for whom vaccination status is known, 28 were unvaccinated and one had received partial vaccination. Only five were fully vaccinated. Forty-two of the California cases have been linked to an initial exposure at Disneyland or Disney California Adventure Park, and while cases were originally tied to people who visited the park in mid-December, state health officials now note other cases visited Disney parks in January. According to the CDC, the majority of measles cases reported so far during 2015 have been part of the “large, ongoing outbreak” connected with these parks.

http://io9.com/how-anti-vaxxers-ruined-disneyland-for-themselves-and–1680970446

It all began simply enough. I’d just read one of those ubiquitous Internet lists called “21 Things You Didn’t Know Your iPhone…

“

It all began simply enough. I’d just read one of those ubiquitous Internet lists called “21 Things You Didn’t Know Your iPhone Could Do.” One of them was this: I could ask Siri, “What planes are above me right now?” and Siri would bark back, “Checking my sources.” Almost instantly there was a list of actual flights — numbers, altitudes, angles — above my head.

I happened to be doing this when Gus was nearby. “Why would anyone need to know what planes are flying above your head?” I muttered. Gus replied without looking up: “So you know who you’re waving at, Mommy.”

Gus had never noticed Siri before, but when he discovered there was someone who would not just find information on his various obsessions (trains, planes, buses, escalators and, of course, anything related to weather) but actually semi-discuss these subjects tirelessly, he was hooked. And I was grateful. Now, when my head was about to explode if I had to have another conversation about the chance of tornadoes in Kansas City, Mo., I could reply brightly: “Hey! Why don’t you ask Siri?”

It’s not that Gus doesn’t understand Siri’s not human. He does — intellectually. But like many autistic people I know, Gus feels that inanimate objects, while maybe not possessing souls, are worthy of our consideration. I realized this when he was 8, and I got him an iPod for his birthday. He listened to it only at home, with one exception. It always came with us on our visits to the Apple Store. Finally, I asked why. “So it can visit its friends,” he said.

”

–How One Boy With Autism Became BFF With Apple’s Siri (viafuckyeahisitthecultureyet)

Swiss Public Prosecutor seizes and seals work by !Mediengruppe Bitnik

!Mediengruppe Bitnik, Dark Net, shopping, online shopping, Agora, art, crime, intention, software

What does it mean for a society, when there are robots which act autonomously? Who is liable, when a robot breaks the law on its own initiative? These were some of the main questions the work Random Darknet Shopper posed. Global questions, which will now be negotiated locally. On the morning of January 12, the day after the three-month exhibition was closed, the public prosecutor’s office of St. Gallen seized and sealed our work. It seems, the purpose of the confiscation is to impede an endangerment of third parties through the drugs exhibited by destroying them. This is what we know at present. We believe that the confiscation is an unjustified intervention into freedom of art. We’d also like to thank Kunst Halle St. Gallen for their ongoing support and the wonderful collaboration. Furthermore, we are convinced, that it is an objective of art to shed light on the fringes of society and to pose fundamental contemporary questions.

https://wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.bitnik.org/r/2015–01–15-statement/

75k Futures by Gunnar Green & Bernhard Hopfengärtner

algopop:

75k Futures by Gunnar Green & Bernhard Hopfengärtner

Named after the source of a flash crash of the American stock market in May 2010, caused by 75,000 algorithmically traded futures, 75,000 Futures is a book illustrating algorithms in action, with data sourced from the HFT research firm Nanex. The book explores a typology of algorithmic actors, whose motives and strategies must be reversed-engineered from market behaviour, exposing a systems aesthetic of structured logic backed up by an ambiguous rationality.

The founders of Fairphone said from the word go that creating a totally fair phone would be a monumental task, because of the…

“

The founders of Fairphone said from the word go that creating a totally fair phone would be a monumental task, because of the labyrinth of suppliers and companies involved. So far, only two of the minerals in the phone – tin and tantalum – come from conflict-free validated mines.

Fairphone believe the only way to make a phone genuinely fair is through trying to incrementally produce one and to keep adjusting it while putting pressure on the supply chain. Its website shows behind the scenes of its journey, and it should be commended for trying to change the status quo.

”

–Fairphone review: ethics trumps everything else | Technology | The Guardian (viaiamdanw)

Once you adopt skepticism toward the algorithmic- and the data-divine, you can no longer construe any computational system as…

“

Once you adopt skepticism toward the algorithmic- and the data-divine, you can no longer construe any computational system as merely algorithmic. Think about Google Maps, for example. It’s not just mapping software running via computer—it also involves geographical information systems, geolocation satellites and transponders, human-driven automobiles, roof-mounted panoramic optical recording systems, international recording and privacy law, physical- and data-network routing systems, and web/mobile presentational apparatuses. That’s not algorithmic culture—it’s just, well, culture.

If algorithms aren’t gods, what are they instead? Like metaphors, algorithms are simplifications, or distortions. They are caricatures. They take a complex system from the world and abstract it into processes that capture some of that system’s logic and discard others. And they couple to other processes, machines, and materials that carry out the extra-computational part of their work.

”

–The Cathedral of Computation - Ian Bogost (viaalgopop)

Fifteen seconds before the transfer, the bluish-green LEDs turn yellow and a voice tells you autopilot will be turned off. Ten…

“Fifteen seconds before the transfer, the bluish-green LEDs turn yellow and a voice tells you autopilot will be turned off. Ten seconds before the transfer, the LEDs turn red and the steering wheel extends to meet you. If you fail to respond, the car activates its hazard lights and slows to a stop, moving to the shoulder if possible.”

–I Rode 500 Miles in a Self-Driving Car and Saw the Future. It’s Delightfully Dull | WIRED (viaiamdanw)