The START Natural Language Question Answering System

Pretty cool. Ask questions, get answers, no Jeeves involved...

Konfabulator

In our continuing quest to bring you the absolute best of stuff, we'd like to show you this way cool tool.

Welcome | Science Commons

"Science depends upon the ability to observe, learn from, and test the work of others. Without effective access to data, materials and publications, the scientific enterprise becomes impossible.

Yet recent studies show a disturbing trend; increasing secrecy, cumbersome materials transfer agreements and complex licensing structures have made more difficult the sharing process on which science relies. "Because they were denied access to data, 28% of geneticists reported that they had been unable to confirm published research," a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports. And that is published research.

The problem here is not simply the commercialization of science; roadblocks to sharing hurt the development of commercial products too. Nor is it only a matter of expanded intellectual property rights and curtailed "research exemptions." The problem is more complex than that, and the solution must be as well. Our goal is to solve a specific part of the problem: the creation of a larger "Science Commons" built from private agreements, and technical standardization; the same "some rights reserved" approach adopted by Creative Commons, our parent organization."

Creative Commons

Creative Commons
A sensible (IMO) approach to sharing creative work.

MIT OpenCourseWare | OCW Home

MIT OpenCourseWare | OCW Home
MIT (among a few other schools) have published syllabi, course readings & assignments for many of their courses. A great way to learn something new. Of course, having contact with professors and other students, and having assignments evaluated, is not included.

The Onion | Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory

The Onion | Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory
Heh. Science claims to have "laws", but they are "only" theories

General Chemistry Online: Home

General Chemistry Online: Home
Way cool. This is really excellent use of technology. If you want to learn some chemistry (without doing labs...), there is a lot here.

Black Swan

In Rotorua, there were many black swans, though I believe they are native to Australia.
Assertions about swan color have become a canonical example in logic; see, e.g., Falsifiability.
They are cute but have a bit of a nasty temperament.

Buddhabot Blog
Current (?) postings on the project.

The Buddha Bot
Chat with simulated enlightenment.