Labs

I get distracted. The time before this it was the Star Formation Game . This time it's Red Remover .

Updated the Jupiter Impact set of images over at the lpb with a contribution from Hubble . Now aren't you glad we fixed it?

Apparently, all we had to do was google it .

Oddly fascinating.

Hunch , the newest brainchild of Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake , " is a decision-making site, customized for you. Which means Hunch gets to know you, then asks you 10 questions about a topic (usually fewer!), and provides a result -- a Hunch, if you will. It gives you results it wouldn't give other people. " Hunch marries a decision tree model with machine learning algorithm which gets smarter. The resulting intelligence can make better decisions customized for you. One of Hunch's early beta testers created the Super Question, " Should I believe in God? " The question caught on with a large number of Hunch's power users and has become a focal point of fierce debate within the closed beta. It turns out that no matter who asked Hunch if they should believe in God, Hunch's answer was always "No," even in cases where the power user's Christian faith was known to Hunch. Christians within the closed community were quick to note this error ...

The occasional series marking significant changes in the state of affairs around these here parts. What's special about now? Well, as of last weekend, Field of Science has successfully assimilated its second otherwise preexisting (read: formerly of blogspot) established science blogger. Second , you say? When was the first? Well, the FIRST (future bragging rights) to leap was Ben Allen who brought his blog PLEKTIX over to FOS back on February 25, 2009. Being the first, there was a lot that could have gone wrong--you'd think--but a month has passed and Ben is still with us. I think he might even be happy to be here. So say hello to Ben if you haven't already. And while you're over there, maybe ask him for some stocks picks. He's a natural when it comes to spotting future potential. The SECOND mad scientist to dive in is Steven Salzberg who added his blog Genomics, Evolution, and Pseudoscience to Field of Science this past Sunday. You'll find Steven's blog...

Edit: This project has moved to its reddit url: http://www.reddit.com/r/FoS/ If you're wondering what I do all day (like I sometimes do), I'm often tinkering under the hood of Field of Science. More often than not it's stuff that doesn't amount to much, or stuff that no one but me is likely to notice or care about. Yesterday, however, my tinkering resulted in something that is worth sharing if only because it will give you some insight into how I think and how I see FOS as constantly evolving. I forget how exactly, but I ended up on reddit . You'll no doubt recognize their little alien mascot. Reddit, it turns out, allows you to create your own reddit and host it on your own domain. What for? Worry about that later. What's important is it can be done, so under the hood I go. Fast forward a few hours and... fos.fieldofscience.com . Not perfect--reddit runs its ads and I still need to customize the look a bit--but functionally (once you figure out what to do wit...