Say Hello to Your PostNatural World

Don’t let the continued debate over genetically modified foods fool you.  Field tests of GMO’s have been going full steam ahead.  Below you can see what was tried out in April 2007 alone.

If you missed yesterday’s Millions Against Monsanto in honor of World Food Day, there’s still two weeks left in October, which just happens to be Non-GMO Month.  Remember, knowing is half the battle, even with genetically modified foods, and that’s the half we’re still working on.  Tell the FDA that the least they can do is label it.

[Map from Center for PostNatural History (Thanks, Mason!)]

Path Through the First 50 Digits of Pi

posted in: External Viz, Smog 0

WolframDemos
One of the many demos available through the Wolfram Demonstrations Project.  This one will take you up to 200 digits.  You’ll need to download their Computable Document Format player to get in on the action (and should close your browser while it installs), but these days it requires more effort than ever to participate in the future.

“Thankfully you don’t need to understand the math to look at the pretty pictures.” – Ape Con Myth, Non-professional User

The Economic Complexity Observatory

Your assignment:  Write an essay on the changes in the United States economy between 1969 and 2009 using only this visualization.

EconComplexityObservatory

Though the official launch is still months away, the Economic Complexity Observatory seems like it is already well on its way to living up to its bad-ass name.  Don’t miss the interesting reading material.

Instant Soundtrack Generator

Meet Otomata, an online audio toy ready to lay tracks for your independent feature film!

Start out with something simple…

…and then add a few more cells anywhere to crank up the existential tension!

Links to your compositions (and associated plot lines) are welcome in the comments.

BFFs: Bill Gates & Warren Buffett

There are only two people on Earth with more money than Warren Buffett and for some reason he decided to give most of his wealth to one of them.

BFF_Gates_Buffett

While The Giving Pledge is a wonderful, wonderful thing, it’s still a little weird to imagine all these people didn’t know what to do with their fortunes until someone suggested just giving them away.  When imagination is applied to business, it is apparently leased rather than owned.

If Ape Con Myth could ask the Oracle of Omaha one question it’d be, “What was it about Windows that made you think Bill Gates should be calling the shots?”  But that’s exactly the kind of question you’d expect from an organization selling puzzle pieces to get by.

[Map made at NNDB]

Amazon.com Pricing Aid

You know we’ve come a long way as a civilization as soon as you can get this kind of information about the price of a board game.  (And you can tell a lot about that civilization by how often it changes the price of them.)

CamelCamelCamel will tell you how much of a deal you are or are not getting, historically, on every item on Amazon.  They also cover Best Buy and a few other retailers too.

[via BoingBoing’s Cool Tools]
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