"The Quake-Catching Network is a collaborative initiative for developing the world's largest, low-cost strong-motion seismic network by utilizing sensors in and attached to internet-connected computers." The Economist's writeup notes that, since network communications are (sometimes) faster than the speed of sound in the earth's crust, a distributed network's observations of a temblor might reach a warning network before the quake itself reaches a traditional seismometer.
posted to MetaFilter by fantabulous timewaster at 8:31 AM on September 30, 2008 (11 comments)

Overcoming Bias [via]
posted to MetaFilter by fantabulous timewaster at 2:58 PM on September 10, 2008 (28 comments)

The Tinkering School. "A 'real project' is where you make a thing that isn't a pretend something else. If the kids want to make a boat, that's fine, but we're going to take it down to the harbor and put it in the ocean." [via NPR, no transcript yet]
posted to MetaFilter by fantabulous timewaster at 10:28 AM on August 5, 2008 (14 comments)