MetaFilter posts tagged with stanford

Condi Criminal Conspiracy Confession Caught on Camera!

Hat Maui — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:53:09 -0800

Recently, Fmr. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was asked some pointed torture questions by two Stanford students after an informal reception in a dorm building (transcript). Did she unwittingly confess to a role in a criminal conspiracy? Signs point to yes. Writers like Dan Froomkin and Glenn Greenwald are staying on top of the torture beat even as the President prefers to look forward, and not back, because it's time to move on (and we're all responsible). For hard-hitting journalistic inquiry when it comes to U.S. torturers, it seems we must now turn to college students or 4th graders.

Sir Allen Stanford, the Ponzi artist

Gyan — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:27:14 -0800

The Dark Knight - On Sir Allen Stanford

Videos of university courses

Kattullus — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:59:36 -0800

Academic Earth collects lectures on a wide variety of subjects from UC Berkely, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford and Yale that the universities have released under Creative Commons. The site is still in beta so it doesn't quite have the thousands of lectures its frontpage promises. It has many full courses, for example Benjamin Polak teaching game theory, Amy Hungerford on the American novel since 1945, Charles Bailyn's introduction to astrophysics, John Merriman on the history of France since 1871, Shelly Kagan on death and Oussama Khatib's introduction to robotics.

Appendicitis In Popular Culture

cashman — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:03:57 -0800

Medpedia is coming. "In association with Harvard Medical School, Stanford School of Medicine, Berkeley School of Public Health, University of Michigan Medical School and other leading global health organizations, the Medpedia community seeks to create the most comprehensive and collaborative medical resource in the world." Apply to contribute content. "Only M.D.s, Ph.D.s in a biomedical field and people with medical credentials will be allowed to contribute to Medpedia." "How is Medpedia different from Wikipedia?" "Medpedia is also receiving content and cooperation from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other government research groups."

Shake Girl

kirkaracha — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:41:20 -0800

Shake Girl, a collaborative project by students in the Stanford Graphic Novel Project. Based on the true story of Tat Marina [caution: disturbing photo], the victim of a December 1999 acid attack in Cambodia. More background.

The Online Tool for Precision Vectorization

Turtles all the way down — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 03:19:24 -0800

VectorMagic is a new site that uses technology from the Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to transform your bitmap images into vector art that can be scaled without becoming blurry of pixelated. Here's the first image I submitted, before and after.

Dana Gioia says, "I don't think that Americans were smarter then, but American culture was."

cgc373 — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 10:38:59 -0800

Fifty years ago, I suspect that along with Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Sandy Koufax, most Americans could have named, at the very least, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Arthur Miller, Thornton Wilder, Georgia O'Keeffe, Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Not to mention scientists and thinkers like Linus Pauling, Jonas Salk, Rachel Carson, Margaret Mead, and especially Dr. Alfred Kinsey.

The prepared text of the speech delivered by Dana Gioia at Stanford University Commencement on June 17, 2007.

Donald Knuth, Computing's Philosopher King

Ethereal Bligh — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 04:34:37 -0800

“I wanted to try to capture the intelligence of the design, not just the outcome of the design.” “In 1977, [Donald] Knuth halted research on his books for what he expected to be a one-year hiatus. Instead, it took 10. Accompanied by [his wife] Jill, Knuth took design classes from Stanford art professor Matthew Kahn. Knuth, trying to train his programmer’s brain to think like an artist’s, wanted to create a program [TeX] that would understand why each stroke in a typeface would be pleasing to the eye.”—from a profile of Knuth in the Stanford Magazine (May '06). Salon calls him “computing’s philosopher king” (Sep '99). NPR’s Morning Edition interviews Knuth as “the founding artist of computer science” (Mar '05). Perhaps a MeFite somewhere has one of these? (Previously)

Tabula Rosa

ericb — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 17:02:37 -0800

Researchers are exploring the idea of scrapping the Internet and starting over with a Clean Slate. Stanford researchers say the 'Net could be a whole lot better, if it were rebuilt from the ground-up. They say that their research complements that of the National Science Foundation's Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) effort to build a better network research platform, as well as the Future Internet Network Design (FIND) program for developing new Internet architectures.

The Lucifer Effect

homunculus — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 20:34:44 -0800

Retiring psychology professor Philip G. Zimbardo, who ran the Stanford Prison Experiment, gave his final lecture at Stanford this week, criticizing the Bush administration and saying that senior government officials responsible for Abu Ghraib should be "tried for the crimes against humanity." [Via MindHacks.]

"I’m in the Hole for studying Chinese."

homunculus — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 22:29:18 -0800

Convicted as an ecoterrorist, a brilliant young scholar nose-dives in prison. An article on Billy Cottrell, a physics genius with Asperger's Syndrome who was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for his role in destroying $5 million worth of SUVs. His case was previously discussed here. [Via BB.]

There's nothin' Nietzsche couldn't teach ya...

ontic — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 10:47:06 -0800

The Philosophy Podcast seems to be a podcast where great philosophical works are read aloud. Unfortunately you need to pay for the full works, but the bits are fun. For something a little more contemporary, check out Philosophy Talk, hosted by Ken Taylor and one of the funniest contemporary analytic philosophers: John Perry. In particular, check out Perry's light essays in which the power of procrastination can be harnessed (and apparently now put on t-shirts), an ideal desk is a giant lazy susan, and connections are drawn between golf and suffering.

The music of things.

wander — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 09:59:40 -0800

If you've ever thought that music can be an extremely intuitive and effective way to communicate things, then Stanford Professor Jonathan Berger (samples of his music) is doing some research that might interest you. (via)

Grand Theft Research

disgustipated — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 08:02:28 -0800

Blu-ray discs, video games, and a cure for cancer... Too bad PS3 owners are a bunch of "know-not" idiots... More here and here.

Stanford Prison Experiment, The Video

MetaMonkey — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:34:10 -0800

Studying obedience and conformity: The Stanford Prison Experiment has been discussed many times before (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and has been made into a number of movies. Now you can watch the incredible review film made by the experimenter, with extensive documentary footage, post-experiment interviews and commentary: The Stanford Prison Experiment. [google video, 50 mins]

Sadeian Nation?

Unregistered User — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 13:33:54 -0800

Mass. school punishes students with electric shocks "They can be shocked for behaviors including ’failure to maintain a neat appearance’, ‘stopping work for more than 10 seconds’, ‘interrupting others’, ‘nagging’, ‘whispering and/or moving conversation away from staff’, ‘slouch in chair’ ' I have spoke before of American Enantiodromia. Further, Thomas Moore wrote in Dark Eros: The Imagination of Sadism , that in any culture that does not acknowledge it's skeletons, --it's sins, if you will-- will have that imagination played out in real life.

The ways of Sade are not limited to bedroom and scenes of bondage or porno theaters or forbidden books. Any aspect of culture, from the great to the small, insofar as it is engaged in issues of power has therefore Sadean qualities. Furthermore, since life is never perfect, every aspect of culture will know the split of power into torture and suffering, dominance and submission, or sentimentality and cruelty.

I wont editorialize anymore than I have, but I can't help but wonder, When did psychological abuse become entertainment? or has it always been thus? Also see: N.Y. report denounces shock use at school. I look forward to your Parallax View.

Tales of Two Computing Departments

milquetoast — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 10:41:51 -0800

The exhaustive and extensively annotated Columbia University Computing History, from Brunsviga calculators to NORC to the IBM 7090 and beyond. Also, take the virtual tour of the Computer History Exhibits at Stanford's Gates Computer Science building, including stops at the Apollo Guidance Computer (DIY) and the mechanical calculators exhibit.

Discovering Sherlock Holmes

kirkaracha — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 16:17:23 -0800

Discovering Sherlock Holmes. From January through April 2006, Stanford University will be republishing a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, "just as they were originally printed and illustrated in The Strand Magazine." (These pages have images of some of the original covers.) You can subscribe to receive paper facsimiles of the original magazine by mail or be notified when the PDFs are published online. The project is a followup to their Discovering Dickens project, which republished Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and Hard Times. [via MonkeyFilter]

Refocusing Camera

iamck — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 11:36:42 -0800

New milestone in digital photography: The ability to refocus a picture after it has been taken. Gallery and technical data.

Higher Education Podcasts

trey — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 06:27:44 -0800

Stanford iTunes is a service from Stanford University that allows the public access to free speeches, lectures, forums, and more via iTunes. Want more academic audio content? Check out the University Channel at Princeton or the Havens Center at UW-Madison.

At least the scientists can get along

greatgefilte — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 14:54:30 -0800

Bridging the rift. A joint Israeli/Jordanian biological research centre straddling the border between the two nations is set to become operational in the near future. Scientists from Cornell and Stanford are involved as well. See what it'll look like (big PDF), and learn why studies of biosalinity and other forms of extreme biology are important.

Metahistory

stbalbach — Sat, 15 Jan 2005 21:21:10 -0800

Metahistory. A system of demystification of histories, historians, journalism, and journalists who claim to present things "as they are", while providing some brilliant methods for determining in what ways a given account lacks "complete objectivity" and how it can be seen as ultimately ideological.

Hunting Stories : Colon : noloC seirotS gnitnuH

mcgraw — Tue, 04 May 2004 08:19:29 -0800

Hunting the Stanford University Lion Stanford University is now debating whether to send hunters into the hills surrounding campus to kill a mountain lion that may have mauled two horses pastured on university land. ................ ................STATE HUNTING REGULATIONS: Create mourning dove season for Minnesota Thirty-nine states allow hunters to take the most popular game bird in the nation, with Michigan set to become No. 40. .................... ................Cult Land Not for Hunting The polygamist cult that bought 1,300 acres of land near San Angelo will not be using it as hunting retreat after all.

Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls

hama7 — Sat, 06 Dec 2003 18:09:34 -0800

Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls.

And the woodwinds were the weakest part of the Stanford defense...

jonp72 — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 21:19:05 -0800

John Elway gets the ball to the 18-yard line. Mark Harmon (not that Mark Harmon...) kicks the field goal to bring his team one point ahead with 4 seconds left on the clock. Kevin Moen catches the ball on the return kick, laterals to Richard Rodgers, who laterals to Dwight Garner. Garner laterals back to Rogers who then shovels the ball to Mariet Ford. Ford then passes back to Moen, who finishes what he started by tackling trombonist Gary Tyrrell in the end zone. So ends the 1982 "Big Game" between UC Berkeley and Stanford. So begins the legend of the weirdest play in the history of college football, complete with audio (wav file).