Birth of a supernova

(from Gemini Observatory)


Check out the link: Something that happened 90 million years ago playing out in a matter of days.

Grey parrot endorses Obama

(thanks to Andrew Sullivan)

Who is the Walrus?

Find out from the New York Times

THE PAOMNNEHAL PWEOR OF THE HMUAN MNID

Cechk it out.

Platypus genome decoded

NSF news release

Dolphin Bubble Ring Dance

Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm

(via Wired)

SuperMemo is based on the insight that there is an ideal moment to practice what you've learned. Practice too soon and you waste your time. Practice too late and you've forgotten the material and have to relearn it. The right time to practice is just at the moment you're about to forget. Unfortunately, this moment is different for every person and each bit of information. Imagine a pile of thousands of flash cards. Somewhere in this pile are the ones you should be practicing right now. Which are they?

Fortunately, human forgetting follows a pattern. We forget exponentially. A graph of our likelihood of getting the correct answer on a quiz sweeps quickly downward over time and then levels off. This pattern has long been known to cognitive psychology, but it has been difficult to put to practical use. It's too complex for us to employ with our naked brains.