How much is 8 worth? Quite a few thousand Yuan, according to new research into Chinese vehicle licence plates. Travis Ka Ho Ng, assistant Professor Department of Economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong has completed his latest academic project looking into ‘The Value of Superstitions’. And the results of his investigations – performed […]
About: Martin Gardiner
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- http://wikenigma.org.uk
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- Curator : Wikenigma - an Encyclopedia of Unknowns
Posts by Martin Gardiner:
Towards an ‘Unhappening Engine’
Can judicious Dirac-tickling of the local vacuum cause something to ‘unhappen’? There may be possibilities, according to the latest ‘Technical Summary’ published by the Association of Distinguished American Scientists (ADAS) which outlines the concept of an ‘Unhappening Engine’. As T. E. Bearden, President and Director of Research for ADAS explains, such an engine would centre […]
On the wobbliness of tables…
Mathematical theory describing the problem of four-legged wobbly tables stretches back at least as far as 2005, when a paper on the subject of “The Intuitive Table ‘Theorem’ “, was published in the journal Viniculum. [subscribers only] The theorem ran thus: “By rotating a square table over uneven ground, you can ensure that all four […]
Polite Robotic Posturing
Should robots behave politely? Because, to some, it’s a given that in the not-too-distant future large numbers of people will be interacting with robots (domestic, public, corporate and perhaps even law-enforcement/military) on a frequent basis. Professor Tatsuya Nomura at the Department of Media Informatics of Ryukoku University, along with colleagues at the ATR Intelligent Robotics […]
The Improbable Scraper Experiment
We are doing an experiment. Scraper websites generate their content by semi-automatically cloning items from other sites and presenting it as their own. Normally a fairly straightforward copying process, it sometimes generates perplexing artefacts. As an example, see the Solar System Blog [NOTE: it loads slowly and painfully] — a site registered in the Cocos […]
Lycanthropy: a review of the research
A person who believes that they are, say, a crocodile or a werewolf may be suffering from rare a psychiatric condition known as Lycanthropy. As T.A.Fahy (MB BCh BAO) noted in his extensive roundup of the subject Lycanthropy: a review (published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine Volume 82 January 1989) the […]
Celeb Recognition – automatically
Can software automatically recognise celebrities? Hewlett-Packard (motto: Let’s do Amazing) believes so, and has recently published a paper on the feasibility of ‘Wikipedia-based Online Celebrity Recognition’. Researchers Demiao Lin, Jianming Jin, Yuhong Xiong, from HP Labs China have been investigating so-called Smart-Browsing on the www, and point out that : “Obviously, recognizing celebrity names is […]
“Gravitaty” a la Boris
It was back in 2005 that Boris Volfson was granted a US patent for a device which has been erroneously summarised by some as a Flying Saucer. But which is more accurately described as a Space Vehicle Propelled by the Pressure of Inflationary Vacuum State. Although the patent explained at length how “A levitating, rotating, […]
Anti Gravity Developments
“The use of the new gravity-modifying device will cause radical paradigm changes in many areas of human activities.” Explains this document by Boris Volfson, designer of the Space Vehicle Propelled by the Pressure of Inflationary Vacuum State. It outlines how UK-based Gravity Machines PLC (formerly Gravity Machines Ltd) has acquired the patent licensing rights to […]
Sex and Religion – a re-examination
“…the recent rise of fundamentalist and new age religious movements calls for a reexamination of the current link between religion and sexual behavior.” says a recent research article which may be the first academic study to have cross-tabulated Spiritualists, Agnostics, Atheists, Jews, Monotheist Christians, Fundamentalists (and those who declare no religion) – with their preferences […]