Tag: images

DNA Heritage

I submitted my DNA anonymously to IBM for a research project, and from the mutations in my Y-chromosome alone, they identified me as haplotype N LLY22G, which pegs the Uralic language of my family and the locale of northern Scandinavia / Eastern Europe. With only my DNA, they identified my family origin on the map above to within a few km, and traced it back to the veritable “Adam” in Africa, from whom we are all descendants.

I wonder how granular these will get eventually. The beginning of the tree is well-known and comparatively easy. Still, welcome to total history beta 1.
2022-03-04:

8 ka BP, 17 women reproduced for every 1 man. An analysis of modern DNA uncovers a rough dating scene after the advent of agriculture. A member of the research team hypothesizes that only a few men accumulated lots of wealth and power, leaving nothing for others. These men could then pass their wealth on to their sons, perpetuating this pattern of elitist reproductive success. Then the numbers of men reproducing, compared to women, rose again. “Maybe more and more people started being successful.”. In more recent history, as a global average, 5 women reproduced for every 1 man.

Open Streets

DOT presented its renovation plan for the intersection of Ninth Ave. and 14th St. to Manhattan Community Board 4 on Wednesday evening. Ryan Russo, DOT’s Director for Street Management and Safety, explained that the agency is taking advantage of a scheduled repaving of Ninth Ave. in mid-July to respond to long-standing community request to remove the 2-block northbound contra-flow traffic lane from the avenue, which has been blamed for several pedestrian fatalities

the NYC DOT seems quite pragmatic, coming up with workable solutions in months rather than decades.
2008-07-31:

For Mr. Tsao, taking over a piece of the bridge for a dinner party, as he did Friday night and likes to do at least once each summer, is an act both political and personal, a conscious gesture of civic engagement and a way to lay claim to a terrific party space. He is captivated and inspired by the persona of the 19th-century flâneur “the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes.” Being a flâneur “is all about taking in the world we’ve been given; we want to embrace it and engage with it.”

more take back the streets stuff.
2011-01-06: nice! astor place is currently a downside of living in the east village. not much longer.

2013-10-09: janette is one of my heroines. she is responsible for a huge quality of life increase in nyc in the last 5 years. in this video she talks about how she made even that pimple on nyc, times square, bearable.

2020-04-30: Restaurant reopening could include seats on closed streets. Perhaps this will trigger a longer-term change in street usage, which would be a great thing.
2021-01-28:

The New York City Council voted Thursday to approve Intro. 1116-B, the legislation that will create 4000 new permits for street vendors in the city over the next 10 years.

This is a tiny step in the right direction. The future of much of NYC is in the street, we shouldn’t limit these permits at all. Let a million flowers bloom.

LifeBrowser

Horvitz wanted to use his research in memory landmarks to help people to find what they are looking for within their growing personal stores of information. He and his team developed a rich timeline of different types of landmarks that Horvitz refers to as a “memory backbone” for navigating content. They combined the predictive models for calendar events and images and added a user’s computer activities, such as files created or edited and Web pages visited. They also added public news events. They organized the results into a timeline browser they call LifeBrowser. The LifeBrowser interface allows you to search your memories just as you can search the Internet. You can access a news event on the timeline such as “Seattle Earthquake,” or personal events, such as “Travel to DC” or “Group Off-site,” and view emails that you sent or received, documents that you worked on, and Web sites that you visited at these times. A memorability slider allows users to control the detail displayed in the memory backbone. You can display just a few ‘most memorable’ events or include a larger number of events, some of which will fall into the ‘less memorable’ category.

bayesian models to help your recollection. ship it, microsoft.