Earth Timlapses by Alexander Gerst

Alexander Gerst (b. 1976) is a German ESA astronaut and geophysicist. He resided on the International Space Station (ISS) from May to November 2014.

Tim Berners-Lee

Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee (b. 1955): British computer scientist. Inventor of the WWW. Proposed an information management system in Mar 1989, implemented the first successful communication between an HTTP client and server via the Internet in Nov 1989. Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Knighted in 2004 by Queen Elizabeth II for his pioneering work.

Double Flute

A double flute is a wind instrument with two resonant pipes or tubes played simultaneously. Aulos (Greek) or tibia (Latin) were ancient Greek double flutes played in tragic performances, and are sometimes depicted in art.

 

A video by Erik the Flutemaker shows how the double flute is played.

Faster Reading

Boston-based start-up company Spritz wants to change the way people read and make communication faster, easier, and more effective. The company focuses on faster reading. Several other reading techniques already exist that attempt to increase reading speeds, such as skimming (not reading every word), avoiding sub-vocalization (talking to yourself while reading) and enlarging the peripheral span (reading an entire page at a time by mental “snapshot”).

While reading normally, the eye seeks a certain point within the word, called the 'Optimal Recognition Point' (ORP). For each new word, the eyes must find the ORP, which takes a significant amount of time. Spritz makes use of ORPs, as the text is presented individually word by word at high speeds (250 to 700 words per minute) without changing the position of the ORP. Therefore, the eyes do not have to move from word to word, allowing faster reading.

Interesting article on a possible future of books at the Washington Post (2014-03-19).

Research paper by M. Brysbaert and T. Nazir termed 'Visual constraints on written word recognition: Evidence from the optimal viewing position effect' (2005).