Friday, November 4, 2011

Best of the Week #37

Happy Friday! Last night I had an uncharacteristically eventful Thursday evening. I went to a concert at Iota in Arlington and it was AWESOME. I’d never heard of the group – they’re called The Steel Wheels and they play super-great bluegrass. I love live music, especially this kind – we’re talking cello, guitar, banjo, mandolin, and violin. Fantastic. Listen here


Anywho, my most popular post this week was Lunchtime Running, which is coincidentally timely since I’m planning on a lunchtime run today!

And now, without further ado, here are your Best of the Week links.

Thanks to LLC, I’m up on the translation related news…this article about how Google Translate works is really interesting.
Google mines existing translated material, recognizes how words or phrases typically correspond, and uses probability to deliver the best match based on context.“Today, if you type ‘Gandhi bio,’ we know that ‘bio’ means ‘biography,’ ” Levy quotes Singhal. “And if you type ‘bio warfare,’ it means ‘biological.’ ” In other words, Google's search engine learns its semantics from human input and improves with more data, just as Google Translate does.


Along the perpetually amusing topic of decorative gourds – check out these Great Pumpkin Carving Art pictures.






I take these things with a grain of salt, but this report says that in India, “A monster quake could be waiting to happen. When? Where exactly? There’s no predicting in seismology.”


 These cupcakes are adorable and I want them. 


Are you sick of the crowds on the sidewalk, street, and public transportation? Maybe you should visit one of the World's Least Populated Places. The pictures are gorgeous! (Below is Mongolia.)






Have a great weekend!


And for those of you running or watching the New York Marathon, watch this video:



NYC Marathon Alex Baldwin prorez from Marc Beroza on Vimeo.