The land grab for farm data | TechCrunch Specifically, ownership and control of agronomic and equipment data is understood to have dramatic escalating value. Which seed varieties were the most successful and where? Which plant populations performed best? Whose recommendations (e.g. nitrogen programs) outperformed their peers? Which input datasets are used for these recommendations, how were they acquired and are they standardized and accessible? How are the big companies actually using the data? Who has access, how long have they been acquiring it and how long do they keep it? Which documents did I sign to give them access? Data is one of the most valuable things farmers harvest. Make no mistake, the ambiguity around the value of this data is intentional. Nobody wants to initiate paying for something that has always been free. Returning Meaning To The Heart Of Communications – Brand Quarterly The P&I (Persuasion and Influence) industries, like so may others such as education, policing and (in the UK) the NHS (National Health Service), are increasingly falling under the sway of an “arithmocracy”. It is a reductionist system where managers are risk averse, increasingly reliant on ‘safety in numbers’ and prone to what Gerd Gigerenzer calls “defensive decision-making”. This system is based on a sort of physics envy: the belief (or hope) that human beings are more […]

How minimalism brought me freedom and joy / Boing Boing I have 238,795 unread emails in my inbox. Emails are a suggestion but not an obligation. Body-hackers: the people who turn themselves into cyborgs | Art and design | The Guardian Ophthalmologists strongly advise against trying this at home: they say a single application of Ce6 can cause retinal haemorrhage and central retinal vein occlusion. Image from page 758 of “A text-book of animal physiology, with introductory chapters on general biology and a full treatment of reproduction ..” (1889) | Flickr – Photo Sharing! exposition on insanity that has been issued in this country by an Amorioun alienist, and, furthermore, it is the most instructive and assimilable that can be placed at present in the hands of the student uninitiated in psychiatry. The instruction con- tained within its pages is a food thoroughly pre- pared for mental digestion; rich in the condiments that stimulate the appetite for learning, and sub- stantial in the more solid elements tiiat eular^re and strengthen the intellect.”—New Orleans Medi- cal and Surgical Journal. “ Paul Ford: What is Code? | Bloomberg Can you tell me what code is?” “No,” I said. “First of all, I’m not good at the math. I’m a programmer, yes, but I’m an East Coast programmer, not one of these serious […]

The mystery of the ‘ghost trees’ may be solved – SFGate Redwoods can also clone themselves, further complicating scientists’ understanding of them. Vast rings of related plants communicate via their roots, and during the hard months of winter and early spring, they’ll distribute nutrients evenly among themselves. Scientists have spilled dye onto trees at one end of a grove and traced it through the root network all the way to the other side. “Most people, when they come to the redwood, they look up at the canopy,” Kuty says. “But down is where the action is.” This collaboration lasts only until summer comes. Then every tree, sprout and branch must fend for itself. Those that can’t photosynthesize enough sugar are cut off from the shared root system and discarded during what’s known as the autumn “needle drop.” Douglas Coupland: ‘I’m actually at my happiest when I’m writing on a plane’ | Books | The Guardian There’s a kind of existential heebie-jeebies that accompanies the abandonment of routine: what if I lose my skills and they never come back? What if I become too fragmented? What if the forces of the future I’m trying to depict crush me like a bug? But then, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Live asynchronously. If your job requires even an ounce of creativity, you’ll do your best […]