Part Time Scholar

In the midst of packing and cancelling bills, I finally managed to squeeze in time to blog.  A project at Kickstarter  that I have been supporting has kicked off at last. The project is called "A History of the Future in 100 Objects." The author will try to create podcasts and author a book on 100 objects representative of the 21st century. As we have only lived 10% of the century, most of these objects will only be predictions.  In fact, people who contribute enough can put their own predictions to work with the author.  I love this collaborative approach and look forward to seeing the end product! -PTS

Just over two years ago, I wrote a post about relocating to Sydney.  Little did I know then that I will be writing a similar post today with Hong Kong as my next destination.  Life is certainly an adventure and I really enjoy not knowing the surprises that are in store! Anyway, I will spend my last three weeks here wrapping up the 9-5 and enjoying the little things Sydney has to offer.  Hope this will not affect my blogging too much. -PTS

A magnitude-6.3 earthquake today hit Christchurch, New Zealand. Although less powerful than the one that struck in September last year, it is much more devastating. Many buildings in the city were demolished, including its iconic cathedral. The casualty toll currently stands at 63, but is expected to climb above 100 in the next few days. Today's earthquake struck 45km west of the city and is only 5km below the surface. This aftershock is much closer than the quake that registered five months earlier. My condolences to those affected and I hope the city can rebuild from this unfortunate episode! -PTS

It is official: IBM's Watson, a supercomputer equipped with terabytes of RAM, was crowned champion of champions on Jeopardy this week. It smashed the show's two most accomplished human Jeopardy contestants ever by a mile. Prior to this challenge, Ken Jen and Brad Rutter both won over $3M USD on Jeopardy! It is amazing how far artificial intelligence has come over the years.  I was especially impressed with Watson's ability to interpret the play of words often found in Jeopardy-styled clues (or answers). Apart from the occasional mishaps when it completely missed the mark, Watson did extremely well even in categories like "Familiar Sayings" that require a certain level of intuition.  Enjoy this clip on the final 10 minutes of the competition: In 1997, IBM's Deep Blue defeated fellow human grand masters like Garry Kasporav. Fourteen years later, we have a Jeopardy champ that does not require food or sleep.  One cannot help but wonder what next to expect in