SeeqGeist

When we were kids, “Ninja Gaiden” and “Shogun” were huge games on NES and I don’t know how pirates got involved, kind of innocent bystanders, really, but they did, and we all fantasized about what would happen if 100 angry pirates met 100 pissed off Ninja in an epic battle to the death. It has since become a global phenomenon, spawning flashmobs, Facebook groups, and even team ups.  It’s what Chow Yun-Fatt was doing in “Pirates of the Carribean III.”

People who write things on Wikipedia are calling it an “internet meme,” but I assure you it is much older than the internet.  Perhaps even ninja and pirates were wondering who would win.  Maybe it even happened!  It’s too bad they didn’t have cameras in the 15th century.  I have been talking about pirates and ninja killing each other for as long as I have been talking about Star Wars, and Star Wars came out before I was born.   Everywhere I go, people are talking about it.  I spent a long time in Japan (which is how I know the plural of ninja is ninja), and the Japanese have their whole cultural identity tied up in the debate.  After all, what are they fighting for but for spheres of influence?  We could call it a battle between Western might and technology versus Eastern discipline and elegance if we wanted to.  Pirates vs. Ninja is easier.

 With a name like Jack Morgan and a nickname like “Captain,” I’ve always been clearly on the side of the pirates.  But ninja have always fascinated me, too. I thought TMNT was the coolest thing ever invented.  I even took kung-fu lessons for a while. (I love being a turtle).  And aren’t the Jedi like samurai and the Sith like ninja assassins?  Whether we westerners like it or not, the ninja is a part of our lives, an icon  Ninja have permeated our culture so much that I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t catch some sort of ninja or martial arts reference.  And I think the culture’s better for it.  Let’s face it, even though we all know who would really win when it got down to it, ninja are pretty awesome.

 So I made this podlist.  It’s a ninja podlist.  I call it “Ninja Killer Tunes” I discovered some new bands,(Ninjaspark and Science Ninja Team), rediscovered some familiar ones (Dragon Ash and Ninja High School), and took a stroll down memory lane with Ninja Gaiden and Vanilla Ice.  I hope you like it.  If you don’t, search “ninja” on Seeqpod; there are a total of 2183 podlists dedicated to ninja.

SeeqPod - Playable Search

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We applaud Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for its continued support of emerging, cutting-edge technologies, and, as a company whose core technology originated at LBNL, we are honored to be a part of such a broadly recognized annual award. Also known as the “Oscars of Invention,” the R&D 100 Award for Technology Advances is an annual spotlight on the best of the best. The 2008 awards brings Berkeley Lab’s R&D 100 awards total to 48 (not counting two Editors’ Choice Awards).

The 2008 award designees are:

- Berkeley Lab PhyloChip - a DNA microarray that quickly, comprehensively, and accurately identifies species within microbial samples from any environmental source, without any culturing required. Congratulations to Gary Andersen, Todd DeSantis, Eoin Brodie, and Yvette Piceno of Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division.

- Biomimetic Search Engine - a search engine that mimics the human cognitive process to find hidden and contextually relevant information in literature, databases, music, and other digital content. (SeeqPod)

- FastBit Bitmap Index - the fastest indexing technology for accelerating searching operations of massive databases. FastBit is able to search up to 100 times faster than other technologies. Congratulations to Kesheng Wu, Arie Shoshani, Ekow Otoo, and Kurt Stockinger of Berkeley Lab’s Computational Research Division.

- Nanostructured Polymer Electrolyte for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries - a polymer electrolyte that enables the development of rechargeable lithium metal batteries with energy density that is at least a factor of two larger than that of existing technology. Congratulations to Nitash Balsara of Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division.

SeeqPod Inc. co-founders Kasian Franks and Raf Podowski will be on-hand in Chicago this October at the official R&D Magazine awards ceremony – more information about the awards can be found here: http://www.rdmag.com/awards.aspx

Over the weekend we added PodLists (a.k.a. playlists) to our search results. This is yet another way we are making it easier for YOU to find and discover new stuff.

If there is a specific artist you are ‘seeqing’ you can now hit the jackpot by discovering other SeeqPod users’ PodLists. When you execute a search, you’ll find both regular results as well as PodLists, which match the query by title and/or contents. For instance, if you search for ‘The Knife,’ you’ll find PodLists with ‘The Knife’ in their title, as well as PodLists that contain ‘The Knife’ in their results.

It’s also easy to save any PodList you discover to your account, simply by clicking ‘Save.’ You can rename it or save it as is!

What’s extra cool is that you can continue building on top of PodLists you find, and create a super-long mashup of multiple PodLists, by simply clicking on the green arrow for each PodList you see in the results column on the left. If you wish to keep them separate, remember to click ‘New PodList’ instead.

*Remember, if you’re not seeing PodLists in your search results, make sure you have the PodList filter checked:

Here is an example:

And a PodList for your enjoyment: