Yesterday, Monday 18th May, an earthquake measuring 5 on the richter scale struck California.

I first heard about the quake from John Grey (@jg_rat), the editor of couriermail.com.au. He posted the following:

RT @bartman6: FLASH: Quake hits LA http://bit.ly/jtA6M

The Courier Mail site published a small teaser with a few paragraphs of text and a map of the areas affected. The site also included a reference to this content at the top of their homepage.

As the story unfolded, the article was expanded to include more information.

The article was the first mention in Australian press of the earthquake. John’s team beat the other major news sites, including ABC.com.au, SMH.com.au and even their parent site, news.com.au. At the time of posting, even CNN had not updated their site with news of the earthquake.

I asked John why his team got the news out so early:

@jg_rat: @gmwils The answer is Twitter. And a fast, smart, connected news team.

LA Times was also quick to respond to the story. Their first post, in addition to their own copy, included a link to a Twitter search for earthquake.

Twitter is adding a lot of value to the breaking news gathering and publishing processes.

After being overly busy with work, a weekend in Melbourne allowed for relaxing travel. Michelle and I went down to Sorrento to visit a friend for high tea.

Lots and lots of cakes, some beautiful sandwiches and then more cakes. All mixed in with a wide variety of tea. Conversations were diverse and drifted between deep and idyllic.

A wonderful way to unwind.

It was also a good opportunity to play more with my new camera. I am really pleased with the results. The colors out of camera are more inspiring than from my old camera.

There are a few more on my Flickr page.

Jeff Hawkins’ TED talk on brain science got me thinking. He posits that the act of thinking is about predicting, rather than about behavior. This model of reasoning makes sense, and will simplify the computer modeling of thought.

What I find interesting is that our own brian is not great at prediction. We are making progress in the study of our own biases and their impact on prediction and decision making.

For discussion, “Judgement under Uncertainty” is a must read; a collection of papers on our known biases.

When we computerize this model, do we introduce the same or similar biases? Does it make sense in silicon, to recreate our own limitations? What happens when we invent a new form of consciousness with bias removed?

Jeff’s talk is here:

ps. TED talks are a great way to pass time on flights.