The map is based on the distribution of photos from http://www.panoramio.com, a photo-sharing website. The site was originally based in Spain, so perhaps there are relatively more photos from European users.
In what ways does a Stradivarius sound different from a normal violin? I'm curious because according to Wikipedia, "In a particularly famous test on a BBC Radio 3 program in 1977, the great violinists Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman and the violin expert and dealer Charles Beare tried to distinguish among the 'Chaconne' Stradivarius, a 1739 Guarneri del Gesú, an 1846 Vuillaume, and a 1976 British violin played behind a screen by a professional soloist. The two violinists were allowed to play all the instruments first. None of the listeners identified more than two of the four instruments; two of the listeners identified the 20th-century violin as the Stradivarius." This suggests that there isn't much of a difference between the instruments. Does anyone know if there has been other research into this subject?
I was surprised to learn how just little computerization there is in the ER. Each medical device is basically a standalone unit, with its own input and display. There is no central computer system that automatically alerts doctors if the devices connected to a patient are configured in a potentially dangerous way. For example, apparently it is surprisingly common for surgery teams to use a ventilator, switch to a heart-lung bypass machine, but then forget to turn the ventilator back on once the heart-lung bypass machine is off. This can cause permanent brain damage if the patient doesn't get enough oxygen. There should probably be some system that warns the doctors if both devices are turned off. Unfortunately there is no standard communication protocol for these devices, which makes it impossible to build such a system. Here is a presentation on the state of affairs if anyone is interested: http://www.mdpnp.org/uploads/Capitol_Hill_NSF_CPS_MD_PnP_9Ju...
There is a draft of Computer Vision: Algorithms and Applications by Richard Szeliski available for free online http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/szeliski/Book/. It's good overall, but some sections are still incomplete (missing diagrams, for example).