Aymara people's "reversed" concept of time

"David Pescovitz: The Aymara, an indigenous group in the Andes highlands, have a concept of time that's opposite our own spatial metaphor. A new study by cognitive scientists explains how the Aymara consider the past to be ahead and the future behind them. According to the study, this is the first documented culture that seems not to have mapped time with the properties of space 'as if (the future) were in front of ego and the past in back.' From UCSD:

The linguistic evidence seems, on the surface, clear: The Aymara language recruits “nayra,” the basic word for “eye,” “front” or “sight,” to mean “past” and recruits “qhipa,” the basic word for “back” or “behind,” to mean “future.” So, for example, the expression “nayra mara” – which translates in meaning to “last year” – can be literally glossed as “front year...'

[link]

Door looks like you walk through it

"Mark Frauenfelder: Fukuda’s Automatic Door opens around your body as you pass through it. The idea is to save energy and keep the room clean. [link]:

New Super-Efficient Plug-in Hybrid Unveiled

New Super-Efficient Plug-in Hybrid Unveiled: "'Trinity,' a highly fuel-efficient plug-in hybrid vehicle, was unveiled today by engineering students at the University of California, Davis. The vehicle is the team's entry in the national Challenge X competition, sponsored by General Motors Corp. and the U.S. Department of Energy. Field trials for the competition will take place in Phoenix next month."

PC case modded to look like a movie bad-guy bomb

PC case modded to look like a movie bad-guy bomb: "Cory Doctorow: The WMD is a custom-built PC whose case resembles a shiny, hollywoodized terrorist bomb, straight out of a Bond flick. Bit-Tech has the incredibly detailed, lavish write-up of the build. The attention to detail is really remarkable. Link (via Digg)


"

Inflatable buildings - from an office to a pavilion

Inflatable buildings - from an office to a pavilion: "Cory Doctorow: Britain's Inflate sells and rents gigantic inflatable structures, ranging from a small 'office in a box' to gigantic pavilions. Link (via Cribcandy)


"

DISH ViP 622 HDTV DVR Reviewed (Verdict: Convergently Great)

DISH ViP 622 HDTV DVR Reviewed (Verdict: Convergently Great): "The TV junkies over at i4u reviewed the DISH Network HDTV DVR and found it a worthwhile purchase. The 250GB hard drive allows for 25 hours of HD programming or 180 hours of SD programming.

The unique feature of this box allows two rooms to watch TV through the device without having a separate receiver in the second room. How it works: connect the tuner in the first room, set the TV to a specific channel in the second room, and the tuner sends signals through your home's coax cable wire. The second room even gets its own remote so the two rooms don't need to be watching the same program. With this, you can watch one HD channel and record two separate standard definition channels.

The only downside is the cost. TiVo is much cheaper if you don't need the two-room functionality. An MCE machine with a separate MCE Extender may also be around the same price and offer extended functionality without the HD tuner capabilities. All in all, the feature set makes this DISH DVR worth the pr"

Microsoft Announces FlexGo Pay-As-You-Go Tech for Emerging Markets

Microsoft Announces FlexGo Pay-As-You-Go Tech for Emerging Markets: "Pay 50% of the cost upfront, then pay-as-you-go for the remaining balance..."

Shoes Straight from the World of Tron

Shoes Straight from the World of Tron: "Why hide your nerdiness from the world when you can walk around town in shoes inspired by that movie of movies, Tron? From Addidas and available in the UK for £65 (about $122), these shoes—officially called The Stan Smith Comfort—won't give you special superpowers or anything, but then again, neither will that 'Pwned!' shirt that you constantly wear. Apparently, the tongue shows a picture of Tron and the evil Master Control Programmer on the footbed, but you wouldn't know it from the pictures that Adidas supplied.

Are they worth importing all the way from the UK? We guess that depends on how much money you have to waste, as well as your level of self-confidence.

Product Page [Adidas UK via Kotaku]
Comment on this post
Related: Fostex Japan eA Any-Surface Speakers
Related: How to Create a FireWire Network
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"

Research Highlights How Bacteria Produce Energy

Research Highlights How Bacteria Produce Energy: "The world's smallest life forms could be the answer to one of today's biggest problems: providing sustainable, renewable energy for the future. Using a variety of natural food sources, bacteria can be used to create electricity, produce alternative fuels like ethanol and even boost the output of existing oil wells, according to research being presented this week at the 106th General Meeting of the (ASM) American Society for Microbiology in Orlando, Florida."

Fostex Japan eA Any-Surface Speakers

Fostex Japan eA Any-Surface Speakers: "Similar to the Nimzy Vibro Blaster, Fostex Japan's eA speakers can be placed on any flat surface and turn it into a speaker. With a blue glow on the bottom reminiscent of the Griffin Powermate, the eA looks a lot classier.

The 3.5mm mini jack can be used with anything that has that sized port: iPod, laptop, PC, phone, you name it.

Available in June for $148.

Fostex Japan's eA Speakers [Akibalive]
Comment on this post
Related: How to Create a FireWire Network
Related: Iomega 60GB USB Drive
Related: BodieLobus PS2 Controller With Trackball


"

EyeMove PC

EyeMove PC: "Over the years those concepts which we use to see in sci-fi movies are being shaped for usage in normal lives. Just look at the EyeMove PC which in every sense is a mobile computing solution which makes even notebooks passé. The Eye Move PC not only looks ultra chic but also has an integrated projection lens controlled by a multi-function wireless controller. Thus all your tasks or multimedia content can be viewed on any wall or surface and you can access the PC via the wireless controller. That doesn’t mean that you go and throw out your mouse and keyboard in the dumpster since there’s no word on when it may actually be produced for the consumer markets.

Via YankoDesign "

Defense Tech: Gunners Train with Army Game

The Army sure is getting their money's worth out of America's Army, a first-person shoot-em-up computer game developed as an innovative new military recruitment tool.

CROWS_XM312_0064-web_low.jpgNow the Pentagon is planning to use America's Army's gaming platform as a basic skills trainer on the new Common Remotely Operated Weapons Station (CROWS). And why not? Use a video game to train troops on...well, a video game. CROWS is a system that allows soldiers to manipulate a Humvee mounted variety of medium to heavy weaponary from the relative safety of inside the vehicle. It's just one of many Pentagon solutions aimed at combating the IED and sniper threat in Iraq. And it's already popular with the troops. 'The primary purpose of the CROWS is to get the gunner out of the turret where he is exposed to enemy fire and fragmentation and get him down inside the vehicle for protection,' Sergeant First Class Sam Cottrell said of the new weapon station, 'The CROWS system is an excellent tool. The advantages are obviously its optics, zoom and thermal capabilities.'

On display at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, members of the Army Games Project boasted that CROWS will also be available in the newest version of America's Army, titled Overmatch. Players will be allowed to operate the system precisely how it was intended to be used in real-life, with a team of up to 4 soldiers using the weapon station to engaged the enemy while stationary or on the move, using daytime or thermal imaging, and employing the M-2 machine gun or MK-19 grenade launcher. True to life, gamers will even have to deploy a team member to reload the weapon ouside the vehicle.

Bad puns aside, talk about getting more bang for your buck. Not only has America's Army become a hyper-effective recruiting device, the Army is now squeezing realistic training uses out of the game as well. I don't know if the Army is working on any more two-for-one specials, but somebody should send the Air Force the memo." [link]:

See the World Through the Eyes of a Baby - Gizmodo

"A group of visual researchers have come up with a method that alters pictures so that they look like what babies see. (Just ignore that terrible phrasing and take a look a the picture to understand better.) Dubbed TinyEyes, it shows the clear progression of vision’s improvement through the first few weeks of life. By the looks of it, you’ve got eight weeks to get rid of that terrible Dave Matthews Band t-shirt you’ve been wearing, lest your child think you’re a total dweeb." [link]:

GM Hy-Wire automobile (video) - Automotoportal.com

"GM Hy-Wire automobile (video)

General Motors has released video of Hy-wire, the first drivable vehicle that combines a hydrogen fuel cell with by-wire technology.

Not a car you will ever be able to buy, but definitely a sign of the future. Probably the most advanced power system in the world: a completely non polluting fuel cell that takes hydrogen and produces electricity with the only by-product being a little bit of water vapour. As if that wasn't enough, all the controls are 'by-wire' with no physical linkages from accelerator, brake or even steering wheel. That means the driver can press a button to change from right hand drive to left hand drive. How convenient would that be for European holidays?

GM Hy-Wire automobile (video) - Automotoportal.com:

DNA 11 Sucks Major Oat Tote [FrinkTank]

DNA 11 Sucks Major Oat Tote [FrinkTank]: "

Anyone who has ever run a gel on some DNA will recognize the 'art' generated by DNA 11. And that's sort of the problem—all DNA 11 does, for a low special introductory offer of 390 big ones, is take some random snippet of your DNA—not even a deliberately meaningful one, mind you—and run a gel on it. You know, like any high school kid could do.

Then they blow it up real big so you can hang it o'er top of your italian leather sofa. (lyrics)

Far be it from me to poo-poo the convergence of science and art, but this is neither good science nor great art. Rather it trades, like so many of its ilk, on the fact that nobody else is simultaneously geeky, precious and greedy enough to even attempt it. Read the entire post | Read the comments on this post"

Digital sky-scope auto-locates and identifies stars

Digital sky-scope auto-locates and identifies stars: "Cory Doctorow: The SkyScout is a sky-watching digital scope that automatically identifies stars, provides directions to other stars, and recites mythology about celestial bodies:

Simply point the SkyScout at any star in the sky and click the 'target' button. The SkyScout will instantly tell you what object you are looking at...

To locate a star or planet, select the object's name from the menu and follow the directional arrows through the viewfinder...

The SkyScout includes entertaining and educational audio and text information, including facts, trivia, history and mythology about our most popular celestial objects.
Link (via Red Ferret)

"

UK to US: we'll only buy open-source fighter jets

UK to US: we'll only buy open-source fighter jets: "Cory Doctorow: The UK government has threatened to cancel an order for US-built Joint Strike Fighter jets unless America turns over the source-code for the jets' firmware.

Britain is worried that the jets could contain back-doors that let the US remotely disable them.

Lord Drayson, minister for defence procurement, told the The Daily Telegraph that the planes were useless without control of the software as they could effectively be 'switched off' by the Americans without warning.

'We do expect this technology transfer to take place. But if it does not take place we will not be able to purchase these aircraft,' said Lord Drayson. This is the big fight for the next twenty years: do your devices take orders from you or someone else? Whether it's the box on top of your TV, the phone in your pocket, or the fighter-jet in the hangar, no one wants to own a device that can be 0wned by its manufacturer or whomever that vendor sells you out to. Link (via /.)

"

Airline charges for aisle seats

Airline charges for aisle seats: "David Pescovitz: I'm surprised it took this long, but the first airline is now charging extra for emergency-exit row and aisle seats. According to a Reuters article, Northwest's 'Coach Choice' will save some of those seats for sale to passengers as $15 upgrades at check-in. Meanwhile, American Eagle announced that they'll stop charging for soft drinks because nobody was buying. Link (Thanks, Jason Tester!)

"

Small Birthweight And Premature Births Associated With Higher Risk Of Child Abuse

Small Birthweight And Premature Births Associated With Higher Risk Of Child Abuse: "Small birthweight and premature birth may be associated with a higher risk of child abuse and neglect, suggests research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health."

Heart Science

In heart news today

Thiamin Deficiency Common In Hospitalized Heart Failure Patients
"Among patients hospitalized with heart failure, about one in three has deficient levels of thiamin, although thiamin deficiency was less common among those patients who were taking vitamin supplements, according to a new study in the Jan. 17 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology."[link]:

People Who Restrict Calories Have 'Younger' Hearts
"The hearts of people who follow a low-calorie, yet nutritionally balanced, diet resemble those of younger people when examined by sophisticated ultrasound function tests, and they tend to have more desirable levels of some markers of inflammation and fibrosis, according to a new study in the Jan. 17 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology."
[link]:

Caffeine Limits Blood Flow To Heart Muscle During Exercise
"In healthy volunteers, the equivalent of two cups of coffee reduced the body's ability to boost blood flow to the heart muscle in response to exercise, and the effect was stronger when the participants were in a chamber simulating high altitude, according to a new study in the Jan. 17 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology." [link]:

Laser Weapons Still a Long Ways Off?

Gizmodo writes:

"A Space.com article took at look at Doug Beason's book, The E-Bomb: How America's New Directed Energy Weapons Will Change the Way Wars Will Be Fought in the Future, shorten the title of that book for sakes. The Space.com article is reporting that the book says that the U.S. is close to deploying a new generation of weapons including lasers. Basically Mr. Beason is full of poo. The Tactical High Energy Laser was cancelled last year and the Airborne Laser is billions over budget and a couple years past its deadline. The main reason laser weapons are so difficult to produce is because the weapons use giant vats of toxic chemicals to produce the laser light, so this creates a big mobility issue. Solid state lasers (powered by crystals) could be used, but those are like kiddie toys compared to what chemical lasers can do. Sorry Star Wars and Star Trek cosplay junkies, no RL bew-bew guns to go with your outfit for a while."

However from the source article a Defense Tech Reader states:

An effective version of laser weaponry is ready for use today. The Chinese have installed it on the turret of the Type 98 MBT

"The procedure of the laser weapon would first use a low-powered beam to locate the optics of the enemy weapon. Once the enemy weapon was located, the power level of the laser would be immediately and dramatically increased. Such an attack would disable the guidance optics of the enemy weapon and/or damage the eyesight of the enemy gunner."

Using lasers as blinding weapons would be a most efficient way of rendering your enemy "combat ineffective" and is available today. Apparently the Chinese have no qualms about using them in this manner.

Gizmodo:[link]
Defense Tech:[link]

Sift through interstellar dust in your free time!

Alright! Another attempt by NASA to bring a space craft to earth, hopefully with little impact. This is scheduled to land on the 15th early Sunday morning (3:12 am) and being in Southern Idaho we have an excellent chance of viewing its decent. So, if your up and you have your camera in hand grab some shots. I will do my best in capturing the event and share it all with you that morning. Location and Maximum Elevation map

Science Daily says: Comet Dust Brought Back To Earth: Paving The Way For Rosetta

"Mark Frauenfelder: Gareth Branwyn reports in Street Tech: 'You likely already know about Seti@Home and Folding@Home, but did you know that you'll soon have the opportunity to rummage through intersellar dirt at home, thanks to UC Berkeley's Stardust@Home project?

'When the Stardust spacecraft returns to Earth later this week (Sunday), its dust-bag will be filled with what it vaccumed out of the tail of comet Wild 2. While bringing this material back home is exciting enough, the spacecraft will also have a few grains of interstellar dust in its hoppers. And that's where Stardust@Home comes in. Scientists only expect to find 45 or so grains of such dust in the craft's collectors, creating a needle in a haystack scenario. So they decided to use the distributed eyeballs of the Internet to help speed the search. They've created a Virtual Microscope which will allow volunteer researchers to digitally scan the aerogel tiles where the submicroscopic grains have been trapped. Scientists hope that by finding and studying this interstellar dust, they can learn more about the internal processes of the supernova, flaring red giants, and neutron stars that would likely produce such dust.'

link
[link, BoingBoing]:


UPDATED
"Xeni Jardin: NASA Stardust mission on final approach for landing

John Parres says,

Stardust is completing a 2.88 billion mile round-trip odyssey to capture and return cometary and interstellar dust particles to Earth in two days (2:12AM PST).

Sunday) The spacecraft performs its last maneuver on Friday, Jan. 13, at 8:53 p.m. Pacific time (9:53 p.m. Mountain time) to put it on the correct path to enter Earth's atmosphere. The speed of the sample return capsule as it enters Earth's atmosphere at 46,440 kilometers per hour (28,860 miles per hour) will be the greatest of any human-made object on record. The previous record was set in May 1969 by the returning Apollo 10 command module. Cool stuff. I will definately be tuning into NASA TV! Link to mission, Link to animations.

[link]:

How Elasticity Affects The Market For Illegal Goods

An interesting article about how enforement and market respond to illegal goods.

In an important new study, world-renowned economists -- including a Nobel Prize winner and a MacArthur 'genius' -- argue that when demand for a good is inelastic, the cost of making consumption illegal exceeds the gain. Their forthcoming paper in the Journal of Political Economy is a definitive explanation of the economics of illegal goods and a thoughtful explication of the costs of enforcement.

The authors demonstrate how the elasticity of demand is crucial to understanding the effects of punishment on suppliers. Enforcement raises costs for suppliers, who must respond to the risk of imprisonment and other punishments. This cost is passed on to the consumer, which induces lower consumption when demand is relatively elastic. However, in the case of illegal goods like drugs -- where demand seems inelastic -- higher prices lead not to less use, but to an increase in total spending.

In the case of drugs, then, the authors argue that excise taxes and persuasive techniques -- such as advertising -- are far more effective uses of enforcement expenditures.

'This analysis ... helps us understand why the War on Drugs has been so difficult to win ... why efforts to reduce the supply of drugs leads to violence and greater power to street gangs and drug cartels,' conclude the authors. 'The answer lies in the basic theory of enforcement developed in this paper.'

[link]Source: ScienceDaily

NYT on indigo children

My aunt believes her son (my cousin) can see auras. They both have commented on the seeing indigo more so they they have before. This is not to say I believe in what they see, to me it coincides with the first occurence (1970) and where we are in the world today Vietnam/Iraq, Nixon/Bush. I have no doubt that this "research" is US based and that sociopolitical views are hoping that our children see what we are doing and fight to change this for them in the future.

"David Pescovitz: Today's New York Times has a long article about 'indigo children' and, well, the new age parents who love them. According to believers, indigo children are psychologically and spiritually more advanced than other kids. Some apparently even have telepathic powers. From the article:

Indigo children were first described in the 1970's by a San Diego parapsychologist, Nancy Ann Tappe, who noticed the emergence of children with an indigo aura, a vibrational color she had never seen before. This color, she reasoned, coincided with a new consciousness.

In 'The Indigo Children,' (authors Lee) Carroll and (Jan) Tober define the phenomenon. Indigos, they write, share traits like high I.Q., acute intuition, self-confidence, resistance to authority and disruptive tendencies, which are often diagnosed as attention-deficit disorder, known as A.D.D., or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or A.D.H.D.

'To me these children are the answers to the prayers we all have for peace,' said Doreen Virtue, a former psychotherapist for adolescents who now writes books and lectures on indigo children. She calls the indigos a leap in human evolution. 'They're vigilant about cleaning the earth of social ills and corruption, and increasing integrity,' Ms. Virtue said. 'Other generations tried, but then they became apathetic. This generation won"

[link](thanks, boing boing):

Need a gift now? DIY Vase!

"The DIY Wonder Vase. Fill with warm water, hand form to your preferred shape, empty and re-fill with cold water to set. Rinse and repeat as needed. Best of all you can smooth them flat for storage. Neato thermal sensitive polymer see? Set of two – $12.95 each." [link]:

Chuck Norris responds to chucknorrisfacts.com

"Xeni Jardin:

The action star known for high-style facial hair and high-caliber weaponry responded today to spoof site chucknorrisfacts.com,which lists such 'facts' as

# Crop circles are Chuck Norris' way of telling the world that sometimes corn needs to lie the fuck down.

On his vanity site, Norris plugs his autobiography and shrugs off the prank domain. 'I do know that boys will be boys,' he says of the internet. And those of us without facial hair know the internet is not comprised entirely of boys." Link (Thanks, Naimul)

Source: [link] (thanks Xeni Jardin @ Boing Boing)

Can transplanted organs also transplant the donor�s personality?

"Professor Schwartz has detailed over 70 cases which demonstrate this phenomenon.

In one such case, a young dancer received a heart-and-lung transplant. Before the operation, she had been very health-conscious; yet, the very first thing she did on leaving the hospital was to head for a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet, and wolf down an order of chicken nuggets‹something she would never have done before. Her personality changed, too: she became aggressive and impetuous whereas, before, she had been calm and conservative.

She decided to investigate and, after much battling against the medical bureaucracy, she discovered that her heart�lung donor was an 18-year-old man who had died in a motorcycle accident. He had been an aggressive and impetuous lad who had a passion for Kentucky Fried Chicken‹in fact, uneaten KFC nuggets had been found in his motorcycle jacket on the very day of his death.

Another notable case is that of an eight-year-old girl who had received the heart of a 10-year-old girl who had been brutally murdered. After the transplant, the recipient began to experience horrifying nightmares. Her dreams were consistently about being murdered, and they were so traumatic that a psychiatrist was called in to help. What he heard convinced him that the girl was describing the actual circumstances of her donor�s murder. When the details were given to the police, these proved to be so accurate that the killer was easily identified and apprehended.1" [link] Share The Wealth

Washington Post on milliondollarhomepage.com

"The Washington Post has a feature on Alex Tew, the twenty-one-year-old creator of the Million Dollar Homepage. Tew sold 10-by-10 pixel advertising tiles on the page for $100 each. When the eBay auction for the last of the page's real estate ends tomorrow at 1:42 pm EST, Tew will have earned much more than $1 million. Of course, there are now a slew of copycats and spoof sites too. From the article:

Not sure initially that a single pixel would sell, Tew felt the idea had potential, so he aimed high. 'I asked myself the question, 'How could I become a millionaire?' Twenty minutes later I had the answer,' he says. In the beginning, he reasoned, even 1 or 2 percent of a million dollars wouldn't be bad.

The phenomenon he created has been hailed by some as a genre-changing concept in online marketing -- otherwise an advertising badlands of spam, banner ads and pop-ups. Others say it's a brilliant, one-time marketing aberration that will never be replicated.

Whatever it is, the Million Dollar Homepage isn't a pretty site -- even as it nears completion and begins a guaranteed minimum five-year lifespan. Tew calls this head-cocking creation 'a big collage of different colored ads.' It looks like a bulletin board on designer steroids, an advertising train wreck you can't not look at. Think 'Where's Waldo?,' only more cluttered and without a Waldo. It's like getting every pop-up ad you ever got in your life, at once. It's the Internet equivalent of suddenly feeling like you want to take a shower.

Link (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)

UPDATE: Thanks to the zillion readers who point out that Waldo is on the page, at least currently."

Source: [link]( thanks, Boing Boing)

Galactic porn: NASA Spitzer mosaic of Milky Way center

"Image: released today, this infrared mosaic from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope with a breathtaking view of our galaxy's core. Man, sometimes I wish my monitor was IMAX. Boing Boing [link]:
Link (Via Bruce Sterling). Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S. Stolovy (Spitzer Science Center/ Caltech)"

HOWTO convert an Oral B flosser into a vibrating lockpick

"Here's a simple recipe for converting a low-cost Oral B 'Hummingbird' vibrating flosser into a vibrating lock-pick that can 'pop most popular padlocks open in seconds with very little effort.'" [link] (Thanks, Boing Boing)

Counter-script to use on telemarketers

"The next time a telemarketer rings you, try this 'counter-script' in which you quiz the caller on her/his favorite toothpaste, working conditions, residence, etc, and finally rate the telemarketer and fax the completed counterscript to a project compiling information on telemarketers' habits and responses. [link]: (Thanks, Cory!) BoingBoing
Original item:"

Levi's Gets Into iPod Picture - Gizmodo

"Yup, even a staid brand like Levi’s has decided to partner up with Apple. Announced at MacWorld, the two companies are bringing us Levi’s Redwire DLX Jeans, which they claim will integrate iPod plug and play technology. Basically, this means that there will be an iPod docking cradle built into the side pocket—which the company promises will be virtually invisible. Dunno how they plan on pulling that off, but ok (especially if anyone wears their jeans as tight as this guy). Also expect a special 4-way, joystick remote control in the watch pocket and a retractable headphone unit to manage earphone wires (not sure where that will be just yet). No photos of these stunningly high-tech jeans and no price, but they will be available for both men and women sometime this fall." [link] Gizmodo:

Toyota Using NXT Speakers for Speacial Sound System - Gizmodo

"Toyota is going over-the-top with its 2007 FJ Cruiser SUV, that will be using NXT SurfaceSound flat panel speaker technology in the roof liner speaker system. Announced by NXT at CES, the SUV is powered by a 4.0L V6 24-valve engine and comes with a choice of six-speed manual or five-speed automatic transmission. The NXT system is built into the roofliner, but also complements the vehicles conventional speakers, hopefully giving you a broad, omni-directional dispersion of sound. The system comes with an AM/FM/CD system with six speakers fitted as standard (including NXT-based roof liner)or other options that include an eight speaker system with six-disc CD changer and a nine speaker system, complete with subwoofer." [link]:

NASA To Return First Comet Samples To Earth

"LOS ANGELES -- Comets have long lit up the sky and the imaginations of scientists. Now these icy bodies from the beginnings of the solar system are finally ready for their close-up.

Six months after NASA scientists first peeked inside one comet from afar, they're bringing pieces of another to Earth for study under the microscope.

This weekend, the Stardust spacecraft will jettison a 100-pound capsule holding comet dust. It will nosedive through the Earth's atmosphere and -- if all goes well -- make a soft landing in the Utah desert." [link] NBC11.com:

'Quiet' Mach 6 wind tunnel at Purdue helps shape future aircraft

"No other wind tunnel runs quietly while conducting experiments in airstreams traveling at Mach 6 – six times the speed of sound, said Steven Schneider, an aerospace engineer and professor in Purdue's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Researchers will use the $1 million wind tunnel to help design advanced aircraft that travel at hypersonic speeds, or faster than Mach 5, which is about 4,000 miles per hour at sea level." [link]:

Optimus keyboard

I want this! Optimus keyboard

Deaf hacker rewrites implant-firmware so he can enjoy music again

"Cory Doctorow: A deaf hacker diligently tinkered with the firmware on his cochlear implant, trying to get it to faithfully render out Ravel's symphony, Boléro, eventually meeting with success. Michael Chorost was born with partial hearing, and at 15, he discovered that Boléro was audible to him, and it became a touchstone for him, a piece of music that he developed a deep emotional attachment to. In 2001, Chorost experienced the sudden, total loss of the remains of his hearing, and Boléro was lost to him, seemingly forever.

In this Wired feature, Chorost chronicles the amazing journey he embarked upon, learning the science of acoustics, of music, and of signal processing, reprogramming the firmware in his implanted prosthetic with the help of experts around the world with various theories about the psychoacoustic basis for music.

The story is gripping, fascinating and informative -- a template for a tale that I believe will become more and more prevalent in times to come: a person who relies on computerized prosthetics not being satisfied with the features that were included with it out of the box, taking it upon herself to improve it, to extend it, using her own body and perceptions as a labratory for experiments on human perception and performance. [lin k]:

Nursing home residents prefer dogs to other residents?

"David Pescovitz: In a new study, a professor of geriatrics reports that nursing home residents would rather hang out with just a dog than a dog and other residents. The study, led by William A. Banks of the Saint Louis University School of Medicine, included 37 residents who scored high on a loneliness scale and desired half-hour dog visits once a week. Half of the group spent the time alone with the dog. The others participated in group visits with one to three other residents and the pooch. Those who had the one-on-one time with the dog 'experienced a much more significant decrease in loneliness after five to six weeks of visits.' From a press release:

“It was a strange finding,” said Banks, who also is a staff physician at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in St. Louis. “We had thought that the dog acts as a social lubricant and increases the interaction between the residents. We expected the group dog visits were going to work better, but they didn’t.

“The residents found a little quiet time with the pooch is a lot nicer than spending time with a dog and other people,” he said." [link]:

Drawing interface for Flickr

"David Pescovitz: Retrievr is a neat Flickr hack from System One that searches a database of images based on simple drawings rather than tags. I drew the branch on the left and the image on the right was one of the search results. From the project description:

Does it actually work?

Yes! That is, it depends. (Mainly on your expectations!)

In my experience, the results are usually fairly good, sometimes even stunning - considering the artistic sophistication most of us are able to come up with (gallery forthcoming); and in the cases they're not so stellar, they are at least entertaining ;-) But clearly, the approach has its limits.

One thing to keep in mind is that retrievr doesn't do object/face/text recognition of any kind, so if you're drawing an outline sketch of a chair, it almost certainly won't get you one back (except your index only contains images of chairs). The same holds for corporate logos, icons &c.
It helps to think of it as matching the most pronounced shapes and slabs of colors. Link to Retrievr, Link to info about other 'Search By Drawing' projects (via Drawn!)"[link]:

Ovale Vanity Cabinet from Porcher

The simple lines and natural materials of the Ovale cabinet emphasize the most current, popular ideas in bathroom design. The Ovale cabinet would compliment that simple spa environment that so many people are trying to create. The pushbutton doors and hidden hinges enhance the unobstructed look. Another great quality of this cabinet is that the height can be customized. The vanity cabinet is 26” wide and includes 2 sets of legs to provide for the most appropriate height for you. The multiple options for natural stone tops make it ease to compliment the other elements of your space. The high-quality maple and hardwood construction is coated with a vinyl based protective coat to ensure a long life. Go to Porcher to get your catalog or find a dealer near you." [link]: "

Navy Wants Insurgent-Predicting Program

"It was senior year, and I had just taken a semester off to work for the Clinton campaign in Philadelphia. So I figured it'd be the easiest A ever if I signed up for an urban politics class.

The professor, a pearl-wearing blond fresh out of grad school, confessed she had never actually lived in a city before. But that didn't stop her from having all kinds of theories about how urban politics really worked. And that included a formula --- a mathematical formula -- that she said described how mayors and aldermen made their decisions. I think I laughed out loud when she first wrote it on the blackboard.

This Navy proposal (scroll down) is way more serious, of course. And they claim that it's already worked before. But I couldn't help thinking of that professor back at Georgetown, when I read about the Navy's idea to use a computer program to predict insurgent attacks in places like Iraq.


In current U.S. operations, terrorist and insurgent forces enjoy a significant advantage by being able to launch surprise attacks, whether by small arms, mortar, or improvised explosive devices (IEDs), against weakly defended or undefended targets and disappearing before U.S. forces can concentrate for a counterstrike. Better prediction of where and when such attacks are most likely to occur would therefore be of great benefit, allowing smart allocatio" [link]:

The real meening to numa

For you to decide. No wonder it was so wildly popular Putfile - the real meening to numa