Immerse In The Future expo coming to LA and Second Life

Via KurzweilAI.net — I’ll just let this speak for itself …

IMMERSE IN THE FUTURE

KurzweilAI.net, Nov. 13, 2009 The latest in immersive media, 3D domes, neurofeedback art, virtual worlds and other cutting-edge media formats and their potential as tools for transformation will be explored at IMMERSE IN THE FUTURE: A VISIONARY EVENING OF ARTS, MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY, Monday, November 16th in Los Angeles and in Second Life. The event will include presentations by the LA Opera; Kathy Eldon, Founder of Creative Visions Foundation; John Raatz, Founder of GATE; Ed Lantz, Founder of IMERSA and Vortex Immersion Media and the c3: Center for Conscious Creativity, followed by an inspiring keynote by noted author and futurist, Jerome Glenn, the Director of the Millennium Project offering insights on the future of arts,media and entertainment and their effects on global culture. Glenn will also announce a partnership with c3 to create an international group of futuristic artists and mediavisionaries, and institutions, to become the Global Arts and Media Node for the Millennium Project’s “State of the Future” report. More info

YouTube goes full high-def

High-def as in a full HD 1080p resolution.

From the link:

At the NewTeeVee Live conference on Thursday, YouTube director of product management Hunter Walk announced that the video-streaming service is getting a new high-quality streaming option: full HD, or “1080p” resolution. The current “high-quality” option, when available on YouTube videos, is 720p, referring to the number of horizontal scan lines that make up the image.

Walk said the new resolution, as well as a new full-screen player, will roll out to all users within days.

YouTube co-founder Steve Chen announced high-quality YouTube viewing at NewTeeVee 2007. He also said, then, that YouTube stores all video it receives at the resolution it’s uploaded at. So when YouTube ads a resolution option, as it did then and is doing now, it simply needs to re-encode videos for the new player, not get new raw content.

There’s water on the moon

That’s right — H2O –confirmed by NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite.

The release from today’s inbox:

NASA’S LCROSS Impacts Confirm Water In Lunar Crater

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif., Nov. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Preliminary data from NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, indicates the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater. The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO)

The LCROSS spacecraft and a companion rocket stage made twin impacts in the Cabeus crater Oct. 9 that created a plume of material from the bottom of a crater that has not seen sunlight in billions of years. The plume traveled at a high angle beyond the rim of Cabeus and into sunlight, while an additional curtain of debris was ejected more laterally.

“We’re unlocking the mysteries of our nearest neighbor and, by extension, the solar system,” said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

“The moon harbors many secrets, and LCROSS has added a new layer to our understanding.”

Scientists long have speculated about the source of significant quantities of hydrogen that have been observed at the lunar poles. The LCROSS findings are shedding new light on the question with the discovery of water, which could be more widespread and in greater quantity than previously suspected. If the water that was formed or deposited is billions of years old, these polar cold traps could hold a key to the history and evolution of the solar system, much as an ice core sample taken on Earth reveals ancient data. In addition, water and other compounds represent potential resources that could sustain future lunar exploration.

Since the impacts, the LCROSS science team has been analyzing the huge amount of data the spacecraft collected. The team concentrated on data from the satellite’s spectrometers, which provide the most definitive information about the presence of water. A spectrometer helps identify the composition of materials by examining light they emit or absorb.

“We are ecstatic,” said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. “Multiple lines of evidence show water was present in both the high angle vapor plume and the ejecta curtain created by the LCROSS Centaur impact. The concentration and distribution of water and other substances requires further analysis, but it is safe to say Cabeus holds water.”

The team took the known near-infrared spectral signatures of water and other materials and compared them to the impact spectra the LCROSS near infrared spectrometer collected.

“We were able to match the spectra from LCROSS data only when we inserted the spectra for water,” Colaprete said. “No other reasonable combination of other compounds that we tried matched the observations. The possibility of contamination from the Centaur also was ruled out.”

Additional confirmation came from an emission in the ultraviolet spectrum that was attributed to hydroxyl, one product from the break-up of water by sunlight. When atoms and molecules are excited, they release energy at specific wavelengths that can be detected by the spectrometers. A similar process is used in neon signs. When electrified, a specific gas will produce a distinct color. Just after impact, the LCROSS ultraviolet visible spectrometer detected hydroxyl signatures that are consistent with a water vapor cloud in sunlight.

Data from the other LCROSS instruments are being analyzed for additional clues about the state and distribution of the material at the impact site. The LCROSS science team and colleagues are poring over the data to understand the entire impact event, from flash to crater. The goal is to understand the distribution of all materials within the soil at the impact site.

“The full understanding of the LCROSS data may take some time. The data is that rich,” Colaprete said. “Along with the water in Cabeus, there are hints of other intriguing substances. The permanently shadowed regions of the moon are truly cold traps, collecting and preserving material over billions of years.”

LCROSS was launched June 18 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as a companion mission to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO. Moving at a speed of more than 1.5 miles per second, the spent upper stage of its launch vehicle hit the lunar surface shortly after 4:31 a.m. PDT Oct. 9, creating an impact that instruments aboard LCROSS observed for approximately four minutes. LCROSS then impacted the surface at approximately 4:36 a.m.

LRO observed the impact and continues to pass over the site to give the LCROSS team additional insight into the mechanics of the impact and its resulting craters. The LCROSS science team is working closely with scientists from LRO and other observatories that viewed the impact to analyze and understand the full scope of the LCROSS data.

For information about LCROSS, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/lcross

Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO
AP Archive:  http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: NASA

Web Site:  http://www.nasa.gov/

Biodegradable organic transistors

Via KurzweilAI.net — This may prove to be a major medical breakthrough once some practical applications get into actual practice and spur on additional innovation.

Biodegradable Transistors

Technology Review, Nov. 13, 2009 Fully biodegradable organic transistors have been fabricated by researchers at Stanford University. They could be used to control temporary medical implants placed in the body during surgery, and help monitor the healing process from inside the body.   Read Original Article>>

Could email be better?

And by better, the question is really could it be more efficient. The answer is yes, but can it be more efficient? Probably not, but that’s not stopping these guys at Defrag 2009 from mulling the possibilities.

From the link:

Wading through e-mail is one of the primary woes of office workers everywhere. Despite many theories on how workers should process their incoming messages, most people still seem to feel buried in the flood. This week at Defrag 2009, a technology conference in Denver focused on tools and technologies for handling online data, experts suggested that the best strategies for fixing e-mail might rely on information and strategies drawn from social Web technologies.

“E-mail is kind of this giant, endless task list, and you’re really the slave to a lot of stuff that comes to you,” said Lili Cheng, general manager of Microsoft’s future social experiences labs. She believes that incoming messages need to be organized and sorted in a more automated fashion.

Add some gong to your life

Looking for an Eastern touch touch for your garden decor, something to help focus your thoughts while musing or meditating, or maybe just searching for an interesting accent piece for your home or garden? A meditation gong from Outdora might well be the answer. Gongs are East and Southeast Asian musical instruments, with origins in China, consisting of a flat metal disc struck by a mallet to produce its tones. Gongs can be traced to at least 2000 B.C., but it’s believed to have been use much further back in history. Chinese history records gongs beginning around 500 A.D.

Traditionally gongs have been used for many purposes including communication and to make announcements, to make music, as an accompaniment for ceremonies, and for healing. Adding a gong to your home or garden allows you to join centuries of tradition using this instrument for celebrations, mourning, theater and making music.

Outdora offers a variety of meditation gongs to meet different needs and size requirements. You will find freestanding gongs with a built-in frame, hanging or suspended gongs, wind gongs and garden bells. There are gongs sized for desk- or table-top and gongs large enough to really make a statement in your garden, both visually and aurally. Outdora’s Woodstock Chau Gong meets big size/big sound requirement with an ash wood and steel stand complementing the bronze disc. The Woodstock Chau Gong stands 65 inches high for a dramatic and elegant look.

Outdora’s gong collection is all handmade and designed to stand up to the outdoor elements. Purely as a decorative element, a gong will add appeal to your indoor or outdoor living space. And every Outdora gong is a musical instrument as well, ready to provide a sense of peace, tranquility or drama to your day.

Hit any link in this post for the full selection of meditation gongs from Outdora.

News for heavy cell phone users

Via KurzweilAI.net — And not that great of news ….

Wireless Phones Can Affect The Brain, Swedish Study Suggests

Science Daily, Nov. 11, 2009 A study at Orebro University in Sweden indicates that mobile phones and other cordless telephones have at two biological effects on the brain: increased content of the protein transthyretin in the blood-cerebrospinal-fluid barrier (part of the brain‘s protection against outside influences), and various health symptoms reported by children and adolescents, with the connection strongest regarding headaches, asthmatic complaints, and impaired concentration.   Read Original Article>>

TARP funds for deficit reduction?

Even though this move really smacks of naked politics there are far worse things TARP money could go toward than helping to drive down the outrageous deficits racked up over the last eight fiscally irresponsible years.

From the link:

The Obama administration, under pressure to show it is serious about tackling the budget deficit, is seizing on an unusual target to showcase fiscal responsibility: the $700 billion financial rescue.

The administration wants to keep some of the unspent funds available for emergencies, but is considering setting aside a chunk for debt reduction, according to people familiar with the matter. It is also expected to lower the projected long-term cost of the program — the amount it expects to lose — to as little as $200 billion from $341 billion estimated in August.

The idea is still a matter of debate within the administration and it is unclear how much impact it would have on the nation’s mounting deficit levels. Still, the potential move illustrates how the Obama administration is trying to find any way it can to bring down the deficit, which is turning into a political as well as an economic liability.

Silicon nanowires

Carbon gets most of the nanotech ink, but here’s some news on silicon nanowires.

The release:

Understanding mechanical properties of silicon nanowires paves way for nanodevices

		IMAGE: These are silicon nanowires used in the in-situ scanning electron microscopy mechanical testing by Dr. Yong Zhu and his team. Click here for more information.

Silicon nanowires are attracting significant attention from the electronics industry due to the drive for ever-smaller electronic devices, from cell phones to computers. The operation of these future devices, and a wide array of additional applications, will depend on the mechanical properties of these nanowires. New research from North Carolina State University shows that silicon nanowires are far more resilient than their larger counterparts, a finding that could pave the way for smaller, sturdier nanoelectronics, nanosensors, light-emitting diodes and other applications.

It is no surprise that the mechanical properties of silicon nanowires are different from “bulk” – or regular size – silicon materials, because as the diameter of the wires decrease, there is an increasing surface-to-volume ratio. Unfortunately, experimental results reported in the literature on the properties of silicon nanowires have reported conflicting results. So the NC State researchers set out to quantify the elastic and fracture properties of the material.

“The mainstream semiconductor industry is built on silicon,” says Dr. Yong Zhu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at NC State and lead researcher on this project. “These wires are the building blocks for future nanoelectronics.” For this study, researchers set out to determine how much abuse these silicon nanowires can take. How do they deform – meaning how much can you stretch or warp the material before it breaks? And how much force can they withstand before they fracture or crack? The researchers focused on nanowires made using the vapor-liquid-solid synthesis process, which is a common way of producing silicon nanowires.

		IMAGE: Dr. Yong Zhu and his research team stand front of a scanning electron microscope. From left to right, they are Feng Xu, Qingquan Qin and Yong Zhu. Click here for more information.

Zhu and his team measured the nanowire properties using in-situ tensile testing inside scanning electron microscopy. A nanomanipulator was used as the actuator and a micro cantilever used as the load sensor. “Our experimental method is direct but simple,” says Qingquan Qin, a Ph.D. student at NC State and co-author of the paper. “This method offers real-time observation of nanowire deformation and fracture, while simultaneously providing quantitative stress and strain data. The method is very efficient, so a large number of specimens can be tested within a reasonable period of time.”

As it turns out, silicon nanowires deform in a very different way from bulk silicon. “Bulk silicon is very brittle and has limited deformability, meaning that it cannot be stretched or warped very much without breaking.” says Feng Xu, a Ph.D. student at NC state and co-author of the paper, “But the silicon nanowires are more resilient, and can sustain much larger deformation. Other properties of silicon nanowires include increasing fracture strength and decreasing elastic modulus as the nanowire gets smaller and smaller.”

The fact that silicon nanowires have more deformability and strength is a big deal. “These properties are essential to the design and reliability of novel silicon nanodevices,” Zhu says. “The insights gained from this study not only advance fundamental understanding about size effects on mechanical properties of nanostructures, but also give designers more options in designing nanodevices ranging from nanosensors to nanoelectronics to nanostructured solar cells.”

###

The study, “Mechanical Properties of Vapor-Liquid-Solid Synthesized Silicon Nanowires,” was co-authored by Zhu, Xu, Qin, University of Michigan (UM) researcher Wei Lu and UM Ph.D. student Wayne Fung. The study is published in the Nov. 11 issue o fNano Letters, and was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and NC State.

More rejoicing for gold bugs

The world may have hit “peak gold.”

From the link:

“There is a strong case to be made that we are already at ‘peak gold’,” he toldThe Daily Telegraph at the RBC’s annual gold conference in London.

“Production peaked around 2000 and it has been in decline ever since, and we forecast that decline to continue. It is increasingly difficult to find ore,” he said.

Ore grades have fallen from around 12 grams per tonne in 1950 to nearer 3 grams in the US, Canada, and Australia. South Africa’s output has halved since peaking in 1970.

The supply crunch has helped push gold to an all-time high, reaching $1,118 an ounce at one stage yesterday. The key driver over recent days has been the move by India’s central bank to soak up half of the gold being sold by the International Monetary Fund. It is the latest sign that the rising powers of Asia and the commodity bloc are growing wary of Western paper money and debt.

A reverse mortgage primer

They aren’t for everyone, but if you have reverse mortgage questions this article from Kiplinger is a pretty good starting point.

From the link:

What is a reverse mortgage? It’s a loan on your house that lets you tap your home’s equity. Like a cash advance, a bank fronts you the money—either as a lump sum, a line of credit or monthly draws—and you have to repay it eventually, with interest.

Unlike a traditional mortgage, you don’t have to repay the loan during the term of the reverse mortgage. Instead, you pay it off all at once at the end of the loan. There are no income or credit qualifications, but homeowners must be 62 or older.

You retain title and ownership of your house. You are still responsible for paying the property taxes and the costs of insurance and repairs. If you still have a regular mortgage, you either have to pay it off before taking the reverse mortgage or use part of the proceeds from the reverse mortgage to retire it.

Outdoor living to the max with Viking Grills

I’ve done a fair amount of blogging on outdoor living lately, and one aspect of outdoor living I covered on the outdoor lifestyle for a no-longer-publishing home improvement magazine was outdoor kitchens. Just simple grilling is a major part of outdoor living and building an entire outdoor kitchen takes the concept to an even higher level. When you want to really maximize your outdoor kitchen, it’s time to take a look at a Viking grill. It’s an ultra premium grill experience with a matching price tag, but also a host of features including 29,000 BTU burners, the most powerful standard in the industry,  rotisserie rods, stainless steel construction and cast iron porcelain coated grill grates.

Hit any of the links in this post to head to Outdora for a huge selection of Viking grills and grilling accessories. You will find built-in & freestanding grills, side burners & rotisserie kits, warming & utility drawers, access doors, components & accessories, service carts & stations, grill bases and other grilling accessories such as covers, pans, vents and more.

Here are a few more features you will find on a Viking grill:

• commercial features enjoyed by professional chefs tailored for your outdoor kitchen
• the Viking TruSear infrared burner for flash searing
• easy-to-clean and maintain Power Porcelain grill gates
• the 15,000 BTU Gourmet Glo rotisserie system
• an adjustable 12,500 BTU burner
• thick stainless steel insulated, double side wall construction
• the Viking Gravity Feed outdoor smoker

A big advantage for checking out Outdora for your Viking grill needs is all items are available below the list price. It doesn’t matter if you want a fully tricked-out E-series with TruSear, side burners and an oven base, or if you’re just looking for replacement rotisserie forks, you’ll find the lowest possible price at Outdora.

Viking grills aren’t for everyone, but when you want to outfit the ultra premium outdoor kitchen Viking is a great choice.

A salute …

… to all United States armed service members both past and present.

Boneworms

Let’s just leave this one at science fact and the ocean still leave science fiction behind.

The release:

10 November 2009
MBARI News Release

A motley collection of boneworms

This photograph shows a female of an as yet un-named boneworm in the genus Osedax, which has been carefully removed from the whale bone in which it was growing. This worm has green, feathery palps, which extract oxygen from seawater. At its lower end are an ovisac and bulbous “roots,” which would normally be embedded in the whale bone. Image: © 2009 Greg Rouse

It sounds like a classic horror story—eyeless, mouthless worms lurk in the dark, settling onto dead animals and sending out green “roots” to devour their bones. In fact, such worms do exist in the deep sea. They were first discovered in 2002 by researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), who were using a robot submarine to explore Monterey Canyon. But that wasn’t the end of the story. After “planting” several dead whales on the seafloor, a team of biologists recently announced that as many as 15 different species of boneworms may live in Monterey Bay alone.

After years of study, the researchers have begun to piece together the bizarre story of the boneworms, all of which are in the genus Osedax. The worms start out as microscopic larvae, drifting through the darkness of the deep sea. At some point they encounter a large dead animal on the seafloor. It may be a whale, an elephant seal, or even the carcass of a cow that washed out to sea during a storm. Following chemical cues, the tiny larvae settle down onto the bones of the dead animal.

Once settled, the boneworms grow quickly, like weeds after a rain. One end of each worm develops feathery palps, which extract oxygen from seawater. The other end of the worm develops root-like appendages that grow down into the bone. Bacteria within these roots are believed to digest proteins and perhaps lipids within the bones, providing nutrition for the worms.

Soon the worms become sexually mature. Strangely enough, they all become females. Additional microscopic larvae continue to settle in the area. Some of these larvae land on the palps of the female worms. These develop into male worms. But they never grow large enough to be seen by the naked eye. Somehow these microscopic male worms find their way into the tube that surrounds the female’s body. Dozens of them share this space, not eating at all, but releasing sperm that fertilize the female’s eggs. Eventually the female worm sends thousands of fertilized eggs out into the surrounding water, and the cycle begins again.

 

This photo shows the skull of a dead whale on the seafloor—the preferred habitat for boneworms. Image: © 2006 MBARI

Dr. Robert Vrijenhoek, an evolutionary biologist at MBARI, has been fascinated with these worms ever since he and his colleagues first discovered their unusual lifestyles and bizarre reproductive habits. Vrijenhoek has been trying to find out how widespread and genetically diverse these worms are. He would also like to know how they manage to find and colonize the bones of dead whales in the vast, pitch-black expanse of the deep seafloor.

Between 2004 and 2008, Vrijenhoek’s research team towed five dead whales off of Monterey Bay beaches and sank them at different depths within Monterey Canyon. Every few months, coauthor Shannon Johnson and others on the team would send one of MBARI’s remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) down to study the worms and other animals that had colonized the whale carcasses.

To their surprise, the different whale carcasses yielded different types of boneworms. One whale carcass hosted three or four different types of worms. After examining all of the worms, coauthor Greg Rouse concluded that most of them were entirely new to science. The researchers also discovered that the worms would colonize cow-bones placed on the seafloor, which showed that the worms were not limited to feeding on dead whales.

 

Most female boneworms have long, graceful “palps” that wave in the ocean currents. Image: © 2008 Greg Rouse

In their recent paper in the journal BMC Biology, Vrijenhoek and his coauthors describe the results of extensive DNA analyses on all the different types ofOsedax worms that have been discovered so far (including two species found off Sweden and Japan). This work suggests that these worms could belong to as many as 17 different species, most of which have yet to be named. None of the worms appear to interbreed, despite the fact that some of them grow side by side.Based on their appearance and similarities in their DNA, the researchers divided the boneworms into several groups. Some of the worms have feathery palps, which may be red, pink, striped, or even greenish in color. Others have bare palps. One type of boneworm has no palps at all. Its body forms a single, long, tapering tube, which curls at the end like a pig’s tail. This worm has evolved to live in the seafloor sediment near a dead whale. It sends long, fibrous “roots” into the mud, presumably in search of fragments of bone on which to feed.

 

These unusual boneworms live in seafloor sediment and send roots into the sediment, presumably to digest fragments of bone. Image: © 2005 MBARI

Knowing how fast the DNA of these worms changes (mutates) over time, the researchers can calculate how long it has been since worms in the genus Osedaxfirst evolved as a distinct group. Using one possible estimate of mutation rates, the researchers hypothesized that this group could have evolved about 45 million years ago—about the time the first large open-ocean whales show up in the fossil record. Alternatively, the worms may have evolved more slowly, which would suggest that the genus is much older, and first evolved about 130 million years ago. If this second estimate is correct, the worms could have feasted on the bones of immense sea-going reptiles during the age of the dinosaurs.

Eventually the researchers will give all these new worms their own species names. First, however, they must collect enough samples of each possible species for additional laboratory analysis and distribution to type-specimen collections. Like a classic horror story, the macabre saga of the boneworms will continue to thrill marine biologists for years to come.

This research was sponsored by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

###

Journal article:
A remarkable diversity of bone-eating worms (Osedax; Siboglinidae; Annelida). Robert C Vrijenhoek, Shannon B Johnson and Greg W Rouse BMC Biology (in press).

Related links:

• Images related to this news release
• Video of Boneworms in Monterey Bay on YouTube
• BioMed Central news release on this article
• 2004 MBARI news release announcing the discovery of the boneworms.
• Dr. Vrijenhoek’s first-hand description of the discovery of the boneworms
• Dr. Vrijenhoek’s web page
• Coauthor Greg Rouse’ web page at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Related journal articles:

• Rouse GW, Wilson NG, Goffredi SK, Johnson SB, Smart T, Widmer C, Young CM, Vrijenhoek RC (2009) Spawning and development in Osedax boneworms (Siboglinidae, Annelida). Marine Biology156, 395-405.
• Vrijenhoek, RC, Johnson, S, Rouse, GW, 2008. Bone-eating Osedax females and their “harems” of dwarf males are recruited from a common larval pool. Molecular Ecology 17, 4535-4544.
• Vrijenhoek RC, Collins PC, Van Dover CL (2008) Bone-eating marine worms: habitat specialists or generalists? Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 275, 1963-1964.
• Jones WJ, Johnson SB, Rouse GW, Vrijenhoek RC (2008) Marine worms (genus Osedax) colonize cow bones. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 275, 387-391.
• Goffredi SK, Johnson SB, Vrijenhoek RC (2007) Genetic and potential function of microbial symbionts associated with newly discovered species of Osedax polychaete worms. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 73, 2314-2323. Link to PDF
• Braby CE, Rouse GW, Johnson SB, Jones WJ, Vrijenhoek RC (2007) Bathymetric and temporal variation among Osedax boneworms and associated megafauna on whale-falls in Monterey Bay, California. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 54, 1773-1791. Link to PDF
• Rouse GW, Goffredi SK, Vrijenhoek RC (2004) Osedax: Bone-Eating Marine Worms with Dwarf Males.Science 305: 668-671.

“2012″ marketing fomenting irrational fear

Via KurzweilAI.net — Just what mentally marginal need, another shove off the cliff via viral marketing and faked “scientific evidence.”

I’d say the reality challenged swing the Discovery Channel, National Geographic and other once science-based cable channels are doing plenty of damage on their own.

2012 Prophecies Sparking Real Fears, Suicide Warnings

National Geographic News, Nov. 9, 2009 Amid the hype — including a viral marketing campaign for 2012, the disaster movie opening Friday, with bogus scientific organizations, press releases, and 2012 whistle-blowers –some people are developing “end times” anxiety that has experts seriously concerned. NASA‘s Nibiru and Doomsday 2012: Questions and Answersand 2012: Beginning of the End or Why the World Won’t End? web pages seek to debunk stories about the fictionalplanet Nibiru and predictions of doomsday in December 2012. Scenes from the motion picture “2012″ (Columbia Pictures)   Read Original Article>>

Carbon nanotubes are the wiring of the future

Previously I’ve blogged about carbon nanotubes replacing copper wiring, and here’s news of a new manufacturing technique that gets that idea closer to the mainstream. This shift in wiring is most likely a “when” instead of an “if.”

From the second link:

A new method for assembling carbon nanotubes has been used to create fibers hundreds of meters long. Individual carbon nanotubes are strong, lightweight, and electrically conductive, and could be valuable as, among other things, electrical transmission wires. But aligning masses of the nanotubes into well-ordered materials such as fibers has proven challenging at a scale suitable for manufacturing. By processing carbon nanotubes in a solution called a superacid, researchers at Rice University have made long fibers that might be used as lightweight, efficient wires for the electrical grid or as the basis of structural materials and conductive textiles.

Others have made carbon-nanotube fibers by pulling the tubes from solid hair-like arrays or by spinning them like wool as they emerge from a chemical reactor. The problem with starting from a solid, says Rice chemical engineering professor Matteo Pasquali, is that “the alignment is not spectacular, and these methods are difficult to scale up.” The better aligned and ordered the individual nanotubes in a larger structure, the better the collective structure’s electrical and mechanical properties. Using the Rice methods, well-aligned nanotube fibers can be made on a large scale, shot out from a nozzle similar to a showerhead.

The late Nobel laureate Richard Smalley started the Rice project in 2001. Smalley knew solution-processing would be a good way to assemble nanotube fibers and films because of nanotubes’ shape. Carbon nanotubes are much longer than they are wide, so when they’re in a flowing solution, they line up like logs floating down a river. But carbon nanotubes aren’t soluble in conventional solvents. The Rice group laid the foundations for liquid processing of the nanotubes five years ago, when they discovered that sulfuric acid brings the nanotubes into solution by coating their surfaces with positively charged ions.

Nanotube fiber: This fiber, which is about 40 micrometers in diameter, is made up of carbon nanotubes.
Credit: Rice University

2009 Wall Street bonuses …

… are not going to go over all that great. I understand the nature of compensation in the financial industry, but sometimes image is everything, and the industry has a pretty shabby image on Main Street.

From the link:

Ask yourself, in this day and age, with officially reported unemployment at 10.2%, the highest since 1983, should a 36-year-old derivatives trader get $10 million or $15 million in bonus money on top of a $400,000 to $1 million direct salary. It’s the hot-button money issue of our time, the only visible totem of Wall Street that the public can easily understand. The public sees headlines about stocks being up 62%, the Dow over 10,000, gold at $1,100 an ounce, interest rates at zero and a handful of financiers able to buy $40 million apartments.

It’s a great time to play the market, sure, but the overall effect on the economy is pretty hollow when small and medium businesses cannot borrow money. Treasury Secretary Geithner admits to this huge vacuum, but he has no concrete or meaningful solution.

Japan planning space-based solar power plant

Via KurzweilAI.net — Space-based solar collection gets a lot of ink and now it looks like it might even get a test run.

apan eyes solar station in space as new energy source

AFP, Nov. 8, 2009 The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to collect solar power in space and send it to Earth by 2030 using laser beams or microwaves, and has created a consortium (the Institute for Unmanned SpaceExperiment Free Flyer) that includes Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Fujitsu and Sharp. (Japan Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer)   Read Original Article>>

Sully on K-Lo

Kathryn-Jean Lopez is an editor-at-large for the National Review Online and is no rocket scientist. Sadly, the National Review, a once bastion of intellectual thought on the right, is now pretty much lockstep with what passes for political philosophy on the American right — that is, it doesn’t exist. Plenty of me-tooism and anger at paper tigers, but not so much on the fronts that make any difference.

Andrew Sullivan, blogger of the Daily Dish, and an actual philosophical conservative, totally nails Lopez here:

… this is National Review, a place where intellectual Catholicism once had a home, where Buckley and Muggeridge wrote, where Wills got his start … and now we’re left with a person with the intellectual heft of a college sophomore …

 

House of Representatives passes health care reform bill

Final tally of 220-215 for the Affordable Health Care for America Act. Now the show is off to the Senate.

SEC football officials are either on the take …

… very high or just incompetent. The new conference rule fining coaches who complain about the officiating is crazy. The zebras make NBA officials look good and that’s saying something.

And this post is coming from someone who thinks college football is an almost impossible-to-watch game played by kids who’ll never make it in the NFL aside from the few hundred that end up on NFL rosters each new season.

The SEC ought to be very very embarrassed by its officiating, particularly the replay booth work.

So conference executives which is it — bribery, drug use or lack of ability?

Do exchange-traded funds create investment bubbles?

More specifically, bubbles in emerging markets — short answer, no.

From the link, a bit more behind the short answer:

So what does all this mean for investors? ETFs probably haven’t caused a bubble, and they might even help a bit to prevent one from forming. But many will remain superconcentrated bets on very risky markets. If you invest in an ETF with most of its assets in a few stocks and think you have made a diversified bet, the real bubble is the one between your own ears.

My deepest condolences and sympathy go out …

… to the victims, family and loved ones of everyone affected by the tragic Fort Hood shooting.

Now that more sober details are coming to light it’s clear the gunman was very disturbed, and his religious beliefs were a factor in the rampage. And there were many heroes — not unexpected among our armed forces — that day, particularly Sgt. Kimberly Denise Munley, a member of the SWAT team for Fort Hood’s civilian police department, who in a tactical move charged the still firing Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, taking rounds herself while ending his shooting spree.

Update 11/12/09 — Another law enforcement hero from that day — Senior Sgt. Mark Todd. Todd actually fired the shots that subdued Hasan.

Overdraft fees — consumer banks v. consumers

Consumer banking has largely been about screwing the customer for a long time — at least as far as the large, national, impersonal banks (you know, the ones that advertise on television) go. Long ago, something like 15 years ago, I wrote an article for a business magazine on some of the underhanded techniques consumer banks were using to gouge customers.

Back then one of the growing trends was charging a premium for what was called a “meatspace transaction.” Although it sounds vaguely pornographic, a meatspace transaction was anything that involved a living teller, either face-to-face or through drive-up banking. Happily that bit of foolishness didn’t have any legs. One troubling practice that did, and still does, is overdraft fees and how they are processed.

They are almost unavoidable in terms of the bank will happily let you go below your balance instead of declining the transaction.

From the link:

Ever write a check thinking you had plenty in your account to cover it? Make a debit card purchase before your paycheck cleared? How about the time you withdrew $5 too much from the ATM?

Sure, your bank was happy to cover the amount. Why not? Although touted as a customer “convenience,” overdraft fees have been soaring. Last year, overdraft charges generated nearly $24 billion dollars for banks and credit unions. That’s 35% more than just two years earlier, according to the Center for Responsible Lending.

Warning! No Warning

The first problem with overdraft fees is that you don’t receive any notice that the transaction you’re about to make will exceed the balance in your account. If you did, at least you’d be able to choose whether you want to continue with it or not.

In some cases you can trigger overdraft charges even if your online statement shows you have plenty in yourchecking account! That’s because your balance is “theoretical” and doesn’t reflect the fact that a recent deposit may not have been in your account long enough for the funds to “clear.”

But the really dirty part of the process is how your incoming transactions are handled:

The Re-ordering Trick

Another criticism is that financial institutions can play games with your transactions in order to trigger a cascade of overdrafts.

For instance, say you make four debit card purchases in a day. Your available balance was $90. The first three transactions were for $25, $20, and $40. The last one was for $100. If taken in chronological order, there is adequate money in your account to cover the first three purchases. Only the last one would result in an overdraft charge.

But that’s not the way your bank computer system is programmed. Instead, it will change the order of your purchases in order to deplete your account sooner by subtracting the largest transactions first.

In the above example, your $100 purchase would come out of your account ahead of the other three. Since it exceeds your balance by $10, it generates a $35 charge. Next, with your account already under water (according to the bank’s math), your other three purchases are posted. You end up paying $140 (4 x $35) for the “convenience” of overdraft protection.

Quite the trick there. Consumer banks have been playing so dirty for so long, and were on the receiving end of so much government bailout money Congress is stepping up to the plate for the consumer at long last.

We’ll see where this ends up, but I think it’s about time Main Street was given a little protection from practices that should have been illegal from the get-go. I guess we ought to be happy consumer banks didn’t go around breaking kneecaps like Vinny from the corner might have. Because really, that’s about the only difference between usury and a typical consumer bank.

Also from the link:

Kathleen Day, a spokesperson for the Center for Responsible Lending, calls the current state of overdraft fees “ridiculous” and an “outrage.” The Center and other consumer protection organizations place the blame squarely at the feet of the Federal Reserve, which regulates most large financial institutions in this country.

“The Fed has known for years these practices are hurting customers and they’ve failed to act,” charges Day. The Senate Finance Committee has drafted the “Fairness and Accountability in Receiving Overdraft Coverage Act,” or the FAIR Act, which would limit overdraft fees banks can impose.

China fears microblogging

Doesn’t the leadership know information wants to be free — even at 140 Modern English alphabet characters a pop.

Jokes aside, here’s a bit from the first link:

A Chinese government watchdog plans to push Twitter-style Web sites to censor their content, the country’s latest move to block Internet users from posting certain politically sensitive information online.The government-linked Internet Society of China plans to compose “self-discipline standards” for microblogging services, a group representative said in an e-mail. The representative declined to give details, but the group has released similar guidelines for other Web sites before. A document the group released for blog providers calls for them to delete “illegal or harmful information” as it appears on their sites, or simply to cease blog service for infringing users. Chinese authorities have used the term “harmful information” to describe online content including pornography and discussion of politically sensitive topics such as Falun Gong, a spiritual group banned in the country.

Twitter and Facebook have been blocked in all of China since July, when deadly ethnic riots in the country’s western Xinjiang region led it to crack down on communication tools that could be used to gather people at a given location. Authorities also blocked all Internet service and text messaging in Xinjiang after the rioting, which state-run media say killed nearly 200 people.

Some Chinese-language Twitter rivals also went offline after the rioting. One of the bigger sites, Digu, came online again last month, but rival service Fanfou is still down.

The HP DreamScreen 100 internet touchscreen

This thing looks pretty cool …

HP DreamScreen 100 Internet Touchscreen
Think of it as a digital photo frame on steroids. The HP DreamScreen 100, available in 10- and 13-inch models, does more than merely display family snapshots. Connect this sexy display (#98 in The PC World 100: Best Products of 2009) to your home network via Wi-Fi or ethernet, and you can then use the handheld remote to stream your favorite Pandora channels or up to 10,000 Internet radio stations, view your calendar, set alarms, see a five-day weather forecast, and catch up with your peeps on Facebook. Put this beauty on your nightstand, and you can finally toss your old clock radio.

Full review | $250 to $300 | Check prices

Update 11/17/09 — Hit this link to find the HP DreamScreen 100 10-Inch Wireless Connected Screen at Amazon for under $200.

Texting and driving just don’t mix — even hands-free

An interesting blog post from Dan Ariely, a visiting professor at MIT’s Media Library on the “tiny irregularities” of texting while driving:

Sad story out in the New York Times describing growing concerns about texting while driving. In Britain, a woman was sentenced to a 21-month sentence after it was found that she had been texting while driving, which resulted in the death of a 24-year old design student. In many ways, texting while driving illustrates a case in which tiny, individual irrational decisions can accumulate and cause widespread suffering, not only for the individuals who are texting, but their unsuspecting victims. Unlike cases of drunk driving, in which the driver’s decision making abilities are impaired, drivers who text are at their full wits to wait until they’ve pulled over to check their texts, and yet in the process they routinely underestimate the risk they impose to themselves and others.

The professor was quite wrong, however, on one aspect of the issue:

… we can hope that cell phone companies are continuing to explore voice activation technologies that can read text messages aloud and also transcribe them from voice — thereby by-passing the problem altogether.

In researching web content I created for an insurance website, I came across this research that finds hands-free listening  to mobile devices is not much safer than hands-on cell phone use because the issue is the distraction of the usage, not merely taking eyes off the road ahead (all bold text my emphasis):

Five states currently ban the use of hand-held cell phones in favor of hands-free devices while driving. However, several studies have shown that there is little difference between the two when it comes to minding the road ahead. Both hand-held and hands-free devices involve listening. The act of listening is what distracts drivers from paying attention to the road. A study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University placed participants in a functional MRI scanner that allowed researchers to observe brain activity while the subjects “drove” on a computerized roadway. Without distractions, the area of the brain that lit up most was the area involved in spatial perception (knowing where you are and what’s around you). When the same subjects were tasked with listening to and correctly answering a series of questions as they drove, the area of the brain that lit up most was the area involving language comprehension, while activity in the spatial perception area of the brain decreased by as much as 37 percent. Multitasking places high demands on the brain.

Protecting your privacy when using search engines

Sounds like a useful tool in this world of massive data collection by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and many others.

The release:

A new system preserves the right to privacy in Internet searches

		IMAGE: A new system preserves the right to privacy in Internet searches. Click here for more information.

A team of Catalan researchers has developed a protocol to distort the user profile generated by Internet search engines, in such a way that they cannot save the searches undertaken by Internet users and thus preserve their privacy. The study has been published in the Computer Communications magazine.

Just imagine someone from Company X who uses the Google search engine to obtain information about a certain technology. If Company Y, a competitor of X, should discover this situation, it could infer that the abovementioned technology is going to be used in X’s new products, and with that information it could obtain a competitive edge. In the same way, a mass media enterprise that finds out the searches undertaken by the competition’s journalists could infer what news items they are working on and beat them to it. A personal report could also be drawn up on someone based on their searches.

In order to solve these types of situations, a team of researchers from three Catalan universities (the Rovira i Virgili University, the Autónoma of Barcelona and the Oberta of Catalonia) has developed a system which preserves user privacy via a new computer protocol, whose details are published in the Computer Communications magazine.

“It is a model based on cryptographic tools which distort the profile of users when they use search engines on Internet”, explains Alexandre Viejo to SINC. He is one of the authors of the study and a researcher at the Computer Engineering Department of the Rovira i Virgili University, “in such a way that their privacy is preserved”.

Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Live search save the profiles of their users (via an analysis of the searches they undertake) with the argument that they are more familiar with their interests and offer a more efficient response.

There currently exist types of software which provide anonymous navigation, such as the Tor network, but the new system “offers a clear improvement in response time”. Nevertheless, Alexandre Viejo acknowledges that the application of the protocol delays searches slightly, “but it can be perfectly assumed by the user”.

The tool prototype has already been tried in closed (research centre intranets) and open (internet) environments, “and the results allow us to be optimistic with the global implementation of the model”. The researchers are now working on the development of a final user version and trust that it will soon be easily integrated into the main platforms and browsers.

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References:

Jordi Castellà-Roca, Alexandre Viejo, Jordi Herrera-Joancomartí. “Preserving user’s privacy in web search engines”. Computer Communications32 (13-14): 1541�, 2009.

It’s that time again …

… autumn is in full swing and winter isn’t far behind. If you haven’t winterized your home, now is the time. Depending on where you live this could be a quick afternoon of mild chores, or an entire operation to get your house ready for worst Jack Frost can bring. The first step should be checking out the heating portion of your HVAC system to make sure everything is working order, clean and ready for operation. Next is the roof and chimney, particularly gutters and downspouts. Take a look at your gutters or gutter protection to make sure things aren’t clogged up preventing proper drainage. Also inspect the “envelope” of your home for drafts, air leaks and missing insulation. And don’t forget your pipes — especially outdoor pipes. You don’t want a surprise water leak after a hard freeze and thaw.

One good way to minimize your winterizing chores is to cover your chimney and gutters to minimize debris accumulation. A good gutter protection system will protect your gutters, downspouts and drains year-round and end that pesky winterizing chore of making sure every spot is clear of leaves, bird and rodent nests, and areas of standing water that can lead to corrosion and mosquito problems during warm weather.

Hit any link in this post to head to Outdora.com and the GutterPiller gutter protection system. The system has been featured on “This Old House” and has won the “Retailers’ Choice Award” multiple times. Outdora offers two GutterPiller gutter protection systems — the GutterPiller Twisted Wire Gutter Protection System and the Black Magic Filter Gutter Screen Protection System. You can even find gutter brushes to help you clear out clogged — and probably unprotected — gutters, and splash guards to help disperse water under your drainspouts.

If winterizing isn’t your favorite seasonal chore, and I’m betting it isn’t, a gutter protection system takes one item right off of your list.

 

 

Solar energy and the artificial leaf

Very interesting solar breakthrough, or near to it at least. Plus more on the state of the solar industry.

The release:

Chemists describe solar energy progress and challenges, including the ‘artificial leaf’

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2009 — Scientists are making progress toward development of an “artificial leaf” that mimics a real leaf’s chemical magic with photosynthesis — but instead converts sunlight and water into a liquid fuel such as methanol for cars and trucks. That is among the conclusions in a newly-available report from top authorities on solar energy who met at the 1st Annual Chemical Sciences and Society Symposium. The gathering launched a new effort to initiate international cooperation and innovative thinking on the global energy challenge.

The three-day symposium, which took place in Germany this past summer, included 30 chemists from China, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. It was organized through a joint effort of the science and technology funding agencies and chemical societies of each country, including the U. S. National Science Foundation and the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society. The symposium series was initiated though the ACS Committee on International Activities in order to offer a unique forum whereby global challenges could be tackled in an open, discussion-based setting, fostering innovative solutions to some of the world’s most daunting challenges.

A “white paper” entitled “Powering the World with Sunlight,” describes highlights of the symposium and is available along with related materials here.

“The sun provides more energy to the Earth in an hour than the world consumes in a year,” the report states. “Compare that single hour to the one million years required for the Earth to accumulate the same amount of energy in the form of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are not a sustainable resource, and we must break our dependence on them. Solar power is among the most promising alternatives.”

The symposium focused on four main topics:

• Mimicking photosynthesis using synthetic materials such as the “artificial leaf”
• Production and use of biofuels as a form of stored solar energy
• Developing innovative, more efficient solar cells
• Storage and distribution of solar energy

   

The scientists pointed out during the meeting that plants use solar energy when they capture and convert sunlight into chemical fuel through photosynthesis. The process involves the conversion of water and carbon dioxide into sugars as well as oxygen and hydrogen. Scientists have been successful in mimicking this fuel-making process, termed artificial photosynthesis, but now must finds ways of doing so in ways that can be used commercially. Participants described progress toward this goal and the scientific challenges that must be met before solar can be a viable alternative to fossil fuels.

Highlights of the symposium include a talk by Kazunari Domen, Ph.D., of the University of Tokyo in Japan. Domen described current research on developing more efficient and affordable catalysts for producing hydrogen using a new water-splitting technology called “photocatalytic overall water splitting.” The technology uses light-activated nanoparticles, each 1/50,000 the width of a human hair, to convert water to hydrogen. This technique is more efficient and less expensive than current technologies, he said.

Domen noted that the ultimate goal of artificial photosynthesis is to produce a liquid fuel, such as methanol, or “wood alcohol.” Achieving this goal would fulfil the vision of creating an “artificial leaf” that not only splits water but uses the reaction products to create a more usable fuel, similar to what leaves do.

Among the “take-home messages” cited in the report:

• There’s no single best solution to the energy problem. Scientists must seek more affordable, sustainable solutions to the global energy challenge by considering all the options.
• Investing in chemistry is investing in the future. Strong basic research is fundamental to realizing the potential of solar energy and making it affordable for large-scale use.
• Society needs a new generation of “energy scientists” to explore new ways to capture, convert, and store solar energy.

   

“The meeting was an experiment worth trying,” said Teruto Ohta, executive director of the Chemical Society of Japan.

Conference organizers expressed hope that the symposium will be the first of several to tackle “the global challenges of the 21st century and the indispensible role that the chemical sciences play in addressing these issues,” said Klaus Mullen, president of the German Chemistry Association.

“Building on the success of this first symposium, we’re now gearing up for the future, convening top chemical scientists to address other, equally pressing global challenges,” said Julie Callahan of the ACS Office of International Activities and principal investigator on the project. “It is an exciting time to be a chemist!”

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The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 154,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.