Map Room Archive: Shows 61 - 75
From
Sundown Lounge No. 75
The Spray On Condom
Researchers at the German Institute for Condom Consultancy plan to launch a spray-on condom – the Institute is currently conducting tests on a spray can into which the man inserts his penis which is then sprayed with latex from nozzles on all sides.
The plan is to make the product ready for use in about five seconds and offer a more effective contraceptive that fits better than standard one-size fits all condoms and hence does not slip. Pre-market trials are underway to demonstrate the new latex condom is evenly spread when sprayed and to optimise the vulcanization process. The company is seeking Condom Testers with a penis length from 9 to 12 cm and 15 to 20 cm. Men between 13 to 14 cm are apparently welcome too, so we presume there must be some other qualification ‘cos that includes just about everyone. Video (in German) here.
Designed and marketed in cooperaation with Vinico and Qualo Design, the aim of the partnership is to develop the perfect condom for men that's suited to every size of penis.
The company had hit upon the idea when considering the difficulties some people faced using condoms, and drew inspiration from spray-on medical dressings and bandages now used in medicine.
The condom spray can is expected to reach market in 2008 for a price of around EUR 20 (US$27) and will offer around 20 applications. Replacement cartridges are expected to cost half the initial purchase price for the entire pack, and will be offered in different strengths and colours. We can’t wait for the marketing department to finish its deliberations on the “strength grades” – athletic, sedate, sack-of-potatoes?
The FBI's Scary New Eavesdropping Tool
The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.
The technique is called a "roving bug," and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.
Nextel cell phones owned by two alleged mobsters, John Ardito and his attorney Peter Peluso, were used by the FBI to listen in on nearby conversations. The FBI views Ardito as one of the most powerful men in the Genovese family, a major part of the national Mafia.
The surveillance technique came to light in an opinion published this week by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. He ruled that the "roving bug" was legal because federal wiretapping law is broad enough to permit eavesdropping even of conversations that take place near a suspect's cell phone.
Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones, said James Atkinson, a counter-surveillance consultant who has worked closely with government agencies. "They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time," he said. "You can do that without having physical access to the phone."
Because modern handsets are miniature computers, downloaded software could modify the usual interface that always displays when a call is in progress. The spyware could then place a call to the FBI and activate the microphone--all without the owner knowing it happened. (The FBI declined to comment on Friday.)
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"If a phone has in fact been modified to act as a bug, the only way to counteract that is to either have a bugsweeper follow you around 24-7, which is not practical, or to peel the battery off the phone," Atkinson said. Security-conscious corporate executives routinely remove the batteries from their cell phones, he added.
Scientist Fights Church Effort
to Hide Museum's Pre-Human Fossils
From LiveScience
Famed paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey is giving no quarter to powerful evangelical church leaders who are pressing Kenya's national museum to relegate to a back room its world-famous collection of hominid fossils showing the evolution of humans' early ancestors.
Leakey called the churches' plans "the most outrageous comments I have ever heard."
He told The Daily Telegraph (London): "The National Museums of Kenya should be extremely strong in presenting a very forceful case for the evolutionary theory of the origins of mankind. The collection it holds is one of Kenya's very few global claims to fame and it must be forthright in defending its right to be at the forefront of this branch of science." Leakey was for years director of the museum and of Kenya's entire museum system.
Evolving Issue
The museum's collections include the most complete skeleton yet found of Homo erectus, the 1.7-million-year-old Turkana Boy unearthed by Leakey's team in 1984 near Lake Turkana in northern Kenya.
The museum also holds bones from several specimens of Australopithecus anamensis, believed to be the first hominid to walk upright, four million years ago. Together the artifacts amount to the clearest record yet discovered of the origins of Homo sapiens.
Leaders of Kenya's Pentecostal congregation, with six million adherents, want the human fossils de-emphasized.
"The Christian community here is very uncomfortable that Leakey and his group want their theories presented as fact," said Bishop Bonifes Adoyo, head of the largest Pentecostal church in Kenya, the Christ is the Answer Ministries.
"Our doctrine is not that we evolved from apes, and we have grave concerns that the museum wants to enhance the prominence of something presented as fact which is just one theory," the bishop said.
Bishop Adoyo said all the country's churches would unite to force the museum to change its focus when it reopens after eighteen months of renovations in June 2007. "We will write to them, we will call them, we will make sure our people know about this, and we will see what we can do to make our voice known," he said.
It was these comments Leakey termed outrageous. Calling members of the Pentecostal church fundamentalists, Leakey added: "Their theories are far, far from the mainstream on this. They cannot be allowed to meddle with what is the world's leading collection of these types of fossils."
For its part, the museum sounded like it was trying to walk a tightrope. It said it was in a "tricky situation" in trying to redesign its exhibition space for all kinds of visitors.
"We have a responsibility to present all our artifacts in the best way that we can so that everyone who sees them can gain a full understanding of their significance," said Ali Chege, public relations manager for the National Museums of Kenya. "But things can get tricky when you have religious beliefs on one side, and intellectuals, scientists, or researchers on the other, saying the opposite."
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From Geeknotes:
Cineclub Canudo, the Cinematic Culture and Electronic Arts Association, is pleased to present the fourth edition of the Avvistamenti video festival, with the support of Regione Puglia, Provincia di Bari and Comune di Bisceglie and in collaboration with UICC (Unione Italiana Circoli del Cinema), Ethical Imaging Italia. The event will take place at Teatro Garibaldi of Bisceglie on December 28th, 29th and 30th, 2006
Location: Teatro Garibaldi Bisceglie (Bari) - Italy
PETER CAMPUS’ video 1970_2006
+ made in Croatia + made in Puglia
email: cineclubcanudo@fastwebnet.it
Phot'Art International N°4 is now available. Within the contents, American landscapes by Alain Briot (USA), John Kaplan, 1992 Pulitzer Prize (USA), digital creations from Pavel Kaplun (Germany), the Hiroshi Watanabe poetry (Japan), insects from Jean-Daniel Tosello (France), and fabulous report, After Katrina in New Orleans by Dan Burkholder (USA). In 4 issues, Phot' Art was affirmed like the world-wide reference of the photography of author.
Phot'Art International is sold only by subscription.
If you're in LA and interested in Eric Schwartzman's UCLA Extension course on blogs, podcasts and social media this January:
The course consists of five class meetings over five weeks. Sessions will be
held Wednesday evenings -- Jan. 24 thru Feb. 21, 2007 -- at Dodd Hall on UCLA's
main campus.
The course will cover practical applications of emerging new media, and give
attendees an opportunity to develop and present a business case for a specific
new media initiative. The idea is to not just teach how to use new media, but
also how to win management's support for these initiatives.
Guest speakers confirmed include Phil Gomes of Edelman, Sally Falkow of
Expansion Plus, Tim Bourquin of Podcast Expo, Dan Klass of The Bitterest Pill
podcast and Rob Barrettt, GM of LATimes.com.
If you're interested in attending, you can sign up at the UCLA Extension website
at the following link:
http://www.ipressroom.com/cmp.asp?c=60832O718O4O687O1098
From
Sundown Lounge No. 74
Honda's New Fuel-Cell Prototype
Billed as a pre-production prototype of a model that will be leased to customers starting in 2008, the FCX Concept makes practical automotive fuel-cell technology seem to be relatively near at hand.
Powered by a third-generation, 100-kilowatt Honda fuel cell stack that boasts an increase in power-to-volume density of 50 percent over the previous version, the new drive system approaches the performance of Honda's 4-cylinder gasoline engines, according to Yozo Kami, Honda's chief engineer
for FCX product development. At the same time, the new stack is 30 percent lighter and 20 percent smaller than its predecessor, which allows it to fit relatively tidily in the center tunnel between the passengers. In the meantime, they managed to cut the overall power train mass by almost 400 pounds, while shrinking its volume by 40 percent.
The system permits generally neater packaging, enabling the 4-door sedan to offer a nearly standard-sized passenger cabin and storage trunk. That packaging improvement was feasible because Honda engineers altered the stack's orientation so that the hydrogen fuel and water flow through the system vertically rather than horizontally. This change facilitates quicker water drainage, which is important for to efficient stack operation, cold-weather starts and quicker warm-ups. The stack now runs at temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees F, says Kami. Assisted by a new, lightweight and compact lithium-ion storage battery (replacing the previous ultracapacitor) and incorporating a 127-horsepower AC synchronous motor, the power plant provides an estimated 270-mile range (in the U.S. EPA combined cycle test mode) per fill-up of the 171-liter (5,000-pound per square inch pressure) hydrogen tank, claims Honda.
The vaguely futuristic electric car (with its low stance, cabin-forward design, flashy dashboard display, and environmentally friendly, plant-based seat upholstery) packs 189 pound-feet of low-end torque, which helps accelerate the FCX Concept smoothly and briskly while emitting only minor sound levels. Top-speed is 100 miles per hour (velocity-limited). Although Honda engineers have yet to optimize the steering, ride and handling systems, the drive feel was well within acceptable range.
Using the Mind to Cure the Body
From LiveScience
The medical community traditionally has relied on potent drugs to relieve severe pain. But in a number of academic settings across the country, health-care practitioners are adding another therapeutic weapon to the mix -- they're helping patients harness the healing power of their own imaginations.
The use of guided imagery, or mental images, to evoke physical benefits is perhaps the oldest form of therapy known to man, explained David E. Bresler, a founder of the Academy for Guided Imagery in Malibu, Calif. In fact, imagery is woven into the fabric of many ancient cultures' healing rituals, he said.
Today, academic researchers are studying guided imagery's use as an adjunct to more traditional medical treatments.
"I think it's just the beginning, really, even though it's been around a long time," said Bresler, whose academy instructs clinicians, including pediatricians, in the use of imagery to evoke physiologic changes that promote healing. A traditionally trained Ph.D. neuroscientist, he first became intrigued with alternative methods of pain relief in the early 1970s as founder and director of the University of California, Los Angeles, Pain Control Unit.
While much of the ongoing research is preliminary, practitioners of guided imagery are encouraged by initial results among children and adults...
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Global Warming Could Doom Male Crocodiles
From LiveScience
Rising temperatures could force the birth of more female crocodiles and fewer males, an expert said today. The scenario could cause some croc populations to disappear.
Crocodile gender is determined by temperature during incubation. Nest temperatures of 89.6 to 91.4 degrees Fahrenheit (32-33 Celsius) result in males. Anything warmer or cooler produces females. Temperatures typically vary from the top of a nest to the bottom, producing both genders.
"A difference of 0.5 - 1º [Celsius] in incubation temperature results in markedly different sex ratios," said Alison Leslie, of South Africa’s University of Stellenbosch. "More female hatchlings due to the cooler or hotter incubation temperatures could lead to eventual extirpation of the species from an area."
Scientists generally agree that the planet is warming and will continue to do so for decades to come.
"If that increase actually takes place … it's going to increase the temperature of that incubation," Leslie said. "I think global warming is going to have a huge effect."
Leslie is the principal investigator of Earthwatch Institute’s Crocodiles of the Okavango Delta project in Botswana.
Crocodile populations have dwindled dramatically in Botswana, due to overexploitation by hide hunters and conflicts with nearby communities.
"Even though crocodilians have been around for millions of years, and as important as these creatures may be in the systems they occupy, they are a much understudied species," Leslie said. Her findings will be presented Discovery Kids Channel presentation, "A Year on Earth," to air Dec. 3 and 10.
13 Things We Can't Explain
Even with all of our science and research capabilities there are things we simply cannot explain. Here are 13 mind benders that have been puzzling the science world.
Let's just examine the first one...
1.) The placebo effect
Don't try this at home. Several times a day, for several days, you induce pain in someone. You control the pain with morphine until the final day of the experiment, when you replace the morphine with saline solution. Guess what? The saline takes the pain away.
This is the placebo effect: somehow, sometimes, a whole lot of nothing can be very powerful. Except it's not quite nothing. When Fabrizio Benedetti of the University of Turin in Italy carried out the above experiment, he added a final twist by adding naloxone, a drug that blocks the effects of morphine, to the saline. The shocking result? The pain-relieving power of saline solution disappeared.
So what is going on? Doctors have known about the placebo effect for decades, and the naloxone result seems to show that the placebo effect is somehow biochemical. But apart from that, we simply don't know.
Benedetti has since shown that a saline placebo can also reduce tremors and muscle stiffness in people with Parkinson's disease (Nature Neuroscience, vol 7, p 587). He and his team measured the activity of neurons in the patients' brains as they administered the saline. They found that individual neurons in the subthalamic nucleus (a common target for surgical attempts to relieve Parkinson's symptoms) began to fire less often when the saline was given, and with fewer "bursts" of firing - another feature associated with Parkinson's. The neuron activity decreased at the same time as the symptoms improved: the saline was definitely doing something.
We have a lot to learn about what is happening here, Benedetti says, but one thing is clear: the mind can affect the body's biochemistry. "The relationship between expectation and therapeutic outcome is a wonderful model to understand mind-body interaction," he says. Researchers now need to identify when and where placebo works. There may be diseases in which it has no effect. There may be a common mechanism in different illnesses. As yet, we just don't know...
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From Geeknotes:
World AIDS Day Links
The main org page in the UK, The page set up by UNAIDS, and the Australian World AIDS Day site...
My name is Jeff Kartak. I'm a working musician and I sell my CDs from stage. I wanted to display my CDs with a professional look, right by my fans so they would first of all SEE THEM, and then be able to purchase one without interrupting the show or waiting for me on a break. So I designed a product to do just that. It's called The CD Seller.
It holds 12 CDs, has a locking cashbox, a sign holder and a fitting that mounts it to any microphone stand. I put The CD Seller next to the stage and now I sell many more CDs at my gigs. In fact, my CD sales increased so much at my performances using The CD Seller that I refined the product, started my own business and now make them available to other artists like you. I'm so confident you will sell more CDs with The CD Seller, it comes with a 30 day money back guarantee! At $39.95 The CD Seller is so affordably priced, for most artists it pays for itself on the first gig! It's a powerful CD sales tool with a great return on the investment.
If you are interested in finding out more, check out The CD Seller at: www.thecdseller.com
During the first phase of Operation Get The Lead
Out, ChicagoPoetry.com will DOUBLE (that's right,
double) the cash prizes for this year's Frieda
Stein Fenster Memorial Awards For Poetry. If that
doesn't energize you, maybe you're a corpse.
Also, ChicagoPoetry.com has selected three
excellent veterans of the Chicago Poetry Scene to
judge this year's contest. These poets have been
in the poetry scene for many, many years, and have
stood witness to the diversity of styles available
in the Chicago Poetry Scene.
These three poets will judge all entries into this
contest separately and blindly. Make no mistake
about it, ChicagoPoetry.com's Annual Contest is
one of the fairest contests that exists today,
anywhere in America.
Okay, poets, let's get the action going: follow
this link for the official rules of the 2007
Frieda Stein Fenster Memorial Awards:
http://chicagopoetry.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=681
or simply go to
http://chicagopoetry.com
and click on the "enter our contest" button.
Good luck!
--CJ Laity
PS, phase two involves a big @#%&ing poetry
party!!!!!
From
Sundown Lounge No. 73
Foam Parties
Foam parties are a new kind of global social event in which participants are lathered up with soap suds, usually dispensed from a special machine or soap cannon.
Foam party pic at the Amnesia nightclub on Ibiza, Spain.
Foam parties often take place at night clubs, where music, dance, and social drinking occur. Typically bathing suits or beach attire is worn to such an event. There are lots of cool pictures of different parties around the world (click the item title - Ed.)
Five Toughest Questions That Women Ask Men
The questions are:
1. What are you thinking about?
2. Do you love me?
3. Do I look fat?
4. Do you think she is prettier than me?
5. What would you do if I died?
What makes these questions so difficult is that every one is guaranteed to explode into a major argument if the man answers incorrectly (i.e tells the truth). Therefore, as a public service, two question are analyzed below, along with possible responses. The remaining questions are covered on the news item page...
Question # 1: What are you thinking about?
The proper answer to this, of course, is: "I'm sorry if I've been pensive, dear. I was just reflecting on what a warm, wonderful, thoughtful, caring, intelligent woman you are, and how lucky I am to have met you." This response obviously bears no resemblance to the true answer, which most likely is one of the following:
1. Baseball.
2. Football.
3. How fat you are.
4. How much prettier she is than you.
5. How I would spend the insurance money if you died.
(Perhaps the best response to this question was offered by Al Bundy, who once told Peg, "If I wanted you to know what I was thinking, I would be talking to you!")
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Question # 2: Do you love me?
The proper response is: "YES!" or, if you feel a more detailed answer is in order, "Yes, dear." Inappropriate responses include:
1. I suppose so.
2. Would it make you feel better if I said yes?
3. That depends on what you mean by love.
4. Does it matter?
5. Who, me?
Antiviral Paint Kills Flu on Contact
By Bill Christensen
A remarkable new anti-viral polymer can be applied like paint and could help reduce the spread of germs in public areas and hospitals. The "biocidal paint" was developed by MIT's Alexander Klibanov.
In a graphic demonstration (see photo), a regular commercial glass slide and another one coated with alkylated PEI "paint" were sprayed with aqueous suspensions of Staphylococcus aureus cells, and then incubated. Some 200 bacterial colonies are seen on the unprotected slide—and only 4 on the protected one.
Klibanov writes:
Our recent studies have resulted in a new, "non-release" strategy for rendering common materials (plastics, glass, textiles) permanently microbicidal. This strategy, involving covalent attachment of certain long, moderately hydrophobic polycations to material surfaces, has been proven to be very effective against a variety of pathogenic bacteria and fungi, both airborne and waterborne. This work continues along with a quest for creating material coatings with anti-viral and anti-sporal activities.
Klibanov and his colleagues found that the prickly polymer worked on bacteria; they tested it with the smaller flu virus and found the same effects. They applied droplets of a flu solution to glass slips painted with the polymer. After a few minutes' exposure, they were unable to recover any active virus from the samples, meaning the coating reduced the pathogen's abundance by at least a factor of 10,000.
How does it work? In the case of bacteria, the polymer seems to gouge holes in a microbe's cell wall and then spill out its contents. The polymer molecules stay rigid because they are all positively charged and repel each other; they are like strands of hair standing on end from a static charge. The spikes have sufficiently few charges, however, that they can breach bacterial walls, which repel strongly charged molecules. The polymer probably neutralizes flu because the virus has an envelope around it suitable for spearing, Klibanov says.
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From Geeknotes:
Here a list of poetry video links sent in by my buddy CJ Laity over at Chicagopoetry.com, including a half hour interview with Luis J. Rodriguez, and a Live performance at the Green Mill
...
Here's a show opening up on November 25th at Changing Role Gallery in Napoli, featuring the work of Stefano Tordiglione, called "Is This Real?"
Rattapallax News:
The Rattapallax DVD will be featured at the Potenza International Film Festival in Italy from December 1-9, 2006. Also a selection of films from the Academia Internacional de Cinema will be screened. AIC is the first independent film school in Brazil. Publisher and filmmaker Ram Devineni will be on the festival's international jury.
The Kolkata Book Fair in India is the largest book fair in the world with an annual attendance of 2.8 million people. Every year, a focal theme country is given a large pavilion to showcase its countries' books and publishers. The United States was selected for 2008 and US Kolkata Literary Exchange (USKLE) has been created to organize this event with the Consulate General of the United States of America in Kolkata. Rattapallax is one of the organizers of the US Kolkata Literary Exchange (USKLE) with Yusef Komunyakaa, Rita Dove, Erica Jong, and many others.
US Kolkata Literary Exchange will be bringing a group of 10-12 distinguished poets, writers, screenwriters, publishers, editors, translators, and playwrights to the 2008 Kolkata Book Fair. One of our goals is to ship 20,000 books to the 2008 Kolkata Book Fair and sell every book for $1 (USD), equal to about 30 Rupees. All proceeds from the sale of the books will be donated to a not-for-profit organization based in India.
From Venue Verite:
"Gramma Red Crow," from "Blackfeet Storysmith" by Wallace J. Gladstone with Jack W. Gladstone
Blackfeet Storysmith: Recollections of Kut-oy-is/Wallace Gladstone (1925-2003) He lived the stories he told. This 2-CD, 2 1/2 hour epic set, chronicles the early chapters of my father's odyssey. Entertaining and informative, Wallace Gladstone's precise memory provides an outline for understanding both 19th and 20th century Blackfeet/American culture - Jack W. Gladstone
"Dance to The Sun," Indian Blues Rock provided by Jackie Bird, Hoop Dancer (Dakota Oyate)
The hoop dance has a different meaning for every tribe. For Jackie Bird, the dance is for healing. It has been passed down through her family from generation to generation. The hoops stand for the circle of life. Once it was a male-dominant dance, but with the world in need of more healing, women have now joined in. Four hoops were used, each in the color of the four directions. Now it is modernized and some use 38 hoops. Jackie Bird performs the story of creation with her hoops.
In all of her performances, Jackie Bird has been praised for her ability to get her audience involved with her contemporary and traditional music, songs and dances. Woven throughout Jackie's performance are the intricacies and belief of her Native American culture.
From
Sundown Lounge No. 72
The Clever Car
A cross between a chopper, a compact and a UFO, the low-emission Clever car runs on compressed natural gas stored in two cylinders behind the passenger's seat and gets a dizzying 108 m.p.g.
The three-wheeled, aluminum-framed Clever turns like a dream thanks to computer-controlled cornering and hydraulics. And even though its engine is good for the earth, this two-seater has plenty of pep; it can cruise at speeds up to 80 m.p.h.
To this end, at the initiative of the Technical University of Berlin, Institute for Motor Vehicles, a European consortium was formed in 2002, which is funded under the 5th Framework Programme of the EU Commission.
The development is for a city vehicle for two people that requires very little space, weights very little, has very low consumption and therefore also very low emissions. The passive safety of this vehicle is comparable to that of a modern conventional small car. An enclosed body provides adequate comfort.
As a result of the low width of the vehicle (less than one metre), it has been designed to tilt as it corners so as to provide plenty of stability round bends and to provide a driving experience similar to a motorcycle...
3rd Annual iGEM Jamboree
About 380 students from 37 universities around the world shared their research yesterday in synthetic biology, an emerging scientific field, during MIT's third annual International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition, or the iGEM Jamboree.
One genetically modified bacterium infuses the aroma of mint and bananas into formerly foul-smelling biology labs. Another warns of arsenic in well water. And a third could someday be used to print color photos.
The teams spent the summer designing and building biological systems using standard, interchangeable biological parts, such as bacterial genes, supplied by MIT. The students, mostly undergraduates, are essentially making new "tools" that scientists could use for future applications.
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"The public can be a little afraid of synthetic biology because genetic engineering can be quite intimidating," said Judith Nicholson, a University of Edinburgh senior who worked on the arsenic detector. "People are focused on the controversy surrounding stem cells. We wanted to make something with real world use, a good, reliable biosensor that can be mass-produced and cheap."
The goal of the competition is to get young scientists to help spawn new industries in synthetic biology and make sure scientists worldwide are involved, said Randy Rettberg, a research engineer at MIT who runs the iGEM contest.
Half of the teams come from outside the United States. Competitors came from India, Japan, Mexico, Canada, England, Scotland, Slovenia, Turkey, Colombia, Spain, and Switzerland.
"If we have another huge industrial revolution, it's really important that it happens worldwide ," said Rettberg. "We have to have people all over the world making materials and energy to meet their own needs."
Functional Air Guitar
Australian engineers have created an air guitar that actually works, fulfilling the dreams of talentless metal fans around the world.
It comes in the form of a shirt fitted with sensors which pick up the strumming and plucking motions of the wearer, as each arm bends to choose a chord or swings to brush the strings.
The shirt then sends the movement information across a wireless connection to a computer which generates the sound to match.
(Click the pic for the air guitar movie)
The Wearable Instrument Shirt, or WIP, was developed from research into "smart textiles" by CSIRO scientists looking for new and unconventional ways for people to interact with computers.
The WIP can also replicate the playing of an air tambourine, though there is no news so far of modifications for air drums, air saxophones or air television-throwing.
Other products developed by the CSIRO Textiles and Fibre Technology team include a garment which prevents skin tears for the elderly and a "talking" knee brace which gives the user feedback on the best ways to move to avoid injury.
Read the CSIRO information pack on the WIP here.
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From Geeknotes:
Here's the latest newsletter from my buddy CJ Laity over at Chicagopoetry.com...
There's a really cool art happening going on at the Abitart Hotel in Rome, running until December 9th. It's an exhibit of 20 stills from the video trilogy called "Impossible," by Luca Curci and Fabiana Roscioli. During the opening on Wednesday the 15th the stills were projected on the hotel's walls. Cool.
From
Sundown Lounge No. 71
Fossilized Virus Brought Back to Life
In a controversial study, researchers have resurrected a retrovirus that infected our ancestors millions of years ago and now sits frozen in the human genome. Published online by Genome Research this week, the study may shed new light on the history of these genomic intruders, as well as their role in tumors. Although this particular virus, dubbed Phoenix, is a wimpy one, some argue that resuscitating any ancient virus is inherently risky and that the study should have undergone stricter reviews.
Retroviruses have the ability to make DNA copies of their RNA genomes and incorporate these into the host's genome. If this happens in a germ cell, the copy can be passed on to future generations. Indeed, the human genome is littered with the remnants of such human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) (ScienceNOW, 29 September 2004). So far, researchers had been unable to recover a complete, functional HERV from a human genome however; part of the reason, they assumed, was that mutations accumulated over the millennia had rendered such viruses dysfunctional.
A team led by Thierry Heidmann at the Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, France, near Paris, decided to try to awaken the ancestor of an entire family of HERVs called HERV-K(HML2). To "correct" for mutations, the researchers took dozens of known HERV-K(HML2) sequences and aligned them to create a so-called "consensus" sequence. Then they converted this information into a complete viral genome.
Others worry that the study sets a dangerous precedent. Although it was approved by the French research ministry's Genetic Engineering Committee, Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, says any study that creates new viruses or activates old ones should be subject to a special review at the national or international level. What's more, he says, because the researchers couldn't be absolutely sure about Phoenix's infectivity, the study should have been carried out under Biosafety level 4 conditions--the best-protected labs available--instead of the level 3 conditions utilized...
Katana: Human-Friendly Industrial Robot
By Alan S. Brown
Like the vast majority of assembly line robots, Katana is a moving arm. But that's where the resemblance ends. Unlike the hulking robotic arms used on assembly lines, Katana is designed to work next to humans.
Industrial robots often tower over their masters and move at breakneck speeds, which is why factories surround them with cages to keep workers away. When factory robots do get tangled up, built-in sensors help them disengage automatically. This keeps tightly sprung robots from abruptly unwinding on workers trying to free them.
Katana, on the other hand, is puny. It has a 20-inch reach, weighs only 6 to 9 pounds, and can fit inside most high school backpacks. It struggles to lift more than 1 pound. A child could grasp its small grippers and arm wrestle it to the table.
According to Werner Klecka of Swiss developer Neuronics AG, Katana is the European Union's first robot certified as inherently safe. Neuronics designed the small robotic arm to work with people the same way a nurse works with a surgeon.
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That means changing conventional robot physiognomy. Like more powerful industrial robots, Katana uses several small motors for six- axis motion (up-down, left-right, and diagonally back-and-forth). But unlike larger robots, which need massive power supplies, it uses a laptop computer-style power supply that plugs into a wall socket.
Katana is also slow. It tops out at 3.3 feet per second. It would take 27 seconds to move the same 90 feet that New York Met Jose Reyes covers in 3 seconds when he steals second base. Unlike Reyes, Katana stops automatically when it hits anything solid.
Slow and weak does not mean incapable. Katana is designed for precision work. With one conductivity, four force, and nine infrared sensors, its gripper is sensitive enough to place objects with 1/250th of an inch accuracy. An optional video camera also lets it recognize shapes.
According to Neuronics, people are using Katana to slide samples [image] under a microscope faster and more precisely than any human ever could. "The robot can move and position the slide faster and better than the inspector," Klecka said.
Katana has also been used to place and remove pressure sensors for ultrasonic welding, remove parts from molds, position inspection cameras, and shuttle test tubes in laboratories.
Solar Power, Sans Silicon
By Joanna Glasner
In a world where sun-powered garden lights seem like a nifty idea, new technologies touted by solar energy startups sound very far out.
Entrepreneurs promise that soon solar-energized "power plastic" will radically extend the battery life of laptops and cell phones. Ultra-cheap printed solar cells will enable construction of huge power-generating facilities at a fraction of today's costs. And technologies to integrate solar power-generation capability into building materials will herald a new era of energy-efficient construction.
Those are ambitious goals for a technology famous for powering pocket calculators, but investors are paying heed. This year, solar startups have snapped up more than $100 million in venture capital to develop printable materials capable of converting sunlight into electrical power. Soaring energy demand, as well as short supplies of polysilicon, a key ingredient in most solar cells, is fueling interest in alternative materials.
"These technologies look incredibly more real than they did five years ago," said Dan Kammen, founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley. Kammen predicts solar sources, which today produce less than 1 percent of power consumed nationwide, could eventually meet one-fifth of U.S. energy demand.
Printed solar cells, produced with conductive metals and organic polymers in place of silicon, could help. As early as next year, startups plan to begin manufacturing printed solar products for use in power-generating facilities, rooftop installations and portable gadgets. While industry experts don't expect manufacturing on a massive scale to be viable for years, production capability is ramping up quickly.
Executives at Nanosolar, based in Palo Alto, California, plan to finish building a factory next year to churn out thin-film solar cells using copper-based semiconductors instead of silicon.
"Silicon models are too expensive in the first place," said Martin Roscheisen, Nanosolar's CEO, who expects the company will be able to build a 400-megawatt plant for about $100 million. Providing equivalent capacity using silicon technology, Roscheisen estimated, would cost close to $1 billion.
When Nanosolar's products become commercially available, Roscheisen plans to warranty the cells for 25 years -- similar to silicon solar products.
Miasolé, in neighboring Santa Clara, California, has developed a competing thin-film photovoltaic cell using a layer of photoactive material containing a compound called CIGS. The company plans to incorporate the technology into building materials and rooftop solar installations.
On the shorter end of the power-generation life cycle, Konarka, a startup in Lowell, Massachusetts, has agreements in place with manufacturers to produce a printed "power plastic" to supply solar energy for portable devices.
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From Geeknotes:
LACDA 2006 INTERNATIONAL JURIED COMPETITION
LACDA announces our juried competition for digital art and photography. Entrants submit three JPEG files of original work. All styles of 2D artwork and photography where digital processes of any kind were integral to the creation of the images are acceptable. The competition is international, open to all geographical locations.
Deadline for entries: November 19, 2006. Winners will be announced November 30, 2006.
Visit Philippe's on Sunday afternoon, November 12th and join the NaNoWrimo Write-In!
I'll be the guy without the laptop...
Another cool plugger from The Untamed Tongues Poetry Lounge...
From
Sundown Lounge No. 70
Face Blind
By Joshua Davis
BILL CHOISSER WAS 48 when he first recognized himself. He was standing in his bathroom, looking in the mirror when it happened. A strand of hair fell down – he had been growing it out for the first time. The strand draped toward a nose. He understood that it was a nose, but then it hit him forcefully that it was his nose. He looked a little higher, stared into his own eyes, and saw … himself.
For most of his childhood, Choisser thought he was normal. He just assumed that nobody saw faces. But slowly, it dawned on him that he was different. Other people recognized their mothers on the street. He did not. During the 1970s, as a small-town lawyer in the Illinois Ozarks, he struggled to convince clients that he was competent even though he couldn't find them in court. He never greeted the judges when he passed them on the street – everyone looked similarly blank to him – and he developed a reputation for arrogance. His father, also a lawyer, told him to pay more attention. His mother grew distant from him. He felt like he lived in a ghost world. Not being able to see his own face left him feeling hollow.
One day in 1979, he quit, left town, and set out to find a better way of being in the world. At 32, he headed west and landed a job as a number cruncher at a construction firm in San Francisco. The job isolated him – he spent his days staring at formulas – but that was a good thing: He didn't have to talk to people much. With 1,500 miles between him and southern Illinois, he felt a measure of freedom. He started to wear colorful bandannas, and he let his hair grow. When it got long enough, he found that it helped him see himself. Before that, he'd had to deduce his presence: I'm the only one in the room, so that must be me in the mirror. Now that he had long hair and a wild-looking scarf on his head, he could recognize his image. He felt the beginnings of an identity...
Grancrete
The concept behind the Grancrete® system is simply to combine state-of-the-art materials with modern techniques to create structures that can be built anywhere in the world using local labor forces and mostly locally produced materials. Extremely durable structures can be built quickly and economically under virtually any topographic climatic conditions.
The United Nations estimates there are almost a billion poor people in the world, 750 million of whom live in urban areas without adequate shelter and basic services. An ingenious new building technology from scientists at Argonne National Laboratory and Casa Grande LLC could help alleviate and perhaps even solve that major humanitarian problem by providing affordable housing for the world's poorest. A tough new ceramic material that is almost twice as strong as concrete may be the key to providing high-quality, low-cost housing throughout developing nations.
The ceramic is called Grancrete, which, when sprayed onto a rudimentary Styrofoam frame, dries to form a lightweight but durable surface. The resulting house is a major upgrade to the fragile structures in which millions of the world's poorest currently live. Using conventional techniques, it takes 20 men two weeks to build a house. A five person crew can construct two grancrete homes in one day. There’s also plenty of commercial upside in developed nations, making low-cost buildings viable for a variety of purposes – we can see inflatable technology marrying with Grancrete construction to evolve an entirely new way of building lavishly complex structures that would be impossible any other way.
It’s hard to imagine it from the armchairs of most of those who will be reading this, but most of the world’s population live in low income shelter. The United Nations estimates World’s developing nations need more than 740 million homes NOW – if we built 100,000 homes a day for 20 years, we would be 20 years behind, so clearly we need to do something different if we are to ensure that all human beings can live with dignity. We need a low-cost building material and smarter construction process, so we can construct large numbers of houses to make the goal even remotely achievable. The Grancrete structural spray-on cement might be what we need...
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FreeCharge Weza
We’ve always thought that wind-up energy makes sense but wind-up energy pioneer Freeplay is now taking things to a whole new level.
The company’s wind-up radio offers telecommunications in a single package – turn the handle a few times and you can radio where even electricity didn’t exist before. The allure of 20th century technology is immense and in 2002 this was demonstrated when thousands of people in Niger traded their guns for Freeplay radios in a ground breaking initiative of the Government of Niger, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Freeplay Foundation to encourage peace and stability in the region. Freeplay specialises in delivering electric power to self-powered devices such as radios, torches and mobile phone chargers, and two ingenious new human-powered products from the company are the Freecharge Weza portable energy source and the Indigo self-sufficient lantern. The lantern burns for three hours for a modicum of work and is a wonderful invention belonging in every home for a myriad of reasons.
The Weza is however, a category buster – it is a small, foot-powered energy source that generates electricity at up to 40-watts to charge its own internal battery for direct 12-volt power. To charge it, pump the pedal and the generator spins. Combine the Weza with the Xantrex XPower Powerpack 400 Plus and you can run emergency lights, small power tools, a computer system or watch a mid-size TV for hours while burning a few calories. It will also juice-up from a cigarette lighter adapter in a car, serve as an emergency power source for home or a backup generator for not-at-home. An absolute must-have accessory for any self-respecting technophile who refuses to stop having fun when there’s no readily available electricity supply!
The FreeCharge Weza, the portable energy source, is a versatile, robust energy source providing totally dependable power for emergency situations and everyday use in remote locations. The FreeCharge features an internal rechargeable lead acid battery capable of jump starting a range of vehicle and outboard engines, as well as powering a range of other devices. The FreeCharge can be recharged from either an AC or DC source eg wall, solar, wind (solar and wind options not supplied) and, in emergency situations, using the step treadle. The FreeCharge will accept up to 110V to 240 AC and DC inputs from 10.7V to 21V...
Blue Jean Dye Kills Cancer Cells
UK researchers are employing tiny gold "nanoparticles", 1/5000th the thickness of a human hair, to deliver the chemical compound directly into cancer cells, tearing them apart instantly. The common dye found in blue jeans and ballpoint pens is called phthalocyanine and is a light-activated, or photosensitive, agent with cell-destroying properties.
This has been known for at least 15 years but, until now, scientists have not been able to successfully deliver it into cells; hence there's no harm in wearing blue jeans.
The University of East Anglia (UEA) team used the gold particles as "trojan horses". Their small size enables them to easily enter cells, and the phthalocyanine is taken up along with them.
When pulsed with laser light, the compound produces a highly reactive form of oxygen which causes the cancer cells to commit suicide.
UEA's Dr David Russell explained: "Because this compound does not dissolve in water, it is difficult to get it into cells. But this 'fat soluble' property is precisely what makes it a great potential therapy.
"We have shown using nanotechnology that we can get phthalocyanine into the cancer cells where it binds and, on activation, causes substantial cell death," he told the British Association's Science Festival.
Healthy cells will also internalise the drug-coated nanoparticles, but unlike cancer cells they will excrete the phthalocyanine.
"Cancer cells are too greedy for their own good," said Dr Russell. "They are growing so fast that they take in and retain everything - not just nutrients needed for growth..."
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From Geeknotes:
The Map Room Gazette has my brief encounter with the new Diebold TSx voting machine...
Go see the documentary. Nuff said...
Here's Daize Shayne's latest cool magazine ad...
From
Sundown Lounge No. 69
Number of Ocean 'Dead Zones' Rise
By John Heilprin
Associated Press
The number of oxygen-starved “dead zones'' in the world's seas and oceans has risen more than a third in the past two years because of fertilizer, sewage, animal waste and fossil-fuel burning, United Nations experts said Thursday. Their number has jumped to about 200, according to new estimates released by U.N. marine experts meeting in Beijing. In 2004, U.N. experts put the estimate at 149 globally.
The damage is caused by explosive blooms of tiny plants known as phytoplankton, which die and sink to the bottom, and then are eaten by bacteria which use up the oxygen in the water. Those blooms are triggered by too many nutrients - particularly phosphorous and nitrogen. The U.N. report estimates there will be a 14 percent rise in the amount of nitrogen that rivers are pumping into seas and oceans globally over a period from when the levels were measured in the mid-1990s to 2030.
Dead zones first were reported in the United States' Chesapeake Bay; the Baltic Sea; the Kattegat bay in the North Sea; the Black Sea; the northern Adriatic Sea; and some Scandinavian fjords. Others have appeared off South America, China, Japan, southeast Australia and New Zealand, according to U.N. research led by Robert Diaz, a marine scientist at Virginia's College of William & Mary.
Diaz and his team reported finding new dead zones in Finland's Archipelago Sea; Ghana's Fosu Lagoon; China's Pearl River estuary and Changjiang River; Britain's Mersey River estuary; Greece's Elefsis Bay and Aegean Sea; Peru's Paracas Bay; Portugal's Mondego River; Uruguay's Montevideo Bay; and the Western Indian Shelf...
Fear Could be Linked to Cancer
By Robert Roy Britt
Young female rats afraid of new environments developed cancer tumors sooner than their more adventuresome sisters, a new study finds.
The researchers called the difference "striking."
The apprehensive rodents died sooner than others in the study because they got cancer earlier in life, on average. Importantly, however, the study found no difference in the length of time between onset of cancer and death in the two sets of rats.
The findings suggest research is needed into the possibility that human personality could predict cancer risk, the researchers write in the current issue of the journal Hormones and Behavior.
"Human studies may need to consider more basic behavior traits than those already considered," said Martha McClintock of the University of Chicago...
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During puberty, the fearful rats were twice as likely as the adventuresome rats to have irregular reproductive cycles, the study showed. The cycles stabilized during adulthood but then became irregular again for the fearful rats during middle age.
The irregular cycles might account for hormonal differences linked to the development of cancer earlier, the researchers conclude.
Previous research at the university found that adventuresome males lived longer.
X MINUS ONE
X MINUS ONE was an NBC science fiction series that was an extension,
or revival, of NBC's earlier science fiction series, DIMENSION X.
which ran from Apr. 8, 1950 through Sept. 29, 1951. Both are
remembered for bringing really first rate science fiction to the air.
The first X MINUS ONE shows used scripts from DIMENSION X, but soon
created new shows from stories from the pages of Galaxy Magazine. A
total of 125 programs were broadcast, some repeats or remakes, until
the last show of Jan. 9, 1958.
The show featured stories written by some of the big names in 1950s science fiction, like Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, and Issac Asimov. For baby boomers that liked The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone and for all you Trekkies, X Minus One is the forefather of the science fiction you grew up with.
The entire collected library of programs are available at Internet Archive, and there are many fan websites dedicated to the show, like www.xminusone.com, www.radiolovers.com/pages/xminus1.htm, and www.otrplotspot.com/X_Minus_One.htm.
Here's the show's intro
Bush's Real Secret Plan?
From Wonkette
Our paranoid friends over at Bring It On have put together a story that hasn’t exactly made Washington Whispers. It’s real short and real simple:
* The Cuban news service reports that George W. Bush has purchased 98,840 acres in Paraguay, near the Bolivian/Brazilian border.
* Jenna Bush paid a secret diplomatic visit to Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte and U.S. Ambassador James Cason. There were no press conferences, no public sightings and no official confirmation of her 10-day trip which apparently ended this week.
* The Paraguayan Senate voted last summer to “grant U.S. troops immunity from national and International Criminal Court (ICC) jurisdiction.”
* Immediately afterwards, 500 heavily armed U.S. troops arrived with various planes, choppers and land vehicles at Mariscal Estigarribia air base, which happens to be at the northern tip of Paraguay near the Bolivian/Brazilian border. More have reportedly arrived since then.
Now, Prensa Latina is a Cuban-government operation that is not exactly friendly toward Washington, what with Washington trying to kill Castro for 50 years and all.
But Prensa Latina didn’t invent the story. It’s all over the South American press — and not just Venezuela and Bolivia.
Here’s a version from Brazil. Here’s one from Argentina. And here’s one from Paraguay itself. You may proceed with the wild speculation...
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From Geeknotes:
Visit Friends In Tech and catch up on one of the multifaceted activities of member and LA Podcaster Douglas E. Welch, one of the baker's dozen who currently make up FIT. Cool...
Swingercast is a non-poetry/music podcast I subscribe to because it's fun, interesting and honest. John and Allie are a genuine, loving couple, something that shines through each episode they publish, and through their interviews with and explorations of the unique community most of us can only glimpse into from afar. What's not to like about that?
Yes, even though I'm hip deep into the novel I've been sweating over for the past year, I will attempt to once again kick start my muse by exploring the second of the many story ideas I have, this time with a different genre, Science Fiction instead of Horror. I'm currently trying to trade a desktop computer for a cheapo laptop
in order to write away from my crib, and with less than a week to go before the madness begins, I have no idea what to expect, but it won't be boring...
The kick-off party will be at Barbara's in the Brewery. Sat. the 28th at 7pm.
Click here for a Word doc of details on the happenings surrounding
the "Parade For World Peace" on Saturday afternoon...
Last Minute Item: sent in by The Untamed Tongues Poetry Lounge...
From
Sundown Lounge No. 68
African Mountains Losing Ice Caps
By Malkhadir M. Muhumed
Associated Press
Africa's two highest mountains - Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya - will lose their ice cover within 25 to 50 years if deforestation and industrial pollution are not stopped, environmentalists warned Thursday. Kilimanjaro has already lost 82 percent of its ice cover over 80 years, said Fredrick Njau of the Kenyan Green Belt Movement. Mount Kenya, one of the few places near the equator with permanent glaciers, has lost 92 percent over the past 100 years.
“This is a major issue because declining ice caps mean the water tap is effectively going to be turned off and that is a major concern,'' said Nick Nuttall from the U.N.'s Environment Program. All the evidence shows climate change is underway and Africa is the must vulnerable continent to this, he said, adding that foreign aid must address the threat of climate change.
Industrial nations also need to step up support to help poor nations adapt to global warming with drought and heat resistant crops and alternative energy sources so people do not cut down trees for fuel, Nuttall said.
African forests, he added, are soaking up pollution from industrialized nations for free and should reap some kind of reward or benefit for that...
Facial Bones Fade With Age
By Kristen Philipkoski
A little known and alarming fact about growing old as a woman is that basically, your facial skeleton is disintegrating and no amount of skin tightening can make you look forever 21.
Plastic surgeons Dr. David Kahn at Stanford and Dr. Robert Shaw (former Stanford medical student, now a resident at the University of Rochester Medical Center) have published two studies showing that while your skin sags and wrinkles, your facial bones are are shrinking and changing shape -- and this happens significantly earlier for women than men.
The surgeons are presenting the second of their two studies on this depressing topic today at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons meeting in San Francisco.
"Skin tightening, collagen and fat injections, Botox injections, don't take into account changes to the bones," Kahn said in a press release.
"After you do a face-lift on some patients and look at photos of them when they were young, they look very different," said Shaw. "Part of that may be the tightening of the skin over a bony scaffolding that has deteriorated and changed in shape from when they were 18."
Surgeons should concentrate on restoring volume "to compensate for the loss of bony volume, and lifting and reducing the aged and less elastic soft tissue," Kahn said. "Plastic surgeons can't turn back the clock. It's more of a 'freshening up'."
What I think he means to say is if you're a woman, your destiny is a melting face that will look increasingly freakish the more plastic surgery you get.
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You know who looks amazing though? Peggy Lipton, original Mod Squad member, former wife of Quincy Jones, and former tortured other woman on Twin Peaks. Sister is 59! I wonder who does her work. Or maybe she takes a lot of calcium.
Generating Power From Kites
By Nicole Martinelli
Researchers in Italy have high hopes for a new wind-power generator that resembles a backyard drying rack on steroids. Despite its appearance, the Kite Wind Generator, or KiteGen for short, could produce as much energy as a nuclear power plant.
Here's how it works: When wind hits the KiteGen, kites spring from funnels at the ends of poles. For each kite, winches release a pair of high-resistance cables to control direction and angle. The kites are not your Saturday-afternoon park variety but similar to those used for kite surfing -- light and ultra-resistant, capable of reaching an altitude of 2,000 meters.
KiteGen's core is set in motion by the twirl of the kites; the rotation activates large alternators producing current. A control system on autopilot optimizes the flight pattern to maximize the juice produced as it sails on night and day. A radar system can redirect kites within seconds in case of any interference: oncoming helicopters, for example. Or small planes or even single birds.
(Click this one to see full illustration...)
Research by Sequoia Automation, the small company near Turin heading the project, estimates that KiteGen could churn out one gigawatt of power at a cost of just 1.5 euros per megawatt hour. That's nearly 30 times less than the average cost in Europe of 43 euros per megawatt hour.
Proponents say other plusses of the merry-go-round generator are the contained cost of 360,000 euros and limited amount of space needed. Even with a modest diameter of about 320 feet (100 meters), they estimate KiteGen can produce half a gigawatt of energy. Emulators for the scalable project envision a 2,000 meter-version that would generate 5 gigawatts of power...
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From Geeknotes:
Click the pic and go sign up for the Parade! It's happening next week...
From
Sundown Lounge No. 67
Rare Counting Ability Induced With Magnets
A minority of people with autism have one or more extraordinary intellectual talents, such as the rapid ability to calculate the day of the week for a given date, or to count large numbers of discrete objects almost instantaneously - they're often called 'autistic savants' or 'idiot savants'. Now Allan Snyder and colleagues have shown that by placing a pulsing magnet over a specific area of the brain, these kind of abilities can, to some extent, be induced in people who aren’t autistic.
Twelve healthy participants were given several chances to estimate, from 50 to 150, how many blobs appeared on a computer screen. The blobs appeared for just 1.5 seconds, and the number of blobs changed on each attempt. Remarkably, the performance of ten of the subjects improved drastically after Snyder’s team applied 15 minutes of low frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to their left anterior temporal lobe, a brain region that’s been implicated in autistic people with rare counting and calcluating abilities.
For example, before the TMS, one participant had 20 goes at estimating the number of blobs onscreen, and each time she was more than 5 away from the true figure. Yet immediately after receiving the TMS, she made 6 out of 20 guesses that were within 5 blobs of the true figure. Before TMS, another participant scored 3 estimates out of 20 that were within 5 of the true figure, compared with 10 out of 20 immediately after the TMS.
The enhanced ability was gone within an hour, and moreover, no such improvements followed application of a sham version of the TMS that made all the same noises, but was applied only weakly over a different brain region. In fact, the participants’ performance deteriorated slightly in this condition...
Making Water From Thin Air
By Audrey Hudson
The water-harvesting technology was originally the brainchild of the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which sought ways to ensure sustainable water supplies for U.S. combat troops deployed in arid regions like Iraq.
"The program focused on creating water from the atmosphere using low-energy systems that could reduce the overall logistics burden for deployed forces and provide potable water within the reach of the war fighter any place, any time," said Darpa spokeswoman Jan Walker.
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To achieve this end, Darpa gave millions to research companies like LexCarb and Sciperio to create a contraption that could capture water in the Mesopotamian desert.
But it was another company, Aqua Sciences, that developed a product on its own and was first to put a product on the market that can operate in harsh climates.
"People have been trying to figure out how to do this for years, and we just came out of left field in response to Darpa," said Abe Sher, chief executive officer of Aqua Sciences. "The atmosphere is a river full of water, even in the desert. It won't work absolutely everywhere, but it works virtually everywhere..."
Introducing Portugal’s Wave Power Plant
A Scottish company will deploy sausage-shaped tubes off Portugal to create the world’s first commercial wave power plant, providing electricity to 1,500 homes from 2006, a partner in the Scottish firm said last Friday.
Ocean Power Delivery (OPD) will build the wave farm about three miles off Portugal’s northern coast, near Povoa de Varzim, OPD’s Norwegian backer Norsk Hydro said.
OPD will deliver three wave power generation units with capacity of 2.25 megawatts to Portuguese renewable energy group Enersis for million, but the project could be expanded significantly, Norsk Hydro said.
OPD’s Pelamis P-750 wage energy converter is an elongated metal unit that looks like a big semi-submerged sausage, with hinged segments that rock with the sea, up and down and side to side, pumping fluid to hydraulic motors that drive generators.
The power produced by the generators is fed into underwater cables and brought to land.
A letter of intent for a further 30 Pelamis wave machines for a total of 20 megawatts before the end of 2006 was also signed, subject to satisfactory performance by the initial installation, Hydro said.
“If all goes well, many additional sites producing up to a total several hundred MW could be developed along the coast,” Norsk Hydro said.
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From Geeknotes:
Here's the original poem, read by Klaus Kinski, from the
1961 Deutsche Grammophon spoken word LP
"KINSKI SPEAKS: SEAL of AFRICAN PEOPLES"
America
Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth!
Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,
Giving me strength erect against her hate.
Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood.
Yet as a rebel fronts a king in state,
I stand within her walls with not a shred
Of terror, malice, not a word of jeer.
Darkly I gaze into the days ahead,
And see her might and granite wonders there,
Beneath the touch of Time's unerring hand,
Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.
Claude McKay
Legendary voice talent June Foray (the voice of Rocky The Flying Squirrel and Natasha Fatale from "Rocky and Bullwinkle," among many others) will be portraying Susan B. Anthony in the October 15th episode of the Radio Adventures Of Dr. Floyd. This is a great show, and one of the most popular of the LA Podcasters.
Click the pic and go sign up for the Parade!
This just in: from guitar goddess and champion surfer Daize Shayne - she's featured in LA 24, AOL's new Sports Zine, and next week she's headed back to Japan for her second tour.
From
Sundown Lounge No. 66
Fungus Could Shorten Pumpkin Supply
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) - Halloween lovers hoping to create the perfect jack-o-lantern might want to shop carefully this year because of a pumpkin fungus that has put a dent in some crops.
Two types of fungus or rot have affected crops from the Midwest to New England, causing pumpkins to develop mold in some spots and then begin decomposing, said Daniel Egel, a Purdue University Extension plant pathologist. The entire inside of the pumpkin eventually rots until the shell falls apart.
A combination of high temperatures and record rain in August has helped the fungi flourish, Egel said.
Nina Kent, co-owner of Kent's Cucurbits in White County, said one variety of her pumpkins has about 85 percent loss because of the rot.
“We really didn't know until we went out and started picking around the 17th of September,'' she said. “It's as if they're rotting from the inside out..."
Marijuana's Key Ingredient Might Fight Alzheimer's
By Charles Q. Choi
The active ingredient of marijuana could be considerably better at suppressing the abnormal clumping of malformed proteins that is a hallmark of Alzheimer's than any currently approved drugs prescribed for the treatment of the disease.
Scientists report the finding in the Oct. 2 issue of the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.
About 4.5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease, which gradually destroys memory. As more people survive into old age, cases of Alzheimer’s disease are expected to triple over the next 50 years. There is no known cure.
The researchers looked at THC, the compound inside marijuana responsible for its action on the brain. Computer models suggested THC might inhibit an enzyme with the tongue-twisting name of acetylcholinesterase (also called AChE) that is linked with Alzheimer's.
AChE is known to help accelerate the formation of abnormal protein clumps in the brain known as amyloid plaques during Alzheimer's. This enzyme also helps break down the brain chemical acetylcholine, which is linked to memory and learning. Acetylcholine levels are reduced during Alzheimer's.
In lab experiments, the scientists found THC was significantly better at disrupting the abnormal clumping of malformed proteins. THC could completely prevent AChE from forming amyloid plaques, while two drugs approved for use against Alzheimer's, donepezil and tacrine, reduced clumping by only 22 and 7 percent, respectively, at twice the concentration of THC used in the tests.
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"We're not advocating smoking dope, but if we can make analogues of THC, it could play a role in treating Alzheimer's," researcher Kim Janda, a chemist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., told LiveScience. "It would be nice to do more animal studies along these lines."
Past research on human brain tissues and experiments with rats have suggested that synthetic analogues of THC can reduce the inflammation and prevent the mental decline associated with Alzheimer's disease.
However, marijuana is not necessarily good for the mind. Prior investigations have shown that years of heavy marijuana use, consisting of four or more joints a week, can impair memory, decision making, and the ability to pay attention to more than one thing at a time.
Hubble Finds Extrasolar Planets Far Across Galaxy
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered 16 extrasolar planet candidates orbiting a variety of distant stars in the central region of our Milky Way galaxy.
The planet bonanza was uncovered during a Hubble survey called the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search (SWEEPS). Hubble looked farther than has ever successfully been searched before for extrasolar planets. Hubble peered at 180,000 stars in the crowded central bulge of our galaxy 26,000 light-years away. That is one-quarter the diameter of the Milky Way's spiral disk. The results will appear in the Oct. 5 issue of the journal Nature.
This tally is consistent with the number of planets expected to be uncovered from such a distant survey, based on previous exoplanet detections made in our local solar neighborhood. Hubble's narrow view covered a swath of sky no bigger in angular size than two percent the area of the full moon. When extrapolated to the entire galaxy, Hubble's data provides strong evidence for the existence of approximately six billion Jupiter-sized planets in the Milky Way.
Five of the newly discovered planets represent a new extreme type of planet not found in any nearby searches. Dubbed Ultra-Short-Period Planets (USPPs), these worlds whirl around their stars in less than one Earth day.
"Discovering the very short-period planets was a big surprise," said team leader Kailash Sahu of the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore. "Our discovery also gives very strong evidence that planets are as abundant in other parts of the galaxy as they are in our solar neighborhood."
Hubble could not directly view the 16 newly found planet candidates. Astronomers used Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys to search for planets by measuring the slight dimming of a star due to the passage of a planet in front of it, an event called a transit. The planet would have to be about the size of Jupiter to block enough starlight, about one to 10 percent, to be measurable by Hubble...
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From Geeknotes:
Hey gang, the podcast of my first attempt at Skypecasting is available here:
http://www.archive.org/details/PatioSkypecast01
The next go will be at Sat., Oct. 7th at 11:00 am, Pacific Time. I will be hosting, bring poems...
Book Review!
I Want To Look Like Henry Bataille, by Michael K. Gause, LittlePoemsPress, 2006
Michael K. Gause lives in Mendota Heights, Minnesota. He is host to the Disheveled Salon, a monthly gathering of local writers over pints, and is Artistic Director for Northography (www.northography.com), a showcase for regional creative writing. His writing has appeared in a number of print and online journals, like Half Drunk Muse, Tryst, Big Bridge, and Dead Drunk Dublin, among others. Current writing can be found on his online journal, Prodigal Sun.
His first self-published chapbook, The Tequila Chronicles, received honorable mention in The Carbon Based Mistake Art Exchange Program Contest for 2004. His second book, I want to look like Henry Bataille, was published in 2006 by LittlePoemsPress. Michael's website is www.thedayonfire.com. Michael can be reached via email at: michael'at'thedayonfire.com.
His new book takes you on a journey through an interesting mental landscape from the first poem, through striking juxtapositions between intention, experience and obsession. Even the deceptively light observations of quiet moments carry poignancy, the things we all see at particular moments in time, but don't think to remember or record, but Gause catches them. Other poems slice through character insights, cutting right to the bone:
On the bus a fat sweaty man stares
at a woman with two children-she sees him
but thinks only of her late husband
and how she will put her children to bed
tonight.
He will dream of her naked.
Many poems feel like chapters of intertwined novels in the way they echo as you move through the book. Really neat. Gause turns his impartial eye on himself in a few of these poems as well, but not in a showy "LOOK AT ME!" way, but "i look at myself as i see you." And there's not a bad poem in the bunch.
I could give you another example, but go to his website, read a few gems previously penned, and get his book. And read it while riding a bus.
From
Sundown Lounge No. 65
Not this week - it's Convention Time!
From
Sundown Lounge No. 64
Cause of Death - No Health Insurance
Myth: America has the best health care system in the world.
Fact: Australia and the United Kingdom rank above the U.S. health system performance, according to The World Health Organization.
More facts:
Nearly 46 million Americans have no health care and over 40 million more have only minimal coverage. Last year some 41% of moderate and middle income Americans went without health care for part of the year, and 53% of those earning less than $20,000 went without insurance for all of 2005. And that includes me.
Worse fact: the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine estimates that 18,000 Americans die each year because they have no health insurance.
The American health system is quite sick. Pulitzer Prize journalists Donald Barlett and James Steele, in their stunning analysis of the health care industry, Critical Condition (2006 Broadway Books), insist that "... U.S. health care is second-rate at the start of the twenty-first century and destined to get a lot worse and much more expensive." Considering the following facts from Tom Daschle's article for the Center for American Progress: "Paying More but Getting Less: Myths and the Global Case for U.S. Health Reform":
1. Americans are The Healthiest People in the World.
FACT: Citizens of 34 nations live longer than Americans.
2. The U.S. is the Best Place to Get Sick.
FACT: The World Health Organization ranked the U.S. 37th in the world for health system performance. Countries like Australia and the United Kingdom rank above the U.S. Americans have lower odds of surviving colorectal cancer and childhood leukemia than Canadians who do have national health care. Americans also experience greater problems in coordination of care than the previously mentioned countries and New Zealand...
Floating Ocean Windmills Designed to Generate More Power
By Ker Than
LiveScience Staff Writer
Windmills that would float hundreds of miles out at sea could one day help satisfy our energy needs without being eyesores from land, scientists said today.
Offshore wind turbines are not new, but they typically stand on towers that have to be driven deep into the ocean floor. This arrangement only works in water depths of about 50 feet or less—close enough to shore that they are still visible.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have designed a wind turbine that can be attached to a floating platform. Long steel cables would tether the corners of the floating platform to a concrete-block or other mooring system on the ocean floor, like a high-tech ship anchor. The setup is called a "tension leg platform," or TLP, and would be cheaper than fixed towers.
"You don't pay anything to be buoyant," said Paul Sclavounos, an MIT professor of mechanical engineering and naval architecture who was involved in the design.
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The floating platforms to sway side to side but not bob up and down. Computer simulations suggest that even during hurricanes, the platforms would shift by only about three to six feet and that the bottom of the turbine blades would revolve well above the peak of even the highest wave. Dampers similar to those used to steady skyscrapers during high winds and earthquakes could be used to further reduce sideways motion, the researchers say.
Chemical Process Makes Fuel from Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide is part of nearly everything humans do. It comes out of the tailpipes of our cars, the stacks from most of our power plants and the nostrils on the tail end of every breath we take. From a climate change perspective, of course, all this CO2 is a problem, given the greenhouse property of the gas. A variety of solutions have been proposed, including burying the stuff deep below the earth or sea or switching to fuels that do not lead to its emission, but now a scientist from Italy has offered another possibility: turn it back into fuel.
Chemist Gabriele Centi of the University of Messina in Italy uses solar energy gathered by a titanium dioxide film to ionize CO2 in its liquid form. Mixing this ionized liquid carbon dioxide with water, chemists can create longer carbon chains, much like photosynthesis in plants. In current tests the process can create some natural gas and methanol, but the number and type of carbon chains cannot be controlled.
Centi's team decided to try to use carbon d
ioxide in its natural form: gas. In a device much like a fuel cell, known as a photoelectrocatalytic reactor, the researchers tested several potential catalysts, ranging from copper to carbon nanotubes. In each case, the process turned CO2 into more complex carbon molecules. Most intriguingly, depending on the catalyst involved, the researchers could create hydrocarbons with as many as nine carbon atoms--the kinds of useful fuels produced by industry using the so-called Fischer-Tropsch reaction--and with some control over the amount made. Further, by placing iron molecules within the carbon nanotubes, the process could be made even more efficient, though not as much as using expensive platinum or palladium. "It is a long time to practical applications," Centi says. But he notes it might prove useful on a manned mission to Mars, which cannot easily carry enough fuel for its return, to be able to make it on the Red Planet itself. Centi presented his new gas phase research on September 13 at the American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco. --David Biello
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From Geeknotes:
Hey gang,
Check out Daize's new "Live" video of her recent European tour on the new
and improved www.daize.com (click on the new video tab)
The track is: "Why
Can't You Understand me?"
Daize has also just landed two VERY cool new endorsements with Jee Vice
sunglasses and GHS guitar strings.
Daize will also be heading back to Japan the 17 of October for another
Japanese tour and will be competing in this year's Roxy World Champion Long
Board competitions this month!!!
Stay tuned!!!!
www.daize.com
www.daize.com
From
Sundown Lounge No. 63
Paving the Way for the Flying Car
Terrafugia, a "roadable aircraft" developer that emerged out of MIT, has devised a flight simulator for its aircraft. The application runs on top of the X-Plane simulator for Laminar Research.
Potential buyers can also now plunk down $7,400, or 5 percent of the anticipated $148,000 purchase price, for a deposit on a Transition. The planes will come out in late 2009. A fully operational prototype is expected to come out in 2008.
Some third parties have already put deposits down, according to Anna Mracek, COO of Terrafugia. If you put a deposit down today, you would be reserving an airframe number between 20 and 30. (Some early airframes will go to planes sent to government agencies for testing.)
Although the term "flying car" makes for an easily graspable mental image, Terrafugia prefers to call it a roadable aircraft because the Transition will spend most of the time in the air. Owners will, ideally, drive the two-passenger vehicle from their garage to an airport. At that point, the retractable wings will be unfolded and it will turn into a plane.
Terrafugia showed off a 1/5th-scale model at the AirVentures Conference in August in Oshkosh, Wis.
"A few of the older gentlemen I talked to told me that they had been waiting for something like this their whole lives and were so excited that we were making it real while they were still able to fly it," wrote Mracek in an e-mail. "There was naturally some healthy skepticism as well, but even the skeptics were looking forward to us bringing a flying prototype to Oshkosh one of these years..."
The High Cost Of Common Weeds
In addition to strangling pretty flowers, weeds squeeze pocketbooks worldwide. Weed-related costs add up to more than $500 billion, according to John Masiunas, a weed scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"They can reduce yields or crop quality, make harvest more difficult, reduce the beauty, utility or land value for an area, and poison livestock, pets, or humans," Masiunas said.
So, how did weeds get there, and why, even after several exterminations, do they keep haunting our gardens?
Poorly understood cycles
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Weeds are defined as plants that grow out of place. They can be native to an area, brought in by a contaminant, or introduced as an ornamental plant. Like other plants, weeds sprout regularly; they come as annuals, biennials, and perennials.
However, some years the backbreaking work of weeding gets worse.
That's because some seeds can remain dormant in the soil for long periods of time until they're triggered to germinate, according to recent research by weed ecologists at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
"Our research has shown that, in the specific case of flixweed (Descurania sophia) in winter cereal fields, these seeds have a tendency to wake up every four years," said study team member Cesar Fernandez. "Probably other species will have a different behavior, but we still do not know."
One Million Ways To Die
From Wired.com, and prompted by the 5 year anniversary of 9/11, we cover the actual statistics of how likely you really are to die in a terrorist attack. In the five years since that shattering day, the government has spent billions on anti-terrorism projects, instituted a color-coded alert system that has never been green, banned fingernail clippers and water bottles from airplanes, launched a pre-emptive war on false pretenses, and advised citizens to stock up on duct tape and plastic sheeting. But after all that, your appendix is more likely to kill you than al-Qaida. Hell, you're more likely to die from the flu than from a terrorist attack.
So, I have the color-coded alert chart a handy ranking of the various dangers confronting America, based on the number of mortalities in each category throughout the 11-year period spanning 1995 through 2005.
S E V E R E
Driving off the road: 254,419
Falling: 146,542
Accidental poisoning: 140,327
| H I G H
Dying from work: 59,730
Walking down the street: 52,000.
Accidentally drowning: 38,302
| E L E V A T E D
Killed by the flu: 19,415
Dying from a hernia: 16,742
| G U A R D E D
Accidental firing of a gun: 8,536
Electrocution: 5,171
| L O W
Being shot by law enforcement: 3,949
Terrorism: 3147
Carbon monoxide in products: 1,554
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From Geeknotes:
From Wade Riddle:
I am very proud to invite you all to the 5th Annual West Hollywood Book Fair on Sunday, September 17th from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. This year I will be hosted by the children's book store, Every Picture Tells A Story. In addition, my book, "The Chocolate Man", will be read at the children's pavilion area with other book writers. This is the first time my work has been chosen to be read in such a large venue. I'm very excited.
My reader, Ron Geren, will again be present to scare the children into their parent's arms and shudder in their sleep! Rick Dominguez, will again, provide the special effect sounds that will make all children un-easy at night when they sleep... "The Chocolate Man" will be read at 12:00 noon to 12:30 pm, so please plan accordingly. I hope to see you all at the book fair and please browse the thousands of books that will be on hand. There are genres for every interest.
Here is the web site with full information! www.westhollywoodbookfair.org
From Rattapallax:
An innovative new series fusing renowned poets and writers with award-winning short films from leading international film festivals. The free series, AIC-CYPHER Salon, is organized by Academia Internacional de Cinema and Cypher. Occurs every third Thursday of the month at the Jonathan Shorr Gallery in SoHo, NYC and is sponsored by Filmmovement.com and Pampero Rum. All the events are FREE.
The CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM at the ACADEMIA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA is the first full time comprehensive practical program in Brazil. It is offered in three concentrations: poetry, fiction (short story, novel, novela) and non-fiction (biography, reportage, criticism). The students work in small groups in workshops in their concentration, creating their own texts with guidance week by week by well known writers, developing their abilities and their knowledge of form, style and critical analysis. Both the workshops and the theory classes are focused on contemporary writing -- subjects and writers studied are references for the current Brazilian and international literature. The themes of the seminaries and lectures are relevant for writers today, such as multimedia and multidisciplinary work, literary market, vanguard and experimentalism, in addition to more traditional studies of history of literature, language, translation, methods of research, analysis of important texts. Currently the one year program is in Portuguese, but there will be intensive writing workshops in English.
From International ArtExpo:
Call for Artists: FRAME International Dance-Video Festival
Deadline for applications: October 01, 2006
Location: Rivoli Teatro Municipal / ESAP / Escola das Artes - Catholic University, Porto (Portugal)
email: artexpo'at'lucacurci.com
more details: www.lucacurci.com/artexpo
From poetry buddy Dave Gecic:
Summer is almost over and I am trying to catch up on unfinished business.
I would like to let you know about some new publications which are
available on our website.
SEVEN MINUTES BEFORE THE BOMBS DROP
By Jared Smith
An amazing collection of poetry on CD by Jared Smith set to music.
Words by Jared Smith. Music by David Michael Jackson.
Produced by Artvilla.com, 2006
Check out the review on Pedestal Magazine On Line
WOMAN OF MY DREAMS
By David Gilbert Barr
Perfect Bound, 51 pages, 5½ by 8½ inches, 2006, $12.00
Published by Weinberg Press
ISBN# 0-9773330-0-0
New publication by a new press. David Barr has been performing
around Chicago for many years. This is his first book.
Weinberg Press has just started and will be publishing
from both Chicago and Milwaukee.
Poet JOHN HILLMAN died this spring. We have posted a collection of his
poetry on our website.
Poet DANIEL CLEARY has a new website www.danielclearyfinearts.com
We will be publishing Closer To The Ground by Lynn Fitzgerald
and Brother Keeper by Larry Janowski later this year.
For more info visit our website at www.puddinheadpress.com
From
Sundown Lounge No. 62
Noah's Ark Discovered - Again and Again
In this world there are things that seem on the verge of being discovered every so often, yet never quite materialize. The "Lost City" of Atlantis, for example, has been "found" at least a half dozen times. One researcher is pretty sure it is in Bolivia; another says it is Antarctica; a third claims that Bimini beachrock may be from the lost civilization.
So it is with Noah's Ark.
The difference is, of course, that the implications of Noah's Ark actually being found extend far beyond archaeology. The weight of all the paired animals in the world is nothing compared to the religious freight that the Ark carries.
The Ark story is scientifically implausible; there simply wouldn't be enough space on the boat to accommodate two of every living animal (including dinosaurs), along with the food and water necessary to keep them alive. Furthermore, constructing a vessel of that scale would take hundreds of workers months to complete. Still, Biblical literalists—those who believe that proof of the Bible's events remains to be found—have spent lives and fortunes trying to validate their beliefs...
Chatterbox George
A robot chat machine so life-like many people are fooled into thinking it's human has become the latest internet sensation.
The world's most sophisticated "chatbot" - invented by British scientists - can talk on the internet with hundreds of different people at the same time, but each person has the impression that it is only talking to them.
Nicknamed George, it is programmed to show emotions, tell jokes, answer questions and engage in intimate conversation on subjects as varied as love, life and the universe. It can speak 40 languages as its vocabulary continues to improve.
George's inventor, Rollo Carpenter, who will put his creation on show at the British Association Festival of Science this week, said: "He talks in a way that is as close to human as you can get without actually being human.
"A lot of people really do think they are talking to another person."
George, who started chatting online in 1997, has had text conversations with nearly two million people across the globe...
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Huge Rise in Teen Oral Sex
National statistics on teen fellatio have only recently been collected, but the trend seems to be real. Johns Hopkins University Professor Jonathan Zenilman, an expert in sexually transmitted infections, reports that both the adults and the teenagers who come to his clinic are engaging in much more oral sex than in 1990. For men and boys as recipients it's up from about half to 75 to 80 percent; for women and girls, it's risen from about 25 percent to 75 to 80 percent.
In some quarters, that might be regarded as progress, but how you feel about it probably depends on whether you are a teenager or a parent of teenagers. I am more than a decade away from being either and so regard myself as a neutral in this debate. Moreover, as an economist, I feel uniquely qualified to opine on why it is happening.
Now, there is no shortage of explanations: Perhaps everyone just thought that if it was good enough for Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, it was good enough for them. But an economic explanation would instead start with the premise that this is a response to changing incentives. What sort of incentives have changed?
From Wired.com:
Splogs - The Latest Online Scam
By Charles C. Mann
I am aware that spending a lot of time Googling yourself is kind of narcissistic, OK? But there are situations, I would argue, when it is efficiently – even forgivably – narcissistic. When I published a book last year, I wanted to know what, if anything, people were saying about it. Ego-surfing was the obvious way to do that. Which is how I stumbled across Some Title.
Some Title identified itself as a blog but obviously wasn't one. Here, reprinted in its entirety, is the paragraph from the site that mentioned me:
Show Disputed Vinland Map Was Made Half Century Before Columbus Trip Audio/Video Columbus: Secrets From The Grave quot;The Last Voyage of Columbus quot;: An Epic Tale Charles Mann's quot;1491 quot; (Audio
In orthodox bloggy style, the paragraph linked to another Web page. When I clicked on the link, I was confronted with more gibberish: "Below," it stated, "you will find some grave robbing in ventura california 1985 news that's relevant for today."
Blogs like Some Title are known as "splogs" – spam blogs. Like email spam, splogs use the most wonderful features of networked communication – its flexibility, easy access, and low cost – in the service of sleazy get-rich-quick schemes. But whereas email spammers try to induce recipients to buy products, sploggers and other Web spammers make most of their money by getting viewers to click on ads that run adjacent to their nonsensical text. Web page owners – the spammer, in this case – get paid by the advertiser every time someone clicks on an ad.
Some Title's creator had almost certainly assembled the site by using software that hops from Web page to Web page, automatically copying text that includes potential search terms. (My name and my book's title had been included incidentally, because they appeared in a review or blog that happened to contain keywords sought by the spammer.) Sploggers don't care if the resulting Web pages are garbled; the point is to churn them out chockablock with terms that people might use in search queries, leading them to visit the pages and click (ka-ching!) on the ads...
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From Geeknotes:
ABC is planning to air a two-part mini-series entitled The Path to 9/11 this Sunday and Monday.
In spite of its claim to be based on the 9/11 Commission Report, the film reportedly
includes numerous inaccuracies and lays the blame for the September 11 tragedy on the
Clinton Administration. One scene reportedly depicts a senior Clinton Administration
official calling off the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden. This depiction of events
has been refuted by former Bush Administration anti-terrorism chief, Richard Clarke.
It also has been reported that the film blames the intelligence breakdowns on
bureaucratic obstacles allegedly created by the Clinton Administration, even though
Republican 9/11 Commissioner Slade Gordon has previously refuted that claim.
Because of my concerns that false and inflammatory information would be widely
disseminated to the American public, I, along with Representatives John Dingell, Jane
Harman and Louise Slaughter, asked ABC to correct the film before airing it.
To view a copy of our letter, click here.
The more people the network hears from, the more likely they are to correct the errors
in the film. But we do not have much time. Contact them now to let them know they
should not politicize this tragic event in our nation's history.
Thank you again for your commitment to a stronger democracy.
Mass Mobilization Thursday, October 5 - Drive Out the Bush Regime!
The Bush Regime Must be Stopped!
Flyer for October 5th Day of Mass Resistance:
http://www.worldcantwait-la.com/flyers/_OCT_5_LA_8_29_01.pdf
On Thursday, OCTOBER 5TH 2006: All day and into the night, across
the country, we must decidedly break the paralysis that still grips
too much of American political life.
Taking off work, taking off school, shutting down campuses and
coming together in mass gatherings, we must let the country and the
world know that:
---millions of us reject this illegitimate regime that is as
criminal as it is dangerous to humanity & the existence of this
planet.
---we refuse to grow accustomed to a political climate that is
becoming everyday more frightening & reactionary.
We are what we've been waiting for.
From
Sundown Lounge No. 61
From Oladokun, my movie producer buddy from Nigeria, I got this interesting email:
LUSAKA, 28 August (IRIN) - Zambia's HIV/AIDS pandemic is helping to bridge the divide between traditional healers and practitioners of western medicine.
Earlier this year the government commissioned the first clinical trials of remedies dispensed by traditional healers who claimed to have found an AIDS cure, fostering closer relations between the two groups of practitioners. About one in five sexually active Zambian adults is infected with HIV/AIDS.
National AIDS Council spokesperson Justine Mwiinga told IRIN that the results would be published soon. "The three herbs passed all the tests and we have just concluded the six-month clinical observation period, after having successfully administered the same herbs to 30 people living with HIV/AIDS."
Clinical tests conducted by medical doctors determined the composition and properties of the traditional healers' remedies, while monitoring the patients' CD4 count (which measures the strength of the immune system), viral load (which measures the amount of HIV in the blood) and appetite...
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Cassini-Huygens
I came across another cool bit of solar wind sound poetry from the Cassini-Huygens Spacecraft, now orbiting Saturn as the Huygens probe has landed on Titan. The spacecraft will orbit around the Saturnian system for four years, sending data back to Earth that will help us understand this region.
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