Darpa's Robot Sets Racing Record

Video: Darpa’s Robotic Cheetah Sets Racing Record -- Danger Room

Trust me, gym rat. Your outrageously badass treadmill workout has nothing on this.

The Pentagon’s far-out research agency, Darpa, has just released a new video of its Cheetah ‘bot — designed to mimic the rapid movements of cheetahs, the speediest animals in nature — absolutely killing it on a laboratory treadmill.

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My Comment: That's fast .... and I am sure with time they will develop new robots that will be even faster.

Was Mars Stripped Of Its Protective Magnetic Field By A Huge Asteroid Impact

The Hellas basin on Mars was created by an asteroid impact so violent it left a crater as deep as Mount Everest is high - and deposited a layer of debris more than a mile thick around the crater

Was Mars Stripped Of Its Protective Magnetic Field By A Huge Asteroid Impact That Left THIS Crater As Deep As Mount Everest? -- Daily Mail

Four billion years ago, Mars had a magnetic field, just like Earth's - but something turned it off, leaving a barren planet totally exposed to the Sun's deadly radiation.

Now scientists have come up with a likely culprit - a huge asteroid impact which left a crater as deep as Mount Everest is high.

That impact, and four other 1500-mile-wide asteroids, had a catastrophic effect on hot rocks in and under Mars's surface - 'knocking out' the planet's magnetic field forever.

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What Happens As We Get To Absolute Zero

Why Can’t We Get Down To Absolute Zero? -- io9

What is Absolute Zero, and does it really exist anywhere in the universe? Could we ever reach Absolute Zero in real life?

There are all sorts of reasons to be curious about the limits of cold. Maybe you're an incredibly lame supervillain who uses the power of freezing, and you want to understand the extent of your powers. Or you're wondering if it would be possible to outrun a wave of cold. Either way, in this week's "Ask a Physicist" we'll explore the farthest limits of cold.

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Hackers Had 'Control' Of Nasa Computers

NASA said the loss of data did not affect the operations of the International Space Station

Hackers Had 'Full Functional Control' Of Nasa Computers -- BBC

Hackers gained "full functional control" of key Nasa computers in 2011, the agency's inspector general has told US lawmakers.

Paul K Martin said hackers took over Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) computers and "compromised the accounts of the most privileged JPL users".

He said the attack, involving Chinese IP addresses, was under investigation.

In a statement, Nasa said it had "made significant progress to protect the agency's IT systems".

Mr Martin's testimony on Nasa's cybersecurity was submitted to the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology's Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight.

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My Comment: This should never have happened.

Has Earth Always Had The Same Amount Of Water?

Researchers have examined 3.8 billion year old minerals from Greenland which are derived from the Earth’s primordial oceans in order to approximate the ancient water budget. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Copenhagen)

The Blue Planet's New Water Budget: Do We Have Enough? -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2012) — Investigating the history of water on Earth is critical to understanding the planet's climate. One central question is whether Earth has always had the same amount of water on and surrounding it, the same so-called "water budget." Has Earth gained or lost water from comets and meteorites? Has water been lost into space? New research into Earth's primordial oceans conducted by researchers at the Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen and Stanford University revisits Earth's historical water budget.

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The Hardest Movies To Turn Off Once You Start Watching Them

The Ten Hardest Movies To Turn Off Once You Start Watching Them -- PJ Media

I hereby provide my list of the Ten Hardest Movies to Turn Off Once You Start Watching Them. These may not be the best movies ever made — or they may be. But no matter where you come in on these films — no matter whether you intended to watch them or stumbled on them while lazily channel surfing — they grab you and won’t let you go. Or at least they grab me — which is more important, because I live here and you don’t.

Except for the first one — the most compulsively watchable film ever made — they’re not in any particular order. And any further suggestions will be welcomed and watched.

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My Comment: I totally agree with this list. And yes .... I love the movie HEAT.

Why Pot Smokers Forget

How Marijuana Makes You Forget -- Nature

Drug affects previously overlooked brain cells that have a crucial role in memory formation.

Researchers have discovered how marijuana disrupts short-term memory.

The drug impairs users’ working memory — the ability to retain and use information over short periods of time. Neuroscientists Giovanni Marsicano of the University of Bordeaux, France, and Xia Zhang of the University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research now show that this common side effect occurs because of a previously unknown signalling mechanism between neurons and non-neuronal cells called astrocytes. Their work is published today in Cell1.

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My Comment: In short .... marijuana use has consequences. But will anyone listen .... hmmm .... I doubt it.

Find The U.S. Military's Hidden QR Codes

Find The Military's Hidden QR Codes And Rake In $40,000 -- MSNBC/Innovation

You'll likely need your social media networks for scavenger hunt contest already under way.

Got a smartphone? You can win up to $40,000 if you're first to find all of the U.S. military's special QR codes hidden across the continental United States. But the huge geographical scope of the contest means that people will probably need to turn to their social media networks to find all the codes.

There's a reason why the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to watch code hunters collaborate on Facebook and Twitter. It planned out the " DARPA CLIQR Quest " as a real-life game to simulate how the public can help find essential resources during national emergencies — a very real concern for the military when responding to humanitarian crises or disasters such as the Haiti earthquake of 2010.

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Update: DARPA Launches QR-Locating Game As Test Of Distributed Resource Gathering -- Tech Crunch

My Comment: My prediction .... a winner will be announced very soon.

Oceans Acidifying At A Faster Rate Than At Any Time In The Last 300 Million Years

Will they survive? (Image: Reinhard Dirscherl/Waterframe/Getty Images)

Oceans Acidifying At Unprecedented Speed -- New Scientist

Humanity's greenhouse gas emissions may be acidifying the oceans at a faster rate than at any time in the last 300 million years. The sheer speed of change means we do not know how severe the consequences will be.

As well as warming the planet, carbon dioxide seeps into the oceans and forms carbonic acid. As a result the water becomes more acidic.

The pH is currently dropping by about 0.1 per century. This ocean acidification harms organisms such as corals that rely on dissolved carbonate to make their shells. It also disrupts behaviour in some animals.

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My Comment: This data is significant .... and scary to think about.

Meet Your New Robot Receptionist

Meet Your New Robot Receptionist, the DARPA ARM 'Bot -- Popular Science

Never worry about answering the phone or stapling documents again.

Bad news for long-term receptionists: DARPA's ARM (Autonomous Robotic Manipulation) robot can perform a whopping 18 different reception-ready tasks, from stapling to answering the phone to...turning on a lamp? Grasping things? Also it can't speak, or redirect calls, really, but it can drill a hole in a piece of wood, which I'm not entirely sure I can do, so it's an easy shoo-in for our incredibly prestigious Robot of the Week award. Congratulations! Watch the video after the jump.

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Internet Users Can Watch Who Is Spying On Them In Blow Against Google's New Snooping Policy

Google's HQ: Google ignored an international outcry to launch its new privacy policy this week - despite concerns the policy may actually be illegal in many territories

Turning The Tables On Big Brother: Now Internet Users Can Watch Who Is Spying On Them In Blow Against Google's New Snooping Policy -- Daily Mail

* Free Collusion add-on shows which companies watch as you browse
* 'Real time' illustration of marketing companies snooping
* Unveiled as Google shifts privacy policy to enable more advertising
* Mozilla aims to share data with privacy campaigners

Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, has unveiled a new add-on for the popular web browser that gives web users an instant view of which companies are 'watching' them as they browse.

The move comes the same week that Google pushed ahead with its controversial new privacy policy, built to provide even more data for Google's $28 billion advertising business - despite concerns that the massive harvesting of private data might be illegal in many countries.

The Collusion add-on will allow users to 'pull back the curtain' on web advertising firms and other third parties that track people's online movements, says Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs.

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My Comment: Kudos to Firefox.

A New Twist In The Antimatter Mystery

CDF was one of two multi-purpose experiments at the US Tevatron accelerator near Chicago

New Twist In Antimatter Mystery -- BBC

Physicists have taken a step forward in their efforts to understand why the Universe is dominated by matter, and not its shadowy opposite antimatter.

A US experiment has confirmed previous findings that hinted at phenomena outside our understanding of physics.

The results show that certain matter particles decay differently from their antimatter counterparts.

Such differences could potentially help explain why there is so much more matter in the cosmos than antimatter.

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Robot Helicopters Perform James Bond Theme

Flying robot quadrotors perform the James Bond Theme by playing various instruments --
including the keyboard, drums and maracas, a cymbal, and the debut of an adapted guitar built from a couch frame.

Robot Helicopters Perform James Bond Theme Music -- Christian Science Monitor

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception Lab wowed attendees at this year's TED conference with a video of tiny robot quadroters performing the James Bond theme music.

Sometimes we just crave the simple things in life: smelling freshly baked bread, getting a baby to laugh, watching a cat fall asleep on your lap, or having someone scratch your back.

And other times, you just want to watch a bunch of robotic quadrotors performing the James Bond theme song.

If you are reading this story, now is apparently one of those times. If you haven't done so already, watch the video at the top of this page.

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Giant Penguins

Giant penguins 'may have roamed New Zealand' Photo: Alamy

Giant Penguins 'May Have Roamed New Zealand' -- The Telegraph

Fossilised remains of one of the largest penguins ever, an "elegant" giant standing 1.3 metres (52 inches) tall, have been found in New Zealand, scientists said.

The penguin lived 27-24 million years ago, when New Zealand was mostly underwater and consisted of isolated, rocky outcrops that offered protection from predators and plentiful food supplies, researchers said.

The first traces of the penguin, dubbed Kairuku - Maori for diver who returns with food - was found embedded in a cliff at Waimate in the South Island by University of Otago paleontologist professor Ewen Fordyce in 1977.

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My Comment: 52" tall .... those were tall penguins.

The Unique Ability To Spell Backwards

Health: Teen Speaks To CBS3 About Her Ability To Instantly Say Words Backwards -- CBS

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – It’s like an easy game for 14-year-old Alyssa Kramer. She can easily say words backwards in seconds. Her video on YouTube quickly got a million hits, and now she has her own channel: alyssatalkingback.com. CBS3 asked when she realized she had the special ability.

“Whenever I learned how to read, I just started doing it. I have a photographic memory, and whenever someone tells me a word, I can see it in my head. And if I want to spell it backwards then, it can flip and I’ll read it that way,” Alyssa says.

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My Comment: I just tried to do it myself .... it ain't easy.

Were Europeans The First Americans?

Source: Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley. The Washington Post.
An established theory says the first Americans walked across the Bering Sea about 13,000-15,000 years ago. But stone tools found in the mid-Atlantic suggest an arrival from Europe about 20,000-22,000 years ago. The tools match those made by the mysterious Solutrean people of ice-age Iberia.

Radical Theory Of First Americans Places Stone Age Europeans In Delmarva 20,000 Years Ago -- Washington Post

When the crew of the Virginia scallop trawler Cinmar hauled a mastodon tusk onto the deck in 1970, another oddity dropped out of the net: a dark, tapered stone blade, nearly eight inches long and still sharp.

Forty years later, this rediscovered prehistoric slasher has reopened debate on a radical theory about who the first Americans were and when they got here.

Archaeologists have long held that North America remained unpopulated until about 15,000 years ago, when Siberian people walked or boated into Alaska and then moved down the West Coast.

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China Will Use Drones To Hunt Submarines

The U.S. Navy's Fire Scout Ship-Launched UAV China plans to hunt submarines using its own sea-launched UAVs running genetic algorithms. U.S. Navy

Chinese Drones Will Use Genetic Algorithms to Learn to Hunt For Submarines -- Popular Science

China usually holds its military hand very close to the vest--that, or things “mysteriously” leak that it doesn’t (does) want the world to know about--so we’re left to wonder why the People’s Republic has decided to publish this in the journal Advanced Materials Research. Nonetheless, it’s pretty interesting. Chinese navy researchers have plans for a new submarine hunting scheme that uses ship-launched UAVs running genetic algorithms.

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My Comment: The Chinese are making their intentions very clear .... they are going to focus on drone development.

One Could Detect Life On Earth By Looking At The Moon

Crescent Moon and Earthshine The thin crescent moon sets over ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile. The crescent is clearly visible, but you can also see the rest of the moon very faintly, because of the phenomenon known as earthshine. Sunlight bouncing off the Earth illuminates the surface of the moon. This image was captured Oct. 27, 2011. Mercury and Venus are there, too, by the way. ESO/B. Tafreshi/TWAN

Remote Aliens Could Detect Life On Earth By Looking At The Moon -- Popular Science

New detection method could help spot signs of life on exoplanets.

So many exoplanets may hold water, atmospheres, just-right temperatures and a rocky surface for life to flourish — we just need to know where to look. Once astronomers have pinpointed a good candidate, we also need to know how to look — which instruments and methods might sniff out the right chemical signatures of life. A new trick that essentially amplifies those signatures could be one way to do it. Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory just discovered life on Earth with this method, treating our home as if it were an exoplanet.

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The Future Of Warfare?

Direct Brain Control Of Weapons Prompts Ethical Debate -- The Inquirer

BRINGING A WHOLE NEW TWIST to the phrase 'blue screen of death', scientists are calling for a public debate on the ethics of using direct brain control technology to manage systems including weaponry.

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has launched a public consultation on the ethics of using technologies such as brain computer interfaces (BCIs) in non-medical situations. The organisation defines a BCI as a system for measuring and analysing brain signals and translating them into outputs such as computer-based communication or control of a device.

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More News On The Debate Of Direct Brain Control Of Weapons

New 'thinking cap' technologies that control weaponry 'a step closer' -- The Telegraph
Missiles fired by the mind are closer than we think: Ethics council warn of 'Star Wars' future for human race -- Daily Mail
Thought-controlled weapons spark ethics debate -- Tech World
Ethics profs fret over cyborg brains, mind-controlled missiles -- The Register
Consultation on brain technologies from medicine to warfare -- BBC
Super-human brain technology sparks ethics debate -- Sydney Morning Herald
Ethics of brain-computer interfaces under scrutiny in UK -- GMA News
Consultation on the ethics of the 'superbrain' -- T3
UK Scientific Group To Study Ethics Of Neurotechnologies -- Red Orbit
Ethics committee debates Deus-Ex style augmentations -- Tech Eye

My Comment: A good article that explains how this science may affect the future of warfare is here.

One-In-Eight Chance Of Solar Megaflare In Next Ten Years

Destructive: A solar flare many times greater than this one could be catastrophic for Earth. There is a 12 per cent chance of one occurring over the next decade

One-In-Eight Chance Of Solar Megaflare Causing Trillions Of Dollars Of Damage In Next Ten Years, Scientists Warn -- Daily Mail

Earth has a 12 per cent chance of being struck by a solar megaflare of such violent proportions over the next decade it could cause trillions of dollars of damage, scientists warned today.

The event would rival the last giant sunstorm, known as the Carrington Event, more than 150 years ago when telegraph stations caught fire and their networks suffered massive black-outs.

In today's electronic-infused world, the consequences of such a huge magnetic force raining down on the planet could be catastrophic and may take a decade to recover from.

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My Comment: If everything that is electronic gets fried .... the costs will definitely run in the mega trillions.

Doomsday Seed Vault Has More Than 740,000 Samples

The Global Seed Vault opened in 2008 on Svalbard, Norway, above the Arctic Circle. Mari Tefre/Global Crop Diversity Trust

Doomsday Seed Vault Has More Than 740,000 Samples -- MSNBC/Live Science

Repository in Norway marks fourth birthday as backup for crop collections.

This week, the Doomsday Seed Vault in Norway is scheduled to receive nearly 25,000 samples of seeds from around the world, including those of grains that grow on one of the world's highest mountain ranges and a plant whose stems redden an Ecuadorean drink on the "Day of the Dead."

With these additions the now four-year-old vault, formerly known as the Svaldbard Global Seed Vault, would house more than 740,000 samples in an Arctic mountain on the Svaldbard archipelago.

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Ferrari Unveils Its Fastest Accelerating Car Ever

Going Like A Rocket: Ferrari Unveils Its Fastest Accelerating Car Ever (With A £250,000 Price To Match The Performance) -- Daily Mail

* Top speed of 212mph eclipses 205mph set by Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano
* Can accelerate from rest to 62mph in just 3.1 seconds

The fastest Ferrari ever was unveiled today – with a blistering price to match.

The new Ferrari F12 Berlinetta has a top speed of 212miles per hour but it’s the rocket like acceleration which is drawing gasps ahead of its official launch at next week’s Geneva Motor Show when it goes on sale.

The scintillating two-seater roars from rest to 62mph in just 3.1 seconds – shaving 0.6 seconds off the car it replaces, the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. And the Italian supercar will hit 124mph in just 8.5 seconds, compared to 11 seconds for its predecessor.

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My Comment: This car would satisfy my need for speed .... unfortunately .... my empty wallet disagrees.

Approaching Asteroid Has A One In 625 Chance Of Hitting Earth

The asteroid has the potential to wipe out millions of lives if it landed on a city Photo: CORBIS

Asteroid Heads Towards Earth With One In 625 Chance Of Hitting Planet -- The Telegraph

An asteroid with a one in 625 chance of striking Earth in 30 years' time has been identified by NASA.

The 460 foot ball of rock named 2011 AG5 is potentially on course to hit this planet on February 5, 2040.

The United Nations Action Team on near-Earth object has begun discussions about how to divert the asteroid, amid fears that the likelihood of a collision could increase over the next few years.

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My Comment: The odds are rather small when you look at it from that perspective.

IBM Scientists On Verge Of Creating 'Quantum Computers'

Chip off the old block: A standard silicon chip houses three hi-tech 'qubits'

No Speed Limit: IBM Scientists On Verge Of Creating 'Quantum Computers' Faster Than Any Supercomputer On Earth -- The Daily Mail

* Breakthroughs move technology on 'up to 1000 times'
* Scientists believe working quantum computer will happen within their lifetimes
* Described as 'Holy Grail' of computing
* Quantum computer could crack any encryption

PCs faster than any supercomputer on Earth could become a reality after IBM scientists achieved a breakthrough in ‘quantum computing’ – described as the ‘new frontier’ in computing.

IBM has created working components using the technology - its scientists say the next step is 'creating systems'.

A working quantum computer would be capable of millions of calculations at once – and able to crack any computer code on Earth.

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How To Fill A Gas Tank For $1 A Gallon

How A Billionaire Fills Gas Tank For $1 A Gallon -- CNN

Long Beach, California (CNN) -- Gasoline at $4 a gallon is no worry for T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire energy investor from Texas. He drives from his home to his office in a car that runs on fuel costing less than $1 a gallon.

His method: He has a device that fuels his Honda Civic GX with natural gas from the pipes that serve his home. And he thinks there's a lesson there for America's energy woes.

Pickens, who is speaking Wednesday at the TED2012 Conference in Long Beach, California, said America needs to make natural gas a building block of a plan for ending oil imports from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Natural gas is "cheaper, it's cleaner, it's abundant and it's ours, and we're fools not to use it," Pickens said in an interview with CNN.

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My Comment: I always predicted that one day our cars will be running on natural gas. More stories like this one will probably push that day even sooner.

Who Wants To Live Forever?

Itskov, a 31-year-old media entrepreneur, says that he aims to transplant a human brain into a robot body within 10 years. He says his technology will be of interest at first to the 'disabled and close to dying'

Who Wants To Live Forever? Russian Project Aims To Transplant A Human Brain Into A 'Davros'-Style Robot Body Within 10 Years -- Daily Mail

* Entrepreneur claims to have 100 scientists working on project
* Aims to 'transplant' human mind into robot body in 10 years
* Claims 'next stage' of science is to create a 'new human body'
* 'This project is leading to immortality,' says Dmitry Itskov

Human minds could be downloaded into robots within 10 years, allowing human beings to 'live forever', says the Russian entrepreneur who heads a hi-tech research project called 'Avatar'.

Itskov, a media entrepreneur, claims to have hired 100 scientists to reach this goal - and is now looking for other scientists to help with the project.

'This project is leading down the road to immortality,' says Itskov. 'A person with a perfect Avatar will be able to remain part of society. People don’t want to die.'

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My Comment: In ten years .... please.

U.S. Navy Test-Fires First Working Prototype Railgun

The Ultimate Bullet Train: Watch The Amazing Video Of The Railgun That Can Hit Targets 100 Miles Away At Seven Times The Speed Of Sound -- Daily Mail

* Futuristic weapon is another step closer to being deployed
* Navy reveals industry-built prototype is now being tested
* Uses magnetic field and electric current to generate energy

A futuristic supersonic weapon which fires ammunition up to 100 miles is another step closer to being deployed by the U.S. Navy.

Officials have revealed an industry-built prototype of the electromagnetic railgun is now being tested at its Naval Surface Warfare Centre Dahlgren Division in northern Virginia.

The weapon, which it is hoped will be fitted on ships from 2017, uses a magnetic field and electric current, instead of chemicals, to generate energy to fire the rounds.

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More News On the U.S. Navy's Electromagnetic Railgun

New Navy Rail Gun Fires 50 Miles With No Propellant: Latest Tests Use Smaller Guns -- Aol Defense
Navy close on making super-powerful railgun -- CBS
It's real! Navy test-fires first working prototype railgun -- FOX News
U.S. Navy Test Fires 32-Megajoule Railgun, Could See Service by 2020 -- Daily Tech
Video: Navy Fires Off Its New Weaponized Railgun -- Danger Room
Video: Flamethrowing Navy Railgun Blasts Terrifying Projectiles Through Superheated Air -- Popular Science
The Military’s Shipwrecking Railgun Just Got Really Real -- Gizmodo
Navy Unleashes Its Electromagnetic Railgun Outside of the Lab [Video] -- Scientific American

Interpol Targets 'Anonymous Hackers' For Arrest

25 Suspected Anonymous Hackers Arrested In International Sweep -- L.A. Times

Twenty-five alleged hackers from the freewheeling, decentralized Anonymous protest movement have been arrested across Europe and South America in a massive sweep coordinated by Interpol, an agency based in France that links police around the world.

Suspects arrested in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Spain were believed to have carried out coordinated digital attacks against the Colombian Ministry of Defense, a Chilean electrical company and other targets, the Associated Press reported.

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More News On Interpol Targeting For Arrest Anonymous Hackers

Interpol arrests suspected 'Anonymous' hackers -- CNN
Interpol says suspected Anonymous hackers arrested -- AP
25 alleged Anonymous members arrested after Interpol investigation -- Washington Post
Anonymous hackers: Police arrest 25 in four countries -- BBC
Interpol: 25 Anonymous members arrested across Europe and South America -- New york Daily News/AP
Arrests target suspected 'Anonymous' hackers -- Al Jazeera
Interpol website suffers 'Anonymous cyber-attack' -- The Guardian
Anonymous brings down Interpol website in retaliation for 25 arrests -- RT
Anonymous shuts Interpol site in revenge -- UPI
Interpol arrests Anonymous hackers: Do they warrant the attention? -- Scott Baldauf, Christian Science Monitor
What Is 'Anonymous' And How Does It Operate? -- Radio Free Europe

The Most Influential Weapon In American History:

My Comment: I did not expect much from this video, but after watching it I am pleasantly surprised.

Explaining Quantum Computing

Image via Wikipedia

MIT's Scott Aaronson Explains Quantum Computing -- Forbes

MIT’s Scott Aaronson, who works with the physics of quantum computing and is a friend of the blog, has a really great, down-to-earth article on quantum computing in the New York Times that I highly recommend reading as a nice primer for what’s possible and what isn’t.

Probably most interesting to me – and I follow quantum computing a lot – is one of the more overlooked aspects of quantum computing, and that’s its application to physics and chemistry research. Here’s a brief snippet.

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CSN Editor: Scott Aaronson's must read New York Times article on quantum computing is here.

How Heels Damage The Body

Fashion's High Price: How Heels Damage The Body -- Live Science

The laundry list of damage that high heels can do to your body just got longer: According to podiatrists, high-heeled shoes are one of the most common causes of ingrown toenails.

This toenail problem, which occurs when the toes are compressed so that the big toenail grows into the skin, is usually nothing more than a painful annoyance. But ingrown toenails can become infected, sometimes necessitating the removal of the entire nail.

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Arctic Sea Ice Decline May Be Driving Snowy Winters Seen in Recent Years in N. Hemisphere

Unusual Weather: Arctic Sea Ice Decline May Be Driving Snowy Winters Seen in Recent Years in N. Hemisphere -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Feb. 27, 2012) — A new study led by the Georgia Institute of Technology provides further evidence of a relationship between melting ice in the Arctic regions and widespread cold outbreaks in the Northern Hemisphere. The study's findings could be used to improve seasonal forecasting of snow and temperature anomalies across northern continents.

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Visual Comparison of Earthquake Strength

An Excellent Visual Comparison of Earthquake Strength -- The Atlantic

Think the 1994 Northridge quake was strong? How about Haiti's 2010 quake? This United States Geological Survey video by NOAA employee Nathan Becker puts the energy released by earthquakes over the last 50 years in startling perspective. While I know that the scale that we use to measure earthquakes is not linear, it is difficult to make my brain believe it until I see it laid out like this. Take a look for yourself, and give thanks that you weren't in Chile in 1960 when the strongest quake ever recorded struck.

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Android Takes The Fight To iPhone With Trio Of Next Generation Quad-Core Smartphones

Photo: Opposition: The iPhone 4S, which runs half the speed of the new Android offering

Android Takes The Fight To iPhone With Trio Of Next Generation Quad-Core Smartphones That Are TWICE As Fast - -Daily Mail

Android smartphones have taken the fight to Apple after launching the first quad-core handsets that work faster than iPhones.

HTC, LG and Huawei all showcased the new technology – which will be released later this year – at the Mobile World Congress fair in Barcelona.

The phones, which all use Android 4.0 operating systems, should work twice as fast as the iPhone 4S, which uses a dual-core A5 processor.

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Snowfall In Baghdad 1,000 Years Ago, And Again In 2008

Ice one: Snow fell on Baghdad in 2008 for the first time in memory

The Ancient Arabic Writings That Reveal Desert City Of Baghdad Was FROZEN Over 1,000 Years Ago In New Clue Over Climate Change -- Daily Mail

* It snowed three times between 908 and 1007 - but not again until 2008

Temperatures in Baghdad range from around 2C in winter to 45C in the summer – but ancient Arabic writings have revealed that the city experienced a dramatic frozen period around 1,000 years ago.

Spanish researchers from the University of Extremadura found 9th and 10th century (3rd and 4th in the Islamic calendar) sources that refer to snowfalls in the Iraqi capital in 908, 944 and 1007 and even rivers being frozen.

These are extreme events for Baghdad - for example, the only snowfall in the modern era took place in 2008 - and help meteorologists better understand today's climate.

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Trillion-Frame-Per-Second Video

Media Lab postdoc Andreas Velten, left, and Associate Professor Ramesh Raskar with the experimental setup they used to produce slow-motion video of light scattering through a plastic bottle. Photo: M. Scott Brauer

Trillion-Frame-Per-Second Video -- Physorg.com

By using optical equipment in a totally unexpected way, MIT researchers have created an imaging system that makes light look slow.

MIT researchers have created a new imaging system that can acquire visual data at a rate of one trillion exposures per second. That’s fast enough to produce a slow-motion video of a burst of light traveling the length of a one-liter bottle, bouncing off the cap and reflecting back to the bottle’s bottom.

Media Lab postdoc Andreas Velten, one of the system’s developers, calls it the “ultimate” in slow motion: “There’s nothing in the universe that looks fast to this camera,” he says.

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Five Predictions From IBM

IBM's Five Predictions For The Next Five Years -- Bloomberg

Biometric passwords? Mind-reading headsets? Junk mail you'll look forward to? As with all predictions, the answer is "maybe".

In each of the past five years, IBM has come up with a list of five innovations it believes will become popular within five years. In this, the sixth year, IBM has come up with the following technologies it thinks will gain traction. Hold on to your sci-fi novels, because some of these are pretty far out there. And some of them, well, I wish we had them today.

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Cartoon Pic For Today

Pick The Stradivarius Violin

Stradivarius Violin. Photo: Wikimedia.org.

Double-Blind Violin Test: Can You Pick The Strad? -- NPR

In the world of violins, the names Stradivari and Guarneri are sacred. For three centuries, violin-makers and scientists have studied the instruments made by these Italian craftsmen. So far no one has figured out what makes their sound different. But a new study now suggests maybe they aren't so different after all.

OK, here's a test. Clip one is a musical phrase from Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major. Clip two is the same phrase. The same musician plays both. But one is on a Stradivarius violin, the other on a violin made in 1980. See if you can tell the difference.

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My Comment: I choose the wrong one .... hmmmm .... and I use to be a professional musician.

100,000 Times More ‘Nomad Planets’ Than Stars?

An artistic rendition of a nomad object wandering the interstellar medium (intentionally blurry to represent uncertainty about whether it has an atmosphere). A nomadic object may be an icy body akin to an object found in the outer solar system, a more rocky material akin to asteroid, or even a gas giant similar in composition to the most massive solar system planets and exoplanets. (Credit: Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

Galaxy May Swarm With 100,000 Times More ‘Nomad Planets’ Than Stars -- Kurzweil

There may be 100,000 times more wandering “nomad planets” in the Milky Way than stars, and some may carry bacterial life, according to a new study by researchers at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC).

If any of these nomad planets are big enough to have a thick atmosphere, they could have trapped enough heat for bacterial life to exist,” said Louis Strigari, leader of the team that reported the result in a paper submitted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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100 Billion Stars In The Milky Way

An Otherworldly Discovery: Billions of Other Planets -- Wall Street Journal

Astronomers said Wednesday that each of the 100 billion stars in the Milky Way probably has at least one companion planet, on average, adding credence to the notion that planets are as common in the cosmos as grains of sand on the beach.

The finding underscores a fundamental shift in scientific understanding of planetary systems in the cosmos. Our own solar system, considered unique not so long ago, turns out to be just one among billions.

Until April 1994, there was no other known solar system, but the discoveries have slowly mounted since then: The Kepler space telescope, designed for planet-hunting, now finds them routinely.

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My Comment: And how many planets?

Is Google 'Dumping' Search

Why Google Is Ditching Search -- CNET

There has been a huge maelstrom about Google integrating Google+ into its search links. And it all misses the point.

Twitter and others are complaining that Google is throwing its massive 65 percent plus market share weight around and quashing smaller competitors. The reason Twitter and others are so threatened is that the pattern of shared links within Google+ provides a decent enough indicator as to what links are interesting. What's important is what's trending, and algorithms can get a sense of that with just a subset of everything that's getting shared on the Web.

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My Comment: That's what I like about Google .... always trying to stay one step ahead.

The Rise And Fall Of Personal Computing

The Rise And Fall Of Personal Computing -- Asymco

Thanks to Jeremy Reimer I was able to create the following view into the history of computer platforms.

I added data from the smartphone industry, Apple and updated the PC industry figures with those from Gartner. Note the log scale.

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My Comment: I love the graphs that he posted.

A Swarm of Nano Quadrotors

The World Belongs To Apps

How Apps Have Taken Over The World -- The Guardian

Steve Jobs initially resisted apps, fearing sabotage. But when the late Apple chief relented in 2007, the floodgates opened

A ticker on the front of Apple's website rolls over relentlessly, increasing by about 500 a second as it moves relentlessly towards 25bn.

It is counting the number of units of application software downloaded from the company's App Store – and the rise of a business that barely existed five years ago, but which now dominates daily conversation so much that the phrase, "There's an app for that", has become both an offer of help and a joke.

The counter is expected to hit the target by early March. By then, users will have spent about £3.6bn buying apps through the store, of which Apple will have passed on £2.5bn and retained £1.1bn.

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My Comment: And this is all just starting.

Apple Buys Chomp

Apple Said To Pay About $50 Million For Application-Search Startup Chomp -- Bloomberg

Apple Inc. (AAPL), the world’s most valuable company, acquired San Francisco-based Chomp Inc., which helps users sort through the widening array of software applications for mobile devices.

The Cupertino, California-based company paid about $50 million for Chomp, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the specifics are private. Apple confirmed the deal yesterday, without disclosing the purchase price.

“We buy smaller technology companies from time to time and generally don’t comment on our purposes or plans,” said Amy Bessette, a spokeswoman for Apple.

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My Comment: It's about time.

Is This The Future of Touchscreen Tech?

Is This The Future of Touchscreen Tech? New Video Will Blow Your Mind -- Mashable Tech

Gorilla Glass manufacturer Corning has unveiled a follow-up YouTube video to its wildly successful “A Day Made of Glass,” providing another look into what the future could be like with the growth of glass touchscreen interfaces, from innovative chalkboards and activity tables in classrooms to uses for it in hospitals.

Corning released two versions of “A Day Made of Glass 2″ — one with a narrator and another, abbreviated version without commentary — the video follows the life of young Amy and her family as they go through their day using various products made of glass. Amy does classwork on a glass tablet, controls the temperature of the car from the backseat and even attends a field trip at the Redwood Forrest with an interactive signage that brings learning to life. Her teacher also works with students on interactive touchscreen activity tables. Corning expects these activity tables to be rolled out in the near future.

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My Comment: Impressive.

Were Neutrinos Faster-Than-Light .... Or Not?

'Faster-Than-Light' Particles May Have Been Even Speedier -- CBC

Subatomic particles clocked at speeds exceeding the speed of light may have been going even faster than they appeared, physicists say.

A problem with some of the equipment used in the original experiment may have led to an overestimate of the time it took the particles, known as neutrinos, to make their 730-kilometre journey, reported CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in a statement Thursday.

As a result, their speed may have been underestimated.

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Update: Two Technical Problems Leave Neutrinos’ Speed in Question -- New York Times

CSN Editor: We will know the real answer in the next few months when more tests are done.

De-Classified UK Submarine Data Will Be Used To Assist Climate Science

Environmental data is routinely collected by submarines and other Navy vessels

UK Submarine Data De-Classified To Aid Climate Science -- BBC

The UK Ministry of Defence is to de-classify submarine data to help shed light on climate change in the Arctic.

Environmental data are routinely monitored by Navy vessels, but the measurements are highly sensitive because they could give away positions.

A dataset from one submarine mission will be released to give a snapshot of conditions under the ice.

It is hoped that further data could be released in future, yielding clues to how the Arctic is changing.

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Closer To A Heroin Vaccine

National Institute of Psychiatry's Director Maria Elena Medina speaks about the patent of a new vaccine that could reduce addiction to heroin, during a news conference at the institute in Mexico City February 23, 2012. Researchers at the institute say they have successfully tested the vaccine on mice and are preparing to test it on humans. The vaccine, which has been patented in the United States, works by making the body resistant to the effects of heroin, so users would no longer get a rush of pleasure when they smoke or inject it. REUTERS/Henry Romero

Mexican Researchers Patent Heroin Vaccine -- Yahoo News/Reuters

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - While Mexico grapples with relentless drug-related violence, a group of Mexican scientists is working on a vaccine that could reduce addiction to one of the world's most notorious narcotics: heroin.

Researchers at the country's National Institute of Psychiatry say they have successfully tested the vaccine on mice and are preparing to test it on humans.

The vaccine, which has been patented in the United States, works by making the body resistant to the effects of heroin, so users would no longer get a rush of pleasure when they smoke or inject it.

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My Comment: Faster please people are dying from the addiction properties of drugs every minute.

Tabasco Sauce Is In Demand On Board The International Space Station

Astronauts may have a particular affinity for Tabasco sauce in space because their sense of smell and taste is distorted. John Rose/NPR

Why Astronauts Crave Tabasco Sauce -- NPR

If you think astronauts just want dehydrated dinners and freeze-dried ice cream, think again. After a few days in space, they start reaching for the hot sauce.

In fact, they may start craving foods they didn't necessarily like on Earth.

"They crave [spicy] peppers, they crave sour and sweet things," says Jean Hunter, a food engineer at Cornell University. That means Tabasco sauce was definitely on the menu for space shuttle astronauts.

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Google Ocean

Catlin Seaview Survey

Google Street View Goes Undersea -- MSNBC

Less than a month after Google Ocean drowned our dreams of Atlantis by updating a image that previously showed mysterious grid patterns on the sea floor, the search giant is back with an underwater Street View.

Catlin Seaview Survey, the project's official name, launched Thursday with what New Scientist describes as "an unprecedented photographic tour of Australia's Great Barrier Reef." It is even more ambitious than Google's land version, which provides an eye level view of neighborhoods, parks and other public areas all over the world. This submerged 360 degree photo survey's "aim is to learn as much as possible about the reef's state of health from a panoramic underwater photographic and video survey – and let the rest of us enjoy the reef's untrammelled beauty online."

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The 'Wow!' Signal

The 'Wow!' Signal: One Man's Search for SETI's Most Tantalizing Trace of Alien Life -- The Atlantic

For decades, Robert Gray has been trying to duplicate the most surprising and still-unexplained observation in the history of the search for extraterrestrial life.

Late one night in the summer of 1977, a large radio telescope outside Delaware, Ohio intercepted a radio signal that seemed for a brief time like it might change the course of human history. The telescope was searching the sky on behalf of SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and the signal, though it lasted only seventy-two seconds, fit the profile of a message beamed from another world. Despite its potential import, several days went by before Jerry Ehman, a project scientist for SETI, noticed the data. He was flipping through the computer printouts generated by the telescope when he noticed a string of letters within a long sequence of low numbers---ones, twos, threes and fours. The low numbers represent background noise, the low hum of an ordinary signal. As the telescope swept across the sky, it momentarily landed on something quite extraordinary, causing the signal to surge and the computer to shift from numbers to letters and then keep climbing all the way up to "U," which represented a signal thirty times higher than the background noise level. Seeing the consecutive letters, the mark of something strange or even alien, Ehman circled them in red ink and wrote "Wow!" thus christening the most famous and tantalizing signal of SETI's short history: The "Wow!" signal.

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Robot Fish

Real Fish Welcome Robotic Overlord Into Their School -- Wired Science

A robotic fish has sailed across an aquatic uncanny valley by tricking real fish into following it upstream.

The feat could lead to better understanding of fish behavior and perhaps some means to divert them from environmental disaster scenes.

“Although some previous works have successfully investigated the interactions between live animals and robots or animal-like replicas, none of these studies have considered robots that are designed to simulate animal locomotion,” wrote the authors of a new study about the robot.

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Man's First Homes And Settlements

Excavations in Jordan have revealed dwellings dating back millennia before the development of agricultural settlements. The finds suggest that hunter-gatherers could sustain at least partially sedentary lives. Credit: L. Maher, EFAP Archive

Shelters Date To Stone Age -- Science News

Hunter-gatherers hung out in huts long before farmers built villages.

The remains of a couple of nearly 20,000-year-old huts, excavated in a Jordanian desert basin, add to evidence that hunter-gatherers built long-term dwellings 10,000 years before farming villages debuted in the Middle East.

These new discoveries come from a time of social transition, when mobile hunter-gatherers hunkered down for months at a time in spots that featured rivers, lakes and plentiful game, say archaeologist Lisa Maher of the University of California, Berkeley and her colleagues. Discoveries in and around hut remnants at a Stone Age site called Kharaneh IV include hearths, animal bones and caches of pierced seashells and other apparently ritual items, Maher’s team reports in a paper published online February 15 in PLoS ONE.

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My Comment: It looks like "early man" was far more sophisticated than what we give him credit for.

Astronomers Discover A Water World

GJ1214b, a super-Earth orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth Photo: AFP

Astronomers Discover New Type Of Planet – The Water World -- The Telegraph

A watery planet with a thick, steamy atmosphere has left astronomers fumbling for their classification books.

The water world, which has been named GJ1214b, is 2.7 times bigger than earth but weighs almost seven times as much.

GJ1214b orbits a red-dwarf star at a distance of two million kilometres, suggesting temperatures may reach up to 200C.

Astronomers believe the planet is an entirely new classification of celestial body, with the mixture of water and high temperatures meaning there is a chance new alien materials could have been produced.

Previous types of planetary body known to exist include a rocky surface similar to earth, gas giants like Jupiter, and ice giants like Uranus.

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My Comment: That must be quite a site to see.