Monday, September 13, 2010

Why Do Teens Hurt Themselves? The Science Of Self-Injury


From Live Science:

Over the last couple decades, more young people appear to be pulling out razor blades and lighters in order to injure themselves, according to anecdotal reports from counselors. Their intent is not to die, just to inflict harm, a behavior known as non-suicidal self-injury.

A recent study on the mental health of college students, presented in August at the American Psychological Association Meeting, found empirical evidence to document these observations. The results show that at one university, the rate of non-suicidal self-injury doubled from 1997 to 2007.

Read more ....

YouTube Tests Live Streaming

From CBS News:

Long-Awaited Experiment Signals New Media Push by YouTube and Corporate Parent Google.

(AP) YouTube is making its long expected foray into live streaming by launching an experimental trial with four new media partners.

The new live streaming platform will be previewed in a two-day trial beginning Monday, but is expected to later grow considerably across the Google Inc.-owned website.

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Sensitive Touch For 'Robot Skin'

Photo: The "skins" match human skin's ability to sense tiny pressure changes quickly.

From The BBC:

"Artificial skin" that could bring a sensitive touch to robots and prosthetic limbs, has been shown off.

The materials, which can sense pressure as sensitively and quickly as human skin, have been outlined by two groups reporting in Nature Materials.

The skins are arrays of small pressure sensors that convert tiny changes in pressure into electrical signals.

The arrays are built into or under flexible rubber sheets that could be stretched into a variety of shapes.

Read more ....

Alien Oceans Could Be Detected By Telescopes

Image: The reflection of light or "glint" could reveal the existence of Earth-like planets.

From The BBC:

The next generation of telescopes could reveal the presence of oceans on planets outside our Solar System.

Detecting water on Earth-like planets offers the tantalising prospect they could sustain life.

Scientists hope the reflection of light, or "glint", from mirror-like ocean surfaces could be picked up by a US space telescope set for launch in 2014.

The research by US astronomers has been published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Read more ....

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Remembering 9/11 -- Complete List Of Links, Tributes, Videos, Pictures And Resources


COMPLETE LIST OF 9/11 RESOURCES, TRIBUTES, VIDEOS AND LINKS

9/11 TIMELINE


Day of 9/11 Timeline – An excellent illustrated and detailed Timeline by Paul Thomas
The 9/11 Report -- A graphic adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón
NYT Accounts From Different Floors In WTC


MEMORIALS – REMEMBERING THE FALLEN

C N N Memorial – Victims of 911
CNN’s Memorial List of 9/11 Victims
Cantor Fitzgerald Families Memorial
Arlington Cemetary
Department of Defense Memorial Page
USA Today: Flight 93 Victims
USA Today: Names of Victims on the Airplanes


WEB SITES DEDICATED TO 9/11

911 Commission – Official Website
911 Digital Archive
911 Internet Archive
911 Investigations
911 Photos And Videos
911 By The Numbers – New York Magazine
America’s Day Of Terror – B B C News
CNN Special -- 911
Library Of Congress – 911
Musarium Photo: America Attacked
New York City Damage Report – From C N N
New York City Fire Department Dispatch Tapes 911
Open Directory – 9/11 Web Sites
September 11, 2001 – Wikipedia
September 11, 2001 Archive Of Screenshots of Online News Sites
September 11, 2001 Newspaper Archives
September 11 News.com
Times Magazine Coverage of 911
W C B S – T. V. New York – Special On 911


THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECHES

September 11 Address to the Nation
September 20 Address to Joint Session of Congress and the Nation
November 10 Speech To The U.N.
Timeline and links to Bush speeches and pictures


LINKS TO 9/11 IN PICTURES

Attack On America Images – A number of links and a Bookyards favorite
Black Day – Images From 9/11
Bill Biggart's Final Exposures -- His body and camera were found at Ground Zero
9/11 Images
9/11 Pictures
9/11 Research
9/11 Memorial
Photos From Musarium
September 11News.com
The Twin Towers, Before and After
Shattered
A startling deck of high-resolution photos of the WTC site, most of which I do not remember seeing before.
World Trade Center Explosion


VIDEO CLIPS AND MEMORIALS ON 9/11

Bookyards 911 Time Line (25 videos)
Bookyards 911 General Collection of Videos (19 videos)
Bookyards Video Tributes On 911 (6 videos)
9/11 Video Tribute – A Fast Zoom In From Space To Ground Zero
A Video Memorial. From Brain Terminal
America Attacked – Video Memorial
An excellent video memorial from YouTube
Chris Macke Photography -- Video From The Top Of The WTC (a video memorial
CNN Video Archive Of September 11, 2007
Twin Tower Videos
Free 9/11 Videos And Documentaries
The Building Of The Towers -- A Video Clip
File 13: Paper Evidence -- Blue Man Group presents some of the burnt, torn papers—typical of office work—that were found in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, after the 9/11 attacks.
YouTube – 9/11 Videos


LAST WORDS OF A TERRORIST
Mohamed Atta’s Four Page Letter

Google's Home Page On September 11, 2001 At 11:54 AM EST


Click Image To Enlarge

Report: Apple Developing iPad Rev With Camera/FaceTime


From The Mac Observer:

Apple is in the advance testing stage of a rev for the iPad that includes a front-facing camera and support for FaceTime, according to a report from AppleInsider. The company is planning on releasing the device as early as the 1st quarter of 2011, a more aggressive schedule than the yearly update schedule for other iOS devices, and there are some execs in Cupertino who want to release the new version in time for the Holiday shopping season this year.

Read more
....

Astronomers To Detect Alien Volcanoes

This artist's conception shows an extremely volcanic moon orbiting a gas giant planet in another star system. Credit: Wade Henning

From Cosmos:

SYDNEY: Astronomers may soon be able to detect volcanic activity on planets outside our Solar System, providing further insight into ‘Earth-like’ alien worlds, according to a recent paper.

When large, explosive volcanic eruptions occur, they emit high quantities of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere. Without an eruption, however, sulphur dioxide only occurs in an Earth-like stratosphere in very small amounts.

Read more ....

WSJ : GoDaddy Internet Registrar For Sale


From CBS News:

World's Largest Internet Domain Name Registrar Could Fetch More Than $1 Billion.

(CBS) Citing "people familiar with the matter," The Wall Street Journal is reporting that GoDaddy.com, the private company that registers Internet domain names, has put itself on the block and could fetch upward of $1 billion.

Read more ....

What Do White People Really Like?



From ABC News:

Dating Site OkCupid Analyzes Profiles to Uncover Interests of Different Races.

What do Tom Clancy, Van Halen and golfing have in common?

According to the dating website OkCupid, they're all stuff white people really like.

The popular blog (and now book) Stuff White People Like may have been the first to plumb the world of white people online. But, this week, OkCupid took the next step and analyzed profiles of online daters to figure out the tastes and interests of members by race.

Read more ....

Mars Lander May Have Detected, Then Destroyed Organics

This is the first photograph ever taken on the surface of the planet Mars. It was obtained by Viking 1 just minutes after the spacecraft landed successfully on July 20, 1976. Click to enlarge this image. NASA

From Discovery News:


The Viking mission on Mars may have destroyed compounds that make biology possible while trying to detect them.

Martian soil could contain the building blocks of carbon-based life after all, a new study suggests, despite the negative results of an analysis performed by the Viking missions 34 years ago.

When the Viking landers touched down on Mars in 1976 and scooped up soil samples, scientists were surprised that the two craft failed to unearth evidence that the Red Planet contained any organic compounds. The apparent lack of organic molecules -- a basic requirement for carbon-based organisms -- helped to cement the notion of Mars as an entity that would not easily support life.

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....

The Math Behind the Physics Behind the Universe

Discover Interview: The Math Behind the Physics Behind the Universe -- Discover Magazine

Shing-Tung Yau explains how he discovered the hidden dimensions of string theory.

Shing-Tung Yau is a force of nature. He is best known for conceiving the math behind string theory—which holds that, at the deepest level of reality, our universe is built out of 10-dimensional, subatomic vibrating strings. But Yau’s genius runs much deeper and wider: He has also spawned the modern synergy between geometry and physics, championed unprecedented teamwork in mathematics, and helped foster an intellectual rebirth in China.

Read more ....

Civil War In Africa Has No Link To Climate Change

Temperature is not the issue (Image: Daniel Pepper/Getty)

From The New Scientist:

THE idea that global warming will increase the incidence of civil conflict in Africa is wrong, according to a new study. What's more, the researchers who previously made the claim now concede that civil conflict has been on the wane in Africa since 2002, as prosperity has increased. If the trend continues, a more peaceful future may be in store.

Read more ....

E-Books Are Still Waiting for Their Avant-Garde


From Gadget Lab/Wired Science:

E-readers have tried to make reading as smooth, natural and comfortable as possible so that the device fades away and immerses you in the imaginative experience of reading. This is a worthy goal, but it also may be a profound mistake.

This is what worries Wired’s Jonah Lehrer about the future of reading. He notes that when “the act of reading seems effortless and easy … [w]e don’t have to think about the words on the page.” If every act of reading becomes divorced from thinking, then the worst fears of “bookservatives” have come true, and we could have an anti-intellectual dystopia ahead of us.

Read more ....

'Mind-Reading Machine' Can Convert Thoughts Into Speech

Photo: GETTY IMAGES

From The Telegraph:

A mind reading machine is a step closer to reality after scientists discovered a way of translating people's thoughts into words.

Researchers have been able to translate brain signals into speech using sensors attached to the surface of the brain for the first time.

The breakthrough, which is up to 90 per cent accurate, offers a way to communicate for paralysed patients who cannot speak and could eventually lead to being able to read anyone thoughts.

Read more
....

Friday, September 10, 2010

Researchers Give Robots the Capability for Deceptive Behavior

The black robot intentionally knocked down the red marker to deceive the red robot into thinking it was hiding down the left corridor. Instead, the black robot is hiding inside the box in the center pathway. (Credit: Georgia Tech Photo: Gary Meek)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 9, 2010) — A robot deceives an enemy soldier by creating a false trail and hiding so that it will not be caught. While this sounds like a scene from one of the Terminator movies, it's actually the scenario of an experiment conducted by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology as part of what is believed to be the first detailed examination of robot deception.

Read more ....

Quantum Jumps Could Help Image Cancer Cells

An animation showing the fluorescence process when the quantum dot is in the so-called "on" state. Credit: Ovidiu Toader, Vancouver BA, Canada

From Live Science:

New research by Boldizsár Jankó, a professor of theoretical physics at The University of Notre Dame, and his colleagues offers an important breakthrough in understanding an enduring mystery in physics.

More than a century ago, at the dawn of modern quantum mechanics, the Noble Prize-winning physicist Neils Bohr predicted “quantum jumps.” Since the early 1990s, researchers have been able to view such jumps as interruptions of the continuous emissions from single molecules, a phenomenon informally called “blinking”. However, while some blinking can be directly ascribed to Bohr’s original quantum jumps, many observations do not follow predictions.

Read more ....

Green Sky At Night, What A Delight! Plasma Eruption On The Sun Causes Spectacular Northern Lights

Spectacular: The Northern Lights bursting into a spectacular display of purple in Norway

From The Daily Mail:

In shimmering, rippling waves of green, Mother Nature's most spectacular show lights up the night sky.

Captured in the Arctic Circle above the still waters of a lake, it is an undeniably awe-inspiring display.

The haunting beauty of the Northern Lights - known as aurora borealis - is caused by massive explosions in the sun which send streams of electrically charged particles 3 million miles to the Earth.

Read more ....

Stunning Photos of Space Capture Top Honors

This image of a bristlecone pine tree under the Milky Way took the top prize in the second annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, run by the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, England. Hosted with Sky at Night magazine, the contest received more than 400 entries from about 25 countries. The winner, "Blazing Bristlecone," was shot by Tom Lowe in California's White Mountains. (© Tom Lowe)

CSN Editor: For more pictures, go here.

What Caused The Calif. Natural Gas Explosion?


From Discovery News:

A horrific explosion in San Bruno, Calif., yesterday initially prompted fears of an airplane crash. The source turned out to be a ruptured natural gas line, but what failure actually caused the deadly, Bruckheimer-like scene?

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, PG&E, told the Associated Press that a 30-inch gas pipe had ruptured several feet underground. PG&E told reporters that the blast originated in a steel gas pipeline about two feet in length, but they don't know the cause yet because the fire was still going this morning.

Read more ....