Bing Beats Yahoo in Search, a Symbolic Win

From PC World:

Bing's vault over Yahoo in U.S. search volume should come as no surprise to anyone who's been following the horse race, but it's a symbolic milestone for a baby search engine whose prime directive is to take some of Google's advertising pie.

Bing Beats Yahoo in Search, a Symbolic WinWith Yahoo out of the way, according to the latest search share statistics from Nielsen, Bing's goal of becoming a genuine competitor to Google becomes a little more realistic. Bing, along with MSN and Windows Live, now has 13.9 percent of all search share. Yahoo fell to 13.1 percent, and Google still dominates with 65.1 percent. As Search Engine Land points out, Bing is still in third place by other metrics from comScore and Hitwise.

Read more ....

Escaping Ions Explain The Mystery Of Venus

The 2004 Venus in situ exploration mission aimed to collect information about the extreme atmospheric conditions that render the planet very different from Earth. Credit: NASA

From Cosmos:

ASHLAND, OREGON: The difference in the escape velocities of ions may help to explain why Venus isn’t more like Earth, scientists say, and it may come down to a planet’s core.

Oxygen and hydrogen ions in Venus’s atmosphere do not behave the same when exposed to the solar wind, according to scientists at the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki.

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Are You Ready For A World Without Antibiotics?

Streptococcus pyrogens bacteria. Photograph: S Lowry/University of Ulster/Getty Images.

From The Guardian:

Antibiotics are a bedrock of modern medicine. But in the very near future, we're going to have to learn to live without them once again. And it's going to get nasty.

Just 65 years ago, David Livermore's paternal grandmother died following an operation to remove her appendix. It didn't go well, but it was not the surgery that killed her. She succumbed to a series of infections that the pre-penicillin world had no drugs to treat. Welcome to the future.

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Hubble Harvests Distant Solar System Objects

This is an artist's concept of a craggy piece of Solar System debris that belongs to a class of bodies called trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). Astronomers culling the data archives of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have added 14 new TNOs to the catalog. The newfound TNOs range from 25 to 60 miles (40-100 km) across. Their method promises to turn up hundreds more. In this illustration, the distant Sun is reduced to a bright star at a distance of over 3 billion miles. (Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI))

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 13, 2010) — Beyond the orbit of Neptune reside countless icy rocks known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). One of the biggest, Pluto, is classified as a dwarf planet. The region also supplies us with comets such as famous Comet Halley. Most TNOs are small and receive little sunlight, making them faint and difficult to spot.

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How Mosquitoes Find A Tasty Host

From Live Science:

Prepare to be bugged out of your minds, citizens of Earth, because I've got a new scheme that I’m just itching to unleash: I'm going to attract a swarm of bloodthirsty mosquitoes to the next Nobel Prize ceremony, and watch as the dignitaries scratch themselves crazy. Aren't I repellent?

"But how," you’ll bravely ask, "how do you intend to attract so many mosquitoes to the icy-cold nation of Sweden?" An intelligent question, but the answer is elementary: I shall make use of the newest in olfactory research from Vanderbilt University, where scientists are unraveling the secrets behind mosquitoes' sense of smell. They may soon be able to explain how mosquitoes are able to track down their blood-feasts.

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Meet The Men Whose Job Was To Photograph Nuclear Explosions

ZERO HOUR Milliseconds after the image at left, the vehicles beneath the fireball were obliterated. "How to Photograph an Atomic Bomb"

The Bomb Chroniclers -- New York Times

They risked their lives to capture on film hundreds of blinding flashes, rising fireballs and mushroom clouds.

The blast from one detonation hurled a man and his camera into a ditch. When he got up, a second wave knocked him down again.

Then there was radiation.

While many of the scientists who made atom bombs during the cold war became famous, the men who filmed what happened when those bombs were detonated made up a secret corps.

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My Comment: I always wondered about the men who photographed nuclear explosions .... the risks and dangers that they took each time that they were at an above nuclear test. Well .... now I know.

As to how many photographers are left ....

..... As for the atomic cameramen, there aren’t that many left. “Quite a few have died from cancer,” George Yoshitake, 82, one of the survivors, said of his peers in an interview. “No doubt it was related to the testing.”

Gadgets Give A Taste Of Home For The Soldiers In Afghanistam

Lance Cpl. Oscar Cedeno, of 2nd Battalion 6th Marines, watches episodes of the television show Heroes on a broken HP laptop during downtime at his patrol base. Downrange can be a tough environment for laptops that get bumped, dropped, and filled with dust and dirt. Photo: Victor J. Blue/Wired.com

Gadgets Give Soldiers In Afghanistan A Slice Of Home -- The Danger Room

The heat and the dust and the diesel fumes. The constant drone of the generators, of vehicles, of radio static. The same food everyday, the same meal in the same brown plastic bag. The constant danger and uncertainty. The confusion, wonder and consequences waiting for you outside the wire.

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My Comment: I own a small and isolated chalet that is in the bush and north of Montreal. On weekdays, everyone leaves and the closest person is a few kilometers away. I never feel alone .... my gadgets, internet, and satellite TV gives me an environment that tells me that I am in civilization, and everyone that I know is only a short distance away.

Nothing can be further from the truth .... but it is an illusion that you only become sensitive to when you think about it. For the soldiers in Afghanistan they are probably in the same type of environment .... but when they go outside the wire .... a very different reality sets in.

Military Robots Converted For Civilian use

(Photo by Synexxus, Inc.)

7 Military Robots, Now Modified for Your Living Room -- Popular Science

Dozens of robotics companies are customizing military robots with gear like interchangeable tools, 3D radar vision and voice controls. The resulting bots, tested and refined in the field, may soon find their way into homes, gardens and places of work near you. Here's how.

Give the world a new electronic device and, before you know it, modified products will pop up. Such is the way with gadgets, electronics and, yes, robots. Some manufacturers try to lock down such mods, either physically or through legal channels, but the robotmakers at iRobot have embraced crowd sourcing. Their Robot Developers Kit provides the hardware and software to help developers make their own upgrades and add-ons for the military PackBots that they produce. More than 80 companies are now involved, creating an avalanche of new concepts that could find their way into the domestic robot market. Here's a look.

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The Future Of Air Travel?

You Can Flex Your Quads In Flight! This new airplane seat is designed to mimic the incredibly comfortable experience of riding a horse. via USA Today

Please, Don't Let This Be the Future of Air Travel: Slouching toward JFK -- Popular Science -- Popular Science

On your last flight, did you stare with envy at the people sitting in the exit row? Did you get a charley horse from trying to cross your legs under your tray table? Consider yourself lucky, pal. Your next budget flight might ask you to fly horseback style, squeezed onto a saddle in just 23 inches of space.

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Stephen Fry Autobiography Is ‘Publishing First’

The enhanced ebook version of Stephen Fry's autobiography, The Fry Chronicles, features additional videos and photos

From The Telegraph:

'The Fry Chronicles', Stephen Fry’s new autobiography, has been launched simultaneously as an ebook, hardback novel and iPhone app

Fry, who is well known for his love of technology, has embraced multiplatform publishing for his new book, The Fry Chronicles, which documents his life from his time at university to his first experiences of acting.

The autobiography is available in traditional hardback format for £20, while the ebook costs £12.99. An app, designed for Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch and iPad costs £7.99.

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A Motorised Skateboard That Looks Like A Tank

Coming To A Battlefield Soon: The Incredible Motorised Skateboard That Looks Like A Tank -- The Daily Mail

It looks like the cross between a small tank, a Segway and a skateboard.

But this odd-looking contraption is being touted as the next must-have vehicle for U.S. soldiers in warzones.

The DTV Shredder can handle any kind of terrain at high speed and its low centre of gravity ‘makes it ideal for reconnaissance, rescue/recovery, mobile surveillance, and medical evacuation operations’, it is claimed.

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My Comment: OK .... I am impressed. My nephew now wants to get his hands on one of them.

CrackBerries And Games Addicts: Beware An Internet Hit

Just 10 more minutes (Image: Bay Ismoyo/Getty)

From New Scientist:

WHEN does our predilection for internet technology cross over into harmful, addictive behaviour? It's a question that is taxing law-makers and health professionals.

For some, the idea that technology can be addictive is simply wrong-headed (see "User or abuser?"). That notion may soon be tested in the American courts. Last month, 51-year-old Craig Smallwood, an online gamer, was given leave by a court in Hawaii to proceed with a lawsuit against NC Interactive, complaining that he received insufficient warnings regarding the alleged "addictiveness" of its online game Lineage II, which he claims to have spent 20,000 hours playing since 2004.

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Triangular Blue Diamond Expected to Draw $15 Million

Photo credit: Christie's Images LTD.

From Discovery News:

The auction house, Christie's will soon be offering a two-stone ring featuring an extremely rare triangular-shaped blue diamond paired with a white diamond on a gold band. The auction for the BVLGARI diamonds could bring a cool $15 million.

The 10.95-carat blue diamond is the largest of its kind ever to come to auction, according to Christie's.

Read More ....

Ancient Viral Invasion Shaped Human Genome

Scientists have discovered that viruses that "invaded" the human genome millions of years ago have changed the way genes get turned on and off in human embryonic stem cells. (Credit: iStockphoto/Martin McCarthy)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 13, 2010) — Scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), a biomedical research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), and their colleagues from the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and Princeton University have recently discovered that viruses that 'invaded' the human genome millions of years ago have changed the way genes get turned on and off in human embryonic stem (ES) cells.

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Vampire Books Like 'Twilight' May Be Altering Teen Minds

The cover of "Twilight," a young-adult vampire novel by Stephenie Meyer. Credit: Little, Brown

From Live Science:

It's a potentially sucky situation. The vampire craze in teen literature – exemplified by the "Twilight" book series – could be affecting the dynamic workings of the teenage brain in ways scientists don't yet understand.

"We don't know exactly how literature affects the brain, but we know that it does," said Maria Nikolajeva, a Cambridge University professor of literature. "Some new findings have identified spots in the brain that respond to literature and art."

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Researcher: Narcissism's Alive And Well On Facebook

From The CBS:

How many times have you logged onto Facebook only to find that (fill in the name here) has updated their page for the upteenth time with yet another entirely forgettable, wonder of me moment?

It would be easy to assume from the anecdotal evidence that a legion of insufferable narcissists has found the perfect sounding board. But maybe it's not just your impression.

Read more ....

Huge Growth At UKs Largest Wind Farm

Image: Generating capacity at Whitelee will increase by more than two thirds

From The BBC:

A massive expansion is to take place at Europe's largest onshore wind farm, which is situated in East Renfrewshire.

ScottishPower Renewables is to add another 75 turbines to Whitelee wind farm on Eaglesham Moor by 2012.

This will bring the number of turbines on site to 215 - raising electricity generating capacity by two thirds.

The 140 turbines currently at the wind farm, to the south of Glasgow, can produce enough electricity to power 180,000 homes.

Read more ....

With China Clamping Down On Rare-Earth Metals, Japanese Manufacturers Devise Clever Alternatives

Rare-Earths China produces the vast majority of the world's rare-earth oxides. Wikimedia Commons

From Popular Science:

If necessity is the mother of invention, maybe China is the wicked stepmother. In an effort to thwart Chinese restrictions on rare-earth metal exports, Japanese manufacturers have developed technology that can make motors without them.

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Finding A Bargain Feels As Good As Sex

Photo: Eddie Mulholland

From The Telegraph:

Retail therapy is often said to make up for a poor love life – and now new research has shown why.

A study has discovered that shoppers get the same level of emotional excitement from special offers as they do from sexual arousal.

Researchers have found that bargains make us so deliriously happy that the brain is turned on to the same level excitement that it gets from sex.

Read more ....

Age Of Terminators Comes A Step Closer As Scientists Invent 'E-Skin' That Could Give Robots A Sense Of Touch

Photo: An artist's illustration of an artificial e-skin covering a hand. The finished product would give incredible touch and sensitivity

From The Daily Mail:

Scientists have developed a pressure-sensitive electronic skin which could one day be used to restore touch to patients who have prosthetic limbs.

The material, dubbed e-skin, is made from semiconductor nanowires made from silicon.

More sinister, however, is the prospect of the invention lending robots the ability to adapt the amount of roce needed to hold and manipulate objects.

Read more ....

Nobel Physicist: Building Hubble's Heir In Deep Space

(Image: NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham/Emmett Given)

From New Scientist:

When the James Webb Space Telescope unfurls its mirror a million and a half kilometres out in space four years from now, it will be the culmination of nearly two decades of planning by John Mather. He tells Anil Ananthaswamy about the challenges of building an heir to the stunningly successful Hubble Space Telescope

Why do we need the James Webb Space Telescope, when Hubble is still up there?

The short answer is that Hubble has tantalised us by showing us signs of things that would be really exciting to know about, but are just beyond its reach.

Read more ....

Video Games: The Skills From Zapping ’Em

From The Economist:

Playing fast-action video games helps decision-making.

THE relentless march of technology into everyday life has always given rise to debate about whether it is a good or a bad thing. Some believe that the internet and computer software are making humans more stupid or shallow. But others argue that computer programs in the form of video games can make people smarter or improve specific skills, such as spatial awareness. Indeed, an entire industry has emerged to help people “train” or improve their brains.

Read more ....

Sugar's Power Over Humans Traced

More than half of the American population is overdosing on sugar. Click here for a list of the top five things you didn't know about sugar. Hemera

From Discovery News:

Sugar may be a rich source of empty calories, but there's more to the story.

Sugar is the enemy, according to a growing body of research, and not just because it rots our teeth and adds padding to our thighs.

The real danger is fructose -- a main ingredient in table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and fruit -- that actually gets into our cells and alters metabolism.

Read more ....

Oh, That’s Gotta Hurt – Obama Denies Solar Panels

From Watts Up With That?

It has been said that Obama is the worst president since Jimmy Carter, perhaps now in the eyes of 350.org supporters, he’s “worse than we thought”. Carter was the first to put solar panels on the White House. Being nothing more than an icon, they didn’t last.

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Glasperlenspiel: Scientists Propose New Test for Gravity

A beam of laser light (red) should be able to cause a glass bead of approximately 300 nanometers in diameter to levitate, and the floating bead would be exquisitely sensitive to the effects of gravity. Moving a large heavy object (gold) to within a few nanometers of the bead could allow the team to test the effects of gravity at very short distances. (Credit: K. Talbott/NIST)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 13, 2010) — A new experiment proposed by physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may allow researchers to test the effects of gravity with unprecedented precision at very short distances -- a scale at which exotic new details of gravity's behavior may be detectable.

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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.

Read more ....

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 ....

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.

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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.

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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 ....

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 ....

30 Ways The World Could End

From Discover Magazine:

Crank up the gloom and doom: Global apocalypse could be just around the corner, and you might never see it coming—unless you read this article.

Fashions come and go in all human endeavors—even eschatology, the study of the end of the world.

Back in the 1980s, our planet seemed sure to perish in a nuclear barrage, and songs about atomic apocalypse were at the top of the charts: Cue Prince’s “1999” (“Everybody’s got a bomb/We could all die any day”). By the 1990s, death by asteroid impact was all the rage. After 9/11 and the 2001 anthrax attacks, worries turned to a bioweapon unleashed by a terror group. The latest obsession is plague, delivered in the metaphorical form of vampires and zombies—especially zombies, since vampires have developed an unseemly fondness for chaste romance.

Read more ....

US Navy Seeks 'Safer' Bomb

Show some restraint (Image: Said Khatib/AFP/Getty)

From New Scientist:

COULD a variable-yield bomb reduce the number of innocent people killed or injured during an air attack targeting enemy soldiers? That's the thinking behind a US navy plan to develop a "dial-a-blast" bomb.

The navy is seeking proposals from companies to create a bomb weighing 200 kilograms that can either be detonated at full or reduced power. The idea is that the device could be loaded onto planes before a target has been identified, and the explosive power set by the pilot once a target is known. If there is a risk of killing civilians, then the explosive power can be reduced to ensure a small blast radius. In an unpopulated area the bomb, currently known as the Selectable Output Weapon, could be set so that it has the same power as a regular bomb of the same size. Carrying a single bomb would make it easier and cheaper for the navy to arm its planes.

Read more ....

Alt Text: Google, Apple Unveil Competing Battle Robots

From The Underwire:

Google and Apple announced Friday what many analysts have long predicted: That they will settle the long-standing competition between the two companies with a series of giant robot battles.

The announcement comes as the culmination of a series of parallel developments between the two competitors. Apple recently unveiled its new Apple TV with 99-cent streaming episodes, and Google followed a week later with Google TV, to be deployed this fall.

Read more ....

This Man Makes 137,000 iPhones A Day

Terry Gou. Photo: Tony Law for Bloomberg Businessweek

From Fortune/CNN Money:

"I should be honest with you," Foxconn founder and chairman Terry Gou told Bloomberg Businessweek on the subject of the suicides at his company's massive factory complex in Shenzhen, China. "The first one, second one, and third one, I did not see this as a serious problem. We had around 800,000 employees, and here [in Longhua] we are about 2.1 square kilometers. At the moment, I'm feeling guilty. But at that moment, I didn't think I should be taking full responsibility." After the fifth suicide, in March, Gou says, "I decided to do something different."

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Vitamin B Is Revolutionary New Weapon Against Alzheimer's Disease

From The Telegraph:

Vitamin B tablets could slow and even halt the devastating march of Alzheimer's Disease in the elderly, a breakthrough British study suggests.

The research showed that large doses of the supplement could halve the rate of brain shrinkage – a physical symptom associated memory loss and dementia in the elderly.

The effects were so dramatic that the scientists behind the work believe it could revolutionise the treatment of the disease.

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People Hanging Out More On Facebook Than Google

From CNET:

Internet users are spending a bit more time these days socializing on Facebook than searching on Google, according to new data from market researcher ComScore.

In August, people spent 41.1 million minutes on Facebook, accounting for 9.9 percent of the total number of minutes they spent online for the month. That inched past the 39.8 million minutes, or 9.6 percent of total time, that Net users spent on all of Google's sites combined, including its search engine, YouTube, Gmail, and Google News, ComScore said Thursday.

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'Tractor Beam' One Step Closer To Reality: Laser Moves Small Particles

Members of the scientific team: Yana Izdebskaya, Anton Desyatnikov, Vladlen Shvedov, Andrei Rode, Yuri Kivshar and Wieslaw Krolikowski. (Credit: Photo by Tim Wetherell)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 9, 2010) — Researchers from The Australian National University have developed the ability to move particles over large distances, using a specially designed laser beam.

Professor Andrei Rode's team from the Laser Physics Centre at ANU have developed a laser beam that can move very small particles up to distances of a metre and a half using only the power of light.

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