An 1,800 Year Old Murder Mystery

Unearthed: The remains of a child, thought to be aged between 8 and 10, have been found in a shallow pit in the corner of a barrack room floor at Vindolanda Roman Fort, Northumberland

The 1,800-Year-Old Murder Mystery: Archaeologists Unearth Body Of Young Girl Buried With Her Hands Tied -- Discovery News

She was no more than ten years old. Lying in a shallow grave, her tiny hands bound and with injuries to her head, it seemed she had met a most violent end.

But although all the clues point to the cruellest of murders, there is little chance of this ‘cold case’ ever being solved.

The mystery is puzzling not police, but archaeologists, as the gruesome events took place more than 1,800 years ago.

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Did the Greeks Spot Halley's Comet First?

From Discovery News:

Piecing together historic record and correlating it with the location of celestial objects nearly 2,500 years ago is an an epic task, but it can prove rather useful for interpreting ancient cosmic discoveries.

After some fascinating astronomical detective work, researchers have (possibly) found the first documented proof of a sighting of Halley's Comet two centuries earlier than when Chinese astronomers first described the famous 'dirty snowball' around 240 BC.

So, who beat the Chinese? The Greeks.

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Falling In Love Costs You Friends

From The BBC:

Falling in love comes at the cost of losing two close friends, a study says.

We probably all know that a passionate new relationship can leave you little time for others, but now science has put some numbers on the observation.

Oxford University researchers asked people about their inner core of friendships and how this number changed when romance entered the equation.

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Tsunamis Leave Ionosphere All Shook Up

Photo: Researchers hope measuring atmospheric waves will improve early warning of big tsunamis such as the one generated by a February earthquake in Chile.MARCELO HERNANDEZ/dpa/Corbis

From Nature News:

Progress of waves through open sea sends vibrations that magnify with height up the entire atmospheric column.

The signals of GPS satellites could be used to monitor tsunamis as they sweep across the ocean. In the most detailed study to date of the effect, scientists have shown that even though open ocean tsunami waves are only a few centimetres high, they are powerful enough to create atmospheric vibrations extending all the way to the ionosphere, 300 kilometres up in the atmosphere.

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Glacial Armour Lets Mountains Rise High

Ripe for the buzz saw (Image: Egner Photography/iStock)

From New Scientist:

Glaciers limit mountain height by stripping rock off the top – but not always. If conditions are right, glacial ice will protect the rocks beneath to let mountains grow.

The upper reaches of high mountains are covered with snow all year round, allowing glaciers to form. As these rivers of ice move slowly downhill, they wear away the rocks beneath them, meaning that mountains should not grow much beyond the height of their snowline: any rock that is pushed up above this altitude will eventually get worn away by the ice. This is called the buzz-saw hypothesis, because, like superhuman circular saws, the glaciers effectively cut the heads off mountains above a certain height.

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DARPA Makes Uncharacteristic Bid For A Better Means To Declassify Government Docs

President Obama's A.M. Briefing We'd tell you how we got this photograph of the President's morning security run-down, but then we'd have to kill you. (Just kidding. It's public domain.)

From Popular Science:

DARPA is usually so tight-lipped about the technologies it seeks that we can do little but read through bidding solicitations and speculate on what the agency is up to. But in a new request, the DoD’s blue-sky research team is asking for help shining light on the deepest corners of the Pentagon’s archives, asking industry and academia for help in developing technology that will help the government sort through its endless pool of stored information for material suitable for declassification.

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Only Two Men Have Reached The Deepest Part Of The Sea

Explorers Jacques Picard and Don Walsh reached the very deepest point of the ocean on January 23, 1960

As Director James Cameron Plans To Film Avatar Sequel Seven Miles Below The Sea's Surface, We Go Into The Deadly Deep With The Only Two Men Who've Been There -- The Daily Mail

Five thousand fathoms under the waves, a deafening clang rang out through the cramped, freezing submarine, causing the whole ­vessel to shake like a leaf.

Squinting through their tiny Plexiglas window into the abyss, the two explorers’ hearts missed
a beat.

‘It was a pretty hairy experience,’ they said afterwards with some understatement. The outer
layer of their porthole had cracked under the ­unimaginable weight of six miles of seawater — and they still had more than a mile to descend.

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Prehistoric Bird Sets Wingspan Record

This graphic features a skeletal reconstruction as well as a life-like depiction of this prehistoric bird in flight. Click to enlarge this image. Artwork by Carlos Anzures

From Discovery News:

At 17 feet, the bird's wingspan may exceed that of any other flying animal ever to exist. Size, however, has its drawbacks.

Soaring the Chilean skies 5-10 million years ago, an enormous bony-toothed bird has set the world wingspan record. The bird's wingspan was at least 17 feet, according to scientists.

The measurement is based on well preserved wing bones from the newly named bird species, Pelagornis chilensis, a.k.a. "huge pseudoteeth" from Chile. The animal weighed about 64 pounds and belonged to a group known as pelagornithids -- birds characterized by long, slender beaks bearing many spiny, tooth-like projections.

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'Rapid' 2010 Melt For Arctic Ice - But No Record

The Arctic on 3rd September, as visualised using data from Nasa's Aqua satellite.

From The BBC:

Ice floating on the Arctic Ocean melted unusually quickly this year, but did not shrink down to the record minimum area seen in 2007.

That is the preliminary finding of US scientists who say the summer minimum seems to have passed and the ice has entered its winter growth phase.

2010's summer Arctic ice minimum is the third smallest in the satellite era.

Researchers say projections of summer ice disappearing entirely within the next few years increasingly look wrong.

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Why Some Memories Stick

Image: Faces that activate the same regions of the brain again and again are more likely to be remembered.Pasieka / Science Photo Library

From Nature News:

Repetitive neural responses may enhance recall of faces and words.

Practice makes perfect when it comes to remembering things, but exactly how that works has long been a mystery. A study published in Science this week1 indicates that reactivating neural patterns over and over again may etch items into the memory.

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Electron Vortex Could Trap Atoms

From New Scientist:

Set a beam of electrons twisting, and the resulting vortex could be just the tool to manipulate atoms.

"This is a fundamentally new state that we can bring electrons into," says Jo Verbeeck from the University of Antwerp, Belgium.

Optical vortices, made of twisting beams of light, have been used to spin or move micrometre-sized particles like cells. But electron vortices could potentially trap much smaller particles, says Verbeeck.

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Robotics Expert Is NSW Scientist Of The Year

NSW Scientist of the Year 2010 - Hugh Durrant-Whyte

From Cosmos:

SYDNEY: Leader of the robotics revolution, Hugh Durrant-Whyte has been named the NSW Scientist of the Year for his contribution to the development of underwater robots, flying weed-spraying drones and massive mining automation systems.

Held at Government House in Sydney tonight, the awards ceremony saw winners in six categories take out the $5,000 prize, while Durrant-Whyte from the University of Sydney secured the top prize and $55,000.

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Discovery Of The First Earth-Like, Habitable Exoplanet Will Be Announced In May Of 2011 (Maybe)

Kepler's View at First Light NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

From Popular Science:

The numbers are in, the data has been analyzed, and the date is now set: the discovery of an earth-like, habitable planet will be announced in May of next year. At least, that’s the conclusion reached by two professors at Harvard and U. of California, Santa Cruz, whose mathematical projections say that given the current pace of exoplanet discoveries, the finding of a suitable planet for life is right around the corner.

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Supply-Laden Russian Cargo Carrier Docks At Space Station

From USA Today:

A fresh load of supplies and equipment has arrived at the International Space Station after a robotic Russian space freighter eased up to the outpost and docked at the back end of the Russian side of the complex.

Two months after an aborted docking, station commander Alexander Skvortsov was ready to take manual control of the approaching spacecraft but its automated docking system worked as intended and the Progress 39 vehicle hooked up with the outpost without incident.

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'Artificial Ovary' Develops Oocytes Into Mature Human Eggs

An artificial ovary An engineered honeycomb of cultured theca cells (top row) envelopes spheres of granulosa cells (GC). The bottom row shows the tissue after 48 hours (left) and after five days. (Credit: Carson Lab / Brown University)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 14, 2010) — Researchers at Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital have invented the first artificial human ovary, an advance that provides a potentially powerful new means for conducting fertility research and could also yield infertility treatments for cancer patients. The team has already used the lab-grown organ to mature human eggs.

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Top 10 Animal Recruits in War

From Live Science:

Humans have enlisted animals to help fight their battles since the dawn of war, and today's militaries use an even wider range of creatures for everything from bomb sniffing to coastline patrolling.

That may seem remarkable, considering that dogs, horses and other animals certainly did not evolve for the purpose of human conflict. Yet nature's designs have not only stood the test of time, but have also inspired human engineers to try to harness their power directly or through mechanical imitations.

Here we count down some of the creatures that have become unwitting recruits in both ancient and modern warfare.

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Why Isn't The Price Of Broadband Obeying Moore's Law?

From Technology Review:

The quality and cost of broadband Internet access haven't budged in years.

The U.S. government doesn't keep an index of broadband internet prices by which to evaluate the success of its broadband promotion policies - the statistics they do have are mushed together with prices for dial-up access - so a couple of researchers at Northwestern University decided to build their own.

What they discovered is that broadband internet prices have remained nearly stagnant since 2004, despite the explosive pace of adoption since then - from approximately 20 percent of U.S. households in 2004 to more than 65 percent today.

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Call To Replace UN Climate Chiefs

Photo: Dr Pachauri is into his second term as IPCC chairman

From The BBC:

Lord Turnbull, the former head of the UK civil service, says the government must push for new leadership of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

He says new leaders are needed to re-build trust in climate science following the "Climategate" e-mails affair and the IPCC's glacier mistake.

Lord Turnbull made his comments in a report on Climategate published by the climate-sceptic think-tank the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), of which he is a trustee.

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This Planet Smells Funny

Image: An artist's concept of GJ 436b peeking out from behind its parent star, an M-dwarf much cooler than the sun.

From Space Daily:

Giant planet GJ 436b in the constellation Leo is missing something. Would you believe swamp gas? To the surprise of astronomers who have been studying the Neptune-sized planet using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, GJ 436b has very little methane (CH4).

"Methane should be abundant on a planet of this temperature and size, but we found 7000 times less methane than what the models predict," says Kevin Stevenson of the University of Central Florida (UCF). Stevenson was lead author of a paper reporting the result in the April 22, 2010, issue of Nature.

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Fooled You! Robots Learn How To Deceive

From Discovery News:

Robots are becoming more human every day. Some robots can already sustain damage and reconfigure themselves, kind of like how our bones heal after we break them. Now others can deceive other intelligent machines and even humans.

Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed algorithms that let robots determine whether they are in a situation where they should deceive other robots or humans.

Read more ....

Robotic Butlers, Oily Wrecks And Avatars

From New Scientist:

This month on New Scientist TV, you can see a robotic butler being tested in the real world for the first time. Nick Hawes and his team from University of Birmingham, UK, are designing the robot to map a new house by exploring it and identifying objects typical to different types of room.

Read more ....

A New IED Killer

'Blade' Of Water That Can Cut Through Steel To Be Used In Afghanistan To Destroy IEDs -- The Daily Mail

A device that shoots a blade of water capable of penetrating steel is to be used in Afghanistan to help soldiers disable improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

The Stingray was developed by Sandia National Laboratories and 3,000 of the gadgets are heading out to U.S. soldiers in the region this year.

Stingrays are filled with water and an explosive material that - when detonated - creates a shockwave that travels through the water and speeds it up, creating a thin, powerful blade of water capable of penetrating steel.

Read more ....

My Comment: Every little bit will help.

Scientists Investigate Massive Walrus Haul-Out In Alaska ‎

Walrus high on the barrier beaches near Pointt Lay, Alaska, 2010. Photograph: USGS

From The Guardian:

Scientists fear declining Arctic sea ice may have caused an unprecedented mass migration to dry land.

Scientists in the Arctic are reporting a rare mass migration of thousands of walrus from the ice floes to dry land along Alaska's coast.

Researchers from the US Geological Survey (USGS), who have been tracking walrus movements using satellite radio tags, say 10,000 to 20,000 of the animals, mainly mothers and calves, are now congregating in tightly packed herds on the Alaskan side of the Chukchi Sea, in the first such exodus of its kind.

Read more ....

9/11 Memorial Lights Trap Thousands Of Birds

From Wired Science:

On the evening of the ninth anniversary of 9/11, the twin columns of light projected as a memorial over the World Trade Center site became a source of mystery.

Illuminated in the beams were thousands of small white objects, sparkling and spiraling, unlike anything seen on other nights. Some viewers wondered if they were scraps of paper or plastic caught in updrafts from the spotlights’ heat. From beneath, it was at times like gazing into a snowstorm. It was hard not to think of souls.

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Scientists 'Clone' Human Virus Responsible for Congenital Malformations and Other Life-Threatening Diseases

In this immunofluorescent image, a specimen of human embryonic lung reveals the presence of cytomegalovirus; magnification 25X. (Credit: CDC/Dr. Craig Lyerla)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 14, 2010) — A team of Welsh scientists has successfully cloned a human virus, offering new hope for the treatment of potentially life-threatening diseases.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a major infectious cause of congenital malformations worldwide. The virus is also known to cause life-threatening disease in transplant patients and people with HIV/AIDS.

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Why Women Prefer 'Chill' Guys

Composite male faces constructed to differ in levels of testosterone and cortisol. From left to right: low-testosterone, high-cortisol; low-testosterone, low-cortisol. Credit: Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

From Live Science:

Women generally find calm, collected men more attractive, and scientists now suggest they know the biology of why that is.

Investigations into what makes men desirable often focus on testosterone. The hormone is linked with masculine facial traits, such as larger jaws and heavier brows, and is typically associated with better long-term health. As such, it might at first glance make sense from an evolutionary point of view if women found testosterone-laden men especially attractive.

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Pricetag Set For Tiger Conservation

The Bengal tiger is one of the better protected varieties - but even that is in trouble

From The BBC:

The cost of keeping tigers alive in the wild is about $80m (£50m) per year, say conservationists - but only about $50m (£30m) per year is being pledged.

The figures come from a new assessment that suggests targeting efforts in 42 selected breeding sites.

Building tiger populations in these sites would enable other areas to be re-populated later, the researchers report in the journal PLoS Biology.

About 3,500 tigers remain in the wild, and only about 1,000 breeding females.

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NSS Calls For House To Adopt Senate Version of NASA Authorization Act Of 2010

Photo: The Senate bill provides a framework for compromise, which will be required in order to obtain the widespread political support necessary to pass and fund a set of programs that together will enable the United States to once again move beyond low Earth orbit.

From Space Travel:

The National Space Society (NSS) is reaffirming its longstanding and unwavering commitment to further space exploration and development, by calling on the Executive and Legislative branches to incorporate their various proposals into a Unified Space Policy so that the United States can once again begin to move beyond low Earth orbit.

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Hurricane Twins Churn The Atlantic: Big Pics

Images: NOAA/NHC

From Discovery News:

Sept. 14, 2010 -- The busy Atlantic hurricane season that forecasters called for earlier this year has arrived in full force. Last month, Earl and Fiona lined up in tandem on their way through the tropics. This time it's Igor, a powerful Category 4 storm (at left in top image, and in infrared below) and Julia, a newly-minted Category 1 (at right in top image).

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Supercrops: Fixing The Flaws In Photosynthesis

To shade out rivals, plants make much more chlorophyll than they need
(Image: Jonnie Miles/Getty)

From New Scientist:

Many vital crops capture the sun's energy in a surprisingly inefficient way. A borrowed trick or two could make them far more productive

Take a look around you. All the organic things you see, from your hands to the leather of your shoes to the wood in your table, are built of strings of carbon atoms. So too is the petrol in your car and the coal in your local power station. All this carbon came from thin air, from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

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The Porsche Effect: Why Racy Women Turn A Man To Racy Cars

Racy: The sight of an attractive woman sparks a man's interest in luxury goods from designer watches to flash cars such as Porsches and Ferraris

From The Daily Mail:

Ladies, if the man of your dreams becomes distracted by a passing sports car while talking to you, do not despair.

It means he likes you.

If, however, he starts talking about towels or toasters, he is just not interested.

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Amazon Knocks iPad In Kindle Commercial

From The Mac Observer:

Amazon is knocking Apple’s iPad in a new commercial promoting the Kindle. In the ad (see below), Amazon shows a dorky-looking iPad owner (sunning himself poolside in a T-shirt and khaki shorts) frustrated with not being able to read his device in daylight, while the bikini-clad Kindle user next to him has no such problem.

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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.

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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.

Read more ....

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.

Read more ....

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.

Read more ....

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.

Read more ....

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.

Read more ....

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.

Read more ....

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."

Read more ....

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.

Read more ....

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.

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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.

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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.

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