64 Things Every Geek Should Know

From Lap Top Logic:

If you consider yourself a geek, or aspire to the honor of geekhood, here's an essential checklist of must-have geek skills.

The term 'geek', once used to label a circus freak, has morphed in meaning over the years. What was once an unusual profession transferred into a word indicating social awkwardness. As time has gone on, the word has yet again morphed to indicate a new type of individual: someone who is obsessive over one (or more) particular subjects, whether it be science, photography, electronics, computers, media, or any other field. A geek is one who isn't satisfied knowing only the surface facts, but instead has a visceral desire to learn everything possible about a particular subject.

A techie geek is usually one who knows a little about everything, and is thus the person family and friends turn to whenever they have a question. If you're that type of person and are looking for a few extra skills to pick up, or if you're a newbie aiming to get a handhold on the honor that is geekhood, read on to find out what skills you need to know.

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Ice At The North Pole In 1958 And 1959 - Not So Thick

Skate (SSN-578), surfaced at the North Pole, 17 March 1959. Image from NAVSOURCE

From Watts Up With That?

What would NSIDC and our media make of a photo like this if released by the NAVY today? Would we see headlines like “NORTH POLE NOW OPEN WATER”? Or maybe “Global warming melts North Pole”? Perhaps we would. sensationalism is all the rage these days. If it melts it makes headlines.

Some additional captures from the newsreel below show that the ice was pretty thin then, thin enough to assign deckhands to chip it off after surfacing.The newsreel is interesting, here is the transcript.

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Who Will Be Tech's Next Winners And Losers?

From Pajamas Media/Edgelings:

Let’s take a moment and try to imagine the U.S. economy when this recession is over.

Needless to say, that’s a big “when”, especially when Washington seems to doing its best to extend this economic downturn as long as possible.

But let’s suppose that there is a sudden outbreak of sanity among our political leaders: they stop driving the nation’s CEOs in defensive postures, they abandon their attempts to destroy entrepreneurship and venture capital, and basically, they stop threatening onerous new taxes and regulations – basically, they just get out of the way – and let the economy finish healing itself.

What happens next? Who will be the big winners, especially in high tech, in the next boom? Here are my guesses:

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Epigenetics: A Revolutionary Look At How Humans Work

The epigenome is a molecular marking system that controls gene expression without altering the DNA sequence. In a sense, the epigenome is the genome's boss. Image credit: Dreamstime.

From Live Science:

Scientists are now pinpointing exactly how nurture affects nature. Life experiences — from toxin exposure to physical affection — can alter gene expression in dynamic and sometimes reversible ways.

These insights — the result of a burgeoning field called epigenetics — were aided by the sequencing of the human genome, completed in 2003. However, the genome itself turns out to have limited value for understanding disease and human characteristics.

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Single-Molecule Nano-Vehicles Synthesized: 'Fantastic Voyage' Not So Far-Fetched

James Tour and coworkers at Rice University synthesized a molecular car with four carbon-based wheels that roll on axles made from linked carbon atoms. The nano-car's molecular wheels are 5,000 times smaller than a human cell. A powerful technique that allows viewing objects at the atomic level called scanning tunneling microscopy reveals the wheels roll perpendicular to the axles, rather than sliding about like a car on ice as the car moves back and forth on a surface. (Credit: Y. Shirai/Rice University)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 27, 2009) — Imagine producing vehicles so small they would be about the size of a molecule and powered by engines that run on sugar. To top it off, a penny would buy a million of them.

A new article published in the May 2009 issue of Scientific American asks readers to do just that.

The concept is nearly unthinkable, but it's exactly the kind of thing occupying National Science Foundation supported researchers at Penn State and Rice universities.

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Spectacular Cosmic Bubble '60 Light Years Wide And 70,000 Years Old'

Dr Don Goldman took this picture from his base in California Photo: NATIONAL

From The Telegraph:

This spectacular cosmic bubble was caused by a gas expulsion from a dying star and is 60 light years across and 70,000 years old.

At its centre is a star, known as a Wolf-Rayet star which is 20 times the mass of the sun.

When it dies it throws out gas, creating winds which form the bubble.

It will eventually explode into a supernova.

Photographer Dr Don Goldman took this picture remotely from his base in California via an observatory in South Australia.

Dr Goldman said: "The object, known as S308 is a 'cosmic bubble' that represents a last-minute expulsion of gas from a dying star that forms a super wind in the form of a bubble.

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G.E.’s Breakthrough Can Put 100 DVDs On A Disc

Brian Lawrence leads G.E.’s holographic storage program.
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

From The New York Times:

General Electric says it has achieved a breakthrough in digital storage technology that will allow standard-size discs to hold the equivalent of 100 DVDs.

The storage advance, which G.E. is announcing on Monday, is just a laboratory success at this stage. The new technology must be made to work in products that can be mass-produced at affordable prices.

But optical storage experts and industry analysts who were told of the development said it held the promise of being a big step forward in digital storage with a wide range of potential uses in commercial, scientific and consumer markets.

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Swine Flu News Updates -- April 27, 2009

Alistair Dixon, 24, from Grimsby, is met at Heathrow by his father Stanley Photo: David Dyson

Mexican Swine Flu Spreads To Europe, Markets Edgy -- Reuters

* First European case confirmed in Spain

* Mexican death toll at 103

* Governments step up health checks at airports

* Stock markets fall, dollar and yen rise

MEXICO CITY, April 27 (Reuters) - Governments around the world acted to stem a possible flu pandemic on Monday, as a virus that has killed 103 people in Mexico and spread to North America was confirmed to have reached Europe.

While the virus has so far killed no one outside Mexico, the fact that it has proved able to spread quickly between humans has raised fears that the world may finally be facing the flu pandemic that scientists say is long overdue.

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More News On The Swine Flu Outbreak

U.S. Slow to Learn of Mexico Flu -- Washington Post
Warnings as swine virus spreads -- BBC
Swine flu case confirmed in Spain -- BBC
Europe Urges Citizens to Avoid U.S. and Mexico Travel -- New York Times
Swine flu: Every passenger arriving in Britain from Mexico screened -- The Telegraph
CDC: US begins border monitoring for swine flu -- AP
Top health official warns US may see flu deaths -- AFP
Asia, Pacific Take Measures to Prevent Spread of Swine Flu -- Voice Of America
Countries adopt plans to counter swine flu -- UPI
Swine flu fears prompt quarantine plans, pork bans -- Yahoo news/AP
At epidemic's epicenter, Mexico works to remain calm -- McClatchy newspapers
MICHAEL HANLON: How swine flu could be a bigger threat to humanity than nuclear warfare -- Daily Mail
Swine Flu Could Become More Dangerous -- SKY News
Inside the Home of a Swine Flu Victim -- ABC News
How well prepared is the world for flu? -- BBC
Swine Flu Unlikely To Have Impact on the Economy -- Time Magazine
How to Protect Yourself From Swine Flu -- KTLA
Flu Special Report: The Basics -- Live Science
Has globalisation made us more catastrophe-prone? -- The Independent

Looking At Stress—And God—In The Human Brain

Duncan (top) looks at an MRI view of his brain as neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley interprets

From Discover Magazine:

James Brewer takes a seat beside me in a café at the San Diego Convention Center, where we are both attending the largest neuroscience meeting in the world: thirty thousand brains researching brains. With his balding head, bright eyes, and baby cheeks, Brewer, a neurologist at the University of California at San Diego, looks like a large and curious toddler. An unlikely messenger, perhaps, in what for me is now a moment of truth. I had undergone a series of diagnostic procedures in his laboratory, and now, inside the laptop he has placed on the table, are the results of my brain tests.

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Ancient Corals May Provide Record of Rapid Sea Level Rise

Photo: ANCIENT REEF: The creation of this water park exposed reefs that grew roughly 121,000 years ago, allowing scientists to study sea level rise during that warm period. COURTESY OF PAUL BLANCHON

From Scientific American:

Ancient reefs recently exposed in Mexico show that sea levels can rise by as much as 10 feet in half a century

With Greenland's glaciers melting and on the move while vast ice sheets in Antarctica continue to shatter, the proportion of water in the seas continues to grow. And with the climate at the poles expected to continue to warm rapidly in coming decades, many researchers are trying to determine how much and how quickly sea levels might rise. Now newly excavated reefs in Mexico may have provided an answer: high and fast.

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Greenhouse Gases Continue To Climb Despite Economic Slump

Anthropogenic atmospheric carbon dioxide, fossil fuel emissions, world gross domestic product (GDP), and world population for the past century. Carbon dioxide data from Antarctic ice cores (green points), Mauna Loa Observatory (red curve), and the global network (blue dots). (Credit: NOAA)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 26, 2009) — Two of the most important climate change gases increased last year, according to a preliminary analysis for NOAA’s annual greenhouse gas index, which tracks data from 60 sites around the world.

Researchers measured an additional 16.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) — a byproduct of fossil fuel burning — and 12.2 million tons of methane in the atmosphere at the end of December 2008. This increase is despite the global economic downturn, with its decrease in a wide range of activities that depend on fossil fuel use.

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Basis For Male Promiscuity Questioned

From Live Science:

Males are promiscuous and females are selective when choosing a mate, biologists have said for decades. But a new study finds it might not be that simple.

The study, published in this month's issue of the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, evaluated data on 18 populations – from Pitcairn Islanders to the Dogon of Mali – and found that on average, the variance in the number of children is greater for men than for women. This is about what you'd expect on the basis of long-time theory.

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Internet Users 'Could Suffer Brownouts Due To YouTube And iPlayer'

Increased use of video-on-demand websites could hinder the internet's reliability Photo: Bloomberg

From The Telegraph:

Internet users will endure slower and less reliable connections from next year as websites such as YouTube and the BBC's iPlayer cause online traffic to double, experts warn.

Computers will freeze and drop offline with increasing regularity as the web's outdated infrastructure struggles to cope with the surging popularity of bandwidth-hungry video sites, it is claimed.

Analysts are warning that the internet will cease to function as an effective tool of communication – becoming merely an "unreliable toy" for casual users – unless networks are upgraded.

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Swine Flu Outbreak -- News Updates For April 26, 2009

Health nightmare...passengers on the Mexico City metro wear masks in an attempt to protect themselves after dozens of people died of swine flu. Photo from The Age

US Declares Public Health Emergency For Swine Flu -- Yahoo News/AP

WASHINGTON – The U.S. is declaring a public health emergency to deal with the emerging new swine flu.

The precautionary step doesn't signal a greater threat to Americans. But it allows the federal and state governments easier access to flu tests and medications.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napilotano says roughly 12 million doses of the drug Tamiflu are being released from a federal stockpile so that states can get it if needed.

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More News On The Swine flu Outbreak

Swine Flu: 'Public Health Emergency' -- ABC News
Public Health Emergency Declared for Swine Flu, Napolitano Says -- Bloomberg
U.S. declares public health emergency as swine flu spreads -- CNN
White House to detail govt response to swine flu -- AP
U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency in Wake of Swine Flu -- FOX News
U.S. declares swine flu public health emergency -- MSNBC
More Swine Flu Cases Confirmed In U.S. -- CBS News
Twenty swine flu cases confirmed in U.S. - officials -- Reuters
As Nations Try to Contain Flu, N.Y. Cases Are Confirmed -- New York Times
Americans told to wear masks as swine flu spreads round globe -- Times Online
World 'well-prepared' for virus -- BBC
Global alarm as killer swine flu spreads -- Yahoo News/AFP
5 new flu deaths in Mexico, 2 confirmed swine flu -- Yahoo news/AP
Swine flu empties Mexico City's churches, streets -- Yahoo News/AP
Global vigilance grows amid Mexico's swine flu outbreak -- CBC
Swine flu fears prompt quarantine plans, pork bans -- Washington Post
Killer pig flu threat to UK: Two people admitted to British hospital as virus which has killed 86 spreads worldwide -- The Daily Mail
Mexican swine flu deaths spark worldwide action -- The Guardian
UK on alert over swine flu threat -- The Independent
Swine flu: two admitted to hospital in Scotland as world braces for more cases -- The Telegraph
Swine flu fears prompt quarantine plans, pork bans -- Yahoo News/AP
Drug and vaccine makers on standby over swine flu -- Reuters
WHO's "war room" in high gear after flu outbreaks -- Reuters
Swine flu: WHO treads between alertness – and a scare -- Christian Science Monitor
Swine flu could mutate to 'more dangerous' strain: WHO -- Breitbart/AFP
Swine flu: what you need to know -- New Scientist
What is swine flu and how can humans catch it? -- CTV
FACTBOX - How countries are defending against swine flu -- Reuters

Wind Power’s Dirty Little Secret

From The Infrastructurist:

There’s a wonderful article in the current issue of Insight, the energy journal published by Platts, called “The Unbearable Lightness of Wind.”

The author, Ross McCracken, tackles the question that nobody has posed yet – what are the economic consequences going to be of putting up all these wind turbines with government subsidies, mandates and “feed-in tariffs” that tell the utilities, “Buy it whatever it costs”?

“The conundrum,” McCracken writes, “lies in the fact that wind does not directly displace fossil fuel generating capacity, but will make this capacity less profitable to maintain.”

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Illness Raises Alarm Among U.S. Officials

World health officials worry the swine flu outbreak in Mexico could unleash a global flu epidemic. (Guillermo Gutierrez/Associated Press)

Swine Flu Found In Mexican Outbreak -- The Washington Post

An unusual strain of swine flu has been detected among victims of a large outbreak of a severe respiratory illness in Mexico, prompting global health officials, fearful of a potential flu pandemic, to scramble yesterday to try to contain the virus.

At least 1,004 people have been sickened and at least 68 have died, primarily in the sprawling capital of Mexico City, triggering officials to close all schools and universities, museums and libraries and to begin screening air travelers for symptoms before they leave the country.

Officials warned millions of residents to stay home, avoid public places and take other protective measures, such as resisting greeting people with handshakes or kisses. Drugstores reported being inundated with customers seeking face masks, and some subway riders were spotted wearing rubber gloves.

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The Geomagnetic Apocalypse — And How to Stop It

From Wired Science:

For scary speculation about the end of civilization in 2012, people usually turn to followers of cryptic Mayan prophecy, not scientists. But that's exactly what a group of NASA-assembled researchers described in a chilling report issued earlier this year on the destructive potential of solar storms.

Entitled "Severe Space Weather Events — Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts," it describes the consequences of solar flares unleashing waves of energy that could disrupt Earth's magnetic field, overwhelming high-voltage transformers with vast electrical currents and short-circuiting energy grids. Such a catastrophe would cost the United States "$1 trillion to $2 trillion in the first year," concluded the panel, and "full recovery could take four to 10 years." That would, of course, be just a fraction of global damages.

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CDC SWINE FLU INFECTION-CONTROL GUIDELINES.

Interim Guidance on Antiviral Recommendations for Patients with Confirmed or Suspected Swine Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection and Close Contacts

Objective: To provide interim guidance on the use of antiviral agents for treatment and chemoprophylaxis of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection. This includes patients with confirmed or suspected swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection and their close contacts.

Case definitions
A confirmed case of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection is defined as a person with an acute respiratory illness with laboratory confirmed swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection at CDC by one or more of the following tests:

1. real-time RT-PCR
2. viral culture

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Antarctica’s Bipolar Disorder

From Watts Up With That?

Two days ago I questioned how Antarctic ice could be both “melting faster than expected” and “expanding” at the same time. Yet (as WUWT has noted before) the answer is obvious - according to NASA, most of Antarctica is both cooling rapidly and heating rapidly at the same time.

Since nearly the entire continent is both cooling and heating simultaneously, it makes perfect sense (using AGW logic) that the ice would be rapidly expanding and rapidly retreating simultaneously. In 2004, NASA thought that Antarctica was cooling by as much as 15 degrees C per century. But after three more years of cooling, they changed the map to show a warming trend in 2007.

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The Story Of X: Evolution Of A Sex Chromosome

The neo-X (top) and neo-Y chromosomes of the fruit fly Drosophila miranda, showing how the Y has shrunken slightly through loss of genes. The X has remained about the same size as the fly's other chromosomes, though its genes are in the process of adapting to the Y's degeneration. (Credit: Doris Bachtrog/UC Berkeley)

From Science Daily:

In the first evolutionary study of the chromosome associated with being female, University of California, Berkeley, biologist Doris Bachtrog and her colleagues show that the history of the X chromosome is every bit as interesting as the much-studied, male-determining Y chromosome, and offers important clues to the origins and benefits of sexual reproduction.

"Contrary to the traditional view of being a passive player, the X chromosome has a very active role in the evolutionary process of sex chromosome differentiation," said Bachtrog, an assistant professor of integrative biology and a member of UC Berkeley's Center for Theoretical Evolutionary Genomics.

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