Friday, February 24, 2012
The World Belongs To Apps
How Apps Have Taken Over The World -- The GuardianSteve Jobs initially resisted apps, fearing sabotage. But when the late Apple chief relented in 2007, the floodgates opened
A ticker on the front of Apple's website rolls over relentlessly, increasing by about 500 a second as it moves relentlessly towards 25bn.
It is counting the number of units of application software downloaded from the company's App Store – and the rise of a business that barely existed five years ago, but which now dominates daily conversation so much that the phrase, "There's an app for that", has become both an offer of help and a joke.
The counter is expected to hit the target by early March. By then, users will have spent about £3.6bn buying apps through the store, of which Apple will have passed on £2.5bn and retained £1.1bn.
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My Comment: And this is all just starting.
Apple Buys Chomp
Apple Said To Pay About $50 Million For Application-Search Startup Chomp -- BloombergApple Inc. (AAPL), the world’s most valuable company, acquired San Francisco-based Chomp Inc., which helps users sort through the widening array of software applications for mobile devices.
The Cupertino, California-based company paid about $50 million for Chomp, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the specifics are private. Apple confirmed the deal yesterday, without disclosing the purchase price.
“We buy smaller technology companies from time to time and generally don’t comment on our purposes or plans,” said Amy Bessette, a spokeswoman for Apple.
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My Comment: It's about time.
Is This The Future of Touchscreen Tech?
Is This The Future of Touchscreen Tech? New Video Will Blow Your Mind -- Mashable Tech
Gorilla Glass manufacturer Corning has unveiled a follow-up YouTube video to its wildly successful “A Day Made of Glass,” providing another look into what the future could be like with the growth of glass touchscreen interfaces, from innovative chalkboards and activity tables in classrooms to uses for it in hospitals.
Corning released two versions of “A Day Made of Glass 2″ — one with a narrator and another, abbreviated version without commentary — the video follows the life of young Amy and her family as they go through their day using various products made of glass. Amy does classwork on a glass tablet, controls the temperature of the car from the backseat and even attends a field trip at the Redwood Forrest with an interactive signage that brings learning to life. Her teacher also works with students on interactive touchscreen activity tables. Corning expects these activity tables to be rolled out in the near future.
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My Comment: Impressive.
Were Neutrinos Faster-Than-Light .... Or Not?
'Faster-Than-Light' Particles May Have Been Even Speedier -- CBC
Subatomic particles clocked at speeds exceeding the speed of light may have been going even faster than they appeared, physicists say.
A problem with some of the equipment used in the original experiment may have led to an overestimate of the time it took the particles, known as neutrinos, to make their 730-kilometre journey, reported CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in a statement Thursday.
As a result, their speed may have been underestimated.
Read more ....
Update: Two Technical Problems Leave Neutrinos’ Speed in Question -- New York Times
CSN Editor: We will know the real answer in the next few months when more tests are done.
De-Classified UK Submarine Data Will Be Used To Assist Climate Science
Environmental data is routinely collected by submarines and other Navy vesselsUK Submarine Data De-Classified To Aid Climate Science -- BBC
The UK Ministry of Defence is to de-classify submarine data to help shed light on climate change in the Arctic.
Environmental data are routinely monitored by Navy vessels, but the measurements are highly sensitive because they could give away positions.
A dataset from one submarine mission will be released to give a snapshot of conditions under the ice.
It is hoped that further data could be released in future, yielding clues to how the Arctic is changing.
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Closer To A Heroin Vaccine
National Institute of Psychiatry's Director Maria Elena Medina speaks about the patent of a new vaccine that could reduce addiction to heroin, during a news conference at the institute in Mexico City February 23, 2012. Researchers at the institute say they have successfully tested the vaccine on mice and are preparing to test it on humans. The vaccine, which has been patented in the United States, works by making the body resistant to the effects of heroin, so users would no longer get a rush of pleasure when they smoke or inject it. REUTERS/Henry Romero Mexican Researchers Patent Heroin Vaccine -- Yahoo News/Reuters
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - While Mexico grapples with relentless drug-related violence, a group of Mexican scientists is working on a vaccine that could reduce addiction to one of the world's most notorious narcotics: heroin.
Researchers at the country's National Institute of Psychiatry say they have successfully tested the vaccine on mice and are preparing to test it on humans.
The vaccine, which has been patented in the United States, works by making the body resistant to the effects of heroin, so users would no longer get a rush of pleasure when they smoke or inject it.
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My Comment: Faster please people are dying from the addiction properties of drugs every minute.
Tabasco Sauce Is In Demand On Board The International Space Station
Astronauts may have a particular affinity for Tabasco sauce in space because their sense of smell and taste is distorted. John Rose/NPRWhy Astronauts Crave Tabasco Sauce -- NPR
If you think astronauts just want dehydrated dinners and freeze-dried ice cream, think again. After a few days in space, they start reaching for the hot sauce.
In fact, they may start craving foods they didn't necessarily like on Earth.
"They crave [spicy] peppers, they crave sour and sweet things," says Jean Hunter, a food engineer at Cornell University. That means Tabasco sauce was definitely on the menu for space shuttle astronauts.
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Google Ocean
Catlin Seaview Survey Google Street View Goes Undersea -- MSNBC
Less than a month after Google Ocean drowned our dreams of Atlantis by updating a image that previously showed mysterious grid patterns on the sea floor, the search giant is back with an underwater Street View.
Catlin Seaview Survey, the project's official name, launched Thursday with what New Scientist describes as "an unprecedented photographic tour of Australia's Great Barrier Reef." It is even more ambitious than Google's land version, which provides an eye level view of neighborhoods, parks and other public areas all over the world. This submerged 360 degree photo survey's "aim is to learn as much as possible about the reef's state of health from a panoramic underwater photographic and video survey – and let the rest of us enjoy the reef's untrammelled beauty online."
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Thursday, February 23, 2012
The 'Wow!' Signal
The 'Wow!' Signal: One Man's Search for SETI's Most Tantalizing Trace of Alien Life -- The Atlantic
For decades, Robert Gray has been trying to duplicate the most surprising and still-unexplained observation in the history of the search for extraterrestrial life.
Late one night in the summer of 1977, a large radio telescope outside Delaware, Ohio intercepted a radio signal that seemed for a brief time like it might change the course of human history. The telescope was searching the sky on behalf of SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and the signal, though it lasted only seventy-two seconds, fit the profile of a message beamed from another world. Despite its potential import, several days went by before Jerry Ehman, a project scientist for SETI, noticed the data. He was flipping through the computer printouts generated by the telescope when he noticed a string of letters within a long sequence of low numbers---ones, twos, threes and fours. The low numbers represent background noise, the low hum of an ordinary signal. As the telescope swept across the sky, it momentarily landed on something quite extraordinary, causing the signal to surge and the computer to shift from numbers to letters and then keep climbing all the way up to "U," which represented a signal thirty times higher than the background noise level. Seeing the consecutive letters, the mark of something strange or even alien, Ehman circled them in red ink and wrote "Wow!" thus christening the most famous and tantalizing signal of SETI's short history: The "Wow!" signal.
Read more ....
Robot Fish
Real Fish Welcome Robotic Overlord Into Their School -- Wired Science
A robotic fish has sailed across an aquatic uncanny valley by tricking real fish into following it upstream.
The feat could lead to better understanding of fish behavior and perhaps some means to divert them from environmental disaster scenes.
“Although some previous works have successfully investigated the interactions between live animals and robots or animal-like replicas, none of these studies have considered robots that are designed to simulate animal locomotion,” wrote the authors of a new study about the robot.
Read more ....
Man's First Homes And Settlements
Excavations in Jordan have revealed dwellings dating back millennia before the development of agricultural settlements. The finds suggest that hunter-gatherers could sustain at least partially sedentary lives. Credit: L. Maher, EFAP ArchiveShelters Date To Stone Age -- Science News
Hunter-gatherers hung out in huts long before farmers built villages.
The remains of a couple of nearly 20,000-year-old huts, excavated in a Jordanian desert basin, add to evidence that hunter-gatherers built long-term dwellings 10,000 years before farming villages debuted in the Middle East.
These new discoveries come from a time of social transition, when mobile hunter-gatherers hunkered down for months at a time in spots that featured rivers, lakes and plentiful game, say archaeologist Lisa Maher of the University of California, Berkeley and her colleagues. Discoveries in and around hut remnants at a Stone Age site called Kharaneh IV include hearths, animal bones and caches of pierced seashells and other apparently ritual items, Maher’s team reports in a paper published online February 15 in PLoS ONE.
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My Comment: It looks like "early man" was far more sophisticated than what we give him credit for.
Astronomers Discover A Water World
GJ1214b, a super-Earth orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth Photo: AFPAstronomers Discover New Type Of Planet – The Water World -- The Telegraph
A watery planet with a thick, steamy atmosphere has left astronomers fumbling for their classification books.
The water world, which has been named GJ1214b, is 2.7 times bigger than earth but weighs almost seven times as much.
GJ1214b orbits a red-dwarf star at a distance of two million kilometres, suggesting temperatures may reach up to 200C.
Astronomers believe the planet is an entirely new classification of celestial body, with the mixture of water and high temperatures meaning there is a chance new alien materials could have been produced.
Previous types of planetary body known to exist include a rocky surface similar to earth, gas giants like Jupiter, and ice giants like Uranus.
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My Comment: That must be quite a site to see.
How Not To Fly
Birdman Releases Footage Of His 120mph Crash Into South Africa's Table Mountain -- The Telegraph
Jeb Corliss, a daredevil who nearly died after crashing into Table Mountain in South Africa, has posted footage only of the accident.
Corliss broke both his legs when he hit a outcrop of rocks while hurtling down the mountain in Cape Town at a speed of 120mph.
Corliss, 35, was being filmed by US network HBO and was performing his second jump from the Cape Town landmark when the accident happened at 10am on Jan 16.
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My Comment: Awesome video .... but ouch ....
Is The Earth Cooling Itself?
A cloudy world: The Earth made up of a mosaic of images taken by Nasa's Terra spacecraftIs The Earth Cooling Itself? Cloud Level Has Fallen By 1% A Year Over Last Decade 'In Response To Global Warming' -- Daily News
Ever feel the sky is closing in on you - well, you're right, it is.
Earth's clouds got a little lower by around one per cent a year on average during the first decade of this century.
That's the finding by a new NASA-funded university study based on satellite data. The results have potential implications for future global climate.
Read more ....
Neutrinos Are Not Moving Faster Than Light
Really? sk8geek via FlickrBummer: Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos Weren't, and It Was the Cable Guy's Fault -- Popular Science
Apparently neutrinos are not moving faster than light after all — some of the brightest minds in modern physics were bamboozled by a loose wire.
If you care about physics, Einstein or controversies, you’ll recall the excitement last fall about neutrinos that were supposedly moving faster than light. The ghostly particles, which can move through the Earth and through you without slowing down, were leaving a particle beam in Geneva and traveling under the Alps to Gran Sasso, Italy, in less time than it would take light to travel the same distance. The neutrinos were only 60 nanoseconds early, but still — the result, which the experimenters could not explain, suggested they were moving faster than light.
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My Comment: I agree .... what a bummer.
Bringing Solar Power To The Sahara Desert
Photo: Pilot ... the power station at Kuraymat may become part of a vast chain of plants generating solar power, if ambitious plans come to the fruition. Photo: Solar MillenniumPlugging The World Into Desert Sun -- Sydney Morning Herald
German firms hope projects in North Africa are just the start of a solar power network that will help wean Europe off fossil fuels. Leo Hickman reports.
During the summer of 1913, in a field just south of Cairo, an American engineer, Frank Shuman, stood before a group of Egypt's colonial elite, including the British consul-general, Lord Kitchener, and switched on his new invention.
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Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Here Comes The Google Digital Glasses
Google's glasses are reportedly similar in appearance to the Oakley Thump designGoogle Digital Glasses 'Coming Soon' -- The Telegraph
Google is working on digital glasses using augmented reality and its Android technology, reports suggest.
The glasses reportedly integrate augmented reality technology into a new Robocop-style vision of the future, overlaying the screen of the glasses with additional contextual information.
Augmented reality traditionally uses increasingly commonplace technologies to add information to images on the screens of mobile phones and tablets. A digital camera and internet connectivity is combined with location data – so if you point your phone at Big Ben, because the device knows where you are it’s comparatively simple to add information to the image on screen. And while the obvious uses are for, say, historical information, there’s space for advertisers and social services to tell you where to, say, meet up with friends for a drink.
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My Comment: The glasses look very cool.
Britain Warned About Space Attacks (And Solar Storms)
A Russian Topol-12M mobile nuclear missile. A nuclear device detonated 500 miles above the earth could produce a crippling electro-magnetic pulse, MPs have warned. Photo: REUTERSBritain At Risk From 'GoldenEye' Electromagnetic Pulse Attack From Space, MPs Warn -- The Telegraph
Britain's critical national infrastructure could be crippled in a high-altitude space attack by a rogue state or terrorists, MPs have warned.
A nuclear device detonated up to 500 miles above the earth's surface could generate an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) with a "devastating" effect on power supplies, telecommunications and other vital systems, the Commons Defence Committee said.
It warned that countries such as Iran - which is resisting international pressure to end its nuclear programme - and even eventually some "non-state actors" could acquire the technology to mount such an attack, in a scenario akin to the plot of the 1995 James Bond film 'GoldenEye'.
Read more ....
More News On British Concerns Of Space Weapons And Solar Storms
Terror bomb detonated in space 'could cripple Britain's electronic networks and jeopardise national security' -- Daily Mail
MPs warn over nuclear space bombs and solar flares -- BBC
UK vulnerable to 'space weather events' and space-fired weapons, say MPs -- The Guardian
'Complacent' MoD Warned Of Space Risk -- SKY News
MPs: MoD must take threat of nuclear attack from space seriously -- The Sun
MPs ask for defence against space attacks on UK -- The Inquirer
Britain at risk from electromagnetic pulse weapons warn MPs -- TNT
Electromagnetic pulses in history -- The Telegraph
Electromagnetic pulses explained -- The Telegraph
Australia's Largest Rough Pink Diamond Unearthed
Unearthed in Western Australia, the Argyle Pink Jubilee is a rare pink diamond (Image: Rio Tinto)Australia's Largest Rough Pink Diamond Unearthed -- BBC
An Australian mining company says it has found a 12.76-carat pink diamond, the largest rough pink diamond found in the country.
The rare diamond was found at Rio Tinto's Argyle diamond mine in Western Australia's East Kimberly region.
Estimated to be worth millions, it has been named the Argyle Pink Jubilee, and is being cut and polished in Perth.
It will be sold later this year after being shown around the world, including in New York and Hong Kong.
Read more ....
Update: 'Unprecedented' 12.76 carat pink diamond worth £7 million mined -- The Telegraph
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