Wednesday, March 14, 2012
The Best Pic Of The Apollo 11 Moonwalks Published
(Click on Image to Enlarge)March 14, 2012 -- The clearest view yet of the famous Apollo 11 landing site on the moon was captured by a NASA spacecraft in orbit around our planet's natural satellite.
Most Detailed View Yet of the Apollo 11 Moonwalks: Big Pic -- Discovery News
The agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) zeroed in on Mare Tranquillitatis, or the Sea of Tranquility -- the place where humans first touched down on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. The new image from LRO captures amazing details of the historic site, even revealing the remnants of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's first steps on the moon.
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Why 'Warp Drive' May Not Be Feasible
The findings of a new study spell bad news for anybody at the warp drive destination. Credit: iStockPhotoWarp Drive Could Be A Doomsday Weapon -- Cosmos
SYDNEY: The search for the holy grail of intergalactic travel has encountered a slight hitch, say Australian scientists.
Recent research predicts that upon reaching its destination, the theoretical Alcubierre warp drive – a speculative idea proposed by Mexican theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994 by which a spacecraft could be accelerated to speeds greater than the speed of light - would unleash a high energy cocktail of particles and radiation, blasting anyone in its path “into oblivion”.
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My Comment: No warp drive .... say it ain't so.
Boeing's Phantom Eye Takes Flight
The Phantom Eye goes for a ride.(Credit: NASA)
Boeing's Phantom Eye Goes For A Low Ride -- CNET
Someday the Phantom Eye will soar at 65,000 feet. For now, Boeing's excited just to see it go four-wheeling on the desert floor.
The hydrogen-powered unmanned aircraft earlier this month took a modest, ground-level spin at Edwards Air Force Base in its first medium-speed taxi test, Boeing said today. Nestled on its launch cart system, the Phantom Eye traveled some 4,000 feet at speeds of up to 30 knots in a trip that lasted less than two minutes. (In the air, it's expected to have a maximum speed of 200 knots.)
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More News On Boeing's Phantom Eye
Boeing Phantom Eye Conducts Medium-speed Taxi Test -- Defpro
Hydrogen-powered plane completes taxi test -- UPI
Phantom Eye enters taxi tests -- Flight Global
Boing Phantom Eye Hydrogen-Powered UAV [Video] -- Auto Evolution
Russia Will Finally Send A Man To The Moon
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin Jr fulfilled John F. Kennedy’s promise to reach the Moon by the end of the decade, landing there on July 20, 1969, with NASA’s Apollo 11 Photo: ReutersRussia To Finally Send Man To The Moon -- The Telegraph
Russia will send a team of cosmonauts to the Moon, 60 years after Neil Armstrong’s Apollo mission effectively ended the US-Soviet space race.
A spacecraft will “conduct a demonstrative manned circumlunar test flight with the subsequent landing of cosmonauts on [the Moon’s] surface and their return to Earth” by 2030, according to a leaked strategy document from Russia’s space agency, Roskosmos.
Moscow has periodically announced ambitious plans for space exploration in recent years, but this is the first time a firm deadline has been set for a manned lunar mission.
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My Comment: Better late than never.
Is Google Losing It's Mojo?
Is Google+ an asset or a distraction?(Credit: Screenshot by Ben Parr/CNET)
Has Google Lost Its Magic? -- CNet
Google's empire is under direct assault from Facebook. Its big weapons -- Search, AdWords, and AdSense -- are not as potent as they once were, thanks to the rise of social media.
This frightens Google immensely. Facebook is now the Web's top destination, and it's quickly becoming the platform that powers the Web. It even threatens Google's core advertising business. If Facebook were to ever launch a social version of AdSense, it could snap up advertisers and cause a serious disruption to Google's cash cow.
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My Comment: They still control and dominate search .... and their business plan is still sound.
The Secret To Smarter Computers?
Scientists think adding a baby's imaginative powers and all-around braininess to computers would make these machines smarter and more human. CREDIT: Aphichart | ShutterstockBaby Brains May Be The Secret To Smarter Computers -- Live Science
Cognitive scientists hope to bottle up a baby's brain — and the imagination and air of possibility that comes with it — and use the result to make computers smarter.
"Children are the greatest learning machines in the universe," Alison Gopnik, a developmental psychologist at the University of California at Berkeley, said in a statement. "Imagine if computers could learn as much and as quickly as they do," said Gopnik, author of the books "The Scientist in the Crib" (William Morrow, 2000) and "The Philosophical Baby" (Picador, 2010).
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My Comment: A unique and different way to look at making computers "smarter".
Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops The Print Edition After More Than 200 Years
A set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the shelves of the New York Public Library. Ángel Franco/The New York TimesAfter 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses -- New York Times
After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print.
Those coolly authoritative, gold-lettered reference books that were once sold door-to-door by a fleet of traveling salesmen and displayed as proud fixtures in American homes will be discontinued, company executives said.
In an acknowledgment of the realities of the digital age — and of competition from the Web site Wikipedia — Encyclopaedia Britannica will focus primarily on its online encyclopedias and educational curriculum for schools. The last print version is the 32-volume 2010 edition, which weighs 129 pounds and includes new entries on global warming and the Human Genome Project.
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More News On Encyclopaedia Britannica Ending It's Print Edition
Digital Kills Printed Encyclopaedia Britannica After 244 Years -- Wall Street Journal
Encyclopaedia Britannica announces final entry for print edition, continues in digital form -- Washington Post/AP
Closing the Book: Encyclopedia Britannica Goes All Digital -- Time
Encyclopaedia Britannica ends print, goes digital -- Reuters
Encyclopaedia Britannica to end print editions -- FOX News
Encyclopaedia Britannica halts print edition, goes digital only -- L.A. Times
Encyclopedia Britannica to stop printing books -- CNN
Encyclopaedia Brittanica stops publishing print version, goes digital-only -- Globe And Mail
Encyclopaedia Britannica stops printing after more than 200 years -- The Telegraph
Encyclopaedia Britannica Ends 244-Year-Old Print Edition -- Bloomberg
Encyclopaedia Britannica drops print and goes digital only -- CNET
Your tome is up... Encyclopedia Britannica ends its print edition after 244 years as it fully embraces digital age -- Daily Mail
Factbox: Britannica goes totally digital -- Chicago Tribune/Reuters
DARPA Wants Swarms of Cheap And Disposable Satellites
SeeMe Satellites The SeeMe program would give warfighters the ability to receive timely imagery of their specific overseas location directly from a small satellite, all at the press of a button. DARPA DARPA Wants Swarms of Cheap, Disposable Satellites That Take Pictures On Demand -- Popular Science
Warfighters have plenty of eyes in the sky, with a massive drone fleet and a satellite network that can spot their locations on the ground. But satellites are only helpful when they’re overhead, and battlefield situations can’t wait for orbital physics. To solve this problem, DARPA wants a swarm of cheap satellites nestled between the big ones up above and the aerial drones down below. The satellite swarm would be positioned in tactical orbits and able to send a space-based image back to any individual who wants a picture.
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My Comment: This is taking surveillance and reconnaissance to an entirely different level.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
A Robot In Every Home Within The Decade?
Simon the Robot, created in the lab of Andrea Thomaz (School of Interactive Computing), learns a new task from a participant in a study seeking to determine the best questions a robot learner can ask to facilitate smooth human-robot interaction. (Credit: Image courtesy of Georgia Institute of Technology)Teach Your Robot Well -- Science Daily
ScienceDaily (Mar. 8, 2012) — Within a decade, personal robots could become as common in U.S. homes as any other major appliance, and many if not most of these machines will be able to perform innumerable tasks not explicitly imagined by their manufacturers. This opens up a wider world of personal robotics, in which machines are doing anything their owners can program them to do -- without actually being programmers.
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My Comment: I think we are still far away from having 'crude personal robots' in our homes .... but we will one day get there.
Location Of Lost Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Found?
Threading the endoscope into the Vasari wall to find signs of the lost Leonardo painting "The Battle of Anghiari" in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio. (Credit: Dave Yoder)Data Support Theory On Location Of Lost Leonardo Da Vinci Painting -- Science Daily
ScienceDaily (Mar. 13, 2012) — Evidence uncovered during research conducted in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio late last year appears to support the theory that a lost Leonardo da Vinci painting existed on the east wall of the Hall of the 500, behind Giorgio Vasari's mural "The Battle of Marciano." The data supporting the theoretical location of the da Vinci painting "The Battle of Anghiari" was obtained through the use of an endoscopic probe that was inserted through the wall on which the Vasari fresco was painted. The probe was fitted with a camera and allowed a team of researchers, led by scientist Maurizio Seracini, to see what was behind the Vasari and gather samples for further testing.
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My Comment: Why did someone cover over a Leonardo Da Vinci masterpiece? I guess there are some mysteries that we will never know.
How Yahoo Weaponized My Work
A Patent Lie: How Yahoo Weaponized My Work -- EpicentreWhile most of the tech world was partying at South by Southwest in Austin yesterday, Yahoo announced it was filing a lawsuit against Facebook for allegedly infringing on 10 patents from their 1,000+ patent warehouse.
I’m no fan of Facebook, but this is a deplorable move. It’s nothing less than extortion, expertly timed during the SEC-mandated quiet period before Facebook’s IPO. It’s an attack on invention and the hacker ethic.
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My Comment: Lawyers and patent law .... not a good place to be if you are the target, and right now Facebook is the target..
Close Encounter Between Jupiter And Venus Dazzles Amateur Astronomers
Jupiter And Venus Conjunction Dazzles Amateur Astronomers -- The Telegraph
Jupiter and Venus last night appeared next to each other in the night sky in a display that delighted amateur astronomers.
The planets are 450 million miles apart in space, but because they are aligned in the same direction from Earth they last night appeared just three degrees apart.
They were visible towards the West just after sunset and before the stars appeared. They will appear bright and relatively close over the next few weeks, and will be most visible in rural areas where there is less light pollution.
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South Korean And Russian Scientists Agree To Try And Clone A Mammoth
A near-perfect frozen mammoth resurfaces after 40,000 years, bearing clues to a great vanished species. National GeographicSouth Korean And Russian Scientists Bid To Clone Mammoth -- The Telegraph
Russian and South Korean scientists signed a deal on Tuesday on joint research intended to recreate a woolly mammoth, an animal which last walked the earth some 10,000 years ago.
The deal was signed by Vasily Vasiliev, vice rector of North-Eastern Federal University of the Sakha Republic, and controversial cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk of South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation.
Hwang was a national hero until some of his research into creating human stem cells was found in 2006 to have been faked. But his work in creating Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog, in 2005, has been verified by experts.
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My Comment: I wish them luck.
Live World-Wide Earthquakes Map
CSN Editor: The following web page gives an up-to-date report of earthquake incidences around the world. The link to the website is here.
Google 'To Unveil Seven-Inch iPad Rival' In May
Asus's hit EEEPad - the tablet maker is said to be developing a seven-inch tablet in collaboration with Google which would carry both Asus and Google brandingGoogle 'To Unveil Seven-Inch iPad Rival' In May - And Android Tablet Could Cost As Little As £130 -- Daily Mail
* Built to play music and video from Google's Play store
* Seven-inch Android device to compete with Kindle Fire
* Apple rumoured to be working on 'iPad Mini'
Google is to unveil a smaller, cheaper Android rival to Apple's iPad as early as May - made in partnership with tablet-maker Asus.
The tablet could sell for as little as £130, and will have a seven-inch screen, according to a leak reported in Digitimes.
The device would be a competitor to Amazon's Kindle Fire - and like Fire, would be built to sell content such as video and music via Google's own online store.
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My Comment: You got to love the competition and the market choice that is now happening.
Astronauts' Eyeballs Deformed By Long Missions In Space
Astronaut Leroy Chiao performs an ultrasound examination of the eye on Salizhan Sharipov aboard the space station. Brain and eye problems have surfaced in astronauts who spent more than a month in space. Discovery NewsLong Space Missions 'May Damage Eyesight' -- BBC
The eyes and brains of astronauts who have spent long periods of time in orbit can develop abnormalities, new research has suggested.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on 27 spacefarers found effects similar to those that can occur in intracranial hypertension, which results in a build up of pressure within the skull.
The concern would be that astronauts could suffer eyesight problems.
The study is reported in the Journal of Radiology.
Read more ....More News On How Space Missions May Damage Eyesight
Space travel 'may damage eyesight', brain study shows -- FOX News
Spaceflight may harm astronauts' vision, study finds -- MSNBC/Space.com
Eye Problems Common in Astronauts -- Discovery News
Astronauts' eyeballs deformed by long missions in space, study finds -- The Guardian
Astronauts show brain and eye abnormalities -- TG Daily
Astronaut brain scans spark space flight fears -- Sydney Morning Herald
Space flight linked to eye, brain problems -- CBC
Is long-term space travel really possible? Scans on astonauts reveal serious damage to eyes and brains -- Daily Mail
Zero Gravity Can Cause Brain Abnormalities in Astronauts -- Epoch Times
Monday, March 12, 2012
A Universal Translator Becomes Reality
William Shatner as James T Kirk: The new device is similar to the Universal Translator used in Star Trek, and takes around one hour to get used to a person's voice then works by comparing the words that have been recorded with stock models for the target languageStar Trek Becomes Reality As Microsoft 'Universal Translator' Turns Spoken English Into Any Of 26 Different Languages -- Daily Mail
* Software speaks in user's own voice
* Can translate into languages from Spanish to Mandarin
* Speaks smoothly in sentences, not individual words
* Could be built into smartphone language apps
It has long been used by James T Kirk to speak to aliens and blue women from space - but now Microsoft is on the brink of making a real, working Universal Translator.
Frank Soong and Rick Rashid have created software which converts English language speech into any of 26 foreign languages - and which 'speaks' in the user's own voice.
All the user has to do is speak English into the machine and it will convert it into anything from Spanish to Mandarin.
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My Comment: I am traveling this summer .... so faster please.
Five Leadership Lessons From Jean-Luc Picard
Image from WikipediaFive Leadership Lessons From Jean-Luc Picard -- Forbes
“He’d ensure the safety of his ship and his crew
And then complete the mission
And make himself a better person
Bring peace to the galaxy
And do it for free
Oh yeah, that’s what Captain Picard would do.”
– from “What Would Captain Picard Do?” by Hank Green
Captain Jean-Luc Picard is the model of a great 24th Century Starfleet captain. On his watch, the crew of the Enterprise successfully defended humanity against the judgement of the Q-Continuum, defeated the Borg, prevented the Romulans from installing a puppet government in the Klingon Empire, and encountered countless new species.
Although Captain Picard’s style was very different from Captain Kirk’s, he was also an incredibly successful leader. Here are five lessons in leadership that can take away from Picard’s voyages as you take your organization on its journey to boldly go where no one has gone before.
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My Comment: No disagreements from me on this list.
Apple's New iPad: 10 Things You Should Do When You Take It Out Of The Box
Apple's New iPad: 10 Things You Should Do After Breaking It Out Of The Box -- eWeek
Apple’s new iPad is launching March 16. But according to the latest reports, Apple’s tablet has already sold out of its preorders, and those hoping to get their hands on the device on launch day will have little to no chance of it. Demand is so high for Apple’s new iPad that the company doesn’t anticipate having a new supply available to customers for two to three weeks after its launch.
But for all those who will be lucky enough to get their hands on the new iPad at launch day, it might be a good time to provide a refresher on what they should do to ensure the device is ready to go as soon as it’s home. From the simple, like applying the Smart Cover, to the more complex, like setting up iTunes, there are a host of things that new iPad buyers must know before they break the device out of the box.
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My Comment: Yup .... these 10 points are valid.
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