Meditation Strengthens The Brain

Cortical Surface Shown is the lateral view of the right cortical surface. The red circle indicates where the maximum effect occurred. Top: Larger gyrification in 50 long-term meditators compared to 50 well-matched controls. Bottom: Positive correlations between gyrification and the number of meditation years within the 50 meditators. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - Los Angeles)

Evidence Builds That Meditation Strengthens The Brain -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Mar. 14, 2012) — Earlier evidence out of UCLA suggested that meditating for years thickens the brain (in a good way) and strengthens the connections between brain cells. Now a further report by UCLA researchers suggests yet another benefit.

Eileen Luders, an assistant professor at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, and colleagues, have found that long-term meditators have larger amounts of gyrification ("folding" of the cortex, which may allow the brain to process information faster) than people who do not meditate. Further, a direct correlation was found between the amount of gyrification and the number of meditation years, possibly providing further proof of the brain's neuroplasticity, or ability to adapt to environmental changes.

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My Comment: I have always had the altitude that doing anything that involves the higher cortical parts of the brain .... playing music, chess, etc. .... will strengthen the brain.

The Key to Using Methane as a Clean Energy Source

Scientists are looking at how to sequester carbon produced by burning methane in an ice-like state

Methane Hydrate Cages, The Key to Using Methane as a Clean Energy Source? -- SciTech Daily

Scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory are researching ways to use methane as a clean energy source by capturing the CO2 byproduct in an ice-like state. The researchers are using SNAP to look at the molecular level relationship between methane and water to better understand how hydrocarbons are taken up and released in the environment.

Imagine a robot sent out on the prowl on this energy hungry planet looking for methane, the principal component of what we call “natural gas” and probably the most abundant organic compound on earth.

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My Comment: Faster please.

The Navy’s Firefighting Robot

Meet The Navy’s Firefighting Robot -- Defense Tech

This is wild. We’ve been writing a ton about robots and drones lately because, well, it seems that the pace at which they’re becoming a fundamental part of warfare increases with each month.

Whenever we hear about Navy drones we tend to think of underwater robots or things like the Fire Scout chopper. The Navy Research Lab s working on a humanoid shipboard robot that would be sent in to fight fires on ships.

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Chinese Fossils May Be New Human Species

A view of a skull from the Red Deer Cave People. Researchers found the species had unique features seen neither in modern nor known archaic lineages of humans. CREDIT: Darren Curnoe

Mysterious Chinese Fossils May Be New Human Species -- Live Science

Mysterious fossils of what may be a previously unknown type of human have been uncovered in caves in China, ones that possess a highly unusual mix of bygone and modern human features, scientists reveal.

Surprisingly, the fossils are only between 11,500 and 14,500 years old. That means they would have shared the landscape with modern humans when China's earliest farmers were first appearing.

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My Comment: We will have to wait for the DNA tests, but this discovery is surprising.

Disease Outbreaks Are Rising For Imported Food

Imported-Food Outbreaks Rise, CDC Says -- Wall Street Journal

Outbreaks of illness linked to imported food have risen since the late 1990s, casting a spotlight on federal inspection standards for fish, produce and other foods brought in from abroad.

The 39 outbreaks from imported food reported between 2005 and 2010 represent a small fraction of total cases of food-borne illnesses such as salmonella or E. coli, according to the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presented Wednesday. But the rise in imported-food outbreaks—mostly from fish and spices—highlights gaps in the food-safety system that a sweeping new law is intended to address.

CDC researchers found 6.5 outbreaks from foreign foods a year, on average, between 2005 and 2010—more than double the average of 2.7 outbreaks annually between 1998 and 2004.

Of the 39 outbreaks between 2005 and 2010, nearly half—17—occurred in 2009 and 2010.

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My Comment: Damn .... and I like Chinese food.

Ocean-Crossing Robots Reach Hawaii

The Wave Glider from Below Liquid Robotics

Ocean-Crossing Robots Reach Hawaii, Setting a New Distance Record -- Popular Science

The four Wave Glider robots that set out from San Francisco in November on an unprecedented robotic crossing of the Pacific have arrived at the big island of Hawaii for a quick systems check-up. Their arrival marks the shattering of the world distance record for unmanned wave powered vehicles, as the PacX Wave Gliders, built by California-based Liquid Robotics, have now traveled 3,200 nautical miles (that’s more like 3,700 normal, in-your-car miles)--and that’s just a third of the total 9,000 nautical miles they will cover in their journeys.

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How Will Aircraft Carrier Crews Guide In Robot Planes?

Video: Aircraft Carrier Crews Guide In Robot Planes With Visible Hand Gestures -- Popular Science

Landing airplanes on moving ships is no mean feat, but this will be especially true when the airplanes are unmanned. Along with making decisions, autonomous airplanes will have to heed their human counterparts during aircraft carrier takeoff and landing — but can a robot read and understand arm-waving signals?

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My Comment: Hmmmm .... what happens if the operator coughs while directing an unmanned plane?

Bombs vs Bunkers

A B-52 releases a MOP during a weapons test.
U.S. Department of Defense

Bombs vs Bunkers In A Potential Iran Attack -- Popular Mechanics

The possibility of an Iran attack highlights the latest arms race: The United States trying to build new bunker-busting weapons while Iran buries its nuclear labs deep underground to try to avoid possible U.S. (or Israeli) bombs.

The United States and Iran have engaged in a war of words over their military capabilities in the last few weeks. But if an actual war breaks out, it will not be a war of U.S. bombs versus Iranian bombs, but of U.S. bombs versus Iran's bunkers.

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My Comment: The last sentence of this article is what caught my eye ....

.... Bombing those facilities would have huge consequences for the surrounding area, Cirincione argues. "We have never experienced such bombings in history," he says. "Up until now, they have been considered beyond the pale."

Indeed .... I guess the times are-a-changing.

Apple 'iPad Mini' Is Planned

Apple 'iPad Mini' Is Planned, Samsung Official Tells Korea Times -- L.A. Times

The rumor of Apple developing a smaller-screen "iPad Mini" is sticky. It won't go away. It seems not to want to die or be forgotten.

It's akin to stepping into a wad of melting gum on a burning Arizona summer sidewalk that leaves dirty remnants behind, even after you've cleaned it off, because that gum slid itself into the caverns between the grooved tread on the sole of your sneakers.

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My Comment: I guess this will be between an iPod and an iPad

Human: Contagion: Is a Killer Virus Out There? (Video)

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: iStockPhoto

Warp 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

Boeing’s Phantom Eye spy plane rolls closer to flight -- Geek Wire

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: Reuters

Russia 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 | Shutterstock

Baby 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 Times

After 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.

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.