Pentagon Wants Cyberweapons NOW

The U.S. Navy's Cyber Defense Operations Command U.S. Navy

Pentagon Announces New Strategy: Rapidly Develop Cyberweapons to Attack Specific Targets -- Popular Science

The Pentagon wants cyberweapons, and it wants them fast. Deftly recognizing that cyberweapons are nothing like the materiel of physical warfare, the DoD is devising a means to fast-track and field certain cyberweapons, some of which will take only days to go from development to deployment.

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My Comment: Why the rush? What are they not telling us?

Artificial Intelligence Will Soon Be Passing The Turing Test

Artificial Intelligence Could Be On Brink of Passing Turing Test -- Wired Science

One hundred years after Alan Turing was born, his eponymous test remains an elusive benchmark for artificial intelligence. Now, for the first time in decades, it’s possible to imagine a machine making the grade.

Turing was one of the 20th century’s great mathematicians, a conceptual architect of modern computing whose codebreaking played a decisive part in World War II. His test, described in a seminal dawn-of-the-computer-age paper, was deceptively simple: If a machine could pass for human in conversation, the machine could be considered intelligent.

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My Comment: Some would say that we are there already.

What Happened To The USS Scorpion?

USS Scorpion (SSN-589). Wikipedia

Experts Out To Solve Deep-Sea Mystery Of The USS Scorpion -- USA Today

Shipwreck disaster experts are calling for a deep-sea expedition to a lost U.S. nuclear attack sub, the USS Scorpion, in an effort to verify a new theory on what caused the Cold War vessel to sink.

The Scorpion was lost May 22, 1968, killing 99 men, about 400 miles south of the Azores Islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The sub has been inspected by undersea recovery teams, including a visit in 1985 by oceanographer Robert Ballard before his team's discovery of the Titanic shipwreck.

The cause of the sub's loss remains hotly disputed. A Navy Court of Inquiry found "the cause of the loss cannot be definitively ascertained."

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My Comment: I am surprised that it has taken them this long to make the decision to now go out and find the definitive answer on why did the USS Scorpion sink to the bottom of the Atlantic in 1968.

Life On Mars?

Viking 2 Lander image (dated Nov. 2, 1976) showing the rocks of Utopia Planitia in the background. NASA

Mars Viking Robots 'Found Life' -- Discovery News

Mathematical analysis adds to growing body of work questioning the negative results of a life-detection experiment 36 years ago.

* New results question the finding that the Mars Viking experiments did not find life.
* The analysis was based on studying the mathematically complexity of the experiment results.
* The idea is that living systems are more complicated than purely physical ones, a concept that can be represented mathematically.

New analysis of 36-year-old data, resuscitated from printouts, shows NASA found life on Mars, an international team of mathematicians and scientists conclude in a paper published this week.

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My Comment: One more reason on why we she go back.

The Building Blocks Of Future Planets Comes From Dying Stars

Dying Stars Are The Building Blocks Of Future Planets -- Red Orbit

Scientists report in a new study that they have solved a long-standing mystery about how dying stars release their precious matter, compounds that are an important ingredient in the building blocks of future planets.

Their discovery was made after observing the violent ends of three ‘red giants’ having their atmospheres ripped away by super winds containing dusty grains of silica, producing massive sandstorms in space. These grains were unexpectedly large in size for stellar wind particles, measuring nearly a micrometer across, the scientists said.

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My Comment: A zero sum universe.

A Flowering Plant Blooms After 30,000 Years

Regenerated Pleistocene Age plant. David Gilichinsky/Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil, Russian Academy of Sciences

Flowering Plant Revived After 30,000 Years In Russian Permafrost -- ABC News

The plant in this picture dates from the Pleistocene Age, 30,000 years ago, before agriculture, before writing, before the end of the last Ice Age. And while it’s not accurate to say the plant itself is that old, scientists in Russia say they regenerated it from frozen cells they found beneath 125 feet of permafrost in what is now northeastern Siberia.

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My Comment: Nice flowers.

The Economics Of Engagement Rings

Norman Chan/Shutterstock

The Strange (and Formerly Sexist) Economics of Engagement Rings -- The Atlantic

Diamonds are forever, but the meaning of the diamond engagement ring has changed dramatically in the last century. Today's symbol of love was once something more like virginity insurance.

Why do men buy diamond rings for our fiancées? There's the emotional story. We enjoy making grand gestures of commitment to the people we love. Behind that, there's the marketing story. DeBeers' historic ad campaign, crafted by the real-life mad men at N.W. Ayers, convinced generations of lovers that diamond bands were synonymous with eternal devotion. But behind that, there is economic story that is just as important and fascinating.

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My Comment: Gone down this road .... and yes .... never again.

'Advanced' Dinosaurs On Other Planets?

New scientific research raises the possibility that advanced versions of T. rex and other dinosaurs -- monstrous creatures with the intelligence and cunning of humans -- may be the life forms that evolved on other planets in the universe. (Credit: © DX / Fotolia)

Could 'Advanced' Dinosaurs Rule Other Planets? -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Apr. 11, 2012) — New scientific research raises the possibility that advanced versions of T. rex and other dinosaurs -- monstrous creatures with the intelligence and cunning of humans -- may be the life forms that evolved on other planets in the universe. "We would be better off not meeting them," concludes the study, which appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

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My Comment: Intelligence dinosaurs?

Alcohol Sharpens The Mind

Men who drank the equivalent of two pints of beer answered 40 per cent more test questions correctly. Photo: REUTERS

Alcohol Sharpens The Mind, Research finds -- The Telegraph

Men who drink two pints of beer before tackling brain teasers perform better than those who attempt the riddles sober, scientists have found.

In findings that will be toasted by pub quiz aficionados, researchers found drinkers got more test questions right and were quicker in delivering the right answers.

It is thought alcohol hinders analytical thinking and allows 'creative' thoughts that might otherwise by stifled to take root, allowing test subjects to come up with more imaginative solutions.

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My Comment:I am an easy drunk .... 2 pints usually put me in a sleepy mood.

U.S. Sues Apple Over 'Price Fixing' E-Book Deal With Five Major Publishers

Ebooks To Be Cheaper As U.S. Sues Apple Over 'Price Fixing' Deal With Five Major Publishers -- Daily Mail

* Justice Department to sue Apple
* Separate deal with publishers
* Could end 'price fixing' for ebooks
* Ebook prices risen up to 50% in last two years

America's Justice Department could sue Apple as early as Wednesday over alleged electronic book price fixing.

The DoJ will settle with several publishers as early as this week, two people familiar with the matter said.

The case could have major knock-on effects for pricing on electronic books online and on devices such as Amazon's Kindle.

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My Comment: Some Publishers are already settling with the Justice Department, and some are predicting that the DoJ will lose their case.

Death Of The Paperback

Photo: The rise of e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle has seen paperback sales decline

Death Of The Paperback In E-Reader Revolution: Sales Drop By 25% In A Year -- Daily Mail

From the Da Vinci Code to Harry Potter, the paperback has been a literary staple for decades.

It was almost 80 years ago when the likes of Penguin Books made quality fiction available for mass market consumption at affordable prices.

But now, with sales down by nearly 25 per cent year-on-year, some senior industry experts are heralding the ‘death of the paperback’.

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My Comment: And I expect this trend to continue.

Can Another Titanic Disaster Happen Today?

The bow of Titanic photographed in June 2004, by the ROV Hercules during an expedition returning to the shipwreck of the Titanic. CREDIT: NOAA / Institute for Exploration/University of Rhode Island

Could the Titanic Disaster Happen Today? -- Live Science

A century ago on Sunday, the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg and sank to a watery grave, killing 1,514 passengers. The disaster conjures images of luxury and hubris, cowardice and heroism, as well as one haunting question: Could it happen again?

In many ways, it already has, according to maritime experts. The Northern Maritime Research shipwreck database, for example, lists more than 470,000 shipwrecks in North America in the 20th century alone.

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My Comment: 470,000 shipwrecks in North America in the 20th century alone .... wow.

A Challenge To Facebook's News Feed

Image: Wavii automatically creates status updates about its user's interests

Wavii Poses A Challenge To Facebook's News Feed -- BBC

A new personalised news stream service has been launched by some of technology's most respected developers.

Wavii searches the net - including tweets, news stories and blogs - to offer a customised feed.

It is offered via the web or as a smartphone app, and was created by engineers who had previously worked for Amazon and Microsoft.

It is likely to compete with Facebook's news feed, prompting speculation that it could become a takeover target.

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Quantum Walkers Have Now Been Created

Quantum computing will revolutionise the speed and performance of computers. Credit: Macquarie University

Quantum Walk Towards New Supercomputers -- Cosmos

LONDON: Quantum walkers, which are single sub-atomic quantum particles that can be made to travel on a two-dimensional grid, have been created in a new step towards quantum walker-based quantum computing.

Imagine trying to isolate a single sub-atomic quantum particle that you can't see, with no mass and no charge, that will readily pop in and out of existence, and then make it travel through a virtual dot-to-dot grid obeying a strict set of rules.

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Zombie Survival Maps

How safe are you when the zombies come for your brain? Photo: Google Maps/Doejo

Zombie Survival Maps Show Danger Zones, Armories and Food Sources for Entire U.S. -- Gadget Lab

The Walking Dead teaches us that well-stocked pantries and armories are paramount to the survival of the human race after a zombie infestation. Canned food and ammunition: You can never have enough of these key essentials.

Enter the Map of the Dead from Doejo, which overlays zombie danger zones and potential supply locations on a Google Map of your local haunts. Red areas denote population centers where zombies might graze, while dark gray zones cover parks and wilderness areas, which are most likely to be walker-free. Supply locations are annotated with helpful descriptions — liquor stores, hospitals, gun shops, military bases and cemeteries are just some of the locations highlighted.

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Why No Devastating Tsunami After Today's Sumatra Earthquake

Why Earthquake Off Sumatra Did Not Trigger A Devastating Tsunami -- The Guardian

Main shock was magnitude 8.6 but horizontal seafloor movement meant warning buoys only measured small waves.

The earthquake off the coast of northern Sumatra in Indonesia began with a sudden shift in a strike-slip fault, a line of weakness in the sea floor where two huge bodies of rock can slide past one another.

Unlike the earthquake that triggered the devastating 2004 tsunami in the region, the sea floor moved sideways instead of vertically, meaning it displaced less water and did not send giant waves around the Indian Ocean.

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My Comment: There region was lucky this time.

Yachting Enters The Space Age

(Click on Image to Enlarge)
The superyacht is 42.5 meters in length, 16 metres in width and weighs 52 tons

Shipping Enters The Space Age: The $15m Superyacht That Took Five Years To Build -- Daily Mail

* The Adastra's range is 4,000 miles, enough to go from the UK to New York in a single trip without refueling
* The 42m yacht has a maximum speed of 22.5 knots

Described as ‘one of the world's most amazing super yachts’, the $15 million, 42-metre luxury trimaran yacht Adastra certainly turned a few heads at its launching ceremony yesterday in China.

Commissioned by Hong Kong clients Anto and Elaine Marden, it is the result of five years of planning and construction.

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My Comment: WOW!!!! But $15 million is steep. Still .... WOW!!!

30% Of All Web Traffic Is Porn

Xvideos: The world's biggest porn site receives billions of hits a month

Is The Whole World Looking At Porn? Biggest Site Gets Over FOUR BILLION Hits A Month -- Daily Mail

* 30% of all web traffic is porn, according to a report

‘The internet is for porn,’ is the title of a song on hit musical Avenue Q.

And it turns out the lyricists had touched on a home truth, because researchers have discovered that a staggering 30 per cent of all internet traffic is pornography.

The biggest porn site on the web - Xvideos - receives 4.4billion page views and 350million unique visits per month, according to a report on the ExtremeTech website.

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My Comment: Only 30% .... I thought that it was higher.

Creating A Quantum Computer

IBM's 2-D Superconducting Qubit Mounted on a Chip IBM Research via Flickr

How It Would Work: Creating a Quantum Computer -- Popular Science

A working, large-scale quantum computer is still a decade away, but researchers are currently turning a critical corner from theory to building the first small quantum systems.

Silicon semiconductors have taken us a dazzling distance along the computing road. But even if they continue unabated to get faster and more powerful (and it’s growing more difficult to make that happen) there’s a limit to what classical computing can do.

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My Comment: A Quantum computer is still a long way-off .... but we are getting there.

Most Convincing 'Robot Woman' Ever

Living Doll? 'Geminoid F' Is Most Convincing 'Robot Woman' Ever - She Has 65 Facial Expressions, Talks And Even Sings -- Daily Mail

It may only be a matter of months before boy bands and teen actresses are replaced by robots - after a talking, singing fem-bot with 65 facial expressions wowed crowds in China.

Geminoid F can produce smiles and even enigmatic, quizzical expressions, using mechanical actuators underneath her rubber 'skin'.

Her creator says his goal is to create a robot that can fool people into believing it's a human being.

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My Comment: Yup .... they are getting better every year.