Tuesday, January 12, 2016
David Bowie's Favourite 100 Books
Anyone else remember this Bowie poster from your library as a kid? pic.twitter.com/HsY8srwrwv
— Eric Smith (@ericsmithrocks) January 11, 2016
L.A. Times: Remembering David Bowie through his 100 favorite books
Although David Bowie was best known for his music, he also made countless contributions to the worlds of art, fashion and film.
But the singer, who died Sunday, was also devoted to literature. In 2013, Bowie left the world something other than his groundbreaking albums to remember him by — a list of his 100 favorite books. Bowie's favorite books list was featured in an exhibit honoring the musician at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.
Bowie's list is as eclectic and surprising as he was. He paid tribute to the classics, including Homer's "Iliad," F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," George Orwell's "1984" and D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover."
Read more ....
CSN Editor: This artist was doing everything. Not many sci-fi/speculative fiction books in his list.
Monday, January 11, 2016
Why Are Amazon's Data Centers In The 'Heart' Of Spy Country?
Amazon Data Center CNN
The Atlantic: Why Amazon's Data Centers Are Hidden in Spy Country
The company powers much of the Internet, but its cloud facilities are difficult to find.
Once in a while—not quite often enough to be a crisis, but just often enough to be a trope—people in the United States will freak out because a huge number of highly popular websites and services have suddenly gone down. For an interminable period of torture (usually about 1-3 hours, tops) there is no Instagram to browse, no Tinder to swipe, no Github to push to, no Netflix to And Chill.
When this happens, it usually means that Amazon Web Services is having a technical problem, most likely in their US-East region. What that actually means is that something is broken in northern Virginia. Of all the places where Amazon operates data centers, northern Virginia is one of the most significant, in part because it’s where AWS first set up shop in 2006. It seemed appropriate that this vision quest to see The Cloud across America which began at the ostensible birthplace of the Internet should end at the place that’s often to blame when large parts of the U.S. Internet dies.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Convenience, an existing infrastructure, lower costs, the U.S. government not far away .... all of these are good reasons on why Amazon has its centers in northern Virginia. But what I found even more interesting after reading this report was this sobering statistic .... Today, up to 70 percent of Internet traffic worldwide travels through this region.
After Ebola Two Tropical Diseases Pose New Threats
Reuters: After Ebola, two other tropical diseases pose new threats
LONDON (Reuters) - A little-known bacterial disease may be killing as many people worldwide as measles, scientists said on Monday, while a mosquito-borne virus known as Zika is also raising global alarm.
The spread of Ebola in West Africa last year shows how poorly-understood diseases can emerge and grow rapidly while researchers race to design and conduct the scientific studies needed to combat them.
Researchers in the journal Nature Microbiology called for a bacterial infection called meliodosis, which is resistant to a wide range of antibiotics, to be given a higher priority by international health organizations and policy makers.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: I know about the Zika virus .... a nasty outbreak in Brazil. But Melioidosis .... this is something new. The above video is on the Zika virus. The video below is on Melioidosis.
Google Chairman: Artificial Intelligence Can Help Solve World's ‘Hard Problems’
Eric Schmidt, chairman of Alphabet Inc. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
* AI could help with population growth, education, Schmidt says
* Field getting crowded with Facebook, Microsoft also investing
Google’s chairman thinks artificial intelligence will let scientists solve some of the world’s "hard problems," like population growth, climate change, human development, and education.
Rapid development in the field of AI means the technology can help scientists understand the links between cause and effect by sifting through vast quantities of information, said Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet Inc., the holding company that owns Google.
“AI will play this role to navigate through this and help us.”
It can also aid companies in designing new, personalized systems. In the future, Schmidt would like to see “Eric and Not-Eric,” he said at a conference in New York, where “Eric” is the flesh-and-blood Schmidt and“not-Eric is this digital thing that helps me.”
Read more ....
CSN Editor: We are far away from what he is envisioning.
Scientific Breakthroughs In 2015
(Click on Image to Enlarge)
The Independent: Scientific breakthroughs in 2015 that could change the world
Advances in biology and cosmology have dominated the science year.
Growing a “brain in a dish”, the prospect of creating designer babies, and the possibility of detecting the first signs of extra-terrestrial intelligence – these are just some of the most important scientific news stories of 2015, according to some of the world’s leading scholars celebrating the year’s achievements.
The question posed to the top thinkers was this: what do you consider the most interesting recent scientific news and what makes it important? Back came a smorgasbord of essay-length answers from more than 100 contributors to Edge.org, the online salon for scientists, philosophers and followers of the “third culture” merging science and the humanities.
Read more ....
The Pace Of Scientific Innovation Is Speeding Up
Image from Atelier
Wall Street Journal: Science Is Stepping Up the Pace of Innovation
Big advances in astronomy and genetics.
Every year on the website Edge, scientists and other thinkers reply to one question. This year it’s “What do you consider the most interesting recent news” in science? The answers are fascinating. We’re used to thinking of news as the events that happen in a city or country within a few weeks or months. But scientists expand our thinking to the unimaginably large and the infinitesimally small.
Despite this extraordinary range, the answers of the Edge contributors have an underlying theme. The biggest news of all is that a handful of large-brained primates on an insignificant planet have created machines that let them understand the world, at every scale, and let them change it too, for good or ill.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Are we in a new age of scientific discovery .... it looks like it.
Have Gravitational Waves Finally Been Detected?
Binary stars may generate gravitational waves. R. Hurt - Caltech/JPL
Popular Science: Physicist Tweets Rumour That Gravitational Waves May Have Finally Been Detected
If true, the discovery would support one of Einstein's major predicitons.
In September, the Caltech theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss tweeted:
Rumor of a gravitational wave detection at LIGO detector. Amazing if true. Will post details if it survives.
— Lawrence M. Krauss (@LKrauss1) September 25, 2015
The folks on the LIGO experiment neither confirmed nor denied the rumor, and in Krauss's rumor-mongering raised hackles in the astrophysics community.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Waiting for the official announcement.
10 Essential David Bowie Songs
Wired: 10 Essential David Bowie Songs to Remember the Iconoclast
DAVID BOWIE, WHO died Sunday at the age of 69, released more than 20 studio albums (and dozens of singles) during a decades-long career that found him infatuated with everything from starry-eyed space-folk to guitar-hero glam-rock to gurgling electronica. Reducing that output to a single best-of list is impossible, but here are 10 tunes that, at the very least, display his verve, his vigor, and his ongoing love of the new:
Read more ....
Can You Run A Silicon Valley Startup Without A Cellphone?
That’s right: I do not own a cellphone; I do not use a cellphone. I do not have a phone. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian
The Guardian: I run a Silicon Valley startup – but I refuse to own a cellphone
In the heart of the most tech-obsessed corner of the planet, Steve Hilton hasn’t had a phone in years. He’s relaxed, carefree, happier. His wife on the other hand ...
Before you read on, I want to make one thing clear: I’m not trying to convert you. I’m not trying to lecture you or judge you. Honestly, I’m not. It may come over like that here and there, but believe me, that’s not my intent. In this piece, I’m just trying to ... explain.
People who knew me in a previous life as a policy adviser to the British prime minister are mildly surprised that I’m now the co-founder and CEO of a tech startup . And those who know that I’ve barely read a book since school are surprised that I have now actually written one.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Yes .... it is possible that you can do a Silicon Valley start-up without owning a cellphone (I have done it myself). But you will need email (and a land-line).
The Toilet You Only Clean Once A Year
BBC: CES 2016: The toilet you only clean once a year
An "intelligent" toilet that opens when you approach it and self-cleans with every flush is on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
It also cleans the user with an aerated wand, which delivers warm water and warm air "from a seated position", a spokeswoman said.
Despite a $9,800 (£6,704) price tag, more than 40 million earlier versions of the Neorest toilets have been sold.
Bathroom firm Toto said the new prototype was still in development.
CSN Editor: $9.800 price tag .... please. But they have sold 40 million of them.
David Bowie Was An Internet Pioneer
BBC: David Bowie: The internet pioneer
David Bowie is best remembered for his music - but he was also groundbreaking in his use of technology, not least his internet service, BowieNet, which launched in September 1998.
In a time before Instagram, YouTube, Twitter or even MySpace, most artists provided little if any online material to their followers.
But Bowie's platform not only offered a wide variety of exclusive content, but also several ways to interact with the singer himself.
"In my view, BowieNet had to be the most groundbreaking reachout to fans that I have ever seen any artist ever do," Craig Carrington, one of its users, says.
"He just had the attitude that if he was going to do it, he was going to do it right."
Update: BowieNet: how David Bowie's ISP foresaw the future of the internet (The Guardian).
WNU Editor: He may be gone, but his music will last for the ages.
This Is What Happens When You Reply To Spam Email (Video)
From TED: Suspicious emails: unclaimed insurance bonds, diamond-encrusted safe deposit boxes, close friends marooned in a foreign country. They pop up in our inboxes, and standard procedure is to delete on sight. But what happens when you reply? Follow along as writer and comedian James Veitch narrates a hilarious, weeks-long exchange with a spammer who offered to cut him in on a hot deal.
CSN Editor: Hilarious and true.
Sunday, January 10, 2016
The Future Of TV
If CES 2016 is anything to go by, the future of how we enjoy home entertainment is here.
From the new wave of High Dynamic Range (HDR) televisions to the arrival of virtual reality, the floor of the consumer electronics and technology trade show in Las Vegas has been filled with examples of how home entertainment is changing. CNET reporter Kara Tsuboi was on hand to take a look at the screens of the future and the new ways people will be viewing them in their living rooms.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Bring the costs .... and they will become popular.
There Are Nine Members In The Nuclear Club
Jane Onyanga-Omara, USA TODAY: The Nuclear Club: Who are the 9 members?
Nine countries are known to possess nuclear weapons.
The United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have among them approximately 15,850 nuclear weapons — 4,300 of them deployed with operational forces, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The institute, an independent organization whose research centers on global security, said 1,800 of those weapons are kept in a state of high operational alert.
The number of nuclear weapons in the world is declining, mainly because Russia and the United States are reducing their stockpiles. The two countries' arsenals make up more than 90% of nuclear weapons globally, according to the institute.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Nine today .... tomorrow .... who knows?
Do The Clintons Believe In Aliens?
Daily Mail: Hillary to open the X-Files: Clinton promises to 'get to the bottom' of Area 51 if she becomes President and stuns reporter by saying 'I think we may have been visited already'
* Hillary Clinton reportedly made the promise when speaking with The Conway Daily Sun in New Hampshire
* Clinton had previously interviewed with the same reporter in 2007
* In 2014, Bill Clinton told late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel that he wouldn't be surprised if aliens visited Earth
* Hillary Clinton appeared to agree with her husband's comments last week
* She said she would 'get to the bottom' of questions over what the government knows about UFOs and aliens
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has said that if she is elected, she will 'get to the bottom' of questions over what the government knows about UFOs and aliens.
She made the promise when speaking with Daymond Steer of The Conway Daily Sun in New Hampshire. She had previously interviewed with the same reporter in 2007.
When asked if she would support UFO disclosure group efforts, she enthusiastically said 'yes'.
In 2007, Clinton said the most common freedom-of-information requests her husband Bill Clinton received at his library were about UFOs.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: I guess even the Clintons like to believe.
More News On Hillary Clinton Promising To Reveal The Truth Of Area 51
Hillary Clinton plans to investigate Area 51 if she’s elected -- Red Orbit
Hillary Clinton says aliens may have paid us a visit -- CNET
Aliens May Have Visited Earth Already, Hillary Clinton Says -- Space.com
Hillary Clinton (jokingly) pledges UFO probe -- CNN
I want to believe: Hillary Clinton says aliens may have visited Earth -- RT
Saturday, January 9, 2016
What Are The Most Valuable Substances By Weight?
Click on Image to Enalrge
Zero Hedge: Visualizing The Most Valuable Substances By Weight
While gold is undoubtedly one of the most traded substances on earth, it also happens to be one of the most valuable substances by weight. Although prices fluctuate, one gram of gold will cost you on average around $35. This got us thinking about how much other primarily naturally occurring substances out there cost.
This new infographic, via ValueWalk, explores how much you would pay for a gram of everything from saffron, widely recognised as the world’s most expensive spice, to platinum and rhodium. While the market for these goods can’t match the sizeable gold market, whose depth and liquidity is unparalleled, the trading prices of these substances can widely surpass that of gold; though like gold, the prices of these substances are subject to fluctuations.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: For more information on Californium (the world's most expensive substance by weight), go here.
The Radical Plan To Manipulate Gravity
André Füzfa from the University of Namur has proposed a method to produce and detect gravitational fields, and says it’s achievable with current technologies.
Daily Mail: The radical plan to manipulate GRAVITY: Researcher reveals scheme to create and control gravitational fields using current technology
* Mathematical proposal aims to unlock new era of experimental gravity
* Researcher says current technologies could let humans to control gravity
* Experiment could put Einstein's theory of relativity to the ultimate test
Creating artificial gravitational fields that humans can manipulate and observe may seem like an idea from science fiction, but one researcher is now looking to turn the concept into a reality.
André Füzfa from the University of Namur has proposed a method that would allow humans to control gravity, and says it’s achievable with current technologies.
In the mathematically supported proposal, Füzfa describes the device which would take on this task, and be used to observe how magnetic fields bend space-time.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: I wish them luck.
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