From Science Fiction in the News:
LG Display is showing off a remarkable newspaper-sized flexible e-paper prototype. The e-paper display is 19 inches wide (250mm x 400mm). It is just 0.3 millimeters in thickness and the entire display weighs just 130 grams. Fans of Stephen Spielber
From Science Fiction in the News:
Dutch scientists are making progress in their quest for petri dish pork - pork muscle grown in vitro for meat. Just cast your eyes on the delicious photomicrograph shown below, which displays pork grown from stem cells in all its porcine glory.
From NYT > Science:
Forget the Segway. Leave that jet pack behind. NASA is working on a personal flying suit. Conceptual designs for the experimental vehicle, called Puffin, were introduced by Mark D. Moore, an aerospace engineer at NASA's Langley Research Center, at a meeting o
I recently appeared on this show, and I wasn’t the only one. Here’s the guest list:
Stewart Brand – author of the newly published Whole Earth Discipline
Dr Janet Rowley – human geneticist at the University of Chicago
Chris Mooney – author of The Republican War on Science and Unscientific America
Reverend Robert Sirico – founder of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty
Professor Jared Diamond – Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs and Steel: How Human Societies Fail
Oliver Morton – Energy and Environment Editor for The Economist
Dr Brent Blackwelder – President Emeritus of Friends of the Earth, United States
All in all, I have to say it made for a crowded, but very interesting, debate about science, politics, and society in the U.S., exactly one year after President Obama promised to restore science to its “rightful place,” & c & c.
I found that I agree with Stewart Brand about a lot. I also found that I agree with Robert Sirco about pretty much zero–and the same goes for Brent Blackwelder, at least based on what I heard on the show.
Oliver Morton’s comments on science and the American frontier were either deep or brilliant, I’m not sure which. But they gave me a little chill.
Based on his comments, I think Jared Diamond would like Unscientific America.
Oh, and Janet Rowley: Loved her comments on Leon Kass assigning an anti-science short story, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birth-Mark, at the first meeting of the President’s Council on Bioethics under Bush…an episode that should never be forgotten.
Listen to the whole program here.
From Scientific American:
The ability to speak a second language isn't the only thing that distinguishes bilingual people from their monolingual counterparts--their brains work differently, too. Research has shown, for instance, that children who know two languages more easily solv
I have an original disc for windows xp for my computer. The computer is totally broken so a new one has been ordered. to keep the price down I am getting a pc without the operating system so I will use my own disc. The only problem is I cannot find the key for it. can i retrieve it from the disc ? i
From Wash Post Technology:
One of China's most popular bloggers, Han Han, posted a satirical essay this week in which he imagined headlines about China's censored Internet in a post-Google era: In 2011, Google, Facebook and YouTube announce their return to the Chinese market --
From Boing Boing:
No, that's not a hairy branch but rather an astounding kind of ice formation called "hair ice" ("haareis" in German). Illinois State University professor James Carter of the Geography-Geology Department, created a page about this natural wonder that includes many
From Boing Boing:
James Oberg at IEEE Spectrum has been following the "disaster-ridden" Russian missile program that lead to last month's spectacular spiral lights display over Norway. He offers some insight into the fascinating political story going on behind the scenes.
The Martha Stewart show recently dedicated an entire show to technology. Ms. Stewart stood next to a four-tiered rack full of examples of technology past. It included inventions such s the boom box, typewriter, television, video camera, telephone, maps, paper calendar, alarm clock, original Macintos
You’ve toured the lovely island of Ireland. You’ve driven through rolling green countryside, visited some relatives, perhaps, and popped into Gus O’Connor’s for a pint of Guinness. Somewhere in there, you’ll have to make your pilgrimage Dublin – it’s expected, of course – and when you do, you’ll likely head over to the nearby town of Dun Laoghaire.
They don’t call Dun Laoghaire “Dublin’s Riviera” for nothing! This town and harbor just 11 clicks from Dublin has some amazing history – not to mention a very pretty view. It is also home to a rocky outcropping towards Dalkey Island that makes a fine sort of beach.
Each Sunday, rain or shine, you’ll see many walk down past the marina to take their morning swim. Togs must be worn – the signs are plastered as far as the eye can see. And from rumor, it seems that the town means to enforce the rule (though you’ll see every bare bit of a man as he changes into those togs in the dressing room just above the rocks).
The water isn’t that warm – even, it would seem, in summer. And the sun rarely pokes out from behind the clouds. But still, each Sunday, the faithful come. Some swim a few laps, some swim all the way to Dalkey – and some just sit outside and enjoy the sound of the water lapping on the rocks. It’s a fine a way to spend a Sunday as any.
The rocks can be a bit jagged so water shoes are probably a good bet. The current can be swift as well. But there’s something about Dun Laoghaire that will keep calling you back. Even if you have to buckle down and wear a pair of togs while you’re there.
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Photo courtesy of Kayt Sukel.
Northern Ireland. When you think of the place, you likely think of rolling green hills, the quaintness of Belfast or maybe well-tended, homey farmsteads. Warm, sandy beaches? Er, not so much.
But Northern Ireland is an island. And as such, is actually home to some lovely beaches. In fact, due to its unique topography and flora, the island boasts some of the most beautiful coastline you may see in all of Europe. The thick green that this island is known for opening up to white sand is a sure beauty to behold. Add in stunning natural formations, pebbles and the odd gorse bush or two and you’ll find more than a few postcard-worthy landscapes.
But beyond the pretty, you can feel good about the safety and environmental friendliness of these strands. In the past few years, the island has been hard at work cleaning up its beaches to make them not only beautiful but safe. And in particular, Northern Ireland’s Blue Flag beaches are well worth a visit for a swim, some sunbathing or just a walk down a pretty stretch of coast.
The international Blue Flag system rates beaches on everything from cleanliness to bathrooms to accessibility. In 2009, six of Northern Ireland’s beaches made the cut across 29 categories for Blue Flag status including Murlough Beach in County Down, Benone Beach in County Londonderry, Portrush White Rocks in County Antrim, Portstewart Strand in County Antrim, Tyrella Beach in County Down and Cranfield West in County Down.
The unique Irish countryside that opens to the beach isn’t a Blue Flag category – though some might argue it should be. That’s just an extra for beach-goers to enjoy.
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Photo courtesy of L_J.
What would be the possible bad impacts could occur on micro processor based controlled VVVF lift drives/ Inverters due to sudden power failures while they are on operation.
Similary, If total power shuts down for the purpose of testing the stand by generator in the building weekly bas
Sweeping aside a century-old understanding and overruling two important precedents, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.
The ruling was a vindication, the majority said, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech.
So, the Court's view is that campaign finance regulation (at least the part addressed in yesterday's decision) is not constitutional. I am not a lawyer, but that view sounds right to me. Let's put aside the constitutional issue, however, and ask whether campaign finance regulation would be good policy if it were constitutional?
The standard argument for such regulation rests on four claims:
1. that spending by politicians affects their likelihood of election;
2. that contributions to political campaigns affect the policies a politician supports;
3. that these influences on political outcomes are undesirable;
4. and that regulation successfully limits money’s influence on these outcomes.
Claims 1 and 2 are oft-overstated, but they probably have some validity.
Claim 3, however, is probably backwards. Money lines up on one side of an issue because a larger economic pie supports that side. Special interests do support bad policies, including corporate welfare, tariffs and quotas, agricultural subsidies, wasteful weapons programs, and pork pork-barrel spending, but money often causes better policies, not worse; free trade is an excellent example.
Claim 4 is even less convincing: politicians and special interests can circumvent most regulation.
So, campaign finance regulation's main goal is not compelling, and the regulation does not achieve that goal anyway. Instead, the regulation protects incumbents and rewards politicians who exploit loopholes in the law. The Court's decision is good economics, as well as good law.
Can anyone help me how to get the software download of the IEE regulations 17th edition. Thks
plz tell me, the types of conductors in over head lines with respective applications(voltage)?
I would like to hear some reviews from people that worked with this std, and test equipments that implement the latter...
It can be of use for future purposes (I read on the net that is is a powerful tool for instrumentation)
I have started constructing RCC structure on an area of 30'x40' with 12 nos of column with following details:
No of Columns : 12
Size of Pit : 5'x5'
Depth of excavation : 7'
Depth of Stone Soling : 8"
Depth of C.C. 1:2:4 mix : 4"
From Eric Dondero:
A much talked about new study by the Cato Institute's Dave Boaz and David Kirby looks at the bloc of independent-minded libertarian swing voters, described as "fiscally conservative/socially liberal," who are often overlooked by the two major parties. The study is titled "The Libertarian Vote in the Age of Obama."
Boaz and Kirby have found that after 2006, these soft libertarian voters sided with John McCain, and his libertarian-leaning running mate Sarah Palin over Obama/Biden. Though, notably there was a split between older libertaian-oriented voters, and younger ones.
Perhaps most importantly, the study finds some indications that the bloc increasingly open to the Republican message going into 2010 and beyond.
From Cato:
The Libertarian Vote in the Age of Obama
Libertarian — or fiscally conservative, socially liberal — voters are often torn between their aversions to the Republicans' social conservatism and the Democrats' fiscal irresponsibility. Yet libertarians rarely factor into pundits' and pollsters' analyses.
In 2004 libertarians swung away from Bush, anticipating the Democratic victories of 2006. In 2008, according to new data in this paper, libertarians voted against Barack Obama. Libertarians seem to be a lead indicator of trends in centrist, independent-minded voters. If libertarians continue to lead the independents away from Obama, Democrats will lose 2010 midterm elections they would otherwise win.
Libertarians shifted back to the Republican column in 2008, supporting John McCain over Barack Obama by 71 to 27 percent. Although many libertarian intellectuals had a real antipathy to McCain, the typical libertarian voter saw McCain as an independent, straight-talking maverick who was a strong opponent of earmarks and pork-barrel spending and never talked about social issues.
What McCain/Palin failed to do however, was to reach younger soft libertarian voters. Though, Boaz/Kirby predict that this younger contingent may now be shifting to the GOP column. Continuing:
Younger libertarians voted 59 percent for Obama versus 36 percent for McCain. But their enthusiasm for his policies may be short-lived. Younger Americans are an optimistic generation, but easily shaken when things go badly. If unemployment continues to remain weak, an economic issue that disproportionately affects young people, this generation of voters could quickly become disillusioned with Obama’s policies.
Before the 2006 elections, we predicted that if the swing away from the Republicans continued, “Republicans will lose elections they would otherwise win.” Now we offer the reverse prediction: if libertarians continue to lead the independents away from Obama, Democrats will lose 2010 midterm elections they would otherwise win.
Full analysis at Cato.org, including link for download of full report (PDF).
i have a query about carbon steel piping.
for utility service like potable water, instrument air etc. which piping is a better option?
Galvanised piping or Electropolished piping?
any comparison chart?
