As great as the iPhone 4 camera is, it's not exactly ideal for macro situations. Luckily, you can build your own iPhone macro lens—with wire, glue and a disposable camera—so that it can be. More »
How to Make a DIY Macro iPhone Lens [Macro]
Apple Driver Update Adds Magic Trackpad Support, Enables Inertial Scrolling on Older MacBooks [Apple]
The Magic Trackpad has just shown up and Apple has already issued a driver update for it. The same update also enables inertial scrolling and three-finger dragging on MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops with multi-touch trackpads. More »
KDMC Laying Off Employees – WSAZ-TV
KDMC Laying Off Employees WSAZ-TV We have learned that freedom and competition are the answers. We have learned that we promote economic growth and we promote stability by having competition ... |
Gorillaz iPhone Game Is Like Rhinestones Falling From The Sky [IPhone]
Pilot Murdoc's Doom Glider over the skies of Plastic Beach HQ in Escape to Plastic Beach, the virtual band's very own iPhone and iPad video game. More »
Missing post | Not Exactly Rocket Science
If anyone saw an RSS notification for a post about science writers that doesn’t seem to exist, it’s because I published it by mistake before it was ready. I’ve now deleted it. Currently, the plan is to get it up on Thursday.
Cheers,
Ed
Contact lenses not always good for kids – WIVB
 Xinhua | Contact lenses not always good for kids WIVB Dr. Reynolds is chairman of Ophthalmology at UB Medical School and the Ross Eye Institute. He points out that the rules are simple. ... More Than 70000 Kids Injured By Medical Devices Each YearMSN Health & Fitness |
Simulator
hi there
where can i get an electrcal simulator programe to see if my projects is working i'm working with gensets
thanks
Schalk
Will Climate Change Really Spur Mass Migrations of Mexicans to the U.S.? | 80beats
Every time governments fail to take serious steps on climate change, it seems the parlor game of predicting what our warmer world will look like heats up. And the newest of those predictions, appearing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pokes at what is presently one of the country’s most sensitive spots: immigration.
Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton published a study that estimates that between 1.4 and 6.7 million people could become climate refugees emigrating from rural Mexico to the United States between now and 2080. That’s 2 to 10 percent of the present Mexican population, and it doesn’t include people who would make the move for other reasons.
Is it a major concern? Yes. How much stock should you put in those statistics? Not much.
Oppenheimer and colleagues used projections of decreased agricultural output driven by rising temperatures to get these figures.
In the worst-case scenario would occur if temperatures were to rise by one to three degrees Celsius (1.8 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2080, if farming methods had not been adapted to cope with global warming and if higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide had not spurred plant growth. This would mean crop yields in Mexico would fall by 39 to 48 percent, the study said [AFP].
Other scientists agreed that a warming Earth could spur more migration, but questioned whether it is truly possible to disentangle climate change from other forces and pin statistics just on that.
The social consequences of global warming are always the hardest things to predict. Immigration rates are never driven by physics alone, but depend on plenty of other factors, such as U.S. border policies or the changing structure of Mexico’s economy. And it’s always difficult to tie specific social trends to climate change. People in rural areas have been migrating for a long time, whether to seek out work or because the rainfall’s dried up or the soil’s eroded [The New Republic].
In addition, the Arizona Daily Star reports that the fertility rate in Mexico has trended downward for decades. Its continued drop could cut into any migration increase tied to climate change. Douglas Massey, another Princeton professor, told the Los Angeles Times that even if agricultural production worsens, Mexicans aren’t going to come in a mass exodus in the U.S. unless there are lots of jobs here to be had.
Oppenheimer himself free acknowledges the fudgy nature of predicting climate change’s effects, and that while the numbers make for a sexy headline, you shouldn’t take them too seriously. He says:
“Our intention was to show that this problem is a substantial one. Our goal was not to project specific outcomes 80 years from now but to show the magnitude of problems that policymakers ought to pay more attention to. I don’t want to say that this will be the single biggest factor driving immigration, but it could become among the largest factors” [Arizona Daily Star].
Related Content:
80beats: Senators Cut Climate Change Rules and Renewables from Energy Bill
80beats: The New Murder-Mystery Game: Who Killed Copenhagen?
DISCOVER: It’s Getting Hot in Here: The Big Battle Over Climate Science, interviews with Judith Curry & Michael Mann
DISCOVER: The State of the Climate—And of Climate Science
Image: flickr / wonderlane
Pre-order: VIVA IL FUTURISMO! Conference Papers
New publication of VIVA IL FUTURISMO! Conference Papers
Papers of the international conference in Cologne, July 13 2009 – An event out of the cultural and artistic festival Viva il Futurismo!
Language: German and Italian
Content: 9 essays (6 in German with Italian summary, 3 in Italian with German summary), 92 pictures
More about VIVA IL FUTURISMO! and the conference:
Contact for information and order: futurismus@kulturserver.de
profile cutter
hi there
I am working in Guinea a small mine there is note much here,can someone give me a price on the profile cutter an a price on the motor an speed pod you can mail it to me at schalkvanjaarsveld@crewgold.com we despritely nee a machine like that.
Thanks
Schalk
Camera Sutra Brings Apple’s Photo Booth Effects To Your iPhone [Apps]
Photo Booth, the application for snapping distorted and stylized shots using your Mac's web cam, was improbably but undeniably a lot of fun. Camera Sutra brings that same real-time zaniness to your iPhone 4's front facing camera. More »
Video: A Hairy Carpet of Daddy Longlegs Fends off Predators | Discoblog
Look closely: This hairy, pulsating carpet is actually a group of harvestmen, an arachnid commonly known as daddy longlegs.
This aggregation of harvestmen helps fend off potential predators. When one of the arachnids senses danger, he moves his body up and down to create a vibration; a whole jiggling group of daddy longlegs provides an even greater deterrent. There’s nothing quite like teamwork to make your skin crawl. Via Boingboing:
Related content:
Discoblog: Spiders, Apparently Concerned About Nutrition, Eat Ants From the Head Down
Discoblog: Egad! Oldest Spider Web Dates Back to Dinosaur Era
Discoblog: Beetle-Inspired Adhesive Lifts Lego Man; Could One Day Do Same for Regular Man
This Self-Contained Security System Will Probably Pepper Spray You [Security]
At first glance, the self-contained Burglar Blaster security system seems neat. It's quick to set up, covers up to 2,000 square feet, and will stop intruders with a shower of pepper spray. Nothing could go wrong with that, right? More »
When Foursquare Gets Creepy [Checking In]
"I saw that you checked in there on Foursquare," said the stranger calling the restaurant where Shea Sylvia was dining. He suggested they "hang out," adding, "You probably shouldn't be telling people where you are on Foursquare, should you?" More »
wats the difference between pyrometric detectors and pyroelectric detectors?
actually i have a project
"automatic control of equipments by sensing human radiation"
so am using fresnel lense at IR sensor(KRX11),
what is the use of fresnel lense and how it can be used?
Is that is a component?
can i connect output of this circuit to relay circuit?
Wiring Diagram for 2 HP yl90l-4 Electric Motor
When moving YL1236 lathe the complete electrical box was broken, all I have is 6 wires on the motor and 3 from the contactors. There are no labels on the wires.
On the motor are 6 wires coming from 2 holes in the motor.
Top hole
Red, red, black
Bottom hole
Red, red yellow
Kepler News: Why Is NASA So Slow To Respond? (Update)
Our galaxy is rich in Earth-sized planets, CNN
"Since the time of Nicolaus Copernicus five centuries ago, people have wondered whether there are other planets like Earth in the universe. Today scientists are closer than ever to an answer -- and it appears to be that the Milky Way galaxy is rich in Earth-sized planets, according to astronomer Dimitar Sasselov. Drawing on new findings from a NASA telescope, he told the TED Global conference in Oxford, England earlier this month that nearly 150 Earth-sized planets have been detected so far. He estimated that the overall number of planets in the galaxy with "similar conditions to the conditions that we experience here on Earth is pretty staggering. It's about 100 million such planets."
Millions of Earths? Talk causes a stir, Alan Boyle's Cosmiclog, MSNBC
"NASA Watch's Keith Cowing said he was confused by Sasselov's seemingly significant non-news: "The Kepler folks seem to want to have things both ways," he wrote. "On one hand they want to tantalize us (and select audiences) with what they have found but yet at the same time they do not want to put their reputations on the line when people start taking their comments as fact. This project clearly needs to put some PR strategy in place." My efforts to get comments from Sasselov or other members of the Kepler team today were unsuccessful, but NASA spokesman Michael Mewhinney did tell me that the scientists are preparing a fresh response and would provide further clarification on Tuesday. So check back here for updates as they become available."
Keith's 2:28 pm EDT note: My reaction to this news is not unlike my reaction to the opening scene of the early Star Trek Enterprise episode "Strange New World" - and the crew's reaction to seeing an M-Class planet unexpectedly fill the view out a window. As Crewman Novakovich comments to Crewman Cutler, "You'd think that the Captain would make an announcement or something". The discussion between Captain Archer and T'Pol about Archer's impatience to see and explore the new world is equally appropriate to the current Kepler story.
ARC PAO's Michael Mewhinney and his cohorts have had several days to come up with a response. While the world is buzzing about this astonishing news we've heard nothing from the Kepler team. Someone needs to light a fire under Mewhinney et al The fact that NASA can't get its act together to address this news is baffling. Trully baffling. I can understand dragging their feet when there is bad news, but when paradigm-shifting, awe-inspiring news like this starts to circulate around our planet, the agency's inability to address it makes me wonder if the agency trully understands what it is doing - and the impact it can have on they way we view the universe.
Keith's 4:52 pm EDT update: Finally - a response from the Kepler folks - via Twitter here: "@KeithCowing We're working on it! New Kepler blog contribution from Dimitar is on its way. Will tweet the moment it's ready." and here: "@NASAWatch Kepler blog contribution from Dimitar Sasselov is expected to be out today."
- Kepler Team Needs To Take PR 101, earlier post
- Kepler Co-Investigator Spills The Beans: Lots of Earth-like Planets, earlier post
A Slick Fix: Oil-Eating Robots Could Mop Up Ocean Disasters
From Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now:
Marine Mess More than 40 million barrels of oil have been spilled in the seas since 1970-the equivalent of four Exxon Valdez-size disasters a year. When the Deepwater Horizon rig began leaking oil into the Gulf of
Nissan Leaf Will Initially Be Available In Only Five States [Electric Vehicle]
The Leaf, Nissan's all-electric vehicle priced at $32,780, will be released in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, and Tennesee as early as this December. More »
'Sniff Detector' Lets Those Lacking Mobility Drive a Wheelchair With Their Noses
From Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now:
The Sniff Detector By turning nasal pressure into electrical signals, the sniff detector lets those with "locked-in" syndrome communicate and paraplegics operate an electric wheelchair.
Read the whole ar