A creative and unsettling documentary that reveals how yearning can be both a burden and a blessing to those caught in its grasp.
Radical Imam based in Washington D.C. says Jews behind attacks of 9/11
Jihadi's Trutherism
Some excerpts chronicled by Channel 2 News Atlanta:
Musa: When they strike at the heart of Zionism, they are not suicide bombers they are heros.
Interviewer: You said Zionist America agents blew up the World Trade Center?
Musa: Yes, Zionist Americans, definitely.
Interviewer: Ayatollah Khomeni is a hero of yours?
Musa: Yes, of course.
Musa: I support Hezbollah that the Koran describes.
Interview: How about Hamas?
Musa: Very good organization.
More on Part II (video):
Musa describes Ft. Hood shooter Major Nidal Hassan as "victimized."
Nanotechnology sparks energy storage on paper and cloth
By dipping ordinary paper or fabric in a special ink infused with nanoparticles, Stanford engineer Yi Cui has found a way to cheaply and efficiently manufacture lightweight paper batteries and supercapacitors, as well as stretchable, conductive textiles known as 'eTextiles' - capable of storing energy while retaining the mechanical properties of ordinary paper or fabric.
Sandia Nano Center director to speak on solid-state lighting’s contributions to national energy efficiency
Solid-state lighting and its potential as a near-term generator of energy efficiencies will be the topic of a presentation by Julia Phillips, director of the Physical, Chemical, and Nano Sciences Center at Sandia National Laboratories, at the 2010 AAAS annual meeting.
Entegris Tackles Industry’s Critical Lithography Challenges at SPIE 2010
Specializing in advanced contamination control and microenvironment solutions, Entegris (Booth 120) will present new technical papers and showcase its product portfolio for addressing the most prevalent production challenges in advanced lithography applications.
$11.5 million NIH Center grant funds novel cancer stem cell research at the Methodist Hospital Research Institute
The Methodist Hospital Research Institute was awarded an $11.5 million Center Grant by the National Institutes for Health (NIH) today to study the best way to attack deadly cancer stem cells to enhance treatments for breast cancer.
Fujitsu Launches New Graphics SoC Based on its 90nm CMOS Process Technology
Fujitsu Microelectronics America, Inc. (FMA) has introduced the MB86R02 'Jade D' SoC, which incorporates the Fujitsu MB86296 'Coral' graphics processor unit (GPU) with the powerful 32-bit ARM926EJ-S CPU core.
North Dakota State University and Triton Systems, Inc., Partner on Coatings Research
North Dakota State University, Fargo, and Triton Systems, Inc., a Massachusetts-based materials products company, have announced a research partnership and Triton's plan to establish a new facility in the NDSU Research and Technology Park.
Mac Pro Update Soothes Audio Processing Issues [Updates]
The Achilles' Heel of the latest and greatest Nehalem-based Mac Pros seemed to be their trouble handling audio processing—even playing a song in iTunes reportedly caused overheating and sacked performance. Mac Pro Audio Update 1.0 offers sweet relief.
According to MacWorld, the new update, which rolled out last week, seems to help the matter both in terms of cooling temperatures and reclaiming processing power.
In a series of tests, they determined that installing the update resulted in a significantly quicker Aperture import and Compressor encoding with the machine simultaneously running iTunes—19% and 16% improvements, respectively. After the update, the Mac Pro's CPU was also running 30 degrees cooler and sucking less power from the CPU and power supply.
The update is currently only for Snow Leopard machines, so Leopard users, who have also reported the problem, will have to wait a bit longer to get things sorted. [MacWorld]
Axil Vibration in V1 Mounting DC Jack oil pump application motor in no load
what are the diffrent possiable reasons for axil vibrations in Jack oil pump application v1 mounting DC motor in no load condition testing at test bed
(sh-h-h-h-h – it’s a secret)
UPDATE: SOLVED… ALREADY!
Here we are; another Saturday, another riddle. Are you ready for this one? Are you alert? You are? Great… we need more lerts.
Today’s answer is an object.
It is a single object, although there are many others like it.
It is visible to the unaided eye.
This object was well-known to our ancestors.
It has been very well represented in literature, both fiction and non-fiction.
In spite of almost constant study and surveillance since prehistory, this object remains mysterious.
Although it has figured prominently in human culture, this object has no official name.
Once thought to be fairly pedestrian, this object is now known to go through rapid periods of furious upheaval.
Clouds over Active Volcano - USGS
Do you have it? I’m lurking… don’t worry, Trudy. No spider pictures today.
Maybe.
Okay… ONE spider. Just one. A little one. A cute one.
BOO!!
Marco Rubio comes out strong against Radical Islam
Longtime Libertarian Party activist Stephen Gordon is blogging from the C-PAC convention in Washington D.C. over at NextRight. Yesterday, Gordon reported on the widely praised Marco Rubio speech.
Among economic issues, the former Florida House speaker Rubio took some time out to talk foreign policy:
“We will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to defeat radical Islam.”
Rubio received a standing ovation for his line about prosecuting terrorists in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay.
In a live interview with Sean Hannity during the event, Rubio also commented:
[I think it's important] that people identify the Republican Party as the party that takes seriously the threat posed to our nation and the world by radical Islam.
As an aside, Gordon also reported on a wisecrack from Rubio to the audience:
The crowd started cheering “Marco, Marco, Marco.” “That cheer always worries me because I’m afraid people are going to start screaming ‘Polo,’” responded Rubio.
Vitrahaus: A Building With a View, and a View, and a View, and a View [Architecture]
Vitra, a Swiss furniture manufacturer, recently completed the Vitrahaus as a presentation space for their collection. Yes, that's a real photograph. The building's comprised of 12 stacked "houses," and if you can believe it, the inside is no less stunning.
Designed by Herzog and de Meuron, Vitrahaus's large, house-shaped windows provide various views of the surrounding area during the day—it is located on the border of Germany and Switzerland, in the town of Weil am Rhein—but at night the focus flips, with the windows becoming glowing portals into which passersby can peer.
The inside is clean and minimalist which lets Vitra's colorful furniture take center stage. Each room has a touch screen, on which visitors can browse through Vitra's catalog, learn more about particular pieces, or purchase furniture right there on the spot. High design and high tech.
We've oogled some of the company's chairs before, but I must say I'd rather be standing in the Vitrahaus than sitting in a Vitra.
DesignBoom, who headed out to Vitra's campus to take these photographs, has plenty more information and pictures of the exterior and interior on their site. [DesignBoom]
VFD ESP application
Greetings,
I have a question about running an esp motor off a vfd. My output frequency and motor speed are never the same, is this normal, if so why? If I tune the drive to rated motor speed(3450), my output frequency is 3450, but my motor speed is lower. The drive is a Yaskawa F7. Any resp
Current protection
Hi all, hope you can help,
I have an incoming supply of 2 x 160A TP&N MCCB it supplies an external bypass unit which contains 2No 200A TP&N MCCB's, from there it supplies a 2 x 30KvA UPS via 160A Fuses, the output of the UPS returns to external bypass switch via another 200A TP&N MC
The Formula For a Perfect Movie [Science]
A Cornell University professor analyzed 150 of the highest grossing movies of the last 70 years. The more recent the movie, he found, the closer it adhered to the mathematical formula that describes the human attention span.
In the 1990s, researchers at University of Texas in Austin determined that our attention spans could be described by the 1/f fluctuation, a pattern representing the ebb and flow of our concentration over a period of time. In a new study, professor James Cutting found that the more recent the blockbuster, the more closely the length of its shots followed that same fluctuation.
Whereas Detour, made in 1945, has shots that only vaguely correspond to the 1/f fluctuation, the 2005 King Kong remake stays surprisingly snug with the attention span wave.
As Cutting explains, this increasing correlation means that films "resonate with the rhythm of human attention spans," but just because movies are increasingly pleasing to our subconscious minds doesn't mean that we will necessarily like them more: the Star Wars prequels strictly followed the formula. [PhysOrg and PopSci]
Sezmi Open For Business in L.A. [HomeEntertainment]
Sezmi, a company that seeks to offer an affordable alternative to cable TV providers and their bloated packages, has now opened shop for those living in the Los Angeles area. For the last few months Sezmi has quietly been wrapping up beta testing, but now Californians in the area can head into a local Best Buy and free themselves from the chains of the TV tyrants.
The hardware costs $300, which includes an indoor antenna and a 1TB hard drive, and the montly fee is $5 for for the broadcast digital channels or $20 for basic cable, all of which are rolled into Sezmi's DVR. The system includes on demand movies and YouTube content if you plug into ethernet, all of which is accessible through an individually-tailored homepage. If you're fed up with your provider, Sezmi might be someone to turn to. [Sezmi via NY Times]
Attacks on Climate Science Now “Completely Out of Hand” | The Intersection
This is one of the main stories here at the AAAS meeting in San Diego:
SAN DIEGO—A symposium organized here at the last minute by two of the world’s most prominent scientific organizations addressed recent attacks on an increasingly beleaguered climate science community. The panel met in the uncertain aftermath of the release of e-mails stolen from prominent climate scientists and critiques of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The panel of academics was convened by National Academy of Science President Ralph Cicerone, in conjunction with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (which publishes ScienceNOW), which is holding its annual meeting here. At a time when the biggest headlines on science have been over the flaws or legitimacy of climate science, said Cicerone, recent skirmishes over climate research “have really shaken the confidence of the public in the conduct of science [overall].” He cited a number of recent polls, which show a “degradation” in the respect of the public for science in general.
Climate researchers have taken the biggest hit. They are feeling the brunt of what IPCC author Chris Field has described as a “feeding frenzy” since the November e-mail release. “The situation is completely out of hand,” said Texas A&M climate scientist Gerald North. “One guy e-mailed me to say I’m a ‘whore for the global warming crowd.’ ” His PowerPoint presentation included a slide quoting conservative talk show host Glenn Beck: “If the IPCC had been done by Japanese scientists, there’s not enough knives on planet Earth for hara-kiri that should have occurred.”
I get the sense that scientists and their institutions are so concerned over what has occurred in the past few months that there are going to be very real changes made, so as to ensure that better defenses of science are mounted in the future. It will be very interesting to watch what develops on this front…
Rom Houben: Not communicating through facilitated communication
The news is finally filtering out to the rest of the world.
As Steve Novella and my good buddy pointed out a few days ago (and as Steve pointed out in an interview on NPR), Dr. Steven Laureys admitted that Rom Houben, the unfortunate victim of a car crash that left him in what had been diagnosed as a persistent vegetative state, was in fact not able to communicate through the woo known as facilitated communication. This came as no surprise to anyone who has followed FC over the years. In fact, what had come as a surprise is that Dr. Laureys could have been so easily taken in by pseudoscience that had been so thoroughly debunked in the 1990s. To his credit, though, after a period of initially stubbornly defending FC, he relented and allowed objective testing, and the result was predictable. It took a few days, but the English language world is learning of the failure of FC in Houben’s case:
The sceptics said it was impossible – and it was. The story of Rom Houben of Belgium, which made headlines worldwide last November when he was shown to be “talking”, was today revealed to have been nothing of the sort.
Dr Steven Laureys, one of the doctors treating him, acknowledged that his patient could not make himself understood after all. Facilitated communication, the technique said to have made Houben’s apparent contact with the outside world possible, did not work, Laureys declared.
“We did not have all the facts before,” he said. “To me, it’s enough to say that this method doesn’t work.” Just three months ago the doctor was proclaiming that Houben had been trapped in his own body, the victim of a horrendous misdiagnosis, and only rescued from his terrible plight thanks to medical advances.
What was not reported is that skeptics were involved in the testing of Rom Houben. I recently received a statement from the Belgian Skeptics (SKEPP):
At the request of the medical institution where Mr Houben is cared for, on February 4 2010 SKEPP was present as advisor for a planned test of this controversial method of communication, and we also conducted our own tests. From the staff of the institute we learned that during two years all attempts to establish any form of communication with the patient by detecting and coding minute movements of the eyes or any other body part had failed. With FC he now seemed to produce correct words and elaborate sentences. Indeed, his answers to our simple test questions were intelligible and sometimes elaborate, but when the facilitator did not know the questions, his answers were all completely wrong. Most of the time he typed with his eyes closed, but as soon as the keyboard was shielded from the facilitator’s view the typing produced gibberish and halted. There clearly was no communication with the patient, only with the facilitator. We wonder what world-shaking news there would have been to communicate if it hadn’t been for the spectacular answers the facilitator produced.
Our intent was to not to test Mr Houben, but to test FC, and once more we demonstrated that the method is a sham. This is not to deny that Mr Houben may have some limited consciousness. If so, how frustrating must it be for him to hear all the bogus messages being produced in his name, without any possibility to protest ? After our test we had a long conversation with Dr. Laureys. He insisted that we test more facilitators before drawing conclusions. We declined and advised him to clearly distance himself from the FC scam, which he has done today. Out of respect and to allow them time to discuss the results with the family and the dedicated staff, we agreed on a 2 weeks embargo before making the results of our test public. Of course, not everyone is convinced yet. In a phone conversation today Mr Houben’s mother told us that she still believes in FC, because “sometimes it had produced answers that only her son could have known”. She is convinced that Dr. Laureys will ultimately find a method to communicate with her son. His team is experimenting with other methods. Let’s hope her wish comes true.
Indeed.
I want to emphasize once again that those of us who blasted FC in the wake of this case said nothing about whether Mr. Houben is conscious or not. We merely pointed out that FC is a long-discredited sham and, from evidence of videos available on the Internet, clearly could not be a mechanism by which Houben communicated if he in fact has consciousness. I and others have also pointed out that it’s horrible enough to be conscious and trapped in a motionless, useless shell, but imagine how much more horrible it would be to be conscious, trapped in a motionless shell, and having the only hope for communication with the outside world coopted by a facilitator.
In any case, props to SKEPP. They done good. Real good. Now let’s hope that, if Houben is conscious, Dr. Laureys, chastened by this experience, will find a way to communicate with Houben that isn’t based on the ideomotor effect and wishful thinking.
![[StumbleUpon]](http://euvolution.com/futurist-transhuman-news-blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/e2302_stumbleupon.jpg){kind=small}
![[Slashdot]](http://euvolution.com/futurist-transhuman-news-blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/1fd65_favicon.ico){kind=small}
![[Reddit]](http://euvolution.com/futurist-transhuman-news-blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/fbc9c_favicon.ico){kind=small}
Ark of descent | Bad Astronomy
Recently the UK paper The Guardian posted an article stating — without a shred of skepticism — that Noah’s Ark may have been round.
Sigh. OK, fine. But it gets better.
The Institute for Creation Research — given just their name, you might guess they haven’t found a scientific fact they couldn’t spin, fold, or mutilate… and you’d be right — claims the article is wrong.
Why?
Because a round ark makes no sense.
And…
BANG!
There goes my irony gland again. Luckily it grows back quickly, because in this line of work I seem to need it a lot.
[Update: Without any comment, I'll just add this link here. The connection should be obvious enough.]
