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Augmented Reality Tattoos Are Visible Only to a Special Camera | Discoblog

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

021510_rg_ThinkAnApp_02 If you’ve been dying to get a kick-ass dragon tattoo but feel like it might not go over well with prospective employers or your mom, then here’s a sneaky, roundabout way to satisfy your yearning. You can get the tattoo using augmented reality–and for an extra dose of kick-ass, the dragon will flap its leathery wings.

The concept was developed by a Buenos Aires-based software company called ThinkAnApp. In the video below, you’ll see a guy’s arm tattooed with what looks like a plain rectangular box. But that box is essentially a barcode. The company has devised a camera with special software that reads this barcode, and then superimposes an animated image.

Dvice reports:

When viewed through a specially equipped camera, the seemingly plain box design suddenly displays a three-dimension dragon. The possibilities for art projects, information distribution, and social engineering via body art inherent in this idea are fascinating.

Related Content:
The Loom: Science Tattoo Emporium
Science, Not Fiction: Seeing The Future, Literally
Discoblog: One Small Step Closer to Superhuman Cyborg Vision
Discoblog: Will the Laptops of the Future Be a Pair of Eye Glasses?

Image: ThinkAnApp

Wave UFO Controlled By Gestures, Not Convenient, Well-Vetted Remotes [R/c]

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

The Wave UFO appears to be the first gesture-controlled...err...R/C vehicle. DVICE explains how you steer its flight:

Wave UFO Controlled By Gestures, Not Convenient, Well-Vetted Remotes

...start the motor and hold your hand underneath as it begins to hover. As you move your hand laterally to the ground, the UFO moves with you. Make an upward toss gesture, and up the UFO goes. The more violent the motion, the higher it flies. Make a diagonal toss gesture, and you can push it toward a buddy, who can "catch it" over his hand and toss it back (or not).

Sounds neat, but here's what I'd call the real-world usage scenario:

...start the motor and hold your hand underneath as it begins to launch unpredictably into the air. Quickly dodge out of the way as the UFO spirals, possibly while flaming, at you or a loved one (protip: protect your eyes, they are remarkably sensitive to ballistic attack). If you're lucky enough to get three or more feet away from the UFO, don't move. It might not see you, and the slightest motion could trigger a second onrush. Continue to stay calm for up to 1-2 hours as the battery pack runs out. And always remember those who gave their lives that day so that you could live.

Look for the Wave UFO for $25 this spring. [DVICE]

The Bell Curve: Beyond Repair…

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

I have a friend that runs an auto body repair shop. He can do some pretty amazing things with a dented fender, but sometimes the damage is so bad there is nothing to do but replace it. Sometimes there are so many problems with a car that it simply can't be fixed.

There are a lot of things in this world that can't be fixed. One of those things is property taxes. We've seen a good example unfold in New Castle over the last few years. The owners of the Kentucky Fried Chicken Restaurant on Memorial Drive saw their property taxes increase from $5751.26 in 2005 to $31,453.61 in 2009, based on the increased assessed value of their property.

Letter to the Editor: Proposal 39

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

A letter to the Editor from Tony J. Keeler, Precinct Organizer, Perry 24, Libertarian Party of Marion Co.

——————-

Libertarian City-County Councilman at- large Ed Coleman has introduced Proposal 39, amending a current ordinance prohibiting carrying a hand gun in public parks and trails. I have seen signs at parks prohibiting weapons, but was unaware that it included adults with a right to carry permit.

Criminals pay no attention to such ordinances or “signs”, but feel that most others will, being easy targets for assault. If assailants were to assume that every adult is armed, assaults would decline dramatically.

What arrogance, shown on behalf of the Council , to supersede state laws or the 2nd Amendment ! If we are to truly have a society of freedom and individual sovereignty, then we possess an unalienable right to defend ourselves with what means we choose, and take individual responsibility for our actions.

Full-Spectrum Genomes | The Loom

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

khoisans It’s been nearly ten years since President Bill Clinton stood on the White House lawn with a team of scientists to announce the completion of the first survey of the human genome. “Today, we celebrate the revelation of the first draft of the human book of life,” he said. It’s a pleasing metaphor, but it’s deeply flawed. There is not a single Human Book of Life. If there were, after all, Clinton and the scientists and all the rest of us would all be identical clones.

There is a vast amount of genetic variation from person to person, and from one continent to another. The survey that Clinton was announcing was a cobbling-together of DNA from several individuals. Since then, researchers have produced much higher-quality reads of the genomes of actual people. They’ve learned a lot from those studies, but, in the scope of human genetic diversity, these studies have been timid ventures. If you compare someone from South Korea to someone of northern European descent, you’re only capturing a small sliver of the variation in our species. If you really want to get into the thick of it, there’s really one place to go: Africa.

tishkoff tree440 This chart helps to illustrate why. If you trace the origins of the genetic material in our species, you end up in Africa. One reason we know this is that human populations outside of Africa share some genetic markers that Africans lack. That’s consistent with the hypothesis that Homo sapiens evolved in Africa, and then a small group of Africans migrated off the continent and gave rise to all the other populations of humans alive today. Another clue is in the genetic diversity of Africans themselves. Looking at relatively small collections of DNA, scientists have found much more genetic diversity in Africa than elsewhere. That would make sense if African populations have existed longer than populations elsewhere, giving them more time to accrue new mutations.

Africa is, of course, a huge continent, with a billion people and 2000 distinct ethno-linguistic groups. Some of those groups, including some of the most populous ones, are relatively young. In some cases, they expanded over large areas as they developed agriculture. Some smaller ethnic groups are only distantly related to other Africans, since their ancestors split off a long time ago. Those groups are crucial to a full-spectrum picture not just of African diversity, but the diversity of all humanity.

So it’s heartening to find that today scientists are publishing a genome of a man from one of those deeply diverging groups–the Khoisan of southern Africa, also known as the Bushmen of the Kalahari.

tishkoff map The Khoisan are not a single group of Africans, but a large number of small groups. They originally probably spanned much of southern Africa, making a living by hunting and foraging for food. Bantu farmers moved into southern Africa much later, taking up a lot of the arable land. Most Khoisan live now in Botswana and Namibia, eking out a precarious existence.

A team of scientists from the United States, Australia, and Africa sequenced the complete genome of a Khoisan named !Gubi (far left in the top photos). They also sequenced portions of the genomes of three other Khoisans from Namibia to gauge the diversity within the group. And, for comparison, they also sequenced the genome of a Bantu from South Africa. Not just any Bantu, mind you, but none other than Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The survey confirmed the conclusion of earlier studies: Khoisans have a lot of genetic diversity. On average, each pair of the Khoisans differed at 1.2 out of every 1000 nucleotides (the “letters” of DNA). On average, a European and an Asian differ at 1 out of every 1000.

Khoisans lack some key adaptations that arose in Africans who have taken up agriculture. For example, they lack a mutation that allows adults to digest milk. They also lack a common mutation that provides resistance to malaria–a disease that took off when parasite-carrying mosquitoes could lay eggs in farm fields and bite farmers sleeping in nearby huts. But these absences don’t mean that Khoisans are primitive cavemen, or that their genomes are a time capsule from antiquity. Most of the distinctive features of their genomes arose only after their ancestors split off from the ancestors of other humans. A number of those new mutations show some indications of being adaptations for life in the desert, such as controlling levels of salt in the blood.

Understanding the genome of Khoisans is not just interesting in itself, but important to the well-being of all people on Earth. To figure out the effects of genes on our health, scientists scan DNA from lots of people, looking for variations that are strongly linked to certain diseases. As I wrote last year in Newsweek, it’s been a struggle. One reason is that the list of genetic variations we’ve been using has, until now, been too short. In the new study, the scientists found 1.3 million differences between Khosians and the reference human genome against which all human DNA is compared. Just as intriguing are some of the variants that Khoisans have that are found in other populations. Some of these familiar variants have been linked to serious diseases. Yet all the Khoisans who were tested in the new study were around 80 years old and in excellent physical shape. The effect of these variants may actually depend on variations in other genes. To figure out what any one human genome means for a person’s health, scientists need to look at a full spectrum of human genomes. The Book of Life is not enough. We need to read the Library of Life.

[Images: Schuster et al, "Complete Khoisan and Bantu genomes from Southern Africa," Nature, doi: 10.1038/nature08795, Campell and Tishkoff]

Calling All Heat and AC Gurus

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

Greetings - my compressor on our 2.5 Ton Lennox split system is going out (10 seer)- trust me, The charge is good, but with the screwdriver-to-the-ear test, can hear the valves slapping - it's going away & working too hard to suit me..(no cycle-off)

scenario - existing - R22 replace

Obama Gives $8B in Loan Guarantees to Jump-Start Nuclear Power | 80beats

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

nuclearplant Are these the first steps to a nuclear renaissance? Yesterday the White House said it would give more than $8 billion in loan guarantees to make sure that construction of two new nuclear power plants gets under way in Georgia. If these plants go ahead, they would be the first new nuclear plants built in the country in more than three decades.

The loan guarantee is conditional. It hinges on the utility, the Southern Co., receiving a license from the US Nuclear Regulatory Agency to build and operate the new reactors. Based on the current timeline, the utility expects to receive its license during the second half of 2011, says David Ratcliffe, its chairman and chief executive officer [Christian Science Monitor]. The two reactors would each produce more than 1,000 megawatts, and would work with two existing reactors at a site near Waynesboro, Georgia.

The loan guarantees will allow Southern Co. to get massive construction loans from its bankers without assuming the risk; if the power plants aren’t profitable and if the company defaults on its loans, the federal government will pay back the money to the banks instead. Despite the government support, the new Georgia reactors are far from a done deal: their design has not yet been fully approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, whose staff has raised questions about whether changes made to harden the plant against aircraft attack had made it more vulnerable to earthquakes [The New York Times].

The loan guarantees are a provision in the 2005 Energy Policy Act, installed because nuclear power backers say new projects would be too great a financial risk to go forward without government support. Energy secretary Steven Chu announced that there’s more of this to come: The administration will ask for $36 billion in nuclear loan guarantees for 2011. However, ramping up the money could end up pouring good money after bad, skeptics argue. The guarantees represent money for “a limited set of reactors from a small number of first-movers,” says Ellen Vankco, a specialist on energy issues with the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington [Christian Science Monitor].

The announcement garnered the expected political reaction. Republicans and nuclear power advocates praised the move, while many environmentalists balked at expanding nuclear power and free-market activists balked at the spending, saying taxpayers could get stuck with the bill if projects fail. However, green groups haven’t complained as loudly as one might expect, because of the political reality: Many large conservation groups appear to be tacitly accepting the need to increase federal nuclear support — along with offshore oil and gas drilling, another environmentalist anathema — to attract Republican votes for a measure to limit greenhouse gas emissions [Los Angeles Times].

And then there’s the issue the Obama Administration would probably rather not talk about as it makes this nuclear push: waste. Given the litany of the problems with the proposed Yucca Mountain waste storage site in Nevada—transporting waste across the country, the possibility of a fault line running underneath it, and so on—Obama axed the idea of using it. With no viable alternatives, all that’s left is continuing to store on site. Currently, 70,000 tons of radioactive waste are stored at more than 100 nuclear sites around the country, and 2,000 tons are added every year [CNN].

Image: iStockphoto

Many Roads to Science | Cosmic Variance

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

We’ve collected enough data in our What Got You Interested in Science? poll to draw some conclusions. Not very firm conclusions, of course, as the whole process was wildly non-scientific, and there’s no reason to expect that the respondents were a representative sample in any sense. (The numbers were not bad; the smallest category, “the internet,” received 62 votes so far.) But conclusions, nonetheless!

And the main conclusion is: there are many different things that get young proto-scientists interested in the field. Books, both non-fiction and fiction, play an important role, but no one thing really stands out.

That’s interesting, and not really what I would have expected. Given that there certainly are many things that could get someone interested in science, I wouldn’t have been surprised if there was a dominant source for the pipeline, but instead it’s quite a diverse porfolio.

If we think getting people interested in science is a good thing, the lesson is: there aren’t any magic bullets. A broad-based strategy seems appropriate. Interesting books, educational classes, encouraging relatives, engrossing hobbies and school activities, inspiring movies and TV shows. I approve.

The AirRay Auto

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

And they just keep on coming! Here is an automobile which has several wind turbines built in to harness wind energy as it is driven, and a solar-cell roof. It is supposed to be so efficient that you'll be able to supply power to your house or to the grid when parked. I see a few names listed for

And Baby Makes Three: An Interview with Wade Shepard

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

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In his 2007 interview, Wade was described as a “modern-day nomad” and “travel was his lifestyle”. Not much has changed since that discussion. He’s still the “modern-day nomad” and “travel is still his lifestyle” but these days… That lifestyle includes a family. Wade met Chaya in 2008. They married and then gave birth to their daughter, Petra, in 2009. If you think parenthood overrides seeing the world – think again!

Wade and Petra

A lot changed in your life last year. You got married. You became a dad. How has this changed your perspective on travel?

Finding myself with wife and child has just strengthened my resolve as a traveler, and that traveling is the best way that I know of to cultivate a family. If I can travel with a family and raise a child on the road it would show that this is a sustainable lifestyle, it is a way of life that can be passed down through generations.

In my experience, the traveling life offers far more to savor, to learn, to figure out, to question, to answer than just about other way of living that I have been exposed to. When traveling, challenges occur daily which force you to use all of the resources at your disposal — this builds character, intelligence, and wisdom. If I had to choose a life for my daughter to lead — if I wanted to prepare her for anything life may toss her way — then I would want to raise her while traveling around the world.

This is what we are doing.

Raising a child while traveling is no longer an ideological rant that I use to have over beers with other travelers, but is something that is now real, raw, in my face, and in my hands.

Raising a child while traveling is no longer an ideological rant that I use to have over beers with other travelers, but is something that is now real, raw, in my face, and in my hands. I am not sure how well this will work further down the road — I do not yet know where to tell you to place your bets — but we have already traveled the USA from end to end as a family and are now in the Dominican Republic. We are living day for day, but if tomorrow is anything like today was, then I am quite sure that we can keep traveling on for at least these first phases of Petra’s development.

Marriage and parenthood aren’t usually considered to be compatible with full-time travel. What are your thoughts on that?

I would have to say that it is my impression that not much in the sedentary frame of existence seems to be compatible with full time travel. Whether you are talking about a career, health insurance, a retirement fund, a home, loans, mortgages, or having a wife and child, if you have the outlook of being secure and sedentary than none of it will mesh very well with traveling. I am just as free to travel now as I ever have been, because I intentionally set my life up in a way that would allow me to live like this.

I did not become a traveler by accident, I chose to live this way and made sure that my parameters were set up to allow for continuous travel. If I was burdened with many of the above stated responsibilities or values, then having a wife and baby would further nail down my tether. But I don’t. I set up a frame of living for myself a long time ago that took traveling to be at its center. Where many people prepare for a career or buying a home, I worked on cultivating skills that would allow me to live a full life moving from one part of the world to another.

Chaya and Petra

Travel is not an escape from my life, but it is my life. Having a wife and child has so far blended itself in well with this frame of living. If any of you read the Vagabond Journey Travelogue you will see that I do not go hungry, I am seldom cold or without shelter, I think I live like a king on $10 a day. But I am only able to do this because I had to sacrifice other ways of living — other value sets — to enable myself to live like this.

There are sacrifices to any lifestyle. There are tons of parameters, drawbacks, and sacrifices in the typical life of a doctor, a lawyer, a truck driver, a construction worker, and the same goes for being a traveler. Petra may not have all of the amenities of life that a doctor’s child would have, or the wholesome security of that of a skilled trades man, but these people’s children will not have the experiences, the thrills, the knowledge, the education, and exposure that Petra will have. Any lifestyle is a trade off: you trade certain values and parameters for others.

Petra has her mom and dad with her almost 24 hours a day, her days are generally relaxed, we are rarely every stressed out. We wake up in the morning, I publish a travelogue entry, and then we go to the beach and swim, meet people, and check things out. How many children can claim to have this?

There is one thing that babies are, and that is curious. There is no better way to satiate and encourage curiosity than traveling. Long term travelers tend to just be big children anyway, so it would be an easy move to induct a real child amongst our ranks.

It is my impression that most people who would like to travel long term — even those without children — find reasons and excuses to stay home. They say that they can’t travel because they have children — and maybe they can’t, what do I know? — but we have a child, we are traveling, for us, traveling full time and having a family is working out well. I think the challenge was found more in initially structuring my life around traveling than with traveling with a child. I traveled for a little over 10 years before I became a father — I had my plot well set — and my daughter, Petra, and wife, Chaya, have fit in nicely with this plot.

How has having a baby changed your travel habits at a practical level?

It is true that we have had to alter our strategies for traveling with a baby. We now travel more slowly, staying in places for a month or two rather than weeks. We had to get use to having a little person telling us what to do all the time. We now need to spend less money, so we rent apartments rather than hotel rooms or hostel bunks. We now need to make more money, so I find myself sometimes working in archaeology again and staying up late into the night trying to squeeze more money out of our website, VagabondJourney.com.

My wife and baby are two more traveling companions, and their desires must be fully taken into account. I found that if I treat my baby with as much respect as I would another adult traveling companion, then everything seems to works out alright. It is difficult adding another adult companion to your group, so the extra parameters that we give to Petra are similar to what we would need to give any traveling companion. The only difference is that Petra’s needs are baby needs. If Petra wants to stop somewhere, we stop; if she is hungry, we make space for her to eat; if she gets sick of walking around, we go back to our room.

It is challenging traveling with a baby, I admit it, but adding another traveling companion — of any age — to your group is challenging no matter what. In my experience, the frustrations of traveling with a baby are nowhere near the frustrations of trying to maneuver through the streets with a group of adult travelers: “Where do you want to eat? I don’t know, where do you want to eat? I can’t eat there, they don’t have a vegetarian option. Well I can’t eat there because I don’t like how they handled the food. That creepy guy is looking at me creepy. I want to go shopping. I need to go to an ATM. How much money is that it in dollars? Where do you want to eat? I don’t know.” ARRRGGH!

At least Petra just cries when she doesn’t like doing something.

What about being married? Has that had a big impact on how you travel?

Yeah, I no longer need to move about the world chasing tail anymore. It is amazing how much energy a person can save by not searching for romance all the time. I can now sit back read a book, grow a great big beard, smoke my pipe, wear aviator sunglasses and funny hats. Marriage is pretty good.

I say this in sort of a tongue in cheek way, but I am serious: it is also good to have a solid companion when traveling. Where I falter I can depend on my wife to pick up the pieces and where she stumbles she can depend on me to clear a path.

Where I falter I can depend on my wife to pick up the pieces and where she stumbles she can depend on me to clear a path.

We now have a baby together and we run the website as a family business, so we are now on the same team in more ways than one. I have no complaints, but, then again, my wife also plays the game of travel very well.

My wife, Chaya, was traveling for five years through Africa, Central and South America, India, and Asia before we paired up, so this is nothing new for her. She had her own plot in place as well before we made Petra — and our lifestyles blended in smoothly together. She also has a university degree in international education, TEFL certificates, and has a sleek, clean, USA sitcom sort of look to her, so she is fully prepared for working on the road and finds jobs easily.

Petra in the Dominican Republic

Where are you, Chaya and Petra planning to travel to this year?

We are in the Dominican Republic right now. The plan is to stay here for the next month and then move on to El Salvador via Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala, and then at some point go to Colombia. I really want to go to East Africa. Maybe I will try to pick up some archaeology fieldwork over that way and maybe Chaya will find work teaching. But if we boot the cost for the flights to East Africa this year, we are going to have to do a lot of work at something to make up for it.

Follow Wade, Chaya and Petra on Vagabond Journey. You can also follow their journey through Travels with Petra.

Chemical Mixtures

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

Hi Guys,

I am writing in hopes to get a 3rd opinion as to if I can put different chemical mixutres down the same industrial drain. I am in progress of asking 2 professionals but I thought I would see if all opinions jive.

The mixtures in peticular are: 1) H2SO4(96%),HCl(37%), H2O2(30

Starting Torque of Passenger Vehicle

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

HI to all !! i want to know the starting torque of passenger car? i mean if mass of vehicle 800kg then how much torque required to move the vehicle ?? As we all know at first gear torque is maximum to move on the vehicle!! but i know the value of torque !! & also want to ask how it is calculat

The first spectacular views of the sky from WISE | Bad Astronomy

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

NASA’s fledgling Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) opened its eyes a few weeks ago, and astronomers have just released the first of a torrent of spectacular images from it.

Since its launch last December, WISE has been surveying the sky, taking data continuously as it spins on its axis and orbits the Earth. A few images have been released before, but these new ones are fully processed, scientifically-calibrated, and gorgeous.

I have to start with this one, because it’s just so pretty! Behold Comet C/2007 Q3, aka Siding Spring:

Holy dirty snowballs! That’s gorgeous, a classic comet. When this image was taken, on January 10, 2010, the comet was 340 million kilometers (200 million miles) from Earth. That’s a good ways off, so I’m impressed with the detail of this image! It’s actually a four-color image: blue is 3.6 microns (about 5 times the reddest wavelength the human eye can see, so well out into the infrared), green is 4.6, orange is 12, and red is 22 microns.

Since the temperature of an objects determines the kind of light it emits, we can estimate the temperature of the comet just by eyeballing this picture. It’s mostly orange, meaning the comet is pouring out light at 12 microns. A human being radiates infrared from about 7 to 14 microns, so this means the parts of the comet emitting IR (and therefore seen by WISE in this image) are around the same temperature as a person! Well, in physics terms; in human terms it’s pretty cold, about -40 Celsius. And it’ll get even colder now since it’s on its way out of the inner solar system, away from the Sun’s warmth. It’ll dim as it cools, too, returning back to invisibility once again.

WISE is expected to see quite a few comets, and in fact discovered its first just a few days ago. I wonder how many it’ll find, and if they’ll all be this pretty…?

Let’s take a step farther out for the next WISE image:

Recognize that galaxy? I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t, but it’s Andromeda! That’s the nearest large spiral to our Milky Way. It’s roughly 2.9 million light years away (estimates vary) and can be seen by the naked eye from a dark site. This stunning photo really accentuates how amazing WISE is: the field of view is 5 degrees across, the width of ten full Moons. The Hubble camera I used to work with would barely cover a pixel in this image!

Remember, this image is all infrared. What looks blue here is actually cold stuff compared to what we’re used to: old red stars, for example. The colors are a little different than in the comet image, but red is still the coolest material: dust. These complex molecules are created when massive stars are born and when they die. Since massive stars don’t live long, they tend to die near where they were born, so you see the dust constrained to very narrow areas where star formation occurs. Less hefty stars (like the Sun) live long enough to drift away from their nursery over billions of years, so they fill the galaxy’s disk (in blue). That’s why the dust is so vivid and tightly defined in this image.

If you look closely, you can see the left side of the galaxy is a bit distorted. That’s called a warp, and is probably caused by a nearby pass of another galaxy, or one Andromeda actually absorbed. The fuzzy blob just below the main galaxy is a dwarf elliptical companion to Andromeda, orbiting it like the Moon orbits the Earth. It’s mostly composed of old stars that look red to our eye, so again it’s blue in this false color image.

OK, one more. I like this one a lot: NGC 3603, a star-forming region about 20,000 light years from Earth:

It may not look familiar, but if you’ve been reading my blog for more than a couple of weeks, you’ve seen it: I wrote about a Hubble image of this very nebula. Now, if you’re like me, you’ll click that link, look at the Hubble image, and then try to figure out where it fits in this WISE shot. Pbbbt. Don’t bother. The Hubble image is only a tiny portion of this vast vista, a blip right in the middle of the brightest part of the WISE image. The S in WISE is for "Survey", which means it takes pictures of ginormous swaths of sky, far more than Hubble can do. In fact, Hubble could take picture after picture for weeks and not get a view of the sky as large as WISE does in a few minutes (of course, the Hubble image would be a whole lot more detailed…).

In this image, as before, red is warm dust, and blue is hotter material like stars. The green is what gets me though: at 12 microns, that reveals PAHs, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These complex organic compounds form in cool conditions in nebulae, which are lousy with them. They’re everywhere where the temperature isn’t too high to disintegrate them. They can form even larger molecules, and some people think they may be important in creating the molecules necessary for life on Earth. That’s not to say those molecules form in nebulae like NGC 3603 and then somehow get here; they most likely form right here as well. The point is, they look like they’re pretty easy to make if conditions are right… on Earth as it is in the heavens.

And the sheer size and breadth of the nebula is simply stunning! I’m so used to narrow fields of view that I forget sometimes just how large these objects are. This nebula is dozens of light years across, forming thousands upon thousands of stars. It’s among the biggest such star factories in our galaxy, and is certainly easily visible from other galaxies as well. Even from 20,000 light years away — 1/5 of the way across our entire galaxy — it’s clearly a formidable object.

And that’s the strength of WISE. It can see large objects, investigate the bigger picture of the sky, and do it in the longest regions of the infrared spectrum, light that we simply cannot explore from the ground — our air absorbs it, and all the warm objects around us glow fiercely at those energies. It would be like trying to find a firefly against the Sun! So we must launch observatories into space to peer at the far infrared light from cosmic objects, and WISE will be our eyes to do just that.

And from these images it looks like it’ll do a fine job. I’m impressed with these images. I’ve seen a few early release observations in my time — I’ve made a few myself! — and these are excellent. The whole mission is only supposed to last a few months; there is coolant on board for the detectors that can only go so far. In that short time it has a whole sky to observe, and that’s a lot of space. But that also means there’s a lot to see: galaxies, asteroids, comets, nebulae… maybe even a gamma-ray burst or two. The next few months will be very exciting for infrared astronomy!

Images credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

Sourcing a Scale

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

Can anyone tell me if there's a company like Starrett or Mitutoyo. That makes a scale that's the normal 6 inches in length, but graduated across the ends rather than the length of the scale, to access tight spaces. Also needs to be graduated in 10ths and 100ths.

Pentagon to Use Algae as Jet Fuel

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

"The brains trust of the Pentagon says it is just months away from producing a jet fuel from algae for the same cost as its fossil-fuel equivalent.

The claim, which comes from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) that helped to develop the internet and satellite navigation sy

Longest Beach on Cape Town’s Atlantic Seaboard, Noordhoek Sands Stretch for Miles

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

View over Noordhoek Beach from Chapman's Peak Drive

Though its official name is Noordhoek, most locals just call it Long Beach, a reference to its five-mile length. This longest beach on the Cape Peninsula’s Atlantic Seaboard connects the towns of Noordhoek and Kommetjie, located a short half hour drive south of Cape Town. Yet despite its convenient location, soft white sand, and vast undeveloped landscape, Noordhoek is often practically deserted. During the winter, strong winds drive angry waves across the beach, creating a lagoon behind the dunes; even in gentler seasons, this is definitely not a swimming beach.

Yet, Noordhoek has other charms. Its windswept stretches offer impressive vistas of Chapman’s Peak pass and the mountains towards Simonstown, luring power walkers, kite-fliers, and even romantic couples who appreciate the solitude. At the northern end of the beach, huge boulders rounded by wind and water have formed a small sandy bay nicknamed “The Hook” by surfers and bodyboarders. The waves arrive at regular intervals and are dependably high, something every surfer dreams of. On the southern end, a 100-year old old wrecked steamship begs to be explored. Perhaps the most popular activity of all is horseback riding. Nearby Sleepy Hollow Riding Stables can arrange for rides through the dunes and on the beach for riders of every ability level, even children.

Five miles of complete solitude

Noordhoek Beach is easily accessible from Chapman’s Peak Drive or the scenic Oukaapse Weg, and facilities, including a few guest houses, restaurants, and shops, are available in the towns that anchor the north and south ends of the beach.

Photo credit: Barbara Weibel
Article by Barbara Weibel of Hole In The Donut Travels

Potential Solution for Storing Nuclear Waste

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

= GE Hitachi's Answer to Nuclear Waste =

The maker of nuclear power plants is promoting a process to use the waste as fuel.

By Kevin Bullis

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, one of the world's biggest providers of nuclear reactors, says it has a

Web-Based Control and Monitoring of Siemens PLCs

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

WEB BASED CONTROLLING AND MONITORING OF Siemens's PLC i want to control and monitor a process , that process will be control s7-300 siemen's PLC. can any body guide me about how i m remotely access the Process. Is LabVIEW good for that or Wincc????

The Sound of Speed

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

Bob Thompson’s The Sound of Speed (check out the audio samples!)

Via Boing Boing: “an album entirely based on the noises of modern transportation.”

“This “concept” LP rhapsodizes the technology of human transport, from Vespa scooters to Le Mans racers, from tricycles to rocket ships. Each of the dozen vehicular vignettes is book-ended by authentic sound effects, with vivid stereo motion. The music was composed and arranged by Thompson, and the album was recorded in Italy by the Orchestra dei Concerti de Roma, conducted by Paul Baron.”

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What Killed King Tut? Incest and Malaria, Study Says | 80beats

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Danzig

King tut Once again, to the bane of myth-makers and fans of historical intrigue, the simplest explanation may be the best: Scientists analyzing the DNA of the world-famous mummy of Tutankhamen say that he wasn’t done in by murder nor any of the exotic diseases put forth as explanations for his death at the age of 19. Rather, they say in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it was likely complications of malaria that killed King Tut, who was already frail thanks to royal inbreeding.

The team led by Egypt’s top archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, spent years taking CT scans and conducting genetic tests on mummies from the royal tombs. They say they confirmed that Tut was the son of Akhenaten, which is what scholars have long believed, but it hints at something else: It also identifies some of his grandparents and great-grandparents for the first time and suggests that his mother was Akhenaten’s sister [The Times]. A brother-sister pair wasn’t unusual during this period in ancient Egypt, medical historian Howard Markel says. Pharaohs were thought of as deities, so it makes sense that the only prospective mates who’d pass muster would be other deities [AP].

Unfortunately for King Tut, that incestuous tradition made him more susceptible to degenerative bone diseases. He may have had Koehler’s disease, as well as a club foot. Earlier discoveries had hinted at Tutankhamen’s frailty, including the 100-plus walking sticks that Howard Carter found when he unearthed the tomb in 1922. “This is confirmed by images that show him sitting while shooting an arrow, which normally would have been done standing up,” says Hawass. “He cannot stand” [TIME].

The researchers also found that Tut and his family were infected by a parasite that often brought with it a virulent form of malaria. If the young Tut was already frail and had a weakened immune system, a malarial infection could have been life-threatening, the team hypothesizes. Not everyone buys the parasite bit, however, including parasite scientist Sanjeev Krishna. “If you have the parasite and you get to the age of 19, the chances are you’ve developed some kind of immunity,” he said [The Times].

But while a sickly minor king who could barely walk isn’t exactly as romantic as the King Tut of popular culture, James Phillips of Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History says we shouldn’t expect the emerging facts to crush the myth. “Reality is reality, but it’s not going to change his place in the folk heroism of popular culture,” Phillips said. “The way he was found, what was found in his grave — even though he was a minor king, it has excited the imagination of people since 1922″ [AP].

Image: flickr / Steve Evans

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