The Ghost City of Ordos [Architecture]

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China keeps growing like a giant red octopus fed by nuclear power and monosodium glutamate, a country that keeps spending money in pharaonic projects. Some useful, like the fastest train in the world. And some eerie and worthless, like Ordos.

The city of Ordos was founded on February 26, 2001. Ordos means "palaces" in Mongolian, and it's richer than Beijing. In fact, with a $14,500 GDP per capita, it's one of the richest in the whole country. With 1,548,000 inhabitants, Ordos is not exactly empty. But much of its modern architecture, sometimes awesomely futuristic, sometimes nafftastically overdeveloped and underdesigned, remains completely empty. The density of this city is only 17.8 people per square kilometer. By comparison, New York City has 157.91 habitants per square kilometer, San Francisco has 6,688.4, and Madrid 5,293.69. Even the city of Dubai, which has only grew in recent years, has 408.18 people per square kilometer.

And yet, the city of Ordos keeps growing like its motherland, with no control and making little sense at times. If at all. [Wikipedia]



Xbox Live Games Coming to (Possibly Only Windows) Mobile Phones [Xbox Live]

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How do you take a great idea like Xbox Live games coming to cellphones and ruin it? By only bringing those games to Windows Mobile phones, which may be what Microsoft has planned.

As you can see by the image above, taken from some internal Microsoft marketing material from last month, Xbox Live is spread across the Xbox 360, Windows and...Windows Phone. Now, this could just be a stand-in for many phones, or a new branding for game content to be available on many platforms. But it also could mean the games are just heading to Windows Mobile phones, which would pretty much kill the entire initiative right off the bat.

Also conspicuously absent from these plans: the Zune. No love for the Zune, Microsoft? [Kotaku]



The Nexus One’s 3G Problem, Pt. II: The Damning Data [Nexus One]

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Google's Nexus One support forums have been flooded with anecdotes about the phone's poor 3G connectivity, so one user decided to follow up with some reasonably scientific tests. The conclusion? The Nexus One is kind of terrible at basic cellphonery!

The test was simple and limited, consisting of one dude, user WV, wandering in and out of his house, recording signal strength as measured in dBm and ASU with Android's built-in metering app. Assuming the Nexus One is supposed to work like a normal cellphones—that is, it connects to 3G networks when they're available and EDGE only when they're not—something's wrong.

Since the phone is obviously finding and receiving the cellular signals just fine, but not handling them as you'd expect, randomly flipping between the two—and evidently preferring EDGE most of the time—no matter how strong its signal is. This points to a software issue, not a hardware issue. That, and this:

OK. I found "Phone Info" screen through "Any Cut". This looks like a screen not intended for average users. It clearly has settings that should not be messed with. However, it does have a pull down menu that was set to "WCDMA Preferred". I changed this to "WCDMA Only". The phone reset, and never again saw the f'ing "E" on the signal indicator- ALL 3G. After about 1/2 hour of speed tests (150k - 800kbps) and google satellite map downloads (all definitely faster), I switched back to "WCDMA Preferred". Guess what? After a few minutes, I was back on EDGE, even with a good signal. Switched back to "WCDMA Only", and 3G it remains.

This doesn't fully solve the problem, because as WV notes, if you fall out of T-Mobile's 3G coverage area with EDGE disabled, you're basically boned. But anyway, yes, this appears to be a software bug. Or, if you're feeling conspiratorial today, like WV, a software feature:

My concern is whether T-mobile is being sneaky about this and purposefully dumbing down the 3G to Edge to reduce cell frequency congestion and/or their back-end network congestion.

I'm not sure I want to draw that nexus (haw?) quite yet, since the issue was first brought to light by comparing the Nexus One's 3G/EDGE handling to other T-Mobile 3G Android handsets, and those, despite having the same data-sucking potential as the Google Phone, haven't been throttled in any way. While Google is silent and T-Mobile says they're "investigating," the evidence keeps mounting and the question looms larger: what's really wrong with the Nexus One's 3G? [Google Nexus One Support Forums]



Embracing Reality

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Keith's note: Twitter has some 18 million active users. We've already seen how Twitter has started to alter how news and ideas are spread - instantaneously - with major TV networks scrambling to pay attention. To its credit, NASA was an early adopter and now makes remarkable use of Twitter - and is learning fast how to use other social networking tools. Twitter is paying attention - hence this banner - one that appears with regularity on Twitter.

Alas, while NASA has pushed the envelope with regard to social media, its Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs at NASA Headquarters, Morrie Goodman, has (privately) expressed deep skepticism with regard to the value of these tools. Is Morrie offering a reality check, or reaffirming the status quo of ideas and paradigms that are no longer relevant?

What is it that Twitter sees in NASA - that NASA does not see in Twitter?

Keith's update: Morrie Goodman does not agree with what I have posted. If/when he sends me a formal response, I will be happy to post it - verbatim.

Apple Approves Porn App in Under 12 Hours [IPhone Apps]

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Proving once again that Apple's iTunes approval process is absurd and futile, an app developer got his porn browser approved in under 12 hours, even with all the latest rules in place. The funny thing: Apple doesn't know about it.

Until now, that is. Here's what the developer told us:

I developed an app that is currently available in the app store. It's called forChan and it is technically the first app with nudity that meets all of Apples requirements (hey, it was approved in under 12 hours believe it or not!).

It is a web browser/photo app. You have to enter URLs to browse different imageboards which do/don't contain nudity. You can switch between categories to decide which uncensored content gets delivered to the
previous URL (blondes, brunettes, etc, etc).

There is currently over 100,000 pics spread between 15 categories with much much more coming soon.

It's pretty simple. When you get the app, you can only browse a gallery of dogs. They are naked, but they are dogs, so unless you are into furry butts and lipsticks, all is fine.

But after pasting the image board URL, forChan allows you to browse through your favorite smut with ease, including full frontal nudity. While I haven't seen any gallery with actual sexual intercourse yet, you can basically set this $1 iPhone/iPod touch software to browse whatever material you want. The app is 17+ and its description mentions nudity and sex, so Apple must know about it. However, no other 17+ iTunes Store app shows all the juicy bits.

Would Apple remove this app, like they did with BeautyMeter? That was a interactive application for teens, created to exchange photos and rate them. Porn was bound to happen. This one, however, is just a web browser for images. If they ban it, however, they will be consistent with previous cases: Any app that can be used to browse porn is automatically removed from the store.

But unlike previous cases, the software itself is truly innocuous until you enter a web address in the URL field (one could have argued the same about BeautyMeter, which was innocuous until you uploaded your bust or penis to ie). So, if they remove forChan, they will set yet another dangerous precedent.

I can think about another app in the iPhone that does exactly what forChan does. It comes from the factory.

Its name is Safari. [iTunes App Store]



Smart Bowling Ball for Advanced Cheats

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From Newlaunches.com:

Now a sport doesn't always have to be played fair, no? Or does it? Well, as long as we have some smart chaps coming up with ideas like the Smart Bowling Ball, you really cannot make an excuse to play fair. Designed by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technolog

Getting Schooled In Energy | The Intersection

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longhorn logoAs regular Intersection readers know, I’ve long been interested in energy. Today I’m flying to Texas to join Michael Webber’s three day energy technology and policy course at UTAustin. Here is the description:

Dr. Michael Webber, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Associate Director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Texas at Austin, will share his insights and candid views about the best and worst of US energy practice. His fast-paced and information-packed lectures will include real-world examples, entertaining anecdotes, engineering fundamentals, historical perspectives, and an outlook for the future of energy. This crash course is perfect for people who want an energy credential or a graduate class in energy, but only have a few days to spare.

With lectures covering transportation, biofuels, climate, security, and food, I can’t wait. So expect some energy related posts this week as I have time to blog.


Australian World War II Shipwreck Filmed (AP)

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From Yahoo! News: Science News:

Shipwreck hunters have captured the first underwater footage of an Australian World War II hospital ship that sank in 1943 and left 268 people dead. A search team led by U.S. shipwreck hunter David Mearns sent a submarine robot more than 6,500 fee

Gotta Love It. Even the daycare…….

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So the other day I go to pick up my oldest and the businesswoman who runs the show said to me "I have a question" I quickly see her Time Magazine with the cover which asks "Can we change our genes"


I immediately launch into a diatribe about epigenetics. The current state of epigenetics is even murkier than micro RNAs. I basically go on a rant and at the end she says "So can those cigarettes I smoked as a kid screw up my grandson?"

OMFG!!! This is why I hate TIME magazine. AND the lay press, AND the secondary education system in this country...AND.........

Ok, here is the real take on Epigenetics. It is a control system, plain and simple, just like these RNAs and whatever else may control t he rate at which DNA does its dance.

Monogenetic disease importance is pretty clear....

Gene Broken (of important protein/etc) + No Repair = Disease Phenotype

But when you can compensate with other genes, or even multiple copies of the same gene or EVEN by upregulating similar genes to carry the load, you have a different story. Which is the story that you will soon hear being told.

The reason our organism exists here is because:

1. We repair our DNA damage pretty well, when we don't we die, usually of cancer
2. We have redundancy mechanisms which, we will find out have epigenetic control
3. We pass these adaptations on to our kin in multiple ways through behavior as well as, ribonucleic acids, as well as methylation and acetylation and......G-d only knows

Do we have any idea how the "F" all of this works. No, which is why I beg all of you hungry reporters working as freelance or as staff reporters for the will known as Time, please stop hyping "the NEXT BIG THING"

God Damn now I am gonna have to deflate the epigenetics balloon too????

Pretty soon everyone will be saying, WE HAVE A RIGHT TO A PROPER EPIGENTICALLY MODIFIED GENOME! I can see it now.......

The Sherpa Says: How about extra methylation causing cancer? How about low methylation ALSO causing cancer? Don't believe me? Pub Med it.......

Another dose of Martian awesome | Bad Astronomy

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If someone woke me out of a sound sleep and forced me at gunpoint to say which is my favorite camera in the solar system, they’d probably have to shoot me. But I think that HiRISE onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter would be in the top three. And it’s pictures like this one that put it there:

hirise_avalanche_big

[Click to get to greatly embiggened pictures.]

That is not a closeup of my chin before I shave. It’s Mars, a dune field in the far north; at latitude 83.5° to be precise, less than 400 km (240 miles) from the north pole. The eternal Martian wind blows the heavy sand into dunes, and you can see the hummocks and ripples from this across the image. The sand on Mars is from basalt, which is a darkish gray color. The red comes from much smaller dust particles which settle everywhere.

But what are those weird tendril thingies?

In the Martian winter, carbon dioxide freezes out of the air (and you thought it was cold where you are). In the summer, that CO2 sublimates; that is, turns directly from a solid to a gas. When that happens the sand gets disturbed, and falls down the slopes in little channels, which spreads out when it hits the bottom. But this disturbs the red dust, too, which flows with the sand. When it’s all done, you get those feathery tendrils. Note that at the tendril tips, you see blotches of red; that’s probably from the lighter dust billowing a bit before settling down.

hirise_avalancheNow, you might think I’m making this all up. How do we know this stuff is flowing downhill like that? Ah, because in this picture we’ve caught it in the act! In this image, a closeup of a region just to the left of center of the big image, you can actually see the cloud of dust from an avalanche as it occurs.

Oh, baby. The cloud is only a few dozen meters across, and can’t be more than a few seconds old.

I love stuff like this. I tend to think of Mars as a stiff, still, unchanging place, but then HiRISE goes and slaps me in the face with something like this. Mind you, this is an avalanche. On another planet. Caught as it happened.

Awe. Some.

We’ve seen this before on Mars, but it’s still shocking and amazing. I can imagine some future settlers on the Red Planet, dealing with the lack of air, bitter cold, dust in all the machinery, radiation hazards from the Sun. And, apparently, they’ll have to dodge landslides too. It’ll be a tough life for sure… but then, I look at pictures like this and think it would be worth it, just to stand on the surface of another world and be able to simply look around.

If we can see this kind of thing from space, with robotic probes, what will humans see when they go there and can kick over some rocks?


The Year in Science 2009 with Lawrence Krauss | The Intersection

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I’ve been meaning to blog this radio segment, on Minnesota Public Radio’s Midmorning program, in which renowned physicist Lawrence Krauss and myself discuss the scientific year in review–with particular emphasis on the changing of the guard in the Obama administration, the climate conundrum, and even the battle over science and religion (where I differ with Krauss maybe 5 %). You can listen here:


Body Material for Valve

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The type of material for body suggested by client is of ASTM Gr 216 WCB

But the vendor has given the material as BS 3100 Gr A4

Whether both are equivalent. Or else can u give the mechanical properties of thes two materials.