ClimatePrediction.Net
A SETI-like project for climate prediction.

posted by Farookh at 5:35 PM Comment (0)

Blast Affected Earth From Halfway Across The Milky Way: "The gamma-ray flare, which briefly outshone the full moon, occurred within the Milky Way galaxy. Even at a distance of 50,000 light-years, the flare disrupted the earth's ionosphere. If such a blast happened within 10 light-years of the earth, it would destroy the much of the ozone layer, causing extinctions due to increased radiation."

posted by Farookh at 5:28 PM Comment (0)

Ink helps drive democracy in Asia: "The ink is sprayed on a person's left thumb. It dries and is not visible under normal light. However, the presence of ultraviolet light (of the kind used to verify money) causes the ink to glow with a neon yellow light."

Why is this better than the indelible ink used in India? Not as ugly?

posted by Farookh at 5:25 PM Comment (0)

The Darwinian Interlude: Freeman Dyson on the passage of evolution from what was a "communal affair" with cells sharing genetic information freely, to the Darwinian era in which cells started competing and gave rise to organisms, to current times, the end of the Dawinian era and the rise of "Cultural evoltuion", and back to "the ancient pre-Darwinian practice of horizontal gene transfer, moving genes easily from microbes to plants and animals, blurring the boundaries between species".

-K

posted by Kaushik at 1:04 AM Comment (0)

SHA-1 Broken: A research team from China has cracked SHA-1. They have found collisions but the attacks still take 2^69 hash operations. (SHA-1 claims that at least 2^80 are needed.)

Comments by Bruce Schneier

RSA's response: Yes, but no reason to panic.

-K

posted by Kaushik at 11:49 PM Comment (0)

H-P sued over printer cartridge expiration: "A Georgia woman has sued Hewlett-Packard Co. , claiming the ink cartridges for their printers are secretly programmed to expire on a certain date, in some cases rendering them useless before they are even installed in a printer."

posted by Kaushik at 3:40 PM Comment (0)

Guardian A savant explains: "Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant. He can perform mind-boggling mathematical calculations at breakneck speeds. But unlike other savants, who can perform similar feats, Tammet can describe how he does it. He speaks seven languages and is even devising his own language. Now scientists are asking whether his exceptional abilities are the key to unlock the secrets of autism. "

Thanks Kartik, for the link.

-K

posted by Kaushik at 12:00 PM Comment (0)

The 'Rise of the Indian Rope Trick': The Grift of the Magi: "In 1890, Wilkie, a young reporter for The Chicago Tribune, fabricated the legend that the world has embraced from that day to this as an ancient feat of Indian street magic."

Book review in The New York Times. Use "randomnews" for name and password, if prompted.

-K

posted by Kaushik at 12:45 AM Comment (0)

The Feynman File"His daughter’s archive offers a wormhole into the secret life of a charismatic physicist"

"As I grew older, I began to see only what my father didn’t know, and came to think I was the one with all the answers. He would ask me questions whose answers I found to be painfully obvious, such as, “Hey, Michelle, where do we keep the spoons around here?” I discovered the real truth in my late teens. My father was a wise man with a tremendous appetite for life, an insatiable curiosity about how the world works, and a great aptitude for teaching."

If you find the complete article somewhere, please do comment with the url. Thanks.



posted by Farookh at 12:14 PM Comment (1)

Intel unveils laser breakthrough: "Scientists at Intel have overcome a fundamental problem that before now has prevented silicon being used to generate and amplify laser light."

posted by Farookh at 2:08 PM Comment (0)

Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf receive Turing award for defining the vocabulary of the Internet.

posted by Anonymous at 11:12 AM Comment (0)

NTERA's NanoChromics (TM) Display claims:

● Looks more like ink on paper than any other technology available and can be read at very acute angles.
● Bi-stable, meaning that once switched on, a pixel will stay coloured until actively bleached. In other words, no power is consumed to keep a pixel coloured.
● Reflective, needing no backlighting, means that the displays can require very little power to operate.

posted by Amit at 3:57 AM Comment (0)

Draft for Mendeleev's periodic table: Following Farookh's leading in blogging Crick's first DNA doodle, here is the an early draft of Mendeleev's periodic table (1869). Note that it is turned counter-clockwise by 90 degrees.

-K


posted by Kaushik at 5:16 PM Comment (0)

Crick's first DNA doodle released: "The pencil drawing has been posted on the internet as part of a project to open the late scientist's life and work to the public."

posted by Farookh at 11:18 AM Comment (0)

Tsunami unearths gifts for archaeology: "The deadly tsunamis that crashed into southern India unearthed priceless relics, including two granite lions, that had lain buried under the sand for centuries, archaeologists say.

The waves that killed over 285 000 people throughout Asia also appear to have swept a bronze Buddha to Indian shores from Thailand in a basket attached to a bamboo raft, archaeologists say."

-K

posted by Kaushik at 11:12 AM Comment (0)

P != NP proof claimed: Paper released a couple of days ago that claims to have proved that P != NP. This is one of the millenium problems up for the million dollar prize from the Clay Institute.

I tried to look for references for the author (Raju Renjit G., Grover Clinic, Ernakulam District, Kerala), but couldn't come up with any. Sounds like one of those lone researcher types. Should wait for validation.

-K

posted by Kaushik at 12:32 PM Comment (0)

What's Bugging the High-Tech Car?: The increasing complexity of the software in cars, and the problems it's causing.

-K

posted by Kaushik at 12:00 AM Comment (0)

RedNova News - Lethal Secret of Venus' Flytrap is Revealed ; Scientists Learn How Leaves Snap Closed: "From evolutionist Charles Darwin onward, scientists have pondered how the Venus' flytrap can snap its leaves closed around an insect in less than one-tenth of a second even though it has neither muscles nor nervous system.

Now, using a high-speed camera, a French and American team has shown that the rapid movement is caused by structural tension similar to that which causes a contact lens to suddenly flip from concave to convex when it is handled."

The research was undertaken out of curiosity and has no practical applications, Mahadevan said. "I thought it would be fun," he said. "Besides, as a vegetarian, it's nice to think about plants that eat animals rather than the other way around."

Love the last line!

-K

posted by Kaushik at 11:38 AM Comment (0)

The art of seeing without sight: A nice article in NewScientist about a blind painter Esref Armagan.

The article goes on to say “He paints houses and mountains and lakes and faces and butterflies, but he's never seen any of these things. And there is color, shadow and perspective in his paintings.." His gallery is absolutely impressive!


posted by Amit at 5:32 AM Comment (1)

False Alarm, Connecticut Not Being Evacuated: "Connecticut emergency management officials have apologized for an erroneous message sent to state broadcasters today saying an evacuation of the state had been ordered.

State emergency management officials believe someone pressed the wrong button."

-K


posted by Kaushik at 10:06 PM Comment (0)