Clipmarks | Djiezes's Pops

Say wow! the flying jellyfish

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:49:00 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Last year Festo surprised everyone with their amazing prototype of the Air_ray a manta ray that swims through the air and the b-IONIC Airfish. We reported on it in a great post which was titled "Airships are just like fish in the sky" Festo is currently at the Hannover Messe 2008 and they brought an just as stunning new project with them. We present the Air Jelly, a jellyfish that swims through the air. Currently the information about the AirJelly is only available in German at the Festo Website but the pictures speak for them self, of course we also provide you with a direct link to the autotranslated Page in English about the AirJelly
The Video on the Website of Festo did not work for me so I uploaded it to YouTube just in case you can not see the "Flim" on the Festo website:

Tags: robotics, jellyfish

68 Molecules that hold the key to all Cellular Life

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:01:12 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Currently, the vast majority of medical research looks to the human genome and proteome for answers, but those answers remain elusive, and perhaps for good reason.

“We have now found instances where the pathogenesis of widespread and chronic diseases can be attributed to a change in the glycome, for example, in the absence of definable changes in the genome or proteome,” Marth said, adding that, as biomedical researchers, “we need to begin to cultivate the integration of disciplines in a holistic and rigorous way in order to perceive and most effectively manipulate the biological mechanisms of health and disease.”

Marth believes that biology should become more integrative both in academic and research settings. “I’m one who believes that we don’t need to sacrifice breadth of knowledge in order to acquire depth of understanding.”

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Why is it that the origins of many serious diseases remain a mystery? In considering that question, a scientist at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has come up with a unified molecular view of the indivisible unit of life, the cell, which may provide an answer.

Reviewing findings from multiple disciplines, Jamey Marth, Ph.D., UC San Diego Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, realized that only 68 molecular building blocks are used to construct these four fundamental components of cells: the nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), proteins, glycans and lipids.

Like the periodic table of elements, first published in 1869 by Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, is to chemistry, Marth’s visual metaphor offers a new framework for biologists.

These 68 building blocks provide the structural basis for the molecular choreography that constitutes the entire life of a cell

Tags: biology, cell biology

Shaking things up on Clipmarks.com

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:55:57 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: Please read the entire post by clicking the source link before reacting.

Clip Source: clipmarks.wordpress.com

Unfortunately, we have recently become increasingly concerned that the site has become overly antagonistic and inappropriately controlled by a disproportionately loud group of users. In all honesty, we no longer feel that the processes of our site are producing a unique, high quality blend of content. Instead, the magical blending of diverse topics on the Clipmarks home page has seemed to dissolve into a battleground for extremely hostile politically oriented users who are overwhelming the rest of the site. Because of this we are working on making some fundamental changes to the way the Clipmarks site works. We will do our best to make changes that improve the site and will continue to iterate until we are comfortable that it is just right.

Tags: clipmarks

Is Planet-scale Geo-Engineering Needed to Reverse Global Warming?

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:48:40 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: "This puts a special responsibility on us to stay civilized and give refuge to the unimaginably large influx of climate refugees,' he said, adding that carrying on with 'business as usual' would probably kill most of us this century.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

James Lovelock,the controversial environmental scientist and Oxford professor who developed the Gaia hypothesis of the Earth as a self-regulating organism, warns humans may have to attempt planet-scale engineering of the climate because global warming is happening faster than experts have been predicting.

"Safe forms of 'geo-engineering' should be used if they can buy us a little time to adapt to a rapidly changing climate."

The startling new ideas Lovelock proposes range from artificially altering the climate range from using a constellation of trillions of space craft as a sun-shade or dust particles in the stratosphere to reflect solar energy to 'seeding' the oceans with iron particles to stimulate algae, which absorb CO2.

Scientists at Stanford University reported that a 2 per cent reduction in the amount of sunlight warming the Earth is more than enough to offset a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere, and suggested it would be possible to deflect sunlight from the Arctic

Tags: climate change, geo engineering

Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:31:17 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks:

Clip Source: www.theonion.com

As the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose Monday in this embattled Midwestern state.

Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now asserting that the long-held "theory of gravity" is flawed, and they have responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling.

"Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, 'God' if you will, is pushing them down," said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture, and physics from Oral Roberts University.

Burdett added: "Gravity—which is taught to our children as a law—is founded on great gaps in understanding.

Isaac Newton himself said, 'I suspect that my theories may all depend upon a force for which philosophers have searched all of nature in vain.' Of course, he is alluding to a higher power."

Tags: humor

50 Billion Suns! -The Biggest Single Object in the Universe

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:17:51 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Based on this self-regulating maximum rate, scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Massachusetts, and the European Southern Observatory, Chile, have calculated an upper limit for these mega-mammoth masses. Fifty billion suns, that's 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 kg, otherwise known as "ridiculously stupidly big" and triple the size of the largest observed black hole, OJ 287.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Scientists have determined the mass of the largest things that could possibly exist in our universe, and they don't appear in the Oprah studio audience.

New results have placed an upper limit on the current size of black holes - and at fifty billion suns it's pretty damn big. That's a hundred thousand tredagrams, and you'll never get the chance to use that word in relation to anything else.

While there's theoretically no upper limit on how big a black hole can be, there are hard limits on how big they could have become by now. The universe has only existed for a finite amount of time, and even the most voracious black hole can only suck in matter at a certain rate. The bigger the black hole, the bigger the gravitational field and the faster it can pull in matter - but that same huge gravitational gradient means that the same matter can release huge amounts of radiation as it falls, blasting other matter further away.

Tags: astronomy, cosmology

13 of the Coolest Art Installations in the History of Burning Man

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:17:21 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: From spiritual enlightenment to experimental collaboration to sheer mind-tripping revelry, numerous motivations drive Burners to make the yearly pilgrimage to Black Rock City, NV. But one core principle unites them all: radical self-expression.

Read more details on site.

Clip Source: matadornights.com

Tags: art, burning man

Color In Nature: Funghi

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:13:58 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.colourlovers.com

Mushrooms have been inspiring the cuisines of many cultures for centuries, but little did i know, they were once a commonly used textile dye because of the vast range of colors you can achieve using mushrooms. The colors of mushrooms are deep and rich adding a fascinating and unexpected touch to the surrounding palette of colors in which they grow.

The Evolving AI Ecosystem

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:13:38 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: He takes his theory further, all the way in to the tubes of the internet. In collaboration with Professor Tim Berners-Lee – the co-inventor of the World Wide Web – the pair have been investigating the next generation Web. “What is emerging now is a digital ecosystem,’ says Professor Shadbolt, ‘involving lots of simple systems which connect millions of complex ones – humans!”

And there begins to be a certain amount of logic and a lessening of the fear I feel for the day when I am some robots whipping boy. We see such developments already in websites such as Facebook and Flickr, and programs such as Google Earth and World of Warcraft. We are being linked together, ever so slowly by a collective consciousness.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

One of the greatest fears of many is the underlying knowledge that of all the wonderful advances of technology, the internet and robotics is simply bringing us closer to being subservient to our robotic overlords.

However British Computer Society President and ECS Professor of Artificial Intelligence Nigel Shadbolt, believes differently.

Shadbolt believes that the future of artificial intelligence will be much different, though no less exciting, than previously expected.

Instead of intelligence that is a “brain in a box”, we are seeing intelligence that is assistive, adaptive and flexible.

In other words, instead of an intelligence that is “…agonizing about their existence or whether we are about to switch them off” we are seeing the growth of intelligence that, in years to come, will immerse us and center around humans, rather than feel the need to enslave humans.

There will be micro-intelligences all around us – systems that are very good and adaptive at particular tasks

Tags: ai, the web, futurism, man machine interface

YouTomb

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:07:27 GMT

clipped by: akipta

Clip Source: youtomb.mit.edu

YouTomb is a research project by MIT Free Culture that tracks videos taken down from YouTube for alleged copyright violation.

Tags: youtube copyright legal-issues

Rossum's Universal Robots

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:14:37 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: The first use of the term Robot. The complete play

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) is a science fiction play by Karel Čapek. It premiered in 1921 and is famous for having introduced and popularized the term robot.

A scene in the play, showing three robots.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Clip Source: www.paleofuture.com

The October 16, 1922 edition of The Bee (Danville, Virginia) ran a syndicated story about the Karel Capek play R.U.R. The play introduced the world to the word "robot" from the Czech "robota," which literally means "forced work." Below are excerpts as well as the article as it appeared in The Bee.

If any industrial genius, like Henry Ford, ever turns his energies to the manufacture of Robots we're all goners, as the saying is.

The Robot is a terrible creature of synthetic flesh, bone and skin. He is in the image of man and has all the attributes of man except spirituality and laziness

Clip Source: www.paleofuture.com

Clip Source: ebooks.adelaide.edu.au

The complete work

R.U.R.

(Rossum´s Universal Robots)

A play in introductory scene and three acts

by

Karel Čapek

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Introductory Scene

ACT ONE

ACT TWO

ACT THREE

"Religious literacy" courses now required in Modesto, CA public schools

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:43:11 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: More religious knowledge has got to be a good thing, I think. On the other hand, a course like this has got to be fantastically easy to screw up. It would be interesting to study what they're doing and how it's working out. Thanks to ~C4Chaos at Friendfeed for the link.

Clip Source: www.cbsnews.com

Teaching Not Preaching In CA Bible Belt

Most Schools Avoid Religion, But It's Required In Modesto Schools

Modesto, Calif., is home to the only school district in the country that requires the teaching of world religions to high school students. (CBS)

Like many other places, Modesto is becoming more religiously diverse.

But unlike any other place, religion is a required course in high school here.

"And now we're going to be looking at Judaism, Christianity, and Islam," Taylor said to her class.

"The United States is one of the most religious countries on Earth. And yet Americans know almost nothing about religion," said Stephen Prothero, author of a new book, "Religious Literacy."

But in Modesto, the lessons aren't about distant cultures, so much as about the student at the next desk.

While there are many religions here, the goal is to create one community where everyone is accepted.

Tags: religion, schools, education, teaching, california, pluralism, america, news

Transformers - The Nature of Alien Life

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:52:47 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: The driving factor is a pragmatic desire to improve mental capacity. Alien beings may have already reached a point in their evolution where, having exhausted the potential of their biological brains, they have taken the next logical step and opted for robotic brains equipped with artificial intelligence. This brain swap may not be as far off for humans as one might think. In only a few decades, the computer revolution here on Earth has produced supercomputers capable of performing more than a quadrillion calculations per second.

According to research by Hans Moravec, an artificial-intelligence expert at Carnegie Mellon University, that rate trumps the human brain’s estimated top speed of 100 trillion calculations per second. Some scientists speculate that in a few decades, an event called the technological singularity will occur, and machines armed with computer brains will become sentient and surpass human intelligence. Civilizations equipped with technology light-years ahead

Clip Source: kemo-d7.livejournal.com

The existence of a race of sentient alien robots might be
not just possible, but inevitable.

Daniel C. Dennett points out that we do not consider chemicals to be alive. Even self-replicating crystals and clever nanobots are not "living"; we consider them to be completely mechanical. Yet we are made of these non-living, "mechanical" chemicals. Not only are we made of robots, and we still consider ourselves to be valid conscious life, but the evolution of all life is from such mindless robots.

As life is based in biology, and biology in biochemistry, chemistry is based on the cold, non-living laws of physics.

Given the current pace of development, it is easy to imagine artificial life venturing out into the universe and leaving us fragile humans behind.

In fact, we might be living in a "post-biological universe" right now, in which intelligent extraterrestrials somewhere have exchanged organic brains for artificial ones.

Tags: ai, science fiction, alien life

Robots and Humans: Intel say equal by 2050

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:09:39 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Robots: From the Factory Floor to Your Kitchen - Robots today are primarily used in the factory environment, designed to perform a single task repeatedly and bolted down. To make robotics personal, robots need to move and manipulate objects in cluttered and dynamic human environments, according to Rattner. They need to be cognizant of their surroundings by sensing and recognizing movement in a dynamic physical world, and learn to adapt to new scenarios. Rattner demonstrated two working personal robot prototypes developed at Intel’s research labs. One of the demonstrations showed electric field pre-touch that has been built into a robot hand. The technique is a novel sensing modality used by fish but not humans, so they can “feel” objects before they even touch them. The other demonstration was a complete autonomous mobile manipulation robot that can recognize faces and interpret and execute commands as generic as “please clean this mess” using state-of-the-art motion planning, manipula

Clip Source: www.product-reviews.net

The idea of Robots being as smart and lifelike as Humans is a scary one to some people, but also something very useful and exciting to others. Intel has said that the gap between robots and us will close by 2050.

Justin Rattner, during his keynote today at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, predicted big changes are ahead in social interactions, robotics and improvements in computer’s ability to sense the real world.

He said Intel’s research labs are already looking at human-machine interfaces and examining future implications to computing with some promising changes coming much sooner than expected.

Cutting the Last Cord, Wireless Power - Imagine being able to walk into an airport or room with your laptop and instead of consuming battery, it is recharged.

Programmable Matter: Computers that Change Shape - Intel researchers are also investigating how millions of tiny micro-robots, called catoms, could build shape-shifting materials.

Tags: robotics, technology, computing, intel

Four Reasons Not to Give Up on Interstellar Travel

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:42:25 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: It looks far, dark, and cold... Yet, 120 years ago, flight was science fiction as well. C. G. Jung said that all dreams of space travel are just an escape from one most difficult challenge of all, that is the journey to man's inner space.

...and see my clip from last week on suggested FTL drive. It seems the motivation to escape an inner journey just grows.

Clip Source: io9.com

According to the scientists who attended this year's Joint Propulsion Conference in Hartford, Connecticut, humans may never be able to achieve interstellar travel.

But don't add "space adventure" to your list of unlikely futures for the human species just yet — here are four reasons why.

1. We are likely to develop new propulsion methods.

2. Humans could figure out ways to endure long space journeys.

3. Earth is not the only source of fuel.

4. We may yet discover a way to achieve faster-than-light travel.

According to NASA's Robert Frisbee:

It's always science fiction until someone goes out and does it.

Tags: space, space travel, propulsion