Clipmarks | Mohir's clips

Online version of China's famed Forbidden City

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:41:27 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

IBM on Friday opened online doors to an interactive, animated replica of the 178-acre (720,000 square-meter) walled fortress of the famed Forbidden City in China, which served for centuries as an exclusive realm for the nation's emperors.

"Forbidden City: Beyond Space & Time" is billed as a first-of-a-kind, fully immersive, three-dimensional virtual recreation of "this Chinese cultural treasure."

Visitors to the virtual Forbidden City can explore it as animated avatars, able to chat with others or take part in activities such as archery, cricket fighting, or a board game called Weiqi.

Tags: online, ibm, china, virtual, forbidden city

Silver nanorod microscopy

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:11:55 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: The proposed device is based on a phenomenon called plasmonic resonance, which refers to the collective excitation of free electrons that occurs when light falls on a metallic surface. As well as amplifying the light waves in the near field, these resonances can be propagated through the metal. However, in the materials developed to date, the energy transmitted decays rapidly as it moves away from the surface.

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

Japanese researchers have developed a design concept for a light microscope which could in principle be used for imaging of nanoscale objects. The device would rely on a novel subwavelength imaging technique which allows for the visualization of objects that are smaller than the wavelength of the photons used in the device.

Once thought to be impossible, subwavelength imaging can now be performed because of the development of nanostructured metamaterials with a negative refractive index, which can act as a lens by focusing incident light. Until now though, such materials only worked at one wavelength and could only transfer images over short distances, so their potential for use as lenses was limited.

Tags: nanotechnology, microscopy, technology

Print What You Like - a cool tool

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:18:21 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: This can be a real help to those of us who print a lot from the web.

Clip Source: www.printwhatyoulike.com

Ever print a webpage only to find your printout is full of ads, empty space and other junk you don't want? PrintWhatYouLike is a free webpage editor that gives you control of how webpages look when printed.

Format any webpage for printing in seconds - no more pasting into Word

Save money and the environment by reducing your paper and ink usage

Make printed web pages more readable by removing ads, widgets and other distractions

Fix broken pages that don't print correctly

Tags: web, internet, internet tools, utilities

Sexiest Electric Cars from the Paris Auto Show

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:19:44 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: earth2tech.com

This year’s Paris Auto Show is turning out to be the most electrifying one yet, with car makers from all over the world debuting their electric vehicles. The offerings range from far-flung concept cars to very real production models. Solar roofs are a popular theme and lithium-ion battery packs abound. While it will take years to get the world’s cars off petroleum, electric transportation is imminent and the showing in Paris offers a glimpse of what that will look like.

Venturi - Volage

Renault - Z.E. Concept

Chevrolet - Volt

Daimler & Smart - smart fortwo ed

Nissan - Nuvu

Pininfarina - B0 (B Zero)

China Automobile - Chika

Audi/Volkswagen - VW Up! (Maybe)

Tags: cars, green

GeoEye-1, Google's Satellite Sends First Image

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:43:41 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: In an interview for Wired magazine, GeoEye's vice president of communications and marketing, Mark Brender, explained, “This is the opposite of a spy satellite. Spies don't put info on the Internet and sell imagery. We're an Earth-imaging satellite, and we can sell our imagery to customers around the world who have a need to map and measure and monitor things on the ground. We're commercializing a technology that was once only in the hands of the governments. Just like the internet, just like GPS, just like telecom – all invented by the government. And now we are on the front end of the spear that is commercializing this technology.”

Clip Source: news.softpedia.com

The picture shows a high resolution view of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania

Clip Source: news.softpedia.com

Since its launch, on September 6^th this year, Google's top-notch satellite has constantly been fine-tuned in order to get even more accurate results. The ultra-high definition images that it is able to provide make GeoEye-1 the world's best commercial satellite.

The state-of-the-art device's first public attempt consisted of a top-down accurate view of Pennsylvania's Kutztown University

Google's next satellite, GeoEye-2, will be able to provide 25-centimeter resolution images, but Google will still be restricted to their 50-centimeter limitations. The launch of GeoEye-2 is set for sometime in 2011 or 2012.

One in Four Children Believes it is Against the Law for Women, to be President

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:13:58 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks:

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

One in Four Children Believes it is Against the Law for Women, African Americans, or Latinos to be President of the United States

A new study in the journal Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy explored elementary-school-age children’s views about the role of race and gender in the U.S. presidency. Results indicated that most children are aware that women and people of color have been excluded from the presidency. Surprisingly, one in four children in the study stated that it was currently against the law for women, African Americans, or Latinos to be President. Many children also blamed those who have been excluded, arguing that they lack the necessary attributes to hold the position, including the fact women aren’t as smart as men.

Tags: usa, president, elections

Telling A 15 Billion Year Story In 3 1/2 Minutes

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:54:09 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.ponderabout.com

in the video below, astronomer Carl Sagan, traces events

from the time of the Big Bang to the formation of Life

and he manages to do so, with his brand of poetry,

in only 3 1/2 minutes

[Video]

the above is an excerpt from Cosmos: A Personal Voyage,

first broadcast by in 1980, the 13-episode Cosmos was

American public television's most watched series

it remained so for a decade, and today is regarded

as one of the all time geat science documentaries

Tags: cosmology, carl sagan, big bang, history

Why nature can't be reduced to mathematical laws

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:04:36 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: If so, then even perfect knowledge of the physics at one level would be inadequate for understanding organisation at higher levels. This conjecture has been debated ever since.
Now Mile Gu at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues, claim that it may be possible to prove Anderson's idea. They studied a basic mathematical model called the Ising model, which is often used to study how magnetism arises in iron and other materials from the collective organisation of their atoms.
Using the model, the team focused on whether the pattern that the atoms adopt under various scenarios, such as a state of lowest energy, could be calculated from knowledge of those forces. They found that in some scenarios, the pattern of atoms could not be calculated from knowledge of the forces - even given unlimited computing power. In mathematical terms, the system is considered "formally undecidable".

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

ONE of the grand aims of science is to explain every aspect of nature in terms of simple, fundamental laws - but is this possible? A team of physicists claims to have found a hint that some things simply cannot be computed, and that nature could be more than the sum of its parts.

The idea of reductionism, a key tool in science for centuries, holds that everything in nature can ultimately be understood by gaining knowledge of its constituent parts. The laws of fluid flows, for example, can be derived from the deeper laws of atomic and molecular motion, which in turn follow from quantum physics.

In 1972, physicist Philip Anderson pointed out that there could be a problem with this approach. Anderson suggested that some systems may be more than the sum of their parts. He championed "emergence" - the notion that important kinds of organisation might emerge in systems of many interacting parts, but not follow in any way from the properties of those parts.

Tags: nature, physics, laws, complexity, emergence

Stop sending mail you later regret

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:50:11 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks:

Clip Source: gmailblog.blogspot.com

Sometimes I send messages I shouldn't send. Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together. Gmail can't always prevent you from sending messages you might later regret, but today we're launching a new Labs feature I wrote called Mail Goggles which may help.

When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you're really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you're in the right state of mind?

By default, Mail Goggles is only active late night on the weekend as that is the time you're most likely to need it. Once enabled, you can adjust when it's active in the General settings.

Tags: email, gmail, regrets

A True Image from False Kiva

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:10:20 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Explanation: Is there any place in the world you could see a real sight like this? Yes. Pictured above is single exposure image spectacular near, far, and in between. Diving into the Earth far in the distance is part of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, taken with a long duration exposure. Much closer, the planet Jupiter is visible as the bright point just to band's left. Closer still are picturesque buttes and mesas of the Canyonlands National Park in Utah, USA, lit by a crescent moon. In the foreground is a cave housing a stone circle of unknown origin named False Kiva. The cave was briefly lit by flashlight during the long exposure. Astrophotographer Wally Pacholka reports that getting to the cave to take this image was no easy trek. Also, mountain lions were a concern while waiting alone in the dark for just the right exposure.

Tags: photo, astronomy

Our "Digital Shadow" -a Mind-Bending Prediction

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:31:39 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: In terms of numbers, the figures are staggering. The size of the digital universe for
2007 reached 281 billion gigabytes, or, 281 exabytes. This works out to be about 45GB of digital information per person on the planet. And, considering the lack of information for some of the third world countries, one can only imagine how much those of us reading this article will have under their belts.

Furthermore, the amount of information about us that is generated automatically on a pretty much daily basis outweighs the total volume of information that we create about ourselves. Naturally this has large security implications that the IT sector will have to address more and more as time passes.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

"We discovered that only about half of your digital footprint is related to your individual actions—taking pictures, sending e-mails, or making digital voice calls. The other half is what we call the 'digital shadow'—information about you—names in financial records, names on mailing lists, web surfing histories or images taken of you by security cameras in airports or urban centers. For the first time your digital shadow is larger than the digital information you actively create about yourself."

IDC senior vice president, John Gantz

A recent study conducted by IDC and sponsored by the information management giant EMC, has provided a look in to the growth of our digital information, as well as a mind bending prediction for the future.

Using a complex mathematical formula, the study was able to estimate the size of the “digital universe.” In other words, they were able to tally up the total volume of digital information that is both created and replicated globally.

Tags: internet

Fungus Opera

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:34:12 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: Very impressive

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

Have you ever seen a fungus firing its spores to the tune of the Anvil Chorus from Il Travatore?

I’ll take that as a no.

Nicholas Money, an expert on fungi at Miami University, has been playing around with very fast video. Ultra fast. As in 250,000 frames-a-second fast. He knew exactly what this kind of video was made for. To film fungi that live on dung as they discharge their spores. These tiny fungi can blast spores as far as six feet away, boosting the odds that they’ll land on a clean plant that a cow or other grazing animal may eat. The fungi develop inside the animal, get pooped out with its dung, and fire their spores once more.

Money’s results were not just significant, but beautiful. The fungi fire their spores up to 55 miles an hour–which translates to an acceleration of 180,000 g. Money calls it “the fastest flight in nature.”

his students, in a justified fit of ecstasy, have created the first fungus opera. Behold:

[Video]

Tags: opera, fungus

Virgin Galactic turns down $1 million offer to make porno in space

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 03:08:48 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks:

Clip Source: www.crunchgear.com

What won’t the porn industry think of? Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn wouldn’t disclose who the studio is, but said the offer “was $1 million, up front, for a sex-in-space movie. That was money we had to refuse, I’m afraid.” Other than the logistical issues of making a porno in five-minutes, I doubt VG is bummed about losing $1 million. They already have $40 million in deposits thus far. Virgin Galactic will begin flights departing from New Mexico in 2009 or 2010.

You could always jump on board a Zero G flight for much less, but you won’t see Earth from outer space.

Tags: porn, space, virgin

Layers of Red Cliffs on Mars (Photo)

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:22:07 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: Beautiful photo

Clip Source: antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Explanation: How did these layers of red cliffs form on Mars? No one is sure. The northern ice cap on Mars is nearly divided into two by a huge division named Chasma Boreale. No similar formation occurs on Earth. Pictured above, several dusty layers leading into this deep chasm are visible. Cliff faces, mostly facing left but still partly visible from above, appear dramatically red. The light areas are likely water ice. The above image spans about one kilometer near the north of Mars, and the elevation drop from right to left is over a kilometer. One hypothesis relates the formation of Chasma Boreale to underlying volcanic activity.

Tags: photos, nasa, mars

Real 3-D Cameras on the market soon

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:38:18 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

Camera makers are jumping into the 3-D photo market more than 20 years after the format was laughed out of town and ended up as Michael Jackson's sidekick in Captain Eo.

Recently, Fujifilm announced a two-lensed camera that takes images and movies in 3-D and captures wide-angle photos of single scenes simultaneously. As a result, we've heard some rumbling in the wires about other camera manufacturers coming out with their own version in the next year or so.

Since the lenses are 6-7 cm from each other (or about the same length between most people’s eyes), the Real 3-D's camera processes the images in real time to produce the stereoscopic 'trick' effect that makes them look as if they're floating in air. This is where the processing update of Fujitsu's 'Real Photo Processor 3-D' chip comes in.

The chip blends the dual images and all the important metrics (focus, zoom range and exposure) at once and pushes them out to the LCD, which is also on a 3-D display.

Tags: technology, gadgets, photography