Clipmarks | Silkweaver's Comments

No Time to Think (As We May)

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:46:52 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

No Time to Think

[Video]

March, 5 2008

Vannevar Bush's 1945 article, "As We May Think," has been much celebrated as a central inspiration for the development of hypertext and the World Wide Web. Less attention, however, has been paid to Bush's motivation for imagining a new generation of information technologies; it was his hope that more powerful tools, by automating the routine aspects of information processing, would leave researchers and other professionals more time for creative thought. But now, more than sixty years later, it seems clear that the opposite has happened, that the use of the new technologies has contributed to an accelerated mode of working and living that leaves us less to think, not more. In this talk I will explore how this state of affairs has come about and what we can do about it.

Tags: david levy, levy, vannevar bush, thinking, creativity, knowledge, technology, science, video, google

World's first flying car, to ship late next year

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:29:29 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: dvice.com

[Video]

Flying cars are all hat, no cattle. But wait. What's this? A flying car that will actually exist, roll on real streets and highways and then take off into the wild blue? You betcha. Pony up your $194,000, and by the end of next year you'll be cruising skyward in a 1300-pound Terrafugia Transition and then parking it in your garage when you're done. It's more like a drivable airplane, but we'd rather call it a flying car.

Let's do a walkaround. Out back is a push prop, and the front canard does double duty as a wing and bumper. Its gas engine will push it over a range of 460 miles through the air. Look at the cool way the wings fold up into a compact package, completing its metamorphosis from airworthy flying machine to street-legal road rocket.

The first flying prototype is scheduled to take off next month. Nice. Covert that prop to a jet engine and give it vertical takeoff capabilities, and we'll be living in the future.

Tags: transportation, gudgets

Evolution stops here ?

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:12:34 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: This is an interesting read, yet biological evolution is only part of the story of human evolution, perhaps a tiny part at that. Moreover, biodiversity in human populations have new sources that are not considered in this article. Many genomes that would have been selected out of the gene pool in older days are now propagated. Made a clip about that a while ago.

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

For centuries, writers have attempted to predict the future of the human race.

Some have argued that we are destined to evolve into super-beings, others that we are turning into dim-witted goblins incapable of anything more demanding than watching TV.

But according to a leading geneticist, both visions are wrong because human evolution has ground to a halt.

Professor Steve Jones, of University College London, says the forces driving evolution - such as natural selection and genetic mutation - no longer play an important role in our lives.

The people living one million years from now, should Man survive, will resemble modern-day humans.

We now know so much about the process of evolution that we can make some predictions about what might happen in future,' said Professor Jones in a lecture on Monday.

Evolution is driven by natural selection and mutation.

Genetic mutations create traits which, if helpful, give individuals a competitive edge over rivals.

Tags: evolution, modern human

Cannabis less harmful than drinking, smoking: report

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:13:04 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: The British government is pressing for cannabis to be re-classified in law as a Class B drug compared with its current, less serious, Class C classification.

Clip Source: www.camizone.com

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

Cannabis is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, according to a report by a British research charity Thursday, which called for a "serious rethink" of drug policy.

The Beckley Foundation, a charity which numbers senior British and other academics among its advisors, said banning cannabis has no impact on supply and turns users into criminals.

"Although cannabis can have a negative impact on health, including mental health, in terms of relative harms it is considerably less harmful than alcohol or tobacco," says the report by the Foundation's Global Cannabis Commission.

The Beckley Foundation, a charitable trust, claimed only two deaths worldwide have been attributed to cannabis, while alcohol and tobacco use together kill an estimated 150,000 people in Britain alone.

Many of the harms associated with cannabis use are the result of prohibition itself, particularly the social harms arising from arrest and imprisonment," it said.

Tags: canabis, drug abuse

Clean energy 2030

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:12:11 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: This is doable not only in US. It needs vision, leadership and active participation.

Clip Source: googleblog.blogspot.com

Right now the U.S. has a very real opportunity to transform our economy from one running on fossil fuels to one largely based on clean energy.

The energy team at Google has been crunching the numbers to see how we could greatly reduce fossil fuel use by 2030.

Our analysis, led by Jeffery Greenblatt, suggests a potential path to weaning the U.S. off of coal and oil for electricity generation by 2030 (with some remaining use of natural gas as well as nuclear), and cutting oil use for cars by 40%.

Our goal in presenting this first iteration of the Clean Energy 2030 proposal is to stimulate debate and we invite you to take a look and comment -- or offer an alternative approach if you disagree.

Over 22 years this plan could generate billions of dollars in savings and help create millions of green jobs.

(1) Reduce demand by doing more with less

(2) Develop renewable energy that is cheaper than coal (RE<C)

(3) Electrify transportation and re-invent our electric grid

Tags: energy, clean energy, google

I'll Be Just Fine, Says Planet

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:34:44 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken

Clip Source: www.thedailymash.co.uk

I'LL BE JUST FINE, SAYS PLANET

THE planet Earth has dismissed claims it is in danger from global warming, stressing the worst that could happen is the extinction of the human race.

The Earth spoke out after a series of books, television programmes and environmental campaigns urged people to do everything in their power to 'Save the Planet'.

Earth, 4,000,000,000, said last night: "I'll be absolutely fine, seriously.

The planet, based 93 million miles from the Sun, said it was 'sick and tired' of being drawn into arguments about human behaviour.

Look, I'm just a planet doing its thing, alright? If you want to live on me, that's your business

Earth added: "Okay, so there may come a time when

I am no longer able to support pandas, polar bears, and humans, but you know what?

Let me assure you,

Life goes on.

The planet said environmental campaigners should change their slogan from 'Save the Planet' to something more relevant such as 'Save Your Sorry Arse'.

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

Huge Prime Number Discovered

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:54:51 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Isn't it fascinating to know we will never run out of numbers, not even prime numbers ?

Clip Source: www.westga.edu

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

Mathematicians at UCLA have discovered a 13 million-digit prime number, a long-sought milestone that makes them eligible for a $100,000 prize.

The group found the 46th known Mersenne prime last month on a network of 75 computers running Windows XP. The number was verified by a different computer system running a different algorithm.

"We're delighted," said UCLA's Edson Smith, the leader of the effort. "Now we're looking for the next one, despite the odds."

t's the eighth Mersenne prime discovered at UCLA.

Primes are numbers like three, seven and 11 that are divisible by only two whole positive numbers: themselves and one.

The $100,000 prize is being offered by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for finding the first Mersenne prime with more than 10 million digits. The foundation supports individual rights on the Internet and set up the prime number prize to promote cooperative computing using the Web.

Tags: mathematics, prime numbers

'Pre-crime' detector shows promise

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:02:36 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: That sounds incredibly high at such an early stage in the research - but only tests on vast quantities of real people, rather than eager volunteers, will present any real test.

Questions remain, however, as to how secure the system is. The machines could reveal health conditions like heart murmurs and breathing problems as well as stress levels - which would be an invasion of privacy.

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Last year, New Scientist revealed that the US Department of Homeland Security is developing a system designed to detect "hostile thoughts" in people walking through border posts, airports and public places. The DHS says recent tests prove it works.

Project Hostile Intent as it was called aimed to help security staff choose who to pull over for a gently probing interview - or more.

However, last week, the DHS science unit gave an update on the project, now dubbed the less-hostile-sounding Future Attribute Screening Technologies (FAST) programme. And, if DHS claims are to be believed, the research appears to be getting somewhere.

Some subjects were told to act shifty, be evasive, deceptive and hostile. And many were detected. "We're still very early on in this research, but it is looking very promising," says DHS science spokesman John Verrico. "We are running at about 78% accuracy on mal-intent detection, and 80% on deception."

Tags: technology, security, terrorism

Half world's population 'will have mobile phone by end of year'

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:18:11 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: It is a real revolution. Personal immediate communication becomes the mainstream. I see it as a real first extra body augmentation to the human figure and capabilities.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Half world's population 'will have mobile phone by end of year'

United Nations communications chief says booming market in developing countries will see global usage pass 50%

Japanese commuters while away the journey by watching TV on their mobiles. Photograph: David Sacks/Getty

The world's love affair with the mobile phone shows no sign of abating, with the head of the UN's agency for information and communication technologies predicting that there will be 4 billion mobile phone users - or more than half of the planet's estimated 6.7 billion inhabitants - by the end of this year.

indicates that it is technically feasible to connect the world to the benefits of information communications technology

The mobile phone industry has boomed over the past eight years, recording average year-on-year subscriber growth of 24%. At the start of the century, just 12% of the world's population had a mobile phone. Now that figure is well over 50% and is estimated to reach about 61% by the end of 2008.

Tags: mobile phone, communication

What's Lurking In YOUR countertop?

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:05:32 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

SHORTLY before Lynn Sugarman of Teaneck, N.J., bought her summer home in Lake George, N.Y., two years ago, a routine inspection revealed it had elevated levels of radon, a radioactive gas that can cause lung cancer. So she called a radon measurement and mitigation technician to find the source.

“He went from room to room,” said Dr. Sugarman, a pediatrician. But he stopped in his tracks in the kitchen, which had richly grained cream, brown and burgundy granite countertops. His Geiger counter indicated that the granite was emitting radiation at levels 10 times higher than those he had measured elsewhere in the house.

“It’s not that all granite is dangerous,” said Stanley Liebert, the quality assurance director at CMT Laboratories in Clifton Park, N.Y., who took radiation measurements at Dr. Sugarman’s house. “But I’ve seen a few that might heat up your Cheerios a little.”

DARPA Seeks to Use the Force, the Casimir Force

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:46:05 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: nextbigfuture.com

Casimir force is the result of virtual particles and could be related to inertia and gravity.

DARPA is soliciting innovative research proposals in the area of Casimir Effect Enhancement (CEE). The goal of this program is to develop new methods to control and manipulate attractive and repulsive forces at surfaces based on engineering of the Casimir Force. One could leverage this ability to control phenomena such as adhesion in nanodevices, drag on vehicles and many other interactions of interest to the DoD. H/T to Nanowerk.com

A specific goal of this single-phase DARPA program is to demonstrate the ability to manipulate and engineer the Casimir force including the ability to neutralize the Casimir force.

Tags: darpa, quantum mechanics, casimir force

Information age leaves our heads full of facts but empty of ideas

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:32:37 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: INFORMATION Overload – what it is and how to get rid of it:

• The high volume of information coming from sources such as the internet, 24-hour television and blogs has led to complaints of "information overload".

While this sounds like a new phenomenon, the term was first used in 1970 by Alvin Toffler, an author, who warned that the human brain did not have the capacity to take in, interpret and store increasingly large volumes of information.

• More recently, a psychiatrist at King's College London found that information overload can harm concentration just as much as marijuana, with men twice as likely to be distracted as women.

• Research found information overload can reduce a person's ability to focus just as much as losing a night's sleep.

• Psychologists who study visual processing and decision-making have shown the brain can cope with only about five messages at any one time.

Clip Source: news.scotsman.com

BRITAIN is becoming a nation of "ninfomaniacs", with each adult absorbing around 13 pieces of new information a day, ranging from pop gossip about Amy Winehouse to the latest credit crunch news, research released today reveals.

Some people are so desperate for new information they scour television and the internet, pushing their daily quota to 20 items of news a day.

Researchers who interviewed more than 1,000 people said modern adults were exposed to more information than ever from newspapers, magazines, television, radio and, increasingly, the internet.

But last night experts on human memory and organisational behaviour said bombarding the brain with information provided no guarantee that facts were fully understood or retained.

"People who research into learning differentiate between deep learning and 'strategic' learning – otherwise known as 'shallow' learning. Shallow learning tends to consist of quick facts and soundbites which we need to keep up to speed in so many areas.

Tags: brain, behavior, information, information overload

Fermilab Looks for Visitors from Another Dimension

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:23:50 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: The prospect of extra dimensions is fascinating. ET might already be here in a neighbour dimension.

Estimated to cost about $15 million, the MicroBooNE tank would be located near the MiniBooNE detector at Fermilab so that it could observe the same beam of neutrinos. This past June the lab’s physics advisory committee approved the design phase for the project; if all goes well, the detector could begin operating as soon as 2011.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

The detection of extra dimensions beyond the familiar four—the three dimensions of space and one of time—would be among the most earth-shattering discoveries in the history of physics.

Now scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., are designing a new experiment that would investigate tantalizing hints that extra dimensions may indeed exist.

Last year researchers involved in Fermilab’s MiniBooNE study, which detects elusive subatomic particles called neutrinos, announced that they had found a surprising anomaly.

The mystery has focused attention on an intriguing and very unconventional hypothesis: a fourth kind of neutrino may be bouncing in and out of extra dimensions.

String theorists, who seek to unify the laws of gravity with those of quantum mechanics, have long predicted the existence of extra dimensions.

Tags: physics, extra dimensions, neutrinos

The Roots of Today's Science Fiction Go Back Centuries

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:41:03 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: Much more of the website,

Clip Source: io9.com

Science Fiction came of age in the 19th Century under the talents of writers like Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells. But before these authors stands a long history of proto-science fiction tales, replete with voyages to the moon, socially and technologically advanced civilizations, and visions of the future. We've delved into our scifi roots and found some of the surprisingly forward-looking works from poets, mathematicians, politicians, and philosophers that predate the year 1800.

Lucian of Samosata – A True History (2nd Centure CE):

his rousing tale of a trip to the moon, aliens armies, man-made men, and extraplanetary colonization is frequently recognized as the first known space opera.

Ibn al-Nafis – Theologus Autodidactus (c. 1270):

Thomas More – Utopia (1515):

Francis Bacon – The New Atlantis (1626):

Johannes Kepler – Somnium (The Dream) (1634):

Jonathan Swift – Gulliver’s Travels (1726):

Voltaire – Micromegas (1752):

Tags: science fiction, sci-fi, history, literature