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Scientists hail ‘frozen smoke’ as material that will change world

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:12:52 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie
clipper's remarks: A constructive way to mop up excess carbon dioxide ...

Aerogel, one of the world’s lightest solids, can withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300C.

Aerogel is nicknamed “frozen smoke” and is made by extracting water from a silica gel, then replacing it with gas such as carbon dioxide. The result is a substance that is capable of insulating against extreme temperatures and of absorbing pollutants such as crude oil.

It was invented by an American chemist for a bet in 1931

Aerogel is described by scientists as the “ultimate sponge”, with millions of tiny pores on its surface making it ideal for absorbing pollutants in water.

Dunlop, the sports equipment company, has developed a range of squash and tennis rackets strengthened with aerogel, which are said to deliver more power.

Although aerogel is classed as a solid, 99% of the substance is made up of gas, which gives it a cloudy appearance.

Thinking the way animals do

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 01:33:18 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Temple Grandin Ph.D. is an assistant professor of animal behaviour at Colorado State Uni. She suffers from a form of autism, and describes the way she thinks as thinking in pictures. This has helped her understand the way Animals think, with direct association, rather than a logical process.
A significant statement which can apply to most people, is the fact that originally as far as she was aware everybody thought the same way. Until she asked people and found this was not the case. She describes a radio station person who said she had no pictures, in her mind, but thought in terms of emotions or words.
I'm sure I can understand my dogs. They seem to think in a manner that is simple, and straightforward, it can just be a matter of associating cues with behavior, and remembering Pavlov.
I think in Pictures and sounds. There is music I can 'hear' in my mind that not only has the same 'quality' as the original, but there is a remarkable capacity to edit.
Perhaps something like Auti

Clip Source: www.grandin.com

Temple Grandin, Ph.D.
Department of Animal Science
Colorado State University

Temple Grandin is an assistant professor of animal science at Colorado State University. She is the author of the book Thinking in Pictures

Dr. Grandin has autism, and her experiences have helped her to understand animal behavior.

Unique insights from a person with a singular understanding

As a person with autism, it is easy for me to understand how animals think because my thinking processes are like an animal's

Scientists who study autism believe that the disorder is cause d by immature development of certain brain circuits, and over development of other brain circuits

My thoughts are in pictures, like videotapes

Associative Thinking

A horse trainer once said to me, "Animals don't think, they just make associations." I responded to that by saying, "If making associations is not thinking, then I would have to conclude that I do not think." People with autism and animals both think by making visual associations

Tags: animal, autism, thinking, words, pictures, sounds

Field Testing Third World Computers

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 04:00:33 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: This is a very interesting experiment in access and education. The most interesting part is that the children are expected to fix the computers themselves!

Actually, I learned a lot of stuff this way - by tinkering - but is it realistically applicable to all the kids?

If it works, it will work brilliantly.

It is certainly a new way of networking information. Maybe clipmarks should get in on something like this...

Clip Source: www.iht.com

MIT spinoff's little green laptop computers a hit in remote Peruvian village

ARAHUAY, Peru: Doubts about whether poor, rural children really can benefit from quirky little computers evaporate as quickly as the morning dew in this hilltop Andean village, where 50 primary school children got machines from the One Laptop Per Child project six months ago.

But no competitor approaches the XO in innovation. It is hard drive-free, runs on the Linux operating system and stretches wireless networks with "mesh" technology that lets each computer in a village relay data to the others.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

there is no tech support program. Students and teachers will have to do it.

"What you want is for the kids to do the repairs," said Negroponte, who believes such tinkering is itself a valuable lesson. "I think the kids can repair 95 percent of the laptops."

Mendoza, the psychologist, is overjoyed that the program stipulates that kids get ownership of the laptops.

WW1 photos - unusual

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 16:24:01 GMT

clipped by: righthand

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

Senegalese soldiers have found billets in a shack

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

A group of Spahis, Algerian soldiers

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

North-African soldiers

In total the French colonies donated 587,000 soldiers to the warfare

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

Impetuous Algerians

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

Operating Room

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

Horse Shoe

ilitary smithy in the Netherlands

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

Austrian prisoners-of-war, Russia, 1915

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

On a handcar outside Petrozavodsk on the Murmansk railway, Russia, 1915.

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

Parade

The Australian Light Horse Brigade on parade in a Palestinian desert, 1918.

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

A soldier of the Australian Light Horse Brigade gathers anemones

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

Camel Ambulances

Another Palestine picture

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

A welcome stop for the Imperial Camel Corps

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

You can almost hear the sound of this French gun

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

French soldiers on bivouac near a shallow stream

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

Wounded Brother

Frères d'Armes, brothers in arms, is the text on this French postcard

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

Flying Pig

Anzac soldiers

loading a trench mortar

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

Heavy Fight

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

A German Feld Lazaret (field hospital)

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

One-handed

English prisoners-of-war at work

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

A Belgian woman is cooking for the soldiers during a pause in the fighting

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

Ambush

Clip Source: greatwar.nl

Spy

Tags: war, history, photos, ww1

The Great Silence

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 14:49:25 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: His question became famously known as the Fermi Paradox. The paradox is the contradiction between the high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and yet the lack of evidence for, or contact with, any such civilizations.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Are we the lone sentient life in the universe? So far, we have no evidence to the contrary, and yet the odds that not one single other planet has evolved intelligent life would appear, from a statistical standpoint, to be quite small. There are an estimated 250 billion (2.5 x 1011) stars in the Milky Way alone, and over 70 sextillion (7 x 1022) in the visible universe, and many of them are surrounded by multiple planets. The shear size of the known universe is staggeringly and inconceivably vast.

The odds of there being only one single planet that evolved life among all that unfathomable vastness seems so incredible, that it is all but completely irrational to believe. But then "where are they?" asked physicist Enrico Fermi while having lunch with his colleagues in 1950.

Fermi questioned, if there are other advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, then why is there no evidence of such, like spacecraft or probes floating around the Milky Way

Tags: space, fermi

A Planet Under Pressure

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 11:52:18 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

With humanity demanding more from the Earth than ever before, BBC News explores the planet's most pressing environmental problems in a six-part series.

PART 1: BIODIVERSITY

The sixth mass extinction?

PART 2: WATER

Running dry?

PART 3: ENERGY

Heading for a crisis?

PART 4: FOOD

Can the planet feed us?

PART 5: POLLUTION

Pollution: A life and death issue

PART 6: CLIMATE CHANGE

Entering uncharted waters?

Talking Point
How does climate change affect you? Can it be tackled?

Climate evidence
Warming world, rising sea and melting ice

Saving the planet
Teenagers tell us how they would tackle environmental damage

Animated guide
How the greenhouse effect might shape our climate

Changed Earth
Before and after images of the effects of climate change

Kyoto era dawns
EU emissions trading scheme starts the carbon revolution

Green gardening
See the results of our eco-friendly garden competition

Where will we be?
BBC website exploring the UN's goals for the planet in 2015

Feuding Korean clans end 400-year fight over graves

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 05:57:49 GMT

clipped by: Deepti

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

After nearly 400 years, a few killings and scorned pleas from a king, two powerful clans have settled one of the longest-standing feuds in Korean history, over ancestral burial grounds

It will finally be sorted out in March 2008 under a settlement deal reached a few days ago. The Yoon family will give about 8,300 square meters (89,340 sq ft) of land to the Shim family, which will use it as a new burial ground for 19 of its ancient clan members

The disputed grave site near the border with North Korea and about 40 km (25 miles) north of Seoul is the resting spot for famed members of the two clans. The graves of the best known members of each clan are just a few meters (yards) apart and separated by a high wall

The feud began when a prime minister from the Shim family destroyed part of a burial mound of a respected general from the Yoon family and buried several family members there

About 150 years later, Yoon family members damaged part of the Shim burial mounds in return

Tags: culture, korea, clans, feud