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Researchers develop a 360-degree holographic display

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:36:57 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: Cool !!!!!

Researchers develop a 360-degree holographic display

Researchers at USC have taken another step towards that holiest of sci-fi dreams: the 3D holographic display. Using a spinning mirror covered with a "holographic diffuser," a special DVI implementation, and a high-speed projector, the team's device can project a three-dimensional image that can be viewed from 360 degrees -- regardless of the viewer's height and distance. That's impressive, but that spinning mirror looks pretty dangerous. Check a video of the system in action after the break.

Tags: display, holografic display, technology

Ancient Olympic Site Saved From Fire

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:07:00 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

August 27, 2007—Appearing to gasp for air through the smoke, a winged statue of victory stands surrounded by wildfires that nearly destroyed the site of the ancient Olympic Games in southwestern Greece.

"The fire reached the hill overlooking ancient Olympia but was stopped just before entering the archaeological site," a member of the brigade told the Reuters news service.

Tags: greece, forest fire, archaeology, olympia

WoW, Now THAT'S a rainstorm

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 02:33:10 GMT

clipped by: skwirlinator
clipper's remarks: NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope observed a fledgling solar system like the one depicted in this artist's concept, and discovered deep within it enough water vapor to fill the oceans on Earth five times. This water vapor starts out in the form of ice in a cloudy cocoon (not pictured) that surrounds the embryonic star, called NGC 1333-IRAS 4B (buried in center of image). Material from the cocoon, including ice, falls toward the center of the cloud. The ice then smacks down onto a dusty pre-planetary disk circling the stellar embryo (doughnut-shaped cloud) and vaporizes. Eventually, this water might make its way into developing planets.

Clip Source: www.redorbit.com

Tags: space, rain

Bush's America: LESS Safe, LESS Free.

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:43:34 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: In a new book, "Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror," law professors David Cole and Jules Lobel argue that the problem lies in the aggressive "preventive paradigm" the Bush administration adopted in the wake of 9/11.

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

new book, "Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror," law professors David Cole and Jules Lobel argue that the problem lies in the aggressive "preventive paradigm" the Bush administration adopted in the wake of 9/11

"While the 'preventive paradigm' can point to few gains in our security, it has come at great cost to our ideals. In the name of preemptive security, the administration has undertaken torture, indefinite detention without trial, extraordinary renditions, disappearances into CIA 'black sites,' warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, and an illegal and disastrous war in Iraq."

have compromised the most basic commitments of the rule of law

have actually impeded our efforts to bring known terrorists to trial, limited our long-term options for security, sparked anti-American resentment and terrorist recruitment, and undermined relations even with our closest allies

has garnered few terrorists and actually made us less safe

treat the rule of law as an asset

Tags: usa, terrorism, war

Fishermen Discard "Two Thirds of Catch"!

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 13:57:18 GMT

clipped by: book-mole
clipper's remarks: This is waste on a ridiculous scale. We are overfishing - the Med has no big fish - and yet we still encourage this waste. This has to stop!

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

The fishing industry is trying to cut down on 'discards'

Devastating new evidence of the wastefulness of modern commercial fishing techniques has been revealed in a study by Government scientists.

The study of the amount of the catch in British waters that is “discarded” because it is too small or the wrong species found that almost two thirds of the fish caught are thrown back over the side dead.

Scientists estimated that a total of 186 million fish weighing 72,000 tons was caught by English and Welsh commercial fishing vessels in the English Channel, Western Approaches, Celtic and Irish Seas between 2002 and 2005.

Of this total catch, 63 per cent of the fish, weighing 24,500 tons, were thrown back over the side.

Few if any of these fish would survive because trawling ruptures their swim bladders.

The ten most discarded species included some of the most-overfished – cod, plaice and lesser-spotted dogfish. Others included gurnards, dab and whiting.

Tags: overfishing, reasons why, waste, consumerism

We should be kind while there is still time

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 20:29:46 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie

Clip Source: www.wussu.com

Philip Larkin (1922-1985)

The Mower

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,

Killed. It had been in the long grass.

I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world

Unmendably. Burial was no help:

Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence

Is always the same; we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind

While there is still time.

Tags: poetry, larkin, the mower, kindness, death

Michael Jackson Passes Away

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 03:11:15 GMT

clipped by: skwirlinator

Clip Source: blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com

Michael Jackson Passes Away

No, not that Michael Jackson.

The other Michael Jackson, the world's leading beer critic/scholar/historian/writer, was found dead in his London home last night.

This is a sad day, as this is a huge loss for the beer community. He will be missed by his friends and by beer lovers that never had the pleasure of meeting him. For those of us that take pleasure in writing about beer, he is about as good of a role model as one could imagine.

I will definitely be drinking a good beer in honor of Mr. Jackson this evening.

Tags: michael jackson passes away, beer

Chemical weapons from Iraq found at U.N.

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 19:12:02 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: This is weirder than weird. Someone was going through old files and just happened upon some previously undetected chemical weapons. Hard to understand how this could have been innocently overlooked.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

U.N. archivists for UNMOVIC, the U.N. chemical weapons agency, unexpectedly turned up samples of material from an Iraqi chemical weapons plant in old files.

The samples were in weapons inspectors' files dating back to the 1990s, but the substance is not believed to pose any immediate danger, U.N. officials said Thursday.