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150-Year-Old Computer Brought to Life

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:24:12 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

A Silicon Valley museum brings inventor, philosopher and alleged music hater Charles Babbage's computing contraption to life

Exhibited for the first time in North America, this is one of only two Babbage Difference Engine No. 2 devices ever built.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

BLUEPRINT:

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

CARRY THE 10:

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

CHAPTER WHEEL:

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

IT FIGURES:

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

PRINTING PROCESS:

Tags: computer, history

Hillary must win 80% of every remaining primary to tie Obama

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:08:15 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: How her arguments have changed as hope dimmed

Clip Source: www.slate.com

According to Slate's Delegate Calculator, Clinton would need 80 percent of every remaining vote to catch up with Obama on pledged delegates. There's no chance anyone inside the Clinton campaign believes that is going to happen.

When Hillary started falling behind in primary delegates, her campaign emphasized her lead in superdelegates

They gave that up when superdelegates started drifting Obama's way

Then the Clinton campaign started arguing that you can't nominate

someone who lacks a popular-vote majority

They're starting to give that up because Clinton now has little chance of surpassing Obama in the popular vote. (That's just as well, because

the caucuses screw up popular-vote counts as a reliable measure of candidate support.

This isn't arithmecracy. It's arithmetic idolatry—the worship of irrelevant numbers

Does that mean the end of her campaign is near? I'm beginning to suspect so. Hand me that slide rule …

Tags: clinton, election, obama, politics

Phototechnique: beautiful smoke

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:49:27 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: A fairly simple set-up, and a few tweaks on photoshop or similar. Great photos from a joss stick, candle, or whatever. Full details on site.

Clip Source: www.flickr.com

A bit of darkness helps with this - so pull the curtains or wait until night. Put the camera on the tripod and aim the camera a distance back from your background - ensure it is the only thing in shot.

Place the incence stick in a jar on a plate (to avoid the ash dropping on anything that could burn - ) - place it between the camera and the background. Focus on the end of the incense stick and then move the camera up so the stick is not in shot - once focused, set the camera to manual focus. Light the stick and wait for the smoke trails to start.

Hold the flash so that it fires upwards (or through) into the smoke - not at the background and (of course) not at the camera. f5.6 and shutter speed of around 1/100th sec are good settings to use and just snap away. Holding the flash will allow you to find the best angle to illuminate the smoke trails. Getting the flash as close to the smoke is key as it really makes it shine.

Clip Source: www.flickr.com

Tags: photography

'Untouchable' woman dies after Indian medics refuse treatment.

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:30:59 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.dawn.com

LUCKNOW, India, April 24 (AFP): An “untouchable” woman who gave birth outside an Indian hospital because doctors would not treat her died Thursday, a day after her baby, officials admitted. The newborn boy of Maya Devi, 28, died Wednesday due to lack of medical help minutes after being born outside the maternity wing of Kanpur Medical College in northern Uttar Pradesh state. Devi was only put in intensive care after giving birth but died of a heart attack early Thursday. Several doctors, including the hospital's chief medical superintendent, refused to touch her or provide medical care as she delivered her baby, the Press Trust of India reported. Devi was a Dalit, or “untouchable”, a group at the bottom of the caste social ladder long ostracised and forced into menial professions despite laws banning discrimination. Many high-class Hindus fear coming into contact with them. (Posted @ 20:10 PST)

Tags: india, discrimination, health, baby, women

Human line 'nearly split in two'

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:24:48 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Ancient humans started down the path of evolving into two separate species before merging back into a single population, a genetic study suggests.

The genetic split in Africa resulted in distinct populations that lived in isolation for as much as 100,000 years, the scientists say.

This could have been caused by arid conditions driving a wedge between humans in eastern and southern Africa.

Details have been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

It would be the longest period for which modern human populations have been isolated from one another.

Tags: anthropology, humans, science

Amazing stairs

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:21:11 GMT

clipped by: wiganfootie

Clip Source: funnbee.info

Amazing Stairs

Geometry of Bridge Construction

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:07:15 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth

Clip Source: www.faculty.fairfield.edu

Geometry of Bridge Construction

The four kinds of bridges and some combinations

Some Examples

A. The beam or truss bridge is, in effect, a pair of girders supporting a deck spanning the gap between two piers.

has to withstand both compression in its upper parts and tension in its lower parts

may be a hollow box girder or an open frame or truss

Simple Truss (or Beam) bridges

B. An arch bridge can be designed so that no part of it has to withstand tension.

Arch Bridges

C. A suspension bridge consists, basically, of a deck suspended from cables slung between high towers.

The towers are in compression and the deck, often consisting of a long slender truss (used as a hollow beam), is supported at frequent intervals along its length.

Suspension Bridges

D. A cantilever bridge is generally carried by two beams, each supported at one end.

must resist tension in its upper half and compression in its lower

Cantilever Bridges

fifth type

in 1952

the first modern cable-stayed bridges

Germany

Sweden

Various Bridges

Tags: architecture, mechanics

penis theft in Africa...WTF?!

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:34:28 GMT

clipped by: Deepti
clipper's remarks: what? you wake up one morning and its just gone???

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur

Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure

Tags: africa, theft, penis, sorcery, magic, lynching, whitchcraft, congo

U.S. Fires on Iranian Ship

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:39:32 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: Could this be the beginning of war with Iran?

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A cargo ship contracted by the U.S Military Sealift Command has fired at least one shot toward an Iranian boat, a U.S. defense official said on Friday.

Tags: iran, war, news, navy

Earth is upside down

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:12:13 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: • “Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from the intolerable deteriorations and possible extinction,” The New York Times editorial, April 20, 1970.

• “By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half...” Life magazine, January 1970.

• “Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make,” Paul Ehrlich, interview in Mademoiselle magazine, April 1970.

• “...air pollution...is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone,” Paul Ehrlich, interview in Mademoiselle magazine, April 1970.

• Ehrlich also predicted that in 1973, 200,000 Americans would die from air pollution, and that by 1980 the life expectancy of Americans would be 42 years.

• “It is already too late to avoid mass starvation,” Earth Day organizer Denis Hayes, The Living Wilderness, Spring 1970.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpolicy.org

• “...civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind,” biologist George Wald, Harvard University, April 19, 1970.

• By 1995, “...somewhere between 75 and 85 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.” Sen. Gaylord Nelson, quoting Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, Look magazine, April 1970.

• Because of increased dust, cloud cover and water vapor “...the planet will cool, the water vapor will fall and freeze, and a new Ice Age will be born,” Newsweek magazine, January 26, 1970.

• The world will be “...eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age,” Kenneth Watt, speaking at Swarthmore University, April 19, 1970.

• “We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation,” biologist Barry Commoner, University of Washington, writing in the journal Environment, April 1970.

Abstract maths easier, not harder

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:31:00 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: If two trains are both traveling in opposite directions at the speed of light they both get there in no time at all.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Julie Steenhuysen

Frustrated maths students may have a good excuse. Some teaching methods meant to make maths more relevant may be making it harder to understand, US researchers say.

students who are taught abstract maths concepts fare better in experiments than those taught with real-world examples

Adding extra details makes it hard for students to extract the basic mathematical concepts and apply them to new problems

"We're really making it difficult for students because we are distracting them from the underlying maths," says Jennifer Kaminski from Ohio State University

today in the journal Science

The findings cast doubt on the widely used practice of using friendly, concrete examples to teach abstract maths concepts.

a teacher might

teach a formula about distance with the classic example of two trains departing from different cities and travelling at different speeds.

"The danger with teaching using this example is that many students only learn how to solve the problem with the trains,"

Is reading dead?

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:15:54 GMT

clipped by: tidbit2
clipper's remarks: a few of my cipmates are also on
goodreads.com a very rewarding fulfilling part of the reading process

Clip Source: www.netvibes.com

A journalist asked me the other day "Do you think reading is dead?". I'm aware people have the perception that people reading less these days. And it doesn't help that the National Endowment for the Arts keeps releasing studies that say so.

Personally I don't think its true for most people - if you like to read you will always read, even if you don't have much time now - you will later.

reading just needing a social conduit. With mass-media, like American Idol or whatever movies are in theater, we can always find common ground with other people. But the chances that we are reading the same books at the same time is low. But if we were both on Goodreads it might be able to spark a conversation about books.

crazy people who likes to *learn*. Learn about new places, people, cultures, ideas - whatever. The things I've learned in books have helped define me as a person. And I'm always able to take away ideas from whatever I'm reading to attack the problems I'm facing in the real world.

Eating Meat Without Eating Animals

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:20:33 GMT

clipped by: sherrymac

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

Though their justification is environmental rather than animal, researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands are trying to grow meat in a lab, raising the possibility of a carnivorous diet disconnected from killing.

Asked whether people would be repulsed by lab-grown meat, Roelen said he believed there would be enough demand, as much of what people eat today is already extensively processed, from the feed that animals consume to the conditions under which they are raised and the preparation of meat after slaughter.

Praise as good as cash to brain

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:20:21 GMT

clipped by: Deepti

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Paying people a compliment appears to activate the same reward center in the brain as paying them cash, Japanese researchers said

"We found that these seemingly different kinds of rewards -- a good reputation versus money -- are biologically coded by the same neural structure, the striatum,"

In one set of experiments, people played a gambling game in which they were told one of three cards would yield a payout. The researchers then monitored the brain activity triggered when the subjects got a cash reward

In a second set of experiments, people were told they were being evaluated by strangers based on information from a personality questionnaire and a video they had made

The researchers then monitored reactions to these staged evaluations -- including when the subjects thought strangers had paid them a compliment

Tags: brain, compliment, study, cash