Clipmarks | Recent Top Clips

Stunning Garden Sculptures by Bruno Torfs

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:38:56 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Archaeologists unearth ancient tribe in Peru

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:48:01 GMT

clipped by: boozich

Piercing blue eyes undimmed by the passing of 1,300 years, this is the Lady of the Mask – a mummy whose discovery could reveal the secrets of a lost culture.

She was found by archaeologists excavating a pyramid in Peru’s capital city Lima,
alongside two other adult mummies and the sacrificial remains of a child.

It is the first time a tomb from the region’s Wari culture has been discovered intact and gives historians the chance to pin down exactly how the pre-Incas buried their dead.

The mummy - assumed to be a noblewoman because of the ornate mask - was found in a crouching position surrounded by ceramics and textiles associated with female weavers.

Earlier in the week, workers at the Huaca Pucllana site removed two adult mummies found lying near the lady of the mask.

Archaeologists have been excavating the area for three years and while they found plenty of artefacts, the 30 other tombs uncovered had been looted.

Dead Sea Scrolls go from parchment to the Internet

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:07:08 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- More than 2,000 years after they were written, the Dead Sea Scrolls are going digital as part of an effort to better preserve the ancient texts and let more people see them than ever before.

The high-tech initiative, announced Wednesday, will also reveal text that was not visible to the naked eye.

Over the next two years, the Israel Antiquities Authority will digitally photograph and scan every bit of crumbling parchment and papyrus that makes up the scrolls, which include the oldest written record of the Bible's Old Testament.

The images eventually will be posted on the Internet for anyone to see.

Tags: bible, internet

Michael Phelps: ‘Naturally’ transhuman

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:37:25 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: * He has proportionately short legs relative to his long, powerful trunk; this large upper body is the engine that powers his long arms. Moreover, his unique physique reduces drag through the water and allows for maximum propulsion.
* Phelps has a greater-than-average lung capacity allowing him to execute his underwater dolphin kicks longer than the competition.
* He has a genetic advantage that cause his muscles to produce 50% less lactic acid than other athletes. This means he can work at higher work loads for longer periods.
* With a low body fat of 4%, he is better able to convert his effort into speed.

Looking at this list it’s as if Phelps was designed to swim.

Which leads to an interesting question: Given the potential for genetic modification and gene doping, should it be acceptable for other athletes to acquire the same physiological endowments through artificial means?

If not, what makes it so acceptable to come by these traits ‘naturally?’ And how

Clip Source: ieet.org

Watching Michael Phelps swim you quickly realize that he’s not like the others. He’s clearly in a league of his own.

Or more accurately, he’s swimming in a genetic pool of his own. Phelps has a number of fortuitous physical endowments that have enabled him to dominate like no other. Simply put, he is the perfect swimmer.

Here’s what Phelps has going for him:

Most people have a wingspan that matches their height. Not Phelps. He may be 6’4” tall, but his arms extend outward to a total of 6’7”.

The average shoe size for a person the size of Phelps is 12; he wears a size 14 which gives him a 10% advantage over the competition.

He also has a larger than average hand size which allows him to move more water.

Phelps is double-jointed in the chest area; this enables him to extend his arms higher above his head and pull down at an angle that increases his efficiency through the water by as much as 20%; this also allows him to have quicker starts and turns.

Tags: natural, transhuman

New twist on generating hydroelectricity

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:02:19 GMT

clipped by: pokkets

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Eric Bland

An former steel town in the US may soon turn its local river into a source of power by using a grid of electricity-generating smart materials.

The town of Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, is planing to line the bottom of the Kiskiminetas River with tiny electric generators, which it hopes will generate between 20% to 40% of the city's electricity supply.

"Vandergrift is trying to be the model green town," says Assistant Professor Lisa Weiland, a scientist at the University of Pittsburgh

sustainable power will most likely come from a grid of undulating strips made of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), a material that generates a slight electrical current when it is moved, in this case, by the currents and eddies in the Kiskiminetas River.

the resulting electrical current would pass to small substations along the river's edge

"There are other materials that give better performance or have higher energy densities

But we're willing to sacrifice a little power to keep the ecosystem happy."

Is a 5.0 Second 100 Meters Possible?

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:03:19 GMT

clipped by: gilligan

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Astonishing as Usain Bolt's Olympic record-breaking 100-meter sprint was, his time of 9.69 seconds is nowhere near what biostatisticians predict is the natural limit for the human body. Experts studying the steady progression of records over the past 50 years, see the limit of the world record, with a probable error of 0.17 seconds, namely, to lie between 9.26 to 9.60 seconds. Some, see 5.0 seconds, a possibility.

Because 6' 5" Usian Bolt broke the mathematical model that had fit 100-meter record data for almost a century, his incredible performance will reset how fast researchers believe humans ultimately can run.

"This trend seems to defy simple curve fitting," wrote Tatsuo Tabata, director of the Institute for Data Evaluation and Analysis in Japan. Maybe a 6' 8" sprinter with Bolt's speed will be the one to do it.

How fast will man run?

Will he ever run the 100 metres in five seconds flat?

Not impossible

Tags: run

The key to oil independence is a new electrical grid

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:17:49 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: It seems that with alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar, the United States has the potential means to substantially reduce our dependence on oil - especially once plug-in cars are on the market.

But until we substantially upgrade our nation's electrical grid with modern technology that will enable the energy created by these sources to be transmitted intelligently around the county, their impact will be limited.

It's going to take a greater commitment from Congress to jump start this. Making it happen will provide a huge boost to our economy, environment and political leverage with the Middle East, Russia, Venezuela and more.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The dirty secret of clean energy is that while generating it is getting easier, moving it to market is not.

The grid today, according to experts, is a system conceived 100 years ago to let utilities prop each other up, reducing blackouts and sharing power in small regions. It resembles a network of streets, avenues and country roads.

“We need an interstate transmission superhighway system,” said Suedeen G. Kelly, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

“The windiest sites have not been built, because there is no way to move that electricity from there to the load centers,” he said.

Tags: alternative energy, grid, electricity, wind, solar

The Brilliance of Thomas Jefferson

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:53:25 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: He'd tear King George The Deciderer a new one, just as he did 200+ years ago.

Clip Source: quotes.liberty-tree.ca

"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.
We must make our election between economy and liberty
or profusion and servitude.
If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and
in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and
our amusements, for our calling and our creeds...
[we will] have no time to think,
no means of calling our miss-managers to account
but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves
to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers...
And this is the tendency of all human governments.
A departure from principle in one instance
becomes a precedent for [another ]...
till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery...
And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt.
Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression."

Source:

Letter to Samuel Kercheval, Monticello, July 12, 1816

Tags: damn, straight!

Are You Being Watched? Probably

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:48:47 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: Looking back at the surveillance all around us--from wiretapped phones to security cameras

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

When traveling to London, be sure to smile: the city is home to at least half of a million surveillance cameras—if you count video systems at banks, supermarkets and other commercial locations, according to The New York Times. And motorists with obnoxious vanity license plates, take heed: New York City has plans to install cameras that will snap a photo of every plate that enters the borough of Manhattan.

The range of human vocalization, from a full-throated bellow to a hushed whisper, typically lets you decide who will hear your voice. But what happens when that choice is taken away by technology that can pick up and transmit even the softest sounds?

Add security cameras at gas stations, convenience marts, subway stops and street corners, and privacy appears to be little more than a quaint notion.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Public telephones have become increasingly scarce in the era of cell phones, but land lines still serve as a vital communication link where cell phones won't work

Fun with a laser cutter: Tinysaur is Tiny

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:48:55 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: This was cut using our new epilog laser at NYCResistor. Look at how little and awesome he is! I wonder how the heck Kelly put it together.

Clip Source: www.nycresistor.com

Martin sent us a dino pattern to celebrate our laser. I made a regular size dinosaur, but Kelly made a tiny tinysaur!

Where do you hide all the best object files on the internet? We want to play with them!

The tinysaur has been spotted again! - Link

Tags: dinosaur, tiny, laser, nycresistor

Revealed: The Internet's Biggest Security Hole

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:29:30 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

Two security researchers have demonstrated a new technique to stealthily intercept internet traffic on a scale previously presumed to be unavailable to anyone outside of intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency.

The tactic exploits the internet routing protocol BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) to let an attacker surreptitiously monitor unencrypted internet traffic anywhere in the world, and even modify it before it reaches its destination.

The demonstration is only the latest attack to highlight fundamental security weaknesses in some of the internet's core protocols. Those protocols were largely developed in the 1970s with the assumption that every node on the then-nascent network would be trustworthy. The world was reminded of the quaintness of that assumption in July, when researcher Dan Kaminsky disclosed a serious vulnerability in the DNS system. Experts say the new demonstration targets a potentially larger weakness.

Tags: internet, security hole

Human exoskeleton suit helps paralyzed people walk

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:32:44 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: What a great invention.
This is where we should be spending money - improving the way of life - instead of building more war machines and blowing things up. Just my opinion of course.

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Human exoskeleton suit helps paralyzed people walk

HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - paralyzed for the past 20 years, former Israeli paratrooper Radi Kaiof now walks down the street with a dim mechanical hum.

That is the sound of an electronic exoskeleton moving the 41-year-old's legs and propelling him forward -- with a proud expression on his face -- as passersby stare in surprise.

Tags: medical, exoskelton, paralysis, invention, israel

Green technology creating 'green collar' jobs

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:37:42 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: I stand strongly behind my belief that if this country committed ourselves to becoming energy independent with the same determination that we committed to putting a man on the moon, that we could do it and we could create millions of new jobs in the process. It would be an enormous driver of economic growth and strengthen our leverage in the Middle East because we would no longer be reliant on their oil.

Clip Source: greenwombat.blogs.fortune.cnn.com

As Detroit automakers shutter SUV and truck factories, the decades-long de-industrialization of the Midwest continues apace. But amid the idled assembly lines, a new wave of manufacturing has taken root as solar energy companies set up shop in the heartland.

In fact, nearly all the United States’ current solar manufacturing capacity is in the Midwest, save for Silicon Valley company Ausra’s factory in Las Vegas. (Thin-film startup Nanosolar is building a factory in San Jose, Calif.)

“Our processes really require high productivity, so what makes it competitive here in the Midwest is that we have a great labor force that is eager to work and well-trained already,” ECD chief executive Mark Morelli told Green Wombat on Monday.

Tags: alternative energy, solar, green energy, jobs

Picture Made With Pictures

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:47:48 GMT

clipped by: Charolastra

Clip Source: damncoolpics.blogspot.com

Tags: pictures

A question science can't answer?

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:49:55 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

"Can anybody think of a question science can't answer?"

"Is there a God?" shot back a boy near the window.

"Good," said Mr. Campbell, an Anglican who attends church most Sundays. "Can't test it. Can't prove it, can't disprove it. It's not a question for science."

I despise that chicken-hearted answer. There are two reasonable ways to address that. One is to accept the usual open-ended, undefined vagueness of the god entity and point out that the reason it can't be answered is that it is a bad question — it's not even wrong. Science doesn't answer it, but then no discipline can, because it's a garbage question like "what color are invisible elephants?" If that's what window-boy intends with his petty little gotcha, he deserves to have the inanity of his idea disparaged.

The other approach

pin the question down. What god? What actions has it taken in the natural world? How does it influence us specifically? Then you can tackle that god with science by testing the purported effects it has

Tags: religion, science, atheism, god