May 16, 2008 by madhavgopalkrish
Holographic digital storage will let consumers store a DVD library on a single disk.
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How would you like to carry around your entire DVD collection on a single disk? That is the promise of a new holographic digital storage technology being developed by General Electric and coming to a computer near you around 2012. Although not the first commercial holographic storage system—that honor goes to InPhase Technologies’ Tapestry™ 300r holographic drive—GE’s system could be the first one aimed at consumers. (InPhase’s holographic drives, which debuted last year, sell for $18,000 and target broadcasters who need to archive television programs.)
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| Holographic media can store huge amounts of data because information is encoded in layers throughout the entire disk, not just on a single reflective surface as in today’s optical media. In GE’s system, a single CD-size disk made of plastic will be able to store about 1 terabyte of data, equivalent to 110 typical movie DVDs. |
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May 16, 2008 by madhavgopalkrish
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Is Tween Vampire Flick Twilight the
Next Harry Potter?
Harry Potter is about to kick the bucket.
Or at least the franchise is: With no new books in the pipeline and
movie fodder drying up, there’s a gaping hole in the
multibillion-dollar tween fantasy market.
Feature film Twilight,
based on a best-selling series of books about teenage vampires, rolls
out Dec. 12, and seems primed to pick up where Potter drops off.
As with the Potter craze, tween fans dress up as Twilight characters and turn out in droves for book signings, start Twilight-themed rock bands and even celebrate lead character Isabella Swan’s birthday.
…more
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May 16, 2008 by madhavgopalkrish
JK Rowling wins ban on photos of her
son
· Author’s children entitled to remain out of public eye
· Verdict adds to developing French-style privacy laws
David Murray, aged five, yesterday joined the
model Naomi Campbell, Princess Caroline of Monaco and the Canadian
singer Loreena McKennitt on the list of names shaping Britain’s
emerging privacy laws.
The son of the Harry Potter author JK
Rowling and her husband, Dr Neil Murray, won a landmark court of appeal
ruling establishing that the law protects the children of celebrities
from the publication of unauthorised photographs, unless their parents
have exposed them to publicity.
Rowling and her husband brought
the case in their son’s name in an attempt to ban publication of covert
long-lens pictures of her son taken when he was 19 months old by an
agency photographer. In the images, one of which was published in the
Sunday Express magazine, David was being pushed in a buggy by his
parents near their home in Edinburgh in 2004. …more
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May 15, 2008 by madhavgopalkrish
Wish this had been around last week when I almost ripped off a finger at the gym!
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 Wouldn’t it be nice if you had in your first aid kit something that would stop bleeding almost instantly? Well, the future sure sounds good in this regards, because Arch Therapeutics have made a nanohealing gel that does just that, it stops bleeding.
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With clinical trials starting soon for this miracle gel, we can hope that we’ll see it in use eventually during surgery (stopping bleeding instantly instead of looking for vessels to cauterize), by paramedics or field medics during combat. The possibilities are so many for something like this.
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The material consists of naturally occurring amino acids that have been engineered to form peptides that spontaneously cluster together to create long fibers when exposed to salty, aqueous environments, such as those found in the body. The fibers form a mesh that serves as a physical barrier to blood and other fluids.
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And, since the body eventually assimilates it, you don’t have to remove it after using it. Sounds great!
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May 15, 2008 by madhavgopalkrish
Scientist are surprised again, however surprises are one of the greatest motives to become a scientist. A surprise generally means we are going to learn something new. Very often something we could never have imagined. When the phrase ‘I would never have believed it until I saw it with my own eyes’ Literally applies.
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An odd fast-spinning pulsar, which is locked in an elongated orbit around another star much like our Sun has left astronomers puzzled how such a system could have formed.
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Typical pulsars spin once a second to about 10 or 20 times a second but J1903+0327 is a “millisecond pulsar” and spins much faster.
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| spins 465 times a second and is the fifth fastest-spinning pulsar known in our Galaxy, say Champion and colleagues, who found the star using the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico |
| it has a very elongated orbit around a star similar in size and composition to our Sun |
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“What we have found is a millisecond pulsar that is in the wrong kind of orbit around what appears to be the wrong kind of star,” says Champion. “Now we have to figure out how this strange system was produced.”
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May 15, 2008 by madhavgopalkrish
Obama:
“It’s conceivable that there are those in the Arab world who say to themselves, ‘This is a guy who spent some time in the Muslim world, has a middle name of Hussein, and appears more worldly and has called for talks with people, and so he’s not going to be engaging in the same sort of cowboy diplomacy as George Bush,’ and that’s something they’re hopeful about. I think that’s a perfectly legitimate perception as long as they’re not confused about my unyielding support for Israel’s security.” *** end Obama quote ***
“So then, it would appear okay to discuss his middle name and childhood exposure to Islam when it helps explain his high regard among terrorists. And that they’re now positive points — particularly when they can be drawn upon to level a cheap shot at the president while pandering to Jewish voters. ”
| When it comes to Barack Obama, only one subject infuriates the swooning mainstream media more than his father’s race — and that’s his father and stepfather’s religion. Why, the very mention of Barack’s early Islamic training — or even his Muslim middle name — has become more sacrosanct a PC no-no than disclosing the race of a non-white crime suspect. |
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Not surprisingly then, shortly following the media and blogosphere-pressured condemnations by both Hillary and McCain, mention of Obama’s middle name or Muslim heritage became de facto taboo amongst politically correct company. Although not — it would seem — for everybody.
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| In a weekend interview published Monday, the candidate himselfmentioned both unmentionables in attempting to mitigate the political damage — particularly with Jewish voters — done by Hamas leader Ahmed Yousef’s endorsing words “We like Mr. Obama and we hope that he will win the election.” |
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May 15, 2008 by madhavgopalkrish
Smashing Magazine presents more (really) stunning desktop wallpapers related to typography, photography, illustrations, HDR as well as some abstract and fantasy-related wallpapers. All can be downloaded for free.
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May 15, 2008 by madhavgopalkrish
| Anonymous rape tests are going nationwide |
| Starting next year across the country, rape victims too afraid or too ashamed to go to police can undergo an emergency-room forensic rape exam, and the evidence gathered will be kept on file in a sealed envelope in case they decide to press charges. |
| The new federal requirement that states pay for “Jane Doe rape kits” is aimed at removing one of the biggest obstacles to prosecuting rape cases: Some women are so traumatized they don’t come forward until it is too late to collect hair, semen or other samples |
| he practice is already followed at some health clinics, colleges and hospitals around the country and by the state of Massachusetts. But many other jurisdictions refuse to cover the estimated $800 cost of a forensic rape exam unless the victim files a police report |
| Beginning in 2009, states will have to pay for Jane Doe rape kits to continue receiving funding under the federal Violence Against Women Act |
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May 15, 2008 by madhavgopalkrish
Interesting.
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Gene therapy is the addition of new genes to a patient’s cells to replace missing or malfunctioning genes. Researchers typically do this using a virus to carry the genetic cargo into cells, because that’s what viruses evolved to do with their own genetic material.
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The treatment, which was first tested in humans in 1990, can be performed inside or outside of the body. When it’s done inside the body, doctors may inject the virus carrying the gene in question directly into the part of the body that has defective cells. This is useful when only certain populations of cells need to be “fixed.” For example, researchers are using it to try to treat Parkinson’s disease, because only part of the brain must be targeted. This approach is also being used to treat eye diseases and hemophilia, an inherited disease that leads to a high risk for excess bleeding, even from minor cuts.
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May 15, 2008 by madhavgopalkrish
| Gary Greenberg photographs the world, one grain of sand at a time, in A Grain of Sand: Nature’s Secret Wonder |
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May 15, 2008 by madhavgopalkrish
“The National Woman Suffrage Association was formed by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton 139 years ago today. To mark the anniversary, Chris Connolly is here to discuss the role of the bicycle in the women’s movement.”
Highly recommended article at the source…clipped only a very small portion of the entire article: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/14985
I didn’t mean to place the photo of the woman running the Triathlon after the text “Clearly, women needed to change their underwear.” I don’t know how it ended up that way….
| Susan B. Anthony once said, “I think [bicycling] has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.” A woman on a bicycle, the equal rights champion observed, presents “the picture of free and untrammeled womanhood.” |
Susan and her fellow 19th-century women had been severely trammeled their entire lives. Forget the glass ceiling; women in those days were trapped under the glass floor. |
| Foremost, the Victorian lady rarely exercised or engaged in physical activity, which left her poorly conditioned. Secondly, it was fashionable to be frail. |
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Eventually, some women began to take a stand, and, in 1888, a letter published by The Rational Dress Society—a group of women who argued for reasonable clothing—stated, “the maximum weight of under-clothing (without shoes) approved by The Rational Dress Society, does not exceed seven pounds.”
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| Seven pounds of underwear? An improvement? |
| Clearly, women needed to change their underwear. |
| And that’s where the bicycle came in. |
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May 15, 2008 by madhavgopalkrish
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Location |
Date UTC |
Magnitude |
Lat. |
Long. |
Reference |
| 1. |
Chile |
1960 05 22 |
9.5 |
-38.24 |
-73.05 |
Kanamori, 1977 |
| 2. |
Prince William Sound, Alaska |
1964 03 28 |
9.2 |
61.02 |
-147.65 |
Kanamori, 1977 |
| 3. |
Off the West Coast of Northern Sumatra |
2004 12 26 |
9.1 |
3.30 |
95.78 |
Park et al., 2005 |
| 4. |
Kamchatka |
1952 11 04 |
9.0 |
52.76 |
160.06 |
Kanamori, 1977 |
| 5. |
Off the Coast of Ecuador |
1906 01 31 |
8.8 |
1.0 |
-81.5 |
Kanamori, 1977 |
| 6. |
Rat Islands, Alaska |
1965 02 04 |
8.7 |
51.21 |
178.50 |
Kanamori, 1977 |
| 7. |
Northern Sumatra, Indonesia |
2005 03 28 |
8.6 |
2.08 |
97.01 |
PDE |
| 8. |
Assam - Tibet |
1950 08 15 |
8.6 |
28.5 |
96.5 |
Kanamori, 1977 |
| 9. |
Andreanof Islands, Alaska |
1957 03 09 |
8.6 |
51.56 |
-175.39 |
Johnson et al., 1994 |
| 10. |
Southern Sumatra, Indonesia |
2007 09 12 |
8.5 |
-4.438 |
101.367 |
PDE |
| 11. |
Banda Sea, Indonesia |
1938 02 01 |
8.5 |
-5.05 |
131.62 |
Okal and Reymond, 2003 |
| 12. |
Kamchatka |
1923 02 03 |
8.5 |
54.0 |
161.0 |
Kanamori, 1988 |
| 13. |
Chile-Argentina Border |
1922 11 11 |
8.5 |
-28.55 |
-70.50 |
Kanamori, 1977 |
| 14. |
Kuril Islands |
1963 10 13 |
8.5 |
44.9 |
149.6 |
Kanamori, 1977 |
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Updated 2008 May 14
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May 15, 2008 by madhavgopalkrish
incredible (thanks, Mr. B)
