Nasa has cleared space shuttle Endeavour for liftoff in less than two weeks on the longest space station visit ever. Endeavour is scheduled to blast off on March 11 for Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 9:54 am
China's top search engine Baidu.com has been sued by a local music industry group for alleged copyright violation, according to a statement released by the group. The... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 9:43 am
Neil Gaiman's publisher Harper Collins has put his magnificent novel American Gods online for free reading as an experiment to see free digital copies sell print books. This is a great idea -- it's really... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 9:38 am
Neil Gaiman's publisher Harper Collins has put his magnificent novel American Gods online for free reading as an experiment to see free digital copies sell print books.
This is a great idea -- it's really exciting to see publishers trying to get actual data about the market, rather than simply condemning all copying as piracy and hoping that the Internet just goes away.
However, I think that Harper Collins got this one wrong. They've put the text of American Gods up in a wrapper that loads pictures of the pages from the printed book, one page at a time, with no facility for offline reading. The whole thing runs incredibly slowly and is unbelievably painful to use. I think we can be pretty sure that no one will read this version instead of buying the printed book -- but that's only because practically no one is going to read this version, period.
The fact is that the full text of American Gods has been online for years, and can be located with a single Google query. I managed to download the entire text of the book in less time than it took me to get the Harper Collins edition to load the first page of Chapter One (literally!). The "security" that Harper Collins has bought with its clunky, kudgey experiment is nonexistent: pirates will just go get the pirate edition.
Unfortunately, the "security" has also undermined the experiment's value as a tool for getting better intelligence about the market. This isn't going to cost Neil any sales, but it's also not going to buy him any. We take our books home and read them in a thousand ways, in whatever posture, room, and conditions we care to. No one chains our books to our desks and shows us a single page at a time. This experiment simulates a situation that's completely divorced from the reality of reading for pleasure. As an experiment, this will prove nothing about ebooks either way.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has arrested two more people for posting nude photos of Hong Kong pop stars on the Internet, state media said on Saturday. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 9:28 am
A Fox affiliate managed to get ahold of the TSA's raw data on luggage theft on their watch and is reporting that a whopping $31 million worth of valuables disappeared from the aviation system in the past three years. Many of these items went missing from within suitcases, pilfered in transit after the TSA inaugurated its no-locks policy on checked bags. Now that's security.
A former KCI baggage handler, who asked us not to identify her, said she knows theft happens even in Kansas City.
"There was never anybody who said I did that," said the baggage handler. "But there was always talk. So and so found something in a bag. Shoes were one. Another one was perfumes, really expensive brands."
She said the best time for luggage to be tampered with is when it's in the baggage hold area. That's where it is stored before it's loaded onto the plane.
"You will have one person down there and all they are doing is transferring bags to different carts," said the former baggage handler. "It only takes one person. So you would just be in a room by yourself."
She said one way to get away with the crime was to rifle through a bag and then put it on the wrong plane headed to the wrong city. When the luggage is finally located, it would be unclear where the crime took place.
A Fox affiliate managed to get ahold of the TSA's raw data on luggage theft on their watch and is reporting that a whopping $31 million worth of valuables disappeared from the aviation system in the past... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 9:25 am
Roland Piquepaille writes "Janus particles, which take their name from a Roman god with two faces, are microscopic 'two-faced' spheres whose halves are physically or chemically different. Now, U.S. researchers have shown that some of these Janus microparticles can move like stealthy submarines when an alternating electrical field is applied to liquid surrounding them. This could lead to new kinds of self-propelling microsensors or means of targeted drug delivery."
Lisa Congdon turned her scissor collection into a gorgeous mobile -- think of the incredible mental scars you could leave on your child by hanging this over her crib! Link (via Craft) ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 9:08 am
Lisa Congdon turned her scissor collection into a gorgeous mobile -- think of the incredible mental scars you could leave on your child by hanging this over her crib!
Link
(via Craft)
The other day, when I noted that the hedge fund breathing down the necks of the NY Times Company board and management had acquired as much stock as the Sulzberger family, I said that strategic change in... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 9:01 am
Unions have welcomed a US military aircraft contract which they said would help safeguard thousands of UK jobs. Airbus parent company EADS will build components for the Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:48 am
Executives and industry analysts say it has become more important than ever to understand the psyche of consumers and why they pick one phone over another. [via the IHT] Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:27 am
Executives and industry analysts say it has become more important than ever to understand the psyche of consumers and why they pick one phone over another. [via the IHT] Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:27 am
At the shores of Alpha Auer's Syncretia Looking for SL sites to see this weekend? Bettina Tizzy's Not Possible IRL blog and group continues to be a repository of wonders. Here's just three: pictured above... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:12 am
By Anonymous According to a study prepared by the William Mills Agency, Atlanta, the credit crisis has resulted in weaker financial institution profits-especially in the second half of 2007-and this has obvious repercussions for technology spending. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous NEWS FROM OUR SUPPLIERS Kum Bah Ya The campfire ring is a perfect site enhancement for camps and parks, with styles for both primitive and developed areas. Everyone enjoys the sight, aroma and warmth of a campfire. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Willis, Felicia THE PRINCIPLE OF CHEMICAL PULPING is to achieve fiber separation by dissolving the lignin that cements the fibers together. For years, the two main chemical pulping processes have been sulfate and sulfite. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous KidsGrow, a year-round environmental education program, teaches students in Baltimore how to become engaged in their own neighborhoods. In the 1960s, President Kennedy made a plea to America's youth to choose lives in service to their country. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Ron Sylvester, The Wichita Eagle, Kan. Mar. 1--A jury found Reginald Johnson guilty this afternoon of first-degree premeditated murder in the shooting death of his wife. Jurors deliberated for about six hours before reaching their verdict. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Lovell, Jayde Greens in the balance Jayde Lovell reviews Eco-Freaks: Environmentalism Is Hazardous to Your Health! by John Berlau (Thomas Nelson, 2006, 256 pages) Critiques of the environmental movement may have multiplied in recent years, but bookstores remain intent upon concealing them behind the 50 unsold copies of Al Gore's Earth in the Balance that grace the display shelves. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
Marine band to perform today PASADENA - The Battle Color Detachment of the U.S. Marine Corps will perform at the Rose Bowl Stadium at 10 a.m. today. The event is free and open to the public. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Bailey, Denise A If it isn't GREEN, you've been asleep for the past few years! That color is everywhere, and it has touched the transportation industry in a big way by representing genuine commitment to protecting natural resources and being more efficient. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By WILL JONES Henrico County has retained a private attorney as it considers buying - perhaps by force - land on Kain Road in Short Pump for a school, park and other uses. The Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 last night to hire Francis A. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Calomiris, Mary TREE-SLUGGERS In Stoke-on-Trent, England, tax-payers are in a tizzy about the town council's approval of a new monument. The monument is to be installed as part of a new green initiative promoting environmental awareness. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Autumn Grooms, La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Mar. 1--A former teacher will be the La Crosse Public Education Foundation's first executive director. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By KEITH WALKER Gary Secen described a tense and frantic trip to Blacksburg on Saturday night. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Pinkerfield, Hayley The new website for Lynx/Axe is causing controversy, writes Hayley Pinkerfield Lynx/Axe Digital, a Unilever brand, has unveiled its first work since appointing Bartle Bogle Hegarty lead agency in December 2006. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Furness, Victoria Analysis The launch of Wikia Search (http:// alpha.search.wikia.com/) in January was hardly the glorious celebration its founder, Jimmy Wales, would have wanted. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous Syzygy forged on with its third acquisition in the past year. The digital agency, partly owned by WPP, has taken a majority stake in London-based Hi-ReS! Syzygy has acquired an 80 per cent stake for an undisclosed sum. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Clawson, Trevor Usability is central to the mobile website experience - you can't just convert PC-based sites. Trevor Clawson reports The future doesn't always arrive on schedule. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous Fuse Digital has been appointed by Bullring, the Birmingham shopping centre, to launch a new internet TV channel - Bullring TV. The agency is currently producing the first site content, which will be added to over the coming months. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
According to one source, the urbane David Niven worked for a time as a petty crook before trying his hand at a film career. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous T-Mobile has teamed up with Yahoo! to launch the first banner advertising on its Web'n'Walk internet service. T-Mobile users will be served targeted ads when using the service, with roll-out set for the firsthalfof 2008. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
The Air Force decision is a blow to Boeing's prestige. The deal ultimately could be worth $100 billion. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
An anonymous reader wrote to mention that IBM has unveiled a new prototype chip that can transmit data at up to 8 TB/sec, or about 5,000 high-def video streams. While this might not be entirely amazing, the fact that they did it using the same amount of juice required to light a 100-watt lightbulb, is. "The resulting total bi-directional data transfer rate is 300 Gb/s, nearly doubling the performance of a version IBM introduced last year. Compared to current commercial optical modules the transceiver provides 10-fold greater bandwidth in 1/10 the volume while consuming comparable power, IBM said."
So, Windows Vista has been around now for a good thirteen months, and in that time, it has seen much criticism. If you’ve been on the fence about switching or upgrading to Vista, we are sure that... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 6:25 am
An anonymous reader writes "The Consumerist is reporting that one unlucky individual had to send his Xbox 360 in for repairs. The catch is he had spent a great deal of time getting signatures and artwork on the outside of the console from notable members of the gaming industry. He specifically asked and even sent a letter along with his console requesting that the outside of the case be returned intact. When he got it back it was once again, plain white. Assuming that this is a genuine claim, regardless of the circumstances surrounding the missing/cleaned case Microsoft should at least apologize to the guy."
(TrendHunter.com) Just about everyone who's seen the Microsoft Surface is captivated by its possibility, and eager to see more of what it does. I know I can't wait to see it live. This video shows... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 4:09 am
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "The judge in the Wikileaks case has dissolved the injunction against Wikileaks, which means that it can get its .org domain back. He defended his prior ruling because it was based on the pittance of information the bank and registrar had provided him, saying 'This is a case in which we had a (dispute) with named parties, and the parties were duly served. One of which properly responded and came to this court with a proposed settlement in this lawsuit... Nobody filed any timely responses to the court's order.'"
While U.S. auto makers are expected to report gloomy February sales results on Monday, Ford Motor Co. will be pointing to one bright spot: the Ford Focus. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 2:03 am
Add flavor to your favorite firewater using a process called infusion. Well, technically, it's called maceration, but the effect is the same -- tasty flavored cocktails of your own design.
MARKHAM, Ont. - Healthcare software company Nightingale Informatix Corp. (TSXV:NGH) signed a deal Friday to sell its Therapist Helper business to Netsmart Technologies Inc. for US$12.3... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 1:53 am
ScienceDaily is reporting that researchers at the University of Edinburgh and Southampton in cooperation with partners from Japan and the US have shed some light on the Standard Model of physics using a new computer model. "The project's enormously complex calculations relate to the behavior of tiny particles found in the nuclei of atoms, known as quarks. In order to carry out these calculations, the researchers first designed and built a supercomputer that was among the fastest in the world, capable of tens of trillions of calculations per second. The computations themselves have taken a further three years to complete. Their result shows that the Standard Model's claim to be the best theory invented holds firm. It raises the stakes for the riddle to be solved by experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which will switch on later this year. Physicists' efforts to confront Standard Model predictions using the most powerful computers available with the most precise experiments offer no clues about what to expect."
In a further sign that Sony Corp.'s Blu-ray has won the high-definition format war, Paramount Pictures home entertainment unit said Friday it will release its last HD DVD titles on Tuesday. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 1:13 am
In a further sign that Sony Corp.'s Blu-ray has won the high- definition format war, Paramount Pictures home entertainment unit said Friday it will release its last HD DVD titles on... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 1:11 am
A federal judge who shuttered the renegade Web site Wikileaks.org reversed the decision Friday and allowed the site to re-open in the United States. In mid-February, U.S. District... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 1:02 am
A federal judge in San Francisco said on Friday that he would withdraw an order that shut down the Web address for Wikileaks.org, a site that allows anonymous posting of documents to assist peoples of... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 12:36 am
BELLS BEND, Tenn. Two unexpected guests showed up over the winter at George Wests farm here, rare whooping cranes that landed in Mr. Wests rich, boggy turnip field five miles from Nashville and were spotted... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 12:36 am
My uncle Kevin Scanlon has snapping photos of Appalachian life for as long as I could form sentences -- actually, no, longer. When I was young, his photos taught me to appreciate the modest, mostly overlooked beauty surrounding the old railroads that snake through West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and neighboring states. His photographs document what is now a dying culture.
His first-ever solo exhibit opens tomorrow in Grafton, West Virginia. It's probably safe to guess that most of the people who read this blog post aren't in easy driving distance of Grafton, West Virginia, but you can see some of the images online, and buy prints if you're so inclined. If you do go to the opening on Saturday, please give him a hug for me.
Shown above: Morning Coal Train, Coopers, WV, 2005. Here's another one of my favorites from his railroad series. (high five, uncle Kev!)
US space agency NASA confirmed it would launch the shuttle Endeavour on March 11 to deliver part of a Japanese space laboratory to an orbiting station, according to a statement Friday. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 12:25 am
Bad Science: Do cultural factors, like our collective faith in a treatment, have a measurable effect on the benefits? Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 12:16 am
Jeanette Winterson: Water, fruit and veg, exercise, sensible cleansing and moisturising, and regular beauty parlour visits are all anyone needs. What no one needs is a thing called the Hydro Test Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 1 Mar 2008 | 12:14 am
Special prosecutors probing alleged corruption at Samsung Group questioned its vice chairman Friday amid intensifying speculation the conglomerate's top boss could be called in soon. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Feb 2008 | 11:58 pm
Feb. 29, 2008, a leap year day, caused South Carolina's DMV to shut down for half a day due to software glitches, and one other government site -- a volcano webcam -- could be affected for months to come.
Two University of Virginia researchers believe that humans are genetically predisposed to be deathly afraid of snakes. Judy S. DeLoache, a U.Va. professor of developmental psychology,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Feb 2008 | 11:13 pm
E Online is reporting that a new spinoff is currently in the works to feature Cleveland, the soft-spoken neighbor in popular animated sitcom Family Guy. "Not much is known about Cleveland other than the fact it will revolve around the Brown clan. It's unclear whether the series will remain set in the town of Quahog or whether Cleveland, along with his wife and son, will continue to appear on Family Guy, though as both series are animated, the double-billing won't so much be a logistical problem as a creative decision."
The state Supreme Court affirms the nation's first felony conviction for spamming, ruling that Jeremy Jaynes is not protected by the free-speech provisions of the First Amendment.
SpaceAdmiral writes to mention that NASA has some new high-resolution radar maps of the Moon obtained by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The new images have also been used to create a simulation of the Moon's day and a movie of a Moon landing from the point of view of the astronaut. "NASA is eying the Moon's south polar region as a possible site for future outposts. The location has many advantages; for one thing, there is evidence of water frozen in deep dark south polar craters. Water can be split into oxygen to breathe and hydrogen to burn as rocket fuel--or astronauts could simply drink it. Planners are also looking for 'peaks of eternal light.' Tall polar mountains where the sun never sets might be a good place for a solar power station."
Next time it rains, blame bacteria. According to a study published this week, airborne bacteria are the most common particles that let ice crystals -- the precursors of raindrops -- form in clouds.
yorugua writes "Furniture trembled as Steve Ballmer was to be interviewed by InformationWeek. He then went on to talk about Linux: 'How does Microsoft beat Linux? The same way "you beat any other competitor: You offer good value, which in this case means good total cost of ownership," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says.', Embrace-Extend-Extinguish: 'We say when we embrace standards, we'll be transparent about how we're embracing standards. [...] If we have deviations, we'll be transparent about the deviations.'"
In November, 1969, the New York Times reported on the existence of a secret, miniature art museum that had been smuggled onto the surface of the moon on Apollo 12:
...according to Frosty Myers, the artist who initiated the project, the Moon Museum was secretly installed on a hatch on a leg of the Intrepid landing module with the help of an unnamed engineer at the Grumman Corporation after attempts to move the project forward through NASA's official channels were unsuccessful.
According to the Times, the artworks are, clockwise from the top center: Rauschenberg's wavy line; Novros' black square bisected by thin white lines [in 1969, Novros also created the incredibly rich, minimalist fresco on the second floor of Judd's 101 Spring St]; a computer-generated drawing by Myers; a geometric mouse by Oldenburg, "the subject of a sculpture in his current show at the Museum of Modern Art" [a sculpture which is in MoMA's permanent collection, btw]; and a template pattern by Chamberlain, "similar to one he used to produce paintings done with automobile lacquer." Warhol's contribution, which is obscured by the thumb above, is described as "a calligraphic squiggle made up of the initials of his signature."
The anonymous whistle-blower site WikiLeaks is allowed back online in the United States as a federal judge rescinds his earlier order shuttering the site for publishing leaked Swiss banking records that hinted at money laundering.
netbuzz writes "Lawyers for the Swiss bank that got the plug pulled on Wikileaks.org have dragged a Stanford grad student/human rights activist into the case because he moderated a discussion group about Wikileaks on Facebook. He has no relation to Wikileaks or the case, other than that he helped authenticate documents — completely unrelated to the bank matter — that were posted on Wikileaks. The guy and his lawyer have done a nice job of making lemonade out of this lemon, though."
California's stem cell agency has announced that grant applicants have raised nearly $500 million in matching funds, qualifying for another $262 million in state money for the construction of stem cell research laboratories.
Technology hacker Joshua Klein built a vending machine that teaches crows to deposit coins they find into a special vending machine that dispenses peanuts. He has been studying crows for over ten years and has learned that they are very intelligent. Their brain/body weight ratios are similar to chimpanzees. He's showing a video of how a crow learned to use a tool to pull an object out of of a tube. It's impressive.
Crows are smart and adaptable. For example, they drop nuts on streets so cars run over them, then wait for the traffic signal to change so they can pick up the food. Other crows who see this happen quickly learn how to do this for themselves.
His machine uses Skinnerian training. He put coins and peanuts around the machine. The crows eat the peanut on the feeder tray. Then Joshua took away the nuts and left coins in the feeder tray. It pisses off the crows. They sweep the coins around with their beaks, looking for food. When a coin accidentally drops into the slot, it dispenses a peanut. Next, Joshua took away the coins. The crows learned to find coins elsewhere and deposit them.
So now he wants to train crows for search and rescue, picking up trash, and other mutually beneficial tasks.
Chris Anderson: If someone takes an obscure area of nature and spends a lifetime studying it, it can be applied to the world at large in interesting ways. Case in point, mycologist and author Paul Stamets, who believes mushrooms can save the world.
1.3 billion years ago, fungi were the first plants to come on land, other plants followed hundreds of millions years later. We have more in common with fungi than other plants. Mycelium breathes oxygen like us.
Stamets says he loves a challenge and saving the Earth is a good one. He will present a suite of six mycological solutions.
Mycelium holds 30x its mass. They are soil magicians. Creates a spongey soil. It is earth's natural internet, a biologically successful model. It's highly branched. If a path gets broken, their are redundant paths. It is sentient, leaping up in aftermath of your footprints, trying to grab debris. They generate humus soils, and provide a multi-directional transfer of nutrients to trees. The sequence of microbes that occur of rotting mushrooms are an important part of natural cycle of the forest. I'm in love with old growth forests and I'm a patriotic American because of them.
Fungi uses radiation as a source of energy, so the possibility of fungi existing on other planets is a "forgone conclusion."
Mushrooms produce strong antibiotics. Work well against flu. We should save the old growth forests as a mater of national defense.
The only way Ed Reese has been able to get Google to acknowledge his business is by paying monthly fees to local listing networks such as Superpages.com and Yellowbook.com. His experience begs the question: Does local search work, or do you need to pay to play?
eldavojohn writes "I've been charged with making a specific user interface style guide for a suite of software by my employer. I'm not quite sure where to start. So I turned to my favorite search engine only to be brutally disappointed with what is out there to help me. I'm a software developer but have not had any formal training in UI design or look and feel. I'm looking for something more than just "keep it simple, stupid." I'm looking more for something that is specific but not technologically dependent. This doesn't have to be a global standard, merely a document that illustrates how one would effectively describe look and feel. Does anyone know of such a guide either created by an organization, government or company for their own uses — possibly one even released under the creative common license?" In addition to just documentation, what other UI advice can Slashdot readers offer in order to ensure quality development?
Presenter: Geophysicist and shipwreck explorer Robert Ballard unearth's lost histories in the ocean.
Why are people interested in going into space, but not in exploring the ocean? Most of the Southern Hemisphere is unexplored. It's naive to think that the easter bunny put all the resources on the continents. We are leaving so much of the table. 71% of Earth is ocean.
Ballard's gone on over 150 expeditions. On a good day we might have four people at the average depth of the Earth. 1/4 of our planet is a single mountain range, but we went to the moon before we went to the largest feature of our own planet. Tens of thousands of active volcanoes are down there. It's a very alive place.
No one had gone into that boundary of creation until 1974 when we went in a little submarine and went into the rift valley. No light can penetrate, no photosynthesis. We thought there'd be no life down there. Lots of tube worms, clam beds sitting on barren rock but when we opened them their body had taken over by a bacteria that uses chemosynthesis, not photosynthesis.
Ballard designed robotic subs to continue to search the bottom of the ocean (I would not let an adult drive my robot sub, because they don't have enough gaming experience, but I'l let a kid do it because they know how to control it). Found upside-down pools of water with the pH of Drano but it harbored life. Methane volcanoes. Also finding ships -- Titanic, the Bismarck, and many of the estimated 1,000,000 ships that have sunk.
NOAA's Office of Exploration is a ship that will explore unknown America - the 50% of US territory that's underwater.
Chris Anderson, who runs TED, asks Ballard whether or not we should learn about sustainability on the surface before we start harvesting what the "Easter Bunny" left for us in the Ocean. Ballard isn't really answering the question, he just says he didn't take artifacts from the Titanic or belt buckles from sunken Navy ship.
Presenter:
Brain Cox works on the Large Hadron Collider that's about to become operational at CERN.
Aim of particle physics is to find out what everything is made of. As you get back to the early times of the universe, things were simpler. In the 1st billionth of a second it was very simple. Everything was made from 12 particles of matter stuck together by four forces. "All science is either physics or stamp collecting." - Ernest Rutherford
Large Hadron collider is 27 Km in circumference and will accelerates protons to 99.99999% the speed of light (I might not have gotten the right number of 9s, sorry if this spoils your calculations if you are trying this at home). These will collide with another beam of protons going in the opposite direction.
Higgs gives mass to fundamental particles. Particles are massive because they are surrounded by Higgs particles. (Maggie Thatcher shown here surround by a Higgs field). The LHC will hopefully verify the existence of Higgs particles. If not, it'll find whatever is responsible for giving mass to stuff.
What particle physics means to me: gives modern science a creation story. We know universe beAgn 13.7 billion years ago as a dot smaller than an atom. Universe underwent exponential expansion in a billionth of a second and continues to expand. AFter 400 million years, the first stars formed and other elements were cooked in them. On some planets oxygen and hydrogen formed into water, liquid water on some planets. On at least one planet, life formed.
Here at TED, I met a man named Steve Varon. He's a warm and gregarious man who runs a successful children's underwear company on the East Coast. For the last year or so, he's been working very hard to make his dream possible: to see the Dalai Lama carry the torch in the Chinese Olympics. He made a short video about it, which he submitted to Pangea Day, but you can see it now on YouTube. I wish him luck in his quest.
When neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor experienced a stroke in 1996, the first thing to go was her sense of being separate from the objects around her. Taylor gave a first-person account of her experience at the TED conference in Monterey this week.
Neil Gaiman's publisher Harper Collins has put his magnificent novel American Gods online for free reading as an experiment to see free digital copies sell print books.
