Reuters - Nintendo is banned everywhere but the
classroom at Tokyo Joshi Gakuen school in Japan as the
ubiquitous DS consoles become the latest tool in English
instruction.
AP - Internet broadcaster JumpTV Inc. rejected a proposal from Web entrepreneur Brad Greenspan and plans to go ahead with a merger with U.S. online TV service NeuLion Inc. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 27 Jun 2008 | 2:44 pm
ya really notes a nice analysis by Maplight.org indicating that those Democratic representatives who changed their vote on telecom immunity between March and June received on average 40% more in contributions from telecom interests than those Democrats who held firm. Maplight asks, "Why did these ninety-four House members have a change of heart? Their constituents deserve answers." Across both parties, representatives who voted for immunity in June had received almost twice a much telecom money as those who voted against. Wired's coverage includes a quote from Larry Lessig, who is on the Maplight board: "Money corrupts the process of reasoning. [Lawmakers] get a sixth sense of how what they do might affect how they raise money."
Reuters - A quarter of European Union households
surveyed by the bloc's executive body have turned their backs
on fixed lines in favor of mobile phones, with a fifth now
making calls over the Internet. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 27 Jun 2008 | 2:43 pm
NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla., June 27 /PRNewswire/ -- "There is strong connection between birth order and divorce rates," explained John Curtis, Ph.D. "This has Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 2:41 pm
When I visited Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen of Homegrown Evolution last week they showed me the rocket stove they made in their backyard. Theirs is quite fancy because it is made of bricks. They sometimes use their rocket stove to fry a meal in a skillet.
The rocket stove was invented about 10 years ago by Dr. Larry Winiarski at the Aprovecho Research Center in Oregon. It consists of an elbow-shaped combustion chamber (usually made from metal cans) surrounded by insulating material (often a large can filled with sand). It uses twigs for fuel, so it's ideal for areas where the trees have been depleted.
1.) Insulate, particularly the combustion chamber, with low mass, heatresistant materials in order to keep the fire as hot as possible and not toheat the higher mass of the stove body.
2.) Within the stove body, above the combustion chamber, use an insulated,upright chimney of a height that is about two or three times the diameterbefore extracting heat to any surface (griddle, pots, etc.).
3.) Heat only the fuel that is burning (and not too much). Burn the tips ofsticks as they enter the combustion chamber, for example. The object is NOTto produce more gasses or charcoal than can be cleanly burned at the powerlevel desired.
Illustration from In the Wake, a cool website on various simple off-the-grid tools.
AP - Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson warned Friday that it will just break even in the second quarter as worsening market conditions cut into sales. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 27 Jun 2008 | 2:26 pm
AP - Virgin Mobile USA Inc. is buying Helio LLC, a struggling cell phone carrier that was founded to bring the advanced features of South Korean phones to the U.S. market. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 27 Jun 2008 | 2:22 pm
MOSCOW, June 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mobile TeleSystems OJSC ("MTS" - NYSE: MBT), the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS, announces the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 2:13 pm
For the 150th anniversary issue of The Bookseller (the world's oldest publishing trade magazine), the editors commissioned me to write a short-short story about the next 150 years of book sales. The result is called The Right Book, and it's out in the current edition and online as well.
The thing that Arthur liked best about owning his own shop was that he could stock whatever he pleased, and if you didn't like it, you could just shop somewhere else. So there in the window were four ancient Cluedo sets rescued from a car-boot sale in Sussex; a pair of trousers sewn from a salvaged WWII bivouac tent; a small card advertising the availability of artisanal truffles hand made by an autistically gifted chocolatier in Islington; a brick of Pu'er tea that had been made in Guyana by a Chinese family who'd emigrated a full century previous; and, just as of now, six small, handsomely made books.
The books were a first for Arthur. He'd always loved reading the things, but he'd worked at bookshops before opening his own little place in Bow, and he knew the book-trade well enough to stay well away. They were bulky, these books, and low-margin (Low margin? Two-for-three titles actually *lost* money!), and honestly, practically no one read books anymore and what they did read was mostly rubbish. Selling books depressed Arthur.
These little buggers were different, though. He reached into the window -- the shop was so small he could reach it without leaving his stool behind the till -- and plucked one out and handed it to the kid who'd just asked for it. She was about 15, with awkward hair and skin and posture and so on, but the gleam in her eye that said, "Where have you been all my life?" as he handed her the book.
ideonexus writes "Take a crowd of people and have them guess how many jelly beans are in a jar, and the average of their answers will be remarkably accurate. Now researchers have found the same goes for asking one person to guess about the same thing several times. Accuracy improved when the individual was given longer periods of time between guesses." The anonymous author of the Economist piece, not quoting the researchers, says the finding bolsters the "generate and test" model of creative thinking.
SAN FRANCISCO, June 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Think Services today announced that press registration is now open for media and analysts interested in attending Dr. Dobb's... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
Here’s the press release for now. There will be a conference call at 11am EDT that I will broadcast on CrunchGear live. More as we get it. WARREN, N.J., June 27, 2008 Virgin Mobile USA, Inc. (NYSE:... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 1:50 pm
ICANN Solution to Domain Tasting is a Half Measure that Will do Little to Eliminate Tasting or Offer Protections to Internet Users WASHINGTON, June 27... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 1:39 pm
Signal Patterns, makers of scientific-based social web apps, have just released a Facebook app whose goal is to help you find new friends based on an in-depth personality assessment algorithm. This app... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 1:37 pm
Network Upgrade is Part of a Planned $80 Million Investment in Upstate New York ROCHESTER, N.Y., June 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 1:35 pm
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German writer, once noted that “if you get on the wrong train, running down the aisle in the opposite direction really doesnt help. HBO series The Wire co-creator Edward Burns... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 1:34 pm
Investing to Stay Ahead of Growing Demand for Wireless Voice, Multimedia and Internet Access EPSOM, N.H., June 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In a continuing effort to ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 1:30 pm
Company to Expand Footprint and Offer iPhone to Customers Throughout the State NASHUA, N.H., June 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is supporting... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 1:24 pm
- Additional strategic investment totaling $50 million made by Virgin Group and SK Telecom at $8.50 per share - Improved capital structure through increased liquidity and $50... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 1:22 pm
Reuters - Damages sought by software maker
Oracle Corp could top $1 billion in an intellectual
property lawsuit it has brought against arch-rival SAP AG
, according to a court filing. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 27 Jun 2008 | 1:19 pm
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Damages sought by software maker Oracle Corp could top $1 billion in an intellectual property lawsuit it has brought against arch-rival SAP AG , according to a court... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 1:19 pm
coondoggie writes "Canadian scientists are developing a 143-lb microsatellite to detect and track near-earth asteroids and comets, as well as satellites and space junk. The suitcase-sized Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite includes a 6-inch diameter telescope, smaller than most amateur astronomers' scopes, that by being located 435 miles above the Earth's atmosphere will be able to detect moving asteroids delivering as few as 50 photons of light in a 100-second exposure. The NEOSSat will twist and turn hundreds of times each day, orbiting from pole to pole every 50 minutes almost always in sunlight. The telescope has a sunshade that allows searching the sky to within 45 degrees of the Sun, in order to detect near-Earth asteroids whose orbits are entirely inside Earth's." The probe was announced a few days before the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska blast.
PLANO, Texas, June 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- EDS, a leading global information technology services company, today announced it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 1:15 pm
I've written about "social media optimization" in the past. This is the crude social media dashboard I have on the bottom of every blog post. I wish the technorati link and the outside.in link would... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 1:09 pm
Noelyci of Ingman Design Group has the goods on a credible recreation of the time/location machine from the venerable Dr. Who TV series, created and sold by Snook Industries. To judge by its gloriously... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 1:00 pm
By Jonathan Kimak Designer Haishu Zhang has created a good listener, a little device called “Sweety” that will listen to you, no matter what you say and shows you calming graphic patterns while... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 12:57 pm
Doing some research for a Reliable Sources segment I’m supposed to do this Sunday about George Carlin and his dirty words, I went to Google Trends and found this fascinating tidbit: * Google searches... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 12:55 pm
Barack Obama’s first two notable acts after clinching the nomination are rejecting public campaign financing and endorsing the Supreme Court’s gun decision. He’s not making this easy... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 12:43 pm
A Credit Suisse analyst downgraded shares of Nokia Corp. late Thursday, predicting it will have trouble maintaining its share of the smartphone market. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 12:35 pm
snydeq writes "Rapamycin, a medication doctors prescribe to transplant patients to prevent organ rejection, has been used to reverse learning disorders and mild retardation associated with TSC (tuberous sclerosis complex) in mice. Because the condition is linked to autism, scientists believe the drug may be used to treat learning disabilities and short-term memory deficits in all kinds of autism as well. The scientists chose rapamycin after they realized the drug regulates one of the same proteins that the TSC gene does, just in different parts of the body. 'What was surprising is that we could give rapamycin to adult mice and reverse their condition,' said neurobiologist Alcino Silva of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. 'We did not know... that this drug would be equally effective for the learning disabilities as it is for tissue rejection.' Rapamycin treatment leveled the playing field between normal and TSC mice in as little as three days."
Synnex Corp., an information technology and business process outsourcing company, said Thursday it expects a 30 percent to 35 percent increase in fiscal third-quarter earnings. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 12:14 pm
Wireless device provider Sony Ericsson said Friday it sees continued market challenges impacting sales and profit in the second quarter. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 12:11 pm
Information technology company Synnex Corp. said Thursday its fiscal second quarter profit jumped 26 percent, topping previously issued guidance. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 12:10 pm
Business software company TIBCO Software Inc. said Thursday fiscal second-quarter profit fell 62 percent, but adjusted results beat analyst expectations. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 12:10 pm
ivantheshifty writes with news of a delayed vote (failed filibuster attempt aside) on the updated FISA bill which has been discussed here recently, in particular because it would grant telecom companies immunity (under certain conditions) from suits for wiretapping conducted at government request. According to the Associated Press story carried by the Washington Post, "Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and more than a dozen other senators who oppose telecom immunity threw up procedural delays that threatened to force the Senate into a midnight or weekend session. The prospect of further delays was enough to cause Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to postpone the vote until after the weeklong July 4 vacation."
AP - It is almost unthinkable that any one human could pick up where Bill Gates leaves off when he ends his full-time tenure Friday as Microsoft's leader.
Predicting climate change depends on many factors not properly included in current forecasting models, such as how the major polar ice caps will move in the event of melting around their edges. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:38 am
Snow leopards in Afghanistan have barely survived extinction despite three decades of war, but now they're facing a new threat: foreigners who are flocking in to rebuild the war-torn country. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:22 am
Researchers on Thursday said the largest study of bird genetics in history has uncovered some startling facts that could ruffle a few feathers in the avian evolutionary tree. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:05 am
By Stahl, William M Match a material's performance to process conditions to reduce leaks, improve safety and extend the mean time between failures (MTBF). Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
By Grossel, Stanley S The Management of Chemical Process Development in the Pharmaceutical Industry Donald Derek Walker, John Wlley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 416 pages, $100, March 2008, ISBN: 978-0-470- 17156-1 Author Derek Walker of the ScheringPlough Research Institute draws from his experience working for several pharmaceutical companies to discuss the people, organizational processes, and disciplines that need to be integrated to develop a pharmaceutical product. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
By Anonymous Green Chemistry & Engineering Mukesh Doble and Anil Kumar Kruthiventi, Academic Press, Burlington, MA, 381 pages, $80, May 2007, ISBN: 978-0-12-372532-5 In addition to leaving a cleaner, greener footprint on the planet, one of the key goals of the "green engineering" movement is to be more resource-efficient and cost- effective. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
By Anonymous A SHIFT IN PRODUCT MIX toward higher-priced chemicals will support pulp and paper chemical demand, which will reach $8.7 billion in 2011. In general, pricing for pulp and paper chemicals jumped abnormally during the 2004 to 2006 period due to a rise in energy costs. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
By Shelley, Suzanne Promising nanotechnology-enabled sensors, monitoring devices and analytical instruments continue to advance toward commercialization for diverse industrial, environmental, medical and military applications - but hurdles remain. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
By Anonymous BP, Santelis Vale, and Maeda to Invest in Brazil Biofuels Refinery Energy major BP will take a 50% stake in Tropical BioEnergia SA (www .tropicalbioenergia.com.br), a 155-million gal/ yr ethanol refinery being constructed in Edeia, Goias State, Brazil, by the Brazilian companies Santelisa Vale and Maeda Group. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
By Mascone, Cynthia When I was a Girl Scout, we sang a song called "Make New Friends" that went like this: Make new friends But keep the old One is silver And the other's gold. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
By Anonymous CORPORATE STRATEGY Catalyst Paper's board of directors approved a C$12 million upgrade of thermomechanical pulp (TMP) capacity at the Port Alberni, BC, mill and the restart of its directory machine No. 4 by mid-year (P&PW, Feb. 11, p. 7). Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
By Anonymous NEWSPRINT Consolidation in the North American paper industry continued in early February with Catalyst Paper's acquisition of AbitibiBowater's 375,000 tonnes/yr Snowflake, AZ, newsprint mill for $161 million. AbitibiBowater will use the proceeds to repay debt. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
Reciva is the global market leader in Internet radio technology. Reciva's GATEPASS(TM) platform, which is at the heart of all Reciva-Powered Internet radios, provides Internet radio services via the Reciva Gateway. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
By Walmsley, Andrew From Whitehall's loss of CDs containing the child benefit records of 25m citizens, to the hacking of customer databases, every week seems to bring another story of incompetence or criminality in the data world. Everywhere we go, we leave a data cloud behind us. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
aniBoom, the premier independent animation network, has just closed a $10 million Series B round of funding led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and DFJ Tamir Fishman Ventures and existing investor Evergreen Venture Partners. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
By Anonymous Jamie Oliver is to expand his multimillion-pound brand identity across the internet. The TV chef's marketing team has appointed Splendid to overhaul his branded web portal to potentially offer social networking and online shopping facilities. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
By Walmsley, Andrew Any Israelite who happened to have a neighbour with an attractive ox was probably beginning to think he had got away with it, until Moses said 'And tenthly...'. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
By Jones, Gareth More than ImUK consumers will be using mobile phone networks to access the internet via laptops by the end of the year, according to 3UK. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
By Jones, Gareth Facebook is giving users the chance to opt out of its SocialAds system to allay growing privacy concerns. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
By Anonymous Yahoo! is launching an online ad platform to make it easier for marketers to run campaigns across more than 600 newspaper websites and internet portals. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Jun 2008 | 11:02 am
In a corner office on Microsoft's leafy, low-rise campus in suburban Seattle, a bespectacled, slightly portly middle-aged man has been packing up his belongings. Bill Gates logs off today after 33 years... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 10:37 am
By Andrew Liszewski Perpetual Kid is supposedly now selling a 7 1/4 inch Bigfoot action figure with “intricate articulation” that lets you pose it just like frame 352 of the famous Patterson-Gimlin... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 10:29 am
At least one analyst was bearish on Palm Inc.'s softening margins, after the Treo and Centro smart phone maker posted a fiscal fourth-quarter loss. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 10:26 am
Lower sales caused Palm Inc. , which makes the Treo and Centro smart phones, to swing to a fiscal fourth-quarter loss that missed expectations. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 10:22 am
By Andrew Liszewski Researchers at the University of Southern California’s ICT Graphics Lab have created a new type of holographic display that can generate simultaneous 3D views for multiple observers... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 10:19 am
Microsoft's Bill Gates will mark the end of an era today as he leaves the software company he founded 33 years ago and heads into a life of full-time philanthropy. This afternoon, at the company's sprawling... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 9:53 am
Yahoo has unveiled a major restructure to drive profits and enable "better decision making" in a move designed to deliver on chief executive Jerry Yang's promise that it was right to reject a $47.5bn... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Jun 2008 | 9:36 am
benst writes "Here's yet another way to measure the success of GPS: by the efforts to negate it. While unintentional jamming continues to rise, intentional jamming by both foreign military forces and at-home miscreants of various stripes also has shown increased vigor in the past six months. Related here are recent instances of intentional jamming on each side of the border, and (briefly outlined) one initiative mounted by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) to counteract it. Also here ways to detect and prevent jamming."
dijkstra writes "Blackswift was previously rumored to be a super secret hypersonic scramjet-based aircraft co-named HTV-3X, essentially a 21st century version of the SR-71. Today NASA has unveiled the real Blackswift (video link), which uses pulse detonation engines (PDEs). A PDE is essentially a modern version of the old V-1 buzz bomb engine. This engine requires significantly fewer moving parts and achieves much higher efficiency than a turbofan, and is technically able to go hypersonic without any kind of 'dual-stage' engine."
Julian Sanchez of The American Prospect writes that the House Democrats who say the FISA bill they voted for is a "compromise" are liars, unless you define "'compromise" as a "shameful or disreputable concession,' which fits the deal brokered by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) to a tee."
The award for the most bald-faced lie on the House floor Friday, however, goes to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who insisted that the bill "does not allow warrantless surveillance of Americans." She is wrong. It does.
The broader spying powers given to the executive branch by the compromise bill require intelligence agencies to "target" foreigners. But if those foreign "targets" happen to call or e-mail Americans, those communications are fair game. And since the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is only permitted to review the broad targeting procedures government eavesdroppers use to determine that a target is abroad, and not the substantive basis for authorizing surveillance of any target, anyone is a potential target.
The bill, in other words, allows the government to conduct "vacuum cleaner" surveillance -- sweeping up international traffic willy-nilly -- then filter it for anything that looks interesting. Indeed, many believe that licensing such surveillance is precisely the point of this legislation. If so, "warrantless surveillance of Americans" could well become routine, whether or not they are the formal "targets" of eavesdropping.
1898: Joshua Slocum completes a solo voyage lasting nearly three years, becoming the first sailor to circumnavigate alone.
Slocum, born within sight of Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy in 1844, ran away from home at 14 and signed on a fishing schooner as cabin boy to begin a lifetime at sea. He later crossed the Atlantic and became an ordinary seaman on the Tangier, a British merchantman. By 18, he had received his papers from the Board of Trade qualifying him as a second mate.
Landing in California, Slocum received his first command there and spent 13 years sailing out of San Francisco, taking square-rigged ships to Japan, China, Australia and the Spice Islands (the Moluccas of present-day Indonesia), as well as engaging in the coast-wise lumber trade.
Several ships, two wives and two sons later -- his first wife died in Argentina -- Joshua Slocum found himself back on the East Coast, in possession of a rotting old oyster sloop called the Spray. He would make history with this boat.
He spent the next few years restoring the Spray and rigging her for solo sailing. In 1895, at age 51, Slocum set out to be the first sailor ever to make a solo circumnavigation. The 37-foot Spray left Boston in April 1895 with her original sloop rig, but difficulties in the Strait of Magellan would cause Slocum to re-rig her as a yawl for the remainder of the voyage.
One peculiarity of Slocum's sailing was his decision to eschew the chronometer -- in favor of using a sextant and the ancient method of dead reckoning -- for fixing his longitudinal position at sea.
It was an eventful passage. Chased by pirates, feted by island kings and almost drowned a couple of times in storms, Slocum sailed 46,000 miles, staying for weeks and sometimes months at various stops along the way. His longest time at sea without making landfall was 72 days in the Pacific.
In addition to his seafaring skill, Slocum was an accomplished writer. His account of the voyage, Sailing Alone Around the World, is considered a classic of adventure literature. He begins his story thus:
I had resolved on a voyage around the world, and as the wind on the morning of April 24, 1895, was fair, at noon I weighed anchor, set sail and filled away from Boston, where the Spray had been moored snugly all winter. The 12 o'clock whistles were blowing just as the sloop shot ahead under full sail.
A short board was made up the harbor on the port tack, then coming about she stood to seaward, with her boom well off to port, and swung past the ferries with lively heels. A photographer on the outer pier of East Boston got a picture of her as she swept by, her flag at the peak throwing her folds clear.
A thrilling pulse beat high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood.
Kind of makes you want to dump your stupid computer and run off to sea, doesn't it?
Sailing Alone earned Slocum a lot of money, enabling him to buy his first home on land -- though characteristically offshore -- in Martha's Vineyard in 1902.
Although sales of the book remained brisk during the first several years of the 20th century, they were waning by 1908. Slocum was suddenly hurting for money and decided to sail south this time, to the Orinoco River in Venezuela, with the idea of gathering material for another book. Luck was not with him on this voyage, however, and the Spray, while still seaworthy, was not what she had been a decade earlier.
Slocum set sail for the West Indies in November 1909 and was never heard from again. He wasn't declared officially dead until 1924.
A World War II Liberty ship, SS Joshua Slocum, was named for the doughty mariner.
Virtual Heroes, the game studio that collaborated on America's Army, has partnered with the Department of Homeland Security on Zero Hour: America's Medic. Training first responders for real-life natural disasters and terrorist attacks is the idea, but anyone can jump in and play through the realistic scenarios. Utilizing Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 technology, players assume the role of an EMT and encounter scenarios that could occur in real life. The objective is to assess the problem and save as many lives as possible, even in the midst of major disasters like an earthquake or a lethal cyanide attack that derails a train.
Interacting with patients is an essential part of Zero Hour. Players diagnose symptoms that victims report. This process doesn't always go smoothly in chaotic conditions, and the player is often hurried on to other serious cases.
:
In some cases, what appears to be a flu can be much more severe. Epic's Unreal Engine 3 brings out all of the details in these patients, including the red in their eyes. It's important to read victims' visual cues as well as converse with them.
:
Zero Hour trains players how to properly do things in actual emergencies, like setting up a triage area, and then throws them into virtual situations that require them to parlay those lessons into practice. For instance, it's important to bring the right gear based on the information received from Dispatch in the ambulance.
:
When a freight train derails near a heavily populated train station and releases cyanide into the air, victims run out of the station. As medical commander, the player must set up a triage area and sort through these patients as quickly as possible, making sure proper treatment is administered.
:
A succession of bombs go off during the early innings of the St. Lillo Lions home baseball game. Firefighters alert the player that radioactivity is present. Amid extreme chaos -- and quickly -- the player must set up a triage area a safe distance away from the scene and treat victims of the dirty bomb.
:
An earthquake has turned buildings to rubble. Setting up a safe haven for treatment as aftershocks roll through the disaster scene means treating the victims strewn throughout the area is extremely urgent.
:
Players arrive at each scene as EMTs inside an ambulance responding to a disaster call Dispatch. They must use pertinent information from Dispatch to assess the correct gear for each situation, as they see quake damage unfolding from the vehicle.
:
The city of St. Lillo doesn't exist, but it's based on real U.S. cities. Virtual Heroes worked with EMT personnel in urban hubs like Boston and New York City to add a flavor of those locales to the game, and elements of Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco were blended in.
oddwick11 writes "Aubrey de Grey and other leading scientists and thinkers in stem cell research and regenerative medicine will gather in Los Angeles at UCLA for Aging 2008 to explain how their work can combat human aging, and the sociological implications of developing rejuvenation therapies. From an article today in WIRED Magazine 'Now, though, some scientists are beginning to view his approach — looking at aging as a disease and bringing in more disciplines into gerontology — as worthwhile, even if they still look askance at his claims of permanent reversible aging within a lifespan. The Methuselah Foundation now has an annual research funding budget of several million dollars, de Grey says, and it's beginning to show lab results that he thinks will turn scientists' heads.'" The conference is free, though registration is required; L.A. area readers who can attend are encouraged to post their thoughts. Update: 06/27 05:18 GMT by T : Dr. de Grey notes that you can also simply show up and register on-site. Look forward to a Slashdot interview with de Grey in the near future.
dougplanet writes with news from the Canadian-throttling front: "As ordered by the CRTC, Bell has released (some) of its data on how torrents and P2P in general are affecting its network. Even though there's not much data to go on, it's pretty clear that P2P isn't the crushing concern. Over the two-month period prior to their throttling, they had congestion on a whopping 2.6 and 5.2 per cent of their network links. They don't even explain whether this is a range of sustained congestion, or peaks amongst valleys."
Those of you following the saga of the sell-off of the federal legislative histories by the General Accountability Office might be interested in some good news and some bad news.
The good news is they have released 619,000 pages of histories, which were the pilot project scans they conducted. Looking at this data shows just how incredibly valuable these legislative histories are and how wonderfully talented the government employees are who compiled the information.
The bad news is the government *gave* millions of dollars worth of help to Thomson West which is raking in the bucks with the big database. In response to the data release by GAO, we have countered by offering to have scanned, at no direct cost to GAO, the same docs they gave to Thomson West. All we want is their hand-me-downs to give to a deserving public.
California's blueprint for slashing greenhouse-gas emissions could transform the world's seventh-largest economy -- and be a model for a nationwide plan in 2009.
The state presented its plan Thursday morning to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by about 30 percent by 2020. Based on legislation passed in 2006, the state is proposing a slate of changes including a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases, a requirement that renewable sources power one-third of the state's grid, and taxes on gas-guzzling cars. The state's approach could become a model for the nation, if climate-change legislation of some sort gets passed by Congress and is signed by the next president in 2009 -- as is widely expected.
The state anticipates that implementing the plan will not only attack climate change, but also provide a net benefit to the California economy.
"Setting California ahead of the curve on global warming will give our state a competitive advantage," said Mary Nichols, chair of the Air Resources Board.
That conclusion flies in the face of conventional wisdom that the costs of combating climate change will be high, perhaps several percent of a country's total economic output. That said, most of the debate over the costs of climate change and mitigation has been until now slightly more sophisticated than back-of-the-napkin calculations.
California's Air Resources Board, on the other hand, undertook a detailed, near-term look at the state's infrastructure to decide exactly how to get emissions cuts without economic pain. It was required to do so by the groundbreaking AB32, the "Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006," signed into law in September of that year.
If California's numbers hold up to scrutiny, it could be a major boost for the proponents of fighting climate change.
"The key thing with the AB32 scoping plan is that it really helps California create green jobs, green dollars and a clean environment," said Spencer Quong, a Union of Concerned Scientists analyst.
Quong also noted that consumers stand to economically benefit. The state estimates that car owners will save about $30 per month if all the plan's car regulations are deemed legal.
One intriguing way that California made the numbers look prettier was to include the health benefits of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
Cutting down emissions could save over 300 lives and up to $2.4 billion dollars, ARB staffer Edie Chang said. The savings would come mostly from decreasing asthma and lost-work days.
Despite the overall triumphant tone that colored the unveiling of the long-awaited plan, there are some areas where environmentalists, green-tech types and old-line industries continue to disagree.
As with national legislation battles, the issue of emission permits is looming large. In a cap-and-trade system, the government sells or gives away permits to discharge a certain amount of CO2 into the air. As you might expect, utilities and industry want to get these permits for free, while most public advocates and environmentalists want the state to sell the permits, then use the proceeds for green-tech investment or taxpayer refund.
"We think that auctioning is a key element of a plan" that maximizes the public interest, said Chris Busch, another Union of Concerned Scientists analyst.
Meanwhile the industry countered that they would need the permits given to them so that they could make the necessary changes to their businesses to keep costs for consumers low.
"Auction revenues, which are a very scary thing for us ... should be left 100 percent in the hands of those utilities," Bruce McLaughlin, representing the California Municipal Utility Association, told the board.
The issue is unlikely to go away, but most seem to expect somewhere between 25 and 75 percent of the permits to eventually be auctioned.
That number could be the standard that John McCain or Barack Obama looks to when he signs a bill that puts a price on carbon, as either is expected to do if elected.
In that way, the nitty-gritty details of a board meeting in Sacramento could end up having a major impact on the entire globe.
"We believe that this scoping plan is going to be an important milestone, an important framework for other states," said Nichols, the board chair.
Internet Service Providers have started to censor Usenet by blocking it completely and now you are left out of your favorite newsgroups. Don't panic, there are ways to tunnel through the information embargo and get back to flaming discussion boards and citing Godwin's Law in no time.
beadfulthings writes "In light of recent discussions about the Internet habits of the older generation, it's comforting to know that in North Carolina, up to 10,000 license plates containing the potentially offensive 3-letter WTF combination will be replaced by the Motor Vehicles division at no cost — if the owner of the vehicle finds the plates offensive. As reported on Winston-Salem's television station WXII, the MVD was alerted to the problem by an irate 60-year-old technology teacher who'd been clued in by her grandchildren. The article includes a helpful slide show of twenty Internet acronyms every parent should know. The article doesn't include any information on how you could actually apply for a WTF license plate."
Flickr's dedicated community and slick user interface aren't the only reasons the photo-sharing has earned major kudos from the Web 2.0 set. It's also because its flexible API makes it easy to build simple mashups in a variety of programming languages. Webmonkey shows you how to mash your favorite photos onto a map using a few lines of Python code.
AP - The Internet's key oversight agency relaxed rules Thursday to permit the introduction of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new Internet domain names to join ".com," making the first sweeping changes in the network's 25-year-old address system.
For the third time in 19 months, Yahoo redraws its management chart as it tries to snap out of a financial malaise that has ravaged its stock price, jeopardized its independence and demoralized employees.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers votes in Paris to permit the introduction of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new Internet domain names.
Pixar's latest adorable animated creation longs for love on a lonely planet. When a laser-wielding ladybot interrupts his garbage-compacting task, he's off on a sci-fi adventure in an attempt to save the world.
AP - Yahoo Inc. is setting up a new chain of command amid the turmoil triggered by the embattled Internet icon's snub of Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion takeover bid.
A mission scientist reports that, based on the first of Phoenix lander's soil samples, there is "nothing about [Martian soil] that would preclude life."
A House subcommittee on Thursday approved legislation requiring AM-FM radio broadcasters to pay royalties to singers, musicians and their labels. Broadcasters decried the proposal, and have invoked the xenophobia card, saying as much as $2.4 billion a year in royalties would go to "foreign-based" record companies. The music industry labeled the broadcasters as pirates and the proposal moves to the House Judiciary Committee.
Last year, Joel Johnson and BBtv visited the International Cryptozoology Museum in Maine, a multi-room cabinet of curiosities filled with artifacts, ephemera, and oddities related to "hidden animals," mythical beasts, and creatures unknown to science. The curator of the museum is Loren Coleman, known to BB readers for his terrific contributions to our site, his many books, and his blogging at Cryptomundo. Sadly, the International Cryptozoology Museum is in dire straits. According to Loren, he's caught up in a complicated IRS audit that, he says, initially began with a challenge of "the reality of 'cryptozoology' as an occupation." Then the museum itself apparently was called into question. Now, Loren is seeking $15,000 in donations to keep the International Cryptozoology Museum alive and move it to a new location. From his post:
To the IRS, the museum verges on being a hobby (as per Code 183), and it needs more income (even if donations) to support itself, on its own. To me, the merging between my interviews, the book sales that come out of the museum appearances, and the visibility of the museum on the net are all interwoven. I’ve never had a great income since I was laid off from adjunct teaching, but combined together, I live at the cryptozoology poverty level with no complaints. But to the IRS, the museum is a separate entity. I understand now, and must comply with that view. I’ve lost my appeal on my “merge” view.
No fighting this any longer, for I stand fully enlightened about how the IRS is viewing Code 183, as it applies to my life’s career. The museum has to make money, or it ceases to exist.
Pili trianguli et canaliculi is a rare genetic disease also known as "uncombable hair syndrome" and "spun glass hair." From an abstract in the medical journal Ultrastructural Pathology (photo from The World's Fair blog):
Both inherited (autosomal dominant and recessive with variable levels of penetrance) and sporadic forms of uncombable hair syndrome have been described, both being characterized by scalp hair that is impossible to comb due to the haphazard arrangement of the hair bundles. A characteristic morphologic feature of hair in this syndrome is a triangular to reniform to heart shape on cross-sections, and a groove, canal or flattening along the entire length of the hair in at least 50% of hairs examined by scanning electron microscopy. Most individuals are affected early in childhood and the hair takes on a spun-glass appearance with the hair becoming dry, curly, glossy, lighter in color, and progressively uncombable. Only the scalp hair is affected.
The editors of Make magazine are selling a $20 "Maker's Notebook" aimed at hackers, crafters and other creative types. Modeled after a lab notebook, its quality and extra features justify its steep price.
Gallery of photos of a giant plucked chicken sculpture.
Attention Chicken! is a three dimensional version of the collage that goes by the same title.
Nicolas Lampert and Micaela O’Herlihy created a ten-foot rotisserie chicken out of polystyrene foam, hard coated, and then painted with latex paint and final coat of high gloss varnish.
In October, 2006 Attention Chicken! made a number of unannounced public interventions throughout Milwaukee at Bradford Beach, the woods, Walmart, National Ave, and other locations throughout the city. Reactions ranged from laughter to attacks directed at the chicken (three in one day!)
Julius von Bismarck's "Image Fulgurator" uses a 35mm film camera and a synchronized flash to project images onto flat surfaces at the exact moment when another camera's flash goes off. The result? Graffiti inserted into tourists' snapshots, without their knowledge. In Gadget Lab.
Reuters - Nintendo is banned everywhere but the
classroom at Tokyo Joshi Gakuen school in Japan as the
ubiquitous DS consoles become the latest tool in English
instruction.
Here are the first 3 of 10 rocket stove principles, by Larry Winiarski.
AP - It is almost unthinkable that any one human could pick up where Bill Gates leaves off when he ends his full-time tenure Friday as Microsoft's leader.
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
Today on Boing Boing Gadgets, we played with a cheap retro console clone; imagined riding the NOAH concept monocycle; listened as a Roboclarinet played "Flight of the Bumblebee"; and gaped at
Dell's sudden interest in good industrial design.
AP - The Internet's key oversight agency relaxed rules Thursday to permit the introduction of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new Internet domain names to join ".com," making the first sweeping changes in the network's 25-year-old address system.
AP - Yahoo Inc. is setting up a new chain of command amid the turmoil triggered by the embattled Internet icon's snub of Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion takeover bid.
Both inherited (autosomal dominant and recessive with variable levels of penetrance) and sporadic forms of uncombable hair syndrome have been described, both being characterized by scalp hair that is impossible to comb due to the haphazard arrangement of the hair bundles. A characteristic morphologic feature of hair in this syndrome is a triangular to reniform to heart shape on cross-sections, and a groove, canal or flattening along the entire length of the hair in at least 50% of hairs examined by scanning electron microscopy. Most individuals are affected early in childhood and the hair takes on a spun-glass appearance with the hair becoming dry, curly, glossy, lighter in color, and progressively uncombable. Only the scalp hair is affected.
The Pistol Cam creates lasting memories of life's most precious moments. Rob has more at Boing Boing Gadgets.
