Heartless God Always Chooses Continue

Hilarious Onion Today!
http://www.theonion.com/onion3726/video_game_character.html

Enterprise Spoilers

Starfleet is less than twenty years old in 2151 and with the founding of the Federation decades away, humanity has only now been able to construct advanced warp technology capable of traveling warp 5. The Vulcans refused over the century since Cochranes warp flight in First Contact to share their advanced warp technology and the new mark of warp 5 breaks a barrier to exploration that has hindered human expansion. At warp 5, 10,000 inhabited planets are within one years journey, compared to only 18 at warp 2.
http://www.section31.com/stories/july-2001/072901_c.htm

Supercomputer to Model Universe

The supercomputer is built of 152 processors, can perform 10 billion calculations per second and will use astronomical data to create detailed simulations of how the Universe formed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1465000/1465018.stm

Echelon: the Risk is There

EU government press release on the reality, and dangers of Echelon.
http://www.cyber-rights.org/interception/echelon/

Spacecraft to Bring Back Bits of Solar Wind

Genesis will travel beyond Earths magnetic field to a spot 1.6 million kilometres away from the planet. It will spend about 2½ years circling that imaginary point, gathering bits of solar material hurtling by at more than 1.6 kilometres an hour.
http://news.excite.ca/news/cp/010730/00/spacecraft-to-bring

Viking Was Wrong?

Working from a printed record that the initial NASA team had saved, Miller has been able to assemble and analyze about a third of the data and plans to present his initial findings on Sunday at a scientific conference in San Diego. Miller found the gas emissions from the soil sample fell into a cycle of precisely 24.66 hours -- the length of the Martian day -- a pattern that was linked to a slight variation in the temperature inside the mostly insulated lander.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010727/sc/space_mars_life_dc_1.html

Best Video Ever?

Curve videos now up at launch.com. This is a link to Curve
Horror Head.
http://www.launch.com/musicvideos/view/not_start/1,,158295~570,00.html"

African Manual for Covert Ops

Fascinating African National Congress manual for covert actions, which was published during 1988-90. Check this out:
Secret methods are based on common sense and experience. But theymust be mastered like an art. Discipline, vigilance and self-control are required. A resistance organiser in Nazi-occupiedFrance who was never captured said this was because he `neverused the telephone and never went to public places like bars, restaurants and post offices. He was living a totallyunderground life. But even those members of a secret movement who have a legal existence must display the qualities we have referred to.
http://cryptome.org/anc-manual.htm

Wireds Story on the New Popularity of SETI

... endeavors that are underway include an ambitious survey of the sky for laser signals to begin next year in Boston; the completion of construction of the Allen Telescope Array, the largest instrument dedicated to the search for ET, in Northern California; and NASAs possible launch of the Kepler Mission, a space-based telescope designed to hunt for Earth-like planets.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,45559,00.html

/. Thread on the Re-release of Akira

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/07/25/1213202

Recent Water on Mars

New images of the surface of Mars provide the first direct evidence that the climate of Mars changed during the last 100,000 years, much more recently than the hundreds of millions of years scientists had previously thought, according to Brown University geologist John Mustard. The high- resolution images show evidence of water ice closer to the equator than had previously been observed.
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=5597

$200K US For Factoring a Number!

OK, so its a *big* number... 617 digits.
http://www.rsasecurity.com/rsalabs/challenges/factoring/numbers.html#RSA576

Moores Law and the Ultimate Laptop

"Something else has happened with computers. Whats happened with society is that we have created these devices, computers, which already can register and process huge amounts of information, which is a significant fraction of the amount of information that human beings themselves, as a species, can process. When I think of all the information being processed there, all the information being communicated back and forth over the Internet, or even just all the information that you and I can communicate back and forth by talking, I start to look at the total amount of information being processed by human beings ? and their artifacts ? we are at a very interesting point of human history, which is at the stage where our artifacts will soon be processing more information than we physically will be able to process."
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lloyd/lloyd_index.html

Microchips Over Matter

Implanting tiny chips, data, algorithms and programs in your head will not, as Kosko contends, boost cognitive function one bit, if by that we mean "thinking." Being able to access "all knowledge and all databases at the speed of light" is a little like being able to park a teeny-tiny version of the Library of Congress inside your skull. Then what? Not much. Lots of data, even if access to it could be wired in the brain, skipping the display screen, does not impart "bit-based omniscience," in Koskos Promethean phrase. Youd have to think about it with that flawed brain.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-000057575jul14.story

Security Through Obscurity?

The most misunderstood statement in the computer security field has got to be "security through obscurity is bad."
http://securityportal.com/beale/beale20010720.html

MI6, Bush, and Foot and Mouth

Interesting article from crypthome... last December, just after Bush?s confirmation by the Reagan-nominated US Supreme Court, a thief walked through fences and walls and got into the British Ministry of Defence Laboratory at Porton Down, a maximum security facility which contains a wide range of the most dangerous viruses and poisons in the world. The thief knew what he was looking for ? he escaped with a phial of foot and mouth virus.
http://cryptome.org/mi6-bush.htm

NASAs Space Droids

It looks like something straight out of a Star Wars movie. And to hear it described -- a self-propelled, floating, talking, computerized personal assistant with artificial intelligence -- you might suspect it really is a "droid" from a science fiction film. The similarity isnt a coincidence. The design was actually inspired by the small floating sphere that Luke Skywalker sparred against in the original Star Wars!
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23jul_1.htm?list153858

Jet Li & Jackie Chan Togeather

It?s the moment martial arts fans have been waiting for since Hong Kong?s two biggest action stars first kicked spectacular arse on the big screen. Martial arts masters Jackie Chan and Jet Li will be thrown together for the first time in an upcoming film set to start filming in fall 2002, according to Variety.
http://www.dtheatre.com/read.php?sid=1474

25 Years After Viking

The mightiest probe ever to land on another planet settled down on Mars on this day 25 years ago, igniting a scientific firestorm that still rages today -- Does the red planet possess life?
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/07/20/viking.anniversary/index.html

Excellent Streaming Radio Station

http://www.pulsefm.co.uk/

Been a Good Year for AI

I just nominated four recent breakthrus in AI that I think are especially significant: robots that walk on two legs, software that can recognise faces, the computer games The Sims and Black & White, and the semantic web (XML) movement...
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=9j9a4u%24cqi%241%40mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU

Sweet Webpad

Looks pretty sweet. Pretty hefty pricetag though... $2.3K US.
http://store.sonicblue.com/dr/v2/ec_MAIN.Entry10?xid=25971&SP=10023&PN=1&V1=315568&DSP=&CUR=840&CACHE_ID=0

Sex From Space

Comet or asteroid impacts could have stressed asexual organisms enough to send them down the path of sexual reproduction after forcing a flurry of genetic mutations, the study shows. Heavy doses of radiation might also have done the trick.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/origin_sex_010710.html

Digital Organisms Confirm Darwin

Digital organisms, essentially computer programs obeying the laws of mutation and natural selection, can be used to investigate the interplay between the basic processes of evolution. One such experiment puts a new spin on the darwinian concept of the survival of genotypes with high replication rates ? the survival of the fittest.
http://www.nature.com/nature/links/010719/010719-4.html

New Form of Bose-Einstien Condensate Discovered

Through tinkering with magnetic fields, the researchers have successfully shrunk the condensate, which is followed by a tiny explosion -- similar in some ways to a microscopic supernova explosion and which Wiemans team has dubbed a "Bosenova." About half of the original atoms seem to disappear during the process, he said.
http://www.cosmiverse.com/science07190102.html

So I Married an Australopithicene

http://www.salon.com/comics/boll/2001/07/19/boll/index.html

Kursk is Comin Up

Naval engineers using a remote-control, deep-sea vessel conducted exploratory work Tuesday at the site where the Kursk nuclear submarine sank, laying the groundwork for the complex, two-month operation to raise the shattered ship.
http://news.excite.ca/news/cp/010717/04/russian-naval-experts

More New/Old Enterprise Pics

Also see this picture
http://www.section31.com/stories/july-2001/071301_b.htm

Looking for Dumb Aliens

Interesting article... what if aliens are too dumb or dont want to talk? How do we find them then?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/explorations/2001/071601alien/

IBM Releases AI Helpdesk Ware

IBM announced on Thursday the release of software that intends to replace humans on perennially understaffed computer help desks. The software, called Virtual Help Desk, incorporates an artificial intelligence component that can understand complaints in normal prose - typed, not spoken - and fix the problem, said John Richards of IBMs eBusiness support division. IBM bills the program as a ``self-help, self-healing and self-diagnostic tool, released as part of its ongoing ``autonomic computing technology billed under the name Project eLiza.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010712/tc/ibm_ai_software_1.html

Pulsars and the Theory of Relativity

In a recent joint effort, astronomers from Australia and the U.S. utilized CSIROs Parkes radio telescope to measure the distortion of space-time near a star 450 light-years from Earth, thus completing the most precise astrophysics experiment in history.
http://www.cosmiverse.com/space07160103.html

New Jet Li Movie

The film tells the story of a man traveling through alternate realities, killing the other versions of himself to absorb their power. Li plays both the evil entity and an alternate version who must stop him.
http://www.dtheatre.com/read.php?sid=1470

Pravda Reports New Energy Source Discovered

Russian scientists have made a sensational discovery. Some fundamental investigations realized by them could entail a real revolution on the field of industry and power engineering and allow to make series of new inventions.
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/07/12/9954.html

/. Thread on Why Shower Curtains Pull In

A UMass professor, Dr. David Schmidt, used computer modeling to figure out why shower curtains suck inward during showers. He designed an image of his mother-in-laws shower, filled it with 50,000 3D velocity/pressure sensors, and turned on the virtual water. 1.5 trillion calculations later, he found that drag on the falling water drops creates a mini-hurricance, producing a low-pressure eye that attracts the shower curtain.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/07/15/1355250

/. Final Fantasy Reviews

Excellent /. thread on Final Fantasy. Ignore the Katz review at the top and read on below... I just saw the movie and thought it was excellent. The plot became a little preachy at the end, but still fabulous.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/07/12/0112213

Most Accurate Clock Created

Researchers have just come up with a new type of atomic clock even more precise than the current technology in use. The clock is accurate to one second in the lifetime of the Universe -­ about 15 billion years ­- and it works on the same basic principle that microwave atomic clocks have used since the 1950s. However, the new clock uses optical light, which is of a higher frequency, providing more accurate timekeeping.
http://www.cosmiverse.com/science07130101.html

New Farthest Objects Found

According to a report by BBC News, scientists at the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) have recently detected the two most distant objects to ever be observed. Dr. Donald Schneider of Pennsylvania State University says that two quasars have been spotted with redshifts of 6.0 and 6.2, which break the previous record established by last years SDSS discovery of a quasar at redshift 5.8.
http://www.cosmiverse.com/space07120103.html

ISS Sucks?

International Space Station sucks says commander... Leaked documents show astronauts on board the International Space Station had to put up with dozens of irritating problems which made their lives a misery. Medical labels in Russian, noisy machinery and even a lack of shampoo left them at their wits end.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_349682.html

Do-It-Yourself Supercomputer

Most conventional supercomputers employ parallel processing: they contain arrays of ultrafast microprocessors that work in tandem to solve complex problems such as forecasting the weather or simulating a nuclear explosion. Made by IBM, Cray and other computer vendors, the machines typically cost tens of millions of dollars--far too much for a research team with a modest budget. So over the past few years, scientists at national laboratories and universities have learned how to construct their own supercomputers by linking inexpensive PCs and writing software that allows these ordinary computers to tackle extraordinary problems.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/2001/0801issue/0801hargrove.html

Antimatters Not So Tough

Looks like antimatter is not all its cracked up to be, a group of international physicists have announced in a finding which proves there is a good reason for our universe, made of matter, to exist.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/antimatter_universe_010709.html

DARPA RFP for Chip Scale Atomic Clock

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting research proposals in the area of Chip-Scale Atomic Clock (CSAC). Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices or systems. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvement to the existing state-of-practice. DARPA seeks innovative proposals in the area of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) implementation of CSAC. The final goal is to demonstrate an integrated, MEMS-fabricated, ultra miniaturized atomic time and frequency reference units that will achieve significant reductions in size (for example, 1 cm cubed in final package excluding battery) and power consumption (on the order of 30 mW) over state-of-the-art devices, while providing frequency accuracy on the order of 1x10 to the negative 11th power (Allen deviation at one-hour integration time).
http://cryptome.org/darpa070601.txt

Microsoft-English Dictionary

Hilarious:"Cross-Platform" - (1)(n) - Industry standard definition for a product that runs on multiple computing environments (See "Platform"). (2)(n) - Microsofts marketing term used to mean a product that runs on any of Microsofts platforms. (e.g., Microsofts Java is cross-platform since it runs on Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, and XP.)
http://www.infowarrior.org/articles/2001-04.html

Human Embryos Created for Harvesting

Scientists at Eastern Virginia Medical School have created human embryos from donated eggs and sperm for the sole purpose of harvesting embryonic stem cells for research, according to a study published Wednesday.
http://news.excite.ca/news/ap/010711/12/stem-cell-research

First Peeks at the New Enterprise

Heres the design of the new/old enterprise. Looks a whole lot like the Akira class... strange to see from a pre-tos design. A bigger pic is also here.
http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/TP/scoops/scoops.html#enterprise

Underwater Ruins Found in Peru

Interesting. When we were in Puno, the locals were exitedly talking about ruins found recently by divers in lake Titicaca. We wanted to go, but the altitude sickness forbid us from even thinking about it.
http://www.discover.com/jan_01/featatlantis.html

Radar Map of Victoria

This three-frequency spaceborne radar image shows the southern end of Vancouver Island on the west coast of Canada. The white area in the lower right is the city of Victoria, the capital of the province of British Columbia. The three radar frequencies help to distinguish different land use patterns. The bright pink areas are suburban regions, the brownish areas are forested regions, and blue areas are agricultural fields or forest clear- cuts. Founded in 1843 as a fur trading post, Victoria has grown to become one of western Canadas largest commercial centers. In the upper right is San Juan Island, in the state of Washington. The Canada/U.S. border runs through Haro Strait, on the right side of the image, between San Juan Island and Vancouver Island.
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/data/ev16/ev1610_PIA01830_md.jpg

Curve Working With Republica!

Dean and I are presently working on some material with Saffron from Republica, its all very poptastic and sleazy just like we like it.
http://www.curve.co.uk/news.htm

Interesting New Celestial Object Found

There are many kinds of celestial objects in the Universe but we are far from knowing them all. XMM-Newton may have discovered a new one: a very luminous soft X-ray source that is pulsating extremely rapidly in the central region of the Andromeda galaxy. This unusual object could be a new kind of accreting white dwarf.
http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=1&cid=1&oid=27568

Brain Ballon!

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/ap/20010704/us/mensa_brain_balloon_txks103.html

Atari Lives!

The original king of the consoles is 24 years old, boasts clunky graphics and dinky sounds, yet is still doing quite nicely, thank you.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/07/09/atari/index.html

Good Sugano Sensei Interview

Sugano Sensei taught at the 2000 summer camp, which I attended. Excellent instructor.
http://www.aikidoonline.com/feat_0601_sug.html

Strange Glowing Lights on Io

Strange glows have been seen dancing over Jupiters moon Io. They were recorded during an eclipse of Io in January, witnessed by the Cassini spacecraft that was on its way to Saturn.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1409000/1409117.stm

Hopi Indian Legend May Be Proved Out

Until recently, the story was considered Hopi mythology, which said the clan traveled in the four directions of the compass but there seemed to be no proof the Hopis ever left the Southwest and brought their culture elsewhere. Now Canadian archaeologists, with help from an American photographer, are beginning to change their minds and believe the story of the clans travels just might by history rather than myth.
http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=199193

Excellent Hubble Mars Pic

http://www.cosmiverse.com/space07050105image2.html

Movie News

Some interesting tidbits about Lynchs Mulholland Drive, as well as David Bowies next movie apperance.
http://www.crowdsurfer.com/index.php3?id=20010705122739

Hilarious Tori Amos Album

Looks like Toris covering a bunch of eclectic bands, to say the least. From Slayer to the Beatles and Depeche mode. Hmm.
http://www.crowdsurfer.com/index.php3?id=20010704135723

Ghost in the Machine Day

"Ghost In The Machine" Day (GIMday) is the day in the Luddite Calendar that celebrates the potential for error that is innate in every machine, personified by Etaoin Shrdlu. He is the mistake with a name, the eponym of the mistake in the machine.
http://ludditereader.com/ghost/gimday.htm

Kiss of the Dragon

Jet Li talks about his new flick.
http://www.dtheatre.com/read.php?sid=1449

Money Chip

Hitachi has developed a chip that could be woven into paper money to help identify counterfeits and could also have wide ramifications for identification and surveillance technologies. The chip, called Mew, measures just 0.4mm on a side and stores information such as identification and security codes. Most identity chips are currently several millimeters on a side. Mew includes 128 bits of read-only memory (ROM) and RF wireless circuitry that allows it to transmit over a distance of about 12 inches. If the chip were inserted in money, a reader unit would be able to instantly detect authentic bills.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/cn/20010703/tc/hitachi_in_the_money_with_tiny_chip__1.html

Machine-driven Image Analogies

We present a new framework for processing images by example, called "image analogies." Rather than attempting to program individual filters by hand, we attempt to automatically learn filters from training data.
http://mrl.nyu.edu/projects/image-analogies/

AI Review

A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) 2nd Jul 2001 Directed by Steven Spielberg. Story by Ian Watson, based on the short story Supertoys Last All Sumer Long by Brian Aldiss. Screenplay by Steven Spielberg. Starring Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances OConnor, Sam Robards, William Hurt. Music by John Williams. Running time: 145 minutes.RATING: 8/10 for the first 110 minutes. 3/10 for the last 35. VERDICT: An excellent film, with touches of the old Spielberg brilliance. But what was the man thinking with the last half hour?
http://www.crowdsurfer.com/index.php3?id=20010702123008

Quantum dots to barcode DNA

A system for bar-coding DNA using brilliant crystals called quantum dots could revolutionise our ability to identify genes in the human genome. But some say the best uses of these crystals are yet to come.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns9999953