Awesome Photo Gallery

... of some weird digital media party.
http://www.xeni.net/images/0802_nyc_digitalartparty/

Good Weblog

haxor (also H4X0R): hacker. X0R is often used as the suffix "-er"; for instance "fucker" becomes "fuX0r" in 1337speak. Often a 1337speak noun ending in X0R becomes a present tense verb when followed by "s" or "z" or a past tense verb when followed by "ed". For instance, "this beer sucks" becomes "this beer sux0rz" (or, if you really want to go whole-hog, "+|-|1z b33R sUx0rz".
http://boingboing.net/

Kamikaze Pilot Instruction Manual

Your speed is at maximum. The plane tends to lift. But you can prevent this by pushing the elevator control forward sufficiently to allow for the increase in speed. Do your best. Push forward with all your might. You have lived for 20 years or more. You must exert your full might for the last time in your life. Exert supernatural strength. At the very moment of impact: do your best. Every deity and the spirits of your dead comrades are watching you intently. Just before the collision it is essential that you do not shut your eyes for a moment so as not to miss the target. Many have crashed into the targets with wide-open eyes. They will tell you what fun they had.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,778587,00.html

Canadian ISPs To Become Big Brother-ish

WASHINGTON--The Canadian government is considering a proposal that would force Internet providers to rewire their networks for easy surveillance by police and spy agencies. A discussion draft released Sunday also contemplates creating a national database of every Canadian with an Internet account, a plan that could sharply curtail the right to be anonymous online. The Canadian government, including the Department of Justice and Industry Canada, wrote the 21-page blueprint as a near-final step in a process that seeks to give law enforcement agents more authority to conduct electronic surveillance. A proposed law based on the discussion draft is expected to be introduced in Parliament late this year or in early 2003. Arguing that more and more communications take place in electronic form, Canadian officials say such laws are necessary to fight terrorism and combat even run-of-the-mill crimes. They also claim that by enacting these proposals, Canada will be following its obligations under the Council of Europes cybercrime treaty, which the country is in the process of considering.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-955595.html

Researchers Attempt To Create Material With Negative Refractivity

A transmission medium with a negative index of refractions would enable a flat planar lens to focus light to precisions that are smaller than the wavelength of the light itself. With tunable versions of such photonic materials now being rushed into prototypes by labs worldwide, it is conceivable that not only could a "perfect" lens be created but that known electron effects could be translated into photonic operations to create sensors that could detect a single molecule. "Conventional lenses cannot focus light in an area smaller than the wavelength of the light, but with our nanomaterials you can focus light down much smaller than its own wavelength," said Shalaev. "These metallic nanostructures might even be able to detect a single molecule of a substance, which will never be possible for conventional optics."All materials have two fundamental electromagnetic parameters: permeability and permittivity, which respectively measure the capacities of a medium to form magnetic and electrical fields. The values of those parameters produce the characteristic bending of a light beam when it travels from one medium into another. In addition, since both parameters are always positive in nature, the electric and magnetic vector field components are directed according to the "right-hand rule," which can be represented by pointing the index finger of the right hand in the direction of propagation. The thumb and middle finger are then oriented at right angles to the index finger, showing the field vector directions.
http://www.eet.com/at/news/OEG20020826S0041

Australian Bionic Eye To Begin Human Trials

The device consists of a silicon chip inserted into the eye, which is designed to act like a retina ? receiving images captured by a pair of glasses worn by the user.It is still at a very early stage in its development, but if successful, it could restore vision to people who have lost sight during their lifetime.
http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s653099.htm

Good Salon Comix

Based on US/Taliban political situation...
http://salon.com/comics/knig/2002/08/21/knig/index.html

Good Penny Arcade

You gamers will get this one.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002-08-22&res=l

The Onions Wine Tasting Tips

If you are uncertain whether to select a merlot or beaujolais for a spring breast-of-lamb garden dinner, avoid making a decision until we come down to beat the living crap out of you.
http://www.theonion.com/onion3830/wine-appreciation_tips.html

Quantum Computing Possible Today

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison claim to have created the worlds first successful simulation of a quantum-computer architecture that uses existing silicon fabrication techniques. By harnessing both vertical and horizontal tunneling through dual top and bottom gates, the architecture lays out interacting, 50-nanometer-square, single-electron quantum dots across a chip."Our precise modeling elucidates the specific requirements for scalable quantum computing ? for the first time we have translated the requirements for fault-tolerant quantum computing into the specific requirements for gate voltage control electronics in quantum dots," said professor Mark Eriksson of the universitys Department of Physics. The group of researchers has concluded that existing silicon fabrication equipment can be used to create quantum computers, albeit at only megahertz speeds today due to the stringent requirements of its pulse generators. To achieve gigahertz operation, the group has pinpointed the device features that need to be enhanced to prevent leakage errors, and has already begun work on fabricating a prototype.
http://www.eetimes.com/at/news/OEG20020806S0030

Nother Space Probe Lost

One of Nasas space probes appears to be missing. The science probe was scheduled to depart Earth orbit on Thursday for a 2003 encounter with a comet. The Comet Nucleus Tour, or Contour, spacecraft was to have fired its manoeuvering engine at 2349 GMT on Wednesday for 50 seconds and contact its ground control team at the Johns Hopkins University in Laurel, Maryland, 45 minutes later.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2196102.stm

Bizarro DARPA Flash Of "Self-Healing Minefields"

Once the minefield is employed, the individual mines begin to assemble into a completely ad-hoc network. By exploiting novel networking approaches and the close mine-to-mine distances, the minefield network is able to self-assemble in less than five minutes. In parallel to the assembly process, the minefield self-maps the location of all mines in the minefield. This local mapping can be achieved without access to the Global Positioning System (GPS). An absolute position of all mines within the minefield can be determined by onboard GPS, but this is not necessary for the standard functions of the minefield.
http://www.darpa.mil/ato/programs/SHM/shmdemo.swf

More Evidence For Mars Life

In the latest study of a 4.5 billion-year-old Martian meteorite, researchers have presented new evidence confirming that 25 percent of the magnetic material in the meteorite was produced by ancient bacteria on Mars. These latest results were published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. The researchers used six physical properties they refer to as the Magnetite Assay for Biogenicity (MAB) to compare all the magnetic material found in the ancient meteorite -- using the MAB as a biosignature. A biosignature is a physical and/or chemical marker of life that does not occur through random processes or human intervention. "No non-biologic magnetite population, whether produced by nature or in the laboratory, has ever met the MAB criteria," said Kathie Thomas-Keprta, an astrobiologist at NASAs Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston and the lead researcher on the study. "This means that one-quarter of the magnetite crystals embedded in the carbonates in Martian meteorite ALH84001 require the intervention of biology to explain their presence."
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0208/04marslife/

Directed Energy Directorate Project Fact Sheets

A Brief History Of The Airborne Laser, Active Denial Technology, AEOS Telescope Facility, Airborne Laser (YAL-1A), Airborne Laser Frequently Asked Questions, ARGUS, Battlefield Optical Surveillance System (BOSS), Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Laser (COIL), Directed Energy Directorate, High Power Microwave Division, High Power Micowaves, etc
http://www.de.afrl.af.mil/Factsheets/

Lou Dobbs Hosts Moneyline From Window Ledge

New York?Rattled by Wall Streets extreme volatility of late, CNN Moneyline anchor Lou Dobbs hosted the program from a windy ledge high above New Yorks financial district Tuesday. Above: Dobbs broadcasts from high above New York. "The Dow was up 579 points today, rebounding sharply from Mondays 611-point loss," said Dobbs, as he struggled to simultaneously address the camera, retain his grip on the exterior wall of the Prescott Securities Tower, and prevent his tie from blowing into his face from the wind outside the 63rd floor. "Stocks plummeted early in the day, with the industrial average hitting a five-year low of 7,627 by noon, but by 3 p.m., bargain hunters moved in, raising the average to a robust 9,143."Trying hard not to look down, Dobbs analyzed the days wild fluctuations.
http://www.theonion.com/onion3828/lou_dobbs_hosts_moneyline.html

Build Your Own Tesla Coils

This is the second prototype of a coil ultimately intended for the physics department at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California. The going is a bit slow since niether Pete nor I have the money to sink into it. I called one of the better known suppliers of spun aluminum toroids and got a quote for a discharge terminal that has since sent me on my way through the machine technology program at O.C.C. High voltatge capacitors for such a device are also not exactly cheep so weve been attempting to design one. This photo was taken during the short time one of the capacitor designs survived. Dielectrics dont seem to behave quite as advertised when subjected to potentials in excess of twenty thousand volts oscillating above three hundred and fifty kilohertz. The supply transformer delivers something just shy of one kilowatt.
http://www.edm.net/~jwilliams/tesla.html

Ultimate Memory Demoed

The scientist Richard Feynman suggested several decades ago that it would be possible to use single atoms to store bits of data. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin at Madison have taken a large step toward making the idea a reality with a prototype that uses single silicon atoms to represent the 1s and 0s of computing. Practical atomic-scale memory would increase the amount of information that could be stored per square inch of recording material by several thousand times. The researchers realized they had hit upon a mechanism for atomic memory when they discovered that scattering gold atoms on a silicon wafer caused the silicon atoms to assemble into tracks exactly five atoms wide. The pattern resembled the microstructure of a CD.
http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2002/080702/Ultimate_memory_demoed_080702.html

Montalban Recalls Khan

Ricardo Montalban, who played the villainous Khan in 1982s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, told an appreciative audience in Los Angeles that it took him and director Nicholas Meyer a while to uncover his now-famous operatic performance. Montalban and Meyer spoke at a screening at Paramount Pictures of a new directors edition of the film, which will come out on DVD on Aug. 6."The function of a director is to be a loving eye for the actor, to help him give the best performance he is capable of giving," Montalban said after receiving a standing ovation. "Well, I never had a more loving eye from a director than I did from ... Nicholas Meyer. He was extraordinary. ... I was ... at the end of the sixth season of Fantasy Island. ... During my hiatus, I was presented with this script. ... The shock of my life was that after six years of doing Mr. Roarke of Fantasy Island?a controlled man, you know, he was in charge of the island, and so forth? ... the first time that I began to say the words out loud, ... I sounded like Mr. Roarke. ... And I thought the public is going to laugh me off the screen. ... I was so nervous."
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2002-08/02/13.00.film

UofC Receives Donation Of 35000 Sci-Fi Works

Calgary ? It came from the attic... the garage... and worlds beyond. A massive collection of science fiction and pulp magazines spanning the last century has been donated to the University of Calgary which officials say will be a boon for literary and pop culture research.University staff were stunned by the size of the donation: upwards of 35,000 volumes dating back to the 19th century, much of it bought at second-hand stores across North America and Britain.
http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/front/RTGAM/20020801/wsifi/Front/homeBN/breakingnews