Groonk's Newsmine 2.0

This creates a situation in which ordinary events like earthquakes and hurricanes become increasingly elevated to the level of natural disasters that reap heavy losses in human life and property."

Step 2 Hold iPod at crotch level

Step 3 Watch our point-of-view (POV) video and feel like you're there!

It's a process that happens each time a new thing needs a name, but language researchers have struggled to model how it happens without a central decision maker. Now a computer model shows the process at work - and may give insights into how the first human languages emerged.

Luc Steels of the Sony Computer Science Laboratory Paris in France and his colleagues studied the "naming game", a simple computer model that reflects how people invent words and use them. In the game, a group of "agents" live in a virtual environment with a number of "objects". Each agent makes up random names for the objects, and the agents then interact in pairs, trying to "talk" about those objects.

In each interaction, one agent (the speaker) says its word for an object, while the second agent (the hearer) listens. If the hearer fails to recognise the word, it memorises it as a possible name for the object. But if the hearer understands the word, both agents retain this word in memory and ditch any others they have made up or heard.

[...]

The process has a couple of glitches, though. The cups require less material than plates, but instead of cutting away the leftover acrylic, the machine currently forms it into a large, flat lip on top of the cup that makes drinking difficult.

The other problem concerns cleaning the dishes. The heating process gets rid of some food and sterilizes the dishes, but doesn't solve the problem of food grease, which tends to settle into the plastic.

"We can obviously just stick a dishwasher on the machine, but we're still investigating ways that would wash dishes without water," Bonanni says. "That would be a real breakthrough for us."

One big advantage the DishMaker offers is the production energy it saves.

"If you made and recycled one of our plates three times a day for a year, the energy that goes into that is comparable to the energy required to make one ceramic plate (in a factory) because the ceramic is fired at about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit," says Bonanni.

At Chicago's Field Museum, curators call their upcoming effort "Evolving Planet." The University of Nebraska State Museum in Lincoln calls its program "Explore Evolution." And here at the American Museum of Natural History, the exhibit that opens next month is called simply "Darwin."

"We can easily link up with customers, brokers and the market," she says, sitting between two piles of watermelons at Wakulima Market in Kenya's capital.

Harun is one of a rapidly swelling army of wired-up Africans — an estimated 100 million of the continent's 906 million people. Another is Omar Abdulla Saidi, phoning in from his sailboat on the Zanzibar coast looking for the port that will give him the biggest profit on his freshly caught red snapper, tuna and shellfish.

[...]

Inevitably, cell phones have become status symbols. "If you do not have one, your friends will laugh at you and say that you are outmoded," says Akpene Rose, a 23-year-old hairdressing student in Togo, a tiny West African country where every sixth person is estimated to have a cell phone.

As the jack rabbits run by, he can watch CNN online, play a video game or turn his irrigation sprinklers on and off, all from the air conditioned comfort of his truck.

While cities around the country are battling over plans to offer free or cheap Internet access, this lonely terrain is served by what is billed as the world's largest hotspot, a wireless cloud that stretches over 700 square miles of landscape so dry and desolate it could have been lifted from a cowboy tune.

Similar wireless projects have been stymied in major metropolitan areas by telephone and cable TV companies, which have poured money into legislative bills aimed at discouraging such competition. In Philadelphia, for instance, plans to blanket the entire city with Wi-Fi fueled a battle in the Pennsylvania legislature with Verizon Communications Inc., leading to a law that limits the ability of every other municipality in the state to do the same.

Next month, hundreds of those blades will spin to a stop, in what appears to be a wind-energy first: Facing legal threats from environmentalists, the operators of the Altamont wind farm have agreed to shut down half of their windmills for two months starting Nov. 1; in January, they will be restarted and the other half will be shut down for two months.

Though the Altamont Pass is known for its strong winds, it also lies on an important bird-migration route, and its grass-covered hills provide food for several types of raptors. "It's the worst possible place to put a wind farm," said Jeff Miller, a wildlife advocate at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. "It's responsible for an astronomical level of bird kills."

[...]
The research team happened to find the single-cell microbe, a kind of flagellate, on a beach in Wakayama Prefecture, and called it "hatena" ("mystery").

The microbe is originally green and is made up of algae. When it divides into two cells, one takes over the algae from its parent and remains green and the other turns colorless.

The animal-type colorless cell develops an organ like a mouth and uses it to eat algae, while the plant-type green one uses algae it has in its body to perform photosynthesis and produce energy, according to the team.

As the marine microbes evolved into plants, only the chloroplasts in algae they had taken in their cells developed while the other organs degenerated, researchers believe.

[...]

Stanley, a converted VW Touareg SUV, finished the race in 6 hours and 54 minutes - well under the 10-hour limit – driving at an average speed of 30.7 kilometres per hour.

[...]

Two teams from Carnegie Mellon University finished just minutes behind the winner. Both CMU vehicles were based on the Humvee military transporter, and one, called Sandstorm, was the most successful vehicle in 2004's winnerless race.

[...]

During the race, all vehicles had to function autonomously, with no input of any kind from outside. The only exception was a "kill switch" controlled by a race official, available in case of an emergency.

(She phoned to ask how to put up part of an MP3, and took my suggestion to put up the whole songs instead, on the basis that if people like them they may buy the CD or share them with friends, and either way people will hear them.)

It's a song I wrote the words and music for, arranged by Chris Ewen, and is also, I'm afraid, a sonnet. (L/M are a mighty two-headed blogger as well.)

Go and listen.

Californian scientists have analysed sound waves produced in the Indian Ocean by last December's Asian tsunami.

Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the team says the tsunami produced a "unique" signal.

This indicates, they say, that stations set up to implement the A-bomb test ban treaty could be involved in the new Indian Ocean tsunami warning system.

[...]

The two researchers describe the unique signal found on spectrograph plots recorded by Indian Ocean hydrophones as a "chirp".

"Easy to Assemble & Clean. Glow-In-The-Dark Spike with
Squeeze Bulb"

Give up?
(I can pretty much guarantee that your guess is wrong.
Otherwise you are a sick, sick person.)

Be sure and check out what other users have to say.

The figures it gives are startling. Of the total number of Marvel comics ever printed, 29,633, 21,452 have been scanned in and are available for download. Out of the 2,704 different Marvel titles ever published, 1,813 have 100% of all the issues scanned and available.

That means 72% of all Marvel comics are available, free, illegally, online. If you take out imprints such as Marvel UK, Amalgam, Star, Razorline, Frontier, Malibu, Epic, Timely or Icon, leaving the Marvel Universe, 83% have been scanned.

* SUPERMAN ANNUAL #11: "For the Man Who Has Everything"
Art and cover: Dave Gibbons

* DETECTIVE COMICS #549: "Night Olympics" Part One
Art: Klaus Janson

* DETECTIVE COMICS #550: "Night Olympics" Part Two
Art: Klaus Janson

* GREEN LANTERN #188: "Mogo Doesn't Socialize"
Art: Dave Gibbons

* VIGILANTE #17: "Father's Day" Part One
Cover: Paris Cullins & Rick Magyar
Art: Jim Baikie

* VIGILANTE #18: "Father's Day" Part Two
Art and cover: Jim Baikie

* THE OMEGA MEN #26: "Brief Lives"
Art: Kevin O'Neill

* THE OMEGA MEN #27: "A Man's World"
Art: Paris Cullins & Rick Magyar

* DC COMICS PRESENTS #85: "The Jungle Line"
Art: Rick Veitch & Al Williamson
Cover: Rick Veitch

* TALES OF THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS ANNUAL #2: "Tygers"
Artist: Kevin O'Neill

* SUPERMAN #423: "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" Part One
Art: Curt Swan & George Pérez
Cover: Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson

* ACTION COMICS #583: "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" Part Two
Art: Curt Swan & Kurt Schaffenberger
Cover: Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson

* SECRET ORIGINS #10: "Footsteps"
Art: Joe Orlando
Cover: Jim Aparo

* TALES OF THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS ANNUAL #3: "In Blackest Night"
Art: Bill Willingham & Terry Austin

* BATMAN ANNUAL #11: "Mortal Clay"
Art: George Freeman
Cover: John Byrne

* BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE
Art: Brian Bolland

The feat has proved elusive so far. Last year's much-hyped robot race in the Mojave Desert ended without a winner after all the self-navigating vehicles broke down soon after leaving the starting gate.

The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, doubled the taxpayer-funded prize this year to spur innovation and development of remote control-free robots that could be used in the battlefield.

The unmanned vehicles, ranging from a military Humvee to a behemoth six-wheel truck, must use their computer brains and sensing devices to follow a programmed route and avoid hitting obstacles that may doom their chances.

TV's MythBusters were not able to replicate the feat and “busted” the myth.

Intrigued by the idea and an intuitive belief that it could work, MIT's 2.009ers decided to apply the early product development ‘sketch or soft modeling’ process to the problem.

Our goal was not to make a decision on the myth—we just wanted to assess if it was at least possible, and have some fun in the process. Jumping ahead, you can see the result… but let’s start at the beginning of the process.

The ships would be equipped with arrays of 360 transducers each 1 metre square - effectively big flat-panel loudspeakers - running along either side of the hull below the waterline. When the ship's sonar detects an incoming torpedo, the transducers simultaneously fire an acoustic shock wave of such intensity that the torpedo either detonates early or is disabled by the pulse's crushing force, according to the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is funding the project.

"We need to be realistic about what the Bible says about fear and not be afraid to share our faith in school," youth minister Anthony Martin told the TimesDaily in a story Thursday. "We can't let that fear rule our lives."

Martin said the ministry's participants are between the ages of 14 and 21 and that they had to get their parents to sign a waiver to be involved.

[...]

"Through this ministry, kids are surrendering their lives to Jesus and developing a deeper relationship with Jesus," Martin said. "The method of the ministry that we use to bring people is going to change, but the message is going to stay consistent."

In teaching the lesson about fear, participants in last week's round were asked to pull a number - between one and three - from a bowl that would indicate how many live Comet goldfish would be swallowed.

Martin said 12 of the almost 20 young people who participated advanced to this week's round of activities, which involved undoing chains and getting out of a real coffin, with the eight fastest advancing. The final four will compete for $250 by the ministry's final week.

[...]

Great whites were once thought to keep to coastal regions - but this was a trek across vast expanses of open ocean.

The journey was very direct - not some aimless wandering. And the stay near Australia was only brief.

The researchers say the fact that they saw a shark make the journey at all - after observing only about 20 animals - suggests it is common behaviour.

In Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs, a major three-part series on BBC TWO (at 9.00pm on Monday 10, Monday 17 and Monday 24 October), Abu Mazen, Palestinian Prime Minister, and Nabil Shaath, his Foreign Minister, describe their first meeting with President Bush in June 2003.

Nabil Shaath says: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"

[...]

Illegal song trading has been blamed by the record industry for declines in sales, and labels have become increasingly aggressive in their legal battles to defend their product. Now that focus includes portable players.

"As for Harry Potter, well, he's not the only gay in the village," the former Anglican priest told children at Penair School in Truro, southwest England, referring to a catchphrase from the popular British comedy TV show "Little Britain."

He also described the villains in Rowling's blockbuster series as "wimps" and called TV "crap" compared to books.

[...]

"It was a joke; a joke from 'Little Britain' that the children would know," Taylor was quoted by newspapers as saying.

"I didn't set out to offend. I'm a priest and I'm very careful about not offending people."

The incident has heightened biologists' fears that the nonnative snakes could threaten a host of other animal species in the Everglades.

"It means nothing in the Everglades is safe from pythons, a top-down predator," said Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor.

Over the years, many pythons have been abandoned in the Everglades by pet owners.

The gory evidence of the latest gator-python encounter — the fourth documented in the past three years — was discovered and photographed last week by a helicopter pilot and wildlife researcher.

The snake was found with the gator's hindquarters protruding from its midsection. Mazzotti said the alligator may have clawed at the python's stomach as the snake tried to digest it.

In previous incidents, the alligator won or the battle was an apparent draw.

Scientists don't have a good handle what's going on. But satellite sensors have now provided the first pictures of a milky sea and given new hope to learning more about the elusive events.

The newly released images show a vast region of the Indian Ocean, about the size of Connecticut, glowing three nights in a row. The luminescence was also spotted from a ship in the area.

"The circumstances under which milky seas form is almost entirely unknown," says Steven Miller, a Naval Research Laboratory scientists who led the space-based discovery. "Even the source for the light emission is under debate."

[..]

Scientists suspect bioluminescent bacteria are behind the phenomenon. Such creatures produce a continuous glow, in contrast to the brief, bright flashes of light produced by "dinoflagellate" bioluminescent organims that are seen more commonly lighting up ship wakes and breaking waves.

"The problem with the bacteria hypothesis is that an extremely high concentration of bacteria must exist before they begin to produce light," Miller told LiveScience. "But what could possibly support the occurrence of such a large population?"

[...]

"I was right in the middle of ministrating him with my mouth and looked up to see that he'd dozed off," a 30-year-old nurse tells an-an.

Another woman, a 21-year-old college coed, adds that she reached her limit when "he wore my bra, put his boxers on his head and wanted to do it decked out like that."

The findings, outlined in two studies, are the first time that nonhuman mammals have demonstrated they can recognise rhythms and reproduce them vocally.

"Humans are sensitive to rhythms embedded in sequences of sounds, but we typically consider this skill to be part of processing for language and music, cognitive domains that we consider to be uniquely human," says Professor Heidi Harley, lead author of both studies.

"Clearly, aspects of those domains are available to other species."

They say the need to understand how flu viruses cause lethal pandemics outweighs any safety risks. But the risks may not be negligible.

An accelerometer built into the device detects any violent shock and compares the acceleration profile of the event with a library of others. This allows the device to distinguish between a safe event, such as the device being dropped, and a genuine road accident.

If the detected profile looks serious, the device will automatically dial an emergency service number, such as 911, and transmit a recorded message. A device with built-in GPS could also transmit its location.

In addition, the device could bleep before transmitting its message. So if the sensor has been triggered accidentally and the owner is not hurt, the call could quickly be cancelled. In the future, devices could also sense heat, smoke and water to warn that the owner is in other kinds of trouble, says Texas Instruments.

Oktoberfest Committee President Bob Kurtz said a crew of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" will be in Cullman Monday to record Oktoberfest activities throughout the day and that night at the tent behind the Cullman County Museum. The focus of the spot will be that the celebration held inside a dry county does not include beer.

[...]

Cullman has been hit in the past with national media attention poking fun that Cullman's annual celebration of its heritage is a dry Oktoberfest that doesn't have a lot of oomp-pah-pah to it.

But those taking part in the first night of the 10-day event said that beer is not a prerequisite for having a good time at Oktoberfest.

Nagin said Tuesday he would lay off as many as 3,000 employees because he had been unable to find the money to keep the workers on the payroll.

The layoffs are "pretty permanent," Nagin said, and the city will work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to notify municipal employees who fled the city after the hurricane struck more than a month ago.

In 1938 he was involved in an attempted coup, undermined by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. In 1940 he sabotaged the German plan to invade England, and fed General Franco vital information that helped him keep Spain out of the war.

For years he played a dangerous double game, desperately trying to keep one step ahead of the Gestapo. The SS chief, Heinrich Himmler became suspicious of the Abwehr and by 1944, when Abwehr personnel were involved in the attempted assassination of Hitler, he had the evidence to arrest Canaris himself. Canaris was executed a few weeks before the end of the war

[...]

Reinhardt survived World War II unscathed, unlike many other gypsies who perished in the concentration death camps of the Nazis. He had the help of a Luftwaffe official named Dietrich Schultz-Kohn, a.k.a. Doktor Jazz, who deeply admired his music. In 1943 he married Sophie Ziegler, with whom he had a son, Babik Reinhardt, who went on to become a respected guitarist in his own right.

After the war, Reinhardt rejoined Grappelli in the UK, and went on to tour the United States, opening for Duke Ellington, and playing at Carnegie Hall, as well as making more recordings.

Django Reinhardt was then among the first people in France to appreciate and understand the music of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie (he sought after them when he first arrived in New York). He integrated some elements of their music, still never compromising his own musical visions.

According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems.

The study counters the view of believers that religion is necessary to provide the moral and ethical foundations of a healthy society.

It compares the social peformance of relatively secular countries, such as Britain, with the US, where the majority believes in a creator rather than the theory of evolution. Many conservative evangelicals in the US consider Darwinism to be a social evil, believing that it inspires atheism and amorality.

Many liberal Christians and believers of other faiths hold that religious belief is socially beneficial, believing that it helps to lower rates of violent crime, murder, suicide, sexual promiscuity and abortion. The benefits of religious belief to a society have been described as its “spiritual capital”. But the study claims that the devotion of many in the US may actually contribute to its ills.

The paper, published in the Journal of Religion and Society, a US academic journal, reports: “Many Americans agree that their churchgoing nation is an exceptional, God-blessed, shining city on the hill that stands as an impressive example for an increasingly sceptical world.

“In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies.

[...]

Mr Paul said: “The study shows that England, despite the social ills it has, is actually performing a good deal better than the USA in most indicators, even though it is now a much less religious nation than America.”

He said that the disparity was even greater when the US was compared with other countries, including France, Japan and the Scandinavian countries. These nations had been the most successful in reducing murder rates, early mortality, sexually transmitted diseases and abortion, he added.

Mr Paul delayed releasing the study until now because of Hurricane Katrina. He said that the evidence accumulated by a number of different studies suggested that religion might actually contribute to social ills. “I suspect that Europeans are increasingly repelled by the poor societal performance of the Christian states,” he added.