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Robotics

Submission + - Walking on Water

Submitted by qeorqe
qeorqe writes: A robot is being developed at CMU that walks on water. It is modeled after the basilisk lizard. Information about the robot can be found in a pdf file. They have done both computer simulations and experimented with test models. External counter weights were used with the models.

Information about why you can't walk on water is in a ppt file and also converted to an html file in the Google cache.
Power

Submission + - Solar Powered Air Conditioner by SolCool (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by
Jill
Jill writes: "Since the hottest months of the year are also the sunniest — the idea of using solar energy to power your air-conditioner makes perfect sense. SolCool's super smart Millennia air-conditioner uses solar power to cool you down during the height of summer steaminess — cleverly making use of the summer heat instead of blindly fighting it."
United States

Submission + - Limited Rights Art

Submitted by qeorqe
qeorqe writes: An art exhibit titled "To Get to The Other Side" opened 5/11/07 at CMU's Regina Gouger Miller Gallery. One of the art pieces had an interactive computer component dealing historically with government violation of The United States Bill of Rights. The interactive component is available at limitedrights.us. Beware it uses flash.

It shows the Bill of Rights. When an era is selected some phrases become obscured. Scrolling over the Bill of Rights magnifies that portion. Clicking an obscured portion produces an explanation of the violation.

Below is an example from the Civil War era.

Article the Sixth
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a xxxxxx xxx xxxxxx trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

The x's represent "speedy and public". Clicking would reveal "1861 President Abraham Lincoln suspends Habeas Corpus and 13,000 people are held without trial."
United States

Submission + - Limited Rights Art

Submitted by qeorqe
qeorqe writes: An art exhibit titled "To Get to The Other Side" opened 5/11/07 at CMU's Regina Gouger Miller Gallery. One of the art pieces had an interactive computer component dealing historically with government violation of The United States Bill of Rights. The interactive component is available at limitedrights.us. Beware it uses flash.

It shows the Bill of Rights. When an era is selected some phrases become obscured. Scrolling over the Bill of Rights magnifies that portion. Clicking an obscured portion produces an explanation of the violation.
The Media

Submission + - Not All the [DOJ] Missing Emails are Missing

Submitted by
Hylas
Hylas writes: "Greg Palast. Investigative journalist reports on Democracy Now's newscast 5/14/07: [David] "Iglesias believes the real reasons for the firings are in what are called the missing emails, emails sent by the Rove team using Republican Party campaign computers, which Rove claims can't be retrieved. But not all the missing emails are missing. We have 500 of them. Apparently the Rove team misaddressed their emails, and late one night they all ended up in our inboxes in our offices in New York City." http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/1 4/1426254"
Classic Games (Games)

Submission + - Deep Blue vs Kasparov 10th Anniversary

Submitted by qeorqe
qeorqe writes: For the tenth anniversary of Deep Blue's victory over the world chess champion Garry Kasparov, Wired has an interview with Murray Cambell, one of the developers of Deep Blue.
  • PC beats Kramnik
  • current cell processor as powerful as Deep Blue
  • no future in man vs machine chess matches
Recent reports have discussed Garry's recent arrest for participation in a political march in Russia.
Google

Submission + - Interesting article on page rankings manipulation

Submitted by
Ayal Rosenthal
Ayal Rosenthal writes: "March 14, 2007 (Computerworld) — Rand Fishkin knows how valuable it is for a Web site to rank high in a Google search. But even this president of a search engine optimization firm was blown away by a proposal he received at a search engine optimization conference in London last month, where he was a panelist. The topic — Can a poker Web site rank high on a Google search using purely white hat tactics — meaning no spamming, cloaking, link farms or other frowned-upon "black hat" practices. Fishkin answered yes, provided the site also added other marketing techniques and attracted some media attention. The rest of the panel scoffed. "Don't bring a knife to a gunfight," one chided. After all, this is the cutthroat online gambling sector. But one poker Web site owner was intrigued, and he later approached Fishkin. "He said, 'If you can get us a search ranking in the top five for online poker or gambling [using white hat methods], we'll buy that site from you for $10 million,'" http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command =viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012943&pageNumber=1"
Space

Submission + - Theory Predicts New State of Matter

Submitted by
Eli Gottlieb
Eli Gottlieb writes: "Researchers report that they may have found a new state of matter, called a "string-net liquid". Xiao-Gang Wen's theory designed to explain the fractional quantum hall effect eventually predicted "string-net liquid" state of matter, along with predicting most standard fundamental particles and Maxwell's equations for light. A mineral named Herbertsmithite seems to exhibit many of the predicted properties of the "string-net liquid" stage, such as having its electrons lined up in a triangular lattice. Experiments on the rare (but naturally occurring) substance continue, and appear encouraging.

If the theory stands up to experimentation, Herbertsmithite (and any other string-net liquid materials) could be used in building quantum computers."
Music

Submission + - Someone In Congress Actually Understands Mixtapes!

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Most of us (for pretty good reasons!) have come to assume that our Congressional representatives are pretty far out of touch when it comes to things like technology and culture, but it's nice to see that at least one Congressman seems to understand that mixtapes and mashups aren't such a bad thing. Techdirt has the transcript of Rep. Mike Doyle's speech, which talks about the benefits of mixtapes, while wondering about why DJ Drama was arrested: "I hope that everyone involved will take a step back and ask themselves if mash-ups and mix-tapes are really different or if it's the same as Paul McCartney admitting that he nicked the Chuck Berry bass-riff and used it on the Beatle's hit 'I Saw Her Standing There.' Maybe it is. And, maybe Drama violated some clear bright lines. Or, maybe mixtapes are a powerful tool. And, maybe mash-ups are transformative new art that expands the consumers experience and doesn't compete with what an artist has made available on iTunes or at the CD store. And, I don't think Sir Paul asked for permission to borrow that bass line, but every time I listen to that song, I'm a little better off for him having done so...."

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