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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 92 declined, 33 accepted (125 total, 26.40% accepted)

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Google

Submission + - Does Google Encourage Book Piracy?

Submitted by
lee1
lee1 writes: "David Flanagan, author of JavaScript: The Definitive Guide and other reference works, has for 15 years been, as he says, ‘one of those lucky authors who has been able to support himself and his family almost entirely on book royalties.’ But now he his looking for a salaried job, because royalties are declining. He believes this is due in part to piracy of his books, which he sees as being actively encouraged by Google. The search giant ranks results leading to illegal copies of his works above legitimate results, such as reviews, and features illegal download sites prominently in its interactive list of search suggestions. Flanagan even found that the latest edition of his JavaScript book was available as an illegal download before he received his own copy."

Submission + - Hookers, Gambling, and Business School (philly.com)

Submitted by
lee1
lee1 writes: "Students at La Salle University business school have described a lecture
featuring scantily-clad women on hand to provide lap dances to the
students and professor. The class, on "the application of Platonic and
Hegelian ethics to business", taught by Jack Rappaport, was finally
broken up by Paul Brazina, dean of the business school and all-around
killjoy, when he happened upon it. Prof. Rappaport has been suspended.
On the website RateMyProfessors.com, one student described Rappaport in
2004: "Extremely strange man. Loves gambling, horse racing, and strip
joints. Talks about all of the above all the time." Prof. Rappaport
served on the university's committee on academic integrity."

Submission + - Renewable Energy Might Not Be 2

Submitted by
lee1
lee1 writes: "Physicist Axel Kleidon of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
in Jena, Germany has shown that it is a mistake to consider the wind and
waves to be truly renewable energy sources. Build enough wind farms to
replace fossil fuels, he says, and we would reduce the energy available
in the atmosphere and actually accelerate climate change. We know from
thermodynamics that only a modest fraction of the solar energy reaching
Earth is available as 'free energy' we can use, taking the form of
winds, ocean currents, and lifting of evaporated water. The rest becomes
heat, which is not available to do work. By building wind and wave farms, we
will be converting part of the sun's useful energy into thermal energy.
The effects of this would probably show up first in the wind farms
themselves, where the gains expected will be less than predicted as the
energy of the Earth system is depleted. Kleidon’s calculations show
that the amount of energy which we can harness from the wind is reduced
by a factor of 100 if you take this into account. In addition, sucking that much energy out of the
atmosphere will alter precipitation, turbulence and the amount of solar
radiation reaching the Earth's surface. The effect
will be comparable to the results of doubling
atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. Even current photovoltaic
designs will contribute to global warming, because they
convert only a small fraction of the light that hits them converting the rest to heat that warms the environment."

Submission + - Wind and wave energies are not renewable after all

Submitted by
lee1
lee1 writes: "Physicist Axel Kleidon of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
in Jena, Germany has shown that it is a mistake to consider the wind and
waves to be truly renewable energy sources. Build enough wind farms to
replace fossil fuels, he says, and we would reduce the energy available
in the atmosphere and actually accelerate climate change. We know from
thermodynamics that only a modest fraction of the solar energy reaching
Earth is available as 'free energy' we can use, taking the form of
winds, ocean currents, and lifting of evaporated water. The rest becomes
heat, which is not available to do work. Some of the free energy
harnessed by wind and wave generators will be lost as heat, since they
can not be perfectly efficient. So by building wind and wave farms, we
will be converting part of the sun's useful energy into thermal energy.
The effects of this would probably show up first in wind farms
themselves, where the gains expected will be less than predicted as the
energy of the Earth system is depleted. Kleidon’s calculations show
that the amount of energy which we can harness from the wind is reduced
by a factor of 100 if you take into account the depletion of free energy
by wind farms. In addition, sucking that much energy out of the
atmosphere will change precipitation, turbulence and the amount of solar
radiation reaching the Earth's surface. The magnitude of the changes
will be comparable to the changes to the climate caused by doubling
atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. Even current photovoltaic
solar cell designs will contribute to global warming, because they
convert only a small fraction of the light that hits them, and absorb
most of the rest, converting it to heat that warms the environment."
The Internet

Submission + - The First Paywall

Submitted by lee1
lee1 writes: The Elizabethen explosion of playwriting talent came to a sudden halt with the abolishment, by the authorities, of the first paywalls: actual walls that excluded the public from hearing Shakespeare’s plays unless they coughed up the penny to enter the theater. And according to a trio of Authors Guild officers writing in the NY Times, we might never have had Shakespeare’s plays had it not been for that bold experiment: the first paywalls, which created a market that connected writers with the public. This led to the first copyright laws, also in England, and their expansion in the new United States; rules that led to the enlightenment suffusion of books and widespread learning. The authors contend that internet-inspired calls for the weakening of copyright protections risk another collapse of culture that depends on serious investments of time and effort by creative people: ‘We tamper with those rules at our peril.’

Submission + - Deep Galaxy Surveys and Gravitational Lensing

Submitted by
lee1
lee1 writes: "Astronomers who survey galaxies in the distant universe are getting some
unexpected help, and interference, from gravity. Analysis of images
from the Hubble Ultra Deep Field survey, a collection of the furthest
images of the universe ever taken, revealed a mystery: many of the
faraway galaxies they observed appeared to be located near the line of
sight to galaxies in the foreground. Through a statistical analysis,
they determined that strong gravitational lensing is the most likely
explanation. This arises from the bending of light in a gravitational
field, first predicted by Newton and, more accurately, by Einstein’s
general theory of relativity. It turns out that as many as 20 percent
of the most distant galaxies currently detected appear brighter than
they actually are, due to the lensing effect. In fact, many galaxies in
the remote universe will only be visible to us because of the bending of
their light by the gravitational fields of other galaxies."

Submission + - Harvesting Body Heat to Warm Buildings 1

Submitted by
lee1
lee1 writes: "About 250,000 people a day pass through Stockholm Central Station in
Sweden, going about their frenetic business and generating a great deal
of waste heat that had, until recently, just been ventilated away. But
now, heat exchangers in the station's ventilation system convert the excess body heat
into hot water that is pumped into a neighboring office
building, lowering its energy costs by as much as 25%. Harnessing body
heat works well in Sweden because of their low winter temperatures and
high gas prices, making it worth spending a little bit of money on
electricity to move heat from building to building, rather than spending
much more on heating with gas. But as a dwindling fossil fuel supply
affects economies worldwide, this and similar ideas might find wider
application."
Media

Submission + - Top Five Traditional Journalism Failures of 2010 (lee-phillips.org)

Submitted by
lee1
lee1 writes: "In 2010 citizen journalism on the web began to increasingly trump traditional news sources. While they struggle to find a workable business model, institutions like the New York Times continue to undertake important investigations and produce excellent articles on both world affairs and local concerns. But 2010 seemed to mark a turning point, where several important stories were covered more deeply, objectively, and reliably by what are variously called blogs, citizen or online journalism, new media, or various other things, often by traditional journalists struggling to come to terms with their new competition."

Submission + - Cause of Male Baldness Discovered

Submitted by
lee1
lee1 writes: "Experts believe the male hormone testosterone is involved somehow in
producing make pattern baldness (as John Glenn said, ‘the good Lord
only gave men so many hormones, and if others want to waste theirs on
growing hair, that’s up to them.’) But up to now, the actual mechanism
of baldness remained a mystery. A recent discovery has revealed that
the ‘problem’ is not a lack of hair, but rather a defect with the new
hair that is produced. A ‘manufacturing defect’ in the stem cells that
make new hair creates hair that is so small it is invisible to the naked
eye, leading to an apparent bald spot or receding hairline. The
researchers hope that it may be possible to ‘cure’ male baldness by
restoring the correct function of these cells, possibly with a cream
that could be applied to the scalp to help the stem cells grow normal
hair."
Politics

Submission + - Fake Governor Cuomo

Submitted by
lee1
lee1 writes: "After Nicholas M. Fahrenkopf, a nanobioscience graduate student, noticed
that the official link to the New York governor's twitter page pointed
to a nonexistent account, he did the natural thing and registered the account himself.
At first he was subtle, posting innocuous tweets that
might have come from the real governor. After a while, however, he began
to let nature take its course and started injecting some silliness.
Eventually the governor's office set up a real twitter account for their
boss, but the fake account still has more followers than the real one."

Submission + - A Molecule-Sized Switch

Submitted by
lee1
lee1 writes: "The ultimate stage of electronic miniaturization will require the use of
molecule-sized switches and other components. A molecular-scale switch
has now been developed that is "flipped" in the laboratory with a
voltage applied by a scanning tunneling microscope. In an actual
application, the STM would be replaced by another part of the nanoscale
circuit. The tiny switch is made from gold atoms and an organic molecule
called PTCDA, deposited onto a thin film of sodium chloride on top of a
copper surface. While it is being operated by the STM, its dynamics are
studied using an atomic force microscope. In addition to the potential
practical applications, this was the first time in which both an STM and
AFM were used simultaneously to characterize an atom-molecule complex,
crossing a new threshold in spatial resolution."

Submission + - The woman who cannot feel fear

Submitted by
lee1
lee1 writes: "Being threatened with a knife and held at gunpoint did not frighten her.
Neither horror films nor haunted houses scare her. She handles dangerous
snakes without concern, and had to be restrained from reaching out to
touch a tarantula, because she was overcome with curiosity. She has
experienced fear as a child and knows that she should be afraid, but
simply is not. She is the first known case of someone who is unable to
process fear. Researcher Justin Feinstein at the University of Iowa
said "Because she is missing her amygdala, she is also missing the
ability to detect and avoid danger in the world [...] It is quite
remarkable that she is still alive." The researchers hope that by
studying the woman they can learn more about how the brain processes
fear, which might prove useful in treating patients suffering from post
traumatic stress disorder, whose lives, according to Feinstein, are
"marred by fear and they are often-times unable to even leave their home
due to the ever-present feeling of danger." By studying this unique
subject, researchers hope to develop therapies that selectively target
the brain areas that can sometimes allow fear to take over."
Space

Submission + - Optical Lift

Submitted by
lee1
lee1 writes: "Radiation pressure, whose effects can be seen in comet tails, has now
been been used to generate aerodynamic-like lift for the first time.
The technique takes advantage of the refraction of light, and might be
used to power micromachines, transport microscopic particles in a
liquid, or to improve the design of solar sails for interstellar space
travel. Solar sail prototypes are made as reflective as possible, but
does not allow the sails to be easily steered. The newly-discovered lift
effect would allow the craft to change direction by changing the shape
of the sail's surface and its refractive index — the angles of the
incoming and outgoing light would control the direction of the sail's
movement. The scientists demonstrated the effect in the lab with
something smaller: semi-circular plastic rods, each just a fraction of
the size of a human hair."
Politics

Submission + - Unwashed Masses to Judge Research Spending

Submitted by
lee1
lee1 writes: "The Republican majority in the House of Representatives has established
something they call 'YouCut Citizen Review', in which citizens are being
encouraged to identify 'wasteful spending that should be cut', voting by
text message and email on proposed spending cuts. Each of the 'winners'
has been put to the floor of the House for a vote. Eric Cantor, the
incoming House majority leader, has asked people to search the records
of individual granting agencies for examples of 'waste.' While there is
no immediate threat from this to research programs, as Congress merely
establishes the agencies' overall budgets and does not usually get
involved with individual grants, there is tremendous potential for
political theater and eventual influence on research priorities as
agency heads inevitably find themselves called to hearings on Capitol
Hill."
Idle

Submission + - Two Letters of the Law

Submitted by
lee1
lee1 writes: "Like most places outside of New York City, Virginia has a law requiring
drivers to stop for a school bus picking up or discharging students.
Here is Virginia’s law, unchanged since 1970:

'A person is guilty of reckless driving who fails to stop, when
approaching from any direction, any school bus which is stopped on any
highway, private road or school driveway for the purpose of taking on or
discharging children.'

Don’t feel bad if you failed to notice a critical missing word (it
should say ‘at any school bus’). Neither did the presumably hundreds of
people convicted of passing a school bus in the past 40 years, and their
attorneys, until a sharp-eyed lawyer got his client acquitted recently in
Fairfax County Circuit Court.

This was an appeal; the original trial judge said that she 'wasn't
buying it.'

The issue is so important the the Virginia state legislators will look
into it real soon — some time in January, after their vacation.

I advise my fellow Virginians to resist whizzing past the yellow
kidmobiles, however. Not only would that be reckless, but the State has
a few arguments up its sleeve that might work in court next time. For
example, according to a U.S. Supreme Court case from 1892, 'If a literal
construction of the words of a statute be absurd, the act must be so
construed as to avoid the absurdity.'"

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