Really? All this yacking and nobody bothers to link to the photos?
Killer high-resolution photos from Virgin Galactic:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4103/5068224405_048653fe6d_o.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4104/5068685162_c815ecf013_o.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4154/5068685178_2f4f70ba28_o.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4127/5068685118_c9dbb29905_o.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4109/5068196007_29f5b66dce_o.jpg
(that's Rutan and Branson in the last one, both recognizable by their hair)
And while I'm here, why do I have to click twice on links in Slashdot now? First click mysteriously does nothing.
Guy Ben-Ary is an artist who did a residency at the SymbioticA Research Lab at the University of Western Australia and then at the Potter Lab at Georgia Tech. During that time he created a system where a culture of rat brain neurons controlled a robotic pen controller to draw "art". Further, the two components (brain and arm) were geographically separated and communicated across the internet.
MEART: The Semi Living Artist
Related, here is PHD's take on "The Science News Cycle":
Not to break off this delightful train of thought, but the problem is that the sun is getting cooler. A lot cooler. It's magnetic field is looking
BOOM. Full stop. Train of thought broken. That's a cognitive speedbump, and I stopped reading immediately. If you want people to actually read what you write, especially smart people, then treat the language with respect.
See the link in my sig below. Yeah, it's a sore point for me, especially around here.
By posting this, I'm undoing some much-needed moderation I already did on this thread, but nobody's said anything about it so I gotta do it.
Squeezebox RADIO. No, not a Squeezebox, a Squeezebox RADIO.
http://www.logitechsqueezebox.com/products/squeezebox-radio.html
Knobs. Buttons. A little display. Wired and wireless Ethernet. A powerful loudspeaker.
Quote: If only I could just hit the power switch, and then turn a knob to the "KGO" station... ? I'd be pretty likely to buy something like this.
And I did exactly that a couple months ago. Drove over to my local big box electronics retailer and drove home with a Logitech Squeezebox Radio (it was definitely hard to find in the store, though, since it straddles the world of boomboxes/radios and internet gear).
At $150 it's not really that cheap, but it does exactly what many people here are clamoring for: gives them SIMPLE one-button access to internet radio, without having to fire up a full-blown PC app. I bought it for my elderly father, and have a preset button (a hardware button) set to KCBS (San Francisco), WINS (New York), an internet station that plays Celtic tunes, and so forth. Two button presses (power + preset) and he's got the sound filling the room, and the PC can stay off.
And soon the battery module will be available for sale and he'll be able to carry the radio around, even.
This is a solved problem, folks. Go buy one for your elderly relative.
DNA has been getting relied on heavily lately to solve otherwise cold cases. States have started running crime scene evidence through DNA databases wholesale, and then running with whatever match they get, even if it's just a partial.
Think about it: if there's a one in a million chance that the DNA will match, and you have a 20 million person database, then you're going to get 20 matches. Now just find the guy who's most convenient to prosecute. Boom, instant cold case conversion!
DNA's Dirty Little Secret: a forensic tool renowned for exonerating the innocent may actually be putting them in prison
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2010/1003.bobelian.html
Also:
New Rule Allows Use of Partial DNA Matches
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/nyregion/25dna.html
DNA Evidence Can Be Fabricated, Scientists Show
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/science/18dna.html
The new Hubble movie in IMAX 3D has two major flythrough visualizations using Hubble data. One of them is of the star nursey in the Orion Nebula.
Go see the movie. It actually wasn't playing in my (major!) city, and so last weekend I drove 4 hours roundtrip to go see it. I know, I know.
I came in here to see if someone had figured out and posted the Google Maps URL for this location.
Instead, even at +5, I've got 27 comments with the same tired "debate" about global warming.
Slashdot, you suck.
Here's the location, supposedly:
Even if this gets modded up to +5, it's going to be buried under a dozen pointless and irrelevant posts about imperial vs. metric
From the ISS Flight Director briefing on NASA TV at 1:30pm today:
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5693:sts-130-iss-flight-director-update-fd-7-8&catid=1:latest
[transcribing] "Crew was able to use their eyes and hands and gave good info on interference along with photos, Jeff has had a lot of hands on the hardware and he's given us the best info. His info allowed us to validate what he's seeing with our records on the ground. Actual interference is just a bolthead, that caused us to question our clearance analysis. We went back and looked at it since we don't want clearance issue when we install Cupola on nadir, and found that we have more clearance than originally expected."
From the Flight Day 8 "execute package" sent up around 3pm to the Endeavour astronauts:
( http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/426345main_FD08.pdf )
"Because of your excellent work in checking interferences, we are now comfortable with
proceeding with cupola depress and relocate today!!! Thanks so much!!!"
From the NASA TV schedule, Tuesday:
CUPOLA MLI REMOVAL 10:39 PM EST / 03:39 UTC
After that the windows can be opened, which is what we're all waiting for!
The result, according to Python, works out to around 1.143*10^796, which is large, but not infinite.
37 minutes.
As I read "infinite" in the summary, I thought "OK, let's see how long it takes for one of these yahoos to calculate how many combinations there really are", since it is of course not infinite. The post went up at 6:02pm, and the parent of this post went up at 6:39pm. Congratulations
This post needs to be tagged with "Memento".
With your bare hands?!?
