Top of the Curve

Kites Tap Megawatts of Wind Energy

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:13:00 +0000

In this brief talk, Saul Griffith unveils the invention his new company Makani Power has been working on: giant kite turbines that create surprising amounts of clean, renewable energy. Griffith looks for elegant ways to make real things, from low-cost eyeglasses to a "smart" rope that senses its load. His latest projects include open-source inventions and elegant new ways to generate power.
Saul Griffith: Inventor http://www.ted.com/speakers/saul_griffith.html
Video originally from http://cli.gs/GYZUqH

Twitter, US Department of State Throw Life Vest to Iranians

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:09:00 +0000

Now This is Top of The Curve!

When BayNewser heard that someone from the State Department had called Twitter to ask them to delay maintenance to allow Iranians to continue tweeting, we pictured some fusty old guy at Foggy Bottom in a rumpled Brooks Brothers suit and wayward spectacles.

Imagine our surprise, then, when we learned that, instead, it was a 27-year-old whiz kid whose job is to advise the State Department on how to use social media to promote U.S. interests the Middle East.

And imagine our further surprise when we learned this young gentleman wasn't one of Barack Obama's social media geniuses, but instead was a Condi Rice pick hired specifically to advise the State Department on young people in the Middle East and how to "counter-radicalize" them.

According to the New York Times, it was Jared Cohen, a member of the Policy Planning Staff, who placed the call to Twitter on Monday, inquiring about their plan to perform maintenance in what would be the middle of the day, Iran time. Following that call, Twitter decided to postpone their maintenance so that it would take place in the middle of the night Iran-time, even though that meant it would be the middle of the day U.S. time.

The Times noted that the move marked "the recognition by the United States government that an Internet blogging service that did not exist four years ago has the potential to change history in an ancient Islamic country."

So, who was this young guy with this remarkable insight?

Cohen was only 24 when he was hired into the Policy Planning Staff. By then, he'd received an undergraduate degree from Stanford and a master's degree from Oxford, where he'd been on a Rhodes Scholarship. Oh, and by then, he'd also talked his way into a visa for Iran (according to a December 2007 New Yorker profile), where he met young people his own age who threw underground house parties and made alcohol in bathtubs.

The Times describes Cohen's job today as "working with Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and other services to harness their reach for diplomatic initiatives in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere."

In May, Cohen, whom CNN chose as one of its "Young People Who Rock," organized a trip to Iraq for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and other new media executives "to discuss how to rebuild the country's information network and to sell the virtues of Twitter," as the Times put it.

According to Federal News Radio, Dorsey has now been working with mobile companies in the Middle East "to establish a short code so that Iraqis can get on Twitter without actually having to have access to the internet."

Given Cohen's background, it's not surprising that he was the one to make the call on (and to) Twitter. It's also an interesting indication about how these crazy young kids, with their crazy social media-blogging-texting-online video whackiness, might actually understand a thing or two about how the world works and how to get it to move in the direction you want it to go.

Originally by E.B. Boyd from http://www.mediabistro.com/baynewser/twitter/profile_the_kid_at_the_state_department_who_figured_out_the_iranians_should_be_allowed_to_keep_tweeting_119136.asp

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Jared Cohen

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Stephen Colbert in Iraq

Is Betelgeuse Shrinking?

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:57:00 +0000

by Ker Than for National Geographic News June 10, 2009

Betelgeuse (pronounced almost like "beetle juice") is a red supergiant star 600 light-years away in the constellation Orion. From Earth the star is clearly visible with the naked eye as the reddish dot that marks Orion's left shoulder.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, first measured the star in 1993 with an infrared instrument on top of Southern California's Mount Wilson. They estimated the star to be as big around as Jupiter's orbit around the sun.

But measurements made since then using the same instrument show that Betelgeuse is now only about as wide as the orbit of Venus—a size reduction of about 15 percent in 15 years.

The cause of the star's rapid contraction is a mystery. But the team noted that they had observed an unusual big red spot on the star three years ago.

"Maybe there's some kind of instability going on there," said study team member Charles Townes, a Nobel Prize-winning astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley.

"This red spot may be connected with the fact that [Betelgeuse is] gradually shrinking in size."

Collapse or Bounce Back?

A class of stars known as Mira variables are known to swell and contract by as much as 25 percent every two years—at their lowest points Mira stars can completely disappear from view.

Astronomers know how and why Mira stars pulsate, and they know that the pulses are linked to changes in the stars' brightness.

Betelgeuse is a type of variable star, with slight dips in its brightness every few years. (Find out why Betelgeuse is also called the Valentine's Day star.)

But its pulses are nowhere near as dramatic as those of Mira stars, the UC Berkeley researchers say. And on average the star is no fainter now than it was 15 years ago.

"Something unusual is happening with this star. The question is, What's going to happen next?" Townes said.

Betelgeuse is about 8.5 million years old, and astronomers predict it could explode as a supernova at any time. When it detonates, the blast should be clearly visible from Earth.

"Is it going to keep on shrinking and maybe collapse, or will it oscillate back and forth?" Townes mused. "We don't know."

Findings presented June 9 at the 214th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, California.

Originally from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090610-betelgeuse-star-shrinking.html

5 Dimensional Compression Makes DVDs hold 2000 Movies! Awesome!

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Sun, 24 May 2009 03:05:00 +0000

Scientists unveiled new DVD technology on Wednesday that stores data in five dimensions, making it possible to pack more than 2,000 movies onto a single disc -- and you don't need a new player.

While many people think that Blu-ray will replace DVDs in the near future, a new study shows that DVDs may still have a lot to offer. Researchers have designed a five-dimensional DVD that can store 1.6 terabytes of data on a standard-size DVD, which is the equivalent of about 30 Blu-ray discs. The 5D DVDs could also be compatible with current DVD disc-drive technology.

The researchers, led by microphotonics researcher James Chon from the Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorn, Australia, have presented the new DVD high-density data storage technique in a recent issue of Nature. While scientists have been considering 3D optical data storage for a while, this is the first time data has been recorded and read in five dimensions: three dimensions of stacked layers, and two new dimensions of wavelength (color) and polarization.

The new disc is made of three thin glass films stacked on top of each other, each coated with a solution containing gold nanorods of three different sizes. To record on the disc, the researchers focused a laser on the films, heating the nanorods so that they melted into spheres (marking the switch from 0 to 1). However, the rod-to-sphere transition depends on the wavelength and polarization of light. Nanotubes of the three different sizes absorb different wavelengths, and must be aligned with the direction of the light's polarization to turn into spheres.

These multiple variables mean that the same volume of space can hold multiple bits in multiple ways, the researchers explain. For instance, a space that responds to three different colors and two different polarizations can hold six bits. To read the bits, the researchers scanned the surface of the disc with a laser of lower energy but the same wavelength and polarization used during writing, identifying which areas had been previously melted with that light and which hadn't.

The researchers demonstrated the write and read technique on a small area of the disc, but predict that the disc could store 140 gigabytes of information per cubic centimeter. Since the volume of a typical DVD-sized disc was about 12 cm^3, the total data capacity would be 1.6 terabytes. Adding an extra dimension, say by using another polarization, could increase the storage capacity to 7.2 terabytes - about 140 times the capacity of a Blu-ray, which can store around 50 gigabytes.

The researchers are currently working with Samsung on the technology, and hope that it could be commercially available in the next 5 to 10 years. However, commercializing the technology will be challenging. For instance, it might be difficult to read the disk quickly because the information is packed so densely. Also, the large, expensive titanium-sapphire femtosecond laser used in the study is not practical, although the researchers say that a cheaper laser diode could also work.

More information: Peter Zijlstra, James W. M. Chon, and Min Gu. "Five-dimensional optical recording mediated by surface plasmons in gold nanorods." Nature 459, 410-413 (21 May 2009), doi:10.1038/nature08053

And more details at http://www.physorg.com/news162044616.html

Mind-Controlled Robots! Mind-Controlled Robots!

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:44:00 +0000

We're not just moving toward the day when robots can do everything for us. We're apparently moving toward the day when we can just think about what we want done, and get it (almost) presto.

Japan's Honda Research Institute and precision-equipment manufacturer Shimadzu on Tuesday demonstrated a rather mind-boggling technology that lets humans control a bot through thought alone--thus taking the pesky button pressing, voice commands, and remote controls out of the equation.

But don't start trying to telepath your Scooba into writing your doctoral thesis just yet. For now, researchers are focusing on getting the latest version of Honda's Asimo humanoid bot to perform simple actions like raising an arm or leg.

The system involves a helmet full of electroencephalography and near-infrared spectroscopy sensors that monitor electrical brainwaves and cerebral blood flow, signals that alter slightly during the human thought process. The robot controller thinks of one of a limited number of specific gestures it wants from Asimo, which has been fitted with a Brain Machine Interface.

The data is then analyzed on a real-time basis to distinguish what the user imagined and transmitted wirelessly to the bot, which makes corresponding movements.

Researchers in Tokyo showed a demonstration video of the system in which a user is shown a card with a picture of a right hand on it. After the user thinks about his right hand, the command from the user's brain is then transferred to Asimo, which acknowledges the request and raises its own robotic limb.

Unfortunately, the scientists did not demo the technology live due to what they said were space constraints and concerns about possible distractions to the person's concentration--presumably in the form of blinding flashbulbs and the stunned faces of onlookers.

Honda nonetheless says tests of the system have produced results with 90 percent accuracy.

Originally from http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10208469-1.html Leslie Katz, senior editor of CNET's Crave, covers gadgets, games, and most other digital distractions. As a co-host of the CNET News Daily Podcast, she sometimes tries to channel Terry Gross. E-mail Leslie.

NASA Climate Scientist Says Its Time for Activism

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:01:00 +0000

James Hansen, a climate modeller with Nasa argues that corporate lobbying is undermining the democratic response to climate change.

Speaking on the eve of joining a protest against the headquarters of power firm E.ON in Coventry, Hansen said:

"The first action that people should take is to use the democratic process. What is frustrating people, me included, is that democratic action affects elections but what we get then from political leaders is greenwash.

"The democratic process is supposed to be one person one vote, but it turns out that money is talking louder than the votes. So, I'm not surprised that people are getting frustrated. I think that peaceful demonstration is not out of order, because we're running out of time."

Hansen said he was taking part in the Coventry demonstration tomorrow because he wants a worldwide moratorium on new coal power stations. E.ON wants to build such a station at Kingsnorth in Kent, UK.

Originally from:

http://www.apesphere.com/story/798/2009/03/19/NASA_climate_scientist_says_its_time_for_activism

Cetacean Successfully Sedated at Sea

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:30:00 +0000

A scientific first

Two drops of whale tranquilizer is enough to kill a person.

But last week, scientists used rifle-like guns and foot-long needles to shoot two cups’ worth of the stuff into an endangered whale off the coast of Georgia.

Scientists on Friday use poles and knives to try to untangle a whale off the coast of Georgia from fishing line.

And, for the first time, it worked.

Never before Friday had a wild whale been successfully tranquilized and freed from an entanglement that threatened its life, researchers told CNN. (See video of the dangerous encounter.) The whale — a rare, school-bus-sized whale named Bridle — was freed from hundreds of feet of fishing line that threatened the whale’s life, scientists said.

That’s big news in the whale world, said Jamison Smith, large whale disentanglement coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It means that researchers have a new tool to help whales in dangerous circumstances.

Previously, when scientists tried to sedate whales, nothing noticeable happened.

The scientists cautiously upped the dosage until they were successful. The fear of using too much tranquilizer on a whale is great, because it could cause a whale to stop swimming and drown, he said.

Bridle is a North Atlantic right whale, which is one of the most endangered large whales on earth. Only about 400 of the school-bus-sized creatures remain, and scientists are worried by the fact that they’ve seen more of the rare whales entangled in fishing lines and gear this year than ever before.

Some of the right whales are giving birth through the end of the month off the Atlantic coasts of Georgia and Florida. Record numbers of whales are being born — which is a great thing, since scientists say each one gives the species a slightly better chance for survival.

But five whales have been found entangled in fishing line in the last six weeks, Smith said. He called that news “alarming,” and said it’s unclear what’s causing the increase.

The lines wrap around their bodies and cause cuts and infections that often prove fatal.

Bridle, the whale that was sedated, was named because it had a rope strung through its mouth, like a bridled horse, said Katie Jackson, a marine mammal biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. (Read more about how Jackson and others free the whales.)

Friday was the fifth time scientists had tried to free Bridle. In other attempts, he didn’t respond to sedation and dove deep into the ocean and turned sharply to avoid tiny boats filled with rescuers, Jackson said.

Smith said the whale’s injuries are extensive. So, despite the fact that the whale was freed from hundreds of feet of rope, his chances for survival are still uncertain.

Jackson said Bridle’s recovery partly will depend on the whale’s will to survive.

“He’s a little bit emaciated and has been having to deal with this entanglement for months now — at least. So he’s not doing well overall,” she said. “He still may not be able to survive this ordeal. It’s just going to depend on him really — and his ability to bounce back from it.”

To learn more, check out these right-whale resources online:

– Watch video of scientists trying to disentangle Bridle

– See a CNN report on efforts to save these ‘ugly’ whales, which are slow swimmers and have funny warts on their heads

– Listen to a scientist tell the stories of individual right whales — from Stumpy to Van Halen

– And flip through a catalog of right whale sightings to learn more about their stories.

Posted by: John D. Sutter -- CNN.com writer/producer

Originally from http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/12/whale-sedated-at-sea-a-scientific-first/

Invention Eats Nuclear "Sludge"

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:28:00 +0000

The Super X Divertor sounds like some fantasy invention from a 1950s Popular Mechanics. But it's a real device that helps enable two eco-friendly processes: Generating zero carbon-footprint power, and eating up dangerous nuclear waste from older power stations.

Physicists at the University of Texas have invented the Compact Fusion Neutron Source (CFNS), which is a clever system that mixes of two types of nuclear power reactors. The older fission reactor we're all familiar with (which generate lots of dangerously radioactive waste) and a tokamak fusion reactor (where small atoms are fused together much more cleanly).

The CFNS will eat up so-called nuclear "sludge," which is a dangerous, highly toxic, long-lived radioactive by-product of existing nuclear power stations. The sludge is formed into a jacket around the core fusion reactor. The CFNS spits out neutrons and heat which "burn" the sludge, releasing more energy as heat--which is used to generate more electricity--and reducing the sludge into less dangerous material. And the Super X Divertor makes it possible for the compound reactor to produce lots of neutrons and heat without destroying itself.

It's as if a new type of hybrid engine was invented for your car that caught the exhaust from your gas-powered engine and turned it into extra power and cleaner by-products.

Pure fusion reactors have long been the ultimate goal, since they release vast amounts of energy from small amounts of "fuel" and have very few dangerous by-products. But the Super X Divertor could act as a solution until the diffcult problems of building a fusion reactor are solved.

Originally from http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/new-invention-eats-nuclear-waste-makes-more-power via http://www.physorg.com/news152284917.html

First in Nature: Fish Makes Image Using a Mirror

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:01:00 +0000

A Pacific fish uses mirrors to help it see in the murky ocean depths. "Diverticular" eyes are unique among all vertebrates.

The brownsnout spookfish has been known for 120 years, but no live specimen had ever been captured.

Last year, one was caught off Tonga, by scientists from Tuebingen University, Germany.

Tests confirmed the fish is the first vertebrate known to have developed mirrors to focus light into its eyes, the team reports in Current Biology.

"In nearly 500 million years of vertebrate evolution, and many thousands of vertebrate species living and dead, this is the only one known to have solved the fundamental optical problem faced by all eyes - how to make an image - using a mirror," said Professor Julian Partridge, of Bristol University, who conducted the tests.

Spookfish is a name often given to Barreleyes - a group of small, odd-looking deep-sea fish species, found in tropical-to-temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.

A rare live brownsnout spookfish, Dolichopteryx longipes, was caught last year between New Zealand and Samoa, by Professor Hans-Joachim Wagner, of Tuebingen University.

Deep see

While the animal appears to have four eyes, it technically has two, each of which is split into two connected parts.

The spookfish needs one half to point upwards, to capture faint glimmers of light from the sea surface 1,000m above.

The other half, which looks like a bump on the side of the fish's head, points downwards.

Seen from below, the mirrored eyes (red) focus light from the depths

These "diverticular" eyes are unique among all vertebrates in that they use a mirror to make the image.

Prof Partridge said: "Very little light penetrates beneath about 1,000m of water and like many other deep-sea fish, the spookfish is adapted to make the most of what little light there is.

"At these depths it is flashes of bioluminescent light from other animals that the spookfish are largely looking for.

"The diverticular eyes image these flashes, warning the spookfish of other animals that are active, and otherwise unseen, below its vulnerable belly."

The mirror uses tiny plates, probably of guanine crystals, arranged into a multi-layer stack.

Prof Partridge made up a computer simulation showing that the precise orientation of the plates within the mirror's curved surface is perfect for focusing reflected light on to the fish's retina.

He added: "The use of a single mirror has a distinct advantage over a lens in its potential to produce bright, high-contrast images.

"That must give the fish a great advantage in the deep sea, where the ability to spot even the dimmest and briefest of lights can mean the difference between eating and being eaten." Originally from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7815540.stm

RIAA Drops Lawsuit Tactic

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:41:00 +0000

By CNET's Greg Sandoval The music industry's highly controversial strategy of suing customers for file sharing has mostly ended. The Recording Industry Association of America said Friday that it no longer plans to wage a legal assault against people who it suspects of pirating digital music files. What the RIAA should have said, though, is that it won't go after most people who illegally file share. My music industry sources say that the RIAA will continue to file lawsuits against the most egregious offenders--the person who "downloads 5,000 or 6,000 songs a month is still going to get sued," a source at a major record company told me. The strategy of suing music fans has long been criticized by artists, consumers, and even some record-label executives. Critics have said it alienates music buyers and more importantly has been ineffectual. Now, the music industry has a new form of protection: Internet service providers. According to a story in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), which broke the news about the RIAA's new strategy, unidentified Internet service providers have agreed to "reduce the service," to chronic file-sharers. Exactly what a reduction of service may include isn't specified, but a source close to the situation said that none of the ISPs have agreed to limit a user's bandwidth, a practice known as throttling. The way the new enforcement system will work is that the RIAA will alert an ISP that a customer appears to be file sharing. The ISP will then notify the person that he or she appears to be file sharing. If the behavior by the customer doesn't change, then more e-mails will be sent. If the customer ignores these e-mails, then the ISP may choose to suspend the person's service. If all else fails, they can choose to discontinue service. Under the plan, which was brokered by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the music industry will not know the customer's identity. What this means is that ISPs have now gone into the enforcement business, and this has always been one of the greatest fears of those who have wanted ISPs to remain neutral. "This is very troubling," said Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group that advocates for Internet rights. "Creating lists of people who can't get Internet access based on allegations of breaking a law that hasn't been evaluated in a court of law. It's good that that the (RIAA) wants to stop suing individuals but they should haven't done it in the first place. I'd be especially concerned if the music labels can get you kicked off one ISP and then arrange to get you kicked off others, or the creation of blacklists. That's certainly what our fears have been about private legal enforcement regimen." Was litigating against file sharers an effective deterrent? That depends on who you ask. To many music fans, the practice was a loathsome and heavy-handed approach that only served to inspire people to resist efforts to keep them from obtaining music. To those in the music industry, it helped alert the public following the Napster era--when many consumers believed there was nothing wrong with sharing music files--that pirating music harmed artists and record stores, and was also against the law. But according to most of the data, the lawsuits didn't prevent illegal file sharing from growing. At the same time, the strategy also alienated scores of potential music buyers. The truth is that the music industry no longer needs the RIAA to chase after large numbers of file sharers. Sure, music piracy still thrives but is less and less about the mainstream. The industry has learned that the answer to piracy isn't to intimidate people into obtaining music legally. The recording companies have made music available in ways that actually appeal to consumers. If people don't want to pay for music, they can go to MySpace Music, YouTube or iMeem and listen to all the ad-supported streaming songs they want. And a huge number of digital music fans are willing to pay for songs at iTunes. You can bet the ISP deal is going to be controversial one, but before going on to the next fight, I think music fans should celebrate the end of a dark period in the industry's history. Originally from http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10126914-93.html?tag=mncol;txt

Now, this is Top of The Curve...Facebook Profile Used to Serve Legal Docs in Australian Case

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:31:00 +0000

Facebook profile used to serve legal docs in Australian case By Jacqui Cheng | Published: December 16, 2008 'Tis the season to be in debt, fa la la la la, la la la la. If you've missed a few payments, however, you might find yourself being hunted down by debt collectors and lawyers looking to serve you court papers. And now—at least if you live in Australia—your Facebook account is fair game. The Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court has approved the use of Facebook to serve legal documents to a couple who was otherwise inaccessible at their home or by e-mail, although the couple has since disappeared from the social networking site as well. The unnamed Australian couple had defaulted on their home loan for AUS$100,000 (almost US$67,000), which spurred the bank to seek the services of Canberra-based law firm Meyer Vandenberg. Attorney Mark McCormack was assigned to the case and unsuccessfully attempted to contact the couple several times at their home, and then again via e-mail. With nowhere else to turn, McCormack asked the Australian court to allow him to serve the papers electronically to the couple via Facebook. McCormack argued that he knew he found the right people online because they listed their birth dates, full names, and they had listed each other as friends, according to the AFP. This was apparently enough to convince the judge, who said that McCormack could serve the couple Facebook papers as long as he also left them at their last known address and also via e-mail. His law firm confirmed to the news organization that the papers were delivered today, adding that they believe this is the first time Facebook has been used for such a purpose. "We believe it's certainly the first time in Australia... and we haven't heard of it being done anywhere internationally," the firm said. Of course, Facebook isn't exactly the most reliable way to get in touch with anybody, so it's possible that not much will come of this. In fact, as pointed out by the Associated Press, the couple's profiles have since disappeared from public view (they may have simply made the profiles private or deleted them altogether). Personally, if I had defaulted on a home loan and was attempting to avoid being served, I would have made my profile private a long time ago—but hey, to each his own. Originally from http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081216-facebook-profile-used-to-serve-legal-docs-in-australian-case.html

Gorilla Survival Threatened by Rebels Taking Over Animals' Sanctuary

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:24:00 +0000

(CNN) -- The survival of several hundred rare gorillas is threatened by rebel fighters who have taken over the animals' sanctuary, a spokeswoman for the Virunga National Park said Tuesday. (See Top of the Curve post from Tuesday, August 5, 2008: http://topofthecurve.blogspot.com/2008/08/gorilla-paradise-found-may-double-world.html).

File photo: Young gorillas play in Congo's Virunga Park.

The gorilla sector of the park "has been swallowed up in this conflict," said Samantha Newport, communications director for the refuge.

She fears for the animals' safety, not least because mountain gorillas do not always flee the sound of gunfire and mortars, she said.

"There are documented cases of the gorillas getting caught in the crossfire and getting killed," she said. "It's the chaos of war and they are right in the middle of it."

That leaves the situation "extremely precarious" for the critically endangered species, she said.

About 200 of the world's 700 known mountain gorillas lived in the park when rebel leader Laurent Nkunda's men took control of the gorilla section last year, Newport said. At least nine gorillas are known to have been killed in Virunga National Park last year.

There are no mountain gorillas in captivity, she added. "The mountain gorillas live in the wild. They don't reproduce in captivity."

Nkunda's fighters seized the headquarters of the park on October 26, park officials announced last month, a move park director Emmanuel de Merode called "unprecedented."

The seizure forced hundreds of rangers who normally monitor the gorillas to flee.

The rangers "track and monitor the mountain gorillas," freeing them from snares and intervening medically in life-threatening situations, Newport said. "It's really important to keep track on a daily basis."

That has been impossible for weeks, she said. "There has been a complete lack of knowledge about the gorillas for some time. Nkunda's forces control about 50 percent of the park, including the gorilla sector."

The gorilla section of the park lies in a strategically important area near the borders of Rwanda and Uganda, she explained.

Fighting between Congolese government soldiers and rebels led by Nkunda has displaced more than 250,000 people. That's in addition to roughly 800,000 who already had been driven from their homes, according to the United Nations.

On Sunday, even as there was fighting in North Kivu province, Nkunda met with Olusegun Obasanjo, the U.N. special envoy for the area.

"Laurent Nkunda engaged on two things in my presence: the respect of the ceasefire on the one hand and on the other, the maintenance of humanitarian corridors in order to give unconditional access to assist vulnerable populations," Obasanjo said following the meeting.

But Obasanjo said nobody could say for certain what Nkunda wanted to gain from his offensive.

Virunga National Park(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virunga_National_Park) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Africa's oldest national park. It was formerly known as Albert National Park

Originally from http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/18/gorillas/

Sea Sponge is Natural Fiber Optics Expert

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:36:00 +0000

By Matt Walke, BBC News

The spicules of sponges viewed under high magnification

Sea sponges can beam light deep inside their bodies, and do so using the natural equivalent of fibre optic cables, scientists have found.

Sponges are among the oldest and simplest of Earth's animals.

The discovery that they use such a futuristic light transmission system has therefore delighted researchers.

The finding, made by a German team, is published in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology.

Whereas other animals pass electrical currents around their bodies using nerve cells, sponges appear to be the only animals capable of transmitting light around their bodies in this way, the group says.

This may help explain why some sponges are able to grow so big, and also clear up a long-standing mystery about how other, much smaller organisms are able to live deep within the bodies of large sponges.

Glass skeletons

Sponges mainly live in the sea, and are extremely primitive organisms. They lack muscles, nerves and internal organs, for example, and are essentially a diverse set of cells supported by a hard exoskeleton.

Two of the three major types of sponge build their skeletons using special structures called spicules. These are made from silica and are basically glass rods. Previous experiments suggested that light can pass along these structures.

Now, Franz Brummer, of the University of Stuttgart, and colleagues have proved that living sponges use these internal glass rods as light conductors.

Photosensitive paper was placed inside sponges of the species T. aurantium

Light reaching the surface of the sponge is reflected off the insides of each spicule in much the same way light bounces along the inside of a fibre optic cable used to transmit electronic data. In doing so, light is beamed deep into the sponge.

Brummer's team made the discovery using living sponges of the species Tethya aurantium. They collected the sponges from shallow waters off the coast of Croatia, and then transferred them to tanks of seawater.

They then implanted light sensitive paper deep inside each sponge. They did so under dark conditions and then exposed the surface of the sponge to light. When they checked the paper, they found it was covered in spots, which corresponded exactly with where light would exit each spicule.

Shared existence

In a control experiment, the researchers tested another sponge that does not grow using glass spicules. No light entered deep within it, showing that spicules are necessary to transmit the light.

"Sponges are fascinating animals and there're lots about them we are waiting to discover," says Brummer.

He suspects that deep-sea sponges may use giant natural fibre optic arrays to harvest what little light reaches them. "Sponges in the deep sea can form spicules up to one metre long and two centimetres in diameter," he explains.

Beaming light deep inside their bodies may explain why some sponges grow to such large sizes, and develop rounded shapes.

To grow big, sponges need essential nutrients, including carbon, nitrogen and other metabolites. These are provided by smaller organisms such as algae and cyanobacteria, with which the sponges have a symbiotic relationship.

But these smaller organisms need light to survive. Because of this they usually live on the outside of sponges.

In 1994, however, researchers discovered that algae sometimes do live deep within the bodies of sponges, creating a mystery as to how they survive there. The answer, as Brummer's team has now confirmed, is that they live off light beamed down to them. Origianlly from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7720836.stm

Microsoft Considers WebKit Transplant for IE?

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:43:00 +0000

Chicago (IL) – Microsoft’s focus on a proprietary browser engine worked well when the Internet Explorer (IE) dominated the direction of the online world. But long update cycles and a somewhat neglected core technology is now backfiring as the company sees itself trailing other browser engines such Apple's WebKit, Mozilla's Gecko, and Opera's Presto, all of which follow web standards more closely than IE. According to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (Not my favorite American Executive. See post from June 3), the company may consider moving IE to the open-source WebKit browser engine. Such a move may have a tremendous impact on web development trends and help IE get back on track.

Microsoft’s top executive made the off-beat comment in Sydney, where he spoke at the Power to Developers event. According to a Techworld article, when confronted by a student who questioned that Microsoft could maintain proprietary browser engine when there are open source engines that can respond to changes in web standards faster, the executive said: "That's cheeky, but a good question, but cheeky." Although he defended IE's proprietary add-ons, Ballmer said IE "may need to have a rendering service" in the future. The executive then hinted at a possible switch to an open-source alternative browser engine called WebKit. "Open source is interesting," he said. "Apple has embraced WebKit and we may look at that, but we will continue to build extensions for IE8." Ballmer's acknowledgement of the fact that web standards do matter is good news for all people using the Internet in one way or the other. Why do web standards matter? Just consider the fact that web developers (Like me, your Top of the Curve Editor!) these days spend a lot of time and money to write extra code that makes web pages look right in IE.

Originally from...http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/40099/140/

Obama Advertising In Online Racing Video Games, Attempts To Pick Up Crucial Xbox 360 Vote

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:43:00 +0000

Barack Obama has begun advertising on billboards within the virtual world of an online video game in what appears to be a first for a presidential campaign. Players of the online racing video game Burnout Paradise on the Xbox 360 Live network noticed billboards promoting Barack Obama and the website VoteForChange.com, which helps people determine how to register to vote and where to vote. This was later confirmed by a representative for the game's publisher, Electronic Arts, who said: "Like most television, radio and print outlets, we accept advertising from credible political candidates. Like political spots on the television networks, these ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the opinions of its development teams.” John McCain, as far as we can tell, doesn't know what a video game is. Get the details. Originally from http://jalopnik.com/5062960/barack-obama-advertising-inside-online-racing-video-games-attempts-to-pick-up-crucial-xbox-360-vote

Copyright Coalition: Piracy more serious than burglary, fraud, bank robbery

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:54:00 +0000

"Our law enforcement resources are seriously misaligned," NBC/Universal general counsel Rick Cotton said. "If you add up all the various kinds of property crimes in this country, everything from theft, to fraud, to burglary, bank-robbing, all of it, it costs the country $16 billion a year. But intellectual property crime runs to hundreds of billions [of dollars] a year." Cotton's comments come in Paul Sweeting's (http://www.contentagenda.com/blog/1500000150/post/100034610.html) report on Hollywood's latest shenanigans on Capitol Hill. To me, this is an excellent example of how out-of-touch with the real world the corporate elitists are. Like the guys at Lehman. In both cases, the individuals acted consistently with narcissim and sociopathy. It's what they call in psychiatry 'antisocial'. Narcissists might utilize lying, cheating, stealing and abusing to suit their needs without really thinking through what it does to others. A malignant narcissist glories in the service she compels and the turf she marks, because it means she is important. A benign narcissist basks in the admiration he receives, because it means he is valuable. (That is, beloved, talented, cool, fill in blank.) A sociopath is an extreme narcissist with a sadistic, jealous, vindictive dark side. They have a need to hurt people. They will rationalize and justify their behavior toward other people. They are lynch mobs. They don't communicate and talk out problems, but have a NEED to believe other's are malicious so that they don't have to feel guilty. Doesn't that perfectly describe NBC/Universal general counsel Rick Cotton's statement above? Does the above statement mean that rape is far less important a crime because it doesn't cost anybody any money? Do you feel the RIAA or MPAA are narcissitic or sociopathic? Discuss.

In advertising, this selling technique is referred to as 'borrowed interest'

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:40:00 +0000

Originally from http://pzrservices.typepad.com/advertisingisgoodforyou/2008/01/in-advertising.html

SpinSpotter

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:34:00 +0000

I thought this was the coolest Web 2.0 thingy I have seen since Adobe Air. SpinSpotter’s goal is to tap the wisdom of the crowd to flag media bias... All the news that's fit to de-spin. Spin doesn't belong in the news. It's like putting motor oil in the mojito. We have tremendous respect for journalists, but who would argue that the media circus isn't out of control? A full 66% of Americans think the press is one-sided. Now there's a website and software tool that exposes news spin and bias, misuse of sources, and suspect factual support. At SpinSpotter, you'll experience the news in a profound new way. Yes, the truth is back in town. http://spinspotter.com/home

NASA goes Back to the Future

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:06:00 +0000

Young Doc: No wonder this circuit failed. It says "Made in Japan". Marty McFly: What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan. NASA is talking business with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to purchase units of the Japanese H-2 Transfer Vehicle (HTV) as successor to its space shuttles that are scheduled to retire in 2010, the Japanese newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun reported on Sunday. The acquisition of the H-2 unmanned transfer vehicle, which is developed by JAXA, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and others and costs 14 billion yen ($131 million), would mean the biggest such deal in Japan’s 50-year space development history.The Japanese H-2 Transfer Vehicle has been in works since early 1990s, and was originally intended for its first space trip in 2001. However, the launch has been delayed until 2009, when the vehicle measuring 10 m in length and 4.4 m in diameter is scheduled to pay a visit to the International Space Station.[Photo] The HTV can carry up to 6 tons of supplies, although it has been suggested it could carry up to 7.6 tons, and was designed for a total of eight International Standard Payload Racks. The vehicle itself weighs 10.5 tons and will be launched into space from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan.The deal between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency hasn’t been confirmed yet, but according to the Japanese newspaper, NASA’s proposal was driven by concerns that after the retirement of its shuttles, the U.S. will be unable to carry supplies to the International Space Station. Japan is currently contributing to the International Space Station mission with the KIBO laboratory and three astronauts. So far, the necessary equipment and supplies for the astronauts on the ISS has been ensured by Russia and the United States, but things will change once the development process of the H-2 vehicle is completed. According to JAXA, the operations of HTVs will not only offer low-cost and reliable means of transportation to the ISS, but it will also serve Japan as basis for future technological projects on the Space Flyer Unit and manned transportation. Image Credit: www.jaxa.jp Origianlly from: http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_NASA_In_Talks_With_JAXA_For_The_Acquisition_Of_Space_Shuttle_Successor_20674.html

Introducing Ubiquity

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:51:00 +0000

An experiment into connecting the Web with language. It Doesn’t Have to be This Way You’re writing an email to invite a friend to meet at a local San Francisco restaurant that neither of you has been to. You’d like to include a map. Today, this involves the disjointed tasks of message composition on a web-mail service, mapping the address on a map site, searching for reviews on the restaurant on a search engine, and finally copying all links into the message being composed. This familiar sequence is an awful lot of clicking, typing, searching, copying, and pasting in order to do a very simple task. And you haven’t even really sent a map or useful reviews—only links to them. This kind of clunky, time-consuming interaction is common on the Web. Mashups help in some cases but they are static, require Web development skills, and are largely site-centric rather than user-centric. It’s even worse on mobile devices, where limited capability and fidelity makes this onerous or nearly impossible. Most people do not have an easy way to manage the vast resources of the Web to simplify their task at hand. For the most part they are left trundling between web sites, performing common tasks resulting in frustration and wasted time. Enter Ubiquity Today we’re announcing the launch of Ubiquity, a Mozilla Labs experiment into connecting the Web with language in an attempt to find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily. Don't walk. Run! http://labs.mozilla.com/2008/08/introducing-ubiquity/

Gorilla "Paradise" Found; May Double World Numbers!

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:32:00 +0000

Deep in the hinterlands of the Republic of the Congo lies a secret ape paradise that is home to 125,000 western lowland gorillas, researchers announced today.

The findings, if confirmed, would more than double the world's estimated population of this great ape subspecies, which is classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Western lowland gorillas have been devastated in recent years by illegal hunting for bush meat and the spread of the Ebola virus. Just last year scientists projected the animals' numbers could fall as low as 50,000 by 2011.

Now those predictions may have to be dramatically reworked to incorporate findings released today by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

A first ever ape census in northern Congo found 73,000 of the gorillas in that country's Ntokou-Pikounda region and 52,000 more in the Ndoki-Likouala area.

The Ndoki population includes an obscure group of nearly 6,000 gorillas living in close quarters in isolated swamps near Lac Télé.

"We knew there were apes there, we just had no idea how many," said WCS's Emma Stokes, one of the lead researchers in the two-year project.

The gorillas have thrived thanks to their remoteness from human settlements, food-rich habitats, and two decades of conservation efforts in one of the world's poorest countries, Stokes said.
Complete article....http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08/080805-gorillas-congo.html

For more abut the emotional world of animals, check this out....http://spiritofmaat.com/archive/sep3/emotions.htm

Soviets Recovered an Apollo Capsule!

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:57:00 +0000

The Soviet Union had recovered an Apollo capsule in 1969 and returned it to the Americans a year later in the extraordinary Cold War visit to Murmansk by the American Coast Guard icebreaker Southwind. Recently Michael Stronski, a Southwind crew member, has provided additional extraordinary photographs of the event.

In early 1970, UK-based naval units were training in recovery of an Apollo boilerplate capsule (BP-1227) as part of their assigned mission of rescuing Apollo spacecraft in the case of an emergency abort or return to earth. The capsule disappeared at sea. The circumstances of the loss of the capsule are still not clear. It is not known whether a Soviet 'fishing vessel' nearby was in fact a spy trawler and if the capsule was taken as part of an intelligence operation.

While in Murmansk the crew was surprised to be presented with an American Apollo capsule, which the Soviets said had been recovered by one of their fishing vessels in the Bay of Biscay. It was BP-1227 - the capsule that had gone missing a year earlier. The handover was made with considerable ceremony and covered by Hungarian press representatives. The capsule was loaded onto the ship at the forward gun mount. Lashed to the deck, it accompanied the Southwind after its departure from Murmansk and later tour of the Kara Sea. This photograph shows the capsule in icy conditions on that part of the voyage.

Originally from: http://www.astronautix.com/articles/sovpsule.htm

Tracking the Entire World

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:42:00 +0000

What is NNDB? NNDB is an intelligence aggregator that tracks the activities of people we have determined to be noteworthy, both living and dead. Superficially, it seems much like a "Who's Who" where a noted person's curriculum vitae is available (the usual information such as date of birth, a biography, and other essential facts.) But it mostly exists to document the connections between people, many of which are not always obvious. A person's otherwise inexplicable behavior is often understood by examining the crowd that person has been associating with. For example, wonder why Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott tells his employees that if Obama is elected they will lose jobs? See why... http://www.nndb.com/people/469/000045334/

Gov'mt Says Gas will be $2 Gal. for Next 30 Yrs.

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:14:00 +0000

EPA chief says Congress should pass greenhouse gases legislation 1:51 PM, July 11, 2008

Responding to a U.S. Supreme Court order, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson said today that the Clean Air Act was "the wrong tool for addressing greenhouse gases" because it would be too costly to the American public, and said that Congress should move forward with passing legislation to tackle the issue instead.

The high court had ordered the EPA more than a year ago to determine if greenhouse gases were a danger to the public. If so, the justices said, under the Clean Air Act, the agency was required to develop regulations to reduce the risk.

Instead, Johnson signed what he said was an unprecedented 1,000-page document this morning that included letters from numerous White House environmental and economic agencies detailing how such regulations could harm major sectors of the economy.

"One point is clear," Johnson said. "The potential regulation of greenhouse gases under any portion of the Clean Air Act could result in an unprecedented expansion of EPA authority that would have a profound effect on virtually every sector of the economy and touch every household in the land."

He said he would accept comments on the proposed EPA regulations in response to the court order, but stressed repeatedly that it was the wrong approach because of the costs.

The document also includes a sharply revised version of a May draft by EPA staff members in which they concluded as much as $2 trillion in savings to consumers at the gas pump could be achieved if greenhouse gas regulations were implemented. That number was slashed to $830 billion, and the price of gas was calculated at $2 a gallon for the next 30 years. EPA press secretary Jonathan Schradar said he did not know why the numbers had been changed, but said extensive review of the earlier draft had been performed by agency staff members.

Today's announcement once again effectively eliminates any likelihood of the Bush administration regulating greenhouse gases.

-- Janet Wilson

Originally from http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2008/07/epa-on-greenhou.html

Put Their Heads on Pikes as a Warning to Others

noreply@blogger.com (Top of the Curve) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:02:00 +0000

FCC chief hopes Comcast sanction serves as warning By JOHN DUNBAR

WASHINGTON (AP) — A recommendation to punish Comcast Corp. for blocking subscribers' Internet traffic should serve as a warning to other service providers, the nation's top telecommunications regulator said Friday.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said he hopes his action will make network operators sensitive about putting "arbitrary limits on the way consumers can access information on the Internet."

The Associated Press reported Thursday night that Martin will recommend to his fellow commissioners that Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, be punished for violating agency principles that guarantee customers open access to the Internet.

Martin provided more details of his proposed disciplinary action in a meeting with reporters Friday.

Comcast was accused by consumer groups of blocking "peer-to-peer" Internet traffic, where users share large data files using special software. The complaint followed an AP investigation in October.

Comcast denies it blocks content, but says it uses "carefully limited measures" to manage traffic on its broadband network to ensure all customers receive quality service.

Martin wants Comcast to stop using its current practice, to tell commissioners where it has used it in the past, and to disclose to the agency and consumers what limitations will be placed on customers under its new traffic management plan, which it hopes to have in place by the end of the year.

Martin said he is not recommending a fine against Comcast because he wants to use the case as a means of laying out agency policy.

"It doesn't make the enforcement action less important," he said. "Oftentimes (what is) most important is to try to clarify what is allowed and what isn't."

Martin said he would circulate an order recommending the enforcement action among his fellow commissioners on Friday. The measure is scheduled for a vote at the agency's next open meeting, scheduled for Aug. 1.

Martin's action was in response to a complaint filed by Free Press and Public Knowledge, nonprofit groups that advocate for "network neutrality," the idea that all Internet content should be treated equally.

The FCC approved a policy statement in September 2005 that outlined a set of principles meant to ensure that broadband networks are "widely deployed, open, affordable and accessible to all consumers." The principles, however, are "subject to reasonable network management."

Comcast argues that the agency's policy statement is not enforceable and that the commission has "never before provided any guidance on what it means by 'reasonable network management.'"

On Friday, Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice said the company has not seen Martin's order and would not speculate on whether the company will challenge it if it is approved by a majority of the commissioners.

She did say, however, that Comcast has "consistently said that we don't feel the policy statement is enforceable as rules."

Comcast is moving toward a "protocol agnostic" form of network management, meaning it will focus on all traffic rather than just peer-to-peer. The new method is being rolled out in some test markets.

Martin's action will help the industry in terms of where the line is drawn on managing Internet traffic, said Craig Moffett, a cable and telecommunications analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. But he cautioned the FCC's action could lead to some unintended consequences.

"The fact that they will have to be protocol agnostic forecloses certain options," he said. "For better or for worse, the principle option that it leaves open is the simplest one of all, and that is simply charging more for more usage."

On the Net:

Federal Communications Commission: http://www.fcc.gov/

Originally from http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5huAOgy6g1S5wW-7ft0FRuIypdzLQD91RTNTO2