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Planet Dave! Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Global darkness shortage poses health and sanity risk
I imagine this information is nothing new to Kat. An article in the Taipei Times discusses the repercussions of modern technology slowly eliminating night. I, for one, have been bitching about light pollution for years.
Autonomous Robot Finds Life in Atacama Desert
From /., "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that a NASA-funded "robotic astrobiologist" named Zoë (a successor to the Hyperion rover) has found life in Chile's Atacama desert. The Atacama is the Earth's driest desert, with steep slopes and rugged terrain. This is the first robot to remotely detect life, finding bacteria (and lichens, in the less dry areas) by using a fluorescent imager. The robot could also spray special dyes to detect life signatures like DNA, protein, lipids, and carbohydrates. Zoë's next assignment will be to autonomously sample soil over 50 kilometers of the Atacama. The Atacama desert is thought to be similar to Mars; instruments similar to those used on the 1970s Viking missions have previously failed to detect life there."
Monday, June 27, 2005
Blur Animation Studio
If you're in the mood for some kick-butt animation, check out Blur Studio. Don't miss their reel for animation, and definitely check out their animation shorts. I've seen Rockfish and In The Rough. Both are really good.
Cool Artist of the Day: Ned Kahn
Check out this guy's Portfolio. Lots and lots of cool stuff. I've got to try making one of these.
FCC to Fine Curses More Than Nuke Violations
/. pointed me towards this article over at Rolling Stone. It talks about the FCC's crack headed fines for profanity. a choice quote: "for the price of Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl, you could cause the wrongful death of an elderly patient in a nursing home and still have enough money left to create dangerous mishaps at two nuclear reactors."
Friday, June 17, 2005
Wallace & Gromit Hit the Silver Screen
What a wonderful time for movie lovers. The Curse of the Were-Rabbit hits the theaters October 7th.
RFID + Dart gun = DartMail!
From /., "Snail mail? Too slow. Email? Too much spam. So what's left? DartMail! Tony Tang and Eric Pattison from the University of Calgary introduce a new (well, new as of January 2003) method of transferring files and possibly shooting your eye out. Using RFID and a toy dart gun, 'DartMail lets people physically shoot electronic information at others.' Be sure to check out the movie, too!"
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Tennis for Acrophobes
Not that I'm a particularly good tennis player under normal circumstances. But I think my game would probably suffer on this court.
PlanetDave.Net HowTo - DIY Science Toys
(From Boing Boing) I'm pretty sure I've linked to this page before. But it bears (bares?) repeating. It's got a whole slew of cool stuff. Check out the world's simplest steam boat. The Laser Communicator is pretty cool, too.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Intelligent Design's idiotic designer
(From Boing Boing) I've heard people talk about the purposeful design of the universe. They'll usually point out water. Water is really weird. As far as natural properties go, water has a whole slew of coincidences and exceptions. (Ask me about it sometime, I'll talk for as long as you'll let me.) And it's essential for life. The problem is that if you accept that as proof of a creator, you have to lose a little respect for said creator. I mean, it's really quite a kludge. It's with this mindset that Jim Holt takes a look at Intelligent Design. I've never understood why some people feel they can't be religious and accept evolution. Never.
Study Points to Sixth Sense in Humans
From /., "St. Louis researchers say there's something to the notion of a 'sixth sense' in humans. A part of the brain known as the cingulate cortex, they've found, likely combines multiple, sometimes unconscious data streams to come to conclusions and send warning signals to the conscious mind. Example: Aboriginal tribesmen somehow sensed the impending danger of December's tsunami in time to flee to higher ground before the first sign of water."
A Savant Explains His Abilities
From /., "Of the few hundred autistic savants in the world, none have been able to explain their incredible mental abilities. Until now, that is. It seems that Daniel Tammet, a mathematical savant who holds the record for the most digits of pi recited from memory, is able to explain exactly how he intuits answers to mathematical problems. Tammet is quite articulate and speaks seven languages, including one he invented. The Guardian is running an article about his amazing abilities."
Large Storms On Earth Are Particle Accelerators
From /., "Apparently, the atmosphere above Earth's strongest storms acts like a particle accelerator, according to a UC Santa Cruz paper. TGFs (Terrestrial Gamma ray Flashes) may occur as seldom as 50 times a day, 'but the rate could be up to 100 times higher if, as some models indicate, TGFs are emitted as narrowly focused beams that would only be detected when the satellite is directly in their path.' I'm glad the gamma-ray bursts are directed into space."
Proof of Humans' Participation in Global Warming
The Sunday Times has an article citing computer models of Earth's climate. Only the model that included man made greenhouse gas emissions matched the measured data. Not that this will end the debate. People who continue to doubt man's involvment in global warming are kinda like people who continue to doubt evolution. If they don't want to be convinced, no amount of logic or evidence will do the trick.