Science: Chefs As Chemists

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday November 06, @08:06PM
from the you-want-agar-agar-with-that dept.

circletimessquare writes "Using ingredients usually relegated to the lower half of the list of ingredients on a Twinkies wrapper, some professional chefs are turning themselves into magicians with food. Ferran Adrià in Spain and Heston Blumenthal in England have been doing this for years, but the New York Times updates us on the ongoing experiments at WD-50 in New York City. Xanthan Gum, agar-agar, and other hydrocolloids are being used to bring strange effects to your food. Think butter that doesn't melt in the oven, foie gras you can tie into knots, and fried mayonnaise."

[+] biotech, science, moleculargastronomy, goodeats, borkborkbork (tagging beta)

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Science: Astronomers Announce 5-Planet System

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday November 06, @05:35PM
from the looking-for-something-rockier dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Astronomers have detected a record-breaking 5th planet orbiting the star 55 Cancri, 41 light years distant. This planet orbits within the 'habitable zone,' where water could presumably exist, but it's probably another gas giant like Saturn, so any liquid water would have to be on a moon. There's still a big gap between this planet and the outermost planet where no planets have been detected yet, so there could yet be a rocky planet in the system. The lead researcher said he's optimistic that 'continued observations will reveal a rocky planet within five years.'"

[+] science, space, classmplanet, !britneynotnews (tagging beta)

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Google gas pumps: the savior of lost men

Posted Nov 7th 2007 7:52AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Transportation

Soon, you will never have to admit that you're lost and suffer the humiliation of asking for directions. Google is expected to announce a partnership today with Gilbarco Veeder-Root, to include Google's mapping service on 3,500 Internet enabled gasoline pumps across the US. The maps will be available on the pump's small screen giving motorists the ability to scroll through local landmarks, hotels, restaurants, and hospitals to the bemusement of the guy waiting behind you. The pump will even print directions. The service is said to be ad-free but will offer coupons which sounds a lot like advertising to us. Look for the gPumps to arrive courtesy of that Encore S rig pictured above.

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Gamerator MAME cabinet features 187 games, built-in keg

Posted Nov 6th 2007 7:28PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Gaming

187 MAME-emulated games, a 24-inch LCD, cupholders and a built-in kegerator? If it was up to us, the Gamerator would be the only piece of furniture in our living room. Yours now for $2K on eBay.

[Via TechDigest]

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Are you using Vista?

You may identify with this experience if you have tried. This must have been done by a Unix fan.
http://www.theblimp.blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?autostart=true&enablejs=true&feedurl=http://theblimp.blip.tv/rss&file=http://www.theblimp.blip.tv/rss/flash/345491&showplayerpath=http://www.theblimp.blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf

Too Funny

How to make your own Solar Geny for less than $300

This is a pretty old like but looks like it would be fun to try. I might try to see if I can make something to light my walkway etc.
http://www.rain.org/~philfear/how2solar.html

Scientists develop sticky tape inspired by insect feet

Posted Nov 6th 2007 5:59AM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Black gaffer tape might be about to get a run for its money as our fix-it of choice -- researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, in collaboration with a team at Carnegie Mellon, are working on a new type of tape that gets its stick from a pattern of microscopic ridges modeled after insect feet. The two teams studied over 300 insects to develop the tape, which can be reused hundreds of times before losing its stickiness then simply washed in soapy water to regain its initial grip. Tests of the tape have enabled a 4-ounce robot to climb walls, and the team says that although it'll never be as cheap or as strong as regular old Scotch, the product they've nicknamed "insect tape" will be reasonably cheap to use around the house. Yeah, but can you build a server out of it?

Tags: insect, insect tape, InsectTape, tape

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Anyone like Heros?

Study Suggests Genome Instability Hotspots

Posted by Zonk on Monday November 05, @01:26AM
from the perfect-place-to-splice dept.

Dr. Eggman writes "Ars Technica reports on a new study that suggests not only that certain areas of the mouse genome undergo more changes, but that changes to those areas are more tolerable by the organism than changes in other areas. Recently published in Nature Genetics, the study examined the certain copy number variations of the C57Bl/6 strain in mice that have been diverging for less than 1,000 generations. The results were a surprising number of variations. While the study does not address it, Ars Technica goes on to recount suggestions that genomes evolved to the point where they work well with evolution."

[+] biotech, science, genomics (tagging beta)

Animal poo powers zoo

by Jonathon Morgan
Nov 3rd 2007 @ 3:02PM

Filed under: News

If you talk to Chuck Siegel, deputy director of animal management for the Dallas Zoo, he'll tell you that "poo and pee is our bread and butter."

Sounds a little gross, but it's totally true. Animal waste, rather than a useless byproduct, destined to take up space in a landfill somewhere, is instead going to be a source of energy for the zoo. Officials are implementing a plan that would take cardboard, tree limbs, and their never-ending supply of animal poop, and run it through a biogas generator that will help power several buildings.

With a total price tag of around $1 million, it's not exactly cheap. But given the amount of money the facility will save on power, zoo officials estimate that the project will pay for itself within ten years. Holy crap!

Related Link

Ultracapacitors Soon to Replace Many Batteries?

Posted by Zonk on Sunday November 04, @07:46PM
from the zap-zap-zazp dept.

einhverfr writes "According to an article in the IEEE Spectrun, the synergy between batteries and capacitors — two of the sturdiest and oldest components of electrical engineering — has been growing, to the point where ultracapacitors may soon be almost as indispensable to portable electricity as batteries are now. Some researchers expect to soon create capacitors capable of storing 50% as much energy as a lithium ion battery of the same size. Such capacitors could revolutionize many areas possibly from mobile computing (no worries about battery memory), electricity-powered vehicles, and more."

[+] power, technology, shocking, ultracapacitor, ieeespectrum (tagging beta)

The Dying PC Market

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday November 04, @10:06AM
from the netcraft-confirms-nothing dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The PC's role in Japanese homes is diminishing, as its once-awesome monopoly on processing power is encroached by gadgets such as smart phones that act like pocket-size computers, advanced Internet-connected game consoles, digital video recorders with terabytes of memory NEC's annual PC shipments in Japan shrank 6.2 percent to 2.72 million units in 2006, and the trend is continuing into the first quarter of fiscal 2007 with a 14 percent decline from a year earlier. Sony's PC shipments for Japan shrank 10 percent in 2006 from a year earlier. "The household PC market is losing momentum to other electronics like flat-panel TVs and mobile phones," said Masahiro Katayama, research group head at market survey firm IDC. "Consumers aren't impressed anymore with bigger hard drives or faster processors. That's not as exciting as a bigger TV," Katayama said. "And in Japan, kids now grow up using mobile phones, not PCs. The future of PCs isn't bright.""

[+] portables, netcraftconfirmsit, runonsentence, fud, japanisnottheworld (tagging beta)

Shock-proof jacket ensures a tasering to the face

Posted Nov 2nd 2007 12:26PM by Evan Blass
Filed under: Wearables

With non-lethal weapon manufacturers such as TASER International constantly finding new and insidious ways to incapacitate "non-compliant individuals," it's only natural that those folks who have frequent encounters with stun gun-toting authorities would want protection from their piercing, electrifying barbs. Well a gentleman from Arizona named Gregory Russell Schultz apparently empathizes with this demographic, and has filed a patent for an "energy weapon protection device" -- essentially a jacket embedded with alternating layers of conductive and non-conductive panels that complete an electrical circuit and leave the wearer impervious to the shocks of what would likely be a very surprised officer of the law. If they can retrofit our Members Only jacket in this manner, we're sold.

[Via Danger Room]

Tags: shock-proof, taser, weapons

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Rogue vehicle leaves motorists stranded in car park

Posted Nov 2nd 2007 2:22PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Transportation

We've definitely heard of cellphones causing certain keys to not work properly, but this story just takes the proverbial cake. For reasons unknown, a small family car left in a UK car park was found to be intermittently sending out signals which blocked over a dozen other key fobs from functioning. Reportedly, the vehicle's owner was "unaware of the problems his car had been causing," but the malicious whip had been setting off alarms and leaving motorists without a way to unlock and / or crank up their own rides. Interestingly, there's no mention as to what exactly was wreaking all that havoc, but the owner of the ill-willed motorcar has reportedly promised to fix the issue (or call off the prank).

[Via TheRegister]

Tags: accident, car park, CarPark, key fob, KeyFob, mishap, parking garage, ParkingGarage, stranded

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A interesting conspericy theory on the lotto.

THE LOTTERY IS RIGGED

You may have heard that you are more likely to be hit on the head by a meteorite than to win the lottery. This is certainly so. Assuming that the game is honest, the odds are roughly one in several hundred million. Even with these odds, lottery commissions are not satisfied. The lottery is rigged.

The giant multi-state and individual state lotteries are more fixed than pro wrestling. The jackpots go up and up, with no winners. People get lottery fever. Millions nationwide are willing to wait in a line just like the ones for bread in the former Soviet Union for the pipe dream of striking it rich. The rigging works like this: super computers keep track of each combination sold, and then the ping-pong balls are weighted to assure that a losing combination comes up. On rare occasions, all possible combinations are sold, and they must let someone win. Only then is the game honest.

Why? The lottery, which is a state-run version of the Mafia's numbers racket, is a great money grab scam, as long as it brings in more than it pays out. In the past, lotteries were abolished because they lost money.

The worst part of this is whom it hurts. The poor and desperate are the most common victims of lottery fever. Children go hungry and senior citizens go without their medication because of it. People prone to gambling addiction also blow huge sums.

We spoke with an employee at a state lottery agency. We can not reveal his name or even which state, as some of the same gangsters who ran the numbers racket now run the lottery, and they would kill him.

“Yes, I personally am involved in it. Lottery ping-pong balls have a small valve, like a basketball or soccer ball, only it’s very tiny, and nearly invisible. We use a hypodermic needle to inject heavier-than-air gasses such as radon into the balls we don’t want to come up. At first, we tried helium in the ones we did want to rise, but they jumped up so quickly that it was obvious. Lotteries are raking in much more than if the games were honest, and people don’t know they have literally no chance!”

“If you think about it logically, you certainly don’t play anyway. You are betting that you can predict which six of 45 or more balls are going to come out of the hopper. In some games, the order even matters! It’s a sucker’s bet, and that’s when it’s honest! Most drawings are rigged, making the odds zero in infinity! The lottery is not only a tax on people who don’t understand math; it is an unfair and unjust tax. Didn’t we have the American Revolution over taxes like that?”

You read it here first.

MIT developing carbon-free, stackable rental cars

Posted Nov 2nd 2007 11:51AM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Transportation

Sure, we know you love actually owning a car, but let's be honest -- in large cities with condensed layouts, your H3 doesn't make a lot of sense. A group of researchers at MIT have been hard at work developing a solution that's kind on the planet and your scrawny legs. A team called Smart Cities have designed a small, two-seat, electric vehicle -- which they call the City Car -- that can be "stacked" in convenient locations (say, just outside a subway stop), and then taken on short trips around urban areas. The cars -- which are based around an omnidirectional "robot wheel" that encases an electric motor, suspension, and steering -- can be "folded" and attached to a group of other cars for charging. The lineups of rentable vehicles would be accessible from various points around a city, with six or eight cars occupying just a single "regular" car space. Of course, you'll have to forgo your 24-inch rims... but that's life.

[Via Technology Review]

Tags: carbon free, CarbonFree, city car, CityCar, concept, design, electric car, ElectricCar, mit, rental car, RentalCar, smart cities, SmartCities, stackable

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Over-50s Invade the Social Networking Scene

Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday November 02, @08:47AM
from the old-folks-have-friends-too dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Telegraph newspaper reports that over-50s are invading sites like Facebook and MySpace in massive numbers. A recent study showed that nearly one third of Facebook users are aged between 35 and 54, and that this group also made up 41 percent of MySpace users. "Because the mind of an over-50 is likely superior to that of a drink-addled undergrad, at first there was uncertainty about whether older users would find the Facebook-led social-networking phenomena attractive." Looks like dad just turned up to the party."

[+] entertainment, internet, inkorea, getoffmylawn, getbackonyourlawn (tagging beta)

Patterns in Lottery Numbers

Posted by Zonk on Thursday November 01, @03:12PM
from the you're-still-advised-against-playing dept.

markmcb writes "Most everyone is familiar with the concept of the lottery, i.e., random numbers are selected and people guess what they will be for a cash prize. But how random are the numbers? Matt Vea has conducted a pattern analysis of the MegaMillions lottery, which recently offered a sum of $370M (USD) to the winner. Matt shows that the lottery isn't as random as it may seem and that there are 'better' choices than others to be made when selecting numbers. From the article, 'A single dollar in MegaMillions purchases a 1 in 175,711,536 chance of landing the jackpot ... a player stands a mildly better chance of winning a partial prize through the selection of weighted numbers.'" Includes some excellent charts of his analysis.

[+] math, science, taxtheinnumerate, anomaly, rigged (tagging beta)

Masi Oka of Heroes signs up as OLPC ambassador

Posted Nov 1st 2007 11:50AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Laptops

What's better being the nerdy guy on a nerdy hit TV show? Being a nerd in real life, of course. Masi Oka -- you probably know him as Hiro from NBC's Heroes -- has it all going on, and has now signed up to be OLPC's "ambassador" to really flesh out his resume. The guy majored in Math and Comp Sci at Brown University, and did odd acting gigs while working at ILM programming special effects, so he's no pretender to this nerd throne. Masi's role as global ambassador pretty much means he'll be doing some TV spots to "promote the importance of empowering children with learning tools and Internet connectivity," but we're sure he can put some of those time-bending powers to good use to erase all that "$100 dollar laptop" nonsense of yesteryear.

Tags: heroes, hiro, masi oka, MasiOka, olpc

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Building a "Reference" Home Theater

Posted by kdawson on Thursday November 01, @11:55AM
from the must-have-citizen-kane-in-1080p24 dept.

An anonymous reader writes "FiringSquad has recently written a 14-page article on building a 'reference' home theater. They go through step-by-step and define all of the issues you need to think about when going with a new home theater setup. Exceptionally detailed but also easy to read."

[+] hardware, movies, audio (tagging beta)

Australian Army Invests in Electrical Shirts

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 01, @04:57AM
from the shocking-sleeves dept.

Stony Stevenson writes "The Australian Defence Department has injected $4.4 million worth of funding to further Australia's national science agency's (the CSIRO) research into designing clothing which can be used as a self-recharging electrical source on the battlefield. The Defence Department is hoping the technology can be used to replace cumbersome disposable batteries that soldiers must carry on the battlefield. The Flexible Integrated Energy Device (FIED) will be used to store and provide energy over a continuous period of time. It can be charged by either vibration energy harvesting or through plugging into an electrical power point."

[+] military, power, technology, csiro, adf (tagging beta)

Brains Hard-Wired for Math

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 01, @01:21AM
from the easy-as-1-2-3 dept.
Math Science
mcgrew writes "New Scientist is reporting that "non-human primates really can understand the meaning of numerals." The small study of two rhesus monkeys reveals that cells in their brains respond selectively to specific number values — regardless of whether the amount is represented by dots on a screen or an Arabic numeral. For example, a given brain cell in the monkey will respond to the number three, but not the number one. The results suggest that individual cells in human brains might also have a fine-tuned preference for specific numerical values." The report itself is online at PLoS Biology, Semantic Associations between Signs and Numerical Categories in the Prefrontal Cortex."
[+] math, science, sixtynine (tagging beta)

Fast Car Video From Brad S.

Thanks Brad

How things would be different on Earth without the Moon

Posted by Mark Frauenfelder, October 30, 2007 11:48 AM | permalink

Bernard Foing wrote an article for Astrobiology Magazine about how our Earth, its weather, and its life forms would be different without the influence of the Moon.

The eyesight of many mammals is sensitive to moonlight. The level of adaptation of night vision would be very different without the Moon. Many of these species have evolved in such a way that their night vision could work in even partial lunar illumination, because that’s when they are most active. But they can be more subjected to predators, too, so there is a balance between your ability to see and your ability not to be seen. The Moon has completely changed evolution in that aspect.

Human vision is so sensitive that we are almost able to work by the light of the Milky Way. The full Moon has more light than we need to see at night. For most of our history, we were hunting and fishing or doing agriculture, and we organized our lives by using the Moon. It determined the time for hunting, or the time where we could harvest. That’s why most of our calendars are based on the Moon.

Link (Via Daily Grail)

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Zombie thought to really be dead

Posted by David Pescovitz, October 31, 2007 10:12 AM | permalink

After attending a Halloween party in Hamburg, Germany, a 26-year-old drunken man dressed as a zombie passed out on the train home. Passengers thought he was dead and called police. Apparently, Halloween costumes aren't a common sight in the town he was passing thorough. From Reuters:

A first aid team called to the scene soon cleared up the confusion. Police told the man to remove his make-up after which he was allowed to continue his journey.

Link (via Fortean Times)

Discuss ( 4 )

Samurai costume made from Rubbermaid trash-cans

Posted by Cory Doctorow, October 31, 2007 11:12 AM | permalink

Flickr user Kudzutech's bad-ass samurai costume (build detailed at the link below) is made from 32 gallon Rubbermaid garbage cans! Link (Thanks, Rob!)

Discuss ( 8 )