Wednesday, November 25, 2009
SOLAR IMPULSE - AROUND THE WORLD IN A SOLAR AIRPLANE
The "Solar impulse" airplane has successfully completed low-speed taxi test.
Biden Pardons Single Yam In Vice Presidential Thanksgiving Ritual
Biden Pardons Single Yam In Vice Presidential Thanksgiving Ritual
November 25, 2009 | Issue 45•48
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WASHINGTON—In keeping with a longstanding Thanksgiving tradition, Vice President Joe Biden ceremonially pardoned a 4-pound yam today at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. "Under my authority as vice president of the United States of America, I hereby grant this yam full and unconditional clemency," a smiling Biden declared as he gently patted "Spud," a Beauregard sweet potato grown in Louisiana and selected from millions of candidates yielded by this year’s harvest. "May he never find himself in a casserole. Right, little guy?" Like yams reprieved before him, Spud will ride as an honored guest aboard the second float of the Disneyland Thanksgiving Day Parade before spending the rest of his life in the comfort and safety of a tuber petting zoo.
More News Briefs
- « Nation To Be Sterilized From 1 P.M. To... (November 25, 2009)
Recent News»
Department Of Needing Transportation: 'Anyone Heading To Tucson This Weekend?' 11.24.09
New 'Noveller' Allows People To Post Novels They Write During Course Of Their Day 11.23.09
Nation's Music Snobs Protest Predictable Use Of Metallica, Pantera To Torture Prisoners 11.21.09
Montessori School Of Dentistry Lets Students Discover Their Own Root Canal Procedures 11.20.09
Nation's Fast Food Patrons No Longer Trusted To Dispense Own Ketchup 11.16.09
Black Friday Anti-Deals: What Not To Buy
Black Friday may be when prices drop, but if you've carefully read the list of deals, you can tell it's also a BS marketing gimmick. Here's how not to get fooled (plus, what gadgets to avoid at any price)...
Click the Via link.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
JPL Small-Body Database Browser
The good news: It was spotted.
The bad news: It was spotted too late to do anything but duck.
Why Did the Dying, Evil HAL Sing "Daisy" in Space Odyssey 2001?
Arthur Clarke based that scene on the above for-real speech-synthesis demo (one of the first ever) that he witnessed before writing the screenplay. For the full story, click the "via" link.
Amid charges of global warming hoax, new warning on climate change
Amid charges of global warming hoax, new warning on climate change
Nicely balanced article.
Brain MRI Evidence Used in Murder Sentencing
Courtroom First: Brain Scan Used in Murder Sentencing
A fifth of laptops fail within 3 years. Netbooks are worse.
November 23
Is a Warranty on Laptops Warranted?
A fifth of laptops fail over three years, according to a study by a company that sells extended warranties for laptops.
Nice analysis of laptop/netbook failure rates. Warranties, they say, therefore should cost no more than about 1/5 of the purchase price of a laptop.
A musical project unlike any other I've seen
This is truly weird, in a good way:
"The Symphony of Science is a musical project by John Boswell designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form."
The end result is hard to describe and would take longer to explain than to simply watch the video. Amazing processing work (to impose musical notes on spoken words), clever editing, and more.
Click the "via" link to see other videos.
Slow Shutters = amazing photos
Some purists bemoaned the arrival of digital and electronic cameras, saying the heartless silicon would kill photography as art. That's been proven wrong many times before, and is proven wrong again by this competition which shows what can be done with modern cameras, long exposures, and a lot of creative talent. Click the "via" link above, for more.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Spirit Rover: Much action, little result, then a wheel stall
Spirit experienced a wheel stall with the right-rear wheel during the second step of a two-step drive on Sol 2092 (Saturday, Nov. 21).... The rover had completed about 4 meters (13 feet) of commanded wheel spin before the stall terminated the drive. The center of the rover moved about 4 millimeters (0.2 inch) forward, 3 millimeters (0.1 inch) to the left and about 3 millimeters (0.1 inch) down. The rover suspension stayed within the tighter limits set for the drive, and there was only a fractional change in rover tilt.
O tannenbong, o tannenbong....
Custom officials unwrapped a surprise Tuesday at the Port of LA/Long Beach -- 316,000 glass bongs disguised as Christmas ornaments...
In the Dark: Unusual Deep-Sea Species Documented [Slide Show]: Scientific American
In the Dark: Unusual Deep-Sea Species Documented [Slide Show]
A marine census details more than 5,000 species that live more than 1,000 meters below the surface...
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=unusual-deep-sea-species#
Unusual Deep-Sea Species Documented [Slide Show]
A marine census details more than 5,000 species that live more than 1,000 meters below the surface...
Gorgeous "Viewers Choice" NatGeo Photos
National Geographic's International Photography Contest is still running, and you can still vote, but you also can see the 10 current leaders now at http://tinyurl.com/y9jke67 .
The Cassini mission completes Enceladus flyby
(Above image: Water vapor and other particles spew from fissures on the moon's surface ). "The Cassini mission completes a flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus, sending back data and stunning images...." Nice, brief summary article from the BBC.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Vermont covered bridges
http://s225.photobucket.com/albums/dd54/flanga_bucket/2009-11-22%20vt%20covered%20bridges/?albumview=slideshow
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Amazing Enceladus flyby images are in!
New play: "A lot of it happens under a sheet"
Hmmmm.
Or maybe: Hummmmmm.
'The Vibrator Play,' now on Broadway: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120463597
11 Rarest Jobs
From Astronauts and Astronomers... to Private Cooks and the President... Here is a look at the 11 rarest careers in America.
The chances of giving birth to twins, dating a supermodel and winning an Oscar are all greater than getting any of these careers.
http://www.rasmussen.edu/articles/11-rarest-careers.asp#
NASA unleashes the Galactic Ghoul?
The "Galactic Ghoul" is the Martian equivalent of the "Bermuda Triangle;" an area of Martian space where many spacecraft have mysteriously disappeared. NASA cooked up the tongue-in-cheek name, and has immortalized in on a greeting card! More info:
http://news.discovery.com/space/nasa-unleashes-the-galactic-ghoul.html
Earth's Weather Like You Have Never Seen It Before
Earth's weather from August 17 to August 26, 2009
A week of summer weather from space; incredibly beautiful! Low res: http://gizmodo.com/5409638/earths-weather-like-you-have-never-seen-it-before?autoplay=true
hi res (awesome!): http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003600/a003657/comp_geos5_7km.mp4
Friday, November 20, 2009
This is not a photoshop
It's a real chair, carried by a balloon to the edge of space. Why? Read here: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/11/20/2133259.aspx
Happy 24th birthday, Windows!
Windows version 1.0 saw its official release on 20 November 1985. http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/happy-24th-birthday-windows--652626?src=rss&attr=all
The Mandelbulb: first 'true' 3D image of famous fractal
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18171-the-mandelbulb-first-true-3d-image-of-famous-fractal.html The Mandelbulb: first 'true' 3D image of famous 2D fractal
A Meteor between the Magellanic Clouds
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091120.html "This bright meteor streaked through dark night skies over Sutherland, South Africa... captured by chance as it passed between the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds - satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way"
Montessori Dentistry: Students Do Root Canals their Own Way
Montessori School Of Dentistry Lets Students Discover Their Own Root Canal Procedures
November 20, 2009 | Issue 45•47
Classrooms are designed to be nonjudgmental arenas for discovery.
Related Articles
NEW YORK—Inside the Montessori School of Dentistry, you won't find any old-fashioned cotton swabs, or so-called periodontal charts, or even any amalgam fillings. That's because at this alternative-learning institution, students are being encouraged to break away from medical tradition and discover their very own root canal procedures.
"At Montessori, we believe dentistry is more than just the medical practice of treating tooth and gum disorders," school director Dr. Howard Bundt told reporters Tuesday. "It's about fostering creativity. It's about promoting self-expression and individuality. It's about looking at a decayed and rotten nerve pulp and drawing your own unique conclusions."
"In fact, here at Montessori, dentistry is whatever our students want it to be," Bundt continued.
Founded in 1981, and tailored after the teaching methods first developed by Italian-born educator Maria Montessori, the three-year academy offers a fresh and innovative approach to learning seldom found at more conventional schools of dentistry.
Teachers—or "roving dental facilitators," as they prefer to be called—can be difficult to spot: They often choose to stay out of the way of their inquisitive pupils, and only make gentle suggestions as to how an infected root chamber should be drained.
"When performing a root canal, there's no such thing as right or wrong," said Montessori educator Vanessa Perrin, who added that she doesn't so much teach her students how to treat an inflamed nerve, as lead them to an open mouth and then stand back. "Sure, we could say to our students, 'The enamel here has completely eroded and needs to be addressed immediately.' But what's more satisfying, what's more dynamic, is to just let them slowly develop an 'impression' of why a patient might be screaming."
"We try to encourage our students to work with their patients in order to determine a successful course of action," Perrin added. "That's one of the many reasons why we don't believe in using any anesthesia during surgical procedures."
According to administrators, the Montessori School of Dentistry strives to present an alternative to the dogmatic structure of other schools. In addition to being able to set their own curriculum, students at the private institution can take a break during long and involved operations if they grow bored or feel uninspired.
The confining and antiseptic atmosphere of tradition is absent even from the classrooms themselves, relaxing environments that are sometimes even filled with comfortable, overstuffed sofas rather than dentist chairs.
"If a student is installing a crown, and feels midway through as though he or she would benefit more from, say, seeing where a tooth implant might lead, they can do that here," said Montessori professor Donald Scheneke, who told reporters that he sees the dentist office as a place for exploration and expression, not rules. "In here, there's no such thing as 'absentmindedly drilling through to the lower gum' or 'mistakenly pulling out the wrong maxillary lateral incisor.' I can't tell you the number of times I've seen people give up on the entire dentistry profession just because they were terrible at filling cavities."
Recent graduates from the small, independent school agree.
"Thanks to my professors at Montessori, I feel like I can handle any professional challenge that comes my way," Dr. David Greenblatt, DDS, said as a syringe filled with Novocaine dripped slowly into the back of a patient's throat and down into his lungs. "Or, at the very least, accept that it's not the end of the world if I can't."
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