Thought Patterns

Yah-freakin'-hoo!!

Patriots' Historic Game to Be Available to All of America, After All

By RACHEL COHEN

NEW YORK (AP) -After weeks of insisting they wouldn't cave in, NFL officials did just that Wednesday. Now all of America can see the Patriots' shot at history.

Saturday night's game between New England and the New York Giants on the NFL Network, which is available in fewer than 40 percent of the nation's homes with TVs, will be simulcast on CBS and NBC.

The Patriots could become the first NFL team to go 16-0 in the regular season.

"We have taken this extraordinary step because it is in the best interest of our fans," commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement after the league announced it was reversing course. "What we have seen for the past year is a very strong consumer demand for NFL Network. We appreciate CBS and NBC delivering the NFL Network telecast on Saturday night to the broad audience that deserves to see this potentially historic game. Our commitment to the NFL Network is stronger than ever."

full story

I'm droolin' over the possibilities and the story ideas sparking off in me 'ead.

From Wired News:

Space Dust: It's Alive and It's … Us?
By Brandon Keim August 17, 2007 | 11:47:06 AM

That life should be carbon-based is a pretty dated assumption. These days, the zeitgeist is all about sustained organization and patterns of energy flow. Really, should aliens be organic just because we are?

So cast aside the blinders of earth-based life, and open your mind to this:

… an international team has discovered that under the right conditions, particles of inorganic dust can become organised into helical structures. These structures can then interact with each other in ways that are usually associated with organic compounds and life itself.

The right conditions are found in a plasma — that "fourth state of matter beyond solid, liquid and gas, in which electrons are torn from atoms leaving behind a miasma of charged particles."

They can, for instance, divide, or bifurcate, to form two copies of the original structure. These new structures can also interact to induce changes in their neighbours and they can even evolve into yet more structures as less stable ones break down, leaving behind only the fittest structures in the plasma. […]

"These complex, self-organized plasma structures exhibit all the necessary properties to qualify them as candidates for inorganic living matter," says Tsytovich, "they are autonomous, they reproduce and they evolve."

(link to article - check out their continuing links at the bottom of the article)

Plasma. As in plasma drives. As in plasma whatever, Scotty. Droolin', abso-freakin'-lutely droolin'.

What if the plasma is alive and works for a living inside your ship's engine? What if they were inorganic gerbils spinning the wheels to propel your ship through space? What would you feed them? What do they want for pay? Or are they slaves? Unwilling since we don't realize they are sentient? How would they be contained? What would keep them from getting bored and moving on somewhere else?

Inorganic life.

Granted, the fact that they organized into "helical structures" is based on a computer model. Whether or not it would happen in reality, we don't know. And do we want to find out? We can't store enough of the sun's energy, how do we think we could store energy from plasma? It would have to be one heck of a powerful Swiffer to control that kind of dust. Brings new meaning to the term "dust bunny", don't it?

Way freakin' cool.

From the Planetary Society:

Stephen Hawking Flies into Zero-G and "Tastes" Space

By A.J.S. Rayl
April 27, 2007

British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking – whose groundbreaking work on black holes and the origins of the universe has rewritten physics – floated free of his wheelchair in zero-gravity yesterday. Flying onboard a commercial 727 jet especially converted for weightless flights, he experienced for the first time what astronauts-in-training experience on NASA's KC-135, better known as the "Vomit Comet."

Hawking, 65, perhaps the most renowned theoretical physicist of his time, has long suffered from a motor neuron disorder called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Unable to move his hands and legs, he has been wheelchair bound for nearly four decades. In the mid-1980s, he also lost his ability to speak naturally after a tracheotomy following a bad bout with pneumonia….

Yesterday, Hawking escaped the confines of his illness for 4 minutes and experienced a freedom unlike any he's ever known, becoming the first person with a disability to experience a zero-g flight on this commercial airline.

Before taking off over the Atlantic Ocean, Hawking acknowledged that experiencing weightlessness even for a few seconds would be a welcome change from life in the wheelchair. "The chance to float free in zero-g will be wonderful," he said through his computer voice synthesizer during a pre-flight news conference. "I want to demonstrate to the public that anybody can participate in this type of weightless experience."….

Hawking, who was accompanied on his flight by physicians and nurses, announced the plans for this flight earlier this year at his 65th birthday celebration on January 8 in Cambridge, England. Beyond the fun of floating free, he is preparing for a sub-orbital spaceflight on Virgin Galactica, the "spaceline" offshoot of Virgin Airways, slated to begin launches in 2009. Virgin's founder, billionaire Richard Branson, said he will cover the $200,000 tab for the flight into space.

(link to full article)

It must have been one helluva experience for Hawking. I'd do it, if given the chance. To be completely non-weight bearing? Hell yeah I'd do it.

The article also describes the parabolic flight very well. It also has info on the company (Zero Gravity Corporation) that has made the civilian version of NASA's "Vomit Comet".

Linkage:

Stephen Hawking
Zero Gravity Corporation
NASA - Vomit Comet | Wikipedia article
Virgin's Galactic

No, not that moron, Shrub. There's no home there. But for Lonesome George, a Galapagos tortoise.

From BBC News:

Lone tortoise 'not last of kind'
By Paul Rincon
Science Reporter, BBC News

The giant Galapagos tortoise that became a conservation icon when it appeared he was the last of his kind is not so alone after all.

"Lonesome George" was thought to be the only survivor of a tortoise species native to the isle of Pinta.

Now, the journal Current Biology reports the discovery of a hybrid - the offspring from the union of a Pinta tortoise and another island species.

The "new" animal thus shares about half its genes in common with George.

Unfortunately for efforts to get George to reproduce, this hybrid tortoise, recently found on Isabela isle, is also a male.

Nonetheless, its discovery in a relatively small sample of tortoises raises fresh hope for the future of George's species (Geochelone abingdoni).

A more thorough sampling of the 2,000 tortoises living on Isabela could yet reveal a genetically pure Pinta tortoise, say the researchers….

Researchers took DNA samples from 89 of these animals and compared their genetic codes with those of other tortoises from the Galapagos that are held in a database.

The database includes DNA from six G. abingdoni specimens held in museums, and Lonesome George.

Genetic analysis revealed that one tortoise sampled on Isabela Island is clearly a first-generation hybrid between native tortoises from the islands of Isabela and Pinta.

"It's extraordinary. I, and everyone involved with George, always imagined that something like this could happen, but never thought it would," said Henry Nicholls, who has written a biography of the octogenarian tortoise called Lonesome George: The Life and Loves of a Conservation Icon.

"It is surprising to find a hybrid on Isabela. It raises questions about how it got there," he told the BBC News website.

(link to full article)

I'd like to read that book. Cool title.

Tomorrow, December 1st, is World AIDS Day (WAD). (Also on this date, in 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus.)

From the World AIDS Campaign website:

The theme for World AIDS Day 2006 is accountability.

The theme of accountability was developed by the World AIDS Campaign support team based on their ongoing work around World AIDS Day, and based on the outcomes of the London HIV and AIDS Campaigning and Advocacy meeting in February 2005. A number of lessons have been learnt from previous work on World AIDS Day, and far more energy is being invested early in the year to make World AIDS Day 2006 a success. The most significant aspect of this World AIDS Day is the degree to which it has been based around the inputs of a wide range of civil society partners.

link to WAD 2006 page

from a press release:

In 2000, heads of state made a promise to halt and begin to reverse the spread of AIDS by 2015.

New reports by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that, as of 2006, the epidemic continues to spread in every region of the world. By now more than 65 million people have been infected with HIV and well over 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981, 2.9 million in 2006 alone. At this rate, the WHO predicts that in the next 25 years another 117 million people will die, making AIDS the third leading cause of death worldwide.

The promise made in 2000 as part of the Millennium Development Goals has been followed by many other targets and commitments over the past six years.

With “accountability” the theme of this World AIDS Day on 1 December, campaigners across the globe are calling leaders to account not just for good intentions, but for action to make those promises a reality.

link to complete press release

Further links:
WAD Campaign events (USA events start on about "page 11")
World AIDS Day.org (UK)
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
Wikipedia: World AIDS Day | UNAIDS

41 yrs on this 3rd rock from the sun and I am still amazed at what I continue to learn.

From BBCNews Science/Nature:

Ancient Moon 'computer' revisited
By Jonathan Fildes
Science and technology reporter, BBC News

The delicate workings at the heart of a 2,000-year-old analogue computer have been revealed by scientists.

The Antikythera Mechanism, discovered more than 100 years ago in a Roman shipwreck, was used by ancient Greeks to display astronomical cycles.

Using advanced imaging techniques, an Anglo-Greek team probed the remaining fragments of the complex geared device.

The results, published in the journal Nature, show it could have been used to predict solar and lunar eclipses.

The elaborate arrangement of bronze gears may also have displayed planetary information.

"This is as important for technology as the Acropolis is for architecture," said Professor John Seiradakis of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, and one of the team. "It is a unique device."

However, not all experts agree with the team's interpretation of the mechanism.

full article

   
larger version of x-ray

Linkage:

Wikipedia: Antikythera mechanism
The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project

First, more bad news about the Mars Global Surveyor from the Planetary Society:

Mars Global Surveyor Update: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Fails to Spot Missing Spacecraft

By Emily Lakdawalla
November 21, 2006

As was reported here last week, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft has been missing in action since November 5, three days after the spacecraft first reported a problem with one of its solar panels. In a press conference held today at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, mission managers reported that their effort to locate Mars Global Surveyor using several cameras on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has not been successful. "Our preliminary analysis has not so far yielded any definitive sighting," stated JPL Mars Program Manager Fuk Li.

With this failure to sight the spacecraft, but more importantly with Mars Global Surveyor's continued silence, hope is now ebbing for its recovery, Li continued. "In the past two weeks we have sent up 800 command files. None have been successful. While we have not exhausted everything we could do, we believe that the prospect of recovery of MGS is not looking very good at all. However, MGS has been a good friend; it has had an illustrious career. We are holding out hope, but we are prepared in our hearts that we may never hear from the spacecraft again." Still, the recovery efforts aren't over. Li reported that they are still continuously using a 34-meter antenna at the Deep Space Network stations to send commands to and listen for signals from the missing spacecraft.

full article

related BBCNews article
NASA Press Release
***

Another post at WheelchairJunkie.com provided a link to a Technological Review article on a way cool concept that is becoming real.

Driving a Wheelchair with Your Shirt

Garments printed with flexible sensors could help people with severely limited mobility control assistive devices.

By Emily Singer

Adaptive, sensor-laden garments could provide a new way for quadriplegics to control their wheelchairs. The system, which is still in an early stage of development, identifies the ideal set of movements that can be employed as control commands for each individual user. "We think this will benefit the most difficult patients, such as those who can move only their head or shoulders," says Alon Fishbach, a scientist at Northwestern who is among those developing the device.

People with high-level spinal-cord injuries often lose control of their hands, but they may still be able to move their shoulders or chests. More and more such patients survive their injuries, thanks to respiratory devices that help them breathe. But these people have limited options when selecting devices to control their wheelchairs or computers. They might use a sip/puff switch, which converts the user's sip or puff of air into a specific command, or a headswitch, which records head movements via a switch on the back of the wheelchair. "But the disadvantage of these devices is that patients must fit the capacities of the machine, rather than the other way around," says Ferdinando Mussa-Ivaldi, another Northwestern scientist working on the device. "If a patient can move their right side more than their left, an intelligent interface could pick up on this." Mussa-Ivaldi directs the Robotics Laboratory of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, where the research took place.

full article