ScienceDaily News Release: Working On The 'Porsche Of Its Time': New Model For Species Determination Offered: "Novak investigated a Postosuchus specimen excavated from the Coelophysis Quarry of Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, a famous locality teeming with dinosaur fossils (mainly Coelophysis bauri) as a result of a mass death. While comparing the Ghost Ranch specimen with the two specimens of Postosuchus kirkpatricki from Texas, she noticed some differences in the bones. Not sure whether these differences were numerous enough or skeletally important enough to make the Ghost Ranch Postosuchus a new species, she decided to do a little more research before making a final decision.
Because the Rauisuchian fossil record is generally sparse, Novak instead dove into the dinosaurian fossil record in attempts to quantify the amount of skeletal difference historically regarded as valid to erect a new species within the same genera. She analyzed 28 genera containing 68 species from both the saurischian (lizard-hipped) and ornithischian (bird-hipped) orders. Using the fact that the skeleton of a dinosaur generally contains approximately 338 different bones, she catalogued the number of differences as well as where the differences were found on the skeleton. Calculations indicated that, on average, two species of dinosaur that are members of the same genera varied from each other by just 2.2 percent. Translation of the percentage into an actual number results in an average of just three skeletal differences out of the total 338 bones in the body. Amazingly, 58 percent of these differences occurred in the skull alone.
'This is a lot less variation than I'd expected,' said Novak, whose advisor is Josh Smith, Ph.D., Washington University assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences. 'As a concept, this is not statistically perfect. But I think it's something taxonomists can consider if they are in doubt over classifying something. It's a kind of benchmark with historical validity.'"
Tuesday, January 06, 2004
ScienceDaily News Release: Working On The 'Porsche Of Its Time': New Model For Species Determination Offered
ScienceDaily News Release: Plasma Combustion Technology Could Dramatically Improve Fuel Efficiency
ScienceDaily News Release: Plasma Combustion Technology Could Dramatically Improve Fuel Efficiency: "Kerosene, propane, gasoline and diesel fuel are all hydrocarbons, all made up of the same basic chemical constituents but separated by the size of their individual molecules. The more efficient fuels, and therefore more highly refined and expensive kerosene and propane, consist of fairly small chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms, whereas the less efficient and cheaper fuels, gasoline and diesel, are made of long chains of molecules. According to Coates, when electrodes attached at the spray nozzle of a fuel injector apply enough voltage to the fuel, energetic plasma electrons from voltage-induced breakdown of the fuel cause reactive species to be created, changing the basic chemical composition as the fuel becomes a plasma."
Monday, January 05, 2004
Sunday, January 04, 2004
HoustonChronicle.com - First photos arrive from Mars
HoustonChronicle.com - First photos arrive from Mars: "'We got lucky. We landed in the sweet spot,' said Steve Squyres, the Cornell University astronomer who leads Spirit's science team. 'We see enough rocks to do great science, but not so many they will get in the way. We are going to be able to really motor around the place.'
Scientists expected Spirit to transmit its first color images late today."
HoustonChronicle.com - Hundreds see fireballs fall from sky in Spain
HoustonChronicle.com - Hundreds see fireballs fall from sky in Spain: "'I left the house at around 12 minutes to six. I heard a big explosion, like an earth tremor, and a white cloud of smoke formed around a nearby mountain which took a long time to disappear,' a local official from the northern region of Palencia told the radio."
Quarantining dissent / How the Secret Service protects Bush from free speech
Quarantining dissent / How the Secret Service protects Bush from free speech: "When Bush went to the Pittsburgh area on Labor Day 2002, 65-year-old retired steel worker Bill Neel was there to greet him with a sign proclaiming, 'The Bush family must surely love the poor, they made so many of us.'
The local police, at the Secret Service's behest, set up a 'designated free-speech zone' on a baseball field surrounded by a chain-link fence a third of a mile from the location of Bush's speech.
The police cleared the path of the motorcade of all critical signs, but folks with pro-Bush signs were permitted to line the president's path. Neel refused to go to the designated area and was arrested for disorderly conduct; the police also confiscated his sign.
Neel later commented, 'As far as I'm concerned, the whole country is a free-speech zone. If the Bush administration has its way, anyone who criticizes them will be out of sight and out of mind.'
At Neel's trial, police Detective John Ianachione testified that the Secret Service told local police to confine 'people that were there making a statement pretty much against the president and his views' in a so-called free- speech area.
Paul Wolf, one of the top officials in the Allegheny County Police Department, told Salon that the Secret Service 'come in and do a site survey, and say, 'Here's a place where the people can be, and we'd like to have any protesters put in a place that is able to be secured.' '
Pennsylvania District Judge Shirley Rowe Trkula threw out the disorderly conduct charge against Neel, declaring, 'I believe this is America. Whatever happened to 'I don't agree with you, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it'?'
Similar suppressions have occurred during Bush visits to Florida. A recent St. Petersburg Times editorial noted, 'At a Bush rally at Legends Field in 2001, three demonstrators -- two of whom were grandmothers -- were arrested for holding up small handwritten protest signs outside the designated zone. And last year, seven protesters were arrested when Bush came to a rally at the USF Sun Dome. They had refused to be cordoned off into a protest zone hundreds of yards from the entrance to the Dome.'"
Spirit's First Light :: Astrobiology Magazine :: Search for Life in the Universe
Spirit's First Light :: Astrobiology Magazine :: Search for Life in the Universe: "First images show spectacular camera views from nearly a quarter billion miles away, on the surface of Mars. The rover, Spirit, landed 'petal-down' meaning images could be uplinked within hours of landing--a fortuitous one-in-four chance of happening. The geology of this ancient lake bed presents geologists with a multitude of sampling opportunities, as the rover makes its way in nine days to a distance of up to a 100 meters per day. "
Welcome to TechBuilder.org
Welcome to TechBuilder.org: "The good news is that you don't need to be a music specialist to build music systems. From the system-builder's perspective, a Digital Audio Workstation has a lot in common with other data-intensive applications, such as file servers and video-editing systems. In fact, with just a little knowledge of current state-of-the-art audio interfaces and software, a knowledgeable system builder can assemble a Digital Audio Workstation with readily available, off-the-shelf components. The system will work reliably and produce great results."
Saturday, January 03, 2004
Technology Tuesday 12/16/03
In the past few years, the technology to manufacture a wearable HUD has dropped significantly in price--so much, in fact, that Seattle-based Motion Research has been able to develop the low-cost SportVue, a lightweight visor-mounted display unit that gets its data from a GPS "pod" mounted on the back of the helmet. The system adds less than 6 ounces to a helmet and won't weigh you down with a second mortgage, or two.
The SportVue display and the GPS unit communicate via a custom RF link, eliminating the need to run wires between the two. That means easier, cleaner installation. The display unit attaches to the helmet using a Snell-approved "break away" clip, while the GPS transceiver pod is bonded to the helmet.
Once installed, the display projects real-time data into the rider's field of vision. The data appears at a distance so refocusing your eyes is not an issue, allowing your attention to stay on the road. Real-time information such as speed and distance are continually updated.
Motion Research plans to make a bicycle-helmet version available sometime after the initial rollout of the motorcycle model. That system will display the rider's speed, distance traveled and heart rate, all for an estimated price of $150 to $199.
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Friday, January 02, 2004
Masquerade
Masquerade: "Masquerade is a full-featured Integrated Development Environment (IDE) on the BeOS/Zeta platform, for the C/C programming language, but with support for language add-ons. It uses GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) as it's compiler.
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Reuters | Breaking News from Around the Globe
Reuters | Breaking News from Around the Globe: "They trampled on the holy Koran, beat up some of the worshippers and stole computers and a donations box,' he said. Others claimed that a page was torn from the Koran.
Protesters screamed and cried, chanting: 'God is great' and 'America is the enemy of God'.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, a U.S. military spokesman, said U.S. troops had conducted the operation after a tip off from Iraqis and netted a wide array of weaponry to be used against occupying forces facing a relentless insurgency.
'Over recent months, the U.S. 1st Armored Division has received numerous reports from Iraqis that the al-Tabool mosque was being used for criminal and terrorist activities,' Kimmitt told a news conference on Friday.
'U.S. forces, led by the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and the Iraqi police therefore conducted a cordon and search.'
He said troops had found several sticks of high explosives, hand grenades, AK-47 rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
'There is clear evidence from what we seized that this mosque was being used for things other than free religious expression,' Kimmitt said."
Astronomy
Astronomy: "Astronomy's New Grail: The $1 Billion Telescope
By DENNIS OVERBYE
Published: December 30, 2003"
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Astronomy
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Firm releases MPEG-4 digital recording software
Firm releases MPEG-4 digital recording software: "A US FIRM, PC DTV Technologies, has claimed a first by releasing HDTV MPEG-4 digital recording software for Windows multimedia PCs.
It said that it is shipping a beta public version of its Countdown HD software today.
The software, it claims, will give users of hardware decoded HDTV tuner boards to record two hours of HDTV to one 4.7GB DVD disk using the MPEG-4 compression format.
The software includes a digital video transcoder that will convert between MPEG-2 and MPEG4, direct transcoding burning to DVD-R/W, DVD R/W, DVD RAM or CD-R/W drives, and direct transcoding to PC hard drives.
The software includes a DiVX Pro 5.1.1 Codec, support for Windows Media 9, Xvid/Koepis COdec support, background trancoding, and crpping and resizing of videos.
The firm doesn't say when the full version is available, but is charging $150 for the public beta, which it said will be available today. µ"
• Key Players in the Plame Affair