Gaming Evolution

The clip was produced for a presentation made by game developer David Perry at the TED Conference in Marin County.

Are You Staring At Me ?

"Two Swiss scientists said they had been able to identify a part of the brain that may be responsible for the "out-of-body" experiences of patients who came close to death.

Electrical stimulation of a key area of the brain near the temple upset the mind's perception of the body..

The brain generates an image of the body in the mind. But this is an external image as if the body were projected under, facing or behind the person. "In the first two instances, the patients still recognises their own image; in the latter, however, they sense another, sombre and menacing, presence."

I hate it when that happens.

ITER - Sign me Up.

"The EU and six nations have signed a treaty launching a multibillion-dollar experimental nuclear fusion research project, aimed at emulating the power of the sun to provide limitless, clean energy.

The facility is to be built in Cadarache, in southern France, over a decade starting 2008.

The release of energy from a fusion reaction is 10 million times greater than from a typical chemical reaction, such as burning a fossil fuel.

'.......we will be able to derive as much energy from a litre of seawater as from a litre of petrol or a kilo of coal.'"

Pentagon launches Operation "Hands Around The Oceans".

100mw Sino Solar

"China, seeking to ease its dependence on coal to fuel its booming economy, said on Tuesday it will build the world's largest solar power station in the poor but sunny northwestern province of Gansu.

China has also stepped up investment in energy projects abroad and nuclear power."

Shine on.

Forking Futures

"As part of their 50th anniversary celebrations NewScientist asked over 70 of the world's most brilliant scientists:

What will be the biggest breakthrough of the next 50 years?"

Navigate by Author or topic.

One things for sure, the future ain't what it used to be.

Really Smart Weapons

" Israel is using nanotechnology to try to create a robot no bigger than a hornet that would be able to chase, photograph and kill its targets.

It is one of several weapons being developed by scientists to combat militants. Others include super gloves that would give the user the strength of a "bionic man" and miniature sensors to detect suicide bombers.

It's illogical to send a plane worth $100 million against a suicidal terrorist. So we are building futuristic weapons."

It is also very much fun and at the end of the day that is what we are all about.

Grow your Own

"Scientists for the first time have grown human heart valves using stem cells from the fluid that cushions babies in the womb..

The Swiss experiment follows recent successes at growing bladders and blood vessels and suggests that people may one day be able to grow their own replacement heart parts — in some cases, even before they're even born."

Is there anything amniotic fluid can't do ?

Liquid Armor

Thin, flexible and only slightly heavier than kevlar.

Your soft underbelly thanks you.

Growing Smarter

"Researchers have found a way to spur the growth of neural stem cells in the brains of adult mice with an eye toward harnessing the brain's innate capacity for repair.."

Make mine a double.

Sim You

"Social policy makers and town planners will soon be able to play 'SimCity' for real using grid computing and e-Science techniques to test the consequences of their policies on a real, but anonymous, model of the UK population.

They are using data recorded at the 2001 census to build a model of the whole UK population.

The model can be projected into the future to explore the effect of different demographic trends and also to test the consequences of policy decisions."

Don't even think about rioting.

Dude, I think that Sub's following us !

"Defense officials said the Song-class diesel-powered attack submarine tailed the USS Kitty Hawk undetected, surfacing within five miles of the aircraft carrier -(within range of its missiles and torpedoes)- Oct. 26 before being spotted during surveillance flights.

Don't mind us, just go about your business.

Next up, the popular bump and run that worked so well with the AWACS back in '01.

Prequalify your Embryo

"The test, called pre-implantation genetic haplotyping, looks for a genetic 'fingerprint' of a condition, such as CF, sickle cell disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Huntington's disease and spinal muscular atrophy.

It looks at the whole DNA of a cell from an embryo, rather than focusing on a specific mutation in one gene, making it quicker to spot diseases. The researchers also look at genetic clues for the disease in the mother and father. If a certain number are present, it suggests the embryo is affected."

Talking back to Elders gene marker rumored to be next.

Ye Olde Google Earth

"Google offering historical maps on Google Earth.

Includes : World Globe 1790, North America 1733, United States 1833, Lewis and Clark 1814, New York 1836, San Francisco 1853, South America 1787, Buenos Aires 1892, Asia 1710, Tokyo 1680, Middle East 1861, England, Wales 1790, London 1843, Paris 1716, Africa 1787, Australia Southeast 1844

In the olden days, they didn't even know where their nearest Milky Way neighbors were......No Way....Way.

US/Auzzy Hypersonic Cooperation

"Australia's Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and the United States Air Force have signed an agreement to advance research into hypersonic (Mach 5 or higher) flight.

The HIFiRE project will see up to 10 hypersonic flight experiments conducted over the next 5 years at Woomera in South Australia."

The Outback mate...a bloody good place for lobbing very fast things around.

Iran Cops a Peek - Allegedly

"Iran's Arabic language television station broadcast footage it claimed showed a US aircraft carrier cruising in Gulf waters it said was taken by an unmanned Iranian drone.

The brief minute-long film, which comes near the end of Iran's latest 10-day war games, "Great Prophet II", showed wobbly aerial footage of an aircraft carrier stacked with war planes as it sailed."

Unnamed US sailor quoted as saying drone was towing banner with text, "Seaman Stains, Marry Me, Me Love you Long Time".

Fate of Rumsfeld's Vision

"Rumsfeld envisioned a military powered by information that relied on technology to deliver more effective, more dominant, and more connected armed forces.

He set out to restructure global basing posture and succeeded. He enlarged special operations.

We have a strong precision-strike capability now.

But...the fate of many of Rumsfeld's reforms may now be determined by his two least successful challenges.....: finding Al Qaeda's leaders and the war in Iraq.

At least until the next major stand up fight.

Wiki Self Correction 2 - Cocky Academic Critic 0

" Halavais hypothesized that the obscure errors would "languish online for some time. Instead the Wikipedia volunteers eliminated all the fabrications within three hours of being posted.

And the volunteer checkers even admonished Halavais for making stuff up."

And he didn't even post about religion or politics....Behold the jealous, protective power of the WikiMind.

Gordon Moore on Gordon Moore

"In terms of size [of transistor] you can see that we're approaching the size of atoms which is a fundamental barrier, but it'll be two or three generations before we get that far - but that's as far out as we've ever been able to see.

We have another 10 to 20 years before we reach a fundamental limit.

By then they'll be able to make bigger chips and have transistor budgets in the billions."

Media to start proposing new 'Laws' exponentially in 3, 2 1 ...

Hubble to be even Hubbleyer

"The terrific thing about NASA chief Michael Griffin’s decision to launch a Hubble servicing mission—the telescope’s fifth since 1990—isn’t simply that the spacecraft will be able to limp along for another four years.

After astronauts visit Hubble on this latest mission (set to launch no earlier than May 2008), the telescope will be more powerful than it has ever been, thanks to some incredible new instruments being tested now.

If all goes well, the servicing mission should keep the new, improved Hubble working until 2013, when its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is set to launch."

You get all this (and more) for the price of 2 days military ops in Iraq.

Flat Flexible Light Emitting Capacitors

.."capacitor has a layer of phosphorescent gel coating the top of the dielectric substance. So, when the current passes from the front electrode to the rear electrode, the capacitor emits light.

...pretty much superior to any other light source in every possible way.

Except cost."