So where's the Ctrl+Alt+Del?

An enzyme computer that can perform calculations has been made by researchers in Israel. They say that it can be someday used inside the human body for various computational tasks.

from the New Scientist article:

The team built their computer using two enzymes - glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) - to trigger two interconnected chemical reactions. Two chemical components - hydrogen peroxide and glucose - were used to represent input values (A and B). The presence of each chemical corresponded to a binary 1, while the absence represented a binary 0. The chemical result of the enzyme-powered reaction was determined optically.

Quantum Computers=Headache

I'm not that big into quantum physics. I don't even have the brain for algebra. Though I do love hearing about some of the things that quantum physics brings out...it sounds like computers designed by Terrence McKenna.

from the New Scientist article:

With the right set-up, the theory suggested, the computer would sometimes get an answer out of the computer even though the program did not run. And now researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have improved on the original design and built a non-running quantum computer that really works.

If you can't wait for a natural epidemic....

Because I have a sick sense of humour, I'm following that 'mankind is at the mercy of malicious microbes', I would just like to post a link to Biowar for Dummies.

I guess we could tell Mother Nature "thank you very much, but we can do this ourselves."

World-wide Wrath of the Pathogens

I try to have some kind of wittiness at hand for articles like this, but in the face of exotic ecumenical epidemics cutting swathes out of humanity like G.I. Joes in front of a Wheat Thresher, I just shut up.

From the BBC article:

"This accumulation of new pathogens has been going on for millennia - this is how we acquired TB, malaria, smallpox," said Professor Mark Woolhouse, an epidemiologist at the University Of Edinburgh, UK.

"But at the moment, this accumulation does seem to be happening very fast.

"So it seems there is something special about modern times - these are good times for pathogens to be invading the human population."

Professor Woolhouse has catalogued more than 1,400 different agents of disease in humans; and every year, scientists are discovering one or two new ones.

(bbc article)

Shouldn't they be on the look out for terrorists, or something?

Montgomery Homeland Security officers went into a Little Falls library in Bethesda, and declared that it is forbidden to look at Internet Pornography.

This little bit of fascism ended with the Homeland Security officers leaving in frustration, and patrons still free to look at porn if they please.

It's nice to see that a $3.6 million budget is being well spent on porn-watch. If not, the terrorists will have won.

(washington post article)

Looks like Spiderman

Under normal conditions the molecules within the material are weakly bound and can move past each with ease, making the material flexible. But the shock of sudden deformation causes the chemical bonds to strengthen and the moving molecules to lock, turning the material into a more solid, protective shield.

(new scientist article)

You can't fill the hole in your life with stuff, apparently

"Consumer culture is continually bombarding us with the message that materialism will make us happy," said Tim Kasser, a psychology professor at Knox College in Illinois who has led some of the recent work. "What this research shows is that that's not true."

(intl' herald trib article)

Six Legged Cyborg Slime hides in the dark

Physarum polycephalum is a large single-celled organism that responds to food sources, such as bacteria and fungi, by moving towards and engulfing it. It also moves away from light and favours humid, moist places to inhabit. The mould uses a network of tiny tubes filled with cytoplasm to both sense its environment and decide how to respond to it. Zauner's team decided to harness this simple control mechanism to direct a small six-legged (hexapod) walking bot.

(new scientist article)

Homeland Security setting up Internment Camps, yours truly looks into Canadian passport

So Homeland Security is building 'temporary' detention centers in America, now. Now, I'm not a man prone to paranoia and dread, but I am thinking up escape routes.

The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs. The contingency support contract provides for planning and, if required, initiation of specific engineering, construction and logistics support tasks to establish, operate and maintain one or more expansion facilities.

(robwire article)

Olbermann burns O'Reilly

I'm aware that it's kind of a bandwagon now, to give O'Reilly flack for being a bullying hypocrite the likes of which haven't been seen since elementary school playgrounds in Germany had the Nazi Youth for bullies, but still: Olbermann verbally tears O'Reilly a brand new one in such a way that I literally said "Ooooh, burn!"

So watch. Get a kick out of it. A point by point analytical takedown is beautiful at times. It's a very fun bandwagon, I have to say.

(one good move quicktime movie)