HUGE APOLOGIES TO EVERYONE I HAVE JUST BEEN INFORMED THAT MY RSS FEED READERS ARE EXPERIENCING WHAT IS AN APPARENT HACK TO MY FEED INVOLVING A BUNCH OF STUPID LINKS AFTER EACH POST.

I WILL TAKE CARE OF THIS IN THE MOST QUICK AMOUNT OF TIME POSSIBLE!!!!!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE WHILE I DO MY BEST TO REMEDY THE SITUATION!!!

THANK YOU FRED FOR LETTING ME KNOW ABOUT THE PROBLEM! HE SAID IT HAPPENS ON GOOGLE AND YAHOO RSS READERS….WHAT ABOUT OTHERS??? PLEASE EMAIL ME AND LET ME KNOW

bloggingthesingularity@gmail.com

MIT associate professor Josh Tenenbaum and his former student, Charles Kemp, have developed a computer algorithm that can select the best type of structure to fit a set of data. Such structures, shown here, include linear order, rings and clusters. (Credit: Image courtesy of Charles Kemp)

ScienceDaily (Aug. 28, 2008) — Humans have a natural tendency to find order in sets of information, a skill that has proven difficult to replicate in computers. Faced with a large set of data, computers don’t know where to begin — unless they’re programmed to look for a specific structure, such as a hierarchy, linear order, or a set of clusters.

Now, in an advance that may impact the field of artificial intelligence, a new model developed at MIT can help computers recognize patterns the same way that humans do. The model, reported earlier this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, can analyze a set of data and figure out which type of organizational structure best fits it.

“Instead of looking for a particular kind of structure, we came up with a broader algorithm that is able to look for all of these structures and weigh them against each other,” said Josh Tenenbaum, an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT and senior author of the paper. more>>>

28/08/2008 11:34 – (SA)

Washington – Space telescopes have captured images of a mammoth collision between two galaxy clusters that have shed some light into the universe’s mysterious dark matter, Nasa said.

The images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory show a clear separation between dark and ordinary matter during the clash 5.7 billion light years from Earth, the US space agency said on Wednesday.

The astronomers were able to differentiate between the two substances with a technique known as gravitational lensing in which dark matter appears in blue in the image while ordinary matter, which is mostly in the form of hot gas, looks pink.

As the two clusters merged at speeds of millions of miles per hour, the hot gas in each cluster collided and slowed down, the astronomers said. The dark matter, however, did not. more>>>

8/28/08

(PhysOrg.com) — In the future of immersive entertainment, people may not only walk through floating 3D images, but also manipulate the images in thin air. Taking a step toward this reality, researchers have built a prototype of a room-sized 3D immaterial display, demonstrating the possibility of using the technology for a variety of entertainment purposes.

In recent years, 2D FogScreens have gained popularity at entertainment venues. Desktop-sized and handheld DFD displays also exist, although users are restricted to a single viewpoint. In a room-size DFD display, users could stand anywhere, and wouldn’t need to wear 3D glasses, to view 3D images.

“The biggest advantage to DFD rendering lies in the fact that observers do not have to wear encumbering glasses to view the 3D scene,” Lee told PhysOrg.com. “Although traditional auto-stereo displays and volumetric displays also exhibit this quality, their inherent technology limits their usability. Autostereo displays allow for a limited number of views, and volumetric displays are usually enclosed within some space which users cannot or should not interact with. DFD displays allow for many views and interaction as long as a user is reliably tracked.” more>>>

Dr Manfred Buck and his team at the University of St Andrews have accomplished one of the big quests in nanotechnology, opening up an exciting new development in tiny technology.

The St Andrews researchers have developed a way of forming an easily modified network of molecules over a large area – the chemical technique provides an advantageous alternative to traditional methods which become increasingly cumbersome at the ultrasmall length scale.

The key to the development lies in the creation of robust and versatile surface – self-assembling structures just one molecule thick which can be exploited for further control and manipulation of nanostructures.

What we have done is successfully combined two strategies which are complementary but, so far, have been explored independently, and it is this combination which opens up unprecedented opportunities for accessing the ultrasmall length scale.”

“The potential of this approach lies in its flexibility on a scale, about 1/10000 of the diameter of a human hair. Using molecules as building units, the features of our structures are less than 5 nanometres in size, which enables us to control structures and materials at dimensions where new properties emerge.” more>>>

INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, San Francisco, Aug. 21, 2008 – Intel Corporation’s chief technology officer took a fascinating look at how technology will bring man and machine much closer together by 2050.

Justin Rattner, during his keynote today at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, predicted big changes are ahead in social interactions, robotics and improvements in computer’s ability to sense the real world. He said Intel’s research labs are already looking at human-machine interfaces and examining future implications to computing with some promising changes coming much sooner than expected.

“The industry has taken much greater strides than anyone ever imagined 40 years ago,” Rattner said. “There is speculation that we may be approaching an inflection point where the rate of technology advancements is accelerating at an exponential rate, and machines could even overtake humans in their ability to reason, in the not so distant future.”

“Albert Einstein said, ‘The most powerful force in the world is compounding’”

Exponential technological change is a compounding action.

Listen to the Comptroller General of the US, not POLITICIANS. He’s waaaaay better at math than them!

Except Ron Paul, who has been warning us about it all along. He’s the only sensible person to vote for. I’m going to write him in out of moral necessity.

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a money aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. This issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of the moneyed corporations which already dare to challenge our Government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country”
– Thomas Jefferson

Published: 07:52 EST, August 20, 2008

Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Wednesday that it had developed a new way of predicting from a person’s DNA their response to medication and risk of developing disease.

Matsushita, which is best known for its Panasonic brand, said it had developed a technology to electronically identify sequence variations in DNA, called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs.

It described the technology as a “world-first” that uses artificial DNA dissolved in a solution instead of being attached to an electrode.

“This technology makes it possible to predict individuals’ responses to drugs and their risk of developing disease,” said the company, which collaborated with Konan University on the project.

“In the future, this technology is expected to enable hospitals or clinics to provide patients with treatments and drugs tailored to their individual physical characteristics,” it said.

Published: 19 hours ago, 04:59 EST, August 21, 2008

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) isn’t just for capturing detailed images of the body’s anatomy. Thanks to novel imaging reagents and technology developed by Carnegie Mellon University scientist Eric Ahrens, MRI can be used to visualize — with “exquisite” specificity — cell populations of interest in the living body. The ability to non-invasively locate and track cells, such as immune cells, will greatly aid the study and treatment of cancer, inflammation, and autoimmune diseases, as well as provide a tool for advancing clinical translation of the emerging field of cellular regenerative medicine, by tracking stem cells for example. more>>>

By Jad Marrouche
Last Updated: 7:01pm BST 21/08/2008

Scientists are pushing ahead with powering up the machine, shrugging off speculative fears that it could destroy all life on Earth by sucking it into a black hole.

Starting up the biggest scientific experiment ever built is not as simple as flipping a switch.

Earlier this month, the successful injection of the first particles – protons – into part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment at CERN, the European Centre for Nuclear Research, took place.

This weekend, scientists are hoping to complete testing of another part of the machine, which sits in a 17 mile circular tunnel approximately 100 metres underneath the Franco-Swiss border, with the aim of seeing particles travel the whole way around for the first time. more>>>

By Mark Rasch, SecurityFocus → More by this author
Published Wednesday 20th August 2008 12:03 GMT

When the new iPhone 3G went on sale last week, I was sorely tempted to wait in line for one. (I didn’t – no patience.)

One of the features of Apple’s device that appeals to me is the new MobileMe service, where you can “access and manage your email, contacts, calendar, photos, and files at me.com,” according to Apple. More companies, among them Microsoft and Google, already allow people to store information and use common services online – or “in the cloud” – leading analysts to refer to the entire trend as “cloud computing”.

This iteration of “cloud computing” puts your personal data on an accessible server held by a third party, which you replicate on multiple machines and access from virtually anywhere. Putting aside the security, data storage, data retention, data destruction and other pesky issues associated with doing business in the cloud, one fundamental issue remains: Your data is being hosted, stored and transmitted through a third party. As far as the law is concerned then, that third party has control of your data and may therefore be subject to a subpoena for your data, often without your knowledge or ability to object. more>>>

Thu Aug 21, 5:31 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Intel on Thursday showed off a wireless electric power system that analysts say could revolutionize modern life by freeing devices from transformers and wall outlets.

Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner demonstrated a Wireless Energy Resonant Link as he spoke at the California firm’s annual developers forum in San Francisco.

Electricity was sent wirelessly to a lamp on stage, lighting a 60 watt bulb that uses more power than a typical laptop computer.

Most importantly, the electricity was transmitted without zapping anything or anyone that got between the sending and receiving units.

“The trick with wireless power is not can you do it; it’s can you do it safely and efficiently,” Intel researcher Josh Smith said in an online video explaining the breakthrough.

“It turns out the human body is not affected by magnetic fields; it is affected by elective fields. So what we are doing is transmitting energy using the magnetic field not the electric field.” more>>>

VERY interesting.

By Jeremy Hsu
Staff Writer
posted: 20 August 2008
06:55 am ET

The confirmation of Martian water ice by the Phoenix Mars Lander may hint at the planet’s potential for supporting life — or at least human life.

NASA scientists have quietly developed technologies such as microwave beams for future explorers to extract water from the moon or Mars, even as the Phoenix team focuses on finding out more about the Martian climate and history of water.

“If there is an outpost, there’s a need for water, and we don’t want to bring water from Earth,” said Edwin Ethridge, a materials scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Water could provide more than just an extraterrestrial drink: the right equipment could break down water for oxygen and even fuel for a human mission. That could lighten the load and cost of any future mission heading for the moon or Mars. more>>>

Some sobering news from a recent rocket science conference: It is highly improbable that humans will ever explore beyond the Solar System. This downbeat opinion comes from the Joint Propulsion Conference in Hartford, Connecticut, where future space propulsion challenges were discussed and debated. It is widely acknowledged that any form of interstellar travel would require huge advances in technology, but it would seem that the advances required are in the realms of science fiction and are not feasible. Using current technology would take tens of thousands of years, and even advanced concepts could take hundreds. But above all else, there is the question of fuel: How could a trip to Proxima Centauri be achieved if we’d need 100 times more energy than the entire planet currently generates?