Thursday, September 30, 2010

There Is No Plan B, the Ugly Transition To IPv6

Slashdot
An anonymous reader writes "The Internet is running out of IPv4 addresses--not at some point in the future, but right now. But the only solution to the problem, IPv6, is just now really starting to be deployed. That's why we're all in for some tough times ahead."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Obama Highlights IPv6 Issue

Slashdot
alphadogg writes "The Obama Administration bills itself as the most tech-savvy political team ever, but until now it has ignored one of the biggest issues facing the Internet: the rapid depletion of IPv4 Internet addresses and the imminent need for carriers and content providers to adopt IPv6. Today, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will host a workshop on IPv6 that features high-profile executives from government, industry and Internet policymaking organizations. Some observers are hoping the Obama Administration will use the workshop to issue a deadline for all federal agencies to support IPv6 on their public-facing Web sites."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Saturday, September 25, 2010

Pure Michigan: U of M Football #GoBucks

Check out this video on YouTube:

Thanks to Dave and Kim for emailing this beauty to me :)

Posted via email from Tony Burkhart

Emergency Bra: Unsnap, separate cups, inhale... | Health Tech - CNET News

Remember that bra we wrote about last year that lifted more than just our spirits when it won the 2009 Ig Nobel Public Health Prize?

Emergency Bra (Credit: Ebbra.com)

Well, creator Dr. Elena Bodnar--whose inspiration comes in part from having witnessed as a young physician the devastating effects of the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in 1986--is introducing the now commercially available Emergency Bra at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Mass., on September 28. She hopes we can all "get a feel of [sic] the product," as she has grown fond of saying.

The bra is, of course, meant to be taken off, something most adults presumably have experience with. Once removed, it separates into two masks which, when placed over the nose and mouth, filter out particles that were found to be as harmful as radiation in Chernobyl.

There is also some noise of a "counterpart device for men" in the works, though the precise shape it will take has yet to be revealed. The emergency bra may work well for women, but attaining the second of the two resulting masks does require men who are not cross-dressing to beg and plead in the event of a disaster.

As Bodnar explained in her alluring Ukrainian accent when accepting the award:

Ladies and gentlemen, isn't that wonderful that women have two breasts, not just one? We can save not only our own life, but also the life of a man of our choice next to us.

Now, a year later, what was once a bizarre and intriguing idea has turned into an actual bra that can be purchased online for $29.99. Ladies, it's a sexy red and comes in a wide range of sizes, from 32B to 40C. Gentlemen, Bodnar assures us that in the event of an emergency, the size of the cup does not matter.

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Thursday, September 23, 2010

BBC News - Chernobyl plant life endures radioactivity

20 September 2010 Last updated at 19:19 ET

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Chernobyl plant life endures radioactivity

By Katia Moskvitch Science reporter, BBC News
Pripyat The city of Pripyat has been abandoned and dubbed a "dead city"

Scientists have uncovered mechanisms that allow plants to thrive in highly radioactive environments like Chernobyl.

They analysed seeds from soybean and flax grown near the site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor which exploded in 1986.

Continue reading the main story

Start Quote

It is just unbelievable how quickly this ecosystem has been able to adapt”

End Quote Martin Hajduch Slovak Academy of Sciences

The team says that plants may have an innate ability to cope with radioactivity.

The study appears in the Environmental Science and Technology journal.

One of the researchers speculates that such mechanisms could trace back millions of years, when early life forms were exposed to higher levels of natural radiation.

'Worst' accident

If a disaster strikes, plants cannot move to better conditions - they either adapt, or die.

When, on 26 April, 1986, one of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, the accident was said to be the worst nuclear disaster in human history.

Scores of people died, hundreds became ill with acute radiation sickness.

The entire population of the industrial city of Pripyat that housed the power plant's workforce was evacuated.

Many believed that the area would remain lifeless for generations.

Almost a quarter of a century later, Pripyat remains a ghost town. But despite deserted streets, the soil is not bare - plants have sprung back to life.

Plants 'thriving'

The way Pripyat's ecosystem seemed to shrug off the contamination caught the attention of the scientific world and in 2005, the UN even published a report about the phenomenon.

Then, in 2007, a group of researchers wearing masks, goggles and gloves decided to investigate just how the plants were able to survive.

Soybean plant Soybean plant appears to thrive in contaminated soil

They went into the restricted area and planted soybean and flax seeds on a highly contaminated field just a few kilometres from the site of the accident, in the environs of Pripyat.

Then they sowed the same kind of seeds on a control field in the decontaminated region near the city of Chernobyl.

One of the researchers, Martin Hajduch from the Slovak Academy of Sciences, told BBC News that even though previous studies had analysed how genes mutated because of radioactivity, his team wanted to do something different.

They wanted to investigate the molecular mechanisms allowing plants to adapt to such a contaminated environment.

To do that, they waited for the plants to grow and produce new seeds and then examined their proteins.

"We decided to apply a... methodology called 'proteomics' that is capable of identifying hundreds of proteins," said Dr Hajduch.

He explained that proteomics was a study of proteins - vital parts of all living organisms. The word "proteome" is actually a blend of "protein" and "genome" and describes the entire complement of proteins produced by an organism's genes.

"Proteins are fingerprints of metabolic activities. And as we're comparing the proteins from seeds harvested from these two fields, we're seeing the same ones in both kinds of seeds."

Historic reasons

He said that even though both soybean and flax adapted equally well to the contaminated environment, they did it in slightly different ways.

"In soybean, we detected the mobilisation of seed storage proteins and processes similar to what we see when plants adapt [to high levels of] heavy metals," he explained.

"In flax it was different. We saw more proteins involved in cell signaling, for instance."

Chernobyl Scientists had to wear masks, goggles and gloves to work in the area

The scientist noted that there were probably historic reasons why it was a lot easier for plants to get used to living in increased levels of radiation.

"It is just unbelievable how quickly this ecosystem has been able to adapt," he said.

"[There must be] some kind of mechanism that plants already have inside them. Radioactivity has always been present here on Earth, from the very early stages of our planet's formation.

"There was a lot more radioactivity on the surface back then than there is now, so probably when life was evolving, these plants came across radioactivity and they probably developed some mechanism that is now in them."

Posted via email from Tony Burkhart

Monday, September 20, 2010

BP Permanently Seals Gulf Oil Well

Slashdot
rexjoec writes "BP has finally plugged the Macondo well. This announcement came yesterday after $9.5 billion (through September 17) in expenditures and five months of continuous effort." From the LA Times: "Of the estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil that gushed from the well, 25% was burned, skimmed or piped to tanker ships. A second 25% has evaporated or dissolved, according to government estimates. Another 25%, classified by the government as 'residual oil,' consisted of light sheens on the water, thick goo on the shore and tar balls. The tar balls, though not harmful to humans, are likely to wash up on shore for some time."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Daft Punk table with iPod dock

Hack a Day

This beautifully crafted Daft Punk table with iPod dock was built by [Dustin Evans]. The table itself was built with the help of a friend in one day with electronics added a bit later. It features an 8×8 grid of boxes with red LEDs mounted inside. The picture above is not quite the finished product, a diffuser will be added later to augment the scattering of light already provided by cutting the tip off of each LED. On the underside you’ll find a power supply and a set of speakers. The system is controlled by an Arduino which resides in the same drawer as the dock. See the final product in the clip after the break.

[via HackedGadgets]


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Friday, September 17, 2010

The Social Network score: Free sampler EP + preorder #NIN

NIN

Trent and Atticus have scored David Fincher’s upcoming film The Social Network. A free, five-track EP of music from the film is available HERE right now along with various purchasing options for the entire soundtrack, which will be released 9/28.

The Social Network opens October 1.

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Playboy Model Tries To Open Plane Door In Mid-Flight - WFTV Orlando

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Playboy Model Tries To Open Plane Door In Mid-Flight

Posted: 5:10 pm EDT September 10, 2010Updated: 5:55 pm EDT September 10, 2010

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A Playboy model is facing charges for trying to open a door on an airplane that had taken off from Orlando during mid-flight, WFTV learned Friday.

Investigators said 21-year-old Tiffany Livingston suffered an anxiety attack while onboard a JetBlue plane on its way to Newark Thursday.

She was detained once the plane landed.

Copyright 2010 by wftv.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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5 Comments
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  • The epitome of "way too much yardage between the goalposts."

    Sep. 12, 2010 12:58pm EST | from confused

  • She must be in a recent issue.... now she has everyone's attention and will go buy one for curiosity. more $$$$ for her

    Sep. 11, 2010 4:33pm EST | from Itiswhatitis

  • And so after careful scrunity over the 'issue' and commentaries, I have to say she is just a girl having a unmedicated moment. She unintentional grabbed the door handle as she was trying to cope with her problem. The feds have dismissed it as well. Meanwhile, I am available for further consultation if she would like to get help with her condition. Im sure we can get down to the source of these anxieties with continual therapy. I know....I should be ashamed.

    Sep. 11, 2010 11:27am EST | from Steveareno

  • this girl is just a pampered spoiled brat who is used to getting what she wants because of what shes got in her panties.

    Sep. 11, 2010 11:07am EST | from rich

  • unbelievable - No one is making fun of an illness. The humor is in her occupation. That too may be an illness but it was her choice.

    Sep. 11, 2010 10:45am EST | from donwine

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Posted via email from Tony Burkhart