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It's all explained in the published papers. Nothing nefarious about it.

To quote Skeptical Science:

Does the divergence problem mean we cannot rely on tree-ring growth as a proxy for temperature in the past? Briffa 1998 shows that tree-ring width and density show close agreement with temperature back to 1880. To examine earlier periods, one study split a network of tree sites into northern and southern groups (Cook 2004). While the northern group showed significant divergence after the 1960s, the southern group was consistent with recent warming trends.

This is a general trend with the divergence problem - trees from high northern latitudes show divergence while low latitude trees show little to no divergence. Before the 1960s, the northern and southern trees tracked each other reasonably well back to the Medieval Warm Period. This suggests the current divergence problem is unique over the past thousand years and restricted to recent decades.

Arslan BK and Gaucher EA Replaying the Tape of Life Through Experimental Evolution of Ancient EF-Tu proteins Astrobiology Science Conference 2010: Evolution and Life: Surviving Catastrophes and Extremes on Earth and Beyond, held April 26-20, 2010 in League City, Texas. LPI Contribution No. 1538

Which I think was just a presentation that provides very little information given all I can find is this PDF:

Whether evolution would ‘replay the tape of life’ if given the opportunity has long fascinated biologists. Paleogenetics via laboratory resurrected ancient genes not only reveals information regarding ancestral phenotypes and environments but also provides an opportunity to ‘replay’ the molecular tape of life. Recent work has demonstrated that ancestral sequences can be computationally determined and experimentally resurrected. The ideal paleoexperimental evolution system requires an organism with a short generation time and a protein whose ancestral genotype and phenotype used to replace the modern gene and causes the modern host to be less fit. The research described here focuses on Elongation Factor Tu (EF-Tu) involved in the protein synthesis machinery of both eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms. The optimal thermostability of EF-Tus correlates with the optimal thermostability of their host organisms and are ideal for these types of experiments. Previously we have resurrected ancient EF-Tus and showed that these ancient proteins display a range of thermostability profiles. We will replace the modern EF-Tu sequences with ancient EF-Tus and observe their adaptation through experimental evolution. Results from this work will help us identify whether evolution is repetitive for this experimental system.

I don't think that really answers your question and I think this research has only been presented at conferences, published in conference proceedings and not yet peer reviewed in a journal (if it has there is no mention of it on Kacar's CV). I also find it odd that on her site she's using the phrase "tree of life" and not "web of life" which I thought was a more modern way of looking at evolution -- especially in prokaryotes.

I will say that it is probably within line to chide the researcher for putting this little blurb on her research page:

Experimental Evolution of Ancient Proteins

To assess the role of contingency in evolution, I construct an experimental time machine in the lab by inserting previously resurrected genes into a modern bacterial genomes, then subjecting them to experimental evolution. Observing the real-time evolution of ancient genes as they adapt to the conditions of modern bacteria allows us to analyze evolution in action.

"Experimental time machine?" Please, leave the hype and sensationalism to the "science" reporters.

Arslan BK and Gaucher EA Replaying the Tape of Life Through Experimental Evolution of Ancient EF-Tu proteins Astrobiology Science Conference 2010: Evolution and Life: Surviving Catastrophes and Extremes on Earth and Beyond, held April 26-20, 2010 in League City, Texas. LPI Contribution No. 1538

Which I think was just a presentation that provides very little information given all I can find is this PDF:

Whether evolution would ‘replay the tape of life’ if given the opportunity has long fascinated biologists. Paleogenetics via laboratory resurrected ancient genes not only reveals information regarding ancestral phenotypes and environments but also provides an opportunity to ‘replay’ the molecular tape of life. Recent work has demonstrated that ancestral sequences can be computationally determined and experimentally resurrected. The ideal paleoexperimental evolution system requires an organism with a short generation time and a protein whose ancestral genotype and phenotype used to replace the modern gene and causes the modern host to be less fit. The research described here focuses on Elongation Factor Tu (EF-Tu) involved in the protein synthesis machinery of both eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms. The optimal thermostability of EF-Tus correlates with the optimal thermostability of their host organisms and are ideal for these types of experiments. Previously we have resurrected ancient EF-Tus and showed that these ancient proteins display a range of thermostability profiles. We will replace the modern EF-Tu sequences with ancient EF-Tus and observe their adaptation through experimental evolution. Results from this work will help us identify whether evolution is repetitive for this experimental system.

I don't think that really answers your question and I think this research has only been presented at conferences, published in conference proceedings and not yet peer reviewed in a journal (if it has there is no mention of it on Kacar's CV). I also find it odd that on her site she's using the phrase "tree of life" and not "web of life" which I thought was a more modern way of looking at evolution -- especially in prokaryotes.

I will say that it is probably within line to chide the researcher for putting this little blurb on her research page:

Experimental Evolution of Ancient Proteins

To assess the role of contingency in evolution, I construct an experimental time machine in the lab by inserting previously resurrected genes into a modern bacterial genomes, then subjecting them to experimental evolution. Observing the real-time evolution of ancient genes as they adapt to the conditions of modern bacteria allows us to analyze evolution in action.

"Experimental time machine?" Please, leave the hype and sensationalism to the "science" reporters.

Range, Doppler, and VLBI, all from Earth (and all done by the DSN). I don't believe that this mission is using Optical Navigation. No (other) Mars spacecraft participate directly in this, although of course the Mars ephemeris is dominated by data from them. It is an iterative process, where an initial trajectory is refined by course corrections and monitored more or less continuously, with the measurement tempo increasing as Mars entry gets near.

If you want to drill down into this, here is a good starting point focusing on Mars entry navigation.

I have a pretty bad grasp/understanding of this stuff, but if two atoms are entangled, changing the state in one affects the other, right? In which case that could be manipulated to....send information? Besides, they are working on this now, so it hardly seems futile?

Georgia Tech published something on this a while back.
http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=71506

It's the Georgia *Institute* of Technology, not a university. /pendantic /alum

http://www.gatech.edu/about/
According to their webpage they are a university. Maybe you should take your complaint to the webmaster.

As someone working in implanted device development I can assure you that there are many regulations in place to guarantee that not much can interfere with your pacemaker.
For the specific case of shoplifting detector gates, there exists such labs as GTRI which has specific tests for them, and for other types on interference there are many standards (PC-69, EN-45502, and more).
Implanted device software is highly regulated and is developed and tested according to the relevant IEEE standards.
Also note that pacemakers are quite old technology ~1958 and quite mature. So, although it is conceivable that there are bugs in pacemaker software, please give the relevant hw/sw engineers some credit

The scheme they use is reference 4, which is available online at http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~aboldyre/papers/bclo.pdf (found with simple Google search for the paper's title: Order-Preserving Symmetric Encryption)

My bigger issue is with a chosen plain-text attack. If a column is currently stored in say DET, and you have full view of the database, and you arrange for say an insertion of a row with some specific value, now you know all the rows with that value. Even if you can only arrange for a "select * from diagnosis where ICD9Code='042'" , even if it has a couple of unrelated joins, there will only be a couple of strings, and you can probably narrow it down to the one string you want. With that you now know which rows indicate a diagnosis of AIDS. A serious information leak. Combine that with a few other chosen plaintext queries, like one involving the patient Joe Smith, and before long, you have enough to check if Joe Smith has AIDS!

I find it too bizarre for words that you would give equal (let alone more) weight to a daily fail interview of the know "badmouther" Curry (who has never been published in Nature or Science) than you do to the first hand writings of an entire group of respected climate scientist who are at the top of their field with an impressive list of publications in Nature and Science. But that's the nature of denial, ignore all contra evidence so your faith can be preserved.

Georgia has the Hope Scholarship funded by the state lottery. Students who make a 3.0 GPA in high school and maintain that in college will get 90%of tuition per semester paid for, and if they make at least a 3.3 they pay no tuition. Of course, that's not including the $544 and rising "USG Institutional Fee" and various other fees.

http://www.finaid.gatech.edu/hopezell/

I don't quite get it even with the inscription. Is it a directional explosive?

M18A1 Claymore directional antipersonnel mine, remote detonated, used mainly in ambushes, fires steel balls out to about 100 meters within a 60 arc in front of the device.

I don't quite get it even with the inscription. Is it a directional explosive?

It's the very first Google hit, is still on a public server, and doesn't obviously distort the conclusions like TFSA in an effort to get more clicks. A+ for poorly crafted summaries, Slashdot.

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~sakhshab/evoarch.pdf

Typical deep space comm channels run into the Ka-band spectrum (26-40GHz). The path loss at 32 GHz, between the two stations separated by 50 LY, is an unimaginably large 416dB. Taking the largest fully steerable dish on earth (DSN 70m dish), running at a communications frequency of 32GHz, 400kW transmitter output, and a communications bandwidth that's good enough for 20 word-per-minute Morse code, one could theoretically close the circuit between an identically equipped station 50 LY distant. You could possibly signal somewhere around 300 baud hayes modem speeds circa 1980 if you really worked at it.

http://www.propagation.gatech.edu/ECE6390/project/Fall2010/Projects/group7/Project%20Website_v3_files/Page550.htm

Huge not done. Mars doesn't have enough atmosphere for the chutes, they'd impact more than land. At the same time it's got enough atmosphere to make thrusters very difficult.

Keep in mind though that SpaceX is already planning a thruster-only (no parachutes) system for returning from Earth orbit. I wonder if SpaceX is plotting something along the lines of supersonic retropropulsion for the descent to Mars.

It was a misleading summary, actually people liked it more when they thought it was cleaning! "Although Cody touched the subjects in exactly the same way, they reacted more positively when they believed Cody intended to clean their arm versus when they believed Cody intended to comfort them." See the original: http://www.digitallounge.gatech.edu/healthandeducation/index.html?nid=64852

Meanwhile, the number of scientists expressing significant issues with that '95% confidence level' continues to swell, most recently Judith Curry, chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech, who maintains the blog Climate Etc.

Some choice quotes from her article, "On the Credibility of Climate Research, Part II: Towards Rebuilding Trust" (all bold is my emphasis):

• "In their misguided war against the skeptics, the CRU emails reveal that core research values became compromised."
• "Steve McIntyre started the blog climateaudit.org so that he could defend himself against claims being made at the blog realclimate.org with regards to his critique of the 'hockey stick' since he was unable to post his comments there."
• "So who are the climate auditors? They are technically educated people, mostly outside of academia. Several individuals have developed substantial expertise in aspects of climate science, although they mainly audit rather than produce original scientific research. They tend to be watchdogs rather than deniers; many of them classify themselves as 'lukewarmers'. They are independent of oil industry influence. They have found a collective voice in the blogosphere and their posts are often picked up by the mainstream media. They are demanding greater accountability and transparency of climate research and assessment reports."
• "Any such bias could be checked by independent analyses of the data; however, people outside the inner circle were unable to obtain access to the information required to link the raw data to the final analyzed product. Further, creation of the surface data sets was treated like a research project, with no emphasis on data quality analysis, and there was no independent oversight. Given the importance of these data sets both to scientific research and public policy, they feel that greater public accountability is required."
• "Efforts are made to 'dumb down' the message and to frame the message to respond to issues that are salient to the audience. [..] At the same time, there is a large group of educated and evidence driven people (e.g. the libertarians, people that read the technical skeptic blogs, not to mention policy makers) who want to understand the risk and uncertainties associated with climate change, without being told what kinds of policies they should be supporting."
• "But building trust through public communication on this topic requires that uncertainty be acknowledged."
• "The blogs that are most effective are those that allow comments from both sides of the debate (many blogs are heavily moderated)."
• "we need to acknowledge the emerging auditing and open source movements in the in the internet-enabled world, and put them to productive use. The openness and democratization of knowledge enabled by the internet can be a tremendous tool for building public understanding of climate science and also trust in climate research."
• "No one really believes that the 'science is settled' or that 'the debate is over.' Scientists and others that say this seem to want to advance a particular agenda. There is nothing more detrimental to public trust than such statements."

Your quote of the Greens is spot on, but you will admit that it has nothing to do with the IRV system but rather, as I said earlier, a lack of education. Also the number of seats won by a minor party will always be low due to the size of the electorates. Major parties are obviously more likely to take seats. It isn't meant to be a proportional system, we have that for the upper house.

Also, your comments are about third party and minor party representation is still misleading. Take for example the Tasmanian Legislative Council. According to you, since they are elected via IRV, they should be mostly ALP or coalition. Yet when your look at the results you will see that 11 of the 15 seats are independents!

As for whether voters actually do vote insincerely, I put more stock into the research we have done over the past for years at The Center for Election Science than in a wikipedia entry which most assuredly has been heavily tuned by FairVote, a highly dishonest pro-IRV organization.

You might have your little beef with FairVote whoever they are, but nothing stopping you putting your position up with citations on wikipedia. The article I mentioned cites three references. "Collective Decisions and Voting" by Nicolaus Tideman, "Single transferable vote resists strategic voting" and "An investigation into the relative manipulability of four voting systems". Your argument is remains uncited and the amount of intellectual dishonesty coming from you does your argument no favours.

Well .. you should do your part marketing free alternatives. Tell your professors about free (or reasonably priced) textbooks. It might be that they do not know about them! Good places to start:

http://homepages.nyu.edu/~jmg336/html/mathematics.html
http://www.ebyte.it/library/refs/Refs_Math_Books.html
http://people.math.gatech.edu/~cain/textbooks/onlinebooks.html

I'll also again plug my own two free textbooks :) http://www.jirka.org/ra/ and http://www.jirka.org/diffyqs/

Jiri

http://www.me.gatech.edu/hu/Research/lab.html

No grants required, this is a grad student group doing cheap science.

This is a graduate student doing some "tabletop science" in the lab. His specialty in the lab is "Animal Cleaning" http://www.me.gatech.edu/hu/Research/lab.html . I doubt he's trying for anything except his thesis.

I'd say he did a pretty good job building a preliminary predictive model and testing against that model and refining it. And it stands to reason that animals shaking water out of their fur might be of interest to him, since he probably bathes animals on a pretty regular basis and observes the behavior a lot. Building lab time researching something that interests you sounds pretty good to me.

It'll probably never cure cancer or give us faster-than-light drives, but most graduate student lab work is done with little expectation of changing the boundaries of science as we know it.

This was done by HuLab, run by Professor Hu at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

http://www.me.gatech.edu/hu/Research/lab.html

It's a research group at a University who focuses on performing simple, cheap, tabletop experiments. It's run by one of the professors at the University and most of the physicists appear to actually be students. Andrew Dickerson is a Grad student whose specialty in the lab is "Animal Cleaning", so it stands to reason that he might have become interested in wet dogs shaking and taken a few videos in the course of his work, and maybe theorized a formula or two.

So, the answer is, possibly - some of your taxpayer dollars might have been spent. Assuming you live in Georgia, of course. G. I. T. receives about 1/4 of its funding from the State of Georgia. They don't appear to receive any federal funding.

But, in their defense, it was "perform an interesting experiment in the lab" or "reproduce an experiment someone else has already done in a lab", because students need lab time to gain experience, and they need to publish papers to earn academic credibility. The overall materials cost appears to have been camera (which can be used for further experiments and may have already been in the lab) and some student time.

It sounds like Prof Hu might just be saving your tax money in the long run, though, by having his students focus on inexpensive (if somewhat frivolous) experiments in the course of their education.

But I'm sure you could write a letter telling them that HuLab is a waste of taxpayer money, and that the students should be focusing on reproducing classical experiments like re-measuring the boiling point of water and other useful pursuits.

Here's some links to technical papers written by the two researchers on robot deception:

http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/32095
http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/34122

The papers are much more technical than the article, but I found them very interesting.

Here's some links to technical papers written by the two researchers on robot deception:

http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/32095
http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/34122

The papers are much more technical than the article, but I found them very interesting.

Georgia Tech has relatively new MS and PhD programs in Computational Science and Engineering, which is specifically for people who are interested in the interface between computer science and computer-based modeling for "domain" sciences. Many of the faculty, who are jointly appointed between computing and science/engineering departments, are developing and applying techniques in high-performance parallel computing to problems in computational biology, traffic simulation, biomedical engineering, aerospace engineering, and massive-scale data analysis, to nname a few. See http://www.cse.gatech.edu

I also hope you are making sure that the humidity and temperature are strictly controlled at all times in the tape storage room.

That's why the OP said to use Iron Mountain. They maintain the humidity and temperature at all times in their storage rooms.

It costs a little extra, but if you want long term storage, rent some underground space. According to http://mic.imtc.gatech.edu/preservationists_portal/presv_costcompare.htm, underground storage costs can get as low as $2/year per cubic foot (not including relocation, initial filing charges, retrieval & re-file charges) if you're buying four delivery trucks worth of space.

So scientists who challenge the prevailing politically-correct liberal thesis are "climate deniers" - this is the basic problem. Even the term is ridiculous. Compare it to "holocaust denier".

Cite one. Please, I beg you. Cite one scientist with a reasonable publication record who "challenge[s] the prevailing politically-correct liberal thesis". Don't just leave statements like this hanging there in the breeze - this is the Internet, and with a quick copy, paste and a href= you too can create a link to support your claim!

I bet you that whoever you cite has either a terrible publication record or almost no background in anything like climatology. If they have both of those, then I bet that their "challenges" are nothing of the sort - they probably disagree on the magnitude of global warming, not the fact of it.

Take a look at this:
http://www.collide-a-scape.com/2010/04/23/an-inconvenient-provocateur/
http://curry.eas.gatech.edu/climate/towards_rebuilding_trust.html

I'm not aware of any statements she's made about the magnitude of global warming, but she is expressing concerns that the IPCC is being warped by political and sociological pressures within the climate science community. I can't find where she said it (somewhere among the links in the first page), but she specifically mentions concerns about pressures to publish research that conforms to the IPCC established narrative.

Here's her CV:
http://curry.eas.gatech.edu/currycv.html

So scientists who challenge the prevailing politically-correct liberal thesis are "climate deniers" - this is the basic problem. Even the term is ridiculous. Compare it to "holocaust denier".

Cite one. Please, I beg you. Cite one scientist with a reasonable publication record who "challenge[s] the prevailing politically-correct liberal thesis". Don't just leave statements like this hanging there in the breeze - this is the Internet, and with a quick copy, paste and a href= you too can create a link to support your claim!

I bet you that whoever you cite has either a terrible publication record or almost no background in anything like climatology. If they have both of those, then I bet that their "challenges" are nothing of the sort - they probably disagree on the magnitude of global warming, not the fact of it.

Take a look at this:
http://www.collide-a-scape.com/2010/04/23/an-inconvenient-provocateur/
http://curry.eas.gatech.edu/climate/towards_rebuilding_trust.html

I'm not aware of any statements she's made about the magnitude of global warming, but she is expressing concerns that the IPCC is being warped by political and sociological pressures within the climate science community. I can't find where she said it (somewhere among the links in the first page), but she specifically mentions concerns about pressures to publish research that conforms to the IPCC established narrative.

Here's her CV:
http://curry.eas.gatech.edu/currycv.html

I really liked your images showing the volumes of water and air.
I just thought I'd contribute free AOL disks, spam, politics, and the average person's grasp of logic science and reality.

-

I saw some speculation today that Apple might buy ARM. Although that could happen, Google's the one that needs the exascale computing (pdf).

Since Intel seems determined to go down with the WinTel ship, somebody oughtta.

I sort of research in this area (only sorta, but enough to keep up and know about half the people in it). So I can't help but throw out some additional resources, which you can interpret as "stuff I like".

FWIW, the general idea is usually referred to as "serious games", with a bunch of terms like "persuasive games", "games for change", "games with a purpose", "political games", "news games", etc. having more specific meanings.

I personally rather like Ian Bogost's book on the subject, which, contrary to a lot of stuff in this space, is more measured in talking about both the possible benefits and likely pitfalls. Although I love the idea and think it has a lot of promise, I've got to admit most attempts to make "serious" or "political" or "world-changing" games fall flat. Anyone played McCain's 2004 campaign game, "John Kerry Tax Invaders"? It's exactly what you think it is: a space-invaders clone with John Kerry tax bills coming down at you, in place of aliens. Hilarious, but kind of stupid. So I think it's important to not be fan-boyish about it, and figure out what would make the medium actually flourish for these sorts of purposes. (FWIW, Bogost also has a former blog on "games with an agenda", and a interesting Colbert appearance).

An interesting precursor is Chris Crawford's 1980s games, which tackled subjects like the Cold War and the environment in interesting ways. He's now giving away a .txt of a book describing the design behind Balance of Power (1986), still something of a high-water mark in combining the simulation genre with attempts to really make people think about the real world.

For more recent games, specifically in response to news events, some of which have activist content and some of which are just commentary, there's also a newsgame index. In addition, there's a recent paper discussing whether and how newsgames might become the 21st century's equivalent of political cartoons.

I also had a paper at this year's CCS conference, so perhaps I can shed some light on the process. The publisher had some fairly picky requirements for the PDFs, and warned that most PDFs created by (for example) pdflatex would probably not pass muster. So along with a PDF we had to submit a Postscript file so that they could distill it into a PDF that met their requirements if necessary. That's likely what happened here--the final Acrobat Distiller step was probably done by the publisher to make everything fit their publishing requirements.

"A group at Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a fun little open source program to emulate the CRT effects to make old Atari games look like they originally did when played on modern LCD's and digital displays. Things like color bleed, ghosting, noise, etc. are reproduced to give a more realistic appearance."

From Slashdot story Atari Emulation of CRT Effects On LCDs.

I'd like to have real OO syntax

What is it about JS's OO syntax that isn't "real"?

Is it because it's prototype-based instead of the class-based paradigm that you're probably used to? There are actually some advantages (and disadvantages) to this approach. Just because it may not be what you're used to or comfortable with doesn't make it bad.

Georgia Tech has been offering a ridiculously popular Science Fiction literature class since the 70s. You might use it's curriculum as a guide. http://lcc.gatech.edu/~brobertson3/texts/sf.pdf

Do you get bonus points for bringing the original GitS manga and showing how Oshii, turned the character into a 1 dimensions brooding machine?

Georgia Tech has been offering a ridiculously popular Science Fiction literature class since the 70s. You might use it's curriculum as a guide. http://lcc.gatech.edu/~brobertson3/texts/sf.pdf

Georgia Tech fully supports Linux, from ssh/scp, wan, san, and printing, to full desktops and software. Linux student software distribution. In addition, it even provides full linux OS's (just rhel). Everything you stated above is at Tech also.

I never had a single issue running Linux (gentoo) my entire time there, and there was a pretty decent LUG there too. In fact, even my freshman English courses made us use Linux for some tasks.

Georgia Tech fully supports Linux, from ssh/scp, wan, san, and printing, to full desktops and software. Linux student software distribution. In addition, it even provides full linux OS's (just rhel). Everything you stated above is at Tech also.

I never had a single issue running Linux (gentoo) my entire time there, and there was a pretty decent LUG there too. In fact, even my freshman English courses made us use Linux for some tasks.

Georgia Institute of Technology software recommendations.

Rewriting history much ? In October 1998, Internet Explorer barely had 40% (source : http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/survey-1998-10/graphs/technology/q41.htm). It plummets from there, and many sites report that by the beginning of 1999, IE had jumped to over 60%. Windows 98 bundling didn't help uh ? You guys ignoring history is very funny. It used to be Browsers could get bundling deals with ISP. Windows 98 pretty much ended the need for ISP "install disks" and pushed Internet Explorer unto the users. The DOJ agrees, trying to say it ain't so 10 years later doesn't change the facts.

I recall it was possible to get a teapot to render in a few lines of code

Now if only they can get the Stanford Bunny to spin around and render in a multitude of ways with only 4Kb... Would that be impressive?

It seems that he wrote it in 2006.

I have studied Neuroscience for years and obtained a degree in it. You mention spatial ability differences between the sexes and you attribute better performance in spatial problem to more neurons being dedicated to "spatial centers" in men. I believe your argument would be more effective with some citations of this. I mean, at least link to an fMRI scan between two genders while they solve spatial patterns. And does more neurons equate greater functionality? Look into, it's not the case. Whether or not these spatial centers in the parietal lobe have a difference in neuronal metabolism between the genders while they solve spatial problems is a better question to ask. You are right in one thing, a spacial difference does exist.

A review of 646 articles summarizing gender differences in spatial ability is found here.

Your rationale behind it...is another story.

This might be offtopic, but while we're on the topic here, does anyone know of any *afforable* FPGA kits for students?

Our university used the Altera DE2 boards, found here http://users.ece.gatech.edu/~hamblen/DE2/

I really liked the DE2 because it has a whole lot of peripherals and can be used with Quartus II. I wanted to get one so I could tinker with it in my own time for fun.

Any recommendations for one less than $500~ ?

You've got it. By using the limitations to their advantage they could draw more with less resources. As you can see here you can use the bleed effect to smooth out the harsh lines and create a more realistic representation. As you can see the car before the bleed almost looks bug like, but if you add in the flicker to the bleed effect it looks more like tires moving. And if you'll look at the sunset in the same picture you'll see that the bleed effect makes the harsh colors blend together to create a better sunset. This freed up more memory to draw something else. Remember every byte counted.

So these guys had to use every hack and trick in the book INCLUDING using the limitations of the TV the game was going to display for maximum effect. In a way it is like how Link Ray and the early rockers would punch holes in the tweeters to make the amps fuzz. these guys have VERY primitive hardware to work with, which frankly was originally designed to draw a ball and paddles, nothing more. But by using hacks and even the limitations of the screen itself they were able to "fool" us into seeing a better picture than what was really there. i really have to give those guys credit for being able to make so much out of so little.

A quick google reveals that this guy's research is at least very close to this, if not published on his site yet:

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~thad/

Some really useful and interesting stuff.

I know personally that body odor differs by race, diet, and culture. Is that to say that if I eat at my local Pakstani resturant the night before trying to use the BO biometric, I may be identified as a Pashtun tribal warlord? Does this take into account that prescription medication could cause a change? Just by taking an antibiotic could I cause a false positive? I hate to think loading up on ginger or curry or treating an infection could mean I end up on the waterboard. This seems as useful as gait recognition. http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/GAIT.htm .... That really went nowhere and I seem to remember a massively huge database - like 2PB. But who am I to judge apparently nows the time to push for funding on crap projects.

Your energy station is an absurd 36000 km away. Good luck focussing and aiming then.

Today's Ka-band (~30 GHz) satellite spot beam sizes can go down to around 1 degree (~600 km on the Earth's surface from geosynchronous orbit). This is about a 30cm dish on the satellite.

Discussions of non-rain-attenuated frequencies for solar power satellites (2.5-5.0 GHz) generally involve a transmitting antenna of ~1km or more in size to deliver to a receiving rectenna of similar size.

How you get a 1km size dish built in space to acceptable tolerances is an interesting question.

Georgia Tech's Department of Architecture IMAGINE lab has been doing similar simulations for awhile.