Domain: illuminatingscience.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to illuminatingscience.org.
Comments · 17
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Ethics
A summary plus a discussion of some thoughts on the ethical issues involved in both intellectual property and discrimination are on the University of Queensland's physics blog.
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Ethics
A summary plus a discussion of some thoughts on the ethical issues involved in both intellectual property and discrimination are on the University of Queensland's physics blog.
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Ethics
A summary plus a discussion of some thoughts on the ethical issues involved in both intellectual property and discrimination are on the University of Queensland's physics blog.
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Uni of Qld
The University of Queensland's physics blog, Illuminating Science has a summary with some interesting thoughts about the implications of this project.
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Uni of Qld
The University of Queensland's physics blog, Illuminating Science has a summary with some interesting thoughts about the implications of this project.
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A MALE Princess Leia!I did the midnight screening thing as well, arriving at about 8pm. There were many cool characters there, and, I have to confess, I was one of them. Or, at least, I was a character. Cool is debatable...
I'd made myself a lightsaber out of hardware store items, and while not authentic it worked pretty well. (A chrome table leg, cut ot size, and then various bits of wire and plumbing supplies glued on - it's easy to make something that looks quite reasonable!) My partner made me a cloak, and I think I did quite a good job - certainly among the best Jedi costumes there, if I do say so myself.
But, as the subject line promised, the best was a male Princess Leia, complete with danish pastry hair and pointy breasts...he would have been quite becoming were it not for the stubble. Or have I said too much?
It's funny - I'm not really a huge Star Wars fan, but I do love the atmosphere of a midnight screening. There's something pretty awesome about seeing it, and having everyone cheer for the LucasFilm logo!
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A MALE Princess Leia!I did the midnight screening thing as well, arriving at about 8pm. There were many cool characters there, and, I have to confess, I was one of them. Or, at least, I was a character. Cool is debatable...
I'd made myself a lightsaber out of hardware store items, and while not authentic it worked pretty well. (A chrome table leg, cut ot size, and then various bits of wire and plumbing supplies glued on - it's easy to make something that looks quite reasonable!) My partner made me a cloak, and I think I did quite a good job - certainly among the best Jedi costumes there, if I do say so myself.
But, as the subject line promised, the best was a male Princess Leia, complete with danish pastry hair and pointy breasts...he would have been quite becoming were it not for the stubble. Or have I said too much?
It's funny - I'm not really a huge Star Wars fan, but I do love the atmosphere of a midnight screening. There's something pretty awesome about seeing it, and having everyone cheer for the LucasFilm logo!
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It's all about choice!Google's doing the right thing - some people (I presume!) actually like having everything together on the one page. And in many ways, it could be nice - if with a simple, uncluttered interface I can see the day's weather and some of the top news stories from my slected news site when I load up my browser to my default page, then that's good. It's only when the page starts being cluttered by dating services and offers for stuff that doesn't apply to non-U.S.ians that it gets annoyed.
And, of course, if I decide I don't like it, I can simply revert back to the simple interface. As long as I can do that, I'm happy.
Anyway, who has time to think about Google when there's Star Wars to think about?!
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Lots of interesting questions!I, for one, loved Revenge of the Sith - I thought it was a seriously cool movie, awsome special effects, great story and brilliant acting from Anakin - this was definitely the movie he was cast for. And Palpatine...well, what can I say?!
And, best of all, it answered lots of questions, but also raised lots more - we know how Anakin fell to the Dark Side, and we know how he became Darth Vader. We understand where Luke and Leia fit in, and even a little about the Jedi "ghosts". But there's lots to discuss - was Palpatine really beaten by Mace Windu (I highly doubt it). And what was really going through Anakin's head? Did he really believe that he was going to bring peace, etc, to the galaxy? Or was it just to give himself a plausable excuse to save Amidala? So delightfully tormented! I've posted some thoughts to my blog.
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Lots of interesting questions!I, for one, loved Revenge of the Sith - I thought it was a seriously cool movie, awsome special effects, great story and brilliant acting from Anakin - this was definitely the movie he was cast for. And Palpatine...well, what can I say?!
And, best of all, it answered lots of questions, but also raised lots more - we know how Anakin fell to the Dark Side, and we know how he became Darth Vader. We understand where Luke and Leia fit in, and even a little about the Jedi "ghosts". But there's lots to discuss - was Palpatine really beaten by Mace Windu (I highly doubt it). And what was really going through Anakin's head? Did he really believe that he was going to bring peace, etc, to the galaxy? Or was it just to give himself a plausable excuse to save Amidala? So delightfully tormented! I've posted some thoughts to my blog.
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Lots of interesting questions!I, for one, loved Revenge of the Sith - I thought it was a seriously cool movie, awsome special effects, great story and brilliant acting from Anakin - this was definitely the movie he was cast for. And Palpatine...well, what can I say?!
And, best of all, it answered lots of questions, but also raised lots more - we know how Anakin fell to the Dark Side, and we know how he became Darth Vader. We understand where Luke and Leia fit in, and even a little about the Jedi "ghosts". But there's lots to discuss - was Palpatine really beaten by Mace Windu (I highly doubt it). And what was really going through Anakin's head? Did he really believe that he was going to bring peace, etc, to the galaxy? Or was it just to give himself a plausable excuse to save Amidala? So delightfully tormented! I've posted some thoughts to my blog.
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Definitely see it on the big screenThe lightsaber battles and special effects, the thunderous roar of the ships - watching a crappy download on the computer simply doesn't do it justice. Even with the best home sound system, etc, I think the big screen still has something to offer.
Of course, after seeing it on the big screen I've got noproblem with going and downloading it to watch it again (although I've sheepishly got ot admit that I've seen it in the cinema twice - once at the midnight screening (which we Aussies got before the U.S. - go time zones!) and once with my partner.)
I really loved the movie, and definitely think it was worth it - a truly memorable conclusion to the Star Wars saga.
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Solar cells from biologyAt University of Queensland (in Australia) where I study, we're developing solar cells out of "solid solids" - flexible polymers/plastics. The hope is that as well as being even more efficient, they'll be easy to use - they're flexible, and can be bent, twisted, shaped, etc.
One possibility is to use melanin - the skin pigment that gives our skins colour. Being in Australia, of course, researching melanin is of significant interest to us! It's yet another example of biology helping to make really cool physics - more details are available on UQ's physics blog.
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Three favouritesI seem to spend a lot of time researching cameras for my friends, and so I read dpreview and the like a lot. As such, my three picks for cameras are:
- Canon Powershot 410 (for the user wanting an ultracompact camera which gives good photos, but isn't worried about manual control)
- Canon Powershot S70 (for the high end consumer, who wants a compact camera but with full manual control and awesome picture quality)
- Nikon D70 (a beautiful SLR, great pictures, fantastic features, quick response and all round goodness. Don't expect it tot fit in your pocket though...)
Of course, if you're really keen, you can get one of the high end Canon SLRs...
Most importantly, I don't think you should scrimp on your camera. Those cameras step up in price, according to features more than anything else, but within a particular category there can be quite a spread of prices. I'm not trying to be elitist here (like people who claim you should never use anything less than 256kbps in OGG format for music...) but the efficiency and quality of your camera will really grate after a while if they're not up to scratch.
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Re:GIMP on Windows vs LinuxI find that my biggest gripe comes from having my desktop, other windows, etc, appearing around my images. It distracts me, and I sometimes click on them by accident (e.g., if I miss during a quick resize - and no, I'm not drunk at the time.)
If there were someway for GIMP to give at least a grey uniform background, that would help a lot.
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Re:Mirror right here!No doubt a little of both of the above
:) I guess though we're assuming he's just recovered from a little dip in a bath of molten rock, and that would probably be enough to dry anyone's throat out. Let him have a couple of sips of water and crush a few Trusted Lieutenants' throats, and he'll be right as rain again.And I have to say, a Yoda vs Palpatine fight would be very impressive indeed. Although, it does raise a question. Yoda only lost against Count Duku (sp? No idea!) because he's a nice guy who had to exert all his efforts holding up the pillar. So, not really a fair fight, and the Count got away. So what happens when/if Yoda fights Palpatine? Obviously, neither wins in the the kill-or-be-killed sense, so I wonder what happens? Pulling the same trick as last time or simply fighting as a stalling tactic while the other get away, etc, is a bit of a cop out. Oh well! Guess we'll find out soon enough (or not, depending on who you talk to!)
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Joel
Illuminating Science -
Explanation of asymptotic freedomI've attempted to explain the physics behind the Prize on my blog, Illuminating Science. Plenty of links for extended reading available, and it should (I hope!) be suitable for a non-physicist interested in science.
All comments and, especially, corrections, greatly welcomed.