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The new curve is broader and more gently sloping, suggesting that the rarest events occur more often than predicted by the bell-shaped curve.
Or, as wizzards have known for years, million to one chances happen nine times out of ten.

But seriously, folks. This reminds me a lot in terms of its applicability to pretty much everything of an article in New Scientist that I also found darn interesting.

The new curve is broader and more gently sloping, suggesting that the rarest events occur more often than predicted by the bell-shaped curve.
Or, as wizzards have known for years, million to one chances happen nine times out of ten.

But seriously, folks. This reminds me a lot in terms of its applicability to pretty much everything of an article in New Scientist that I also found darn interesting.

Newscientist magazine recently carried an article about repairing damaged nerves. http://www.newscien tist.com/nsplus/insight/future/svendsen.html Common spinal injurys do a lot of damage but a clean knife cut could be fixable in the near future.

Meph

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http://www.hightimes.com/
http://www.lycaeum.org/
http://marijuana.newscientist.com/
http://www.hemp.net/~ramus
http://www.druglibrary.org/ schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm
http://www.s ptimes.com/News/72699/TampaBay/Stakes_high_in_man_ s_.shtml
http://www.dqc.org/~james/
http://www.november.org/
http://www.pdfa.net/
http://mall.turnpike.net/~jnr/think.htm

There's a really interesting article on New Scientist, Creatures from Primordial Silicon, on the application of genetic algorithms to FPGA chips. In this case, the researcher was able to let natural selection design a chip that was capable of producing a 5v output when he said "Start" and stop producing the output when he said "Stop".

The cooler part is that no one can figure out how the chip works; he didn't implement a clock -- one evolved using fewer components than the simplest example given in any engineering text. There are a few components in there that don't seem logically neccessary, but their removal results in a non-functional chip. Theoretically, using the evolutionary procedure allowed the chip to utilize subtle properties of the materials used in its composition, like the small resistance changes caused by heat or electromagnetic induction.

It's a good read if you're interested.

I believe there is an effort underway to store large amounts of sperm and eggs from endangered animals. This is obviously better than cell samples, as complicated cloning is not necessary. You just fertilize the egg and implant it in a similar species.

Genetics is only part of the species. Equally important is the role that they play in their environment, instinctive behavior, and learned behavior. Specialized species may not be able to survive if their niche has been destroyed. Instinctive behavior is inherent in brain organization, but the feeding instincts of the young are evolved to complement the parenting instincts of the adult. A discontinuity in this chain could have unpredictable effects - a very literal chicken and egg problem.

One thing that can never be restored are the learned behaviors that each species aquires. Chimps seem to have a form of culture, and while lower animals of course have much simpler traditions, there is still information there that could be lost. Killing a species' meme doesn't even require killing the species - just those members whose brains host the meme.

To anyone who doubts the worth of these more nebulous aspects of a species, I suggest you take a closer look at the amazing interplay of life in the coral reefs. They are disappearing, and when they are gone, no amount of cloning will be able to replicate the intricate web of cooperation and competition.

This article appeared in newscientist quite recently. It suggests that RSI comes from doing many repeated sensitive movements. This is why carpenters and mechanics don't get RSI from hammering / spannering whereas typists do.

The authors believe that it is all to do with the brain inventing pain as it isn't designed to do these gentle motions over and over again.

May be that's why old typewriters didn't cause RSI.

The recent newcs intist article where Indian scientists say that mice taking an 100mg per 1kg bodymass dose of caffine 1/2 an hour before radiation exposure survived lethal doses, makes me think that if you're lucky enough to survive the radiation, the caffine will severely upset you or you may just be in the unlucky 50% of LD50.

Before everyone worries about microwaving their brain perhaps they should read this New Scientist article. "Forget the hype--there's still no evidence that mobile phones will mangle your memories or give you cancer. But the microwaves they emit may be up to something. Meet the fast-growing worms and boozing rats that have the experts baffled...and discover why a phone call might make you quick on the draw"

PENIS ENVY may be a thing of the past. The clitoris, it turns out, is no "little hill" as its derivation from the Greek kleitoris implies. Instead, it extends deep into the body, with a total size at least twice as large as most anatomy texts show, and tens of times larger than the average person realises, according to new studies by Helen O'Connell, a urology surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Melbourne.

Just making a point...

600mph is about sonic, and that thing certainly won't survive it.

And personally, I'll believe it when I see it. That piece of junk has been taking up space in Jane's for years, and it STILL hasn't flown the Skycar yet. Notice that no U.S. publication is reporting this. They know better. They've been there before.

They recently just got the picture of the Skycar taken out of Jane's, and was replace only with one paragraph about them. This is probably just another ploy to get media attention for more funding.

bastards. . .

It's a bit better than a brick or a flung rock - from the New Scientist article -
"At a speed of 250 kilometres per hour, the engines produce only a tenth of the lift. Nearly half of the lift comes from the four nacelles---even the vanes that direct the airflow generate lift. Another 16 per cent comes from the fuselage and about a third comes from the rear wing."
Anyway, it's got eight engines, which ought to be enough for a brick.

From the original New Scientist article:

Another problem that Moller must tackle is noise. Residential areas usually tolerate noise levels about the same as background traffic--up to 70 decibels--but the Skycar generates about 85 decibels. Moller is looking at ways to reduce noise, by carefully avoiding resonances and by using noise cancellation techniques. Even so, Moller admits it will be difficult to reduce noise levels to below 70 decibels.

And those "noise cancellation techniques" would only help the occupants of the Skycar, not the poor boogers in the street below.


Regards, Ralph.

...road-going vehicle, it has the shape of a Batmobile and a top speed of over 600
kilometres per hour. There is one other unusual thing about the "Skycar": it takes off...

From the Reuters article on CNN.com:

...people, do about 5 miles per liter of gas, have
a top speed of over 600 mph and will take off
and land vertically.

New Scientist

See also:
http://www.newscientist.com/ns/9 81107/nshorts.html for a short note about the paper published in Science (Search for Benzer, free registration needed to read the abstract).

There is also a fantastic article on Seymour Benzer in the April 5 issue of the New Yorker.

Digital paper is being tested by a couple of companies; it's in a a somewhat different format. Check out last week's New Scientist.

If you have access to a good newsagent or a University library (or any reasonably sized metropolitan library I suppose) track down their New Scientist collection. There is an article in the 10th of April issue covering RSI from a slightly different angle than normal. There's an interesting theory that RSI is not caused by physical damage to the wrists/hands, but rather caused by blurring of the brain's distinctions between the fine motor control areas for the hands.

The strain is in the brain Too much typing can leave you in agony. But rather than damaged muscles or tendons being to blame for RSI, says Bob Holmes, things might be going wrong in the brain

It seems that when you spend a lot of time moving your fingers in very precise, accurate ways your brain can blur them together: you lose fine control over time. This effect has been shown to take place in monkeys made to earn food by `typing' (aside: presumably they put them on Usenet...), and there seems to be some evidence of it occuring in humans. Particularly susceptible, as you might expect, are keyboard operators and musicians.

There is a tiny tidbit from some while ago on the New Scientist web site -- unfortunately they don't appear to have put up the article I'm talking about. If anyone's sufficiently interested I daresay I could type in a couple of short extracts for review.

Here are a couple of links which you might find interesting (tracked down from the broken NS links...):

• Repetitive Motion Injuries--Annual Reviews of Medicine (1995):

  Repetitive motion injuries have presented clinicians with a significant challenge over the past two and a half decades. Acceptable treatment of inflammatory disorders is well established, but compressive neuropathies and nonspecific complaints of numbness, tingling, and discomfort in the upper extremity present vexing dilemmas. Current research and experience point to multilevel problems, including posturally induced muscular imbalance. Although surgical solutions to these problems are sometimes indicated, conservative approaches successfully treat many individuals and have narrowed the scope and indications for surgical intervention. These approaches include ergonomic changes at the workstation, postural changes, and muscle stretching and strengthening to correct imbalance.

• Stretching and Flexibility -- Everything you never wanted to know. Apparently this is a frequently recommended treatment.
• The Lancet also has a couple of hits for `RSI' and `repetitive strain': the usal username/password will get you the `free' version of the site.

If you have access to a good newsagent or a University library (or any reasonably sized metropolitan library I suppose) track down their New Scientist collection. There is an article in the 10th of April issue covering RSI from a slightly different angle than normal. There's an interesting theory that RSI is not caused by physical damage to the wrists/hands, but rather caused by blurring of the brain's distinctions between the fine motor control areas for the hands.

The strain is in the brain Too much typing can leave you in agony. But rather than damaged muscles or tendons being to blame for RSI, says Bob Holmes, things might be going wrong in the brain

It seems that when you spend a lot of time moving your fingers in very precise, accurate ways your brain can blur them together: you lose fine control over time. This effect has been shown to take place in monkeys made to earn food by `typing' (aside: presumably they put them on Usenet...), and there seems to be some evidence of it occuring in humans. Particularly susceptible, as you might expect, are keyboard operators and musicians.

There is a tiny tidbit from some while ago on the New Scientist web site -- unfortunately they don't appear to have put up the article I'm talking about. If anyone's sufficiently interested I daresay I could type in a couple of short extracts for review.

Here are a couple of links which you might find interesting (tracked down from the broken NS links...):

• Repetitive Motion Injuries--Annual Reviews of Medicine (1995):

  Repetitive motion injuries have presented clinicians with a significant challenge over the past two and a half decades. Acceptable treatment of inflammatory disorders is well established, but compressive neuropathies and nonspecific complaints of numbness, tingling, and discomfort in the upper extremity present vexing dilemmas. Current research and experience point to multilevel problems, including posturally induced muscular imbalance. Although surgical solutions to these problems are sometimes indicated, conservative approaches successfully treat many individuals and have narrowed the scope and indications for surgical intervention. These approaches include ergonomic changes at the workstation, postural changes, and muscle stretching and strengthening to correct imbalance.

• Stretching and Flexibility -- Everything you never wanted to know. Apparently this is a frequently recommended treatment.
• The Lancet also has a couple of hits for `RSI' and `repetitive strain': the usal username/password will get you the `free' version of the site.

Marijuana : a special report from New Scientist (Mar 1999)

What's your poison: an ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp.) documentry series (from the Quantum show) comparing Nicotine, Caffeine, Alcohol, Marijuana and Ecstasy. (Apr 1997)

New Scientist has had something similar for ages. Well, I assume it's similar, I can't see the site in this posting. It's slashdotted already.

Priestess........

New Scientist has had something similar for ages. Well, I assume it's similar, I can't see the site in this posting. It's slashdotted already.

Priestess........

Here's the link to this story
http://www.newscientist.com/ns/971115/features.htm l