Liquid Crystals and Lasers

Wan2Be writes "A new kind of glass pane that quickly switches from transparent to diffracting and back again. The change is triggered by applying an electric field, so the pane could easily be controlled by the electric signals of a computer, offering a powerful new way to steer beams of light."

Comments

OT - Re:2012

[Red Rocket]

I was worried about that 2012 date myself until I found out why the Maya chose that date as the end of their time. I'm amazed at how much the Maya were able to learn and I believe they had knowledge that we've yet to discover but I'm beginning to believe now that the 2012 date is simply an astronomical event.
The Maya were deeply religious and their religion was based on astronomy. Their convictions led them to construct pyramids so they could see over the jungle canopy to the horizon. It's on the horizon where they could view the rising and setting of the stars, planets, sun, and moon. The thing they discovered that prompted them to set 2012 as an important date is the precession of Earth. As Earth precesses on about a 25,000 year cycle, the sun rises at a slightly different location for each given day of the year. The Maya discovered that they could calculate that movement and believed it held some religious significance.
For all astronomically-based religions, the winter solstice was especially significant, but the Maya saw another significant astronomical feature. They viewed the intersection of the ecliptic (the line the planets, moon, and sun follow) and the galactic plane (as represented by the milky way) as the entry point whereby one could begin the journey along the milky way to the heart of the sky (a dark area near Polaris that used to be at the celestial north pole.) But one could only enter there when an opening was created by another celestial object at the point of the crossroad.
The key thing about the 2012 date is that the Winter solstice of 2012 has the sun rising exactly at the intersection of the ecliptic and the galactic plane. To the Maya, that probably represented the closing of a great cycle after which a new era would be born. In fact, the evidence seems to indicate that they actually worked backwards from December 21, 2012 to determine their current date when the Long Count calendar was created (some say as early as 355 B.C.)
The incredible precision by which they were able to predict astronomical events is uncanny. While our calendar uses clumsy gimmicks like leap years to overcome its inherent flaws, the Mayan calendar was able to accurately predict events thousands of years into the future with perfection and no need for adjustments. If you realize the movement of the Winter solstice sunrise due to precession occurs at a rate of about one degree every 72 years then you can realize the precision it takes to accurately predict such an event.
There is so much valuable knowledge that has been lost due to our destructive and arrogant approach to other cultures and it continues today as we try to eliminate cultures that compete with western values. Maybe one day we'll come full circle and embrace our ancient past just like the sunrise will do on December 12, 2012.

More info
Also, see Hopi prophecy.

Or did you just mean to elect Howard Dean in 2004 and again in 2008 which brings us to 2012, in which case I've completely overanalyzed your sig and owe you an Emily Litella, "Never mind"?