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Italian Scientists Claim To Have Discovered Nickel-Hydrogen Cold Fusion, Create Copper As Byproduct | zero hedge
According to PhysOrg.com, two Italian scientists from the University of Bologna have taken on one of physics' historically most discredited concepts, cold fusion, and have actually succeeded in creating a sustainable reaction. Aside from the major implications of the energy market should this be validated and recreated (an issue that buried the original Cold Fusion discovery by Stanley Pons and Martin Fleishmann), one of the more economically important side effects of this purported re discovery is that one of the byproducts of the reaction is none other than recently uber-bubbleicious copper. One wonders what the implications for the copper supply and demand curves (and equilibrium price) would be should the reaction documented by Andrea Rossi and Sergio Focardi be proven to not be a hoax. Is modern day alchemy the only thing that can dethrone copper from its historic price highs? From Physorg :
The hyper-ambitious folks at DARPA are totally over the current state of military data collection, and they're pretty sure they know how to fix it: teach sensors how to think. Well, they've got an idea how to fix it, but they've put out a call for mathematician to do the dirty work. The Mathematics of Sensing, Exploitation, and Execution (MSEE) program seeks a unified mathematical language that cane teach sensors not only to collect data, but to interpret, and act on it too. The aim is to eliminate the "data deluge" that comes from ever-increasing streams of information, like cellphone intercepts and video drone feeds, allowing analysts to focus on the important stuff. Currently the onus falls on humans to interpret the overwhelming amount of information collected by military sensors, but DARPA is confident that the right algorithm could have machines interpreting the world as early as 2014.
DARPA's MSEE to develop new mathematical language, race of sentient machines -- Engadget
Did NASA Discover Life on One of Saturn's Moons?
NASA is holding a press conference on Thursday "to discuss an astrobiology finding." Are they going to announce that they've found evidence of extraterrestrial life? Blogger Jason Kottke took a look at NASA's press release , which touts "an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life" (astrobiology, besides being a cool word, is "the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe"), and decided to investigate further by looking at the participants' resumes. So who are the participants? Now, yes, obviously, throw in a grizzled marine and you've got the making of an awesome movie about discovering aliens. But that's not (the only reason) why Kottke thinks the announcement will be about life on another world.
China's Second Mass UFO Sighting In Two Weeks - Technorati Technology - (Build 20100722150226)
Shanghai Daily is reporting that a mass UFO sighting has taken place in the Chinese city of Chongqing, less than two weeks after another UFO sighting disrupted airline travel in Hangzhou. On July 15, multiple witnesses reported “four lantern-like objects forming a diamond shape that hovered over Chongqing’s Shaping Park for over an hour.” This follows the July 7 sighting of “a twinkling object” which shut down Hangzhou’s Xioshan Airport for nearly an hour when first spotted over the city. Subsequent requests from UFO investigators to obtain radar images from Xioshan Airport were refused. The explanation given by airport officials, according to Shanghai Daily , was that “radar caught nothing.”
Harvard scientists reverse aging in mice, laugh maniacally at human possibilities -- Engadget
The reversal of aging has been one of the great dreams of humanity, but it seems like our rodent overlords have beat us to it. The Harvard Medical School has demonstrated "a dramatic reversal" in the aging process when reintroducing the enzyme telomerase into old and feeble mice. What happened was that their naturally worn out organs started to regenerate, instead of degenerating further, bringing them back to a youthful state of health.
Wye Junction Wye Junction is in the western tube of the Gotthard Base Tunnel. The right tunnel is the main western bore, while the left tunnel is a connecting spur into the main eastern bore. Creative Commons: Cooper.ch The Gotthard Base Tunnel, two parallel tubes of over 35 miles each through the Swiss Alps, is a ridiculously ambitious undertaking, one that has taken 14 years so far and still has a few left to go before it'll be operational.
After 14 Years of Drilling, the World's Longest Tunnel Breaks Through the Swiss Alps Today | Popular Science
WikiLeaks released audio recordings of Perupetro Vice President Alberto Quimper and Romulo León Alegría, a prominent member of Garcia’s ruling Aprista party, discussing under-the-table payments conditioned on Discover Petroleum obtaining oil exploration concessions.
WikiLeaks
The 100-year leap - O'Reilly Radar
In December 1837, the British mathematician Charles Babbage published a paper describing a mechanical computer that is now known as the Analytical Engine . Anyone intimate with the details of electronic computers will instantly recognize the components of Babbage's machine. Although Babbage was designing with brass and iron, his Engine has a central processing unit (which he called the mill) and a large amount of expandable memory (which he called the store). The operation of the Engine is controlled by program stored on punched cards, and punched cards can also be used to input data. Punched cards created for Babbage's Analytical Engine. From Flickr user lorentey .The Secret Code Inside the Supervirus Attacking Iran Nuclear Power
Software engineers analyzing the code inside Stuxnet, the supervirus that is focusing its attacks in Iran power plants , have found a secret code word that may point to its country of origin. The origin may be, oh surprise, Israel. Engineers reportedly found the word "Myrtus" inside the virus, which could be an allusion to the Book of Esther.
New Delhi: Astronomers have discovered an earth-like planet that could support the crucial conditions needed for life. The new planet sits directly in the middle of what is referred to as the habitable or Goldilocks zone, unlike any of the nearly 500 other planets astronomers have found outside Earth's solar system. Temperatures can be as hot as 71 degrees Celsius or as frigid as minus 4 degrees Celsius, but in between, in the land of constant sunrise, it would be "shirt-sleeve weather," according to co-discoverer Steven Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Earth-like planet that could support life found - India News - IBNLive
Video: Canadian Student Becomes First Human to Fly By Flapping Wings | Popular Science
Snowbird The Snowbird weighs just 94 pounds but has a wingspan that nearly matches a Boeing 737. University of Toronto A Canadian engineering student achieved sustained flight in a human-powered ornithopter for the first time in August, and has just filed a claim for a world record, according to the University of Toronto. The Snowbird is the first contraption of its kind to allow humans to fly like birds, by flapping massive wings to create lift. The record stands on the likely-enormous shoulders of Todd Reichert, an engineering PhD candidate at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, who designed and piloted the craft. An SUV towed him to takeoff, and then his wing-flapping device sustained altitude for 19.3 seconds and carried him 475 feet, with an average speed of 16 miles per hour.Kazakh and Russian researchers have received plasma for the first time at the Tokamak machine in the Kazakh town of Kurchatov, in the east of the republic. The news was reported by the prominent Russian physicist Yevgeny Velikhov. Both countries have been negotiating for many years the creation of a thermonuclear research centre at Kurchatov (the site of the former nuclear proving range near the city of Semipalatinsk). The Tokamak machine at Kurchatov will cost 15 million dollars. Tokamak (a Russian acronym of a Toroidal Chamber with Magnetic Coils) is a machine that uses a magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus.
First plasma obtained in Kazakhstan : Voice of Russia
Advanced Computer Worm Was Specifically Designed to Attack Iranian Nuclear Reactor, Experts Say | Popular Science
Atomic Iran Iran's quasi-official news agency released this image in an attempt to illustrate their nuclear intentions. The new Bushehr reactor is the country's first nuclear power plant. Iranian Students News AgencyCuring Blindness
July 27th, 2010 § At the International Conference on High Energy Physics someone said something about Supersymmetry. These guys are talking way over my head. But it sounds very exciting and I want to understand.