i finally converted from minidiscs to mp3 players today after half a decade of loyal md-ness. the whole idea of mds was only fun if you had people to swap mds with. but since nobody i know used mds anymore, and md support in the states is absolute suck (i still luv you minidisco), i couldnt bring myself to get the new sony hi-mds. and no i didnt get an ipod, which admittedly are quite pretty and shiny. i needed more than what the ipod offered, so i bought an iaudio. slim, shiny, rockin’.
[ audio selection | air – cherry blossom girl ]
wired has an interesting article today on the myriad of mars enthusiasts and alien life hypothesists that frequently point to evidence of an alien civilization on mars. with recent expeditions to mars, such as the mars global surveyor and the spirit and opportunity rovers, theres been an influx of new mars imagery for scientists and enthusiasts alike to pore over.
some of the first modern martian theories began to emerge in the 70’s when the viking probe began sending back images of what appeared to be 5-sided pyramids and a face on the surface of the planet. more recently, new images have been sent back from the mars global surveyor of what appear to be anomalous channels running along the surface, some which intersect at 90 degree angles, as well as blob-like structures with branching structures that actually appear to expand and shrink over the seasons. while the mars face and cydonian pyramids have since been dismissed (by scientists anyway) as tricks of light and shadow, the newer anomalies have yet to be explained. whether theyre ancient aqueducts, a network of subways, or just really coo rock and dirt formations, the human fascination with mars will probably continue unabated for some time. me personally, i really do hope that they turn out to be remnants of an ancient martian civilization (ala total recall), and the first thing the first explorers on mars get to do is to explore old ruins. the solar systems quite a boring corner of the galaxy right now…
> mars gone wild (via wired)
> ebtx mars face (take with a grain of salt)
fuck, look at that thing. the first time i saw the pic, i thought it was from willy wonka and that tv transmitting room where they shrink mike teevee. but the pic is actually of an old-school fixed head hard drive that purportedly holds 256K. for those who are curious what that translates to…1 kb is 0.001 megs, or 0.000001 gigs. and a 20 gig hd these days can be less than an inch. ah, progress.
> new hard drive (via gizmodo)
two interesting topics from the pages of scientific american…both on probabilities. the first is an interesting article about the likelihood that humanity will survive to the 22nd century. britains astronomer royal, sir martin rees, says we’re fucked. in his book our final hour, he points out numerous advances in technology that may potentially lead to our destruction, such as biochem, nanotech, etc. rees even has an ongoing bet for $1000 that “a biological incident will claim one million lives by 2020.” what a happy scenario…for $1k too. as humanity dives into more and more advanced sciences, more risks come along with the advantages gained. as rees states, “we cant enjoy the benefits of science without confronting the risks.” theres hope tho…if environmental and biomedical issues took higher precedence in political agendas, with the u.s. taking the lead. he points out however that with our current administrations paranoid stem cell research deficiencies and shite environmental policies, its not looking particularly pretty. good for us…yay.
PROBABILITY OF GOD
the second sci am article…decidedly more positive, and quite an interesting proposition at that, is about those who try and calculate the probability that god exists. beginning with a nice quote from a yeats poem, “the coat“:
i made my song a coat
covered with embroideries
out of old mythologies
from heel to throat;
but the fools caught it,
wore it in the world’s eyes
as though they’d wrought it.
song, let them take it,
for there’s more enterprise
in walking naked.
…the article takes off from there and examines the mingling of science and religion, subverting one to legitimize the other. and it brings to bear the book the probability of god by stephen unwin, a risk management consultant. rejecting the usual scientific creationist citations (intelligent design, etc…), he instead employs bayesian probabilities. bayesianism, like frequentism, utilizes probabilities assigned to variables. but whereas frequentism only assigns calculated probabilities to random events, bayesianism can assign subjective probabilities as well, regardless of calculated frequencies. in other words, the resultant calculations can vary from person-to-person, relative to their own determinations.
therefore taking unwins probability equation:
beginning with a 50-50 chance of existence (where D is the divine indicator scale. likelihood of evidence…10x, 1x, etc…) and going thru 6 lines of evidence, subjectivity already plays a part in the sequential equation. so in unwins equation, the probability that god exists comes to 67%, whereas the writers own equation turns up 2%. not exactly a concrete methodology, especially one that can contrast by 65%, but still interesting.
> dead by 2100 (via sci am)
> probability of god (via sci am)
pop sci had a brief article today about how DARPA is currently researching “adaptive camouflage” (ala the predator of um…predator, or motoko of ghost in the shell) for use by the soldiers of the future. “adaptive camouflage“, as its name implies and readily apparent in the comparison to predator (dur), is an advanced form of cloaking that allows the wearer to blend into their surroundings using an imaging camouflage that mimics its surroundings. its not so much invisibility as it is a more advanced form of concealment. the technology is also not so far off, and as nasa engineer philip moynihan points out, “It’s just a matter of when…“
the aforementioned “adaptive camouflage” is in many ways similar (same actually) as the invisibility cloak created by the japanese inventor susumu tachi, who is coincidentally still developing invisibility/transparent technologies. his newest pursuit is applying his technology to window-less rooms…one potential application of which is applying it to airplane cockpits so pilots have unobstructed views. the key component to tachi’s technology is the use of “retro-reflectum“, a new material that can transmit 3-dimensional images, allowing the “camouflage” to look more convincing than simply projecting images onto traditional surfaces. yay for stealth. this should revolutionize the ninja industry.
> DARPA pursuing stealth (via pop sci)
> new invisibility tech by susumu tachi (via bbc)
wired has a coo read today about blogging maestro nick denton, head of the gawker media group, and the weird world of blogging. the article tracks the rise of mainstream blogging via denton, looking into his stable of blogs that include gizmodo, gawker, wonkette, fleshbot, and kinja. you get to learn, among other things, his new residence in soho (he no longer lives across from me in alphabet city), the approximate compensation his bloggers get ($1500ish a month), and that he has an assload more blogs lined up to unleash upon the (blogging) world. the article also looks into how his little blogging empire has evolved, from the early days of gizmodo and peter rojas, gawker and elizabeth spiers, to their eventual departure and replacements. its an interesting read, to say the least…looking into how denton systematically built up his mini-empire of semi-profitable pro-blogging. it however wont give you any insight into why so many prominent bloggers are such snarky elitist condescending dicks.
> nick dentons blogging world (via wired)
while i generally consider myself a pacifist, ive always had this fascination with u.s. military hardware. its probably the sci-fi nerd in me exerting its influence, but ive always been interested in the myriad of high technology that runs rampant (and on many occasions, secretly) thru the defense departments r&d. in the past, new technologies took years…even decades to develop, test, and implement. in modern-day warfare however, the rules and environments change too fast for the old methodologies to keep up. tech these days are developed on the fly, harkening back to the days of ww2…when necessity dictated that new hardware be battle-ready within months. popular science has an interesting article today that takes a look at five of these emerging military tech developments, some of which are down-right frightening.
RAILGUNS
anybody whos ever seen the movie eraser, or played the games quake or metal gear solid should be quite familiar with the rail gun, a launch system that uses electromagnetic rails to launch a heavy metal slug a ridiculous distance. for those that dont know, railguns are already a reality…tho implementation of the 20-year old technology is currently limited because of the massive amounts of energy required. thanks to the development of next-generation all-electric battleships however, the navy is looking to develop destroyers that utilize railguns in conjunction with satellite targetting. the premise is that the destroyer acquires a target, launches its projectile at mach 7 into orbit, and a satellite guides the projectile back down towards the target…vaporizing it thru sheer kinetic energy. very scary. the technology is currently in development and probably wont be seen til 2015 at the earliest.
RODS FROM GOD
a similar technology to the satellite-guided railgun, but instead of having a railgun launch the projectile, the projectiles are stored in satellites orbiting the earth. a pair of satellites, a carrier and a guidance vehicle, would acquire a target, drop a projectile (a 20 ft tungsten rod for example) into the atmosphere, and the rod would be guided towards the target on earth in excess of 36,000 ft per second (the speed of a meteor)…essentially assuring that the target will not exist in a matter of seconds. fucks sake, thats a scary technology. a variant of the technology that seems more viable would be to utilize icbms instead as carrier vehicles.
A MILLION ROUNDS A MINUTE
and now for whats probably the scariest of the technologies highlighted…not only because of its capabilities, but also because the technology is already being tested and implemented. metal storm is a new gun technology currently being developed that does away with all moving parts of a traditional gun. metal storm instead relies on “electronic ballistic technology and computerized controls,” to send signals to the bullets so they fire. with each bullet computerized and not requiring mechanical moving parts to discharge, the gun is capable of launching a million bullets a minute in a constant stream. a million…shit. while a handheld gun would most likely not want such a high rate of fire…as the article points out, “no soldier would want to reload every three milliseconds“…a vehicle-mounted gun could. the high rate of fire would make the vehicle an effective “aerial-denial” weapon. “…if you’ve got one of these mounted in an aircraft and have a rocket-propelled grenade coming at you, you can in an instant have 200 little bullets intercepting it.” and creating a multi-barrel variant with all barrels capable of joint-firing would make a pretty sick gunship…an a-10 warthog on steroids. while the defense department is currently funding development of metal storm, it would still take another 5-10 years before they are put into use.
> future weapons technology (via pop sci)
> metal storm official website
mmm…only $2,400. “thats like lunch money,” i would say if i were actually filthy rich. the qualia 017 md player is “individually crafted from a solid brass block“…for only the most discerning rich bastard. at least those who even know what an md is…
> qualia 017 md player (via engadget)
ah the life of luxury. with the steep rise in shallow consumerism ala sex and the city and the emergence of stupid terms like bling bling, it was inevitable that one of the main showcases of wealth…technology…strode right into the world you cant afford. ny times has an interesting article today on the new luxury market for spiffy electronics. even though companies like bang and olufsen have always catered to people with more money, sony is overstepping them all into the world of the ridiculous with their new qualia line. having drooled over the qualia cam in a past post, the qualia name actually encompasses an entire line of uber-expensive electronics that are geared towards quality above all else. $15,000 for a stereo system, $12,000 for a television (not plasma), and a $30,000 home-theater projector…nothing the average person can afford. and youre not just paying for the electronics…youre paying for a way of life. because even after you purchase your qualia product, they coddle you to no end.
“In Week 1 after purchase, the customer is to receive a personalized letter from his or her Qualia concierge.
In Week 4, the customer is to get a choice of “welcoming gifts,” like tickets to a performance by Yo-Yo Ma, Bruce Springsteen or another Sony Music artist. Thereafter, the customer will receive a Qualia quarterly newsletter.“
yesh. the article even goes into some of the other luxury brands that have emerged, such as the $15,000 nokia/vertu cell or that tacky diamond-encrusted motorola custom-made by jacob the jeweler. now im not usually one to poo on the mass consumerism of our society. my friend min would even tell you that im all for the mass consumption of swishy products. but id have to draw the line here somewhere because…well, this is just pathetically excessive. the filthy rich wouldnt buy these products to make their existence any easier (than it already is). and theyre not getting a super-exclusive technology available only to those that can afford them (like those shuper-secret mind-control machines, or the anti-fart pills). these products exist solely so the purchaser can flaunt them to his other affluent friends at the hamptons as they drink cristal and name their children chad and skylar. even porsches and lambourghinis, as expensive as they are, were built to blow away all their cheaper brethren. feh…i suppose ive always attributed wealth more towards what youre capable of doing, not necessarily what youre capable of blowing scads of money on.
> luxury electronics (via ny times)
> qualia homepage (jp)
egad…me wants! following the super-small sony t1 comes its successor, the even thinner t11. its both smaller and swishier than its predecessor, and is set to be priced at around $540. blah…sigh.
> new sony t11 (via engadget)