Bloggers Key to the Future of Journalism?

Digitial Trends has an article today about the impact Bloggers are having with Journalism specifically in the USA.

Here is a key excerpt from the article:

55% of Americans believe bloggers are important while 74% said citizen journalism will play a vital role.

Good article to read.

Guide to Flickr Tools

Digital Trends has compiled a fantastic guide to Flickr. This compilation guides you through add ons available for the Flickr community.

If you are a user of Flickr this is a must read.

Here is a linkback to Joe Duck for focusing my radar on Flickr in the first place. Thanks Joe!

http://joeduck.wordpress.com/2007/01/30/fred-flickrs-frickin-fantastic/

Meet the iPhone Killer!

Now this is a multimedia phone. Nvidia's Quark Smartphone really looks to be the player for 2007.

The following link has a video of the user experience with the Quark and needless to say it establishes a new bar for user experience! It is even better than the PSP accoriding to Gizmodo! Thanks Gizmodo for your outstanding coverage!

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/nvidias-quark-smartphone-shows-its-ui-237215.php

This phone will be at the top of my list as soon as it is released and available in the USA!

Antarctic temperatures disagree with climate model predictions

Just another example of why the Global Warming issue needs a lot more scientific study! We need to better understand all of this before the politicians spend trillions!

Time for the politics to take a backseat and let science do its thing!

This article points out that the current temperatures in Antarctica are not jiving with the forecast models that are the ones supporting the Global Warming argument. If the recent and current REAL data for the area is different than the forecast model then what variable, assumption needs adjustment?

We really need to get to the bottom of this and not become sheeple just jumping on what we think is the next politically correct bandwagon. There is just too much at stake here.

World's First Commercial Quantum Computer

DailyTech has a great article tonight about D-Wave's 16-qubit processor and the first commercially viable quantum computer.

The pictures are fascinating and when I look at them I can't help but think what people were feeling when they say the first photos of main-frames.

This computer marks a milestone in the next evolutionary step of computer processing. The promise of quantum computing will certainly change our existence.

D-Wave founder has a blog as well which can be found here: http://dwave.wordpress.com/ (Geordie Rose)

Check out the article - DailyTech did a great job on this report!

What's up with Google today? Renamed to Googe?

This is a screenshot I took of Google today. Either they are trying to be cute with the stem of the strawberry to be the L in their name or somebody has really messed up.

Either way this will be fixed soon so I have captured the screenshot so you can see...

Does anybody know what's up with this?

WOW - Mobile Networks Powered By Wind

This is a fantastic idea and one I have been pushing for! All they need to do is add WiMax to the solution and you really have a home run here!

This would be perfect to roll out in areas like Oregon and other parts of our vast wilderness!

I am sure SAR related agencies would welcome this level of technology to their areas. Can you imagine the difference in can make in finding someone?

Also there is tremendous commerce opportunity for states to interact with tourists in remote areas as well including advertising coupled with multimedia history of the area.

ABSURD - 73 Great Grandmother Elks Lodge Bartender Faces up to 1 Year in Jail for $50 Football Pool!

This story just takes the cake! How absurd will our society get when our LE has the time to deal with this! Aren't there some serious perps out there that need apprehending?

73 year old great grandmother who tends bar at the local Elks Club in Lake Elsinore was arrested after a tip of a football pool being run at the club! The football pool envelope had 10 - $5 bills in it! A massive $50 pool and the seasoned criminal had an accomplice - a volunteer waitress!

The real story is who and why would tip authorities over something like this...sounds like a plot for a Seinfeld comeback! Someone should find out who filed the tip and they should be vetted out in this process.

Wow they probably put Thelma and Louise to shame! The two face up to a $5,000 fine and one year in jail and the Elks may lose their liquor license. Of course one would hope a judge would just dismiss this. However, this happened in California after all and I will never understand the decisions the judges make in that state.

Maybe Arnold can step up and pardon these two after they convicted and thrown in jail.

A new satellite could see shadow of extra dimensions

David Shiga over at New Scientists reports on a new satellite to be launched next year that could possibly detect theoretical dimensions beyond the common 3 we are familiar with.

The satellite might be able to detect the hint of the extra dimensions in the afterglow of the big bang. The afterglow is from the cosmic microwave background that describes the structure of the universe from about 370,000 years after the big bang. But hey what's a few hundred thousand years when you are talking about billions!

This is fascinating as the extra dimensions are key to string theory which is attempting to unify everything into a single theory of everything. 2007 looks to be an exciting year for science (as long as we can keep the politics at bay!) as the Large Hadron Collider is to go online by the end of the year and will provide our first real glimpse into the reality of string theory. If it proves out it will change everything and we will all have to face the fact that there just might be unlimited parallel universes!

CO2 being pushed deep into the oceans

New Scientist has an interesting article discussing the absorption rate of CO2 by our oceans. While it may seem to be good news as far how much of the greenhouse gas can be absorbed by our oceans it isn't such great news for the marine life that has to deal with the added CO2 levels which leads to ocean acidification.

Once again another major variable in the climate change discussion that you don't hear much about. We truly know so little about our planet and its resolve to survive no matter what we throw at it. I just can't help but think the planet has survived for billions of years and will figure out a way to survive for many more.

More research needs to happen in regard to climate change and somehow we need to remove politics from the equation - yes I know a pipe dream but wouldn't it be great if that happened.

Global-warming skeptics cite being 'treated like a pariah'

Eric Pfeiffer over at The Washington Times has a follow up article regarding the scientists that are ostrasized who are bucking the current politically correct Global Warming consensus.

All serious science needs checks and balances and scientists are supposed to challenge each other but in the case of Global Warming they are making it a political agenda and unleashing all of the negative flurry associated with opposing political viewpoints. That fact alone makes the current science behind the Global Warming consensus suspect.

How are to believe what we are being told is in any way accurate and the truth? With most political agendas there is typically a grain of truth but sadly that's all - just a grain.

It seems scientists are more eager to jump on the bandwagon that will lead to more grant money instead of looking at the scientific ramifications of these assessments and eventual supporting decisions.

I just read another article about Geo-engineering where scientists are trying to promote projects that will shield our planet from sunlight to help curb global warming - doesn't anyone out there think that some of these suggestions could be ultimately disastrous for our planet?

We need to shun the politicians taking advantage for political gain on these important issues. Doesn't it seem ironic that people like Al Gore probably produce more emissions in one year than the average person does in their lifetime? Maybe if they start practicing what they preach the rest of us can start believing them.

Remember what happens to people that just blindly drink the kool-aid!

Personal dishmaker in your home!

Leonardo Bonanni has invented the personal dishmaker. It literally will create all the dishes you need within minutes and guess what - you don't ever have to wash dishes again. You can recycle the dishes.

The acrylic templates can be recycled and shaped into new dishes about 100 times before degrading the quality of the material.

This project has great promise and is really an amazing idea and invention. The whole machine takes up similar space as a dishwasher.

Check out the website for this is a youtube video that is a must watch.

Leonardo bring this product out!

Man-made climate change may be happening at a slower rate than claimed!

There are so many variables at play here with the Global Warming issue. Controversial new research is upsetting the apple cart!

Over the pond at the Telegraph is an article discussing the impact of cosmic rays that are creating the global warming when they hit our atmosphere.

Another key read in this current argument!

Science behind Global Warming argument must be challenged

Article in the TimesOnline in the UK today discussing the issues behind the science regarding the current Global Warming consensus. A must read for anyone serious about this issue.

We need to fully understand this before trillions of dollars are spent on this - we can spend the money on better things.

"Night Wind" aims to maximize energy produced by the wind

Roland Piquepaille discusses a brilliant idea on his blog this weekend.

Basically a test is being conducted where energy that is being created by the wind will be stored in refridgerated warehouses through a method of increased cooling during the night and decreased cooling during the peak daytime hours. Esenttially allowing the extra energy to be used during peak.

The project is being reported at Nature but Roland does a much better job at describing it and uses an energy consumption chart to illustrate the idea.

It is these incremental ideas that will make the biggest difference in our energy usage and will work to cut our ongoing emissions into the atmosphere. The time has come for wind energy.

Latest search information regarding Jim Gray

Check out this blog to get the most up to date information on the search for Jim Gray. They can use your help if you can spare some time!

He has been missing since the last week of January when he set out alone in his 40 foot sailboat Tenacious to deliver his mother's ashes to the Farallon Islands.

NY Times publisher: Our goal is to manage the transition from print to internet

Very interesting article regarding the struggles the NY Times is facing and the reality of the changing landscape for print newspapers.

They face several uphill battles and this is one to watch to see the transformation and transition. Good to see they are being open about the challenges they are facing.

Lesson for all of us as other traditional businesses are going to face similar changes in the relatively near future.

Good luck to NY Times!

FishCam gives worm's eye view

Ah now this is a great invention! Now you can add the fishcam to your fishing experience and actually find the fish and dangle their prize right in front of their eyes!

This is progress, now if they could add motion detection to the unit so that you could be catching the latest episode of 24 while your fishing and have it automatically pause and switch to fishview when your dinner is near.

Of course the purists are up in arms about this but hey get over it! This looks like it will actually make fishing that much more fun - isn't that always the case when gadgets are used!

Dutch scientist says software can cut car fuel use

This is an example of an incremental change easily implemented that can cut fuel use anywhere from 2.5% to 6% and on a global level that would amount to a lot of fuel saved and emissions reduced.

It is too bad that the automotive manufacturers are still stuck on combustion engines. We really need to switch sooner rather than later.

Delaware scientist's view on climate change criticized - because he doesn't agree with the current assessment!

Another scientist being attack and demonized in the media for not supporting the current assessment that humans are responsible for global warming.

The argument tends to be in the line of, well these opposing scientists have been funded by the major oil or auto manufacturers so they can't be right - but who is to say the scientists that are getting funding from Greenpeace and other leftist organizations are right?

It really seems odd to me that a group of scientists can take less than 100 years of data (or even take 10,000 years of data) and how they can conclude that humans are responsible for the current Global Warming trend? There just isn't enough data and analysis to back it up. The earth has gone through thousands of transformation over the last 4.5 billion years and it just seems absurd to me that a conclusion can be drawn like they are doing today with Global Warming.

I am sure it is true that human generated emissions can impact Global Warming but I don't believe we can impact it enough either way to make a difference long-term. Of course people convincing themselves that they are going to save the planet is a great high-five club!

Take a look at the impact of volcanic eruptions. I think we face a more immediate and direct threat from large volcanic eruptions (could be the rebirth of the great Global Cooling panic of the '70's) - the point is there are so many things that could ruin our day from asteroids to nuclear war.

I think we can find a much better way to spend our money. Interesting how history repeats itself - back in the '70's the big panic was Global Cooling and that didn't quite work out like all the scientists predicted.

I also think it is prudent to be a good steward to mother earth but this alarmist and political approach to influence legislation and create an avalanche of new laws (don't we have enough laws now that don't work?) will just hinder progress, create higher costs, etc...

We have a bigger issue regarding available resources on this planet - I think we will deplete available resources a lot sooner than we could impact climate change long-term.

We should definitely work to curbing our emissions - here is an idea - take the trillions of dollars that are going to be wasted on the Global Warming agenda and put it toward creating FREE energy and then make unlimited energy available to the entire planet!

That would pretty much eliminate all of the industrial emissions - IMO that is a worthwhile effort!

If catastrophe strikes tomorrow, are we ready?

Interesting article on CNET today about our preparedness of first responders to major catastrophes.

The real issue is communication and how to get all of the various agencies and groups working together quickly to maximize the benefit of the deployed resources and to do it quickly.

Depending on the level of catastrophe the initial response can make a difference of how long and the depth of suffering will incur to those affected.

We have seen similar issues in personal catastrophes like the James Kim story and there seems to be a strong need for a centralized communication hub that allows immediate coordination of response scaling from a local level all the way up to national and eventually globally.

Depending on the magnitude of the catastrophe there could be massive interference with our current communication infrastructure and capabilities. A robust and hardened solution is necessary and a worthwhile investment for the American public.

Another seemingly wasted resource is the army of volunteers that are eager to help out and lend assistance. Typically in the past this has been mainly recognized by the level of financial support that people have donated during and shortly after a crisis.

Today we are seeing a new type of support where people through the internet are banding together to provide ideas, clues, and actually do legwork to assist. The current search for Jim Gray is a prime example of thousands of volunteers teaming together on Amazon Mechanical Turk scanning and processing over 500,000 satellite images covering 3,500 sq miles of ocean and it was completed in 5 days!

Granted the current state of organized collaboration tools is primitive but I believe this is the beginning of a new wave of tools about to reach the Internet.

One individual I mentioned a lot is Joe Duck in Oregon who IMHO has really led a new beginning in blog communication to assist in a new way for national media grabbing search and rescues stories.

The James Kim story really took hold over at Joe's blog (http://joeduck.wordpress.com/) and literally every major figure involved in the story has commented there (over 10,000 posts so far). It could be argued whether the thread over at Joe's had any impact during the search (personally I think it did) but it surely had a major impact with the aftermath and allowed a lot of people, a place to express their opinions and brought closure to many issues that people were interested in and passionate about. Finally it has created a lot of ideas to help in future searches and it will be interesting to see what spawns from the efforts over there.

Governor of Oregon to fire state's climatologist because he doesn't agree with Global Warming

George Taylor is going to lose his job as the State of Oregon's Climantologist because he doesn't agree with the current Global Warming assessment.

Dr. Ball in Canadian made this prediction that scientists who opposed this massive political agenda would start to lose their jobs.

Again if the facts of reality fly in the way of achieving the State of Oregon's goals of reducing greenhouse gases then heads must roll!

I am sure Joe Duck (http://joeduck.wordpress.com/) from Oregon will chime in and give us his two cents on this...seems kind of an extreme reaction especially firing someone with 16 years experience.

It is time to eliminate the DayLight Savings Plan

Let's spring the clocks forward this year and then forget about it! Time to retire the old daylight savings switchback in the fall!

It would just make things a lot easier.

About time - Steve Jobs wants to actually eliminate DRM!!!

Wow Steve Jobs wants to eliminate DRM from the music scene! I am a firm believer that copy protection just hurts legitimate buyers. In fact it was iTunes on many occasions losing my purchase rights and I literally had to re-purchase songs that was the main reason I ditched the iTunes platform.

I typically go through a lot of hardware and software upgrades during the year and iTunes really had a lot problems with that. In fact every time iTunes would want to upgrade itself I used to worry about what songs I would lose.

On top of that I burned through several iPods over the years (hard drive and battery problems), same problems kept occurring at almost the exact same time when I got replacements and of course they were out of warranty.

If they really are going to move to this type of environment I think it would be a good reason to look at the iTunes platform again however WMP11 is pretty decent.

Steve Jobs also makes other good points and explains very well the up and downs with DRM and why they did it in the first place.

Democrats overwhelmingly supporting Global Warming agenda as a centerpiece to gain more power

Interesting summary of where the Democrats and Republicans stand on the issue. I believe that the Democrats are forcing Global Warming as an agenda pusher and election winner. I can only imagine the type of oppressive legislation that will evolve as a result of this.

For some reason they love to spew the fear doctrine to get all the sheeple aligned. But this agenda involves trillions of dollars and that money could be applied to many better things that will improve our existence for the long-term.

There are credible scientists on both sides of the Global Warming issue and quite frankly we have not been here on earth nor have we tracked the changes in climate long enough to fully understand and forecast how much of an impact we are having with global warming. In fact I can't even stand it that we are capitalizing the words now! The earth survived just fine for 4.5 billion years before we arrived and will survive for billions of more years after we have been replaced here.

One major volcanic eruption spews more emissions than the combined emission of the entire human race since the beginning of time. Now if you accept that and you can go back and research how many major volcanic eruptions that have occurred - how can it be possible the we are having any discernible impact on global warming? It just doesn't add up.

We definitely need to curb our emissions and not because we need to stem global warming, we need to do it because it is the right thing to do for our health. We also need to focus our energies and monies on breakthrough energy technologies and quickly eliminate our dependence on foreign oil.

Should I be worried? Blogger malfunctions - loss of data

Wow - we spend a lot of time putting things up on our blogs and now we find out the new version that we all switched to has a lot of problems still - the biggest being data loss!!!

I wonder if I will experience data loss because I am posting this article - ironically it is being reported on Yahoo!

If you are experiencing or have experienced any issues with Blogger put your comments here! Let's see what is going on and how long before we suffer from a magical data loss!

World's Oldest Newspaper Goes Digital

Sweden's Post-och Inrikes Tidningar newspaper has gone digital only as of Jan 1st. They have dropped their print publication. This is the world's oldest newspaper and it seems fitting that one of the (if not the) first newspaper to go digital.

It will be interesting to see how print media evolves from today's standard, next with electronic paper it surely is going to start to change faster.

What will people use for their birds and new puppies? Guess Wal-mart will have to come up with a news paper product to sell for bird cages!

Global Warming is a Farce! Get the cold hard facts!

Finally an authority talking some sense! Dr. Timothy Ball the first Canadian Ph.D. in Climatology speaks out and puts an interesting perspective on the whole Global Warming discussion.

What I found most interesting is around the time the Electric Slide was invented (1976) scientists were screaming the greatest threat we faced was Global Cooling - WRONG!

The fact of the matter is we really don't have a clue. We have been guests on this planet for a fraction of the time it has existed. Combining politics with science is turning these well educated Ph.D.'s into actuaries - you know the old "well how do you want the numbers to look?".

Smart people deserve better than this. We shouldn't be tricked into spending trillions of dollars on foolhardy science. Unfortunately the sheeple keep listening to this agenda. I think it is more about a group of people that want to ultimately think they are doing something good for the entire planet so they can sit around and pat each other on the back!

I applaud Dr. Ball for writing this article - his viewpoint and arguments actually make sense and the point about the enormous waste of money spent on Global Warming is out of hand. That kind of money could really make a difference on issues that really matter.

With all that said I am a firm believer in alternatives to oil. We need to end our dependence on Middle Eastern oil ASAP and get out of there and let them go back to fighting their thousands of years old wars!

Ping back to Joe Duck for bringing this topic back to the forefront!

http://joeduck.wordpress.com/2007/02/02/global-warming-report-logical-conclusion-ignore-global-warming/

WOW - Cool flexible shape-shifting chair, sofa, piece of art!

Now this is really cool. Gizmodo has a great video of the capabilities of this simple but interesting shape-shifting piece of furniture.

Not much to say except you just need to see the video - it says it all!

ABSURD - Inventor of Electric Slide leveraging DMCA to stop bad dancing!

Now this is getting a little crazy. Richard Silver claims to hold the copyright on the Electric Slide dance and is using the DCMA hammer on everything from YouTube to The Ellen DeGeneres Show to force licensing from the perps!

Richard who supposedly invented the Electric Slide in 1976 filed for his copyright in 2004 must be low on cash or something. Richard claims that there are too many examples of the dance that are performed incorrectly and he doesn't want future generations learning it wrong!

That is a bunch of Hoo Hockey! Get real Richard it was a lousy dance in 1976 and that hasn't changed! You should have copyrighted it back in 1976 - real nice to hoodwink people 30 years later! That just isn't cool.

This is another prime example of copyrights going wrong. Next he will claim a use patent on toe inflexion during the slide!

Maybe Richard can join up with the NFL and go after all the people who are watching NFL players doing the Electric Slide in the end zone after a touch down on screens bigger than 55"!

Aye yi yi! Richard go get a job like the rest of us and stop whining because you haven't invented anything worthwhile since 1976. BTW that was over 30 years ago and the Ford Pinto was all the rage back then too!

IMHO this is another prime example of what holds us back! These artificial barriers ultimately suppress innovation and creativity and hinder people from achieving great things for everyone!

Videotron testing 400% faster internet service

2007 seems to be the year for Internet speed to jump to the next level. Videotron is testing a service in the Montreal area that provides 100 megabits per second - now thats LAN speed on the NET! Of course a lot of us have already moved to duplex gigabit LANs but at least the Internet speed is improving. Now if we could get all the inter-connects up to higher speeds!

I thought my FiOS is nice but 15 Mbps compared to 100 Mbps. The Canadian social health care might be worth putting up with to get 100 Mbps Internet! :)

They are partnered with Cisco and they claim the speeds are possible due to a new technological breakthrough. Hopefully we will see this technology available here in the States and in many other places sooner rather than later.

Rumor has it FiOS can scale to close to 200 Mbps per subscriber. I think this is definitely the beginning of another transformation of the net and will certainly bring serious competition to the existing cable and phone providers.

WOW - Corsair releases PC10000 RAM

Corsair has done it again. They have released their newest RAM (PC-10000) yep that's right 10,000 or 1250MHz. Of course they come with their own air cooler and must be pretty darn hot while running. People in the Midwest will welcome these with the current cold spell that is hitting them up there.

Of course Tom's Hardware does an excellent review and compares them to other formidable offerings from Corsair. It does dominate the benchmarks they perform against other RAM speeds including DDR2-800 and DDR2-1066 however, the timings had to be relaxed at 5-5-5-18 2T instead of 4-4-4-12 2T.

Take a look at the review conclusion to get Tom's Hardware excellent summary and suggestion regarding this new barn burning RAM!

Where did life come from?

Wired Mag and Big Questions Wiki have an interesting article today about the origins of life.

The answer is pretty simplistic and has not been validated in any lab so you can imaging the banter is already starting on the conversation threads.

It is part of a bigger set of questions (42 of the biggest questions in science). Yes Douglas Adams still lives on with that famous answer to everything: 42!

Here is the link to the other 41 questions: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/bigquestions.html

'Lost' preview doubles as Windows Vista Ad

Found this on Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog.

Seems Microsoft is leveraging its new graphic capabilities of Vista right into the promotional advertising it is sponsoring.

In the case of the new ABC episodes of Lost - the commercial features different scenes from Lost flipping in 3D on the screen - yes it is Vista's new Flip 3D interface. For those that are familiar with Vista the effect works and it looks really cool!

At Todd's blog you can see the video or you can click to see it here:

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/video/player.asp?videoID=57

Let me know what you think!

B.C. researchers find cancer-killing 'decoy'

Researchers from the British Columbia Cancer Agency have announced a major breakthrough in the treatment of prostate cancer.

If prostate cancer is caught early enough current treatments are very effective however, if caught too late typically only the tumor growth and disease progression can be slowed down but the disease is still terminal.

What is key about Dr. Sadar's treatment is the ability to introduce 'decoy' molecules which increase androgen receptors which in turn effectively block the growth of prostate cancer cells and not only do they stop growing they actually begin to shrink.

Now the pharmas need to jump on the approach and create a human drug and hopefully it won't take too many years to get it out!

Before this approach people with advanced prostate cancer typically just had a few years to live.

Hats off to Dr. Sadar who made a career decision 12 years ago to go after cancer - her greatest hope was to make a breakthrough in the treatment of cancer and now she has!

Can't wait to see what she does next - hope I don't have to wait 12 years for her next breakthrough.

Ocean Planets on the Brink of Detection

Over in super geekland - Physorg.com has an interesting article about the possibility of other water world existing. Even though we don't have an "active" water world (beside Earth) in our solar system it seems reasonable that somewhere within the billions of other planets that exists there must be some that are water worlds.

And I thought that was a movie with Kevin Costner!

The article makes an interesting point about Earth and that the water content on Earth is 1 part in 4400, yet it covers two-thirds of the surface. The theory of water planets encompasses many variations of its composition and they are not necessarily built like earth.

The article concludes that our current best shot at detecting water planets will come from the recent launch of CoRoT satellite.

Remember where there is water there is the best chance for life - at least as know it!

ABSURD - NFL now trying enforce copyright infringement if you have a screen bigger than 55 inches and have your friends over to watch!

Techdirt has an article today that really makes you shake your head. It seems there is a really poorly written copyright law on the books (another great slice of mastery from a lobbyist no doubt) that basically states once you are above 55 inches for your display it is considered a "public performance".

Aye yi yi!

The NFL is trying to stop a church from having a Super Bowl party! I am not quite sure how the NFL loses anything by a church having its members gather to watch "the big game"!

The copyright and patents laws are starting to show their limitations and really need to be re-visited and updated to match what is reality today.

Between MLB and the NFL and their legal saber rattling it is a wonder why anyone watches these sports anymore.

Take a look at the article over on Techdirt as it has even more information.