|
|
| XiXiDu.com - All about XiXiDu (Mr X) aka Dominique Alexander Kruel XiXiDu.com - All about XiXiDu aka Alexander Kruel In Category: International | Rate This Forum! Body Text: All about XiXiDu (Mr X) aka Dominique Alexander Kruel Global Internet Telescope06-10-2004 European and US radio astronomers have demonstrated a new way of observing the Universe – through the Internet! Using cutting-edge technology, the researchers have managed to observe both a distant star and the "monster in the middle" of a galaxy far away from our Milky Way. For this, they have used the world's research computer networks to create a giant virtual telescope. This allows imaging of the objects with unprecedented detail, and in real-time, which would have been impossible only a few years ago. The star chosen for this remarkable demonstration, IRC+10420, is one of the most unusual in the sky. Surrounded by clouds of dusty gas and emitting strongly in radio waves, the object is poised at the end of its life, heading toward a cataclysmic explosion known as a 'supernova'. In contrast, the active galactic nucleus studied is that of the galaxy 3C166, situated 3.2 billion light years from the Earth. More (Source): naic.edu Nanopatterned Medium Recording06-10-2004 Nanopatterned Medium Recording Holds Promise for Multibillion Dollar Data Storage Industry Storing the entire Library of Congress on a Palm Pilot or putting 1,000 movies on a two-inch disk may sound like incredibly futuristic goals, but University of Houston engineers are working swiftly toward making them a reality. These remarkable achievements could become feasible if researchers in UH's Cullen College of Engineering are successful in their bid to create the first nanopatterned medium recording (N-PMR) at the scale of one terabyte per square inch and explore the physical limits of magnetic data storage in units only four nanometers in size. More (Source): physorg.com The Falling Scales05-10-2004 Last week President Bush found himself defending his record on national security without his usual protective cocoon of loyalty-tested audiences and cowed reporters. And the sound you heard was the scales' falling from millions of eyes. Trying to undo the damage, Mr. Bush is now telling those loyalty-tested audiences that Senator John Kerry's use of the phrase "global test" means that he "would give foreign governments veto power over our national security decisions." He's lying, of course, as anyone can confirm by looking at what Mr. Kerry actually said. But it may still work - Mr. Bush's pre-debate rise in the polls is testimony to the effectiveness of smear tactics. Still, something important happened on Thursday. Style probably mattered most: viewers were shocked by the contrast between Mr. Bush's manufactured image as a strong, resolute leader and his whiny, petulant behavior in the debate. But Mr. Bush would have lost even more badly if post-debate coverage had focused on substance. Here's one underreported example: So far, Mr. Bush has paid no political price for his shameful penny-pinching on domestic security and his refusal to provide effective protection for America's ports and chemical plants. As Jonathan Chait wrote in The New Republic: "Bush's record on homeland security ought to be considered a scandal. Yet, not only is it not a scandal, it's not even a story." But Mr. Kerry raised the issue, describing how the administration has failed to protect us against terrorist attacks. Mr. Bush's response? "I don't think we want to get to how he's going to pay for all these promises." Oh, yes we do. According to Congressional Budget Office estimates, Mr. Bush's tax cuts, with their strong tilt toward the wealthy, are responsible for more than $270 billion of the 2004 budget deficit. Increased spending on homeland security accounts for only $20 billion. That shows the true priorities of the self-proclaimed "war president." Later, Mr. Bush, perhaps realizing his mistake, asserted, "Of course we're doing everything we can to protect America." But he had already conceded that he isn't. More (Source): nytimes.com The Nuclear Bomb That Wasn't05-10-2004 Of all the justifications that President Bush gave for invading Iraq, the most terrifying was that Saddam Hussein was on the brink of developing a nuclear bomb that he might use against the United States or give to terrorists. Ever since we learned that this was not true, the question has been whether Mr. Bush gave a good-faith account of the best available intelligence, or knowingly deceived the public. The more we learn about the way Mr. Bush paved the road to war, the more it becomes disturbingly clear that if he was not aware that he was feeding misinformation to the world, he was about the only one in his circle who had not been clued in. The foundation for the administration's claim that it acted on an honest assessment of intelligence analysis - and the president's frequent claim that Congress had the same information he had - has been steadily eroded by the reports from the Senate Intelligence Committee and the 9/11 commission. A lengthy report in The Times on Sunday removed any lingering doubts. The only physical evidence the administration offered for an Iraqi nuclear program were the 60,000 aluminum tubes that Baghdad set out to buy in early 2001; some of them were seized in Jordan. Even though Iraq had a history of using the same tubes to make small rockets, the president and his closest advisers told the American people that the overwhelming consensus of government experts was that these new tubes were to be used to make nuclear bomb fuel. Now we know there was no such consensus. Mr. Bush's closest advisers say they didn't know that until after they had made the case for war. But in fact, they had plenty of evidence that the claim was baseless; it was a long-discounted theory that had to be resurrected from the intelligence community's wastebasket when the administration needed justification for invading Iraq. The tubes-for-bombs theory was the creation of a low-level C.I.A. analyst who got his facts, even the size of the tubes, wrong. It was refuted within 24 hours by the Energy Department, which issued three papers debunking the idea over a four-month period in 2001, and by the International Atomic Energy Agency. A week before Mr. Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, in which he warned of an Iraqi nuclear menace, international experts in Vienna had dismissed the C.I.A.'s theory about the tubes. The day before, the International Atomic Energy Agency said there was no evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program and rejected the tubes' tale entirely. It's shocking that with all this information readily available, Secretary of State Colin Powell still went before the United Nations to repeat the bogus claims, an appearance that gravely damaged his reputation. It's even more disturbing that Vice President Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, had not only failed to keep the president from misleading the American people, but had also become the chief proponents of the "mushroom cloud" rhetoric. If Ms. Rice did her job and told Mr. Bush how ludicrous the case was for an Iraqi nuclear program, then Mr. Bush terribly misled the public. If not, she should have resigned for allowing her boss to start a war on the basis of bad information and an incompetent analysis. More (Source): nytimes.com Holographic 360-Degree 3D Imaging System05-10-2004 3Dsolar display devices are set to transform the way individuals experience multimedia content both at work and home. For the very first time, computer users will be able to view 3D objects hovering a few inches away from a screen that rotates 380 degrees - without wearing glasses. The notable feature is the way users will be able to manipulate the virtual image directly with their hands as they would a real object. Because the images are created using a single 2D view, content providers will not have to incorporate hundreds or thousands of separate images to create the 3Dsolar effect, thus enabling them to re-focus on their core business, and develop 3D images more rapidly. "3Dsolar is light years beyond holography and autostereoscopy in that designers can create images that are highly detailed in color, design and animation," said Patrick Levy Rosenthal, inventor of 3Dsolar. "3Dsolar technology is true innovation for businesses of all kinds," added Mr. Levy Rosenthal. "Imagine a 3Dsolar screen displaying selected store products 8 inches away from the actual retail store window and offering the passerby the possibility to interact with the virtual objects." The 3Dsolar device projects the Windows or MAC desktop image into the air whereby users click on icons for manipulation. Its high resolution guarantees quality output with ideal contrast, brightness and color behavior, thus enabling accurate and precise visualization without straining the eyes. "Additionally, on May 14, 2004, a 3Dsolar prototype was presented to the French Minister of Research, Mr. Francois d'Aubert and former Minister of Finance, Mr. Arthuis, both of whom were very impressed with the product." More (Source): spacedaily.com Super Language Learners05-10-2004 Memory Module Explains Super Language Learners More active in people with greater proficiency in foreign tongues The ease at which some people adopt a second language may stem from a highly proficient short-term memory module. Researcher Michael Chee and colleagues at Singapore General Hospital have found that the activity of brain regions controlling phonological working memory (PWM)—the type of short-term memory used to remember letters, words and digits—is greater in people who are highly adept at learning a new language. "The key finding in the present study relates to people who have excellent first-language attainment and who despite having comparable impetus to be bilingual differ in second-language proficiency," say the researchers. "We found that these individuals show differences in cortical activation that suggest an important contribution of PWM to language attainmen ... Keywords: XiXiDu, Domínique, Alexander, Kruel, Gütersloh, MrX, Future, Science, Technology, Culture, transhuman, transhumans, transhumanists, transhumanism, posthuman, life extension, nanotechnology, nanotech, neuroscience, philosophy, ethics, artificial intelligence, ai, data storage, storage media, quantum computer, genetical engineering, genetic engineering, genetics, biotechnology, biotech |