Cool New Technology

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This is awesome! They've recently developed a new microscope that can view atoms in motion! I'm blown away just thinking about it. Here's the article from newscientist:

"...Now Ahmed Zewail, a chemist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, has developed a way to produce faster, shorter electron pulses.

These can be used like a strobe light to reveal atoms in motion, letting electron microscopes capture more frequent snapshots, and producing high-resolution footage of atoms in motion.

Zewail is a past master at speeding things up. He was awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry – studying chemical reactions just a few femtoseconds (billionths of a millionth of a second) long using pulses of laser light.

His latest work has now created another new field – ultrafast electron microscopy. Zewail's team use an oscillating laser to illuminate the cathode in their microscope with pulses of UV light about 100 femtoseconds long.

The cathode's surface has a high quantum efficiency, meaning it readily releases electrons when bombarded with photons. It converts the femtosecond light pulses into femtosecond electron pulses, of just a few tens of electrons.

Pioneering movies

Those short pulses act like a camera flash, creating a crisp image of the target specimen at a very precise moment in time. Zewail's research team can generate movies showing the picosecond (millionths of a millionth of a second) motion of atoms..."


Summary: They're breaking new ground, people. These scientists are effectively changing our most powerful microscopes from individual pictures to black & white movies. This is an epic upgrade to the way we view the minuscule.

Judge Orders Release of 5 Gitmo Detainees

I think a upi says it best so I'm going to paste what their article says.

From upi:
"A federal judge in Washington Thursday ordered five Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prisoners released, saying "seven years is enough" in captivity.

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, in the first ruling that carries out the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on detainee rights, said a single classified document the government used to hold the five wasn't convincing, Scotusblog.com reported. The government claimed, based on the document, the five -- plus one other detainee -- planned to travel to Afghanistan to participate in terrorist activities against U.S. and allied forces.

Leon said the government persuaded him that the sixth detainee, Belkacem ben Sayah, was "an al-Qaida facilitator" who sought to arrange travel to Afghanistan to engage in armed hostilities with U.S. and coalition partners.

The six prisoners were living in Bosnia when they were captured, although all are natives of Algeria.

Leon also suggested that government officials decline to appeal his ruling, suggesting "seven years is enough" in captivity, the Web site said.

It took nearly an hour for the judge to announce his ruling because it was translated to the detainees via a telephone link with the prison at Guantanamo Bay."

Now I don't know about you, but Guantanamo Bay has ALWAYS terrified me. It's a place where you're sent if you're suspected of being a terrorist. But that's the scary part- who decides who's a terrorist? And why is such a place necessary? It's a way to circumvent the protections offered by the US Constitution. No Bill of Rights. Do we really need an avenue around our laws? Are they THAT ineffective?


Call me crazy, but I don't trust ANYONE with a rule-less torture castle.

Invisibility Cloak Possible?

According to National Geographic, making an object become invisible is now within the realm of possibility. Basically, light can be manipulated so that an object appears to have vanished.

If you've ever tried to grab a fish out of the water, then you can understand the basic principals of invisibility: the fish isn't where you thought it was (ie: your brain was tricked by the way the light was bent as it passed through the water &/or the bowl).

In the example below, you are "seeing" what's behind the man (please try to look past the simplicity of the experiment)


There are many obvious applications for such technology, with a focus on being stealthy. Some not-so-obvious applications essentially reverse the fundamentals of invisibility to create objects that stand out like a sore thumb. This could be used for such things as road reflectors to satellite beacons.

So the long and short of "invisibility" is this: even if no one ever creates the Holy Grail that is the Harry Potter Cloak of Invisibility, there will be other lucrative technologies invented along the way that will make the quest well worth the pursuit.

Microsoft to Offer Free Malware Software

Probably for the first time EVER, Microsoft will offer useful software for free. Their new anti-malware software, codenamed Morro, will provide "...'comprehensive protection' from 'the majority of online threats', including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans" (techradar.com).

Another pleasant surprise from Microsoft is that Morro will be available for XP, Vista & Windows 7. Now from a consumer's perspective, I would've thought that Microsoft (known for their constant Monopoly attempts) would've put some sort of financial twist on this whole Morro project. Sure- maybe it's free, but ONLY for Windows 7. That way they push their new product & their wallet. But like I said- This is not the case! Nice job Microsoft.


...my cynical side is telling me: Just because you don't see their profit incentive for Morro doesn't mean it's not there...

Italian Boy Diagnosed with ‘PlayStation Addiction’

From Crutchgear.com

"An Italian boy has been diagnosed with “PlayStation addiction” following a marathon gaming session. The boy, 13, was rushed to a hospital where doctors thought he had suffered a stroke or some other serious condition.

Nope, just played a little too much Mega Man!

It gets better. After leaving the hospital, the boy told his father to throw away the PlayStation for fear of further complications."

• I'd just like to point out that the BOY told his FATHER to throw away the PS, not the other way around.
  

Friday

Hope you all are ready.


We've got several stories to be posted in the next few hours.