Well here we are two minutes closer to midnight, and I feel fine. Seriously though, for those who are not aware, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists who created the “Doomsday” clock in 1947 to warn of the impending dangers of global nuclear annihilation, have moved the ominous timepiece forward two minutes which puts us squarely at five minutes till midnight. Why have we moved closer to the end? According to the folks who run the program, the threat from rogue states possessing nuclear weapons and starting a nuclear war combined with the danger of climate change destroying human habitats factored into their calculations.

Here’s an excerpt from the Reuters article:

“We foresee great peril if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change,” famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking of the University of Cambridge, a member of the bulletin’s board of sponsors, told reporters in London.

Yikes, hole up with your favorite comfort food and put Busta Rhyme’s “Extinction Level Event” on loop, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Read the full story from Reuters

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I love all the things nano, from the ipod nano to nano materials. However, many of these nano-materials have not been fully investigated as to what would be the outcome should an accidental exposure from these substances happen to a person or merely to the environment. Remember asbestos? That really good fire-proof insulating material, remember how it turns out that inhalation of nano-scale particulates of it can give you mesothelioma and incurable lung cancer? Yeah, so perhaps use of nano engineered materials could turn out to have some unforseen and very unwelcome health consequences. The good folks at Sciam have written an article on the study of how carbon nanotubes would behave if released into a natural water system. The results weren’t good. It turns out that even though the nanotubes are hydrophobic, instead of clumping together and sinking to the bottom, the particles interacted with the negatively charged organic material in the water and this organic material turned out to be a better disperser for the material than the chemical surfactants that had been used in the lab for that very purpose. Hit the link for a very interesting read.

Safety study for Carbon Nanotubes

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Here’s the direct quote:

The Z-Man Program will develop climbing aids that will enable an individual soldier to scale vertical walls constructed of typical building materials without the need for ropes or ladders. The inspiration for these climbing aids is the technique by which geckos, spiders, and small animals scale vertical surfaces, that is, by using unique biological material systems that enable controllable adhesion using van der Waals forces or by hooking surface asperities. This program seeks to build synthetic versions of those material systems and then utilize them in a novel climbing aid optimized for use by humans. The overall goal of the program is to enable an individual soldier using dry adhesive climbing aides to scale a vertical surface at 0.5 m/s while carrying a combat load.

‘Nuff Said

Z-MAN PROJECT

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Wow, I love finding extremely bold blog entry titles on New Scientist, but, I digress. You, dear readers, know that here at the Unsayable podcast we love the idea of space elevators, and in the spirit of full disclosure our parent company, OmniTech DigiCorp Unlimited, is actually working on it’s own prototype. However, there are a few small hurdles that need to be overcome before we can begin enjoying a leisurely ride to the stars. Namely, the Van Allen radiation belts. These belts are chocked full of charged particles that have been captured by the earth’s magnetic field, and are not compatible with our form of life, which is to say that they aren’t good for you. So, it looks like some innovative science will be needed to overcome this death-beam circling the planet. Hit the link to New Scientist to see what they think.

New Scientist

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Military operators frequently encounter complex computer-based interactive environments. It has been demonstrated that during times of significant stress the warfighter’s ability to process information is compromised. The AugCog Program seeks to enhance operational effectiveness by developing technologies capable of extending the information management capacity of the warfighter. This will be accomplished by developing a closed loop computational system in which the computer adapts to the state of the warfighter to significantly improve performance. Program objectives include adaptive strategies that will mitigate specific information processing bottlenecks that are roadblocks to increased performance and information flow. Strategies include—

* Intelligent interruption to improve limited working memory.

* Attention management to improve focus during complex tasks.

* Cued memory retrieval to improve situational awareness and context recovery.

* Modality switching (i.e., audio, visual) to increase information throughput.

These technologies have the potential to enhance operational capability currently beyond reach (e.g., the control of multiple entities by one operator), support the reduction in the numbers of persons required to perform current functions, and improve human performance in stressful operational environments.

AugCog

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Wahhh wahhhhh. Well, you’ve heard it here again. In case you forgot, SONY is probably not going to be able to supply nearly enough PS3 consoles to meet demand, and if you want one you’ll either have to hawk an organ to pay for one on EBay or do some serious camping. Anyways, Japanese stock analysis firms have downgraded SONY stock and have projected 3 million units by March 07 instead of the 6 million SONY claimed.

Analyst cuts PS3 shipment expectation in half

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I can remember the days when atheletes would do things like stretching, jogging, rubbing their arms. Ahhhh, the good old days. Once again science has come to the rescue of what is obviously a broken system, and no longer will competitors be expected to move around, or manually engage their own muscles. Japanese researchers have discovered a way to warm the muscles up using polarized infrared light. Science!

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Athletes can warm up with infrared light: study

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DARPA is at it again. This week those wacky guys in conjunction with researchers at Duke have devised a means by which electromagnetic radiation can be caused to flow around an object, much as water flows around a smooth stone undisturbed, thereby not allowing a return signal to reach the eye. Viola! One invisibility cloak. The applications for this could be much farther reaching than just sneaking around, the researchers are planning to cloak large structures like entire buildings, or to use the material to facilitate things like cell phone signals around obstructing objects. Now I’m just waiting for the home version.

Theoretical blueprint for invisibility cloak reported | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference

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This is either better than the internet, or the stupidest thing ever, you be the judge.

DailyTech - DARPA Presents the Human Canonball

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Spaceref has posted a disturbing story detailing a decline in current space based spying assets. Apparently, even though existing satellites will continue to operate for several more years, a gap exists between the end of service for these devices and the introduction of new satellites. With the increasing need to monitor China and Iran’s weapons programs, our capacity to monitor their actions must remain robust and vital.
Fade To Black | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference

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