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September 05, 2005
~I am an epiphany. I am webbed foot mammal channel surfing my way to the top.~
- Kottke glances back at the future to remind us to imagine with a grain of salt.
- 1gbps cellphones? 4g coming soon from Japan's NTT. via
In experiments, prototype phones were used to view 32 high definition video streams, while travelling in an automobile at 20 kilometres per hour. Officials from NTT DoCoMo say the phones could receive data at 100 megabits per second on the move and at up to a gigabit per second while static. At this rate, an entire DVD could be downloaded within a minute. DoCoMo's current 3G (third generation) phone network offers download speeds of 384 kilobits per second and upload speeds of 129 kilobits per second.
The technology behind NTT DoCoMo's high-speed phone network remains experimental, but the 4G tests used a method called Variable-Spreading-Factor Spread Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (VSF-Spread OFDM), which increases downlink speeds by using multiple radio frequencies to send the same data stream.
- Quartonian is a site about using Mac OS X Tiger's Quartz Composer technology for VJing.
- Simple widget how-to
- Cyan, the makers of the Myst series, have folded.
- Prehistoric plumage, or, I think they're going to have to remake Jurassic Park: via
Gareth Dyke, a palaeontologist of University College Dublin, will tell the BA Festival of Science being held in the city that most such creatures were coated with delicate feathery plumage that could even have been multi-coloured. Fossil evidence that such dinosaurs were feathered is now “irrefutable”.
“The way these creatures are depicted can no longer be considered scientifically accurate,” he said. “All the evidence is that they looked more like birds than reptiles. Tyrannosaurs might have resembled giant chicks.”
The feather revelation follows a series of discoveries in fossil beds at Liaoning in northeast China where a volcanic eruption buried many dinosaurs alive. It also cut off the oxygen that would otherwise have rotted them away.
Some theropod (“beast-footed”) dinosaurs were preserved complete with feathery plumage. Theropod is the name given to predatory creatures that walked upright on two legs, balanced by a long tail.
The feathered finds include an early tyrannosaur, a likely ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex, two small flying dinosaurs and five other predators. Feathers are thought to have evolved first to keep dinosaurs warm and only later as an aid to flight.
- Fark linked to an interview with the MythBuster's Adam Savage.
Realistically, how long could you survive in a fight with Jamie?
(LAUGHING) Wow! I've never been asked that. I once got asked who would win, us or the American Chopper guys and I said I thought Jamie could give Paul Tuttle a run for his money.
Hmm... how long could I survive in a fight with Jamie... That's a tough one. He's unusually strong... but I'm not unwilling to fight dirty. And I think I'm a little quicker than he is. So, maybe between my biting and scratching, I think it might be a pretty even fight.
So you are saying there's a chance you can win, despite his strength.
I think there is a chance that I could win. I don't have any doubt, however, that Jamie could deliver a killing blow where I'm really not sure I could.
I figure every kid should just have an obscene amount of Legos. And as far as I'm concerned, I don't see any reason to buy them another type of toy until they really ask. I mean, I'm not going to buy them video games, I don't want to listen to that.
So I figure, it's Legos until they're old enough for a cell phone.
- Via Robotwisdom, excavators at Solomon's Stables have found physical evidence of a Masonic presence. It seems a bit too pat, though, what with the artifact actually including a representation of the Holy Grail.
- Propellerhead has rereleased Rebirth as a free download.
- How far would you go to be an extra on Lost?
- One day, someone will load this Hypnosis Trainer program onto a computer attached to a DNA sequencer that's examining a bufo alvarius. Thus shall be born Hypno-Toad!
- America's poverty rate has risen to 12.7%. That's 37 million Americans.
The last decline in overall poverty was in 2000, during the Clinton administration, when 31.1 million people lived under the threshold. Since then, the number of people in poverty has increased steadily from 32.9 million in 2001, when the economy slipped into recession, to 35.8 million in 2003.
- Tim Boucher quotes Pyrrho's Three Questions for the sage.
Holding back on a few links out of laziness...just standard fare: some Ask Metafilter questions, a /. post or two. Also got a bevy of Katrina-centric links that might eventually constitute a post.
Posted by Jon Rubin at September 5, 2005 11:08 AM