Demo

Demonsrtatsia na performancing (pic taken with Dimity's new Razr):

Lots of fun suggestions to try on a unicycle

Fun things to try with your unicycle

Hopping up stairs Idle/hover parallel to the steps, and hop up sideways, one at a time Rotate either direction while hopping. Crush coke cans by hopping. Try to do several in a row, hopping from one to the next. Juggling There are many possibilities here - anything you can do with juggling, you can try on a uni - except maybe picking up clubs with your feet! Hills - up or down. Short, steep hills can be a challenge to climb - see if you can get up enough speed to power to the top before losing momentum and falling off. Snow! Snow and Hills! Uni basketball Especially fun with a giraffe on each team. Uni diving, etc.

Random things heard on the radio

-many countries of the Commonwealth, e.g. South Africa and Barbados do not have indexed pensions, which means that retried people get paid in local currency, but without the conversion taking iflation into consideration. However, if they go to the Phillipines or Jamaica or back to the UK, they'll be all right.
-retirement villages' contracts can be pretty harsh on their residents: e.g. you may move in with your pet, but if it dies you don't get to have a replacement; you can't resell you retirement appartment at the market price, you have to sell it back to the village organisers at the price you bought it; you may get kicked out to a nursing home if the village organisers decide that your "condition" is no longer good enough for the village; privacy is out the door, since people can just waltz in your appartment to "check for things that need repair"; etc.
-the new Wembley stadium will cover 2million square feet. It will have "something for the whole family": museums, bars, gyms, restaurants (including the 4 biggest ones in London consisting of 800 to 2000 seats each).
-a theory has been proposed to use the socio-economically disadvantaged schools in Australia as the proverbial cannary in the mine. If they are not coping then the whole thing is about to explode.
-aggression in children is observed at ages as early as 17 months old. Since such traits seem to be unavoidable, the suggested approach to combat onset of violence is to teach kids (as early as possible) to control the aggression in order to communicate better with their peers, i.e. a form of emotional intelligence.
-word of the day: excoriate: to express strong disapproval of; also, to flay.
Hopefully the word of tomorrow will be flay.
-quote of the day by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: "Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking." and so we keep watching our TVs. Also let's not forget that looking is not seeing. I wonder where seeing rates in his scale. I think that it's close to thinking, so we've gone a full circle.

Tennis balls for resistance training in canoeing

World of Endurance | | Article

So how does one go about resistance training? The traditional resistance device was like a small parachute, made from canvas or plastic, which was hung off the back of the boat (tricky if the boat has an understern rudder!). This created the required drag off the stern of the boat, but pulled the boat off trim. The modern thinking has evolved to tennis balls slung under the hull on a piece of string or elastic. This transfers the drag to the centre of the hull under the paddler, and is far more effective. Simply take three tennis balls, drill a hole right through the balls, and thread then onto a piece of string or bungee cord, which is then tied around the hull behind the cockpit, with the balls directly underneath the hull. The drag created by these balls is quite surprising. Three balls is a tough resistance training session, two balls is moderate and one less demanding. So adjust the number of balls according to your needs. It is also a clever way of training a group of paddlers of differing abilities. For example, a good senior male paddler, with three balls resistance, could have a junior boy with two balls on one wave, and a junior girl towing one ball on the other wave, quite easily. Set up the training session so that 75% of the training time is done under resistance, and the final 25% without the resistance, when you can really appreciate the speed, power, and, importantly the “feel” of the water. As you get closer to competition, cut down the resistance portion to 50%.

Braindance

New Scientist Do the brainwave boogie-woogie - Features

Hinterberger straps electroencephalograph (EEG) electrodes to their heads to read the jumble of electric signals produced by their brain activity. The signals are then filtered and processed by a computer to isolate low-frequency brainwaves. Hinterberger has developed software that converts these brainwaves into a visual representation such as a movable cursor on a computer screen, so that patients can use this visual feedback to learn to control their brain waves and move the cursor. A few have learned to surf the web in this way.

Brain areas deactivated in women during orgasm

New Scientist Women's orgasms are a turn-off for the brain - News

As the women were stimulated, activity rose in one sensory part of the brain but fell in the amygdala and hippocampus, areas involved in alertness and anxiety. During orgasm, activity decreased in many more areas of the brain.
The findings appear to confirm what we already know: that women cannot enjoy sex unless they are relaxed and free from worries and distractions. Looked at from an evolutionary point of view, it could be that the brain switches off the emotions during sex because at such times reproduction and survival of the species become more important than survival of the individual.
The team has already done a similar study with 11 men, which revealed far less deactivation during orgasm than in women. However, Holstege says the results are probably unreliable because PET scanners measure activity over 2 minutes - and in men it's all over in a few seconds.

CAR THAT MAKES ITS OWN FUEL

IsraCast: THE CAR THAT MAKES ITS OWN FUEL

The Hydrogen car Engineuity is working on will use metals such as Magnesium or Aluminum which will come in the form of a long coil. The gas tank in conventional vehicles will be replaced by a device called a Metal-Steam combustor that will separate Hydrogen out of heated water. The basic idea behind the technology is relatively simple: the tip of the metal coil is inserted into the Metal-Steam combustor together with water where it will be heated to very high temperatures. The metal atoms will bond to the Oxygen from the water, creating metal oxide. As a result, the Hydrogen molecules are free, and will be sent into the engine alongside the steam. The solid waste product of the process, in the form of metal oxide, will later be collected in the fuel station and recycled for further use by the metal industry.

Street names as a base for a history book

Lingua Franca - 21/01/2006: Does The World Need Esperanto?

Reading the above article on Esperanto reminded me of Ludwig Zamenhof street, near our blocks of flats in Bulgaria. This lead to the idea that since people had a reason to call a street what it is, it may be interesting to share it with others. Hence, imagine a book or a tourist tour around this notion.

adaptive cruise contro avoids jams; Traffic Simulation

Cruise control avoids jams (January 2006) - News - PhysicsWeb

The German researchers carried out computer simulations of traffic -- in which each vehicle is represented by a small particle -- to describe the dynamics of traffic on motorways. Their approach allows them to vary the number of different types of vehicle and driving styles -- such as cars and trucks, and fast and slow drivers. The simulations consider traffic flows that consist mostly of "human" drivers and a small number of "partly automated" ACC cars. The team found that even if just 10% of all cars use ACC then congestion is dramatically eased because "traffic breakdown" -- where cars come to a complete halt as in a traffic jam -- is delayed (see figure). "This is a benefit to drivers because fewer people are affected and the waiting time is smaller thanks to reduced queue lengths," explains Kesting. Moreover, the effect is scaleable so if, say, 20% of cars had ACC, then congestion would be reduced even further.
I was planning on doing similar simulation myself using pygame, as well as testing a "green wave" theory for traffic lights.

Algorithm detects Canadian politicians' spin

New Scientist Breaking News - Algorithm detects Canadian politicians' spin

He and his team analysed the usage patterns of 88 deception-linked words within the text of recent campaign speeches from the political leaders. They then determined the frequency of these patterns in each speech, and averaged that number over all of that candidate’s speeches. Martin received a ranking of 124, while Harper and Layton scored 73 and 88, respectively.
“I think it’s expected that any party in power is going to use spin more than the challenging party,” Skillicorn says. “They have a track record to defend.”

Measuring wrinkles, sun damage with software

Measuring wrinkles, sun damage with software | CNET News.com

I tested, firsthand, emerging bioscience technology that applies hard numbers to my skin's health. With two flashes of white-light digital imaging to my face and some sophisticated mathematical algorithms, the system I subjected myself to could calculate all that frightening detail in a few minutes. Clarity Pro skin technology This thing will either be youth-obsessed America's godsend or nightmare, I can't decide. Apart from numbers, the technology, called Clarity Pro, can depict the depth and severity of wrinkles in a 3D chart, show the extent of bacteria-filled pores in a graph, or represent UV damage in purple dots scattered about your face in a white-light image. It can also calculate how long a person can be exposed to the sun, in minutes or hours a day, before incurring more UV damage. When patents are finalized in the next year, the technology will also be able to forecast a patient's likelihood for skin cancer as a consequence of UV sun damage, according to Raj Chhibber, CEO and founder of BrighTex Bio-Photonics, the Silicon Valley-based maker of Clarity Pro.

Brown sugar is 70% white?

New Scientist Back Page - I'm sweet enough

At one time brown sugar was sugar that hadn't been fully refined, and if you buy coarse "raw" sugar this may still be the case. But today's brown sugar is most often made by adding molasses back into fine white sugar. Manufacturers do this because they can more easily control the proportions of sucrose and molasses and the size of the white sugar crystals, resulting in a more uniform product. You can do the same at home if you run out of brown sugar. Mix about nine parts caster sugar with one part molasses and stir, stir, stir. The fact that brown sugar is really 90 per cent white sugar means that they both have about the same energy content of 17 kilocalories per teaspoon. Certainly there are more minerals such as iron and calcium in molasses, but you'd need to swallow about a cup of the stuff to get close to your daily requirement, which would incidentally contain about 50 per cent of your daily energy needs.
A tablespoon of blackstrap molasses, which is still 70 per cent sugar, has an iron content which is similar to a steak and it also tastes great on special high-protein porridges.

Super-powerful new ion engine revealed

New Scientist SPACE - Breaking News - Super-powerful new ion engine revealed

Ion engines work by using an electric field to accelerate a beam of positively charged particles – ions – away from the spacecraft, thereby providing propulsion.

The conventional ion engine contains three grids perforated with thousands of millimetre-wide holes. These grids are attached to a chamber containing the charged particles.

The first grid operates at thousands of volts, while the second is kept at a low voltage. This voltage difference creates an electric field, which extracts the ions from the fuel reservoir and accelerates them out into space in one step. The third grid acts to stop electrons flying back into the ion beam.

Ideally, the voltage difference between the first two grids should be as high as possible, to maximise the speed at which the ions are expelled, and also the fuel efficiency of the engine. But when the difference approaches 5000 volts, ions collide with the second grid, and start to erode it.

The new design incorporates four grids. First, the ions are extracted from the reservoir using two closely spaced grids that both operate at an intermediate voltage of 3000 v to 5000 v.

Acceleration comes in the second stage, when the extracted ions are channelled between the second and third grids, across which a very high voltage is applied. The final, low-voltage stage, between the third and fourth grids, prevents electrons from the exhaust plume from flying backwards.

How to collect DNA for medical research

New Scientist News - One million people, one medical gamble

Both of the projects aim to revolutionise medical research by gathering information that will allow scientists to study in unprecedented depth how our genes and environment interact over the years to cause disease. That could one day lead to new treatments for disorders such as cancer, heart disease, asthma, multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis.
Similar privacy fears surfaced more than five years ago, when the Icelandic government allowed a Reykjavik-based company called Decode Genetics to commandeer the genetic, medical and family histories of the entire population of Iceland. The medical details of 270,000 people were to be entered into a huge database, supposedly encrypted to protect their identities (New Scientist, 15 July 2000, p 42).
One major difficulty lies in collecting reliable environmental data on what people eat and drink throughout their lives, or what chemicals or radiation they are exposed to and how much exercise they take. To help deal with such problems, the organisers of the US project are considering using microchip-based devices such as rings, bracelets and body patches to keep a continuous check on volunteers' heart rate and blood oxygen levels. Participants' cellphones could be rigged up to transmit data on physiology and diet, and microchip-based sensors could be placed around the body to record other data such as exposure to radiation, or even what they consume, including alcohol and tobacco.