doing the things a particle can04/09/2004 04:08 PM I had a fantastic time at the convention yesterday. I performed
material from Just A Geek and Dancing Barefoot to a
mostly-full theatre, and I think it was my best performance to date. I
took material from both books, and I put it together in what I hoped
would be a dramatically interesting order.
Cosmic particle accelerator seen04/08/2005 09:55 AM Astronomers have discovered a loop-like structure some 20 light-years
across
close to the centre of the Milky Way.
The UAV Swarm
The UAV Swarm11/15/2003 05:41 PM Imagine an enemy, fighting the Americans, and they look up and see a
swarm of attacking drones! The enemy would be inundated by an
innumerable flock of UAVs. From
this article it appears that's just what the US Navy has in mind.
With seeing huge flocks of birds heading south for the winter this
time of year, it's not hard to imagine what a swarm of drones might
look like: it would look like the swarm of squidlike robots from
The Matrix. Intelligent flying autonomous vehicles would have
inter-robot communication network so that it could organize it's own
collective configuration and reconfigure in the event of losses. The
ememy would really have to watch out for their droppings.
Particle collider edges forward08/20/2004 10:01 AM Physicists take a key decision on the technology to be used in the
International Linear Collider, one of the grand scientific projects of
the 21st Century.
Peace Swarm03/20/2003 08:31 AM Here's a little experiment in social software. I've been talking with
Jack Bury, a 20-year-old American poet living in Amsterdam, who is
part of a tiny start-up trying to get some traction for "Eyebees," a
Microsoft IE add-in. (It'll be open sourced eventually.) The add-in
puts a frame on the left of your browser that shows you up to 200
little dots (Eyebees), each representing another person in the "swarm"
you've joined. Their relative position shows which pages they're
currently viewing. If a few people are each looking at, say, Doc's
blog, then you'll see the five Eyebees clustered...
Such systems are made up by a population of simple agents
interacting locally with one other and with their environment.
Although there is typically no centralised control dictating the
behaviour of the agents, local interactions ong the agents often cause
a global pattern to emerge. Examples of systems like this can be found
in nature, including ant colonies, bird flocking, animal herding,
honey bees, bacteria, and many more. Swarm-like algorithms, such as
Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO),
have already been applied successfully to solve real-world
optimization problems in engineering and telecommunication. SI models
have many features in common with Evolutionary Algorithms.
Many Counties Failing Fine-Particle Air Rules
Many Counties Failing Fine-Particle Air Rules12/19/2004 03:19 PM About a third of all Americans live in counties that do not meet
standards for particles of pollution that cause thousands of premature
deaths a year, the E.P.A. said.
“Researchers from the University of Cambridge in England, the
National University of Singapore and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology have devised a relatively simple way to transfer data
between quantum bits, or qubits. The method is a step toward building
quantum computers, which have the potential to solve certain types of
very large problems many orders of magnitude faster than is possible
using classical computers.”…
New 'Mystery Meson' Sub-Atomic Particle Discovered
Helicopters Swarm Gas Station in Norway (AP)06/11/2004 05:47 PM AP - Erling Boland didn't know what to think when a swarm of six
helicopters noisily swooped down on his gas station.
Swarm Robots and the Freeze-Tag Problem
Swarm Robots and the Freeze-Tag Problem03/06/2004 02:03 AM The Freeze-Tag Problem is a common optimization problem when dealing
with swarms of robots. You start out with a swarm of "sleeping" robots
in an arbitrary arrangement. One robot has to wake the swarm. To wake
a
sleeping robot, it must be "tagged" by an active robot.
Once a
robot is awakened, it can assist in waking other robots. The problem
is
figuring out how to wake all the robots as early as possible. In a
recent
paper, The Freeze-Tag Problem: How to
Wake Up a Swarm of Robots (PDF format), Esther M. Arkin,
Michael A. Bender and
several other researcher do a lot of interesting math that proves the
problem is NP-hard; a result
confirmed by other
studies of the problem.
Robots Swarm into Military Service06/05/2005 11:13 PM The
Christian Science Monitor reports on a variety of miltary swarming
and flocking technologies that are in the works including North Korean
surveillance robots, an iRobot swarm of 100 test robots, a US Army
initiative for networked ground and aerial robots, and Frontline's
security robots. The article also talks a little about larger scale
swarming involving thousands of robots. Want more swarm news? A
vnunet.com
story covers the Gridswarm
and Ultraswarm projects which will use tiny flying robots running
Linux to form an airborne computer network. See also the Slashdot
discussion on Gridswarm/Ultraswarm.
Engineered Fine Particle Applications Conference Announced for May, 2005
Engineered Fine Particle Applications Conference Announced for May, 200503/22/2005 04:48 PM New conference focusing on commercialization issues, successes and
opportunities for engineered fine particles being held May 23-25, 2005
in Cambridge, Massachusetts and sponsored by Information Management
Institute. [PRWEB Mar 22, 2005]
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Scientists find mystery particle
As Newcomers Swarm, Sony Girds for a Fight02/10/2004 02:55 AM For a company that has long flexed its muscles and built a reputation
on being first, Sony is now in the awkward position of having to play
catch-up.
Confused Cops Swarm Woman After Birth (AP)03/31/2005 09:01 AM AP - A woman rushing to a hospital to give birth hit a few stops along
the way — first at a gas station where she delivered the baby
herself, then when confused police ordered her out of the car at
gunpoint.
One Minute Recharge For Toshiba's Nano-Particle Coated Lithium-Ion Battery
Microsoft hopes Windows leaders will swarm to The Hive
Microsoft hopes Windows leaders will swarm to The Hive06/17/2005 07:13 PM Microsoft opens up The Hive, a site for Windows "community leaders" to
share tips. No word on whether all users will be required to use
bee-themed avatars.
Silicon Valley staff help paralyse SF with swarm tech
Hundreds of Fireflies Swarm Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas
Hundreds of Fireflies Swarm Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas06/17/2005 07:15 PM New generation of firefly lights are so realistic they even fool
Mother Nature's real Fireflies and they've just been installed at the
Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. These patent pending electronic
'fireflies' are used in theme parks, science museums, on-stage, in
movies, and are now available for homeowners to bring 'fireflies' into
their backyards. [PRWEB Jun 17, 2005]
Swarm of Moths Rush Stage at Weird Al Show (AP)
Swarm of Moths Rush Stage at Weird Al Show (AP)09/03/2004 06:25 PM AP - Things got hairy for parody singer "Weird Al" Yankovic as a flock
of unwanted fans rushed onstage during his performance at a state fair
in southern Illinois.
Locust Swarm Eats Soccer Field (Reuters)
Locust Swarm Eats Soccer Field (Reuters)08/05/2004 09:00 AM Reuters - A massive locust swarm swept into
the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott Wednesday, devouring trees,
bushes and parts of the city's main soccer field, residents
said.
DX Toolbox 1.5.0
DX Toolbox 1.5.002/17/2004 03:49 PM Searches the web for you, gathering information on solar and
geomagnetic conditions that affect radio propagation.
SQL ToolBox 0.4
SQL ToolBox 0.403/14/2003 03:38 PM A database administration and code generation tool.
"scientists in Japan have discovered a new sub-atomic particle that defies current theories of matter and energy "
Bits on Wheels is a Mac-only BitTorrent client that shows you your
current downloading "swarm" as a 3D visualization.