Welcome to Sott.net
Thu, 21 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Science & Technology
Map

Network

A new era in Internet service

A new option in Internet service -- fiber-optic broadband -- is making cable look about as antiquated as dial-up. Called FiOS, the service is much faster and, perhaps more important, offers consumers more choice in a not-so-competitive marketplace.

According to an article in the February 2007 issue of Consumer Reports Magazine, fiber-optic broadband outperforms cable, DSL, satellite broadband and dial-up in speed, reliability and tech support. But the most notable difference is in speed.

Recycle

No Big Bang? Endless Universe Made Possible by Revival of Old Model

The cyclic model proposed by Dr. Paul Frampton, Louis J. Rubin Jr. distinguished professor of physics in UNC's College of Arts & Sciences, and co-author Lauris Baum, a UNC graduate student in physics, has four key parts: expansion, turnaround, contraction and bounce.

During expansion, dark energy -- the unknown force causing the universe to expand at an accelerating rate -- pushes and pushes until all matter fragments into patches so far apart that nothing can bridge the gaps. Everything from black holes to atoms disintegrates. This point, just a fraction of a second before the end of time, is the turnaround.

Comment:
Cosmologists first offered an oscillating universe model, with no beginning or end, as a Big Bang alternative in the 1930s.
So, what else is new?


Laptop

Windows Vista's Nasty Surprises

Windows Vista is out. And by now, almost everyone knows three things about Microsoft's first major operating system release in five years: it has enhanced security features, a snazzy interface, and better search capabilities.

But there's more to Vista than these three features - and the new is not all good. While some of Vista's secrets are bound to surprise you pleasantly, others could make you question your decision to upgrade altogether.

Display

What a waste! Put Your Ads Where Space Begins

Ad placement is very important. Advertisers pay more for their ads to be shown "above the fold" - that is, on the top half of a newspaper, or in the immediately-viewed part of a web page.

How much would you pay for your ad to be shown "above the atmosphere" - at the edge of space? It turns out that there is a company that can do just that.

JP Aerospace is currently lining up customers for their next flight in April. Your advertisement will be carried aloft to 100,000 feet - and photographed against the boundary between the Earth and outer space.

Target

Mobile giants plot secret rival to Google

Europe's biggest telecoms groups are aiming to create a mobile phone search engine that could challenge Yahoo! and Google, the US giants.

Vodafone, France Telecom, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Hutchison Whampoa, Telecom Italia and one American network, Cingular, are among the companies that will come together for secret, high-level talks at the mobile industry's biggest annual trade show in Barcelona next week.

Comment: Well, whoever comes up with a search engine that is NOT google-ized (i.e., censored and controlled), will have my vote!


Network

Google Earth agrees to blur pix of key Indian sites

President APJ Abdul Kalam's concerns over Google Earth providing detailed and unhindered view of 'sensitive' Indian establishments have been addressed, courtesy a formula which allows users uninterrupted access to the 'eye in the sky' while camouflaging key installations.

Fuzzy, low resolution pictures and distorted building plans is how the government and Google Earth have agreed to get around concerns that images of sensitive military and scientific establishments available on the Web could either allow unauthorised snooping or become a ready reckoner for terrorists.

Cut

Quantum mechanics may explain how humans smell

Regarding smell, scientists only have a few pieces of the puzzle, and it's unclear how they fit into the big picture. Basically, scientists know that odorant molecules in the air actuate several types of receptors in our noses, which then trigger nerve cells for the brain to analyze. But while scientists know that the shape and size of molecules can make odors smell differently, some molecules with nearly identical shapes smell nothing alike.

Better Earth

What We All Spoke When the World Was Young



©Peter DaSilva for The New York Times
Dr. Greenberg has grouped most of the world's languages into a small number of clusters based on their similarities.

Key

Endless Universe Made Possible By New Model

A new cosmological model demonstrates the universe can endlessly expand and contract, providing a rival to Big Bang theories and solving a thorny modern physics problem, according to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill physicists.

The cyclic model proposed by Dr. Paul Frampton, Louis J. Rubin Jr. distinguished professor of physics in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences, and co-author Lauris Baum, a UNC graduate student in physics, has four key parts: expansion, turnaround, contraction and bounce.

During expansion, dark energy -- the unknown force causing the universe to expand at an accelerating rate -- pushes and pushes until all matter fragments into patches so far apart that nothing can bridge the gaps. Everything from black holes to atoms disintegrates. This point, just a fraction of a second before the end of time, is the turnaround.

Bizarro Earth

Meteorite Impacts In Egypt?

CAIRO: Police investigators in Luxor are at a loss to explain how three houses suddenly caught on fire and burned to the ground.

Forensic scientists have intensified efforts to unravel the mystery surrounding a number of night fires that started last week in a cluster of small houses in the village of Al Zeinya Qibli local press have been reporting recently.

And the stories are sowing the imaginations and usual conspiracy theories of Egyptians.

The fact that most of these houses are generally not equipped with electrical power due to their remoteness from any metropolitan center helps investigators rule out the possibility of an electric short circuit or overload as the cause of the fires.

When investigators showed up at one domicile that had been damaged by the flames, villagers said another house down the road mysteriously caught fire. [...]

And this is not the first time it happens.

A few years ago the residents of a village in Suhag, a major Upper Egypt province, were shocked to see fires raging on the roofs of their houses, which are usually used to store woods for country ovens or serve as a place for their pigeons' nesting towers.

In this case too, the cause of the fire had remained a riddle that was never resolved, but the only clue to the fires was an eyewitness who had spotted with the naked eye the tail of what he believed to be a meteor which he said darted its way through the sky and landed on one of the roofs.