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Dario, Kevin, Fairouz: please have a look at these ... sure we can make our wiki better with some of them ... (LS)

could we use this for our wiki and blog for the act community and if we eventually want to enlarge it?

How to Create Another Mediawiki on the Same Server, Using the Same Source Code, Using the Same Database, but with its own Tables

I would propose that we test this as an alternative to collaborative writing on wiki or google docs? what you think? LS

as discussed at lunch: "Robert Newman gets to grips with the wars and politics of the last hundred years - but rather than adhering to the history we were fed at school, he places oil centre stage as the cause of all commotion."

Little update on our lunch conversation - I was wrong the baby cow stomach juice does not go into buttermilk but into cheese! Enjoy! :-D

Continuing the museum theme... today's Wikipedia Picture of the Day. This might be *the* ultimate test of the knowledge of Dutch... can you name any of them? On the more ACT-like note: I wonder how the contemporary version would look like? P.S. Yes, the proverbs are listed on Wikipedia and yes, lots of them involve herring.

whos calling?

Also check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STRaND-1

The Robobee takes off without guide wires! It is still powered via a wire, and the control is done with the help of a VICON system and on an external computer, but this still is an amazing feat!

The way they make this thing is just as impressive. The manufacturing technique is "pop-up book" folding, a method that has been developed by the same group and that allows a two dimensional monolithic MEMS structures to be easily assembled into a 3D structure. I actually put this as an item of the "Technology List 2020" on the wiki this morning.

I agree, manufacturing is the amazing thing here ..... as soon as the power-consumption/density problem is solved these things will really take off :)

Latest update: the European Space Agency says their experts "confirm there is no link between the meteor incidents in Russia and asteroid 2012DA14 flyby tonight". How did they find this? As they did not see this one coming, how could they come to that conclusion that early!

yes, now i get my 100% certainty with the reconstructed orbits nothing else (http://wiki.nasa.gov/cm/blog/Watch%20the%20Skies/posts/post_1361037562855.html) ... I still think that esa anouncemement was highly premature but with a high probability of being right...

Some more results on the topic (link to an arxiv article inside): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21579422

LaTeX in the Cloud :)

since about 2 years linked on the main page of the wiki :-)

One more reason why we should be much more open about all these EO data we have .... The two citizen scientists, Kian Jek and Robert Gagliano, are listed as authors on the scientific paper recently published. I love this: the digital nature of these data make it far, far easier to analyze the science than it was in the past, and also easier to get the data out to people. Because of this, we have an explosive growth in these kinds of projects. Planet Hunters is great, but then so is Galaxy Zoo, Moon Mappers, Ice Hunters, and so many others. You can find several of these collected at the CosmoQuest website.

Wiktor is also collecting these science games in the ACT-wiki. You should have a look at: http://sophia.estec.esa.int/actwiki/index.php/On-line_Games_4_Science

Know his book but did not know his blog .... Tough I am sure Luis does :-)

No, actually I only know him from several documentaries. von Neumann probes, those I know quite well from sci-fi :). Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space is a good example btw. Here's a relevant link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_machine#NIAC_studies_on_self-replicating_systems

Be careful .... new technologies are killing us!!!

New technologies, old stupidity. I remember the Polish couple one from the news... Horrific, kids left traumatised for life...

you will love this one ...

Hilarious! Perhaps I should join Facebook and Twitter just to commit suicide afterwards!!

More details in the linked pdf file.. a low pressurized tube with pods floating on air cushions together with EM propulsion and braking.. cool, but probably not going to be build any day soon

It would be great indeed, but even though the cost of the high speed train is a factor 10x higher, the prototype nature and hence relatively lower TRL of this system will probably not have it favoured. Best chance is that he develops a working prototype, one that might not even transport humans at the moment and for short distances, then maybe the project can take off

Actually, he was talking about a prototype: "I am somewhat tempted to at least make a demonstration prototype," Musk said in a conference call with reporters on Monday. "Perhaps I'll create a sub-scale version that's operating, and then hand it over to somebody else." "I think I'll probably end up doing that," he said. http://allthingsd.com/20130812/elon-musk-will-likely-build-his-own-hyperloop-prototype/

Is this correct? The conclusions indicate that contrary to what felt extreme weather events are not increasing?? Where is the trick?

The secret is in the details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Warming_Policy_Foundation#Funding_Sources

don't get fooled, this is the same strategy employed successfully by the tabac industry: installing doubt - all under the cover of science of course and using its methods; remember all these publications showing the overall beneficial effects of smoking, the "un-clear" link to lung cancer etc ... same here

any idea how their brain manages this ?

Called the reflex arc: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflex_arc

On this note, there is the stunningly optimised flight path of the Tiger beetle http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140415133815.htm

"Could you do this? Could a spinning human slow down the Earth? Theoretically, yes." Let's all put our ice skates on and spin to enjoy a longer daytime !

Actually the length of a day fluctuates naturally. Some effects are periodic (e.g. due to seasons) while others accumulate to a general lengthening of the day (like the influence of tides): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluctuations_in_the_length_of_day

Is it not more efficient to just all start running eastward? We could have a new "Jump Day" frenzy :)

Basically quantum entanglement, or more accurately the dispersal and expansion of mixed quantum states, results in an apparent flow of time. Quantum information leaks out and the result is the move from a pure state (hot coffee) to a mixed state (cooled down) in which equilibrium is reached. Theoretically it is possible to get back to a pure state (coffee spontaneously heating up) but this statistical unlikelihood gives the appereance of irreversibility and hence a flow o time. I think an interesting question is then: how much useful work can you extract from this system? (http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.2811) It should for macroscopic thermodynamic systems lead to the Carnot cycle, but on smaller scales it might be possible to formulate a more general expression. Anybody interested to look into it? Anna, Jo? :)

What you propose is called Maxwell's demon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_demon Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) thermodynamics is VERY robust. I guess if you really only want to harness AND USE the energy in a microscopic system you might have some chance of beating Carnot. But any way of transferring harvested energy to a macroscopic system seems to be limited by it (AFAIK).