WorldWide Telescope focuses on a familiar planet: Earth

WorldWide Telescope focuses on a familiar planet: Earth:

Earthquake data from WorldWide Telescope's new add-in.

Image via Microsoft Research

WorldWide Telescope, a free program that turns the cosmos into a visual dictionary, has added a plugin that allows virtual astronomers to train their amplified eye on Earth and to look back in time.
The original Telescope, from Microsoft Research and powered by Silverlight, can be employed in a browser and downloaded to a user's device. Scroll about the night's sky and select one of millions of celestial objects, then click on it and you will access astronomical information such as a galaxy's wave length, as well as interpretive data, like papers on the object from peer-reviewed journals.
Technology Review quoted Harvard astronomy professor Alyssa Goodman, a longtime user of the software, and founder of the WorldWide Telescope Ambassadors program, as describing the Telescope this way: "Objects in the sky become the hyperlinks themselves."
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Google's PageRank could get a boost from quantum computing

Google's PageRank could get a boost from quantum computing:
Practical quantum computers don't exist yet, but if they did, could they solve the problem of searching the Web? A particularly challenging problem in finding content is ranking the results: determining which page out of the plethora is most relevant to the search terms, and which sources are most likely to be reliable. One familiar algorithm for this is Google's PageRank, which is (obviously) computationally expensive; it is impossible with current technology to extend it to the whole Web.
In a recent paper in Physical Review Letters, Silvano Garnerone, Paolo Zanardi, and Daniel A. Lidar proposed a quantum algorithm encoding the same information as PageRank. Quantum computing is based on the principle of entanglement: the possible binary states (quantum bits, or qubits) are simultaneously encoded. The authors caution that even their algorithm—or any quantum algorithm—will probably offer no speedup over current classical algorithms if the entire Web is simulated. However, in the case of specific network connection topologies, the quantum algorithm offers a potentially significant improvement over current search strategies.
The particular connection topologies the authors considered in this paper were the sparse and small-world networks; the latter is the basis for the "Six Degrees of Separation" (or Kevin Bacon) game. Using their quantum algorithm, the researchers found a significant (polynomial) speed up when the number of connections each node possesses was small, compared to the classical PageRank algorithm.
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Premature Obituaries and the Mandela Effect

Premature Obituaries and the Mandela Effect:
Premature obituaries are not — so far — a significant factor in “Mandela Effect” reports.
Among all the stories I hear in real life, via email, and in comments at this website, few (if any) represent documented premature obituaries.  Even the prepared obituary for Nelson Mandela was leaked long after the era when people clearly remember his funeral.
You can see a list of the major false reports at Wikipedia’s list of premature obituaries.
It’s routine for news reporters to prepare obituaries for important public figures.  Then, when the person is gone, the tribute to that person is ready to rush to press (in the case of newspapers and magazines) and to broadcasts.  Reporters have the highlights of the person’s life already written.  Only the death information is necessary for the new report.
In at least one case, some of those prepared obituaries were leaked… but not as actual obituaries.  The event was known as the “CNN incident.”  Here’s how Wikipedia describes the hack:

Multiple premature obituaries came to light on 16 April 2003, when it was discovered that pre-written draft memorials to several world figures were available on the development area of the CNN website without requiring a password (and may have been accessible for some time before). The pages included tributes to Fidel Castro, Dick Cheney, Nelson Mandela, Bob Hope, Gerald Ford, Pope John Paul II, and Ronald Reagan.

When considering the Nelson Mandela reports, it’s important to put them into context:

1. This CNN website issue wasn’t reported as actual obituaries.  Mostly, when the story went public, it focused on ridiculous things like Dick Cheney being described as the “Queen Consort,” and Fidel Castrol being a “movie star.”
2. The CNN website leak was reported in 2003.  Most people who remember Nelson Mandela’s death, remember details from the 1980s.  They’re not confusing that era with 2003.

So far, I don’t have any good explanations for the detailed, rich, credible memories people report in connection with the death of Nelson Mandela, Billy Graham, and others.  Nevertheless, when your memory of a celebrity’s death doesn’t match the timeline you’re in, it’s important to double-check the premature obituaries list, just in case.
Wikipedia lists the following explanations for premature obits:

•     Accidental publication: accidental release of a pre-written obituary, usually on a news web site, as a result of technical or human error. The most egregious example was when, in 2003, CNN accidentally released draft obituaries for seven major world figures.

•      Brush with death: when the subject unexpectedly survives a serious illness or accident which made them appear to be dead or certain to die.

•     Fraud victim: many people from Uttar Pradesh, India have been registered dead by officials who are bribed by relatives who want to steal the victim’s land. The ensuing legal disputes often continue for many years, with victims growing elderly and sometimes dying in reality before they are resolved.

•     Hoax: when a death is falsely reported, as a prank.

•     Impostor: when an ordinary person who for years has passed himself off to family and friends as a retired minor celebrity dies, it can prompt an erroneous obituary for the real (but still-living) celebrity.

•     Misidentified body: when a corpse is misidentified as someone else, often someone who was involved in the same incident or who happened to go missing at the same time.

•     Missing in action: soldiers who go missing in war are sometimes incorrectly declared dead if no body is found. In particular, a number of Japanese soldiers thought to have died in World War II in fact survived – typically hiding in remote jungle for years or even decades, believing that the war had not ended.

•     Misunderstandings: such as when a Sky News employee thought that an internal rehearsal for the future death of the Queen Mother was real.

•     Name confusion: where someone with an identical or similar name has died. Usually the subject of the obituary is famous; the deceased person is not.

•      Pseudocide: when the subject fakes his own death in order to evade legal, financial, or marital difficulties and start a new life.

Premature obituaries and other news reporting errors can lead to misunderstandings.  However, most of the reports I receive can’t be explained by a news error or simple misunderstanding.  The Mandela Effect goes far beyond that.

Sci-fi no longer, NREL engineers smart homes

Sci-fi no longer, NREL engineers smart homes: Thanks to TV shows such as The Jetsons and Star Trek, many Americans grew up dreaming that homes of the future would be equipped with fantastic high-tech features. From automatic food dispensers to sliding doors, to Rosie the Robot doing the household chores, the imagined homes of the future seemed to be driven by an unlimited supply of energy.

Bizarro by Dan Piraro - 26 April 2012

Bizarro by Dan Piraro - 26 April 2012:

The Tao of Travel

The Tao of Travel:

‘A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.’ ~Laozi

Post written by Leo Babauta.

I’m not the world’s most seasoned traveler, but I have made a number of trips lately and have learned a few things that work well.

This year I’ve traveled to Guam for a month, to Portland, New York City, Las Vegas, London, Paris, Southern California. They’ve all been beautiful trips, and I’ve never taken more than a small backpack.

Travel lightly, with no set agenda, and you’ll have an amazing, stress-free trip.

Traveling doesn’t have to be stressful. It can be simple, if you keep it so.

Essential

1. Pack little. I take a small backpack, and don’t pack it too heavy either. I’ve found through experience that I just need a pair of jeans, 2-3 T-shirts, 2-3 quick-dry boxer briefs, 2-3 pairs of quick-dry socks, maybe a light sweater. I wash things in the shower if they get dirty and hang them to dry overnight. I bring my laptop so I can work for 30-45 minutes every morning. A paperback novel, maybe a small notebook. Minimal toiletries: deodorant, toothbrush, razor, Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap (for washing clothes in the sink, and shaving), dental floss. I never wait to check my back or get the bag after the flight, and I can pack in 5 minutes.


2. Have no agenda. I often ask for recommendations from locals, and get a list of incredible things. I’ll also put everything on a Google Map, so I can see where everything is. Then I toss all that out and let the day lead me where it will. Having no set agenda means you aren’t pressured to get anything done each day, which means you can enjoy yourself fully.


3. Walk a lot. The best way to explore any place is to walk. Walk all over, with no set directions. Get lost.


4. Eat lightly. Eat anything you want, but don’t eat a lot. I like to mix fruits and veggies in with the heavier stuff, so I don’t feel so heavy.


5. Find space to relax. Most people try to do too much, and rush around all day. Stroll casually, find good coffee shops or tea shops to relax in, or a good sidewalk cafe with good wine. Find parks and enjoy them. If it rains, walk in the rain. Read a lot.


6. Be present. Don’t be on your smartphone or laptop all the time. Don’t always think about what you’ll be doing later, or work stuff. Be fully present, and you’ll have a great time.


7. Smile at people. Talk to the locals. Ask for recommendations. Find out about their lives.

A Few More

• Do bodyweight exercises. I do a mix of pushups, squats, lunges, burpees in my hotel room or apartment.


• Don’t just stay for a day or two. If you really want to see a city, stay for a week or more. I could have gone to Europe and hit up 10 cities in three weeks, but instead I split that time among just two cities (London & Paris) and really saw those cities.


• Get a short-term apartment if you can. If you can stay for a week, get an apartment if you can afford it. It’s cheaper than a hotel and much more comfortable.


• Read a good novel.


• Bring a metal water bottle. I learned this from my friend Scott: pack an empty water bottle, so you can get through TSA security checkpoints, and then fill up the bottle at the airport water fountain after the checkpoint. I carry the water bottle around everywhere I go so I’m never thirsty.


• Keep a journal. Don’t stress over the journal. It doesn’t have to be daily. Just write out your thoughts, impressions when you have some spare time.


• Travel locally. For years I never traveled, to save costs. I was content where I was, and that’s still true. Be a tourist in your hometown — see the sights, walk the area, explore and try to find new things you’ve never seen before. You don’t need to spend a lot to travel locally.

‘One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.’ ~Henry Miller

Must-See Video Reveals What’s at Risk With Canada’s Northern Gateway Tar Sands Pipeline

Must-See Video Reveals What’s at Risk With Canada’s Northern Gateway Tar Sands Pipeline:

Protests Increase Against Canada’s Alternative to Keystone XL

Photo: Ian McAllister

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is currently visiting China to forge alliances and open up the Asian market for Canada’s environmentally-disastrous tar sands crude.

Harper may be making friends in China. But he’s certainly not making any friends in the environmental and conservation communities in the U.S. or Canada.

As Americans fight an increasingly intense political battle over the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, Canadian groups are stepping up their opposition to a proposed domestic pipeline that they say would destroy pristine wilderness and jeopardize the way of life of First Nations living in the path of the project.

This past weekend saw a new round of protests in British Columbia against the Northern Gateway project, a proposed 731-mile pipeline that would transport crude from a terminal near Alberta’s tar sands to the Douglas Channel — located in a sensitive rainforest — for export to China and other countries.

More than 1,000 people gathered in Prince Rupert, British Columbia to voice their deep concerns about the project. The demonstration was organized by First Nations and featured a variety of local politicians who said that the protests were “bringing people together” to protect British Columbia’s environment.

The groups were demonstrating against both the pipeline and the proposed shipping route that would allow hundreds of massive oil tankers to travel a treacherous path through pristine wilderness.

The Natural Resources Defense Council released a report last fall detailing the route:

At Kitimat, a tank farm at the edge of the water would facilitate the transfer of oil to holding tanks and then into large oil supertankers. These supertankers would then traverse 185 kilometres of inner coastal waters, including the Douglas Channel, before reaching open ocean in the unpredictably dangerous Hecate Strait, Queen Charlotte Sound, and Dixon Entrance. There is a reason that large oil supertankers have not used these waters in the past: the route poses many navigational challenges for large vessels, even under ideal conditions.

…To export tar sands oil, supertankers called “Very Large Crude Carriers” (VLCCs), with a capacity of 2.2 million barrels of oil (320,000 tonnes), would be required on a much more frequent basis. There is already strong opposition to large oil tanker traffic in coastal waters among local citizens, First Nation communities, and organizations concerned about the potential impacts of an oil spill in the ecologically sensitive marine habitats of the coast.

The people of the Gitga’at First Nation who live in the area have expressed deep concerns about the shipping route. In 2006, a ferry transporting 101 people ran off course and sank while sailing these inner coastal waters, killing two people. The vessel was only a fraction of the size of the supertankers that would be carrying crude:

[Bob Hill, a treaty coordinator and negotiator for the Gitga’at] noted it was Gitga’at residents of Hartley Bay who rescued passengers off the B.C. ferry Queen of the North when it sank in 2006.

“And it’s an example of what a small community is faced with in regards to tanker traffic — and the Queen of the North is minute compared to the size of the tankers they’re talking about.”

Hill said the view of the Gitga’at is, “No matter how careful we are in improving technology, and the safety concerns we have, there’s always that chance that human error will enter the equation and do the damage to the environment.”

With the fate of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline uncertain in the U.S., the Canadian government is looking to increase exports of carbon-spewing tar sands crude in other ways — and the Northern Gateway pipeline is key to that strategy. But the project has been in the works for almost six years and continues to face long delays because of extended environmental reviews and a strong opposition movement.

If the tar sands opposition movement continues to expand like it did in the U.S. last year, then Northern Gateway may suffer the same fate as Keystone XL.

So what would the Northern Gateway project mean for British Columbia’s rainforest? Watch the amazing documentary below, called “Spoil,” to get a sense for the consequences. In the film, the International League of Conservation Photographers spreads out across the BC rainforest documenting the unique wildlife and the special relationship the Gitga’at First Nation has with the land.

The film is 45 minutes long, so be sure to make time to watch the whole thing:

SPOIL from EP Films on Vimeo.

Tribler Makes BitTorrent Impossible to Shut Down

Tribler Makes BitTorrent Impossible to Shut Down:

The Tribler BitTorrent client is no newcomer to the BitTorrent scene. It has been in development for more than 5 years and has delivered many innovative features, which have mostly been ignored by the masses.

Today, however, Tribler is more relevant than ever before.

Developed by a team of researchers at Delft University of Technology, the main goal is to come up with a robust implementation of BitTorrent that doesn’t rely on central servers. Instead, Tribler is designed to keep BitTorrent alive, even when all torrent search engines, indexes and trackers are pulled offline.

“Our key scientific quest is facilitating unbounded information sharing,” Tribler leader Dr. Pouwelse tells TorrentFreak.

“We simply don’t like unreliable servers. With Tribler we have achieved zero-seconds downtime over the past six years, all because we don’t rely on shaky foundations such as DNS, web servers or search portals.”

So how does it work?

Like many other BitTorrent clients, Tribler has a search box at the top of the application. However, the search results that appear when users type in a keyword don’t come from a central index. Instead, they come directly from other peers.

Tribler’s decentralized search results

Downloading a torrent is also totally decentralized. When a user clicks on one of the search results, the meta-data is pulled in from another peer and the download starts immediately. Tribler is based on the standard BitTorrent protocol and uses regular BitTorrent trackers to communicate with other peers. But, it can also continue downloading when a central tracker goes down.

The same is true for spam control. Where most torrent sites have a team of moderators to delete viruses, malware and fake files, Tribler uses crowd-sourcing to keep the network clean. Content is verified by user generated “channels”, which can be “liked” by others. When more people like a channel, the associated torrents get a boost in the search results.

The latest addition to Tribler is a Wikipedia-style editing system dubbed “Open2Edit,” where users have the option to edit names and descriptions of torrents in public channels. All without a central server, totally decentralized.

open2Edit

According to Dr. Pouwelse, Tribler is fully capable of resisting any pressure from outside, and it will still work when all torrent sites and trackers are gone. It simply can’t be shutdown, blocked or censored, whatever laws politicians may come up with.

“The only way to take it down is to take The Internet down.” Pouwelse told us.

One thing that could theoretically cause issues, is the capability for starting users to find new peers. To be on the safe side the Tribler team is still looking for people who want to act as so called bootstraptribler peers. These users will act as superpeers, who distribute lists of active downloaders.

“Together with software bugs and a code cleanup, that is now our last known weakness,” says Pouwelse.

While the Tribler client only has a few thousand users at the moment, for avid file-sharers it must be a relief to know that it’s out there. No matter what crazy laws may pass in the future, people will always be able to share.

Those who want to give it a spin are welcome download Tribler here. It’s completely Open Source and with a version for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Source: Tribler Makes BitTorrent Impossible to Shut Down