Madame Butterfly
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Posts posted by Madame Butterfly
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San Francisco launches citywide Wi-Fi plan
Project seeks to bridge the 'digital divide'
Updated: 10:39 a.m. ET Aug. 17, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO - Officials are looking for ways to make the entire 49-square mile city a free -- or at least cheap -- Wi-Fi zone.
Taking a step toward bridging the "digital divide" between the tech-savvy and those who can't afford computers, the city government has issued guidelines for a plan to "ensure universal, affordable wireless broadband access for all San Franciscans."
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said the city is soliciting ideas for an ambitious system that would put Wi-Fi in the hands of people whether they are working in a high-rise office tower, riding on a cable car or living in a low-income housing project.
The invitation, extended to nonprofit groups and businesses that could eventually bid on the project, puts San Francisco among a handful of major U.S. cities tackling the technological and political challenges of offering Internet service to its residents on such a wide scale.
"We are going to be able to wire the city in a dynamic way so the entire city is a hot zone, but we are also going to be able to provide equipment in an unprecedented way," Newsom said.
Dell and other computer makers already have pledged thousands of computers that will be given to residents of poorer neighborhoods, he said.
Philadelphia, the first big city to work on extending wireless Internet service throughout the city, is poised to choose a vendor to design, deploy and maintain a system that will cover the city's 135 square miles. Portland, Ore., Minneapolis, Charleston, S.C., and Orlando, Fla., also are at various stages in the same process.
According to an annual ranking compiled by chip maker Intel Corp., San Francisco ranks just behind Seattle as the nation's most "unwired city" in America, thanks to a ubiquity of cafes and restaurants that offer Wi-Fi.
Last year, the city erected antennas to make one of its most popular tourist destinations, Union Square, a free hot spot, and three others are set to go up later this year. Responses to the city's request for information are due in six weeks and Newsom said he hopes to have the citywide Wi-Fi plan at least partly "manifested" within six months.
"Cities are starting to realize this is not a 'nice to have' anymore," said Paul Butcher, Intel's state and local government marketing manager. "To operate efficiently as a government, to enable business to compete and provide adequate resources to cities, you pretty much have to do this."
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LOL, having a craving then?
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From the Tarzan soundtrack, I understand Phil Collins wrote the lyrics for his daughter. I love this song.
You'll Be in My Heart
Come stop your crying
It will be all right
Just take my hand
Hold it tight
I will protect you
from all around you
I will be here
Don't you cry
For one so small,
you seem so strong
My arms will hold you,
keep you safe and warm
This bond between us
can't be broken
I will be here
Don't you cry
'Cause you'll be in my heart
Yes, you'll be in my heart
From this day on
Now and forever more
You'll be in my heart
No matter what they say
You'll be here
in my heart always
Always
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Study Describes Bar at Center of Milky Way
By RYAN J. FOLEY, AP
MADISON, Wis. (Aug. 16) - After creating the most detailed analysis yet of what the Milky Way looks like, astronomers say a long bar of stars cuts on an angle through the center of the galaxy that includes the sun and planet Earth.
Some scientists have suspected the presence of the stellar bar, but the survey led by two Wisconsin astronomers shows the bar is far longer than previously believed, and at a specific angle.
The skinny bar is made up of old and red stars and is about 27,000 light years in length, about 7,000 light years longer than previously believed. The bar is at a 45 degree angle to the line between our Sun and the center of the galaxy and may put the Milky Way in a small class of galaxies with the unusual shape, researchers say.
"We're pretty certain the extent and orientation of this bar because we got more data than anybody else that has ever brought to bear on the problem by a long shot," said Ed Churchwell, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of astronomy who collaborated on the project.
The team of astronomers used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to survey more than 30 million stars in the center of the Milky Way. The orbiting infrared telescope allowed the astronomers to see bright stars through clouds of interstellar dust to draw a vivid portrait of the center of the galaxy.
The new portrait will help astronomers understand how our galaxy looks from the outside and "how it forms together in the big picture," said lead study author Robert Benjamin, a UW-Whitewater professor of physics.
"The stronger the bar the more influence it has on everything going on in the galaxy," said Benjamin.
The study will appear in an upcoming edition of Astrophysical Journal Letters, a leading astronomy journal.
The study should put to rest the idea held by some astronomers that an ellipse is at the center of the galaxy's swirling arms, Churchwell said.
"We've largely been ignorant of this very major structure in our galaxy for all these years," he said.
The hardest work in the study was not observing the stars: the NASA orbiting telescope took about 400 hours of observations. Researchers spent five years preparing for the observation and almost one year making sense of all the data.
The telescope, launched two years ago, is the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space and is trailing the earth in an orbit around the sun. It uses infrared light to penetrate clouds of gas and dust that block astronomers' views from Earth.
The Milky Way is a large, spiral galaxy that contains the sun, solar system and billions of stars that make a luminous band as seen by the naked eye. Its precise size, shape and mass are still unknown.
Billions of galaxies make up the universe and are mostly spiral or elliptical in shape. Galaxies that have stellar bars cut through the center is rare, but not unheard of, scientists say.
08-16-05 22:54 EDT
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Racy and Gory Images Cause Temporary Blindness
Researchers Say Emotionally Arousing Visuals Affect Perception
By Lee Dye, ABCNews.com
(Aug. 17) - Here's the scene: You've seen a flash of nudity on the telly just as your sweetie walks in the room, and you don't even notice the love of your life.
It's a bad scene, but hey, you're innocent. You've just been hit by something researchers call "emotion-induced blindness."
It's not a serious disease, unless your sweetie has a powerful right hook, but new research shows that instantly after seeing an erotic image, or a violent scene, we wouldn't notice a building lying on its side. Literally.
Psychologists at Vanderbilt and Yale universities have been studying the effect that highly emotional images have on our perception of the world around us. And they've found convincing evidence that the human brain just can't process information that it receives immediately after seeing a violent or erotic scene.
We're talking real short term here, around a fifth to a half a second, but given the speed of today's society, that may be enough to worry about. A fast-moving vehicle, for example, can travel a significant distance in that brief span of time.
Split-Second Distraction
Psychologists David Zald of Vanderbilt, and Steven Most, Marvin Chun and David Widders of Yale, started by looking at the effect of gory images, like a fatal traffic accident, on the brain's ability to process subsequent information.
They programmed a computer to show a series of images in rapid succession. Each image was shown for precisely 100 milliseconds (one-10th of a second.) Most of the images were neutral, thus requiring no or very little emotional response, but every now and then they tossed in a gory scene.
The computer also flashed pictures of a building lying on its side, and participants in the project were told to indicate with an arrow key which way the building was lying.
That's a pretty easy task, but if the building came a fraction of a second after a gory image, the participants missed it entirely.
"They didn't see it at all," says Zald.
The biggest effect came if the building followed the gory scene by 200 milliseconds, or one-fifth of a second.
"You can see lesser effects out to maybe half a second," Zald adds, "but it's pretty much gone after that."
Blinded by Beauty
That left the researchers with a basic question. Was it the negative nature of the image that caused the temporary "blindness," or would an arousing scene do the same thing?
To find out, they ran the same experiments over again, this time using erotic material just before the toppled building.
And they got the same result.
"We always see it," Zald says.
If the participants had been slow to respond, it would simply mean they had been distracted by the emotional images, and soon recovered. But the fact that they never even saw the image of the building lying on its side is very significant.
"That's what's striking," Zald says.
Cautious Persons More Susceptible
It's also significant, the researchers report in the August issue of Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, that there were personal differences among the participants in their ability to see the image showing the building lying on its side. (The lead author of that report is Yale's Most.). Some participants were more susceptible to the emotional images than others.
"We've seen the most clear-cut differences in terms of a personality dimension we call 'harm avoidance,' " Zald says.
Participants in the research were tested to see if they rank high in "harm avoidance," meaning they are cautious and want to avoid situations in which they could be hurt, or if they rank low, meaning they are more carefree and willing to take a risk. So far more than 100 persons have been tested, and the researchers say the results are clear.
The more cautious participants, those who wanted the most to avoid personal harm, suffered more from temporary blindness than those who were more willing to take a chance.
The purpose of the research, of course, is to delve into the workings of the human brain. But there's a practical side to it as well.
Our response to highly emotional stimuli could be dangerous.
"If you take a basic evolutionary type perspective, something that is violent or gory could be a risk to us, and things that are erotic have the potential for procreation," Zald says. So we need to pay attention to both of those, but that imposes some risks.
"It's a trade-off," Zald says. "It's ensuring that we pay attention to this information, but it comes at our cost of failing to see other relevant information.
"In that sort of cost benefit analysis, one suspects that in the past it was beneficial. At our high-paced speed today, it's possible it becomes detrimental."
A terrible traffic accident, for example, may leave us unable to see a child darting into the road ahead of us.
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What do you mean it's been pushed back to April????? :P I thought I only had about 90 more days.
Are you serious and absolutely certain it's April???????
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Nah, I think trouble maker is too strong of a word.
To me a trouble maker is someone who intentionally causes feelings to be hurt.
http://insider.espn.go.com/proxy/proxy.dll...agazine%2findex
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You guys really like hairy chests, don't you?
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Harry Potter and the genetics lesson
Scientists say popular books can be used to teach about recessive genes
By Matthew Herper
Updated: 11:55 a.m. ET Aug. 16, 2005
For a fictional character, Harry Potter has worked a lot of magic in the real world. His books have sold hundreds of millions of copies, his films have grossed some $2 billion, and he has made his creator, J.K. Rowling, very rich — she is the first author to become a billionaire according to Forbes' annual rankings.
Now, three experts in genetic diseases argue the young wizard could cast another spell and help children as young as five years old understand the basics of genetics.
The idea is set forth in a short letter in a recent issue of the scientific journal Nature, by Jeffrey M. Craig, Renee Dow and MaryAnne Aitken, experts in treating and counseling children with genetic diseases at Royal Children's Hospital in Australia. "At every stage, the children's familiarity with the Harry Potter characters can be used as a hook to engage them in discussing concepts of heredity and genetics," they write.
In Potter's world, most people are muggles, normal folks with no magical power. But some are wizards, with the power to do magic. Wizarding appears to be hereditary, but occasionally a muggle child will appear with natural magical ability, such as Harry's friend Hermione Granger.
Such stealth traits are readily handled by classic genetics — in the form of recessive genes.
In the scenario, there are two versions of the gene for magical ability — the M version, which creates muggles, and the W version, which is needed for wizardry. But everyone gets two copies of the gene — one from each parent — and even a single M scuttles any hope for a magical career.
Only the lucky few with the genes WW will have magical ability. Those who are MW will be muggles, but there is still a chance for their children. If two muggles who are MW have a child, there is a one in four chance that the child will be WW — and able to cast spells. That would explain how Harry's friend Hermione could be a wizard born of muggle parents. Likewise, it could explain how Harry Potter's mother was born of muggles.
Meanwhile, other characters, like the rotten Draco Malfoy, are WW children of WW parents — pure-blooded wizards.
The analogy is useful because real-life recessive genes, such as those for eye color, hair color and other traits, follow this same set of rules. In this way, it could give children a tool for understanding their own heredity, and eventually help them understand the kind of genetic research that has been pivotal to biotech companies such as Amgen and Genzyme.
And wizards are a lot more interesting that the traditional example used in science class: peas. Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, discovered the basic principles of heredity by tracking the shape of pea seeds and the color of pea plant flowers. Harry Potter is certainly going to grab more imaginations than a much-hated vegetable.
It's only a matter of time before Harry's corporate patrons at Scholastic and Time Warner decide to put his face on textbooks and educational films, too.
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I just got propositioned online. Looking for archaelogical stories.
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Archeologists Near Quincy Find First U.S. Town Founded By Black Man
created: 8/15/2005 5:32:21 PM
updated: 8/15/2005 5:33:12 PM
BARRY, Ill. (AP) -- A remote western Illinois pasture where archeologists are unearthing the earliest known town incorporated by a black man is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
The town of New Philadelphia was founded in 1836 by freed slave Frank McWorter. The federal designation could expand research and lure tourists to the frontier village about 30 miles southeast of Quincy.
McWorter, whose grave is near the lost town, sold lots to both blacks and whites, using the proceeds to buy freedom for other members of his family.
Paul Shackel is a University of Maryland archaeologist who led efforts to add New Philadelphia to the national register.
Shackel says being on the list of historic places could attract new dollars to extend a three-year archaeological dig that concludes next spring.
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Long-lost steamboat emerges from Mo. river
JIM SALTER
Associated Press
BRIDGETON, Mo. - The Montana emerges like a giant skeleton near the banks of the Missouri River here, a relic from the pre-railroad era when steamboats were a vital mode of transportation.
The muddy bottoms of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers are watery graveyards to hundreds of sunken steamboats including the Montana, which sank more than 120 years ago.
The Montana is embedded in mud and normally concealed by the river's waters. But rain has been rare in the area this summer and the water level has dipped low enough to reveal the ship's remains.
"I was impressed with how much of it is still there," said Steve Dasovich, a maritime archaeologist who contracts with the state to preserve the Montana. "All the spokes of the paddlewheel are still there. The level of preservation of the wreck is impressive."
By 1860, more than 700 steamboats regularly traveled the Mississippi. The Port of St. Louis logged more than 22,000 steamboat arrivals between 1845 and 1852, with the boats lining up for miles along the city's riverfront.
The life expectancy of the boats was not long - about 18 months, Dasovich said. Downed trees and other river debris, ice, fire and explosions tended to do in the wooden boats.
Some believe up to 500 wrecked and abandoned steamboats still sit at the bottom of the Mississippi between St. Louis and Cairo, Ill., alone. Greg Hawley, co-owner of the Arabia Steamboat Museum in Kansas City, said 289 documented boats sit at the bottom of the Missouri, but historians believe the real number is closer to 400.
The Montana was built in 1879, at the end of the steamboat heyday. Dasovich said the Montana and its sister ships the Dakota and the Wyoming were massive vessels, "last-ditch efforts to combat the railroad trade. They just could not keep up."
The Montana was among the largest on the Missouri - 280 feet long, including its giant paddlewheel. The boat's three decks, pilot house and smoke stack made it stand 50 feet tall.
It turns out it was a little too big.
In June 1884, the Montana tried to pass under a railroad bridge between the Missouri towns St. Charles and Bridgeton, just a few miles from where the river connects with the Mississippi.
The boat struck the bridge and took on water before running aground on the St. Louis County side of the river. No one was hurt, but the Montana split in half.
From a distance, the Montana wreckage looks like a tangled muddle of logs and debris. Closer inspection show rusted steel poking through rotted wood in the brown water. Wooden spokes from the big paddlewheel are still visible - Dasovich believes the bottom half of the wheel itself may still be intact in the river bottom.
Hawley, whose museum focuses on the Arabia steamboat that sank in 1856 but includes information about steamboats in general, said the paddlewheelers are an important part of American history.
"There's a great heritage there that is by and large an untold story," he said. "The great treasures of our nation's past are buried along our river systems."
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Tina
Add T's Beloved again.
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I call it christmas break, I mean what the hell are people celebrating at this time eh??? Dear lord. yes for you poor athiests out there its winter break, but it always made me wonder why athiests partook in christmas and presents when they don't believe anyhow. IT'S DAMN CHRISTMAS, LEAVE IT ALONE!Um, no UA
I have Jews, Muslims, and Hindu's in my town.
Also blacks.
They all don't celebrate Christmas, and some celebrate Kwanza as well as Christmas.
For us to assume that EVERYONE celebrates it is quite arrogant and "white" of us.
It's been "winter break" in my part of the country for years.
The only think I lament is the holiday music concerts.
It no longer exists.
I remember that being my favorite holiday treat.
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Hey, he can walk around in his cargo khaki's and white t shirt around me any time.
I don't want to be with him, just admire him.
Why don't you like him?
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Now Tina, just relax and take some deep breathes.Think of Snape in the "I'm too sexy" video.
Close your eyes and see Julian dressed in long Monsenor robes...........
whoops, sorry, got off track there.:P
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well how can me saying King is somewhat "desirable" be off topic?
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Nah, you both have your good points.
You just like to rabble rouse
The reason why you two don't get along, is because you are alot alike!!
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You know I actually find it amusing that soooo many people can't see through the facade that is King.
I saw through it after about 2 weeks of harrassing him on another site.
He's not who you think he is.
Though, he'll try to spank me with that paddle now that I've said this.
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The Bears Still Suck!
in Parrises Squares Court
Posted
The Bears will always suck.