Invertebrate Astronauts Make Space History (Wired.com)The tardigrades had already been coaxed into an anhydrobiotic state, during which their metabolisms slow by a factor of 10,000. This allows them to survive vacuums, starvation, dessication and temperatures above 300 degrees Fahrenheit and below minus 240 degrees Fahrenheit.
Once in orbit, the tardigrade box popped open. Some were exposed to low-level cosmic radiation, and others to both cosmic and unfiltered solar radiation. All were exposed to the frigid vacuum of space...
Just how the invertebrate astronauts protected themselves "remains a mystery," wrote the researchers.
Archive for September, 2008
Water bears survive open space
08
Sep
The creature seen here is capable of surviving the harsh conditions of space. While it looks like an extraterrestrial, it's actually a tardigrade, a tiny eight-legged invertebrae also known as a water bear. Microbiologists from the Institute of Aerospace Medicine sent tardigrades into orbit last September and exposed them to the cosmic radiation and deep vacuum of space. They returned alive. From Wired:
Yammer launches; it's 'Twitter for the enterprise'
08
Sep
(author unknown) via Webware.com
shared by 4 people
(Credit: Yammer)
Shared by ntutak
Go Yammer Go!
(Credit: Yammer)I recently covered Socialcast, a "Friendfeed for business," and liked it a lot. It takes emerging social interaction models that people are just now getting accustomed to and adapts them for business.
Here at TechCrunch50, the idea is also in evidence on Yammer, more of a "Twitter for business" that Socialcast, since it doesn't seem to be able to pull in external feeds the same way.
However, users can have threaded discussions, as they can on FriendFeed. Users can also use "hashtags" for tagging topics, and users can follow just those tags. Useful if you want to follow a project, but not necessarily all the people working on it.
Yammer will launch with a desktop AIR app, as well as iPhone and Blackberry apps, and an SMS interface.
The base product is free. Enterprise versions with admin tools and security features will cost you.
I really like this concept, but my fear is that this kind of product is too easy to build (especially on workgroup scale, as compared to the consumer scale Twitter has struggled with). What I don't see is a blocking business strategy. But I still like it.
The service is now live.
Mars Phoenix Will Bravely and Passionately Twitter Until the Final Beat of Its Adorable Electronic Heart [Goodnight Sweet Rover]
08
Sep
The Mars Phoenix Lander has been Twittering away its mission details since landing on Mars in May. But lately, you can see a sense of impending doom starting to creep in, slowly: "It's noon, Sol 81. I've spotted frost around my landing site in AM," tweeted Phoenix a few weeks ago. "Seasons are longer here...I'll be surrounded by ice & don't expect to survive til Spring," comes a few days later. But unlike other eerie autobiographical accounts of impending death, the wildly successful Mars Phoenix Lander has a trick up its sleeve for a potential reincarnation after the thaw.
"But as I've said before, I'm programmed with a 'Lazarus mode' so I'll call up to the Mars orbiters if I re-awaken in the Spring," said Phoenix last week, probably in response to tearful return Tweets lamenting his/her/its grim disposition. If its solar panels collect enough juice come springtime, the first auto-function will be to contact the Mars Orbiter above with the good news of its reincarnation.
The folks at NASA are proud to be operating Phoenix at all at this point, having said anything beyond the intended 90-day mission (now officially extended to 120 days after water was officially collected for the first time) is a gift to be savored. That Lazarus Tweet we'll be watching for with open hearts. Show that Winter who's boss, little fella! [Twitter]
New CNN show pushes the limits of Twitter — literally
08
Sep
MG Siegler via VentureBeat
shared by 4 people
One anchor for the cable news channel CNN has become enamored with the micro-messaging service Twitter over the past several weeks. He used tweets (Twitter messages) to complement his coverage of the recent Hurrican Gustav and now the network has apparently decided to take it one step further, basing a whole show around the real-time citizen journalism/opinions that take place on Twitter.
The show, called Rick Sanchez Direct, is scheduled to debut this afternoon, Sanchez let his followers know last week in a tweet. There appears to be a slight problem though: the limits Twitter has in place for number of users you can follow.
The company implemented this limit several weeks ago to reduce the spam that had started to creep into the system. It’s not a hard limit (earlier reports of a 2,000 limit were false), instead Twitter limits this number by several factors including the number of users that follow you back. (It has more about it on its blog.) The problem, as related to this new CNN show, is that to get the best information from Twitter, Sanchez will want to follow as many people as possible.
Right now Sanchez follows 4,607 people and apparently cannot add any more. You can be sure that CNN will want this number to be much higher to make sure it doesn’t miss anything worthy of the show. Sanchez’s producers have contacted Twitter about raising this number, but the limit he’s running into right now may be a bug.
“Rick Sanchez is being followed by almost 10,000 people people on Twitter—he should be allowed to follow at least that many. We’ve told the folks at CNN that we’re fixing this bug and we hope to get to it today,†Twitter co-founder Biz Stone told me over email today.
Bug or not, if this show takes off it could push Twitter closer to mainstream usage. When that happens, the service will have a lot more users approaching the thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and maybe even millions of followers/following users.
But that is a good problem for Twitter to have. It’s now about scaling up to that level.
You can find me on Twitter here along with fellow VentureBeat writers Eric Eldon, Dean Takahashi, Anthony Ha, Chris Morrison and Dan Kaplan. Oh, and we have a VentureBeat account (for our posts) as well.
Vote for Your Favorite Web Framework
08
Sep
Frameworks help build the web. Photo courtesy Toneray via Flickr
We’ve been covering DjangoCon the last few days, and if we know one thing for sure, it’s that programmers love web frameworks — libraries of often used code which allow them to copy (or steal, if you’re naughty) functionality to their own site. Why do they love frameworks so?
When you begin coding as a budding web developer, you typically start building your first site piece-by-piece from scratch. Developing your first project is the most difficult part of the job simply because you’re designing utilities, buttons, animations, scrolling, text entry, backend data management, scalable networking, etc… — usually while learning and typically by a method which will make other, more seasoned developers balk, point fingers and mock.
However, once you build these tools to your liking, you have them on hand for all future projects. Simply tweak the code for use in your next development project. Reusing code is fast, its stable and its tremendously productive.
Therein lies a web framework’s appeal. Many of us will admit we’ll never be the rock star developer some others are, but collectively joined by web frameworks, we don’t really have to be. We get a peak into what makes good code which we can implement on our own sites and learn from it in the process.
In some instances, after getting familiar with a framework, you can piece together a rich interactive website in about twenty minutes.
How do frameworks earn money? Most of them are open source and depend on the financial and content contributions of friendly programmers. Some have a foundation behind it which fund and provide for the business aspects of the project in exchange for the rights to charge large operations using the code for customized support.
If you’ve never used a framework because you think they’re for noobies or are less powerful and less scalable than a custom-written site, consider the websites already powered on popular frameworks:
- CNN, New York Times, Apple, Digg, and Fox News use Prototype JavaScript libraries
- Digg and BBC use JQuery
- LinkedIn, Walmart and (of course) Yahoo use Yahoo UI Library (YUI)
So which are the best? Prototype and JQuery are arguably the most popular JavaScript frameworks. Meanwhile, Python-powered Django has a considerable drive behind it as does PHP’s Drupal. Ruby on Rails has a verifiable fan base. There are many more up-and-coming frameworks out there. Which do you use? Add your favorite web framework and vote for your favorites below.
[Hat tip to Pingdom]
Computer Is a Gentleman (Pic)
08
Sep
Philipp Lenssen via Google Blogoscoped
shared by 5 people
[Advertisement] PingPongPie - the art of linkbaiting and social media marketing
A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article from 1960, found in Google’s new newspaper scans search:
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Computer Is a Gentleman (Pic) | Comments]
[Advertisement] PingPongPie - the art of linkbaiting and social media marketing
Animated spider Flash toy
08
Sep
Play With Spider is a remarkable, Flash-based 3D animated spider that set my skin a-crawl within seconds of loading, You can even drop little insects for it to feast on. Don't miss the sliders for ultimate creepiness. Play With Spider (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)
Chevy Volt rolls out into the open at long last
08
Sep
Filed under: Transportation
It's official public debut may still only be coming next week, but it looks like GM has finally decided to give up on the carefully-chosen teaser shots and let the hotly-anticipated Volt out in the open for all the internet to see. No doubt to the dismay of some, the would-be next Prius sure looks a good deal different than the far more angular prototype we've all come to know over the past little while, although we can't say we're exactly surprised given GM's mass-market hopes for the car. Still, it is quite the milestone for the auto industry, and hopefully only the start of things to come. Be sure to hit up Autoblog for a gallery full of more pics of your favorite GM execs -- and the Volt, too.
Google Launches Newspaper Digitization Project [Newspapers]
08
Sep
Gina Trapani via Lifehacker
shared by 10 people
Google says it's bringing history online, one newspaper at a time with a new initiative to digitize millions of newspapers—like this article from the 1969 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the moon...
Google says it's bringing history online, one newspaper at a time with a new initiative to digitize millions of newspapers—like this article from the 1969 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the moon...
Facing Foreclosure? Buy A Second Home! Wait, What? [Mortgage Meltdown]
08
Sep
ABCNews says that more and more people who are facing foreclosure are just buying cheaper homes and then just walking away from their original mortgage. It only works for people who can afford the down payment on a new home and carry both mortgages until they're in the new home, but for some people whose payments are about to balloon, it's the most attractive option out there right now.
From ABCNews:
Eble owes $334,000 on his first house, which is now worth only $219,000 and is still dropping in value. He has an adjustable rate mortgage that has doubled to more than $4,000 a month, more than Eble can afford to pay.
So before the bank forecloses on his first house he is taking advantage of falling real estate prices to buy a new home for $285,000, with a fixed rate mortgage he can afford. Once inside the new home, he can either sell the first property for a huge loss to the bank or walk away completely and let it slip into foreclosure.
This exit strategy only helps homeowners who can afford the down payment on the second home as well as carry both mortgages until they are in their new home.
Like Jim Eble, homeowner Kim Hinske just bought a new home — for $280,000 — as a way to get out of an expensive mortgage.
"Yes, it's a scary thing, but I know that my family's taken care of 'cause we have another house, a bigger house and a mortgage that's less," Hinske said.
ABCNews says that the practice is prompting lenders to improse more strict guidelines for approving a second mortgage. A spokesperson from RealtyTrac, the firm that compiles foreclosure statistics, says that the trend is caused by desperation on the part of both borrowers and lenders.
"Desperate people do desperate things and again, we're at a point now where the relationships between the borrowers and lenders really seem to have devolved into a survival of the fittest mode," said Rich Sharga, a spokesman for RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for homes in foreclosure.
In Foreclosure? Buy a Second Home [ABCNews]
(Photo: stirwise )