stardust swarm search

aerogel, originally uploaded by jamaku.

Stardust@Home: A distributed search by volunteers for interstellar dust in the Stardust interstellar dust collector In January 2004, the Stardust spacecraft flew through the coma of comet Wild2 and captured thousands of cometary dust grains in special aerogel collectors. Two years later, in January 2006, Stardust will return these dust grains --- the first sample return from a solid solar-system body beyond the Moon --- to Earth. But Stardust carries an equally important payload on the opposite side of the cometary collector: the first samples of contemporary interstellar dust ever collected. As well as being the first mission to return samples from a comet, Stardust is the first sample return mission from the Galaxy. But finding the incredibly tiny interstellar dust impacts in the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector (SIDC) will be extremely difficult. We are seeking volunteers to help us to search for these tiny samples of matter from the galaxy. Volunteers are critical to the success of this project. Please help us find the first samples of contemporary Stardust ever collected.

war on lies

war on lies, originally uploaded by jamaku.

Manipulations by governments got so far, you can't beleave it they dare to distort the truth so much. Not only is Al Qaeda a FBI lie, even something simple as the attack on the pentagon at 9/11 is in part a lie; never a plane went in, but a missle... but you new all this already...no ..? A must see documentairy by the BBC; the power of nightmares explaines more... Truth seems an empty word these days

New Orleans info map

new orleans info map, originally uploaded by jamaku.

A great site to help gather information about the flooded city New Orleans US. With in two days tons of information has beel put on a google map. If you know information about a street, add the info, some one else may be desparate for the info. Like FEMA. Swarm intelligence a new way! For interview see wired article

vodcast

vodcast, originally uploaded by jamaku.

VPRO first VODcaster Mon Juli 11 2005 10:00 (=GMT+2). Posting by Stef Dutch National Public Broadcaster VPRO joined in on VODcasting! Their internationally acclaimed music website '3VOOR12' starts with 3 titles and will add new titles on a regular basis. "This is the first step to the future of watching tv", says Erwin Blom, head of new media at VPRO. "A first example of the fact that in the future people will have their own personal homepage on television where they subscribe to channels and to on demand video..." Download the English Press Release (PDF) and subscribe to their VODcast feed here: http://www.vodcast.nl/feeds/3voor12.xml

human shelter

concrete shelter, originally uploaded by jamaku.

In a world with millions of refugees, numerous war zones and huge areas devastated by natural disaster, aid agencies and militaries have long needed a way to quickly erect shelters on demand. Soon, there will be such a method. A pair of engineers [William Crawford and Peter Brewin] in London have come up with a "building in a bag" -- a sack of cement-impregnated fabric. To erect the structure, all you have to do is add water to the bag and inflate it with air. Twelve hours later the Nissen-shaped shelter is dried out and ready for use. Not only a great idea for direct aid to refugees but a promissing step into blob-buildings as well... blob by peter cook

everquest

everquest, originally uploaded by jamaku.

Much has been said about games, virtuality, and the web. Some are still amazed, to others, it's part of reality without any questions. But if i read an article stating that a virtual country called Norrath has a GBP of $2,266 .... that according to the CIA fact sheets is about the same as in Pakistan, it makes you really wonder. How long before the virtual world will demand its rightful power in the real world. Should Norrath eventually be granted a seat in the UN security council...But it also makes you wonder on a whole other level... Can the human powers not be guided to a more Humane project...There are enormous potentials out there in the virtual... [and enormous problems in the real world still...]

citystructure

citystructure, originally uploaded by jamaku.

The more integrated a street, the more it generates movement, despite attractors like shops. But the busier a street the more it attracts attractors like shops. Thus generating busy shopping-streets like Oxford street. Read all about the theory by Bill Hillier behind it at 'The common Language of Space' Be amazed also by these two figures: one the analyses of London, the other a fractal painting...and generate a few yourself!

kroll-leeuwarden

kroll-leeuwarden, originally uploaded by jamaku.

Most city's grew in an organic way. Time and again the organic fabric of the city had to be adjusted to the new needs of the grown city. A new road through the slums, or a place for a cathedral. These adjustments are in a sense also organic: at that time its the best feasible adjustment to make the ensemble work. In our age, we hardly have time to let a city grow organically. Professionals now draw up the new urban fabric in such a way that there is hardly room for organic adjustments. So more and more people need to live in total controlled urban fabrics, that has no room for fault adjustments, and in houses that both in style as in layout are as fixed as the cars they drive in. Christopher Alexander tries to address these problems in his developed 'pattern language'. A system of many analysis of city components that can be used to generate a more sensitive city fabric. But the process is still a top down, and pipeline like. The architect Lucien Kroll addressed this issue in his town renewal projects mainly by citizens participation. The influence of a hundred people though naive and non professional as they may be, influenced the architect to make a very rich plan that is supper-imposed upon the harsh existing town-fabric. This process uses the small creativity of many participants instead of the great creativity of one men. Swarm approach and an emerging plan in one!

swarm -robots, -intelligence, -systems, -militairy

swarm, originally uploaded by jamaku.

Next mission to mars may be revolutionary different: Engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ... are testing a robot that they hope to shrink to nanobot size and eventually form what NASA calls "autonomous nanotechnology swarms" (ANTS). The researchers aim to give ANTS enough artificial intelligence to make smart decisions as well as know intuitively when and how to walk and swarm. And of course, they can be used in a military way as well: Military robots to get swarm intelligence A battalion of 120 military robots is to be fitted with swarm intelligence software to enable them to mimic the organized behavior of insects. The project, which received funding this week from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is aimed at developing ways to perform missions such as minesweeping and search and rescue with minimum intervention from human operators. The project is run by US software company Icosystems, which specializes in creating programs that mimic behaviors found in nature. Their software will use simple rules to coordinate complex behavior among the robots. "We will be addressing some fundamental questions about control strategies for robotic swarms," says Paolo Gaudiano, vice president of technology for Icosystems. The robots' behavior has been modeled in a computer environment by Icosystems but the company will now be able to test different approaches in the real world. The 120 robots were built for the US military by I-Robot, a company co-founded by robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks

stop software patents

Banana-En-Banner-728x90, originally uploaded by jamaku.

stop software patents http://swpat.ffii.org/ "We came across the following impressive examples at first reading through our tabular listings of software patents. They were almost randomly chosen and thus approximately represent the technicity and inventivity standards of the European Patent Office. If anything distinguishes them from other patents it is the relative ease with which they can be understood at first sight by a fairly large public." continu at their site and be amazed! "We explain the state of play regarding state-granted idea monopolies, specially in the context of the draft directive "on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions" (software patent directive), which has become a test case on the extent to which parliaments have a say in contemporary European legislation." ...mmm next victem: VLC