11-26-07 Science/Tech

A German heavy-freight ship launching next month will be using a football field sized kite to provide most of their power. It should reduce fuel consumption by 50% and greenhouse gas emissions by 10-20%. Kites have been used before for yachts, but this is the first cargo vessel to use one. The company that makes the kites aims to equip 1500 ships with kites over the next 8 years.

China's moon probe has started to send back pictures. There's an article here, but the pictures only seem to be available on Chinese-language sites for now.

2 Australian firms are going to be making algae (for biodiesel fuel, to burn for power generation, or use as fertilizer) from coal mine emissions. A similar program set up in Arizona had to suspend operations earlier this year because it was generating more algae than it could harvest. I hope they both can get operations going so we can reduce carbon dioxide while generating something useful.

The AMA has adopted new guidelines for talking to pregnant patients about cord blood donation. There will be a greater promotion for public cord blood banking. This should help a lot of people.

Researchers have made advances in transforming adult cells into embryonic stem cells, which allows them to use the patient's own cells to cure them of disease or make new non-rejecting tissues.

One last stem cell article: Stanford researchers are developing a treatment that may allow stem cells to treat immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. An injection of antibodies specifically takes out blood-forming cells, which can then be replaced by new blood-forming stem cells. This would eliminate the need (and the dangers) of using chemotherapy and radiation to completely destroy all the original stem cells before a transplant and make it safe enough to use for non-life-threatening diseases. So far, it has only been tested on mice, but this holds great promise.

A Georgia professor is working on curing disease in mosquitoes. Rather than just kill the mosquitoes to prevent them from passing on diseases such as malaria and West Nile virus, he is putting medicines in feeders to stop them from developing pathogens, so even if they bite they won't pass on the diseases. Is it wrong that I'd prefer they were just dead? I hate mosquitoes, disease carrying or not, but I guess this is better for the bats and the environment.

A new company has formed to produce what amounts to a nuclear battery. It is a closed system with no moving parts the size of a hot tub, enclosed in cement, and doesn't require operators. It would be trucked to a site, hooked up, buried underground, and could power 25,000 homes for at least 5 years. I want to know what happens after the 5 years.

10-15-07

DVRs for tonight:
8pm Chuck & How I Met Your Mother
830 Big Bang Theory
9pm Heroes & 2.5 Men
930 Samantha Who - worth a pilot

Ian McKellen says he would be willing to play Gandalf again in The Hobbit.

Fox's legal department has canceled theatrical performances of the Buffy musical with virtually no notice. They didn't even explain why, but looking at the article it sounds like the theatrical airing of a TV show at a non-charity event doesn't have pre-set residuals and they wouldn't know what to pay to whom. It all sounds ridiculous anyway. Joss Whedon is apparently going to try to help.

They have developed a blood test for Alzheimer's disease. They are still testing, but it appears to be about 90% accurate and may be available in 2-3 years.

10-4-07

DVRs for tonight:
8pm My Name is Earl (NBC)
9pm CSI (CBS), Grey's Anatomy (ABC), or Supernatural (CW) - One will have to be a download.
10pm Big Shots (ABC) - Pilot was better than expected, so I'm giving it another chance.

JJ Abrams is making a new pilot for ABC.

CA.gov was accidentally deleted for several hours after the government tried to "fix" the changes made by a hacker. I'm glad they're not in my IS department.

Today is the actual anniversary of Sputnik, so more articles: Countdown of the top 10 Sputniks, and Russia celebrates the event.

Ally Sheedy has been cast as the mother/DNA donor of Jesse in Kyle XY. She'll appear in the final 3 episodes of this season when it comes back for the 2nd half.

A device designed to detect Martian bacteria may provide critical advances in diagnosing TB here on Earth. I like to see that they are still finding uses for technologies developed for space.

Roundup for 8-31-07

It sounds a bit like friends having a joke together, but Kristen Bell and Clark Duke from Greek say they are forming a band. Well, we know they both can sing, let's just hope they choose better lyrics than that "Darwin Lied" song from Greek (and not quite as absurd as Reefer Madness).
http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Kristen-Bell-Hero/800021347?rssDate=12345678
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/08/internet_tv_star_clark_duke_to_form.html#more

The skywatch alert for tonight is actually 830-9pm (much better than 130-6am for the eclipse). It is supposed to be a good time to see the Draco the Dragon constellation.
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/070831_ns_draco.html
However, there is another skywatch alert for early tomorrow morning: a rare meteor shower that could be amazing or could be a complete dud.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_6768311?source=rss

Robot Chicken on the Last Unicorn. This is so incredibly WRONG.
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/005567.html

Masi Oka commenting on the fact that Bittorrents were used to watch Heroes in France before the TV airdate.
http://torrentfreak.com/heroes-star-recognizes-benefits-of-bittorrent/

Great casting for the Royal Shakespeare Company, but potentially weird scheduling, delays or a new Doctor Who for season 5. David Tennant and Patrick Stewart are going to star in Hamlet next year. Afterwards, David Tennant will play in Love's Labor's Lost.
http://www.comicmix.com/news/2007/08/30/fanboy-meltdown-picard-meets-the-doctor/

XM Radio is going to start doing audio versions of classic books in 30-minute installments, starting with Fahrenheit 451. I don't know how many will be SF, but it probably doesn't matter since I don't have XM radio. :(
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-bkw-xmradiobooks30aug30,0,7607137.story?track=rss

Monday is the Kyle XY mid-season finale, and they promise it will answer some questions but have a cliffhanger. Of course.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=1&id=43814

There are rumors of ANOTHER Dune movie. I think they've pretty much covered Dune, and I'd like to see them get to another book, but who knows.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=7&id=43792

Rumors are that, schedules permitting, Zoe Saldana will be the new Uhura.
http://trekmovie.com/?s=zoe+saldana&searchbutton=go%21

NASA images are going to be archived online by the Internet Archive. This includes non-digital images like the Apollo moon landings they will have to convert, films, videos, etc.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TECHBIT_SPACE_IMAGES?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Anne McCaffrey's website has added a chronological order list. We should double check our BookCat entries for series order.
http://www.annemccaffrey.net/2006-Pern-Reading-Order.pdf

Preliminary schedule for Atlantis shows no midseason break. Only 4 weeks off during the season for holidays. This is too amazing to be true, I'm sure they'll change their minds. Possible spoiler warning: there are TV Guide level descriptions of the first 8 episodes.
http://www.gateworld.net/news/2007/08/preliminary_schedule_for_iatlant.shtml

Reminder, if you are interested, TOR is podcasting from Worldcon in Japan (which started today).
http://www.tor-forge.com/podcasts

Interesting new science development for preventing nasty diseases:
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2007/08/28/discovery_might_render_viruses_harmless/1552/

Really good interview with John Scalzi.
http://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/scalzi.html

Something I bet we all need: Top 10 Ways to Clean Your PC
http://lifehacker.com/software/lifehacker-top-10/top-10-ways-to-clean-up-your-pc-294189.php

NBC won't use ITunes for its shows. I hope they provide a good alternative if you miss an ep.
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/005573.html