irreligulous: BlueGene Blue Brain Neuron Supercomputer

irreligulous: BlueGene Blue Brain Neuron Supercomputer: "10,000 neurons run by a room full of computers. A new 'Neurogrid' chips is about to come out that puts the same power into one single chip..."

The size of the computers used to simulate a portion of a rat brain tells us we have a fair way to go.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

If you wish to contact Doug Axe, you can contact Robert L. Crowther, II Director of Communications Center for Science & Culture Discovery Institute, That information is from the Biologic Institute web site http://biologicinstitute.org/contact/ The Discovery Institute has a political and idealogical agenda of promoting intelligent design. They were involve in the Dove School Case where ID was rejected as a scientific viewpoint in court. The Discovery Institute was on the wrong side in that case.

Craig Venter Announces a living synthetic cell

This podcast is possibly one of the landmark announcements of the century. Craig Venter clearly explains the process taken to synthesize a genome from the four chemical components in DNA and insert the resulting DNA in a pre-existing cell that had its own DNA removed previously. The announcement is very lucid with clear definitions of many new terms.

Venter also explains why this approach was taken and what the institute plans to do with the resulting tool

A Samsung Robot In Every Home By 2020? | h+ Magazine

A Samsung Robot In Every Home By 2020? | h+ Magazine

Ray Kurzweil has an article on the convergence of information systems in Korea and their strengths in dealing with them by the year 2020. He also predicts a robot in every Korean home by that time.

New Study Shows Evolution can be Very Rapid.

The practical significance of Magnus Karlsson's discoveries is broad and just as varied as his grasshoppers. He believes this new knowledge can be used in planning preservation projects for threatened species and to improve yields in agriculture.

"But the most important part of the dissertation is that I have shown that evolution sometimes proceeds incredibly rapidly. This is huge," says Magnus Karlsson.

His dissertation is titled Evolution in Changing Environments Revealed by Fire Melanism in Pygmy Grasshoppers.

Singing at America House on Linden Road

We are getting to the point where we have regular fans among the people who watch our shows at America House on Linden Road. It is fun to see them every month or so. It is also fun to try to give them a song which they may not have heard in awhile. I do enjoy going over there.

We have another show at the Pines on Davison Road next Monday. I am looking forward to it. We are doing more four-part harmony. I really have to push my range to do first tenor at this age. *It would be better if I could go to second.

The Hobbit's Predecessors

Long before a 'hobbit' species of human lived on Indonesia's Flores island, other human-like creatures colonised the area. That much was clear.
But scientists have now been able to date their presence to at least one million years ago - some 120,000 years earlier than previously recognised.
The team reports the discovery of these humans' tools in the journal Nature.

Possibly, the hobbit's ancestors were a more primitive humanoid which had migrated out of Africa at an earlier date.