How singular the singularity

This article summarizes an old idea in the scientific community, dating back I suspect before the 1980s, though I haven't researched the origins of this verbal formulation of a much older idea. 

The link to the whole article  explaining what scientists mean by "a singularity," may go to a page you have to sign in to so here is part of the article, written by Wally Bahny, a blogger for techrepublic.com

Moore’s Law (i.e., the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit will double approximately every two years) has been expanded to anything technology related. As a matter of fact, Moore’s Law is expected to continue for at least five more years and perhaps much longer. The question becomes, though: What will be the change that causes us to deviate from that theory?Some say it will be a dramatic slowdown in technological advancement. The human race will eventually hit a wall, and we’ll be stuck at a technological level. This might happen centuries from now, or it may be next year, but we will come upon that point; our brains can only handle so much advancement and innovation. Entomologist and population biologist Paul Ehrlich gave a lecture on June 27, 2008 in San Francisco during which he stated that the human brain has not changed much in about 50,000 years. Cultural evolution information such as this leads to the wall-type theory: But, what if the opposite happened? What if that wall was beyond the point where humans could create autonomous, thinking, self-advancing machines? Machines could reprogram their own source code and essentially learn freely without human intervention (think Data on Star Trek). This point in technology could trigger what has become known as The Singularity (or the Technological Singularity). If it is possible for humans to reach this point in technological advancement, the machines could create new, better versions of themselves (thus advancing their intelligence) or simply rewrite their source code to advance their intelligence. Without the limitations of the human brain, the cap on intelligence could be infinite.

Reverse engineering this idea, so to speak, makes me wonder if the idea of god always had this combo horror/ joy effect. But that's a subject for another blog.

Nanodiamonds or No, No diamonds?

Mammoth killing space blast off the hook 
August, 31 2010
BBC
The theory that the great beasts living in North America 13,000 years ago were killed off by a space impact can now be discounted, a new study claims.
Mammoths, giant bears, big cats and the like disappeared rapidly from the fossil record, and a comet or asteroid strike was seen as a possible culprit.
But tiny diamonds said to have been created in the collision have been misinterpreted, a US-UK team says.
without these diamonds, the theory falls, the group tells PNAS journal.
"This was really the last pillar for this theory and I think it's time now everyone moved on," said co-author Professor Andrew Scott, from Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, told BBC News.
Case built
It has been one of the big palaeo-debates of recent years: what caused the extinction of the creatures and human settlers living across North America at the start of a millennium-long climate cooling event known as the Younger Dryas?
The traditional theory had been that a sudden release of fresh water from a giant glacial lake into the North Atlantic had upset the ocean's circulation and sent temperatures plummeting in just a few years.
But then a group of scientists started to challenge this position by pointing to what they said were tell-tale signs in the sediments at archaeological sites of an ancient impact from space.
These 12,900-year-old sediments were claimed to hold exotic materials: tiny carbon spheres, ultra-small specks of diamond - called nanodiamond - and amounts of the rare element iridium that are too high to have occurred naturally on Earth.
The sediments were also said to contain a layer of charcoal deposited by the colossal fire that would have swept the continent after the event.
No crater has ever been identified, but the proponents say the impactor may simply have broken up in the atmosphere as it came in; and as proof they have produced mammoth tusks that appear to have meteoritic shrapnel embedded in them.
Carbon clues
But detractors believe they have now unpicked much of this evidence, and in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences they say they have demolished the theory's best, last hope - the nanodiamonds.
These nano-sized, hexagonal bits of diamond, called lonsdaleite, can be good tracers for impacts; they're created in the intense pressure and heat of a space collision.
But having examined closely the carbon spherules purported to contain nanodiamonds in this case, Tyrone Daulton, Nicholas Pinter and Andrew Scott say there has been a misinterpretation.
"We looked for these diamonds and we couldn't find them," said Professor Scott. "But not only that, [the proponents of the theory] have misinterpreted what are really just aggregations of carbon.
"There were frequent low-temperature fires all through this period - this is no big deal. And what happens is that the carbon in molecules gets re-ordered and this happens in very small domains, less than micron-sized areas.
"It's not a high-temperature phenomenon; it happens at low temperatures. Obviously, what they've done is take that material and identified these domains as diamonds when they're not."
Under pressure
Even before this latest study, one of the world's leading experts on impacts - Dr Jay Melosh of Purdue University, US - had shown that an airburst was not capable of producing the shock pressures necessary to make nanodiamonds.
The proponents of the impact theory are not prepared to let go of their ideas just yet, however.
Dr Douglas Kennett of the University of Oregon, Eugene, US, told Science Magazine that the research featured in PNAS had been looking in the wrong places.
"The Daulton et al claim that we have misidentified diamonds is false and misleading," he said.
And geoscience consultant Allen West added that Daulton and colleagues had not followed the same protocols and therefore it was no surprise they had came up with a blank.
"They looked at charcoal but we never mentioned that we ever found diamonds in the charcoal," he told BBC News.
"They did say that they looked in some carbon spherules but we looked at 10-15 per layer and specified that in our methodology, and they only looked at 'one to several' - that's their quote. They didn't understand what they were supposed to be looking for."
Allen West said further nanodiamond evidence in support of the impact theory would be published in the coming weeks.

Househint # 27: do NOT make your own flamethrower

A story about a homemade flame thrower:

A HUSBAND suffered nasty burns — after he tried to get rid of a spider lurking in his toilet with a makeshift flame thrower.

Chris Welding, 28, was left with his hands in bandages after he tried to remove the creepy crawly which had frightened his wife, 20, last night.

She begged him to destroy the eight-legged beast after she saw it lurking behind their toilet in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.

Chris used a can of deodorant and a lighter as a makeshift flamethrower to barbecue the critter — but his plan backfired.

The flames came bursting out from behind the u-bend and blew back in his face.

IT engineer Chris, who has two children aged four and two, said: "It was about 10.30pm last night. My wife was getting ready for bed and suddenly she let out a scream.

"She said there was a spider in the bathroom and asked me to get rid of it — neither she or the kids would go in there.

"The spider had crawled into the recess behind the loo and there was no way I could get to it.

"Stupid as it is, I grabbed a can of deodorant and a lighter and sprayed it behind the loo. The flame shot out and went round the back of the toilet and came back out at me. It was a bit of a shock."

Chris jumped into the shower to cool his injuries with cold water while his wife called for help.

Two fire crews and an ambulance came to the house and Chris was taken to Colchester General Hospital.

He said: "I've got two burned fingers and a burned knuckle. I wasn't badly injured but they wanted to check I hadn't inhaled any of the fumes.

"They let me come back the same night."

By the time the crews arrived the blaze was out , but there was no trace of the spider.

A spokesman for Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said: "It appears the wife had spotted the creepy crawly in the bathroom and asked her husband to capture it.

"There was an almighty explosion which blew the man back into his hallway and lifted the hatch on the loft.

"He did exactly the right thing by jumping into the shower and cooling his burns with cold water while his wife raised the alarm."

Nazca lines may point to desert water

This is to an article about the ideas of David Johnson, about, quoting the article

The Nasca Lines, ... have been the focus of debate for over 70 years, [and] consist of giant geometric forms (triangles, trapezoids, parallel lines) as well as biomorphs (birds, plants, and mammals) etched into the surface of the desert of southern Peru, especially in the drainage of the Rio Grande de Nasca.

Johnson has been researching these ground drawings since the 1990s, publishing some books about his theory. Some of them are: "The Relationship Between the Lines of Nasca and Water Resources," 1997. "The water lines of Nasca," 1998, "The Correlation Between the Lines of Nasca and Subterranean Water Resources," 1999.

In 2002, together with Donald Proulx and Stephen Mabee, he wrote "The Correlation Between Geoglyphs and Subterranean Water Resources in the Río Grande de Nazca Drainage."

Johnson says that the Nazca lines were a code to tell the inhabitants where the water resources, in an arid region, were. Interesting, and why, is this being written up now, since he has publicized his ideas starting over ten years ago.

http://www.archaeologydaily.com/news/201008304946/Nasca-Lines-may-be-giant-map-of-underground-water-sources.html

Largest Emerald Found in North America Found

This Aug 17, 2009 photo provided by Terry Ledford shows the Carolina Emperor emerald prior to cutting, with a U.S. 25-cent coin in the foreground. Gem experts say an emerald yielded at a North Carolina farm may be the biggest ever uncovered in North America. The 65-carat emerald nicknamed the Carolina Emperor was pulled from a farm in the rural community of Hiddenite, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Charlotte. (AP Photo/Courtesy Terry Ledford)

By Emery P. Dalesio

Associated Press Writer / August 30, 2010

RALEIGH, N.C.—An emerald so large it's being compared with the crown jewels of Russian empress Catherine the Great was pulled from a pit near corn rows at a North Carolina farm.

• The nearly 65-carat emerald its finders are marketing by the name Carolina Emperor was pulled from a farm once so well known among treasure hunters that the owners charged $3 a day to shovel for small samples of the green stones. After the gem was cut and re-cut, the finished product was about one-fifth the weight of the original find, making it slightly larger than a U.S. quarter and about as heavy as a AA battery.

The emerald compares in size and quality to one surrounded by diamonds in a brooch once owned by Catherine the Great, who was empress in the 18th century, that Christie's auction house in New York sold in April for $1.65 million, said C.R. "Cap" Beesley, a New York gemologist who examined the stone.

While big, uncut crystals and even notable gem-quality emeralds have come from the community 50 miles northwest of Charlotte called Hiddenite, there has never been one so big it's worthy of an imperial treasury, Beesley said.

"It is the largest cut emerald ever to be found in North America," Beesley said in a telephone interview from Myanmar, an Asian country rich in precious gems.

The discovery is a rarity for emeralds found not in the rich veins of South America and Asia but in North America, said Robert Simon, owner of Windsor Jewelers in Winston-Salem.

"Most of the stones that have come out have not been gem-quality that I would mount in jewelry," said Simon, who was part owner of a 7.85-carat, dime-sized emerald found in the same community in 1998 that has since been set in jewelry and sold to a private owner.

Terry Ledford, 53, found the roughly 2-inch-square chunk rimmed with spots of iron a year ago on a 200-acre farm owned by business partner Renn Adams, 90, and his siblings. The rural community of Hiddenite is named for a paler stone that resembles emerald.

"It was so dark in color that holding it up to the sun you couldn't even get the light to come through it," a quality that ensured an intense green hue once the stone was cut with facets that allowed light into the gem's core, Ledford said.

The North Carolina stone was cut to imitate the royal emerald, Ledford said. A museum and some private collectors interested in buying the emerald have been in contact, Ledford said.

Modeling an empress's emerald is likely to have less influence on the North Carolina stone's sale price than its clarity, color and cut, said Douglas Hucker, CEO of the American Gem Trade Association, a Dallas, Texas-based trade association for dealers in colored gems.

"A 65-carat cut emerald from North Carolina is a big, big stone," he said. But "once an emerald is cut, it's subject to the same type of market conditions that any emerald would be."

Emeralds are part of North Carolina's mineral claim to fame, though other places in the U.S. also are rich in gems. Maine mines have yielded aquamarine and amethyst, Montana bears sapphires, Idaho is known for star garnets, and Arkansas has diamonds.

It's not fully known why small, subterranean cavities containing emeralds formed in central North Carolina, said geologist Michael Wise of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, who has studied the underground world around Hiddenite for years.

Emeralds are produced where a superheated fluid carrying the element beryllium migrated through rocks that contain chromium, Wise said.

"This doesn't happen frequently," Wise said. "The conditions have to be just right to make an emerald. ... It happens to be the case at this particular place."

Adams said decades ago when his parents owned the farm, they allowed anyone with a shovel to dig for emeralds on the property for $3 a day. Virtually all of it was too full of flaws to be cut into precious stones and was mostly sold to mineral collectors, Adams said.

Ledford said they don't plan to quit after pocketing the profits from their big find, Ledford said.

"We'll definitely keep on mining," he said. "It would be good to know you don't have to go and could do it for pleasure. You feel like you've got to find something to survive but since we found this emerald, once we get it sold, there will be less stress."

Oetzi may have been treated with acupuncture during his life 5300 years ago

This article about the 5300 year mummified remain we have named Oetzi discusses the possibilities that during his life Oetzi was treated with acupncture.

Oetzi Iceman's Tattoos Came from Fireplace
July, 19 2009

Discovery News

The 57 tattoos sported by Oetzi, the 5300-year-old Tyrolean iceman mummy, were made from fireplace soot that contained glittering, colorful precious stone crystals, according to an upcoming study in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

The determination supports prior research that the tattoos were associated with acupuncture treatments for chronic ailments suffered by the iceman, whose frozen body was found remarkably well preserved in the Similaun Glacier of the Alps in 1991.

The findings also suggest how prehistoric people were tattooed in the days before commercial inks and electric tattooing machines.


"I can imagine that they used some pointed material, maybe thorns, and dipped it into the soot and then pierced into the skin, or made scars and put the soot into the wound after insertion, allowing the wound to heal so that the colored material stayed there," lead author Maria Anna Pabst told Discovery News.

Using optical microscopy and various powerful electron microscopy techniques, Pabst, a professor in the Institute of Cell Biology at the Medical University of Graz, and her colleagues analyzed several of Otzi's tattoos. Tattoos chosen for this study consist of line markings, as well as a distinctive cross-shaped tattoo on the iceman's right knee.

Magnification of the skin designs revealed the tattoos consisted of soot, likely raked out of a fireplace, along with different silicate crystals, such as quartz and almandine, a type of purple garnet.

"As there are only a few tiny crystals between the soot particles, I think that when the ancients took the soot from the stones of the fireplace, they got some crystals," Pabst said, explaining that the crystals likely were just naturally in either the dirt or the fireplace structure itself, and not intentionally added for their sparkle, color and value.

"The tattoos have a dark blue color, deriving from the soot," she added. "There are groups of one, two, three, four and seven tattoo lines parallel to the longitudinal axis of the body, and so they're parallel to Chinese acupuncture meridians."

The cross-shaped tattoo on his knee, and another one on his left ankle, also lay over Chinese acupuncture "trigger points," the researchers believe. Strengthening their argument is the fact that the soot-made markings are located on parts of the iceman's body not typical for tattoo displays, diminishing the notion that they served a more ornamental, aesthetic function.

Prior research shows Oetzi did suffer from a variety of ailments that might have benefited from acupuncture. These included a bad back, degeneration of the hip, knee and ankle, and "severe abdominal disorders," primarily caused by whip worm, an intestinal parasite that can cause diarrhea.

Before the more recent studies on this mummy, historians believed the earliest acupuncture took place in China around 3,000 years ago. Since the iceman is much older, Pabst and her colleagues now think this therapeutic technique may have been independently discovered by many different prehistoric European and Asian cultures.

It's also still possible that tattooing and acupuncture originated in East Asia, with the knowledge of this practice spreading to the Alps region well before the iceman's lifetime.

Frank Bahr, president of the German Academy of Acupuncture, first made the tattoo-acupuncture connection on the iceman after studying a drawing of the tattoos and their placement on Oetzi's body.

Bahr told Discovery News, "The most interesting thing about the whole iceman story is that even today I would treat a patient with about 90 percent of the same points as the tattoos on the iceman, if this patient were to have the same diseases."

Glamour In the Dump

Thousands Of Glamour Issues Ruined In Big Rig Accident

By Alex Alvarez on Aug 27, 2010 01:41 PM

Sad news for many Glamour fans: a collision on I-80 involving two big rigs has resulted in the destruction of thousands of issues of the magazine. Traffic was slowed due to another accident, and one of the truck drivers was not paying attention to the road and ended up crashing.

A forklift was needed to shovel some 48,000 pounds of ruined Glamour's October issues into dumpsters.