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Creator Develops Ultrafast Wireless Which Seemingly Violates The Law Of Physics

Gaming On Demand

The founder of the cloud-based gaming on demand service OnLive, Steve Perlman is now claiming to have discovered a new technique of wireless communications that would drastically outpace what we now have and would actually disprove many of the accepted regulations of how wireless communications work.

First the theory popped up in a presentation which Perlman gave at the NExTWORK conference and was only a small mention at that.  There was no demonstration or real proof given.  His proposal flies directly in the face of the Shannon-Hartley Theorem, which is a guideline for wireless technologies.  So we are not inclined to believe his claims.  But occasionally someone will say something so crazy and with such confidence that you have to take notice.  This particular idea would have such huge effects on communications technology that we must encourage discussion about it.  This is not to be taken as an endorsement though by any means.

Perlman briefly proposed DISO as an entirely new radio system with different chips that work in an entirely different way and on different towers.  He claims that DIDO can broadcast through solid objects which usually block cell signals.  He says it needs something about the size of a router and the signal broadcasts much farther than usual towers, in fact up to 30 miles.

Perlman says that DIDO (distributed-input-distribution-output) system overcomes the traditional broadband system where each user gets a small piece of the overall bandwidth of the tower they’re connected to.  Instead DIDO, each user can access the full speed of the tower.

Wired interviewed an electrical engineering professor who notes that elements of the Shannon-Hartley Theorem have been disproved or altered.  But no one has seen Perlman’s DIDO in action though it is patented and he is as confident about DIDO as anything else he’s ever designed.

Study Tells Fairgrounds To Look To Entertainment

Fairgrounds Look To Entertainment

The report will be discussed at a meeting Tuesday at the Vallejo City Council and will focus on the slumping economy as well as prevailing market forces.  The report says that they don’t promise well for retail development in the very near future.

Another suggestion of the report was to look into whether a local educational institution like California Maritime Academy would be interested in working together on revenue-generating uses for the very aging fairgrounds property.

Further investigation is recommended on whether Six Flags would be willing to pay for and work together to operate an interim RV park or other attractions which would be tied to its business.

But the report’s key advice is to examine “building on the strength of Six Flags’ regional appeal” by creating a major entertainment feature at the fairgrounds, which is just across the street on Fairgrounds Drive. The report shows Merlin Entertainment’s Legoland theme parks as an example.

This type of addition could make Vallejo “a magnetic agglomeration of amusement attractions” which could lead to more restaurants as well as other supporting businesses, according to the report.

A Six Flags spokeswoman, however, refused to make comments on the merits of the idea.

“Since we don’t know the full extent of the city and county’s plans, it’s too early to make speculative comments,” Nancy Chan, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom spokeswoman said Friday.

What possibilities for the property has been the focus of an ongoing planning process by Solano County, Vallejo and the Solano County Fairgrounds Association officials.

Originally, planners imagined redeveloping the site with an “iconic” retail anchor to attract visitors. But the new report which was just released last month as part of the planning, suggests the economy will remain too feeble for big-box options in the near term.

Obama’s Father Once Thought About Putting The President Up For Adoption

President Up For Adoption

The author of a new book about President Obama’s father saw a document that indicated the President’s father once thought about putting young Barack up for adoption.

Biographer Sally Jacobs, writes in that paper today:

President Obama’s father revealed a plan in the spring of 1961 that he was considering putting his unborn son up for adoption, which could have changed the course of American history.

The elder Barack H. Obama who was a sophomore at the University of Hawaii had been under scrutiny by the federal immigration officials over concern than he had more than one wife.  When questioned by the school’s foreign student adviser then 24 year old Obama insisted he had divorced his wife in Kenya, his native home.  While his wife Ann Dunham was five months pregnant with the son who would be named Barack Obama II, Obama insisted that they would put the child up for adoption.

“Subject got his USC (United States citizen) wife ‘Hapai’ [Hawaiian for pregnant] and although they were married they do not live together and Miss Dunham is making arrangements with the Salvation Army to give the baby away,” according to a letter which describes the conversation with Obama and was written by Lyle H. Dahling, an administrator in the Honolulu office of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Jacobs’ book — The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama’s Father – will be published on Tuesday.

Obama’s mother — Stanley Ann Dunham, the subject of another biography to be published  this year — died in 1995.

Obama family members and his aides say they know of no plan for adoption, Jacobs wrote:

The former White House press secretary Robert L. Gibbs, said at the time the document was released that President Obama had never known that his mother had considered putting the child up for adoption.

New APP Uses Smartphone’s Sensors To Tag Photos With Names, Places And Even Emotions

Smartphone's Tag Photos

A new application can automatically tag your smartphone photos with many attributes.  It can pick out the people and the context of the picture including emotions, types of activities and weather conditions.

It is called TagSense and it was developed by students at the University of South Carolina and Duke University when they combined smartphones’ sensors into an all encompassing tag suite.  It goes way beyond GPS current technology that recreates a photo’s location and context.

A phone’s built in accelerometer can tell whether a person is dancing or engaged in another activity or just standing still, according to a Dukes news release.  The light sensors in the phone which are normally used to dim or brighten a display screen can also be used to tell whether the picture is outside or inside.  Weather conditions can also be checked against the phone’s location and it can even use a microphone to tell whether the subject is laughing or quiet. All these attributes can be assigned to each picture and someone can search according to categories.

“So, for example, if you’ve taken a bunch of photographs at a party, it would be easy at a later date to search for just photographs of happy people dancing,” said a visiting graduate student from the University of South Carolina, Chuan Qin.

According to Romit Roy Choudhury who is an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke, the students used eight Google Nexus One mobile phones which snapped more than 200 photos at various places on the Duke campus.  It found it was more sophisticated than Google’s Picasa or Apple’s iPhoto tagging systems.

The team unveiled the app at the Association for Computing Machinery’s International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services or MobiSys in Washington, D.C.

TSA Warnings Of Potential Airline Threats Which Involve Implanted Bombs

Potential Airline Threats

Recent U.S. government officials warning say that terrorists are now considering surgically implanting explosive devices in people as an attempt to circumvent airline screening procedures.

They insist there is no indication of an immediate threat but that new information could find new additional screening procedures throughout the nation’s airports.  Some of the existing scanners can’t detect bombs which are implanted under a human’s skin, according to experts.

The information says that such a threat could come from overseas and not domestic groups, but federal officials are making precautions both in the United States and abroad.

This idea of surgically implanting bombs in humans has been inspected by intelligence agencies before, but the new information suggests that terrorists groups are strongly considering the new technique, according to officials.

Nicholas Kimball, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), states that airline passengers flying into the United States are likely to be subject to additional screening.

“These measures are designed to be unpredictable, so passengers should not expect to see the same activity at every international airport,” Kimball commented. “Measures may include interaction with passengers, in addition to the use of other screening methods such as pat-downs and the use of enhanced tools and technologies.”

Existing scanners are not able to detect certain explosive materials like PETN under human skin. They would have to rely on explosive trace detection swabs to detect bombs which are under the skin of a human, and currently these are only done on a fraction of the passengers.

Final Patriotic Mission Of The Space Shuttle

Final Patriotic Mission

NASA’s space shuttles are icons for American spaceflight for more than 30 years, but the historic space planes will retire for good after one final mission this month.

The shuttle Atlantis is expected to launch NASA’s final shuttle mission and is called STS-135.  It will happen on Friday at 11:26 a.m. EDT from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Atlantis will soar to a 12-day mission at the International Space Station where they will deliver supplies and spare parts. It will mark the 135th and final mission of the shuttles since flights began in 1981.

While NASA plans to shut down the iconic shuttle program, let’s take a look at some of the most patriotic shuttle mission that has ever been flown.

The first space shuttle mission, STS-1 (Columbia), was launched on April 12, 1981.  This mission began three decades for the historic shuttle program. The first mission came twenty years after the (former) Soviet Union beat the first leg in the space race by placing the first person in space which was Yuri Gagarin. STS-1 was 54 hours in length, and the shuttle orbited the Earth a total of 37 times.

The STS-1 is the most complex spacecraft ever and it should be noted that it was the first U.S. manned spaceship which was launched without an unmanned test flight.  Because of this heroic event, NASA continues to describe the mission as “The boldest test flight in history.”

When testing the Manned Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU for short, astronaut Bruce McCandless II ventured the most further away from the safety of the ship than any previous astronaut ever attempted.  The MMU was a nitrogen jet propelled backpack that was used during a 1984 shuttle mission.  He became known as the first true “human satellite.”

The Discovery space shuttle launched the STS-31 mission on April 24, 1990 at 8:33 a.m. EDT. The mission included the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, the first of NASA’s Great Observatories that reached orbit.  It is the only telescope that is also designed to be repaired and serviced in space.

Every 97 minutes, Hubble completes an orbit around Earth, moving at the speed of about 5 miles per second — which is fast enough to travel across the United States in roughly ten minutes.

Tips for Better Air Travel Experience

Air Travel Experience

Traveling can end up being a truly bad experience if you don’t prepare properly before you head out on your excursion. However if you follow these useful tips, you can have a much more pleasurable trip.

Prepare

If you plan on Airport travel it is imperative that you prepare ahead of time and know the type of things you will need to be ready for as far as inspections, what you can and carry on, etc.  It is better to check with your Airline’s website or give them a call a day before your flight so you can be educated on these types of issues.  Rules do change occasionally so it is better to know ahead of time to avoid delays.

Properly Pack

It is better to start with a list to ensure nothing you need is forgotten.  Keep everything in its place like putting outfits together to make things less stressful and easier when you go to unpack.  If you do need to carry on items such as perfume, and other standard toiletries just make sure they are in the proper size containers to again avoid delays.  These containers should also be in clear bags to lessen inspection time at the Airport.

Park

The easiest thing to do is to take advantage of offsite parking options and booking this ahead of time.  It is usually less costly and you will spend less time than trying to find a spot in the usually airport lot.  Many times a valet is available as well to make things even easier.

Provide Yourself Some Stress Relief and Leisure Things to do in Case You do Have to Wait.

No matter how prepared you are, there are always going to be times where you will have to wait at airport.  It is just a fact of life.  IPods, cell phones, even portable mini TV’s are some of the things you can bring to help pass the time.  Most Airports have a small store which will sell magazines but it is helpful to bring ones you prefer.  Also keep in mind some things for kids to play with if you do happen to be traveling with children.

Keep in Touch

Check your flight information through the Internet or call the Airlines directly.  Many times flights are delayed and a quick call can save a lot of time if a flight has been cancelled or delayed.

Just following these few tips can make things much easier and less stressful.

New Attractions on the way to Southern California Amusement Parks

Disneyland New Attractions

Disneyland is set to premier several new rides this summer and the same can be said for Disney California Adventure Park.

At California Adventure Park, one of the main rides to debut is based on Disney’s The Little Mermaid from 1989.  It will be a family oriented ride with music from the movie in an underwater setting.

Another area of the park is based on the Disney Movie Cars.  The 12-acre park area will not be completed until 2012.

At Disneyland, probably the most innovative ride which is now open takes riders on a journey based on 54 possible storylines.  Riders can experience a different journey each time they ride.

Also at Disneyland’s Main Street, drummers and dancers along with many Disney characters debuted on May 27^th and it are known part of Mickey’s Soundsational Parade.

Not to be outdone, other theme parks in the Southern California area are also opening new rides.

Based on the movie, The Green Lantern, a new roller coaster at Magic Mountain in Six Flags will help them recapture the title “Roller Coaster Capital of the World”.  It will include plunging drops that will feel like a free fall and riders will be on suspended trains.  The ride also includes parts that will rotate completely upside down and back and forth and is sure to be a hit.

At another nearby park in Buena Park, California, Knott’s Berry Farm, a ride called the WindSeeker will open in July or possibly late June depending on construction.  Riders will be treated to a 30 m.p.h. one minute spin while being extended 45 degrees from the tower’s top.

In San Diego County, Legoland opened the Star Wars Miniland.  This area includes battle scenes, massive machines, and cityscapes in 1:20 scale based on the famous movie.  The attraction used Lego bricks to capture the movie timeline from the first film to include even the cartoon series and includes 1.5 million of the tiny bricks Lego is known for.

Bottoms Up! Red Wine May Counteract The Negative Effects Of Space Travel

Red Wine Counteracts Negativity

Good news for oenophiles: Wine can counterbalance the unhelpful effects that weightlessness brings. We’ve already witnessed the first beer brewed for space drinking — any vintners want to take on the test of bottling the first zero-g grenache?

Scientists have been reassuring us that red wine has great health benefits because it contains resveratrol and antioxidants which are good for the heart, according to the Mayo Clinic.  Now a study shows that resveratrol prevents muscle atrophy and bone density loss.  These are two problems which commonly plague astronauts and people who lead a sedentary life.

Researchers in France have been working with rats in an environment which is much like the weightlessness of spaceflight.  By hanging the rats up by their tails and giving one group daily doses of resveratrol and none to the other group.

The control group had muscle density and bone loss and also developed insulin resistance according to the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology.  The resveratrol group did not have these side effects.

“Resveratrol may not be a substitute for exercise, but it could slow deterioration until someone can get moving again,” said editor-in-chief of the FASEB Journal, Gerald Weissmann, M.D.

Astronauts who are on long duration trips to the ISS or Mars spacecraft could take resveratrol supplements and similarly people with sedentary lives due to disabilities could benefit.  Or they could drink some red wine.

The final flight of the Space Shuttle…Not For Wimps.

Space Shuttle…Not For Wimps

No doubt Spaceflight is dangerous stuff.  You have no air, no gravity, no pressure, all that radiation and the many things that can go wrong from blast-off to final landing.  Complex technologies can fail in complex ways.  NASA has discovered such in moments of tragedy throughout the years.  In reading about the Columbia accident it concludes that due to budget pressures the shuttle was never designed for maximum safety.  Rather it was “a compromise vehicle that was less than optimal for manned flights.”

The CAIB report says, “NASA designed and developed a remarkably capable and resilient vehicle, consisting of an Orbiter with three Main Engines, two Solid Rocket Boosters, and an External Tank, but one that has never met any of its original requirements for reliability, cost, ease of turnaround, maintainability, or, regrettably, safety.”

The report also gets into culture issues and failure of communications as well as flawed mindsets.

Meanwhile some old-timers are not happy at all with the retirement of the shuttle.  Some believe that we need it in case of emergencies on the International Space Station.  Chris Kraft is a NASA legend and his opinion matters.

If you want to know what’s really happening with the space industry than you should follow the Nasa Watch and Space Politics blogs.