1/31/10
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vaata veelVaikus on maailmast kadumas
Julia Baird tutvustab Newsweekis raamatu One Square Inch of Silence: One Man's Search for Natural Silence in a Noisy World autorit, audioökoloog Gordon Hemptonit ning tema vaikuseotsinguid.Silence is something you assume you will always be able to find if you need it. All you have to do is drive far enough in the right direction, trek through quiet fields or woods, or dive into the sea's belly. For true silence is not noiselessness. As audio ecologist Gordon Hempton defines it, silence is "the complete absence of all audible mechanical vibrations, leaving only the sounds of nature at her most natural. Silence is the presence of everything, undisturbed." And silence, Hempton believes, is rapidly disappearing, even in the most remote places. He says there are fewer than a dozen places of silence—areas "where natural silence reigns over many square miles"—remaining in America, and none in Europe.
1/30/10
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Best European Fiction 2010
Michel Faber arvustab Guardianis kolmekümne viiest loost koosnevat antoloogiat Best European Fiction 2010 ning tõstab ühe kogumiku tipphetkena esile sinna valitud Elo Viidingu juttu.One of my favourite stories is Elo Viiding's "Foreign Women", which reads at first like a bittersweet reminiscence of the exotic freedoms that Estonians glimpsed in the western women who visited them during the Soviet era. As the story sinks in, however, it reveals itself as a lethal brew of corrosive frustration, disgust for Estonians and foreigners alike, pent up over decades and released too late to do anyone any good. While some of the more ambitious conceits in this anthology don't quite ignite, there is lingering power in Viiding's evocation of envy as the foreign women rush off to the airport "in their pre-hired, dirty-yellow taxis through our city full of posters of balding, senile-looking politicians".
Mesilased suudavad inimnägu meelde jätta
Jeremy Hsu vahendab Popular Science'i veebisaidil eksperimente, millest ilmneb, et vajaduse korral suudavad mesilased inimeste nägusid eristada ja meelde jätta.Bees need not recognize human faces when going about their pollination business. Yet scientists have now found that they can train bees to recognize the arrangement of human facial features, by rewarding the classy striped insects with sugar. That could inspire new facial recognition systems, given that bees manage this feat with brains the size of a microdot.
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Oodata on Salingeri uusi raamatuid?
Adrian McKinty arutleb Times Online'is, kas, millal ja millistes kogustes võib oodata müüki sel nädalal igavestele kirjamaadele siirdunud JD Salingeri poolt aastakümnete jooksul sahtlisse kirjutatud teoseid.JD Salinger's death could be the beginning of a mini gold rush for the beleaguered American publishing industry. Although Salinger published nothing after 1961, his daughter Margaret says in her memoir Dream Catcher, that her father was extremely disciplined, writing every single morning, sometimes remaining in his study all day typing and editing.
1/29/10
Lennujaamadesse tulevad mõtetelugejad?
Bill Christensen tutvustab LiveScience'is WeCU Technologiesi poolt välja töötatavaid reageeringuskännereid, mis võidakse tulevikus paigaldada lennujaamadesse ja teistesse avalikesse kohtadesse ning peaksid potentsiaalse terroristi paljastama juba enne, kui ta kurja jõuab teha."The system ... projects images onto airport screens, such as symbols associated with a certain terrorist group or some other image only a would-be terrorist would recognize, company CEO Ehud Givon said. "The logic is that people can't help reacting, even if only subtly, to familiar images that suddenly appear in unfamiliar places. If you strolled through an airport and saw a picture of your mother, Givon explained, you couldn't help but respond. "The reaction could be a darting of the eyes, an increased heartbeat, a nervous twitch or faster breathing, he said. The WeCU system would use humans to do some of the observing but would rely mostly on hidden cameras or covert biometric sensors that can detect a slight rise in body temperature and heart rate," as reported in Raw Story.
Vulkaan, mis toodab soojust ja elektrit
Christine Dell'Amore tutvustab National Geographici veebisaidil plaane rajada Inglismaale enam kui sajale tuhandele majapidamisele energiat ja soojust tootev ning väliselt vulkaani meenutav hiiglaslik bioenergiajaam. Palm kernel shells—waste from palm-oil plantations in Malaysia—would run the 279-foot-high (85-meter-high) biomass plant, ensuring that no existing agricultural land is switched to growing biofuels rather than food. The waste shells would be delivered by ship to the riverside plant, reducing traffic on local roads. The plant's entire operations—including fuel transportation from Malaysia—would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 80 percent as compared with running a coal-powered plant, Day said, and no black cloud of smoke would be visible from the "dead quiet" station.
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