The Israeli Air Force Struck Syria, NY Times: N. Korean Nukes Targeted The U.S.-supplied F-15I “Ra’am” fighters that carried out the alleged September 6 raid to destroy alleged Syrian nuclear cache were bought with raids on such facilities in mind, according to some reports. One of the keys to the bombers’ success? Their APG-70 radars, …
Here is an analysis of a case where a 2007 supercomputer running a 1977 algorithm would be outperformed by a 1977 personal computer running a 2007 algorithm This is also discussed here This relates to the question of getting to better and better intelligence just by speeding up the hardware. Brian WangBrian Wang is a …
Dwave systems, CTO Geordie Rose, theorizes about the usefulness and possible necessity of quantum computers for human level and higher artificial intelligence Summarizing: Are humans somehow getting good approximate solutions to problems that are NP hard ? If so, would quantum computers be useful to develop alternative ways to get as good or better than …
Several types of lasers exist today that can emit at desired infrared wavelengths, none of these lasers meet requirements for some applications because they are either too expensive, not mass-producible, too fragile or require power-hungry and inefficient cryogenic refrigeration. Applications for suitably portable laser systems include the use of infrared countermeasures to protect aircraft from …
The 9th carnival of space is up at the planetary society blog My article about the rapid progress in lasers Advancednano reports on which can be used in laser launch arrays.Some of the other articles: Paul Gilster over at Centauri Dreams really makes you think about the challenges we face with interstellar travel. Pamela Gay …
Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq:CREE), a market leader in LED solid-state lighting components, today announced commercial availability of XLamp(r) LEDs with minimum luminous flux of 100 lumens at 350 mA. XLamp LEDs are the first LEDs to be available in volume with this level of performance. This advance sets a new standard in lighting-class LED brightness and …
Here is a pdf of a paper “Route to Room-Temperature Superconductivity from a Practical Point of View” by A. Mourachkine of the University of Cambridge This chapter presents analysis of experimental data which allow one to draw a conclusion about components and the structure of a potential room-temperature superconductor. The two essential components of a …
Wired has an article on accurate athletic anticipation which can be called field sense or perceptual ability or what Wayne Gretzky can see on the hockey ice Comparing experts to amateurs in tennis, experts knew what would happen with the direction of a tennis serve roughly a third of a second earlier. What separated the …
From Business week, as South Korea’s growth has cooled to 5% annually over the past decade, from an average rate of nearly 8% during the prior 30 years, some experts are griping that Koreas educational system no longer makes the grade. The country of 48 million now ranks 11th among the worlds economies and is …
Charlie Strossberg wrote an article indicating the difficult and in his view impossible challenges of space colonization It is also pointed to from Centauri dreams There are several problems with it 1. failure of a science fiction author to figure out a technological way forward is a flaw in the science fiction author not in …
The New Scientist reports progress to 3D holograms of molecules Image quality improves significantly as the number of computer processing iterations increases from 0 (left) to 500 (right) (Image: The American Physical Society) For years physicists have grappled with a kind of double vision that has made using holography difficult. The process results in an …