United Kingdom Published UFO-Related Resources

If you are interested in UFO there is a good news for you: the United Kingdom government just released plenty of documents related to UFO. The documents contain information related to UFO covering the years 1986-1992. There are hundreds of megabytes of materials available there that will certainly keep you busy for pretty long time.

The documents are well organized. You can start with the highlights guide that will guide you to rest of the materials. You can also watch a videocast where a UFO expert explains the released documents.

Hackers Attacked Large Hadron Collider’s Computer System

The brand new Large Hadron Collider was infiltrated by hackers:

Shortly after physicists activated the Collider on Wednesday, hackers identifying themselves as Group 2600 of the Greek Security Team accessed computers connected to the Compact Muon Solenoid detector, one of four key subsystems responsible for monitoring the collisions of protons speeding around the 18-mile track near Geneva, Switzerland.

Since LHC is perhaps the most expensive and complex scientific instrument ever built, this infiltration could be costly in the form of experiment disruptions. Some scientists were even worry that it could create artificial black hole though that is highly unlikely to happen.

How to Create Your Own Nation - Like Pitcairn Islands

If you ever think about creating your own nation, there are many ways to do it:

A larger nation can colonize a smaller one and change the name, like the British did with Rhodesia. The opposite can take place; a colony can rebel against its colonial masters, like the Zimbabweans did against Britain. Another possibly less bloody method is to purchase an uninhabited island and secede from whatever nation owns it. Owning land offers more legitimacy to the movement, and since no one was living on the island, the new nation may see less resistance from the government it formerly belonged to. You, however, choose the land-based secessionist route, and this version of nation founding can require the most finesse.

This reminds me of the smallest nation (a British protectorate, actually) in the world that has only 50 people. The name of the country is Pitcairn Islands. Perhaps creating our own countries is not that far away in the horizon.

Stanford Study Shows That People Are Willing to Help Others

There is a good news for humanity: people are more willing to help others than what we usually think.

“Our research should encourage people to ask for help and not assume that others are disinclined to comply,” said Frank Flynn, associate professor of organizational behavior at the Graduate School of Business. “People are more willing to help than you think, and that can be important to know when you’re trying to get the resources you need to get a job done, when you’re trying to solicit funds or what have you.”

This finding is interesting because it encourages us to be willing to ask. Since people are willing to help, if we don’t ask we will lose opportunities.

MIT Discovers Way to Store Solar Energy Efficiently

Almost all the power we consume on Earth can be traced back to the sun, but ironically consuming solar power directly has been difficult. Until now. MIT’s discovery opens to way to solar revolution:

In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn’t shine.

Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today’s announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.

Amazing. If this discovery leaves up to its promise, we won’t worry about lack of energy in the coming decades.

iTunes U: A Good Place to Learn - Now With 60 Second Lectures

If you love learning, one of the best places to go is iTunes U which offers a lot of educational materials for free:

While an episode of "Desperate Housewives" will cost $1.99, a series of lectures by renowned University of California-Berkeley philosophy professor Hubert Dreyfus is absolutely free. A single song by pop diva Rihanna is 99 cents. The price of a course on modern theoretical physics by Stanford University quantum mechanics professor Leonard Susskind? Nada.

Recently it added a new podcast called 60 Second Lectures:

Got a minute? Then you have time to enjoy a lecture from a faculty member at the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Speaking on a wide range of topics — from enthography to philosphy to music — the lecturers offer insight, whimsy, and, above all, brevity.

PDE: Key to Future Hypersonic Planes

In the future, US military wants to have airplanes that can take off from a runway and reach hypersonic speed (six times the speed of sound). One important technology that is being developed for this purpose is pulse detonation engine or PDE (which is a kind of CVC - Constant Volume Combustion).

The unique thing about PDE is it works not by burning fuel but by exploding it. NASA is now working on PDE-powered aircraft.

Web 3.0: Microsoft Will Buy Semantic Search Engine Powerset

Microsoft has agreed to buy semantic search engine Powerset for an estimated price of $100 million.

This move is interesting because Web 3.0 is thought to consist of semantic web. Here is a glimpse of how Web 3.0 will be like:

Some Internet experts believe the next generation of the Web — Web 3.0 — will make tasks like your search for movies and food faster and easier. Instead of multiple searches, you might type a complex sentence or two in your Web 3.0 browser, and the Web will do the rest. In our example, you could type "I want to see a funny movie and then eat at a good Mexican restaurant. What are my options?" The Web 3.0 browser will analyze your response, search the Internet for all possible answers, and then organize the results for you.

Semantic search engines like Powerset may prove to be vital in this kind of future.

Watch Stanford Channel on Youtube

It’s good to learn that Stanford University has launched a video channel on Youtube. There are about 200 videos available there with the featured video being Oprah Winfrey’s 2008 commencement address.

I have been a fan of channels like Google Tech Talks where so many quality videos can be found. While Stanford already has a channel on iTunes U for some time, this new Youtube channel will definitely enable them to reach wider audience.

MIT Team Found Ancient Language that Has No Number

It’s amazing. How can we live as a community without having language for number? But that’s what an MIT team found recently:

An Amazonian language with only 300 speakers has no word to express the concept of “one” or any other specific number, according to a new study from an MIT-led team.

The team, led by MIT professor of brain and cognitive sciences Edward Gibson, found that members of the Piraha tribe in remote northwestern Brazil use language to express relative quantities such as “some” and “more,” but not precise numbers.

Apparently, this kind of tribes has no currency, let alone trading. Perhaps they don’t even have economic transaction of any sort.