This week's panel
Miltone Marquette, EvaMoon Ember, Nexus Burbclave, Reed Steamroller.
Quotes
Anyone who has lost track of time when using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come true and the tendency to miss lunch.
Tim Berners-Lee
Facts are the air of scientists. Without them you can never fly.
Linus Pauling
Word-UP of the week – Was A Tie!! ”Baff” - A bath taken for purely recreational purposes. Verb: to Bave.
EvaMoon Ember
“ Cruddacular” - When things don't go your way, they're cruddacular.
Reed Steamroller
Audience Quote of the week - “y =mx+b is an answer a husband gave as to why he was out all night”
Lauren Weyland
Questions
For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv
1) Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) have taken the term ‘green power’ literally by running an electric circuit from the power generated by trees. Its not much but could be used to detect environmental conditions. By hooking nails to trees and connecting a voltmeter- big leaf maples generate a steady voltage of up to a few hundred millivolts. The team’s research follows on a study from what school that found plants generate a voltage when one electrode is placed in a plant and the other in the surrounding soil?
2) Most of his life was lived on Utopia Parkway in Queens along with his mother and brother. He was something of a recluse and became a self-taught artist. He was an American artist and sculptor, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an avant-garde experimental filmmaker. His most characteristic art works were boxes created from found objects. Many of his boxes, such as the famous Medici Slot Machine, are interactive and are meant to be handled. Who was he?
3) Designed by the famous team Adler and Sullivan with a staff that included the young Frank Lloyd Wright. This Chicago building was originally designed as a luxurious hotel and theatre. Sullivan is considered to be one of the creators of Art Nouveau. Adler did the theaters acoustics; so perfect that every word on stage could be easily heard six stories up and a half block away. Caruso sang there; Prokofiev conducted there. It was the first new building in the world to be electrically lit and the first to be air conditioned via forced air directed over water and blocks of ice. What building was deemed so well made it would cost more to tear down than to rebuild over?
4) They have already created a robot guided by rat brains, now the same team is creating a robot guided by human ones. It always starts as an attempt to understand disease, but who knows where this will take us. Different rat brains, do behave differently and of course so will human ones. What part of the human brain is used to control the robot?
5)Christmas remained a normal working day in Scotland until 1958, this festival is Scottish and steeped in many customs and traditions. Redding or cleaning the house,
Mistletoe, not for kissing under like at Christmas, but to prevent illness to the householders. Pieces of holly are placed to keep out mischievous fairies and pieces of hazel and yew which were thought to have magical powers. Juniper would be burnt, black buns eaten, loud noise made, and “Lang may yer lum reek!” will be and has been said for centuries at this time. What festival is this, peculiar to Scotland?
6) If you’re looking for a universal remote to complement any Harry Potter marathons, this one allows control of the "magical picture box" with a flick of the wrist - 'Abracadabra' optional. The wand features a built-in accelerometer enabling it to recognize “magical gestures” instead of relying on pushing buttons. To turn up the volume, for example, just give the wand a clockwise motion or gesture counter-clockwise to lower it. Want to change the channel? It’s as easy as a flick of the wrist. It can recognize 13 different gestures in all, and is designed to work with just about any contraption that can be remote controlled and will be available from October 1st- what is it?
7) It is any of various kinds of passive two-terminal circuit elements that maintain a functional relationship between the time integrals of current and voltage. Its theory was formulated and named by Leon Chua in1971 writing of symmetry between the resistor, inductor, and capacitor. In 2008 a team at HP Labs announced the development of a switching one. These devices are being developed for application in nanoelectronic memories, computer logic, and neuromorphic computer architectures-called the "missing link of electronics" The similarities between these circuits and the behavior of some simple organisms suggests the hybrid devices could also open the way for computers learning for themselves, like animals. What are they?
8) This is like hook-and-loop “Velcro”but made out of steel and much scarier. One side of the material bristles with sharp spikes and the other side has jagged steel brushes. Looking something like the mouth of a prehistoric shark, a square meter of it can support up to 35 metric tons and withstand heat of up to 800 degrees Celsius. Developed at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, researchers borrowed from the traditional hook-and-loop concept to design a fastener for extreme loads and environments such as automotive, building, or military applications. What is this steel Velcro called?
9) She was an early pioneer of science fiction, before the term was invented. She is actually better known for her work in creating the first popular gardening manuals. Unlike many early works in this genre she did not portray the future as her own day with only political changes: she filled it with foreseeable changes in technology, society, and even fashion. Her court ladies wear trousers and hair ornaments of controlled flame. Surgeons and lawyers are steam-powered automatons. There is even a kind of Internet predicted in it. Her ground breaking book “The Mummy!: Or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century,” was published anonymously in 1827 She embodied ideas of scientific progress and discovery, that now read like prophecies. Her social attitudes rank this book among feminist novels. Her other very well known book was “Gardening for Ladies.” Who was this remarkable woman?
10) Quarks are the only elementary particles to experience all four fundamental forces, as well as the only known particles whose electric charges are not integer multiples. In physics, a process by which elementary particles interact with each other. An interaction is often described as a physical field; the four known fundamental interactions are electromagnetism, strong interaction, weak interaction and what?
11) Beneath the shimmering surface of this lake a deadly time bomb awaits. A "gold rush" to extract valuable methane from it depths might trigger an outburst of gas that could wash a deadly, suffocating blanket over the 2 million people who live around its shores. Now a group of biochemists warns that if unregulated extraction continues unabated, it could trigger a catastrophic outgassing of carbon dioxide - another dissolved gas abundant in the lake's depths. Such a disaster occurred at Cameroon in 1986, killing 1700 people. This lake contains 300 times more CO2. What lake are we well warned to stop mining?
12) Full HD video conferencing has been available for some time - provided you can afford to spend over $20,000 on a product like Cisco's TelePresence 500. Until now that is. FaceVsion's FXexpress Pro is an ExpressCard-based hardware accelerator with an HDMI input, capable of encoding and decoding video at 30 frames per second in real-time for 1080p video conferencing - and it's available for under what price to the nearest hundred?
13) MANY people have argued that humans are naturally cooperative. Darwin, Lincoln, Roosevelt, the Dalai Lama, Kropotkin, neurobiologist Rilling among them. Our animal nature is characterized as much by kindness and collaboration as it is by competition and carnage. Empathy is the social glue that holds communities together, and if humans are empathetic animals it is because we have "the backing of a long evolutionary history". "Bonding... is what makes us happiest," and evidence from the behavioural and neural sciences supports the claim. Monkeys, cetaceans and rodents all exhibit empathy and what we might call moral intelligence. Which prolific primatologist is rewriting macho origin myths with his belief in the survival of the kindest?
14) The father of the green revolution passed over the weekend at 95. He was a giant of the scientific and technological revolution of the 20th century. He probably saved more lives by ending famine than the more famous names behind polio vaccines or DNA: He said "I personally cannot live comfortably in the midst of abject hunger and poverty and human misery". His answer was to apply science to increase crop yields. He devised an ingenious system to accelerate the breeding of disease-resistant wheat – His plants went on to vastly boost food production elsewhere, notably India as famine-wracked then as Africa is now. Who was this man who won the Nobel peace prize in 1970?
15) Is it possible for an autonomous machine to make moral judgments? This question has given rise to the issue of machine ethics and morality. Can we program this? A recent paper “Modelling Morality with Prospective Logic,” has just been written, declaring that morality is no longer exclusivly human. In 1942, Three fundamental Rules of Robotics were first written by a science fiction genius - One, a robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow one to come to harm. Two, a robot must obey human orders except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. And three, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. Who authored the 3 rules?
16) These could help spacecraft fly across the solar system like ships on ocean currents. Scientists in the United States are trying to map these twisting 'tubes' so they can be used to cut the cost of space travel. Each one acts like a gravitational Gulf Stream, created from the complex interplay of attractive forces between planets and moons. Basically the idea is there are low energy pathways would slash the amount of fuel needed to explore the solar system. Just one U.S. mission so far has made use of the concept. The Genesis spacecraft launched in 2004. Similar to ocean currents, what are these pathways called?
17) In the elevator, the researcher casually asked the volunteer to hold the drink she was carrying while she noted down their name. The subjects did not know it, but the experiment began the moment they took the cup. Once in the lab, the 40 or so volunteers read a description of a fictitious person and then answered questions about the character. Those who had held an iced coffee, rather than a hot one, rated the imaginary figure as less warm and friendly. Linking physical and psychological warmth lies deep in the insular cortex- name one of the two universities involved in this study
18)He collected manuscripts, including an important 13th century Roll of arms,. And this earliest surviving manuscript of a play by William Shakespeare. Both the manuscript and the roll bear his name. He is the 10x great grandfather of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, concocting an ancient Saxon pedigree for himself, inserting details into various authentic documents and installing fake monuments in the church. His antiques were real though. The British Library bought his 13th century roll of arms. Who was he?
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Saturday, 12 September 2009
The 1st Question 64 - 8 Sep 09
This week's panel
Lyr Lobo, Nazz Lane, Nuala Maracas, Praxis Carling.
Quotes
Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.
Sigmund Freud
There is a fountain of youth: it is your creativity, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and to the lives of the people you love
Sophia Loren
Word-UP of the week – “Spankenfurter” - a tank in World of Warcraft who moonlights in the lab...to see what's on the slab.
Lyr Lobo
Audience Quote of the week – Did Merv Griffin start out this way?
CodeWarrior Carling
Questions
For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv
1) Fresh evidence has been revealed to support the theory that life on Earth began in space. a specially-designed-comet ‘chaser’, collected particles shed in 2004, and NASA scientists have just confirmed that Glycine an amino acid has been found in a comet.. This discovery supports the theory that some of life's ingredients formed in space and were delivered to Earth long ago by meteorite and comet impacts. What probe returned this Glycine of extraterrestrial carbon isotope signature?
2) This new approach uses DNA molecules as scaffolding or miniature circuit boards for the precise assembly of carbon nanostructures such as squares, triangles and stars a thickness of the width of the DNA double helix. Researchers say such a technique may provide a way to reach surfaces compatible with today’s semiconductor’s. What company is working on this breakthrough technology with Cal Tech?
3) Earlier in 2009 IKEA launched a new line of furniture, IKEA PS, whose objective was to stretch the idea of design and empower people. With such unusual designs, IKEA felt they had to do something special to help customers imagine how this furniture would fit into their houses, so they turned to a mobile solution The Portable Interior Planner, using what new application?
4) The rise of blogs and social networks has fueled a bull market in personal opinion: reviews, ratings, recommendations and other forms of online expression. For computer scientists, this fast-growing mountain of data is opening a tantalizing window onto the collective consciousness of Internet users. For many businesses, online opinion has turned into a kind of virtual currency that can make or break a product in the marketplace. They know where you live, they know what you’re doing and they know how you feel- what is this emerging field which translates the vagaries of human emotion into hard data?
5) Charles Darwin considered this sudden appearance of many animal groups with few or no antecedents to be the greatest single objection to his theory of evolution. It was the seemingly rapid appearance of most major groups of complex animals around 530 million years ago. Before, most organisms were simple, composed of individual cells occasionally organized into colonies. The long-running puzzlement about the appearance of this era’s fauna, seemingly abruptly and from nowhere. What is this very early baffling period called?
6)A virtual pandemic sparked scientists interests as it showed the progressive of a virus in real life. The "dying virus" effected thousands of players until the game's dev team put a fix in place to stop the flow of the pandemic, despite the repeated asks to replicate it for further research. What game did the entire ordeal take place in?
7) It is one of my favorite films, It is America in the 1950’s and the protagonist is a small town egomaniac who lands a radio show. His on air colloquial charm rapidly has him rise to the New York market, and his gentle ribbing of his sponsors was reminiscent of Arthur Godfrey. He becomes a huge star sponsored by Vitajax (possibly a forerunner to Viagra) and grooms politicians who need to appeal to a mass audience- in fact the mass marketing of politicians was predicted in this prescient film. It introduced Lee Remick. Starred Andy Griffith and Patricia Neal. Based on a Budd Schulberg short story called “Your Arkansas Traveler- what is the name of the movie that should be redone today?.
8) Now we can go one step further by making a complete "robot" out of a slime mould, Yes, a commonly occurring one even, that moves towards food sources such as bacteria and fungi, and shies away from light -it will be "programmed" using light and electromagnetic stimuli which was previously used to build liquid logic gates for a synthetic brain. It should be possible to program it to move in certain ways, to "pick up" objects by engulfing them and even assemble them. What is it this ooze affectionately dubbed?
9) Soft inheritance is of use when examining the evolution of cultures and ideas, this is an approach to evolutionary models of cultural information transfer started by Richard Dawkins, it has since turned into a new area of study, one that looks at self-replicating units of culture. Sayings or knowledge touchstones are passed down from one generation to another in a way analogous to genetics. A unit of human cultural transmission is like a gene it can replicate and influence its surroundings, though in a different sense. -what is this field of study ?
10) This website, created at Carnegie Mellon provides a means of calculating your risk of dying in the next year. Suppose that you had a giant urn filled with one million balls Some of these balls are purple for life and some are green for death– each year you draw one out –how many purple lifeballs are in your urn? Depending on your lifestyle, your risk could be dramatically higher (if you are an obese, drunken skydiver) or lower (if you are a vegetarian aerobics instructor) but the results provide a good starting point to think about the risks that you face. What is the name of this site?
11) This robot that can lift patients in and out of beds and wheelchairs on command, while at the same time saving nurses’ backs and improving patient care and safety. It is called the RIBA (Robot for Interactive Body Assistance) said to be the first robot that can lift up or set down a real human from bed to wheelchair. However, it looks like a cross between a snowman and a badly-designed what?
12) We're already stretching many of our natural resources to their limits, the world's population will jump from 6.5 billion to around 9 billion over the next 50 years. Get ready for a painful correction - there are four interconnected resources that are headed for a catastrophic squeeze within our lifetime.1- Oil, 2-. Food since 2005, the price of wheat has more than tripled. So has the price of corn. Rice has gone up more than 500%. Price increases reflect scarcity 3- Water - According to the World Economic Forum, within 20 years water will become a bigger theme for investors than oil. What is the 4th resource – it is diminishing due to a combination of commercial greed, weak policy, consumer disinterest, massive waste and blatant disregard for what flimsy rules are in place?
13) WAHHA GO GO is activated by spinning the torso-mounted metal disk (an optional crank arm can be used for greater speed). While The disk’s rotational energy is transferred via a gear assembly in the lower back. As the arms rotate, the accordion-like lungs expand upward, drawing in air that is then exhaled through the machine’s artificial vocal cords. The WAHHA GO GO is a clockwork mechanism created to produce an accurate imitation of what?
14) The Kalashnikov has been the common man’s rifle for sixty years and has been responsible for more misery and wasted humanity than any other invention of history. Now an ingenious Afghan inventor, has built one into a burglar alarm - a highly effective, seat-of-the-pants mash up that includes a cell and speaker phone, sensors, and armed response. Trigger the alarm by waving a hand outside the window of the inventor’s one-room home and the alarm sounds. It also calls his cell phone so he can have a conversation with the would-be burglar via a speakerphone in the alarm, and if he doesn’t like the answers he gets, he can fire the Kalashnikov remotely. What is the next punitive anti- theft system he is working on?
15) They were placed inside Mount St. Helens and can not only communicate with each other - they can form a robust "self-healing network" that can survive the loss of individuals to volcanic activity. Each has infrared detection & a GPS to sense the ground bulging and pinpoint the exact location of seismic activity. Once in place, they form what is known as a mesh network. "It's similar to the internet," "You just lay them out, and they figure out the best way to route the data." What are they?
16) This developed in sympathy with the English Arts and Crafts movement & influenced by the Idealistic Romantics (better homes would create better people) It sought to develop an indigenous North American style of architecture. Mid-western architects offended by the Greek and Roman classicism of nearly every building erected for the Chicago World's Fair, sought to create new work in and around Chicago that would display a uniquely modern and authentically American style. The most famous proponent of the style, Frank Lloyd Wright, promoted an idea of "organic architecture", that a structure should look as if it naturally grew from the site. What is the name of this ‘school” which took a horizontal outlook on design?
17) The world’s fisheries may be seriously depleted, but a comprehensive new study shows that all is not lost–and suggests that when humans really put the effort into turning the tide, fish stocks can be returned to good health. A combination of measures - such as catch quotas, no-take zones, and selective fishing gear - had helped fish stocks recover in 5 rebounding ecosystems: 2 are in the US, name one of the other 3 ?
18) Once upon a time before the Darwin it was thought an organism could pass on characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime to its offspring. This is also known as heritability of acquired characteristics And named for this man who incorporated the action of soft inheritance into his evolutionary theories Darwin & Mendel straightened that out -. What system was abandoned?
Lyr Lobo, Nazz Lane, Nuala Maracas, Praxis Carling.
Quotes
Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.
Sigmund Freud
There is a fountain of youth: it is your creativity, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and to the lives of the people you love
Sophia Loren
Word-UP of the week – “Spankenfurter” - a tank in World of Warcraft who moonlights in the lab...to see what's on the slab.
Lyr Lobo
Audience Quote of the week – Did Merv Griffin start out this way?
CodeWarrior Carling
Questions
For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv
1) Fresh evidence has been revealed to support the theory that life on Earth began in space. a specially-designed-comet ‘chaser’, collected particles shed in 2004, and NASA scientists have just confirmed that Glycine an amino acid has been found in a comet.. This discovery supports the theory that some of life's ingredients formed in space and were delivered to Earth long ago by meteorite and comet impacts. What probe returned this Glycine of extraterrestrial carbon isotope signature?
2) This new approach uses DNA molecules as scaffolding or miniature circuit boards for the precise assembly of carbon nanostructures such as squares, triangles and stars a thickness of the width of the DNA double helix. Researchers say such a technique may provide a way to reach surfaces compatible with today’s semiconductor’s. What company is working on this breakthrough technology with Cal Tech?
3) Earlier in 2009 IKEA launched a new line of furniture, IKEA PS, whose objective was to stretch the idea of design and empower people. With such unusual designs, IKEA felt they had to do something special to help customers imagine how this furniture would fit into their houses, so they turned to a mobile solution The Portable Interior Planner, using what new application?
4) The rise of blogs and social networks has fueled a bull market in personal opinion: reviews, ratings, recommendations and other forms of online expression. For computer scientists, this fast-growing mountain of data is opening a tantalizing window onto the collective consciousness of Internet users. For many businesses, online opinion has turned into a kind of virtual currency that can make or break a product in the marketplace. They know where you live, they know what you’re doing and they know how you feel- what is this emerging field which translates the vagaries of human emotion into hard data?
5) Charles Darwin considered this sudden appearance of many animal groups with few or no antecedents to be the greatest single objection to his theory of evolution. It was the seemingly rapid appearance of most major groups of complex animals around 530 million years ago. Before, most organisms were simple, composed of individual cells occasionally organized into colonies. The long-running puzzlement about the appearance of this era’s fauna, seemingly abruptly and from nowhere. What is this very early baffling period called?
6)A virtual pandemic sparked scientists interests as it showed the progressive of a virus in real life. The "dying virus" effected thousands of players until the game's dev team put a fix in place to stop the flow of the pandemic, despite the repeated asks to replicate it for further research. What game did the entire ordeal take place in?
7) It is one of my favorite films, It is America in the 1950’s and the protagonist is a small town egomaniac who lands a radio show. His on air colloquial charm rapidly has him rise to the New York market, and his gentle ribbing of his sponsors was reminiscent of Arthur Godfrey. He becomes a huge star sponsored by Vitajax (possibly a forerunner to Viagra) and grooms politicians who need to appeal to a mass audience- in fact the mass marketing of politicians was predicted in this prescient film. It introduced Lee Remick. Starred Andy Griffith and Patricia Neal. Based on a Budd Schulberg short story called “Your Arkansas Traveler- what is the name of the movie that should be redone today?.
8) Now we can go one step further by making a complete "robot" out of a slime mould, Yes, a commonly occurring one even, that moves towards food sources such as bacteria and fungi, and shies away from light -it will be "programmed" using light and electromagnetic stimuli which was previously used to build liquid logic gates for a synthetic brain. It should be possible to program it to move in certain ways, to "pick up" objects by engulfing them and even assemble them. What is it this ooze affectionately dubbed?
9) Soft inheritance is of use when examining the evolution of cultures and ideas, this is an approach to evolutionary models of cultural information transfer started by Richard Dawkins, it has since turned into a new area of study, one that looks at self-replicating units of culture. Sayings or knowledge touchstones are passed down from one generation to another in a way analogous to genetics. A unit of human cultural transmission is like a gene it can replicate and influence its surroundings, though in a different sense. -what is this field of study ?
10) This website, created at Carnegie Mellon provides a means of calculating your risk of dying in the next year. Suppose that you had a giant urn filled with one million balls Some of these balls are purple for life and some are green for death– each year you draw one out –how many purple lifeballs are in your urn? Depending on your lifestyle, your risk could be dramatically higher (if you are an obese, drunken skydiver) or lower (if you are a vegetarian aerobics instructor) but the results provide a good starting point to think about the risks that you face. What is the name of this site?
11) This robot that can lift patients in and out of beds and wheelchairs on command, while at the same time saving nurses’ backs and improving patient care and safety. It is called the RIBA (Robot for Interactive Body Assistance) said to be the first robot that can lift up or set down a real human from bed to wheelchair. However, it looks like a cross between a snowman and a badly-designed what?
12) We're already stretching many of our natural resources to their limits, the world's population will jump from 6.5 billion to around 9 billion over the next 50 years. Get ready for a painful correction - there are four interconnected resources that are headed for a catastrophic squeeze within our lifetime.1- Oil, 2-. Food since 2005, the price of wheat has more than tripled. So has the price of corn. Rice has gone up more than 500%. Price increases reflect scarcity 3- Water - According to the World Economic Forum, within 20 years water will become a bigger theme for investors than oil. What is the 4th resource – it is diminishing due to a combination of commercial greed, weak policy, consumer disinterest, massive waste and blatant disregard for what flimsy rules are in place?
13) WAHHA GO GO is activated by spinning the torso-mounted metal disk (an optional crank arm can be used for greater speed). While The disk’s rotational energy is transferred via a gear assembly in the lower back. As the arms rotate, the accordion-like lungs expand upward, drawing in air that is then exhaled through the machine’s artificial vocal cords. The WAHHA GO GO is a clockwork mechanism created to produce an accurate imitation of what?
14) The Kalashnikov has been the common man’s rifle for sixty years and has been responsible for more misery and wasted humanity than any other invention of history. Now an ingenious Afghan inventor, has built one into a burglar alarm - a highly effective, seat-of-the-pants mash up that includes a cell and speaker phone, sensors, and armed response. Trigger the alarm by waving a hand outside the window of the inventor’s one-room home and the alarm sounds. It also calls his cell phone so he can have a conversation with the would-be burglar via a speakerphone in the alarm, and if he doesn’t like the answers he gets, he can fire the Kalashnikov remotely. What is the next punitive anti- theft system he is working on?
15) They were placed inside Mount St. Helens and can not only communicate with each other - they can form a robust "self-healing network" that can survive the loss of individuals to volcanic activity. Each has infrared detection & a GPS to sense the ground bulging and pinpoint the exact location of seismic activity. Once in place, they form what is known as a mesh network. "It's similar to the internet," "You just lay them out, and they figure out the best way to route the data." What are they?
16) This developed in sympathy with the English Arts and Crafts movement & influenced by the Idealistic Romantics (better homes would create better people) It sought to develop an indigenous North American style of architecture. Mid-western architects offended by the Greek and Roman classicism of nearly every building erected for the Chicago World's Fair, sought to create new work in and around Chicago that would display a uniquely modern and authentically American style. The most famous proponent of the style, Frank Lloyd Wright, promoted an idea of "organic architecture", that a structure should look as if it naturally grew from the site. What is the name of this ‘school” which took a horizontal outlook on design?
17) The world’s fisheries may be seriously depleted, but a comprehensive new study shows that all is not lost–and suggests that when humans really put the effort into turning the tide, fish stocks can be returned to good health. A combination of measures - such as catch quotas, no-take zones, and selective fishing gear - had helped fish stocks recover in 5 rebounding ecosystems: 2 are in the US, name one of the other 3 ?
18) Once upon a time before the Darwin it was thought an organism could pass on characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime to its offspring. This is also known as heritability of acquired characteristics And named for this man who incorporated the action of soft inheritance into his evolutionary theories Darwin & Mendel straightened that out -. What system was abandoned?
Monday, 31 August 2009
The 1st Question 63 - 18 Aug 09
This week's panel
Tom Bukowski, Eureka Dejavu, Spiral Walcher, Mykal Skall.
Quotes
A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a person. Kites rise against, not with, the wind.
Lewis Mumford
Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.
Charles M. Schulz
Word-UP of the week - “Imagination Age.” - The Imagination Age is the time in which people are learning to envision the most innovative uses for technology and creativity to connect with each other for fun and meaningful work.
Eureka Dejavu
Maybe, but will they be able to decipher the contents of Hydra's brain?
Skye Vanistok - Audience Quote of the week
Questions
For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv
1) The Defining Issues Test measures ethical reasoning in five areas: Seminarians and philosophers are the runaway winners . After that come medical students, physicians, journalists, dental students, and nurses. Then this group of people follow them. Who surprisingly scores higher than orthopedic surgeons, business professionals, and accounting students?
2) A French philosopher, he is responsible for introducing the term altruism. The motto Ordem e Progresso ("Order and Progress") in ("Love as a principle and order as the basis; Progress as the goal" His law of three stages was one of the first describing social evolutionism. His emphasis on a quantitative, mathematical basis for decision-making remains with us today and begat the modern notion of Positivism, modern quantitative statistical analysis, and business decision-making. Who was he?
3) “Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eye are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light- So begins this novel with an epigraph from Plato. The titular hero a lab animal, & has undergone surgery to increase his intelligence by artificial means. The story is told by the first human test subject for the surgery who has an IQ of 68, and touches upon many different themes for treatment of the mentally disabled. The surgery is a success and his IQ triples but it doesn’t last forever. What is the name of this book which made Pooky cry?
4) The "Father of American Anthropology, like many pioneers, began elsewhere- he received his doctorate in physics,- He is famed for applying the scientific method to the study of human cultures and societies, his interest led him to "psychophysics," He said that “all service, therefore, which a man can perform for humanity must serve to promote truth.”. He lived for a while among the Inuit too. He extolled a method of science that begins with questions, not with answers, least of all with value judgments. Who was this great man who valued truth so highly?
5) This was apparently built entirely by Wu Zhongyuan in China. He used about $1,600 in assorted parts (like a motorcycle engine) and steel pipes for reinforcement. He figured out how to do it with "relevant knowledge found while surfing the Internet via his mobile phone." Wu claims that this has the ability to fly as high as 2,600 feet - but the Chinese government has grounded him for the time being, due to safety considerations. What did he build?
6) He was an American engineer with a political role in the development of the atomic bomb, he told Harry to drop it. He believed in a democratic technocracy. He introduced the concept of what he called the memex in the 1930s, a microfilm-based mechanized device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, Ted Nelson and Douglas Engelbart, were influenced by him in what became hypertext. Who was he that had a pioneering vision for the World Wide Web.?
7) He was a North African polymath born in present-day Tunisia. He is considered a forerunner of social sciences and modern economics, and for anticipating many elements of these disciplines centuries before they were founded in the West. He is best known for his Muqaddimah (known as Prolegomenon in the West), the first book on universal history. He developed the concept of a "generation," Some say he anticipated Marx’s theory of value as he asserts that all value (profit) comes from labour. Who was this man?
8) She was an American fashion designer and socialite, who traveled to China in 1936 and brought back the first live giant panda to the United States - not in a cage, or on a leash, but wrapped in her arms. With the help of a Chinese-American explorer she captured a nine-week-old panda cub. The panda was bottle-fed baby formula on the journey back to the United States and caused a great sensation in the American press. She also stayed at the Chelsea hotel upon her return to the US. Who was she?
9) It is an anthropomimetic robot under development by European roboticists. Their focus is to create robotics that accurately mimics the internal structure - & mechanisms - of humans. They are limited to using polymer for bones, screwdriver motors, shock cord for muscle, and kite line for tendons. Its human-like hand can easily grasp and handle objects, and has a handshake for its humans. At some point, it will be built out of materials that are much closer to human bone and sinew - which gets closer to building an android from scratch. What is this robot?
10) Here the natural replaces the manmade –branches supplant concrete and steel, marking a clear balance between natural and artificial architecture. The architecture becomes landscape itself, and waste materials both during and after construction is eliminated. As the branches of the pavilion it makes take root and grow, they mutate the structure and transform the architecture. What is this environmentally desirable build called?
11) This was sort of tastefully demonstrated by Doctor Emilio Lizardo in the 1984 cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai. This is a device that takes information gathered by the sensors in a pair of glasses and sends them to a "lollipop" electrode array that sits on your tongue. What is this non-surgical assistive visual prosthetic for the blind that translates information from a digital video camera to your tongue, through gentle electrical stimulation?
12) A fantasy written by Johannes Kepler in which a student is transported to the Moon by occult forces. It presents a detailed imaginative description of how the earth might look, and is considered the first serious scientific work on lunar astronomy, also the first science fiction. It began as a student dissertation in which Kepler defended the Copernican doctrine. The book was published posthumously in 1634. What is this book whose name is Latin for The Dream?
13) Although King James VI inherited the English crown after Elizabeth 1for the Kingdom of crowns, Great Britain and Scotland were not a single body till The Acts of Union joined them in 1707. Many Scots were opposed, though it was claimed that union would enable Scotland to recover from this financial disaster The Company of Scotland became involved with an ambitious plan to establish a colony on the Isthmus of Panama in the hope of establishing trade with the Far East — the same principle which, much later, would lead to the construction of the Panama Canal. Settling in South America proved fatal for most The English Government, was opposed, since it was at war with France and did not want to offend Spain, which claimed the territory. In July 1699, after barely eight months, the colony was abandoned. What was this ruinous failed attempt called?
14) Pooky’s crush of the week was a Scottish physician, physicist, and founder of thermochemistry also part of the Scottish Enlightenment. He studied properties of carbon dioxide and was the first person to isolate it in a perfectly pure state. This was an important step as it helped people to realize that air was not an element, but rather composed of many different things. Then In 1761 his theory of latent heat proved important to abstract science and in the development of the steam engine. Who was James Watt’s close friend and mentor?
15) The statistics paint a grim picture - an estimated 2.0 million people, including over a quarter million children, died of AIDS in 2007 & two thirds of the 33 million who live with HIV do so in sub-Saharan Africa. New advancements in microbicides may help to improve this horrific scenario with researchers undertaking trials for a ‘molecular condom’ to prevent its spread in women. This is important because it "can enable women to protect themselves particularly in resource-poor areas of the world like sub-Sahara Africa and south Asia where…women are often not empowered to force their partners to wear a condom." Where is this life saving research taking place?
16) She was born in New York City, and graduated Vassar College in 1909. She taught at Columbia as an anthropologist. Margaret Mead wrote the intro to her book “Patterns of Culture” which had as its essential idea the view of human cultures are “personality writ large.'" She also battled racial profiling, saying "The best scientists cannot tell from examining a brain to what group of people its owner belonged... She wrote “The Chrysanthemum & The Sword” & influenced Roosevelt’s wise decision to let the Emperor of Japan remain as part of the negotiations of surrender. & she is on a postage stamp. Who was she?
Tom Bukowski, Eureka Dejavu, Spiral Walcher, Mykal Skall.
Quotes
A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a person. Kites rise against, not with, the wind.
Lewis Mumford
Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.
Charles M. Schulz
Word-UP of the week - “Imagination Age.” - The Imagination Age is the time in which people are learning to envision the most innovative uses for technology and creativity to connect with each other for fun and meaningful work.
Eureka Dejavu
Maybe, but will they be able to decipher the contents of Hydra's brain?
Skye Vanistok - Audience Quote of the week
Questions
For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv
1) The Defining Issues Test measures ethical reasoning in five areas: Seminarians and philosophers are the runaway winners . After that come medical students, physicians, journalists, dental students, and nurses. Then this group of people follow them. Who surprisingly scores higher than orthopedic surgeons, business professionals, and accounting students?
2) A French philosopher, he is responsible for introducing the term altruism. The motto Ordem e Progresso ("Order and Progress") in ("Love as a principle and order as the basis; Progress as the goal" His law of three stages was one of the first describing social evolutionism. His emphasis on a quantitative, mathematical basis for decision-making remains with us today and begat the modern notion of Positivism, modern quantitative statistical analysis, and business decision-making. Who was he?
3) “Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eye are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light- So begins this novel with an epigraph from Plato. The titular hero a lab animal, & has undergone surgery to increase his intelligence by artificial means. The story is told by the first human test subject for the surgery who has an IQ of 68, and touches upon many different themes for treatment of the mentally disabled. The surgery is a success and his IQ triples but it doesn’t last forever. What is the name of this book which made Pooky cry?
4) The "Father of American Anthropology, like many pioneers, began elsewhere- he received his doctorate in physics,- He is famed for applying the scientific method to the study of human cultures and societies, his interest led him to "psychophysics," He said that “all service, therefore, which a man can perform for humanity must serve to promote truth.”. He lived for a while among the Inuit too. He extolled a method of science that begins with questions, not with answers, least of all with value judgments. Who was this great man who valued truth so highly?
5) This was apparently built entirely by Wu Zhongyuan in China. He used about $1,600 in assorted parts (like a motorcycle engine) and steel pipes for reinforcement. He figured out how to do it with "relevant knowledge found while surfing the Internet via his mobile phone." Wu claims that this has the ability to fly as high as 2,600 feet - but the Chinese government has grounded him for the time being, due to safety considerations. What did he build?
6) He was an American engineer with a political role in the development of the atomic bomb, he told Harry to drop it. He believed in a democratic technocracy. He introduced the concept of what he called the memex in the 1930s, a microfilm-based mechanized device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, Ted Nelson and Douglas Engelbart, were influenced by him in what became hypertext. Who was he that had a pioneering vision for the World Wide Web.?
7) He was a North African polymath born in present-day Tunisia. He is considered a forerunner of social sciences and modern economics, and for anticipating many elements of these disciplines centuries before they were founded in the West. He is best known for his Muqaddimah (known as Prolegomenon in the West), the first book on universal history. He developed the concept of a "generation," Some say he anticipated Marx’s theory of value as he asserts that all value (profit) comes from labour. Who was this man?
8) She was an American fashion designer and socialite, who traveled to China in 1936 and brought back the first live giant panda to the United States - not in a cage, or on a leash, but wrapped in her arms. With the help of a Chinese-American explorer she captured a nine-week-old panda cub. The panda was bottle-fed baby formula on the journey back to the United States and caused a great sensation in the American press. She also stayed at the Chelsea hotel upon her return to the US. Who was she?
9) It is an anthropomimetic robot under development by European roboticists. Their focus is to create robotics that accurately mimics the internal structure - & mechanisms - of humans. They are limited to using polymer for bones, screwdriver motors, shock cord for muscle, and kite line for tendons. Its human-like hand can easily grasp and handle objects, and has a handshake for its humans. At some point, it will be built out of materials that are much closer to human bone and sinew - which gets closer to building an android from scratch. What is this robot?
10) Here the natural replaces the manmade –branches supplant concrete and steel, marking a clear balance between natural and artificial architecture. The architecture becomes landscape itself, and waste materials both during and after construction is eliminated. As the branches of the pavilion it makes take root and grow, they mutate the structure and transform the architecture. What is this environmentally desirable build called?
11) This was sort of tastefully demonstrated by Doctor Emilio Lizardo in the 1984 cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai. This is a device that takes information gathered by the sensors in a pair of glasses and sends them to a "lollipop" electrode array that sits on your tongue. What is this non-surgical assistive visual prosthetic for the blind that translates information from a digital video camera to your tongue, through gentle electrical stimulation?
12) A fantasy written by Johannes Kepler in which a student is transported to the Moon by occult forces. It presents a detailed imaginative description of how the earth might look, and is considered the first serious scientific work on lunar astronomy, also the first science fiction. It began as a student dissertation in which Kepler defended the Copernican doctrine. The book was published posthumously in 1634. What is this book whose name is Latin for The Dream?
13) Although King James VI inherited the English crown after Elizabeth 1for the Kingdom of crowns, Great Britain and Scotland were not a single body till The Acts of Union joined them in 1707. Many Scots were opposed, though it was claimed that union would enable Scotland to recover from this financial disaster The Company of Scotland became involved with an ambitious plan to establish a colony on the Isthmus of Panama in the hope of establishing trade with the Far East — the same principle which, much later, would lead to the construction of the Panama Canal. Settling in South America proved fatal for most The English Government, was opposed, since it was at war with France and did not want to offend Spain, which claimed the territory. In July 1699, after barely eight months, the colony was abandoned. What was this ruinous failed attempt called?
14) Pooky’s crush of the week was a Scottish physician, physicist, and founder of thermochemistry also part of the Scottish Enlightenment. He studied properties of carbon dioxide and was the first person to isolate it in a perfectly pure state. This was an important step as it helped people to realize that air was not an element, but rather composed of many different things. Then In 1761 his theory of latent heat proved important to abstract science and in the development of the steam engine. Who was James Watt’s close friend and mentor?
15) The statistics paint a grim picture - an estimated 2.0 million people, including over a quarter million children, died of AIDS in 2007 & two thirds of the 33 million who live with HIV do so in sub-Saharan Africa. New advancements in microbicides may help to improve this horrific scenario with researchers undertaking trials for a ‘molecular condom’ to prevent its spread in women. This is important because it "can enable women to protect themselves particularly in resource-poor areas of the world like sub-Sahara Africa and south Asia where…women are often not empowered to force their partners to wear a condom." Where is this life saving research taking place?
16) She was born in New York City, and graduated Vassar College in 1909. She taught at Columbia as an anthropologist. Margaret Mead wrote the intro to her book “Patterns of Culture” which had as its essential idea the view of human cultures are “personality writ large.'" She also battled racial profiling, saying "The best scientists cannot tell from examining a brain to what group of people its owner belonged... She wrote “The Chrysanthemum & The Sword” & influenced Roosevelt’s wise decision to let the Emperor of Japan remain as part of the negotiations of surrender. & she is on a postage stamp. Who was she?
Saturday, 15 August 2009
The 1st Question 62 - 11 Aug 09
This week's panel
Farqot Gustafson, Abbey Zenith, Pb Recreant, Dirk McKeenan
Quotes
Every human being is interested in two kinds of worlds: the Primary, everyday world which he knows through his senses, and a Secondary world or worlds which he not only can create in his imagination, but which he cannot stop himself creating.
W.H. Auden
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.
Albert Einstein
Why we prefer Einstein for relativity & Newton for gravity
Falling in love is not at all the most stupid thing that people do — but gravitation cannot be held responsible for it.
Albert Einstein
I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.
Sir Isaac Newton
(I believe he was citing his old Aunt Minnie)
Word-UP of the week - “Lagbarassed” - clothes that fail to rez, leaving you embarassed (and bare-a****.)
Abbey Zenith
I’m getting a pair of bagpipes if it has this effect on her
Portent Mavendorf - Audience Quote of the week
Questions
For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv
1) 3 sets of gamers are portrayed who represent the 25 million players worldwide who consider themselves addicted to MMO's. This movie, the first movie about virtual worlds which we know has changed the way human beings interact is just released - what is the film called?
2) This Refers to interfaces that work via the sense of touch by forces, vibrations, and/or motions . This mechanical kind of stimulation has made it possible to investigate in detail how the human sense of touch works. In the future, expert surgeons with machine setup will use this kind of technology using telepresence. The word itself comes from the Greek verb meaning to “contact” or “touch” What kind of technology is it?
3) In the Fifties a Labour party activist visited this country and saw how it was using radio broadcasting to educate remote communities. He fed the idea to Labor party leader Harold Wilson, who thought up a system of long-distance learning available to all regardless of qualifications, and take advantage of the fact that 14 million UK households had TV. In 1963 Wilson made a speech outlining what he then called “the University of the Air”. From whom did he get the idea of open universities from?
4) The U.S. Mint had been producing one-cent coins since its founding in 1792, but the 1909 penny (which replaced the Indian-head coin) was the first coin on which a President's likeness appeared. While most people applauded the new design, former Confederate soldiers were upset at the prospect of carrying the image of Lincoln in their pockets. Which president commissioned the penny to celebrate the 100th birthday of Lincoln?
5) In 1975 a 50-year-old bricklayer from England, literally died laughing while watching this show. According to his wife, who was a witness, the man was unable to stop laughing whilst watching a sketch in the episode "Kung Fu Kapers" in which one of the comedians dressed as a kilted Scotsman, used a set of bagpipes to defend himself from a psychopathic black pudding in a demonstration of the Scottish martial art of "Hoots-Toot-ochaye". After twenty-five minutes of continuous laughter the man expired from heart failure. To what show did his widow send a letter thanking them for making her husbands final moments so pleasant.?
6) This major American corporation was founded in 1908 by a man whose middle name was "Crapo." Amazingly Billy Durant began this company with only $2,000 in capital. It also was the target of strikes by workers who labored under dangerous conditions. Two weeks after thousands of striking workers occupied the factory; police raided the plant, firing tear gas. The strikers inside fought back by opening the fire hoses and hurling two-pound hinges and other auto parts at them. The police ran away. What company agreed to grant sole bargaining right to the United Auto Workers, and therefore became responsible for the rise of this union?
7) Hitler was a practical joker and one of his favorite targets was his foreign minister.. One prank famously backfired, when he sent him into Spain on a plane full of Gestapo, and made him think he was being set up for a suicide mission. Instead the man took an opportunity while refueling to board a train to Switzerland, and before anyone could let him in on the joke, he turned himself over. He studied at Harvard and described the cheerleaders to Adolf, who became obsessed with the idea of stirring blind enthusiasm in this way. "'Rah, rah, sis boom bah' became "Sig Heil, Heil Hitler," Who was this man who became an invaluable source of information for the allies?
8)It is a relaxation beverage produced by a Canadian company & dubbed an "anti-energy" drink It was actually created to "help people slow down" and parodied Red Bull by using similar packaging. The main ingredient is L-Theanine which according to the manufacturer, "produces a feeling of relaxation, creates a feeling of well-being and increases mental awareness, cognition, and concentration. What is it?
9) The Himawari is a robotic sunflower that does not grow towards the sun, like a biological sunflower. That would be heliotropism. This robotic sunflower is homotropic, in the sense defined by Philip K. Dick; it turns toward people. Created in Japan, its Servomotors follow the motion of a person's hand using an infrared camera in its head. Philip K. Dick introduced the idea of robots that find, then follow human beings in his 1963 novel called, what?
10) As an efficient, natural means of capturing solar energy, photosynthesis is hard to beat. But it’s also proving extremely difficult to duplicate. The best light-capturers in nature are the chlorosomes of bacteria, which can harvest light particles in even the worst conditions, such as at the bottom of the ocean. A bacterial light antenna was built copying the exact molecular and supramolecular structure using the chlorophyll of the alga Spirulina: In what country was this worked out?
11) Helping you negotiate a better price when buying goods and services on the net, they act as an intermediary after asking you about how much you want and under what circumstances less would be accepted. Rather than the fixed price model, a relatively recent development in history, the site negotiates a different deal with every sale, using a series of simple rules - known as heuristics. "Computer agents don't get bored, they have a lot of time, and they don't get embarrassed," are some reasons for its success – from what company do these intelligent software "agents" come?
12) A touchable holography display prototype has been built and adds tactile feedback to a hovering three-dimensional image. The tactile sensation is provided using this. In laymen's terms, it pushes against your hand. Hand position is determined using the Wiimote tracking system; What is actually pushing your hands so you can feel virtual raindrops on the palm?
13) Can a tough and weedy shrub solve all of our energy problems and stop runaway climate change? Don’t be ridiculous—of course it can't. But that, briefly, was the hype surrounding this poisonous plant that grows wild in tropical climates. It’s seeds are saturated with oil that can be easily processed into biofuel, and it was thought to grow on : wasteland that's sandy, rocky, dry, or nutrient-poor. However it needs fertile soil and significant amounts of water, like most other crops to produce enough & Just last week, the oil company BP withdrew from a partnership to produce 1 million hecates of what?
14) The cyber-attack that temporarily disabled Twitter for 2 hours recently was probably politically motivated and directed at a pro-Georgian blogger in a distributed denial of service attack. It seems Twitter, a relatively new service with a U.S.-based infrastructure, couldn’t handle the surge in traffic. It has not been confirmed who perpetrated the attack, but it is believed to have been an attempt by the Russian government to squelch criticism over it's conduct in the war over the disputed South Ossetia region, which began a year ago. How is the attacked blogger called?
15) When Paris hosted the Exposition Universelle in 1900, it unveiled its vision for the future of transport. Below ground, the city's stylish new Metro made its debut, while above ground was something more avant garde .Nearly 7 million visitors hopped onto the trottoir roulant and one woman gave birth in transit. But, the idea of high-speed walkways had been established in New York longer than anywhere else. Back in 1871, a local wine merchant patented the first "endless-traveling sidewalk", and promptly proposed an ambitious elevated 18 mph moving walkway along Broadway. Despite building a working model and lobbying state and city politicians for a decade, He discovered his invention was simply too visionary. Who was this man?
16) Generally, the worst spinal cord damage doesn't happen at the scene of the injury - it's the swelling and the crazy firing and burning out of otherwise healthy neurons in the hours and days following the incident that turns a bad situation permanently worse. Much of this is because of a chemical called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. ATP is used as a kind of cellular battery to deliver energy to cells around the body in normal life. In effect, a patient might receive a spinal injury of low or medium severity - but the actions of ATP in the hours and days after the trauma can completely destroy the function of the spinal cord, leaving patients paralyzed. What is it that can be administered intravenously effectively blocking the action of the ATP at the injury site, but makes you turn blue in the process?
17) Besides dabbling in science fiction, he also patented several inventions, including a vibratory disintegrator used to produce gas from peat moss and a pneumatic road-improver. John Jacob Astor IV died on the Titanic, an opponent of the federal reserve system. He wrote a science fiction novel that offered an account of life in the year 2000.Which included descriptions of a worldwide telephone network, solar & wind power, air travel, electric cars, space travel to the planets Saturn and Jupiter, and terraforming engineering projects — damming the Arctic Ocean, and adjusting the Earth's axial tilt (by the Terrestrial Axis Straightening Company) what is the name of this book?
18) Produced by Sega Toys, the Uchiage Hanabi is a projector that lets users display this on their walls and ceilings complete with realistic sound effects. The device uses five customizable projection lenses to display movement and even tracks them from launch to explosion to mimic the appearance of the real thing. The compact unit incorporates a speaker for the various bangs and whistles, but you’ll have to generate the oohs and ahhhs on your own. What does it project into your living room?
19) It’s tiny, it’s bioengineered and has been successfully created and implanted in an adult mouse by Tokyo University researchers. Taking cells from a mouse embryo and cultivated them in a collagen-based medium this was made, implanted and grew to be fully functioning. Hopefully this technology is a model for future replacement therapies. This was able to perform as if the mouse had been born to use it - what part of the mouse was replaced?
20) A free-standing bell tower, often adjacent to a church or cathedral. The most famous one is probably the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Other notable examples include the one in St Mark's Square, Venice. Those outside of Italy are often modeled after St Mark's. and a modern one would be the Frankfurt Messeturm. Modern campaniles often contain carillons, a musical instrument traditionally composed of at least 23 large bells which are sounded by cables, chains, or cords connected to a keyboard. What are these kind of structures called?
Farqot Gustafson, Abbey Zenith, Pb Recreant, Dirk McKeenan
Quotes
Every human being is interested in two kinds of worlds: the Primary, everyday world which he knows through his senses, and a Secondary world or worlds which he not only can create in his imagination, but which he cannot stop himself creating.
W.H. Auden
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.
Albert Einstein
Why we prefer Einstein for relativity & Newton for gravity
Falling in love is not at all the most stupid thing that people do — but gravitation cannot be held responsible for it.
Albert Einstein
I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.
Sir Isaac Newton
(I believe he was citing his old Aunt Minnie)
Word-UP of the week - “Lagbarassed” - clothes that fail to rez, leaving you embarassed (and bare-a****.)
Abbey Zenith
I’m getting a pair of bagpipes if it has this effect on her
Portent Mavendorf - Audience Quote of the week
Questions
For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv
1) 3 sets of gamers are portrayed who represent the 25 million players worldwide who consider themselves addicted to MMO's. This movie, the first movie about virtual worlds which we know has changed the way human beings interact is just released - what is the film called?
2) This Refers to interfaces that work via the sense of touch by forces, vibrations, and/or motions . This mechanical kind of stimulation has made it possible to investigate in detail how the human sense of touch works. In the future, expert surgeons with machine setup will use this kind of technology using telepresence. The word itself comes from the Greek verb meaning to “contact” or “touch” What kind of technology is it?
3) In the Fifties a Labour party activist visited this country and saw how it was using radio broadcasting to educate remote communities. He fed the idea to Labor party leader Harold Wilson, who thought up a system of long-distance learning available to all regardless of qualifications, and take advantage of the fact that 14 million UK households had TV. In 1963 Wilson made a speech outlining what he then called “the University of the Air”. From whom did he get the idea of open universities from?
4) The U.S. Mint had been producing one-cent coins since its founding in 1792, but the 1909 penny (which replaced the Indian-head coin) was the first coin on which a President's likeness appeared. While most people applauded the new design, former Confederate soldiers were upset at the prospect of carrying the image of Lincoln in their pockets. Which president commissioned the penny to celebrate the 100th birthday of Lincoln?
5) In 1975 a 50-year-old bricklayer from England, literally died laughing while watching this show. According to his wife, who was a witness, the man was unable to stop laughing whilst watching a sketch in the episode "Kung Fu Kapers" in which one of the comedians dressed as a kilted Scotsman, used a set of bagpipes to defend himself from a psychopathic black pudding in a demonstration of the Scottish martial art of "Hoots-Toot-ochaye". After twenty-five minutes of continuous laughter the man expired from heart failure. To what show did his widow send a letter thanking them for making her husbands final moments so pleasant.?
6) This major American corporation was founded in 1908 by a man whose middle name was "Crapo." Amazingly Billy Durant began this company with only $2,000 in capital. It also was the target of strikes by workers who labored under dangerous conditions. Two weeks after thousands of striking workers occupied the factory; police raided the plant, firing tear gas. The strikers inside fought back by opening the fire hoses and hurling two-pound hinges and other auto parts at them. The police ran away. What company agreed to grant sole bargaining right to the United Auto Workers, and therefore became responsible for the rise of this union?
7) Hitler was a practical joker and one of his favorite targets was his foreign minister.. One prank famously backfired, when he sent him into Spain on a plane full of Gestapo, and made him think he was being set up for a suicide mission. Instead the man took an opportunity while refueling to board a train to Switzerland, and before anyone could let him in on the joke, he turned himself over. He studied at Harvard and described the cheerleaders to Adolf, who became obsessed with the idea of stirring blind enthusiasm in this way. "'Rah, rah, sis boom bah' became "Sig Heil, Heil Hitler," Who was this man who became an invaluable source of information for the allies?
8)It is a relaxation beverage produced by a Canadian company & dubbed an "anti-energy" drink It was actually created to "help people slow down" and parodied Red Bull by using similar packaging. The main ingredient is L-Theanine which according to the manufacturer, "produces a feeling of relaxation, creates a feeling of well-being and increases mental awareness, cognition, and concentration. What is it?
9) The Himawari is a robotic sunflower that does not grow towards the sun, like a biological sunflower. That would be heliotropism. This robotic sunflower is homotropic, in the sense defined by Philip K. Dick; it turns toward people. Created in Japan, its Servomotors follow the motion of a person's hand using an infrared camera in its head. Philip K. Dick introduced the idea of robots that find, then follow human beings in his 1963 novel called, what?
10) As an efficient, natural means of capturing solar energy, photosynthesis is hard to beat. But it’s also proving extremely difficult to duplicate. The best light-capturers in nature are the chlorosomes of bacteria, which can harvest light particles in even the worst conditions, such as at the bottom of the ocean. A bacterial light antenna was built copying the exact molecular and supramolecular structure using the chlorophyll of the alga Spirulina: In what country was this worked out?
11) Helping you negotiate a better price when buying goods and services on the net, they act as an intermediary after asking you about how much you want and under what circumstances less would be accepted. Rather than the fixed price model, a relatively recent development in history, the site negotiates a different deal with every sale, using a series of simple rules - known as heuristics. "Computer agents don't get bored, they have a lot of time, and they don't get embarrassed," are some reasons for its success – from what company do these intelligent software "agents" come?
12) A touchable holography display prototype has been built and adds tactile feedback to a hovering three-dimensional image. The tactile sensation is provided using this. In laymen's terms, it pushes against your hand. Hand position is determined using the Wiimote tracking system; What is actually pushing your hands so you can feel virtual raindrops on the palm?
13) Can a tough and weedy shrub solve all of our energy problems and stop runaway climate change? Don’t be ridiculous—of course it can't. But that, briefly, was the hype surrounding this poisonous plant that grows wild in tropical climates. It’s seeds are saturated with oil that can be easily processed into biofuel, and it was thought to grow on : wasteland that's sandy, rocky, dry, or nutrient-poor. However it needs fertile soil and significant amounts of water, like most other crops to produce enough & Just last week, the oil company BP withdrew from a partnership to produce 1 million hecates of what?
14) The cyber-attack that temporarily disabled Twitter for 2 hours recently was probably politically motivated and directed at a pro-Georgian blogger in a distributed denial of service attack. It seems Twitter, a relatively new service with a U.S.-based infrastructure, couldn’t handle the surge in traffic. It has not been confirmed who perpetrated the attack, but it is believed to have been an attempt by the Russian government to squelch criticism over it's conduct in the war over the disputed South Ossetia region, which began a year ago. How is the attacked blogger called?
15) When Paris hosted the Exposition Universelle in 1900, it unveiled its vision for the future of transport. Below ground, the city's stylish new Metro made its debut, while above ground was something more avant garde .Nearly 7 million visitors hopped onto the trottoir roulant and one woman gave birth in transit. But, the idea of high-speed walkways had been established in New York longer than anywhere else. Back in 1871, a local wine merchant patented the first "endless-traveling sidewalk", and promptly proposed an ambitious elevated 18 mph moving walkway along Broadway. Despite building a working model and lobbying state and city politicians for a decade, He discovered his invention was simply too visionary. Who was this man?
16) Generally, the worst spinal cord damage doesn't happen at the scene of the injury - it's the swelling and the crazy firing and burning out of otherwise healthy neurons in the hours and days following the incident that turns a bad situation permanently worse. Much of this is because of a chemical called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. ATP is used as a kind of cellular battery to deliver energy to cells around the body in normal life. In effect, a patient might receive a spinal injury of low or medium severity - but the actions of ATP in the hours and days after the trauma can completely destroy the function of the spinal cord, leaving patients paralyzed. What is it that can be administered intravenously effectively blocking the action of the ATP at the injury site, but makes you turn blue in the process?
17) Besides dabbling in science fiction, he also patented several inventions, including a vibratory disintegrator used to produce gas from peat moss and a pneumatic road-improver. John Jacob Astor IV died on the Titanic, an opponent of the federal reserve system. He wrote a science fiction novel that offered an account of life in the year 2000.Which included descriptions of a worldwide telephone network, solar & wind power, air travel, electric cars, space travel to the planets Saturn and Jupiter, and terraforming engineering projects — damming the Arctic Ocean, and adjusting the Earth's axial tilt (by the Terrestrial Axis Straightening Company) what is the name of this book?
18) Produced by Sega Toys, the Uchiage Hanabi is a projector that lets users display this on their walls and ceilings complete with realistic sound effects. The device uses five customizable projection lenses to display movement and even tracks them from launch to explosion to mimic the appearance of the real thing. The compact unit incorporates a speaker for the various bangs and whistles, but you’ll have to generate the oohs and ahhhs on your own. What does it project into your living room?
19) It’s tiny, it’s bioengineered and has been successfully created and implanted in an adult mouse by Tokyo University researchers. Taking cells from a mouse embryo and cultivated them in a collagen-based medium this was made, implanted and grew to be fully functioning. Hopefully this technology is a model for future replacement therapies. This was able to perform as if the mouse had been born to use it - what part of the mouse was replaced?
20) A free-standing bell tower, often adjacent to a church or cathedral. The most famous one is probably the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Other notable examples include the one in St Mark's Square, Venice. Those outside of Italy are often modeled after St Mark's. and a modern one would be the Frankfurt Messeturm. Modern campaniles often contain carillons, a musical instrument traditionally composed of at least 23 large bells which are sounded by cables, chains, or cords connected to a keyboard. What are these kind of structures called?
Friday, 7 August 2009
The 1st Question 61 - 4 Aug 09
This week's panel
Ronnie Rhode, Mike Burleigh, Gentle Heron and Lowri Mills
Quotes
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
Harriet Tubman
It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.
Erma Bombeck
Word-UP of the week - “ Lindenary” - having a clever future vision though presently somewhat disorganized.
Gentle Heron
Audience Quote of the week – “I’d believe Mousezilla before I’d believe Inferno”
Fearchar Enoch
Questions
For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv
1) You play for 16 hours a day. You’ve lost your job, your friends, and you hardly eat or bathe anymore. Obviously, you need help but you’re unwilling to tear yourself away from your PC and see a counselor. Well, if you’re not going to them, maybe they can come to you - Dr. Richard Graham, a consultant psychiatrist in London, would like therapists to join in order to treat addicted gamers right where they’re spending all their time. The project is scheduled to be launched by year’s end by which time Graham hopes to convince the makers to waive costs for psychiatrists. This is not the next episode of shrink-wrapped - but Where will this take place?
2) When this company bought Skype from Joltid in 2005, the whopping US$2.6 billion price tag didn't include the Global Index peer-to-peer software that the world's biggest Internet Telephony system is based on. And now, Joltid is trying to cancel Skype's license on the Global Index technology in a move that threatens to shut Skype down once and for all. Is it just a canny commercial chess move to force the owner to sell Skype back to Joltid at a huge discount - or is it the end of Skype as we know it? Who bought Skype from Joltid in 2005?
3) Psychohistory, according to Isaac Asimov's , says that "while one cannot foresee the actions of a particular individual, the laws of statistics as applied to large groups of people could predict the general flow of future events., Bluetooth, GPS and WiFi leave behind detailed traces of our lives, sensors and tags generating data at micro levels give a wealth of data to examine & help accurately forecast the effects of phenomena like catastrophic events, mass population movements or invasions of new organisms into ecosystems This capability will be possible thanks to the collection of information from machine-sensed sources to provide knowledge about aggregated human behavior. What is this term called?
4) This could provide a cheap, renewable fuel source for vehicles. It’s abundance makes large-scale production of hydrogen as fuel a more viable prospect. And, most importantly, it’s actually a lot easier and cheaper to extract hydrogen from this than water. The hydrogen atoms in it– are less tightly bonded than those in water. So much less power is needed to break the molecule apart. –its biggest drawback is that it hydrolyses into ammonia very quickly. Aztec physicians used it to clean wounds. It’s been used in the manufacture of saltpeter for gunpowder. And, most famously, German alchemist Hennig Brand discovered phosphorous while trying to create the Philosopher’s Stone from it - what is the world’s most abundant waste product?
5) He was a six-year-old child who disappeared in lower Manhattan in 1979. After convincing his mom he wanted to walk the 2 blocks to the school bus alone, she never saw him again. He most likely met, was abducted by and then killed by his baby-sitters friend. At the time, news coverage of his disappearance was made into a media circus. He is arguably the most famous missing child of New York City. His disappearance helped spark the missing children's movement, including new legislation, new awareness, and various methods for tracking down missing children. Who was this boy whose face was on the cover of countless milk cartons?
6) Ever wonder how an insect with such a tiny brain can thwart your attempts to catch it nearly every time? Apparently scientists do, too. To find out how the common blowfly manages to process visual images more than four times faster than humans, researchers have built the bug a flight simulator. After immobilizing each insect with a fly-sized harness and attaching electrodes to its brain, biologists from the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology placed blowflies in front of a semicircular LED screen displaying various moving patterns. The German scientists hope what they discover about insect vision will help build better flying robots. And they’re not the only ones studying flies in a flight simulator —what is the California Institute of Technology using to learn about muscle coordination and visual processing in fruit flies?
7) In 1769, Hungarian inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen saw a magic show at the Imperial court, proclaimed he could create a more compelling spectacle and did. He called it the Automaton Chess Player. It resembled a robed man sitting at a table in front of a chessboard, smoking a pipe, one movable arm extended over the board, ready to play. The display had various panels which could be slid open to reveal impressive looking machinery. The device, like its creator, showed a sophisticated understanding of science, showmanship and the public mood. When Kempelen announced that his mechanical man could beat any person at chess, he was capitalizing on the perceptions of an audience living at the cusp of the Industrial revolution.. A fast, aggressive player, it beat most people within half an hour. Its victims included Ben Franklin and, in a dramatic showdown, Napoléon Bonaparte. In particular, it captured the imagination and the king of Charles Babbage, who was, at the time, contemplating the possibility of mechanical calculation. He built the Difference Engine, after playing it. What was this automon more commonly known as, the possible great grand daddy of IBM's Deep Blue?
8) In 1926, Westinghouse created the first robot, Mr. Televox, a cardboard cutout of a humanoid figure which was connected to various devices via phone lines, and allowed users to turn equipment off and on using voice commands. Televox was followed by Rastus, a “mechanical slave” However the most famous robot Westinghouse created was this. On debut at the 1939 New York World’s Fair the seven-foot, 265 pound golden giant walked, talked, and smoked cigarettes. Like the Turk, it captured a surging public sentiment that the future would contain technological marvels which it did. Alas, The robot was last seen in the 1960 film “Sex Kittens go to College” where it starred as “Thinko”, a funk machine accompanied by an entourage of four strippers and a monkey. Following Sex Kittens, it was decapitated and his body sold for scrap. Its legacy lives on, what was its name?
9) A remote-sensing mechanism that examines the content of blogs to measure the emotional levels of millions of people purports to give an indication of happiness. The system works by searching new blog entries for occurrences of the phrases “I feel” and “I am feeling.” It records the full sentence and identifies the “feeling” expressed in that sentence. Each sentence then receives a happiness score based on a standardized “psychological valence’ For example, “triumphant” scores 8.87 on the happiness-unhappy scale, while “suicide” scores 1.25. What is this site which contributes to the Journal of Happiness Studies?
10) The iPhone has many different applications, some are useful, some are hilarious, this one might be both, or neither.. This application rates your sexual performance based on duration, power (as measured by the iPhone's built-in accelerometer) and loudness of orgasm, giving you a score out of 10 for your efforts. You can then compare "high scores" with other couples (or singles) around the world.. Turn the app on, stick it on the bed, explain to your partner that you're looking for an empirical ranking of your boudoir skills, and go to town - if they're still interested. And all this for only $4.99! What is this app called?
11) They have no interest in actively pursuing women, are nonchalant about career and find cars a bore. They call themselves by the anonymity of their online handles. A growing group of men rejecting traditional masculinity when it comes to romance, jobs and consumption is an apparent reaction to the tougher economy. Forget being a workaholic, corporate salary-man. These men, raised as the economic bubble burst, are turning their backs on Japan's stereotypical male roles in what is seen as a symptom of growing disillusionment in their country's troubled economy. What have the media dubbed them?
12) ) The name means Primeval God of Hell, and the place of ultimate punishment. One of the first Gods to arise from the void of Creation, , like his siblings NYX and CHAOS, he personifies ultimate formless gloom. Little is known of his personality but as the first God of Hell we assume he had to be depressing. Presumably HADES rents the Underworld from him on favorable terms. If he was in Second Life he might charge double for tier. Who gives his name to the dark places of punishment for those that have been judged guilty of unspeakableness?
13) According to the company, Allen Stoltzfus had learned German through immersion while living in Germany, and found it relatively easy. In the 1980s, Stoltzfus began learning Russian in a classroom setting, but discovered it to be much more difficult. He wanted to simulate the German experience, and he decided to use computing technology to create a similar learning experience. By 1992, CD-ROM’s made the project possible. Its title and its logo is an allusion to this artifact inscribed in multiple languages that helped Jean-François Champollion to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics –what is the name of this popular learning tool?
14) Mankind seems to have a compulsion to get off the ground. America went crazy for the pogo stick in the 1920’s, where even chorus girls in NY performed on them, and marriage vows were exchanged on them. And, in the 60’s, trampolining took off as a competitive sport, with the first world championships held in 1964. These however, are a cross between stilts and a pogo stick that harnesses energy in the same way as a trampoline. A German aerospace engineer apparently studied the movements of kangaroos in order to develop his original prototype –what is it called?
15) It is non invasive surgery, on a specific point in the brain--that absorbs the energy and converts it to heat. The entire system is integrated with a magnetic resonance scanner, which allows neurosurgeons to make sure they target the correct piece of brain tissue. Performed successfully on nine human patients, in Switzerland, the groundbreaking finding here is that you can make lesions deep in the brain--through the intact skull and skin--with extreme precision, accuracy and safety, How has recent non invasive surgery been performed?
16) She was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. She was a writer and a renowned lecturer on women's rights, and social issues, attracting crowds of thousands. She planned to assassinate Henry Clay Frick and failed. Spending years in prison for conspiring to "induce persons not to register", and for handing out birth control as well as being blamed for influencing McKinleys assassination, she eventually founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth. Who was this legend who died in Toronto?
17) Recently, as the world celebrated the first lunar landing, Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins both called for NASA to make Mars its next goal. But the chemical propulsion system that took them to the moon would take six months, at least, to get a man to Mars and cost hundreds of billions of dollars. However, a new ion plasma rocket being developed by another former astronaut, could potentially reach Mars in just 39 days using a fraction of the fuel. This astronauts prototype promises specific impulses extremely high Well, his rocket doesn’t achieve propulsion by combusting fuel but, rather, by superheating atoms to create and expel a plasma plume. Who is he?
18) In the broad sense pluripotent refers to "having more than one potential outcome." News last month has spread about research out of China. Two teams used mouse fibroblasts, a kind of cell found in this connective tissues, which were then used to create living mice. Their breakthrough research suggests that cloning full animals from these cells are a current reality. To be able to create those which act like embryonic stem cells, without the embryo part, opens to door to a fascinating and less-controversial field of medical research, including organ repair or even full organ replacements that are guaranteed to match the host's body. What kind of cell was taken from the mice?
Ronnie Rhode, Mike Burleigh, Gentle Heron and Lowri Mills
Quotes
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
Harriet Tubman
It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.
Erma Bombeck
Word-UP of the week - “ Lindenary” - having a clever future vision though presently somewhat disorganized.
Gentle Heron
Audience Quote of the week – “I’d believe Mousezilla before I’d believe Inferno”
Fearchar Enoch
Questions
For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv
1) You play for 16 hours a day. You’ve lost your job, your friends, and you hardly eat or bathe anymore. Obviously, you need help but you’re unwilling to tear yourself away from your PC and see a counselor. Well, if you’re not going to them, maybe they can come to you - Dr. Richard Graham, a consultant psychiatrist in London, would like therapists to join in order to treat addicted gamers right where they’re spending all their time. The project is scheduled to be launched by year’s end by which time Graham hopes to convince the makers to waive costs for psychiatrists. This is not the next episode of shrink-wrapped - but Where will this take place?
2) When this company bought Skype from Joltid in 2005, the whopping US$2.6 billion price tag didn't include the Global Index peer-to-peer software that the world's biggest Internet Telephony system is based on. And now, Joltid is trying to cancel Skype's license on the Global Index technology in a move that threatens to shut Skype down once and for all. Is it just a canny commercial chess move to force the owner to sell Skype back to Joltid at a huge discount - or is it the end of Skype as we know it? Who bought Skype from Joltid in 2005?
3) Psychohistory, according to Isaac Asimov's , says that "while one cannot foresee the actions of a particular individual, the laws of statistics as applied to large groups of people could predict the general flow of future events., Bluetooth, GPS and WiFi leave behind detailed traces of our lives, sensors and tags generating data at micro levels give a wealth of data to examine & help accurately forecast the effects of phenomena like catastrophic events, mass population movements or invasions of new organisms into ecosystems This capability will be possible thanks to the collection of information from machine-sensed sources to provide knowledge about aggregated human behavior. What is this term called?
4) This could provide a cheap, renewable fuel source for vehicles. It’s abundance makes large-scale production of hydrogen as fuel a more viable prospect. And, most importantly, it’s actually a lot easier and cheaper to extract hydrogen from this than water. The hydrogen atoms in it– are less tightly bonded than those in water. So much less power is needed to break the molecule apart. –its biggest drawback is that it hydrolyses into ammonia very quickly. Aztec physicians used it to clean wounds. It’s been used in the manufacture of saltpeter for gunpowder. And, most famously, German alchemist Hennig Brand discovered phosphorous while trying to create the Philosopher’s Stone from it - what is the world’s most abundant waste product?
5) He was a six-year-old child who disappeared in lower Manhattan in 1979. After convincing his mom he wanted to walk the 2 blocks to the school bus alone, she never saw him again. He most likely met, was abducted by and then killed by his baby-sitters friend. At the time, news coverage of his disappearance was made into a media circus. He is arguably the most famous missing child of New York City. His disappearance helped spark the missing children's movement, including new legislation, new awareness, and various methods for tracking down missing children. Who was this boy whose face was on the cover of countless milk cartons?
6) Ever wonder how an insect with such a tiny brain can thwart your attempts to catch it nearly every time? Apparently scientists do, too. To find out how the common blowfly manages to process visual images more than four times faster than humans, researchers have built the bug a flight simulator. After immobilizing each insect with a fly-sized harness and attaching electrodes to its brain, biologists from the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology placed blowflies in front of a semicircular LED screen displaying various moving patterns. The German scientists hope what they discover about insect vision will help build better flying robots. And they’re not the only ones studying flies in a flight simulator —what is the California Institute of Technology using to learn about muscle coordination and visual processing in fruit flies?
7) In 1769, Hungarian inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen saw a magic show at the Imperial court, proclaimed he could create a more compelling spectacle and did. He called it the Automaton Chess Player. It resembled a robed man sitting at a table in front of a chessboard, smoking a pipe, one movable arm extended over the board, ready to play. The display had various panels which could be slid open to reveal impressive looking machinery. The device, like its creator, showed a sophisticated understanding of science, showmanship and the public mood. When Kempelen announced that his mechanical man could beat any person at chess, he was capitalizing on the perceptions of an audience living at the cusp of the Industrial revolution.. A fast, aggressive player, it beat most people within half an hour. Its victims included Ben Franklin and, in a dramatic showdown, Napoléon Bonaparte. In particular, it captured the imagination and the king of Charles Babbage, who was, at the time, contemplating the possibility of mechanical calculation. He built the Difference Engine, after playing it. What was this automon more commonly known as, the possible great grand daddy of IBM's Deep Blue?
8) In 1926, Westinghouse created the first robot, Mr. Televox, a cardboard cutout of a humanoid figure which was connected to various devices via phone lines, and allowed users to turn equipment off and on using voice commands. Televox was followed by Rastus, a “mechanical slave” However the most famous robot Westinghouse created was this. On debut at the 1939 New York World’s Fair the seven-foot, 265 pound golden giant walked, talked, and smoked cigarettes. Like the Turk, it captured a surging public sentiment that the future would contain technological marvels which it did. Alas, The robot was last seen in the 1960 film “Sex Kittens go to College” where it starred as “Thinko”, a funk machine accompanied by an entourage of four strippers and a monkey. Following Sex Kittens, it was decapitated and his body sold for scrap. Its legacy lives on, what was its name?
9) A remote-sensing mechanism that examines the content of blogs to measure the emotional levels of millions of people purports to give an indication of happiness. The system works by searching new blog entries for occurrences of the phrases “I feel” and “I am feeling.” It records the full sentence and identifies the “feeling” expressed in that sentence. Each sentence then receives a happiness score based on a standardized “psychological valence’ For example, “triumphant” scores 8.87 on the happiness-unhappy scale, while “suicide” scores 1.25. What is this site which contributes to the Journal of Happiness Studies?
10) The iPhone has many different applications, some are useful, some are hilarious, this one might be both, or neither.. This application rates your sexual performance based on duration, power (as measured by the iPhone's built-in accelerometer) and loudness of orgasm, giving you a score out of 10 for your efforts. You can then compare "high scores" with other couples (or singles) around the world.. Turn the app on, stick it on the bed, explain to your partner that you're looking for an empirical ranking of your boudoir skills, and go to town - if they're still interested. And all this for only $4.99! What is this app called?
11) They have no interest in actively pursuing women, are nonchalant about career and find cars a bore. They call themselves by the anonymity of their online handles. A growing group of men rejecting traditional masculinity when it comes to romance, jobs and consumption is an apparent reaction to the tougher economy. Forget being a workaholic, corporate salary-man. These men, raised as the economic bubble burst, are turning their backs on Japan's stereotypical male roles in what is seen as a symptom of growing disillusionment in their country's troubled economy. What have the media dubbed them?
12) ) The name means Primeval God of Hell, and the place of ultimate punishment. One of the first Gods to arise from the void of Creation, , like his siblings NYX and CHAOS, he personifies ultimate formless gloom. Little is known of his personality but as the first God of Hell we assume he had to be depressing. Presumably HADES rents the Underworld from him on favorable terms. If he was in Second Life he might charge double for tier. Who gives his name to the dark places of punishment for those that have been judged guilty of unspeakableness?
13) According to the company, Allen Stoltzfus had learned German through immersion while living in Germany, and found it relatively easy. In the 1980s, Stoltzfus began learning Russian in a classroom setting, but discovered it to be much more difficult. He wanted to simulate the German experience, and he decided to use computing technology to create a similar learning experience. By 1992, CD-ROM’s made the project possible. Its title and its logo is an allusion to this artifact inscribed in multiple languages that helped Jean-François Champollion to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics –what is the name of this popular learning tool?
14) Mankind seems to have a compulsion to get off the ground. America went crazy for the pogo stick in the 1920’s, where even chorus girls in NY performed on them, and marriage vows were exchanged on them. And, in the 60’s, trampolining took off as a competitive sport, with the first world championships held in 1964. These however, are a cross between stilts and a pogo stick that harnesses energy in the same way as a trampoline. A German aerospace engineer apparently studied the movements of kangaroos in order to develop his original prototype –what is it called?
15) It is non invasive surgery, on a specific point in the brain--that absorbs the energy and converts it to heat. The entire system is integrated with a magnetic resonance scanner, which allows neurosurgeons to make sure they target the correct piece of brain tissue. Performed successfully on nine human patients, in Switzerland, the groundbreaking finding here is that you can make lesions deep in the brain--through the intact skull and skin--with extreme precision, accuracy and safety, How has recent non invasive surgery been performed?
16) She was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. She was a writer and a renowned lecturer on women's rights, and social issues, attracting crowds of thousands. She planned to assassinate Henry Clay Frick and failed. Spending years in prison for conspiring to "induce persons not to register", and for handing out birth control as well as being blamed for influencing McKinleys assassination, she eventually founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth. Who was this legend who died in Toronto?
17) Recently, as the world celebrated the first lunar landing, Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins both called for NASA to make Mars its next goal. But the chemical propulsion system that took them to the moon would take six months, at least, to get a man to Mars and cost hundreds of billions of dollars. However, a new ion plasma rocket being developed by another former astronaut, could potentially reach Mars in just 39 days using a fraction of the fuel. This astronauts prototype promises specific impulses extremely high Well, his rocket doesn’t achieve propulsion by combusting fuel but, rather, by superheating atoms to create and expel a plasma plume. Who is he?
18) In the broad sense pluripotent refers to "having more than one potential outcome." News last month has spread about research out of China. Two teams used mouse fibroblasts, a kind of cell found in this connective tissues, which were then used to create living mice. Their breakthrough research suggests that cloning full animals from these cells are a current reality. To be able to create those which act like embryonic stem cells, without the embryo part, opens to door to a fascinating and less-controversial field of medical research, including organ repair or even full organ replacements that are guaranteed to match the host's body. What kind of cell was taken from the mice?
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
The 1st Question 60 - 28 Jul 09
This Week’s Panel
Doubledown Tandino, Gaius Luminous, Menubar memorial & Joel Savard
Quotes
I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read.
Thomas B. Macaulay
A person possessed with an idea cannot be reasoned with.
James Anthony Froude
Word – UP of the week - Mishomer - the nonsense that shows up on the screen when you type with your hands in the wrong place on the keyboard
Joel Savard
Audience quote of the week – There are 10 types of people: those who know binary and those who don't.
Haplo Eberhart
Questions
For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv
1)Sun Danyong, apparently committed suicide after an iPhone prototype went missing. The company he worked for gave his family $44,000, and his girlfriend received an Apple laptop. Sun apparently was given not just one, but 16 prototype iPhones on July 9 or 10 to deliver to R&D, and he reported one missing three days later. He committed suicide early in the morning on July 16, after allegedly suffering through brutal interrogations. Even if you don't know the company’s name, you know the products they produce. Major, beloved hardware brands like Apple and Nintendo rely on their assembly lines to make some of the most coveted gadgets in the world. What is the name of this company which asks for perpetual overtime and pays about $220 a month? (Thanks to Gismodo for this)
2) ) Artificial skin is now in mass production in this country , and can produce up to 5,000 little swatches of human skin per month. Each little swatch is about one-tenth of a square inch and costs just $49 to produce. The process is completely automated; computers monitor the vats that the skin grows in, guiding the blade that cuts them free and tests the final product (including checking for infection). The artificial skin comes complete with blood vessels and can be used for grafts and plastic surgery. What country is this being done in?
3) In Greek mythology, she was the goddess who personified triumph throughout the ages, the Winged Goddess of Victory. She was sister of (Strength), (Force), and (Rivalry). According to classical myth, Styx brought the sisters to Zeus when the god was assembling allies for the Titan War against the older deities. She assumed the role of the divine charioteer, but is often seen with wings to remind people that victory is fleeting. She is one of the most commonly portrayed figures on Greek coins and on the Olympic coins her figure holds a palm frond in her left hand and a winner’s crown in her right.
4) With a reported one third of the currency in circulation being fake, in 1865 the Treasury Department needed them to suppress counterfeiting, The United States Marshals Service did not have the manpower to investigate all crime , so this group was used to investigate everything from murder to bank robbery to illegal gambling. After the assassination of McKinley in 1901, Congress informally requested that they provide presidential protection. And it wasn’t until 2003, they were transferred from Treasury to the newly established Department of Homeland Security. They almost put their lives on the line when a hand grenade was thrown at President Bush but failed to detonate What is this armed force called in the US?
5) He went to Bronx High School of Science & During his lifetime, he founded two companies for manufacturing electronic musical instruments. Moog was already building theremins when his friend sparked his interest in synthesizers. When he built a prototype for the 1964 Audio Engineering Society Convention, the response was enthusiastic He built the moog, the minimoog and the Kurzweil K2000, possibly the maximoog. It was however this 1968 release by Wendy Carlos that brought him his greatest success. What was this platinum selling album?
6) Alarm clocks come in all shapes and sizes, I am still waiting for the fly alarm clock which lands on your nose till you wake up. There’s the Puzzle Alarm Clock to get the gray matter working first thing in the morning and the Clocky to get you up and running. Joining the ranks of masochistic devices is this alarm clock which comes in charcoal gray and features a simple digital LCD clock display. The Shape Up Alarm Clock won’t stop screeching until you’ve done 30 reps. What is the shape of this alarm, the perfect gift for anyone you're not that fond of. (
7) Geometric modeling, A Knowledge Engine possibly the first literary description in history of something resembling a computer., and Bio – Energy were first described in a 1726 book whose hero is rescued after a shipwreck by a fictional flying island that can be maneuvered by its inhabitants in any direction This islands residents had discovered the two moons of Mars (which in reality would not be discovered for another 150 years), but couldn't construct well-designed clothing or buildings - The population of the island mainly consisted of educated people, who wee fond of mathematics, astronomy, music and technology, but failed to make practical use of their knowledge. Yes the book is Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. What is the name of the magnetically levitated island ?
8) Scientists in Nevada have found a new and environmentally friendly source for something quite important using “chicken feather meal”, a delightful material that consists of chicken feathers, blood, and innards made from the 11 billion pounds of poultry industry waste that accumulates annually in the US alone. Currently feather meal is used as animal feed and fertilizer because of its high protein content. It has a 12 percent fat content, and using boiling water could create 152 million gallons of what?
9) There’s no doubt the refrigerator is the central hub of the kitchen, serving more than its primary purpose of keeping things cold. In recent years we’ve seen fridge manufacturers pack their products with all manner of technological additions, from iPod docks to touch screens and TVs. In most households though the humble fridge remains a central place to stick notes that are sure to be seen. Whirlpool has saved us the hassle of hunting for a scrap of paper on which to scribble and the magnet to hold it with What kind of finish does the Amana jot fridge have?
10) One theory is that the song was inspired by the banning of rock music in Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini The song gives a fabulist account of the ban being defied by the population". The King orders jet fighters to bomb any people in violation of the ban. The pilots ignore the orders, and instead play rock music on their cockpit radios. The lyrics include a mixture of Arabic, Jewish, Urdu, and North African terms such as sharif, bedouin, sheikh, kosher, raga, muezzin, minaret, and casbah. "Rock the Casbah" originated when the Clash's manager asked facetiously , after a very long track them "does everything have to be as long as this raga?" Who was the The Clash’s manager?
11) Stopping to smell the roses is a good mantra to encourage you to take the time to appreciate what’s around you. Aromatherapy has become a popular form of alternative medicine. But another smell can reduce emotional stress more than roses. Scientists exposed lab rats to stressful conditions (presumably getting them to do some public speaking) while inhaling and not inhaling this. Those exposed to this scent did not go into stress overdrive. What is this scent that measurably reduces stress?
12) The i-Aroma is loaded with 6 base oils and attached to a PC via USB cable. Japanese company NTT Com is hoping to attract volunteers for the Fragrance Communication trials. An astrologist and aroma therapist will determine what scents are mixed and released into the air notably fragrances for various aspects of daily life such as walking, working and sleeping. A company named DigiScents tried this sort of thing for a while back in the late 1990s and had big dreams, which bombed, of scent-enabled websites. Its product was called what?
13) He moved to France and through a grant from Louis XIV of France helped to set up the Paris Observatory, which he remained director of until his death. He was the first to observe four of Saturn's moons, and discovered divisions in the rings of Saturn in 1675. and shares credit for the discovery of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter . He was an astrologer and an astronomer.. His method of determining longitude using eclipses of the satellites of Jupiter as a clock measured the size of France accurately for the first time. The country turned out to be considerably smaller than expected, . Who was the man The sun king quipped had taken more of his kingdom from him than he had won in all his wars.
14) The Russian Navy has declassified records of encounters with undersea UFOs during the Cold War. Their records detail underwater encounters at the world's oldest and deepest freshwater lake, 25 million years, and 5,000 feet In one case in 1982 a group of military divers training there spotted a group of humanoid creatures dressed in silvery suits. The encounter happened at a depth of 50 meters, and the men tried to catch the strangers. Three of the seven divers died, while four others were severely injured." Fans of the 1989 movie The Abyss are familiar with the storyline. What is the name of this lake where close encounters of the fishy kind occurred?
15) Actually, these are not my words but the commentary of the consistently excellent Boris Johnson writing in the UK Daily Telegraph about the Nanny State mentality. In describing ubiquitous signage warning of water being wet, slippery rocks being slippery and the sheer drop off a mountain being an “edge of cliff” Mr. Johnson gives this year’s winner of the prize for the Most Successful Special Interest Group to them?
Doubledown Tandino, Gaius Luminous, Menubar memorial & Joel Savard
Quotes
I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read.
Thomas B. Macaulay
A person possessed with an idea cannot be reasoned with.
James Anthony Froude
Word – UP of the week - Mishomer - the nonsense that shows up on the screen when you type with your hands in the wrong place on the keyboard
Joel Savard
Audience quote of the week – There are 10 types of people: those who know binary and those who don't.
Haplo Eberhart
Questions
For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv
1)Sun Danyong, apparently committed suicide after an iPhone prototype went missing. The company he worked for gave his family $44,000, and his girlfriend received an Apple laptop. Sun apparently was given not just one, but 16 prototype iPhones on July 9 or 10 to deliver to R&D, and he reported one missing three days later. He committed suicide early in the morning on July 16, after allegedly suffering through brutal interrogations. Even if you don't know the company’s name, you know the products they produce. Major, beloved hardware brands like Apple and Nintendo rely on their assembly lines to make some of the most coveted gadgets in the world. What is the name of this company which asks for perpetual overtime and pays about $220 a month? (Thanks to Gismodo for this)
2) ) Artificial skin is now in mass production in this country , and can produce up to 5,000 little swatches of human skin per month. Each little swatch is about one-tenth of a square inch and costs just $49 to produce. The process is completely automated; computers monitor the vats that the skin grows in, guiding the blade that cuts them free and tests the final product (including checking for infection). The artificial skin comes complete with blood vessels and can be used for grafts and plastic surgery. What country is this being done in?
3) In Greek mythology, she was the goddess who personified triumph throughout the ages, the Winged Goddess of Victory. She was sister of (Strength), (Force), and (Rivalry). According to classical myth, Styx brought the sisters to Zeus when the god was assembling allies for the Titan War against the older deities. She assumed the role of the divine charioteer, but is often seen with wings to remind people that victory is fleeting. She is one of the most commonly portrayed figures on Greek coins and on the Olympic coins her figure holds a palm frond in her left hand and a winner’s crown in her right.
4) With a reported one third of the currency in circulation being fake, in 1865 the Treasury Department needed them to suppress counterfeiting, The United States Marshals Service did not have the manpower to investigate all crime , so this group was used to investigate everything from murder to bank robbery to illegal gambling. After the assassination of McKinley in 1901, Congress informally requested that they provide presidential protection. And it wasn’t until 2003, they were transferred from Treasury to the newly established Department of Homeland Security. They almost put their lives on the line when a hand grenade was thrown at President Bush but failed to detonate What is this armed force called in the US?
5) He went to Bronx High School of Science & During his lifetime, he founded two companies for manufacturing electronic musical instruments. Moog was already building theremins when his friend sparked his interest in synthesizers. When he built a prototype for the 1964 Audio Engineering Society Convention, the response was enthusiastic He built the moog, the minimoog and the Kurzweil K2000, possibly the maximoog. It was however this 1968 release by Wendy Carlos that brought him his greatest success. What was this platinum selling album?
6) Alarm clocks come in all shapes and sizes, I am still waiting for the fly alarm clock which lands on your nose till you wake up. There’s the Puzzle Alarm Clock to get the gray matter working first thing in the morning and the Clocky to get you up and running. Joining the ranks of masochistic devices is this alarm clock which comes in charcoal gray and features a simple digital LCD clock display. The Shape Up Alarm Clock won’t stop screeching until you’ve done 30 reps. What is the shape of this alarm, the perfect gift for anyone you're not that fond of. (
7) Geometric modeling, A Knowledge Engine possibly the first literary description in history of something resembling a computer., and Bio – Energy were first described in a 1726 book whose hero is rescued after a shipwreck by a fictional flying island that can be maneuvered by its inhabitants in any direction This islands residents had discovered the two moons of Mars (which in reality would not be discovered for another 150 years), but couldn't construct well-designed clothing or buildings - The population of the island mainly consisted of educated people, who wee fond of mathematics, astronomy, music and technology, but failed to make practical use of their knowledge. Yes the book is Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. What is the name of the magnetically levitated island ?
8) Scientists in Nevada have found a new and environmentally friendly source for something quite important using “chicken feather meal”, a delightful material that consists of chicken feathers, blood, and innards made from the 11 billion pounds of poultry industry waste that accumulates annually in the US alone. Currently feather meal is used as animal feed and fertilizer because of its high protein content. It has a 12 percent fat content, and using boiling water could create 152 million gallons of what?
9) There’s no doubt the refrigerator is the central hub of the kitchen, serving more than its primary purpose of keeping things cold. In recent years we’ve seen fridge manufacturers pack their products with all manner of technological additions, from iPod docks to touch screens and TVs. In most households though the humble fridge remains a central place to stick notes that are sure to be seen. Whirlpool has saved us the hassle of hunting for a scrap of paper on which to scribble and the magnet to hold it with What kind of finish does the Amana jot fridge have?
10) One theory is that the song was inspired by the banning of rock music in Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini The song gives a fabulist account of the ban being defied by the population". The King orders jet fighters to bomb any people in violation of the ban. The pilots ignore the orders, and instead play rock music on their cockpit radios. The lyrics include a mixture of Arabic, Jewish, Urdu, and North African terms such as sharif, bedouin, sheikh, kosher, raga, muezzin, minaret, and casbah. "Rock the Casbah" originated when the Clash's manager asked facetiously , after a very long track them "does everything have to be as long as this raga?" Who was the The Clash’s manager?
11) Stopping to smell the roses is a good mantra to encourage you to take the time to appreciate what’s around you. Aromatherapy has become a popular form of alternative medicine. But another smell can reduce emotional stress more than roses. Scientists exposed lab rats to stressful conditions (presumably getting them to do some public speaking) while inhaling and not inhaling this. Those exposed to this scent did not go into stress overdrive. What is this scent that measurably reduces stress?
12) The i-Aroma is loaded with 6 base oils and attached to a PC via USB cable. Japanese company NTT Com is hoping to attract volunteers for the Fragrance Communication trials. An astrologist and aroma therapist will determine what scents are mixed and released into the air notably fragrances for various aspects of daily life such as walking, working and sleeping. A company named DigiScents tried this sort of thing for a while back in the late 1990s and had big dreams, which bombed, of scent-enabled websites. Its product was called what?
13) He moved to France and through a grant from Louis XIV of France helped to set up the Paris Observatory, which he remained director of until his death. He was the first to observe four of Saturn's moons, and discovered divisions in the rings of Saturn in 1675. and shares credit for the discovery of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter . He was an astrologer and an astronomer.. His method of determining longitude using eclipses of the satellites of Jupiter as a clock measured the size of France accurately for the first time. The country turned out to be considerably smaller than expected, . Who was the man The sun king quipped had taken more of his kingdom from him than he had won in all his wars.
14) The Russian Navy has declassified records of encounters with undersea UFOs during the Cold War. Their records detail underwater encounters at the world's oldest and deepest freshwater lake, 25 million years, and 5,000 feet In one case in 1982 a group of military divers training there spotted a group of humanoid creatures dressed in silvery suits. The encounter happened at a depth of 50 meters, and the men tried to catch the strangers. Three of the seven divers died, while four others were severely injured." Fans of the 1989 movie The Abyss are familiar with the storyline. What is the name of this lake where close encounters of the fishy kind occurred?
15) Actually, these are not my words but the commentary of the consistently excellent Boris Johnson writing in the UK Daily Telegraph about the Nanny State mentality. In describing ubiquitous signage warning of water being wet, slippery rocks being slippery and the sheer drop off a mountain being an “edge of cliff” Mr. Johnson gives this year’s winner of the prize for the Most Successful Special Interest Group to them?
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
The 1st Question 59 - 21 Jul 09
This Week’s Panel
Nexeus Fatale, Delinda Dyrssen, Rysan Fall & Perplexity Peccable
Quotes
One of the definitions of sanity is the ability to tell real from unreal. Soon we'll need a new definition.
Alvin Toffler
I can't imagine a person becoming a success who doesn't give this game of life everything he's got.
Walter Cronkite
Word UP of the week – Twidiculous - people who tweet what silly things like what they had for lunch
Delinda Dyrssen
Audience member saying of the week – “Muting is like grounding”
Pim Peccable
Questions
For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv
1) There are other more well known names for this creature but Mogollon Monster, Momo the Monster, Nuk-luk, Old Yellow Top, Mono Grande, Yowie & the Fear liath as it is called in Scotland are some. Do you what urban legend these words describe?
2) He was the one responsible for the phrase “Warts & All” when asked if he wanted to be prettied up for his official portrait. He couldn’t have been prettied up from within. He exiled thousands of prisoners to Barbados (and Jamaica) to farm sugar cane. In 1701 there were 25000 slaves in Barbados, of which 21700 were white. The Redlegs are survivors of the indentured servants in Barbados during the seventeenth century. Who sent them there to begin with?
P:3) He originally had intended to study astronomy, however while serving in the German army, he almost died. His sister many miles away had a feeling he was in danger and got her father to telegram him. This astonished him so much that he switched to study psychology. His main contribution to medicine and neurology was the systematic study of the electrical activity of human brain and the development of electroencephalography (EEG), f and was also the first to describe the different waves or rhythms which were present in the normal and abnormal brain, such as the alpha . Disturbed by the consequences of the Second World War and National Socialism to his professional and private world, he committed suicide by hanging himself in 1941. Who was he?
4) WellAWARE Systems has created a passive monitoring system for older people who may need assistance, but prefer to live independently Monitoring key wellness indicators, such as eating, sleeping, bathing, activity, toilet use, and psycho-social aspects. Science fiction fans saw this one coming from a long way off. In his 1951 collection of short stories The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury writes about a similar kind of system in his classic short story The Veldt. What was the name of this Home that clothed fed and rocked them to sleep?
5) This remarkable hockey team was based in Manitoba. And founded in 1911 with a roster of entirely Icelandic players who were not able to play on the other Winnipeg teams due to racial prejudice. In their first season, they finished at the bottom of their league. But i8 years later they won big and went on to play in the first modern Olympics in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium. And soundly beating all their opponents, won the first Olympic Gold Medal in Hockey for Canada & the first Olympic Gold Medal in ice hockey.. What is the name of this historic team?
6) The Committee of Safety, formally the Citizen's Committee of Public Safety, was a 13-member council composed of American, & European Hawaiian citizens that planned and carried out the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The goal of this group was to achieve annexation of Hawaii to the United States, which occurred in 1898 when Congress approved a joint resolution of annexation. The stage was set for this in 1887, when they forced King David Kalākaua to enact a constitution that stripped almost 75% of the native population of voting rights. Who forced him to sign the constitution under bayonet?
7) Security theater is a component of the culture of fear and consists of security countermeasures intended to provide the feeling of improved security while doing little or nothing to actually improve it. Security Theater gains importance both by satisfying and exploiting the gap between perceived risk and actual risk. Security theater encourages people to make uninformed, counterproductive political decisions as the feeling of (and wish for) safety can actually increase the real risk, and large economic costs aiding only those who wish to exploit or profit from it. The term Security Theatre was coined by him. Who is he?
H:8) Around the age of thirteen, he had a recurring dream that he was in a bookstore, trying to find an issue of Astounding Magazine, which would reveal the secrets of the universe.. His later works reflect his personal interest in metaphysics and theology, often drawing upon his own life experiences: addressing the nature of drug use, paranoia and schizophrenia. He was a "fictionalizing philosopher, married 5 times, Robert Heinlein bailed him out of financial trouble & Paul Giametti will play him in a movie soon called the owl in the daylight. After he died he was "resurrected" by his fans in the form of a remote-controlled android which was misplaced in 2006, and it has not yet been found. Who was this original science fiction writer who explored themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments, and altered states?
9) Born Christa Päffgen, she was a German singer-songwriter, fashion model, actress, and Warhol Superstar. She had a bit part in La Dolce Vita and starred in the 1966 art film Chelsea Girls, which she named her solo debut album after. She was also a heroin addict for over 15 years. Her comeback concert at CBGB in early 1980 was glowingly reviewed in The New York Times. She died in 1988 after a bicycling accident, just shy of her 50th birthday. Who was this Velvet underground legend, lover of Lou Reed, Jim Morrison, Jackson Browne, Brian Jones, Tim Buckley, Bob Dylan and Iggy Pop?
10) She was a Greek scholar from Alexandria and considered the first notable woman in mathematics, who also taught philosophy and astronomy She lived in Roman Egypt, and was killed by a Christian mob who blamed her for religious turmoil. Some suggest that her murder marked the end of the Hellenistic Age, & she worked as teacher of philosophy, teaching the works of Plato and Aristotle. Who was this famous woman of history, who Skylar Smythe recently produced and directed a smash hit play here of?
11) In the Crash of 1929, his family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn, where as a teenager, he delivered bread every morning before school to help make ends meet. In 1940 he wrote The Man Who Had All the Luck, which was produced yet closed after four performances. He was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 40s to early 60s, a period during which he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and was married to Marilyn Monroe. He traveled to Salem, Massachusetts to research the witch trials of 1692. And wrote a famous allegorical play in which he likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem.
Award winning and controversial playwright. Who died at the age of 89-year-old intending to marry his 34-year-old minimalist painter girlfriend?
12) This designer’s project originated from an "impact" brief and news about a British streaker who jumped into the Japanese Emperor's palace moat. She was interested in this news & wanted to represent this principle. Since the invention and proliferation of the photocopier, office clowns around the world have been united in a single desire - particularly around Christmas party time. Ignoring the hazard of broken glass and the virtual certainty of dismissal should they be discovered, thousands of pranksters annually drop their strides or hike their skirts and enjoy the age-old ritual of photocopying their backsides for their innocent co-workers to find in the out tray. This Japanese woman has designed a chair for this very purpose. What is this called?
13) He lives in Ridgefield, Connecticut and it is his library which made me swoon. This is a man after Pooky’s wee heart.. Stuffed with landmark tomes and eye-grabbing historical objects-on the walls, on tables, standing on the floor-the room occupies 3,600 square feet on three mazelike levels. Is that a Sputnik? (Yes.) are those books bound in rubies. (Yes.) Gee, that chandelier looks like the one in the James Bond flick Die Another Day. (It is.). A 1665 Bills of Mortality chronicle of London (you can track plague fatalities by week), the instruction manual for the Saturn V rocket (which launched the Apollo 11 capsule to the moon), a framed napkin from 1943 on which Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined his plan to win World War II. and an original copy of the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle, the first illustrated history book According to the 1999 Forbes 400, his net worth once topped $4 billion, which was almost entirely Priceline.com stock. Much was lost during the dot-com crash. Who is this man of treasure?
14) As we commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo moon landing this week, it’s worth asking what happened to those old dreams of lunar colonies and missions to Mars. NASA is reportedly struggling thanks to a general lack of interest and, it claims, funding. But, even with $187 billion, their Project Constellation is unlikely to reach the moon before 2020. The best hope right now seems to be driven by the private sector: Google’s $30 million Lunar X PRIZE which is a deceptively simple competition: safely land a robot on the surface of the moon. Odyssey Moon, first team to register wants to “capitalize on commercial opportunities and is backed by one of the world’s largest advertising agencies. And it has its first paying client, from what country?
15) This skyscraper is capable of providing a sprawling urban populous with food, the reuse of natural resources and biodegradeable waste. Called the Dragonfly it represents an extension of vertical farming, and use of renewable energy resources such as solar, wind and tide-turbine power. The space between the pair of "wings" would use solar energy to accumulate warm air within the structure during winter months, and the design of the spine would efficiently separate and recirculate waste products from plants, humans beings and animals. The importance of research into this area is huge the UN predicts by 2025, worldwide urban population have risen from 3.1 billion to 5.5 billion. The long-term effect would seem to far outweigh the short-term cost. In what City will this very hopefully be found?
16) Its not Smell-o-vision and it’s not aromatherapy but this company has come up with a the fragrance designed as an abstract vision for a scent. The fragrance contains the scent of leather and minerals--to evoke watchbands and the quartz mechanism--and also top notes meant to evoke electricity. The point, is a "glam future"--to hark back to the 1960s and 1970s. "Futurism used to be optimistic, not terrifying, The Company began in 2004, around the idea of telling time as a linear graph. What is the company who made a watch perfume called?
17)ATMs from this country have gone hot with their latest means of fighting thieves - they are now equipped with pepper spray. The cash machines make use of cameras and special software that detect miscreants tampering with the card slots. The autonomous ATM apparently makes the decision to use pepper spray without the assistance of a human operator. But the mechanism backfired in one incident last week when pepper spray was inadvertently inhaled by three technicians who required treatment from paramedics. In what country does the attack ATM’s exist?
18) Usually, when a young baby cries, the cause is one of three things. They are hungry, tired or need their diaper changed. if not this they are sick! -An inventor and parent set about searching for an ink pigment with heat-sensitive molecules. And spent six years and over USD 1.15million working with scientists to embed the pigment into cotton baby suits. The baby suits come in pastels but if the child’s temperature rises above 98.6, the suit turns white, instantly alerting you that they are too hot what is the name of this?
Nexeus Fatale, Delinda Dyrssen, Rysan Fall & Perplexity Peccable
Quotes
One of the definitions of sanity is the ability to tell real from unreal. Soon we'll need a new definition.
Alvin Toffler
I can't imagine a person becoming a success who doesn't give this game of life everything he's got.
Walter Cronkite
Word UP of the week – Twidiculous - people who tweet what silly things like what they had for lunch
Delinda Dyrssen
Audience member saying of the week – “Muting is like grounding”
Pim Peccable
Questions
For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv
1) There are other more well known names for this creature but Mogollon Monster, Momo the Monster, Nuk-luk, Old Yellow Top, Mono Grande, Yowie & the Fear liath as it is called in Scotland are some. Do you what urban legend these words describe?
2) He was the one responsible for the phrase “Warts & All” when asked if he wanted to be prettied up for his official portrait. He couldn’t have been prettied up from within. He exiled thousands of prisoners to Barbados (and Jamaica) to farm sugar cane. In 1701 there were 25000 slaves in Barbados, of which 21700 were white. The Redlegs are survivors of the indentured servants in Barbados during the seventeenth century. Who sent them there to begin with?
P:3) He originally had intended to study astronomy, however while serving in the German army, he almost died. His sister many miles away had a feeling he was in danger and got her father to telegram him. This astonished him so much that he switched to study psychology. His main contribution to medicine and neurology was the systematic study of the electrical activity of human brain and the development of electroencephalography (EEG), f and was also the first to describe the different waves or rhythms which were present in the normal and abnormal brain, such as the alpha . Disturbed by the consequences of the Second World War and National Socialism to his professional and private world, he committed suicide by hanging himself in 1941. Who was he?
4) WellAWARE Systems has created a passive monitoring system for older people who may need assistance, but prefer to live independently Monitoring key wellness indicators, such as eating, sleeping, bathing, activity, toilet use, and psycho-social aspects. Science fiction fans saw this one coming from a long way off. In his 1951 collection of short stories The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury writes about a similar kind of system in his classic short story The Veldt. What was the name of this Home that clothed fed and rocked them to sleep?
5) This remarkable hockey team was based in Manitoba. And founded in 1911 with a roster of entirely Icelandic players who were not able to play on the other Winnipeg teams due to racial prejudice. In their first season, they finished at the bottom of their league. But i8 years later they won big and went on to play in the first modern Olympics in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium. And soundly beating all their opponents, won the first Olympic Gold Medal in Hockey for Canada & the first Olympic Gold Medal in ice hockey.. What is the name of this historic team?
6) The Committee of Safety, formally the Citizen's Committee of Public Safety, was a 13-member council composed of American, & European Hawaiian citizens that planned and carried out the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The goal of this group was to achieve annexation of Hawaii to the United States, which occurred in 1898 when Congress approved a joint resolution of annexation. The stage was set for this in 1887, when they forced King David Kalākaua to enact a constitution that stripped almost 75% of the native population of voting rights. Who forced him to sign the constitution under bayonet?
7) Security theater is a component of the culture of fear and consists of security countermeasures intended to provide the feeling of improved security while doing little or nothing to actually improve it. Security Theater gains importance both by satisfying and exploiting the gap between perceived risk and actual risk. Security theater encourages people to make uninformed, counterproductive political decisions as the feeling of (and wish for) safety can actually increase the real risk, and large economic costs aiding only those who wish to exploit or profit from it. The term Security Theatre was coined by him. Who is he?
H:8) Around the age of thirteen, he had a recurring dream that he was in a bookstore, trying to find an issue of Astounding Magazine, which would reveal the secrets of the universe.. His later works reflect his personal interest in metaphysics and theology, often drawing upon his own life experiences: addressing the nature of drug use, paranoia and schizophrenia. He was a "fictionalizing philosopher, married 5 times, Robert Heinlein bailed him out of financial trouble & Paul Giametti will play him in a movie soon called the owl in the daylight. After he died he was "resurrected" by his fans in the form of a remote-controlled android which was misplaced in 2006, and it has not yet been found. Who was this original science fiction writer who explored themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments, and altered states?
9) Born Christa Päffgen, she was a German singer-songwriter, fashion model, actress, and Warhol Superstar. She had a bit part in La Dolce Vita and starred in the 1966 art film Chelsea Girls, which she named her solo debut album after. She was also a heroin addict for over 15 years. Her comeback concert at CBGB in early 1980 was glowingly reviewed in The New York Times. She died in 1988 after a bicycling accident, just shy of her 50th birthday. Who was this Velvet underground legend, lover of Lou Reed, Jim Morrison, Jackson Browne, Brian Jones, Tim Buckley, Bob Dylan and Iggy Pop?
10) She was a Greek scholar from Alexandria and considered the first notable woman in mathematics, who also taught philosophy and astronomy She lived in Roman Egypt, and was killed by a Christian mob who blamed her for religious turmoil. Some suggest that her murder marked the end of the Hellenistic Age, & she worked as teacher of philosophy, teaching the works of Plato and Aristotle. Who was this famous woman of history, who Skylar Smythe recently produced and directed a smash hit play here of?
11) In the Crash of 1929, his family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn, where as a teenager, he delivered bread every morning before school to help make ends meet. In 1940 he wrote The Man Who Had All the Luck, which was produced yet closed after four performances. He was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 40s to early 60s, a period during which he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and was married to Marilyn Monroe. He traveled to Salem, Massachusetts to research the witch trials of 1692. And wrote a famous allegorical play in which he likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem.
Award winning and controversial playwright. Who died at the age of 89-year-old intending to marry his 34-year-old minimalist painter girlfriend?
12) This designer’s project originated from an "impact" brief and news about a British streaker who jumped into the Japanese Emperor's palace moat. She was interested in this news & wanted to represent this principle. Since the invention and proliferation of the photocopier, office clowns around the world have been united in a single desire - particularly around Christmas party time. Ignoring the hazard of broken glass and the virtual certainty of dismissal should they be discovered, thousands of pranksters annually drop their strides or hike their skirts and enjoy the age-old ritual of photocopying their backsides for their innocent co-workers to find in the out tray. This Japanese woman has designed a chair for this very purpose. What is this called?
13) He lives in Ridgefield, Connecticut and it is his library which made me swoon. This is a man after Pooky’s wee heart.. Stuffed with landmark tomes and eye-grabbing historical objects-on the walls, on tables, standing on the floor-the room occupies 3,600 square feet on three mazelike levels. Is that a Sputnik? (Yes.) are those books bound in rubies. (Yes.) Gee, that chandelier looks like the one in the James Bond flick Die Another Day. (It is.). A 1665 Bills of Mortality chronicle of London (you can track plague fatalities by week), the instruction manual for the Saturn V rocket (which launched the Apollo 11 capsule to the moon), a framed napkin from 1943 on which Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined his plan to win World War II. and an original copy of the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle, the first illustrated history book According to the 1999 Forbes 400, his net worth once topped $4 billion, which was almost entirely Priceline.com stock. Much was lost during the dot-com crash. Who is this man of treasure?
14) As we commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo moon landing this week, it’s worth asking what happened to those old dreams of lunar colonies and missions to Mars. NASA is reportedly struggling thanks to a general lack of interest and, it claims, funding. But, even with $187 billion, their Project Constellation is unlikely to reach the moon before 2020. The best hope right now seems to be driven by the private sector: Google’s $30 million Lunar X PRIZE which is a deceptively simple competition: safely land a robot on the surface of the moon. Odyssey Moon, first team to register wants to “capitalize on commercial opportunities and is backed by one of the world’s largest advertising agencies. And it has its first paying client, from what country?
15) This skyscraper is capable of providing a sprawling urban populous with food, the reuse of natural resources and biodegradeable waste. Called the Dragonfly it represents an extension of vertical farming, and use of renewable energy resources such as solar, wind and tide-turbine power. The space between the pair of "wings" would use solar energy to accumulate warm air within the structure during winter months, and the design of the spine would efficiently separate and recirculate waste products from plants, humans beings and animals. The importance of research into this area is huge the UN predicts by 2025, worldwide urban population have risen from 3.1 billion to 5.5 billion. The long-term effect would seem to far outweigh the short-term cost. In what City will this very hopefully be found?
16) Its not Smell-o-vision and it’s not aromatherapy but this company has come up with a the fragrance designed as an abstract vision for a scent. The fragrance contains the scent of leather and minerals--to evoke watchbands and the quartz mechanism--and also top notes meant to evoke electricity. The point, is a "glam future"--to hark back to the 1960s and 1970s. "Futurism used to be optimistic, not terrifying, The Company began in 2004, around the idea of telling time as a linear graph. What is the company who made a watch perfume called?
17)ATMs from this country have gone hot with their latest means of fighting thieves - they are now equipped with pepper spray. The cash machines make use of cameras and special software that detect miscreants tampering with the card slots. The autonomous ATM apparently makes the decision to use pepper spray without the assistance of a human operator. But the mechanism backfired in one incident last week when pepper spray was inadvertently inhaled by three technicians who required treatment from paramedics. In what country does the attack ATM’s exist?
18) Usually, when a young baby cries, the cause is one of three things. They are hungry, tired or need their diaper changed. if not this they are sick! -An inventor and parent set about searching for an ink pigment with heat-sensitive molecules. And spent six years and over USD 1.15million working with scientists to embed the pigment into cotton baby suits. The baby suits come in pastels but if the child’s temperature rises above 98.6, the suit turns white, instantly alerting you that they are too hot what is the name of this?
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