Two researchers at the Universidad de Sao Paulo in Brazil have produced an estimate of how much it will cost to find and classify every one of the estimated 5.4 million species still uncatalogued. The number: $263B, including the cost to train more taxonomists. (Despite my interest in living things, I can't help thinking people who spend their time trying to differentiate all those near-identical tropical beetles have the most mind-numbing job on the planet. I salute their perseverance).
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Tuesday, March 29, 2011
New beetle named for T.R.
From an Arizona State University press release: "A new species of a rugged darkling beetle – Stenomorpha roosevelti – was named in honor of Theodore Roosevelt on the 100th anniversary of a speech he gave at Tempe Normal School, now Arizona State University."
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How do new species arise?
Biologists have been working on this question forever. (Darwin, despite the title of his book, really didn't nail it down). Now the computer geeks are having a go at it. Network theory indicates geographically localized mating increases diversity, but this works against assortative mating (mating with genetically similar individuals). This clash of forces fragments species into new ones. It's a lot more complicated than that, but this is an interesting insight.
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Iran claims it built flying saucer
Seriously. Iran says it has a flying saucer. The government claims the unmanned Zohal (Saturn) was made for 'aerial imaging.' Why a flying saucer? Why illustrate it with what looks like a pasteup photo from the 1950s? Who knows? It's just nice to have some news from that part of the world that's not totally depressing.
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First photo of Mercury from orbit
NASA's MESSENGER probe has sent back the first photograph of the planet from a spacecraft in its orbit. It's not the most interesting landscape, from the layman's point of view. (The large crater dominating the photo is named Debussy.) From the planetary geologist's point of view, though, this is a treasure trove, just the beginning of the data they expect on our most enigmatic planet.
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History Files: Was the Civil War Inevitable?
There are Americans who think the Civil War was avoidable, or even imposed by the North. This new book is the latest to make the claim. I dabble as a historian when I'm not dabbling as a science writer, and I can't visualize how events could realistically have unfolded other than they did.
In 1861, the Southern states would not yield on the right to bring slaves into Federal territories, as per the Dred Scott decision, and the nation had just elected a President and a Congressional majority that, while not posed to outlaw slavery where it existed, had promised not to permit slavery in the territories. Well-meaning suggestions like the Crittenden Compromise were built on air: while issues of federalism, states' rights, etc. stoked the flames of the war, the extension of slavery was a central point on which neither side would compromise. (Don't read what Confederate leaders wrote after the war insisting slavery was a side issue: read what they said and wrote in 1861, when they were adamant it was THE issue.) Most Yankee soldiers joined the army to preserve the Union, and most Confederates to fight for for states' rights and independence, but everything except the extension of slavery could have been compromised on.) My point is that we need to be very careful in revising history: such action is sometimes justified, but not here.
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In 1861, the Southern states would not yield on the right to bring slaves into Federal territories, as per the Dred Scott decision, and the nation had just elected a President and a Congressional majority that, while not posed to outlaw slavery where it existed, had promised not to permit slavery in the territories. Well-meaning suggestions like the Crittenden Compromise were built on air: while issues of federalism, states' rights, etc. stoked the flames of the war, the extension of slavery was a central point on which neither side would compromise. (Don't read what Confederate leaders wrote after the war insisting slavery was a side issue: read what they said and wrote in 1861, when they were adamant it was THE issue.) Most Yankee soldiers joined the army to preserve the Union, and most Confederates to fight for for states' rights and independence, but everything except the extension of slavery could have been compromised on.) My point is that we need to be very careful in revising history: such action is sometimes justified, but not here.
Apple Conference Date Suggests iPhone 5 Release Date
A new report by Japanese Mac blog Macotakra has indicated that Apple is behind schedule on ordering parts for the next-generation iPhone. That could very well mean that instead of a summer release — as has been Apple’s tradition — the so-called iPhone 5 may not debut until the fall.
AppleInsider has suggested that Apple’s delay in ordering parts could mean that we won’t see a new iPhone during Apple’s fiscal year 2011, which ends on September 24. Apple will instead, the report surmises, focus on releasing the phone during the first half of fiscal year 2012 — and almost certainly in time for the 2011 holiday season.
Macotakra also went on to suggest that, although Apple has considered adopting an aluminum body for the iPhone 5, it has yet to commit to the new design. Rumors began circulating earlier this month that Apple was considering dropping the glass back found on the iPhone 4 in favor of a aluminum design.
Earlier today, Apple announced that its 2011 World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) would commence on June 6. Apple promised to unveil “the future of iOS and Mac OS,” but didn’t allude to any new hardware announcements. Apple has in the past used its annual WWDC to announce the next-generation of iPhone.
MySQL.com hacked via SQL injection
Hackers over the weekend compromised Oracle's MySQL.com customer website via SQL injection and posted a list of usernames and passwords online.
Two Romanian hackers using the aliases “TinKode” and “NeOh” have taken responsibility for the attack and said they exploited an SQL injection flaw to break into the web servers hosting MySQL.com, a website for the popular open source database product.
The site was first outed as vulnerable in a Sunday post to the Full Disclosure mailing list by a user with the alias “Jackh4xor,” who included a list of MySQL.com internal databases and tables along with usernames and password hashes.
Later on Sunday, TinKode and NeOh posted a dump of information extracted from MySQL, including the cracked passwords of users, to the text-sharing site Pastebin.
In an accompanying blog post, TinKode said he and NeOh had discovered the vulnerability in January. Their information dump included account credentials for two former MySQL employees – former Director of Product Management Robin Schumacher, whose password was a four-digit number, and former Vice President of Community Relations Kaj Arnö.
The hackers also on Sunday admitted to attacking Oracle's Sun Microsystems website, Sun.com, via SQL injection. They posted tables and email addresses, but no passwords, extracted from Sun.com.
Oracle obtained both affected domains, Sun.com and MySQL.com, with its acquisition of Sun.
“It does not appear to be a vulnerability in the MySQL software, but rather flaws in the implementation of their websites,” Chester Wisniewski, senior security adviser at anti-virus firm Sophos, wrote in a blog post Monday. “Auditing your websites for SQL injection is an essential practice, as well as using secure passwords.”
An Oracle spokeswoman told SCMagazineUS.com in an email Monday that the company is investigating the incident to determine which systems and data are affected.
Researchers, meanwhile, are advising MySQL users to exercise caution in light of the incident.
“If you have an account on MySQL.com, we recommend changing your passwords ASAP (especially if you like to reuse them across multiple sites),” David Dede, lead security researcher at Sucuri Security, a malware detection solutions provider, wrote in a blog post Sunday.
Diodes Inc.'s high speed logic family provides performance upgrade
DALLAS, USA: Diodes Inc., a leading global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality application specific standard products within the broad discrete, logic and analog semiconductor markets, has introduced a complete family of advanced high speed CMOS logic devices offering power dissipation and switching speed improvements over existing high speed CMOS logic alternatives.
Operating at 2.0V to 5.5V, the 74AHC1Gxx logic family is a drop-in replacement for industry standard logic parts used in broad array of consumer electronic products, including control systems for appliances, computing, and networking applications.
The product family includes AND, NAND, OR, NOR, XOR, inversion and buffering functions, as well as Diodes first unbuffered single inverter device. All ten logic functions are offered in SOT25 and SOT353 package options. As single gate solutions, the devices provide the logic function at point-of-application, helping to simplify routing and optimizing use of board space.
Diodes’ advanced high speed CMOS logic family is a low power alternative for system designs operating at between 3.3V to 5.5V. The devices’ dynamic switching power has been reduced by optimizing the output drive capability at +/-8mA, while still ensuring typical propagation delays of 6ns. The low power 74AHC1Gxx logic family complements Diodes’ existing faster switching 74LVC1Gxx logic family.
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Operating at 2.0V to 5.5V, the 74AHC1Gxx logic family is a drop-in replacement for industry standard logic parts used in broad array of consumer electronic products, including control systems for appliances, computing, and networking applications.
The product family includes AND, NAND, OR, NOR, XOR, inversion and buffering functions, as well as Diodes first unbuffered single inverter device. All ten logic functions are offered in SOT25 and SOT353 package options. As single gate solutions, the devices provide the logic function at point-of-application, helping to simplify routing and optimizing use of board space.
Diodes’ advanced high speed CMOS logic family is a low power alternative for system designs operating at between 3.3V to 5.5V. The devices’ dynamic switching power has been reduced by optimizing the output drive capability at +/-8mA, while still ensuring typical propagation delays of 6ns. The low power 74AHC1Gxx logic family complements Diodes’ existing faster switching 74LVC1Gxx logic family.
The Motorola Xoom has Arrived... The Comparisons Will Now Begin!
I ordered the Motorola Xoom tablet from Amazon a couple of weeks ago. Atnthat point they were expecting delivery to be sometime this week. One thing I love about Amazon (actually there are a lot of things I love about Amazon) is that they tend to get things in earlier than expected. So... I was thrilled to get an email on Saturday saying my Xoom had shipped and would arrive on Monday.
I came home from the office tonight to find it waiting for me. Here are my first impressions:
The screen is amazing. Great brightness, great contrast.
On/off button is on the back which takes some getting used to. After a year with the iPad I'm used to where the controls are so maybe this is just a "getting used to" thing.
Stereo speakers & volume are terrific
Android Honeycomb is a blast. Since I use Google for my calendar & contacts, all I had to do was Enter my user name & password and within seconds, all of my info was on the device. It happened so fast it seemed like it was preloaded.
The OS is pretty straight forward & since I use Android on my Samsung Epic 4G, I'm very used to working with it.
Overall, after a very brief time with it, I'm impressed. I'll provide more info in a day or 2 after I've had a chance to seriously put it thru its paces.
Tomorrow I'm hoping to get Lexi Mobile installed on it & see how it responds handling all of the data in that amazing app.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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