Sunday, August 29, 2004

BBC - Radio 3 - WOMAD 2004 Everything broadcast by Radio 3 at Womad 2004 is available to listen to here - all free. An excellent few hours of listening.

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

THE THIRD MAN: "``You know what the fellow said: In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love--they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.''"

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Surviving the Singularity
With super human intelligence in charge of technological progress, progress itself becomes much more rapid and involves the creation of still more intelligent "beings" on an ever shortening time scale.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Whither China? Essay about a famous document from the Cultural Revolution in China denouncing the Red Bourgoisie.

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

New Scientist Guide to the Quantum World:

"Quantum wormholes could carry people

All around us are tiny doors that lead to the rest of the Universe. Predicted by Einstein's equations, these quantum wormholes offer a faster-than-light short cut to the rest of the cosmos - at least in principle. Now physicists believe they could open these doors wide enough to allow someone to travel through."

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Prion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Not all prions are dangerous; in fact, prion-like proteins are found naturally in many (perhaps all) plants and animals. Because of this, scientists reasoned that such proteins could give some sort of evolutionary advantage to their host. This was suggested to be the case in a type of fungus (Podospora anserina). Genetically compatible colonies of this fungus can merge together and share cellular contents such as nutrients and cytoplasm. A natural system of protective 'incompatibility' proteins exists to prevent promiscuous sharing between unrelated colonies. One such protein, called HET-S, adopts a prion-like form in order to function properly. The prion form of HET-S spreads rapidly throughout the cellular network of a colony and can convert the non-prion form of the protein to a prion state after compatible colonies have merged. However, when an incompatible colony tries to merge with a prion-containing colony, the prion causes the 'invader' cells to die, insuring that only related colonies obtain the benefit of sharing resources."

Monday, August 09, 2004

Monday, August 02, 2004

Quantum Teleportation article by Anton Zeilinger