Japanese construction firm Shimizu Corporation has developed a series of bold architectural plans for the world of tomorrow. Here is a preview of seven mega-projects that have the potential to reshape life on (and off) Earth in the coming decades.
Steve Perlman built Quicktime video at Apple. Then he ran MSN TV at Microsoft. And through it all, he kept his famous talent for thinking outside the proverbial box. On Thursday, Steve Perlman’s latest venture — OnLive — was due to release a free iPad app designed to do just that. And in typical Perlman fashion, it tackles the problem from an unexpected but completely sensible direction. Founded a year and half ago, OnLive is actually a gaming company. But rather than run games on your PC or your phone or your tablet, it streams them to your device over the net. Now, the company is doing the same thing with Microsoft’s Windows operating system. |
Using the new OnLive Desktop app, your iPad can access a virtual Windows desktop running on a distant server, complete with software such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. |
Explore major and important historical events in World History. Learn about the significant world events that changed the course of History
The Doomsday Clock, a symbolic gauge of nuclear danger, has moved one minute closer to midnight because of "inadequate progress" on nuclear and climate issues. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) announced the move - to five minutes before midnight - on Tuesday. |
The clock last moved one minute back in 2010. |
BAS said the failure of multiple nations to control the spread of nuclear weapons was a cause for worry. |
Jayantha Dhanapala, a member of the BAS Board of Sponsors and a former UN undersecretary-general for disarmament affairs, said that while Russia-US nuclear relations were improving, others left much to be desired. |
The failure by the US, China, Iran, India, Pakistan, Egypt and Israel to act on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and by North Korea on a treaty to cut off production of nuclear weapons material "continues to leave the world at risk from continued development of nuclear weapons", he said. |
The potential for nuclear weapons use in regional conflicts in the Middle East, Northeast Asia and particularly in South Asia was also alarming, BAS said. |
Caviar, sometimes called black caviar, is a luxury delicacy, consisting of processed, salted, non-fertilized sturgeon roe. These caviar varieties, according to their quality (based on flavour, size, consistency and colour) can reach (February 2009) prices between $8,000 and $16,000 per kilo, and are associated with gourmet and Haute cuisine environments According to the Code Alimentaire of United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, § 68 appendix V, caviar is defined as "the product made from fish-eggs of the Acipenseridae family by treating with food-grade salt". "Fish eggs" is defined as "non-ovulated eggs separated from the connective tissue of the ovaries" or "ovulated eggs from aquacultured sturgeons". |
Traditionally the designation caviar is only used for sturgeon roe from the wild sturgeon species living in the Caspian and Black Sea[3] (Beluga, Ossetra and Sevruga caviars). |
Depending on specific national laws, the name caviar may also be used to describe the roe of other fish such as salmon, steelhead, trout, lumpfish, whitefish,[4] and other species of sturgeon.[5][6] The term is also used to describe dishes that are perceived to resemble caviar, such as "eggplant caviar" (made from eggplant / aubergine) and "Texas caviar" (made from black-eyed peas).[7][8] |
Caviar is simply sieved and lightly salted Sturgeon roe. The four main types of caviar are Beluga, Sterlet, Ossetra, and Sevruga. The rarest and costliest is from the beluga sturgeon that swim in the Caspian Sea, which is bordered by Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. Wild caviar production has now survived only in Azerbaijan and Iran as Russia maintains a self-imposed ban on caviar trade from wild sturgeon.[14] Beluga caviar is prized for its soft, extremely large (pea-size) eggs. It can range in color from pale silver-gray to black. It is followed by the small golden sterlet caviar which is rare and was once reserved for Russian czars, Iranian shahs and Austrian emperors. Next in quality is the medium-sized, gray to brownish osetra (ossetra), and the last in the quality ranking is smaller, gray sevruga caviar. |
With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, it is almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. The name "Sirius" is derived from the Ancient Greek: Σείριος Seirios ("glowing" or "scorcher"). The star has the Bayer designation Alpha Canis Majoris (α CMa). What the naked eye perceives as a single star is actually a binary star system, consisting of a white main sequence star of spectral type A1V, termed Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion of spectral type DA2, termed Sirius B. The distance separating Sirius A from its companion varies between 8.1 and 31.5 AU.[16] Sirius appears bright because of both its intrinsic luminosity and its proximity to Earth. At a distance of 2.6 parsecs (8.6 ly), the Sirius system is one of Earth's near neighbors; for Northern-hemisphere observers between 30 degrees and 73 degrees of latitude (including almost all of Europe and North America), it is the closest star (after the Sun) that can be seen with a naked eye. Sirius A is about twice as massive as the Sun and has an absolute visual magnitude of 1.42. It is 25 times more luminous than the Sun[6] but has a significantly lower luminosity than other bright stars such as Canopus or Rigel. The system is between 200 and 300 million years old.[6] It was originally composed of two bright bluish stars. The more massive of these, Sirius B, consumed its resources and became a red giant before shedding its outer layers and collapsing into its current state as a white dwarf around 120 million years ago.[6] |
The ancient Greeks observed that the appearance of Sirius heralded the hot and dry summer, and feared that it caused plants to wilt, men to weaken, and women to become aroused.[19] Due to its brightness, Sirius would have been noted to twinkle more in the unsettled weather conditions of early summer. To Greek observers, this signified certain emanations which caused its malignant influence. People suffering its effects were said to be astroboletos (αστροβολητος) or "star-struck". It was described as "burning" or "flaming" in literature.[20] The season following the star's appearance came to be known as the Dog Days of summer.[21] The inhabitants of the island of Ceos in the Aegean Sea would offer sacrifices to Sirius and Zeus to bring cooling breezes, and would await the reappearance of the star in summer. If it rose clear, it would portend good fortune; if it was misty or faint then it foretold (or emanated) pestilence. Coins retrieved from the island from the 3rd century BC feature dogs or stars with emanating rays, highlighting Sirius' importance.[20] The Romans celebrated the heliacal setting of Sirius around April 25, sacrificing a dog, along with incense, wine, and a sheep, to the goddess Robigo so that the star's emanations would not cause wheat rust on wheat crops that year.[22] |
The Voyager 2 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram (1,592 lb) space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977 to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space. Operating for 34 years, 4 months and 4 days as of today (24 December 2011), the spacecraft receives routine commands and transmits data back to the Deep Space Network. Conceived in the 1960s, a Grand Tour proposal to study the outer planets, prompted NASA to begin work on a mission in the early 1970s. The development of the interplanetary probes coincided with an alignment of the planets, making possible a mission to the outer Solar System by taking advantage of the then-new technique of gravity assist. |
It was determined that utilizing gravity assists would enable a single probe to visit the four gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) while requiring a minimal amount of propellant and a shorter transit duration between planets. Originally, Voyager 2 was planned as Mariner 12 of the Mariner program however, due to congressional budget cuts, the mission was scaled back to be a flyby of Jupiter and Saturn, and renamed the Mariner Jupiter-Saturn probes. As the program progressed, the name was later changed to Voyager as the probe designs began to differ greatly from previous Mariner missions.[2] |
Upon a successful flyby of the Saturnian moon Titan, by Voyager 1, Voyager 2 would get a mission extension to send the probe on towards Uranus and Neptune.[3] |
Each Voyager space probe carries a gold-plated audio-visual disc in the event that either spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life-forms from other planetary systems. The discs carry photos of the Earth and its lifeforms, a range of scientific information, spoken greetings from the people (e.g. the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the President of the United States, and the children of the Planet Earth) and a medley, "Sounds of Earth", that includes the sounds of whales, a baby crying, waves breaking on a shore, and a variety of music. |
The Voyager 1 spacecraft is a 722 kilogram (1,592 lb) space probe launched by NASA in 1977, to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space.
Operating for 34 years, 3 months and 20 days as of today (25 December 2011), the spacecraft receives routine commands and transmits data back to the Deep Space Network.
At a distance of 119 astronomical units (1.78×1010 km) as of October 2011,[2] it is the farthest man-made object from Earth. Voyager 1 is now in the heliosheath, which is the outermost layer of the heliosphere. It will most likely be the first probe to leave the Solar System. Being a part of the Voyager program with its sister craft Voyager 2, the spacecraft is currently in extended mission, tasked with locating and studying the boundaries of the Solar System, including the Kuiper belt, the heliosphere and interstellar space. The primary mission ended November 20, 1980, after encountering the Jovian system in 1979 and the Saturnian system in 1980.[3] It was the first probe to provide detailed images of the two largest planets and their moons. |
In the 1960s, a Grand Tour to study the outer planets was proposed. This prompted NASA to begin work on a mission in the early 1970s. The development of the interplanetary probes coincided with a favorable alignment of the planets, which would allow a probe to reach the outer Solar System by means of the then-new gravity assist technique. |
Gravity assists would enable a single probe to visit the four gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) while requiring a minimal amount of propellant and a shorter transit duration between planets. Originally, Voyager 1 was planned as Mariner 11 of the Mariner program. However, due to budget cuts, the mission was scaled back to be a flyby of Jupiter and Saturn, and renamed the Mariner Jupiter-Saturn probes. As the program progressed, the name was later changed to Voyager as the probe designs began to differ greatly from previous Mariner missions.[4] |
Each Voyager space probe carries a gold-plated audio-visual disc in the event that either spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life-forms from other planetary systems. The discs carry photos of the Earth and its lifeforms, a range of scientific information, spoken greetings from people (e.g. the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the President of the United States, and the children of the Planet Earth) and a medley, "Sounds of Earth", that includes the sounds of whales, a baby crying, waves breaking on a shore, and a collection of Earth music, including works by Mozart and Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode". |
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