Monday, May 01, 2006
Experts find evidence of Bosnia pyramid
Structure believed one-third taller than Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza
VISOKO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Researchers in Bosnia on Wednesday unearthed the first solid evidence that an ancient pyramid lies hidden beneath a massive hill — a series of geometrically cut stone slabs that could form part of the structure's sloping surface.
Archaeologists and other experts began digging into the sides of the mysterious hill near the central Bosnian town of Visoko last week. On Wednesday, the digging revealed large stone blocks on one side that the leader of the team believes are the outer layer of the pyramid.
"These are the first uncovered walls of the pyramid," said Semir Osmanagic, a Bosnian archaeologist who studied the pyramids of Latin America for 15 years.
Osmanagic said Wednesday's discovery significantly bolsters his theory that the 2,120-foot hill rising above the small town of Visoko is actually a step pyramid — the first found in Europe.
"We can see the surface is perfectly flat. This is the crucial material proof that we are talking pyramids," he said.
Osmanagic believes the structure itself is a colossal 722 feet high, or a third taller than Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza. The huge stone blocks discovered Wednesday appear to be cut in cubes and polished.
"It is so obvious that the top of the blocks, the surface is man made," Osmanagic said. He plans to continue the work throughout the summer, "after which the pyramid will be visible," he said.
Earlier research on the hill, known as Visocica, found that it has perfectly shaped, 45-degree slopes pointing toward the cardinal points, and a flat top. Under layers of dirt, workers discovered a paved entrance plateau, entrances to tunnels and large stone blocks.
Satellite photographs and thermal imaging revealed two other, smaller pyramid-shaped hills in the Visoko Valley.
Last week's excavations began with a team of rescue workers from a nearby coal mine being sent into a tunnel believed to be part of an underground network connecting the three pyramid-shaped hills.
They were followed by archeologists, geologists and other experts who emerged from the tunnel later to declare that it was certainly man-made.
The work will continue for about six months at the site just outside Visoko, about 20 miles northwest of the capital, Sarajevo. Two experts from Egypt are due to join the team in mid-May.
"It will be a very exciting archaeological spring and summer," Osmanagic said.
source:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12402157/
Amazon Dumping Google for Microsoft?
source:http://slashdot.org/articles/06/05/01/0356203.shtml
'Cooking' Carbon Nanotubes Like Spaghetti
source:http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/30/1911216
Health: 'Vintage' Bugs Return
Mumps? Whooping cough? Rickets? What year is it?
May 1, 2006 issue - Growing up in Peoria, Ill., in the 1950s, Lance Rodewald caught "measles and mumps and probably German measles," and though he doesn't remember suffering through any of them, his wife, Patricia, assures him they were all "absolutely miserable" experiences. She knows because she had them, too. Infectious diseases were a midcentury rite of passage. But as Rodewald grew up, he watched those childhood terrors retreat. Doctors started vaccinating widely in the '60s and '70s, and by the time he was old enough to have kids of his own, it seemed the only common illness left for American parents to worry about was chickenpox.Scientists developed a vaccine for that as well. But even after his kids made it safely to adolescence, Rodewald, 52, didn't assume that the era of infectious disease in kids in the United States was over. As a pediatrician and director of the Centers for Disease Control's National Immunization Program, he had looked at the data—and seen that "all these diseases are just a plane ride away."
Or, in the case of the mumps, which is now tearing through the heartland for the first time in decades, nine plane rides away. That's how many connecting flights it took for just two infected airline passengers, one flying out of Arizona, the other from Iowa, to apparently kick-start a new eight-state epidemic that has so far sickened 1,165 people. The outbreak serves as a grim reminder that vaccines aren't perfect and that despite modern medicine's advances, germs commonly associated with the early 20th century are still very much in the world. Right now several of the mustiest-sounding diseases—whooping cough, anyone?—are spiking again. "When fewer people start getting diagnosed, there's a premature declaration of victory," says Kenneth Castro, of the CDC. "Then we let our guard down, and the diseases come back and bite us."
Public-health officials certainly weren't expecting to get "bitten" by mumps this year. Although the virus has been circulating in British kids since 2000, it hadn't caused much trouble in the United States since an outbreak in Kansas 18 years ago. The Midwest is the epicenter again, but the victims are primarily college students, not children. Once a childhood disease, the virus has now taken hold in university towns. That's partly because crowded dorms and cafeterias are breeding grounds for germs that are spread by sneezing and coughing. But there's also a factor unique to this generation of college students. In the late '80s, the measles/mumps/rubella vaccine was upgraded from one dose to two, and some of the last kids to get the less effective single-dose vaccine are in college now. Others haven't had any doses at all because some parents, fearing a purported link to autism, did not have their kids vaccinated. And even those who've had both doses aren't fully protected: the vaccine is 90, not 100, percent effective.
"Vaccine fatigue," as clinicians call it, may also explain the recent resurgence of another rare disease, whooping cough, or pertussis. Docs introduced a vaccine in the '40s, and by the '70s the disease was practically eradicated, with only a thousand or so cases per year. But as the disease's profile dwindled, parents were less careful about getting their kids the four to five necessary booster shots. Numbers started rising again in the '80s and '90s. In 2004, the most recent year for which there is full data, there were 25,800 cases. Rodewald hopes that a new adolescent booster vaccine introduced in October will put those numbers back on a downward trend.
As if they didn't have their hands full with mumps and whooping cough, doctors are also starting to worry about other blasts from the past. National statistics haven't been collected, but many papers in the medical literature argue that rickets—a vitamin deficiency long thought to be a relic of the 19th century—is increasing among African-American and Hispanic kids, particularly in the North. Doctors blame it on everything from an increase in breast-feeding (breast milk doesn't contain much vitamin D) to the overuse of sunscreen (the body needs ultraviolet light to produce the vitamin). Another vintage ailment, scarlet fever, the scourge of "Little Women" and "The Velveteen Rabbit," though easily treatable with antibiotics now, also endures. It infects hundreds of kids each year, but pediatricians will usually say those kids have "a symptom of strep throat," not scarlet fever, if only so as not to scare the parents. Finally, though tuberculosis is at a record low, a nasty drug-resistant strain has emerged. Seems like old times.
source:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12440796/site/newsweek/
ATI vs. Nvidia - $300 and $500 Price Points Examined
The x1900xtx and 7900gtx are flagship products; they offer the best performance possible for a single card from either camp. For the rest of us though we can put a pretty decent computer together for around $1000, so $500 just for the video card is out of the question. $300 is much more manageable but what exactly do you loose with that $200 in savings?
ATI’s x1900xtx and x1800xt are for all intents and purposes identical visually so I don’t need to bore you with two pictures. They share the exact same cooler and even the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) is pretty much identical.
The differences come to light with the cores used on these cards. The x1800xt is based on the R520 core for example which features 16 Texture Units, 16 ROPs, 16 Pixel Shaders and 8 Vertex Shaders. The R580 on which the x1900xtx is based, everything is left unchanged with the exception of an additional 32 Pixel Shaders. Yes you read that correctly, the R580 features a total of 48 Pixel Shaders, double that of even the 7900gtx. The x1900xtx is clocked at 650MHz for the core and 1550MHz for the memory while the x1800xt clocks at 625Mhz and 1.5GHz.
I should note fan noise here. The x1800xt and x1900xtx tested were quite loud. They had a high pitched whine that was noticeably distracting. Anyone who values low noise would be wise to replace the cooler with a vf700 from zalman or a arctic cooler silencer.
Here you can see the 7900gtx adorns a dual slot cooler like the x1800 and x1900 cards but it also features heat pipes to aid in cooling.
The 7900gt and 7900gtx feature 24 texture units, 16 ROPs, 24 Pixel Shaders and 8 Vertex Shaders. To differentiate the gt and gtx Nvidia has opted to change the gpu clock/memory speeds rather than disable parts of the chip. The 7900gtx runs at 650MHz for the core and 1.6GHz for the memory while the 7900gt is clocked at a more docile 450MHz and 1320MHz.
The 7900gtx cooler is far from quiet but it doesn’t have the same whine the ATI coolers did. Even the hum generated from the 80mm fan on the heatsink was much less noticeable. It still isn’t “quiet” territory but it is easier on the ears.
Here you can see the small cooler used on the 7900gt, it is pretty amazing to see the difference in size between the 7900gtx or the dual slot coolers from ATI. The noise generated from it is also quite a bit lower than the other cards tested today. I still wouldn’t call it quiet but I could definitely live with it.
We used the following system configuration for testing:
| CPU | Athlon 64 X2 4800+ |
| RAM | 1GB G.Skill (2x512) PC3200 (2.5, 2, 2) |
| Motherboard | DFI Ultra D 6.70 Drivers |
| Graphics Card 1 | Sapphire x1900xtx 512MB 6.4 650/1550 |
| Graphics Card 2 | Sapphire x1800xt 512MB 6.4 625/1500 |
| Graphics Card 3 | Leadtek 7900gtx 512MB 84.21 650/1600 |
| Graphics Card 4 | Biostar 7900gt 256MB 84.21 450/1320 |
Nvidia cards have always been strong here in Doom3 and they do not disappoint. The ATI cards perform almost on par with Nvidia’s which is good company to keep in OGL.
The ATI cards take the lead here in Fear. In the $300 contenders realm we see only a 3fps difference here.
The ATI cards are yet again on top here in Far Cry. During testing the x1800xt had visible artifacting, it seemed to be particularly bad during fast movement such as driving in a vehicle. I tried reducing the gpu and memory clocks and even tried a reinstall but alas I couldn’t fix the problem. I assume it is driver related due to it not exhibiting this behavior in any other games. It doesn't seem to influence performance either as the card tracks with other results.
Half Life 2 wraps up our testing here and the ATI cards end on a good note.
As you can see the extra $200 does give you tangible benefits in increased performance. How much that increase is worth is up to you, the consumer. Personally I find both of the $300 cards performing admirably even at these stressful conditions. So long as you aren’t playing at really high resolutions the cards pull in superb frame rates.
All cards tested today are available on various online stores at this very moment. I should note the ATI cards are also generally selling for less, roughly $20-30 less in fact. Although it would be wise to buy a third party cooler for the ATI cards due to the unsettling noise they produce, even after you take that into account the cards are priced similarly.
The ATI cards also support AA+HDR while the Nvidia cards do not. HDR+AA adds that much more quality to the game and surprisingly the combination isn’t that stressful on the card. With that in mind and the already better overall performance I have to hand this one to ATI.
One should keep in mind that these were price points chosen by me, you may find a card more to your liking from Nvidia or ATI within a different price bracket so this by no means reflects all possible choices.
source:http://www.techarray.com/video/ati_vs_nvidia__300_and_500_price_points_examined.html
AMD Opteron CPUs hit by heat stroke
It is believed that the glitch is triggered when the affected chip's FPU is made to loop through a series of memory-fetch, multiplication and addition operations without any condition checks on the result of the calculations. The loop has to run over and over again for long enough to cause localised heating which together with high ambient temperatures could combine to cause the result of the operation to be recorded incorrectly, leading to data corruption.
To trigger the effect, the loop has to be run millions of time, an AMD customer source told Reg Hardware, potentially for hours at a time with no other operations being introduced during the run.
According to the source - who claimed to be party to emails highlighting the issue and sent by AMD to a number of the chip maker's major customers and partners - AMD has investigated the problem and found it was only able to reproduce the bug's effects in a synthetic benchmark test.
The problem is believed to affect only a fraction - perhaps no more than 3,000 individual CPUs - which managed to slip through AMD's screening net. It is not known how this so-called 'test escape' ocurred, but it took place "in part of 2005 and early 2006", an AMD spokesman said.
AMD said it has introduced another screening test to catch any further affected parts. Chips caught in this test in future will be re-rated at a lower clock speed to prevent the problem. The company is also working with OEMs to identify affected parts and contact customers who could be affected - if they are, they will be offered free replacements.
AMD stressed the problem was due to "a convergence of three specific simultaneous conditions", not a fault with the Opteron architecture. The company claimed the issue had not been observed on systems running commercially available applications.
"It's very hard to imagine this type of [tight FP loop] code in our [financial services] environment," Reg Hardware's source said. "The only thing I could think that would be coded this way would be some type of strange cipher code. For example, any type of 'for' loop that uses a compare operation would not have the problem."
source:http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/04/28/amd_opteron_fpu_bug/
Test-Drive Your Dream Job
Entrepreneur Brian Kurth's Vocation Vacations gives people the chance to try out a new career before they take the plunge
Just one year ago, David Ryan was an international banker with HSBC. He had done stints in Bahrain, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Turkey, and London over the course of 17 years. However, by the time Ryan had landed in New York City two and a half years ago, he says, "the buzz for me was gone." Exciting as a two-decade spin around the globe once was, Ryan says, his chosen profession was simply, "not as exciting as it had been."
Ryan entered into what he calls, "a pretty long period of reflection" regarding his career path and future. Like many suffering from job ennui, Ryan was ready to do something new, the question was how to do it. Having nursed a lifelong love of dogs, Ryan realized that he was interested in potentially moving in that direction but was unsure of how exactly he could turn his passion into a sustainable career.
FACILITATING A FANTASY. Enter a two-year-old Portland (Ore.)-based company called Vocation Vacations, a business that gives people the opportunity to "test drive" their dream jobs. Creating temporary but intense mentor/apprenticeship experiences, Vocation Vacations enlists professionals from a variety of fields -- everything from winemakers and makeup artists to architects and sword makers -- and pairs them with people who fantasize about leaving their day jobs and want spend a few days in a profession that they had previously thought beyond their reach.
Last April, Ryan signed up to do a two-and-a-half-day vocation working with a doggie day-care provider in Massachusetts. The following month, he spent three days working with a dog trainer in Oregon. Fairly quickly, Ryan figured out that he preferred training to day care and was confident that he could start his own business in the field.
Moreover, Ryan says the experience helped him to realize that he didn't have to abandon the skills he developed as a banker. Rather, he says: "It became obvious to me that there were a lot of kennels and trainers that were very good with animals, but business was not their specialty."
In June, Ryan resigned from HSBC (HTB) and enrolled in a dog-training school in Missouri for five months to get certified. In January, he launched Beyond Dog Training in Rye, N. H. "It really sounds weird," he says. "But that two- to three-day experience has really been a lynchpin."
DESK DRUDGERY. Vocation Vacations was started by Brian Kurth in 2004 after he made the leap from unhappy employee to dream-job entrepreneur. At the time, Kurth says he was burnt out working for Ameritech in Chicago and logging in three hour commutes.
"I didn't hate corporate life, or my job or my boss," he says. "But I hated the lifestyle. I wanted to do something more fulfilling. I was tired of going to dinner parties [where] people would talk about their exciting lives as architects or photographers and I worked at the phone company. People's heads hit their spaghetti plates when I told them. Nobody cared, and neither did I."
So in 2000, Kurth quit his job. In quick succession, he worked for a dot-com, got laid off when the economy imploded, and then sold his house and spent six months driving across the country, eventually settling in Portland. That city didn't have much in the way of industry and was in the midst of a recession, so he ended up working on a vineyard doing product marketing and sales for a family winery. Kurth found that there was something immeasurably rewarding about stepping outside of his routine and trying something new. Inspired, he came up with the concept and business plan for Vocation Vacations.
PAY TO PLAY. The idea is relatively simple. Participants pay anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand (transportation, lodging, etc., aren't included) to experience life as, say, a chocolatier, a fashion designer, or a race-car driver. The time spent immersed in their fantasy job allows them to get a 360-degree perspective without the risk of quitting their own jobs or investing heavily in a new career.
Laura Thomas says she's "miserable" in her job as a business-operations developer for a government contractor in Alexandria, Va. "My boss knows I'm not happy, and he's looking for something else [for me at the company], but there isn't a lot of opportunity for growth."
Not quite ready to quit altogether, Thomas recently took a turn through Vocation Vacations, shadowing a hotel concierge and a hotel general manager for two days. "It was really great. I got to be completely immersed in the environment. I got to see the good, the bad, and the ugly." And best of all, she says: "I really got to see it firsthand before taking the plunge and quitting my job."
Kurth, something of a dream-job rainmaker, has created a niche industry built on the hopes and aspirations of people like Thomas. Catering to the unhappily employed, Kurth has discovered an untapped market. Indeed, according to a survey by the Conference Board, a management and marketplace information nonprofit agency based in New York, less than half of all Americans say they're satisfied with their jobs. Taken in 2002, the survey reveals the highest level of discontent since they first conducted the study in 1995 -- with job satisfaction dropping from 60.9% then to 47.2% presently.
LIFESTYLE VOGUE. To date, Vocations Vacations has placed hundreds of people in the U.S. and Britain in occupations ranging from brewmaster and art-gallery director to music producer and cattle rancher. "We're on our way to thousands," says Kurth. The company has doubled the number of its available mentors to 500, with another 40 to 50 new possibilities in the works in such fields as Broadway producer, meteorologist, and zookeeper.
Kurth attributes much of his success to listening to prospective clients and addressing their areas of interest with relevant mentors and programs. Recently, there has been a growing demand and interest in marine biology, aquarium managers, and voiceovers. However, Kurth says there's a limit to the types of career vocations he will pursue. For instance, he says he recently turned down an offer from a pornography producer who wanted to become a mentor.
Kurth himself is expanding his own dream. He just signed a deal with Warner Books for a how-to vocational lifestyle book. On April 27, the Travel Channel is debuting a new series based on his "vocationers" called This Job's a Trip, chronicling the vacationing adventures of his clients. Kurth is also working on what he calls "ancillary products," such as DVDs, T-shirts, and a possible magazine. He says his expansion is all based on the "vacationing" lifestyle -- no longer daydreaming but living the dream.
Just ask David Ryan, who has had to hire additional trainers for his fast-growing business. "I get a lot of broad smiles when I tell people that I went from a million-a-year banker to a dog guy," he says. No doubt he's smiling back, all the way to the bank.
source:http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/apr2006/sb20060412_289938.htm?campaign_id=bier_smaLast ninja: 'Be able to kill your students'
NODA, Japan - The teachings of Grand Master Masaaki Hatsumi echo through my head as he entreats me to attack a blackbelted disciple with a practice sword. "Always be able to kill your students," he says.
Chilling words from a shockingly fit 76-year-old man who bills himself as the world's last ninja and stocks his training chamber with weapons such as throwing stars and nunchucks. Especially to a neophyte whose closest brush with martial arts was watching Bruce Lee matinees as a kid.
As I cautiously raise the sword with a taut two-handed samurai grip, my sparring partner gingerly points to Hatsumi. I avert my eyes for a split second - and WHAM! The next thing I know, I'm staring at the rafters.
Keeping your focus is just one of the lessons thumped out on the mats of the Bujinkan Dojo, a cramped school outside Tokyo that is a pilgrimage site for 100,000 worldwide followers. They revere Hatsumi as the last living master of ninjutsu - the mysterious Japanese art of war practiced by black-masked assassins of yesteryear.
"He's unlimited in body, mind and spirit," says Richard VanDonk, who flew in from California to practice body throws in the dojo's warm glow of rice-paper screens and flickering votive candles. "He's a master of change."
Hatsumi is the only living student of the last "fighting ninja," Toshitsugu Takamatsu, the so-called 33rd Grand Master who was a bodyguard to officials in Japanese-occupied Manchuria before World War II and fought - and won - 12 fights to the death. Legend says that during one battle, Takamatsu snatched an eyeball from a would-be Chinese bandit.
Today, Hatsumi's enemies are stereotypes and flagging interest in the ancient art. He seeks to leave the task to a worthy successor as speculation mounts about his retirement.
In many ways, the curly-haired, wide-eyed Hatsumi has been a victim of success: He has helped make ninja an international household name by training followers from Chile to South Africa. But he also has watched his legacy co-opted by goofy caricatures such as "Mutant Ninja Turtles" and schlocky Hollywood send-ups like "Beverly Hills Ninja."
"I think it's pathetic," Hatsumi says of the ninja's modern image.
A glance around the dojo suggests the average Japanese might agree. The vast majority of students are foreigners, often with a military background, who learned of Hatsumi overseas. That's because in Japan, ninjutsu is swept up in the wave of apathy that has sapped the ranks of traditional martial arts like sumo and judo.
Most Japanese are exposed to martial arts in school. But the number practicing judo has been declining since the 1980s as more people turn to Western sports like golf and tennis. Sumo also has fallen on hard times, forcing the Japan Sumo Association to import stars.
"Young kids might be more interested in other sports that are flashy or fashionable," concedes Makinori Matsuo, an associate professor of martial arts at Tokyo's International Budo University.
"They tend to be turned off by the image of martial arts as sweaty and smelly," he said.
Ninja is a compound word from the Japanese characters for "stealth" or "endurance" and "person," a reference to their traditional role as spies, mercenaries and assassins working for medieval warlords.
Traditional weaponry such as swords and throwing stars feature prominently is Hatsumi's lessons, as do handclaws for climbing walls, blow darts and chili pepper dust to throw in an opponent's eyes.
But true ninjutsu, Hatsumi says, is self-discipline and balance in the boardroom and the battlefield. It's about mastering one's weaknesses, including laziness and fear, and exploiting a rival's needs, such as sex and pride.
As he nimbly glides across the padded floor, Hatsumi showers students with cryptic proverbs straight out of Confucian scrolls, such as "anything can be used as a weapon" or "ninjutsu is the sum of things in the universe."
"Timing is the most difficult," he adds, while casually deflecting a gleaming metal sword swung at his neck by a veteran student. After the turning the blade on the attacker, Hatsumi gives his arm a slight twist, eliciting a baleful yelp.
Halfway through the lesson, Hatsumi takes a break to pen traditional brush paintings for students who hustle to his side with paper. Then things get serious again with the meting out of "ninja tests."
Going for his fifth-level ranking is Phil White of England, who kneels on the floor with his eyes closed. Behind him stands Hatsumi, clutching a padded wooden sword that he plans to bring down on White's head.
If White - with his eyes still closed - manages to dodge the sword, he passes; if not, he takes home some bumps.
Twice the staff cracks on White's head before he slumps out of the way on his third try - enough to satisfy the master.
"I'm still shaking," White says afterward, while being barraged by congratulatory slaps on the back. "I didn't feel like I was moving. You feel like you're being blown by the wind."
Today, hundreds of ninja schools across Europe, North America and beyond trace their roots to Hatsumi.
He has held training seminars for the FBI, CIA, the Mossad and for police in Britain, France and Germany. He has served as a martial arts adviser to films such as the James Bond thriller "You Only Live Twice" and the television miniseries "Shogun."
Hatsumi has left his mark in other ways, authoring a dozen books in English and Japanese.
He says he is not ready to sheath his sword anytime soon, but admits the question of who will succeed him as ninjutsu's world leader is a constant topic of gossip at the dojo. Only Hatsumi gets to choose the next grand master, and he's not giving any hints.
It's even possible it will be a non-Japanese for the first time, he says.
"Human beings always want to know what they cannot know," he says. "But you can never tell the future."
source:http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/14434176.htm
Cell Phones Responsible For Next Internet Worm?
source:http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/28/1639256
