$1 million prize goes unclaimed

Robot race ends without a winner

Saturday, March 13, 2004 Posted: 1940 GMT (0340 HKT)

BARSTOW, California (AP) -- A $1 million race across the Mojave Desert by driverless robots ended Saturday after all 15 entries either broke down or withdrew, a race official said.

Two of the entries covered about seven miles of the roughly 150-mile course while eight failed to make it to the one-mile mark. Others crashed seconds after starting.

The race ended just before 11 a.m. after the final four competitors were disabled, said Col. Jose Negron, race program manager. Competitors suffered a variety of problems that included stuck brakes, broken axles, rollovers and malfunctioning satellite navigation equipment.

One six-wheeled robot built by a Louisiana team was disqualified after it became entangled in barbed wire.

"It's a tough challenge -- it's a grand challenge -- you can always bet that it's not doable. But if you don't push the limits, you can't learn," said Ensco Inc. engineer Venkatesh Vasudevan, shortly after his company's entry rolled onto its side several hundred yards from the starting gate.

The Pentagon's research and development agency planned to award $1 million to the first team whose microcircuit-and-sensor-studded vehicle could cover the roughly 150-mile course in less than 10 hours.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was sponsoring the Grand Challenge to foster development of autonomous vehicles that could be used in combat. Defense officials foresee using the driverless, remote control-free robots to ferry supplies in war zones.

Astronomical Exaggerations

Published: March 13, 2004

Sean O'Keefe, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, seems to be digging in his heels against any effort to overturn his cancellation of the next shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, thereby sentencing this extraordinary scientific instrument to a probable death in 2007. Under pressure this week, Mr. O'Keefe agreed to solicit advice from the National Academy of Sciences, but made it clear that there is little chance he will reverse course. He wants the academy to focus on ways to extend Hubble's usefulness that do not require a visit by astronauts.

The administrator's reluctance makes it imperative that Congress insist on a full-scale analysis of the risks and benefits of servicing the Hubble, and that the academy refuse to undertake anything less. The premature termination of such a valuable scientific instrument is too important a decision to be left solely to an administrator who announced the cancellation without warning in January and has yet to justify the decision adequately.
[more]

Changing Text Colors And The Glow Effect

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{

   headline.filters["glow"].color = theColor  ; 

}

function changeGlowStrength(theStrength)

{

   headline.filters["glow"].strength = theStrength  ; 

}

function setGlow(theGlow)

{

   headline.filters["glow"].enabled = theGlow  ;

}

function wordColor(theColor) {

   headline.style.color = theColor;

}

// -->

Quote of the day (from Slashdot)

An experimental post -- does a separate referrer script work?

Colored Backgrounds, Colored Text

Dish Network CEO Announces Settlement

Open Calculator Window

Setting Up Startup Programs Under XPHome

• Turns out what you have to do is right-click the StartMenu button, select Properties.


• In the properties Start Menu tab, select Classic Start menu — that activates the Customize button — push that.


• That brings up the Customize Classic Start Menu box — click Advanced.


• That brings up the Start Menu/Programs folder — click the + sign to open the directory tree below programs and several directories appear — click on the Startup folder.


On my system, that folder was empty (even though a group of things appeared in the task bar incon area during startup like the Quicktime icon, the PC-cillin antivirus icon and so on — maybe they're in a system startup directory somewhere I haven't bothered to find).


• Copy shortcuts into the Startup folder and close it. When you boot the programs will start.


• Click the OK button on the Customize Classic Start Menu box


• Click the Start Menu button (unless you want to stay in the Classic Start Menu style) and click OK to close the box — and you're done, when you boot the new programs will start up after you log in, automatically.

Once produced, the Higgs boson decays very quickly.

'God particle' may have been seen

By Paul Rincon
BBC News Online science staff

A scientist says one of the most sought after particles in physics - the Higgs boson - may have been found, but the evidence is still relatively weak.

Peter Renton, of the University of Oxford, says the particle may have been detected by researchers at an atom-smashing facility in Switzerland.

The Higgs boson explains why all other particles have mass and is fundamental to a complete understanding of matter.

Dr Renton's assessment of the Higgs hunt is published in Nature magazine.

"There's certainly evidence for something, whether it's the Higgs boson is questionable," Dr Renton, a particle physicist at Oxford, told BBC News Online.
[more]

Get Your Own Protest Posters — Free (if you've got the spare 18Meg...)

NASA

The image required 800 exposures taken over the course of 400 Hubble orbits around Earth.

Images Reveal Deepest Glance Into Universe

By DENNIS OVERBYE
Published: March 10, 2004

BALTIMORE, March 9 — Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope said Tuesday that they had reached far enough out in space and back in time to be within "a stone's throw" of the Big Bang itself.

In a ceremony that was part science workshop, part political rally and part starting gun for an astronomical gold rush, astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute on the Johns Hopkins University campus unveiled what they said was the deepest telescopic view into the universe ever obtained.

Along with detecting roughly 10,000 galaxies, the million-second exposure of a small patch of dark sky in the constellation Fornax captured objects a quarter as bright as previous surveys.

Several dozen faint reddish spots, the astronomers said, could even be infant galaxies just emerging from the "dark ages" that prevailed in the first half billion years after the Big Bang when stars were just beginning to form.

"We might have seen the end of the beginning," said Dr. Anton Koekemoer of the institute, who was part of the project.

He and others cautioned, however, that more work would be required before astronomers know if their surmises are correct. Astronomers will not be able to take a deeper picture until the James Webb Space Telescope goes into orbit in 2011.
[more]

Autopsychography
The poet is a faker
Who's so good at his act
He even fakes the pain
Of pain he feels in fact.

And those who read his words
Will feel in what he wrote
Neither of the pains he has
But just the one they don't.

And so around its track
This thing called the heart winds,
A little clockwork train
To entertain our minds.
- Fernando Pessoa
13+ different ways of looking at one of Pessoa's poems

Baby Diot Coke — in 1379

Naming your child after a popular soft drink could be seen as a little bit faddish but the parents of young Diot Coke might be forgiven – they gave their baby daughter the name way back in 1379.

Researchers at the National Archives believe that the little girl, born in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was the unfortunate victim of the corruption of the name Dionisia. One of the diminutives derived from that name on its path to the modern day Denise was Diot.

The girl's surname is believed to be a variation on the name Cook.

George Redmonds, the author of the organisation?s Ancestors magazine, discovered in his scrutiny of the birth archives that names now considered to be masculine, such as Philip and Thomas, were once used for girls in the 14th century.

Redmond also found that names such as Godelena, Helwise, Idony, Avice and Dionisia were more popular than some of the names now considered traditional, such as Mary.

Spirit And Opportunity Have Livejournals

Mars Is War http://www.livejournal.com/users/spiritrover/ http://www.livejournal.com/users/opportunitygrrl/

The best T-shirt of the year:

See the leprechaun camera for St. Patrick's Day:

http://www.irelandseye.com/leprechaun/webcam.htm

The Bubble you have chosen indicates you may be seeking strength, both emotionally as well as physically. This bubble represents the body... the earth, and a strong will toward the physical. It is associated with the astrological sign Aries, or it's Chinese counterpart, the Dragon.
~*~
Perhaps you're needing strength to overcome an obstacle. Wearing small bits of red in your wardrobe will help to promote this strength. But... be careful not to wear too much red, as it can make you appear to be too overbearing or domineering.
~*~
This bubble represents Physical Power and vitality, and at it's worse, a possible attempt to force a matter at hand. A combination of blue and white worn on your left side, can help you to get your point across in a less forceful way, allowing others to be more receptive to your ideas.
~*~
Individuals who carry this shade in their aura have strong wills and can be forceful in their attempts to gain the respect of others. These individuals tend to have high tempers, which is reflected in their nervous system. Most jittery or shaky individuals have a great deal of red in their auras, and could use some white to offset this nervous condition.
~*~
Wearing articles of this bright red color, can help balance hormones and menstrual cycles, as well as promote fertility.

Full Color Display Tool

Planet Panorama: See Five Worlds at Once

By Joe Rao
SPACE.com's Night Sky Columnist

All five planets that can be visible to the naked eye will appear together in the evening sky later this month in a viewing opportunity that won't be matched for 32 years.

Going in order from West to East, the cast of planetary characters will be Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. All but Mercury are already visible. The winged messenger is the most elusive of the five, being so close to the Sun that it never gets very far above the horizon, and always only near dawn or dusk.

By late March, Mercury will be about as high as possible at dusk for viewers at mid-northern latitudes, setting the stage for a memorable few weeks of easy-to-do backyard skywatching.

Where to look

Mercury will hover above the setting Sun in the West. Higher up, brilliant Venus already dominates the stage, outshining all stars and planets. Mars, much dimmer than it was last summer, is high in the southwestern sky. Saturn is nearly overhead now at dusk and to the south. Jupiter, now stunningly bright, is king of the eastern evening sky, rising just as the Sun goes down.
[more]

Morning verses

The return of the birds--
as indicated by two cats
frequently seen staring intently out windows
tails twitching in unison.