The collaboration between IFF and WCSAR will continue on STS-107, a shuttle mission slated for launch in January 2003. This time the plan is to send up two different plants--a rose and an Asian rice flower--again placed in the ASTROCULTURE^TM facility. Like Romeo and Juliet, the flowers will touch each other. This as well as the low gravity, said Mookherjee, will alter the molecules they emit.

Posted by GeeTee at December 30, 2002 05:20 PM | TrackBack 0

Puffed up by air, starch becomes a spongy foam. Polystyrene-alternatives for packing and insulation are made the same way. Corn, potatoes or even seaweed can be raw materials.

Posted by GeeTee at December 30, 2002 05:16 PM | TrackBack 0

StreamingMedia is an interactive data sculpture that employs a new Internet protocol (H20/IP) I developed that uses water to transmit information between computers. H20/IP functions in a similar way as TCP/IP but focuses on the inherent viscous properties of water that are not present in traditional packet networks. The StreamingMedia demonstration of H20/IP exists as an installation of two computers at different heights where one captures an image and transmits it to the second computer in the form of modulated water drops. The project attempts to show how digital information can be encoded and decoded into organic forms to create a physical network between digital devices.

Posted by GeeTee at December 30, 2002 04:51 PM | TrackBack 0

I found a web page that listed out a number of fountain pens for beginners and I picked up my first Cross Solo pen, a plastic deal, but with a gold nib made by Namiki. It was heaven, and I used that pen often. Most of my notes in the last two years I was at Tech were probably written with it. In all, my collection looks like:

Posted by GeeTee at December 30, 2002 03:41 PM | TrackBack 0

"It's not the Nazi symbol. It is a Buddhist sign. The Nazi symbol goes in the opposite direction and it's at a different angle," said Walpert.

Posted by GeeTee at December 30, 2002 03:38 PM | TrackBack 0

The American officials say they have located and spoken with many of the victims, whose mistreatment was initially detailed by the Shan Human Rights Foundation.

Posted by GeeTee at December 30, 2002 03:33 PM | TrackBack 0

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that Arriba's use of thumbnail images of Kelly's photos was fair use. The use was transformative because the search engine "functions as a tool to help index and improve access to images on the Internet," and the market value was not affected because the thumbnails are too crude to substitute for the full-scale images. Arriba's display of full-size images, however, was not fair use, because it was not transformative and was likely to harm the market for Kelly's work by reducing visits to his Web site and allowing free downloads.

Posted by GeeTee at December 30, 2002 05:01 AM | TrackBack 0