a light source that ' s not only mathematically perfect, but perhaps a little magical. people appear symmetrical, but even the most perfect human face shows irregularities if we compare the left side with the right. perhaps this is why the absolute, rigid symmetry of crystals seems beautiful yet alien to us. unlike dna ’ s soft spiral, a crystal ’ s molecular bonds align themselves to form regular three - dimensional structures, which the greeks considered mathematically pure. the most fundamental of these shapes are known as the five platonic solids. if you assemble equal - sided triangles — all the same size, with the same angles to each other — you can create three possible solids : a tetrahedron ( with 4 faces ), an octahedron ( 8 faces ), and an icosahedron ( 20 faces ). if you use squares instead of triangles, you can create only a hexahedron, commonly known as a cube. pentagons create a dodecahedron ( 12 faces ), and that ’ s as far as we can go. no other solid objects can be built with all - identical, equal - sided, equal - angled polygons. the platonic solids have always fascinated me. my favorite is the dodecahedron, which is why i used it in this project as the basis for a table lamp. by extending its edges to form points, we make something that looks not only mathematically perfect, but perhaps a little magical.


so what is sha - 1? from wikipedia : the sha ( secure hash algorithm ) family is a set of related cryptographic hash functions. the most commonly used function in the family, sha - 1, is employed in a large variety of popular security applications and protocols, including tls, ssl, pgp, ssh, s / mime, and ipsec. sha - 1 is considered to be the successor to md5, an earlier, widely - used hash function. the sha algorithms were designed by the national security agency ( nsa ) and published as a us government standard. the first member of the family, published in 1993, is officially called sha ; however, it is often called sha - 0 to avoid confusion with its successors. two years later, sha - 1, the first successor to sha, was published. four more variants have since been issued with increased output ranges and a slightly different design : sha - 224, sha - 256, sha - 384, and sha - 512 — sometimes collectively referred to as sha - 2. from w3c. org : the secure hash algorithm takes a message of less than 264 bits in length and produces a 160 - bit message digest which is designed so that it should be computationaly expensive to find a text which matches a given hash. ie if you have a hash for document a, h ( a ), it is difficult to find a document b which has the same hash, and even more difficult to arrange that document b says what you want it to say. some months ago a team of chinese researchers found an algorithm that could produce collisions in sha - 1, i. e., different messages could produce the same hash, which could be used, in theory, to forge certificates. sha - 1 is supposed to require at least 2 ^ 80 to produce a collision, which would be enough to keep it squarely out of supercomputer realm. the researchers initially managed to produce collisions in 2 ^ 69 operations, and now they were able to do it in 2 ^ 63. the lower it gets, the faster it is to break : d for now, this is only a paper... until someone implements it, and then the fun begins. although the us are recommending a move to sha - 2, there ' s this interesting quote by the nist security technology group manager william burr, in federal computer week : " sha - 1 is not broken, and there is not much reason to suspect that it will be soon. " should become an interesting tag


okay, here goes. i theorize that black holes may just be a naturally occurring form of bose - einstein condensation. background on bec : all states of matter thus discovered are all found naturally occurring, so it stands to reason the b. e. c. will also be naturally occurring somewhere. bose - einstein condensation is a state of matter that occurs when the temperature of a substance approaches absolute zero. all atoms in a substance are fluctuating between different energy levels. explanation of the above information, and an introduction to bose - einstein condensation can be found at : http : / / www. colorado. edu / physics / 2000 / bec / t... emperature. html these fluctuations are what we call temperature. faster moving atoms are considered a higher temperature. the site above describes temperature as a range of speeds. thats because of the fluctuations. anyways, when a substance is cooled to within a billionth of absolute zero, all the atoms jump to the lowest energy level. the fact that they are all within this energy level makes it impossible to tell the difference between the atoms. to quote the link i ' m about to give you, " it means that all the atoms are absolutely identical. there is no possible measurement that can tell them apart. " this link will further explain the energy levels and explain why all the atoms are indistinguishable from one another : http : / / www. colorado. edu / physics / 2000 / bec / w... what _ is _ it. html when you think " atoms " you probably think of small dots, or spheres. you imagine them as well defined, like a baseball. however, atoms are not well defined. they are blurry, like a smudge. when super coled, they get even more blurry, until they reach bec. some very cold atoms : http : / / www. colorado. edu / physics / 2000 / bec / i... / cold _ atoms. gif atoms in a bec : http : / / www. colorado. edu / physics / 2000 / bec / i... / super _ atom. gif they all just sort of merge into a " super atom ", and as long as they are this cold, they will stay in this form. after being heated above this low, low temperature, they spread out into whatever form they were in before. it hasn ' t been discovered whether a solid in


atom ", and as long as they are this cold, they will stay in this form. after being heated above this low, low temperature, they spread out into whatever form they were in before. it hasn ' t been discovered whether a solid in bec would reform into it ' s original shape, but the component substances of it would all be there. background on black holes : a black hole is an infinitely dense object with an infinitely powerful gravitational pull within it ' s event horizon. they are formed when a dying star ' s gravity causes the star to collapse in on itself, and it then begins to pull everything in within a certain distance. a basic overview is all that is, as it is not necessary for a very large working knowledge of black holes. you will either understand my theory or you won ' t. getting to the point : so we have a working knowledge of what a bec is, and what a black hole is, right? or maybe you skipped reading that and jumped to where i said i was getting to the point. if that ' s the case, you may not understand anything of what i ' m about to talk about. my theory is that a black hole is a bose - einstein condensate. i believe that the temperatures within the actual " hole " ( though it isn ' t a hole ) are cold enough to form a bose - einstein condensate. so far, scientists have said that nothing in the universe can be colder than 3 degrees above absolute zero due to residual heat left over from the big bang. however, we also didn ' t think that black holes really existed 20 years ago and now we know that they do. i believe that the gravity is so intense near the " core " of the black hole, that it slows the atoms down to within a few billionths of absolute zero, causing it to become a bec. much in the same way that putting an ice cube on your hand will cool your hand, i believe that the base bec would cool any incoming matter as it entered the black hole. the closer the new matter gets to the hole, the colder they get, until they get to the " core " and reach the right temperature and become part of the bec. this gradual cooling would keep something hot from going into the bec, heating it up, and causing it to separate. this massive amount of... mass... would have such great density and... mass.... that it would create a large gravitational field around it


clearly show structures at two depths close to the cmb, and the existence of new phase transitions in the mantle. the team ’ s methodology involves a rich mix of physics, mathematics and statistics to extract information from seismic wave data through “ inverse scattering. ” whereas in the past, existing knowledge of geophysical structures was used to interpret scattering patterns, this method allows researchers to take scattered wave data and reconstruct an image of the subsurface without relying on existing knowledge. combined with considerably better data coverage, this advance in imaging is leading to a rapid expansion in our knowledge of the subsurface and the inner workings of the planet. materials and metallurgical engineering professor, ivar reimanis recently discovered a unique material behavior in which particles are ejected from the surface of an indented ceramic over periods lasting up to a few minutes. because many of the ejected particles are submicron in size, it looks to the unaided eye like the ceramic is smoking. the key ingredient in the ceramic is a lithium aluminum silicate called β - eucryptite, a strange material that has a negative coefficient of thermal expansion. it is thought that a high compressive stress, such as that experienced under an indenter, stimulates a transformation to a denser ceramic phase. upon release, a reverse transformation leads to a popcorn - like effect where particles ranging from submicron to 50 microns are ejected violently from the material. there is no known report of this phenomenon in any other material. with assistance from undergraduate students chris seick and kyle fitzpatrick, reimanis is exploring whether this discovery can inform development of a toughened ceramic composite — the phase transformation may be able to shut cracks before they can propagate through a composite. in fact, this latter idea has already been submitted for a united states patent. to better understand the phenomenon, the mines researchers have involved collaborators at the national institute for standards and technology in gaithersburg, the los alamos national laboratory and the indian institute of science. the work is being supported by the u. s. department of energy, office of basic energy sciences. enhanced imaging of the subsurface paul sava, who joined the department of geophysics faculty in the fall of 2006, is working on increasing the accuracy of seismic imaging. when computers generate a visual representation of the subsurface from a seismic dataset, finer details are often obscured by background “ noise. ” while imaging may provide a coherent overall picture, it emerges from a fuzzy background, much as a badly oriented tv


if you are having trouble with the nlr website, please provide details here, and we will try to improve the site accordingly. two types of rationality on est toujours libre de ne rien comprendre ` rien — gabriel marcel experimental natural science is grounded in careful observation. each investigation must proceed from observed facts. in physical and biological science these observed facts are usually inert facts, that is to say they are grasped from the exterior by an observer who is not disturbed by them and does not disturb them by his process of observation. even in micro - physics where the uncertainty principle tells us that the observational procedures disturb the field of the observed there are mathematical techniques which maintain the observer in some sort of relation of exteriority to the observed and indeed to his observing techniques themselves. in a science of personal interaction, on the other hand, mutual disturbance of the observer and the observed are not only inevitable in every case but it is this mutual disturbance which gives rise to the primary facts on which theory is based and not the disturbed or disturbing personal entities. the facts which are the observational data of anthropological sciences are not different from the facts from which science proceeds in the same sense that facts for biology are different from facts for physics : they differ in ontological status from natural scientific facts. put another way, the observer - observed relation in a science of persons is ontologically continuous ( subject - object vis - ` - vis subject - object ), whereas in natural sciences it is discontinuous ( subject vis - ` - vis object ) permitting a purely exterior description of the field of the observed. subscribe for just £35 and get free access to the archive please login on the left to read more or buy the article for £3


a long - known but little - discussed vulnerability in the modern internet ' s design was highlighted yesterday by a report that hackers traced to iran spoofed the encryption procedures used to secure connections to google, yahoo, microsoft, and other major web sites. this design, pioneered by netscape in the early and mid - 1990s, allows the creation of encrypted channels to web sites, an important security feature typically identified by a closed lock icon in a browser. the system relies on third parties to issue so - called certificates that prove that a web site is legitimate when making an " https : / / " connection. the problem, however, is that the list of certificate issuers has ballooned over the years to approximately 650 organizations, which may not always follow the strictest security procedures. and each one has a copy of the web ' s master keys. " there is this problem that exists today where there are a very large number of certificate authorities that are trusted by everyone and everything, " says peter eckersley, senior staff technologist at the electronic frontier foundation who has compiled a list of them. this has resulted in a bizarre situation in which companies like etisalat, a wireless carrier in the united arab emirates that implanted spyware on customers ' blackberry devices, possess the master keys that can be used to impersonate any web site on the internet, even the u. s. treasury, bankofamerica. com, and google. com. so do more than 100 german universities, the u. s. department of homeland security, and random organizations like the gemini observatory, which operates a pair of 8. 1 - meter diameter telescopes in hawaii and chile. it ' s a situation that nobody would have anticipated nearly two decades ago when the cryptographic protection known as ssl ( secure sockets layer ) began to be embedded into web browsers. at the time, the focus was on securing the connections, not on securing the certificate authorities themselves - - or limiting their numbers. " it was the ' 90s, " says security researcher dan kaminsky, who discovered a serious domain name system flaw in 2008. " we didn ' t realize how this system would grow. " today, there are now about 1, 500 master keys, or signing certificates, trusted by internet explorer and firefox. the vulnerability of today ' s authentication infrastructure came to light after comodo, a jersey city, n. j. - based firm that issues ssl certificates, alerted web browser makers that an unnamed european partner had its systems compromised


stretched molecule puts a new spin on electrons jun 15, 2010 2 comments physicists in the us have invented a way of measuring the magnetic properties of a single molecule as it is being stretched. the technique provides a new approach for studying quantum chemistry and how the spin of an electron affects its passage through tiny structures. the technique could one day even be adapted for use in spintronic devices, which use the spin of the electron to process and store information. the technique explores an effect first explained in 1964 by the japanese physicist jun kondo. he showed that, at very low temperatures, a conduction electron in a metal such as gold can pair up with an electron of opposite spin associated with a magnetic impurity ( such as iron ). this tie - up curtails the electron ' s ability to conduct current, resulting in a drop in the conductivity of the metal in these chilly conditions. physicists have observed this low - temperature fall in conductivity – known as the " kondo effect " – in a number of bulk materials. however, something very different can happen when electrons confront just a single magnetic impurity, such as a magnetic molecule or a magnetic quantum dot. studies of electrons flowing from one metallic electrode to another via the magnetic impurity reveal a sharp peak in the conductance of the dot or molecule at zero voltage – dubbed a " kondo resonance ". jumping the barrier for non - magnetic molecules or quantum dots, conduction is governed by the repulsive electrostatic force between an electron in the metal and an electron in the molecule or dot. any electron wishing to hop from an electrode and into a molecule or dot must overcome this barrier. in a magnetic system, however, the same pairing interaction described by kondo lowers this barrier, allowing an electron to jump onto the molecule or dot – and then jump off the other side. although this effect has already been seen in dots and molecules with one magnetic electron ( spin ½ systems ), studying it in higher - spin systems could shed further light on how conduction electrons behave in magnetic materials. now, a team led by dan ralph at cornell university has studied a kondo resonance for the first time in a spin 1 molecule. the researchers have also shown that the resonance can be modified by stretching the molecule along one direction. in the experiment, the team used lithography to first create a gold bridge just 500 nm long and a few tens of nanometres thick and wide on a silicon substrate. a section in the middle of the bridge was removed and a single molecule, comprising


experiment, the team used lithography to first create a gold bridge just 500 nm long and a few tens of nanometres thick and wide on a silicon substrate. a section in the middle of the bridge was removed and a single molecule, comprising one magnetic atom ( cobalt ) and six pyridine rings, was put in its place. cobalt has two magnetic electrons that arrange themselves into a triplet state – a set of three quantum states with identical energies. both spins point in the same direction, giving cobalt a total spin of 1. when the sample was cooled to about 1. 6 k, the team noticed a big drop in the electrical resistance of the molecule at zero applied voltage – the hallmark of a kondo resonance. ralph and colleagues then stretched the molecule by as much as 0. 08 nm by bending the silicon substrate. the kondo resonance was seen to split into two peaks, one on either side of zero applied voltage. according to ralph, this splitting occurs because stretching the molecule breaks the cubic symmetry of the molecule that is responsible for the triplet states all having the same energy. instead, one state drops in energy and the size of the drop is related to the size of the splitting. the team confirmed the magnetic nature of the splitting by repeating the experiment in an applied magnetic field. when the field was applied perpendicularly to the direction of stretch, the splitting gradually got bigger as the field strength was turned up. however, when the field was applied parallel to the stretch, the size of the splitting changed significantly as the field strength was varied. according to ralph, this behaviour confirms that they are observing a kondo resonance in a spin 1 molecule. ralph and colleagues also looked at how the conductance at zero voltage changes as the sample is warmed from 1. 6 k to about 30 k. the drop in conductance was that expected for a spin 1 kondo resonance. pablo jarillo - herrero of the massachusetts institute of technology describes the work as " an important experiment " that could lead to better quantum - chemistry calculations, which yield the spin states of a molecule. he also believes that the work could result in the development of tiny magnetic memories that store information in terms of the spin state of the molecule. the work could even lead to the development of new sources of spin - polarized electrons and switches that can turn spin currents on and off. ralph told physicsworld. com that the team is now trying to repeat the experiment using electrodes made from a magnetic metal rather than gold. this would allow spin - polarized


interhemispheric communication via direct connections for alternative meanings of ambiguous words collins, m. a. ( 2002 ) interhemispheric communication via direct connections for alternative meanings of ambiguous words. brain and language, 80 ( 1 ). pp. 77 - 96. * subscription may be required a priming experiment was used to investigate burgess and simpson ' s ( 1988 ) claim that interhemispheric cooperation plays an essential role in the interpretation of ambiguous text. in doing so, the merits of two models of interhemispheric cooperation, the homotopic inhibition theory ( cook, 1986 ) and the direct connections model ( collins & coney, 1998 ), were examined. priming of alternative meanings of ambiguous words was measured using homographs and their dominant ( e. g., bark – dog ) and subordinate meanings ( e. g., bark – tree ) as related pairs in a lexical decision task, with normal university students as subjects. stimulus pairs were temporally separated by stimulus onset asynchronies ( soas ) of 180 and 350 ms and were independently projected to the left or right visual fields ( lvf or rvf ). at the shorter soa, priming was restricted to lvf – rvf presentations, with homograph primes directed to the lvf equally facilitating responses to rvf targets which were associated with their dominant and subordinate meanings. this suggests that within 180 ms, a homograph projected to the right hemisphere activates a range of alternative meanings in the left hemisphere. at an soa of 350 ms, lvf – rvf priming was obtained along with rvf – lvf and rvf – rvf priming. evidently at this stage of processing, an ambiguous word directed to either hemisphere activates a range of alternative meanings in the contralateral hemisphere, while rvf primes also activate subordinate, but not dominant meanings in the left hemisphere. a homograph directed to the lvf did not activate dominant or subordinate meanings within the right hemisphere at either soa. generally, ambiguous words directed to either hemisphere activated a more extensive array of meanings in the contralateral hemisphere than in the hemisphere to which the prime was directed. this confirms the importance of interhemispheric cooperation in generating alternate meanings of ambiguous words. strong support was found for the direct connections model ( collins & coney, 1998 ), but no support for the homotopic inhibition theory ( cook, 1986 ). | publication type : | | journal article | |


on the meter spades and diverts the current flow from the meter to the internal bypass. this allows for the exchange, inspection or repair of a meter without service interruption to the customer. note : meter cover cannot be reinstalled or sealed with lever handle in upward “ bypass ” position. capacity : the capability to generate electrical power, measured in megawatts ( mw ) or kilowatts ( kw ). circuit : a conductor or a system of conductors through which electric current flows. circuit breaker ( s ) : a safety device designed to automatically stop the flow of electricity whenever a circuit becomes overloaded, i. e. exceeds the number of amps that the wiring can accommodate. codes : various government bodies have adopted minimum safety standards, or “ codes ” for the electrical wiring. see nec and nesc also. commission : the agency responsible for regulating the regulated portions of investor - owned public utilities. in missouri, the missouri public service commission ( psc ) or any duly constituted successor. company : union electric company dba ameren missouri acting through its duly authorized officers, agents or employees within the scope of their respective duties and authorities. conductors : a material that carries electrical current usually wires or cables. conduit : a channel for holding and protecting conductors and cables, made of metal or an insulating material, usually circular in cross section like a pipe. conduit system : the joining of multiple conduits to provided a channel for holding and protecting conductors and cables from one piece of electrical equipment to another. corps of engineer : refers to the united states army corps of engineers. customer : any person, developer, firm, organization, association, corporation or other entity legally receiving service at a premise or whose facilities are connected for utilizing service at the premises. current transformer ( ct ) : a transformer used to measure the amount of current flowing in a circuit. its primary winding is rated in excess of the expected current of the circuit and the secondary will normally be rated at 5 amps being equal to the nominal full primary current. delivery voltage : the voltage of company ’ s lines at the point of delivery. developer : the entity responsible for constructing and making improvements to a tract of land ( streets, sidewalks, storm sewers, utilities, etc. ) for the creation of a residential and / or non - residential development. development : a lot, tract, or parcel of land divided into two or more lots, plots, sites or other divisions for use for two or more new residential or non - residential buildings or


conductors to a building or other structure, or otherwise defined area, and intended to constitute the main control and means of cutoff of the supply. service supply type : indicates whether electric service is supplied by overhead or underground lines. single - phase : this implies a power supply or a load that uses only two wires for power. some " grounded " single phase devices also have a third wire used only for a safety ground, but not connected to the electrical supply or load in any other way except for safety grounding. span : the distance between two poles of a transmission or distribution line. ssn / fein : an individual ’ s social security number or a company ’ s federal employer identification number. subdivision : a lot, tract, or parcel of land divided into two or more lots, plots, sites or other divisions for use for two or more new residential buildings or the land on which is constructed new multiple - occupancy residential buildings per a recorded plat. substation : facility equipment that switches, changes, or regulates electric voltage. surge protector : an electrical device that protects equipment from a sudden, high fluctuation in the level of voltage normally flowing during a period of time. tariff : schedule of ameren missouri rates, charges, and general rules and regulations for providing electric service. tariffs are available at www. ameren. com, and are on file with the missouri public service commission. taxing area : the geographical area where premise is located and where taxes are paid. generally speaking, taxing areas are jurisdiction boundaries such as cities or towns and may have inspection authority jurisdiction. temporary service : a service intended to be used for a limited period, such as for construction, purposes. the temporary meter structure will be removed after completion of the project. three phase : multiple phase power supply or load that uses at least three wires where a different voltage phase from a common generator is carried between each pair of wires. the voltage level may be identical but the voltages will vary in phase relationship to each other by 120 degrees. transmission system : an interconnected group of electric transmission lines and associated equipment for moving or transferring electric energy in bulk between points of supply and points at which it is transformed for delivery over the distribution system lines to consumers, or is delivered to other electric systems. triplex service : three separate wires insulated and twisted around one another ( 2 hot wires, 1 neutral ). villa : a residential building consisting of two units that share a common wall. voltage / volts : the measure of electrical pressure in a circuit


this page is sponsored by google ads. arn does not necessarily select or endorse the organizations or products advertised above. snowmass village, colo., july 6 by observing millions of subatomic particles called b mesons, a team of scientists working at the stanford linear accelerator center in california has found new evidence of a basic but subtle lopsidedness in nature that may explain why the universe contains mostly matter, rather than being virtually empty and devoid of stars, planets and people. the results found by a multinational team of about 600 physicists and engineers were announced today in stanford. the lopsidedness is " extraordinarily tiny, " dr. jonathan dorfan, the director of the center, said at a meeting of physicists here. nonetheless, he said, it may explain " a spectacularly interesting phenomenon, namely why we are here. " the asymmetry was first seen in 1964 by dr. val fitch of princeton university and dr. james cronin of the university of chicago in an experiment for which they later received a nobel prize. the effect was revealed in slight differences in the behavior of a given type of particle so - called kaons or neutral k ' s in the fitch - cronin experiment and its antimatter counterparts. such differences may explain why the big bang explosion thought to have created the universe did not produce equal amounts of matter and antimatter, which then would have annihilated each other and left nothing but light. but if matter and antimatter behaved differently in the cooling that followed the big bang, matter might have gradually begun to predominate in the universe. physicists call these theorized differences charge - parity violation or cp violation. but despite nearly 40 years of searching since the original experiment, physicists had been unable to show definitively that any other particles displayed cp violation. this left physicists to wonder whether the original discovery reflected some unexplained quirk or a basic natural law. the new findings show with a statistical certainty of 99. 997 percent that the effect also occurs in another type of particle, the b meson, the team says. " people have looked for this or the equivalent under every rock " since the fitch - cronin experiment, said dr. stewart smith, a princeton physicist who is the spokesman for the team. dr. fitch, who was not involved in the new work, agreed that despite strong hints from earlier experiments at the fermi national accelerator laboratory the new results are the first


dr. stewart smith, a princeton physicist who is the spokesman for the team. dr. fitch, who was not involved in the new work, agreed that despite strong hints from earlier experiments at the fermi national accelerator laboratory the new results are the first solid demonstration of cp violation in another particle. the experiment produced millions of b mesons and their antimatter counterparts, anti - b mesons, and observed the rates at which they decayed into other particles. ( anti - b ' s are also called b - bars ; the experiment is called babar, after the elephant in the children ' s books. ) slight differences in the decay rates of the matter and antimatter particles established cp violation " with a very high probability, " said dr. gautier hamel de monchenault, a physicist at the atomic energy commission in saclay, france, and the physics analysis coordinator of babar. dr. hamel de monchenault said the degree of cp violation observed seemed generally in line with what physicists expected in their standard model of particle physics, the framework that physicists use to describe the fundamental particles and forces in the universe. a closely related experiment called belle at the kek accelerator laboratory in tsukuba, japan, is also measuring the effect with b mesons and, like babar, presented preliminary results last year. but last year, neither group could demonstrate an effect. despite the new results, most theorists agree that the degree of cp violation predicted by the standard model and observed in the new experiment is probably not enough to explain all the matter that is seen in the universe. dr. natalie roe, a babar collaborator at the lawrence berkeley national laboratory, said at the meeting here that further experiments at the stanford laboratory would both check the latest results and test the standard model ' s predictions in new ways. " this is the beginning of the story, " dr. roe said. " what we want to find is a crack in the standard model. " file date : 07. 07. 01 this data file may be reproduced in its entirety for non - commercial use. a return link to the access research network web site would be appreciated. documents on this site which have been reproduced from a previous publication are copyrighted through the individual publication. see the body of the above document for specific copyright information.